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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.
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Explosions at the Boston Marathon

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  • On TV now (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bobbutts ( 927504 ) <bobbutts@gmail.com> on Monday April 15, 2013 @02:27PM (#43454673)
    Saw a clip of the two explosions. First one occurs right at the finish line and then the second one within 20 seconds 2 blocks away. It appears clear that this was a coordinated attack.
  • by RyLaN ( 608672 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @02:28PM (#43454687)
    Looks like bostonglobe.com is down, here's a live CBS feed that's still working http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/04/explosions-at-boston-marathon-finish-line/ [legalinsurrection.com]
  • Well, crap (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DoofusOfDeath ( 636671 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @02:35PM (#43454765)

    I just felt a tremor in the force, like the Bill of Rights being stripped from hundreds of millions of Americans...

  • Now then... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nrrqshrr ( 1879148 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @02:35PM (#43454767)
    Who shall we blame this time? Dem dirty communist hippi anarchs? or ye good olde muslims?
  • Patriot's Day (Score:5, Informative)

    by Westwood0720 ( 2688917 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @02:40PM (#43454813)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriots'_Day [wikipedia.org]

    For those that are not from the area.

    We have reports of people with missing limbs. happened near the Boston Public Library. Scary shit.
  • Explosions (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hackus ( 159037 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @02:44PM (#43454863) Homepage

    Mmmm...

    I wonder what other parts of the constitution they will rip up to protect us from explosions?

    -Hack

  • Isn't it sad? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FuzzNugget ( 2840687 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @02:45PM (#43454875)
    Isn't it sad that the first thought I have after, "those poor people, I hope they're OK!", is, " Oh, great, *now* what civil rights is the US government going to shit all over?"
    • Re:Isn't it sad? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MaskedSlacker ( 911878 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @02:58PM (#43455063)

      Every rational person had that exact sequence of thoughts.

    • Re:Isn't it sad? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Somebody Is Using My ( 985418 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @03:17PM (#43455315) Homepage

      Isn't it sad that the first thought I have after, "those poor people, I hope they're OK!", is, " Oh, great, *now* what civil rights is the US government going to shit all over?"

      Followed by "I wonder if they - the government - was somehow behind this." Not themselves, not directly, but involved. Perhaps prompting and arming some stupid schmuck in order to entrap him for terrorism, and not catching him in time. Or turning a blind eye to foreign operatives so they could make a dramatic arrest to further some political goal.

      Because while I don't believe most politicians or government employees are so corrupt and disloyal as to let an attack pass on American soil, I increasingly am of the opinion those officials aren't taking a long-enough view to see how their individual actions may affect the nation in the long run. Too often they are so focused on their immediate goal - be it the reduction of crime through semi-legal tactics, ensuring one's agency's budget next year by misallocating funds this year, or improving one's standings in the polls - that they sacrifice the bigger picture, and people are getting hurt because of it. They overlook little evils to pursue what they hope is a good goal, forgetting that not only don't the ends don't justify the means; but that the end itself can become unexpectedly corrupted by those methods.

      So, sad as it is, I hope it is just some nut-job who got his hands on too much explosives, but the increasingly cynical part of me worries that it's not. Because the former is just some dumb idiot who thinks this is going to convert people to his cause, while the latter is evidence of just how fucked up our society is.

      Either way, the media is going to have a field day with this. It's better than Christmas for them.

      I'm sorry. I'm not in the cheeriest of moods today, and then something like this happens that makes me see the worst in the world.

      I hope the families are okay.

      • by GPS Pilot ( 3683 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @04:13PM (#43455925)

        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

      • Re:Isn't it sad? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by TheQuantumShift ( 175338 ) <monkeyknifefight@internationalwaters.com> on Monday April 15, 2013 @04:15PM (#43455943) Homepage

        Man, we sure do love conspiracy theories. I'm betting more on that this was just some guy, not part of any "network" or "cell", just another mentally unstable individual that fell through the cracks of our selfish "I got mine, screw the rest of you" culture. Already the first thing people are talking about is what rights will the government deprive them of. Yes individual freedoms are important, but nothing is truly black and white.

        And soon it will be the right screaming that the left isn't tough on criminals and can't protect us the way they can, and the left screaming at the right that they're ignorant and savage and cause more harm than good.

        Preppers will step up their efforts and stockpile weapons, occupiers will chant some more to a drum circle, and the majority who simply shake their head at both will continue to be ignored in favor of ratings. Divisions will grow, flame wars will commence, and I can't help but wonder what it will take to get everyone to grow up and start thinking clearly.

        • Re:Isn't it sad? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by PeeAitchPee ( 712652 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @05:56PM (#43456819)

          Already the first thing people are talking about is what rights will the government deprive them of.

          You're damn right we are. Anyone who's been paying attention to what both parties have been doing to civil liberties in this country post-9/11 is rightly pissed, and knows *exactly* what's coming next. If you don't think there will be gross over-reaction and more curtailment of our rights at ALL levels of gov't, you're either retarded or terribly naive. And if we all don't stand up and say that enough is enough, they'll just keep doing what they're doing, and this country as we once knew it WILL end.

          You can't bubble wrap the fucking world. Maybe people will begin to realize that.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15, 2013 @02:48PM (#43454903)

    If anyone remembers 9/11, most US media websites could not handle Internet traffic. slashdot was able to scale traffic and keep information flowing in a time
    of horror and chaos. this is before the day of social media and citizen journalism.

    maybe, if you were in Boston now or had friends or loved ones who might have been near the finish line on Boylston Street at the time of the explosionsyou'd be concerned when you could not reach the local newspaper website. maybe then, you would not ask what this has to do with news for nerds.

    >> What does that have to do with this?

  • by iONiUM ( 530420 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @02:50PM (#43454925) Journal

    Here's a video of the actual explosion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUsu-yoIzq8 [youtube.com].

    Doesn't look good..

  • by skelly33 ( 891182 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @04:26PM (#43456055)
    Here are a couple hotlines just announced by Boston Chief of Police in response to today's apparent terrorist attacks in Boston: For help locating people: 1-617-635-4500 For witness tips: 1-800-494-TIPS
  • by girlinatrainingbra ( 2738457 ) on Monday April 15, 2013 @04:43PM (#43456199)
    The AP (Associated Press) is reporting [latimes.com] that the Boston Police have turned off the cell phone system and infrastructure to prevent the use of cell phone signals from triggering another bomb. Something else to consider when the only means of communication you have left are cell phones and no land lines.

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