Wednesday, March 28, 2007

One Last Winter hoorrah--please don't leave so many comments.

Please don't leave so many comments on the blog. I am seriously getting bogged down trying to keep up with them all.

Nori shoots down Sidewinder at Catamount.


It's too warm for gloves


Nori and I get lost cross country skiing.


But the brook is pretty


Icy finger bones


Shifting gears.. My house looks pretty from Blue Rider Stables where Doug and I get to go horseback riding.


Horse eats snow. (I think it was actually trying to get a stray strand of straw.)


My house and Jug End framed nicely by the shadow of the barn. Does the hill behind my house really look like a jug end?


This horse is huge. It's a draft horse. You know, the ones in the Budweiser commercials?


Janine tries to get a reaction out of the cat but it is too lazy to move.


Janine then resorts to strangling the cat in an effort to get some sort of response.


Frustrated and fed up, Janine finally gives up. Feeling abused and dejected, the cat slinks off.


Janine, do you think you could be a little nicer to the cat? It was a gift from a very good friend.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

liar liar pants on fire

Why the towers fell: Two theories

By William Rice

Posted March 1, 2007

Having worked on structural steel buildings as a civil engineer in the era when the Twin Towers were designed and constructed, I found some disturbing discrepancies and omissions concerning their collapse on 9/11.

I was particularly interested in the two PBS documentaries that explained the prevailing theories as determined by two government agencies, FEMA and NIST (National Institute of Science and Technology). The first (2002) PBS documentary, Why the Towers Fell, discussed how the floor truss connectors failed and caused a “progressive pancake collapse.”

The subsequent 2006 repackaged documentary Building on Ground Zero explained that the connectors held, but that the columns failed, which is also unlikely. Without mentioning the word “concrete,” the latter documentary compared the three-second collapse of the concrete Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building with that of the Twin Towers that were of structural steel. The collapse of a concrete-framed building cannot be compared with that of a structural steel-framed building.

Since neither documentary addressed many of the pertinent facts, I took the time to review available material, combine it with scientific and historic facts, and submit the following two theories for consideration.

The prevailing theory

The prevailing theory for the collapse of the 110-story, award-winning Twin Towers is that when jetliners flew into the 95th and 80th floors of the North and South Towers respectively, they severed several of each building’s columns and weakened other columns with the burning of jet fuel/kerosene (and office combustibles).

However, unlike concrete buildings, structural steel buildings redistribute the stress when several columns are removed and the undamaged structural framework acts as a truss network to bridge over the missing columns.

After the 1993 car bomb explosion destroyed columns in the North Tower, John Skilling, the head structural engineer for the Twin Towers, was asked about an airplane strike. He explained that the Twin Towers were originally designed to withstand the impact of a Boeing 707 (similar in size to the Boeing 767). He went on to say that there would be a horrendous fire from the jet fuel, but “the building structure would still be there.”

The 10,000 gallons of jet fuel (half capacity) in each jetliner did cause horrendous fires over several floors, but it would not cause the steel members to melt or even lose sufficient strength to cause a collapse. This is because the short-duration jet fuel fires and office combustible fires cannot create (or transmit to the steel) temperatures hot enough. If a structural steel building could collapse because of fire, it would do so slowly as the various steel members gradually relinquished their structural strength. However, in the 100-year history of structural-steel framed buildings, there is no evidence of any structural steel framed building having collapsed because of fire.

Let’s assume the unlikelihood that these fires could weaken all of the columns to the same degree of heat intensity and thus remove their structural strength equally over the entire floor, or floors, in order to cause the top 30-floor building segment (South Tower WTC #2) to drop vertically and evenly onto the supporting 79th floor. The 30 floors from above would then combine with the 79th floor and fall onto the next level down (78th floor) crushing its columns evenly and so on down into the seven levels below the street level.

The interesting fact is that each of these 110-story Twin Towers fell upon itself in about ten seconds at nearly free-fall speed. This violates Newton’s Law of Conservation of Momentum that would require that as the stationary inertia of each floor is overcome by being hit, the mass (weight) increases and the free-fall speed decreases.

Even if Newton’s Law is ignored, the prevailing theory would have us believe that each of the Twin Towers inexplicably collapsed upon itself crushing all 287 massive columns on each floor while maintaining a free-fall speed as if the 100,000, or more, tons of supporting structural-steel framework underneath didn’t exist.

The politically unthinkable theory

Controlled demolition is so politically unthinkable that the media not only demeans the messenger but also ridicules and “debunks” the message rather than provide investigative reporting. Curiously, it took 441 days for the president’s 9/11 Commission to start an “investigation” into a tragedy where more than 2,500 WTC lives were taken. The Commission’s investigation also didn’t include the possibility of controlled-demolition, nor did it include an investigation into the “unusual and unprecedented” manner in which WTC Building #7 collapsed.

The media has basically kept the collapse of WTC Building #7 hidden from public view. However, instead of the Twin Towers, let’s consider this building now. Building #7 was a 47-story structural steel World Trade Center Building that also collapsed onto itself at free-fall speed on 9/11. This structural steel building was not hit by a jetliner, and collapsed seven hours after the Twin Towers collapsed and five hours after the firemen had been ordered to vacate the building and a collapse safety zone had been cordoned off. Both of the landmark buildings on either side received relatively little structural damage and both continue in use today.

Contrary to the sudden collapse of the Twin Towers and Building #7, the four other smaller World Trade Center buildings #3, #4, #5, and #6, which were severely damaged and engulfed in flames on 9/11, still remained standing. There were no reports of multiple explosions. The buildings had no pools of molten metal (a byproduct of explosives) at the base of their elevator shafts. They created no huge caustic concrete/cement and asbestos dust clouds (only explosives will pulverize concrete into a fine dust cloud), and they propelled no heavy steel beams horizontally for three hundred feet or more.

The collapse of WTC building #7, which housed the offices of the CIA, the Secret Service, and the Department of Defense, among others, was omitted from the government’s 9/11 Commission Report, and its collapse has yet to be investigated.
Perhaps it is time for these and other unanswered questions surrounding 9/11 to be thoroughly investigated. Let’s start by contacting our congressional delegation.

William Rice, P.E., is a registered professional civil engineer who worked on structural steel (and concrete) buildings in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. He was also a professor at Vermont Technical College where he taught engineering materials, structures lab, and other building related courses.

He is not being commissioned by the '9/11 Truth Movement' to write this article. He is not gaining in any way by putting his reputation at risk by venturing his honest opinion on what actually happened that fateful day. Although he is from Vermont, so I guess that automatically reveals his bias.... As always, look forward to your rebuttals.

Little Quiz-- Leave a comment!

One of following 5 images is NOT Osama bin Laden. Can you tell which one is the imposter? Leave a comment with your answer!

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Catamount Video Blogging!

Well, Janine and I hit the slopes and then Clemens joined us a little later. The snow was a little heavy but otherwise we couldn't really complain. It made a for a good workout.


A picturesque chalet.


Janine in perfect form.




Zooming along Ridge Run at Catamount ski area.


Janine tearing up Glade. It is her first season snowboarding.


Clemens shreds the snowboard park.


First person perspective as I ski through the woods. Will I make it through without colliding into a tree? Even more fun than tree sledding, but only slightly safer.


more tree skiing, but this one's a little smoother going.


Let's do it again!


My favorite part "Uhh---Uhh!" More tree skiing fun, except this time I have trouble staying in the tracks.



Clemens jumps out of the woods.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

St. Patrick's Day Snowstorm!

Well, we had the Valentine's Day snowstorm. St. Patty decided to give us an end of winter lucky charm! Just when we thought winter was finnnally over, with the long months of below freezing temperatures having finally been brought to a sudden and seemingly difinite end with 70 degrees only a few days ago--WAM! we are hit with another major nor'easter dumping over 18 inches of the white fluffy stuff! For 18 straight hours the snow came down hard and piled up quick, never letting up the entire time, creating treacherous driving conditions and nearly leaving me stranded at Seekonk. Today was spent shovelling out cars followed by a short stint of cross country skiing along snowmobile tracks in the woods. Tomorrow morning (Sunday) it's off to Catamount for some downhill skiing!

As I was driving home last night, I'm coming up the hill around the turn when I suddenly see a headlight coming from the other direction. "What the hell!?" I exclaim out loud. "Somebody is riding a motorcycle in this weather?!" But as it zoomed by I saw that it was not a motorcyle at all, but in fact a snowmobile on the road! Ten minutes later two more went wizzing by.


The morning after no one is going anywhere any time soon.


Where does a rabbit find shelter after a major snowstorm? This one temporarily takes shelter by the house. But will it be able to find its way home again? Janine left some carrots by the house in case s/he doesn't.


Spring Break Madness continues. Doctor Dan to be falls asleep reading his Anatomy book. It doesn't get anymore exciting than this folks.


Well Blimey me! that Ben Sherman jacket has all kinds of style!


Mother and Daughter trudging through thigh deep snow to feed apples to the llamas.


"Don't you llamas wanna come any closer for some juicy, delicious apples?"


"Hmm... what do you say Ralph?" -- "Oh, I don't know about those humans. I think maybe I'll just watch... but you go ahead.

"Yay! This is fun!!"


"I dunno... seems like a lot of trouble just to feed a couple a llamas."


Yay, Nori feeds the llama! "Well, she doesn't seem so threatening...."(Yes, Spring Break in the Berkshires is really heating up now)


"Mmmmmm... not bad, sure beats the same old fodder master feeds us all winter long. You sure you don't want some Ralph?"


But wait, we're just getting started! The Spring Break Madness spins out of control when Jason is seen playing Super Mario Brothers 3 on his computer! Amazing!


Jason woops Janine in Lord of the Rings Monopoly. Hey, I can't help it if I never landed on her property. The Oranges are the most landed on monopoly on the board... statistically... but statistics stand no chance against my powers of persuasion over the roll of the dice. I finally landed on her hotel after an estimated 20 to 25 times around the board, but by then it was too late....

MUAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

Jason amasses $13,500 just in $500 bills. A traditional monopoly set carries $15,140 in total cash.

Yes, the highlights of this past week on Spring Break are just rivetting, aren't they?

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Spring Break Madness!

Please click here for the latest blog update courtesy of Dan Schmolze. Remember his blog is www.schmolze.com/scalpel/

These videos are courtesy of Nora.







After sledding we find some wooden chairs that looked like they could use some company.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Planetary Conspiracy

Umm... basically claiming that Pluto is no longer a planet is not only Unconstitutional but is also a violation of Planetary Rights. Did Pluto have any say in this ruling? Poor Pluto. As if it wasn't bad enough that Pluto was all alone, small little Pluto, the odd duck out, all alone in his own orbit in the outer fringes of the solar system, he then has his very identity, the very foundation of who he is stripped away from him! Naked and alone now Pluto remains. This is a planetary conspiracy of the most horrendous kind. The 9/11 conspiracy doesn't even come close to this. This isn't just on a global scale, this is on a Solar System scale! Why isn't anyone marching on Washington to protest the violation of rights on Pluto!? This is unacceptable! Ten bucks ten years from now Pluto gets his rightful status back. But it won't happen without the unified voices of an outraged public! Pluto for President!

There is one state that isn't standing for this! New Mexico:


"Wired and others are reporting that for New Mexico, the fight for Pluto is not over. Seven months after the International Astronomical Union downgraded the distant heavenly body to a 'dwarf planet,' a state representative in New Mexico aims to give the snubbed world back some of its respect. State lawmakers will vote Tuesday on a bill that proposes that 'as Pluto passes overhead through New Mexico's excellent night skies, it be declared a planet.' The lawmaker who introduced the measure represents the county in which Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto's discoverer, was born. For many of us old timers, and those who had the honor of meeting Clyde, this just causes a belly laugh and is pure fun. Not to mention a bit of poking a stick in the eye." http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/11/1743233



What can you do? Let your voice be heard! Sign the Pluto Petition!

9/11 Discrepencies

Well, first off, I made a mistake. Flight 175 was a United Airlines 767-222, not an American Airlines 757. (not much difference in planes tho)

Photograph of the plane just before it hit the WTC.
The bottom of this fuselage is not smooth like the ones in the photographs of the 767s at the bottom of this posting.



I've made an arrow pointing at the bulge on the bottom of the plane that is inconsistent with the bottom of the United Airlines 767 in the below photograph.


Here is a photograph of a United Airlines 767:

The bottom of the fuselage is smooth.

Bottom of another 767. Again, notice that it's smooth and without bulges.


Basically what all this boils down to... what I'm essentially trying to say is... blame Canada.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Black ice... ne'eren't so nice

Dad and I went to a 9/11 truth meeting/rally thing which was pretty good. One person made mention of tentative plans for civil disobedience within the next few months so if you want to demonstrate your opposition to sending more troops to Iraq then you can email me and I'll keep you updated on those details.

Dad hit some black ice and plowed through the guardrail before a bridge in Alford. The car wasn't too badly damamged, but the bumper and radiator were banged up pretty good and it was leaking all kinds of fluids and the airbags were deployed. We sat around for about two hours in the cold. I kept warm in one of the 45 fire vehicles that showed up on the scene. Really, you would have thought the car had caught on fire with all the fire engines that showed up.







I kept warm in the fire rescue vehicle.


Inside there was a refrigerator, microwave and an ATV fire extinquishing vehicle decked out with all sorts of gear ready to deploy in the event of a brush fire or some such fare I guess.








The nearest availabe wrecker came all the way from Lee so that was largely due to the long wait.

All in all it really wasn't that bad. Spent most of the time chillin' to some tunes in the First Response Fire pickup truck which was toasty warm.