If you are in Boston and safe and sound and in the place of mind to do so, please send to the Boston Police any video, pictures, or other types of recordings of the Marathon finish line and its environs, as there might be clues to the whereabouts of those still missing and/or the perpetrators.
Update 5:10 p.m.: The Associated Press reports that authorities have shuttered cell-phone service in Boston “to prevent any potential remote detonations of explosives”—an understandable precaution that will unfortunately do nothing to alleviate the atmosphere of fear and unease in the city. If you’re still trying to reach friends and family, or have information about anyone’s whereabouts, try Google’s helpful person-finder.
Update: 5:30 p.m.: For a (much needed and very brief) moment of quasi-levity we turn, reliably as ever, to Fox News. Ahem: Shep Smith would like to correct his earlier report of a bomb at J.F.K. International Airport, in New York. The bomb in question was at J.F.K. Library, in Boston. Boston and New York are different; so too, libraries and airports. Fox News regrets the error.
Meanwhile, the Boston Police Department would like everyone to do it, and themselves, a favor by ignoring (especially now, but probably also forever, while they’re at it) any and all self-described information published by The New York Post. Per Talking Points Memo:
The New York Postreported that a “Saudi national who suffered shrapnel wounds in today’s blast” has been identified as “a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing.” The Boston PD spokesperson did not confirm that report.“Honestly, I don’t know where they’re getting their information from, but it didn’t come from us,” said the spokesperson.
Update 5:45 p.m.: The White House Flickr feed—so far a more reliable news source than, say, The New York Post—has published a photo of Barack Obama speaking with F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller. Both look about as miserable as everyone else following this story. The president will brief the nation on today’s in 20 minutes, at 6:10 p.m.