Apparently, the trick is to release the bugs during school hours. That way you avoid the burglary aspect of the thing.
I get the desire to charge the kids with something, but burglary? Doesn't that usually involve breaking in and removing something from the premises, rather than breaking in and leaving something?
I think you just need to break in with intent to do something naughty. People always talk about the "Watergate burglary" and they took nothing and left behind lots of expensive listening devices.
AISIMHB my senior prank was pretty sweet (make the big pedimental school clock into a mickey mouse watch face) but suffered from my general high school problem of failing to actually make anybody mad. The next day the headmaster said "hey, that was pretty funny!" to me. DAMMIT.
The obvious solution is to release thousands of spiders to eat the ladybugs.
"We've invested so much and worked so long to educate you and prepare you to do well in the world, but now that you are about to set forth... here, have a felony conviction!"
break in with intent to do something naughty
Under Maryland law, it looks like that's third-degree burglary. Just breaking and entering alone gets you to fourth-degree burglary, which is the charge here.
Here's the breakdown:
§ 6-202. Burglary in the first degree or home invasion - (a) A person may not break and enter the dwelling of another with the intent to commit theft. (b) A person may not break and enter the dwelling of another with the intent to commit a crime of violence.
§ 6-203. Burglary in the second degree - (a) A person may not break and enter the storehouse of another with the intent to commit theft, a crime of violence, or arson in the second degree. (b) A person may not break and enter the storehouse of another with the intent to steal, take, or carry away a firearm.
§ 6-204. Burglary in the third degree - (a) A person may not break and enter the dwelling of another with the intent to commit a crime.
§ 6-205. Burglary in the fourth degree - (a) A person may not break and enter the dwelling of another.
Notably, the punishment jumps from three years to ten years as you go from fourth- to third-degree burglary.
Except for 2nd degree, those all walk about breaking into a dwelling. Wouldn't a non-residence be different?
Or maybe that only matters for when you shoot somebody.
AISIMHB, the class one year above me at my high school rearranged the books in the library by color to spell out "1999". The librarians freaked out and together with the school administration threatened to have them expelled from school and to keep them from graduating. They even said they would call the colleges the kids were going to and try to get their admissions revoked. The kids responsible for the prank immediately offered to put the books back in order (and probably were willing to help with that even before the threats), but that didn't appease the librarians at all.
I was already convinced well before that point that school librarians are the most petty, vindictive people on the planet.
11 would be even funnier if the class of 1998 did it.
9: I lopped off part of the statute on fourth-degree. Here's a more complete version:
§ 6-205. Burglary in the fourth degree
(a) A person may not break and enter the dwelling of another.
(b) A person may not break and enter the storehouse of another.
(c) A person, with the intent to commit theft, may not be in or on:
(1) the dwelling or storehouse of another; or
(2) a yard, garden, or other area belonging to the dwelling or storehouse of another.
(d) A person may not possess a burglar's tool with the intent to use or allow the use of the burglar's tool in the commission of a violation of this subtitle.
(e) A person who violates this section is guilty of the misdemeanor of burglary in the fourth degree and on conviction is subject to imprisonment not exceeding 3 years.
And it looks like there's caselaw with courts finding all sorts of buildings to be "storehouses," so that's my guess.
A school is a storehouse. A storehouse of knowledge and pettiness.
My hazy memory of the Common Law—Illinois is a code state—is that burglary was the breaking and entering of an occupied dwelling at night with intent to commit a felony. Everything else was some other kind of trespass, a lesser offense.
Interesting that Maryland's code preserves the dwelling element.
The storehouse expansion is already in Blackstone, I see.
Because Watergate taught us to follow the money, I decided to see how much 72,000 ladybugs cost. It's about $220, including delivery. I don't know that Amazon Prime would cut the shipping costs (which are about 2/5th of the price).
There are no customer reviews for the 36,000 bug bucket, in case anyone wants to write the obvious I-bought-these-and-got-arrested review.
"Bucket only contained 35,987 ladybugs. 2 stars."
At my own school, there was a possibly apocryphal tale of students who years ago released three pigs into the school, with the pigs labeled #1, #2, and #4. That prank is definitely thought highly of, because hardy-har they spent an extra hour (or whatever) trying to find #3!
IIRC when MI5, with the assistance of the RCMP, bugged the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, they emplaced eight microphones, and each of the cables was numbered with a number between 1 and 20 - "a feature we felt the Russians would appreciate once they had finished tearing their embassy apart looking for the twelve phantom cables".
"Buckets are filled with bugs by weight, not count. Some settling may have combined two bugs into one."
My rule of thumb for high school pranks was that they should take at least as much effort to create as for the school to clean up from - otherwise it's destructive, not creative.
Spray painting swastikas on the side of the school is bad. Making tiled murals of swastikas is O.K.
"Send me my 13 missing ladybugs, you stingy bastard."
So putting aside the breaking-and-entering aspect, what is the underlying crime involved in releasing thousands of ladybugs into a school building? Vandalism? Disturbing the peace? Criminal mischief?
I don't think there would be any destruction of property; ladybugs are not termites. Yes, they'd be annoying, and the janitors might be sweeping up dead ladybugs for quite some time, but I can't imagine any lasting or permanent damage would result.
If it was a school for aphids, you'd be guilty of attempted murder.
"Bucket contained one giant ladybug that weighed the same as 36,000 regular ladybugs. Five sta....oh god, the pincers, save me!"
IIRC when MI5, with the assistance of the RCMP, bugged the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa
MI5?
Long enough ago that Canada counted as internal -- like, early Cold War era? I have literally no idea of the dates or process by which Canada stopped being a colony.
Or just a typo, I suppose.
Canada was born on July 1 of some year.
My impression is Canada was effectively independent by World War II - they decided independently of the UK to join the war, which was not the case in WWII.
I have literally no idea of the dates or process by which Canada stopped being a colony
Confederation, 1867.
The RCMP handles internal security in Canada, as the FBI does here. Canada was a major NATO partner, and the embassy there was simply chosen because of opportunity/suitability. Might have happened, and did, in any other allied country.
It was in "Spycatcher", so, yes, MI5. I think it was MI5 rather than SIS because Canada was a friendly CANUKAUS nation, and the operation was joint between RCMP, the host agency, and MI5, who had the technical expertise. But it's been a few years.
Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867 and gradually untangled itself over the next several decades until the Statute of Westminster 1931 (full independence for all dominions).
I think the question is what would MI5 (domestic military intelligence) have been doing in Canada rather than MI6 (overseas military intelligence). If it's not a typo, my only theory is that Canada somehow counted as domestic at the time.
I get all that. I'm wondering why it was MI5 rather than MI6. Maybe because it was the sort of thing MI5 would have done in the UK?
Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867
Thank you Fenian Raiders.
They borrowed MI5 people because they had the capability, IIRC.
Meanwhile did I tell you about the two girls who arranged to sabotage our official sixth form class photo? One of them placed herself exactly in the centre of the class, and donned a big Comic Relief red nose, passed in by the other, at the moment critique.
Well executed, but pretty tame? Until the photos came back. They were perfect; completely deadpan, and mathematically central. The minimal nature of the prank somehow improved the impact.
The powers that were insisted on retouching her out of the photos, like an out-of-favour Stalinist dignitary. They demanded that anyone who'd already received them bring them back. They threatened to expel her three weeks before taking A-levels. It was really startlingly vindictive and pointless.
"Dominion" is an odd word to choose for something self-governing. "So, what are we going to call those parts of the Empire that we want to designate as no longer under the UK's political control?" "What about 'dominion'? That sounds nicely independent."
From the wikipedia article on "Dominion:"
The Balfour Declaration of 1926, and the subsequent Statute of Westminster, 1931, restricted Britain's ability to pass or affect laws outside of its own jurisdiction. Significantly, Britain initiated the change to complete sovereignty for the Dominions. The First World War left Britain saddled with enormous debts, and the Great Depression had further reduced Britain's ability to pay for defence of its empire. In spite of popular opinions of empires, the larger Dominions were reluctant to leave the protection of the then-superpower. For example, many Canadians felt that being part of the British Empire was the only thing that had prevented them from being absorbed into the United States.
This has always been my understanding. The Fenians, as Moby suggests, were part of the reason and as I've mentioned before were the cause of Canada's Army being established, but the acquisition of Alaska and intervention in Mexico were the more serious reasons for confederation.
AIMHMASPP, when I was editor of the school paper, I almost got away with including a picture of the senior and junior classes flipping the bird to the camera.
42: well, it was a new status and there wasn't a good word for it. Couldn't call them "colonies" any more.
I suppose. But 'dominion' just sounds like something being actively crushed beneath the oppressive British yoke, even more than 'colony'.
Essentially, it was the enormous growth and concentration of Federal power in the US during the Civil War that allowed John Macdonald to force the concessions on the British government that led to confederation.
My favorite part of the story is that the "neutral ground" where he and his confederates met Lord Grey, representing the British Government, was the Willard Hotel in Washington.
Possibly bugged by Artemus Gordon.
The whole hotel? Ambitious of him.
My favorite bit of related historical trivia: for some decades Newfoundland had home rule (or responsible government, or whatever) as the independent Dominion of Newfoundland. Alas, they went on to become possibly the only nation in history to decide they didn't have their shit together enough and petitioned the UK to become a colony again.
And can we all agree that the only politics that are more petty than academic politics are high school administration politics?
46: Well, "dominion" can mean "ruled territory", but that's by extension from its other and earlier meaning, "power/ascendancy". My guess, before going to the OED, is that this was intended as a slight gesture to the new self-rule.
The OED does not really support my guess, though. The word dominion was previously used in reference to the original colonies (Old Dominion [Virgina]). Maybe more about (a) finding a new term and (b) referencing the new administrative unity of Canada.
Test of waterproof mascara, high school awards ceremony for mock trialers, get to see all the other fabulous things students have been up to. So thrilled for them!!!!!
Possibly bugged
The kids in the OP are probably lucky to have not been charged under the Espionage Act.
Yet.
They sprayed water on the high school mock trial team?
Good forbid if the prank was to blow whistles during an assembly or something.
A really good prank would be for the whole senior class to cram really hard, all get perfect SAT scores, and then all of them take early admission the to New Mexico Military Institute.
50: I think I recently read a review of a book about this. Newfoundland was seriously considering asking to become part of the US.
How long did annexation of Canada remain a dream of some in the US? Wasn't it in It Can't Happen Here?
VW, have you studied the Canadian great plains wars? While I've heard Cut Knife Hill compared to Little Big Horn, it's much more like Rosebud, although Wm. Otter withdrew from a trap, while Crook didn't fall into one.
PTSA love love love gave student gold sparkly stilettos along with her scholarship instead of some lame plaque.
There's just so very many things that can go wrong when giving a woman shoes.
I think they nailed it! And if they didn't there was just an inspirational quote from TDR re defeat being foundation of future success to buck them up!
Shoes are safer than yoga pants but not as safe as pigeon masks.
Sports awards starting with the badminton team, I always forget this is going to take some time...
We planned to change the sign out front to read "Penis Bunny High School" but we were all talk.
59: I just read up on all this on Wikipedia, and you're right. Newfoundland recovered and was doing fairly well economically due to a wartime boom, mostly due to American bases. A number of GIs married Newfie women. Those combined made it seem sensible to have at least an economic union with the US, and there was actually a party campaigning for it. Alas, the Canadian government made sure the British took it off the table. They were given a referendum where they could choose between continuing as they were (somewhat untenable, being so small and still relatively isolated) or federating with Canada. It came down to a Catholic vs. Orange Order vote where the Protestants won. Honestly, probably the most sensible decision but not necessarily the most interesting one.
61: The last time it was taken seriously was..enh..probably just before the World Wars. Maybe in-between them? It became infeasible once we came to better terms with the UK and Canada itself. Although I'm sure there was plans drawn up in case the Soviets invaded and we needed to shore up our northern flank (although realistically US/Canada cooperation was so strong that I can't see that making much difference).
a picture of the senior and junior classes flipping the bird to the camera
Does formal education have any point other than to teach students that institutions are startlingly vindictive and pointless?
We didn't even have fingers in butts.
61 I haven't given up. 11 new states to the north of us, and let the Confederacy go. This would just be to our benefit, but the benefit of all humanity.
The thread linked at #4 is pretty great.
A thread that I had previously missed completely, apparently.
73
Me too. Though maybe just 9 or 10 states, since PEI and Newfoundland are just too small.
But keep the Confederacy. For all the damage they do in the Union, I'm much more afraid of what damage they could do as a separate country.
There are 5 police officers in the HR woman's office down the hall (I think 4 campus and 1 city). Potentially violent soon-to-be-ex employee? I think I'll shut my office door...
Or maybe it's all some sort of elaborate prank.
73/76: I was thinking about this with regard to an independent Scotland. Scotland being in the UK makes life better for liberal people in rUK, especially Northern England. In general it's a mollifying influence on the dickitude of the English ruling class. Would that hold in America? The comparatively liberal parts, or at least the parts you're describing as keeping, are relatively much larger than the breakaway liberal bits of the UK. An independent Confederacy would comparatively be a rump state (Less so than 40 years ago, admittedly.) and would undoubtedly do more damage to its minorities, but would probably have less effect on the world stage.
Trading a Confederacy for a Confederation amuses me, though. Although I guess Canada is a Federation, not a Confederation, but the act of becoming federal is Confederating? But Russia is a Confederation that acts like a federal unitary state. What do words even mean?
The Canadians aren't that great. For one thing, our environmental policies would likely be, if that's even possible, worse. Single-payer health care is great but the Canadians are also obsessive federalists so you know for sure that they'd want to set things up to keep the good parts for their own provinces. I say fuck 'em unless we can invade in a non-democratic way.
Would you like a commemorative pin bearing the likeness of the last person who made a reasonable effort in that direction?
You know for sure that anyone who thinks of Canada as the great liberal savior doesn't have that much experience with Canada. Basically, they're a bunch of racist whitey bumpkins who got lucky by going further to the left than we did in the 30-year-post-1945 period when it was possible to set up durable social-democratic institutions. If we incorporated them into the US they'd just be fuckheads like all the other bumpkins.
+not
Oh, I'm not under any illusions about Canadians. I'd still trade Manitoba for Mississippi and Alberta for Texas. Ontario for Virginia and North Carolina. I mean, come on.
I'd have to know the spread, but I like Florida over Boston College.
Just chiming in to say thanks for the Ernest Tubb/Neko Case earworm inspired by the post title. Great song, especially the way she sings it.
Hockey and basketball are Canadian sports.
83: Oh, sure, make the paleo guy choose between moose and manatees.
I'm so bored and annoyed I commented at Crooked Timber.
I want to know what D^2 deleted from Halford.
Really? I legitimately didn't understand the term he used. I didn't think it was anything combative.
Halford's response:
Not to derail the thread, but (and, I suppose, this is vaguely on-topic for the original post) that was one of the most integrity-free, as well as unnecessary, deletions I've ever seen. The comment, for the three seconds this will remain up, was that "other people do it too" is inherently a fallacious and non-persuasive argument. No more no less.
Anyway, one of my comments now looks like a complete nonsequitor, but I don't think I have grounds to complain on that front.
Now that I see further from DD, I'm going to flounce in support of Halford or because of general what-the-fuckedness.
He's a ludicrous, oversensitive jackass on the topic of "are bankers bad." Basically, he wrote an obviously-trolling post, the point of which was "hey look, there are academic scandals, so now all of you academics should understand just how easy it is to get caught up in some scandal-like behavior when incentives are askew, just like it was during LIBOR." I pointed out that "other people do it too" is never a convincing argument, he then freaked out over the totally mysterious and not-at-all-easy-to-understand fact that people were reading his defense of the finance industry post as a defense of the finance industry, and started deleting comments. What a pompous asshole.
The lightheartedness with which Usans discuss annexing Canada always takes me by surprise. Wars were fought over this. Independence, specifically from the United States, was fought for by Canadians long before Confederation, which was a brilliant and path-breaking way of achieving eventual sovereignty.
Cripes. I had kind of hoped that his departure form the industry would reduce his hypersensitivity on the topic, but obviously not. Although, thanks to those ridiculous posts, his identity as author/commentator is now wrapped up in defending that hypersensitivity. Oy vey.
In my case, it's just the idiosyncratic factors of my upbringing.
The lightheartedness with which Usans discuss annexing Canada always takes me by surprise. Wars were fought over this the details of which no one remembers because they are confusing.
|| Moby, what's up with Nebraska's bipartisan push to abolish capital punishment?|>
101: He was the greatest blogger of all time, too. It's tragic, really.
I don't know. Nearly everybody I knew in office there is retired. To speculate, I'd bet that not having to face a partisan primary means they aren't as beholden to the more extreme portions of the right in the same way that the governor is. Or perhaps they're just repelled by the idea of trying to buy execution drugs through dubious means.
100 Yeah, we got our asses kicked a couple of times, and our capitol burnt. But once the Canadians see that the only salvation for humanity lies in their joining us, well, maybe we are doomed as a species.
His failure to recognize the self dealing and special pleading is pretty comical.
100:
1. We're awful
2. We love you guys
3. Being the biggest kid on the block makes it's easy to kid around beating people up
4. USA USA USA (see #1, #3)
107: Thanks. I was watching with interest. I mean, I think capital punishment shouldn't be legal anywhere, but it surprised me that (a) it was an issue they felt was worth their time and (b) Republicans were on board.
Well, yes, clearly, and clearly he desperately believes that's NOT FAIRRR!
Googling about, I'm surprised to learn that Nebraska's governor is as bald as a historian.
"A vote with Sen. Chambers to repeal the death penalty" is the Nebraska-specific example of the same kind of thing you see when trying to link something with Pelosi (he's well known to be very liberal on some issues) or Obama (he's quite possibly the only black, Nebraska politician anyone can name).
What makes you think the US is imperial- it's not like US troops ever invaded Russia or anything.
(I remember the glee of my high school world history teacher, who I'm sure did the same thing every year especially during the cold war, when he asked if the US had ever invaded Russia, and then arguing with the kids who adamantly denied such a thing had ever happened.)
Wait, what? When did the US invade Russia?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expeditionary_Force_Siberia
He means the Woodrow Wilson 1918/19 expedition, which wasn't really an invasion so much as a half-hearted attempt to throw the allies a bone by pretending to do something about the Bolsheviks.
119, 120: Ah, okay. I figured it must have been something like that.
No one is saying that your plan to invade Big Diomede, install yourself as Czar of Diomede, and then offer to be annexed by the USA is a bad idea, Teo. We support that idea.
Don't listen to him. He was banned at Crooked Timber.
Did D^2 ban his IP, or can he still switch to a different persona?
Leaving aside the question of why anyone would want to comment at Crooked Timber these days.
We all know he would never switch to a different pseud.
It's about ethics in post-secondary education.
The guy next to me ate a salad with no fries on it. He was drinking water. Must be some low carb madness.
78: This really isn't true. In 1997-2010, for example, the main effect of Scottish MPs was to get stupid, authoritarian Blairite rubbish through that would otherwise have failed:
for example, university top-up fees, control orders, the big glass screen around the Commons chamber, 42-day detention before charge, messing around with inquests because terrorism, and foundation trusts would all have fallen without them. The 80% version of House of Lords reform would have passed without them, as would some stronger climate change measures.
133: interesting. Though, without Scottish MPs voting, we'd be at war with Syria, so there's that.
Leaving aside the question of why anyone would want to comment at Crooked Timber these days.
I was surprised there wasn't much more commenting on the Ken McLeod posts (I myself didn't have anything particularly interesting to add).
I have a half-written post about one of the Ken McLeod posts, which I should finish one of these days.
Generalizing from myself, I bet McLeod's readership is maybe not that great among non-UK seriously political leftists. I almost like his stuff, but he keeps on losing me on the assumed level of political sophistication.
I was surprised there wasn't much more commenting on the Ken McLeod posts (I myself didn't have anything particularly interesting to add).
Me too. (I was also saddened.)