Hillary Clinton and her health

I wrote this on Facebook earlier as my response to the reaction about Hillary Clinton's recent bout of pneumonia:

"Yesterday, my post to remember 9/11 was to say that the best way to honor the victims is to be more understanding and less hateful - to foster cooperation. I'm appalled that in the 24+ hours since Hillary Clinton felt ill at a 9/11 memorial service, I have witnessed online the opposite of what I had hoped for: Massive, massive amounts of vitriol - expressions of glee at her being ill and seemingly countless people wishing for her demise. Even on websites politically favorable to her, comments sections are littered with those celebrating her being sick.

While I am not surprised by this sort of behavior, I am disappointed. Actually, the fact I'm not surprised is a disappointment in itself, as it shows the level of decorum within political arenas is currently atrocious. It's one thing to not support a candidate but another to cheer any harm towards them."

What I didn't say is that Clinton being ill does not, by any means, excuse the long history of bigotry committed by her main opponent in this election. It is ridiculous to suggest that being sick - and easily treatable in this case, I should add - suddenly makes Clinton "unfit" for the presidency when none of her opponent's comments, so matter how gruesome, have done the same for him. Clinton has been campaigning hard and attended a 9/11 memorial in high heat and humidity even though she should have been in bed; this shows strength on her part.

Fifteen years

In light of it being fifteen years since the events of September 11th, 2001, I wrote this on Facebook earlier today:

"Fifteen years since 9/11...I think the best way to remember and honor those who died that day is to not use them as an excuse to hate others but to instead use them to encourage understanding and cooperation. Why? Because the 9/11 casualties were themselves victims of hatred; spreading more hatred is not only disrespectful to them but also leads to further deaths and resentment. Does the world not have enough anger already?"

Sadly, 2016 appears to have been an excellent year for hatemongers. I've seen quite a lot of horrible comments online before, of course, but this year has been especially vitriolic. The hate needs to retreat.

Height of the One World Trade Center

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, which is an international organization dealing with matters related to tall buildings, has officially declared One World Trade Center in New York City the tallest building in the United States. The height from the ground to the roof of the top floor is 1,368 feet but when including the spire, which the council has done, it brings it to 1,776 — the year the United States declared independence from Britain.

One World Trade Center surpassed the height of the Empire State Building in April 2012, topped out in August of that year and the last part of the spire was installed in May of this year. It takes the title of tallest building in the United States away from the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago, which had held this record since its completion in 1973.

I am satisfied with this decision. One World Trade Center is a magnificent building and a worthy successor to the original World Trade Center; it's a shame that the loss of life couldn't be replaced just as easily. The city has come a long way since the events of September 11, 2001; it's great that it once again has a building with the title of the tallest in America.

An insult to their memories

Today is the twelfth anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. All across the Internet, there is an abundance of memorial articles, tweets and status updates to commemorate all the victims and to remind the world that the atrocity should not be repeated in any form. The intent behind the each of these online remembrances is purely honorable.

In addition to 9/11/01, in several discussion forums I've observed some people mention two other notable September 11ths: the 1973 Chilean coup and the 2012 attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi. It would be natural to assume that the people highlighting these two other events are expressing their commemorations for the dead. Unfortunately, from what I've observed today, that isn't always the case.

Whenever I've seen somebody mention the Chilean coup on a 9/11 thread, they have not commented with the intention of educating others or paying any sort of respect to the dead. Instead, they use the coup as a passive-aggressive form of anti-Americanism and/or to trivialise 9/11 and its victims, or to claim that the attacks on 9/11 were justified because of incidents like the coup. They have no interest in the memories of anyone who died in the coup and only use them as an excuse to troll. Similarly, with Benghazi, most of the people talking about it in the various 9/11 memorial threads are not commemorating the four people who died in the attack: They are using the deaths as a crutch to spread conspiracy theories or to fuel whatever hatred that has consumed them. The victims are disrespected and otherwise forgotten.

I'm not overly familiar with what transpired in the Chilean coup and I certainly don't know everything about Benghazi, either (although I reject the "trutherism" regarding the latter"). I do know, however, that the use of any tragedy to dismiss another or to spread hatred is reprehensible and an insult to all the people who suffered and died. When you trivialise one tragedy, you trivialise them all.

1945 Empire State Building plane crash

Today is the 68th anniversary of when a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the Empire State Building in New York City. Unlike the attacks of September 11th 2001, this plane crash was entirely accidental: the plane's pilot, Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith, Jr., had been flying from Bedford Army Air Field to La Guardia Airport; however, when Smith came in range of La Guardia, he asked for a weather report in Newark and opted to land there. Smith was advised that there was zero visibility, but he continued regardless; when he flew over Manhattan, the fog disoriented him, causing him to make an incorrect turn near the Chrysler Building.

That wrong turn led him, his plane and his crew into the Empire State Building; the aircraft struck the 79th floor on the north side of the skyscraper. While the overall structural integrity of the Empire State Building remained intact, the crash killed 14 people, including Smith and his two other crewmen, and started a fire that took well over half an hour to extinguish; the fire was the highest in the city's history until September 11th, 2001, but retains the record of being the highest building fire to be controlled. Despite the deaths and the damage inflicted upon the Empire State Building, the tower was open again two days later; the cost of the repairs was around $1,000,000, which is estimated at $13,000,000 by today's standards.

Betty Lou Oliver was the other notable person of the day. She had been working on the 80th floor when the building was struck; she received burns but she survived. When rescue units arrived at her location, they decided to send her back down the building via an elevator; however, the crash had weakened the cable, and when the doors closed the elevator fell. Oliver was fortunate a second time, as rapid compression of air in the shaft slowed the elevator's descent and the thousand feet of elevator cable that had fallen to the bottom cushioned the landing. To this day, Oliver holds the record for the highest-survived elevator fall.

Sadly, the accident is often overshadowed by 9/11; worse yet, it's cited by some conspiracy theorists attempting to rationalize their opinions about 9/11. They often argue that, because the Empire State Building, a structure from the early 1930s, survived a plane crash, then the World Trade Center towers should easily have survived, too. They forget that the Empire State Building was hit by a small and slow aircraft compared to the jets that hit the Twin Towers; the Twin Towers also had a radically different structural design to the Empire State Building. Beyond planes crashing into skyscrapers in New York City, the two incidents are hardly comparable. Even today, I read an informative article about the accident, but I mistakely read the comments section, which was brimming with trolling.

The events that transpired on July 28th, 1945, in New York City mustn't be forgotten; they might not have been as deadly or as destructive as 9/11, but they were a tragedy, all the same.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-25_Empire_State_Building_crash

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Lou_Oliver

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/28/nyregion/flaming-horror-79th-floor-50-years-ago-today-fog-plane-hit-world-s-tallest.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92987873

http://web.archive.org/web/20060317041607/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=53746

On trolling in 9/11 remembrance articles

It has been eleven years since 9/11 took place; it's not as significant an anniversary as the tenth, but it still signifies how long it's been since that tragic day occurred. Various memorials are being held in the United States and around the world the commemorate those who died in the attacks.

It angers me when I read trolling comments on articles to do with remembering those who died...and by "trolling" I am referring to posting conspiracies theories and utter nonsense that some people seem to believe about the day. Merely thinking that it wasn't aircraft that destroyed the World Trade Center towers or damaged the Pentagon is one thing, but going on about it on something commemorating the dead is outright disrespectful to the victims. If someone, for whatever reason, is a skeptic they should share their opinions in a place better suited to discussing conspiracies and alternate views about the attacks, rather than perform the Internet equivalent of vandalizing graves.

In regards to my opinion on the conspiracies when they're not being discussed at a memorial, I completely accept the official account of what happened on 9/11. I find all the conspiracies that I know of to be unconvincing and in some cases utter nonsense.

As for 9/11, it is hard to believe that it has been eleven years since that day. I may not have been in the vicinity of the attacks, but the memory of the day is still clear in my mind.

One World Trade Center

It may not be complete yet, but the One World Trade Center in New York City has surpassed the height of the Empire State Building and is well on its way to overtaking the Willis Tower (originally Sears Tower) in Chicago through pinnacle height and thus, on to becoming the tallest building in the United States. At completion, the One World Trade Center will be 1776 feet in height, a nod to the year of American independence.

Obviously I know the tragic circumstances for why this building has come into existence, but even so I find the One World Trade Center to be an impressive structure. I am a fan of this "glass-like" skyscrapers and think that the skyline of New York City will be improved when this one has been fully constructed.

With completion estimated to be in the summer or fall of 2013, It is good that the tower is coming close to the end of its construction. I look forward to seeing real pictures of a completed One World Trade Center instead of computer generated renderings of it, but more importantly, it will be great to see the skyline of the city restored.

September 11th, 2001

I may not have been anywhere near the attacks on September 11th, 2001, and the attacks occurred as I was getting up that morning, but I remember much of the day clearly.

My brother and I were at home that day. The phones were out, and we became aware of that because when Dad attempted to use the Internet that morning it refused to log on (we were on dial-up back then), and then when he picked up one of the phones there was not a dial tone present. He did not think to turn the television on to check the news because we sometimes would have the phones drop out for seemingly no reason at all; in addition, the channels on our TV were tuned to the Los Angeles feeds, so we could not watch the local news to see if there was a problem with the phones anyway.

Instead, Dad went on a drive, taking his cell phone with him to find out if there was anyone he could phone locally (his phone was out-of-range at our home). He had the radio on, and the closer he drove to town the clearer its signal became, and he managed to hear that aircraft had crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. Guessing that the phones were out for a reason somehow related to what was going on, Dad turned around and came home.

My brother, mother, and I were all sat at the dining room table when he came back into the house: before he had returned the three of us had decided to do some math. When Mum asked what was going on, Dad repeated what he had heard on the radio; Mum asked something about how much damage the towers had sustained, and Dad said they had been destroyed, causing Mum to gasp. He subsequently turned the television on.

I remember seeing the footage of the planes crashing into the twin towers and the buildings falling down as it was being played repeatedly on the television. I also remember the reports of Flight 93 with its crash in Pennsylvania, though I do not recall seeing as much video of the Pentagon being attacked as I did the World Trade Center. When I watched the buildings fall, a part of me hoped that the worst that had happened to the towers was not a collapse, but rather, just their outer walls had come down, and once the dust had settled the towers would still be standing. Sadly, I was soon forced to realize that this was not the case. The phones were then restored sometime before lunch, as we had a call from one of my uncles asking us if we were okay after what had transpired.

After lunch we continued to watch television, then my brother and I went outside for some of the afternoon, although I cannot remember if we went out on our own volition or if Mum decided to send us out. The weather was cloudy and humid, and we mainly spent our time out just walking around and talking. The television was still on when we came back inside, making the day one of the longest times we have ever had a television on consistently. Mum ensured that my brother and I were calm and all right before we went to bed; however, we were both holding up well from the day's events.

I cannot imagine how people felt in New York City and Washington D.C. that day, especially those within the twin towers when they knew there was no escape. I cannot imagine how Todd Beamer and the other heroes who prevented Flight 93 from hitting whatever its target was felt either. The events were alarming and deeply upsetting for us, to say the least, and we were living in a quiet part of the west coast of the United States.

September 11th, 2001 was a tragic day, and one that none of us will ever forget. It is important to note that the vast majority of the world's population stood with the United States and rejected the acts of those responsible for the atrocities: I believe that more education, caring, and understanding in the world will permanently prevent something on this scale from happening again.