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Explosion in central Oslo
- Daniel_Newby 15y agoMore discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2793745 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2793745
- netmau5 15y agoIs there any reason to want to terrorize Norway?
- koski 15y agoThey have been very active in Libya ...
- elektronaut 15y agoAnd Afghanistan.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoI'm curious, why would you imagine that al qaeda et al wouldn't want to attack Norway?
- netmau5 15y agoI suppose bad people do bad things, regardless of an honorable ideology. Still, I see Norway in the same way as I see Canada. They do not take strong statements for or against others, they do not engage in the affairs of others, they have had a long (modern) history of peaceful relations/intentions. The most aggressive thing they've done is commit handfuls of troops to a multinational "peacekeeping" missions. I guess I just feel like they have more important enemies, from their perspective, to attack.
- tkahn6 15y ago> I guess I just feel like they have more important enemies, from their perspective, to attack. What do you believe their motivations are?
- splat 15y agoTheir more important enemies are also probably more difficult to attack.
- burgerbrain 15y agoTheir more important enemies undoubtedly have more security theatre, but I highly doubt they would actually be harder to attack.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoSecurity theatre isn't the extent of all security measures being taken in the US and other countries. There is a lot of effort going on that is less visible, though sometimes there are arrests that make the news. In the end we only have the crude statistics of observing events vs non-events, if the US were actually just as easy to hit then logically there should have been more successful attacks, but that's not the case.
- stcredzero 15y agoOften, schoolyard bullies attack peaceful bystanders of high status, if they think they can get away with it. Often, they even think of some justification for themselves. I think the same principle applies here.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoExactly. Al qaeda is not some freedom fighter movement, they are fighting to create a new world order. An order where western powers no longer interact with the islamic world, and are also ideally disempowered and lowered in stature. An order where the islamic world is united under theocratic control (a new caliphate) and ideally is the dominant power on Earth with all other races, religions, and cultures their inferiors.
- maxharris 15y agoNorway is a Western nation.
- smallblacksun 15y agoThey have (or at least had) troops in Afghanistan and participated in the NATO campaign against Libya.
- tlb 15y agoNorwegian oil companies are drilling in Islamic countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statoil_operations_by_country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statoil_operations_by_country Oslo is known for the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords, an attempt at peace between Palestine and Israel.
- fossuser 15y agoYou can watch Al-Jazeera English live for free here: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ They're covering the Oslo story right now.
- g123g 15y agoThe last peaceful bastion in the world has been take over.
- jacquesm 15y agoCNN has a timeline that speaks of multiple bombings: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/22/blast-rips-through-norways-capital-injuries-reported/ http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/22/blast-rips-through-norw...
- uggedal 15y agoI was at work 3 blocks away from the bombing. If there were several bombings, they were detonated simultanously. I heard a single bang and our building shook once. I'll add that the blast was unlike anything I've withnessed, even 3 blocks away.
- kristofferR 15y agoIt was only a single explosion. There were rumours of multiple explosions, but they were not true. People mistook glass falling from buildings and fake CG YouTube videos (Sky News retweeted it), but the rumors were quickly denied in the Norwegian media.
- chippy 15y agoapparently the shooter on the island was nordic, tall, blonde in appearance. (according to tv2.no news)
- InclinedPlane 15y agoThat doesn't necessarily rule out al qaeda involvement, there have been caucasian taliban et al before. But we shouldn't jump to conclusions until we have the facts regardless.
- guard-of-terra 15y agoArabs tend to be caucasian as in Europoid - they're semitic, and semites are usually Europoid. I don't have a word for what you wanted to say readily available, sorry.
- scythe 15y ago"White people" is a perfectly reasonable term; you don't need to dress it up if that's what you mean. Genetically, it's not totally accurate ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people#21st_century http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people#21st_century ) but socially, it's a thing.
- ComputerGuru 15y agoYes, but only to an extent. There are no (to the best of my knowledge) actually blond arabs (though hair dye is a dime a dozen these days, of course). And Semites can generally be readily identified by certain features that while they can be shared with Caucasians are rarely not present on Arabs (bridge of the nose, the brow, the eye placement, etc.).
- guard-of-terra 15y agoRace is determined by genes, not looks. There are, AFAIR, only five human races and arabs, being semites, belong to one of those called "europoids" (aka "caucasians").
- vahidR 15y agoI Can't understand. Why this happened to such a peaceful nation ?!
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- stcredzero 15y agoThe problem with distributed command & control, is that sometimes small groups of people working on their own initiative can talk themselves into wacked-out stuff. There is a lesson here for startups. EDIT: And by "wacked-out" I mean, "wack by even the standards of Al Qaeda." 9-11 didn't help their cause in my eyes, but I can see how they justified it to themselves. Whoever bombed Oslo - is a WTF on top of a WTF.
- cheez 15y agoObviously the solution is to control everyone.
- stcredzero 15y agoIn the case of terrorism, the solution is to address grievances before they build up into smoldering resentment. I was surprised to learn that this was done by Norwegians.
- orblivion 15y agoThey say a humble foreign policy will prevent shit like this, but I was always hesitated to accept it wholesale.
- kristofferR 15y agoHere's some footage from the attack location just seconds after the explosion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciQvqBgK-nY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciQvqBgK-nY
- cafebabe 15y agoRumors say, that it was a single guy, the one who did the shootings as well. Looks like a timed attack. I expect it to be some sort of right wing background. It's so sad. Tomorrow, everybody will grieve. The next day, everyone will talk about to intensify security measures and to control the internet...
- guruz 15y agoI'm living in Oslo. With my friends here there is already a Facebook worm going on which is supposed to show some video footage about the explosion but when you click it you're just spreading/liking the video. Shocking to see how fast spammers are.
- cafebabe 15y agoI wonder when the spammers start to pay for those incidents... Hope, you and your friends are well!
- blantonl 15y agoI'd bet these guys have templates in place just for major events - especially terrorist attacks. I recall on Sept 11th the sheer rush from users to consume information on the Internet. If something like 9/11 ever happens again anywhere in the world, spammers will jump right on the event like flies on sh*t.
- pyre 15y agoIt's already happening. There is this example, and I recall one of the recent Christchurch earthquakes had someone complaining about similar spamming of a hashtag related to the quake on Twitter.
- pyre 15y agoIt's already happening. There is this example, and I recall one of the recent Christchurch earthquakes had someone complaining about similar spamming of a hashtag related to the quake on Twitter.
- guruz 15y agoLooks like others noticed too: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=11328 http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=11328
- swah 15y agoWe need to partition HN. I love your input, but "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."
- lukeschlather 15y agoI remember someone noting that "If the world ended, I'm confident it would be covered immediately on HN." I think this qualifies as something of sufficient importance that it should be here just so everyone is aware. We could do without the comments though. Maybe a "no comment" sort of link for events of vital importance that are off-topic? It would make a lot more sense than disabling comments for YC job postings.
- nitrogen 15y agoI'll second your first paragraph, but would prefer to leave the comments. HN is one of my two primary news sources, largely due to it being the only place I've found this quality of discussion. When something really significant happens, I enjoy participating in a discussion about it with the HN crowd.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- alain94040 15y agoAgreed. That's why I flagged this article (not that it mattered much). It's new I care about, but it was the #1 headline on CNN and every other European news site so I don't need to see it on HN.
- Eventh 15y agoThe name and photo of the arrested man has been leaked. Here is his facebook and twitter page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002651290254 http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002651290254 https://twitter.com/#!/AndersBBreivik https://twitter.com/#!/AndersBBreivik
- sixbit 15y agoHe's been identified: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/22/anders-behring-breivik-id_n_907513.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/22/anders-behring-brei...
- ristretto 15y agowhat 's a "ring wing"?
- epynonymous 15y agosorry but this article is absolutely awful, my sympathies to the affected victims, but there's not a single analysis of the situation. was it terrorist based, was it a hate crime, why is this stoltenberg guy such an apparent tool, what does his party do, and i love how the article makes an ass out of stoltenberg by possibly mis-quoting him as someone who has a god complex by stating that all govt ministers are ok, what about those injured and killed!? unimportant? obviously the article is against stoltenberg unless he's really that much of an incompassionate dickwad the police in oslo much be very tight lipped, this must also be the first crime aince medieval times :)
- Eventh 15y agoPolice just confirmed that at least 80 is killed at Utøya, earlier reports were 9-10. All killed by one gunman, and the deaths (at least 7) from the bomb in Oslo is in addition to these 80. :(
- vegardx 15y agoIt's been an emotional roller coaster, and things just got even worse. I don't have words that can describe my feelings right now. -- A Norwegian Guy
- aw3c2 15y agoAnd everyone jumped to conclusions that it surely was islamist extremist terrorists, al-qeada or the like. But no, it was a right-wing nationalist anti-islamist (apparently single) guy. I am so glad.
- umright 15y agoYou're so glad, really? This guy was apparently Christian, so I hope that makes you feel better about the religious aspect of it. Extremists and fundamentalists are all the same, regardless of what they're worshiping. Also, given that Islamic extremists would be the most obvious conclusion, how is it unreasonable to draw such assumptions, especially when a supposed Islamic group claimed responsibility?
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- aw3c2 15y agoWell, why would Islamic extremists be the most obvious conclusion? That is exactly the manipulated mindset I was glad not to see confirmed.
- pyre 15y ago> Extremists and fundamentalists are all the same, > regardless of what they're worshiping Wouldn't this make it less likely to be Islamic extremists vs fundamentalists from <insert religion>? > given that Islamic extremists would be the > most obvious conclusion Because Muslims are more prone to being crazy and/or extreme than Christians (or people of <insert religion>)? Because Islamic extremists are the only people that use guerrilla tactics and explosive devices to get their point across?
- meric 15y ago>> Because Islamic extremists are the only people that use >> guerrilla tactics and explosive devices to get their point >> across? Until July 1997, the IRA carried out several bombing and shooting attacks. These included the Docklands bombing and the Manchester bombing, which together killed 2 civilians, injured 212 more and caused around £500 million in damage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Ar... The Oklahoma City bombing was a bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing sigh.
- jamaicahest 15y ago"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." 150 people don't read the guidelines?
- pyre 15y agoApparently neither do you: > Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is > inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or > offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" > link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If > you flag something, please don't also comment that you did.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- thomasfl 15y agoThe streets here in Oslo is filled with patrolling soldiers now. Normally you only see a few policemen, and they are almost always unarmed. The guy they have arrested for the massacre may face 21 years in prison.