This is a small notion about the racial and ethnical makeup of some cities in the United States and other countries. We all call the United States a "melting pot", as there is just about every race, language, religeon, and culture from all over the World. Sometimes, different races in a city live in harmony alongside one another. Other times, we hardly take notice. Many times, there is inter-racial dating and friendship, where cultures are cherished and shared. Other, and more darker times, some cities remain "segregated", with a black and white "area", totally separate and removed, very much the same way as in the 1950's.

I developed the annotated diagram above to illustrate, by "colors" on the racial and demographic "acceptance" of some cities I either lived in and / or visited. Three examples are shown. To the left is Dayton, Ohio. Dayton is a "segregated" city, and has a very large black population living on it's west side. Ofcourse, being in the Midwestern USA, it also has a large white population. Unfortunately, the "white flight" and demise of businesses near the inner-city regions of Dayton caused both major groups of people to stick to nearly "restricted areas". There is very little contact or "mingling" between the "black and white" communities. As the left image in the diagram denotes, a solid "black and white" image is depicted. Other minorities, such as Hispanics (Latinos) and especially Asians, are in very limited numbers, and also in small scattered communities.

The middle diagram shows a much higher cosmopolitan city - Miami, Florida. Although one of the largest "melting pots" in the World, there is still a "segregation" between the black, white, and most importantly, the Hispanic communities. Again, Asians are a small group scattered throughout the community (but much more than in Dayton, Ohio). Also note that there IS a bit of contact and "mingling" betwen the major races (where the colors "blend"). Still, the areas remain quite segregated. Examples of the black community in Miami are Overtown and Liberty City. The Hispanic community, predominantly Cuban, is near Little Havana and Sweetwater. The whites are scattered, but focused mainly in southern Miami (Homestead) and near Miami Beach.

Finally, to the right is Toronto in the province of Ontario in Canada. Note that there are virtually NO "areas" or segregation what so ever. This is because Toronto is the most ethnically diverse city in the World. Hispanics, Blacks, Middle-Easterners, Whites, Europeans, Indians, Asians, etc all live alongside one another and in near perfect acceptance. There is a vast mix of cultures, food, and religion in Toronto. This is a long and far cry from Dayton, Ohio, which is a mere 400 miles to the SW of Toronto! Ofcourse, the diagram to the right depicts a "city of color" as a visitor to Toronto will see more races and hear more languages spoken in 10 minutes watching a crowd pass by than a person in Dayton, Ohio would hear in an entire lifetime!

We all are guilty of "stereotyping" at one point in our lives sooner or later. But what exactly does this mean? Is it racism? Is it a bad joke? Or is it just describing an attribute of a particular race, lifestyle, or religeon? The answer varies greatly, but put straight forward, STEREOTYPING is the LABELING of a behavior or characteristic to a race, lifestyle, or religeon WITHOUT sufficient proof or evidence to justify it. As you can imagine, such labeling can be brushed or laughed off by some, but taken very personally and hurtfully by others.

First of all, there are attributes and characteristics that are NOT stereotypes for a certain race, lifestyle, or religeon. This is like the statement "MOST black men may have dark and curly hair" ... This is MOSTLY true since it is a simple fact based on appearance and genetics. However, another statement related to a lifestyle, such as "He is gay, therefore he must work as a flight attendant or hair stylist", is a stereotype. Statistically many flight attendands MIGHT be gay, but NOT all gay people work as such. As you can see, an attribute or characteristic can reflect a stereotype if worded the wrong way!

I remember hearing a rather disturbing statement based on an event that occurred and was being reported on the local news. This individual saw a story about a robbery that HAPPENED to take place in an African American section of the neighborhood. This person was "Ofcourse, Blacks - Always stealign stuff!" ... I stopped him and explained to him that ONLY that area happened to have a crime and they HAPPENED to be Black. Out of many Black people, how many of them steal? You are only seeing a small piece of the picture, and from that poor example, as well as limited information, someone can easily draw a conclusion about "all" Black people being "bad". This is called "generalization", and is a very brutal form of stereotyping.

There are also many other forms of stereotyping. For example, Asians are assumed to be "bad drivers" and might be avoided as such. This is INDEED a STEREOTYPE. Such a stereotype originated from the fact that Asians may have a narrower field of vision since their eye lids are thicker. This, ofcourse, is a PHYSICAL characteristic, and should NEVER be stereotyped on as such vision should not affect one's driving since he or she may be used to it all their life. A very bad religeous stereotype might be a statement like "Jewish people are cheap". This is again, a WRONG assumption based on generalizing examples. The area where such a stereotype about Jewish people is popular is in southern Florida, where a community of elderly retirees exists. Jewish or not, these individuals are living on a LIMITED fixed income, and financially cautious - Especially with the state of the US economy! Assuming a "penny wise" elderly person is a "cheap Jew" is down right WRONG. He or she might just be worried about their welfare, a common ATTRIBUTE among such people, and has NOTHING to do with their religeon.

Stereotypes are everywhere. Some barely discernable between characteristics and others blatent and down-right offensive. We can reduce or even eliminate unfair stereotyping ... And it may be as simple as stepping back and viewing the whole "picture" rather than just fixating on a "small piece" of it!

Our heart and sorrow goes out to all the victims, friends, and families, plus anyone who has been affected by the senseless and tragic shooting spree that took place at Virginia Tech the day on Monday, April 16 of 2007. This is another horrific example of what kinds of roads people may be headed down in our world today! This is indeed the dark-side of what we all see in the NEWS.

What drives people to do such un-imaginable things is beyond belief and understanding for even the most prudent investigators and psychologists. Is it their up-bringing? Some tragic event in their live like abuse? Do they enjoy doing it? Or all of the above? Or maybe even none of the above?

Killing sprees like this are not all that uncommon. Less than 7 years prior, April 20, 1999 to be exact, 13 people including a teacher were brutally shot to death before the murderer turned the gun on himself. Most recently at the time of this writing, 33 deaths is nearly 2-3 times the death toll as the Columbine shootings. These are also not to be focused on since two other such shootings, one being in 1927 (Bath School) and the other 1966 University of Texas Massacre. Such portrayals of such human violence is beyond any understanding in anyone in a right state-of-mind.

This also raises many other problems and social issues. Besides the media and news outlets trying to exaggerate and make the story more appealing to enthusiast, questions arise on the security infrastructure of the school the massacre happened. Other sensitive issues are racial stereotyping (in the Virginia Tech shooting, the murderer was Korean, so many are wrongfully stereotyping and / or questioning the sanity of some Asian immigrants). Had the same crime been committed by a person(s) of certain Middle Eastern descent, some officials may even suspect terrorism.

Quite blatantly, the injured survivors of such an incident will most likely face un-imaginable physical, emotional, and / or mental challenges. Witnesses, friends, and families may also have a different, and sometimes unrealistically apprehensive fears (such as being "afraid to go outside") fears. Some more immediate warnings can be as simply as the way the (potential) assassin may act. In the 2007 shootings, the shooter was a very socially withdrawn person. Such an attitude change was marked by rudeness and solitary (anti-social) behavior (such as "few friends"). In other cases, the person may be "quiet and calm" until he or she "loses it", surprising victims and witnesses alike.

While fore-going stereotypes, considerations about background, race, and intelligence, care must be taken to see the signs that someone is headed down a path that will danger themselves or others. In the 2007 shooting, there WERE signs, but many were ignored. Many times a mental problem is often ignored, and even scoffed at. Many health insurance companies have highly limited benefits for people requiring mental health (such as high co-payments, or no coverage at all)! Society in general also "labels" a disturbed / depressed person as "crazy" or "nut-job". This makes the mental problems MUCH worse. This is like seeing a person having a heart attack, and telling him "You were supposed to quit smoking, deal with it!" - That would be very inappropriate - So why is a person who is depressed treated in a SIMILAR way?

Other people have much less obvious behavior. For example, Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer from Wisconsin during the late 1980's to early 1990's was never caught in the act, until a law enforcement official "accidentally" stumbled into a section in his apartment where nearly a dozen men were killed in bizarre ways. No one at Dahmer's work, or even family, knew what was going on during his killing sprees. His parents at one point, sensed a problem, but they IGNORED it.

This writing is about an ACTUAL experience I had when entering Canada via the Ambassador Bridge from Detroit, Michigan (USA) into Windsor, Ontario (Canada) on Friday, June 15, 2007 at roughly 6:30 PM to start a weekend road-trip from Dayton, Ohio into the Toronto (and Niagara Falls) area of Canada with a return to the USA the same route on Sunday, June 17, 2007. This bizarre incident occurred when my vehicle (and all its contents) was searched at the Canadian Immigration / Customs facility after my vehicle was "flagged" for inspection. In the image above is the place where this happened. The map on the left shows the location of Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan across the river in the USA with the Ambassador Bridge connecting the two. The right picture is the canadian Immigration building where I was held. In fact, my "cell" was to the extreme lower-left of the building in that picture!

Due to "suspicious contents" found on my laptop computer, brought along for both GPS mapping and internet (email), I was detained and subsequently arrested. I spent about 6 hours at the facility, most of that time in a holding cell (aka: "Jail"), until a special investigator scrutinized my laptop and all contents and deemed there was "nothing there" that was illegal. After this terrifying and seemingly un-fair wait, I was released and apologized to and continued on to my destination, with no more than frustration and a 6-hour delay. Below is the actual DETAILS of how this all unfolded.

First of all, I will go into the contents of my laptop computer, since this item was the main focus of this ordeal. I have Windows XP home edition with SP 2 installed on a HD space of 80 GB. The laptop is a 2.3 GHz Pentium IV with WiFI capability and USB 2.0. My HDD has MS Office 2000 (with Outlook), Delorme Street Atlas USA 2005, graphics (Corel) and sound (Adobe Audition) software, Adobe Premiere 6.5, and a few others (such as MS Visual Basic 6.0). The data on the disk is stored in "My Documents" and consists of a pictures section, video, and a backup of my entire web site. In the video section, much footage from storm chasing is there, plus other footage from theme parks (roller coasters), and some skydiving and aviation videos (flying, glider, commercial flights, etc). The sound section has many MP3 music files, also backed up on my iPod.

Finally, my pictures section contains many pictures of storms, family, and - most importantly - some downloaded images from the internet such as Asian lingerie / underwear pictures. I have NO PORNOGRAPHY on my laptop, as I use it mainly for navigation, internet, email, and video / picture editing when I am traveling or storm chasing. There was one directory there called "Beautiful_Asians" in the "My Pictures" directory in the "My Documents" folder. Ironically, although some of the pictures appear young, none of the individuals there are under 18, and anything "below the waist" was cropped, plus no shots of bare fronts (only bare backs) were displayed. I do not have video or anything "hard-core" pornographic on my laptop as I am not a huge fan of porn over the Internet.

I decided to take a weekend road trip to Toronto. This is leaving Dayton, Ohio by heading up I-75, got to Detroit, Michigan then across the Ambassador Bridge into Windsor, Canada for customs check, then to Toronto via Canada highway 401. The trip takes roughly 5 hours, and since I am in Dayton, Ohio, I decided to take the road trip while I have the opportunity.

I brought my laptop since it has GPS on it and shows the US / Canadian roads to take in case I get lost (once I am in Canada). I did not need it at the time of crossing the border, so my laptop was packed away in it's bag and sitting on the floor in front of the passenger front seat of my car. I had another bag, the one you gave me, for 2-3 days worth of shorts, t-shirt, jacket, long pants, socks, underwear, and toiletries. This is the same stuff I usually travel to Florida with, as I always pack light. Since I left directly from my job, I also had my briefcase. My MP3 player, among a couple of other things (passport, check book) was in the briefcase along with the notepad I use at my job.

As expected, roughly 6:30 PM, I paid the toll and crossed the bridge from downtown Detroit, MI (USA) into Winsor, Ontario (Canada). This crosses the Detroit River connecting Lake Superior to Lake Erie just north of Ohio in southeastern Michigan. At the end of this bridge is the Canadian customs area, a toll-booth like setup where the entrance for cars is to the left and big trucks or heavy manifested vehicles go to the right. They even had NEXXUS, where vehicle can go through customs in a speedy manner as with automated toll collections.

I politely gave my passport and license to the gentleman at the toll booth for border crossing. He seemed nice, and after a quick review of my documents he said "sir, they need to do a routine search on your vehicle ... Pull over to INS right there, park, and give this yellow slip of paper to the officer there."

I was one of about 20 cars and trucks there being searched. A Ryder private-moving truck was next to me and another person with a large boat on a trailer across the way. I turned off my engine, as required, got out of my car, and waited for one of the gentlemen to show up. I gave him the license and passport and keys to my car. At this point, I noticed a strange attitude from the gentleman, I would say "Good afternoon, sir" and he'd just nod ... But I been through customs many times before, so for me, this was typical and seemed routine to me.

The officers started the search of my vehicle, as another officer approached, who was also helping with the search. Both officers were looking under things, opening stuff, and looking in every space, even the spare tire. I was rather impressed as I thought to myself, "This is good, and should prevent another 9-11". I took it as good service, and on vacation, with plenty of time and no worries, I just waited in front of my car for the "good to go" answer.

I was approached several times. I was asked the so typical questions with immigration "How long are you here in Canada?", "Are you here for business?", "Are you here for pleasure?", and such. I continued to POLITELY go along like I was SUPPOSED to - At NO POINT was a provocative or rude. I was even far more cooperative than the people with the boat and trailer who seemed to be in much more of a hurry.

The officers continued their search of my vehicle, going into farther details. They took stuff out of my bags, briefcase, and took my laptop out of its bag and brought it inside their office. At NO TIME was I asked "Sir, can we search this?" - They just did it, but since this was in Canada, I assumed such rights are different there. I did a lot of research before this trip. The money, exchange rates, hotels, museums, directions to Niagara Falls, all of this. I am a traveler, and I am NOT STUPID.

After some time I was approached again and asked where I am staying. I said "Sure, let me get you the address of the hotel for you", and while I was retrieving the address for the Motel 6 reservation paper, the officer snapped back "Wow, I did not know the city TORONTO had an address?" in a sarcastic manner. I took this as a sense of humor, laughed, and showed him where I was staying for the Motel 6 reservation in Mississauga, Ontario, which is a suburb west of Toronto on 401. I was then asked, AGAIN, why I was there and if I knew anyone there. I politely answered I was on VACATION, and taking pictures of the city, checking out some points of interest, and wanted to see Niagara Falls. He asked me if and when I was in Canada last, and I told him "I have not been to Canada since I was there with my parents when I was 4 years old, during the summer of 1974."

The questions from the two officers got more intense, and intimidating, such as "Why do you drive here from FL with only 3 days of clothes in your bag?" and "Have you ever been arrested before?" - My answers were very simple and to the point: "I live in FL, work in Dayton, Ohio and took this weekend road trip to see Canada." and "No, sir, my record is fine." to both questions.

There was a long pause, roughly 30 minutes or so, and I was told to wait in front of my car during this period. Meanwhile, the moving truck next to me, full of some people looking far more "suspicious" than me, left as well as the people with those with the boat. Since both of these parties came into the search area after me, I started wondering what was taking so long, and started to get a bit concerned. Finally, one of the officers came walking up to me and I smiled expecting to hear the words "OK, good to go, exit to the left to 401" ... That was not the case.

I was told "Sir, I am going to have to ask you a few more questions, and please be honest with me." - I politely cooperated and said "Yes, Sir". At no point was I persuasive or rude. I had nothing to hide and was honest and up front. After the officers wrapped-up the search of my car, they left my glove compartment open and contents all over the front seat, including my registration and maintenance papers. My cloths were out and still being sifted through. The same officer then said "Come with me sir" and he walked me to the adjacent customs and immigration building and took me to the back, where there was an older officer. I was given a full pat-down and search. I had to remove my necklace, belt, and shoes. I was scanned by the metal detector wand, as in airport security screening. Still was in my righteous mind, I still assumed this was a "spot search" since this is occasionally done at airports. I was, however, a bit uneasy on WHY I was picked for such an anal search.

After the pat-down, the officer told me the bad news: "Sir, you are being detained here as we found probable cause of some pictures on your computer of young individuals and we need to investigate that". He asked me what they were for. I told him honestly, "They are pictures I downloaded from the Internet of some Asian people for my viewing pleasure." I actually had these pictures on my laptop and home computer for a few years, but never got around to deleting them. I was told to sit down and wait, as another liaison watched me. After about 5 minutes, I was escorted for the holding cell, still saying I was being "detained and NOT yet arrested". I sat down there, and as the door was locked, I starting to get shocked and surprised with the "why me" feeling.

About 30 minutes later, the two officers came in, and read me the Canadian equivalent of the Miranda Rights. After these rights, I was told: "Sir, you are being placed under arrest for the suspected smuggling of child pornography and farther investigation will determine if any charges will be pressed". I was given one phone call, and the first call was to my lawyer, who is actually handling my case for injuries sustained in a roll-over car accident I was in back in December 2006. My lawyer conference-called a defense attorney he knew. The officers would not let me have a pen or paper, so I had to tell them the Lawyer’s number so they had it on file. I handed the phone to one of the officers, and they kept their stout charge of "He is a suspect for smuggling child pornography."

At this point, realizing what I was being charged for, I was so scared that I nearly had an "accident" in my pants. While on the phone with the lawyer I was relaying questions from him like "What's the judges name?" and "Is there a Bail / Bond?" and "Can they send me back across the bridge to the USA?" - Some of these questions were not answered, others with a blatant "No". At no point was I arguing with any of the officers loudly, but trying to keep a conversation between the officers, lawyer, and myself. The rudest I got at any point was with a remark like "Wow, did not know it was such a crime to see a waterfall". This was also after trying to tell them what I do for a living, what the material on the laptop is, and how I got it. None of this was open for discussion, and after the "waterfall remark", I finished the phone call, sat down, and kept my mouth shut.

I was told by one of the officers that a "specialist" was coming down to determine if the pictures on my computer were indeed "children under 18" and if I was really trying to smuggle them or not. This process took about 3 hours. During this time, I waited in the cell with my heart in my mouth. Thinking about my job, my soon-to-be shattered "perfect record", not seeing my family on Florida on June 22, missing a hurricane chase 2 years from now because I am in prison, getting beat up, raped, etc - All this while waiting for that cell-block door to open, the officers coming back in, and telling me (or not telling me) the un-thinkable.

Occasionally, the guard would check on me to see if I needed water or bathroom. When I had to go, I had three people watching me, the two officers and the guard. I had to keep the door open. To be honest, I am a bit "pee shy", so it took 2 attempts before I eventually went. The "second business" part was already taken care of in my pants earlier by the sheer fear of being arrested.

After a while, a woman investigator (detective), who was far-more eager to listen and cooperate with me, came in to talk to me about the pictures. I explained to them that I went on Google, typed in "Asians" and saved some of the pictures of the appealing ones that came up via right-click on the mouse and save. I told her the pictures are for my viewing pleasure, as I really do not like video pornography, and most of them were fully clothed, some without shirts, and any with "private areas" were cropped to hide them. I was asked if I typed in anything like "Asians under 18" in Google. I told her with a clear-mind that I am not into anything with children and would not even think about typing something like "under 18" in a Google search. Many pictures in that directory on my laptop were people who obviously were well over 18.

The detective asked me where I worked, what I do, and even the other pictures of damage on my computer. I told her I am a storm chaser as a hobby, and even some break-even side job (freelance) work, and you'll find hail, tornado, and hurricane damage documentation there. A search through my web site, www.sky-chaser.com, came up with everything legit. She asked me to wait, and seemed rather up in spirits, which made me relax a bit more. She thanked me for cooperating.

About 20 minutes later, the two officers came in and said the final words I should have heard at 6:30 PM: "You are good to go." One of the officers added: "We have insufficient evidence and cannot find anything related to the charges suspected, we are sorry for the inconvenience and I hope this does not prevent you from visiting Canada in the future. Please wait, we'll pack your stuff up and take this paper form to immigration for declarations".

I was released, and the investigator verified she had my cell and address correct, and told me she was sorry as well and to have a good trip (or what was left of it). I cleared customs (immigration), put the laptop bag in my car, and left the plaza and took 401 to the Motel in the suburb of Toronto. I called my lawyer and told him all was well. Unfortunately, my parents, who also began an early summer road trip from Florida to New York and were in Georgia at the time, found out about this ordeal and were really unhappy. They were very relieved to hear that this did not get much worse than what it really was.

These types of incidents can and do happen. The only advice I got is not to intimidate or provoke anyone when crossing a border into another country. What got me "busted" in this case was my equipment, as my car has HAM radio equipment and some extras I used for storm chasing (power inverter, Jotto desk, etc). Also, my calm and cheerful demeanor could raise suspicion (like if I am trying to "kiss up" to hide something). Finally, and most likely, they could have been looking for someone with a similar car and description to mine. Even more remotely, a stolen identity could raise such "flags" at a checkpoint, as your passport or SS number might show up bad on a background check if some perpetrator has taken it (where if he commits a crime, YOUR record gets derogated).

My advice so no one has to go through something like this is explained here. First of all, be yourself. Don’t be rude, but don’t be so nice either, no matter how much of a good mood you’re in. Good moods can raise suspicion more than bad ones. Never call attention by playing loud music, and showing-off gadgets. Always keep your car in a lightly-packed and neat configuration. Make sure all papers and passports are easily in reach and in order. Label all prescription medicines. Never take mislabeled items or hazardous materials across a border. Do not have pornographic, briefs, or "swimsuit" lingerie pictures or such sensitive materials on a computer, iPod, or palm computing device. This can cause a misunderstanding, as in my case. Hopefully one will see this experience as a lesson and how sensitive and apprehensive some borders can be … A simple trip to Mexico or Canada, some of the simplest and easiest borders to traverse from the USA, can have some nasty surprises up their sleeves!

You are a typical person living in a popular area of the United States, such as South Florida. Lately, living has become more and more difficult. You open your mailbox, and pull out more bills. You open those bills, and nearly every month, one or more of them has gone UP! You wonder, "Doesn't ANYTHING ever go DOWN"? Well unfortunately the answer is mostly "No." On top of the inflation in bills such as homeowners association dues, insurance, and utilities, something like food shopping also is a disappointment ... What costed $250 bucks five years ago now approaches $400, getting gas for you car is the same story, more money. At the same time, you face pay cuts, lay-offs, or even firings at your job. When you try to look for a job, you face more "turn-downs", decreased salaries, and poor opportunities.

Even leisure things have suffered, nightclubs that were packed every night several years ago are practically empty recently. Beaches and resorts are suffering to get by, and of course, these establishments are forced to lay-off or fire employees because of it. Meanwhile the roadways are packed, with rush-hour conditions setting in more at times like 3:30 PM instead of 5 PM ... What the heck is going on? Well read this entire page and you will understand why. In summary, the post 9-11-01 United States is suffering from major economic issues. People are simply AFRAID to spend money, period. Second to that, many people are also afraid to set foot on an airplane, with the thought of the plane they are on being "blown up" by terrorists and the subsequent 35,000 foot unplanned freefall (without a parachute) being the major fear factor. Think about that the next time you are visiting South Beach and only a lame older crowd is at the "hottest" night club there even on a Friday night!

Well, these are just a few thoughts into why the way of life in the United States during such tough times is the way it is. If less people are willing to travel, then popular resorts (LA, Miami, New York, etc) will also suffer. At the same time, more people will drive rather than fly, with road trips causing inordinately heavy rush hour traffic. Meanwhile, airlines will suffer or even go out of business. Restaurants, hotels, and resorts will suffer a similar faith. And even cities may suffer major social issues if nightlife and travel are disrupted by lack of "out of state" tourism / clientele. This being the "icing on a bad cake", people in general now have to work harder to earn the same amount (or less) of money they did in the past, suffer a poor work search (cannot find another job if the lose their current one), and face higher taxes, bills, and assets in lieu of all these workforce hardships. Yet another affect is increased crime rates (especially stealing) and low social esteems (negative attitude) in some people’s social life (especially in dating). All this sounds rather grim, but this is what the United States is facing during this war-time economy. Read more about all this below and understand what it may take to turn all of our lives around for the best!

On February 1, 2003 the space shuttle Columbia was lost while re-entering the earth's upper atmosphere over central Texas. The shuttle's disintegration was marked by a fiery trail of debris that rained down on the state of Texas as contact with the vehicle was lost at about 9 AM. The orbiter was aero braking into the atmosphere at about 39 miles altitude (207,000 feet) traveling in excess of 12,000 MPH (near Mach 18). All seven astronauts aboard were killed in the accident. Possibilities for this tragedy were blamed on heat tile failures to loss of attitude control during re-entry. At the time of break-up, temperatures reached near 3,000 degrees F. This is the worst disaster for the US space program since the space shuttle Challenger back in 1986.

The picture above is amateur video taken near 9 AM over central Texas. The fireball and vehicle breakup is clearly visible as well as the smoke / plasma trails. Picture (video frame grab) is courtesy of Time Magazine.

Fortunately, the vehicle occupants most-likely did not suffer during the ordeal. All our hearts and prayers go out to these brave individuals and their families serving our space program. The seven astronauts are shown in the above picture, courtesy of NASA, before the ill-fated STS-107 mission.

On September 11, 2001 the US was brutally attacked by terrorists. This was a very touching and horrid moment far beyond anyone’s worst nightmares. The world trade center was one of my favorite places and I visited there many times growing up. I don't understand how a group of people can take so many lives and destroy something so breathtaking. I myself was in New York just a week prior to this day - I was even preparing some pictures of the downtown NY skyline for this site while this attack was occurring! My heart goes out to all the victims and their loved ones from such a senseless and horrible act of terrorism.

The brutal compilation of pictures below shows the terror that gripped our nation that horrible morning. The pictures are from CNN and its affiliates. The NEXRAD radar image on the left shows the attack's smoke plume streaking southeastward during the pleasant cool weather on that fateful morning. Below the main image compilation is a satellite image of the smoke trails.

In addition to these attacks, the US economy remained in bad shape for years afterwards. This faced US citizens who were not directly affected by the attacks with layoff from their jobs, financial insecurity, social problems, lost investments, reduction in travel, careful spending, and even increased crime / fraud rates. The animated US flag will fly on this page until JUSTICE is brought to the individuals WHO inflicted this APALLING and unacceptable terror on this country.

We all have heard the expression: "Once broken, it will never be the same again." Well, that is pretty much the main idea how events such as a terrorist attack is intended to work on a country. This little section brings forth the grim subject on the lingering effects of the attacks on the United States back on September 11, 2001. If you, friends, and / or family were fortunate enough to not be DIRECTLY affected by the terrorism you may face what many innocent Americans have to deal with, such as unemployment, financial, even retirement problems.

First of all, what exactly is TERRORISM? Terrorism is a violent or retaliatory action committed by an individual (or group of individuals), usually with some sort of political reason, aimed to disrupt a nation's (or part of a nation's) way of life. A terrorist group can be an individual, such as a bomb planter, or a highly organized group of terrorists such as the "Al Qaeda" and "Taliban". Often terrorist groups threaten a country to get a political need satisfied by either "scaring" or in extreme cases "acting out" their threats (example: crashing airliners, bombing government buildings, etc).

Such an unthinkable and horrific scenario played out on that fateful morning of September 11, 2001. This was a "worst nightmare" act of terrorism committed by the Taliban terrorist group with Osama Bin Laden as the group leader. Four amateur pilots, on a "no-way back" suicide mission, also Taliban members, hijacked four jet airliners loaded with fuel. One was driven into the Pentagon building in the Washington D.C. area. Luckily, the section of the pentagon the plane impacted was closed for renovations. Another airliner crashed outside of Camp David, possibly mitigated from hitting any "strategic" target by a struggle on-board. The other two jet aircraft, the most horrific of the attacks, slammed into each tower of the World Trade Center near maximum level flight speed (350-500 MPH, or more) in New York City. The subsequent kerosene (Jet-A) fuel fire weakened the structure of each building and both catastrophically failed. The intent of this attack was to show the US that the Taliban "means business" and to disrupt the American (or "western") way of life.

As expected no one on any of the airliners involved survived, and loss of life exceeded 5,000 people in New York alone along with many more injuries, some involving permanent disability. Many buildings around the World Trade Center, or WTC, were also damaged or destroyed. The loss of life and property like this is usually called the PRIMARY EFFECT. With the primary effect aside, the SECONDARY EFFECT is the long-lasting damage caused by the attack such as the affect on people and businesses physically away from the primary area, social problems, even mental awareness that it could "happen again" (fear) or "know what we are dealing with". The New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE shut down for over a week after the attacks. Most major US and world financial institutions, also near Wall Street in New York, also shut down temporarily. Air travel was halted by the FAA for almost a week, and restricted use aircraft, such as crop-dusting and air tour / charter services were halted for up to a month! This caused a MAJOR disruption in US (and even foreign) commerce and business, and was a big blow to a good (but unstable) economy at the time.

For the period following the primary and secondary effects, a long clean-up of the damage began. The US military stepped into full gear with air patrolling, plus campaigns in the Afghanistan area to pick-off the Taliban members, especially Osama Bin Laden, the leader. Another problem was the city of Baghdad and another corrupt individual, Saddam Hussein. A campaign was launched to capture this individual because he could also harbor terrorists and is capable of launching an attack against the US. Hussein was just recently captured alive in late 2003 by US troops who stumbled across his bunker. Bin Laden is still at large as of early 2004. As you might imagine, these military campaigns cost money, lots of tax-payers money ... Another chip in the US National Debt.

In 2002 the US economy began a rapid down-spiral, with repeated "crash conditions" in the NYSE. For example, before 9-11-01, the DOW (Dow Jones Industrial average, used as a "gauge" to the stock market assets) was over 11,000. In 2002, it was as low as 7,500. Many airlines went bankrupt from lost sales (during the "no-fly" period or after when fewer people were willing to go on any airplane), or had major cut-backs in flights and personnel. I personally lost my job at a company that supplied metals to airline maintenance and manufacturers. This was right after the "best year" in the company's history, until 9-11-01, and that all changed ... I, of course, was not the only one. Many jobs all over the US were forced to fire or lay-off personnel. Hiring freezes and budget cuts prevented new jobs from being offered. Meanwhile, corporate fraud was on the rise (such as the Enron and Worldcomm scandals) and consumer inflation began making itself more and more obvious. As of late 2003, the US economy is finally beginning to "pick-up", but the process is slow and delicate. This "slow-down" of the economy is known as a RECESSION.

You are probably wondering why people in American just don't "try to go forward" and "forget about it all"? Well, we are trying diligently to do just that, president George W Bush was continually trying to balance military activity and the US economy on his shoulders, along with dealing with a major war in the Middle East (Baghdad and Afghanistan), even his worst nightmare of the terrorism itself. Imagine having these responsibilities, imagine the stress, imagine going home to your family every day with that on your mind. Now, what if your closest family was lost in the attacks? Imagine a windowed wife with a minimum wage job where most of the income was supplied by the husband, who was killed in the WTC. Imagine losing your job, not being able to find another one ... opening the mail-box everyday only to find statements and bills, most of which have rates and prices that keep going up. Imagine working in aviation as a big pilot for 15 years, then suddenly being out of work for over a year. Imagine losing your "dream job", and have to take a big pay cut at the only other job you can find. Imagine losing your house, having your car re-possessed, declaring bankruptcy, having good credit turned bad. Imagine not being able to buy a car for years, because of such a credit rating. This is all besides the social problems all this causes, like you getting divorced or dumped by a "co-dependant" spouse or partner, or a relationship getting destroyed through mis-understanding / arguments because of the stress ... I have seen all of these depressing events, even today, all because of the terrorism years ago.

The US economy is basically a highly involved structure of commerce and services. It is like the weather, you affect one area of it, and another, seemingly un-related area gets affected more. For example: A couple plans to buy a boat, which will cost $300 a month to finance. The couple is in good financial condition so this will not be of any concern. Suddenly, the wife (or husband) loses their job. Luckily, they decide to forget about the boat and cancel the order from the dealer. In addition, the couple starts having money problems because of the poor job market. They cut down on things ... Refinance their house for a lower monthly payment (interest rates lower during a recession), sell both cars (payments total $700 a month) and get one instead (at say, $500 a month). This in turn cuts rates on their auto insurance from say, $250 a month down to $150. This all looks good because the couple is saving nearly $1,000 of less important / luxury expenses. What is not good here is that this is silently damaging the US economy even more, and is referred to as REDUCED CONSUMER CONFIDENCE (people don't want to spend money). Let's look at the boat dealer, they just lost a boat sale because of this. That could lead to a job being cut at the boat manufacturing company, and a similar scenario happening to that employee, and so on! This is called the TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT, where a seemingly harmless event in the economy can cause a large chain of events (no boat, couple saved money = no boat sale, boating company suffers, person at boating company gets laid off, that person also refrains from buying a stereo, the stereo company suffering a lost sale, and so on). Get the picture?

As you can see, the US economy is a complicated and highly fickle entity. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 sure took their toll on it, unfortunately, as intended by the terrorists (they want to make the US a "miserable" place to live). One major course of action that can be done about the economy is to INCREASE CONSUMER CONFIDENCE. This can be done in two ways, lower prices, such as "tax holidays" (that actually has been done), or even better, create more jobs. Simply lowering prices will cause a temporary reprieve in a recession but most likely won't stop it. A "tax holiday" for example, may put more money in your pocket, but less money in the government's pocket. Remember, our defense department (military) is funded on tax money. Creating more jobs will increase both consumer confidence and commerce. More new businesses will be produced, and more money will be in the pocket of the American, while there is little impact on the government's financial condition. In addition to the consumer issue, a second course of action is to mitigate another terrorist attack. One major factor that "dented" the US economy was that many people felt "unsafe" on an airliner. The US government has placed many new techniques for security at airports and on airplanes. Remember, fewer people fly, fewer tickets purchased = Airline carrier goes bankrupt, people are fired or laid off ... The TRICKLE DOWN EFFECT does indeed apply here too! Remember when you check through security at an airport, its a hassle, you have to take your shoes off, check in earlier, pay more for heavy baggage. The person sitting in that window seat next to you on the airplane can even be a trained US air marshal ... But remember, you need to treat these people as your "friends". There were many terrorism threats after 9-11-01, none of which came to fruition in the US, thanks to the professional expertise of our military and department of defense. You are a lot safer on an airline now than ever before. Both prevention of another attack and re-storing the US economy are crucial to help us back to a stable level.

With the terrorist attacks of 9-11-2001, one wonders the force of impact an entire jet airliner would have. The planes used during the attacks have been called "missiles" by many news outlets. Indeed, a jet airplane at speed, can be thought of as such.

The equation above is the formula for kinetic energy (KE) which is measured in Joules. The velocity (V) is squared (multiplied by itself as denoted by the little superscript "2" above the "V". The velocity is also metric and in M/S (meters per second). Mass (in KG, where a kilogram is 2.2 pounds) is denoted by M. The product of mass and velocity squared is divided by "2". The equation is derived from integrating the change in position (distance traveled) per unit of time (differential) thus forming the square and divide by 2. This equation will be used in the examples explaining energy of impactors (hitting something at speed) below.

Let's consider the kinetic energy of a bullet. A 9mm bullet slug, a popular size used in many handguns, travels at a speed of about 1,500 feet per second (about 1,023 MPH) and weighs just under 9 grams. In metric and converted for the formula above, the mass (M) is 0.009 KG, velocity (V) is about 455 M/S. The equation yields a kinetic energy of about 932 joules (J). In another formula, to be used in comparison, is for the SAME amount of kinetic energy (KE), uses a bowling ball (averages a bit over 5 KG) hitting something at about 20 M/S (about 44-45 MPH). Obviously, besides the "flesh cutting effects" of a 9mm round hitting someone at 445 M/S, this will literally "throw" a person to some extent. A person wearing a bullet proof vest will feel the impact as is someone threw a 10-12 pound bowling ball and hit him (or her) with it from a car going nearly 45 MPH! Stepping up in mass (M), let's consider an (average) person in a car going about 55 MPH. The person weighs 175 pounds (just under 80 KG) and 55 MPH is roughly 24 M/S. Using the formula, the person would have a KE of about 23,040 J. Now lets say a semi-trailer, weighing 20,000 pounds is moving alongside the 80 KG person. This truck, with a mass of about 9,032 KG (there are 2.2 pounds to a KG) will have a KE of 2,601,000 J. Now, that same 80 KG person is on a jet airliner going 575 MPH (255 M/S). If you work out the equation, the KE of that (seemingly) small mass of than person is ALSO 2,601,000 J!! Because of the velocity-squared (kinematic formula), a small mass moving at very high speed can have the same energy as a much larger mass moving at a slower speed, but it takes a much smaller increase in velocity than a larger increase in mass. This is how a person sitting on a routine flight aboard a sub-sonic jet airliner at 30,000 feet going 575 MPH can have more energy contained in his (or her) body's mass than an 18 wheeler going the speed limit on most Interstates!

In yet another comparison, the same 80 KG person in earth orbit at 17,500 MPH (7,777 M/S) would have roughly 2,419,269,160 (2.42 GIGA) joules of energy! This is roughly equivalent to 930 18-wheelers (weighing about 10 tons each) traveling at 55 MPH - or, if you read below, almost 3/4 of the kinetic energy of one of the planes what hit the World Trade Center on 9-11-2001!

What about an entire airplane? Unfortunately, 9-11-2001 illustrated the results of a high mass and (relatively) high-velocity impactor. A Boeing 767-200 was used in one of the strikes on the World Trade Center in New York City. An "empty" 767-200, which we will look at here, ("empty" meaning no fuel and people) weighs about 176,650 pounds. The 767-200 that hit the World Trade Center was a trans-continental flight from Boston, MA to Los Angeles, CA. It was loaded with fuel and full of passengers, so the weight would be about 310,000 pounds (maximum takeoff weight is 315,000 pounds, but I took off a little here for fuel burn during the short 26 minute flight time to reach New York City after being hi-jacked). The mass of this 767-200 would be about 141,000 KG, give-or-take. Both planes (a 767 and 757) were slammed into the buildings at near full sea-level static thrust, and at speeds anywhere from 350 to over 500 MPH (some reports have 570 MPH, but I will be "generous" and put it in at 500 MPH).

Plugging in the mass of 141,000 KG and a speed of 500 MPH (222 M/S) into the equation, a kinetic energy of 3,481,481,481 (3.48 GIGA) joules is calculated from each plane. This is about the same energy that would be released if 1,650 sticks of dynamite were detonated simultaneously. If this still does not provide any perspective on how much energy this is, 3.48 GJ (3.48 billion joules) will power the average home (consuming 5,000 watts) for almost 8 days, or a keep 100 watt light bulb continuously for over a year plus one month.

The force on the building near the 77th (or 93rd) floors of the World Trade Center (near the impact site of the airplanes) would have been equivalent to 1,650 sticks of dynamite going off in someone's office. Believe it or not, this would NOT be enough to blow the building in half, since there is much steel and re-enforced concrete involved. However, having many of the supports partially damaged or destroyed, the structure WAS weakened. The high temperatures from the subsequent fuel fire caused "viscoplasticity" (where steel softens and bends much the same way a blacksmith does by heating iron) which caused the catastrophic failure.

How about hitting water at high speed? Have you ever heard the expression "like hitting concrete"? Unfortunately, and quite frankly, a high speed water impact IS hitting "concrete", period. Anyone who dove off a high dive board (averaging only 10-15 MPH) and hitting the pool the wrong way can attest to this. A suicidal jump off a high bridge, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, your body will impact the water at over 70 MPH (250 foot fall) and with about 30-50 times the kinetic energy of a high-dive board. Normally, damage to internal organs causes death, and survival is very unlikely. In the pictures above, a jet aircraft impacts lake Ontario off Toronto at speed with devastating results. The water impact is so violent that pieces of the disintegrating plane can be seen flying in addition to the spray plume! Only 4 feet of water can stop a bullet from a handgun. At higher speeds, a bullet breaks apart and deforms, and the distance decreases to 3 feet. The main rule of thumb is that the faster an impactor hits a fluid medium (such as water or liquid, or even a gas such as air at hyper-speeds), the harder that medium "tries" to slow it down due to "velocity-squared".

Getting back to the World Trade Center example and solid wall impacts ... At 500 MPH, the time it takes between the nose of the plane "hitting" the wall and the tail "going in" would only be about 1/5 of a second. This is a distance of about 159 feet, and would have been "consumed" and disintegrated in about the same time it takes to blink an eye. The plane that hit the south tower was traveling faster at impact than the plane that hit the north tower. This caused the south tower to collapse in a shorter time and before the north one, even though the south tower was hit after the north tower.

Fortunately, no one on any of the airplanes involved in the World Trade Center and Pentagon impacts would have felt any pain or even witnessed the impact from inside the plane as death would have been instantaneous during the disintegration.

We all have been there one time or another in our lives. You are in a hurry, trying to make an important appointment, and you are stuck in a traffic jam and miss it. A traffic light is green for almost 20 minutes, of course, when YOU come to it, it changes red and you have to stop. Even worse, a rural crossroad where only one car travels on either road per given day has more accidents in a given time-frame than the busiest intersection in New York City! Notice that when traveling and having a connecting flight the first flight is ALWAYS delayed so you wind up missing the connection, never the connection being delayed? Ahhh, Welcome to MURPHY'S LAW, and no one is safe from it!

It is so typical. You go to the store, and each shelf is stocked to the limit with goods - But the one item YOU are LOOKING FOR is the only item missing! Once again, Murphy scored another one against you! Besides bad luck, shattered relationships, frustration, and being late - Murphy's Law is a REAL THING, and originated from a very real and practical place. If you guessed the US Military - you are right! Particularly, the US Air Force. Major Edward A. Murphy was an engineer involved in the tests of the ROCKET SLED. This was a high speed rocket-powered vehicle, running on rails, and braked by a water-scoop designed to inflict unimaginable G-Force loads on animal / human test subjects (Colonel John Paul Stapp being the most notable candidate for this project). Murphy noticed that trial runs of the vehicle failed as connections were accidentally hooked up backwards, regardless of how many times they were checked and re-checked. Frustrated, young major Murphy coined the use of the term "Murphy's Law" for the first time in 1948.

So the next time you hook a battery up backwards, and burn out a costly device, or take a true and false test and "guess" the answers expecting to get "50%" and only wind up getting "10%" - Think of the rocket sled and early ejection-seat testing as major Edward A. Murphy as the sole inventor of the law whose name you keep swearing as you deal with the failure and costly consequences of such a "coin toss"!

Below is a listing of some things and events invented by yours truly, Edward A. Murphy - check them out, and see for yourself how frightengly familiar some my appear!

1. If anything can go wrong, it will.

2. Nothing is as easy as it looks.

3. Everything takes longer than you think.

4. Doing it the hard way is always easier in the long run.

5. Research will always tend to support your theory, if you do enough of it.

6. If success is at first not achieved, every effort will be made to hide the fact that it was even attempted.

7. People who smile when things are going wrong have already thought of who will get the blame.

8. Your superiors will always think they are better than you, despite the law of averages.

9. The truth shall get you fired.

10. If you cannot convince people, confuse them.

11. If everything is coming your way, watch out.

12. If people listened to themselves more often, they would talk a lot less.

13. Trust only those who stand to lose as much as you do when everything goes wrong.

14. The shortest distance between two points is usually under construction.

15. In any organization there will always be one person who knows what is going on. This person must be fired, or at least avoided at all costs.

16. knife too dull to cut anything else will always cut your finger like a razor.

17. After your hands have become extremely dirty, your nose will itch.

18. Leftover nuts never match leftover bolts.

19. In case of doubt, say it loud and convincingly.

20. The length of a minute depends on what your are waiting for.

21. When a man says to you "It's not the not the money, it's the principle of the thing," it's always the money.

22. The number of people who happen to be watching you will always directly proportional to the stupidity of the thing you are doing.

23. Things always get worse before they get better.

24. Bad weather reports are right more often than sunny ones.

25. If it jams--force it. Then, if it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.

26. The first place to look for something is the last place you expect to find it.

27. The driver's side windshield wiper always streaks and wears out first.

28. In human affairs it is impossible to make anything fool-proof, so don't waste a lot of time trying.

29. As soon as you switch lanes, your old lane speeds up.

30. The worse the haircut, the slower it grows out.

31. Phone messages: If you have a pen, there's no paper. If you have paper, there's no pen. If you have both, it will be a wrong number.

32. The slowest drivers all know the fastest shortcuts.

33. When you try to prove to someone that a machine doesn't work, it will always work perfectly.

34. Law of Corporate Planning: Anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to really plan anything.

35. When the world solves one problem, the solution will usually create another problem, far worse than the first one.

36. Progress is the endless exchange of one problem for another.

37. Being punctual only means your mistake will be made on time.

38. 2nd Law of the Corporation: Any action for which there is no logical explanation always is already "company policy."

39. Whatever plan you make, there is a hidden difficulty somewhere that will derail it.

40. A surprise monetary windfall will be accompanied by an unexpected expense of the same or a greater amount.

41. The one emergency for which you are fully prepared will never happen.

42. When taking something apart to fix a minor malfunction, you will cause a much greater malfunction upon reassembly.

43. All great discoveries are made by mistake.

44. If it looks easy, it's tough. If it looks tough, it's impossible.

45. No matter how early you get there, someone else is always there first, or else you've got the times screwed up, or it's the wrong day.

46. The effort of trying to save a falling object by catching it will always cause more destruction than if the object had just been allowed to fall unobstructed in the first place.

47. The most expensive and hard to replace component is always the one that breaks first.

48. No one can ever leave anything well enough alone.

49. If you don't really have to do it, and if doing it or not doesn't matter at all, it will go perfectly every time.

50. As soon as you mention something ... if it's good, it goes away ... if it's bad, it comes upon you immediately.

51. The first 90% of project takes 90% of the time, and the last 10% takes at least twice as long.

52. Inside every large problem is many other small problems struggling to get out.

53. If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then that is the one that will be chosen.

54. All work expands to fill the time allowed.

55. There is never enough time or money.

56. The greastest thing about teamwork and study committees is that they can disperse the blame.

57. Whatever happens, look as though you intended it to happen.

58. No two identicial parts are ever truly identical.

59. There is no limit to how bad things can get.

60. When things go wrong, they go wrong all at once, and at the worst possible moment.

61. If everything seems to be going along well, you have definitely overlooked something.

62. Whenever you start to do something, you quickly realize that something else must be done first.

63. The likelihood of success is inversely proportional to how important the project is.

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