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First-Person Account Of Today's Attacks
I was scheduled to testify today at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's "Patent Theatre" in Crystal City, Virginia, on the intellectual property aspects of the proposed Hague Convention on Jurisdiction. I had sweated for days over a prepared oral statement about the treaty's implications for student coders and journalists.
My friend Rob Carlson and I left Baltimore early (shortly after 7:00 a.m.) and deposited ourselves at an outlying Metro stop, intending to take the subway into Crystal City. We arrived without incident.
Upon disembarking at Crystal City, I gave the sounds of various sirens little heed -- even as the municipality's Battalion Chief (fire department) roared past, red and white lights flashing.
"There must be a fire nearby," Rob said, glancing upward as fluffy chunks of ash drifting down into the USPTO's courtyard like huge downy feathers.
The hearing room was uncharacteristically vacant. I sat down next to my former boss, Consumer Project on Technology director Jamie Love, and flipped open my laptop to read over my prepared oral testimony.
"Did you hear? A plane hit the World Trade Center in New York!" Jamie whispered excitedly, ensconced in a pile of laptop peripherals and scattered newspapers. I froze momentarily, floppy disk half inserted into my laptop. Looking up, I noticed most of the hearing's attendees appeared to be in shock. A few sat rigid in their seats, hands folded in their laps, staring ahead in numbed silence. Others milled about, busily discussing the foreign policy ramifications of the morning's events. No one seemed to be concentrating on the hearing.
Federal government officials present -- (I recognized members of the U.S. State Department, Copyright Office and PTO) reacted differently -- receiving the sporadic stream of dispatches and rumors from PTO staffers running in and out of the Theatre with detached contemplation. It appeared that the Feds had discarded their usual mantle of chatty, diplomatic ambiance, and had switched into Crisis Mode.
"If anyone really wants to testify now, they can. At this time, we are not evacuating the building," proclaimed a Patent Office functionary. No one took her up on her offer, and several folks murmured quietly about the inappropriateness of proceeding with the hearing given the context and magnitude of events.
More runners entered the Theater, bearing news of additional disasters -- some alleged, some actual. Rumors about the destruction of various Washington agencies and landmarks whipped throughout the conference room.
I closed my laptop, which had been teetering idle on my lap for several minutes. People started for the door, hesitating in case the unspoken consensus for scrapping the hearing was improbably reversed. Cell phones were whipped out of suit pockets and family members dialed to no effect.
"You can always submit written testimony." declared U.S. delegate to the Hague Conference and PTO attorney-advisor Jennifer Lucas as the long-planned hearing disintegrated.
I felt a mix of emotions: disappointed that I wouldn't have the chance to testify and lock horns with the MPAA and other industry lobbyists, and guilty for having such self-centered thoughts during this crisis.
Rob and I headed out toward the lobby. He decided that we should skip the elevator and go down a flight of stairs to the lobby.
The courtyard of the Patent Office facility (which had been nearly deserted when we arrived) was packed with a milling, chattering crowd. Security guards peered about pensively as if reassuring themselves that the building was indeed still standing. Soon after, a shout went up that the Patent Office was being evacuated.
The head of the U.S. Delegation to the Hague Conference (and State Department legal advisor) Jeff Kovar brushed past me with an associate in tow.
"We're walking to the State Department." Kovar grimly mentioned to no one in particular, and started the long hike back to his office.
Rob and I weaved our way through gridlocked traffic and headed toward the Crystal City Metro station. Several Federal Marshalls stood about -- one wearing a boxy bulletproof vest, another wearing a pink blouse with a lanyard ID. Military personnel huddled together on the sidewalk, segregated according to the hue of their uniforms. Fast moving, thin white clouds rushed overhead. I wasn't sure if they were really smoke pluming from the Pentagon.
We jumped into a Yellow Line train alongside a pair of blue-shirted Air Force officers. I watched as an orange ladybug crawled up the silver-stitched epaulet of the officer closest to me, and informed him of its presence. He stared at me for a silent moment before carefully removing the insect.
"That's the least of my problems," he said. "Thanks anyway."
ya know, the trolls should be coming back right about now.
eggtroll : MIA
CmdrTaco on: Accounted for
AC's: MIA
whoa....
doesnt work
Open calling to all trolls and karma whores to make up stories or make an uncalled for mockery of this disaster.
Can you say misleading?
In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb" , "The third big war will begin when the big city is burning" - Nostradamus 1654
Two brothers torn apart by Chaos=israel / palistine(or the 2 towers?)
while the fortress endures = whitehouse
Is this true? only time will tell
[alk]
...why was that mod to a "Troll"?
moron... read the moderator guildlines.
"Payback's a bitch, Mohammed."
This might be important in a while - not right now... But
The SSSCA seeks to limit our copying and mirroring of copyrighted content. It would have been impossible to mirror news and events (pictures, view, text) from content owners such as ABCNEWS.COM (Disney) and MSNBC.COM (Microsoft) today if all hardware was locked down.
Seeing as these content owners (ABCNEWS.COM) were not able to keep the information flowing, shouldn't content controls be easily circumventable in times of crisis? Isn't the fact that all these news sites were down testiment to the fact that the SSSCA is a bad idea? Where would we be without individuals mirroring and copying information when the major news portals were down?
I obtained a lot of my info from mirrors today - not the major sites. Thank goodness for the individuals who mirrored information from the major news sites. I hope that in a few years time they will be able to do the same should another trajedy like this occur.
Hey, I found your friend. Hope you've got a lot of tape...
--
I like to watch.
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=2, Insightful=1, Funny=1, Overrated=2, Underrated=2, Total=8.
boffo. we can't agree on anything tonight
Why can't you even spell the name of the country that all the retards are calling for war with?
Is it because you're American and too dumb to do anything except believe the shit that CNN dribbles into your ears?
BLAME ADEQUACY
Times have changed.
The trolls are getting worse.
They won't obey the admins,
They just want to spam and curse!
Should we blame the Geekizoid?
Or Slashdot 2.3?
Should we be blaming Kuro5hin's Rusty?
No! Blame Adequacy!
Blame Adequacy!
With their flaming little whines,
And trolling posts so full of lies!
Blame Adequacy! Blame Adequacy!
It's the trolls' brand new assult,
And it's Adequacy's fault!
Don't blame Slash,
For my friend Jim,
He went to Adequacy,
And now he acts like Michael Simms!
All my other friends,
Would never have acted like rats,
But now they're indistinguishable from Katz!
Well, blame Adequacy!
Blame Adequacy!
It seems the trolls have gotten long,
Since Adequacy came along!
Blame Adequacy! Blame Adequacy!
They're not even a cool website anyway.
My friends were once the very very best of karma whores,
But now they're ranting raving frothing trolling right-wing bores!
Should we blame the spammers,
Or those who moderate?
Or should we sit around and masturbate?
No way!
Blame Adequacy! Blame Adequacy!
Self-righteous trolling that we see,
And that bitch "nakedac",
Blame Adequacy,
Shame on Adequacy,
The nerds we must herd,
The crap we must tap,
The trolls at that place,
Must all be erased,
The fascists we see must all cease to be,
Before somebody thinks of blaming me!
"Payback's a bitch, America."
And think about what my post says. It's the truth, isn't it? That's what I've been thinking about... the bodies, buried in a grave of office building debris... the people screaming as jet fuel boiling away their flesh... the lucky few who were turned into human puree in the .5 second that it took for the fireball to eviscerate the building... the souls who lept from the roof, and are now only so much gooey paste on the streets... the firefighters and police officers who ran in to help, and then though "Oh, shit..." as the builind collapses beneath them... the people who were on the streets shopping, or kissing, or reading as firey death in the form of 747 parts rains down from above. Just think about all of the gore. Think about the gallons of blood and charred bones that lie beneath the World Trade Center.
It's fucking disturbing, isn't it?
Well it's reality. And it should help you realize the enormity of the tragedy. Like how I was vaguely pro-choice until I read about exactly how a abortion is actually performed. People need to think about the carnage. And wake up.
And the media circus! The endless loop of footage and bullshit analysis from the "news" agencies. The countless "terrorism experts" who look as if they're stifling grins, who are thrilled at the attentino they're getting. Bitchy little reporters covered un dust, trying to fix their hair as they recite absolutely pointless monologues. It makes the situation all the more FUBAR.
--
I like to watch.
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=2, Insightful=1, Funny=2, Overrated=3, Underrated=2, Total=10
Asshole! Fuck you.
I suppose that you also have a dark stain in your pants you'll never get to erase.
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=2, Redundant=1, Insightful=1, Funny=4, Overrated=4, Underrated=2, Total=14.
Redundant? WTF?
What retarded motherfucker would dare mod this shit down?
It's fairly clear that moderation needs to be turned off for stories like these. Whoever modded the parent down has a lot in common with the bozos flying those planes into buildings. A complete lack of regard for anyone or anything besides their own twisted ideals, for one thing.
Offtopic:
I see these movements across the country to give blood, and I am appalled. The Red Cross currently has a large supply of blood on hand. There is not a need for an influx of millions of gallons of blood right now.
I cannot understand why I am hearing and seeing these recommendations all over. Apparently it's just to make people feel better, and provide some mental gratification for people who are so upset that they want to give blood to feel better about all this.
We should shut down these blood drives, and send people to NYC/DC to help out where there are real problems, or at least to stop waisting people's time giving blood that will be thrown away eventually anyway.
geez, another war I never heard about
You can't shoot guns on a jet, you'll depressurize the cabin and probably kill everybody in the process. You might as well put a self-destruct bomb on the plane, it would be about as effective.
You sir, are a complete fucking idiot if you think the Oklahoma city bombing was 2 men acting alone.
Of course, it is fun to see media experts make their pronouncements and 1984 when the truth is known.
Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by a psycho fan, right?
We here at school have begun collecting images and video to help out with the bandwidth problem the news sites are having... Here Also feel free to send anything in...
Unlike Perl Harbor our attacker wisely
withheld the return address. It could
even be our back yard, no? Michigan?
There are lots of pilots in Michigan.
You have a BOYFRIEND? Either you're a girl (that reads Slashdot? YEAH RIGHT!) or you're a fucking fag!
Shut you fucking hole, and take it somewhere else, fucktard.
they were all sucking my cock so how could they be terrorizing?
It had to be said...