MetaFilter posts tagged with WTC

When I see three oranges, I juggle. When I see two towers, I walk.

jessamyn — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:55:56 -0800

When Man on Wire won a Grand Jury Prize: at Sundance this year, many could hazily remember Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between the World Trade Center Towers in New York in 1974 (previously) but few knew the extent to which the entire endeavor was a wacky multinational caper. Additional trivia: The movie has gotten 100% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes; Debra Winger has it written into her film contracts that there should always be a visual tribute to Petit; [conspirator's] Jean-François Heckel's reward for the twin towers coup was to be unceremoniously expelled from the United States, whereas Petit received a lifetime pass to the WTC observation deck; Petit has been arrested over 500 times and can kill someone with an issue of People Magazine. Longer Petit interview from 1999 on Charlie Rose. In Petit's own words

I found out that the only way to protect my life was to know as much about the wire, about the rigging, about my limits as possible. Life is something to be cherished, and in this very, very dangerous profession of mine, a millisecond of inattention, a millimetre of being in the wrong place puts you out of balance and you lose your life immediately. Since I absolutely don't want to do that, I am in a very strange kind of solid control, in a world that is made of infinite fragility...

The "Ultimate 9/11 Truth Showdown": Taibbi vs. Griffin

Hat Maui — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:55:26 -0800

Matt Taibbi vs. David Ray Griffin Taibbi, to whose writing Metafilter frequently links, and who is currently on retainer at Rolling Stone, takes on Griffin, who is perhaps the most prominent member of the so-called "9/11 Truth Movement," in a knock-down, drag-out multiple-round bout (in three parts). Part II. Part III.

"Attacking that battle station is not my idea of courage. It's more like, suicide"

elgilito — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:53:17 -0800

September 11, 2001. It's 10:15 am and the South Tower just went down. Millions of French people are watching the live coverage of the events on TF1, France's major TV channel, with star anchorman Poivre d'Arvor doing a running commentary. Then, for a split second, a character from a famous movie happily tells us (in French subtitles) that he "did it" (18 s in the video) (Dailymotion video). This is definitely not a hoax. Some people reported seing something strange (though they weren't sure of what they had seen), but, of course, the incident got lost in the flow and never got mentioned again until recently, when people converted their VHS tapes and uploaded the clips to online services. As far as I know, TF1 never explained what happened. Who hijacked the coverage, how and why it was hijacked remain a mystery.

Speed Levitch's The Cruise

Ambrosia Voyeur — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:43:43 -0800

The Cruise, director Bennett Miller's timeless portrait of New York City, free thinking and the 1990s as lived by Timothy "Speed" Levitch. In eleven beats on youtube: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

#7: Ten percent of all city space shall be open land where you can "touch the dirt"

salvia — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:26:49 -0800

"First we kill the architects..." Photographer Danny Lyon [1, 2, 3, 4] offers ten suggestions for New York City. Suggestion #6: "Leave the World Trade Center excavation exactly as it is and use the space as a freshwater pond planted with pink, white, and yellow lilies..." His essay is only one of many from names you'll recognize in a book called Block by Block: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York. An associated exhibition opened yesterday [museum, NYT review]. Is New York City moving in the right direction? Is your city? [via] Footnotes: * It might also be interesting to see what others think about the direction of NYC. (Though only eleven people had expressed their opinion as of this posting.) * Background on Lyon's suggestion #7: he titled a collection of Polaroids of his children I Like to Eat Right on the Dirt.

Eunice Norton on Well Tempered Clavier Book I #12, #13

tss — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 10:40:19 -0800

Eunice Norton (1908-2005) wiki, great-great-grandstudent of Beethoven, gives a detailed, analytical tour of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier #12 in F, Bk I (part 1, part 2, part 3) and #13 in F#, Bk I (part 1, part 2) in a 1989 video. I can't take credit for noticing this. In an e-mail from my dad (links are mine): Another interesting thing: Go to YouTube and search for Eunice Norton [recordings] and her discussions of Bach's WTC ## 12 and 13. She made these videos when she was 80, and she demonstrates Bach much as he likely sounded in his own time. It is quite extraordinary. She lived in Pittsburgh from about 1934 until a little after 2000. One of her teachers in the 1930s was Artur Schnabel wiki, probably the greatest pianist of the 20th century. He, through his teachers and their teachers, was a very direct link back to Beethoven, who practiced the WTC every day and considered Bach to be the master. What Norton says about Bach comes directly from Schnabel and probably comes equally directly from Beethoven. She died in 2005 but she too had a number of students who continue the link. The structure that Norton so expertly describes perhaps explains why Bach's music can transcend even... unconventional performances.

Everything reduced to a mathematical representation

DreamerFi — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 04:50:56 -0800

Simulated jet colliding with the World Trade Center: Researchers at Purdue University have created a simulation to study in detail what likely happened when a commercial airliner crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower on Sept. 11, 2001. Youtube link.

The Present is the Future of the Past

Rumple — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 09:40:11 -0800

The Perfume of Garbage: an archaeology of the world trade centers (pdf). What do the the godfather of garbology, a leading post-modern archaeological theorist (blog), and a "space archaeologist"(cf. space junk) think about the WTC? Obviously as a ruin and as an archaeological site - but much more. An intriguing analysis placing the WTC ruins into archaeological context, and, most particularly, responding to the Smithsonian's exhibition of artifacts from the events of September 11, 2001. Also, a commentary (pdf) responding to garbage, space and the WTC. And yes, garbology goes well beyond Mick Jagger ephemera.

||

keswick — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 22:13:45 -0800

Just over five years ago, we saw them come down. Now, watch them go up.

On 9/11, New Yorkers faced the fire in the minds of men

hard rain — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 04:50:46 -0800

Slavoj Zizek United 93, WTC movies and 9/11 with some perspective no conspiracy theories here just a bit of philosophising.

"There are 12,000 of us ... [a]nd we are starting to die."

WCityMike — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:29:26 -0800

When Laura Bush showed up at my son's temporary school two weeks after the attacks for a photo op with these traumatized children, she told us that she couldn't make any promises to help us. "The PTA, not the school system, or god forbid federal government, installed a filtration system to protect our children. [... F]ive years later, I have been diagnosed and am being treated for lymphoma - a blood cancer caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. [...] Five years out there are 12,000 of us, maybe more - who knows? And we are starting to die."

Whore No More

Zozo — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 14:22:58 -0800

"I actually felt sick, just sick, about wasting so much studio money and being such a stinky, stinky junket whore." Freelance writer Eric D. Snider took up an offer to attend Paramount Studios' World Trade Center press junket, "being a whore just once to see what it was like." After he spoke unkindly of the practice—taking issue with how studios trade luxurious treatment for positive media coverage—the studio had him blacklisted from all further Paramount screenings, and those of a few other studios.

Only one link here!

thirteenkiller — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 19:28:29 -0800

Apparently, all the exhibits entered into evidence in US v. Moussaoui are available online. Enjoy!

"Oh, God! Oh, G--"

WCityMike — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 16:57:03 -0800

"Tell God to blow the wind from the West." Listen to Kevin Cosgrove speak with a 911 operator during the final moments of his life on September 11, 2001 — and the most heartbreaking moment is, without a doubt, the very final moment.

The State Department vs. Misinformation

blahblahblah — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 19:23:51 -0800

The State Department's campaign against misinformation and propaganda. Before you comment on the irony of it all, it is worth a read. Included are a careful, Snopes-like debunking of various rumors: Hugo Chavez's "Plan Balboa documents," the old 4,000 Jews and the WTC rumor, the use of chemical weapons in the Korean War, and some I hadn't heard of (the US to take over the rainforest?). Also information on how to spot disinformation, and attacks on the credibility of a few sites. Too bad that the US information services don't have the credibility they used to, but still worth reading.

Why the WTC collapsed.

craniac — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 22:53:29 -0800

Academics question the official explanation for the WTC collapse. This paper, with internal links to assorted videos and stills, argues that WTC 7, the 45-story companion building to the towers, appears to have been demolished by planted explosives, not the fire from the twin towers.

David Brin's worried ....

hank — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 15:37:21 -0800

David Brin -- hoping to rescue modernity Quote: -- "... I have spoken before of the blatant -- and yet never-reported -- pattern shown by more than a hundred members of the United States Congress, appointing young cadets to the US Military Academies according to one criterion above all others -- their depth of religious zealotry. This infusion of young officers who believe in a coming apocalypse is discreetly worrisome at West Point and Annapolis, but it has already had newsworthy effects at the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs. A town that is also now known as a main locus and training center for fanatics bent on dominating American civilization. (see) This coincidence... one of many that simply cannot be coincidence... should be tallied and noted. See also this in recent -- 11/26 -- news "... Among the steps already taken by the Pentagon that enhanced its domestic capabilities was the establishment after 9/11 of Northern Command, or Northcom, in Colorado Springs, to provide military forces to help in reacting to terrorist threats in the continental United States. Today, Northcom's intelligence centers in Colorado and Texas fuse reports from CIFA, the FBI and other U.S. agencies, and are staffed by 290 intelligence analysts. That is more than the roughly 200 analysts working for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and far more than those at the Department of Homeland Security...."

Liability changes everything

dand — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 10:11:08 -0800

You park, they pay NYC Port Authority found negligent by having parking under WTC. Jury finds terrorists 32% responsible for exploding van there in 1993. 400 plaintiffs seek $1.8 billion, NYCPA will have to pay 100% of the damages that might be awarded.

Without a Net

three blind mice — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 06:23:20 -0800

On this day in 1974 French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the still-unfinished (and largely unrented) towers of New York's World Trade Center. In the course of a single morning, the unexpected -- and illegal -- actions of a daring young Frenchman and a few of his confederates would change public opinion about the troubled towers, which were courting financial disaster and facing a barrage of architectural and social criticism (pdf).

WTC v2.1

keswick — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:09:47 -0800

A new design for the "Freedom Tower"-- the skyscraper that will form the heart of the rebuilt World Trade Center in New York-- has been unveiled. The new tower will be slimmer, straighter and more conventional, it will be set farther back from the street, and it will be placed atop a mammoth, 200-foot concrete-and-metal pedestal designed to repel explosions.

Former Bush Team Member Says WTC Collapse Likely A Controlled Demolition And 'Inside Job'

mk1gti — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 22:57:16 -0800

Former Bush Team Member Says WTC Collapse Likely A Controlled Demolition And 'Inside Job' Was it real or was it Memorex? Will we ever know? Tin-Foil hat theories or good, hard science?

Comparing tsunami deaths to the World Trade Center collapse

fleener — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 13:19:08 -0800

Compare the death count from the tsunami to the deaths at the World Trade Center using graphs. Rob Cockerham took a break from his victimless pranks to help put things in perspective. Those without a giant monitor will have to do some horizontal scrolling.

Suing the Saudis

Asparagirl — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 00:13:12 -0800

Suing the Saudis The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has decided to join a $7 billion lawsuit that was filed last week by bond brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 of its employees--two thirds of the firm--in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, which was three years ago today. It looks like they may be gearing up to use RICO: "[The lawsuit said] Saudi Arabia engaged in a pattern of racketeering as it participated directly or indirectly in al Qaida's work through its "alter-ego" charities and relief organisations, which it funded and controlled." Al Qaida is named as a co-defendant, and four Saudis are mentioned by name: the interior minister, the defense minister, the governor of Riyadh, and the British ambassador, all members of the Saudi royal family.

Melek Can Dickerson...took hundreds of pages of top-secret sensitive intelligence documents outside the FBI to unknown recipients.

amberglow — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 16:16:38 -0800

a letter to Thomas Kean, Chair of the 9/11 Commission from Sibel Edmonds: Unfortunately, I find your report seriously flawed in its failure to address serious intelligence issues that I am aware of, which have been confirmed, and which as a witness to the commission, I made you aware of. Thus, I must assume that other serious issues that I am not aware of were in the same manner omitted from your report. These omissions cast doubt on the validity of your report and therefore on its conclusions and recommendations. Considering what is at stake, our national security, we are entitled to demand answers to unanswered questions, and to ask for clarification of issues that were ignored and/or omitted from the report. A solid letter detailing many disturbing things reported to the Commission, yet not in the report. More on Edmonds here.

conspiracy theory 911

thedailygrowl — Sun, 25 Apr 2004 23:48:58 -0800

September 11th panel working to overcome conspiracy theories.