PBS.com's Building Big: Databank entry on the World Trade Center
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• Dave Barry
• Religion's Misguided Missiles
• What More Can I Give?
• Resources
• Saving a Life and a Bride

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The Bank of America's Economic Research Division released this report on Wednesday. They worked pretty quickly (IMHO) to produce gems like, "The economy, which had been experiencing anemic growth prior to the terrorist attacks, is expected to be negatively affected in the short-run," and, "Consumer spending will weaken from its earlier forecast 2.5% annualized growth pace in 2001Q3." This is fascinating stuff if you are interested in how our nation's finances work.
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A Grim Scene is - by far - the most gruesome, horrible, tragic ... I can't even begin. This one article is worse than all the rest. There are no superlatives to explain how much this one short piece of reporting can turn your stomach.

And so I'm forced to ask myself, "Why do you blog it?" And I do not know that I have an answer. It is wrenching, this article. I do not think anyone should ever read it, should have to read anything like it. And yet. It is there. It should be read. I hate this.
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This article, The Images That Won't Let Us Go, is painfully true. The Challenger explosion seems like nothing to me now. This is just so much. You don't even need to say it. Everyone knows. Everyone in the country, in the world probably ... You can just say, "Did you know anyone there?" Or, "Have you heard anything else?" You don't have to say, "the World Trade Center," or, "the Pentagon." What else could you mean? Is there anything else? Did anything else happen this week?

While I was riding around Boston with my dad the week before last, we started talking about one of my favorite Hemingway lines:
"The war seemed as far away as the football games of some one else's college," (from A Farewell to Arms).
At WorldNewYork I just read:
"I tried to read this morning's newspaper this afternoon, but the pre-bombing news seemed irrelevant, like news from twenty years ago."

This Sunday seems like it's happening to someone else. It feels as if I am not who I was last week. Has the world changed? Have I? Who is this person that I am now? It's very odd. Last Monday there was so much ... I don't know ... So much stuff that seemed so important then just really, honestly doesn't seem to matter. It sounds hokey ... cheese ... but it's true.
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I'm going to guess that the gunmen in India who shot a 10 year-old-boy and left a note warning the government not to support the US in any retaliatory action against the Taliban didn't read The Dalai Lama's letter to the President of the United States of America.
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BOSTON (CNN) -- The Boston Harbor was shut down Sunday for about three hours after the U.S. Coast Guard received two bomb threats.
After a sweep of the area, Coast Guard officials found no sign of anything suspicious and reopened most of the harbor.

My little brother is in the Coast Guard (see here). My dad just called last night to tell me that he's been transferred down from his base in Gloucester to patrol Boston Harbor. I'm sure he's fine, and I'm proud as heck of him, but ... man ... This is kind of freaky, y'know? I'm actually nervous for him. I wonder if he's been busy lately? I'm going to try to call him tonight, but I'm in LA and he's apparently on the midnight - 8 am shift, so I don't know if I'll be able to reach him. I'm sure I'll hear all the news from dad soon.
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If you're a young man, age 18 through 25, the law requires you to notify the Selective Service System of an address change within 10 days.
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So far, more than 10,000 tons have been removed, a tiny fraction of the skyscrapers' ruins - a combined total of 220 stories of gleaming steel weighing some 1.25 million tons, plus an unknown number of surrounding structures.

Ten thousand tons in 4 days? Let's be generous and say three days, assuming that they weren't really able to work much on Tuesday. That means it's taken them 3 days to go through 1.25% of the rubble, right? Is my - notoriously bad - math incorrect? Doesn't that mean it will take them a year at that rate? I can't even believe it.
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BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Sewing machines at New Era Cap Co. on Friday began stitching American flags onto the caps major league baseball players will wear when they resume play next week.

That is so American I don't even know what to do with myself. Once again, some simple little story brought tears to my eyes.
there's more to this entry ...
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Hijacking Clues May Be Red Herrings
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This kid is wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt. Isn't that a Chevy in the background? Or a Taurus? In the short videos I keep seeing of celebrating Palestinians the men are in a Ford van. There's even a little Ford ribbon in the windshield.
Hey, kid. If you hate me ... my country ... so much, why do you have that stuff? Do you like Spidey? Superman? And who the hell taught you to play with guns?
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Rebuild It, Bigger!
America will find an appropriate way to mourn. But if we must have a shrine or monument for our remorse, let's put it on the 200th floor, right next to the antiaircraft guns.

I was thinking this Tuesday night. I don't want a shrine, or a monument, or a memorial. I want them back.
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I grow old ... I grow old...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.
from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
found through a link to Bartleby's at caterina.net
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The United Nations is temporarily shutting down its operations in Afghanistan which means that there will be no more flights out of the country after Thursday. It also leaves the arrested aid workers with little support.
Two Americans, two Australians and six Germans are being held in detention in Kabul, charged with spreading Christianity. If found guilty they could face the death penalty.

Why isn't this all over the news? These people are trapped overseas? Even if this has nothing to do with Tuesday, this is still bad news.
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I've been saying I wanted to see an aerial view of the Pentagon, and the satellite IKONOS finally provided one. This article at CNN (click on image) also shows some photos of NYC.

NASA closed its major space facilities after the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States. At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA technicians took steps to protect four space shuttles, each valued at about $2 billion.
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There is just an incredible slideshow at tonypierce.com that shows people from around the world expressing their compassion and grief. It's very moving. Thank you, Tony.
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This is just plain scary. Even if I had read this two weeks ago it would have been upsetting:
We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.
and
Israeli reporters have been warned by the Palestinian Authority that if they enter Palestinian territory, their fate will be no different from that of any other Israeli citizen; they will be killed on sight.
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On Doomed Flight, Passengers Vowed to Perish Fighting
Instincts to Flee Competed With Instructions to Remain
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