Going, going … staying: Zip proves reluctant crasher
The toppling of the Zip Feed tower failed Saturday, turning what was supposed to be a spectacle watched by thousands into a source of amusement for an entire city. The 202-foot tower, the tallest building in Sioux Falls and possibly the state, was scheduled to topple at 12:55 p.m. But after a loud blast it tilted east, slumped into the ground and stuck.
For non-South Dakota readers, the building in question is a concrete construction that was opened in the 1950’s as a mill for the Zip Feed Company, hence it’s commen appelation as the “Zip Feed Mill”. The 202′ building was scheduled for explosive demolition to make way for a new commercial development.
After weeks of preparatory work, Saturday was the big day, with thousands of spectators gathered to watch the festivities. When the appointed moment came, the charges blew, the building dropped – sort of, but mostly remained standing, as shown in the video clips located here, and here.
Hmmmmmm. Can this mean it isn’t too easy to blow up a building? Even after weeks of preparation and planning by demo experts? This must be the case – for sure the contractor isn’t happy about having to bring wrecking balls in to deal with the still standing remnant of the Zip Feed Mill.
In the context of the conspiracy wonks that claim a devious plot to blow the WTC buildings in NY on 9-11 to presumably pump up a war, their claims become even more specious. A physics prof. argues that in fact this is what happened, and gives his interpretation of the events.
Of course his area of real expertise is what’s known as high-energy physics, stuff like lasers, fusion reactions, and the like. Not much there on materials and architectural engineering. Popular Mechanics Online published an article that hammered his concepts really hard.
In addition, there is one very large and overwhelmingly significant item that the Chief thinks undermines the premise of demo used to bring the towers down.
Rick Rescorla, the head of security for Morgan-Stanley, who had a totally unimpeachable record in the UK Royal Army, and then the US Army in Viet-nam, followed by years of security work, was all over his building like fleas on a dog, constantly on alert for any possible security threat. Read about him here, if you’re not familiar with his life – it’s an edifying example of excellence, and well worth remembering.
To tie some things together here, if weeks of preparation by demo experts, working openly, failed to bring down an old 1950’s building with carefully planned and placed explosives, what could lead one to conclude that a secret covert op did precisely this to the World Trade Center?
The emphasis here is on a covert, secretly prepped demo of several major structures. This had to involve teams of demo experts working over an extended period of time, in settings literally crawling with people on a daily basis, including those like the formidable Mr. Rescorla and others specifically watching to prevent such things.
These teams didn’t just have to get into the buildings, they had to set their charges precisely to do the job, right up close and in contact with the supporting structure, and have some sort of electronic infrastructure to carry out the controlled demo to accomplish the job. All this without attracting ANY attention from anyone in the environment. The building and corporate security people, building maintenance people, etc., would have had to go about their business for some period of time without noticing anything out of the ordinary or suspicious going on. NWB! (No Way, Baby!)
Frankly, the Chief thinks it more likely that the 9-11 attack was collateral damage in a war between the Reptilians from Sirius, and the little grey guys with the big black eyes from Sirius. I mean, EVERYONE who has access to the Weekly World News KNOWS that the greys regularly meet with the President(s), and other world leaders. Right?
“You pays your money, and you makes your choices.” Either of those alternatives saves you the trouble of facing the real problem at hand: there are a lot of fanatical, religio-ideologically driven jihadis who have set themselves a mission to not just crash the World Trade Center, but to annihilate western civilization and supplant it with a universal global Islamofascist Caliphate. Now THERE’s something we really need to worry about – like it or not!
PEACE THROUGH SUPERIOR FIREPOWER!