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Hysteria, Exploitation and Witch Hunting In the Age of Internet Sex
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Today's Stories April 30, 2007 Frank Menetrez April 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St.
Clair Fred Gardner David Orchard
Alan Maass Joe Bageant Robert Fantina Hanan Ashrawi Ron Jacobs Nicole Colson Ben Terrall Missy Beattie Harvey Wasserman Cindy Beringer Mike Roselle RAWA James McEnteer Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
Eva Liddell Phyllis Bennis Mike Whitney Michael F.
Brown Jordan Flaherty Margaret Kimberly Christopher Brauchli Jacob Mundy Website of the Day
Andrew Cockburn Franklin Lamb Patrick Cockburn Roger Morris Henry Siegman Alevtina Rea Paris Nikolas Kozloff Alan Farago Matthew S. Miller Website of
the Day
Sharon Smith David Price Diana Johnstone Brendan Cooney Sonja Karkar Brian Concannon Lee Gaillard Leah Fishbein Dave Lindorff Neal Galloway Website of the Day
April 24, 2007 Ishmael Reed Lila Rajiva Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Mike Whitney Website of the Day
April 23, 2007 Saul Landau Patrick Cockburn Robert Fantina Sam Husseini Corporate Crime Reporter Elizabeth Lalasz Harvey Wasserman Dave Lindorff Gary Leupp Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Fred Gardner Kristoffer Larsson Barbara Rose
Johnston Manuel Garcia, Jr. John Scagliotti Marjorie Cohn Patrick Cockburn Diana Johnstone Ron Jacobs Evelyn Pringle BANCO Paul Richards Dan Bacher Ben Terrall Sherwood Ross Remi Kanazi Aseem Shrivastava Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
April 20, 2007 Doug Peacock Diane Farsetta Tom Clifford Amira Hass Nicole Colson Sonja Karkar Heather Gray Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban Agustin Velloso Matthew Koehler Website of
the Day
April 19, 2007 Emad Mekay
/ Patrick Cockburn Larry C. Johnson Norman Solomon Saul Williams Sunsara Taylor Harvey Wasserman Christopher
Brauchli Anthony Papa Dave Lindorff Website of the Day
April 18, 2007 Lila Rajiva Landau / Hassen Charles Fisher
/ Diane Christian Kevin Prosen China Hand Peter Rost,
MD Justin Akers Chacón Jerry Kroth Sherwood Ross Niranjan Ramakrishnan Alice Cherbonnier Website of
the Year?
April 17, 2007 Jean Bricmont
/ Paul Craig
Roberts Frida Berrigan Alison Weir John Walsh Jason Hribal Evelyn Pringle Ben Terrall Stan Cox Soren Ambrose Website of the Day
April 16, 2007 John F. Sugg Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Carl G. Estabrook Paul Craig Roberts Uri Avnery Ralph Nader Eamon McCann Lee Sustar Mike Whitney Don Fitz Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
April 14 / 15, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Jorge Mariscal Jeffrey St. Clair Dave Marsh Dr. Trudy Bond Joe Bageant Fidel Castro Alfredo Molano Alan Farago Michael Neumann Fred Gardner Ron Jacobs Gail Dines Linda Ford Missy Beattie Dan La Botz Giuliana Sgrena Laura Carlsen Abu Spinoza Elizabeth Schulte Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
April 13, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Stephen Soldz George Ciccarriello-Maher Laith al-Saud Dave Zirin John Ross Ramzy Baroud Harvey Wasserman Lopez, Olivo and Garcia Dols, Fukumori,
Judd and Tillett-Saks Website of the Day
April 12, 2007 JoAnn Wypijewski Paul Craig
Roberts Marjorie Cohn Evelyn Pringle Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Joe DeRaymond Nicola Nasser Nikolas Kozloff William S.
Lind Siegfried L. Sassoon Website of
the Day
R. T. Naylor Vijay Prashad Patrick Cockburn Winslow T. Wheeler Jack Balkwill Alan Farago Russell D.
Hoffman Peter Rost, MD Mike Whitney Dave Lindorff Susie Day Website of the Day
April 10, 2007 James G. Abourezk Earl Ofari
Hutchinson Joshua Frank Lee Sustar Joseph Grosso Nirmal Ghosh Robert Jensen Ramzy Baroud Paul Rockwell Mario Joseph
and Fred Wilhelms Website of
the Day
April 9, 2007 Saul Landau Uri Avnery Nicole Colson Gideon Levy Corporate Crime Reporter Evelyn Pringle Hill Kemp Martha Rosenberg Keith Rosenthal Jane Stillwater Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Sara Roy Arno J. Mayer Jeffrey St.
Clair Vicente Navarro Fidel Castro Fred Gardner Ralph Nader David N. Rahni Arthur Neslen Pratyush Chandra Missy Beattie Marc Levy Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
April 6, 2007 Franklin Lamb Gloria La Riva Corporate Crime Reporter Ron Jacobs Felice Pace Walter Brasch David Swanson Sylvia Syracuse
Patrick Cockburn Tom Barry Richard W. Behan Nicola Nasser Bernadine Dohrn Laray Polk Helen Redmond
April 4, 2007 Col. Dan Smith Joshua Frank Margaret Kimberly Sharon Smith Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon Martin Luther
King,Jr. Bill Quigley Dave Zirin Evelyn Pringle Peter Rost,
MD Website of the Day
April 3, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Marjorie Cohn Brian M. Downing Corporate Crime
Reporter Carol Norris Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Scott Bontz Thomas Dolby Website of
the Day
Gary Leupp Uri Avnery James Petras Norman Solomon Robert Fisk Stanley Heller Sherwood Ross Monica Benderman Stephen Fleischman Anne McElroy
Dachel Website of the Day
Cockburn /
St. Clair Fred Gardner Greg Moses Gary Leupp Robert Fisk Roger Morris Conn Hallinan Kristin J.
Anderson Jason Hribal John Ross Christopher Brauchli David Underhill Elizabeth Schulte Ben Terrall Missy Beattie Sonja Karkar Daniel Wolff David Vest Ron Jacobs Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
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April 30, 2007 Another "Inside Job"?Fire Collapses Oakland Freeway as Steel Supports FailBy MANUEL GARCIA, Jr. At about 3:30 AM on Sunday, April 29, 2007, a tanker truck collided into the right side guard rail of a freeway ramp from Highway 80 east (Richmond, Berkeley) to Highway 880 gsouth (San José), rolled onto its right side and exploded into fire. The driver escaped with burned hands and was later hospitalized. This fire burned directly under another freeway ramp, in the exiting direction of the Bay Bridge in the city of Oakland along Highway 80 eastbound, onto Highway 580 eastbound. This intersection of Highways 80, 580 and 880 in Oakland near the terminus of the Bay Bridge is called "The Maze", which accurately describes the scene; some ramps weave over and then under others. On this day the truck accident and fire occurred on one ramp elevated above ground level and yet below another ramp. When seen from above, the accident site looks like a rough X formed in asphalt by the collapse of the upper ramp. At this moment of writing, it is 7 PM on April 29; my information was gleaned at 11 AM from a KRON Channel 4 TV broadcast, and photos at sfgate.com (San Francisco Chronicle) and kron.com, before noon. So far as I can determine, the upper ramp had collapsed onto the lower ramp by 7 AM, today. It appears that the collapse occurred before the fire ended. The images of the scene, after the fire, show asphalt that had flowed like taffy, and the deformed metal beams at the ends of the fallen section of the upper ramp. The fallen section seems to about 10 car lengths long, so perhaps about 70 meters or 200 feet (give or take 50 per cent). The entire section is draped over the underlying ramp in a manner clearly indicating that melting and flow of the asphalt road surface had occurred. These ramps were about 2 car widths wide, plus minimal shoulders, so perhaps 10 meters or 30 feet. I could not see deformation of the concrete pillars, nor any clearly melted and resolidified steel. However, the steel supports at the ends of the fallen section of ramp were very clearly bowed and twisted. The fallen section had rested on two uprights, massive structures of concrete (I'm sure reinforced) in the shape of a Y, with the stem quite broad and the V section filled in; the entire "letter" being flat (of the order of 2 meters, 6 feet or more thick). The steel beams across the width of the ramp section fit into the tops of the concrete Y uprights; and these steel beams also supported a framework onto which the roadway surface of the ramp was laid. I expect these ramps to have been assembled in sections, with expansion joiners between them to allow for the expansion and contraction of the ramp sections due to the variations of temperature during the day-night cycle and over the seasons. Also, we can assume that allowance for thermal expansion and contraction at joints included a "safety factor", to build in some insurance against the possibility of rare instances of unusually high or low ambient temperatures. Possibly, the design also allowed for car fires and dry ice spills occurring in contact with the structure. However, it is evident that the design considerations did not include the possibility of a tanker truck (presumably with gasoline or fuel oil) burning for considerable time just below a ramp, impacting a large area of its bottom surface with high temperature burning (we assume about 1000 C) and infusing the structure with a massive quantity of heat. I think the collapse proceeded as follows. The metal supports below the upper ramp heated and expanded. The heating and expansion were far beyond design expectations. The lengthwise roadbed supporting framework expanded between the massive spanwise beams at the ends of the section, at the concrete Ys. The constrained lengthwise expansion created very large stresses within the framework (whose details I do not know, presumably metal trusses supporting metal plates on which concrete, then asphalt was laid); and this framework bowed downward since its ends were pinned. Why not bow up? Because of the downward force of its weight, and that of the roadway it supported. A similar constrained thermal expansion occurred to the spanwise beams at the concrete Ys. They, too, bowed down. The entire section of ramp was curling up like a potato chip being fried. This section of ramp had a slope, one concrete Y was taller. The bowing of the ramp and the stress induced by the constrained expansion put lateral force against the concrete Ys. Because of the slope, the higher end of the ramp section pushed against its Y support both laterally and upward, popping up, while the lower end of the ramp section pushed against its Y support both laterally and downward, popping down. The high end of the collapsed section rests against the top of the taller Y support, while the lower end now rests at or below the level of the lower ramp; the material in between drapes and sags over the lower ramp. The beams at the ramp ends look bowed and twisted by the action of constrained thermal expansion, or creep (as defined in engineering usage). Metal-to-metal joints at the tops of the Y supports were probably sheared at the actual moment of collapse, so there may be some metal debris from these locations that show "clean breaks." We will have to wait and see if melted and resolidified steel is actually found in the debris. Perhaps none will be found, and we will then have to be concerned about a cover-up here, because there are unconfirmed reports that Dick Cheney was seen leaving the scene, driving an otherwise ordinary-looking van but marked "Acme Thermite Company (Livermore, CA)." If we reject the obvious conclusion that this was a case of controlled demolition by Dick Cheney, then we have to believe the wild speculation that this collapse of a steel-reinforced concrete structure was due solely to a hydrocarbon fire, without prior or coincident mechanical shock and breakage to the structure; a physical phenomenon outlawed by orthodox history (maybe this was a "black ops" job, to help solidify the government's story about 9/11). So far, it appears that there have been no fatalities, and that the tanker truck driver's injuries are not critical. So, aside from the widespread inconvenience (maybe BART and local mass transit will get a boost), this incident may help us learn more about fire protection for our large metal-reinforced concrete structures. Hope they nail Dick and I get a Medal of Freedom. Manuel Garcia, Jr. is a physicist, a native of New York,
and perhaps a Tralfamadorian. His discussion of heat and metal
and the collapse of the World Trade Center towers can be found
at ninelevenconsp11252006.html
E-mail received at mango@idiom.com.
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The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Jeffrey Goldberg, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained!  Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order!  Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair           The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn           CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed        Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh                   |
