4of5 Modern Marvels: Engineering Disasters 4

Sinking bridges, deadly fires and sickening collapses serve as lessons to generations of engineers to create a safer future. In engineering, it is a rare disaster that does not hold a valuable lesson within its wreckage. The latest installment in the popular MODERN MARVELS® series examining catastrophes heads from America’s highways, where the Corvair was famously dubbed “unsafe at any speed” and a floating bridge sank in Seattle, to the skies, where crashes of the world’s first commercial jet pointed the way to a simple design change that made the modern air transportation industry possible. Each segment features interviews with experts like Asif Siddigi (author of Challenge to Apollo) and auto safety consultant Byron Bloch, along with compelling footage of disasters, re-creations and laboratory tests demonstrating the failures and analysis of the changes they helped spur. Dark clouds with silver linings, engineering disasters are the tragic, yet invaluable, handmaidens of technological progress.

Video Rating: 5 / 5

Aluminum Macbook 2.0 Design Flaw

Found a problem with the battery cover. From what i’ve researched, this is common on almost every Macbook/MBP yet. One forum user stated it will take three weeks for the Apple Store to get in replacement parts for a new product. Some have exchanged their laptops for new ones but found to have the same issue. UPDATE 27th OCT 08: Received s new Macbook as an exchange from the Apple Store – this one is fine.

A Few Web Design Tips

A Few Web Design Tips

Don’t bother with splash pages.

A splash page is normally a pointless page people put on their websites as an introduction. The page normally contains some sort of image on with a big click here to enter sign, or sometimes people don’t say anything and just hope you will click on the picture to enter their site. Splash pages are fairly pointless and it is just creating more work for your visitor as they have to click the mouse button an extra time just to see the content of your site. By removing the splash page the visitor can get to see the best parts of your site straight away, without having to wait for a pointless page to load.

Keep your navigation simple.

To put it simply if your navigation is too complicated and people don’t understand how to get around your site this is a huge web design fault. If a visitor doesn’t know how to navigate around your site they will get frustrated and end up leaving. Keep your navigation simple and try to avoid using scripts or complicated flash based menus, not all browsers support scripts, so some of your visitors might be missing out on important.

Keep your paragraphs reasonable readable lengths.

Although having lots of relative and informative content on your website is good, it is a bad idea to have the blocks of text to big. Not everyone likes reading and to much can deter a visitor. If you keep your paragraphs in reasonable lengths it is much easier for a visitor to read and absorb.

Use CSS for style.

Make sure your text is readable by using a standard font which is compatible with other systems. While some fonts may look good on your computer other people might not have that font installed. It is good web design practice to use CSS when building you site. CSS or Cascading Style Sheets are a perfect way to set and adjust your websites font and size settings. The great thing about using CSS is that you can change the look of your whole site simply by editing the one file.

Test how your site looks in other web browsers

When you are building your site and still in the web design stage it is important to check how it looks on other browsers, just because it looks fine in internet explorer doesn’t mean it looks good on Firefox or Opera. A lot of people use alternative browsers and if the website looks like a complete mess then you will loose that visitor for good. You can check your websites web design to ensure it complies with the web standards at the w3.org website. Validating the page will help to ensure it is cross browser compatible.

Related Design Fault Articles

Blasting the Bridge Keepers: a Construction Expert Denounces the Ntsb?s Report on the I-35w Bridge Collapse

Blasting the Bridge Keepers: a Construction Expert Denounces the Ntsb?s Report on the I-35w Bridge Collapse

 Blasting the Bridge Keepers: A Construction Expert Denounces the NTSB’s Report on the I-35W Bridge Collapse—and the “Public Servants” Who Keep Dropping the Ball

An NTSB report over a year in the making cites faulty gusset plates as the cause of the 2007 Minnesota bridge collapse. But the report contains a glaring sin of omission: It ignores key problems inherent in our nation’s infrastructure oversight system that continue to put the public in danger every day.

By Barry LePatner

 It’s been more than a year since the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. And now, the final report put forward by the National Transportation Safety Board has concluded from its investigation: (1) the steel gusset plates originally designed in the mid-1960s to reinforce the bridge’s joints were half an inch too thin; (2) the probable causes for the collapse were additional modifications to the original design, which added substantial weight to the bridge, and the weight added by construction materials placed on the bridge by a contractor just prior to the collapse. That’s it. And if you’re thinking Surely, there was more to the collapse than that, you are right. And by ignoring the other (extremely critical) factors, the NTSB is perpetuating a problem that puts millions of Americans in danger every day.

The NTSB is severely neglecting its duty to protect Americans. By placing the sole blame for the bridge collapse on the gusset plates and the added weight factor, the Board has ignored the inefficiency and irresponsibility among the government agencies responsible for the bridge, which also contributed to the disaster.

At the heart of many of these problems is the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which (and here’s a scary thought!) has long been considered one of the better state transportation departments in the country. Basically, MnDOT failed to protect the public from a preventable disaster that was long in the making. And the problems faced by MnDOT are far from isolated. DOTs everywhere are struggling to keep the highways and byways that connect this nation in working order.

We must put these struggles in perspective: There are 12,000 bridges in our country whose designs are similar to the I-35W Bridge. Furthermore, according to statistics from a 2007 U.S. Department of Transportation/Research and Innovative Technology Administration report, there are over 72,000 bridges that are labeled “structurally deficient” and over 81,000 bridges identified as “functionally obsolete.” Every one of these bridges needs detailed inspections to ensure their safety.

One important factor contributing to the poor state of America’s infrastructure is the seeming irresponsibility and inefficiency exhibited by those who have been elected or appointed to government positions that supposedly exist to ensure the safety of the public. To illustrate, here are several red flags that I have identified that should have warned MnDOT and other officials that the I-35W bridge was in trouble, but instead were ignored, misunderstood, or simply not acted upon in time:

*The I-35W bridge was first rated as “structurally deficient” in 1990. Despite annual reports describing a continuing section loss and build up of corrosion at key places, as well as the attention of a number of consultants who recommended substantial remedial action be taken, at no time between 1990 and its collapse in 2007 was the I-35W bridge’s condition ever raised above its “poor” rating.

*Photographs exist of gusset plates “bowing and arcing” as early as 2003, but the photos, taken by MnDOT consultants, were apparently dropped into a file folder and forgotten. MnDOT inspecting engineers did not deem these red flags to be serious enough to command attention.

*In 1996 a bridge on I-90 outside of Cleveland with a structure similar to the I-35W bridge collapsed as a result of improper gusset plate design. But although a) Federal officials investigated this serious failure, b) an official report from outside engineers was filed indicating that the gusset plates did indeed contribute to the bridge’s collapse, and c) Civil Engineering magazine published an article in 1997 detailing the Ohio bridge collapse, officials at MnDOT denied ever having heard of the Ohio bridge failure and said they were unaware of any prior problems with gusset plate design.

*Discussions concerning the need to add redundancy to the I-35W bridge had been underway years earlier—but action was never taken. And, in fact, MnDOT instead scheduled redecking work that overloaded sections of the bridge, and, according to the NTSB, contributed to the eventual failure of the gusset plates. 

Of course, none of this is meant to imply that Minnesota is the only state experiencing serious problems with its infrastructure. The Colorado Department of Transportation has acknowledged that the cost to replace or rehabilitate 125 state bridges rated in poor condition in the state is .4 billion. Yet, bridge repair funding, a critical element in reducing the number of bridges that are considered structurally deficient, has been reduced from million in 2007 to million for 2009.

Or consider a story out of Georgia in which reports identifying several bridges as hazardous were thrown away. Why? Because the official in charge said handling the problem would have required too much paperwork and involved too many people. Stories like this one are clear indications that Minnesota isn’t the only state that has had its political head in the sand regarding its infrastructure problems.

Clearly, solving our infrastructure crisis will require more than a few patches here and there. In 2005 the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimated that the cost of making the upgrades, repairs, and expansions needed on the U.S. bridge system will be .4 billion/year for twenty years. The report also said the U.S. road system required billion/year for maintenance and 5.6 billion/year for improvements—an updated report from the ASCE next year will likely reflect an even larger cost for these repairs.

And even if our cash-strapped government could come up with the money and ensure that it’s properly applied, there’s little indication that builders could get it done at that price. The construction industry itself has been rife with problems for quite some time now, wasting an estimated 0 billion each year. Those problems have easily flooded over into public projects, the prime example being the Big Dig and its billions of dollars in cost overruns.

We must begin taking steps, right now, to shore up America’s infrastructure. Not to do so is to invite more death and destruction. Every engineer in the field of bridge design can testify that the corrosive effects of inadequate maintenance of our bridges and tunnels will only get worse—they are not self-healing. And while the problem is far too massive and widespread to repair overnight, we can take steps now to start chipping away at it.

We must do everything in our power to end the downward spiral of our nation’s infrastructure. As the incoming Obama Administration prepares to tackle America’s ailing economy, it should make repairing the nation’s infrastructure an important part of those plans. Doing so will not only help prevent future catastrophes; it will actually contribute to our nation’s prosperity.

Every billion in infrastructure spending is estimated to create 47,000 new jobs, a critical factor at a time when our unemployment rate is at a 14-year high. By taking the steps necessary to tackle our infrastructure problem now, we have an opportunity to improve our economy with the great ROI of a better, safer infrastructure system that will lead to a stronger nation.

# # #

About the Author:

Barry B. LePatner is the founder of the New York City-based law firm LePatner & Associates LLP. For three decades, he has been prominent as an advisor on business and legal issues affecting the real estate, design, and construction industries. He is head of the law firm that has grown to become widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading advisors to corporate and institutional clients, real estate owners, and design professionals.

Mr. LePatner is widely recognized as a thought leader in the construction industry. His new book, Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America’s Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry (The University of Chicago Press), which was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, has created a national debate among owners, designers, and other key stakeholders. Mr. LePatner has been featured in BusinessWeek, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Crain’s New York Business, the Chicago Tribune, and other prestigious publications. His articles and speeches on the perilous state of our nation’s infrastructure have garnered him widespread attention. He has appeared on many television and radio broadcasts, including a CNBC appearance and several National Public Radio segments. A November 2007 Governing Magazine article stated, “If there’s a guru of construction industry reform, it’s LePatner.”

A nationally recognized speaker, Mr. LePatner has addressed audiences on topics central to trends affecting the real estate and construction industries at recent events sponsored by: The International Economic Forum of the Americas, the Real Estate Board of New York; FIATECH, the National Realty Club, the Construction Owners Association of America, the Construction Management Association of America, the Construction Financial Management Association, and MC Consultants Inc.’s Construction Defect and Construction Law Conference. He also routinely presents CLE-accredited courses to other law firms and organizations on how the construction industry actually works and how they can best protect their clients from the vagaries of the construction process.

LePatner co-sponsored “Real Estate Outlook,” an annual executive seminar series for corporate and real estate leaders; “Protection, Survival, Readiness: Project Strategy in the Post-9/11 World,” a seminar presented to institutional, developer, and corporate real estate executives; and “Secure Space,” a building security seminar for corporate owners and developers. He has also presented “Construction Cost Integrity: Equitable Risk Allocation Agreements” and “Protecting the Owner from Pitfalls in Today’s Construction Projects,” a series of Continuing Legal Education lectures to law firms and their in-house real estate departments; and the highly successful “Marketing for Design Professionals” course at the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Summer Program, from 1990-2004 with A. Eugene Kohn, founder of KPF Associates.

Mr. LePatner has written extensively and is widely quoted in the media on the subject of construction law. He previously co-authored the legal sections of the Interior Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill 2001, and Structural & Foundation Failures: A Casebook for Architects, Engineers & Lawyers, McGraw-Hill 1982, with Sidney Johnson, P.E.

Recently published articles include: “Sarbanes-Oxley’s Wake-Up Call to the Construction Industry,” The CPA Journal, December 2007, co-authored with Henry Korn, Esq., and Anthony Chan, CPA; “Today’s Construction Contracts: Drafter Beware,” Legal Times, September 2007; “The Industry That Time Forgot,” Boston Globe, August 2007; “Construction Cost Increases: Owners Should Know the Difference Between the Myths and Realities,” New York Real Estate Journal, October 2006; and “Are You Prepared—Disaster Management Plans Help Owners Protect Their Investments” in the March/April 2006 issue of Commercial Investment Real Estate magazine. Articles published in the New York Law Journal include: “Caveat Advocatus—Drafting Construction Agreements for Your Client’s New Construction Project Ain’t What It Used to Be,” March 27, 2006; “Insuring a Construction Project Against Water and Mold,” October 25, 2004; “Building Security Measures and Owner Liability After Sept. 11,” May 1, 2003, co-authored with Henry Korn, Esq.

In May 2002, LePatner was elected by the American Institute of Architects to receive an Honorary AIA Membership, one of the highest honors the organization can bestow upon an individual who is not an architect and which is granted to those who have devoted their careers in service to the architectural profession.

In July 2001, LePatner was elected to the Board of Trustees of DIFFA, the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. He has also served on numerous advisory committees, including: the Advisory Board, Society for Marketing Professional Services, 1990-93; the board of the New York Building Congress; Board of Advisors, Legal Briefs for the Construction Industry, 1981-89; American Institute of Architects Advisory Committee, 1984; and the National Academy of Sciences, 1984-85. He is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the New York State Bar Association, and the American Bar Association.

About the Book:

Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America’s Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry (The University of Chicago Press, October 2007, ISBN-13: 978-0-226-47267-6, ISBN-10: 0-226-47267-1, .00) is available at bookstores nationwide, from major online booksellers, and direct from the publisher at www.press.uchicago.edu.

For more information, please visit www.brokenbuildings.com.

Watch the amazing “Gallopin’ Gertie” November 7, 1940 film clip. 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge Slender, elegant and graceful, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge stretched like a steel ribbon across Puget Sound in 1940. The third longest suspension span in the world opened on July 1st. Only four months later, the great span’s short life ended in disaster. “Galloping Gertie,” collapsed in a windstorm on November 7,1940. The bridge became famous as “the most dramatic failure in bridge engineering history.” Now, it’s also “one of the world’s largest man-made reefs.” The sunken remains of Galloping Gertie were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 to protect her from salvagers. A dramatic tale of failure and success The story of the failure of the 1940 Narrows Bridge and the success of the Current Narrows Bridge is a great American saga. When Galloping Gertie splashed into Puget Sound, it created ripple effects across the nation and around the world. The event changed forever how engineers design suspension bridges. Gertie’s failure led to the safer suspension spans we use today.

Video Rating: 4 / 5

What possesses people who should know better to design stupid products?What planet/ drugs are these dudes on?

Question by tell’emaboutdahoney: What possesses people who should know better to design stupid products?What planet/ drugs are these dudes on?

I mean-Toothpaste with a red stripe-when you rinse out-you think your gums are bleeding!!

Green golf balls-FFS-have you ever tried to find even a white ball in the rough after you’ve hooked or pulled a tee shot?

The list is endless……………………………………………………………………..

Best answer:

Answer by RNW
I’ve heard it said that it’s morally wrong to allow a fool to keep his money. Perhaps the stupid products are just a way to extract money from the fools.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

I need to explain the level of a consumer’s expectation of a recalled product,suchas a DvD player.?

Question by sherry a: I need to explain the level of a consumer’s expectation of a recalled product,suchas a DvD player.?

Best answer:

Answer by Aaron
You don’t give much on details. But personally, if I owned a DVD that was recalled, my expectations would be that they provide shipping to and from my home, and a very quick replacement at no additional cost. Also a quick, “sorry to inconveniece” you letter signed by the president of the company.

my 2 cents… hopefully this is the type of response you were looking for.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Neil Degrasse Tyson – Stupid Design

Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia. Tyson’s professional research interests are broad, but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way. Tyson obtains his data from the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as from telescopes in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and in the Andes Mountains of Chile. In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a 12-member commission that studied the Future of the US Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security. In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a 9-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the “Moon, Mars, and Beyond” commission. This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Council, which will help guide NASA through its perennial need to fit its ambitious vision into its restricted budget. In addition to dozens of professional …

Video Rating: 4 / 5

Some Design!-Christopher Hitchens This present-day version of God of the gaps goes by a fresh name: intelligent design. The term suggests that some entity, endowed with a mental capacity far greater than the human mind can muster, created or enabled all the things in the physical world that we cannot explain through scientific methods. An interesting hypothesis. But why confine ourselves to things too wondrous or intricate for us to understand, whose existence and attributes we then credit to a superintelligence? Instead, why not tally all those things whose design is so clunky, goofy, impractical, or unworkable that they reflect the absence of intelligence? And what comedian designer configured the region between our legs-an entertainment complex built around a sewage system? Stupid design could fuel a movement unto itself. It may not be nature’s default, but it’s ubiquitous. Yet people seem to enjoy thinking that our bodies, our minds, and even our universe represent pinnacles of form and reason. Maybe it’s a good antidepressant to think so. But it’s not science-not now, not in the past, not ever. -Neil deGrasse Tyson Religious fundamentalists may deny that evolution exists, but in the natural world it is religion that does not exist. -John Maisey of American Museum of Natural History

Q&A: Who should be blamed for the toys and other chinese product recall conundrum?

Question by voodoogirl_w: Who should be blamed for the toys and other chinese product recall conundrum?

Obviously Chinese manufactures will be blamed and punished for what had happened, and they should be. However, The US companies did make gazillion dollars because of those low-cost-high-profit cheap products. What happened to the product quality control before putting the product on the shelves? There are the Chinese government, US government, exporter, importer, the company itself, and the retail store between the Chinese manufactures and consumers.

Best answer:

Answer by ducky
the people that buy all that Chinese crapola at WalMart

Add your own answer in the comments!

Is Hydroxycut caffeine free product safe for consumer consumption?

Question by Joey d: Is Hydroxycut caffeine free product safe for consumer consumption?

I have read that many Hydroxycut products are being recalled because of health problems, such as liver damage, and other side effects, which occurred during around the same time the products were used.My question is whether Hydroxycut Caffeine Free, is safe for use? I was told it is not being recalled.

Best answer:

Answer by Shoeshine
Uh no. What do you mean is it safe? Will it kill you on the spot? Probably not… will it kill you slowly, cause rapid aging, and probably cause organ failure in the future? Yeah.

Why on earth would anybody think riding your body of water is harmless. Can you say ow my liver and kidneys?

Everything you do kills you. Breathing slowly oxidizes your cells. We all die. You want to die more painfully, more rapidly, and become more impaired in your last years of life. Take more quick fix products. Safe is a joke… anything that you take into your body is going to interact with it, for every positive there is seriously a negative. You get skinny because you have no water in your body? Cool, you’ll be skinny as you develop wrinkles and diseases, and you’ll die faster and harder.

What?…

What do you think? Answer below!

Atheists: What is your favorite stupid “intelligent design” argument?

Question by Blasphemy is fun!: Atheists: What is your favorite stupid “intelligent design” argument?

I personally like “Irreducible Complexity” because it is just so easy to mathematically disprove.

A
(A&&B)
(A||B)<Best answer:

Answer by lainiebsky
I like the one that says that the amazing similarities in DNA prove that one single deity made everything.

Give your answer to this question below!

Next Page »