521–530 of 622 posts
I'm quite astonished by the disproportionate media attention and hysteria. For comparison 55 people died today in an Iraq bombing and about 80 people die every day on the U.S. roadways.
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The aim of the WTC attack was to make a very symbolic action: the goal was to destroy three symbols of American power, its military, economic, and political might, though the last ended up physically unscathed. Obviously a huge number of deaths associated with it, but the symbolism was key. You knew exactly where the attackers stood--American power is evil--once you heard a description of the attacks. This, in contra…
American drone strikes kill innocent people all over the world. Their neighbors say these killings are incomprehensible. I still think this was domestic actors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents,_Ja...
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.
Not a Bostonian but The Hub's been my hometown when I spent some time in the US... My prayers go to all of you.
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I received an Amber Alert for a girl from Philadelphia a few months ago on this system (or a similar one). It was surreal being in a restaurant and hearing over a dozen phones go off almost simultaneously.
I did not get an amber alert, and I am in Boston. Maybe due to the cell signal jamming to stop any additional detonations. I had to call family from Google Voice on my laptop to get in touch. Pretty crazy
I haven't heard about whether emergency SMS were sent out for the Boston bombings.
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Highlights is pretty bad too.
We used to call it "best of" then went to "favorites." It obviously won't be favorites anymore - didn't think of this use case.
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I tried explaining this to someone earlier... apparently it's not a numbers game because of assumed risk. There is little to no risk to watching a marathon, whereas living in Iraq or speeding on the highway there is implied risk. I'm not trying to discredit what you're saying, just pointing out why people (my friend and probably a lot of others) go into hyper sensitive reactionary mode.
I would say it's surprise factor combined with sensitivity to terrorist attacks.
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Your explosion time is off. Happened around 3pm Eastern
So that means it'd correspond to finish times likely for amateur runners with times in the 4:20 - 4:40 range, averaging 10 - 11 mins/mile.
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I would say it's surprise factor combined with sensitivity to terrorist attacks.
That and people aren't robots. A bombing in Boston means more to someone in New York than does one in Iraq, and purposeful taking of innocent life means more than accidental death.