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The Debunking 911 website points out: "There were a lot of firsts for the WTC. In all the history of high-rise fires, not one has ever been hit with a plane traveling 500 miles an hour and had its fire proofing removed from its trusses. In all the history of high-rise fires, not one has ever had its steel columns which hold lateral load sheared off by a 767. In all the history of high-rise fires, not one has ever been a building which had its vertical load bearing columns in its core removed by an airliner."
What about building seven? It wasn't even hit by a plane.
Although FEMA's initial report said there was relatively light damage to WTC7 prior to its collapse, the later NIST report found that the building was damaged far worse than the FEMA report suggested.
NIST's final report found that this structural damage, combined with a lack of water to fight the fire, led to the building's collapse.
Conspiracy theorists say building owner Larry Silverstein's statement that they made the decision to 'pull' refers to demolishing the building with explosives.
Mr Silverstein later issued a clarification, saying 'pull' referred to pulling the firefighting effort, not the building.
Okay, but I heard the planes that hit the World Trade Centre towers were remotely controlled.
Boeing, which built the planes that struck the towers, has said its commercial jets are configured so they cannot be remotely controlled.
There are also recordings of phone calls made from the flights, with people saying hijackers had taken over the planes.
Is it true that 4,000 Jews failed to show up for work at the World Trade Centre on September 11?
No. The '4,000' figure has been attributed to an early statement by the Israeli Foreign Ministry that some '4,000 Israelis' were believed to be in the New York and Washington areas, where the attacks occurred. Between 10 and 15 per cent of the WTC victims were Jewish. A 2002 study estimated that 12 per cent of New York City was Jewish.
What about insider trading in the stocks of the two airlines whose planes were hijacked? Doesn't that mean someone knew what was about to happen?
"A single U.S.-based institutional investor with no conceivable ties to al Qaeda purchased 95% of the UAL puts on September 6 as part of a trading strategy that also included buying 115,000 shares of American on September 10... much of the seemingly suspicious trading in American on September 10 was traced to a specific U.S.-based options trading newsletter, faxed to its subscribers on Sunday, September 9, that recommended these trades."
Why weren't the planes intercepted?
According to Popular Mechanics, in the decade before 9/11 there was only one military intercept of a civilian plane over North America. In 1999, golfer Payne Stewart's Lear Jet decompressed in mid-air, rendering pilot and passengers unconscious. It took an F-16 jet over an hour to intercept the jet.
The time between Flight 11 taking off and hitting the WTC was 47 minutes. The longest flight time was United 93, at one hour, 21 minutes. (Our timeline shows the official chronology of events).
However, knowledge of the hijackings was not immediate and the plane's transponders, which identify the planes, were turned off or changed, confusing air traffic controllers.
Also, fighter jets had been deployed to Alaska and northern Canada as part of a scheduled military exercise.
What about the theory that the Pentagon was hit by a missile, not a plane?
Conspiracy theorists say there was no evidence of passenger plane wreckage at the site of the Pentagon attack.
In actual fact, there are numerous photos showing the wreckage of Flight 77 both inside and outside the Pentagon.
Robbyn Swan, co-author of The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden, told the Guardian: "I invite anyone who believes that to talk to the many eyewitnesses who saw the plane approach and hit the Pentagon. I invite them to look, as I have done, at the absolutely horrific photographs of the burned bodies of the victims of flight 77 still strapped into their plane seats that were found amongst the ruins of the Pentagon."
And as Christopher Hitchens notes, if the Pentagon was struck by a missile, what happened to Flight 77?
I've heard that Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, was shot down by a fighter jet.
Conspiracy theorists say wreckage was scattered over too wide an area (up to eight miles) for the plane to have crashed into the ground.
But Skeptic Magazine says that some have distorted the facts. The magazine says the plane's engine was found 300 yards away from the crash site, not the 'miles' claimed by some.
The material that was found miles away was lighter material such as paper, insulation, and an endorsed pay cheque.
Cockpit flight recorders and calls made from the plane back the official account of the crash, which says hijackers crashed the plane after the passengers revolted.
NEW MARTINSVILLE, W.Va. – The West Virginia Route 2 and I-68 Highway Authority this week in New Martinsville met with U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., to discuss ways to expedite the Route 2 expansion and extending I-68.
McKinley also was updated on the Road Bond Amendment in the Oct. 7 special election.
The Road Bond Amendment will allow for the financing of up to $3 billion in bonds utilizing an estimated $130 million a year in new funding from taxes previously raised on July 1.
“This meeting was a good step in continuing our conversation moving in the right direction in regard to the importance of finishing these road projects,” Clements said.
Department of Transportation Secretary Tom Smith and representatives of the Regional Economic Development Partnership, the Bel-O-Mar Regional Council and the BHJ Metropolitan Planning Commission joined the Authority .
The Authority was created by the West Virginia Legislature in 1997 and includes representatives from Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, Tyler, Pleasants, Wood, Monongalia and Marion counties. The authority is charged with the expansion of Route 2.
from Parkersburg to Chester to a four-lane highway and the extension of I-68 from I-79 to Route 2.
Renzi anticipated that “Italian Culture Minister will visit Argentina to coordinate a joint meeting as 300 businessmen, interested in investing in Argentina”.
President Mauricio Macri and visiting Italian premier Matteo Renzi vowed to “re-launch bilateral relations”, and emphasized the Italian interest in participating in energy, transport, gas and technology projects in the country which has become home to one of the largest Italian migrations.
“We are focused in trade and getting new investments, in renewable energy, in the railway sector. We want Italian companies to come and invest in Argentina,” President Mauricio Macri said, adding that the two countries also want to be united in the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking”.
Renzi who spent just over two days in Argentina stated “it’s crazy no Italian premier had visited Argentina for the last 18 years” and anticipated that “Italian Culture Minister will visit Argentina in August to coordinate a joint meeting between both countries as 300 businessmen, most of them from small and medium companies, are interested in investing”.
Even when Matteo Renzi is supported by a left wing coalition in Italy, he was among the first leaders to congratulate conservative Macri on his election victory.
Furthermore the fresh attitude and recent agreement of the Macri administration of reaching an agreement with holdouts, has meant that thousands of Italian small bondholders will be paid. The operation involves 1.5bn dollars, who will receive 150% of their original capital invested in Argentine bonds. The Italian bondholders had a favorable ruling from the World Bank ICSID's, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Dispute.
The two leaders met officially on Tuesday at the Casa Rosada but the previous night Renzi was hosted by Macri and his family at his camp house.
The last Italian head of government to visit Argentina was Romano Prodi back in 1998.
We are establishing strong trade and political relations; the visit of PM Renzi is evidence to this”, underlined Italian ambassador in Buenos Aires, Teresa Castaldo.
Another issue which was addressed, according to diplomatic sources, was the long pending trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, which has been delayed for years on discrepancy on certain sectors such as agriculture and manufactured goods. France and Ireland lead a pack which is dragging their feet on fears the highly competitive Mercosur agriculture could mean more challenges for European farmers.
French president Francois Hollande is expected in Argentina on an official visit next week.
Tags: Argentina, Italia, Matteo Renzi, Mauricio Macri President.
What are the odds of italian holdings be expropriated in rgntiny?
Remember: One administration won't be bounden by an agreement executed by another.
How long, before he conveniently bumps into David and declares his love of everything EU.
They're just like a Latin Bush and Blair, no? I look forward to the day when Macri feels the Bern of President Sanders!
If you want to share a funny or thought-provoking Facebook post, it’s always a good idea to blur out the names and profile pictures of everyone on it to protect their privacy. Unfortunately, there are numerous steps involved that could take up more time than you have.
ThreadShots simplifies the process with a handy Chrome extension that automatically blurs out users’ names and pictures, and lets you share an image of the post on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr and Google+.
Once you’ve installed ThreadShots, you’ll notice a button labeled TS at the top right corner of each Facebook post. Just click on it, and you’ll be able to share the image or save it to your desktop.
It sure beats manually coloring in or blurring names and faces manually — particularly on posts with lengthy comment threads. My only gripe is that you can’t individually select elements to ‘unblur’.
If you’d like to save your creation for posterity, you can download a high-resolution version for $0.99 or order a print in a range of sizes and have it shipped anywhere in the US. I’m not sure about the demand for that, but hey, maybe I haven’t yet come across a post that’s worthy of space on my wall.
Wrike has updated its workplace productivity application Graphite, rolling out a new minimalist user interface and also the ability to broadcast the current work in real-time. The emphasis on a well-structured task view is designed to encourage workers to come back to the app and staying there longer.
The Graphite update has applied a crisp coat of Web 2.0 paint to the tired Windows Explorer style interface, and also heralds new features: project infographics, denser notification emails, and HTML5 desktop popup notifications.
The design changes and features are aimed at creating a more engaging interface that will encourage users to create and manage tasks, and collaborate on projects. However, it aims to do this in a subtle manner where the experience is not cluttered or bloated with features. Further, the ability to monitor what your colleagues are working on creates a reason to continually check into the application.
Wrike CEO Andrew Filev said the changes were designed to accommodate user habits while improving productivity. Earlier this year, it added real-time update capabilities to let employees manage tasks offline and online, to enhance the ability of workers to collaborate on documents both inside and outside of the app.
The user interface has emerged as a new front in the battle for worker productivity.
A collaboration tool for marketing professionals Brightpod is adding real-time updates to the activity stream, as well as allowing users to manage their marketing workflows public.
And major competitor Asana recently released announced integration with timesheet app Harvest, which allowed the users to track time by simply clicking a little stopwatch in the taskbar. This information is recorded in the user’s corresponding Harvest account. The looming clock creates an urgency to stay on track and complete a particular task. The startup, cofounded by Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and with $38 million investment at its disposal, also released a version targeting enterprise customers, as a number of users were demanding the ability to expand the application into other parts of the business.
Stuart (left) and Martin Hammond who have given Leighton's Garden Centre a new lease of life.
Leighton Buzzard Garden Centre has been saved, with contracts exchanged between the current owners and one of the biggest horticultural growers in the region in a deal that will create new jobs with investment plans for years to come.
Just two months after owners Martin and Stuart Hammond announced their decision to retire, the family-owned and Bedfordshire-based Home and Garden Group will be taking control of the Hockliffe Road garden centre facilities with effect from next week (June 13) with “business continuing as usual”.
Says Martin, who with brother Stuart has developed the garden centre for 20 years since purchasing the derelict three-acre site in 1994: “We are absolutely delighted the garden centre will continue with the new operators committed to its development and future success.
The Home and Garden Group, with its operations centre at Upper Caldecote, near Biggleswade, was founded in the 1960s by Paul Chessum, who is now chairman of the group managed by son David White and daughter Karen Gill.
With the Leighton Buzzard outlet now part of its portfolio, it now has ten garden centres located in the Midlands and the south, and a vast nursery facility, with around five million plants under cultivation at any one time – including around 600 varieties of roses.
The group supplies a vast range of products to commercial outlets as well as to its own garden centres.
Brother David focuses on the sales and marketing activities of a business which currently has over 200 employees and which has offered jobs to the 14 staff at the Leighton operations.
David said: “Events have moved fast since we first approached Martin and Stuart about taking over their business, and whilst we want to maintain the friendly family atmosphere of the Leighton centre, we already have plans to improve the shopping experience with substantial investment in new stock, poly-tunnels and other additions.
The Hammond brothers initially decided to hang up their pruning shears this autumn to pursue other interests, but agreed to grant a 15-year lease to Home & Garden earlier than planned to enable a “smooth transition” of activities and enable the new operators to introduce new plant ranges during the busy summer season.
Nine other businesses occupying rented facilities on the multi-use retail site and employing around 40 people will be unaffected; however, with the lapse of the current lease to on-site coffee shop operators, Home and Garden plan to open a ‘Blossom Cafe’ similar to those they have at five of their other garden centres.
Other businesses on the Leighton site include an aquatics centre, beauticians, dog groomers, a pet shop, car wash, crafts centre, hot tub and pool suppliers and installers, a conservatory company and a children’s nursery.
Martin added: “There was much ill-informed speculation about the future of the site when we announced our plans to retire, but we said at the time that we would consider any sensible viable approach made to us.
“We’ve been true to our word; now we hope that the many customers who expressed their disappointment will now get behind the new operators and support them and their objectives.
Trump, who has pitched himself as the ultimate negotiator, has focused on ambitious deals as president but has struggled with the fine print….Supporters stress that sometimes Trump’s ambitious efforts do pay off, as with the massive tax cut bill he signed into law late last year.
Going into the North Korea meeting, senior administration officials say, the president has been almost singularly focused on the pageantry of the summit —including the suspenseful roll-out of details. He has not been deeply engaged in briefing materials on North Korea’s nuclear program, said three people with knowledge of the White House efforts….Driven by gut instinct, Trump rarely dives deep as he prepares to meet with foreign counterparts. For the North Korea meeting, insiders say, he is motivated by the idea of scoring a historic deal and is tickled by suggestions he could win a Nobel Peace Prize — especially since Barack Obama won the honor early in his presidency.
FFS. Trump had nothing to do with the tax cut. He was, as Grover Norquist once put it so pungently, merely a human-shaped object with “enough working digits to handle a pen.” The tax cut would have passed if Mickey Mouse had occupied the Oval Office.
I sure hope Republicans get their money’s worth in judicial appointments from supporting this cretin. I never realized that selling your soul came so cheap.
¹Why “quasi”? Because as near as I can tell, both countries trust that Trump is on their side, but both also have nothing but contempt for him. They figure they can gull him into doing what they want and ignore his idiot son-in-law, and that’s good enough.
This hand-signed hockey puck has been beautifully and personally autographed by Phil Kessel. To protect your investment, a Certificate Of Authenticity and tamper evident hologram from A.J. Authentic is included with your purchase for an unconditional lifetime guarantee of authenticity.
U.S. employers posted the fewest jobs in eight months in August, a sign job gains will likely remain modest in the coming months.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits last week fell to the lowest level since mid-April, another sign that workers are enjoying job security despite sluggish economic growth.
The campaign to give workers paid time off when they're sick is picking up momentum.
The U.S. Labor Department is investigating possible abuses of employees by Wells Fargo in connection with the bank's alleged efforts to open millions of unauthorized accounts to meet sales goals.
U.S. consumer prices edged up 0.2 percent in August as a surge in medical care offset flat readings for food and energy.
U.S. productivity fell in the April-June quarter by a larger amount than first estimated, while labor costs accelerated sharply.
U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in July as a big drop in gasoline and other energy prices kept inflation under control.
The ebbing of this wave of populism is a condition precedent to stronger global economic growth and prosperity.
U.S. producer prices last month registered the biggest drop since September, pulled down by tumbling energy, clothing and food prices.
The World No Tobacco Day is observed on May 31 every year, and this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for governments across the world to enact policies for plain packaging of tobacco products. New Zealand, which aims to be a smoke-free nation by 2025, said Tuesday it would introduce plain packaging, a week after it announced higher taxes to be imposed on tobacco.
Australia was the first country in the world to fully implement plain packaging, a decision from December 2012 that was challenged by Philip Morris International. The maker of brands such as Marlboro and L&M lost the case in December 2015, and other countries — the United Kingdom, France and Ireland — passed similar laws in early 2016. The highest court of the European Union also ruled, earlier this month, in favor of regulations that give its member states the option of implementing plain packaging for tobacco products. Several other countries around the world are discussing legislation along such lines as well.
New Zealand had first announced a proposal for plain packaging in 2013, and on Tuesday, its Associate Health Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga said the country would impose a ban on attractive packaging soon. There would be a two-month consultation period, following which recommendations for implementing the ban would be sent to the government.
According to WHO, about 6 million people die every year from tobacco-related illnesses. About 5 million die from direct tobacco use, and more than 600,000 deaths are caused by second-hand smoke.
US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad have arrested the deputy health minister during a raid at his offices.
The minister, Hakim al-Zamili, is a key member of the political group led by radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.
He is accused of aiding Shia militiamen and using ambulances to move weapons, a ministry source told the BBC.
The arrest came on the day Gen David Petraeus arrived in Baghdad to assume command of US forces in Iraq and oversee a push against militants.

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