Explosions at the Boston Marathon

[mobvok]

just to correct something I said earlier, the 7-11 robbery now appears to have been coincidental- they still got images of the two brothers because they stopped to buy gas at another nearby spot.

[deep]

no, you were right

It was Sunil Tripathi and Mike Mulugeta that robbed the place.

[deep]

all I know is that after all this I am going out drinking this weekend

and god help me if I find a guy wearing a turban on my way home.

[Imperor]

I can't listen to this scanner any more. I have to hit the road to DFW for a wedding (driving through West, as it were), but at this point it looks like I won't be missing anything.

[deep]

just tape your smartphone to the dash and keep it open here, I feel some more brilliant replies forth coming,

anytime,


now

[dazzledbylight]

Originally Posted by deep

all I know is that after all this I am going out drinking this weekend

and god help me if I find a guy wearing a turban on my way home.

Must you, really?

Even in possibly "jest".

[Irvine511]

i'm still much more scared of white males in their late teens and early 20's with semiautomaic weapons and unlimited ammo than i am of Muslims.

[anitram]

Originally Posted by mama cass

it would seriously be a NIGHTMARE if any of my family did something media-worthy LOL

Reminds me of my Polish friend who said that in Poland there is a saying to the effect of "family is nice to have....in photos."

[mobvok]

Here's where everything went to shit:

Meanwhile, at 2:14am Eastern, an official on the police scanner said, "Last name: Mulugeta, M-U-L-U-G-E-T-A, M as in Mike, Mulugeta." And thus was born the newest suspect in the case: Mike Mulugeta. It doesn't appear that Mulugeta, whoever he or she is, has a first name of Mike. And yet that name, "Mike Mulugeta," was about to become notorious.

But not at first.

A single tweet references Mulugeta at the time his name was said on the scanner. A Twitter user named Carcel Mousineau simply said, "Just read the name Mike Mulugeta on the scanner." It was retweeted exactly once. In the unofficial transcript of the scanner on Reddit, at least as it stands now, the reading of the name was recorded simply: "Police listed a name, unclear if related."

The next step in this information flow is the trickiest one. Here's what I know. At 2:42am, Greg Hughes, who had been following the Tripathi speculation, tweeted, "This is the Internet's test of 'be right, not first' with the reporting of this story. So far, people are doing a great job. #Watertown" Then, at 2:43am, he tweeted, "BPD has identified the names: Suspect 1: Mike Mulugeta. Suspect 2: Sunil Tripathi."

The only problem is that there is no mention of Sunil Tripathi in the audio preceding Hughes' tweet. I've listened to it a dozen times and there's nothing there even remotely resembling Tripathi's name. I've embedded the audio from 2:35 to 2:45 am for your own inspection. Multiple groups of people have been crowdsourcing logs of the police scanner chatter and none of them have found a reference to Tripathi, either. It's just not there.

So "make random shit up" is just as plausible a worry as it's always been for twitter-sourced news

[trojanchick99]

Enlightening article on the bombers.

Don’t Judge the Chechens Yet - The Daily Beast

[dazzledbylight]

really good article tjc99- thanks!

yeah, I have never heard of those areas myself either.

[Jive Turkey]

So I've been trying to follow this thread during a busy day at work. There's a lot of information being thrown around and I want to make sure I have everything right. If you guys don't mind walking me through this, that would be great. I'm not sure what to believe anymore, but from what I can tell, Hewson made fun of Mikal about a year ago; something to do with liking every sports team or something? Then Hewson said that Mikal wasn't funny earlier in this thread, which Mikal took as an opportunity to dish out some revenge (served very cold, apparently) and told Hewson he was a troll and a coward and to bring it on. Then Diemen told them both to quit fucking around. Is that about right?

[trojanchick99]

Only thing you forgot was that it turns out Mikal was right. We are going to be saved by Batman and Spiderman.

[Jive Turkey]

[Danny Boy]

Originally Posted by Jive Turkey

So I've been trying to follow this thread during a busy day at work. There's a lot of information being thrown around and I want to make sure I have everything right. If you guys don't mind walking me through this, that would be great. I'm not sure what to believe anymore, but from what I can tell, Hewson made fun of Mikal about a year ago; something to do with liking every sports team or something? Then Hewson said that Mikal wasn't funny earlier in this thread, which Mikal took as an opportunity to dish out some revenge (served very cold, apparently) and told Hewson he was a troll and a coward and to bring it on. Then Diemen told them both to quit fucking around. Is that about right?

Yes.

Also, two Chechens bombed the Boston Marathon, injured/maimed/killed scores of people, knocked over a 7-11, shot a cop, hijacked a car, and threw grenades at police. One of them was shot by police and then run over by his accomplice, who is still on the loose, requiring the greater Boston metroplex to be shut down for an entire day.

But that's a minor aside.

[corianderstem]

And then Texas exploded.

[Danny Boy]

Only West Texas. It's a big state.

[Jive Turkey]

Is West, Texas in West Texas?

[martha]

Originally Posted by PhilsFan

And not just white, they're literally Caucasian. Like, from the Caucasus. There's something oddly funny about that.

That's what I meant.

[Imperor]

Originally Posted by Jive Turkey

Is West, Texas in West Texas?

No. Hour or so south of DFW. And I'm going to feast on kolaches there in a few shorts hours.