Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapses

[Crumpets]

One consideration that's pretty minor now but could be a big deal in the coming days and weeks is that pretty much the whole Port of Baltlmore is on the other side of this bridge from Chesapeake Bay. So any boat going to or from Baltimore Harbor is probably stuck for the time being unless one of the spans is still up and stable at a bigger height than the boat. I'm sure they can find a workaround, but it won't be immediate like just getting cars to use the tunnel instead.

[Crumpets]

Just heard on the news that two people were found alive in the water and taken to the hospital.

[Crumpets]

WBAL broadcast:
- No distress call or mayday from the boat
- Crew is still on-board and in contact with Coast Guard

This is the stream I'm listening to if anyone's looking for live coverage:
https://www.youtube.com/live/3S6JWqEHNgY

EDIT: Sounds like the "no mayday" reports were false.

[Crumpets]

yeah, it would be hard stupid expensive to design something that could absorb or resist that kind of energy

I think a new bridge would probably (hopefully) be able to isolate something like this to collapse only a single span or two spans and not the whole bridge, but yeah. If you hit basically anything with a 95,000 ton ship, it's going to be destroyed.

[Crumpets]

Has anybody else seen these tweets? Gross stuff.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1772619621457154389
https://twitter.com/AnthonySabatini/status/1772643640843604097
https://twitter.com/LokayFOX5/status/1772746037947478148

I reported a Facebook post from a political cartoonist yesterday for this. I doubt it'll be taken down, but I was so happy we were about to make it a full day without a freak accident being used for political points with next to no context or useful information about what happened. And then they had to just... decide it was an immigrant or a black person or whoever that... caused a boat to lose power?

[Crumpets]

Has anybody else seen these tweets? Gross stuff.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1772619621457154389
https://twitter.com/AnthonySabatini/status/1772643640843604097
https://twitter.com/LokayFOX5/status/1772746037947478148

I reported a Facebook post from a political cartoonist yesterday for this. I doubt it'll be taken down, but I was so happy we were about to make it a full day without a freak accident being used for political points with next to no context or useful information about what happened. And then they had to just... decide it was an immigrant or a black person or whoever that... caused a boat to lose power?

Such nonsense Tweets and posts what I hate about the internet and social media platform. If they were at least better in moderation.

One underrated thing that's gotten a lot worse about Twitter under Musk is how far down any sort of mainstream, authoritative source appears on any basic search of breaking news terms. If you wanted to get a rundown from a wire news source by searching "Baltimore bridge" on Twitter yesterday, you could only find it after shoveling past dozens of paid-blue-checkmark accounts pontificating and speculating about what they think might have happened.

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/catturd2/status/1773140918041821187?s=46&t=sUNIgKzJBtfAH...

Now right wingers trying to make a conspiracy theory out of this - that it was an inside job.

I rarely say this but people like Catturd genuinely seem like crappy people who just want to stir the pot and cause chaos - unless they truly are just living in a constant bubble of fear and skepticism.

Is that video manipulated? It looks that way, though I'm not an expert on that.

It's definitely sped up at the beginning and then slowed down around the time of impact (watch the blinking red light on the left). Not sure if anything else has changed, but apart from the speed, it looks like the other recordings I've seen.

[Crumpets]

America's Greatest Cartoonist^TM weighs in:
https://grrrgraphics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/biden-bridge_disaster-1536x1126.jpg

The way he draws the Zs around sleeping Biden's head makes it look like he's saying NNN.