Slide #25 - Video from West Street

Another Slide With Nothing Wrong?

With this slide, Gage replays a 6.5 second clip of 7 World Trade falling down. It's one of the most used clips of this collapse, and should be fairly iconic if you look at this topic very much.

There is nothing openly wrong with this slide to dispute. It's what Gage doesn't show you that proves this slide to be quite deceptive.

7 World Trade Only Partially Seen

This is one of Gage's more amusing mistakes. There are clearly buildings in the foreground of this shot, yet Gage is counting his 6.5 seconds of falling from the moment the northwest corner begins to drop to the moment the building falls out of view behind the foreground buildings.

Obviously 7 World Trade has to fall a few more stories at that point. And we can tell exactly how many by counting the number of floors visible and subtracting that from the number of actual floors - 47.

There are 18 floors visible in this shot. When Gage stops counting his 6.5 seconds, the building still has 29 stories to fall, almost two-thirds of its height.

This is one of the more spectacular mistakes in Gage's presentation. Look at an illustration from NIST using this very video to demonstrate their working hypothesis:

You just can't make this stuff up. This is literally how amateurish Richard Gage and his entire organization is. Not even their 6.5 second claim can be remotely true. This is a mistake in perception that a baby playing peek-a-boo doesn't fall into. When things go behind things, Mr. Gage, it doesn't mean they disappear!

The East Mechanical Penthouse

Furthermore, Gage starts his clip well after the collapse has already started.

As you can see, the east mechanical penthouse has already fallen when Gage starts his clip. This is a deliberate omission. He can't be showing you the actual start of Building 7's collapse, because "The building fell progressively and asymmetrically in 18 seconds" just doesn't sound as dire as "The building fell symmetrically and rapidly in 6.5 seconds."

The first statement has the benefit of being true, however. In an organization with Truth in the title, you would think that meant something to Richard Gage.

Status of Gage's Argument

This is the last slide in this section of Gage's presentation. As I've demonstrated, the building did not fall straight down. It did not fall symmetrically. The columns were not "cut at once." Indeed, they failed progressively as the videos of the collapse demonstrate. Because of this, this second point of Gage's second premise is also denied.

Gage continues to use both deception and shoddily handled evidence to try and prove his point. In this section, he's made some jaw-dropping errors of perception. He continues to demonstrate no authority for the acceptance of his first premise, the list of "characteristic features." Indeed, his actions thus far urge us to reject him utterly as an authority figure.

I assure you, it will get no better.

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