February 5, 2007
Aqua Teen used
ploy that landed
Continued from page 1
when darkness fell
The men did not speak or enter their
own pleas, but they appeared amused
and smiled as the prosecutor talked
about the device found at Sullivan
Station underneath Interstate 93,
looking like it had C-4 explosive.
“The appearance of this device and
its location are crucial,” Grossman
said. “This device looks like
a bomb.”
gallery snickered,
Outside the court!
Michael Rich, a li
for both of the men.
the description of
bomb-like devict
could be used for an
electronic device.
“If somebody
had left a VCR
on the ground it
would have been
device with wires, electronic
components and a power source,”
he said.
Boston officials were livid when
the devices were discovered.
“It is outrageous, in a post 9/11
world, that a company would use this
type of marketing scheme,” Mayor
Thomas Menino said Wednesday. “I
am prepared to take any and all legal
action against Turner Broadcasting
and its affiliates for any and all
expenses incurred during the
response to today’s incidents.”
Berdovsky, an artist, told The
Boston Globe he was hired by a
marketing company and said he was
“kind of freaked out” by the furor.
“I find it kind of ridiculous that
they’re making these statements on
TV that we must not be safe from
terrorism, because they were up
there for three weeks and no one
noticed. It’s pretty commonsensical
to look at them and say this is a piece
of art and installation,” he said.
Fans of the show mocked
authorities for what they called
an overreaction
About a dozen fans gathered
outside Charlestown District Court
on Thursday morning with signs
saying “1-31-07 Never Forget” and
“Free Peter.”
“We're the laughing stock,” said
Tracy O’Connor, 34.
“It’s almost too easy to be a terrorist
these days,” said
Photo courtesy of Google Images
box on a comer and
you can shut down a city.”
Authorities vowed to hold Turner
accountable for what Menino said
was “corporate greed,” that led to at
least $750,000 in police costs.
As soon as Turner realized the
Boston problem around 5 p.m.,
it said, law enforcement officials
were told of their locations in 10
cities where it said the devices
had been placed for two to
three weeks: Boston, New
York, Los Angeles, Chicago,
Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore.,
Austin, Texas, San Francisco
and Philadelphia.
“Aqua Teen Hunger Force” is a
cartoon with a cultish following
that airs as part of a block of
programs for adults on the Cartoon
Network. A feature length film based
on the show is slated for release
Kent said the marketing company March 23.
“We apologize to the citizens of
Boston that part of a marketing
campaign was mistaken for a
public danger,” said Phil Kent,
chairman of Turner, a division of
Time Warner Inc.
THE CAPITAL TIMES
in advertising
advertisers
that placed the signs, Interference
Inc., was ordered to
them immediately.
New York-based Interference had
no comment. A guard in the building
where the firm’s offices are located
would not let reporters inside,
and no one answered the firm’s
phones Thursday.
Messages seeking additional
comment from the Atlanta-based
Cartoon Network were left with
several publicists.
■es arc investigating
ler or other companies
!d be criminally
arged, Attorney General
Martha Coakley said.
“We’re not going to
let this go without
looking at the further
oofs of how this
happened to cause
the panic in this city,”
Coakley said,
n Seattle and several
suburbs, the removal of
the signs was low-key.
“We haven’t had any calls to 911
regarding this,” Seattle police
spokesman Sean Whitcomb said
Wednesday.
Police in Philadelphia said they
believed their city had 56 devices.
The New York Police Department
removed 41 of the devices _ 38 in
Manhattan and three in Brooklyn,
according to spokesman Paul
Browne. The NYPD had not
received any complaints. But
when it became aware of the
situation, it contacted Interference
Inc., which provided the locations
so the devices could be removed.
Hummer: Beyond the classroom
[ail
Continued from page 1
for fun and then lets them go.
He even said that if he was able to
transform into any animal, he would
be a whale. That way he could
share his home in
the ocean with other fish, both of
which he loves. But fish is not his
favorite food. Actually, it’s pizza,
and not just any pizza. It has to be
the one from Italian
remove
Pizza and Subs. And his favorite
drink to go with that is the Turkey
Hill Iced Tea, which he drinks often
while he is on campus.
Hummer loves being in the college
environment. It is this environment
that snagged him into
becoming a professor. He enjoys
the ever changing field of criminal
justice and decided that he
wanted to major in it when he went
to college.
He has been a professor for nine
years and studied justice and society
in different forms during his college
years. He majored in sociology and
anthropology for his bachelor’s
degree, administration of justice for
his master’s degree and criminal
justice for his doctorate degree at
Michigan State University.
“I like how every semester is
different and we have new things to
talk about,” said Hummer. Referring
to the criminal justice system today,
he added “And you don’t have to
be a criminal justice major to figure
that out.”
He teaches classes on corrections,
research methods and statistics.
Because most students “dread”
having to take a statistics class.
Photo by RABYIA AHMED/Capital Times
he enjoys teaching that course the
most. And it’s not because he’s
mean and enjoys watching students
suffer. Actually, it’s because he
wants to show them that they are
indeed able to get through it and that
it’s not as difficult as most students
make it to be.
In the fall, Hummer will also be
teaching a class on comparative
justice systems in the fall, which
will compare the justice system of
the United States to that of other
countries. Hummer’s eyes were
luminous as he talked about
the class
“I can’t wait!” said Hummer. “I’ve
always wanted to teach a class like
this,” he said with enthusiasm filling
his tone
One of the greatest things about
the profession is that the professors
are able to choose what classes
they want to teach. He believes that
if he’s excited about a course that
he’s teaching, chances are that the
students will like that course.
“I can’t expect them to like
something I don’t like myself,” he
explained.
Meetings and grading assigned
work are the only aspects of being
a professor that he doesn’t
enjoy. Very pleased w ith his job,
Hummer suggested that out of
five positives, there is only one
negative in
this profession.
Hummer is not one to set high
goals for himself. He believes
that goals should be set modestly.
They should be things that make
one happy in life. Many people
think that money will make
them happy, he said, but it’s not
always the case.
“Teaching my kids to catch a
baseball will make me happy,
rather than saying I want them to
earn a 4.0 in school,” he said.
Mellow, but driven is how this
two-year Penn State Harrisburg
professor describes himself.
Even his students say that he’s
very “laid-back.”
Hummer’s list of favs:
Sports: Baseball.
The Philadelphia
Phillies
Place to travel:
Norway because they
have stunning fjords
Music: Hard rock.
Bands include Guns
N’ Roses, Red Hot
Chili Peppers and
Social Distortion