United States 2017 elections

Yesterday, the United States held its 2017 intake of off-year elections. This included various mayoral elections, such as those in Los Angeles and New York City, but more notably featured the gubernatorial races of New Jersey and Virginia.

New Jersey's election result - a Democratic heavy victory - wasn't a surprise. The outgoing, term-limited Republican governor is deeply unpopular and New Jersey is a blue state; the Democratic candidate was expected to win unless they were to take it upon themselves to openly sabotage their own campaign.

The more interesting result was in Virginia. The Democrats took that governor's seat from the Republicans in 2013 and since 2008, the state has voted for Democrats at the presidential level. In the elections yesterday, the Democrats not only held the governor's mansion by a convincing margin but also picked up swathes of seats in the state's legislature. It's an astounding result for a state that was red not so long ago.

Is this what we want?

As has been in the news recently, there was an explosion in New York City. When such an event occurs, you think people would unite and hope that those injured are okay, correct?

Not if you're a die-hard Trump supporter. Apparently, the appropriate response is to celebrate and declare the explosion a victory for him, as it shows he's correct about wanting to ban Muslims (this was said even before anyone was arrested in connection with the explosion), why refugees should be banned and that it's evidence that President Barack Obama's and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's policies in the Middle East have "failed". (I'm not sure what policy they want in the Middle East - expanding drone strikes or sending in the army? Great way to create more refugees and more enemies.)

Is this what we want? People who openly cheer others being hurt (in this case, Americans celebrating violence against other Americans) because it will lead to their political "side" winning? How is this positive?

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.

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

New York City, the place without a Walmart

I've listened to the song "I Ain't in Checotah Anymore" by Carrie Underwood a few times over the past few years. There is a very interesting line in the song:

"You can get anything you want here,
Except a Wal-Mart store"

I took this particular lyric to be an exaggeration, like the hotel having more people than her hometown or what she paid for a meal being the equivalent to a down payment on a house in Oklahoma, although in fairness, I was unsure of the point of the line. I found out recently, however, that the lyric can be taken literally as New York City does not have a single Walmart store (this link is from 2011, but a Google search will confirm that the city does not have one).

Walmart wants to build in New York City, but so far they have been unsuccessful and in the short-term this is unlikely to change. It is surprising that there aren't any Walmart stores in New York City, given that the place is the United States' largest city and home to over 8,000,000 people. It's a fascinating fact, nevertheless!

Four years of Gaga

Around this time four years ago a particular song started playing on my radio. The track sounded unusual, and was very different to both all the other music that I had heard on the radio that year and to almost everything I had ever heard on the radio overall. It was a dance-pop/electropop song...highly suitable for clubs but unlikely to perform well on the major American music charts. I found myself loving the song and knew to appreciate it while it lasted, so I took the time to research it online and find out about the artist who sang and composed it.

Which song was it? "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga and featuring Colby O'Donis. O'Donis I already knew about from a track he released earlier in 2008 with Akon called "What You Got", but Lady Gaga was an entirely new person. Although "Just Dance" had been released three months prior in April, in July there was still a dearth of information about Lady Gaga, in which the most common pieces about her were that she was from New York City and had worked with Lady Starlight.

"Just Dance" quickly proved to be an incredibly popular and catchy song, and before long Lady Gaga became known throughout the United States. Her debut album, The Fame, was released in August; by this time, Lady Gaga was well on her way to establishing herself in the music business.

Unfortunately, in the late summer of 2008 there were several people (including me, I have to admit, although I wasn't on the radio to discuss my feelings on the subject) who expected Lady Gaga to be a one-hit wonder and to vanish from the scene a year later. This wasn't because of any particular problem with her, but rather, because her style of music had not exactly been having major chart success in the United States for the years up to "Just Dance" (I even recall one radio presenter pointing this out), so there were thoughts floating about that she'd be a mere flash in the pan...at best. Still, I had hoped that she would have a couple of successful singles, at the very least.

Lady Gaga's subsequent achievements shattered both my and others expectations of her. "Poker Face" was released in the United States in September, at which time "Just Dance" became an international hit. In early 2009, "Poker Face" performed strongly on various charts; then three more singles from The Fame, "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)", "Love Game", and "Paparazzi", were released.

In the latter half of 2009, Lady Gaga released The Fame Monster...an EP and her second major release; the first single was "Bad Romance", which was followed by "Telephone" featuring Beyoncé Knowles, "Alejandro" and "Dance in the Dark". The Fame Monster and its singles were successful worldwide; Lady Gaga was clearly a household name by the time her official second studio album, Born This Way, was announced for release. As The Fame and The Fame Monster are often considered to be part of one album, the subsequent massive success of Born This Way and its singles ensured that Lady Gaga would not be limited to being a one-album wonder.

Gaga has also been honorable by using her status to promote worthwhile causes. Her second album's lead single, "Born This Way, is about self-empowerment and self-respect, and her two major areas of activism have been LGBT rights and anti-bullying. She was an influential and powerful campaigner in having "Don't ask, don't tell", a law barring open gays and lesbians from serving in the US military, repealed (DADT was overturned in December 2010); she has also spoken various equality marches in the United States and Europe. Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, formed the Born This Way Foundation, an organization focused on addressing the problems young people face - such as bullying and intolerance, and on wanting to build a kinder, more accepting world as a whole. I have deep respect for people who use their fame to help others, and Lady Gaga qualifies as one of those people.

I also respect Lady Gaga for the way she treats her fanbase and how much appreciation she seems to have for it: she truly appears to love those who consider themselves her fans (the "Mother Monster" and "Little Monsters" terms she invented to describe the relationship between herself and her fans tickles me). I dislike famous individuals who treat their fans with disdain, who have forgotten that it is because of their audience that they were successful in the first place. Lady Gaga doesn't strike me as that type of person.

Lady Gaga appears to be everywhere nowadays in terms of media coverage: on average, I observe Lady Gaga in the news about once a day, but fortunately, unlike a lot of other celebrities who are often in the news frequently for poor reasons, Lady Gaga's coverage is mostly positive or neutral towards her. Putting aside odd instances such as the meat dress, as I implied in the previous paragraph she seems as though she is a really genuine, wonderful, and caring person...not at all somebody deserving of negative or outright hateful opinions and thoughts.

Lady Gaga has come a long way from the era of working with Lady Starlight (who, to her credit, was a huge boost to Lady Gaga's career), and the days of "Just Dance": I am glad she has turned out to be an enduring artist, I wish her continued success with her music and her activism, and I am looking forward to her third studio album. Taking everything into consideration, I think the world is a better place with Lady Gaga around.

Cat mayor

I was amused and impressed to read about the mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska. He was elected to the position fifteen years ago when a write-in campaign was mounted for him; he defeated the main candidates, with the people of Talkeetna being fed up with the usual types running. His victory is all the more impressive considering the fact he is a cat.

Stubbs has spent nearly all of his life as the Mayor of Talkeetna. Unfortunately his title is only honorary, owing to his non-human status, but the people of Talkeetna are happy with this and have continued to re-elect Stubbs since his initial election to the mayoralty. He is highly popular in the town and has turned out to be a great tourist attraction for the place; even better, he seems to love all the residents of Talkeetna, regardless of who they are.

Perhaps it's time to start electing more cats as mayors. Could you imagine New York City or London having a cat each as their mayors?

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.