Posted on 08/30/2006 12:57:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The government is taking the unusual step of responding to conspiracy theories about the destruction of the World Trade Center.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, Gaithersberg, Md.), which investigated the causes of the collapse of the twin towers, said Wednesday (Aug. 30) that it has posted a "fact sheet" addressing alternatve theories about the fires and collapse. Several academics have put forth a "controlled demolition" and missile attack hypotheses for the destruction of the towers.
NIST concluded after a three-year building and fire safety investigation that the towers collapsed after being hit by separate, fuel-laden aircraft flown by terrorists. The impacts severed and damaged support columns, dislodging fireproofing insulation and dispersing jet fuel over multiple floors of each tower.
The resulting fire, which reached temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees C, weakened floors and columns, causing upper floors to collapse after sagging and pulling inward on perimeter columns. "This led to the inward bowing of the perimeter columns and failure of the south face of WTC 1 and the east face of WTC 2, initiating the collapse of each of the towers," NIST concluded.
NIST's probe rejected claims that upper floors "pancaked" on top of lower floors, causing the collapses. Other investigations pointed to huge amounts of office supplies, especially paper, as a source of fuel that significantly raised the temperature of tower fires beyond those that jet fuel would normally burn outside of an aircraft engine combustion chamber.
"Both photographic and video evidenceas well as accounts from the New York Police Department aviation unit during a half-hour period prior to collapsesupport this sequence for each tower." NIST concluded.
Far more controversial are theories about explosions inside the towers. Conspiracy theorists postulate that puffs of smoke seen at the time of each collapse are evidence of a controlled demolition. Critics of the official probe also cited seismic data they claim showed evidence of explosions just before each tower collapsed. Other theories alleged missiles were fired at the doomed towers.
While both NIST and the 9/11 Commission have dismissed these theories, U.S. officials have been compelled to address allegations widely disseminated on the Internet.
"NIST respects the opinions of others who do not agree with the findings in its report on the [World Trade Center] collapses," the agency said in a statement. "However, the WTC Investigation Team stands solidly behind the collapse mechanisms for each tower and the sequences of events (from aircraft impact to collapse) as described in the report."
Nice job. I remember watching this event live as it unfolded in gruesome detail. As I scanned your pictures I spotted one of those people who lept to his death. I was thinking of people like them last night and thinking that this absurd question routine here is an obscene gesture to their martyrdom.
I am an engineer. Suppose the steel gets hot & soft, as you've conceded, and only ONE support fails. What do think happens to all the other already-weakened members when a large additional load is suddenly applied to them?
BTW, you should be zotted.
You're right.......a lot of info to digest and I'll go over it some more later........just curious, any ideas on how I can find some of the historical activity for just AA and UA 60-90 days prior to 9-11?
I'm real curious what the history of call/put activity shows for both airlines because from what I understand from 9-6&7 CBOE handled for UAL 4744 put options vs. 396 calls and for AA on 9-10 there were 4516 puts vs. 748 calls. As far as I've read there was not any other negative news on either airline that would've prompted put activity several times more than the norm.
Cheney?
If there were 4000 put transactions they'd show up in the daily summaries.
As for how to get the data, email them and ask, say that you can't find it on their website. You are going to need more dates than just three, because the put/call ratio bounces around a lot and it's easy to hit a peak.
But I suspect that most of your answer is in the summaries.
Check out the Weidlinger Associates, Inc. report. Smilowitz was the author. WAI is a well-renowned structural analysis firm that I have personally dealt with.
HHC's husband.
You bad boy...
Good to know my instincts about you were dead on...poser.
LOL
Earth is moving in relation to the Sun, not the inverse.
When I started reading your posts, I thought there should have been a /s at the end...Now I see you are serious!
I guess even our FR can have conspiracy theorists/nuts here too.
Have a nice day.
During the Clinton Administration....the year 2000
A relative of mine has had problems with mild schizophrenia and sometimes has paranoid thinking. A couple of years before September 11th, she mentioned to me several times that she had always felt that skyscrapers were unsafe and might fall down. I reassured her that these buildings are carefully engineered and told her that she was just being paranoid. But it turned out that she was not entirely wrong.
Big difference. That might reassure her, but probably not.
I've personally dealt with WAI as well, on some highway bridge construction problems. Good outfit.
sauropod is the engineer, not me.
Sometimes he just forgets to log in under his own name before posting. :D
I'm just a lawyer, but I represented a highway construction company for years, and we spent a lot of time disentangling contract disputes over which subcontractor messed up. We had an oil truck that caught fire under a bridge and they tried to bring our client in claiming the bridge was constructed improperly leading to its collapse . . . so I do know something about what a hot fire will do to structural steel!
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