Arizona Police Investigate Super Mario-Styled Box

[Gilhelmi]

So thats where I left my mystery box!

Sorry everyone!

OT: wow people are a bit on the paranoid side arent they?

...then again there are those asshole kids who have been making draino/tinfoil bottle bombs...

I hate those things. Not only do they blow up, but the gas produced is poisonous.

I mean strap nails onto the bottle and what do you get? A pipe bomb, just as deadly as the ones in Boston.

 

[yamy]

The sad thing is that if I was driving on that road and I spotted the box I probably would have ran over it and expected a banana peel to magically appear behind my car.

 

[Baresark]

I would argue shit timing but... anytime since 9/11 has been shit timing for something like this. Radio ads telling you to watch out and report strange packages/bags/boxes left in public places would have been responsible for this. It's a bit misguided to think this turn of events is related to the recent events in Boston. Everyone should realize that the police would have been called for this anytime at very list for the last 12 years. It's only news because of Boston though, and that is terrible.

Edit: on a less serious note, that would have been the perfect time to Rob a local bank on the other side of town. OR the perfect thing to attract people to certain locations... such as the standard perimeter distance for another attack. We should all feel lucky that people who make decisions to blow up other people with bombs are not that logical and generally unsettles in a way that muddles their thinking. People's and police reactions are so incredibly predictable in this situations, they would be perfect planning for something bigger and far more sinister.

 

[Gilhelmi]

While it'd be nice if people had a sense of humor, they don't. They just have a sense that terrorists are out to kill them personally.

Technically, the terrorist are. Not just Al-Quida either. I monitor groups that do attacks both domestic and foreign (yes, I am paranoid. Only because they have gave me cause). We want freedom, of speech, of religion, of the press. Many who are terrorist want power and they believe that if they terrorize us enough, we will just surrender. But that does not usually work.

An interesting study from the World Wars. What we now call PTSD was common then as it is today among soldiers. But this was a different time, attacking civilians was not an issue (at least not like today) as long as you 'tried' to aim for factories (no one tried that hard mind you). So the study expected to find the same PTSD in the civilian population as in the Armies, but the did not. What they found was that the civilians were more likely to support the military and had more patriotism AFTER being attacked. The leading theory is that the "Universal Human Phobia" on killing, where soldiers are asked to kill (in combat) they are more likly to develop PTSD. But civilians, are rarely called upon to kill attacking soldiers, so they do not get PTSD (as often).

In conclusion, terrorism does not work, But that does not mean we should stop being cautious. We should always. keep one eye open for threats. Because, I do not want to die today, just because someone does not like my values.

 

[Gilhelmi]

So thats where I left my mystery box!

Sorry everyone!

OT: wow people are a bit on the paranoid side arent they?

...then again there are those asshole kids who have been making draino/tinfoil bottle bombs...

I hate those things. Not only do they blow up, but the gas produced is poisonous.

I mean strap nails onto the bottle and what do you get? A pipe bomb, just as deadly as the ones in Boston.

If they put it in a glass bottle they dont need nails, a person who taps it with their foot and makes the two substances connect will get an explosion, poisonous gas and hot glass ripping into them.

I got a BIG lesson on the dangers of these for my job.

The worst part is that when the police try and arrest the bombers. The idiots try to say "it was just a joke" to stupid to realize they just tried to kill me.

Did the police make any arrests in your case?

 

[Baresark]

We want freedom, of speech, of religion, of the press. Many who are terrorist want power and they believe that if they terrorize us enough, we will just surrender. But that does not usually work.

You seem right on the ball except for this point. Terrorism is not a way of making people surrender to another power. It's a false idea that they want to take away what we have. Terrorism is usually a form of retaliation. Terrorism stemming from the middle east is due to bad foreign policy and interventionism, for example. Terrorism is not usually random but focused behind a point such as the aforementioned. It's a stop messing with us tactic. But it does not have that effect. It ramps up American intervention in the instance of foreign terrorism. It's like terribly executed ideas of trade embargoes. People and organization (such as governments) think it will hurt the offending government. It doesn't though, it strengthens the offending government rallying it's people (misguided or otherwise) behind them.

 

[Gilhelmi]

We want freedom, of speech, of religion, of the press. Many who are terrorist want power and they believe that if they terrorize us enough, we will just surrender. But that does not usually work.

You seem right on the ball except for this point. Terrorism is not a way of making people surrender to another power. It's a false idea that they want to take away what we have. Terrorism is usually a form of retaliation. Terrorism stemming from the middle east is due to bad foreign policy and interventionism, for example. Terrorism is not usually random but focused behind a point such as the aforementioned. It's a stop messing with us tactic. But it does not have that effect. It ramps up American intervention in the instance of foreign terrorism. It's like terribly executed ideas of trade embargoes. People and organization (such as governments) think it will hurt the offending government. It doesn't though, it strengthens the offending government rallying it's people (misguided or otherwise) behind them.

Exactly, I am glad there are others about that understand military tactics. Thank you.

 

[Quantum Glass]

Well, I can kind of understand the caution, although typically speaking only really cheesy Batman villains make their bombs look so obvious (The whole point of a bomb is that it doesn't draw suspicion until it...well, does.)

I somehow doubt that it's Super Mario that they're talking about when they bring up violent crime and murder simulation, mind you. Unless...unless they're concerned about the drug use?! My god, mushrooms and money are distributed in boxes, many of them hard to find, such as the invisible ones! Mario is an addict!

And...and maybe he hit his girlfriend, so their mutual friend Bowser is hiding her in his apartment! And...Mario doesn't know what apartment complex he's in, because he's too drugged up to think clearly, so he's sneaking into eight separate buildings, pretending to be a plumber, and going on a violent rampage, systematically checking each room and terrorizing the inhabitants before burning the building to the ground!

Luigi represents his hallucinatory, Fight Club esque alter ego. The Minus World represents him completely losing touch with reality.

The Beanstalks represent beanstalks.

 

[MrGalactus]

Uuuuuhh, what exactly about this is violent? The people there assumed it was a bomb, and it wasn't. It's not the box guy's fault they randomly assumed it was explosive.

 

[Namehere]

I'm sick of this web page trying to say that there's some HUGE PREJUDICE against gamers, then coming up with non-gaming related stories to straw man their proofs! THIS IS RIDICULOUS! It's quite clear the local authorities were terrified of an attack from the the Riddler. I mean really people... know your villains!

 

[Sonic Doctor]

"They made me leave the street. It's just crazy, a college town like this I wouldn't think that something like that would happen," said Andries Efthymious,

Sadly, Andries is forgetting that this college town is that of ASU, a party school where the students are more interested in screwing around than actually you know, studying.

I was going to say something similar.

That apparently that person never went to college or something, because no matter how grounded or upstanding an image colleges might have, they always have a group of people that pull pranks and mess around, get drunk, do shit, and whatnot.

Heck at my first college, the drinking fountain outside my dorm room door just up and disappeared, and it wasn't the maintenance crew that did it.

 

[Scars Unseen]

In that photo, I see a lot of parked cars, each infinitely more likely to be chosen as the hiding place of a weapon of terror than a cardboard box with a bunch of question marks on it.

This is stupid. Terrorists are not Adam West Batman villains. It's kind of hard to maximize civilian fatalities when you put your bomb in something that screams "I don't belong here."

Paranoid people are paranoid.

 

[Something Amyss]

They should have found a turtle shell to chuck at it. Best to release its contents from a distance.

I have a hard time buying that the resemblance to a Super Mario style question box is a coincidence. This has much more of the "prank gone too far" stink to it.

The fact is, Mario is so ubiquitous that it's very possible for someone to know the iconography without knowing the source. I'm not saying it did happen, but it very well could. Especially since we live in such a meme and reference based culture these days. I mean, even non-Portal fans know the cake is a lie, non-Zelda fans sing the major theme for the last 3-ish decades of the series, etc.

Isn't that obviously a prank? Not everyone would consider a box in the street cause for alarm. I'd call that a bit paranoid even. If you want to see terrorists everywhere, I suppose it makes sense though.

Considering the timing, why take any chances?

That Aqua Teen Hunger Force thing pissed me off, I mean did they report electric bar signs to?
At least this could ACTUALLY have been a bomb.

Yeah, electric bar signs so frequently get placed randomly about the city, without any easy way to trace back the actual installer, and with characteristics resembling those of an IED more than a finished piece of electrical equipment.

I mean, why would anyone think that something that looked like a bomb might actually be a bomb? A box with a question mark on it is so obviously more bomb-like. Especially since the Mooninite signs only had exposed, amateur and unfinished looking wiring, while the box had...PAPERS!

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm pretty certain that such a package would never reach my door in the first place. There are pretty stringent requirements for anything put through the mail these days. A box that's dripping oil and gives off an odor would not make the cut.

Are you serious? I got a package dropped at my door where the contents' battery was freaking leaking. Granted, it was from a place I ordered, so in this case it was okay, but stringent requirements my arse.