Post #10,202
9/22/01 10:46:23 AM
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A pirate's life for me?
Had heard various reports on the amount of bearer bonds and other things financial buried in the WTC attacks....
but now [link|http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/22/rec.buried.treasure/|there's GOLD in them thar hills!]
You were born...and so you're free...so Happy Birthday! Laurie Anderson
[link|mailto:bepatient@aol.com|BePatient]
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Post #10,213
9/22/01 3:09:50 PM
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It would not surprise me if the vaults are intact.
Just buried.
Alex
Whom the gods destroy, they first make mad. -- Euripides
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Post #10,229
9/22/01 7:01:15 PM
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A co-worker pointed out to me...
He wondered what they would find when they opened the vault from the 96'th floor (first floor hit). When he worked there, it had large amounts in bearer bonds. However he said that had he been there when the planes hit, he would have gone into it.
Cheers,
Ben
PS I asked an officer today about the cellphone reports. He said that many of them couldn't be traced, and some were known to be fake. But there was still some hope.
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Post #10,256
9/23/01 4:35:08 AM
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If I ever have to work on 100th floor
I'll consider a parachute of the glider type. Cost? Certainly the size isn't prohibitive, given lockers. Yes, be nice to have a few guidance lessons, but - 20/20, I'd think it would have worked - those windows were openable or breakable (as we saw).
As to the safe - guess it depends how much EA Poe you've read, like The Cask of Amontillado? And given the gradual collapse (in G's) - one might indeed have survived all the external forces, fire, water, have oxygen inside. Maybe with a million-pound internal hydraulic ram to "open" that door after landing - just maybe there wouldn't be all that much debris on top, from so high a starting floor.
Except: who ever imagined the collapse as even possible, except in some nightmare? Alas - if safe was used, unequipped. Well..
A.
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Post #10,277
9/23/01 3:59:41 PM
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The windows weren't openable or readily breakable
It was theoretically possible to break them, but your average person couldn't do it on demand.
In fact there was a famous example of one lawyer who used to demonstrate this to clients. He would run full tilt into the window and it would hold. Unfortunately for him, he was in the habit of always using the same window for the demonstration, and eventually the repeated abuse caused it to give way.
However despite his eventual success, it wasn't something that you could just choose to do in an emergency. The windows that you saw broken were broken by the plane, not by the people who jumped out of them.
Cheers,
Ben
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Post #10,286
9/23/01 5:41:12 PM
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Ah, I see.
I thought that some were jumping from above and below the shattered several foors, but.. transmitted shock may have broken those. OK - add small projectile launcher to parachute pack, for my presence on the top floors..
(Do we 'need' a 1000 floor replacement, just on principle?)
A.
Did the lawyer survive the breaking?
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Post #10,290
9/23/01 7:23:33 PM
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No. How do we convince more lawyers to try this tick?
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #10,295
9/23/01 8:25:56 PM
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The lawyer did not survive
As for why the windows broke, the building was hermetically sealed. Add one jumbo jet of plane then the pressure rises and about one jumbo jet of air will want to exit. (Less because air is compressible. Once air pressure can equalize, then more because the internal air pressure is above the outside air pressure. The need to maintain different air pressures is one of the reasons for not allowing open windows.) Do this while you have just put the structure through unusual stresses and strains (eg from the transmitted shock), and you will manage to remove a lot of windows.
Additionally do not discount the effect of the ball of fire. Rapidly heating structures with components made of different substances can cause serious damage from differentials in their expansion rates.
Cheers,
Ben
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Post #10,304
9/23/01 10:19:06 PM
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Yep, on windows.
In 1989, Hurricane Hugo (down to ~90 mph from 140 mph in Charleston, SC) sucked out quite a few windows from office buildings in uptown Charlotte, NC. Bernoulli wasn't kidding.
Alex
Whom the gods destroy, they first make mad. -- Euripides
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Post #10,305
9/23/01 10:28:25 PM
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Don't discount the force of an airplane either
While the shock of impact itself wasn't sufficient to destroy the tower, the shock itself was transmitted throughout. In the immediate vicinity of the impacts, windows not destroyed by primary blast effects (projectiles, overpressure, fire) were likely knocked loose or ejected as the building curtain itself flexed. As the structure continued to respond to the aftereffects of the impacts, it likly continued to deform. One survivor's story relates the noises the tower he was in made as his party descended the stairs.
Similarly, ships are known to make rending noises as they sink due to torpedoes, ice, or other damage.
The lawyer was with a Toronto firm, was in the habit of demonstrating building safety to visiting law students, and [link|http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1996-01.html|was nominated for a Darwin award].
--
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
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Post #10,424
9/24/01 5:38:46 PM
9/24/01 8:22:40 PM
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I have such a parachute
[link|http://www.vertigobase.com/images/base1.jpg|You mean like this]?
Midflight deplaning being a major hobby of mine (over 1000 hops). I don't bring it to work though and I know for a fact that your chances of success depend a lot on making it to the downwind side of the building for launch. You also need to avoid heat as ZP nylon melts quickly. Plan your freefall past flames for safety. If you're good, you can fly your body away from the building to get some space before opening.
The venturi effects you will experience during your decent will also make for a very hairy time. That said, if I were there and had my rig, I'd have hopped no problem. I'm presently wondering what the effects will be on my carry-on habits. I'm not keen on checking my gear - something I don't like to let out of my sight for obvious reasons.
Expect to spend about $4k for a minimal setup.
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