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Permanent link to archive for Thursday, September 13, 2001. Thursday, September 13, 2001

Most interesting idea heard today, from Lee Thé at Fawcette. Even though Americans were victims on Tuesday, as soon as we get over the initial shock and pain, let's find out what we're doing wrong, and fix it. The US is the Microsoft of the world. We look to the left and right and see good people and don't understand that there's something wrong at the top. That's what the rest of the world has to deal with. It does matter who leads us. When we vote we don't use our power.

People don't sacrifice themselves for no reason. Let's find out what it is. And if we did something wrong (no doubt we did) let's apologize, ask for forgiveness, and then ask how we can do better. It's clear now that when we screw up we're going to feel it. And let's not waste the unity in the rest of the world. We now have the attention of the leaders of all the other countries. We've got to find a better use for it than use it as an excuse to unleash our anger through military force. What a waste that would be. The rest of the world isn't stupid, and they probably don't like the way we've been dominating. I wouldn't if I were in their shoes.

More mail.

CNN: "FBI Director Robert Mueller said a preliminary investigation indicated 18 hijackers were on the four planes -- five on each of the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, and four each on the planes that crashed into the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania."

Doc: "What do we call Tuesday, September 11, 2001?"

Detailed space image of destruction at the Pentagon.

Awesome collection of pictures.

Wired: Congress Mulls Stiff Crypto Laws. "For nearly a decade, privacy mavens have been worrying that a terrorist attack could prompt Congress to ban communications-scrambling products that frustrate both police wiretaps and U.S. intelligence agencies. Tuesday's catastrophe, which shed more blood on American soil than any event since the Civil War, appears to have started that process."

JD Lasica: "Ray was on the 100th floor of the second World Trade Center tower. After the first tower was hit, he walked down 100 floors and managed to escape because he exited the south side of the building while the second plane hit the north side."

ESPN: "A plane carrying 16 Seattle-area tourists -- fans of the University of Washington football team -- and three Mexican crew members crashed following a visit to Mayan ruins in the state of Yucatan on Wednesday. All aboard died."

Rory Thompson: "New York's Financial District will be closed until Spring, at the earliest. The devastation to infrastructure and the surrounding neighborhoods is complete and utter. Once the search for victims is ended (which by itself will take weeks), then all surrounding structures have to be checked. Many will have to be demolished."

James Spahr: "New York is so big, it makes understanding this tragedy very difficult. The area effected looks quite small when viewed in the context of the city. The area is not small, in fact it use to take about 5 or 10 minutes to walk from one side of it to the other when everything was normal."

Paul Nixon: "This log is dedicated to presenting those graphics created to explain the terrorist act against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001."

AP: "The NFL will not play its 15 games this weekend."

Grace Suh: Views of the World Trade Center.

Time photo-essay.

PC World: Will attack hurt net privacy? "Writers of weblogs, or 'blogs' as they are called--a sort of interactive online personal journal--are debating whether security measures intended to ensure safety might turn out to be more of a threat to personal liberty than are terrorist attacks. Many tech industry old-timers are weighing in with their concerns."

Steve Duin: "Our ingenuity is being tested. And the reward for our resourcefulness isn't the head of Osama bin Laden, or any other terrorist, but limiting the possibility of another incinerated city."

Thomas Creedon started a site for posting memorials.

Five firefighters, trapped in an SUV, were rescued from the WTC rubble.

Chris Kwak at Bear-Stearns in NY: "We were just evacuated. Bomb threat." Alex Whitney: "They just cleared out Grand Central, Met Life which I look out on at the back, and my building due to a bomb threat; I walked home."

Dan Gillmor is in Africa.

Motley Fool: "The collapse of the Twin Towers may send a shock through the economy just as it sent shocks through the streets of lower Manhattan. It's too soon, however, to speculate what impact it might have on consumer confidence, and too easy to say consumers will be frightened into an economic shell. No one knows. In many ways, the economy is just as strong and diverse as New York City itself."

USA Today: "Yarkoni said crucial mistakes were made Tuesday in the United States. The first two planes which hit the World Trade Center may have surprised the authorities, but he said the third plane should have been found and shot down before crashing into the Pentagon 45 minutes later. Israeli warplanes would have been airborne within minutes, he said, while it took the U.S. air force an hour to launch its fighters."

Today's song: "Things ain't what they used to be."

Peter Navarro: "We are in a recession now. The question is, will we go deeper into recession? The most dangerous problem right now is that the attack could further erode consumer confidence and perhaps discourage increased business investment. If it does that, we will have both a long and deep recession. The Fed and Bush administration can prevent that by taking certain actions."

Jerusalem Post: "Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron today called on the Islamic clerics who have published fatwas (religious rulings) ordering suicide-bombings and declaring the bombers shahid (martyrs), 'to rescind the order and to call on the world to preserve the sanctity of of life, and to forbid large-scale attacks on innocent civilians.'"

Wired: "An administrator at one major network service provider said that FBI agents showed up at his workplace on Tuesday 'with a couple of Carnivores, requesting permission to place them in our core, along with offers to actually pay for circuits and costs.'"

Heard on NPR: US airspace will re-open at 11AM Pacific.

Jim Roepcke: "I live a few miles from SFO. Planes usually fly over our apartment dozens of times a day. But not yesterday. And not today."

BBC: "Police in the north German city of Hamburg have arrested a man in connection with the terror attacks on the United States."

Moscow Times: A Muscovite's Frantic Descent from the WTC.

Tehran Times: "Iranian President Mohammad Khatami condemned the kamikaze 'terrorist' attacks in the United States and expressed his deep sorrow and sympathy with the American nation."

Guardian: "Shock, rage and grief there has been aplenty. But any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent."

9AM 

Radio script that automates link publishing to Web and email.

Safe computing tip. Remember viruses. Don't open enclosures. In the rush of email going around now it could be easy to forget. Be careful out there.

7AM 

NPR walked through their morning schedule. Psychologists will talk about how children process these events. From all different angles. Nothing about the international picture. Totally self-obsessed. Childlike. Bedtime stories. I'm an adult.

Please don't send huge PowerPoint enclosures. I don't run PowerPoint. Thanks.

The news is flowing to this site largely from the mail list that started yesterday. If you want the intense version of the flow, please subscribe. The people are totally kicking butt. While all this is going on I'm getting tons of ideas for how the software can work better to link people together in time of crisis. It's also a time of great opportunity. Keep your eyes and ears open, observe, and share what you learn.

6AM 

I want to shift gears today out of navel-gazing -- that fog lifted for me last night --it's time to decide what our goals are. The pervasive fear of retribution is a tool for the US president. Now I'd like to see an LBJ-like approach, let us reason together, how can we all win now. It's OK to think about the dead, but they're dead. Think about all the people who are alive now who will be dead if we go to war. American culture is so self-centered, now we're part of the rest of the world. Security in Europe is pretty heavy. So what. We'll get over it. Now how can we use our new unity to make some peace. This is our wakeup call. Wake up.

Non-WTC links 

Paul Nakada: My Manila Wishlist.

     

Last update: Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 10:03 PM Eastern.

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