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His name is Berdovsky

ZebblerPolice 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:

Up she goes

Up she goes

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?

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Comments

I can see tomorrow's headlines:
GROWN MAN WHO WATCHES CARTOONS CREEPS EVERYBODY OUT
Wait, that isn't news at all.

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This act produced the shutting down
of highways and bridges;the average person would be reasonably concerned,when seeing these mysterious
devices;the cost to Boston and their state is in the millions;even more angst was caused because some of the terrorist planes from 911,flew out of Boston.

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This is a total over reaction. I'd like to know who called the police and told them that they were afraid of a lite brite that looked NOTHING like a bomb.

And why haven't the police departments in the other cities these things were placed in call homeland security?

About 2 years ago (I think) the bomb squad came to Lexington because of a "suspicious package" and living about a mile from the center where the hysteria was going down I still didn't care.

Just as I suspected it turned out to be an empty box.

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And from a distence, who knows what it was?

Also, I can't remember if it was Ed Davis or Menino, bit one of them mentioned that during the course of reports of other Mooninites trickling in, two callers called them "pipe bombs".

Considering Turner did not confirm the boxes as harmless untill after 5:00pm and before then the Mooninite origns were unkown, how could officials assume each and every reported Mooninite was harmles.

Over reaction, we'll see. But if I were forced to call the shots in the disposing of the Mooninites, I would tell my people to treat each box as live until I could verify with out a doubt they were harmless. I wouldn't want to risk living the rest of my life playing a game of "what if" because my decision cost someone their health or their life.

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Regardless of whether they lighted up during the day, and really whether you think that Turner Broadcasting sucks or the city's response sucks, the arrest of this artist should be cause for concern. He was clearly working for a larger firm which in turn worked for Turner. The fact that he's been arrested in this context--and that the state Attorney General gave a news conference on his arrest--screams out that the authorities felt that an arrest would help to sorce political points and cool people off. That should not be how anything approximating a justice system functions.

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It's totally ridiculous that they arrested this artist. Just a case of the BPD acting like a bunch of bumbling idiots and not wanting to admit it. Are we supposed to arrest every installation artist if we don't understand their art? The news media is just as bad. Every headline refers to these lights as "packages" and a "hoax". Here's a newsflash, they were neither, they were just a gimmicky marketing effort.

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The most he should get is a ticket, if anything.

I harbor no ill wil towards the artist and hopes this lands him some great job somewhere for all the BS he had to put up with on the behalf of hte agency and Turner.

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I hope they do some time for being total idiots and being so smug as if they'll get away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

I hope they enjoy Jail time as much as they are enjoying there fifteen minutes.

I think this kind of marketing could have the potential for copycats and possibly terrorists, face it America we are lucky we haven't had a bomb go off like Iraq has happen everyday!!!

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They don't look ANYTHING like a bomb. It's the face of a lite-brite with batteries. Anyone who thought they were bombs are MORONS.

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These were electronic devices. If they were real bombs (God forbid), you would be the first crying that the City did nothing to protect us. I think they did what was right. Terrorists get it now. Hey as long as the bomb is *cute* people will smile and take camera phone pictures. We can attach *cute* bombs to subway stations and bridges and public stadiums... fun!!

Someone did put fake pipebombs by NEMC.

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The london bombers had exploding backpacks that did some preety heavy damage. Does that mean that backpacks look like a bombs? No. Do you think perhaps if soemone were crafty enough to build a bomb, might they not be capable of disguising it as a Mooninite, a teddy bear, an xbox, a briefcase, etc?

Listen, if it were my ass out there and my boss told me to dispose of the device, I'm treating it like a bomb.

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His name is Robert Paulson.

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Top 10 Sources has a news roundup on the subject. Looks like the Boston Bar has an artists' legal defense group that is almost certain to get involved.

I don't see how punishing the artist is going to do much-- maybe attacking Turner Networks would be a good idea. But starting with the guy who placed them? What the hell?

Anyone know what his bail is set at?

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Look, I know what he did was illegal, but its slap on the wrist stuff. His actions weren't the problem today. Maybe the marketing firm that executed this are at fault. Maybe officials who overreacted AFTER learning that it was just LED lights. Maybe the media who hyped this death while withholding crucial evidence that this was just a marketing campaign. But not this guy. This is an overreaction, and I hope calmed heads will ultimately prevail.

What I'd like to see is a commission to examine the security risks apparently exposed as a result of this. I don't think he should have had access to the supports for a major highway, for instance. Why isn't access to that secured at Sullivan Station? If this could have been a risk, why wasn't anything noticed for weeks? Terrorists are unlikely to include flashing lights on any device meant to cause harm, after all. If we couldn't notice a brightly lit cartoon character for weeks, how secure can we hope to be? Those are serious and uncomfortable questions that arise from this, and some artist trying to make a buck isn't responsible for any of it.

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They are in charge. Everything is okay. We just have to scapegoat an artist so you will know that.

I've long pondered why the took all the garbage cans out of Slovenly Station when even a fit but large middle aged woman could easily climb into the nexus of transit and transportation for north of boston and leave a backpack as a tag.

So much easier to kill the messanger than to actually learn what your job should be, learn what other cities are doing, and then apply that to actually doing your job instead of kissing ass and making appearances.

MassBackwardness ramps it up a notch. Would help if there were still some twentysomethings around to explain neoreality to the blustering and posturing suits.

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It is NOT totally ridiculous arresting the artist. He defaced public property, at the least. I'd prefer to see EVERY person who defaces public property being hauled off to jail.

In any case, if he is the one who did it, then he is the one to tell the authorities the story behind it. Who hired him, when, whatever else will help to bust Turner's balls.

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They aren't arresting him with trespass or vandalism (which I'm not convinced is a fair charge, either, since the signs were unobtrustively hung and can be removed easily). They are charging them with terrorism related charges inspite of a total lack of applicable intent. They should face no more charges than anyone else who posts a sign on public property. A group which includes, I'd note, many politicians.

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Absolutely, hang the politicians, too. As a matter of fact, hang them FIRST.

However, just because something is "unobtrusively hung and can be removed easily" doesn't make it NOT vandalism.

Maybe if we hang the politicians unobtrusively and so that they can be removed easily, you'd see that. Then we could go for a drink together :-)

Seriously, I agree that they (the artists) should face no more than trespass and vandalism charges. However, they should face them; that's the point that so many others seem not to get.

Turner, on the other hand, and the advertising agency, should be strung up, whether unobtrusively and easily removed or not.

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If they needed a ladder or a lift-crane to remove the signs, that's not "easily".

If the prosecutors had charged these artists with minor misdemeanors such as vandalism, or defacing pubilc property, or trespass, or the like, I wouldn't be leaping to their defense. But the "hoax bomb" felony charge is absurd.

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Artists? How about Asshats.

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