Browsing: September 11

A Brief History On September 11, 2001, the fanatical Islamist terror group, al-Qaeda, carried out coordinated attacks against the United States, resulting in the crashing of a fully occupied jetliner into the Pentagon, the hijacking and subsequent crash of another jetliner, and the crashing of yet another two jetliners into the World Trade Center, taking down two of the tallest buildings in the world.  Lost were nearly 3000 innocent lives with another 6000 people injured.  About $10 billion worth of property and infrastructure was also destroyed.  For what? Digging Deeper Apparently misguided Islamists see the United States as an enemy…

A Brief History On September 11, 1998, Rounders, an American drama film about the underground world of high-stakes poker, opened to mixed reviews and earned only a modest box office.  Nevertheless, with the poker boom in the early 2000s, the film later became a cult hit. Playing cards have been a form of entertainment for a huge number of years, with a simple deck offering a host of possibilities when it comes to gaming fun. In recent decades, the cards have particularly become synonymous with casinos and gambling, with one of the most popular games available in that arena being poker. In fact, the game…

A Brief History On September 11, 2012, the ascending aorta in the author’s chest exploded, a burst aneurism followed by a massive aorta dissection, spelling almost certain death. Incredibly, the surgeons, surgical nurses and assistants at the Cleveland Clinic performed emergency open heart and aorta surgery and saved my life, a fantastic feat with nearly no chance of success.  It is unlikely any other hospital on Earth could have provided the treatment to save my life that day, with the finest cardiac and vascular surgeons and surgical teams operating at the same time! Digging Deeper The Cleveland Clinic is perhaps…

A Brief History On May 10, 2013, almost 12 years after the tragic terrorist events of September 11, 2001, a new One World Trade Center skyscraper under construction on the site of the former twin towers became once again, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Digging Deeper When Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked airliners and flew them into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City, sending the formerly tallest buildings in the world crashing to the ground, it was resolved nearly immediately that New York and the United States would rebuild…

A Brief History On September 11, 2007, the Russian military tested the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in history, a weapon they called “The Father of All Bombs.”  Actually designated “Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power,” or ATBIP, this 15,650 lb bomb has the explosive equivalence of around 44 tons of TNT. Digging Deeper Trumping the US “Massive Ordnance Air Blast” also known as “The Mother of All Bombs,” the FOAB was designed to take the place of smaller nuclear weapons, thus giving the Russian military an alternative to nuclear escalation. Consisting of a mixture of high explosives and powdered aluminum…