The autoignition point, the point at which a fuel will spontaneously combust even without the presence of a spark, stands at around 410°F for diesel. It's even lower if the fuel is under pressure. Building 7 was apparently equipped with an above-ground diesel storage system, which was highly unusual. The NYFD even told the mayor's office that in the event of a fire, the storage system could result in a catastrophic explosion that would bring down the whole building. The NY Times ran a whole article about it... 6 years ago, but apparently the conspiracy theory buffs missed it. Check it out:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E3DE143DF93AA15752C1A9679C8B63

And particularly this article, which gives a quite reasonable explanation why the building went all at once:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE2DD1E31F931A35750C0A9649C8B63

What I can't stand about the whole conspiracy theory thing are the people who are neither engineers nor firefighters claiming that "a building can't collapse like that due to a fire." And they know this how? Because someone on the Internet told them. That in itself should be enough to dismiss their claims. Please find me the "truthers" who are actual NYFD members that were there that day and perhaps some engineers that have solid experience designing and/or demolishing these types of buildings and then maybe I'll be willing to listen what these people have to say.

In reply to this comment by GreatBird:
Ok, thats not the worst looking alternative fuel car. Isn't the problem with hydrogen powered cars that we don't have access to reserves of pure hydrogen on Earth. We have to extract it from forms of hydrocarbons like natural gas which uses energy and has byproducts carbon monoxide, so the efficiency and cleanliness isn't really that good.

Yes, Hydrogen cars are not the best option because of the reasons you stated. Electric cars would be my primary choice so long as it had a secondary method as a backup in case it would be impossible to recharge the vehicle. I just posted this because it seems that many of the vehicle manufacturers are pushing for Hydrogen vehicles as a potential solution. Just about every major manufacturer has come up with similar Hydrogen cars for the year 2008.

There is a car manufacturer in Canada that is making some nice Electric cars and the EV1 was an outstanding electric vehicle. They were put under pressure by the petro and parts sales divisions to eliminate their electric vehicle line which is unfortunate and just goes to show how much power the petrolium industry has over us.

GM just came out with an electric hybrid that seems very interesting and it will still allow them to charge us for fuel and replacement parts which seems to be their main concern.

http://www.videosift.com/video/GM-Electric-Concept-Car-Unveiled-at-2007-Detroit-Auto-Show
http://www.videosift.com/video/Electric-Car-The-Chevy-Volt

That's spooky shit. I'm amazed at the newscaster's composure. Talk about grace under pressure.

The chimp pretty much does everything most humans would do, under pressure, if they were not getting paid to perform other tasks.....

choggie, that's such a lame argument "have you ever been shot at?"
if only veterans are allowed to have an opinion about the ethics of calling kids "fuckers" then you're talking about a military dictatorship not a democracy.

i served in the cadets for four years and met a lot of people who have been shot at, this was during the genocide in Serbia and all the servicemen I met were very very proud of their humanitarian service. They didn't seem to be uneducated hicks struggling to deal with the enormity of the situation they signed up to. Army recruitment adverts in the UK at that time were focussing on dealing with civilians, helping them rebuild, calming situations down with face to face negotiations.

So I have a choice, I can insult the soldier by blaming him for cracking under pressure in a job he swore to do properly, or I can insult his army for caring more about troop numbers than troop quality, or I can insult their political commanders for being ignorant idealists without a plan. Or I can blame all three. You don't have to have been in a trench to know this whole thing is bullshit, every last bit of it.

Poor soldiers getting shot at and going mental? Well that's exactly why I protested against sending them there in the first place.

"just demonstrating how the law and the judgments differ" -- in US, judgments *are* the law. In this case, there's case law contradicting Larkin's position, ignoring it is what got him in jail

That's how law in US works -- through case law which ascribes meaning to statutes, not through "folk law" with people like Larkin offering their own interpretations.

Even if courts sided with Larkin and overturned the relevant case-law to make taxes optional, the Congress, under pressure from constituency wanting to keep government services, would undoubtedly amend the law to make it clear even to likes of Larkin that taxes are not optional.

The only way we'll see US taxes abolished is if the people of US rise up and say that they don't need government services, and don't care to pay for them. However, given US reliance on welfare, law enforcement agencies, public schools and other government services, that seems to be unlikely

Dude did I see this coming.

The Qur'an is, just like the bible, like a kicking chicken, you can see it kicking any direction you choose. Sure there are some verses in there that can be used to support an almost secular view, this doesnt take away from the fact that the word Islam means "submission", submission to Allah. The endlessly repeating theme of it, (that can only be denied by a believer under pressure of logic), is that it really doesnt leave any room for doubt. God is Great, everyone should submit to god, and may god have mercy on the ignorant fools who dont. it is the very CORE of the whole thing, you will of course reply "Wrong!" and that the theme is just "being jolly good and nice to everyone", but then again, if that was it, Muhammed could have written that on a post-it note, now, couldn't he?.

From YouTube:

David Bowie & Queen ~ Under Pressure. A collaboration with David Bowie, this is credited to "Queen with David Bowie" because the B-side of the single is Queen's "Soul Brother." It was recorded at an impromptu session in Montreaux, Switzerland.
According to Queen bass player John Deacon, Freddie Mercury did most of the songwriting on this, although everyone contributed. The lyrics deal with how pressure can destroy lives, but love can be the answer. The lyrics are characteristic of Mercury's songwriting.
In the US, this was on Queen's Greatest Hits album and released as a single at the same time. It was not released on a UK album until 6 months later, when it was included on Hot Space.

News from Al-Jazeera English, recorded at 20:00 hrs on January 11, 2007. Reaction to George Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, Afghanistan events, Bangladesh events, intervention in Somalia.

Al Jazeera (Arabic: الجزيرة‎, meaning "The Island", is a television network headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Al Jazeera initially launched as an Arabic news and current affairs satellite TV channel of the same name, but has since expanded into a network of several specialty TV channels.

The original Al Jazeera channel's willingness to broadcast dissenting views, including on call-in shows, created controversies in autocratic Arab Gulf States. The station gained worldwide attention following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when it broadcast video statements by Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders.

In 1999, New York Times reporter Thomas L. Friedman called Al-Jazeera "the freest, most widely watched TV network in the Arab world." The station first gained widespread attention in the west following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when it broadcast videos in which Osama bin Laden and Sulaiman Abu Ghaith defended and justified the attacks. This led to criticism by the United States government that Al Jazeera was engaging in propaganda on behalf of terrorists. Al Jazeera countered that it was merely making information available without comment, and indeed several western television channels later followed suit in broadcasting portions of the tapes.

On 25 March 2003, two of its reporters covering the New York Stock Exchange had their credentials revoked. NYSE spokesman Ray Pellechia claimed "security reasons" and that the exchange had decided to give access only to networks that focus "on responsible business coverage". He denied the revocation has anything to do with the network's Iraq war coverage.

While prior to September 11th, 2001, the United States government lauded Al Jazeera for its role as an independent media outlet in the Middle East, US spokespersons have since claimed an "anti-American bias" to Al Jazeera's news coverage. In 2004 the competing Arabic-language satellite TV station Al Hurra was launched, funded by the U.S. government.

On January 30, 2005 the New York Times reported that the Qatari government, under pressure from the Bush administration, was speeding up plans to sell the station.

On November 22, 2005, the UK tabloid The Daily Mirror published a story claiming that it had obtained a leaked memo from 10 Downing Street saying that U.S. President George W. Bush had considered bombing Al Jazeera's Doha headquarters in April 2004, when U.S. Marines were conducting a contentious assault on Fallujah.

In light of this allegation, Al Jazeera has questioned whether it has been targeted deliberately in the past — Al Jazeera's Kabul office was bombed in 2001 and a missile hit its office in Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq, killing correspondent Tariq Ayoub. Both of these attacks occurred despite Al Jazeera's provision of the locations of their offices to the United States.

Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al Hajj was detained while in transit to Afghanistan as an "enemy combatant" in December 2001, and is now held without charge in Camp Delta at Guantánamo Bay.

- More @ <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_jazeera">Wikipedia. http://english.aljazeera.net/News.

Did you hear his breating, its like he's out for a stroll. Those pilots really are cool under pressure. Take away the audio and the little warning message and you wound't know anything was wrong.

One must withdraw prior sentiments, when one shows no strength of will.
One had to man, its goddamn Christmas, fer fuckssake!?


(said i would only do one Xmas post, then caved in under pressure. Xmas pressure.)

That chick was smooth under pressure.

In the front were 8 engines, each capable of 10 ton lifting capability, most of the power was mostly needed for the initial take off. 2 similar engines in the back were located in the keel, enough to keep the tail up.

The Caspian Sea Monster trails started in 1966, at Caspian Sea. The first flight lasted 55 minutes, with a height of 4 meters off the water and a speed of 400-450 km/h. While the flight looks smooth, there were problems, the body of the plane was built for flying and started to weaving like a snake under pressure. The solution was simplicity itself, to strengthen the body of the plane with metal sheets 20mm thick. But the Caspian Sea Monster did its assigned part convincing officials and earning Alexis a contract to develop more Ekranoplans called the A-90 Orlyonok.

The Orlyonok, launched in 1977, combined everything that has been learnt from the Caspian Sea Monster trails. The Orlyonok showed good results, with liftoff off the water at low speed, high lifting capability, and high speed in flight made this apparatus unique in its use and application.

"This is a marine transport Ekranoplan, capable of transferring 140 marines, or 2 APCs with troops. For load up, these locks are unlocked and the entire front side opens like a large gate."

Orlyonok could take up to a maximum up to 200 troops or 2 water based tanks, it could take off from 2 meter wave seas, and in several hours carry the troops a distance over 1500 KM. The speed of the Ekranoplan was 450 Km/H, no mines or bombs would pose it threat, it offered excellent maneuverability and control. Its low flying height of 2 m and high speed meant it was invisible to radar.

*The following part talks about how difficult it was to control for new pilots, once crashing it and tearing off the entire wings off. Once the engines failed catastrophically, but the pilots managed to make it glide to a stop into the coast*

5 Orlyonoks were built, one for static display, and 4 for flights. 2 were lost, in one of them a pilot died, leading the project to stop for a while.

One last derivative of the Caspian Sea Monster (KM ) was the armed Lun, work started on it in early 70s. The Lun-class was 8 M longer and 3 M higher then the KM. It was armed with 6 3M80 Mosquit rockets, capable of destroying any modern battleship. In 1971, the Lun passed firing exercises for it's weapons with flying colors.

"The Ekranoplan Lun-class was the killer of the seas, for this it has 6 rockets, in its time it performed marvelously. But it was not really accepted and 14 years later still awaits its fate in this dry dock"

The Lun was the best (most practical) of the Ekranoplan that Alexis had completed before his death; it could fly in Level 6 to 7 storms the original Caspian Sea Monster could only fly in Level 3 storms. The speed and armaments of the Lun transport, made it 3 times cheaper then the conventional battleship. However it was not built for the replacement of the battleship, but for support of sea based forces in enclosed seas such as the Baltic, Black or the Mediterranean seas.

"In 1993 they showed the flight of this plane, the one right behind me, to American delegates and after that the flights were basically stopped."

It was a strange occurrence, the Americans always wanted to see the Ekranoplan. They saw it, were marveled and left. And the Ekranoplan faded into obscurity. The USSR collapsed, and not one new version of the plane has been developed. The hard character of its developer, the difficulties in its constructions and the catastrophes of the trails while no military technology came without its difficulties, the Ekranoplan has had far worse fate. What is the fate of this Russian wonder? Seeing as NATO is experimenting with similar technologies, maybe it's not long before in Russia they will remember the work of Rastislav Evegniy Alexisy.

hmmmmm, guess my synaptic-associations are too non-linear, and I really hate to confuse folk.....The type of satire, depicted then, as it relates to now; certain words that illicit a response from certain folks, no matter what the intent was;....Michael's loss of composure under pressure-.....all these issues are related, I don't see the confusion......perception is a motherfucker

Google had transcripts originally but then backed out, presumably under pressure from CBS or whoever else it was planning on doing deals with.

Good catch on the google features, dotdude, I wandered onto the blog to share the same observation but you beat me to it.