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Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

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Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#251

Post by [deleted] »

mathattack wrote: post #212
noonespecial wrote: post #138

The worst part for me (and I really am feeling bad about this) is that I should be concerned about the victims right now, but I can't stop thinking about what freedoms I'll be losing as a result of this.

When 9/11 hit my first thought was, "Travel is really going to suck now." When the Bali bombing hit, I thought, "I've been to that bar, holy sh*t!" This time around I'm thinking, "I know some people who were running." Reaction to issues is tied to how much you can personally relate to the victims. It's also why 2 people dying in a stream in your neighborhood seems so much more relevant than 100,000 people dying in an…

[deleted]

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#252

Post by PeterisP »

mathattack wrote: post #224

From the comments, "Roupen Bastajian, a 35-year-old state trooper from Smithfield, R.I., had just finished the race when they put the heat blanket wrap on him and he heard the first blast. "I started running toward the blast. And there were people all over the floor," he said. "We started grabbing tourniquets and started tying legs. A lot of people amputated. ... At least 25 to 30 people have at least one leg missing…

Whoever did this is getting their terror/propaganda effect - 30 people with lost limbs will have a much higher media impact than 300 dead in, say, an airliner bombing.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#253

Post by tomjen3 »

eruditely wrote: post #28

Can someone just run a plain marathon without having to worry about this in modern civilized life? Come on. This isn't even crime, this is just insanity.

Apparently not.

I know it is too early to speculate, but my money is on the muslims -- homegrown terrorists/IRA use car bombs and you couldn't get a car there, crazy people seem overwellmingly to prefer guns.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#254

Post by rdl »

VLM wrote: post #173
rdl wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on all the photos I've seen, I'd estimate 10 pounds of ANFO per device.

That seems a little high like out of a video game... I took the USAR week long explosives familiarization course back in 93 at AIT at Redstone Arsenal (now why a minicomputer system operator had to take that course was a mystery, other than general safety and familiarization because it was a minicomputer for a TSA (basically what civilians would call an ammo depot)) and got to prime and set off a pound of old fashion…

Crater really depends on how high off the pavement, too. I assumed "top of a trash can" but that might not be the case. Just clearly a small bag device, not a serious carbomb or anything, and based on the smoke I don't think it was military or commercial explosives. I'm really only familiar with bigger devices and telling artillery vs anfo, though.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#255

Post by illuminate »

darxius wrote: post #183

Its things like this that really make me wonder how we can progress as a society with nutjobs like this. Without sounding like a hippy, the world is filled with so much violence and hate. If these people (and they're all over) put more effort into building society instead of destroying we could really progress. It takes a special kind of asshole to do this.

I don't see the point in imagining a world without psychopaths. It'd be lovely, but no amount of societal structure will ever remove them, we can only try to reach them whenever possible and lessen their influence on others.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#256

Post by optiminimalist »

lifeguard wrote: post #210
SODaniel wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 34s BREAKING NEWS: Police getting multiple reports of unexploded devices around Boston 3.38 pm Central time. Update: The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 28s RT @billy_baker: "It's not safe to be here." - Boston Police evacuating Commonwealth Avenue mall at Gloucester. 3.45 Central time. Update: The Boston Globe ‏@BostonGlobe 1m Boston Police: If anyone knows of any information call about exp…

Expect numerous false positives for the next few months.

Better false positives than false negatives.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#257

Post by jacquesm »

thorum wrote: post #109
freehunter wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, for the people who are in Boston or know anyone who is in Boston, this news is a very important notification. I don't think the news media was responsible for this incident.

I don't think w1ntermute was suggesting the news media were responsible for the incident.

To some extent they are. Assholes like the people that set this up love the press and the press loves them in a way. Every time some jerk kills off a bunch of innocents there is money to be made and without a platform I wonder how many of these idiots would do their deeds. Media and crime like this feed off each other.

Re: Explosions near Boston Marathon finish line

#259

Post by ryguytilidie »

smrtinsert wrote: post #236
pekk wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are feeling bad, why are you saying it? This feels like you are standing on a soapbox and it's hard to think you are actually sorry for it when you are doing it intentionally.

because he desperately needs attention and right now boston has it.

I know when I desperately need attention I come to hackernews. Sick logic.
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