Greensboring.com | Greensboro, NC

Originals • Re: How to build a glass deck railing

2013-11-24T13:48:46+00:00

esbede wrote:
Would drilling drain holes in the bottom of the slot help with that?

Yes I drilled holes in the bottom rail to let out any water that got past the caulking Cedar is naturally rot proof all the way through.

If you plan on using pressure treated, remember that the treatment only penetrates the outside 1/8-1/4 inch. So if you're cutting slots in it you want to paint those with end-cut preservative - along with the end cuts of course.

I moved about a year ago, but it still looked lovely after four years of Rock Mountain weather. I pressure washed it each spring and gave it a fresh coat of linseed oil

Statistics: Posted by A Person — Sun Nov 24, 2013 1:48 pm

Originals • Re: How to build a glass deck railing

2013-11-23T17:19:28+00:00

re: setting the panels in a slotten bottom rail. Has the rail tended to decay faster over the years due to slot holding water or was the bottom rail just totally saturated w/ the linseed oil (Rain is a bit of a challenge here in the PNW!) Would drilling drain holes in the bottom of the slot help with that?

Statistics: Posted by Guest — Sat Nov 23, 2013 5:19 pm

Originals • Re: Flight 93 Memorial Speaks a Heroic Tale.

2013-06-23T23:43:36+00:00

I don't think the fear is the current climate, it's the "when good men do nothing" now approach to a future of a nuclear Middle-East.

Statistics: Posted by Liv — Sun Jun 23, 2013 11:43 pm

Originals • Re: Flight 93 Memorial Speaks a Heroic Tale.

2013-06-23T23:38:35+00:00

Terrorists have very little to do with the all-out nuclear war we feared in the Cold War. True, North Korea and Iran COULD do stupid things that drag us into war with Russia or China... but that is a completely different matter from fear generated by bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

Statistics: Posted by SouthernFriedInfidel — Sun Jun 23, 2013 11:38 pm

Originals • Re: Flight 93 Memorial Speaks a Heroic Tale.

2013-06-23T22:06:58+00:00

I think the fear is the same it was in the cold-war, nuclear weapons. I think the intention of our Middle-East escapades to slow that from happening.

The Clash is coming, we know that, the real problem is if anything we do actually truly slow that outcome?

I doubt it.

Someone will get nuked... it's just a matter of time.

Statistics: Posted by Liv — Sun Jun 23, 2013 10:06 pm

Originals • Re: Flight 93 Memorial Speaks a Heroic Tale.

2013-06-23T22:02:09+00:00

I find it interesting to think about the whole concept of terrorism and how it affects people. For instance, on Sept 11, Osama bin Laden's thugs killed in the course of a few hours a little over 3000 people in America.

Think about that... ONLY 3000 people. By comparison, in America that same year, 8000 people were killed in domestic crimes involving handguns. Which was so unremarkable that it never was reported in any TV news show. Business as usual.

So why is it that so many people (including myself!) had a totally irrational fear of being attacked by other "bad guys" in turbans or whatever? An instinctive response, of course.

And our so-called leaders, whom we all looked to for help and guidance in that dark time, did NOT lead rationally. They passed the "Patriot Act," grabbing power enough to give J. Edgar Hoover wet dreams even in his grave, and created out of our nightmares a "War on Terror," that would guarantee America's military/industrial complex a decade or more of limitless, unquestioned cash flow.

Terrorists have no weapon that can threaten more than a couple thousand people at a time AT MOST, yet we treat them as the most deadly threat to our existence other than nuclear weapons. Drunk driving kills more people every year than all terrorist attacks in America EVER, COMBINED. And don't get us started comparing them with heart disease and cancer.

So what is the best response to terrorism? Certainly it shouldn't be completely ignored. But it should not also form the center of our national attention for decades on end. We need to get past it, and get into more rational modes of thought and operation NOW, rather than hanging on to our terror response so long after it should have been set aside. It never did us any real good, and will only become more toxic as time goes on.

Statistics: Posted by SouthernFriedInfidel — Sun Jun 23, 2013 10:02 pm

Originals • Re: Does Flight 93 Memorialize a Lie?

2013-06-23T14:48:47+00:00

Bad title eh?

Yeah, I know.

Must fix.

Statistics: Posted by Liv — Sun Jun 23, 2013 2:48 pm

Originals • Re: Does Flight 93 Memorialize a Lie?

2013-06-23T03:22:26+00:00

Does Flight 93 Memorialize a Lie?

No

Statistics: Posted by A Person — Sun Jun 23, 2013 3:22 am

Originals • Flight 93 Memorial Speaks a Heroic Tale.

2013-06-23T00:53:56+00:00

IMAG0718.jpg

So one of the places we hit on the way back from Canada was the United Airlines Flight 93 Memorial (Note, the use of the name United appears nowhere within the memorial).

First, personally: I've always accepted the official story as truth, and I was deeply moved by my visit. It took a lot to hold back tears.

That said, my visit brought more questions about the crash than it answered. While I don't want to buy into conspiracy theories, the one fact I can't get over is the F-16 that chased flight 93.

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What fighter-jet right? Apparently the official story is two un-armed fighters jets planned to ram the aircraft if it made it to Washington, but that makes no sense when there was plenty of time, and certainly armed jets sit ready to be scrambled. There was nearly a half-dozen documented first-hand accounts of a white or gray jet in pursuit (including several news reports) of the airliner before it crashed, and just using a little common sense about the most trigger-happy country on Earth: us (who spends billions of dollars on military) suggests,that (not) scrambling of F-16 (or F-15s) on flight 93 was either the biggest military goof ever- or (and more likely) we were on that birds tail like a horse on a mare.

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There's enough evidence to say that it's a fact, that at the very least, a F-16 was in pursuit of the jet, and by some accounts, that it had caught up to Flight 93. To me this seems likely, considering that the government had approximately a half hour of time from its flight path change to its crash.

A F-16, at a top speed of Mach 2, can cover about 700 miles in that time.

The consensus is these air-crafts came out of Langley, Va, though they could have came out of almost any Air-Force base east of the Rockies and had made it. For instance, Langley is less than 300 miles from where UAL93 crashed, meaning in 21 minutes a F16 could have caught up to the flight. From Andrews, in Maryland: half that time.

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So considering it's almost certain a F-16 caught up to it, and Fox reported it shot-down (officially mistaken), that Cheney alluded to the fact Bush and himself "would have approved a shoot down" if a passenger airline threatened the White House, and that Rumsfield made an accidental mistake of saying Flight 93 was shot down (rather than crashed) [all Google-able on Youtube]- I'm now more confused than ever!

Of course the official story revolves around a single statement on the black-box: "Don't worry, we're going to do something." which led to a unprecedented passenger revolt to retake the cockpit. The effort failed (though some believe they were successful), and the plane crashed after the terrorists decided to end it. Both these actions by the passengers and terrorists seem extraordinary odd unless you consider the nothing to lose, there's a fighter jet at my six possibility, where they then seem rather rational. The official story is these were extraordinary people who committed an unprecedented act of heroism and self-sacrifice. Indeed it's how I'd prefer to remember them (as would most people).

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Ignoring my Spidey-sense, I found my visit to the crash site in PA did little to help my skepticism. As I watched a group of American, oxygen tank toting, visitors standing in front of the passenger list, I was shocked to learn how few people were on the aircraft. Including passenger and crew, only 40 people were on-board an aircraft configured for about 250 passengers. This bird was as empty as a KOA in Compton. Most of the passenger's were old, like late 30s-70s (with a couple of 20 year olds). Interestingly half of those aboard were female, at least one passenger was pregnant, and of course all names of the terrorists have been scrubbed from the memorial.

I'm not sure what any of this means, other than it was a very unique flight to begin with.

At the Flight 93 Memorial, you're not allowed to visit the actual crater (which one did not [appear] to exist at the time of my visit, a decade after the crash). The Memorial sits about .5 miles from the actual crash site which can be seen from a distance, marked by a rock which we're told is approximately where it crashed (the actual memorial wall is the exact flight path). It's clear something happened here as nearby new trees (about a decade old) border older ones. There's no doubt something went down here, but then there's the matter of the eight mile debris field as a part of the official record (which includes an engine found miles away). Does a airplane crashing at 700 MPH into the ground, eject its own debris eight miles away? Seems plausible, Yet all I could think about was last semester while studying Tourism Geography, and learning about KAL007, a Korean passenger jet that was shot down in the eighties by Russia. The story, the debris field, seemed all strikingly similar.

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As we drove away from the Memorial and headed down into West Virginia, Edward Snowden's charges were being announced over NPR. Snowden has threatened, if America pursues him, he will release more secrets. Part of me wondered what would happen if Flight 93 was a lie. If it was shot down, how would that effect America? Maybe it wouldn't? Perhaps we all accept the greater good is more important than a few (I dont'), but then if that were true, why lie?

The truth is Flight 93 wasn't shot down, the F-16 never caught up, and as the dozens of hand-written letters at the memorial suggest: they're heroes, and our lord Jesus has taken them to a better place (as written on several notes posted at the Flight 93 memorial).

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The truth just sounds beautifully tragic.

Statistics: Posted by Liv — Sun Jun 23, 2013 12:53 am

Originals • Re: Gilman Scholarship - What's wrong with me?

2013-06-03T00:10:36+00:00

I did not purposely identify my minority statuses in my essay, although I alluded that I did in the above post.

However, I am not naive to think social prejudices, and non-disclosed data would provide for subjective judging.

From my name, to where I live, to the school I attend, to my age group (which is on the application), to the vocabulary I choose to express myself, they're all identifying marks of what and who I am.

Did I mention God in my essay, a national passion to embody U.S. values? No.

I made a rational, and objective argument for why you should send me to represent the U.S. in a foreign country and provide gain to the educational capital of this country. It was passionate, heartfelt, but it was not a story that I embellished (a tactic in persuasive writing) to earn pity. I didn't use loaded language or signalers (this is the important part). (Signals like "Thank Jesus we survived living off beanie-weenies and watermelon for 10 years." [Jesus signaling I'm a Christian])

Now I know, in America, you only get to who you want to be if you lie- and I should have probably made my life sound so crappy that only Jesus's prayers would have answered them, but I didn't.

I'm not a sore loser, I did go to Belgium, and had the time of my life. I don't encourage people not to apply, I'm just putting out an alternative view point, one in which no-one is saying: that diversity is still a marketable commodity in this country, where true diversity is still often taboo.

If Gilman wishes to be objective rather than subjective, there should be (as with anything that's fair) transparency in the process.

Statistics: Posted by Liv — Mon Jun 03, 2013 12:10 am