Some horrific scenes from the Boston marathon coming through

GH · Post by GH » Mon Apr 15, 2013 7:47 pm

Explosions reported at the finish line.
http://www.businessinsider.com/explosio ... hon-2013-4

My thoughts to anyone caught up in it

fujee · Post by **fujee** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 8:04 pm

My ex girlfriends family are running there, hope they are okay

Why do people want to hurt each other so much? Awful news.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 9:01 pm

Incredible. I flick Twitter on to see what's happening and - literally - the second tweet I see is from someone basically gloating because Boston has a reputation for funding the IRA. While that somewhat murky and grubby fact is well established, I don't think 'See how YOU like it' is an acceptable comment.

My misanthropy gains another top up.

DawnChorus · Post by **DawnChorus** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 9:05 pm

My younger brother goes to school up there. Haven't talked to him as all phone lines are either backed up or just cut-off completely. Hoping him (and everyone else of course) are alright!

GH · Post by GH » Mon Apr 15, 2013 9:14 pm

Yeah, they've disabled mobile phone masts, as a security measure to hinder attempts to trigger further devices by mobile phone. Hope all are ok.

@mexicola: totally unbelievable

DawnChorus · Post by **DawnChorus** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 9:17 pm

Understandable. I've also heard/read rumors of another bomb, or something along those lines, having gone off at the JFK Library less than an hour ago. How any person (or people) could even think of doing something like this is beyond me

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 9:40 pm

In two minds whether to post this - don't want to be vicarious or mawkish, but.... well, there are no words really.

DawnChorus · Post by **DawnChorus** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 10:43 pm

Nothing gets to me more than the screaming. The visuals are no doubt terrible but the sound of it all happening is just...there's no words, it's absolutely horrifying.

GH · Post by GH » Tue Apr 16, 2013 9:41 am

Mexicola wrote:Incredible. I flick Twitter on to see what's happening and - literally - the second tweet I see is from someone basically gloating because Boston has a reputation for funding the IRA. While that somewhat murky and grubby fact is well established, I don't think 'See how YOU like it' is an acceptable comment.

My misanthropy gains another top up.

Sadly, Danny Baker who I have had a lot of respect for was one of them:

"@prodnose: Disgusting news from USA. Tragically, in 70s & 80s you couldnt drink in many Boston bars without putting money into a bucket for "the cause"

Ender · Post by **Ender** » Tue Apr 16, 2013 1:34 pm

I live in the Boston area and I had off work yesterday, and was thinking about going. Scary stuff. I still can't really believe this actually happened here.

I believe there were some other members from the Boston area? Are they OK?

Jonse · Post by **Jonse** » Tue Apr 16, 2013 3:55 pm

I've been reading YouTube comments on videos of this incident a whole bunch today. Humanity never ceases to disappoint me on a regular basis.

Horrible news.

TaoTapeTao · Post by **TaoTapeTao** » Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:09 pm

Let the incessant racist backlash pour forth...

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Tue Apr 16, 2013 9:17 pm

GH wrote:Sadly, Danny Baker who I have had a lot of respect for was one of them:

"@prodnose: Disgusting news from USA. Tragically, in 70s & 80s you couldnt drink in many Boston bars without putting money into a bucket for "the cause"

That's a real shame. I'm also a big Danny Baker fan. One of the most thoughtful and genuinely interesting people on radio. The point made is factually accurate and the irony wasn't lost on me, and to his credit he at least treats both acts with the contempt they deserve. I just find it hard to feel smug when people have lost limbs.

Two wrongs, etc.

Julian Candy · Post by **Julian Candy** » Tue Apr 16, 2013 11:40 pm

My dad went on some rant the other night about how it was done by arabs but the "mainstream" media (ie: anything except FOX news) doesn't want to say so because they're "his people" (Obama's).

DawnChorus · Post by **DawnChorus** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 12:41 am

LOL @ Fox News NOT being mainstream media. They're the most biased ones of all

Everyone in America has this obsession that everything bad that happens must be from an Arab.. since September 11th we can't seem to grasp the reality that the term "terrorist" can and does mean more than just people from the Middle East.

pianoforte · Post by **pianoforte** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 1:07 am

DawnChorus wrote:LOL @ Fox News NOT being mainstream media. They're the most biased ones of all

Everyone in America has this obsession that everything bad that happens must be from an Arab.. since September 11th we can't seem to grasp the reality that the term "terrorist" can and does mean more than just people from the Middle East.

I agree entirely with everything you just said.

zeitgeist · Post by **zeitgeist** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 2:09 pm

There's an equal possibility that it was a citizen too. There are a lot of unhappy people in our own country.

I just happened across the lunchroom at work and caught the reporting like 10 minutes after it happened. I went back to my desk and, just out of curiosity, found:

wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_bombing

After an event like this, who's first thought is it to run to wikipedia and write a past-tense article about events that had barely even happened yet?

diabolous616 · Post by **diabolous616** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 2:15 pm

humans will be humans unfortunately

thoughts are with the people affected by this terrible incident

TaoTapeTao · Post by **TaoTapeTao** » Fri Apr 19, 2013 3:39 pm

THIS ESCALATED VERY QUICKLY

saturdayindex · Post by **saturdayindex** » Fri Apr 19, 2013 3:44 pm

Sad, but not really anything to get worked up about. People kill each other all the time. There are, on average, 40 murders DAILY in the United States.

Not to sound as if I don't care--I DO--but only because this particular event entered the scope of my perception via the public media.

All we're doing by obsessing over a specific incident like this is making the perpetrator famous--just what he wants. If the media didn't get so worked up about incidents like this, they might happen less frequently.

Unfortunately, this will be all over the international news, making the guy more famous, and giving my country more excuses to deny me and others our rights. Who knows, maybe now they will outlaw slow-cookers.

There are far more many horrific and awful things going on the world over--things, in fact, which are far more easily preventable via our shared awareness and activism. Who knows how many countless people starve in undeveloped nations in the continent of Africa, daily, that could be prevented if more people from first world nations joined together and worked to help them develop better methods of sustenance?

Rather, we sit around and feel bad when we see a few people die on television. And maybe we even "send them our thoughts", psychically, as if that does anything at all. And then we go back to work.

I'm not trying to dismiss any well-intended empathy here--it is indeed a sad event and it's good to know that we humans are by nature empathic creatures. Just trying to add some perspective. I myself am guiltier of these things than any.

It's just the human condition.