Anniversary of World Trade Centre terrorist attacks

The morning of September 11, 2001 is one that will live in infamy and 11 September 2013 marks the anniversary of the World Trade Centre terrorist attacks when,. In one of the worst terrorist attrocities in recent memory, Al-Qaeda-affiliated hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower of the World Trade Centre and Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03:11 a.m., a second team of terrorists crashed the similarly hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 into the southern facade of the South Tower, striking it between the 77th and 85th floors. In a coordinated terrorist attack.

 The damage caused to the North Tower by Flight 11 destroyed any means of escape from above the impact zone, trapping 1,344 people. Flight 175 had a much more off-centered impact compared to Flight 11, and a single stairwell was left intact; however, only a few people managed to pass through it successfully before the tower collapsed. Although the South Tower was struck lower than the North Tower, thus affecting more floors, a smaller number, fewer than 700, were killed instantly or trapped. At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed after burning for approximately 56 minutes. The fire caused steel structural elements, already weakened from the plane impact, to fail. The North Tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m., after burning for approximately 102 minutes.[124] At 5:20 p.m. on September 11, 2001, 7 World Trade Center started to collapse with the crumble of the east penthouse, and it collapsed completely at 5:21 p.m.owing to uncontrolled fires causing structural failure. Te 3 World Trade Center, a Marriott hotel, was destroyed during the collapse of the two towers. The three remaining buildings in the WTC plaza were extensively damaged by debris and later were demolished. The Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex was later condemned owing to the uninhabitable toxic conditions inside; it was deconstructed, with work completed in early 2011.The Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway was also condemned owing to extensive damage in the attacks and is slated for deconstruction. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, media reports suggested that tens of thousands might have been killed in the attacks, as over 50,000 people could be inside the towers. Ultimately, 2,753 death certificates (excluding those for hijackers) were filed relating to the 9/11 attacks in New York, including one filed for Felicia Dunn-Jones, who was added to the official death toll in May 2007; Dunn-Jones died five months later from a lung condition linked to exposure to dust during the collapse of the World Trade Center. Three other victims were then added to the official death toll by the city medical examiner’s office: Dr. Sneha Anne Philip, who was last seen the day before the attacks; Leon Heyward, a man who developed lymphoma and subsequently died in 2008 as a result of dust ingestion during the events following the attacks to the Twin Towers; and Jerry Borg, who died in December 2010 of pulmonary sarcoidosis determined in June 2011 to be the result of dust from the attacks. Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st–105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer, while Marsh & McLennan Companies, located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93–101 (the location of Flight 11’s impact), lost 295 employees, and 175 employees of Aon Corporation were killed.[135] In addition, 343 of the dead were New York City firefighters, 84 were Port Authority employees, of whom 37 were members of the Port Authority Police Department, and another 23 were New York City Police Department officer. Ten years after the attacks, only 1,629 victims have been identified.of all the people who were still in the towers when they collapsed, only 20 were pulled out alive.

The process of cleanup and recovery at the World Trade Center sitetook eight months.Debris was transported from the World Trade Center site to Fresh Kills on Staten Island, where it was further sifted. On May 30, 2002, a ceremony was held to officially mark the end of the cleanup efforts. Over the following years, plans for a rebuilt World Trade Center took form in 2002, ground was broken on construction of a new 7WTC building located just to the north of the main World Trade Center site. Since it was not part of the site master plan, construction was able to proceed without delay on the rebuilding of 7 World Trade Center, which was completed and opened in May 2006. this had been considered a priority since restoring the Consolidated Edison Cos. electrical substation in the building’s lower floors was necessary to meet power demands of Lower Manhattan. While 7 World Trade Center was not part of the master plan for the Twin Towers site, it was recognized that the rebuilding of 7 World Trade Center would have to be consistent with the master plan which was expected to re-open the street grid which had been blocked by the original World Trade Center super-block. As a result, the design for the new 7 World Trade Center allowed for the re-opening of Greenwich Street, which had been blocked by the original 7 World Trade Center. Atemporary PATH station at the World Trade Center opened inNovember 2003; it will be replaced by a permanent station designed by Santiago Calatrava.

In November 2001 Governor Pataki established the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) as an official commission to oversee the rebuilding process. The LMDC held a competition to choose possible designs for the site. The Memory Foundationsdesign by Daniel Libeskind was chosen as the master plan for the World Trade Center site. The plan included the 1,776 feet (541 m) Freedom Tower (now known as One World Trade Center) as well as a memorial and a number of other office towers. Out of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition, a design by Michael Arad and Peter Walker titled Reflecting Absence was selected in January 2004. On March 13, 2006, workers arrived at the World Trade Center site to remove remaining debris and start surveying work. . On April 27, 2006, a ground-breaking ceremony was held for the Freedom Tower. In May 2006, architects Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki were announced as the architects for Towers Three and Four, respectively the final designs for Towers Two, Three and Four were unveiled on September 7, 2006. Tower Two, or 200 Greenwich Street, will have a roof height of 1,254 feet (382 m) and a 96 feet (29 m) tripod spire for a total of 1,350 feet (410 m). Tower Three, or 175 Greenwich Street will have a roof height of 1,155 feet (352 m) and an antenna height reaching 1,255 feet (383 m). Tower Four, or150 Greenwich Street, will have an overall height of 946 feet (288 m), On June 22, 2007, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that JP Morgan Chase will build Tower 5, a 42-story building on Site 5 occupied by the Deutsche Bank Building,and Kohn Pedersen Fox was selected as the architect for the building. Four renowned architects, including Spanish architectSantiago Calatrava, who designed the transit hub, One WTC designer David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and the famed British architect Norman Foster of Foster and Partners designed Tower Two and masterminded the iconic diamond design, will greatly enhance the street-level atmosphere of the rebuilt site. The projects will be complete between early 2013 to mid-2015 respectively.

As of August 2011, One World Trade Center is at 80 stories with glass up to the 54th floor, Tower Four is up around 38 stories with glass up to the 15th floor, and the former Deutsche Bank Building has been completely dismantled and the Port Authority is working on their Vehicle Security Center. The World Trade Center Transportation Hub’s PATH hall is nearly complete. The memorial officially opened to relatives of the deceased on September 11, 2011, and to the general public on September 12. World Trade Center Tower Three’s foundations are becoming visible, and will be completed in mid-2014 if Silverstein Properties can meet requirements set by the Port Authority, as they very likely will. Tower Two will also be completed on schedule according to the construction company. In the December 2011, Tower Two’s foundations are finished and is starting to assemble the frame.Because numerous American and Chinese companies are “very interested” in leasing space at the WTC, Two World Trade Center is likely to be finished earlier than expected. Publishing Giant Conde Nast has agreed to move its headquarters to One World Trade Center, and with this shift, many more are expected to follow.In September 2013, it was announced that the some of the construction fencing put up in 2001 to block civilian access to clean-up and construction processes will be permanently removed with the opening of WTC 4 in late 2013. This will be the first fencing removed since the opening of WTC 7 in 2006, and the first to provide access to the plaza. The removal of fencing will not only provide pedestrian access to the tower, but also a path through the site to the Memorial Plaza and surrounding streets. When WTC 1 opens in 2014, that surrounding fencing will also be removed providing access all around the tower and other entrance to the plaza. All construction fencing is expected to be removed with the opening of the final tower sometime in 2015-2018.

Johnny Buckland (Coldplay)

Jonny Buckland, English guitarist (Coldplay) was born 11 September 1977. Coldplay were formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed under the name Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a drummer, backing vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist, completing the line-up. Manager Phil Harvey is often considered an unofficial fifth member. The band renamed themselves “Coldplay” in 1998, before recording and releasing three EPs; Safety in 1998, Brothers & Sisters as a single in 1999 and The Blue Room in the same year. The latter was their first release on a major label, after signing to Parlophone.They achieved worldwide fame with the release of the single “Yellow” in 2000, followed by their debut album released in the same year,PARACHUTES, which was nominated for the Mercury Prize. The band’s second album, A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD (2002), was released to critical acclaim and won multiple awards, including NME’s Album of the Year.Their next release, X&Y, the best-selling album worldwide in 2005, was met with mostly positive reviews upon its release, though some critics felt that it was inferior to its predecessor. The band’s fourth studio album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), was produced by Brian Eno and released again to largely positive reviews, earning several Grammy nominations and wins at the 51st Grammy Awards. On 24 October 2011, they released their fifth studio album, MYLO XYLOTO, which received mixed to positive reviews, topped the charts in over 34 countries, and was the UK’s best-selling rock album of 2011.The band has won a number of music awards throughout their career, including eight Brit Awards—winning Best British Group three times, five MTV Video Music Awards, and seven Grammy Awards from twenty five nominations. Coldplay have sold over 60 million records worldwide. In December 2009, Rolling Stone readers voted the group the fourth-best artist of the 2000s. Coldplay have been an active supporter of various social and political causes, such as Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair campaign and Amnesty International. The group have also performed at various charity projects such as Band Aid 20, Live 8, Sound Relief, Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief, The Secret Policeman’s Ball, and the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead, the Other Ones, Rhythm Devils )

Mickey Hart, American drummer (Grateful Dead, The Dead & The Other Ones and Rhythm Devils) was born 11 September 1943. The G0rateful Dead were fomed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area and were known for their unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long musical improvisation. These various influences were distilled into a diverse and psychedelic whole that made the Grateful Dead “the pioneering Godfathers of the jam band world.” They were ranked 57th in the issue The Greatest Artists of all Time by Rolling Stone magazine. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and their Barton Hall Concert at Cornell University was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.The founding members of the Grateful Dead were Jerry Garcia (guitar, vocals), Bob Weir (guitar, vocals), Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (keyboards, harmonica, vocals), Phil Lesh (bass, vocals), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums). Lesh was the last member to join the Warlocks before they became the Grateful Dead; he replaced Dana Morgan Jr., who had played bass for a few gigs. With the exception of McKernan, who died in 1973, the core of the band stayed together for its entire 30-year history.Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia were brought together by Gert Chiarito in 1964 to perform on The Midnight Special.

The Grateful Dead began their career as the Warlocks, a group formed in early 1965 from the remnants of a  jug band called Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, although The band changed its name after finding out that another band of the same name had signed a recording contract.The name “Grateful Dead” was chosen from a dictionary, The definition being that there was “the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial.” One of the group’s earliest major performances in 1967 was at the Avalon Ballroom by the San Francisco Hare Krishna temple. The Grateful Dead performed at the event along with the Hare Krishna founder Bhaktivedanta Swami, poet Allen Ginsberg, bands Moby Grape and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, donating proceeds to the Krishna temple. The band’s first LP, The Grateful Dead, was released in 1967. 1970 included tour dates in New Orleans, Louisiana, where the band performed at The Warehouse for two nights. Mickey Hart quit the Grateful Dead in February 1971, leaving Kreutzmann once again as the sole percussionist. Hart rejoined the Grateful Dead for good in October 1974. Tom “TC” Constanten was added as a second keyboardist from 1968 to 1970, while Pigpen also played various percussion instruments and sang. Following the Grateful Dead’s “Europe ’72″ tour, Pigpen’s health had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer tour with the band. His final concert appearance was June 17, 1972 at the Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles;] he died in March, 1973 of complications from alcohol abuse.

The Grateful Dead formed their own record group, Grateful Dead Records & Later that year, they released their next studio album, the jazz influenced Wake of the Flood. It became their biggest commercial success thus far.During the late 1970s the band went back to the studio, and the next year released another album, Grateful Dead from the Mars Hotel. Not long after that album’s release however, the Grateful Dead decided to take a hiatus from live touring so that its members could focus on their solo careers. This hiatus was short lived, though, as they resumed touring in 1976, and released another album Terrapin Station in 1977.During the 1980s the bands sound transformed. Sadly though Garcia’s health began to decline. His drug habits caused him to lose his liveliness on stage. After kicking his drug habit in 1985, he slipped into a diabetic coma for several days in July 1986. After he recovered, the band released In the Dark in 1987, which resulted as their best selling studio album release, and also produced their only top-10 chart single, Touch of Grey.. Inspired by Garcia’s improved health and a successful album, the band’s energy and chemistry peaked in the late 1980s and 1990. Performances were vigorous and as a result, every show exceeded its maximum audience capacity. The band’s “high time” came to a sudden halt when Mydland died after the summer tour in 1990. So Vince Welnick, joined on keyboards and vocals and Bruce Hornsby joined the band as the pianist and vocals on September 15, 1990.The fans of the Grateful Dead, some of whom followed the band from concert to concert for years, are known as “Deadheads” and are known for their dedication to the band’s music. From 2003 to 2009 former members of the Grateful Dead, along with other musicians, toured as The Dead and The Other Ones. There are many contemporary incarnations of the Dead, with the most prominent touring acts being Furthur and Phil Lesh & Friends and although Jerry Carcia passed away in 1995, the music lives on.

 

 

Tribute to D.H.Lawrence

English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter David Herbert Lawrence was born 11 September 1885. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, and instinct.Lawrence’s opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile which he called his “savage pilgrimage.”

Lawrence spent his formative years in the coal mining town of Eastwood, Nottinghamshire and his working-class background and the tensions between his parents provided the raw material for a number of his early works. Lawrence returned to this locality often, calling it; “the country of my heart,” and it became a setting for much of his fiction. The young Lawrence attended Beauvale Board School  from 1891 until 1898, and won a County Council scholarship to Nottingham High School in nearby Nottingham which he left in 1901. He developed a love of books, which lasted throughout Lawrence’s life. In the years 1902 to 1906 Lawrence served as a pupil teacher at the British School, Eastwood and went on to become a full-time student and received a teaching certificate from University College, Nottingham, in 1908.  He was also working on his first poems, some short stories, and a draft of a novel, Laetitia, that was eventually to become The White Peacock.  He also won a short story competition in the Nottingham Guardian in 1907, the first time that he had gained any wider recognition for his literary talents.

In 1908 Lawrence left his childhood home for London and taught at Davidson Road School, Croydon, he also continued writing and Some of the early poetry came to the attention of Ford Madox Ford,the editor of the influential The English Review, who commissioned the story Odour of Chrysanthemums which, when published in that magazine. This encouraged a London publisher, to ask Lawrence for more work. His first published novel The White Peacock appeared in 1910. In addition, a teaching colleague, Helen Corke, gave him access to her intimate diaries about an unhappy love affair, which formed the basis of his second novel The Trespasser and Later during a stay in Italy, Lawrence completed the final version of Sons and Lovers which, when published in 1913, was acknowledged to represent a vivid portrait of the realities of working class provincial life. Lawrence and and his wife Frieda returned to Britain in 1913 for a short visit, but went back to Italy, staying at Fiascherino on the Gulf of Spezia. Here he started writing the first draft of  The Rainbow and Women in Love. He and Frieda returned to Britain again shortly before the outbreak of World War I and were married on 13 July 1914. D

During this time, Lawrence worked with London intellectuals and writers such as Dora Marsden and the people involved with The Egoist (T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and others). The Egoist, an important Modernist literary magazine, also published some of his work and he was also reading and adapting Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto. In 1915 His novel The Rainbow  was published, but was suppressed after an investigation into its alleged obscenity. The novel Women in Love was also written during this time, which explores the destructive features of contemporary civilization through the evolving relationships of four major characters as they reflect upon the value of the arts, politics, economics, sexual experience, friendship and marriage. This book is a bleak, bitter vision of humanity and proved impossible to publish in wartime conditions. Not published until 1920, it is now widely recognised as an English novel of great dramatic force and intellectual subtlety

In late 1917, after constant harassment by the armed forces authorities, Lawrence left Cornwall. This persecution was later described in the Australian novel Kangaroo. He spent some months  in the small, rural village of Hermitage near Newbury, Berkshire. He then lived for just under a year  at Mountain Cottage, Middleton-by-Wirksworth, Derbyshire, where he wrote one of his most poetic short stories, The Wintry Peacock.  Lawrence escaped from Britain at the earliest practical opportunity, and along with his wife spent the remainder of his life travelling, visiting Australia, Italy, Sri Lanka, the United States, Mexico and the South of France. Many of these places appeared in his writings. New novels included The Lost Girl (for which he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction), Aaron’s Rod and Mr Noon. He also wrote shorter novels, such as The Captain’s Doll, The Fox and The Ladybird, and some of these were issued in the collection “England, My England and Other Stories”. During these years he also produced a number of poems about the natural world in Birds, Beasts and Flowers he also wrote Sea and Sardinia and Memoirs of the Foreign Legion. In 1922 the Lawrences left Europe behind with the intention of migrating to the United States. where they acquired the property  in Lamy, New Mexico, now called the D. H. Lawrence Ranch, in 1924 in exchange for the manuscript of Sons and Lovers. They stayed in New Mexico for two years and while in the U.S. Lawrence rewrote and published Studies in Classic American Literature and completed a number of new fictional works, including The Boy in the Bush, The Plumed Serpent, St Mawr, The Woman who Rode Away, The Princess and assorted short stories. A brief voyage to England at the end of 1923 was a failure and he soon returned, convinced that his life as an author now lay in America. However, in March 1925 he suffered a near fatal attack of malaria and tuberculosis and although he eventually recovered, the diagnosis of his condition obliged him to return once again to Europe. The Lawrences made their home in a villa near Florence, Italy and he wrote The Virgin and the Gipsy and  Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which was his last major novel and reinforced his notoriety,

By mid 1929 his health was failing and although he continued to produce short stories such as The Escaped Cock, and wrote numerous poems, reviews and essays   as well as a reflection on the Book of Revelation entitled “Apocalypse” and a robust defence of his last novel against those who sought to suppress it, Lawrence sadly passed away in Venawrencece, France, from complications of tuberculosis on 2nd March 1930 and At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. However E. M. Forster, , challenged this widely held view in an obituary notice, and described him as, “The greatest imaginative novelist of our generation.” Later, the influential Cambridge critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence’s fiction within the canonical “great tradition” of the English novel and he is now valued by many as a visionary thinker is also widely recognised as one of the finest travel writers in the English language and significant representative of modernism in English literature.

 

 

Bittersweet Symphony

Best known AS THE Lead Singer of English alternative rock band “the Verve”, English musician and singer-songwriter Richard Ashcroft was born 11th September 1971. He was the lead singer and occasional guitarist of The Verve from their formation in 1990 until their split in 1999.The Verve were an formed in 1989 in Wigan by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. The guitarist and keyboard player Simon Tong later became a member. Beginning with a psychedelic sound indebted to shoegazing and space rock, by the mid-1990s the band had released several EPs and three albums. It also endured name and line-up changes, breakups, health problems, drug abuse and various lawsuits. Filter referred to them as “one of the tightest knit, yet ultimately volatile bands in history”.The band’s commercial breakthrough was the 1997 album Urban Hymns, one of the best-selling albums in UK Chart history, and the single “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, which became a worldwide hit. In 1998, the band won two Brit Awards—winning Best British Group, appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in March, and in February 1999, “Bitter Sweet Symphony” was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. Soon after this commercial peak, The Verve broke up in April 1999, citing internal conflicts. During an eight year split, Ashcroft dismissed talk of a reunion, saying: “You’re more likely to get all four Beatles on stage.” The band’s original line-up reunited in June 2007, embarking on a tour later that year and releasing the album Forth in August 2008. In 2009, the band broke up for the third timeHowever Ashcroft continues as a lead vocalist working with guitars and keyboards and has become a successful solo artist in his own right, releasing three UK top three solo albums. The Verve reformed in 2007 but again broke up by summer 2009. Ashcroft then founded a new band, RPA & The United Nations of Sound, and released a new album on 19 July 2010.