NightSG

Lots of people saying the black smoke is proof there wasn't efficient combustion, but an area as big as a WTC floor (nearly 43,000 square feet) could easily have adiabatic combustion going on around a stairwell or elevator shaft and normal open-air combustion producing billowing smoke in less ventilated areas. Considering most of the internal vertical support was in those locations, and a good bit of the external lattice was damaged by the impact, that's all it would take.

Of course it does; they simply weren't overbuilt to the point where they could handle upper floors suddenly being converted to airports and furnaces. (Frankly, I'm more interested in experimentally determining to what extent chimney effect would have turned the large-pool kero and miscellaneous flammable office bits fire into a carbureted furnace with a much higher flame temp.)

Since I'm usually just designing to overbuild a simple occupancy category 1 steel building that may or may not even have exterior walls, the theory of "go up to the next common size, or two sizes up if it looks better that way" eliminates a lot of the details for not that much cost. If I need a 60' free span or something, I pass it off to an engineer. The cost difference between, say, W10x17# and W14x22# beam just isn't that much when you only need ~120' of it and it's ~1/3 of your total steel. Keeps the engineers happy and keeps me from spending hours doing math they're paid to check.

And therein lies the reason midsingles are leaving the Church in droves.

Heated, expanding and softened; ASTM A36 is down 30% in yield strength at 750F. Thermal expansion between 50F and 750F is only going to amount to about an inch in ten feet, which will likely contribute to concrete breaking away and exposing the steel directly to more heat, but shouldn't be enough to buckle a well made structure by itself. Coupled with a 30% loss of strength, OTOH, it (just off the top of my head - I don't really feel like spending the rest of the morning on the numbers) sounds like enough to start a chain reaction of failures in a large structure.

As long as they stick to the legal methods. Most don't, until they get a nastygram from a lawyer. For example, a friend listed me as a reference on a credit application once. Any time she was more than 2-3 days late with a payment, I'd start getting 2-3 calls a day looking for her, with some of the reps even telling me how much she owed, etc. I was only a reference, not a cosigner, so I had never agreed to receive the calls, (or even dealt with the creditor in any way until they started calling) and shouldn't have been getting any information other than, at most, "please ask her to call us." A demand to stop calling just got me "we can't take you off the application, and all the people on the application will be contacted each time." One afternoon I happened to be in the middle of a conversation with an attorney (who already knew the story, and the friend in question) when they called. I handed him the phone and asked him to just get them to stop calling me. He answered, identified himself and his law firm, and started thoroughly questioning them as to the loan, whether they had made contact with the debtor that day, whether I had agreed to receive these calls, etc. By the end of the call, he was in full-on "come to Jesus" mode with them, (and his dad is a fire-and-brimstone Southern Baptist preacher, so he's good at it) lecturing the rep on every point of state and Federal law they had violated. I never heard from them again, and the next time I talked to her I mentioned it and she said "oh, I guess that's why they only call once a month and they're extra nice about working out payment plans now." She wasn't trying to avoid paying; payday just sometimes comes a few days after the payment due date. When rent, bills or whatever hit at the same time, she'd be a bit short, and they had been refusing to take short payments. In essence, if you don't know all of your rights when it comes to debt collection, ask a good lawyer. Often, just a letter from one letting them know that he's involved suddenly makes the creditor remember your rights.

And a lot of women are looking to be trophy wives. Including some who aren't even any good at the "look pretty" part of it. When I have a 5' tall, ~200lb (and, as I later found out, incapable of having children) woman ask me how much I make before we even get to last names, it's pretty obvious she's looking for a caretaker, not a husband. Turns out she was approaching every guy at that conference with the same set of questions, and "turned down" (not that he was exactly heartbroken about it unless his uncontrollable giggling was an odd way of showing it) a guy who's making around $130k after he made it far enough in the questioning for her to find out that he would expect his next wife to either work full time or take care of the two kids he already had without benefit of a nanny. I read this big book that was all about doing things that aren't really "human nature." They called it a quad combo. I'm not really sure, though, that human nature is universally what we assume it is. It's often used as an excuse for judging and dismissive behavior, but if that's the case, then what is it that causes some people to act in direct contravention of that nature? It's not universally religion; two of the most generous, caring, understanding people I've ever met were Atheists. (Granted, plenty of the most annoying twits I've met were Atheists, but IMO, that's more a function of whether they're trying to force their lack of belief on others.) It's in my nature to at least want to fully understand the nature of the issue when someone I care about is hurting. Perhaps that's a function of my Methodist upbringing, but more likely it's a result of having been in a lot of physical and spiritual pain for a long list of reasons that I've always had trouble expressing; if my experience can help them to lessen their pain, then I want to help them avoid at least some of what I've been through. Besides, if I can understand the problem they're having, maybe it will even benefit me later. Proverbs 3:13-18 There's the problem; they can. Trying is often more help than the one trying knows. Just a sincere desire and attempt to understand will make one feel valued and validated. Instead, she, and many of us, get the trite boilerplate responses and then get shuffled off to yet another calling to "lose yourself in work." Sometimes it seems like bishops' offices should have "arbeit macht frei" carved over the doors. I tried losing myself in work a few times. Once even to the point of leaving a good paying desk job to swing a mop for minimum wage, in the hope that I'd be too busy to think about the broken engagement that led to it. It didn't help; instead of just being depressed, I ended up depressed, in debt, and exhausted to the point of having a long list of health issues from working long shifts in lousy conditions 6-7 days a week trying to make enough to clear the debt. Ultimately, working the pain away is a lot like drinking it away; at best, you wake up with a hangover and the same list of problems still needing to be dealt with. More often, you add to the list of problems. How about "Tell me what you're feeling and what you need?" Anything less dismissive than just reciting some bit of "wisdom" she's heard a thousand times before and then none-too-subtly trying to get rid of her. How about "Mind if I sit here?" next time she's in the midst of the Standard Singles Buffer Zone of empty seats in a meeting? Maybe even "If you think a blessing might help, I've got plenty of time." I'm quite sure she has. I know I've read the Bible many times looking for answers throughout my life. I keep a spare set of Scriptures by my bed on the off chance that the next time I reach for them, something in there might make a difference. I've read detailed treatises on I and II Thessalonians and Galatians, and several on various parts of the Old Testament thinking maybe a different perspective would show me an answer I didn't see on my own. Psalm 6 sounds way too familiar, but it's somewhat lacking in answers.

The only way one can truly stop caring what other people think is to stop caring about other people at all. Last I checked, that's not very Christlike. Sure, He made a lot of people angry with Him. I'm certain He did care deeply that they thought poorly of Him, though the critical importance of His mission made it necessary to focus on what He could do rather than what anyone thought of Him.

Somewhere in your ward or stake, there's likely to be an attorney who's smacked around a debt collection agency or two. They assume they can get away with anything because you won't know any better. One properly phrased letter from an attorney changes their whole attitude, because they then know they can't get away with anything. It's like trying to pull a strong arm robbery on a 98 pound weakling and finding out his new girlfriend is a pro MMA fighter.

At least for A36 steel, (the most common we use in buildings) the yield strength is cut in half at around 900F. By 1400F, it's less than a tenth of the yield strength in a normal ambient temperature range. Overbuilding by a factor of 100% isn't that uncommon on smaller structures, (I generally deal with single story steel framed buildings of maybe 40-50' maximum free spans.) though I don't know if it's done, or even possible on something like the WTC buildings, but I'm sure nobody's dropping the cash to overbuild by much more.

Pretty standard. It's just like, when a city wants to raise taxes, police and firefighters get laid off first rather than administrative staff or park workers. Makes the problems look more urgent than they really are.

Well, unless the door locks, anyone can walk into any bathroom. I've gotten the wrong one accidentally a few times due to poorly placed signage, and intentionally a few times when the men's room was out of order. (And yes, there was a note on the door reminding everyone to knock and women to either answer a knock or expect to have a guy in the next stall shortly.)

http://www.backpacker.com/gear/apparel/trail-clothes/category-womens-apparel/gear-review-female-urination-devices/ There are also techniques that don't require extra tools. I knew a girl (and yes, personally verified as not having male genitalia) who could match most guys in range and accuracy.

Also "UNATTENDED GUNS TO BE FOUND IN PARKING LOT."

However, they also tended to have a hands-off attitude toward those beyond their community. Sort of "do what you want as long as you do it over there." Modern liberals want to enforce their rules on the entire country.

I'd say you shouldn't wait, but start selling their organs on the black market now. OTOH, it sounds like they may not have very many in worthwhile condition.

Where was this Federal action 24 years ago when I would have abused it to join the girls' soccer team? (Not a soccer fan, but they had the best legs in the school.)

If I knew where I was going to need a handgun, I just wouldn't go there. I'd stay about 400 yards away with a good rifle.

Not so much; send a missionary home and he's just done. He's not going to be under constant pressure to go back out and finish. Sure he'll have the stigma of having failed to complete a mission, but the (somewhat cold) comfort of knowing there's not really anything else that can be expected of him toward that goal. Eventually, people just have to get over it. In the meantime, they're certainly less likely to assume he needs to hear their unsolicited opinion of why he failed and what he should be doing about it. Fail at marriage and you're treated as inferior unless and until you get another spouse and make it work. I don't know how Elder Holland or President Monson would act in person if we sat down for lunch at the local cafe and started discussing the midsingles scene. I consider myself a reasonably good judge of character, and I believe it would absolutely be in line with the concern and wisdom in their Conference talks. On the other hand, I've also heard the same from stake presidents (not my stake) in the chapel at the start of a singles conference, and then stopped to talk to them in the hall, getting a strong "humoring the unworthy" vibe from the whole conversation. (Not specifically about me, but about all the midsingles. Once even to the point of openly criticizing the "dork table." While I couldn't really disagree, I really think he could have done a lot more by going and chatting with them about maybe tossing their leftover suits from the 1990s than by talking about them behind their backs.) Then of course, there's the singles conference schedule filled with "plan to be single forever" classes. In the six DFW area singles conferences I can recall going to off the top of my head, I've seen precisely one workshop on early stages of dating, and one on taking it to the next level. Then we have tons of "cooking for one" type workshops. That's like AA having a "creative ways to open a beer without a bottle opener" class. You're not going to fix the problem by dressing it up and making it seem superior. Then you just create singles who really do want to stay single. It's not just the women who want to get married, but I do think a large part of the problem is that they make that assumption about every man, and to an extent it does become self-fulfilling. If I take a woman on a few dates, and she's avoiding having it move forward because she assumes I'm averse to commitment, I won't be interested in a commitment with her. As much as I've posted about first dates, I'm not a big fan. I want to get to the point where I don't have to wonder if she's going to like my choice of restaurant, or my tie, or whatever. I want to be able to plan a date that I know she will love because I know enough about her to customize everything about it to her preferences. Sure, that part should come a while before marriage, but it's certainly a step along the path, and one that can (and should) continue after marriage.

Got curious about that; looks like Punxsutawney actually has a pretty big library for a town of 5.000, and it's been there since at least 1993. Couldn't find any claim of their volume count on their website, but a library of similar footprint claims 35,000 volumes and over 10 million pages. At a page a day, that's just under 27,400 years. A typical 1,200 page KJV is good for well over 3 years by itself, and presumably even with identical copies on the shelf he would have read them all, (So we should also be assuming he had a much better knowledge of the Bible than probably any of us here, having likely read 7-15 versions several times each, cover to cover, and who knows how many copies of the BoM would also have been there. Seems some folks could learn a lot from his not being "fixed" by that alone.) That would be time to master 2,740 separate skills to the level most people achieve in 1-2 skills in a lifetime, even assuming no overlap in the learning, (pairing them well, say, using one's rest time from learning dance to also learn about Italian literature, one could easily double that) learn everything there is to know about the town and it's people, (aided by the daily reset; he could even torture someone's secrets out of them without repercussion) and generally plan out entire days down to the tiniest detail like he did with the armored car robbery. It would be worth waking up to "I Got you Babe" every day.

And yet we have the constant "why are people leaving?" threads. In the ~4 years I've been ward SA rep, we've had one divorcee remarry and three leave the Church out of the six I've dealt with. That's a 50% attrition rate and a 17% "success" rate. Obviously something needs to change, because sitting back and talking about how those "weak" ones leaving the Church have only themselves to blame isn't making anything better.

Probably something along the lines of "Father, grant Me the patience and mercy to not mop the floor with these bozos."

Chase a dozen cows down a hallway that's already crowded with people and furniture. It will get ugly. Always did seem odd that He made a scourge, though; the weather and demons He could command with a word, but for cattle, He used a commoner's tool. (Then again, if you've ever driven cattle, especially sheep, weather and demons can seem cooperative by comparison.)

John 2:13 And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, 14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; Driving cattle with a scourge isn't often a calm process. Even if they're relatively calm, one will eventually bolt and set off a chain reaction.

Throw furniture and stampede some cattle at her?