When the purpose is to create terror, nothing works like having a mundane, every-day environment suddenly turn deadly. That's what happened this week in London—in the midst of pleasure about the selection of the city for the 2012 Olympics, mayhem and murder arrived at a London tube station, and exploded from several buses.
We've seen live-blogging before, most notably in the aftermath of the Christmas-time tsunami. So it's no surprise that London, a hotbed of blogging, should explode with live-blog activity in the wake of the blasts.
NoseMonkey started live-blogging on Europhobia at the start with "So, what's this 'bang' on the tube all about then?" As the infomation came through, the live blog was updated every few minutes, from the area to be evacuated. Around noon, our blogger even arranged for an alternate source for Europhobia readers, in case the computer he was using was no longer available (due to evacuation or explosion).
At Londonist, blogger Rob also posted a minute-by-minute update of the news from the blast zone. (While Rob was posting the updates, associated SFist blog noted the focus for San Francisco: "SFist Cares ... About Breasts... You know what SFist loves? Tits. There. We said it. Love 'em!")
Ali Sharp is a free-lance journalist from Melbourne, Australia, who was in London on Thursday to cover the G8 summit. Blogging from post no bills, Sharp documented the confusion: "It now seems that only four explosions took place across London, with reports from Liverpool St and Aldgate stations actually referring to the same blast." and "A relatively unknown group claiming links to al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but this has not been independently verified."
At Reaching for Lucidity, blogger Eban Crawford of Littlehampton, UK, a "member of the U.S. Air Force that served in Desert Storm, an artist by trade, and a writer by passion," posted an eyewitness account from ITV News:
On BlogCritics, sungoddess broke the news, with the shocking report that "This city is under attack. I am in the middle of a terrorist attack." Other London-based bloggers soon added their own posts, in a cooperative live-blog. Although partisan comments began while the dust of the blast was still in the air, the majority of writers seemed to be in shock, offering condolences even as they asked, "Why?"
Article comments
1 - Jackson West
Actually, we had posted a link to Londonist's coverage early in the day. SFist Cares is a column about local and national charity events, and this week was focused on supporting pledges in the Avon Breast Cancer Walk.
There were also eight other posts on that day, including one submitted via email by a rather shaken contributor who had written hers on a flight to London that landed shortly after the blasts. Excuse us for deferring coverage to our colleagues who were actually on the scene.
2 - DrPat
Jackson West is quite correct - I was not making a point about SFist, but about the difference in focus between bloggers on the scene and those who were not.
Since San Francisco is my closest metro area, I picked SFist to visit - and found one of my own favorite topics being discussed!
3 - alpha
British resolve. "Simple" 10 pound (4.5kg) bombs. Cell phone cameras and live blogging.
You caught the dichotomies of this tragedy of contemporary technological pride in the face of ancient hatreds and man's unending search for reasons and ways to kill.
All this great technology and we still cannot answer the question of "why?" (I ignore the reasoning (sic) of Deb Frisch.)
4 - Ali Sharp
Thanks for letting me know that you had referred to my blog. Much appreciated.