[NOLA] Multiple injuries have been reported after the under-construction Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans collapsed Saturday morning.Three people were being taken to hospital in unknown condition, according to New Orleans EMS. More patients are possible.
The site is located at the corner of Canal and North Rampart streets.
"It sounded like a - I don't know how to describe it -- like a building coming down," said Matt Worges, who witnessed the collapse from a classroom in the nearby Tidewater Building. The video at the link is amazing.
#3
That was me posting. The building is on the upriver edge of the French Quarter. One confirmed dead, others injured or missing. One of the cranes is now standing (or swaying) there unsupported, so expect further developments.
The building used to be a perfectly good Woolworth's.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/12/2019 13:43 Comments ||
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#4
Expect more of this. The engineers probably had gender classes...
#7
Video won't play in full screen, so my take (as it is):
Building is thin deck concrete, probably with post-tensioning (to minimize mild steel reinforcing - a common design). Top decks may have been stripped of supports too early, before achieving strength or tensioning? Progressive collapse was weird - shouldn't have happened. I'd go with materials/construction means and methods before design flaws as first assumption. Not a unique design by any means
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2019 18:03 Comments ||
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#8
I was waiting for you to comment Frank. Thanks.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/12/2019 18:56 Comments ||
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#9
Ditto.
"Begorrah!" snorts little Jacques Horner
As he blows up the shorts of some foreigner.
"'Tis the judgment of gawd:
They profaned the ould sod
By erecting their junk on that corner!"
"Also... betcha twenty puint I know where you got dat brogue!"
Posted by: Snoling Smiter of the Brontosaurs2338 ||
10/12/2019 19:42 Comments ||
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#10
Thx Matt - I'd first look at the materials' strength gain trial batches (well known by that point). I suspect schedule overrode
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2019 22:33 Comments ||
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[Hot Air] PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - Portland Fire & Rescue responds to fires that start in homeless encampments often several times a day, according to data.
Some have been as small as a garbage fire, while others have been known to spread to homes.
"Our call volume does have an increased amount that is a result of some kind of emergency or crisis that is happening with our homeless population," said Lt. Rich Chatman with Portland Fire & Rescue. "That’s a fact of life and we’ve just really come to understand that this is part of our job now."
The FOX 12 Investigators requested data for fires started in homeless encampments from July 2017 to July 2019.
It showed Portland Fire & Rescue responded to more than 1,000 fires in those two years. It also showed they’re usually responding to these fires several times a day.
Take May 29 of this year: Data shows Portland crews responded to 10 fire calls at homeless camps.
"During our summer months, we know that fires we’re going to deal with often have to do with how dry the brush or trees are and that’s especially concerning to us because those fires that start maybe from a cooking fire or some sorts outdoors that can cause a much larger fire that can affect many more homes," said Chatman. "During the winter months, often times, the fires are people just trying to keep warm and that’s something we obviously have compassion to."
Back in July, a homeless camp caught fire near Southeast 96th Avenue and Steele Street. It spread across the street to a home, burning part of the roof.
"Something in the camp exploded," said Joanna Hartvickson.
Hartvickson lives next door to the home that caught fire.
#3
Little wonder - imagine how big that carbon footprint is!
My understanding is that California's wild fires put more than 10 times more carbon into the atmosphere than all of the fossil fuel emissions. Further, many of these fires would have been prevented if we spent the money that we squander on so-called green energy to bury power lines and manage our forests. But I suppose our politicians feel they can signal more virtue by buying wind and solar energy.
But those old hobos in the picture look like they're having good time.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/12/2019 11:53 Comments ||
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An Oklahoma woman was shot in the leg during a car ride ‐ by an excitable puppy that jumped on a loaded gun, according to cops.
Tina Springer, 44, was hit in the left thigh after her driver’s yellow Labrador, Molly, jumped on a .22-caliber handgun in a folding center console, according to the Enid News & Eagle.
"I had a dog in there and he stepped on the gun," driver Brent Parks, 79, told a 911 dispatcher. "The dog went stepped on it and it went off."
"The dog shot her?" the surprised-sounding dispatcher asked, to which Parks replied, "Yeah. He stepped on it and it went off."
Parks, who used his belt as a makeshift tourniquet, could be heard telling off his 7-month-old pet. "Well Molly, you’re the one who pulled that trigger. Don’t give me no s‐t," he "mutt"-ered at one point.
#4
Mildly entertaining audio of 911 call. Favorite bit's at 5:00. He tries to play the game, but eventually... "That's the stupidest g-dd-mn thing I ever heard about... shoulda just took ya in myself..."
Which pretty much sums up my feeling about every 911 call I've ever been involved in. A breath of fresh air on a balmy beachy afternoon.
Posted by: Snoling Smiter of the Brontosaurs2338 ||
10/12/2019 19:15 Comments ||
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#5
Florida dog would have been driving, the man naked and jumping around the cab, and the gal is normal - except she talks backwards
#6
Now, if it'd been a big-ass catfish floppin' around the cab that set the gun off, he'd have been in the running. Or not. Maybe an illegal imported invasive catfish.
Posted by: Snoling Smiter of the Brontosaurs2338 ||
10/12/2019 20:10 Comments ||
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[Breitbart] The birthday surprises have not stopped pouring in for a World War II veteran in Watauga, Texas, who turned 100 years old on Monday.
Veteran James South had no idea the response he would receive when a picture of him holding a sign asking for 100 birthday cards for his birthday was posted online by staff at the Brookdale Senior Living facility a few weeks ago.
"Hello! My name is James South. I am a proud WWII veteran! I will be turning 100 on October 7th, 2019. I would like to receive 100 birthday cards," the sign read.
On Monday, Breitbart News reported that South had received more than 60,000 cards from people as far away as Australia and India.
However, reports said that as of Friday, that number has climbed to over 100,000.
"To go to a store in town and pick out a card and send it to me, that’s almost more than I can handle I’ll tell ya," the veteran said. "It touches my heart."
South’s daughter-in-law, Debbie, said the family has been emotional as they read each of the heartfelt birthday wishes.
"We’re just crying everyday because we’re just reading all these beautiful cards," she commented.
On Thursday, Alex Rozier, a reporter with WFAA, tweeted photos of South will all the birthday greetings he received.
[NYT] Shepard Smith, the chief news anchor of Fox News whose reporting often drew the ire of President Trump, said on Friday that he was leaving the cable news network after 23 years, an abrupt move that left some of his co-workers openly stunned.
"Recently, I asked the company to allow me to leave Fox News," Mr. Smith told viewers at the close of his regular broadcast. "After requesting that I stay, they obliged."
A fixture of Fox News, Mr. Smith joined the network as a correspondent at its start in 1996 and became one of its most visible journalists. He is leaving in the middle of his current contract, a rarity in the cutthroat television business, and he told viewers on Friday that, under his exit agreement, "I won’t be reporting elsewhere at least in the near future."
Since Mr. Trump took office, Mr. Smith has stood out at Fox News for his tough coverage of the White House ‐ a stark contrast from the Trump cheerleading often displayed by the network’s prime-time and morning-show commentators.
Mr. Smith’s reporting has sometimes frustrated Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly taunted the anchor on Twitter, referring to him as Fox’s "lowest rated anchor." On Thursday, Mr. Trump cited Mr. Smith by name, along with the former Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, arguing that Fox News was "much different than it used to be in the good old days."
#1
I started started avoiding listening to Shep Smith beginning with the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. His buffoonery on a sandy beach was the final straw. I could look at the chyron for the news segment and extrapolate how "Shemp" would massage and spin the facts into a half-baked morality fable.
Listening to him became a waste of time. Good riddance.
#2
Shep Smith at center of Chasten Buttigieg and wife Pete announced split. Gutfeld, Timpf, and Tyrus find revealing pics in Faux News green room, refuse to re-enter. Owners demand Smith take a hike ???
[PJ] Everybody knows that electric cars are going to save the planet from climate change or something. Unlike regular cars, which run on gasoline and make all the polar bears cry as they sink into the sea, electric cars are powered by... um... magic? Mjölnir, the hammer of Thor? That must be how it works, or else owning an electric car would impose some sort of cost to the environment. And that can't be, or those guys wouldn't be so insufferably smug.
You know those intentional blackouts they're having in California to reduce the risk of wildfires? Well, guess what happens now?
So if you're a Californian who bought an electric car to save the environment, now you can't drive it because of the risk to the environment. If you really cared about the planet, you wouldn't go anywhere or do anything or participate in 21st-century life at all.
Whatever happened to those algae-powered cars we were supposed to have by now? Remember Obama talking about those? Imagine driving around smelling like a dirty fish tank. Smirking at all those planet-killing dummies in their outdated electric cars. That's the thing about being woke. There's always somebody woker.
#2
The Flintstones were more woke
because they used pedal power.
Of course, Fred must have eaten a lot of hay
and made a mess of the street out the other end.
And of course, he must have produced more methane gas out the back end too after working himself up with all that exercise.
#5
the wa state legislators passed a bill that became effective first of this month to add $75 a year to car tabs of hybrid and all electric cars. but money can only be used for building out charging stations. so my non plug in camry gets no benefit.
in 6 years that fee is to go to general road maintenance fund but i am not betting on it.
#6
The real bitch is when the wild fires are raging, electrical power has been shut off, the batteries have been run down and their homes are surrounded by choking smoke and towering flames, the owners of electric cars will have to use good old foot power to get the hell outta there.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/12/2019 12:16 Comments ||
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#7
AU: i would contend the REAL bitch would be the electric car users having to lower themselves to an evacuation ride in a carbon-spewing vehicle.....
A powerful storm approached Japan on Friday, threatening to batter its capital with the heaviest rain in 60 years, disrupting a Formula One Grand Prix and rugby’s World Cup and raising fears of transport chaos.https://t.co/zit6ZWjzr9
I met a puffy faced Japanese guy at a bar. Mid thirties, well dressed, neat and expensive accessories. He had been crying and his Indian friend was trying to cheer him up. The reason was his virtual girlfriend had crashed. A software error. And the company was willing to replace the thing by a download. But he was in a pool of tears over 'It won't be her !'
[Iraq Sun] Former President of South Africa Jacob Zuma will appear in court on Tuesday on charges of corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering.
The case against Zuma will proceed after the South African High Court on Friday dismissed applications by the former leader to have all charges against him quashed.
The controversial president, who served from 2009 until his resignation in February 2018, is facing charges that he took billions of rands in bribes whilst negotiating arms sales. An application by French weapons-manufacturer Thales South Africa was also dismissed by the High Court.
Despite the decision, Zuma was all smiles on Friday as he joked with his lawyers.
The decision though by a full bench of the Pietermaritzburg High Court will now allow his prosecution, and that of Thales, to proceed.
Judges Bhekisisa Mnguni, Thoba Poyo-Dlwati and Esten Steyn reportedly took only a few minutes to hand down their judgement.
Justice Mnguni, who read the judgement, said all three of Zuma's applications were dismissed with costs.
"The applications brought by Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma for the permanent stay are dismissed with costs," the judgement said.
Zuma and his legal entourage will now return to the same courtroom for the opening of his case on Tuesday.
A little over a month after Zuma agreed to step aside in February 2018, it was confirmed by the director of public prosecutions that he would face eighteen charges of corruption, including more than 700 counts of fraud and money laundering.
[The Hill] The Pentagon announced Friday that the U.S. will deploy additional personnel, aircraft and missile defense equipment to Saudi Arabia in response to Iranian aggression.
The U.S. will send two fighter squadrons, one Air Expeditionary Wing, two Patriot missile system batteries holding missiles and a launcher, and one Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.
"As we have stated, the United States does not seek conflict with the Iranian regime, but we will retain a robust military capability in the region that is ready to respond to any crisis and will defend U.S. forces and interest in the region," Hoffman said.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper had authorized the deployment last month at the request of U.S. Central Command and informed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the country's defense minister of the action earlier Friday.
"Taken together with other deployments this constitutes an additional 3,000 forces that have been extended or authorized within the last month," Hoffman said.
[DAILYTIMES.PK] Police in Sargodha on Friday arrested two serial killers involved in the gruesome murder of at least seven taxi drivers, according to officials privy to the developments.
District Police Officer Sargodha told the media at a presser that the suspects used to book taxi rides and afterward give drugs to the taxi driver.
The suspects then proceeded to kidnap the driver and kill him, before disposing off the body at an unidentified location on a nearby lake. The taxi cars were sold off in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa later.
[AA.TR] Faced with its worst cash flow crisis in a decade, the UN will start axing fancy cocktail soirees for ambassadors, an official told news hounds Friday.
Oh no! Whatever will the staff do with themselves now?
The UN will also switch off its iconic fountain, elevators and heating beginning Monday in a bid to cut costs. Uck! Restaurants with only four stars?
Under-Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, Catherine Pollard, told news hounds of "very dire" cash shortages because of $1.3 billion that member states owe in 2019 dues.
"For the second successive year, we’ve exhausted all the regular budget liquidity reserves despite several measures we already put in place to try and reduce expenditures and to align them with available cash reserves," said Pollard.
Tightening their belts ever-further, the suites that UN ambassadors use to wine and dine fellow diplomats, politicians and policy wonks will be closed for cocktail parties and other events scheduled after 6 p.m. (1000GMT), said Pollard. Oh, the humanity!
"I know that many of you also go to some of the functions that are hosted by delegations in the delegates’ rooms. Those functions are going to be curtailed from next Monday," Pollard said.
"We had several events that were in the pipeline, and we are currently reviewing all of those with the sponsors to see how we can accommodate them."
UN staff will only be allowed "essential travel," said Pollard. There will be cutbacks on interpreters, translators and the issuing of documents, while radiators and escalators will be switched off to save power.
Even the landmark fountain in the plaza in front of the UN secretariat building, a 100-foot (30-meter) illuminated circular pool that was donated by American schoolchildren in 1952 , will be switched off in the economy drive.
Although most of the UN’s 193 members have paid their 2019 dues in full, more than 60 countries still owe cash, including its top contributor, the United States. This has left the world body with a 30 percent hole in its budget.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 views]
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#1
They could audit the "personal expenses" of the last five UN Secretary-Generals and would probably find enough corruption to pay for a month or two.
Independent Audit... Now that is a phrase that causes the UN bureaucracy to run screaming away like a vampire shown a holy cross!
#5
The top contributor should simply renege. Why must any nation be a 'top contributor' to what is effectively just an unaccountable nuisance to sovereign states tying to run their own shit ?
#6
OK. It's not the Babylon Bee but this is some other satire site, right? Right? I mean, they wouldn't really cancel the cocktail parties, would they? And all those high falutin' diplomats have to buy their own liquor? And what about the girls? Tell me this is satire.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/12/2019 12:27 Comments ||
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#7
Trump cut off U.N. money and they start to fold. We must have providing most of the money that kept them afloat. Good for our taxpayers that they fold. The U.N. was a tool for the globalists to take power and sovereignty from the U.S. Another good reason to re-elect Trump for doing work for the U.S.
#8
Why are they even physically there in New York? If you ask any of them, GlobalWarmingClimateChangeFossilFuel is the biggest problem humanity faces. Save the Planet, reduce your big-ass air travel carbon footprint, and teleconference. You do have electricity in your countries, don't you?
(if not, you better get some! You're going to need it to run your electric cars)
#9
Not to worry, Biden will be president in 2021 and he'll restore full finding as long as we give Hunter a big fat salary. Or so they keep telling themselves.
[Jerusalem Post] A US federal judge in New York on Friday temporarily blocked a Trump administration rule that would deny visas to aspiring immigrants deemed likely to require government assistance, calling it "repugnant to the American Dream."
The rule, finalized in August, vastly expanded who could be considered a possible "public charge," applying to anyone who might in the future need temporary government help such as food stamps, Medicaid or housing aid. Previously it applied to immigrants who would be primarily dependent on the government.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule, if ultimately allowed to take effect, could be the most drastic of the Trump administration's hardline anti-immigration policies, experts have said.
Pushed by Trump's leading aide on immigration, Stephen Miller, the rule was due to go into effect on Tuesday.
But Judge George Daniels of the Southern District of New York blocked the rule nationwide, finding that the government failed to provide "any reasonable explanation" for why the definition of "public charge" needed to be changed. Appointed by Bill Clinton
It will now be on hold while the underlying legal challenges proceed.
#3
If any branch of government needs reform, it's this one. Maybe Trump should start packing these guys off to Gitmo or some other place, off the radar as potential terrorists. Maybe a stan where they can serve as in cell entertainment for the inmates.
#7
During the next term, we really have to find a way to remove tyrants that make up law from the bench. And also make it so a district judge can't block the entire fucking US.
#12
Repugnant to whose American Dream? Certainly not mine. I don't sleep at night having sweet dreams of paying taxes to provide health, education and welfare for millions of deadbeat Third World types.
And exactly which section of the Constitution is violated by the new rule?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/12/2019 10:57 Comments ||
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#15
How the hell does the Southern District of NY apply a ban nationally? They are a district court. They should not have reach outside of their district - ot the appeals region at most.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
10/12/2019 21:33 Comments ||
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NEW YORK (AP) ‐ Jane Fonda was arrested at the U.S. Capitol on Friday while peacefully protesting climate change.
The actress and activist was handcuffed on the east side steps and escorted into a police vehicle. Video of the arrest circulated online.
Fonda was one of 16 people arrested for unlawfully protesting and was charged with "crowding, obstructing or incommoding." She was released hours later.
On Thursday, the actress vowed to join Friday protests at the Capitol "inspired and emboldened by the incredible movement our youth have created."
Ira Arlook, of the group Fire Drill Fridays, confirmed that Fonda was arrested at the inaugural demonstration Friday.
Before her arrest, Fonda in a speech called climate change "a collective crisis that demands collective action now."
#5
So there weren't any North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gunners around to protect her? How soon they forget.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/12/2019 11:49 Comments ||
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#6
Ms Fonda was granted a four month hiatus from the filming of season 6 of the Netflix series “Grace and Frankie” just so she could go to Washington and get arrested every Friday. If, during the rest of the week, she quietly gets a little more work done, no need to say anything specific about her ageless beauty.
Set up the standing headline as the rich old lady indulges herself.
#7
JANE FONDA ARRESTED. A pause.
On further reflection, guffaws:
I must really be ancient
To think of Ms. Jane, "Ain't
She got a morality clause?"
Posted by: Snoling Smiter of the Brontosaurs2338 ||
10/12/2019 14:29 Comments ||
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#8
no need to say anything specific about her ageless beauty.
*SNORT*
Speaking of Netflix, is there something going on there? I canceled my account awhile back - more for time reasons than their changing content - but lately they've been bugging me repeatedly to come back.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Breitbart] The birthday surprises have not stopped pouring in for a World War II veteran in Watauga, Texas, who turned 100 years old on Monday.
[NYT] Shepard Smith, the chief news anchor of Fox News whose reporting often drew the ire of President Trump, said on Friday that he was leaving the cable news network after 23 years, an abrupt move that left some of his co-workers openly stunned.
[PJ] Everybody knows that electric cars are going to save the planet from climate change or something. Unlike regular cars, which run on gasoline and make all the polar bears cry as they sink into the sea, electric cars are powered by... um... magic? Mjölnir, the hammer of Thor? That must be how it works, or else owning an electric car would impose some sort of cost to the environment. And that can't be, or those guys wouldn't be so insufferably smug.
[AA.TR] Faced with its worst cash flow crisis in a decade, the UN will start axing fancy cocktail soirees for ambassadors, an official told 
NEW YORK (AP) ‐ Jane Fonda was arrested at the U.S. Capitol on Friday while peacefully protesting climate change.
