Sunday, October 02, 2005
Eco-freaks getting really serious? ... Update: NO.
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - One person was killed in an explosion near a packed football stadium at the University of Oklahoma on Saturday night in what authorities said appeared to be a suicide.
The blast, in a traffic circle about 100 yards from Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, could be heard by some in the crowd of 84,000, but university President David Boren said no one inside the stadium was ever in danger.
"We are apparently dealing with an individual suicide, which is under full investigation," Boren said in a statement. There was no information about the person who was killed, and no reports of any other injuries.
A police bomb squad detonated explosives found at the site of the blast. The area near the stadium was searched by bomb-sniffing dogs.
Officers cordoned off an area west of the stadium after the explosion and nobody was allowed out of the stadium for about a half-hour after the blast, which occurred shortly before 8 p.m., about halftime of the Sooners' game against Kansas State. The game continued.
Text from Daily Oklahoman [registration]. Video here, more informative.
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Norman has been a center of Mohammedan radicalism since the '70s, and has a large Arab and Persian population. However: the bomb was actually closest to the Botany-Microbiology building, which puts a different color on it. Could be the Gaian branch of the 11th Century Axis instead of the Mohammedan branch. The football-game timing could be just for added drama, or it could be semantically significant. Both OU and KSU do considerable research in genetically-modified organisms.
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Also, something is happening to water supplies right here in Spokane. Two water towers have been broken into (exactly how is not stated) and E. coli was found in those water supplies. A third suburban system has also issued a boil order for coliform bacteria, though no break-in was known there. It's not unusual for water systems to get contaminated at this time of year, because many people prepare for winter by blowing out their automatic sprinkler systems, which can cause backwash. But the breakins are obviously not accidental.
For what it's worth, Spokane City water was not affected because it is always chlorinated. Why don't those suburban systems maintain chlorine? Stupid.
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UPDATE on OU:
Tapscott has some acute observations: Joel Hinrichs had an arsenal in his apartment, and the latest picture of Hinrichs shows a distinctly Mohammedan-looking beard. This isn't your modern hip-hop goatee, nor the simple loss of grooming you might associate with the image of a depressed adolescent we're getting from the media. It's a deliberate style with exactly two known connotations: Amish or Mohammedan. Since the Amish are not currently famous for suicide bombing, we have one guess remaining. Tapscott also points out that OU Pres Boren was remarkably quick with a complete "explanation", perhaps indicating that Hinrichs had been on someone's radar screen for a while. ¶ 9:28 AM
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - One person was killed in an explosion near a packed football stadium at the University of Oklahoma on Saturday night in what authorities said appeared to be a suicide.
The blast, in a traffic circle about 100 yards from Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, could be heard by some in the crowd of 84,000, but university President David Boren said no one inside the stadium was ever in danger.
"We are apparently dealing with an individual suicide, which is under full investigation," Boren said in a statement. There was no information about the person who was killed, and no reports of any other injuries.
A police bomb squad detonated explosives found at the site of the blast. The area near the stadium was searched by bomb-sniffing dogs.
Officers cordoned off an area west of the stadium after the explosion and nobody was allowed out of the stadium for about a half-hour after the blast, which occurred shortly before 8 p.m., about halftime of the Sooners' game against Kansas State. The game continued.
Text from Daily Oklahoman [registration]. Video here, more informative.
-----
Norman has been a center of Mohammedan radicalism since the '70s, and has a large Arab and Persian population. However: the bomb was actually closest to the Botany-Microbiology building, which puts a different color on it. Could be the Gaian branch of the 11th Century Axis instead of the Mohammedan branch. The football-game timing could be just for added drama, or it could be semantically significant. Both OU and KSU do considerable research in genetically-modified organisms.
-----
Also, something is happening to water supplies right here in Spokane. Two water towers have been broken into (exactly how is not stated) and E. coli was found in those water supplies. A third suburban system has also issued a boil order for coliform bacteria, though no break-in was known there. It's not unusual for water systems to get contaminated at this time of year, because many people prepare for winter by blowing out their automatic sprinkler systems, which can cause backwash. But the breakins are obviously not accidental.
For what it's worth, Spokane City water was not affected because it is always chlorinated. Why don't those suburban systems maintain chlorine? Stupid.
-----
UPDATE on OU:
Tapscott has some acute observations: Joel Hinrichs had an arsenal in his apartment, and the latest picture of Hinrichs shows a distinctly Mohammedan-looking beard. This isn't your modern hip-hop goatee, nor the simple loss of grooming you might associate with the image of a depressed adolescent we're getting from the media. It's a deliberate style with exactly two known connotations: Amish or Mohammedan. Since the Amish are not currently famous for suicide bombing, we have one guess remaining. Tapscott also points out that OU Pres Boren was remarkably quick with a complete "explanation", perhaps indicating that Hinrichs had been on someone's radar screen for a while. ¶ 9:28 AM
