Boston Marathon Bombing: BEAHCAT & BRUINS, 'MURICA

[Kyreth]

sadly relevant


the other thing that makes me rage is prefabricated sympathy. gotta post on facebook some picture of the boston skyline with candles and some message about our prayers being with you. really you cant have a geniunely sincere thought of your own? ive seen the same picture reposted at least 4 times now.

Tell me about it. Take this picture, here. It's been mercifully been edited to not show the absolute horror that is the man's lower limbs. The guy in the cowboy hat? Got the name. Checked Facebook. ID'd him.

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Em...706700fbd1.jpg

Put it up on Facebook. Said thanks- to him, and all the people who just stepped in without a thought and saved lives. It's going to be one of those things people take note of later- with the way the bombs worked, the most likely cause of death for adults would have been massive blood loss. You may not notice, but Carlos Arredondo there is literally holding one of the wounded man's arteries shut with his right hand as they run down the street. There were dozens of people out there just doing the simple act of holding another person's life inside their body with nothing more than torn up cloth or their bare hands.

No idea who did this, but whoever did it wasn't there so much to kill as they were to maim as many people as possible. After all, they set the bombs right next to a large concentration of medical personnel and rigged them to spray ball bearings at knee-high- which is why that poor kid bought it, he was low enough that the bomb would have gutted him instead.

As for Westboro's bunch, I'm just waiting for the inevitable to occur. Someone's going to snap one of these days and it's going to be gruesome when they do.

[Kyreth]

I'm not blaming you. I'm blaming the people uploading this.

Yeah fine, people want to know, but why can't words suffice here? Do people honestly need to see these pictures?

Yes. Yes they do.

Sanitizing images of this sort of thing only makes it easier to ignore it, or put it out of your head. I know, oldschool talking here, but I'm firmly on the side of "put the truth out there, no matter how gruesome it is" since the Vietnam War.

Truth is the most powerful, most pure motivator of humanity, I believe. And that includes seeing exactly what many people were helping others deal with after the blast. It's both stomach-churning and uplifting at the same time- that one human being would commit such an act of butchery, but that dozens more would act the way they did- not just the professionals, but the regular, everyday person - seeing that unvarnished is important.

[Ksandra]

Last warning, or Church, Nyn, Rhinox, etc. can get a three day ban.

DO NOT keep degrading this thread into who's the bigger badass. No one gives a shit.

[Ragnus]

Yeah... thing about the guy in the cowboy hat... I think that tube in his hand is the wheelchair dude's femoral artery...

[NynJa]

Last warning, or Church, Nyn, Rhinox, etc. can get a three day ban.

DO NOT keep degrading this thread into who's the bigger badass. No one gives a shit.

With all due respect, ive made ONE post in here since u said to cool it, and it wasnt even directed at churchill.

Sorry, two...and once again, neither were directed at churchill, who has kept running his mouth all night long, so please dont rope me into his bullshit that he continued after your warning.

[Kyreth]

is there any specific reason ball bearings are the bomb shrapnel of choice?

They tend to inflict a metric fuckton of trauma on impact and indeed are both cheap and aerodynamic. It's like an old-timer volley of 1700-1800's era rifle fire, or a super-sized shotgun. IED-style claymore mine, essentially.

And another wretched part about them is that they skip right off hard surfaces like a sidewalk or asphalt and bounce back up, the better to get enough distance to hit something living.

[Callisto]

every time I see the wheelchair guy I get a weird like, fuzzy itch in my femur, kind of like when you see someone get hit in the jewels and you get that queasy feeling you normally get from getting hit yourself

[Kyreth]

Yeah... thing about the guy in the cowboy hat... I think that tube in his hand is the wheelchair dude's femoral artery...

Femoral would have been on the inside of (what was left) the man's leg. Probably the anterior tibial. But considering how butchered the bottom of the leg is (and if you really want to see that, go look around- I'm not gonna post it), they not only had to tie off the leg above what was left of the knee, but the two men are doing their best to hold what's above the knee from killing the man via more blood loss.

Another small miracle was the large number of wheelchairs available, originally for overdone runners to sit in while getting fluids and such. With the immense number of wounded and unable to walk, it meant that many of them could be transported quickly to the nearby medical facilities, at a speed that probably saved more than one life. That many of the runners who'd finished proceeded to run with them, sit down and start giving blood for immediate transfusions saved even more.

[Meresgi]

Femoral would have been on the inside of (what was left) the man's leg. Probably the anterior tibial. But considering how butchered the bottom of the leg is (and if you really want to see that, go look around- I'm not gonna post it), they not only had to tie off the leg above what was left of the knee, but the two men are doing their best to hold what's above the knee from killing the man via more blood loss.

Another small miracle was the large number of wheelchairs available, originally for overdone runners to sit in while getting fluids and such. With the immense number of wounded and unable to walk, it meant that many of them could be transported quickly to the nearby medical facilities, at a speed that probably saved more than one life. That many of the runners who'd finished proceeded to run with them, sit down and start giving blood for immediate transfusions saved even more.

Not to mention all the EMS on scene for runners anyways. It's pretty lucky this happened where it did and not somewhere else, with better explosives and such. It sucks that it happened but could have been shit tons worse if it wasn't an amateur.

[Callisto]

That's the main reason I'm under the impression this is a domestic whackjob. For better or worse, jihadists are much better than this at generating body count.

[Kyreth]

Not to mention all the EMS on scene for runners anyways. It's pretty lucky this happened where it did and not somewhere else, with better explosives and such. It sucks that it happened but could have been shit tons worse if it wasn't an amateur.

Not so sure on the amateur bit here. I'm thinking the whole purpose was maximum gruesome visibility rather than "Let's kill us some Muricans, fuck yeah!". The bombs were rigged to fire low when they easily could have been angled higher and been killing people instead. Someone wanted lots of blood and horror. They got it, body parts in the streets and people rolling around in agony = more impact than random dead bodies.

But that's speculation, of course. We won't know until they catch the party responsible and/or find out who, hopefully before they get another shot at this sort of thing.

[Cleverness]

That's the main reason I'm under the impression this is a domestic whackjob. For better or worse, jihadists are much better than this at generating body count.

I think a jihadist would have done it near the beginning, where all the runners are tightly packed and everyones attention is at the start of the race and not the suspicious bags/boxes filled with soon-to-be flying shrapnel nearby. The shrapnel alone would have done more damage than the explosion in this type of situation I'd think.

[Boyiee]

So much for coming to this thread for updates.

[vagus]

Glad to see most media outlets, especially the US are staying away from using the word TERRORISM and not immediately pointing a finger at at jihadist's. Seems it's most likely domestic, possibly some anarchist group. Could have been a lot worse, let us move on. Other things to worry about. Lol.

[Kyreth]

So much for coming to this thread for updates.

At this point, it's one big crime scene. 176 reported wounded at area hospitals, three dead, doctors saying pellets/balls and shrapnel being what they're digging out of people that got hurt. FBI says no professional explosives were used- which goes with the "home-made bomb" ideas most people have on this one. (Someone earlier in the thread mentioned perchlorate-based explosives, which would make sense.)

[FNH]

It sucks that it happened but could have been shit tons worse if it wasn't an amateur.

When comparing the two explosions, I have to think the first one didn't go off properly. Small blast, lot of smoke, but the second one was much bigger.

[Bregor]

Just woke up, relieved to see it's still just three dead. With all the people in the area hospitals, I was expecting at least a few more. Boston PD, EMT, and medical professionals, well done.

[rezn0r]

Glad to see most media outlets, especially the US are staying away from using the word TERRORISM and not immediately pointing a finger at at jihadist's. Seems it's most likely domestic, possibly some anarchist group. Could have been a lot worse, let us move on. Other things to worry about. Lol.

"terrorism" doesn't have to be tied directly to jihadists or anything foreign

[Omniyoji]

At this point, it's one big crime scene. 176 reported wounded at area hospitals, three dead, doctors saying pellets/balls and shrapnel being what they're digging out of people that got hurt. FBI says no professional explosives were used- which goes with the "home-made bomb" ideas most people have on this one. (Someone earlier in the thread mentioned perchlorate-based explosives, which would make sense.)

Thank you Kyreth for the quick update

[Bregor]

No names of victims yet, at least not officially.

Early this morning on Twitter I saw the name of the 8-year-old boy who was killed, I think it was a Boston newspaper who broke it, and just saw it again on MSNBC. But I guess it's still unofficial? I'm not linking, you can find it if you want.