I've been waiting for CNN to put an architect or engineer on about the collapse but to no avil. Fortunately my Dad heard/saw an interview with the CEO of the company who built the buildings, and as an architect was able to fill me in.

My dad said that while the steel in the building is fire proofed and the building withstood the initial shock of the crash the steel in the building wouldn't have been able to withstand the extreme heat from the burning jet fuel. So after whatever period of time it was the steel had sufficiently weakened that the upper stories began to fall and the stories below were unable to hold their weight as they collapsed downward. He says to pay attention to the mast head on the building when you watch the video. You'll see that it stays perfectly upright for a good portion of the freefall as the building implodes under the upper portions weight. I'm curious to know if the rescuers believed that they were in immenient danger of further collapse? My dad also noted that the buildings conventional sprinkler system would have done nothing to cool down/extinguish the burning jet fuel.

If anyone has any links or insights on the physics/engineering of the actual collapsed I'd be interested in hearing those.

I'd also be interested in hearing theories about how they co-ordinate the capture of four large plans and then subsequently crashed 3 of them into buildings.

It seems CNN is heavy on the political coverage but weak on all this other stuff which frankly I would find more interesting.
[9:04:27 PM] []

My new mattress arrived. It smells very toxic. I have Donny's 'Air Mover' (read powerful fan) trying to disapate the fumes through to the rest of the house.
[8:19:27 PM] []

In regards to our school issuing a statement. Rumor has it there were a bunch of UW Co-ops working for IBM who supposedly has a couple floors in the WTC.
[6:36:08 PM] []

About half an hour ago we got called back down to the TV to view live CNN footage of missle attacks in Kabul, Afghanistan. I hope Bush hasn't gone off the deep end.

While everyone seems to be pointing fingers at Bin Laden how do we know it wasn't four crazies from ________ (choose some arcane state).

Are we just seeing the tip of the iceberg? I guess that's what spooks me the most.
[6:35:05 PM] []

Our school president issues a statement on the attacks.
[4:45:51 PM] []

John just told me to view source at Fucked Company. Here's a screenshot. The message in the code is:

What's done is done. All we can do now is try to bring some good out of the situation.
This type of shit happens in Israel every fucking day. Now more Americans understand.

With a link to Palestinians in Lebanon fire with joy at anti-US attacks.

Weird. ..As I said. Today is just the beginning.
[4:25:00 PM] []

John and I both received emails asking if we're okay. Time for a news flash: John and Matt are not in New York. While we contemplated moving to upstate New York in the end we decided not to and we both live at 207 Erb St West in Waterloo (see the updated contact info).

I didn't get any work done today because I'm sure like the rest of the world I'm in shock over what's transpired.

Glued to both CNN while hitting refresh on the laptop every few minutes I've been keeping up on things (I ran some cat-5 down to the living room (we really need wireless)). It's like I can't get enough. Scouring the web for every little bit of information, every photo.

John said it this wouldn't mean as much if we hadn't actually been in the World Trade Center just a little over a month ago. I agree. We now both regret not actually going up to the observation deck at the top. While milling around considering to go up we even commented on the high level of security. Of course building security means nothing when two crazies fly into your buildings with jumbo jets. And of course we also thought that the WTC would always be. You never imagine the CN Tower, or the Sears Tower, of the Empire State building just disappearing. It'd be like the pyramids disappearing. Completely un-imaginable. Especially when the buildings are supposedly designed to withstand a plane crash (news story of plane hiting Chrsyler building).

I would like to say that I'm not a believer in war and/or capital punishment. While I would like Bush to respond to this in an intelligent matter I believe that to be very unlikely. Sadly I believe the bloodletting has just begun.
[4:21:25 PM] []

Time line and collection of photos.
[3:49:42 PM] []

Another collection of photos.
[3:42:35 PM] []

Dave has a good collection of updates on Scripting, his weblog.
[1:43:23 PM] []

And you thought Nortel set your retirement back a couple years: European stockmarkets plummeted, with Frankfurt down nearly 7.0%, London losing 5.7% - its biggest one day fall since 1987 - and Paris plunging 7.4%. Via BBC's Market turmoil after US attacks.
[1:32:41 PM] []

hunting bin laden.
[1:20:30 PM] []

Canadian airports closed, CN Tower shut
[12:53:20 PM] []

Globe and Mail has a big list of links.
[12:46:16 PM] []

Photo essay of the collapse.
[12:41:24 PM] []

Well we're getting conflicting reports about the state of border crossings.
[11:56:18 AM] []

We heard there was 2 inches of dust/debris in downtown NYC.
[11:52:58 AM] []

The web is crawling and down/inaccessible in many spots.
[11:51:36 AM] []

All Canadian border crossings are closed.

Canadian military has stepped up their level of awareness.

Canada is receiving lots of American flights b/c the USA is not accepting any more plans.
[11:50:15 AM] []

A 767 seats at most 304? people.
[11:46:33 AM] []

I thought it was a hoax till I pulled up CNN on our 52" television and watched the second tower collapse.

Explosions rock Wall Street . I.e. The WTC has collapsed, the Pentagon is collapsing, and lots of people have lost their lives.

Here's a picture of me earlier this summer at the World Trade Center. Here's a picture of the skyline with the WTC intact. Compare with this skyline.

Here's a picture earlier this morning (from Dave):

[11:27:50 AM] []