But at some point you have to trust someone or you'll go nuts.  I trust the NIST.  I've relied on their work for years, and they've earned my trust.

You're talking about one guy versus thousands.  (Okay, sure, there's more than one guy who will take something out of context and claim that it says the opposite of what it does, but they're still a minority.)

The guy admits in his first paragraph that he's catering to people who don't care about calculations, can't do them, and aren't interested in them.  Then he admits that he's going to use less than rigorous methods to "prove" that explosives caused WTC7 to collapse.

He has found his niche of gullible people who are willing to let him make a living with this crap.  Some people will lend frauds like him credibility even when he tells you exactly how he's going to defraud you, and then he does it.  People have learned to not trust their government, leaving a gaping hole that snake-oil salesmen can fill.

But please trust the rigor.  Trust the peer reviews.  Thousands of qualified engineers and scientists have reviewed the NIST's report and find it credible, and none of them care what this Australian thinks.  If the NIST's report was not credible or had missed something important, there would be hell to pay from its constituents, and someone would get run out of town on a rail.

You just don't fuck with engineers.

by AnEngineer on 06/10/2009 10:05:40 PM EST

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I didn't say I bought what that guy was selling either...My whole reasoning for questioning official "engineer" statements is because in the initial days following 9/11, legitimate engineers were coming out saying that the structural failures weren't possible, and then later "retracted" their statements.  It's not that I don't think the NIST is the most credible source on the subject, it's just at this point there are too many things that have happened to ignore, that's all I'm saying.  I won't go nuts because I don't obsess over it.  When the conversation comes up, I talk, but I'm never the one bringing it up.  I trust the NIST, I just don't trust Dick Cheney, or the CIA.  They have proven themselves to be liars.

Chris  

by chrisandyasemin on 06/10/2009 10:21:25 PM EST

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"...in the initial days following 9/11..."

Personally, I was in shock for days afterwards.  I'm glad that I didn't have to make any decisions about national security at that time, or I might have used nuclear weapons.

And I agree: Dick Cheney is a lying sack of shit, and the CIA continues to disinform or misinform the American public to this day.  I mean, how many times are they going to change their story about what they told Pelosi?  It looks like they're conducting operations against their own country!

by AnEngineer on 06/10/2009 10:44:46 PM EST

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