Gawker: valleywag, think of it as evolution in action

Thief inadvertently identifies himself

Mary Jane Irwin — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:23:57 EDT

Sometimes you really need to thank the Internet gods. Last week two guys broke into Vancouver's WorkSpace, an office collective, and stole four laptops and two iMacs. The culprits couldn't be identified by security footage. Luckily, as founder Bill McEwan noticed, they did most of the work for him. The new owner of his laptop apparently uploaded a picture of himself to the company's Flickr photostream. Now there's a Web-wide manhunt attempting to identify the tattooed man.

Bomb or not?

Mary Jane Irwin — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:58:56 EDT

So the picture on the left is MIT student Star Simpson's attempt to win a Darwin Award. Obviously, a piece of socket board, a LED star, and a 9-volt battery aren't exactly threatening, though we can see how loose wires on a jacket could jar security guards with loose wires upstairs. A DIYer, Simpson fabricated the sweatshirt ornament in honor of an MIT electrical engineering course, inscribing on the back "Socket To Me / Course VI." One might conclude that security personnel at Boston's Logan International Airport may have overreacted — a bit. But even if she wore it out of habit, let us not forget that we can barely smuggle liquids onto planes these days.

In fact, if you're toting electronic gadgets of any sort, even commonplace ones like Sony's PlayStation Portable, you up the odds that you'll be targeted by the TSA. And, let's not forget, Boston was the city shut down by a bunch of blinking LEDs. Honestly, you sometimes need to be aware of your surroundings. (Photos by Associated Press/Lisa Poole and Cory Doctorow)

MIT student almost killed for wearing a fake bomb

Mary Jane Irwin — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:02:59 EDT

MIT student Star Simpson narrowly escaped death by submachine gun earlier this morning at Boston's Logan International Airport. What for? Why, sauntering about one of the terminals with a fake bomb strapped to her chest — a circuit board rigged up to a battery pack, allowing it to light up, with a ball of Play-doh in her hand — while, allegedly, awaiting an incoming passenger. She was apprehended, at gunpoint, on a traffic island outside the terminal. Her excuse? It was "art." Uh huh. At an airport? She's lucky she wasn't attacked by an angry mob of Bostonians on the spot. This is, after all, the same city ravaged by the Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb scare/advertising campaign earlier this year. The main takeaway: They're letting anyone into MIT these days, aren't they?