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Dave47
Oct 2, 2012


Chronojam posted:

There were probably a lot of men on a lot of roofs because there was a marathon going on and most buildings have roof access.
Yeah, it's really unclear to me why that photo would be "making the rounds." Is the implication that only a terrorist would watch sports, or is it the decision to watch sports from an elevated position that indicates terrorist tendencies?

Amateur photo analysis is totally awesome when you need to expose the dark secret of the Jejune Institute. It has no place in actual fact gathering or news, since it leads to crazy outcomes. "The World Trade Center collapsed due to an internally planted bomb! You can totally tell from the pixels!"

SirKibbles
Feb 26, 2011


zoux posted:

Was Juan Williams joking when he said he literally racially profiled people who looked Muslim on airplanes? As a white person I hate to chide African Americans about anything, but seriously, do they not get that the rhetoric used against Muslims today is identical to the rhetoric used against blacks and especially those active in civil rights and equality pre 1965?

We're not a hive mind asshole.

So are there any updates on whether or not there were more bombs?

A DENVER FAX
Jan 19, 2012


Dave47 posted:

Yeah, it's really unclear to me why that photo would be "making the rounds." Is the implication that only a terrorist would watch sports, or is it the decision to watch sports from an elevated position that indicates terrorist tendencies?

He looks like Bane and dumb people think terrorists act like Bane

Paul MaudDib
May 2, 2006


evilweasel posted:

And the idea is idiotic garbage: why terrorism works is based on well-understood, universal human cognitive failings.

No, human reactions to events can easily be shaped by the social cues of the society they occur in. The idea that there can be universal human responses is patently absurd (or "idiotic garbage" since you prefer the version with a personal insult in).

Some societies consider lynch mobs a reasonable reaction to a slight, others would consider anything but courts unjustifiable, some might not consider it a slight at all. The reaction people have is based on social cueing.

A DENVER FAX
Jan 19, 2012


SirKibbles posted:

We're not a hive mind asshole.

So are there any updates on whether or not there were more bombs?

Officially only two I believe

Bender
May 12, 2001


Volkerball posted:

He has to come out as soon as possible and say "TERRORIST. ATTACK. I SAY AGAIN. THIS WAS A TERRORIST. ATTACK," so people can't claim he said it was a spontaneous attack by marathon runners.

There's literally nothing he can say/not say that won't immediately be twisted and deliberately misinterpreted by people who hate him.

Volkerball
Oct 15, 2009


Bender posted:

There's literally nothing he can say/not say that won't immediately be twisted and deliberately misinterpreted by people who hate him.

Yes, but at least it will be a new deliberate misinterpretation.

D-Pad
Jun 27, 2006


Mister Adequate posted:

I know the exact guy you mean, because the way he goes down is probably the thing that freaked me out most here. It's really surreal, I also hope he's okay.

You can see in another video him get up and walk away like he is fine with no injuries. You can see in the second video he is like 60+ years old. Dude just ran 26 miles the blast shocked him and he lost his balance and fell down.

A DENVER FAX
Jan 19, 2012


hahahaha CNN is saying "He is gonna definitely gonna say Terrorism because of all that Benghazi bullshit"

Oh American politics

SirKibbles
Feb 26, 2011


http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/pres...kes-statement-2

Obama speaking now.

OneEightHundred
Feb 28, 2008


A DENVER FAX posted:

But you also cannot predicate a culture's "predisposition" to responding to a terrorist act by comparing a single act by an individual to a massive coordinated strike by a paramilitary group
It doesn't really have to do with coordination, it has to do with the perceived threat of it happening again. Oklahoma City was pretty well gotten over, but school shootings have always been met with a massive outcry for a very heavy-handed response. 9/11 was actually pretty unusual since the public really didn't give two shits about AQ after the first WTC bombing.

School Nickname
Apr 23, 2010


Mister Adequate posted:

I know the exact guy you mean, because the way he goes down is probably the thing that freaked me out most here. It's really surreal, I also hope he's okay.

If you watch the "Boston Globe video of the explosion", he can be seen at around 30s being carried away and able to walk with some assistance. Seems like he made it out ok.

A DENVER FAX
Jan 19, 2012


This is weirdly mechanical for Obama

JT Jag
Aug 30, 2009


IS IT TERRORISM IS IT TERRORISM

dvorak
Sep 10, 2003


A DENVER FAX posted:

This is weirdly mechanical for Obama

It's completely normal for any president commenting on a recent tragedy.

JT Jag
Aug 30, 2009


dvorak posted:

It's completely normal for any president commenting on a recent tragedy.
It only seems strange in comparison to his reaction to Newtown, which was deeply personal for him. Honestly, deeply personal for all of us.

You can't be like that every time.

A DENVER FAX
Jan 19, 2012


Jesus, if they are gonna keep replaying the video could they at least mute it?

That sound is horrifying.

Niton
Oct 21, 2010


Did anyone else just see Obama disappear from the White House feed about half a second before his podium did?


A DENVER FAX posted:

This is weirdly mechanical for Obama

He probably gave this speech in between 2 meetings on the status of dozens of people getting bombed. Not a fun day for Mr. President.

VladimirLeninpest
Jun 22, 2005


JT Jag posted:

IS IT TERRORISM IS IT TERRORISM

SIR, WAS IT TERRORISM.

Our media is the worst.

A DENVER FAX
Jan 19, 2012


This analyst is awful

"The fact that Obama did not say Terrorism is clear evidence the government has a good idea who is responsible"

Ersatz
Sep 17, 2005


Paul MaudDib posted:

No, human reactions to events can easily be shaped by the social cues of the society they occur in.
Of course.

Paul MaudDib posted:

The idea that there can be universal human responses is patently absurd (or "idiotic garbage" since you prefer the version with a personal insult in).
No, it's not. Absent some pathology, it is universally the case, for example, that human beings exposed to sudden loud noises in otherwise quiet environments will exhibit a startle reflex.

Responses to terrorist attacks are obviously more complex, but the cognitive deficits that evilweasel lists as contributing to the effectiveness of terrorism are well known and, as far as psychologists are concerned, universal.

CannonFodder
Jan 26, 2001


JT Jag posted:

It only seems strange in comparison to his reaction to Newtown, which was deeply personal for him. Honestly, deeply personal for all of us.

You can't be like that every time.
This is also an event that is still ongoing, I thought he had more of a pissed off mode going on. He couldn't get pissed off at Newtown because the culprit killed himself right away.


And yes, he probably left the podium to go into a meeting with FBI people.

Baruch Obamawitz
Feb 14, 2002


A DENVER FAX posted:

My eyes on the video keep focusing on that old guy in the orange shirt falling over.

Hopefully he is ok



He looked fine (or whatever)

Enkmar
Jan 27, 2010


How do we reconcile the idea that humans have a hard time accurately judging what's truly harmful and what is just a tragic anomaly without sounding like a callous piece of shit during times like these? I abhor loss of life so much I just wish it always got the coverage that these infrequent domestic terrorist attacks do.

Maybe it's impossible because in a sense I'm trying to hijack a tragedy to talk about my own cause, which is understandably very problematic. Just feel frustrated because no matter how much screaming I do I can't get people to care about the senseless deaths that happen every day that are both frequent and completely preventable.

Enkmar fucked around with this message at Apr 15, 2013 around 14:26

Enkmar
Jan 27, 2010


edit: double post sorry, no confirmation window for some reason

Subterfrugal
Sep 8, 2011


I also wanted to chime in that Massachusetts is really on-the-ball about emergency preparedness. State and federal folks have been running full-staff wargames built around mass-casualty events that dwarf 9/11 periodically for years. I can't speak to other states, but everyone in Massachusetts who would be even tangentially involved in a hypothetical response likely had a destination and purpose in place before the dust settled.

SirFozzie
Mar 28, 2004


Rep Bill Keating just said on WBZ they found a bomb in a hotel in the area

Jeffrey
Dec 21, 2005


Subterfrugal posted:

I also wanted to chime in that Massachusetts is really on-the-ball about emergency preparedness. State and federal folks have been running full-staff wargames built around mass-casualty events that dwarf 9/11 periodically for years. I can't speak to other states, but everyone in Massachusetts who would be even tangentially involved in a hypothetical response likely had a destination and purpose in place before the dust settled.

Yeah they had the mooninites on lockdown.

JT Jag
Aug 30, 2009


https://twitter.com/EWErickson/stat...923257080287232

RedState founder Erick Erickson posted:

Sorry folks, I'm not interesting in beating up the President today. God bless him. He's got his work cut out for him.

JoelJoel
Nov 4, 2011


SirFozzie posted:

Rep Bill Keating just said on WBZ they found a bomb in a hotel in the area

Source?

Dusseldorf
Mar 29, 2005


Baruch Obamawitz posted:



He looked fine (or whatever)

Those cops look about as action-ready as I've ever seen cops.

Kafka Esq.
Dec 31, 2004


Dusseldorf posted:

Those cops look about as action-ready as I've ever seen cops.
I really want to caption it with "come with me if you want to live."

SirFozzie
Mar 28, 2004



He's a member of the Homeland Security Committee in the house, and what he said he on the WBZ committee, that he had been briefed there were four devices, two that exploded, the third in a hotel (didn't elaborate more), and a fourth device was found in a location in a location (didn't go into details)

Avian Pneumonia
May 24, 2006


Subterfrugal posted:

I also wanted to chime in that Massachusetts is really on-the-ball about emergency preparedness. State and federal folks have been running full-staff wargames built around mass-casualty events that dwarf 9/11 periodically for years. I can't speak to other states, but everyone in Massachusetts who would be even tangentially involved in a hypothetical response likely had a destination and purpose in place before the dust settled.

I think the people in charge have made some big changes since this happened:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare

It was really nice to see people running towards the blasts and looking to donate blood etc...

jet sanchEz
Oct 23, 2001


Dusseldorf posted:

Those cops look about as action-ready as I've ever seen cops.

Agreed. Watching the recorded footage, about 10 seconds passed before all the cops ran towards the smoke.

McDowell
Aug 1, 2008



A media commentator with class, thank God.

Teddybear
May 16, 2009



Reports from WBZ. Keating sits on the Homeland Security committee, so he'd be in a position to know. Two devices, one in a hotel one in an undisclosed location.

Willa Rogers
Mar 10, 2005


Yo, asking obnoxious questions during national events is the media's job. Same for those taking pics of sudden amputees rather than doing torniquets on them.

A DENVER FAX posted:

My eyes on the video keep focusing on that old guy in the orange shirt falling over.

Hopefully he is ok

Yah, WJ's right; I capped this from the boston.com video:



SirFozzie
Mar 28, 2004


They're repeating the info on WBZ right now.

Vox Nihili
May 28, 2008


evilweasel posted:

The general reasons it works so well (availability heuristic; extremely bad weighting of probabilities; fear of things 'outside your control' over things 'inside your control') are universal human cognitive failings and I'm not aware of any valid evidence to suggest there are cultural factors involved. It's just generally people thinking that they are smart while other people are dumb and rationalizing that (and they're wrong: everyone falls victim to these, even people very well versed in them).

Valid evidence that cultural factors are involved? "Culture" shapes almost everything about the way you or I think. Our education and religious (or areligious) upbringing alone shape the way we process events at a very basic level. If you think people are so fundamentally identical, how do you explain mass rapes/assaults in Egypt (but would be unimaginable in the west), the mass shootings that occur with some frequency in America (but not nearly so much elsewhere), not to mention how protests/riots are acceptable in much of the world, responded to with great anxiety by the general public in America.

"Nature," or genetics, only shapes a portion of who we are. "Nurture," in which culture plays an absolutely enormous part, is unviersally recognized as being just as important in shaping the way each individual develops, thinks, feels, and acts.

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