fakers911 4 Oct 17 2010, 01:16 PM wrote:
You might have a good point there. I have no time to really think about that now, since I have to go outside in a minute. But hey.. the sun is shining today in Holland, so I might be able to test this live. :)
Fakers911,
I do find your contention ('sunlight-reflecting building') quite absurd and irrational. Yet, please rest assured that I do appreciate your request for caution when making our points and stating that they represent "incontrovertible proof" - as I just did. However, I will stand by this statement and provide more elements to consolidate my conclusion. Please let me know if the following demonstration meets with your satisfaction.
Here's the Lispenard/Church intersection as seen on Google Street View:
Let us first determine that the fireman was (meant to be) in a shaded area. Well, there should be no doubt about that - as pointed out by the yellow arrows.
The red "X" shows his exact position in the Naudet clip.
Now, what you basically were saying was that - perhaps - the wall of the US Post Office (the pink/...or yellow building in the background) might have reflected/bounced the sunlight back towards the fireman (at a distance of roughly 5 car-lanes), thus making him cast a clear shadow, almost in the opposite direction of the sunlight.
So here's another Google Street View shot. The "X" is were the fireman stood on 9/11. The yellow arrow points to a person slightly more distant from the manhole. Does that person cast any sort of shadow? It seems not. Does this settle the matter for you?
I will anticipate the only possible counter-argument you may put forward:
"But we don't know at what time of day the Google Street View shot was made."
Allright, so let us both travel to Manhattan on September 11, 2011 for a final verification, at the intersection of Lispenard/Church at 8:46AM. Ok? ;)