Explosions at the Boston Marathon 1105
Reports are coming in that the headquarters at the Boston Marathon have been locked down after two explosions were reported near the finish line. According to reports "dozens of people have been seriously injured." CNN has live coverage. Google has a Person Finder up for Boston.
Update: The Boston Police Dept. says 2 people have died and 23 are injured. News conference scheduled for 4:30 ET.
Update: The Boston Police Dept. says 2 people have died and 23 are injured. News conference scheduled for 4:30 ET.
Live feed of the news (Score:5, Informative)
In other news.. (Score:1, Informative)
Kim Jong-Un rejoices of the success of his intercontinental missile attack..
Re:Well, crap (Score:5, Informative)
BTW, I really am sorry for the victims, fwiw.
Patriot's Day (Score:5, Informative)
For those that are not from the area.
We have reports of people with missing limbs. happened near the Boston Public Library. Scary shit.
Re:On TV now (Score:1, Informative)
Wait and see, no point in speculating.
1) If you actually thought that, you'd delete your Slashdot account. This whole place is nothing but occasionally educated speculation.
2)
Overheard officer telling bystander that 3 more devices found. [twitter.com]
Video of the actual explosion (Score:5, Informative)
Here's a video of the actual explosion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUsu-yoIzq8 [youtube.com].
Doesn't look good..
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Informative)
What does this have to do with news for nerds?
Why nothing at all that's what.
But you have to be a fucking idiot to have read /. and never noticed that it's more than news for nerds. And it's right in the slogan: "news for nerds, stuff that matters".
Re:Video of the actual explosion (Score:5, Informative)
Looks like another one here that is a little better: http://vine.co/v/bFdt5uwg6JZ [vine.co].
Re:Jumping to conclusions (Score:4, Informative)
Whoosh!
Re:On TV now (Score:5, Informative)
It would be awfully coincidental. It's Patriot's Day in MA (and ME) and it happened right where lots of people are and lots of cameras (terrorists love bodies and media attention).
Any other day, anywhere else, sure, maybe it's just a gas line.
By the way, Boston Police just released some info. 2 confirmed dead, 22 wounded.
Re:On TV now (Score:2, Informative)
Get a map yourself and look up where "Logan Airport" is. The planes that hit New York all left from Boston, which let the terrorist onto the planes WITH WEAPONS and DESPITE the fact that there was actionable intelligence that they were planning on some form of attack.
And, yes, Boston ran (at the time) the security responsible for keeping terrorists off planes at their airport.
Re:tell me again (Score:5, Informative)
People getting hurt in bomb explosions in USA are for everyone. Including a-hole nerds. If you are one this is for you.
For what it's worth, bombings are happening every day [tinyurl.com] elsewhere in the world. But in the US, granted, it's an uncommon sight. Quite sad. (That it happened, not that it's uncommon!)
Re:Live Feed from BBC (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22160978 [bbc.co.uk]
Precedent for arming stupd schmuks (Score:5, Informative)
Perhaps prompting and arming some stupid schmuck in order to entrap him for terrorism
Or perhaps something worse, like this: "[Operation] Fast & Furious involved uncontrolled deliveries — of thousands of weapons. It was an utterly heedless program in which the feds allowed these guns to be sold to straw purchasers — often leaning on reluctant gun dealers to make the sales. The straw purchasers were not followed by close physical surveillance; they were freely permitted to bulk transfer the guns to, among others, Mexican drug gangs and other violent criminals — with no agents on hand to swoop in, make arrests, and grab the firearms. The inevitable result of this was that the guns have been used (and will continue to be used) in many crimes, including the murder of Brian Terry, a U.S. border patrol agent. In sum, the Fast & Furious idea of “trace” is that, after violent crimes occur in Mexico, we can trace any guns the Mexican police are lucky enough to seize back to the sales to U.S. straw purchasers who should never have been allowed to transfer them (or even buy them) in the first place. That is not law enforcement; that is abetting a criminal rampage." -- K. Pavlich
Info I wrote down from CNN Live stream (Score:4, Informative)
A-t-h-e-i-s-t? HA! You misspelled Christian... (Score:2, Informative)
McVeigh was an atheist on his own tangent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh#Political_views_and_religious_beliefs [wikipedia.org]
McVeigh was a registered Republican when he lived in Buffalo, New York in the 1980s, and had a membership in the National Rifle Association while in the military,[84] but voted for Libertarian Party candidate, Harry Browne, in the 1996 presidential elections.[85] McVeigh was raised Roman Catholic.[86] During his childhood, he and his father attended Mass regularly.[87] McVeigh was confirmed at the Good Shepherd Church in Pendleton, New York, in 1985.[88] In a 1996 interview, McVeigh professed belief in "a God", although he said he had "sort of lost touch with" Catholicism and "I never really picked it up, however I do maintain core beliefs."[86] In the 2001 book American Terrorist, McVeigh stated that he did not believe in Hell and that science is his religion.[89][90] In June 2001, a day before the execution, McVeigh wrote a letter to the Buffalo News identifying as agnostic.[91] Before his execution, McVeigh took the Catholic sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.[92]
Re:On TV now (Score:5, Informative)
With all due respect to the victims and their families and friends - this isn't world news. In quite a few parts of the world, not just Iraq and Afghanistan, that's a small note somewhere on page 5 of the local newspaper.
It seems the world disagrees with you. This are all page one stories at sites that span the world.
Germany - USA: Explosionen beim Boston-Marathon - drei Tote, hundert Verletzte [spiegel.de]
Russia , (Act of terrorism committed in the U.S., numerous victims reported [pravda.ru]
Australia - US on alert after blasts shatter Boston Marathon killing 3, wounding 140 [theaustralian.com.au]
India - Boston Marathon bombing kills 3, injures over 130 [indiatimes.com]
Argentina - Bombs kill 3 people, wound more than 100 at Boston Marathon [buenosairesherald.com]
United Arab Emirates - Boston Marathon: 3 killed, more than 140 injured as 2 bombs explode near finish line [emirates247.com]
South Africa - Boston terror attack: Three killed, 100 injured [mg.co.za]
Japan - 3 dead, more than 110 hurt after two bombs explode near Boston Marathon finish line [japantoday.com]
So it's not news-worthy for the body count and not for the fact that there was a bomb or two.
Actually it is newsworthy, for both reasons. Mass casualty events tend to be that way. Last I heard the number of bombs was 5-7.
And, most importantly and most disgustingly, we are still thinking in tribal norms. Our own dead and wounded are more important than the foreign ones.
Every family looks after its own first, as does every country. But as to tribes - there aren't really any tribes in the West anymore, none that function anyway. (Were the last the Scotts?) You might try that line of thinking on people from parts of the world that actually do have functioning tribes, such as the Middle East, or Africa. Your disgust will probably be taken as evidence of being crazy. It wouldn't even be a question to them - of course you look after the tribe first, it is a matter of survival. If you can convince the Arabs that making peace with the Jews is preferable to killing them, you might have a chance a reducing tribalism, but I doubt you can eliminate it.