Ben Preiss
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Czech it Out! Citizens of the Czech Republic were more than a bit surprised one morning while watching a live weather report. The show segment began with the picturesque view of the Krkonose Mountains. Suddenly, there was a white flash, and a mushroom cloud appeared. It was the work of a group of young artists known as Ztohoven who have a record of public pranks. In spite of the generally amused response of the Czech citizens, the Ztohoven are going to be put on trial in a month as a result of their behavior. They face up to three years in jail or a fine or both, charged with scaremongering and attempted scaremongering. Oddly enough, they were given an $18,000 award last month from the Czech National Gallery for their video creation.  To hack into the CT2 broadcast, Ztohoven simply switched cables on an unmanned, remote camera at a limestone quarry in the mountains, which the artists had scouted three years earlier. Then they piped in their video. The name Ztohoven makes a pun in Czech that means both “out of it” and an obscenity. Rightly, the group presumed this would tip off viewers that the explosion was fake, in case they hadn’t already guessed it from the cheesy special effects.
Contrary to what the British press reported, no “War of the Worlds” panic ensued. So far as anyone can tell, not a single sleepy-eyed Czech viewer was frightened by the stunt, their lack of fear, the state attorney said, not being the explanation for the curious charge of “attempted” scaremongering. (The charge is a Czech legal fine point.)
(nytimes)References: blogs.usatoday, nytimes Filed In: |
