# Did Larry Silverstein know about 9/11? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 5, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-larry-silverstein-know-about-9-11/724340 "2015-07-05T20:17:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-larry-silverstein-know-about-9-11/724340/141 "2015-07-06T23:52:31Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > How do we know you didn’t have prior knowledge about 9/11? Because he hadn’t been born yet would be my guess, and his “professors” were teachers at his middle school. > [@Mijin](#): > > Yeah in 2001 everyone was still using typewriters. The concept of digital data and offsite backups was unheard of. > > So it was just a small matter of completely destroying their own offices, as well as those of many other agencies. Or, you know, learn to use the shredder. They had shredders in 2001? No, wait–I had a shredder of my own in 2001, so others might’ve had them, too. Ah, the days of Bring You Kid to Work Day, when other people’s kids thought it was a great honor to shred a year’s worth of my security drawings! > [@RagingxMarmoset](#): > > You guys are being trolled. Good job, OP. You’d think, wouldn’t you? In a logical world there would not be people so stupid as to believe this shit, but no, the innertubes are infested with people who saw _Loose Change_ on YouTube and now think they’re experts. Always the same bullshit arguments like they are reading from Dylan Avery’s playbook; always the same denial of facts; always the same claims of engineering mastery when they know nothing. Trolling? I _wish_ **bombthefeds** was trolling. Oh, and **bombthefeds**? Change the username. It makes you sound psychotic, on top of your being misinformed and uninformable. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-larry-silverstein-know-about-9-11/724340/142 "2015-07-06T23:54:10Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Have we established whether Shel Silverstein had advance knowledge of 9/11? I assume he did. It was on his calendar, right after 9/10. Or he could’ve checked his watch. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-larry-silverstein-know-about-9-11/724340/143 "2015-07-07T00:04:52Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Have we established whether Shel Silverstein had advance knowledge of 9/11? He knew where the sidewalk ended. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-larry-silverstein-know-about-9-11/724340/144 "2015-07-07T00:27:21Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Physics again. > > Others have already said it, but I want to pound this nail in hard. I’ve had four different physics professors and none of them said a damn thing about burning buildings or structural stability. NONE. . . . > > No one who knows anything about structures would ever start talking about physics in this kind of discussion. Talking about physics is a sign that the speaker has no clue, just a vague sense that physics is touted as the most hardcore, basic science. . . . I would say physics has some place in the discussion, at a very basic and simplified level. For instance, it’s fair to look at simplified models of skyscrapers, and the scale effects of collapse. A one-foot model of the WTC topples sideways, but a hundred-foot model pancakes much the way the real one did. Certainly, at a detailed level, it’s engineering and architecture, not raw physics. But, just as chemistry reduces to physics in the simplest cases, so can engineering. > [@sweeteviljesus](#): > > . . . Paper famously ignites at 451 degrees Farenheit. It burns at a higher temperature than that. Also, if you put a bunch of burning paper in an oven, it can get even hotter. . . . [From this relevant site…](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/explainer/2012/06/ray_bradbury_death_does_paper_really_burn_at_451_degrees_fahrenheit_.html) “The temperature at the center of a paper fire is 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, give or take a couple hundred. The tips of the flames themselves are usually between 600 and 800 degrees.” ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-larry-silverstein-know-about-9-11/724340/145 "2015-07-07T00:47:59Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Have we established whether Shel Silverstein had advance knowledge of 9/11? I doubt it, but her view of one Larry or another is pretty similar to bombthefeds’: > **[Lyin' Larry By Shel Silverstein Pg. 109](http://poemsbyshelsilverstein.blogspot.com/2009/01/poem-by-shel-silverstein-pg-109.html)** > > Larry’s such a liar-- He tells outrageous lies. He says he’s ninety-nine years old Instead of only five. He says he lives up on the moon. He... > [@Smapti](#): > > Ah, so you’re Just Asking Questions™, then. Hopefully. Probably even. But the screen name is a bit of a concern. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2015, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-larry-silverstein-know-about-9-11/724340/146 "2015-07-07T00:54:41Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > I doubt it, but her view of one Larry or another is pretty similar to bombthefeds’: > > [Poems By Shel Silverstein: Lyin' Larry By Shel Silverstein Pg. 109](http://poemsbyshelsilverstein.blogspot.com/2009/01/poem-by-shel-silverstein-pg-109.html) His. Shel Silverstein was a dude. A bald dude with a beard. Shel was short for Sheldon. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2015, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-larry-silverstein-know-about-9-11/724340/147 "2015-07-07T02:49:42Z")
> [@bombthefeds](#): > > It is the nature of the collapse. Evenly throughout the whole structure, all at once, accelerating into free-fall demolition style collapse into its own footprint. > [@Jane\_Elliot](#): > > Into it’s own footprint? Did you even watch any of the video of the collapse that you linked to? There was massive destruction to buildings all around that area, and some of those buildings had to be demolished as a result. These were buildings that weren’t even in the World Trade Center complex. [And one of them was on the opposite side of the street!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12722240&postcount=365) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2015, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-larry-silverstein-know-about-9-11/724340/148 "2015-07-07T04:49:29Z")
Since the OP is no longer with us, let’s close this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-larry-silverstein-know-about-9-11/724340.md?page=7)