I wonder if architectural engineers ever saw this footage before and if it would help them more accurately model WTC2's collapse..
---------

I was on R train riding to work, while at the last stop in Brooklyn conductor announced that "due to smoke conditions" at WTC station my train would be skipping that stop. So I got out a stop earlier at 'White Hall' station. I had no idea what was going on. I had my headphones on listening to music. The moment I stepped outside I heard a noise as if a helicopter and then a loud boom. I thought that was just a supersonic boom of a plane. I saw people on the street looking up in the sky and thought to myself why they are looking up in the sky, if that was a supersonic boom that plane was long gone. I still had no idea what was going on. As I got closer to my office, I crossed Wall St and suddenly I felt something like dust/dirt/tiny shards of glass falling on me and large amount of papers flying around. By the time I got to Maiden Ln where my office was I could clearly see what was happening.

If I hadn't gotten off one stop earlier, I think I would have been stuck on that train under WTC....... ;(

not a perfect process... but what is seen in the video seems reasonable

as an american living overseas for many years, i've seen american bureaucracy at its worst in our consulates, embassies and trade offices ... what is seen in this video pales in comparison

try this one on for size before complaining of invasive, unfair requirements and possible conspiracy:

my son is born overseas and i want to apply for his us citizenship / passport

i try to phone the embassy to ask what documents i will need to bring by three-hour train ride - i get a 10-minute phone tree that answers nothing and simply refers me to their website, which is rattled-off so quickly that i need to listen to the 10-minute phone tree two more times to jot the url down

the website explains that answers cannot be given over the phone, and i can only speak to a human in an emergency circumstance - the website gives me some ambiguous answers, and states that if i have questions i will need to make an appointment online - an online calendar appears showing me possible appointment dates/times - all monday to friday between 9-11am and 2-4pm... also the american citizen services section is closed for all american holidays AND those of the host country - yay for having to take unpaid time off from work!

i get a date and time to appear, and i try to collect all relevant information to only make a single visit

at the appointed time, i appear and am told to surrender my bag and phone, pass through a metal detector, and then i am frisked - upon arriving at the proper office, i am given a number and told to wait - when my number is called, i approach the proper window and speak to an 'american' through a speaker system embedded in the 1-inch bulletproof glass

i have somehow managed to have most all of the necessary documents (not to the website's credit, but to my overkill), but one requirement stops me... they don't accept that i am a us citizen... what the hell?!

i show them my original us birth certificate, my valid us passport, my valid us driver's license, my social security card, proof of my us address, my us high school and university diplomas, my voter registration card, etc...

all are unacceptable proof...

i am told that to satisfy their requirement, they will need at least five-years' worth of us school transcripts from a single us location... since i was a military brat, and changed schools often, this was an impossibility

i finally get through to a supervisor who i had phone my state senator, who is a family friend, and he rips them one and they finally relent

clear? nope... one further requirement is that my son's notarized foreign birth certificate needs to be translated into english and notarized - i have the translation but not the notary seal (this can only be done at the embassy) - i ask them to notarize it and they inform me that i will have to leave and mail it to them with a check and pre-paid, express-mail return envelope - once i receive that, i should set up a new appointment and return... with their assuring me that the process (CRBA) would be complete at that point

i do what they said, and two weeks later I receive the now-notarized translation and set up a new appointment - i return at the stipulated time with all the proper documents and go to pay the fee...

then i am told that my infant son has to be present as well... and so the process can't be completed at that time

i return home, a 6-hour roundtrip commute by train, and set up a new appointment... returning with my 6-month-old son so that they can see him through the bullet proof glass, and then i can pay the exorbitant fee

as if all of this isn't enough, the cashier will not provide change... and they want me to leave, set up a new appointment and return with exact change - i offer to leave 'a tip' of close to us$20 in order to finalize this ridiculous process without having to return... they refuse

having read all of this... can you still complain about what this woman and her son had to go through?

nonsense

So that's what South Carolina bush looks like. It's certainly not Brazilian.>> ^Hybrid:

It's always scary seeing thick, untrimmed bush blocking your way.

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>> ^Hybrid:

It's always scary seeing thick, untrimmed bush blocking your way.


I laugh because I didn't understand, at first, why everyone was upvoting this.

I feel so Lawful Good right now...

>> ^MaxWilder:

>> ^toferyu:
One track mind have we ?
:-P
>> ^Hybrid:
It's always scary seeing thick, untrimmed bush blocking your way.


But at least it's on the right track!


Now-now, let's not derail this thread...

>> ^toferyu:

One track mind have we ?
:-P
>> ^Hybrid:
It's always scary seeing thick, untrimmed bush blocking your way.



But at least it's on the right track!

One track mind have we ?
:-P
>> ^Hybrid:

It's always scary seeing thick, untrimmed bush blocking your way.

Congratulations! Your comment has just received enough votes from the community to earn you 1 Power Point. Thank you for your quality contribution to VideoSift.

Your video, Scary Train Ride Through a Dense Forest, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

He also says that they derailed four times that day.


>> ^Stingray:

Ahh information... (from YT):
The South Carolina Railroad Museum has 11.5 miles of track that was once the Rockton & Rion Railway. The western 6.5 miles of track is known as the Museum's "West End" and is more than 40 years old and badly overgrown with weeds and small trees. A small crew is clearing and reopening this track. The video is taken through the windshield of a small self-propelled railroad motor car known as a speeder. The speeder was moving at idle speed and had already made three trips through the weeds that morning before the video was shot.
Some of the comments also go on to say that they were spraying weed killer.

@radx

"Anyway, next time I'm visiting a friend in England, I'll take the 8 1/2 hour train ride, thank you very much."

Hell, taking a 2 hour flight becomes that long, what with baggage check, security, waiting for boarding, flight, taxiing, disembarking and baggage claim. Might as well take the train.

@gwiz665
That's what I told myself when I had to go through the procedure at Hamburg airport last month. They are using these scanners experimentally, so you actually get to pick if you pass through the scanner or accept a classic pat down. As if to punish folks who don't like to be guinea pigs, they appear to be searching people quite thoroughly nowadays.

Back to the point though, the fantasy of having a young female security employee give your crotch a quick once-over makes it less unappealing. Like Jimmy Carr says, "don't neglect the balls". But that bubble bursts when reality catches up with you and some dude is manhandling your balls.

If that's the way they treat an average Caucasian guy over here, Dave Chappelle's description of police encounters might become the standard welcoming procedure after the arrival in the US: "spread your cheeks and lift your sack!".

Anyway, next time I'm visiting a friend in England, I'll take the 8 1/2 hour train ride, thank you very much.

About 6 years ago, my parents took me to Germany and The Netherlands. It was amazing. It was in late May - I had just celebrated my 21st birthday.

We spent two nights in Haarlam (it's about a 15-minute train ride west of Amsterdam), drove east to Germany, stayed at a different German town every night for 6 nights (Koln (Cologne), Aachen, Bernkastle, Mainz, Cocham, and Koblenz - the Youth Hostels in Germany are AWESOME, especially Koblenz, we stayed in this re-purposed fortress overlooking Deutsches Eck - The walls were like 6-foot-thick stone... I digress...) and then spent our last two days back in Haarlam. We did some day trips to Amsterdam and Zandfoort as well.

When you get out of the main train station in Amsterdam, you're at the north end of the city, looking south. As soon as you walk out of the building, you'll notice a big multi-story parking structure just off to the right. But its not a parking structure for cars - it's for bikes only. Just outside the train station in Haarlam, there's a space about 1/4th the size of a soccer pitch, just for bicycle parking.

And the Dutch reap ALL the benefits of biking everywhere. Nearly all the women had AWESOME legs, toned, cut... mmmmmm.... MAN I miss it...

You don't see gas guzzlers anywhere on the streets of Amsterdam. The roads aren't NEARLY wide enough for a Ford Exploiter. No one would be able to afford the gas either - what we pay for a gallon, they pay for a liter (over 4x the price - which is weird when you think about it, since the Middle East is closer to them than the US...)

As a side note, the canals WREAK to high hell in the late spring/summer time. When I walked out of the train station, my nose was assaulted with a very foul odor. It was like walking into a barn, but I certainly didn't see any livestock...

I guess you'd get used to it if you were living there...