Via Slashdot, the NIST report on the collapse of New York World Trade Center building 7 is out. The statements of the cause of the collapse are conclusive.
“Our study found that the fires in WTC 7, which were uncontrolled but otherwise similar to fires experienced in other tall buildings, caused an extraordinary event,” said NIST WTC Lead Investigator Shyam Sunder. “Heating of floor beams and girders caused a critical support column to fail, initiating a fire-induced progressive collapse that brought the building down.”
“Video and photographic evidence combined with detailed computer simulations show that neither explosives nor fuel oil fires played a role in the collapse of WTC 7,” Sunder said. The NIST investigation team also determined that other elements of the building’s construction—namely trusses, girders and cantilever overhangs that were used to transfer loads from the building superstructure to the columns of the electric substation (over which WTC 7 was constructed) and foundation below—did not play a significant role in the collapse.
Got that? No explosives, no demolition, no conspiracy. But what will they have to talk about at the Ron Paul Kiddy Table Protest Convention in Minneapolis? They can’t talk about their Truther theories, and with gold prices plummeting and the dollar rising, nobody will want to talk about finances.
I suppose there’s always Israel.
The command line unzip tool on the Mac really needs to be made compatible with the Finder version. I think it’s pretty dumb that unzipping from bash on my Mac leaves the __MACOSX metadata ignored.
My two volume GURPS (fourth edition) Basic Set arrived today. I’d weighed the choices of PDF and Hardback, but went with Hardback in the hopes that they’d bring a nostalgic feeling, as a throw back to when I picked up the AD&D 2e books.
So far I’m impressed. Mine appear to be second printing (Characters) and third printing (Campaigns), so I shouldn’t have the pages-falling-out problem, I don’t think.
Republicans are holding the line in Sacramento against taxes.
This is why the intra-party fights matter. No, winning statewide is not more important than holding true to what we stand for. If we became Democrats-lite, we’d never succeed in doing this when we need to do it.
To repeat myself: It made sense for Ned Colletti to bring in old guys when he was working for the Giants. They had the Nen, Bonds, and Schmidt clocks ticking.
The Dodgers are in no such position. So if we sell the farm to win now, and don’t bring home the glory on the 20th anniversary of the last World Series title, then heads must roll.
Much virtual ink has been spilled Internet-wide on the problem of Senator McCain’s running mate selection. Policy views, succession, age, experience, home states, and every other conceivable preference are touted by one person or another as essential to the pick.
I say they’re all right, and they’re all wrong. You should be John McCain’s running mate in 2008. It’s perfect! You are in a swing state, you shore up the Bush states, and you make Obama work in his ‘safe’ states. You are a political novice, and you are experienced. You’re young. You’re mature. You are a mainstream Republican, a reformer, and a maverick. You even look like America.
You were even Time‘s People of the Year. You can’t go wrong.
Some say that you are a poor choice for the Vice Presidency because you might cause some indecision. But look, in practice it won’t matter. You only get any real powers when there is a tie in the Senate, and how often does that happen? It’s negligible. We can just have you miss the vote, and let the bill fail. That’s a sensible default.
Others point to the unfortunate but real possibility that the Vice President may need to replace President McCain during his term. How will that work? I think it’s simple enough: The first one of you to get to the swearing-in with Chief Justice Roberts, becomes President.
You are the nominee McCain is waiting for. McCain/YOU! 2008!
As I hinted last night, I hate phones. Those who know me will be surprised to know I just got a BlackBerry Curve today.
I hate having to have it, but I need it, so I have it. Sigh
Gold prices are collapsing, says Bloomberg:
Gold fell below $800 an ounce Friday, capping the biggest weekly slide in 25 years, as the dollar surged against the euro, reducing the appeal of the metal as an alternative investment. Silver dropped as much as 14 percent.
The dollar headed for a fifth straight weekly gain against the euro as economies in Europe slow. Gold generally moves in tandem with the euro as an alternative to the dollar. The metal plunged into a bear market this week, declining as much as 25 percent from a record $1,033.90 an ounce reached on March 17.
So much for that Weimar Dollar and new Depression.
At about 7pm tonight, I was on my way to Circuit City. For work I need to be in reliable contact so, against the desires of every bone in my body, I have to go buy a wireless phone. A block away from the store, my hate for phones, and the wireless variety in particular, became my last concern.
After I crossed a busy intersection in the full daylight of this summer evening, someone in a white car yelled something out at me, which I was surprised to hear as my headphones block a lot. The car whipped around the corner, stopped with a screech, and three men got out. One demanded “Five bones” from me. He rambled profanely, and his demeanor made his violent intent clear.
I didn’t play along. I started looking around for help. As they approached (the car stopped 10-15 feet away from me), I started yelling at the top of my lungs for help. The lead attacker took a swing at me, glancing off the back of my head. Another attacker grabbed at my brand new headphones; fortunately only cosmetic damage was done to them. They then fled as cars started to stop to assist me.
In my yelling I called out the license plate of the car, but in the heat of the moment, and after talking to the people who stopped to let them know I was fine, I forgot all but the first digit and one in the middle. But I remembered those two digits correctly, so hopefully it helps.
I continued on to Circuit City, concerned that they may have been after me again, or even targetting me for some reason. I wanted to get into someplace with people around, buy my phone, then call for a ride home. Well, I didn’t get the phone, because they wanted a truly exorbitant amount of money as a deposit. So I left, and started looking for a pay phone.
As I did that, I saw a police officer talking to three people, two men and a woman with a towel on her eye. I came up and asked the officer if this was about three guys in a white car hitting people, he said yes. By now this was almost an hour after the attack, roughly. He continued taking the other information, then took mine.
Just about a half hour I got back from positively identifying the attackers. It was great, the first guy of three was the one I didn’t see, so I said “I don’t recognize him.”
The second guy looked kinda like the lead guy who punched me, but I wasn’t sure. So I sat quietly in the squad car and looked as well as I could. Then he starts shouting profanities, and I was at that moment absolutely sure it was the man. I had no doubt. So I simply said “That’s the guy who punched me.” The fool jawed toward his own ruin.
The third guy I had no doubt on from the start. He had the same posture, same build, recognized the chubby face well enough because he got the closest to me actually that I could see (the lead man punched me in the back of the head), so I said “That’s the guy who tried to take my headphones and my iPod.”
Hopefully two clear and absolute statements will be the straw that puts them away. They are looking at “a number of felonies” according to the deputy who originally took my statement, then drove me over to identify them. Attacked a bunch of people, drove drunk, fled the police.
Not the best night I ever had, but justice will be done I hope.
Update: I nearly forgot an important detail, as I’m still hopped up on adrenaline. These guys were on a rampage, attacking numerous people. They punched that woman in the eye and made her bleed. They attacked a family with kids in the car. They threw a glass bottle at a car. They were drunk and vicious, and I’m very glad to help get them put away.
The computer Go engine Mogo beat a Korean 8 dan pro in a 9 stone handicap game. I am surprised. I guess only time will tell if the shortcuts this software’s algorithms take can be exploited or not. But still, this is much further along than I ever thought things would be right now.
Once you’re on 19×19, you’re really playing. 9 stone handicap or no.