‘Violent explosion’ rocks Nyack College academic building, injures 7

This just happened a short time ago and I've been waiting for the story page to fill with some additional information before sharing. It appears they had a possible natural gas explosion. That was how this was first reported but now, seems a little questionable by the language being used. They are hedging far more than initial reports did on cause?

Seven people were injured Tuesday morning in a campus explosion at Nyack College, north of New York City.

Windows were blown out of one of the college’s academic buildings during a “violent explosion” that occurred at approximately 9:35 a.m., according to a fire official.

Details are still coming out on this and it's very much a developing story, so something to watch.

There were seven people inside the building at the time, some of them students meeting with professors on the second floor, said Gordon Wren, head of Rockland County Fire and Emergency Services. All are being treated for injuries, but none appear to be life-threatening.

“One of them was blown or fell from the second story through a window and is being treated for back and neck injuries, but as far as we know none of them were seriously hurt,” Wren told the Daily News.

Source

It sounds to me as though some people got exceptionally lucky in where they were and how this blast rolled over them for no one to have been killed. Anyone with additional updates, feel free to add them on here as I imagine more will be coming through the day. Anyone living close by thought? This story may help explain all the commotion I imagine local residents have been hearing since the explosion took place.

I have nothing useful to say about this. (But at least I'm admitting it up front, unlike many others.) I am curious, because you stressed the language aspect of it, what is meant by a "violent explosion?'

I admit I prefer my explosions to be of the quiet, subdued, lazy type. The kind of explosion that sits around for a while before deciding whether it really wants to explode, then stretches a bit, pokes its head out the front door before going for a stroll down the lane, stopping to pick a flower now and then.

Can't say I care much for these new-fangled explosions that always seem to be in a hurry, bustling about, pushing people, even breaking things. No manners, I say, and good riddance to them.

reply to post by charles1952


Smart ass....

If you'd noticed though, the emphasis is part of the headline I just used as a whole. I try not to edit headlines when I use them unless there is a very compelling reason. Like length or language, for instance. Heck..I usually don't use a story at all if even a headline can't manage to be family friendly in language though.

I'd wondered why the crickets chirping for replies on this one. I wonder if that's it? Err... It's not every day you have an explosion at a campus blowing people out second story windows, after all.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Dear Wrabbit2000,

If you want a serious reply, I think the crickets are because the explosion hasn't yet been shown to be either a false flag by the CIA or the Bilderbergers, or a terrorist attack. Unfortunately, we're starting to get used to Americans being killed one way or another, and those tornados didn't help much. Neither did the chemical plant explosion, come to think of it.

Now if we find some turbans and bomb fragments, this thread will really take off.

On the other hand, we've got a thread showing a Turkish protester getting hit with a water cannon and a police truck taking out a barricade, which has 70 some-odd flags, so you just never know.

P.s. Sorry, I just noticed that no one was going to die from this. A month from now, they'll all be drunk at a frat party trying to get close to a girl and telling about their adventure. - C -

With respect,
Charles1952

reply to post by charles1952


Yeah, you're right. No body parts to gawk at.... No bodies to wonder about... No nefarious types skulking around the woods or mysterious cars to question. Just a big boom out of nowhere and, as you note, no one even died. How boring.

Of course, for those there? I'd imagine boring isn't the word for the day ...but not so interesting for everyone else.

Are we becoming THAT jaded and desensitized that if it doesn't bleed, it's not fit to lead, so to speak? If there isn't some devious plot afoot...it's not interesting enough to bother with? I fear we may be.

Kinda like porn, I'm thinking. When I was a kid, Victoria's Secret Catalogs were special for kids to hide and National Geographic? Wow... Topless women! (Africa..but who cared?!). Now a days, if it isn't a Nun doing gymnastics with a pink polka dotted double amputee or something, it's just not fit to look at.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Dear Wrabbit2000,

Nice, solid post. Unfortunately, that's the standard I hold you to every time. Tough being an ATS Super Star, isn't it?

I may be down in a hole today, but I think you're putting a better spin on it than I would. It could be desensitization, or a form of "compassion fatigue," but that can be cured over time.

But what if it isn't? What if people are saying "I might as well ignore this story because there isn't anything in it I can use to advance my cause or to make my enemies look bad?"

If that's the case, then we're past desensitization, we're in the realm where people are only objects to be used in playing silly little propaganda games.

I have an idea for a thread which runs along these lines. Consider an incident in which there is a victim and a predator. If they are from two different groups, observe which one gets defended in the press or ATS. The Woolwich beheading? I saw a post claiming that we didn't know if it was motivated by religion. The emphasis on Rigby being a soldier, and the polite way in which the attackers stood there waiting.

Have a gay kill a straight and it's nothing. Have a straight kill a gay, and it's headlines for days and a new bill in Congress. (Not to mention the ATS threads.)

For those who believe we are puppets controlled by the "Powers That Be," it's worse than that, we're controlled by the groups of citizens who have agendas to push.

Now it's your turn to say something cheerful and optimistic, showing me that I'm misinterpreting everything.

With respect,
Charles1952

Originally posted by charles1952
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

For those who believe we are puppets controlled by the "Powers That Be," it's worse than that, we're controlled by the groups of citizens who have agendas to push.

Now it's your turn to say something cheerful and optimistic, showing me that I'm misinterpreting everything.

With respect,
Charles1952

Oh thanks, you always know how to make my job easy to spin something up for the keyboard. lol.... Cheerful, optimistic? Well, no one lives forever, so we can all rest well in knowing that every jerk we've ever met will die ..at some point. How's that?

Of course, the bad news is, we do too...and may not last longer, so .. Every cloud has a silver lining and every silver lining has some tarnish to it.

In terms of your experiment? That is an interesting phenomenon and I notice you've been watching it too. I should have figured as much though, since you are one of the deeper thinking types on here. It is an odd thing to watch. I think you could lay out almost any scenario you wanted from the mundane to the unthinkably horrific for happenings between people. Crime, War, Domestic Violence...whatever. The exact nature wouldn't matter.

People would form opinions and they come to conclusions despite deliberately holding back identifying information for, as you note, group identity. Race, Religion, Nationality, Creed...all of it. Save it for the very end. Write down the opinions people have without that information ..and then, knowing what people are sensitive to for prejudice and bias? Throw in that shouldn't matter but likely will change their take entirely. Nothing more changes,.. just group identity. I'd be willing to be the number would be as high as 60-70% who would change their positions in small to dramatic ways ..by that one change.

I guess that means we really do determine what we care about, generally speaking, on personal bias/interest...and not on pure humanity grounds. At least, I'd say, for a majority of the general public for a sample.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Dear Wrabbit2000,

Since you're treating me more kindly than I deserve, let me go into half-baked idea territory.

At the start of the administration currently in control, "Throwing someone under the bus," was mocked and criticized. As time went on, and the bodies under the bus mounted, it became a more accepted political device.

What if that becomes a commonplace? Are we close to the point where the individual. his reputation, his career, can only be maintained as long as he is "useful" to the cause or group?

To be honest, this one scares me even more than the idea that people are being used and manipulated. This thought raises the idea of "disposable people."

I suppose that's just a little extra tarnish, though.

With respect,
Charles1952

reply to post by charles1952


You know, I've wondered a similar thing myself. In relation to the topic here and how interest seems peaked on some stories but 0 on others, it does raise the question of concern as well as attention span for what is happening. When that isn't there anymore, disposable people are more realistic to see come about for how they are used, abused and dumped when it's convenient.

That is something of a scary thing too...as it's not that hard to see happening. Public apathy leads to general apathy overall and when someone cannot find others to care about wrongs? Well, it almost ceases to matter what is right or wrong anymore, doesn't it? It requires concern for the difference for that distinction to matter, right?

So indeed... The general trends and how people are coming to be treated are as disturbing as they are evident for the direction things are taking.

In a related example for apathy and how it seems to manifest, imagine this thread and it's OP topic as I wrote it ...if that hadn't been a small campus north of The City with rural attention. What if that had been IN the city and the poor guy blown out a second floor window landed on the hood of a cab on a major avenue? I'd imagine it would be running headlines everywhere while people wildly speculated on the meaning of the blast and what conspiracy must have been afoot to cause it? All a matter of location, perspective and general apathy. Insidious thing, isn't it?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Dear Wrabbit2000,

This isn't a new idea, it's a corollary of our discussion.

One of the things that made America great, Indeed, it may have been the thing, is that our government was formed on the basis that the people had the authority and they gave up just enough to form a functional government. The people were the source of the power, not the King, or the Party, or the State. This, I believe is unique in the modern world.

By making people disposable, interchangeable parts of groups, and then making those groups powerful within government, we go far towards the "Fundamental Transformation of America" which our President wants so badly.

Unfortunately, it also brings to a close our great experiment in liberty and freedom.

With respect,
Charles1952