Lions and tigers and robots, oh my! Have you seen the hoopla about the menacing Nite-Brite robots posted through out some of the Nation's largest cities?
Bomb squads were brought in and press conferences given because they feared these random, blinking robots might mean an impending terrorist attack. Yes, that is the very first thing I think of, too, when I see a brightly lit picture of a robot looking angry and using his middle finger. (I mean it is not the fault of the robot that he is being rude, he might have been made with only one finger.) Is our local government and police that on-edge and paranoid to not only get pissed off about it, but have every robot removed costing Boston a Lot O Money. What is weird about all of this is that they quickly found who was responsible and were still arresting individuals for placing the placards. Also I would like to know why they arrested those men when they knew, very well, the company responsible (the Cartoon Network)? Wouldn't you think after testing the first robot to see, if indeed it was dangerous, and finding it was just a board with flashing lights bulbs in the shape of a robot they would have re-grouped.
I find news stories like this disconcerting because it shows how crazy and paranoid people are becoming. But do you remember, about a decade ago, where the pie sign, like the one you need to find the radius of a circle, was found all around places like New York City. It was in sticker form, if I remember correctly, and didn’t have a convenient explanation for passersby’s to reference. The sign was quietly placed all over public property as a way to advertise an up-coming movie. This was very clever, and cool to those in-the-know. So why, I wonder, is an obvious, non-violent way of advertising (I.E.: with funny looking robots) so threatening? Maybe I should stop watching films like “The Blue Kite,” a Chinese film about Communism gone bad and “V for Vendetta.” Portrayed in those fictional (?) movies the hunt for terrorists turn into mindless witch-hunts. Thank the Lord, at this day and age, we can all be reasonable and never jump to conclusions about silly robot signs. Oh wait...