Thursday, November 25, 2010

No Joke!

Happy Turkey Day to everyone in the States!

On this side of the ocean, something called 'The Twitter Joke Trial' has been unfolding. Way back in January, a guy from Nottingham was about to fly to Belfast. Bad weather shut down his airport and in frustration, he tweeted the following:

Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!

In retrospect, maybe not the brightest thing to do. But worthy of prosecution and being convicted of 'menace'? He's now appealing and taking his case to the High Court. To help raise funds, publisher Scott Pack is auctioning off his MS critiquing services. As you can see by his blog, he tells it like it is!

You have until 10 pm GMT to get in your bids.

27 comments:

  1. Happy Thanksgiving, Talli! :)

    Whoa, that is kind of scary... O_O I didn't hear about that...thanks for posting, I'll go check it out.

    ~TRA

    http://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com

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  2. Hope you're having a great Thursday. I hadn't heard about the airport scare. Guess it just goes to show you have to watch what you write, in jest or for real.

    Mason
    Thoughts in Progress

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  3. Government tends to swallow camels and choke on gnats. Sigh.

    Happy Holidays, Roland

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  4. Ugh! All I can say is THINK BEFORE YOU TYPE!!

    Have a great Thanksgiving :)

    www.damselinadirtydress.com

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  5. Being in the UK I do remember that.
    Thanks for reminding me,

    Have a good day.
    Yvonne.

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  6. Those airport security people have no sense of humor anymore. I miss the days when I could have fun with them by putting edible underwear in my carry-on....

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  7. To see things as they are is to value and appreciate yourself as you are as well. What an encouraging revelation for people. Found you through Hilary.

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  8. Airports just don't know when to take a joke, do they? ;)

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  9. Have a great Turkey Day lovely Talli!!!

    Thanks for the link too!!!

    Take care
    x

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  10. Oh dear :/

    I've not blogged for a few weeks and suddenly had a panic attack that I missed your WebSplash!
    No, next week. Phew.

    :)

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  11. Sheesh, there's no end to the craziness. He was dumb but they were dumber.

    Jai

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  12. Thanx for the heads up, its good to see where the taxpayers money goes to sometimes.

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  13. Happy Thanksgiving, Talli! I'm sure the guy was just blowing off steam, and his Tweet was misinterpreted. On the other hand, people have gone to trial over threatening e-mails, so it's not surprising that he's in trouble over a Tweet.

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  14. "Ugh! All I can say is THINK BEFORE YOU TYPE!!"

    Ditto that!

    How stupid was that guy anyway?

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  15. Wait a minute... edible underwear?

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  16. Yikes! Perhaps a slight over-reaction... :)

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  17. Talli,
    Nope haven't heard of it but I think it's funny that there's a Robin Hood airport!

    As Jai said, it's a case of dumb & dumber!

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  18. I have a friend who was being scanned at the airport and her arm cast alerted an "Explosives" message. She was not a happy camper. I can see why people get upset, but, yeah, typing you're going to blow up a building ain't so smart.

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  19. Hmm...not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

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  20. That was definitely not very smart. Airlines and airports all over the world do not have a sense of humor about airline security.

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  21. Wow, reminds all of us to be mindful of what we write on social networks!

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  22. First time I heard about this, I thought 'what an idiot' and then 'but seriously? Giving him a criminal record for life when everyone - even the authorities - know it was a joke?'

    It was tasteless and silly thing to say, all things considered, but it was a joke he made in the heat of the moment! Guess it teaches us all that we really have to watch what we put in writing!

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  23. Re: twitter joke trial. It's worth pointing out that neither the police OR the airport wanted to prosecute. He was made an example of by the CPS.

    As the law stands in the UK, if he had been overheard *saying* that in the airport he would have been let off with a caution and a flea in the ear. What he did was make a flippant remark that, while bad taste, was evidently not serious. The judge, after stating that she didn't know what twitter was, then said that the remark was "obviously threatening". I don't know what planet she was on.


    For the last ten years we have been sleepwalking into a police state that quite frankly scares the hell out of me. People now accept the police taking your details without due cause, or storing your DNA when you have never committed a crime. People justify ID cards, kettling, detaining people witohut charge, and convictions for the most minor of offences with the words "in this day and age..."

    If we have to watch everything that we say, double check our travel, justify our actions at every turn, nod politely as we lose our freedoms one by one... well, haven't the terrorists won, then?

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  24. Think before you type, is the lesson here evidently!

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  25. I used to work for an airline and had to ask every blessed person I met those standard security questions. We were told in training that if anyone tells you they've got a bomb that it was our call whether to take it as a joke and ask again, or just call the police. But we always had to do one of those two things, because someone had answered a legally required security question with the answer, "Yes, I've got a bomb." I warned them that they could be arrested for telling me that and asked if they were joking, and they usually sobered up pretty fast.

    God knows airports are designed to make you angry, though. The ludicrous measures they take in the name of security (most of which are just to make it look like they're doing something; most of the real security you don't even see) and all the new ways they think up to get money out of you seem destined to make an ordinary person MORE inclined to want to blow things up, not less.

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  26. tweeting this is not the equivalent to yelling fire in a crowded theater. Another overreaction by the powers that want to look like they are doing something.

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  27. I have to agree with Nicole on this one - you can't tweet this sort of statement and not expect a harsh response. Still, it does seem over-the-top!

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Coffee and wine for all!