No Touch Monkey!

How did I miss this comic for so long? It's awesome

I'm watching my boss try to burn a data DVD on his new laptop. I can't believe how difficult Microsoft has made a simple process. It been over 20 minutes and Microsoft Media Center simply will not let him do it. It will only let him burn music, movies or photos. No data files. What a joke.

Not to totally be snobby, but on my Mac, all I do is insert a blank disc, drag the info into the icon and hit eject which burns it for me.

I can't think of a company that is more unfriendly to the end user than MS. It's openly hostile.

Anyway. I've given my notice here because the new driver is starting tonight (but I'm still driving a different gig, and I won't be home until 10:30), and my company is in the process of looking for a new Administrative Assistant. Larry is going to keep me here for the next 3 weeks to look for a job and generally hang out. He's also going to spring for some career counseling. It was such a nice gesture that when it was offered my heart exploded, but out of habit I stuffed it closed. I'm used to doing the nice thing for people, it comes as a surprise when people turn and do nice things for me (other than wife and family), I almost don't know how to accept it.

Anyway, the ole pavement pounding has started, phone calls are being made, interviews are being arranged and so on. I hope I can find something soon, because the only think I hate more than work, is looking for work itself.

(40 minutes in Larry has still not burned the DVD. He's not dumb, its just that Windows is evil)

Labels: meatspace, work

Apparently embedding is not enabled. You can view the video here.

Columbia Missourian - Bee owners on ALERT

Cause of massive unexplained deaths in beehives unclear, says entomologist

When master beekeeper Jann Amos started losing hives early in November, he didn’t think too much of it.

“I always have some losses,” Amos said. “A 20 percent loss is normal for me.”

When his losses began mounting at an alarming rate, the veteran beekeeper and owner of Amos Apiaries realized the deaths were anything but normal.

Through last week, he had lost one-third of the hives he tends to in the Columbia area.

“This is the worst loss I’ve ever had,” he said.

Jann Amos checks a comb from one of his honeybee colonies, looking for signs that the queen is laying eggs. He estimates he has lost one-third of the colony since December.

Amos isn’t certain about what killed his bees. But since October, honeybee colonies around the country have been dying off at unprecedented rates from an unknown cause.

Beekeepers around the nation are on high alert — Amos has lost 30 out of 40 of his hives in one yard in Jasper County — and researchers are struggling to find answers to what is being called “colony collapse disorder.”

The problem first appeared on the East Coast in October and by December was being reported on the West Coast, where beekeepers are now reporting huge losses.

Michael Brown, an entomologist with the state Department of Agriculture, said the extent of the problem in Missouri remains unclear.

“It could be here and I haven’t heard about it,” Brown said on Friday. “Beekeepers may have lost hives, but we don’t have information at this time to say with a degree of certainty that it is the colony collapse disorder.”

Others haven’t noticed unusual losses on their farms. Rick Huffstutter of Huffstutter Orchards near New Franklin said he’s “not worried at this point in time because I’ve not heard anything, and my beekeepers will usually keep me updated. So far, so good.”

Some beekeepers have been unable to check on their bees until recently because of winter conditions.

“We do them more harm than good,” said Chris Gibbons of Gibbons Bee Farm located near Columbia. “If we open it when it’s cold, the bees will die and we can’t risk that.”

Honeybees stir on their hive as keeper Jann Amos checks on his colony wintering at Show-Me Farms, south of Columbia.

“Over winter, we can’t do much — only feed sugar water to them on warmer days,” said Art Gelder, who raises bees at Walkabout Acres, his Columbia farm.

The honeybee industry has been dealing in recent years with mites and other diseases. At best, beekeepers can only speculate about the causes of this new problem.

“It could be a queen failure, it could be the mites, or it could even be a problem that’s been around for some time but we didn’t realize it,” Amos said.

“There’s a lot of different hypotheses, but no one really has a good idea of what it might be,” said Richard Houseman, an MU associate professor specializing in urban entomology.

“We don’t know what to do with it, we don’t know what it is,” Gelder said.

Beekeepers are not the only ones who could feel the sting. Crop growers dependent on honeybee pollination might soon be affected if beekeepers who provide them bees lose too many hives.

Bruce Barrett, an MU associate professor specializing in insect behavior and tree fruit entomology, said fruit growers could take the brunt of the impact.

“Large fruit producers, like apple growers, have to bring in bees from out of the state due to the lack of native bees for pollination,” he said. “For crop growers to have a good crop, most of the crops need to have an even pollination, and this is supplemented from bees that are brought in from other states.”

According to statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture, honeybee pollination of agricultural crops is valued at nearly $15 billion annually. Pollinators are critical in crop production. Crops as diverse as alfalfa seed, almonds, tomatoes, sunflowers, tree fruits, berries, squash and melons are dependent on bees for pollination.

The USDA estimates that one-third of the human diet is indirectly or directly dependent on insect pollinated plants, and honeybees accomplish 80 percent of insect pollination.

Gibbons said the threat adds to the frustrations of beekeepers, who don’t get the kind of subsidies available to other agricultural operations.

“We’re a smaller industry as compared to the cattle industry,” he said. “However, we’re just as important, if not, more important. If there’s no pollination, the very thing down the food chain can disappear, including the food that the cattle eat.”

I like bees, I don't want anything to happen to them.

Pamela Anderson has apologised for wearing dead sheep on her feet.

The former 'Baywatch' star says she has thrown away her favorite Ugg boots, because she didn't know they were made from shaved sheep skin.
She wrote on her personal website: 'I'm getting rid of my Uggs - I feel so guilty for that craze being started around my 'Baywatch' days. I used to wear them with my red swim suit to keep warm never realizing that they were SKIN! I thought they were shaved kindly.' The mother-of-two, who is a staunch animal rights activist and member of PETA, is wracked with guilt over the fact that women the world over followed in her footsteps by wearing the animal pelt boots.

She added: 'People like to tell me all the time that I started that trend - yikes! Well let's start a new one. Do NOT buy Uggs! Buy Stella McCartney or juicy boots. I'm looking for alternatives myself for my boys and the men in my life! 'I'm designing some right now for my family and will try and have some available on my website soon.' Pam is disgusted she has worn her boots for so long, writing: 'It's what I grab by my door in the mornings to bring my kids to school or walk my dog on the beach at 6am or anything early. I've definitely over used them - and that's it!!!!'

Deleted in the interests of Blog Best Practices Common Sense.

Labels: Nothing to see here folks-move along

NZ fishermen land colossal squid

New Zealand fishermen have caught what is expected to be a world-record-breaking colossal squid.

Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said the squid, weighing an estimated 450kg (990lb),took two hours to land in Antarctic waters.

Local news said the Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni was about 10m (33ft) long, and was the first adult colossal squid landed intact.

One expert said calamari rings made from it would be like tractor tyres.

"I can assure you that this is going to draw phenomenal interest. It is truly amazing," Steve O'Shea from Auckland's University of Technology told local media.

The squid took about two hours to land

Colossal squid, which are found deep in Antarctic waters, are thought to be about the same length as giant squid (Architeutis dux) but are much heavier.

The species was first identified in 1925, but very few specimens have been found.

The first specimen recovered intact, a 150kg (330lb) immature female, was caught on the surface in the Ross Sea near the Antarctic coast in April 2004.

'Nearly dead'

Mr Anderton said the fishermen had been fishing for Patagonian toothfish in deep Antarctic waters when the squid - which was eating a toothfish - was caught.



"The squid was almost dead when it reached the surface, and the careful work of the crew was paramount in getting this specimen aboard in good condition," he said.

The squid was frozen in the ship's hull and brought back to New Zealand for scientific examination.

"The colossal squid has just arrived in New Zealand and it is likely that it is the first intact adult male colossal squid to ever be successfully landed," Mr Anderton said.

Look at the tiny man! Edit That is not a man. I don't know the scale. Fuck the ocean.

Just some thoughts and words about the last few days.

If St. Louis hosts "The Second Largest Mardi Gras in the US after NO" then why is it take place only on Saturday and leave the neighborhood looking like shit?

Nothing says classy like dry Red Beans and Rice vomit on your office entrance stairs.

Even though it is sunny and warm, the colors are still flat and washed out like an old photo.

On the grass by the side of the highway I see a hawk hopping along with a mouse in it's beak as I zoom by.

My guitar is floundering, I am going to relearn nearly from the beginning.

Listening to NPR yesterday in a very brief time I heard the author of Alone Together: How Marriage in America Is Changing talking and I realized what my daily married relationship was becomming. All I did was mention the name to Alessandra and she knew exactly what I was talking about. We resolved to spend more time "together together" but not last night because she had to knit a hat.

I was supposed to have President's Day off, but the office computer broke and it fell to me to fix it. What should have taken an hour tops took all day because the guy who set up the computer never gave us the XP install disc, and he died couple of months ago. In metaphor. It was a screwdriver job and all I had in my tool box was an assortment of hammers. After banging away at it all day and into the early evening I gave up and took it to a professional. He had the correct tools. It is now fixed. Yay.

So I got to take today off. And practice guitar.

I called my health insurance company today to ask them a question. Somehow it came up in the conversation that she doesn't have health insurance. She's a 3rd party phone girl, but that just seems wrong.

I heard a song on the radio that reminded me. Once I met a guy who was a nurse. I don't recall how I met him, or his name, or what he looked like. But I do remember he was a total wet blanket to be around, and had no social skills, yet he continued to call me and want to go out and do stuff. I couldn't get rid of him until one day he somehow got the hint.

At another point in time, around then, I fell in with a couple of lawyers (I was a pizza guy), and I was smitten by the female of the two. It turned out that I was the loser friend. I don't remember their names either.

I'm driving down the same stretch of highway where I saw the hawk, thinking about this babble post. I'm headed the other way though. I am listening to the driving rhythm of Tom Petty's Running Down a Dream...crawling in traffic.

Labels: meatspace, Stuff

I was flipping through a paper on Friday and I saw an ad for an upcoming Ron White comedy show in St. Louis, and I mentally recoiled in horror at the promotional photo used. Then I promptly forgot about it until yesterday when I was walking through a bookstore and I saw his comedy book for sale using a photo from the same shoot, and again I mentally cringed. It was a gestalt feeling of wrongness and I felt I had to nail it down.

It really comes down to perception and image. How one perceives oneself vs how others perceive you. And in the case of Ron White, for me, there was a huge clash.

Lets look at the photos below, the ones from the photo shoot in question.



I don't know much about Ron White other than he is a comic on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, which plays to a demographic of Hillbillies. Due to my inability to even watch the show for two minutes without changing the channel, I don't know what his role is, but based on the running theme I know, "You can't fix stupid," I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he's the "Wise guy know it all."

Anyway somebody signed off on these pictures because they thought the subject in question portrayed a certain image.

Lets deconstruct top to bottom:

Tousled hair

They see: Rumpled bedroom hair that gives the impression of one who pays attention to style, but not too much. A low maintenance Doo.

I see: greasy and in need of a wash. What's the deal with the ears? Who cut your hair? It looks like crap.

The Eyes:

They say: A knowing, roguish  glint with a hint of "Devil may care".

I say: kind of smallish, puffy and combined with those fat, pudgy fingers, beady and "piggish".

The Cigar and drink:

They say: "I am a sophisticated man of the world. I enjoy the finer things like a fine single-malt scotch and a good cigar. Isn't that right brother? You know what I'm saying?"

I'm thinking: Boozy, boorish and smelly. Woe be on to the poor woman on the other end of the exhaust-fan of his mouth.

Overall Image:

They say: "I am a guy's guy. I've got a great life. I wear natty pin-stripe suits, I get to drink the finest booze, smoke the best cigars. Here is a man who has seen life, who gets the joke and has still come out on top. My witticisms are thinly veiled criticisms at those who fancy themselves my social betters and are designed to take them down a peg or two. I mean look at me. I have the cigar and the drink. Have I got it good or what?"

Me: Rode hard, put up wet. I see a slob nursing a hangover at a shoot just on edge of vomiting in that left hand photo. Somehow, he is magically able to send out stench waves out on a visible wavelength. He has the puffy-face of a perpetual drunk, one who, if encountered at a party, would be the loudest talker with the most annoying, scratchy-phlegmy laugh and would end up groping the hostess (thinking she wanted him) before driving off into the night hopped up on Oxycontin and scotch.

When did Gary Busey start doing stand up?



There is an obvious market for the guy in that he exists in the Entertainmosphere, and I don't fault him for that. The economics of comedy will bear fruit. It's the cognitive dissonance of these photos that are doing nasty things to my head. When you promote, you accentuate the positive, you create and image that is appealing and attractive. If that is their purpose, then I have to ask, just exactly who are these images supposed appeal to?

First Look: Grand Canyon’s Glass Skywalk

I would so crap myself it's not even funny...IF you can even get me out on that deck.

via TotalFark

Welcome Jezzie AND Ray

I saw this clip today while at Best Buy and I was so charmed I thought I'd post it here.

Labels: Musical Media

Goth, punk, hippie, indie, raver. Whatever subculture you identify with, there’s a porn site out there for you. SuicideGirls.com and DeviantNation.com feature tattooed and pierced punk/indie women; Gothicsluts.com shows off crow-hos; and EroticBPM.com displays photos of models who are part of the rave scene.

The content on these websites, developed by individuals who are tired of the images of women generated by mainstream erotica/porn, is generally referred to as “alternative,” “alt,” “counterculture,” or “indie” (though these classifications aren’t always interchangeable*). No matter how these websites label themselves, they are known for countering the porn industry’s images, ethics, and business practices and offering the masses something else to look at.

More

Labels: Fun Stuff

Former Co-worker to me: "They did the stupidest thing ever when they let you go. The place pretty much fell apart. I don't know what they were thinking when they hired your replacement because he doesn't know how to do the job."

Isn't that great?

Today I had a Production Artist interview with a marketing company right down the street from my house.

Then today was declared a "Snow Day" so I didn't have to go to work.

Later in the morning I was told by urologist that I had the prostate of a 60 year old man. So I have to go on meds perpetually. Aging Sucks.

The Police Concert date was announced for July 2. Tickets $50-ish to 200.

Labels: Too Much Information

In this video clip, Stephen Colbert points out that Barack Obama has referred to himself as a 'black candidate.' Colbert's guest, Debra Dickerson, disagrees with Obama's description of himself and says that in the American political context, Obama is not black.

Replay video | Share video | Watch more videos

Via The Raw Story'

Labels: Culture Wars, Insanity, WTF

Weird. OK. Today's episode: "Wallowing in it."

YOU are responsible for Anna Nicole Smith's Death.

Personally, not me because I'm Time Magazine's "Person of the Year."

Apparently though, I am bad. Here's the story (and there is ALWAYS a story). Alessandra is watching some ballroom dancing show on PBS. I'm fiddling around with my computer and guitar simultaneously, while watching the show hoping for flashes of hot fem dancer skin. Really, it's like Baywatch.

The show is hosted by Marilu Henner and some Dance Guy, sort of like "Best in Show." but not Fred Willard Funny except for this exchange"

Marilu (after a discussion about the prior couple's marriage): Are these two a couple?

Host guy: (long pause): They both have other, uh partners in their lives.

I guess the implication is that someone is gay. In ballroom dancing? NO!

Alessandra asks me who Marilu Henner is and I tell her actress and nymphomanic. At least that's what I heard years ago. And I do a quick search and I find this oddly hypnotic list from a few years ago: The A-List.

And I'm certain that reading it is consuming it, and consuming it is feeding it and yeah I guess I am in some small infinitessimal way responsible for the Anna Nicole Trainwreck.

Labels: Only Human, Schafenfreude, Trainwreck

Some guy pretty much nails it.

Friday Edit: The list doesn't but well should include The Back to the Future Trilogy.

Labels: Fun Stuff, The Geeks are my People

I find my parking place in the stripmall near the house where I grew up. It's dark and snowing. I just drove in 20 miles from the city to get here before closing. I walk into the storefront, the first part of the place is lit with standard fluorescent lighting, the rest of the store behind the chinese partitions is black, but I can see the two rows of patrons lying in their bed in states of bliss.

What is this, some sort of Opium Den?

Pretty much. It's a MIGUN store. Or as I like to call it, "Magic Expensive Massage Table/Bed Store".

Once you get past the bullshit pseudoscience sales pitch, you realize it's an awsome device. You lie on the bed and the bed massages the shit out of your back with hot rocks. My Mom told Alessandra about this place, who in turn told me. When we went on Sunday, the only patrons in the store were Me, Alessandra, Mom and Alan and Alan's daughter Gale. I've been 4 times this week already, and it looks like I can get 5 days in next week.

Their sales technique is extremely soft touch. You can come in for 30 days and try it for free. Every day. 30 days of warm tactobliss. At that point, I think you are supposed to beg to own one...it costs $3,600 bucks.

The funny part is the claims they give it: that you lose weight just laying on it, that 1/2 hour is equivalent to 1hr of running and that it's been approved by the FDA as a Class II device, just like an MRI

I decided to look that last one up, and sure enough, it has been approved by the FDA. The classification though is really just hoop jumping. The FDA says essentially: We've looked at it, it does what they say it does and gives you a warm, vibrating massage." You know what else is Class II? Heating pads and hand vibrators.

Anyway, the story seemed much funnier in my head when I thought about it, but it's a great device and feels gooooooood.

Ah! That's what it was...Here I am laying on this decadent device knowing full well that there are probably billions of people out there living in total poverty. That's not so funny, but it would be nice to dream of a day when everyone is adequately clothed, fed, watered and getting the kinks worked out of their backs by the Magic Expensive Massage Table/Bed.

Labels: Fun Stuff, meatspace

Edited for hilarity:

DENVER - One of four ministers who oversaw three weeks of intensive counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard said the disgraced minister emerged convinced that he is "completely heterosexual."

Haggard also said his sexual contact with men was limited to the former male prostitute who came forward with sexual allegations, the Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur told The Denver Post for a story in Tuesday's edition.

"He is completely heterosexual," Ralph said. "That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing."

Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced. He was also forced out from the 14,000 New Life Church that he founded years ago in his basement after Jones alleged Haggard paid him for sex and sometimes used methamphetamine when they were together. Haggard, who is married, has publicly admitted to "sexual immorality."

Haggard said in an e-mail Sunday, his first communication in three months to church members, that he and his wife, Gayle, plan to pursue master's degrees in psychology. The e-mail said the family hasn't decided where to move but that they were considering Missouri and Iowa. Oh please not Missouri.

Another oversight board member, the Rev. Mike Ware of Westminster, said the group recommended the move out of town and the Haggards agreed.

It was also the oversight board that strongly urged Haggard to go into secular work.

Labels: Ahahahahaha, Homosexual Priests, Hypocrites

Since the early 1990s scientists have been putting these compounds through their paces, using double-blind randomised controlled trials - the gold standard for medical intervention studies. Time and again, however, the supplements failed to pass the test. True, they knock the wind out of free radicals in a test tube. But once inside the human body, they seem strangely powerless. Not only are they bad at preventing oxidative damage, they can even make things worse. Many scientists are now concluding that, at best, they are a waste of time and money. At worst they could be harmful.

This is related to the upcoming post (see below), but not the post itself.

Labels: Aww Man, balloon popping

Check back later this afternoon

Less silly, more "Va-Va Voom!"

Labels: Bettie Page, Fun Stuff, Hot Cha Cha Cha Cha

What a cute little silly dance.

Labels: Bettie Page, Fun Stuff

It's the end of my long ass work week of driving, driving, driving kids around for the non-profit arts program I work for and I'm pooped. I've been keeping a list of positive things that happen daily since December to keep from sinking into a huge funk. Many days my list looks like this:

Good Coffee

Didn't die.

Exercised

Practiced Guitar

Shaved.

Somebody said it was the little things in life. that someone needs to be smacked.

Anyway...I think it may have been Monday or Tuesday when I thought, "Man, my positive for today is that I am not these kids, nor their families."

My apprentice in the program, was released from his juvenile detention facility, and that's pretty much going to be that. I'm never going to see him again because now he doesn't want to get together. Most of us mentors are used as a form of entertainment while they are in "kiddie jail", and once they're out, they don't want to come back...which is sad because A) While we are partnered with the county, we are not offically the County. We just come in and do our thing for them, and we are perfectly happy meeting with the kids on the outside, but we are tainted by association. B) These kids get dumped back into the same environment that caused them to act out and end up back in the juvenile court system.

So as I drive around and I see the places the kids come from, and how they act around each other, for just one day I'm glad I'm not them.

Then again, I came from middle class, acted out, recklessly fired guns in Suburbia, drove drunk and comitted a couple minor acts of petty vandalism...I just never got caught. Imagine the dynamics of delinquent kids at a facility/school with other delinquent kids. The staff there is extrememly jaded.

Driving on Wed I had to pull over and talk to some kids who were arguing. I split them up and shut them up with the Cold Voice of Authority, and on later reflection decided to write up an incident report. See, they were threatening to shoot each other even though they were living in separate facilities. Less than 3 minutes of my time from hearing "Hollow Point" to ""I will NOT put up with this, this progam will NOT put up with this...you don't have to apologize but you WILL be Nice, and you will be Good or there will be Problems." and my Program Director has to go and meet with each boy and their staff. We have to take all threats of violence seriously. So that will be worked out soon. On the plus side, for the safety of everyone on the van, I have to be able to hear what they are saying to each other, so that means a greatly reduced radio volume, AND next week we are going to have ride along van mentors from the St. Louis Shakespeare Company to engage the kids in theater. They have experience with our population, so I hope this goes well.

Meh...I lost steam here. Between the end of the paragraph and here I brushed my teeth, and got ready for bed. Tomorrow is a big day. Alessandra has cleaned all the sofa cushion covers with treatments from Planet Urine, our new cushions have arrived, and the rest has been steam cleaned, so its only a matter of time before the Vortex once again grabs our asses.

Labels: meatspace, work

By Robert King

Churches in Indiana and across the country are scrapping traditional Super Bowl viewing parties in wake of the NFL’s stance that mass viewings of the game on big screen TV’s would violate copyright law.

The issue came to light Thursday when the Star reported that the NFL had told Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis that its plans for a Super Bowl watch party in front a big screen TV would be illegal.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Thursday the league stands by its interpretation of copyright law and would look into any violators that comes to the league’s attention. The main concern for the league, Aiello said, is groups that charge admission to watch games and those that use a TV screen larger than 55 inches to show the game.

A story about Fall Creek’s plan to cancel its game viewing plans prompted dozens of calls and more than 500 email comments to the Star’s website Thursday. Aiello said media from around the country have been inquiring with the league as well.

In Indianapolis, home of the AFC Champion Colts, Indian Creek Christian Church and Castleton United Methodist Church are among those who have cancelled plans to watch the game in their churches.

The issue came to light after the NFL confronted Fall Creek about its promotion of a “Super Bowl Bash” at the church that would bring together congregation members to watch the game with a projection TV.

Aiello said the league has a longstanding policy against “mass out-of-home viewings” of the Super Bowl, even if the hosts don’t charge admission. The NFL makes an exception to that, however, for sports bars that show televised sports on a regular basis. And that point has been a point of considerable anger among people who have contacted the newspaper in response to the story.

Via IndyStar.com via digg

Labels: The Man

The Kearny, New Jersey school district has banned the secret recording of teachers after a student taped his history teacher preaching in class months ago.

District officials say all teachers there will get mandatory training on the separation of church and state.

This all stems from Kearny High School junior Matthew LaClair secretly recorded his teacher David Paszkiewicz preaching to students that they belonged in hell if they rejected Jesus.

The history teacher, according to officials, also told students that Noah's ark carried dinosaurs and that evolution and Big Bang theories were not scientific.

School officials say they took "corrective action" against Paszkiewicz, but further details haven't been released.

via WABC-TV

Labels: bullshit, stupid-people, The Man

I'm totally running behind.
Two held after ad campaign triggers Boston bomb scare

This is an example of what the fear mongering has done. Looking at it, it's nothing to even think twice about. Yet some people got scared and called it in as a terrorist threat. Subways and roads were shut down. Traffic backed up. Total Pandemonium.

And now that the officals have been shown to look foolish they are backlashing with every legal move they can make. Listen to these quotes:

"The devices displayed a "Mooninite" -- an outer-space delinquent who makes frequent appearances on the cartoon -- greeting passersby with an upraised middle finger. But the discovery of nine of the light boards around Boston and its suburbs sent bomb squads scrambling throughout the day, snarling traffic and mass transit in one of the largest U.S. cities.

"It had a very sinister appearance," Coakley told reporters. "It had a battery behind it, and wires."

But Coakley, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and others said the statement offering an apology was not enough, and did not rule out criminal charges or a civil suit to recover the estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars it cost the city to respond to the bomb scares.

"I just think this is outrageous, what they've done ... It's all about corporate greed." Jesus. It's advertising, trying to get people into see a movie. That's not corporate greed. Honestly, you are all being completely ridiculous

...Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis called it "unconscionable" that the marketing campaign was executed in a post 9/11 era. "It's a foolish prank on the part of Turner Broadcasting," he said. "In the environment nowadays ... we really have to look at the motivation of the company here and why this happened."

...Rep. Ed Markey, a Boston-area congressman, said, "Whoever thought this up needs to find another job."

..."Scaring an entire region, tying up the T and major roadways, and forcing first responders to spend 12 hours chasing down trinkets instead of terrorists is marketing run amok," Markey, a Democrat, said in a written statement. "It would be hard to dream up a more appalling publicity stunt."

Labels: bullshit, pranks, stupid-people