This is both maddening and saddening
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Reports of Saudi national under guard in hospital with shrapnel wounds. Boston police denying this. Reports of footage of black man with multiple backpacks trying to gain access to restricted area and being turned away, operating iPad. Photo showing man on roof of building as explosion goes off. Conspiracy theorists going into overdrive, especially as race dedicated to Sandy Hook victims and relatives were at finishing line as guests.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
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Could be closer to black-powder pipe bombs. Easy to come up with the components and easily fused in a backpack.
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Dave KreskowiakWould that produce the white smoke? Maybe, I'm a long way from being an expert but that is the sort of thing I was thinking, although perhaps a little more modern. Is black powder available in quantity off the shelf or would it have to be home made? Coming from an unarmed culture one seldom thinks about these things.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage." Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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Would that produce the white smoke? Maybe, I'm a long way from being an expert but that is the sort of thing I was thinking, although perhaps a little more modern. Is black powder available in quantity off the shelf or would it have to be home made? Coming from an unarmed culture one seldom thinks about these things.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage." Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
Black powder is known for it. It was so obvious where shots were coming from that it sparked the innovation of "smokeless powder". Block Powder images[^]
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Dave Kreskowiak -
Like all terrorism, pointless, self defeating and evil, regardless of who's doing it. In this case white smoke, fireballs, no craters, approx barrel sized bombs. So unless I'm mistaken that's chemical but not petroleum based, not high explosive but still potent. Too small to be fertalizer. Whoever did this is likely cooking their own so if you live in Boston and have really strange smells coming from the bathroom on the floor below it might be time to leave the building.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage." Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
Matthew Faithfull wrote:
Like all terrorism
Go easy on the "T" word. This was more likely the work of a psycho.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Would that produce the white smoke? Maybe, I'm a long way from being an expert but that is the sort of thing I was thinking, although perhaps a little more modern. Is black powder available in quantity off the shelf or would it have to be home made? Coming from an unarmed culture one seldom thinks about these things.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage." Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
Black powder is notable for two features - white smoke in huge quantities, and an unmistakable smell of sulphur dioxide. It is available, but not in large amounts, and they record every sale. Black powder is actually classified as an explosive, which modern smokeless powders are not; they're considered propellants, and not very suitable for domestic terrorism hobbyists. Pyrodex is a middle ground, plentiful and easy to get, smoky yet not as brissant as real black powder. It became popular when the government started treating black powder buyers as criminals. I kinda doubt that this was a black powder event, and I wouldn't underestimate the substance. Somewhere around here I still have an old US Army field manual for manufacturing and testing high explosives, and in it, the explosive power of various substances is rated numerically, with TNT being a 1.0. Black powder is a 0.5 - quite a hefty explosive, for all its humble origins. If this was done using black powder, the miscreant behind it is an ignorant twat who never did any experimentation. It will be interesting to learn what it really was, if they tell us, and what went wrong. This clearly could have been far worse, had it been executed by someone competent. Thank Bog for such favors...
Will Rogers never met me.
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Like all terrorism, pointless, self defeating and evil, regardless of who's doing it. In this case white smoke, fireballs, no craters, approx barrel sized bombs. So unless I'm mistaken that's chemical but not petroleum based, not high explosive but still potent. Too small to be fertalizer. Whoever did this is likely cooking their own so if you live in Boston and have really strange smells coming from the bathroom on the floor below it might be time to leave the building.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage." Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
Matthew Faithfull wrote:
self defeating
I agree with the rest, but I have to object to that. Terrorism works extremely well. It punches tiny little holes into the illusion of control and predictability. Uncertainty and fear changes people, and not for the better.
Matthew Faithfull wrote:
and have really strange smells coming from the bathroom
"Two lynched, five wounded in what may have been the deadliest non-poisonous chicken curry ever"
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Matthew Faithfull wrote:
self defeating
I agree with the rest, but I have to object to that. Terrorism works extremely well. It punches tiny little holes into the illusion of control and predictability. Uncertainty and fear changes people, and not for the better.
Matthew Faithfull wrote:
and have really strange smells coming from the bathroom
"Two lynched, five wounded in what may have been the deadliest non-poisonous chicken curry ever"
Those who profit most from terrorism are those in power in the country on the end of it. A fearful populace is much easier to control, and much easier to pass ever more restrictive laws.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
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Those who profit most from terrorism are those in power in the country on the end of it. A fearful populace is much easier to control, and much easier to pass ever more restrictive laws.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
No doubt about that. The attacker succeeds in destryoing something for everyone else, though. There are, basically, two kinds of people...[^]
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Matthew Faithfull wrote:
Like all terrorism
Go easy on the "T" word. This was more likely the work of a psycho.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
True but I no doubt that it will have a terrorising effect which itself will be exploited in the same way it usually is. They are all psychos.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage." Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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Those who profit most from terrorism are those in power in the country on the end of it. A fearful populace is much easier to control, and much easier to pass ever more restrictive laws.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
ChrisElston wrote:
much easier to pass ever more restrictive laws.
Sadly this is somewhat true, although not all of us here fall into that, too many do.
CPallini wrote:
You cannot argue with agile people so just take the extreme approach and shoot him. :Smile: