Slashdot Mirror


New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion (nytimes.com)

There was a boom; then a hum. The lights flickered. A giant plume of smoke filled the New York City sky, and turned it blue. From a report: "A sort of unnatural, fluorescent shade of blue," said Bill San Antonio, 28, who was watching Thursday night from inside a terminal at La Guardia Airport. "We thought it was a U.F.O.," said Yiota Androtsakis, a longtime Astoria resident. Ms. Androtsakis was not the only one. In the earliest moments, hundreds of Twitter users from across the city posted videos of the eerie lights, causing many on social media to fear an alien invasion.

By late Thursday night officials said the event was caused by nothing more than a transformer explosion. "No injuries, no fire, no evidence of extraterrestrial activity," the New York Police Department tweeted, adding later that the explosion was not suspicious. There was one Con Edison employee nearby when the fire started, and the authorities said he was unharmed. Still, Deputy Inspector Osvaldo Nunez, the commanding officer of the 114th Precinct, conceded that the episode "was spectacular." "You could see it from the precinct, and the precinct is about a half-mile away," he said. "You felt it in your chest, the explosions, and the night sky turned an electric blue."

5 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Gozer by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A friend of mine who lives in Astoria posted a video and it looked like some real Ghostbuster shit.

    There's a good roundup of videos of this event over on Deadspin.

    https://theconcourse.deadspin....

    By the way, if you go and search Twitter for #Qanon, you'll find that there are already NYC blue light truthers who are saying this is a message to patriots that the "hot war" is coming and that the acting attorney general (aka "117") is about to unleash holy hell on unbelievers and other liberals. Or, that it's a false flag. I'm not shitting you.

    https://twitter.com/travis_vie...

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:Gozer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You know, there comes a point we have to take the nutters at their word. They're objectively nuts, but they do exist and could be weaponized based on their usefulness, as morons. Pizzagate riflemoron showed that much.

      I mean shouldn't the FBI be actively leading these idiots off a GPS cliff or something? Or does that just play into the conspiracy? We can't win, idiocracy is upon us.

  2. Sky Turns Blue by mentil · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The sky is blue?! Shit, gotta be aliens! /facepalm

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  3. Alien invasion.... by Maelwryth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why would aliens want to invade New York?

    --
    I reserve the write to mangle english.
  4. Re:Toxicity of that smoke is pretty much a given by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Iron and copper can be pretty horrible when inhaled

    If you're close enough for iron and copper (not heavy metals) to be a problem for your lungs, then I suggest you get some SPF75 because the UV from that arc flash will be your biggest concern, right after the fact that you probably coped a significant amount of molten copper to your face. Mind you your concern will be short lived as the natural end a transformer scenario is a boil over. You can rest calmly as your burn alive thinking "at least I did not inhale".