LiveJournal B0st0n will no doubt have details of this morning's arraignments in Charlestown. Boston.com reports on the rally outside the court. The second suspect, Sean Stevens, is also a video artist. The guy auctioning off one of the devices says he will donate some of the money to their defense fund.

C.C. Chapman ponders it all:

What bothers me most I think is as I stop and think about it is that I'm not only pissed at the agency who came up with the idea, but I'm also a little disappointed in Boston's Police. If these things have been up for a few weeks how come no one has noticed them until now. Don't we have Homeland Security people with big budgets running around the country protecting us? Thats what I keep hearing anyways. How did they miss this? Makes you wonder where all that money is going doesn't it?

Jeff Chausse: Gee, could all the indignation of the local authorities just possibly be redirected anger at their own foolishness?

... Sure, it's natural to be suspicious of unusual devices located around a city, but are you telling me that not one bomb squad member at any of the 28 locations was capable of realizing that the device (again, consisting primarily of an illuminated cartoon character) was not a bomb? Apparently, 9 other cities had no problem doing this. ...

W. David Stephenson, a homeland-security consultant, tells people like this: Grow up, twerps!

Perhaps the most clueless reaction cited by The Globe was a 29-year old blogger from Malden, who snarkily commented, "'Repeat after me, authorities. L-E-D. Not I-E-D. Get it?'" Well, no, kid: in Iraq the insurgents disguise IEDs as all sorts of benign devices, and, thanks to the "wizards" at Interference, Inc. (as with my post yesterday, no link to Interference: they don't deserve any more viral marketing on their behalf...), you can bet that now any sleeper cells in the US have tucked this particular one away: what kind of fun thing can we use to disguise a bomb as next time? ...

Here's the deal, kids: you want the iPods and all the cool things associated with 21st-century life, so you've gotta take the baggage of a post 9/11 world as well: grow up. And, to you, Interference, Inc.: drop dead...

More, oh so much more reaction:

And if you want to set up somebody the bomb, you can now buy one on eBay.

Police have arrested Peter Berdovsky (not "Berdvosky" as several media outlets have it) of Arlington for placing up to 38 LED mooninites around the Boston area. Evidence could include photos and a video from his Web site showing him and friends putting the things up:

Ironically, right under the photo/video links is a link to a series of videos he did in 2005 exploring "the words and images that news media use to induce a state of fear in the viewers."

Berdovsky, 27, graduated Mass. College of Art in 2005, is a VJ and is also known as Zebbler.

He is a native of Belarus whose mother still lives there. In this blog post, he recalls the day he was visiting his grandmother when Chernobyl melted down a few hundred kilometers from her house.

How long before somebody sets up a defense fund for him? Probably not very long. And when can we expect arrests at the company that actually thought up the scheme? And a commission to examine whether, just possibly, officials overreacted?

Above: Erinob sums it up.

Ooh, look, you can already buy I Survived the Mooninite Attack t-shirts!

Todd Vanderlin posted about the gizmos two weeks ago.

Michael on ChaosFactor: It's equal parts amazing, damning, and jaw-droppingly stupid that the city of Boston could be brought to a stand-still by 5 modified Lite-Brites.

Mass. Marrier: It kind of makes you wonder how they'll react if there is a real threat.

TC sums up:

Deval Patrick: "There is not a reason for anyone to panic, but there are reasons for us to be vigilant."

But Patrick, Menino and Police Superintendent Ed Davis aren't saying what the things they recovered are. Davis referred to "an individual" as being to blame; said there might be more news later this evening.

Davis said police are still being vigilant around state and city buildings, hospitals and bridges.

Menino called the things "bombs" several times before correcting himself; said whoever's to blame is not going to like what's going to happen when they're caught.

One reporter did ask about the Adult Swim angle; Davis refused to answer.

Update: Channel 4 reports a big hoax involving mooninites. The Weekly Dig points to the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie.

Channel 4 managed to capture some images of the thing the bomb squad blew up at Sullivan Square this morning. Kind of an odd etching on an IED, no? Thanks to the folks at B0st0n LiveJournal, we can now report it's a depiction of a mooninite - a successor to the creatures from "Space Invaders."

Compare to this image of a mooninite from Adult Swim's Aqua Teen Hunger Force:

Now look at the Flickr images Brian dug up of LED circuit boards that show flashing mooninites:

This, this and this

Somebody might have some 'splainin' to do.

Update: The Globe and Channel 4 now report that officials are finding these things all over the place. Storrow Drive is shut down. The Red Line is shut down between Park Street and Kendall.

On a morning when the lead story in the Globe announced the T's new random-bag inspections have turned up nothing, the Sullivan Square T stop and I-93 both get shut down so police could blow up a suspicious device found on a girder above the station. The Globe quotes a guy who ran toward the station to see what all the commotion was about:

"It was nerve racking," said Robert A. Ellington, 29, who ran to Sullivan Square to investigate when he heard whirl of television news helicopters. "It's scary, but exciting though."

Private Idaho reports:

So a friend of the family, Christie called my wife at home to say "Please help! my cell phone is running out of power and they've closed the subway and I'm stuck somewhere called Wellington Station!!! Can you come get me?" ...

Kimberly wound up walking to work because the buses got so overcrowded:

... It's only about 3 miles but crossing the bridge with the wind off the Harbor is a bit much but I trucked it and feel great! I should keep it up, an extra 3 to 6 miles a day would do wonders plus my daily workout. ...

Question of the day: If you are going to bomb a subway station, why on earth would you pick Sullivan Square?!

Cindy and Jeff at SmartRoutes made it official: This morning was an eventful Wednesday.

Note: Channel 4 has the best photos so far of the thing in question.