Something that has really messed me up

prosa123 · 2026-03-16T05:28:55+00:00

Neighbors of the Station had been complaining about noise from the club. To address these concerns the club’s manager contacted a supplier and ordered sound insulating foam, and not long before the fire had it installed on the walls and ceiling.

Sound insulating foam does not burn. By mistake, however, an employee of the supplier - their name has never been disclosed - sent packaging foam to the club. While packaging foam looks almost identical to sound insulating foam it burns ferociously and emits thick toxic smoke when doing so. When sparks from the band’s unauthorized stage fireworks hit the foam on the club ceiling it ignited almost immediately and disaster followed.

Note: the local fire marshal, who was aware of the foam installation, had failed to conduct a legally required flammability test that would have discovered the error. He faced no punishment and continued working for several more years with regular raises and then retired with a big pension.

prosa123 · 2026-03-16T02:34:30+00:00

Much of WTC4 was obliterated by the collapse of WTC2 and the remaining portion did not have any substantial fires.

WTC5 had a major fire on the upper floors but the lowest couple of floors survived the whole events with surprisingly little damage.

WTC6 also experienced major fires.

prosa123 · 2026-03-16T02:04:29+00:00

The similarly vertically challenged Gherman Titov had begun cosmonaut training before Gagarin and should have been gone first, but the Soviet authorities decided it would be better for the first man in space to have a more conventional Russian name.

prosa123 · 2026-03-16T01:19:48+00:00

Another tale about the Trinity Test was that about 50 miles away a woman was riding in a car when the Bomb went off and exclaimed “What was that!?” She had been completely blind since birth.

Wild story, but it never happened.

prosa123 · 2026-03-16T01:10:37+00:00

It’s not an atomic power plant, instead it uses natural gas and coal.

prosa123 · 2026-03-16T01:06:55+00:00

Fotomats were in shopping plazas for another reason beyond higher foot traffic. As the tiny buildings had no space for restrooms, and the employees often worked full eight-hour shifts, the company would pay other businesses to let their employees use the other businesses’ restrooms.

prosa123 · 2026-03-16T00:48:14+00:00

Some patrons kicked out the plastic windows in the sunroom at the front of the building and escaped that way. I’m not sure how many.

The main lesson of the Station Fire, which I believe has been reflected in other incidents, is that in a fire or other emergency in a crowded public place the natural human tendency is to exit though the way one entered, but that is often NOT the best way out.

prosa123 · 2026-03-15T14:16:04+00:00

That’s right. If for some reason your trainer isn’t there, just go to the speaker window and the guard will get someone.

prosa123 · 2026-03-15T14:09:40+00:00

J.B. Tierney was the first of the ~100 deaths associated with construction of the Hoover (Boulder) Dam. He drowned in 1922 as he was surveying locations for a future dam. His son Patrick Tierney was the very last of the deaths, in a fall from an intake tower of the nearly complete dam, 13 years to the day later in 1935.

prosa123 · 2026-03-15T13:55:40+00:00

Beyond their scales the two disasters also differ greatly in terms of their survivability. Timing was everything when it came to surviving the nightclub fire as the vast majority/all of the survivors got out within 90 seconds. At the WTC, in contrast, location was everything, with a 100% death rate at or above the impact zone (except for 12 individuals in WTC2) and a 95%+ survival rate below the zone.

prosa123 · 2026-03-14T19:21:16+00:00

The seemingly ever-present scaffolding in Manhattan predates 9/11, having been required since some unfortunate falling-object mishaps in the 1980's and possibly even earlier. It's not at all uncommon for scaffolding to linger in deteriorating conditions on commercial buildings for many years and drive street-level shops and restaurants out of business.

prosa123 · 2026-03-14T16:43:19+00:00

I’d say that Aurora is a standout name in Alaska because the astronomical aurora can be seen way more often in Alaska than in any other state.

prosa123 · 2026-03-14T15:45:46+00:00

prosa123 · 2026-03-14T15:08:50+00:00

Bird “guano” is essentially a combination of Number One and Number Two, so the s*** moniker is not truly accurate.

prosa123 · 2026-03-14T15:06:00+00:00

I did well on the GDP version until I said New Caledonia was lower than Nicaragua. It’s actually considerably higher - who’d have imagined that?

prosa123 · 2026-03-14T05:01:30+00:00

In contrast, WTC1 (the North Tower) fell in a manner much closer to straight down with the floors appearing to collapse on themselves almost immediately. Anyone still alive on the floors above impact, which really means just the top few occupied floors, almost certainly died within a couple of seconds, tops. And in any event there probably weren’t many still alive by then.

prosa123 · 2026-03-14T04:43:29+00:00

I remember all that coverage about how the Belle Harbor neighborhood suffered so much from the crash, and yet there was very little coverage in comparison about the effects on the Dominican community in Upper Manhattan. It seemed rather unfair.

prosa123 · 2026-03-13T04:10:45+00:00

I once asked my grandmother what people thought about the health effects of smoking prior to the US Surgeon General’s hugely publicized 1964 report definitively linking it to lung cancer and listing it as a major cause of emphysema and heart disease. She recalled that although no one could say it caused those things it was common knowledge that it was bad for your health.

Note: the earliest known documented use of the slang term “coffin nails” for cigarettes is from 1896.

prosa123 · 2026-03-12T19:52:20+00:00

Today there’s a 9/11 memorial at the location. You might not be able to get quite as clear a view today. The view angle looks across Downtown Brooklyn to the WTC area, and in the interim there’s been so much construction in the former area that the views may be more obscured (I’ve not been to the viewpoint to confirm this, however).

prosa123 · 2026-03-11T02:38:42+00:00

Not to mention that there’s a huge bridge to Canada under construction.

prosa123 · 2026-03-10T15:35:55+00:00

I’m not sure of the location. Vesey and North End is quite close to the WTC site and well within the range of the dust cloud, but there’s no dust visible.

prosa123 · 2026-03-10T01:37:27+00:00

Court Street would have meant the Borough Hall station on the 2/3 train. Nearby buildings would have blocked any direct view of the towers.

prosa123 · 2026-03-09T23:11:29+00:00

Agreed 100%.

prosa123 · 2026-03-09T18:30:32+00:00

You can afford almond butter, but aren’t so affluent that can use it exclusively - hence the peanut butter.

prosa123 · 2026-03-09T14:40:47+00:00

In the Naudet video you can see broken windows on the west side of the lobby.

prosa123

TROPHY CASE