In article ,
says...

snip

As I understand it, when the WTC was designed, it was designed for the
very unlikely event of an actual accident involving a passenger
airliner at the time, probably one lost in bad weather conditions,
with no air traffic control, at the end of a long flight with minimum
fuel load.

The WTC wasn't designed for much larger aircraft, with a large fuel
load, deliberately flown into the buildings. It probably isn't
possible to design such a structure for such an event, actually.

Certainly not economical to do so. Perhaps we should give up the idea
of skyscrapers and go back to pyramids? :-)


Actually, if the construction had been allowed to proceed according to
plan the building might have either survived or at least stayed up longer
allowing more people to escape. Shortly after construction started the
spray on insulation the plans called for was banned due to asbestos
content. (For public safety reasons.) The approved replacement didn't
provide the same temperature protection in the thickness the plans
allowed for and the idea of tearing down and starting from scratch wasn't
even in the running. Instead they quietly removed "surviving an aircraft
collision" from the design criteria of this particular skyscraper.

not one
bullet fired . It could be cars next .
Look out for martyrs behind the wheel when you down the street next time.

Good advice, and a sensible point. However, it doesn't take a lot of
imagination to envision much worse possibilities involving vehicles.

Which is why society needs more controls over who is behind the wheel.

In Australia, we have a graded series of licenses, starting with a
passenger car for private use, then a cab, then vehicles carrying more
passengers or having a higher gross weight, rigid trucks, articulated
trucks ["semis"] and, finally, "road trains".

I wonder if all states in the US have similar systems. Or can anyone
with an ordinary drivers license buy, rent, or drive anything of any
passenger capacity or weight?

Myal



"_Magna est veritas et praevalebit"_
(Truth is mighty and will prevail).

erniegalts
[Australia]
[misc.survivalism]


Can't tell anything about other states and I haven't checked this week,
but here in Wisconsin it's always been legal for anyone to operate
anything on a public road, as long as it's licensed as a farm implement
and they're engaged in farm operations. (That includes a fourteen year
old with no license at all, driving a tandem trailer semi filled with
grain from the field back to the dryer, so long as the truck has farm
plates.)

By the time I was old enough to take the formal "drivers ed" course in
high school I'd logged several thousand miles on everything from a motor
scooter to a mil surp deuce and a half.

They now have a laundry list of restrictions on a newly licensed driver
that are gradually lifted as he gains experience but as far as I'm aware
the "farm use" loophole is still there.

Later,
Joe

People who've never had any freedom can't understand how easy it is to
get addicted to the real thing.