The sun is rising in this photo, and always will be.

Regards,

Thanks.
Thanks.
Thanks.

I just stole Tom Maguire's "rising sun" remark, mixed it with Ben Franklin at the Constitutional Convention, and put it at the top of the picture...

Everywhere we walk about New York City, there are suddenly clumps or even expanses of flowers found. Then, someone points out a small yellow butterfly. Loving New York.

Remember... the first reports of the planes crashing into WTC said 50,000 people could be in and under those towers.

Remember... each tower was hit by a guided missile, with a 143-foot wingspan, flying at more than 500 m.p.h, loaded with highly combustible jet fuel.

Remember... the American-built buildings stopped the planes, and then remained standing for about an hour, as thousands of people fled to safety.

Remember... these towers were built as offices for practical convenience, not as hardened bunkers…and yet they stood tall after a blow which should have felled them on impact.

Remember...

Remember that had the enviromentalists not stopped the use of asbestos as a fire retardant in the WTC above about the 80th floor, everyone (repeat EVERYONE) would have made it out of both of those buildings before they fell.

Close your eyes and picture that. EVERYONE GOT OUT, the headlines would have said.

But, no. Thanks to the environmentalists, those buildings did not withstand the attack long enough to get everyone out.

Remember the environmentalists.

Remember the environmentalists when you see every WTC picture and when you see every home burned by forest fires.

Blame the Islamists first, but hold the environmentalists responsible. Remember.

And if all employees in the Twin Towers had previously died from cancer, there would be noone to die on September 11... You have a point Paul, but you obviously only tell that half of the story that you like.

Back to September 10. What a beautiful day. Already living with the Bush administration but, in comparison, it's not so bad... I will never forgive Al-Quada and their like for handing this administration so much power. (And, Paul, I admit I sometimes have similar though obviously less intense feelings vis-a-vis the Green Party.)

But we're still on 9/10. Everything is fine. And remember John Lenon: "life is what's happening to you while you're busy making other plans." (He died soon after saying that...)

though = thoughts... :)

If I may borrow a Carly Simon lyric...

Let the river run,
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.

Beautiful.

We seem to be looking west from the harbor.

Memorial services and commemorate events were the lead items in the broadcast news in Britain, perhaps because more Britons died in the World Trade Centre than any other nationality apart from Americans, perhaps because of enduring bonds of shared values and commitments between our peoples. What happened a year ago revived distant memories of the London blitz in WW2 for those of us who lived through that and what support from America and Americans meant to us then.

Jean-Philippe Stijns -
The point Paul is amking is that the first tower had the asbestos and nearly everyone got out, while the second one didn't , and lots of people died. And no, the cancer thing only has to do with the people INSTALLING it, and even then, it's not NEARLY as dangerous as lawyers have made it out to be. (Yes, it can cause cancer and kill you, not, it doesn't automatically (or even most of the time.)

Nigel Hawthorne
3000 people civilians killed ON PURPOSE by terrorists, and we look silly? You are a very sad person. Yes, the anniversary (today) will be over-done by the media folks, but that's what the media does (and I think they're stupid). Or perhaps you were referring to us actually DOING SOMTHING about it?

Paul A'Barge's comment is a disgrace. 'Hold the environmentalists responsible'? What kind of warped mind do you have? You might as well blame the Wright Brothers for inventing aeroplanes.

And Bob Briant -- the US was neutral between Nazi Germany and the UK during the blitz.

That depends on exactly when you think the "blitz" of London ended. The day-time bombing of London ended in September 1940 with the culmination of the Battle of Britain but night bombing then started and continued through 1941 and beyond. During 1944 a V1 flying bomb - the precursor of cruise missiles - dropped down one end of the road where I lived then and a V2 rocket - a ballistic missile - at the other. "By early September [1944] the 2,350 V1s which had fallen on London had killed 5,000 people and injured 15,000 others. . . By the end of March [1945], when the [V2] rocket launches were withdrawn from Holland, 518 had hit London and killed 2,724 people." [Francis Sheppard: London - A History; OUP (1998), p. 338]

The US was technically neutral from the start of the war on 3 September 1939 until Germany declared war on the US following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Roosevelt proposed Lend Lease in December 1940 and the agreement was signed in March 1941.

The fundamental here, I believe, is that Londoners who lived through the bombing of London have a natural empathy with the experience New Yorkers endured a year ago.

That depends on exactly when you think the "blitz" of London ended. The day-time bombing of London ended in September 1940 with the culmination of the Battle of Britain but night bombing then started and continued through 1941 and beyond. During 1944 a V1 flying bomb - the precursor of cruise missiles - dropped down one end of the road where I lived then and a V2 rocket - a ballistic missile - at the other. "By early September [1944] the 2,350 V1s which had fallen on London had killed 5,000 people and injured 15,000 others. . . By the end of March [1945], when the [V2] rocket launches were withdrawn from Holland, 518 had hit London and killed 2,724 people." [Francis Sheppard: London - A History; OUP (1998), p. 338]

The US was technically neutral from the start of the war on 3 September 1939 until Germany declared war on the US following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Roosevelt proposed Lend Lease in December 1940 and the agreement was signed in March 1941.

The fundamental here, I believe, is that Londoners who lived through the bombing of London have a natural empathy with the experience New Yorkers endured a year ago.

That depends on exactly when you think the "blitz" of London ended. The day-time bombing of London ended in September 1940 with the culmination of the Battle of Britain but night bombing then started and continued through 1941 and beyond. During 1944 a V1 flying bomb - the precursor of cruise missiles - dropped down one end of the road where I lived then and a V2 rocket - a ballistic missile - at the other. "By early September [1944] the 2,350 V1s which had fallen on London had killed 5,000 people and injured 15,000 others. . . By the end of March [1945], when the [V2] rocket launches were withdrawn from Holland, 518 had hit London and killed 2,724 people." [Francis Sheppard: London - A History; OUP (1998), p. 338]

The US was technically neutral from the start of the war on 3 September 1939 until Germany declared war on the US following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Roosevelt proposed Lend Lease in December 1940 and the agreement was signed in March 1941.

The fundamental here, I believe, is that Londoners who lived through the bombing of London have a natural empathy with the experience New Yorkers endured a year ago.

'Remember that had the enviromentalists not stopped the use of asbestos as a fire retardant in the WTC above about the 80th floor, everyone (repeat EVERYONE) would have made it out of both of those buildings before they fell.'

I fail to see how slapping a little asbestos around would have stopped the 1,000 degree temperatures from melting the steel supports of the building.

We must always be looking to build more safely. This is not the point of the nutty comments about the limited use of asbestos in building.

Asbestos has wonderful qualities as a fire resistor, however asbestos is extremely toxic. Asbestos has caused far far far more deaths and permanent disabilities than the savage attack on New York.

A mere cursory study of the history of asbestos caused disease will show anyone who cares for thought just how toxic this element is.

If we are feeling patriotic, Red Skelton, of all people, had an interesting take on the Pledge of Allegiance, which one can hear at http://home.att.net/~poofcatt/july.html

Enjoy Red Skelton....

If I ever want to request the honor of official American citizenship will I have pledge that I believe in God? How can this be consistent with freedom of (non-)religion?

What about all those tax-paying, patriotic and freedom-loving Americans who do not adhere to judeo-christian theism. Please do not shut these people out from feeling American today.

I respect your faith, please respect our way of being. Just for a day. You pray, and we hope.

In peace. Long live freedom!

Literalist, I believe you are wrong.

The building with the radio antenna at the top is the North Tower (WTC 1), the other is the South Tower (WTC 2). Therefore in this picture you are looking East, and Prof De Long is right: the Sun is rising.