Counting Sheep in DC

[discreet_chaos]

As the report circulated about a loud bang in the parking garage for a US House office building, the stock market took a breather by showing a sharp dip until things were better defined and as the news coverage got underway. All of the District's schools went into lockdown for two and a half hours, security tightened throughout the city, the

Comments

[flainn]

Why do you feel locking things down put people in danger?

Wouldn't they be in just as much, if not more, danger if they were allowed to panic and run pell-mell everywhere?

(Not trying to pick a fight; just genuinely curious)

HOB, a cathedral event

[anonymous]

Years ago in north Washington DC there was a cathedral whose infrastructure of steel girders were populated with welders trying to complete the immense dome after a ten-year hiatus for fundraising. As a young adult touring prospective admissions offices of universities in that part of Washington, my mother's native city, I was rattled, and even scared, as we happened to drive by the construction site just as a mid morning rest for the workers ended high on the beams and the stacatto of riveters filled the air. Having resided in suburbia most of my life, the sheer intensity of the din was even more stark a reminder that WA-DC is genuinely urban than the devilmaycare driving habits which were so evident in the nation's capitol, as well.
Maybe the hubbub over the noises last Friday will turn out to have been equally as inconsequent.

[niap_si_efil]

"the stock market took a breather by showing a sharp dip until things were better defined"

Reminds me a bit of Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired cyberpunk novel, where the "screamsheets" (i.e., blogs) are manipulated to cause the stock price of a megacorp to fall.