Funny news stories
Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:22 pm
These are some funny stories i found in the news today.
ATACK OF THE MOONINITES!
BOSTON - More than 10 blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. Most if not all of the devices depict a character giving the finger.
Boston police said Wednesday night that one person had been arrested, and authorities scheduled a news conference to provide details.
Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.
"It's a hoax — and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick, who said he'll speak to the state's attorney general "about what recourse we may have."
Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball.
"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement, issued a few hours after reports of the first devices came in.
It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia.
"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," the company said. As soon as the company realized the problem, it said, law enforcement officials were told of their locations in all 10 cities.
The marketing firm that put them up has been ordered to remove them immediately, said Phil Kent, Turner chairman.
"We apologize to the citizens of Boston that part of a marketing campaign was mistaken for a public danger," Kent said. "We appreciate the gravity of this situation and, like any responsible company would, are putting all necessary resources toward understanding the facts surrounding it as quickly as possible."
Interference Inc. had no immediate comment. A woman who answered the phone at the New York-based firm's offices Wednesday afternoon said the firm's CEO was out of town and would not be able to comment until Thursday.
There were no reports from police Wednesday of residents in the other nine cities spotting similar devices.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said he'll seek to punish those responsible, and indicated that the penalty could be two to five years in prison per count.
After Turner made its announcement, Menino said he was "prepared to take any and all legal action" against the company and its affiliates "for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today's incidents."
Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke praised Boston authorities for sharing their knowledge quickly with Washington officials and the public.
"Hoaxes are a tremendous burden on local law enforcement and counter-terrorism resources and there's absolutely no place for them in a post-9/11 world," Knocke said.
Authorities said some of the objects looked like circuit boards or had wires hanging from them.
The first device was found at a subway and bus station underneath Interstate 93, forcing the shutdown of the station and the highway.
Later, police said four calls, all around 1 p.m., reported devices at the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, both of which span the Charles River, at a Boston street corner and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.
The package near the Boston University bridge was found attached to a structure beneath the span, authorities said.
Subway service across the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge was briefly suspended, and Storrow Drive was closed as well. A similar device was found Wednesday evening just north of Fenway Park, police spokesman Eddy Chrispin said.
Wanda Higgins, a 47-year-old Weymouth resident and a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, heard about the threat as she watched television news coverage while preparing to leave work at 4 p.m.
"I saw the bomb squad guys carrying a paper bag with their bare hands," Higgins said. "I knew it couldn't be too serious."
Messages seeking additional comment from the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network were left with several publicists.
"Aqua Teen Hunger Force" is a cartoon with a cultish following that airs as part of the Adult Swim late-night block of programs for adults on the Cartoon Network. A feature length film based on the show is slated for release March 23.
The cartoon also includes two trouble-making, 1980s-graphic-like characters called "mooninites," named Ignignokt and Err — who were pictured on the suspicious devices. They are known for making the obscene hand gesture depicted on the devices.
One More
Toothpaste, bouillon cubes new frontiers of piracy
GENEVA (Reuters) - Cheap everyday items such as pens and disposable razors are increasingly being counterfeited and many retailers unwittingly stock their shelves with fake products, companies and officials say.
Once preoccupied with software, music, films and luxury goods like handbags, law enforcement and business experts meeting this week puzzled over ways to fight piracy in bottom of the market goods.
Nestle chief executive Peter Brabeck told a news conference that Maggi bouillon stock cubes were the most frequently copied of all the company's 8,500 products, which include KitKat chocolate bars and Nescafe coffee.
"Everything you can imagine is being counterfeited," Peter Avery of the OECD's directorate of science, technology and industry told Reuters.
"New products are being discovered all the time. The range of products is expanding, and the magnitude," he said during a conference organised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, a U.N. agency.
Criminals are making money manufacturing fake versions of inexpensive items, which are then slipped into normal supply chains for retail distribution, even in developed countries.
"Tonnes and tonnes" of fake toothpaste have been uncovered in Senegal, to quote just one example, said World Customs Organisation chief Michel Danet, who described counterfeiting of cheap items as a form of money-laundering.
Research by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which has yet to be released, will estimate that up to 2 percent of all goods crossing international borders might be counterfeited or pirated, Avery said.
"A lot of retailers may be unwittingly stocking these products," he said. The pharmaceutical sector has had particular trouble with faked drugs mixed in with genuine ones and counterfeited items can be very hard to detect, he added.
His OECD colleague Wolfgang Huebner said retailers ought to be aware of the average cost of the products they buy and report cut-rate deals. These often signal piracy that in consumer goods can cause injury, illness or death.
"If they see cheap branded products they should be very suspicious," Huebner said.
Even kiwi fruit and bananas have suffered copyright piracy, with black-market sellers using falsified brand stickers of the U.S. fruit giant Chiquita and others to get more money for their goods, Avery said.
ATACK OF THE MOONINITES!
BOSTON - More than 10 blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. Most if not all of the devices depict a character giving the finger.
Boston police said Wednesday night that one person had been arrested, and authorities scheduled a news conference to provide details.
Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.
"It's a hoax — and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick, who said he'll speak to the state's attorney general "about what recourse we may have."
Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball.
"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement, issued a few hours after reports of the first devices came in.
It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia.
"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," the company said. As soon as the company realized the problem, it said, law enforcement officials were told of their locations in all 10 cities.
The marketing firm that put them up has been ordered to remove them immediately, said Phil Kent, Turner chairman.
"We apologize to the citizens of Boston that part of a marketing campaign was mistaken for a public danger," Kent said. "We appreciate the gravity of this situation and, like any responsible company would, are putting all necessary resources toward understanding the facts surrounding it as quickly as possible."
Interference Inc. had no immediate comment. A woman who answered the phone at the New York-based firm's offices Wednesday afternoon said the firm's CEO was out of town and would not be able to comment until Thursday.
There were no reports from police Wednesday of residents in the other nine cities spotting similar devices.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said he'll seek to punish those responsible, and indicated that the penalty could be two to five years in prison per count.
After Turner made its announcement, Menino said he was "prepared to take any and all legal action" against the company and its affiliates "for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today's incidents."
Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke praised Boston authorities for sharing their knowledge quickly with Washington officials and the public.
"Hoaxes are a tremendous burden on local law enforcement and counter-terrorism resources and there's absolutely no place for them in a post-9/11 world," Knocke said.
Authorities said some of the objects looked like circuit boards or had wires hanging from them.
The first device was found at a subway and bus station underneath Interstate 93, forcing the shutdown of the station and the highway.
Later, police said four calls, all around 1 p.m., reported devices at the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, both of which span the Charles River, at a Boston street corner and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.
The package near the Boston University bridge was found attached to a structure beneath the span, authorities said.
Subway service across the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge was briefly suspended, and Storrow Drive was closed as well. A similar device was found Wednesday evening just north of Fenway Park, police spokesman Eddy Chrispin said.
Wanda Higgins, a 47-year-old Weymouth resident and a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, heard about the threat as she watched television news coverage while preparing to leave work at 4 p.m.
"I saw the bomb squad guys carrying a paper bag with their bare hands," Higgins said. "I knew it couldn't be too serious."
Messages seeking additional comment from the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network were left with several publicists.
"Aqua Teen Hunger Force" is a cartoon with a cultish following that airs as part of the Adult Swim late-night block of programs for adults on the Cartoon Network. A feature length film based on the show is slated for release March 23.
The cartoon also includes two trouble-making, 1980s-graphic-like characters called "mooninites," named Ignignokt and Err — who were pictured on the suspicious devices. They are known for making the obscene hand gesture depicted on the devices.
One More
Toothpaste, bouillon cubes new frontiers of piracy
GENEVA (Reuters) - Cheap everyday items such as pens and disposable razors are increasingly being counterfeited and many retailers unwittingly stock their shelves with fake products, companies and officials say.
Once preoccupied with software, music, films and luxury goods like handbags, law enforcement and business experts meeting this week puzzled over ways to fight piracy in bottom of the market goods.
Nestle chief executive Peter Brabeck told a news conference that Maggi bouillon stock cubes were the most frequently copied of all the company's 8,500 products, which include KitKat chocolate bars and Nescafe coffee.
"Everything you can imagine is being counterfeited," Peter Avery of the OECD's directorate of science, technology and industry told Reuters.
"New products are being discovered all the time. The range of products is expanding, and the magnitude," he said during a conference organised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, a U.N. agency.
Criminals are making money manufacturing fake versions of inexpensive items, which are then slipped into normal supply chains for retail distribution, even in developed countries.
"Tonnes and tonnes" of fake toothpaste have been uncovered in Senegal, to quote just one example, said World Customs Organisation chief Michel Danet, who described counterfeiting of cheap items as a form of money-laundering.
Research by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which has yet to be released, will estimate that up to 2 percent of all goods crossing international borders might be counterfeited or pirated, Avery said.
"A lot of retailers may be unwittingly stocking these products," he said. The pharmaceutical sector has had particular trouble with faked drugs mixed in with genuine ones and counterfeited items can be very hard to detect, he added.
His OECD colleague Wolfgang Huebner said retailers ought to be aware of the average cost of the products they buy and report cut-rate deals. These often signal piracy that in consumer goods can cause injury, illness or death.
"If they see cheap branded products they should be very suspicious," Huebner said.
Even kiwi fruit and bananas have suffered copyright piracy, with black-market sellers using falsified brand stickers of the U.S. fruit giant Chiquita and others to get more money for their goods, Avery said.
