Thursday, January 13, 2011

Standard-Examiner: Ogden Eyes Eye-in-the-Sky

Boss Godfrey's latest hare-brained scheme: The Boss Godfrey Airborne All-seeing Eye

By: Little Big Brother Is Watching

The Standard-Examiner reports this morning that Boss Godfrey’s latest hare-brained scheme is to fight crime from the air:
He has said in the past that crime does not exist in Ogden because of his efforts to deter improper behavior and now he comes up with this. Should his sheeples approve this, it will be only a matter of time before someone or something takes it down. History does repeat itself and 1937 wasn’t that long ago. You can see Greiner, Patterson and Godfrey bailing out, much like the old photo, when they finally realize that their Hindenburg idea wasn’t divinely inspired. We only need to watch the 9th floor of the Municipal Building to stop the majority of crime happening in Ogden City these days, of course.

"Quiet Earp" - The Boss Godfrey All-seeing Eye

The Hindenberg

Gawd, what a putz!

Update 1/13/10 10:55 a.m.: The Salt Lake Tribune having a little fun with the story too, under this totally boffo headline:
Don't let the cat get your tongues, O Gentle Ones!

28 comments:

Bob Becker said...

Before we adopt another high-tech experiment like this, I'd like to see a report on one of Hizzonah's [and the Council's] earlier high-tech attempts to improve life in Junction City: all those Smell-O-Meters that were going to monitor industrial odors downtown and so be the basis for stricter enforcement of olfactory trespass.

Are they still in use? Does anyone know where they are today? How often were they used from distribution date to present? Was any action regarding industrial odors ever undertaken on the basis of the Smell-O-Meters readings?

PS: Lil Bro, you don't help your case when you grossly over-state what Hizzonah has said. He has never claimed, for example, "that crime does not exist in Ogden because of his efforts to deter improper behavior." And the Hindenberg analogy is a little off base, since blimps are no longer, I thik, filled with explosive gases as the Hindenberg was.

Dan Schroeder said...

Aw, Curm, your'e spoiling all the fun!

I'm wondering what image resolution they'll be able to get. If it's high enough to identify crooks, it's also high enough to raise some pretty serious privacy issues. Remember when people worried about gondola riders peeping into their back yards?

Dan Schroeder said...

Here's the Trib's article, which adds some interesting details:

Quiet Earp: Blimp may ride high as Ogden lawman

Bob Becker said...

Dan:

That headline is wonderful. Quiet Earp. Love it!

Biker Babe said...

maybe it can get the pic of the gunman that shoots it down after a week in the sky

js,
BB

blackrulon said...

On the days that the blimp can't fly could we make everyone leave all of their curtains open?

Tired said...

HA! I thought this was a joke when I first heard it. What are they trying to find all the marijuana users? What an f-ing waste of time and money. Barney Fife a.k.a. Boss Godfrey is a real piece of work.

ozboy said...

Mr. Curmudgeon

The smell-O-meter went the way of the long knives a long time ago. Seems that after extensive and very expensive aquisition costs and long term training for the operator, the mayor was showing it off in his office one day. He inadvertantly turned it on and there was such a pervasive and oily cloud of corruption hanging in the air of his office that the needle pegged out and the whole damn thing blew up.

As to the spy in the sky idea, well it is certainly no surprise that those two champions of human rights and great respecters of personal privacy - Godfrey and Greiner -just simply luvs it. I think the brainiacs at Weber State who are building this assault vehicle ought to make it slightly bigger so that Godfrey hisself can strap on to the bottom of it with his looking glass and get first hand and personal views of his subjects, especially the hot tub crowd.

Whiskey Pete said...

I think the mayor should take a deep breath and inhale the contents (Helium) of the balloon, then recite the city charter. It will make Alvin the chipmunk sound like a baritone.

Led Zepplin said...

That thing will go down like a submarine with a screen door somewhere between Adams and Jackson....the AA is heavily concentrated there...

Digest the truth said...

More proof that Godfrey is a wacko!

As if we needed more proof.

AWM said...

Hmmm....I'm no aeronautics engineer but a 20 foot blimp flying at approx 400 feet off the ground above Ogden would need to have one heck of a propulsion system to keep it in the local area on the many windy days we have. Questions to ask ourselves...will we be able to rent advertising space on it? Will Quiet Earp stick or will it be called Air Stare..or maybe Hubble-Lite? I thought Hill AFB was doing depot work on the Predator drones..can't we contract or cost share with the USAF for post maint test overflights of Ogden? It could be sold by Lord Gadfly as High Adventure Monitoring. Now there is a win/win outcome!

PPK said...

Yet another pimple on the butt of Ogden.

Max Pruss said...

its over 50 feet long not 20...

Griener was on KSL radio today talking about this...

High Adventure blimp bungee jumpin anyone....

little too big brother for me

Tired said...

Oh this needs to be spoofed on The Simpson's. Springfield gets Eye in the Sky. The blimp can be pictured trying to nose its way into the backyards of Springfield citizens. Anyone want to email Matt Groening?

Dr. Freud From Vienna said...

This is just more evidence that your botched little mayor has a serious screw loose.

That's my professional opinion.

The really odd thing is that you people continue to elect him over and over again, of course, which leads me to believe that you deserve what you get.

Bob Becker said...

Not rally clear, from what I've seen, just how this thing is intended to be used, plus Dan's question about camera resolution is a good one. If it's to be used only in specific situations [riot, large-scale disaster, traffic problems], fugitive pursuit]it might indeed prove useful and not raise significant privacy issues. If it's to be use on general sky patrol, poking hither and yon with no specific mission other than general surveillance, that's another matter.

I don't think we know enough yet about its planned capabilities or the specific uses to which it might be put to draw firm conclusions. Need to know more first, I think.

And I still want to know what happened to the Smell-O-Meters.

Bill C. said...

Curm, hopefully the chief plans to use this slightly more than the two segways the city purchased in 2005, I believe.
I'm sure the stinkometers have made a few public appearances, but I can't recall seeing the segways since the illegal use of the Jackass Center, the Sneak Peek, perhaps Eccles and Johnson each recieved one of the segways along with the ill gotten cash.
Is there a known peeping Tom in the higher ranks of the administration?

Larry Craig said...

I'd rather have advertising spotlights in the nighttime sky than flying surveilance blimps peeking into windows to see what other people do in their own homes. As for pervs in the administration, I think it's a safe bet. Look for excessive hairy palms, toliet paper scuffed shoes and creepy behavioral ideas from our leaders. These surveilance films will only add more to their personal libraries of porn. The assumption made previously suggests that they are not entirely sane. I had no idea!

outside the box said...

Another use for the proposed field house -- a place to store the blimp.

trekkie said...

hmm ... a carefully aimed laser light into the eye of the camera ...

Waterboy said...

Bill C. There are 4 Segways (not 2) sitting constantly idle in the police department.


How can the mayor and administration even think this would help law enforcement other than spying. Even then only on days where there is no wind. Also who is going to run the remote control for that thing?? I am sure that it will require extensive training. XBox anyone??? Where are they going to store it when not in use? Mobilizing it for use will have to be terribly time consuming. It would have to already be in the air and in the specific area to be of any real time use for the police.

What a(nother) waste of money.

blackrulon said...

Would the surveliance cameras on the blimp be able to observe and possibly stop the crimes being committed on the 9th floor of the city building.bThe odor detectors keep going off every time they were aimed in the general direction of Godfreys office.

Bob Becker said...

As noted above, we don't have any clear sense yet of how they plan to use it. But if its main purpose will be to do the kind of aerial surveillance we now rely on fixed wing aircraft or helicopters to do, it could result in considerable cost savings over time. Again, we need to know more about both its capabilities and its planned use than we do now.

Biker Babe said...

Curm,

we have fixed wing and helicopter surveillance in Ogden? That's a new one.

what would be the cost saving of getting something at a lower cost when there is nothing at no cost doing nothing in its place?

That's like going out and buying that 72 inch plasma TV, paying $3,200 dollars and praising the fact that you saved $5,799 ...

hmmm

BB

Monotreme said...

The Segways have been in evidence at the Ogden Marathon. I've never seen them, otherwise.

Bob Becker said...

BB:

I don't know the extent to which Ogden PD has to use air in its work. Might be little or never. Might be more. If it does, the blimp may be a lower cost option. I just wouldn't automatically rule the thing out until I knew more about both its capabilities and the uses to which the department wants to put it.

Dan Schroeder said...

The blimp is also written up in the WSU Signpost, which reports that all four local TV stations visited campus to learn more about it on Thursday. Apparently they were keeping it a secret until Godfrey spilled the beans Tuesday night.

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