A condominium building, Champlain Tower in Surfside, Florida, collapses stunning the people of Miami and the nation. Bill Whittle recalls a similar catastrophe in Seoul, South Korea, which identifies the exact structural defect which causes deadly tragedies like this.
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27 replies on “A STRUCTURAL DEFECT”
Excellent discussion, Bill, and excellent advice. I found out last Veterans Day how true that was when the nurse in my cardiologist’s office called and told me to report to the ER of the hospital, that they were expecting me, and I met their criteria for potentially having my heart stop at any time. I am alive today because my wife refused to let me ignore that call. I spent the months of November and December having multiple heart procedures. Today, I am doing fine. I urge people to interrupt their schedules in order to take care of themselves. Or else you may end up like a good friend of mine did with a massive heart attack in the middle of the night, where medical science can’t fix you, and your family grieves your death. He knew he needed to have his heart taken care of, but it didn’t happen “yesterday”…it did happen “today”.
Hi Bill, Here is another one for your list.
Check out the history of the Vasa.
https://www.vasamuseet.se/en/vasa-history/timeline
Swedish war ship from 1600’s. It sank on maiden voyage and did not even make it 1300 meters from the construction shipyard. Clear warning signs that the boat was not stable by the builders is ignored due to pressure from the King.
Amazingly the ship’s location was lost until it was again located in the 1950’s and brought back to the surface. It has now been nearly completely restored and is by far the most interesting museum I have ever seen.
https://www.vasamuseet.se/en
Well worth the trip to Stockholm.
On July 17, 1996, TWA 800 was operated using a 747-100 series aircraft. Approximately 13 minutes after departure from JFK in New York, the airplane experienced a catastrophic explosion, which caused the forward third of the aircraft to separate from the rest of the fuselage. All 230 souls aboard perished.
Although there were numerous reports of missiles rising from the water and striking the left side of the aircraft prior to a massive petroleum explosion, the governments stance quickly became that a spark of unknown origin had ignited Jet-A fuel vapors in the virtually empty center section fuel tank.
If this was true, then virtually all the 747-100 and 200 aircraft then in service (and there were many) were potentially flying bombs, which could explode at any time, including during departure and arrival over densely populated areas, causing tens of thousands of deaths.
However, instead of immediately issuing an Airworthiness Directive (aka an “AD”) immediately grounding those airplanes until inspections and corrections could be accomplished, the FAA took until August 5, 2010, more than 14 years after TWA 800 blew up, to issue such a document, and even then there was no grounding order. The inspections were required to be accomplished within 60 months!
I have just posted a YouTube presentation about the accident. It is titled “The Downing of TWA 800 – What Really Happened”. You can view this at the link below. I sincerely hope that Bill, Steve and Scott will consider doing a Right Angle episode on this issue prior to the 25th anniversay on July 17th. Further, I hope all the members on this forum will view my presentation and pass the link on to others. As the head union representative for all the TWA pilots flying international routes at the time, I was witness to what I believe was the most egregious government coverup during my lifetime.
Captain Al Francis
TWA 747 Captain – Retired
https://youtu.be/4gEoyRLLb_Y
In the past year, I had started experiencing some minor chest pains that I just ignored because they didn’t last very long. But finally I decided that I should not take a chance, so I told my Doctor Who gave me an EKG. BKG showed OK but the doctor decided to refer me to an cardiologist. The cardiologist ordered me a stress test to test my heart, and those test results came back abnormal. So now I am awaiting to take an angiogram. And I’m thinking now what if I didn’t report it to my doctor. Eventually the concern I had for my heart would’ve come back on me at a future date. So I’m glad now that I took the steps to ensure that day doesn’t come up and surprise me.
If you are someone who happens to have some extra lard around your middle, that can distort the stress test results, and require a catherization and angiogram exam of the heart to sort out reality. [says the voice of experience 🙂 ]
Good luck with your future results — and if perchance they are not all that positive, there are of course now many decades of work on heart and valve and related types of repairs, such that people come to enjoy many post operative years.
I just got chewed out by Bill. About a week ago I had an almost identical experience at the Dr’s office. I haven’t called the cardiologist yet because, “It’s not going to kill me today. I’ve got time to deal with it.” I’m suddenly feeling very inspired to make the call. Thank you Bill. Your video may have changed at least one life. Thank you
My approach to keeping the cost of healthcare down iws to not use so much of it. I’m not interested in paying a doctor to tell me I’m getting old. No matter how well I take care of myself, and no matter what a doctor can do for me, there is a 100% chance that I will die (if I live long enough). So I look at the cracks in the walls (as it were) and figure they didn’t kill me yesterday, nor today, and probably won’t tomorrow. And if they do, I’ll be with my Creator, who has promised a non-perishable body in exchange for the one I now reside in. My days are numbered, and while I don’t know what the number is, I’m pretty sure it’s smaller than it has ever been before. I’m grateful for every day I have here on earth with the ones I love.
most men feel the same way about make-up.
I read once that, as we get older, we tend to think our aches and pains are just a part of aging. But chronic pain is debilitating and the best thing you can do is at least get it checked out and see if there is something that can be done about it. I’ve had both of my arthritic hips replaced (one at age 61 and the other at 63) and the best part is that I am pain-free and able to continue riding my bikes (mountain, street and dirt). I’m almost 65 now and have no pain whatsoever. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my luck continues!
eventually…it won’t.
16:21 Not sure if this is some big national secret, but several years ago I was on a charter bus to Canada. (Wait, it gets better.) As we approached the border gate in International Falls, MN, we saw bunches of Border Patrol guys file out of a nondescript building and start walking toward our bus. It turns out that one of our fellow passengers had undergone a similar procedure fairly recently, and the radiation alarms started going off.
Thanks for your message, Bill. I battled with heart problems for 25 years before they were finally resolved last year. In my case, though, it was not that I did not want to do something, it was that technology was not advanced enough to solve my problems until just recently. My cardiologist put me on the modern equivalent to the Halter monitor that you were probably hooked up to, and after monitoring me for less than a week, they directed me into the ER that same day. 45 days later, and a bunch of procedures, and voila, they have done as much as they can for me, at least as far as technology allows today. And hopefully, I will be able to see all of my grandkids graduate from high school and college and start in on marriages and productive careers. And, who knows, maybe I’ll get to see my great-grandkids. I thank my wife for making sure I actually took my doctors’ recommendations.
Very interesting perspective, Bill. I was about the same age as you were when I had some discomfort I didn’t like. Went through all the same processes and was relieved to be told that the only thing wrong was that my weight was too high.
The cardiologist mentioned a number and I flippantly said – that’s what I weighed when I graduated college. He said – Yep, that’s my point. 20 more to go. Target is Sep 1. Hope I do as well as Scott did.
My left knee has been “misbehaving” recently. (Small ache, sharp pain rarely, occasional “Nope. Not supporting your weight right now.” Appointment has been set.
Thanks
As a physician, I thank you for your message! As you mentioned, bad news is better than being in the dark. I can work with the enlightened patient.
Years ago, my chiropractor told me the 5 most regretted words in the English language. “Maybe it will go away.” I try to live by that.
Bill – While I’m grateful for the direction you chose for this theme, the one I hoped you would take would have focused on the structrical defect in modern conservatism.
As you noted this week in your Football is Gay and The End of Women’s Athletics episodes, there is a cancerous malignancy growing, which is authoritarianism.
245 years ago, we somehow had the fortitude to draw a line and collaboratively say NO MORE!
Today’s handy weapons are not muskets. Rather, it is the age old power of the purse. We individualists actually have the ultimate bomb in our hands, and that is crypto currency.
I therefore beg you to please do three things..
First, learn more about crypto innovations and its pioneering open source movement – in particular Smart Contract technologies like Ethereum version 2, Etc. You and fellow individualists and conservatives will be encouraged! There is no greater alliance!
Second, create more episodes like this week’s, including the Let’s Get Small one. (And please integrate your above-mentioned findings.)
My last request is the nastiest, and it’s akin to what you asked of Mr. Elder. That is, join forces – tactically partner with him (& Mr. Prager, Mr. Shapiro, Ms. Owens, et al..) and get him elected!
Our time is NOW! (Happy Independence Day!)
For the past several years, I’ve been wrestling with the question of whether I’d mind the diagnosis you describe. I don’t have signs of any health problems, and as proof that I’m not afraid to have a medical issue addressed, I took myself to the ER just about a year ago when I suddenly began experiencing unprecedented lightheadedness and tingling in my extremities. (That turned out to be skyrocketing blood pressure likely due to nothing more than it being 2020. Even now I can feel my blood pressure rising just seeing the injustice and insanity of someone in a mask, but that’s a story for another day.) It’s not that I have a death wish – I greatly enjoy every day the Good Lord grants me on Earth. But the structural defect I fear is all us boomers living too long, tangled in our Rube Goldberg government health care system, eating away the future stability and security of future generations like the noxious cancer it is.
At work (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power), we’ve all been put through a program called Safe Start. One of the things covered is dangerous states. These are “rushing”, “tired”, “frustrated”, and “complacent”.
Complacent is the hardest to recognize in yourself. The other three are unusual states (we hope), and so you can recognize them when they pop up. However, complacency is an easy state to be complacent about.
complacent leads to compliant which morphs into complicit. sort of like the GOPe.
Good categories. I’d add “arrogant” on top. If you saw the recent series on Chernobyl, the leader guy who was around for decades definitely developed that state of mind and believed he can rule the elements.
Bill, I’m 76 years old and have been getting short of breath for a long time and it was getting worse lately. I went to the emergency room with a sudden gastric bleed which turned out to be dyverticulitis, but after a thoracic x-ray found I have an aortic aneurysm and an inoperable cancerous tumor in my left lung as well as the cyverticulitis in my large colon. Surgery is out because an artery is wrapped around the tumor, Chemo is out because of the gastric bleed, and radiation probably wouldn’t be very effective. SO, what I thought was just getting old is going to kill me soon. I’ve had a good life with very few regrets and I’m getting used to the fact that my time is limited. I probably should have had the shortness of breath checked out sooner, but it didn’t seem to be unexpected since I’ve smoked for over 50 years. I intend to spend whatever time I have left at home with my son and have signed a DNR, updated my will, and gotten my affairs in order. Life is short. Make every day count.
I admire your equanimity in facing your trial. From my Bible readings today, “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” Excerpt, Psalm 131, ESV. “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways.” Excerpt, Isaiah 65, ESV.
be generous with your time as your mind is still sharp as a tack.
What a coincidence, I watch this on July 2nd and my appointment for my Eco-cardiogram is the 6th.
Good video. I have a hip that has been hurting for a while (Mountain Bike crash) and I will be going to get it looked at after the long weekend – thank you!