War

In one my September 11th anniversary postings I mentioned my initial back-of-the-envelope calculations on the World Trade Center death toll. My first thought had been that the World Trade Center holds 50,000 people and I might have just seen them all die. My brain eventually started working and I realized that people must have been streaming down the emergency stairs the whole … [Read more...] about Evacuation Engineering.

I'm writing today about a few things I would have written about last year if I'd had somewhere to write. When last year's attacks started, President Bush was down in Florida. He broke off what he was doing and immediately boarded Air Force One. Instead of flying back to Washington, he flew to an Air Force base in Louisiana where he taped a message for broadcast to the American … [Read more...] about Cowardice, Part 2.

I'm writing today about a few things I would have written about last year if I'd had somewhere to write. In the wake of 9/11, the question arose of how to tell the difference between war and terrorism. In particular, a lot of people tried to come up with a definition that made the attacks of 9/11 terrorism but not our response. How can it be that hijacked airplanes crashing … [Read more...] about What is Terrorism?

While looking up information to write another post, I stumbled across this old Charles Murtaugh posting: So here's my first blog rant of Spring. The papers have been full of detailed scientific stories about the physical circumstances that led to the collapse of the World Trade Center. I.e., did the physical impact of the hijacked planes make a difference, or was the fire … [Read more...] about Defense in Depth

I'm writing today about a few things I would have written about last year if I'd had somewhere to write. Shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center, several people, including President Bush, called the perpetrators "cowards." A mini-debate erupted over whether that term was appropriate. It's a pointless argument. Naturally, I have an opinion. Several folks to disagreed … [Read more...] about Cowardice, Part 1.