Posts tagged 9/11
The robotics company that helped build parts of the rovers is based in New York City. They watched from their building’s rooftop as the events of September 11, 2001 unfolded. They knew how they could play a part in remembering that day… They could put a piece of the Towers on Mars.
“Less than three months later, a representative from the mayor’s office arrived at Honeybee’s building with a box. It contained debris from both towers: a steel bracket, two large bolts, and a twisted plate of aluminum. The acrid smell that had permeated the city after the attacks was also preserved in that small box.”
Using the small piece of aluminum the employees fashioned parts for the rover, emblazoned with the flag of the United States, which you can see above.
Rocks are phenomenal time keepers. Their composition, shape, and age can make an otherwise barren environment reveal its secrets.
Spirit and Opportunity’s geologic instruments are a tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Midtown Cloud
“I snapped this from the window seat as my plane was approaching LaGuardia Airport. The cloud is over Manhattan, while Brooklyn and Queens are visibile in the foreground, separated by Newtown Creek.”
Captured by Jeff Weston
No one can predict how 9/11 will be remembered because the history is still being written.
While Americans have an admirable tendency to focus on the positive, historians say it’s critical to also remember tragedy.
Remember where you were that day, think about what you saw, heard and felt, but also remember that we are still here. We are still striving, succeeding, failing, working, loving and listening.
We carry the memory of those lost with us.
We are Americans and we will continue.
wnyc:
(Photo by Stephen Nessen)
Since it opened on September 11 of last year, more than 4.5 million visitors have entered the National 9/11 Memorial to observe the reflecting pools in the footprint of the World Trade Center. But what does the memorial say about us?
beautiful and sad.
this situation pushes a range of emotions.
In Focus: One World Trade Center: Construction Progress
Tomorrow will mark the 11th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. After years of effort and numerous setbacks, three of the proposed seven towers to be built at the World Trade Center complex have “topped out,” reaching their structural maximum height. Seven WTC was completed in 2006, Four WTC topped out in June of this year, and the tallest, One World Trade Center (formerly known as Freedom Tower), just topped out at 104 floors on August 30.
Financial difficulties have left the future of the remaining towers in doubt, and have raised concerns about the still-incomplete National September 11 Memorial and Museum, as the foundation that runs the memorial estimates that it will cost $60 million a year to operate.
See more. [Images: Reuters, AP]
(via thegreg)
9/11 Mars Tribute Could Last ‘Millions of Years’
Two Mars rovers carry quiet tributes to those who died during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Were Most Americans Changed by 9/11?
Change, of course, happens daily, incrementally. And most Americans are far more resilient than the experts and public gave them credit for.
Benjamin Radford delves into the “Everything has changed” concept.
“”On a normal day, we value heroism because it is uncommon. On Sept. 11, we valued heroism because it was everywhere.
Secrets of WTC Shipwreck Unveiled
Beneath the rubble an archeological treasure trove.
History suggests that — for better and for worse — a cultural narrative of hope and optimism will eventually prevail, said Alvin Rosenfeld, author of “The End of the Holocaust” and a professor of English and Jewish Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, who is also Gavriel Rosenfeld’s father.
As an example, he pointed to Anne Frank. Although she suffered terribly as a girl during the Holocaust, every American movie and play that was eventually made about her focused on one unusually cheerful line in her diary: “Despite everything, I still believe people are really good at heart.”
“If it is at all analogous to how Holocaust memory has evolved in a collective sense, we will remember, but time tends to take the sting out of it,” Alvin Rosenfeld said. “Americans tend to like things to turn up at the end rather than down. We like to have happy endings. We put a premium on hope. We don’t like to linger too long in the past, especially if the past is a gruesome past, as the Holocaust and 9/11 were.”
An interesting look at how we form a narrative around historical events, tragic and otherwise. Read more
Letters Home After 9/11
The following is a letter DiscoveryNews.com’s Managing Editor Amanda Onion wrote home shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.
DiscoveryNews is compiling a collection called Letters Home After 9/11 and would like to include yours. Please email your letters or emails to amanda_onion@discovery.com, taking out any parts you’d like to keep personal.
Amanda wrote the letter below to her hometown minister, Scott Planting, the Saturday after the 9/11 attacks. Amanda’s mother, who had a copy, recently sent it to her and it brought back a flood of memories.
From Amanda: Sometimes, memories of events as tumultuous as 9/11 can fade or change over time. I think it’s important that we remember that day — those days — as they were at that moment. That’s why we’re asking you to contribute as well.
Saturday, Sept. 15, 2001
Hi Scott,
I heard you were interested in hearing what it’s like here. I, and I think most people here haven’t really yet come to grips with what happened. The whole city is walking around in a daze, in some kind of horrible, never-ending nightmare.
I was at work at ABC when this happened and have been working ever since. Not really sleeping, barely eating. That morning I got to work at 8 am. At 8:20 we have a meeting to settle on what news we’ll cover for the day. Since I cover science, I’m to write a story about how scientists have concluded that more stem cell lines are needed for research. Then, at 8:50, I hear someone in the newsroom say, “Oh my God.”
We all look up at the TV monitors and see the unbelievable image of the upper floors of one tower of the World Trade Center burning and smoking. We learn a plane has crashed into it. We assume it was an accident. I call mom and tell her something terrible has happened.The editors quickly gather and assign stories. I’m told to write a story about what allows the building to remain standing despite being struck by a plane. Then the next plane strikes. There’s an audible moan from the newsroom. Now it’s clear this is not an accident. It’s clear the city is being attacked by terrorists.
For about an hour I can’t track down a friend of mine. She was leaving for work shortly before the first plane struck. I leave several messages for her at home and work. I don’t hear back until later. She’s OK. She was on the train, above ground, when the second plane struck. People in the train watched it happened, cried out and then the train went back underground. They rode the rest of the way in shock.
I start making calls. I talk to structural engineers, some of whom had worked on the design of the World Trade Center. They begin to explain the buildings’ complex architecture and how they could remain standing. It appears to be a testimony to the trade’s ability.
I start to write my story. Then the first tower falls. We all feel sick. I start over again. I call everyone back. My story now is what caused the tower — and eventually both towers — to fall. After I file it I’m asked to go out and do some reporting.
I go outside and see streams of people walking briskly north. It seems like the entire city is walking, walking in the streets, in the sidewalks, in the parks. And they’re all heading north, away from the nightmare that’s in lower Manhattan. Many are carrying bags of bottled water and food. Many have heard that the city’s water supply has been poisoned. I talk to people who have walked for miles — everyone is scared. A plane flies overhead, everyone looks up, terrified. It’s a fighter plane.
