I had remembered something from a long time ago about how when planes crash, they tend to be UNUSUALLY empty or have a lot of no shows. (This goes for any disaster - the WTC too) I searched for a lot of things in google, but "statistics passengers plane crash ESP no show" (LOL) came up with this link from a kundalini-tantra site which I excerpt:

Some people perceive aspects of the future which are directly important to their welfare and sometimes people see events in the future which are remote from them involving the lives of others. Much of this type of information cannot have come from knowledge available to the individual and subsequent thought processes determining a future event. One of the better examples of this comes from the airline industry. In spite of their excellent safety record, airplanes do crash. Out of these sad statistics comes a small light of hope. Analysis of the seating population of airplanes that crash vs. airplanes that don't crash indicates 30 percent of the normal passengers decide not to go on that plane. In other words, planes that crash have about 30 percent fewer people on them than on planes that don't crash. People cancel on these death trips in a number of ways. Some planes just don't sell a full load of tickets. Other planes have large amounts of no- shows. Others cancel tickets at the last minute, change their flight plans, etc. The fact is that at some level, people are aware of the future of that plane and react to it, saving their lives. How many people get on the plane knowing it will crash and ignoring the information because we have been taught that to follow such a hunch is wrong. Now, no one on that plane from passenger to pilot can possibly know that a bolt is cracked and will fail this flight. Not even the chief mechanic, the F.A.A., nor the manufacturer may be aware of even the slightest problem. And yet, somehow, some way, some of the passengers get the message and save their lives. Actually, a fairly large statistical group, large enough that a half- empty plane should set up a red flag for all on board. Since it is clearly impossible to know about the mechanical failure or other random event about to happen, these planes should be as full as the average and not significantly emptier. Where does this information cone from? Science does not yet have a functional answer.
posted:9:41 AM | link |

I have been forgetting that NYC is such an international city and that the World Trade Center is just that - WORLD Trade Center. Thinking like an American? Anyway, to see other countries pour out their support for this reminded me. Another good perspective to have, it seems. I'm sure I'll eventually post about something else besides current events - until then.... A first-person accounting from a blogger with a digital camera.
posted:11:17 AM | link |

Just heard from John's brother who's a bus driver in NYC. He said, "I was at home....my route goes right by the blast site.....4 buses were there when the plane crashed..they all got out. One driver saw people jumping and body parts hit cars next to the bus. I have ash all over my truck [in Brooklyn] and the whole neighboorhood is smokey and hazy.I took people from the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn bridge home. Everyone had to walk over the bridges." He also said that an old friend of their sister's worked at the WTC, but that she had decided to stay home that day.
posted:10:35 AM | link |

When I first started reading stuff in the 'new age' area there was a lot of crap in it about worldwide destruction and dire predictions. I imagined what it would be like if suddenly all the things I thought of as THE WORLD were just gone - no history, no pyramids in egypt, no niagara falls, no taj mahal.... all of it lost. It was staggering, and in some way in helped me losen up my hold on physical things as a 'center' for myself. Well, that's about as close as I can come to imagining what it's like for someone who lived/lives in NYC all their lives and to have the World Trade Center Towers just GONE. It's almost easier to believe it was a well-crafted plan by OUR side just to get us into a war than to think that terrorists could plan and execute this. In any case - lots of fears come up to be faced and I'm sure we'll gain a larger perspective on things as we go. Taking one step at a time....
posted:7:52 AM | link |

What is there to say? John was getting ready for work this morning and I was reading one of the posts on our list and it said something about NYC and Washington DC and I said, "What happened?" ... went to metafilter (which isn't responding right now - the server's in NYC and the lines are probably completely overloaded) only to hear that the WORLD TRADE CENTER - both towers had collapsed after being hit by commercial airplanes, and the Pentagon too. Yeah. The thing is, John is FROM NYC - he worked on Wall Street for many years, just a few blocks from the towers. And his brother is a bus driver from Brooklyn to Manhattan - haven't heard from him yet, but we think he's okay. Still just rolling with all the energy flying around with this, as I'm sure most people are, at least in the Western World. I'm trying to picture the NYC skyline without the towers now. That's all for now.
posted:11:37 AM | link |

After I posted "blue and gold" yesterday, I browsed through some of my recent photos and found that they were rather DULL in the sense of all being blue and gold/beige in one way or another - LOL. So, I went on a quest for COLOR. (Apparently, rain isn't the ONLY thing I've been missing!) And I did find it. And it was good. Click on the thumbnail to look at the larger version (and then use your 'back' button to come back here) - except for shrinking down the larger sizes a bit, these are completely unretouched - my camera does a great job on color and you're right, tom, high resolution makes a startling difference! *grin*