World Trade Centre – New York – Some Engineering Aspects
Why Did It Collapse?
Excellent link, thanks Gus. I’ve been aching to hear about this part.
I really miss the city now. I can’t stand not being there. I have a ticket for halloween. I counted the weeks – it’s 6.
Thank god for the internet – i can’t imagine not being able to read all the accounts, to not be able to listen to NPR and BBC streaming non-stop. Last night I am practically falling asleep in my chair but I can’t turn off ABC. Barbara Walters is showing pictures of passengers on the doomed flights. Les calls her a tearmonger. She is. In this case, it doesn’t take much talent though.
There is also continuing NPR interviews of relatives of lost people. They are searching the streets with pictures of family members who worked in the WTC and are unaccounted for. They say when their last contact was, and they say which tower and which floor the person worked on. This is the calling card of tragedy. I’ve always hated the WTC. I thought it was ugly and overbearing in the new york skyline. It’s only positive was to point out which way was south. I also always hated the inside. It was huge, always full of commotion, questionable lighting. I’d had drinks in the Tall Ships Bar a coupla times and Windows on the World. Neither was particularly good. I want them back now. I want Tall Ships Bar, and Windows on the World, and that hotel which is the only place in lower Manhattan that you can definitely find a yellow cab that won’t rip you off, and that Duane Reed where i bought my 2nd to last tube of toothpaste and the seats outside of i-forget-which-chain-coffee-place where i sat down because my feet hurt after a long walk during my lunch hour a week before i left NYC. I want that back.
I hope they rebuild something wonderful.
yes i’m posting like there’s no tomorrow.
in case you wanna look at something other than burning skyscrapers, i posted a new set of pics (that is 100% burning-skyscrapers-free):
OK Jeff was trying to persuade me of Guiliani’s grace and control under pressure over dinner in Amsterdam last weekend. Watching his press conference right now, I’m persuaded. He’s not gonna be first on my list of party guests, but he genuinely makes me feel like the city will put itself back together.
Meanwhile, Parisians are as horrified as possible, and there are police officers everywhere. Especially in my areas, because my work neighborhood is arab and my home neighborhood is jewish.
And what else? I can’t work. I can only sit here glued to streaming BBC, waiting for NYC to wake up and talk to me.
So the only decent streaming i can get is the BBC world news. Now we talk about retribution.
Now I’m nowhere near an expert on any of these complicated affairs of world politics, but that won’t stop me from pointing out a couple of things.
On Afghanistan
I hope against hope that in the news reports and patriotic speeches to come, there will be at least a smidgen of the history behind the Taliban situation. For instance that during the cold war the US government (the Reagan administration specifically) armed half of the Afghanistani people to the teeth. Meanwhile the USSR was invading and arming the other half of Afgahanistan to the teeth. And what insued was a bloody, brutal, and inhumane game of ideology between 2 superpowers that could care less about the people and land and Life of the pieces they were playing with.
And the cold war ended, The USSR had no soldiers left to send, and no money left to give. The US had nothing left to prove. And all that was left to Afghanistan was an unimaginable amount of weaponry. No governemnet, no schools, no rules, nothing. When a neighbor stole one’s last piece of bread, the only thing to do was pick up an M16 (paid for by either by US or USSR citizens) and blow his head off.
And that was the situation when the Taliban came to power. They are young, (because everyone older in Afghanistan is dead). They are fanatic (because they are desperate). They hate the US (because the US has screwed them).
And when I see petitions and outcries on the state of Afganistani women without any mention of this, i am Pissed. And now it is those “dirty arab backward terrorists” that are hiding the dirtiest backwardest arab terrorist. He was trained by the US folks. Let’s keep this in mind. We wanted him to go out and kill commies, which he probably did.
Now clearly I have no absolutely no respect or understanding for whomever is responsible for this, and I think the Taliban is fanatical, extremist, and just plain bad. But the thing is, we have to look at this with a more critical eye. I hope these things get discussed on the news and at dinner tables in the states. But I doubt it. And to be honest, I may be wrong on some of the finer points here, and I can’t give any great sources but an incredibly enlightening charlie rose i saw one evening.
I just hope we can look deeper on this one. Out of the ashes there is possibility. Endless possibility.
Notes:
Attacks Show That Political Courage Is the Only Real Defense
William Pfaff International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
PUBLISHED BY THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
THE SOVIET WAR IN AFGHANISTAN:
HISTORY AND HARBINGER OF FUTURE WAR?
by
General (Ret) Mohammad
Yahya Nawroz, Army of Afghanistan
& LTC (Ret) Lester
W. Grau, U.S. Army
all our blogs are the same. an ordinary crisis topped by a monstrous one.
i was at work in the afternoon in paris when i got a “Knock-knock” on aim from someone i didn’t know,
TypeButter (9:08 AM): !
TypeButter (9:08 AM): the WTC just blew up again
nilsoill (9:17 AM): whos this?
TypeButter (9:17 AM): butter Jaylo’s friend
nil so ill (9:18 AM): oh – hey – do you know who i am?
TypeButter (9:18 AM): yeah
nil so ill (9:18 AM): what’s with the wtc?
TypeButter (9:18 AM): i must have put you in my buddy list at some point
TypeButter (9:19 AM): the World Trade Center blew up again
nil so ill (9:19 AM): holy shit!?
TypeButter (9:19 AM): seriously
nil so ill (9:19 AM): i’m living in paris right now
TypeButter (9:19 AM): lol
nil so ill (9:19 AM): where’s the story
TypeButter (9:19 AM): US tv
TypeButter (9:20 AM): dude… giant smoking hole in each tower
nil so ill (9:20 AM): hmm – i can only do websites – was it bad? a bomb?
TypeButter (9:20 AM): not sure
TypeButter (9:20 AM): i think a plane crashed into it
TypeButter (9:20 AM): but then there was an explosion in the other tower
TypeButter (9:21 AM): i was half asleep… my tv is on a timer
TypeButter (9:21 AM): it turned on and there was an explosion followed by static
nil so ill (9:21 AM): you are so lying~!
TypeButter (9:21 AM): im so not
Here’s the full transcript from Butter
he was a friend of a coworker that had put me on his buddy list three years ago. The jetnoises, or TV, or jetnoises on TV had woke him up. And mine was the only lit globe on his buddy list.
i scrambled for an url.
cnn.com was down.
msnbc.com was down.
npr.org was down.
abcnews.com was down.
finally i managed to get a 1 sentence newswire from AP. I could only title it as “oh shit!”. The office didn’t believe me at first. i didn’t believe me at first.
“yer lying” i punched to TypeButter
no no no he punched back. and slowly im windows started popping up everywhere on my screen. We found a french webcast and watched in horror.
“Hole vache!”, a cry from a french coworker.
Me, hands on my face. I knew the enormity of the Worlde Trade Center. The people pour from it daily. This was the worst anything; And no one had any words.
We watched the building come down in a pixelated window. “Oh God,” was all i could come up with. Hands on my face. For 3 hours this went on. Head hurts, lunch stoppped digesting hours ago. Aim windows everywhere. And no one had any words. I rode the metro home when i couldn’t take anymore. The ordinaryness of the paris train was soothing. We could walk slowly home. Stopping off to buy a bottle off red wine. And then i began to cry. And i have no words for it.
It was only this morning that I saw the real pictures. The rich quality zoomed ones. The worst ones. The ones that show the terror of the poeple above the smoke.
On my walk to work this morning, I tried to imagine the new york skyline without the World Trade Center. What about that simpons episode? The tourists postcards? Everyone’s awestruck cityscape snapshot from the Brooklyn Bridge? All with a new meaning now.
Who of us could ever have imagined our temples in ruins? A modern parthenon for a modern Rome.
And what will replace it? A memorial I imagine. Another high rise? And what about the scores upon scores of people, business, machines, Life? From the ashes there is horror, sadness, disgust, helplessness, and heaps and heaps and heaps of possibility.
I have no words except: New York I love you. America I love you.
Notes:
Death Grips the Heart of Lower Manhattan
Peter Slevin and Barton Gellman Washington Post Service
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
By Laura Miller
Salon.com
U.S. probe focuses on Bin Laden
By Karen Gullo
Sept. 11, 2001 | Washington DC (AP)
Attacks spark global red alert
September 12, 2001 Posted: 3:43 AM EDT (0743 GMT)
Cnn.com
what the fuck is happening in nyc?
the only sites that aren’y clogged are the ones in french. jeezus jeezus jeez….
Holy mother of god: I have forgotten my NYC address!
well well well
no i’m not on strike, a meteor hasn’t hit france, and i didn’t drown in cheese – though there is a wheel of camambert that is really stinking up the fridge right now.
in fact i just returned from exactly 26 hours in amsterdam. so clearly there’s much to tell. and much to tell about before that. i’m at a point of sleepdrived where i don’t remember what it was like to feel really awake. there will be stories, promise. meanwhile there is a new aimbite…
New Angeles Monthly, June 2008
Weekend America, March 30, 2008
Los Angeles Times, March 13, 2008
Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2008
Nil by Mouth is written by Neille Ilel. Neille is a writer, reporter and user interface specialist in Los Angeles. If you think that's a lot, she's also got a host of meandering sidelines including improv comedy, tennis, cooking, drawing and thinking about learning to play the guitar.
Nil is her given name. It's a long story.
E-mail her here:
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