the auroran sunset (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tithonus) wrote,@ 2005-09-13 15:12:00 |
|
| Current mood: |  tired |
| Current music: | Shorty Long - Here Comes The Judge |
| Entry tags: | 911, bizzare, humour, politics |
flight 93 memorial: a red crescent facing mecca?!
flight 93 was the september 11th flight on which the passengers choose to be men rather than sheep and with a "let's roll" took out the hijackers and forced the plane into the ground far from its target。 the winner of the competition to build a memorial has been announced。。。
belmont has an analysis of what looks like a rather amusing coincidence：
The design of the Flight 93 memorial is being criticized for resembling a Red Islamic Crescent. [...] One poster at the FreeRepublic claimed that the "Crescent of Embrace", the principal visual feature consisting of a semicircle of red maple trees enfolding a central space, was oriented toward Mecca.
he gives information on how to do the calculations neccessary to check the facing mecca claims。
he also give plausible reason to suspect that this is just a bizarre coincidence， rather than malice-a-forethought：
I went to architect Nelson Byrd Woltz's website and examined his portfolio. Many of his previous works emphasize the semicircular or crescent motif. For example, the Westminster Presbyterian Church Memorial Garden, Watercolor Park, Doris Duke Center and North Carolina Arboretum all seem to incorporate this semicircular theme. That brought me right back to the Flight 93 Memorial Site. If you look at the video provided, you'll see that the orientation of the "Crescent of Embrace" is determined, or at least very strongly suggested by the contours of the ground. (The PDF map shows the same thing). The contours run right through the opening of the crescent. Unless you wanted the park visitors to climb up and down contour lines the opening was exactly where it had to be. So the simplest explanation it seems to me, is that the orientation of the Crescent of Embrace is coincidental.
you can see the design here。 it is pretty。 there is also a sparse pdf。
it amazes me that someone would decide to work out whether it was facing mecca。 people are strange。 :-)
