I'm with you on this one, Lam.
I couldnt believe how harsh people were on her, the flame war got out of control. Good on you for looking out.

I don't think they should have attacked her like that either. She's just documenting things the way they happened. All she is is the photographer. Just because she doesn't post certain pictures doesn't mean their contents don't happen, it just means people don't get to see it.

I concur. These pictures are graphic, but that's real life. These are robots doing extremely dangerous work that no sane human would be willing to do. Those bomb squad robots are saving lives.

If they want to be appalled and shocked by something, how about being appalled and shocked by the behavior of their fellow human beings BEFORE the bomb squad got there, when several innocent lives were obliterated by a misguided individual carrying a fistfull of explosives.

Oh, wait, they didn't see pictures of that. Out of sight out of mind, right? Yeah. Go find a vet who's just gotten back from Iraq, and tell them all bout how inhumane this kind of inspection is. They'll tell you all kinds of stories about the real inhumanity that gives these 'bots a purpose. I didn't go there, but from the things I've heard from vets, I don't think I'd be able to hack that kinda thing. They see the WHOLE picture; before, during, and after. There's a reason they go through so much de-briefing and counseling before getting out nowadays.

If I never saw a photo or video of something how could I ever know it happened?

I didn't hear about anywhere else.

People need to see this, first to show how low of a value on human life, in all it's stages, no matter what faction, country, religion, belief, and second to create a void for discussion, someone who is the relative, sibling, parent, caregiver, of this person, to maybe stop, if not at least make think, about what they are being asked to do.

Whatever was promised to this person, if anything was promised at all, could they even comprehend it?

To vilify the photographer for showing us the inhumanity being shown by all parties involved in the last moments of this person's life, and the moments following the end, is the same as denying that this event even happened.

Whatever the article(s) say surrounding the photos, or even the comments underneath, the pictures say enough already.

@DirkusMaximus:
You are right on all counts.
I would also add how easily we forget all those "bomb squad" experts that lost their lives securing and defusing these bombs before this technology was available.

As gruesome as these pictures might be, they remind us of the disturbed view of reality that terrorists have as well as the bravery of those few who risk their lives daily to stop the madness.

I often say, Freedom it's not Free. It is paid by the blood, sweat and tears of those who keep us safe. God bless them and keep them safe as well.

Still waiting for the disturbing photos.

cowards, walk into a crowded place and blow yourself up, men/woman/children, they don't care...next time you see any military personnel PLEASE thank them for putting their lives on the line everyday to protect us all...

I am glad that they are protecting us.

This is the world we live in, the world we made for ourselves. Don't be afraid to look at it.

@BrandonL: do you not see the corpse in the photos? generally people don't enjoy looking at that

@soulman: Well, you have to realize that there views on death are different than Americans. Look up sepikku on Google and read about how the Japanese don't see this as a problem. They will commit suicide because they feel its right, just like we feel its ok to have a bunch of obese people and not do a lot about it.

Firstly, it's seppuku.

Secondly, never learn foreign cultures by watching Hollywood movies.

@skulldriveshaft: I'm not exactly sure what you were saying, as your syntax was hard to follow. However, it seemed to me you were suggesting that we should have sympathy for the bomber, because his body is being treated so disrespectfully. If I misunderstood, forgive me. If I did understand, however, I must condemn your response. This man walked into a snack shop and detonated a bomb attached to his body, with the express intention of killing innocent civilians. Even if you don't believe that his actions against others preclude his deserving our respect, you must concede that, in using his body as a tool to harm innocents, and (essentially) destroying it in the process, this man has already shown far greater disrespect to his own body and life than any bomb squad could in having their robot roll over his corpse as part of an effort to protect the living. Our sympathy should be reserved for this man's victims, and for the family he leaves behind; he is unworthy of it.

I don't think because a bomb comes from an F-22 or from a person is any different. I think the death of innocent people is wrong regardless of how its done, but I think people need to start asking 'why did he strap a bomb to himself and blow himself up'. I really don't think he did it for kicks.

So a robot rolled across a dead piece of meat to see it it would trip a secondary. Sorry, but it was only a human when it was alive. After that it was a potential booby trap. The fear that dead bodies might be booby trapped is an old, old idea. How would the critics like to be the ones to find out if this is a booby trap instead of the bot?

@soulman: Though I feel killing civilians is very wrong, nor do I feel he deserves respect, I can't call him a coward. Killing ones self or risking ones life is not an act of cowardice. In fact, it takes a great deal of resolve for a person whom is otherwise non-suicidal to commit suicide in the name of their politics. I can't stress enough how heinous I feel his actions were, but I feel that the usage of "cowardice" is a completely incorrect term the media has latched onto. I realize that this post will draw criticism, and I'm completely open to debate, but lets keep it civil.

HAHAHA Sick thought. Whitch is cheaper, a few K for a new robot or a Six Million Dollar Man in todays dollars?

I was with you right up until you used the phrase "candy-coated American lives" (though you forgot the necessary hyphen).

Look, I like Gizmodo. I check in every day in the early evening because I like how the blog is run. I appreciate compleat coverage of CES along with a good prank played thereon, and I completely loved the Halo3 thing.

And I understand when adjectives and subjective characterizations are necessary to describe, say, Apple's doubling of the iPhone's capacity, to make it appear as though it's necessary information to one's life.

There's a fine line here. You skirt it daily, and I appreciate that. I think it's necessary. But when you're posting a let's-call-it-serious post, why not let it stand for itself? This sort of post is a service to the world; why call it a "worst" shot? What's "worst" about it? That it clearly depicts something frightening and perhaps disturbing to oh-so-delicate sensibilities?

My ultimate point, Gizmodo, is that you're better than "worst" and "candy-coated."

I am surprised his body was so intact.

This must be the second bomber, who was shot by the quick-thinking police officer before he was able to detonate his bomb. Bottom line here is that the real act of inhumanity is the terrorist's decision that their warped political cause is more important than the lives of random innocent people who are out shopping for groceries. How anyone could criticise the important work of making sure there are no live explosives is really beyond me. You are upset by the work of the safety robot? Why aren't people outraged by the acts of terror, the daily child abuse by people who teach their children nothing but hatred, and then send them on suicide missions as teenagers. Or those who send mentally disabled, Downs-Syndrome women into markets with bomb vests rigged to explode remotely. I'm utterly astounded at how numb we are to real acts of depravity and how incensed we can become at really trivial, silly issue. (For example, the turning off of some screens at CES.) People really have no perspective at all anymore.

wait, they left out the good part: a few minutes before they filmed a police officer shooting 4 bullets into him when he tried to blow himself up.
[www.ynetnews.com],7340,L-3502401,00.html
(copy&paste the rest of the link, sorry:)

Why is this shit on Gizmodo? For traffic of course.

@peacefulpony: dont you see the cool gadget? I suggest a sizemodo with the mars rover!

@peacefulpony: And what if?
I think BLam's reason to put this up was clear.
Think!

@shawnmos: Looks like the unexploded second bomb is in the black bag next to the terrorists left leg. Thank G-d that policeman was a fairly good shot and acted quickly enough to stop the second blast. Also good thing the detonator wasn't on a dead-man switch as they often are in these situations - that would have definitely been one of the first things to cross my mind if I were in the policeman's shoes.

The flamers are idiots. Ignore them. The footage is relevant and important.

I've definitely seen far more voyeuristic and inappropriate shots than these, before.

People are actually upset over these pictures? wow.. those are pretty tame actually.

/misses Ogrish

You'll see worse pictures every night on TV "entertainment".

Tame or not - I think they are more than graphic - but shows us the reality of life such as it is for some people. Never put a lid on the truth - ever.

@JoOngle: a bit naive, truth is in the eyes of the beholder (or in todays world: in the eyes of the reporter). For example, the scene described in this post was reported by Hamas and Al-Jazeera media as "Israel executes young Palestinian male". go figure

"Pssh, those photos were obviously photoshopped."

DBag response to a story not unlike this one from a few weeks ago that I encountered. There is no use trying to convince the ignorant and naive that our world is anything but perfect. It goes without saying that a picture is worth a thousand words and obviously these pictures prompted many words from the same ignorant and naive people.

Good work, BLAM.

the disturbing thing here is, that a robot is acting violent against a human being. on the other side, this "human being" didn't care much about the other human being around him. he turned his body into a deadly weapon and destroyed innocent people with his act.

why is this on gizmodo?

Because the bomb robot technically counts as a gadget. And although I don't like death as much as the next guy; I dont really find these photos disturbing.

No, seriously, why are these here? As an Israeli, I can tell you those robots aren't really new(there are constant revisions, and very specific bots for specific tasks) and niether is their use, or frequence of use. So if nothing really changed, why now? Because some blogger posted pics? okay, understandable, but as a gadget blog, can we atlast focus on the bot a bit? Something more than "blah blah blah drama, blah blah blah Americans suck. Oh, and there a robot".

I do appreciate the fact that a huge flame war was not dragged out because Israel was mentioned, which is what usually happens...

A dead terrorist is only disturbing when you know he achieved what he wanted. Otherwise it is as disturbing as a dead cockroach being rolled over by a remote controlled life saver.

what gets me is that i would've expected readers of a sci-fi blog to be more inured to the fundamentally f**ked-up nature of some people. what future-tense story is ever pure sunshine and daffodils?

reading through the thread over there was so disappointing. i hate to penalize free speech, but maybe someone should pass annalee the banhammer.

Completely agree. This is reality. It should not be hidden.

The weird part about the photo tho is that the so called "bomber" is still all in one piece?? Doesnt look like he just blew himself up.

@SumGuy:

I think the story is that there were 2 bombers and the first one blew himself up and happened to almost take out the 2nd bomber. The paramedics were working on him when the realized he was actually another bomber and they all cleared out. Then he started fumbling for the switch and they had to put him down basically.

[www.liveleak.com]

That link shows the video of the medics realizing wtf was going on up until the officer shoots the bomber. The video is of a news report and doesn't actually show anything graphic. It cuts off before the shooting occurs.

There are two sides to the whole "terrorist suicide bomber as coward" aspect. On the one hand, it's an enormously brave act to knowingly detonate explosives strapped to your body, willingly sacrificing your life in the name of your cause. Sure, you can say that these fanatics fervently believe they will get their reward in the afterlife (promises of virgins, for example), and so they aren't really all that brave...but in the moment of truth, most people quail at the notion of extinguishing their life, and to overcome their self-preservation instinct is never an easy task.

On the other hand, while it may be personally brave to do such a thing, it is an overall cowardly act because they're engaging in a militaristic campaign against people who are not directly involved in their cause, and who are not given a chance to defend themselves. I find it dishonorable.

Informative post, a necessity. Regrading the comments on the suicide bomber, they have just as much right to use indiscriminate deadly force as those countries that use "smart" bombs, cluster bombs, or land mines.

It ran over the guy! Ewww gory!

I don't consider those photos to be either intense or disturbing. I didn't realize how large those robots were though. Go IRobot.

Hey Brian - maybe your life is Candy-Assed, I mean Coated, but there are lots of Americans in Iraq, as well as Americans, Brits, Canadians and Dutch is Afghanistan dealing with this sort of thing on a daily basis. Most of those troops are younger than the bulk of the commenters on this Blog and they go out every day facing danger and making split-second, life or death decisions.

Anyway, great video - it is interesting to see the use of the robot in saving lives, and to me the would-be bomber gave up any claim to hummanity the day he strapped on that bonb with the intent of blowing up women and children. It would only have been better if they had smeared bacon fat on the treads first.

"rolling over the bomber's corpse"

MK2 needs to have a defecation feature.

Before this degenerates into a pro/anti Iraq flame war, I'd like to say a few things.

1. However loosely related to gagetry, it is still related and I am glad to have seen the links to a story I likely would have otherwise missed.

2. The main difference between Terrorists (rebels, freedom fighters or whatever the current PC term is) and the military forces of most of the world is that Terrorists intentionally target innocent civilians. The military attacks targets of war and occasionally there is collateral damage.

3. Because of this dedication to keeping civilians as safe as possible most military forces world-wide are creating and inventing more accurate and safe weapons (the Gauss gun reported about last week is a good example of this)

4. People who villify the robot's handler of not being respectful to a dead body need to be reminded that booby-trapping is not a new idea. As just one example, in Vietnam, some Vietnamese soldiers would attach their weapon to a grenade's pin and then run directly at the enemy. that way when their weapon was pulled from their dead hands, they'd take out more of their enemy. These same tactics are being used. One bomber walks into a coffee shop. when a crowd of hundreds gathers, a second bomber comes along and bats cleanup.

5. These tactics (suicide bombing) have been going on for decades in the middle east and the presence of a military force is not the cause, but simply the currently convenient reason.

Don't take #5 to mean that I support or do not support the US being in Iraq, it's simply stating a fact.

@Canoehead:
Wasn't there a story about cremation of dead terrorists and putting all of their ashes into a pigskin that was sealed and buried in a tar pit?

I seem to remember a story about that very distinctly... I would think that not getting to heaven for your 42 virgin porcupines would be a big deterrent to suicide bombing...

Wow. Forget to check the blog for one day and look what you miss!

Having just read through that whole thread, it looks to me like most of the dumb was brought by two or three trolls. Very kind of the io9 folks to not borrow Giz's banhammer for a few minutes...!

He's lucky that they're not burying him with a ton of bacon.

'WARNING: This post has very disturbing photos.'

This is something that wasn't posted on the io9 site originally so as to warn people of the images. I think that's the only reason why people got upset.

that robot can roll that fucker all day long for all I care.

@demonwolf: Exactly. That's why people are upset. You can't just post something like this with no warning and expect it all to be taken in stride. That said I do agree with not hiding something like this.