Saturday, July 31, 2010

Debunking Joseph Nobles: Three Big Issues Indeed

Joseph Nobles of ae911truth.info has finally completed his critique of what he considers three of ae911truth's biggest mistakes, which he calls "The Big Three." According to him, these are three issues ae911truth claims that debunkers never address. Here are my thoughts on it.

The Big Three, Part One: Free Fall

I have already responded to this particular part of Mr. Nobles' site, so I will not repeat the arguments here.

The Big Three, Part Two: Collapse Symmetry

This sections deals with the symmetry of the buildings' collapses. Mr. Nobles makes the astounding claim that "there is no actual symmetry observable in the collapses of the three WTC buildings." As we will see, this is simply not true.

He first points out the slight lean that Building 7 exhibited in its collapse.



Although this has already been addressed, it is worth noting that slight leans often happen in controlled demolitions.



There is clearly a difference between this:



And something like this:



He claims there was no "east to west" symmetry to Building 7's collapse either, pointing out that the kink is not in the exact center of the building.



Kinks also often occur in controlled demolitions, and are not always in the center.



The key thing is that the center of Building 7 began to fall before its perimeter, which is a classic characteristic of demolitions. The issue of the east penthouse is problematic enough itself.

He next moves onto the Twin Towers. He claims that since both of the upper sections of the Towers initially tilted, their collapses were not symmetrical. This is absurd. Debunkers have often made special points about the tilts of both WTC 1 and WTC 2. While the tops did initially tilt, it is important to note what happens to the bottom sections of the buildings. As soon as the collapses begin, all four sides of the lower sections of the Towers are wiped out symmetrically in a top down fashion. The tilts therefore create a problem for the official story. The collapses started out asymmetric, but what followed was a top down symmetrical collapse of the lower structures.




It is clear that the collapses became more symmetrical as they progressed. Any natural collapse would have become less symmetric as it progressed. To claim that no symmetry was observable in the collapses of these three buildings is simply nonsensical.

The Big Three, Part Three: Total Destruction

In his third part, he claims that the destruction of the three WTC buildings was not total. He starts out by trying to say that Zdeněk Bažant's papers have not been refuted, and that Bazant himself has refuted the peer reviewed refutations of his work. Anders Björkman has in fact responded to Bažant's response.
In any case, the three points Mr. Nobles makes in regard to the destruction of the buildings are:

■Large sections of the Twin Tower’s core structures left behind after the main portion of the collapse (before they themselves collapsed)
■The sections of perimeter column still standing above the rubble for several floors
■The majority of WTC 7′s still-assembled northern facade draped over the rest of its debris pile

While parts of the cores of both Towers remained standing, this footage shows the remaining core of the South Tower included neither north nor west columns.



And the North Tower's core was almost totally destroyed before it collapsed anyway.



For some reason he feels that the small sections of the perimeter columns standing are worth using as proof the collapses were not total. Of course, these sections would have made up something like maybe 5% of each of the Towers.

The fact that part of Building 7's facade was still assembled to an extent is a small detail in light of the fact that all of the building's structural supports were totally destroyed in the collapse.

Mr. Nobles claims that the buildings "were not totally totally destroyed."
I would agree with this somewhat. The buildings and their structural supports were almost totally destroyed, which is an occurrence that rarely occurs outside of controlled demolition.

Ultimately, the points Mr. Nobles has raised do not disprove the notion that the buildings were demolished. Everything he has cited can occur in other demolitions, so it is misleading to suggest that the observed characteristics of the collapses are not consistent with demolition.

Responding to a Response to my Response

Well, today's a rarity, as I will be doing two posts in one day. I was originally just going to write a response to a section on Joseph Nobles' website ae911truth.info, but I'll need to respond to this first. Mr. Nobles has decided to address a post I recently did about his site.


It would also be nice if Mr. Nobles elaborated a little. I'm all ears to whatever points I may have gotten wrong, but I'm not a mind reader Mr. Nobles.

But anyway, he's apparently grateful for the attention.





The only one of my points Mr. Nobles addressed is one that he acknowledges I got right.



I personally don't think Hess's "inflection is clear," but I do know that there are still flaws in the official timeline. First off, the interview occurred "off Broadway by City Hall.” While Broadway itself is fairly close to Building 7, City Hall is quite a bit farther.



Also, Hess's estimation that they were trapped for "about an hour and a half" may have been somewhat conservative, as Barry Jennings stated in his interview with Loose Change that "I was trapped in there for several hours." In any case, if they were trapped for an hour and a half, then they most likely were trapped since 10:00 AM. That is, if they were trapped for an hour and a half and were rescued at 11:30 AM, this would have given Hess enough time to make his way all the way across town to City Hall to give his interview just before noon. A more detailed account of this can be seen in parts 6-9 of my film World Trade Center 7: An Engineered Collapse.

And as I already mentioned in my previous post, Barry Jennings was very clear about what he experienced.


I'm glad you appreciated my mention of you Mr. Nobles. I'm doing that again today and will probably be doing it more in the future.

If only karma didn't take it out on my little girl...


Today was the ultimate day in lessons in karma. What goes around comes around. This time it wasn't me or Scott ... it was Munchkin! First lesson in karma at two-years-old. She's in for a rough life, huh?

This afternoon we opted to go to Carino's in Hamburg for lunch because they have the most awesome wedge salads. Of course, our reasons are not important. (Though, might I point out that when I asked Jocelyn if she wanted a cheeseburger while we were in the car figuring out where to go, she agreed. Had I listened to her, we never would have gone down this path. Okay, so it's all my fault.)

Anyway, we were seated at a booth and as usual, no booster seat (she hates them anyway), just "trapped" between me and the wall of the booth. She zeroed in on the giant bottle of olives and other crap decorating the ledge between the booths. We thwarted her, told her it was hot. (Hey, it works, don't judge me for lying to her.) She calmed down and ate some of the pesto pizza (very good, by the way) and lunch was going very well.

Out of nowhere, she reached up to the giant glass container of olives and before Scott and I could register what she was about to do, she pushed it right off the ledge. Into the face of a three-year-old little girl on the other side.Well, actually, it hit the table and just glanced off the side of her face, so the table took the brunt of it. Of course Scott and I feel awful and we fall all over ourselves apologizing, but then we turn to look at each other and go, "Why the hell weren't they glued down?" The bottles used for decoration at any other place are glued down for this very reason. (In fact, the mom of the three-year-old that the bottle viciously attacked said when she saw them, she feared her kid might do the same thing.) I don't know if the other people got a free meal, but they should have. Shit, they should have gotten free meals for a year. Or rename the place to Zoe's. (That was the little girl's name.) Yes, we feel responsible, but moreover, you have to wonder why the hell someone at Carino's thought heavy bottles full of liquid and vegetables just sitting on a ledge was a great way to decorate. Some corporate interior decorator should be fired.

After a good talking to and forcing her to go apologize to the little girl, we left Carino's and headed to Barnes & Noble, simply because I wanted to say hi to a couple people. (Unfortunately, the one person I wanted to see wasn't working. Sigh.)

We were in the kid's section, playing with the train table and this guy came over with his little girl. She was a sweetie, about a year younger than Jocelyn. I noticed a bruise on her head and I asked what happened, and he dad said something about how she had one on her knee too, both from separate incidents. I laughed and said, "Yeah, graceful our child is not."

After a little while, she tired of the trains and decided to go play on the stage. Of course she did. Let's show off! She and the other little girl danced on the stage and were super cute together. Then they went over to a chair. Jocelyn didn't like sharing her chair with the little girl, so she headed back to the stage. Unfortunately for her, Scott was sitting there and she tripped over his feet and she went flying down into the stage, catching her forehead on the edge. We calmed her down, I looked at the other dad and went "As I was saying about the graceful thing."

At that very moment, we noticed the size of the goose-egg on her forehead, and the cut. It was bleeding, but only slightly. Being the momma I am, and being that I used to work at B&N, I went into action. Headed to customer service to get alcohol prep pads that I knew were there, and then headed over to the Cafe to get a bag of ice. (Whereupon she informed me she wanted a "kiki" - that's cookie in Jocelyn-ese - and Scott said she could have whatever she wanted. Darn it kid, that would have been the perfect chance to ask for a pony.) The kid wouldn't let me clean up her head wound, wouldn't let me put ice on it, but she also didn't seem bothered by it - even the friends of the girl I asked to get us ice (she was on her break, and I hated interrupting her break, but poor Robin had a line of like seven people, she wasn't the ideal person to ask) said she was more of a trooper than they would have been.

Jocelyn seemed no worse for wear. We cleaned it up with peroxide when we got home, much to her chagrin. But beyond that, you'd think she didn't even know it happened. She had a fine disposition, she didn't mess with it. The only thing that sucked was that we went to the party over where she goes to daycare and EVERYONE asked what happened to her head. I realize how stupid "She fell at Barnes & Noble," sounds, but it is the truth. Maybe I should tell everyone, "She tripped over her daddy's feet. All his fault."

Well, she's smart as all get out anyway, it's only fair that she got a lesson in karma early in life. It sure as hell won't be her last.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Apple Protesters Burn Apple

Sorry, I could not resist this picture.  It's too damn funny.  Can't find the artist to give him/her the credit they so deserve.  If you know the author, send us a message. 

Hilarious Batman T-Shirt "Midnight Crisis"

Don (aka Pakpandir on Threadless) designed this hilarious cartoon/t-shirt, entitled "Midnight Crisis."  I love the bubble gun. You can view it by clicking here.

NEW Family Guy Star Wars Movie "It's a Trap" Announced

The creators of Family Guy have announced that the Star Wars Family Guy trilogy will be complete on December 21st, 2010, when fans can purchase the Family Guy "Return of the Jedi" spoof entitled, "It's a Trap!" on Blu-Ray ($29.99) and DVD ($22.98).

With the recent announcement that they will not continue on to spoof the prequel trilogy of films, fans will be eager to see what Seth McFarlane and company have in store for this final installment. Similar to Family Guy's "Empire Strikes Back" spoof titled "Something, Something, Something Darkside", "It's a Trap" will premiere as a disc exclusive, with speculation that a cleaned-up version will air on the network months later.

Attendees of the Family Guy panel at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend saw an exclusive ten minute preview of footage. "It's a Trap" guest voices will include Carrie Fisher, Adam West, Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, and Rush Limbaugh as The Rancor.

First Image of Rain Wilson as the Crimson Bolt in SUPER Movie

Sweet Jesus! At first glance, I thought this was a Wayne Brothers movie.

I loved Mark Waid's Kick Ass run and liked Mark Vaughn's move with the same title but is this film necessary? Really a movie entitled, Super staring Rain Wilson as the Crimson Bolt? Hopefully it's damn funny because otherwise this movie has to be a total piece of sh*t!

Anywho below is some information on this movie.

James Gunn has officially released the first image of his superhero character, the Crimson Bolt, from the upcoming Super on his official website, JamesGunn.com.

Super offers Gunn's take on the superhero genre and stars Rainn Wilson as an average guy who takes on the pseudo-superhero alter ego of the Crimson Bolt, after watching his wife (Liv Tyler) fall under the spell of a charming drug dealer (Kevin Bacon).

Scott Pilgrim, Blackest Night dominate New York Times

The New York Times spotlights the debut of author Janet Evanovich's first graphic novel Troublemaker atop its graphic books bestseller list. The title's performance probably should be expected, though, considering the popularity of her novels.

What's more interesting is the domination of the hardcover and paperback charts by two series: DC Comics' Black Night collections, and the entire run of Oni Press' Scott Pilgrim.

Buoyed by the release last week of the final volume of Bryan Lee O'Malley's acclaimed series, and anticipation for the Aug. 13 debut of Edgar Wright's film adaptation, the Scott Pilgrim books claimed the top six spots on the paperback list, with Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour debuting at No. 1.

Meanwhile, on the hardcover list, five Blackest Night collections fell into place behind Evanovich's novel: Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps, Vols. 1 and 2; Blackest Night; Blackest Night: Green Lantern; and Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps.

Source Robot6

Green Lantern is One Seriously Perverted Dude

Green Lantern fans know that Hal Jordan's love for the ladies is no secret.  His libido is legendary.  Cracked has a series of mocked up Green Lantern Comics that shows what happens to a man, with a man’s needs, all by himself in space, with a ring that can do anything. 


To see more of the collection go HERE

RYAN REYNOLDS RECITING GREEN LANTERN OATH

Last Saturday at Comic-Con during the Green Lantern movie panel, a young man named Connor stood up to ask what it felt like for Ryan Reynolds to say the famous Green Lantern Oath, and Reynolds responded by reciting it to a cheering crowd while the youngster raised his own Lantern ring.

Source:  A Gfest favorite site Comics Alliance

CAESAR: RISE OF THE APES - First on Set Photos (Freida Pinto is Smokin)

A series of images from the set of Caesar: Rise of the Apes have been posted online, with Freidapintofan.com gathering them together. The images showcase Freida Pinto and James Franco (obviously romantically involved in the film) with Andy Serkis wearing his Caesar motion-capture suit. To see more photos head over to earthsmightest.

FIRST LOOK: Thor Video Game Trailer

Here is a first look at the Thor video game set to arrive in stores in 2011.  Loosk pretty good. What do you think?

3DD - The Book That Celebrates Boobs in 3D

Gfest's fascination with breasts began the day we were born. Gfest's fascination with 3D probably began with Jaws 3D.  Now imagine if you could combine the powers of breasts and 3D technology?  Well, that would be genius.

At this point, you're probably wondering if anyone has ever been able to take these two great things and combine them into one mind blowing awesome experience? As it happens, the answer is yes. Henry Hargreaves is the genius behind 3DD, a delicious book of 3D photos of topless women (complimentary glasses included).

Are you awesome enough to handle the sheer raw power of such an explosive concept? There's only one way to find out....






Eye Survived Comic Con T-Shirt


Did you Survive Comic Con? Did you come back home without looking like a pirate?

If you learned nothing else from this year's SDCC, remember you should never take another geeks seat.

If you haven't heard the story, two guys were fighting over a seat at one of the panels at this year's Comic Con, and it lead to one of the guys stabbing the other in the eye with a pen.  Damn!

Head over to Mighty Fine to purchase this and many other wonderful t-shirts.

Pixar Animator Angus MacLane’s Lego “CubeDudes” are Wonderful

Just when you think you've seen everything their is to see with Legos (Futurama, Minifigure Tattoos, Batmobile, Star Wars, Superheros) you stumble upon an amazing original creation.

Pixar animator Angus MacLane is an incredible artist that use these bricks to create what he calls “Cube Dudes”: culture icons made from Lego.

Enjoy this great collection and the flickr group.

Source:  Francesco Mungani

The Goonies 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition

Talk about feeling (and I guess being) old. One of my favorite all-time movies is quarter of a century old.  To celebrate, Warner Home Video will release, The Goonies 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition  ($28) which features special packaging, an included board game, original storyboard reproductions, a 1985 souvenir magazine reprint, a reprint of a 2009 Empire magazine article with cast photos and updates, and cast commentary with Richard Donner and all seven principle actors.

BUY Simpsons Duff Beer & Flaming Moe Energy Drinks


You might not be able to purchase their animated alcoholic counterparts, but at least you can look like it with The Simpsons Duff Beer & Flaming Moe Energy Drinks ($9). Packed with B vitamins, Taurine, Caffeine, Sugar, and other energy drink standards, the 12 oz. Duff sports an orange flavor and looks like the can from the show, while the Flaming Moe comes in an 8.4 oz. can and sports more of a Red Bull-ish flavor. Ahhh Beer (kinda)!

Source Uncrate

Thursday, July 29, 2010

FIRST LOOK: Smallville Season 10 Trailer

The CW released a trailer for the 10th and final season of Smallville.   Unless I missed her there is NO Chloe Sullivan in the promo.  That makes a good trailer.  Hooray!

Custom Built? Not so much...



Due to the fact that I’m insanely bored and opinionated – never a good combination – I’ll go ahead and regale you with a review of the new Bret Michaels CD, Custom Built.

If I was a member of the Bret Michaels fan club, I think I might get kicked out for the things I’m about to say. But, well, c’est la vie.

Overall, it sounds just like what I’ve heard before. In fact, three of the tracks are actually from Freedom of Sound, another solo Bret Michaels project. Two others are “club mixes” of tracks from Freedom of Sound. Seriously Bret, could you not come up with some new music, so you had to lift from your previous work? I mean, sheesh. I’d rather have an eight-track CD of all new material as opposed to a 12-track CD where a third of it came from other CDs.

Similarly, the song Every Rose (the country version of Every Rose Has Its Thorn) is one of the tracks shared between this CD and Freedom of Sound. I like Every Rose Has Its Thorn as much as the next 80s girl out there, but come on Bret, let’s get it together and not live in the past. It’s not the only good song you ever wrote. Plus (God forgive me for saying it), it’s kind of pathetic that you lean on that song so much. It’s not like you were a one-hit wonder, for God’s sake. STOP ACTING LIKE ONE!

Now, onto some of the new tracks… first of all, it’s somewhat sad that all of his music has the same “monochromatic” sound to it. I mean, it’s almost like, “heard one Bret Michaels song, heard them all,” at this point. I know he can sing, I know he’s got range – I wish he’d use it. Come on, Bret, step outside the box. You’ve done it before, you can do it again. I know it’s comfortable in the box, but still.

If there’s one thing in music I can’t stand, it’s when artists refer to older songs (or worse, themselves), in lyrics to songs. I’ve often called this the “kiss of death” because most artists who refer to themselves in the lyrics of their songs don’t last too long. (Case and point, Bros. If you don’t know who they are, I just proved my point. I have seen them in concert – not by choice – so they really did exist and they really did suck, and the only lyrics I remember from any of their songs was “singing B-R-O-S, B-R-O-S.” But I digress.) In one of the songs, Bret refers back to the Poison song Sexual Thing (which is not one of my favorites, I might add). Really? Can’t come up with new lyrics so we have to scrape the 20-year-old barrel? (If you listen to some of his other solo stuff, it does reference other Poison lyrics. So this is not the only violator, but it irritates me just the same.)

The track What I Got is tolerable (as far as lyrics go), but it features Bret trying to rap. Let’s get something straight – I fully believe that white guys should not rap. (Yes, Eminem, Vanilla Ice and Kid Rock, I’m talking to you!) Especially white blond guys (again, Vanilla Ice, I’m talking to you). What’s even worse, the beginning of the song is someone, and I can only assume it’s Bret, who is beat-boxing. Umm, no. Run away. Run far, far away.

Oh, okay, and now onto my biggest pet peeve – Nothing to Lose. First, there are two versions. One of Bret by himself, and one where he sings with someone else, which is one of those sad ploys to add more tracks to a CD without adding content (hey, Bon Jovi, you did the same thing with You Can’t Go Home, so don’t think you’re free and clear from my wrath). That’s not my biggest problem with it. Nope. Not by a long shot.

My problem is that the duet version is with Miley Cyrus. (The only way, and I mean the only way, it could be worse is if it was a duet with LeAnn Rimes. Hey, Bon Jovi, you hear me?) I mean, I can tolerate Miley’s voice if I have to, but the song is very … ummm … yeah, you get where I’m going. To duet it with a 17-year-old Disney starlet? That’s just gross. Come on. I mean, yeah, I know she’s a slut and all, but still. The image is just wrong.

So… there’s the new Bret Michaels’ CD according to me. Sorry Bret. I still love you, but am not impressed with this newest collection. Next time, don’t rush a CD out just because you’re riding high on the publicity of a brain hemorrhage, mmmkay? Take your time, put together a better collection of music, and we’ll still love you. Promise.