Did anyone attempt to climb down the towers during September 11th?

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Did anyone attempt to climb down the towers during September 11th?

Yes, indeed. A man bravely managed it. He started his descent from the North Tower near the impact zone at around 9:40 a.m. He made it down about 20 floors, which is no small feat.

Here are two pictures where you can see him. It's the same picture, just enlarged. You can see the floors above him, where he descended. Undoubtedly, he watched as colleagues and people above him jumped to their deaths rather than be burned alive or forced out by the heat and smoke. That was a choice these people had made. They chose to die more quickly and painlessly than to be burned alive or suffocate in the smoke. This man chose a different option. He wanted a chance, even a miracle, so he began to descend.

Here is a photo showing one of the towers up close. As you can see, the columns on each side have hardly any support, apart from the rails for the window cleaners. If you could wedge your fingers into those grooves, it would be a very uncomfortable grip. In the photo, it looks as if he is instead balancing on the very small ledge where the floor and the window insert meet (as you can see in the picture above) and continue to extend downwards inch by inch. The distance between these columns is approximately 18.5 inches.

Theoretically, this man could have made it quite far down, but sooner or later he would have ended up on the 76th machine floor, where the space is about 25 centimeters narrower and the leverage is even less.

In this image, the dark grey lines on the towers show the mechanical floors.

It's doubtful whether this man was aware of this, because why should he have known? He wasn't a craftsman or an engineer; he simply worked there, like the more than 2,000 others who lost their lives in the towers that day. What would have happened if he had reached those floors is pure speculation, because unfortunately, he never made it that far.

He was not seen again after the collapse of the south tower. It is very likely that the collapse of the south tower caused the building to sway and that he may have lost his footing and toppled due to the wind generated by the collapsing building.

All the victims that day displayed a certain degree of bravery. This man's determination to survive speaks volumes. I can't imagine what was going through his mind. Looking down over 80 stories, seeing people falling all around him, knowing that one slip would mean the same fate. And then considering what drove him to attempt this unthinkable feat? Undoubtedly, the thought of his family. Making it down and seeing his children or his wife just one more time. He didn't give up without a fight; he showed that he would try to get out alive until the very end, and he did.

What happened to Oskar Schindler, the only Nazi honored by the Jews?

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What happened to Oskar Schindler, the only Nazi honored by the Jews?

After saving 1200 Jews he had a rather adventurous life.

After the Second World War, he had to flee Germany because it was a Nazi: in fact, a trial in absentia was opened against him as early as 1946.

He found refuge in Argentina, where he attempted, unsuccessfully, some entrepreneurial ventures.

He returned to Germany in 1958 where his situation was immediately clarified by the then German authorities, who, in 1965, recognized his merits for having saved hundreds of lives (at least 1200 Jews).

In 1961, on his first visit to Israel, he received a warm welcome from 220 survivors. From then on, he lived between Israel and Germany, where he managed to survive thanks to the hospitality and financial support of some of the Jews he had saved.

In fact, in his homeland, Schindler tried unsuccessfully to resume his profession as an entrepreneur and in fact never recovered from poverty.

He was confirmed as Righteous Among the Nations.

He died on October 9, 1974, in Hildesheim, following a heart attack. His remains were transferred to the small Catholic Franciscan cemetery on Mount Zion, in the old part of Jerusalem, Israel.

‘It was the loudest explosion I’ve ever heard’: A 9/11 survivor on her harrowing escape from the Pentagon

Amanda Macias@amanda_m_macias

Retired Col. Marilyn Wills speaks during a panel event to discuss the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, at the Pentagon on September 08, 2021 in Arlington, Virginia.

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

WASHINGTON — For U.S. Army Col. Marilyn Wills the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, started out as a “beautiful, sunny day” as she made her way to the Pentagon, a daily trek made by some 20,000 people to one of the world’s largest office buildings.

“My family and I would always get up and pray together, I have two girls and my husband. But that morning I didn’t because I had to leave for the Pentagon. I only live 16 miles from here, but it could take you two and a half hours because of the traffic,” Wills said, adding that her day was filled with back-to-back briefings at the Pentagon.

“At nine o’clock we had a meeting and knowing the Army if you were there at nine you’re late, so I got there at least 15 minutes early,” she said.

As Wills found a seat at the polished conference room table alongside 15 of her colleagues in the recently renovated “Wedge 1” section of the Pentagon, the first hijacked plane slammed into the World Trade Center in New York.

At 8:46 a.m. ET, hijackers affiliated with al Qaeda flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the Trade Center. Nearly 15 minutes later, hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the Trade Center’s twin, the South Tower.

By 9:05 a.m., it was clear that America was under attack.

“As we went around the table, I just glanced at my watch and thought oh my gosh it’s 9:20, the meeting is going a little long,” Wills said. “As soon as my turn to speak, it was the loudest explosion I had ever heard and the room went completely dark.”

My first thought was ... so there must have been a construction incident or accident.”

At 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 barreled into the west side of the Pentagon near Wedge 1, where Wills attended a typical staff meeting. The plane, traveling at approximately 530 mph, killed 184 people and injured scores.

After the nose of the plane hit the Pentagon, a fireball erupted upward and rose 200 feet above the roof, triggering subsequent explosions throughout the building.

“I was on the right side of the table and was blown to the left side of the table,” explained Wills, saying that she crawled across the room to one of the doors.

“I grabbed the handle and pulled my hand back because that door was so hot. Then I crawled back across the room to go out of another door,” Wills said.

“Someone grabbed hold of my belt, and I asked: ‘Who is this? Talk to me. Who is this?’”

“She said her name. Her name was Lois Stevens and I told Lois: ’Hold on to me. I have you, don’t let me go. For where I go, you go. Hold on to me.”

The two women crawled through the destruction calling for help and searching for survivors along the way.

The worst thing of all was the smell.”

“Lois tugged on me and said she couldn’t go any further. She had nylons on and her stockings had melted onto her legs,” Wills explained, adding that she proceeded to carry Lois.

They found their way to other survivors in the building, who were gathered around a cloudy window attempting to break it free.

“As we all know, the windows are blast-proof,” Wills said, adding that the group desperately threw objects at the glass hoping to break it. The group then decided to kick out the frame of the window.

“The smoke just bellowed out of the window,” Wills said, as the survivors scrambled to construct a human staircase with their bodies to help each other get out of the building.

“I came out of the window and stepped on arms and legs and heads before being caught and taken into triage,” Wills explained.

Smoke and flames rise over the Pentagon at about 10 a.m. following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

U.S. Navy | Getty Images

Wills would not know what happened that day until eight days later because she was hospitalized for her injuries.

“My first thought was, we had just moved into this new area of the Pentagon, and so there must have been a construction incident or accident,” Wills said, before learning about the terrorist attacks.

“The Army gave me several days off and I came back to work, but I could only come back for half days when I initially came back,” she explained. “The worst thing of all was the smell. You could smell the fumes, you could smell burning bodies, you could smell the burning wires, you could smell all of it. That was the worst for me,” Wills said, who has since retired after serving 30 years in the Army.

“I’d walk down the hallways and I would think that I saw a ghost,” Wills said, adding that the psychological trauma from that day proved to be the most difficult.

“Especially when they opened up the flight plan back over the Pentagon again. I remember I was sitting in a meeting and watching these planes go by. Just put that in your perspective. I couldn’t sit there,” she said.

“Eventually I got there because I knew I had to continue to serve,” Wills said, adding that she had relatives who would later go on to serve in the post-9/11 wars.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/11/it-was-the-loudest-explosion-ive-ever-heard-a-9/11-survivor-on-her-harrowing-escape-from-the-pentagon.html

Why are attractive men so rare?

Barry Goldberg

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Philosopher, Writer, Liberal & Atheist with a Useless J.D. Updated Jan 6

Why are attractive men so rare?

All right, so this is just my opinion and not some sort of scientific study, so please take it with a grain or three of salt…

Assuming we are speaking solely about physical attractiveness (and not emotional, financial, spiritual or what have you), the reason why attractive men are so rare is exactly the same reason why attractive women are so common.

And that reason is because it’s more common and socially acceptable in modern times for women to artificially alter their appearance to make themselves look more attractive via cosmetics, hair styling (including wigs and extensions), deceptive clothing (including push-up bras and girdles), high-heel shoes, etc. And that doesn’t even take into account plastic surgery (rhinoplasty, breast enhancement, jaw restructuring, etc.).

Yes, some men do some things to artificially enhance their looks, but it is much more common and socially acceptable for women to do so and the options available for men are far fewer. There’s simply no male equivalent to wearing foundation, lipstick, mascara, eyeliner, rouge, a push-up bra. Yes, some men wear lifts in their shoes to increase their apparent height, but those men tend to get socially mocked if discovered, whereas nobody bats an eye if a woman is seen wearing high heels. And, yes, some men might wear a toupee or even wear a girdle, but once again they will likely be socially mocked if anybody finds out.

[EDIT: Yes, men can grow a beard that hides a double chin and perhaps makes them look a bit more masculine, but (a) many women don’t actually find beards attractive and (b) beards don’t actually make that much of a improvement. Trust me — I speak from experience!]

There are certainly many women who are true natural beauties and do not need any enhancements to be seen as such. But the majority of the attractive women you see on television, in movies, in advertisements, or even at clubs or at work or out grocery shopping would be considered far less attractive (even if not actually ugly) by most men if they weren’t wearing all their makeup, nice clothing, perfectly done hair, high heel shoes, etc.

As examples, none of these women are what I would consider at all ugly without makeup, but they are certainly more plain and less attractive (to my eyes and to those of other men or else they wouldn’t bother wearing it in the first place):

Even a top supermodel like Gisele Bundchen, while obviously a natural beauty, needs a significant amount of cosmetics to actually look like a supermodel:

Gal Gadot is another example of a natural beauty who relies on a lot of makeup to enhance what she got from birth:

And have you ever seen Kim Kardashian without her makeup?

Tyra Banks, anybody?

And one more, just for fun:

😁🤣

[Cue the inevitable comments that all these women actually look better without makeup in 3, 2, 1…]

Yes, men can do some things to enhance their attractiveness, including losing weight, working out in the gym, taking medication to help with acne, etc. But many of those things take a long time and a lot of effort and there’s just no common or socially acceptable way for men to spend half an hour to an hour before a date and transform themselves from “plain” to “attractive.”

---

And just for the record, my wife is definitely somebody who I would consider a natural beauty and who has never worn any makeup with the exception of our wedding day and our engagement photo. Having said that, I will freely admit that one those two occasions when she did get dolled up, she suddenly looked like a supermodel. I can safely say that she looked more attractive with makeup, but I still find her plenty attractive without makeup. I was just amazed at the transformation she underwent and was a bit jealous that there was nothing similar I could do to look better on those occasions.

Recognizing Jesus

February 9, 2026 Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time Readings for Today

Image via Adobe Stock Video After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. Mark 6:53–54 As soon as Jesus stepped out of the boat, the people “immediately recognized him.” Jesus and the Twelve had spent the previous day on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in the remote territory near Bethsaida where they planned to be alone. When they arrived there, however, the crowds were waiting for them, so Jesus preached to thousands of people and then performed the miraculous feeding of five thousand. Afterward, Jesus sent the Twelve ahead of Him toward Capernaum, but the wind blew the disciples off course to the agricultural and fishing land of Gennesaret, a few miles south of Capernaum. It was during that nighttime sea voyage that Jesus walked on water and calmed the sea. Was it by accident that Jesus and the disciples arrived in Gennesaret rather than Capernaum? Likely not. Divine Providence guided everything Jesus did. The Father willed that Jesus minister to the people of that region, which He did with great power. The fact that the people immediately recognized Jesus speaks to their deep faith and spiritual sensitivity. Their recognition went beyond physical familiarity; their faith told them that He was the Messiah. As soon as they saw Him, their hearts were stirred. They gathered in great numbers, bringing many who were sick to Him and quickly sent word to the nearby villages to come quickly, for Jesus was there. Unlike the people of Nazareth, the people along the shore of the Sea of Galilee quickly manifested faith in Jesus. As a result, Jesus’ miracles were numerous. Another sign that their faith was authentic was that the people did not act selfishly, trying to keep Jesus to themselves. Instead, their attention turned to those who needed Him the most, especially the sick and lame. This demonstrates the connection between faith and charity. True faith inspires an outpouring of love for others. We are not only grateful to God for the grace we receive, but we also immediately think of those in need—both those we know and others God places in our lives—and draw them to Jesus as well. Significantly, the people begged Jesus to let them “touch only the tassel on his cloak” (Mark 6:56). In the Torah, God commanded Moses to instruct the people to “make tassels for the corners of their garments, fastening a violet cord to each corner.” The tassels were meant to be a constant reminder of the Ten Commandments and their commitment to obey that covenant (cf. Numbers 15:37–41). Therefore, by touching the tassels Jesus wore in obedience to the Torah, the people were touching something sacred to them, worn by Him Who, as God, gave the people the Torah. By touching the tassels, the people not only honored the Torah but also reached out to its fulfillment in Jesus. Though they might not have fully understood what they were doing, their faith compelled them and they responded. Though today’s Gospel is short, it is packed with faith, revealing numerous people flocking to Jesus with eagerness and divine hope. These people teach us how we must react to God’s presence in our lives. Reflect today on the people of the land of Gennesaret who, upon recognizing Jesus in faith, “scurried about the surrounding country,” gathering many others who reached out in faith to touch the tassels Jesus wore. Consider whether you recognize Jesus’ presence when you encounter Him. Do you recognize Him in the Eucharist, in your prayer, and in the people you encounter daily? When you do, do you immediately think of ways you can help bring others to Jesus? Do you reach out in faith, touching Jesus’ tassels, believing with all certainty that His divine power will heal your soul and cure your weaknesses? Imitate these good people of Gennesaret, and Jesus’ almighty power will flow generously into your life, just as it did to them. Most miraculous Lord, Your generosity knows no bounds when Your people seek You out in faith. Just as the people of Gennesaret recognized You in faith, You call me to do the same. I pray that I will always seek You out, and when I find You, will draw others to You. Jesus, I trust in You.