The question of the sagging floors in the WTC.

Something just came to mind that I cannot explain. Maybe someone with structural engineering skills kan explain this to me.

According to NIST, as far as I’m right here, part of the collapse of the twin towers was the fact that the floors sagged due to heat, and this pulled in with considerable force on the outer columns.

Can someone please explain to me how a sagging (softer) floor can pull more inwards on a perimeter column than a straight one? We are not adding any force to the floor, it just expands as it is no longer as rigid. The load on the point where it is connected to the perimeter column must be the same.

Of course it would be different if the sagging was due to added weight (downward force) to the floor, but this is not the case.

If i hang a narrow line between two small trees and I grab onto it and hang, it gives way and there is some pull on the trees as well as some sag in the line. If I do the same with a thicker line it does not give way that much, but shouldn’t the pull on the trees be the same? They are supporting the same weight. (Mine)

I cannot wrap my mind around this theory. I bet it has something to do with vectors though 🙂

Help

San Jose Earthquake 4.3 – Surviving Earthquakes

USGS reports 4.3 magnitude and depth of 4.8 miles or 7.7km. No tsunami warning associated with this event.

Our world is not asleep, it’s not a rock. It’s a living breathing monster. San Jose Was struck at the time of writing about two hours ago by a 4.3 Richter scale magnitude earthquake.

What can we do to keep safe?

Prepare and keep a survival kit at home, in your car or at work. Contamination of water can be problematic, and loss of power hits the modern civilisation pretty hard. A survival kit is also never wrong for other emergencies, hurricanes, Tornadoes. Not that I’m trying to paint a terrifying picture here, You’ll probably be allright.

However, It’s not a bad idea to stock up on survival gear. In fact it’s first on CERI’s* list of what to do in an Earthquake.

(*Center For Earthquake Research and Information)

PREPARE YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY NOW

• Have an earthquake survival kit on hand.
• All family members should know how to turn off gas, water, and electricity.
• Plan family emergency procedures, and make plans for reuniting your family.
• Know emergency telephone numbers (doctor, hospital, police, 911, etc)
• Anchor heavy objects to walls (bookcases, wall units, mirrors, cabinets, etc.)
• Never place heavy objects over beds, and keep heavy objects lower than head height of shortest member of family.

Get a survival kit from CampingSurvival.com, or a similar store.  Better safe than sorry…

(You don’t see that many webpages with a design centered around dirt and rocks. It’s really quite refreshing. And i like the shovel 🙂 )

What the bleep do we know!?

This is a movie about reality, the brain, the mind, science, psychology, religion, the universe. What the bleep do we know.

Reality is filtered through our senses, our understanding of reality his highly subjective and limited to what we can perceive. The brain creates our reality for us. We tend to think that what we can see and feel is everything there is. A very self-centered, limited and uninformed opinion.

Having studied the brain, neurology,cognitive psychology and intelligence for the past 7 years I have achieved an understanding of what the mind is. Simplified the mind is a machine that interprets sense-information and tries to create a coherent informational structure for us to act according to. It gives us no garantee that this way of interpreting reality is the only way, or that the information the senses can receive is the only information out there.

People tend not to think about this, or choose not to see it.

This is a 16 part video, I was unable to find it on YouTube in one whole part. The parts are added in a playlist, but it seems that you have to manually click the next part for it to start. Go to this megavideo link to see it in one piece

Torrent

Homeopathy vs Allopathy

I’m a bit upset with the western medicine today. Lots of what is going on is just to cure symptoms, not really the cause of why we get sick. Traditional “eastern” and Homeopathic medicine looks at the whole person, life situation, spiritual/psychological balance and it uses remedies from nature. Allopathy, the “western” way claims to be scientific, and the law says “only drugs can cure illness”. Drugs are derived from nature but can be patented. What the law really is saying is: “only drugs can give us revenue trough monopoly on patents”. The problem is that statistics are twisted and turned to look much better scientifically than they actually are. “We are on the verge of beating cancer” is what we have heard for decades and decades. “We just need more funding”. Imagine the amount of people who would loose their jobs if cancer research was no longer needed. And what if there is a natural cure for it!

Follow the money trace.

Watch this video on Homepathy and Allopathy. The history of the two ways to look at sickness and health. Think about it.

Watch on Google Video

Click here for more info on natural medicine

Piezoelectricity powers artificial bunny

Illustration by B. Gillespie

Well, maybe  not an artificial bunny but ScienceNOW Daily News Reported this on Mar. 26, 2009

Georgia Institute of  Technology researchers have built a piezoelectric effect (mechanical pressure converted to electricity) nanogenerator, the first to use this effect at the nanoscale.

This could allow microsensors and miniature medical devices to derive their electrical needs from their surroundings instead of from batteries.

GPS Tracking? Do we want it?

Several companies are marketing GPS tracking devices. What are they? Well GPS tracking devices use global satellite positioning to send the postion of your car, your spouse or your cat to a database, in which you can easily check their location. Nifty? Well used right I guess it is, but there are problems.

Some devices you simply keep in your pocket and then plug them in to your computer when you come home to see where you have been. This would not be bad for integrity, and might even be convenient if you are a sleepwalker, or often lend your trousers to strangers and end up wondering where they have been.

Tracking your spouse or child is something different. In my opinion this amount of control over another individual is bad and should not be condoned. If you feel you need to know exactly where your child is at all times you need to get professional help. Giving your child freedom and responsibility is a good thing, over-controlling it is a bad thing. Implants anyone?

Gps Tracking your car would be slightly different but then again, someone else in your family can be drivning it, and they should be entitled to some privacy – right? There always has to be a balance between integrity and surveillance, and too much GPS-tracking disturbs this balance.

Freight companies also use this technique to track containers. This is excellent, and in no way bad for integrity. Unless the parcels mind of cource.

Some cell phones with built-in GPS devices are able to upload their position to a web-based system allowing your friends to check where you are. But can you be sure that your friends are the only ones who have access to that information? Absolutely sure?

GPS tracking can be a good tool in some occations but should not be used too frequently, or to keep track of other people.

Use responsibly

BMW GINA a shapeshifting car with lycra skin!

This is really interesting. The German car manufacturer BMW has made a concept car with shapeshifting capabilities. The BMW Gina. The car has a moving shifting frame, covered with a plastic coated lycra material. It “blinks” to open its lights, or should i say eyes, opening the hood looks more like a surgery cut being opened. I like the way the rear lights just shine through the cloth, otherwise completely invisible. Overall a very organic feel. Very cool, in lack of a better word. Almost awesome!

Only downside is the engine. A very old-school internal combustion solution… It’s kinda like having a coal plant run the Mars rover…

More pics here!
Have a look at the BMW GINA fabric car video here: