[HT: LashL over at the JREF Conspiracy forum]

In the final phase of their analysis of the collapse of World Trade Center 7, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has announced that they will evaluate the claims that the WTC-7 collapse was due to a controlled demolition - a cornerstone claim for most 9-11 conspiracy theorists. The 15-page PDF of the overall WTC-7 study (which will focus on more conventional collapse hypotheses) describes the methodology to evaluate the demolition hypothesis on page 11:

The contract for the study has been awarded to Applied Research Associates, a large engineering firm based in Albuquerque, NM. The key team leaders will be:

NIST anticipates public release of the WTC-7 study in Spring 2007.

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In the progress of this discussion I shall endeavor to give a satisfactory answer to all the objections which shall have made their appearance, that may seem to have any claim to your attention.

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1

And what happens when the NIST comes to the same conclusion that nearly everyone else has? I somehow doubt the CTers will shut up.

The 'LC' folks will call the investigators one of the following;

govt. shills
disinfo agents
damage control
non-objective obstructors

There's no winning in the CT world.

__________________
I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid...and I went ahead anyway. - Crow T. Robot

Godspeed, John Glenn. - Scott Carpenter

And these atomic bombs that science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men that used them.
- H.G Wells, The World Set Free

To the conspiracy crowd, radiation is a big Boogey Man that inspires terror and death in all who encounter it. - JayUtah

It's a big waste of money, to be sure, but it's important to note that the study will test these claims in the context of the larger investigation. It probably won't change any minds but it will at least provide those actually interested in the cause of the failure with the relevant information.

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In the progress of this discussion I shall endeavor to give a satisfactory answer to all the objections which shall have made their appearance, that may seem to have any claim to your attention.

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1

The goal should not be to win in the CT world. We need to understand for the benefit of the public at large and have that information on hand for those persons that may be confused but not quite delusional.

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In the progress of this discussion I shall endeavor to give a satisfactory answer to all the objections which shall have made their appearance, that may seem to have any claim to your attention.

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1

That makes sense.

The key, then, is to not sound like the sort of people CTers consider those that don't believe in the same things they do (i.e, not to come across as govt shills, disinfo agents, ect).

__________________
I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid...and I went ahead anyway. - Crow T. Robot

Godspeed, John Glenn. - Scott Carpenter

And these atomic bombs that science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men that used them.
- H.G Wells, The World Set Free

To the conspiracy crowd, radiation is a big Boogey Man that inspires terror and death in all who encounter it. - JayUtah

CT are only interested in one truth. Theirs. They claim otherwise, but their own statements and actions prove otherwise. Regardless of the result of such a commision, and regardless of how independant it is, unless it agrees with their claims, they will never accept it.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

It's hard to say what factors led to the decision to evaluate this hypothesis. In a way, I suppose, it's good science since the study for WTC-7 has yet to reach a point where one can be definitively chosen over others. The conspiracy hypothesists offer explosives were planted by the US government as a political argument when in fact the antecedent is a falsifiable claim.

It doesn't take a PhD to read where this particular study is headed. For the demolition hypothesis to prove true (or more correctly - for it not to be proved false) the posited explosives would have to had create an overpressure that would have cause the windows to fail and would have created detectable sound waves. If you've ever been to an implosion (of felt a mortar blast for that meter) you can both feel and hear the explosion. It may sound like bias at first glance but it is not. The way a hypothesis is eliminated is by matching the observations expected by that scenario with what (in this case) was actually observed.

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In the progress of this discussion I shall endeavor to give a satisfactory answer to all the objections which shall have made their appearance, that may seem to have any claim to your attention.

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1

For the demolition hypothesis to prove true (or more correctly - for it not to be proved false) the posited explosives would have to had create an overpressure that would have cause the windows to fail and would have created detectable sound waves.

Ah, but what if they used Hushaboom?

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

That is very, very true.

The CTer crowd appearently will believe anything as "truth", no matter how much evidence is against it, or how false the claim is (such as the Pentagon being made to withstand the impact of a bunker buster bomb).

__________________
I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid...and I went ahead anyway. - Crow T. Robot

Godspeed, John Glenn. - Scott Carpenter

And these atomic bombs that science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men that used them.
- H.G Wells, The World Set Free

To the conspiracy crowd, radiation is a big Boogey Man that inspires terror and death in all who encounter it. - JayUtah

Then we'd have a whole 'nother set of problems: the world of TV invading reality!

__________________
I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid...and I went ahead anyway. - Crow T. Robot

Godspeed, John Glenn. - Scott Carpenter

And these atomic bombs that science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men that used them.
- H.G Wells, The World Set Free

To the conspiracy crowd, radiation is a big Boogey Man that inspires terror and death in all who encounter it. - JayUtah

I think that the NIST has a theory of how the collapse occurred. The House report could only speculate since nobody was inside when the collapse did occur but they did theorize about what happened.

If the House report's theory is correct -- that key load transfer trusses on the lower levels (floors 5-7) failed and the collapse progressed from that -- then they have to determine the likely cause of the failure. The most likely (at the time) seems to be uncontrolled fires fueled by severed fuel lines for which the fuel pumps were not turned off.

Since the NIST is going to look at the collapse and try to determine (to the extent possible) what did happen, examining whether demolition charges could have caused it is not too far out. I don't think that NIST is thinking in terms of a full blown controlled demolition (i.e. blowing every floor) like we might expect to see in most buildings.

The most likely (at the time) seems to be uncontrolled fires fueled by severed fuel lines for which the fuel pumps were not turned off.

Actually it doesn't matter if they were going or not. The diesel tanks were pressurized to get the diesel up to the 5th floor, once the lines were damaged, the diesel would have sprayed out of them without any way of stopping it.

__________________
Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

How will this shut up the CTers though? I did a vector analysis of the debris from overhead shots, showing that a large percentage of the heavy damage had vectors pointing directly to WTC7, which could have caused severe structural damage, but, like all conspiracy nuts, they never listen.

I hardly doubt they will even acknowledge this NIST report exists.

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Definitley Thought-Provoking
(my astro-blog/podcast)

I never knew that.

Goes to show one can have questions about 9/11 without being a CTer.

__________________
I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid...and I went ahead anyway. - Crow T. Robot

Godspeed, John Glenn. - Scott Carpenter

And these atomic bombs that science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men that used them.
- H.G Wells, The World Set Free

To the conspiracy crowd, radiation is a big Boogey Man that inspires terror and death in all who encounter it. - JayUtah

PhantomW's statement is not precisely correct. According to the House report, the 9 generators of Saloman and Smith Barney were fed by a pressurized fuel system but the source of the fuel was a 75 gpm pump and 2 x 6,000 gallon tanks. No pump, no fuel. It was not like they pressurized the fuel tanks and used that pressure to force the fuel oil up to the generators. The report indicated that it was possible in some failure modes for the fuel line to be breached but the pump to continue operating pumping out fuel oil out the breach into the building.

There were a few other pumps but they were comparatively low capacity compared to the SSB one. The only generator that didn't need a fuel pump was one whose fuel tank had to be refilled from fuel cans.

Since the pumps were expected, at a minimum, to feed the generators in time of emergencies, they had alternate power sources to run them even if the main power was off.

How will this shut up the CTers though? I did a vector analysis of the debris from overhead shots, showing that a large percentage of the heavy damage had vectors pointing directly to WTC7, which could have caused severe structural damage, but, like all conspiracy nuts, they never listen.

Why do vectors? Here's a picture.

The report indicated that it was possible in some failure modes for the fuel line to be breached but the pump to continue operating pumping out fuel oil out the breach into the building.

Fair enough, the report I read just stated that the lines were pressurised, never stated how. Thanks for the extra info.

Attached Images

Wtc7_collapse_damage.jpg (20.0 KB, 42 views)

__________________
Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

That's a great pic PW. Where's it from, it looks like a frame from a video?