Pope Urban VIII jailed Galileo for following the scientific method. Centuries later Pope issues Formal apology.Turns out it takes more than a few hundred years for Italian to learn...
Italy courts have jailed 6 seismologist for failing to accurately predict the L'Aquila earthquake.
The judgement sets a chilling precedent. How will we drive learning if we cannot safely share ideas, theories and opinions in public? How many thousands of people may needlessly suffer if the science of forecasting the risks of earthquakes, storms, floods and the like cannot develop freely? Where is the justice in denying future victims the benefits of research that will inevitably be stifled by this judgement?
Everything has become far too embarassing for the Italian government. Whilst their failure to run their national affairs is there own concern. This is shameless attempt to appease the people who have suffered at the hands of the government's failings, by attacking science and natural laws. The scientific method comes with no-partisan allegiance. To polticise and attack it is cheap, and disgusting.
For your information Judge Marco Billi, no-one thinks Pope Urban VIII was that great...
Friday, 2 November 2012
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Runway no. Three
So runway three is going to happen. Boris can moan all he wants, he can't lose runway is nothing to do with him and it makes him look green and pro small village London.
Greening obviously in on it... Had to maintain party manifesto line, but obviously can't bring herself to quit... Not with the juicy nice cabinet job on offer.
Clegg obviously of being retarded somewhere, probably wandering how he managed to about to lose his leadership to David laws?
Cameroon gets new runway his big business friends are happy... Osbourne gets to cling on just to keep lib dens at bay.
Looks like everyone is pretty chuffed? That is of course the village of Simpson. But we will just bulldoze that...
But hang on my prediction is that government
Has believed its own hype. They think we have all been beaten into submission and that their recession will make us grateful when they stop kicking us. And that rioters really did only want a pair of trainers. But rat her thatn being over before its begun i predict Swampy and friends will build into a force to be a force to be reckoned with.
Greening obviously in on it... Had to maintain party manifesto line, but obviously can't bring herself to quit... Not with the juicy nice cabinet job on offer.
Clegg obviously of being retarded somewhere, probably wandering how he managed to about to lose his leadership to David laws?
Cameroon gets new runway his big business friends are happy... Osbourne gets to cling on just to keep lib dens at bay.
Looks like everyone is pretty chuffed? That is of course the village of Simpson. But we will just bulldoze that...
But hang on my prediction is that government
Has believed its own hype. They think we have all been beaten into submission and that their recession will make us grateful when they stop kicking us. And that rioters really did only want a pair of trainers. But rat her thatn being over before its begun i predict Swampy and friends will build into a force to be a force to be reckoned with.
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Brief History of Railways
Railtrack go bust because the government tries to force upon bit is overspend debts from the channel tunnel rail link. Obviously re-nationaising would demonstrate that privatisation was a humiliating mistake - so lets make something up, a pretend company Network Rail!
Railtrack never dealt with the over-staffed, over pensioned, under performing staff of British Rail. But because Network Rail is sort of similar to British Rail just ignore the problem, no point upsetting the unions and bringing down Network Rail, especially as government has run out of alternative ideas.
Then Network Rail sellout every asset of the railway to long term, bad value rail operators, just as long as they paint the platforms people will think things have got better and fares can sneak up and up. They will probably run a glossy TV adverts and offer free coffee on the last train on sunday.
Shareholders dont own Network Rail. DfT can't own it, what to do - time to make something up. Welcome the regulated Asset Base or RAB. The RAB is essentially a fantasy company with a fantasy balance sheet, fantasy P&L account and fantasy shares. It works out what Network Rail is worth, how much its made, how much its spent. Unlike the a real company that needs a real bank account, the RAB can be made up and manipulated. and if handled really carefully it can be made so complicated no-one will ever look at it and no-one ever need know it even exists.
The RAB is part of simple but costly equation that is: NR operating costs - RAB = Government subsidy. Costly because where does the revenue fit - ie. your train fare?
NR are unmatched revenue generators. dwarfing even giants like Tesco. Consider this if you commute from outside london. You pay around £200-£300 a month thousands a year. Consider this as a percentage of your monthly salary, its not far off the income tax take of an average salary.
Where does the money go, well not back into the operating and improvement costs of the railway. No the money is syphoned off by cats taking the cream. The RAB is then manipulated. The whole arrangement becomes a huge credit card paid for by the state and not the profits. Government buys full fat but only receives semi skimmed.
Except government can't get away with it, their comprehensive spending review prevents them raising government spending. Bill got to be paid, raise the train fares. Wonga.com is not the answer. You pay you bill today, but you end up giving away more money than you borrowed in the first pace for nothing. Debt spirals up, nothing gets improved.
Lets just hope everyone carries on going to work
Railtrack never dealt with the over-staffed, over pensioned, under performing staff of British Rail. But because Network Rail is sort of similar to British Rail just ignore the problem, no point upsetting the unions and bringing down Network Rail, especially as government has run out of alternative ideas.
Then Network Rail sellout every asset of the railway to long term, bad value rail operators, just as long as they paint the platforms people will think things have got better and fares can sneak up and up. They will probably run a glossy TV adverts and offer free coffee on the last train on sunday.
Shareholders dont own Network Rail. DfT can't own it, what to do - time to make something up. Welcome the regulated Asset Base or RAB. The RAB is essentially a fantasy company with a fantasy balance sheet, fantasy P&L account and fantasy shares. It works out what Network Rail is worth, how much its made, how much its spent. Unlike the a real company that needs a real bank account, the RAB can be made up and manipulated. and if handled really carefully it can be made so complicated no-one will ever look at it and no-one ever need know it even exists.
The RAB is part of simple but costly equation that is: NR operating costs - RAB = Government subsidy. Costly because where does the revenue fit - ie. your train fare?
NR are unmatched revenue generators. dwarfing even giants like Tesco. Consider this if you commute from outside london. You pay around £200-£300 a month thousands a year. Consider this as a percentage of your monthly salary, its not far off the income tax take of an average salary.
Where does the money go, well not back into the operating and improvement costs of the railway. No the money is syphoned off by cats taking the cream. The RAB is then manipulated. The whole arrangement becomes a huge credit card paid for by the state and not the profits. Government buys full fat but only receives semi skimmed.
Except government can't get away with it, their comprehensive spending review prevents them raising government spending. Bill got to be paid, raise the train fares. Wonga.com is not the answer. You pay you bill today, but you end up giving away more money than you borrowed in the first pace for nothing. Debt spirals up, nothing gets improved.
Lets just hope everyone carries on going to work
Monday, 23 July 2012
Olympic opening ceremony
#savethesurprise well that's just not how I roll. If there's an exclusive in town then the civil engineer is there to break it.
These things need to be spotted and reported first hand without the media telling us what to think. And telling us it was good even if it's not... Remember jubilee boat pageant. Should definitely have been cancelled.
To be fair it looked pretty good not too embarrassing at least. I'm starting to warm to these Olympics....
But not the games lanes they are a gross violation!
These things need to be spotted and reported first hand without the media telling us what to think. And telling us it was good even if it's not... Remember jubilee boat pageant. Should definitely have been cancelled.
To be fair it looked pretty good not too embarrassing at least. I'm starting to warm to these Olympics....
But not the games lanes they are a gross violation!
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
M4 cracked now supported on laurels
Bridge Management of what is probably UK's most strategic structure has failed.
Its a one off unique structure, how can it not have been throughly investigated.. How can the potential failure mechanisms not have been fully explored? How can they claim to have come across the crack by accident. Can only be the structure is not being managed properly.
The bridge is clearly giving up under the loading it is anticipated to carry.. there is no earthquake, flood or explosion involved. If managed properly, the load bearing elements would due checked to ensure they are performing, particularly if the superstructure is susceptible to fatigue. There should be no way that a critical defect can be allowed to develop. So it must be concluded that the bridge inspections being carried out were not being done properly.
Whose doing the inspections? Answer Connectplus, a consortium of UK and Europe's major and contractors and consultants. Not only are they responsible for the inspections, they are responsible for managing the conclusion of those inspections. I suspect the dramatic closure has more to do with their combined intolerance of risk. Had the public body highways agency not sold their responsibilities they could have kept control of the risk management. This is the role of the public body, balancing the risk and mitigating with available budget. Connectplus cannot be pragmatic.
Again British Journalism has shown its total ignorance accepting the press statements of the bridge managers without question. Why aren't they asking:
How much has been spent on the bridges inspection regime in the last 6 years?
What are the written conclusions of the inspection? Do they identify the cracks?
either, the inspections were a waste of money. or their conclusions were ignored... or more likely the inspection conclusion was simply not understood but whoever received them.
Can connectplus honestly say that if Hammersmith hadn't happened they would have inspected for these cracks. It is a major coincidence that a 'random' inspection was carried out shortly after Hammersmith had its problems. SO another question:
How many critical defects are not being identified because they are not on a high profile olympic route?
For connect plus ignorance is arrogance. Roads Minister Mike Penning again is reeled out assuring us that everything is under control. What does he base this confidence on? Is he as ill informed and acceptingly gullible as the press?
More questions:
Why has the government done so little to progress a national bridge inspector programme?
Why does no-one correlate the growing shortage of decent engineers with the growing occurrence of these failures?
Why is there not a single journalist capable of understanding basic structural mechanics?
Sure when the M$ opens on thursday, it will be like nothing happened...guillible people!
Its a one off unique structure, how can it not have been throughly investigated.. How can the potential failure mechanisms not have been fully explored? How can they claim to have come across the crack by accident. Can only be the structure is not being managed properly.
The bridge is clearly giving up under the loading it is anticipated to carry.. there is no earthquake, flood or explosion involved. If managed properly, the load bearing elements would due checked to ensure they are performing, particularly if the superstructure is susceptible to fatigue. There should be no way that a critical defect can be allowed to develop. So it must be concluded that the bridge inspections being carried out were not being done properly.
Whose doing the inspections? Answer Connectplus, a consortium of UK and Europe's major and contractors and consultants. Not only are they responsible for the inspections, they are responsible for managing the conclusion of those inspections. I suspect the dramatic closure has more to do with their combined intolerance of risk. Had the public body highways agency not sold their responsibilities they could have kept control of the risk management. This is the role of the public body, balancing the risk and mitigating with available budget. Connectplus cannot be pragmatic.
Again British Journalism has shown its total ignorance accepting the press statements of the bridge managers without question. Why aren't they asking:
How much has been spent on the bridges inspection regime in the last 6 years?
What are the written conclusions of the inspection? Do they identify the cracks?
either, the inspections were a waste of money. or their conclusions were ignored... or more likely the inspection conclusion was simply not understood but whoever received them.
Can connectplus honestly say that if Hammersmith hadn't happened they would have inspected for these cracks. It is a major coincidence that a 'random' inspection was carried out shortly after Hammersmith had its problems. SO another question:
How many critical defects are not being identified because they are not on a high profile olympic route?
For connect plus ignorance is arrogance. Roads Minister Mike Penning again is reeled out assuring us that everything is under control. What does he base this confidence on? Is he as ill informed and acceptingly gullible as the press?
More questions:
Why has the government done so little to progress a national bridge inspector programme?
Why does no-one correlate the growing shortage of decent engineers with the growing occurrence of these failures?
Why is there not a single journalist capable of understanding basic structural mechanics?
Sure when the M$ opens on thursday, it will be like nothing happened...guillible people!
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Hammersmith flyover - tfl fail
So they say they finished the repairs to hammer smith flyover and that all is well again.
Questions:
Why did they shut it to traffic above and run the traffic underneath when failed post tensioning would mean that it failed under its own weight. It can only be concluded that this was done for show. There is no logic in dropping a bridge on someone's head in preference to pulling out from under them.
Turns out the closure wasn't required as cars were allowed back with no modifications before repairs began.
Why then push the panic button? And close the bridge. How hard did they work to keep the decision to shut of boris' desk. Tfl número uno Dana skelly, forced to react in a panic must now be thinking she got bad advice. Boris' probably thanking Dana for keeping fiasco of his desk.
Now six of sixteen spans are fixed the rest have to wait till after the olympics. This cannot be the cheapest way. More delays and fiasco cost to come.
Tfl spend millions on life cycle planning and preventative maintenance. It totally failed to predict this. Tfl failed to have the talent to manage the situation. Memo to Dana "Dana Dana make it stop" tfl grow a pair.
Conclusion tfl are making it up as they go along. Lucky for them no one can be bothered to care. Or enquire how much it cost.
Questions:
Why did they shut it to traffic above and run the traffic underneath when failed post tensioning would mean that it failed under its own weight. It can only be concluded that this was done for show. There is no logic in dropping a bridge on someone's head in preference to pulling out from under them.
Turns out the closure wasn't required as cars were allowed back with no modifications before repairs began.
Why then push the panic button? And close the bridge. How hard did they work to keep the decision to shut of boris' desk. Tfl número uno Dana skelly, forced to react in a panic must now be thinking she got bad advice. Boris' probably thanking Dana for keeping fiasco of his desk.
Now six of sixteen spans are fixed the rest have to wait till after the olympics. This cannot be the cheapest way. More delays and fiasco cost to come.
Tfl spend millions on life cycle planning and preventative maintenance. It totally failed to predict this. Tfl failed to have the talent to manage the situation. Memo to Dana "Dana Dana make it stop" tfl grow a pair.
Conclusion tfl are making it up as they go along. Lucky for them no one can be bothered to care. Or enquire how much it cost.
Saturday, 28 April 2012
34 floors over London
battery failure scuppered my live blogging feed dreams - the lesson here is to never buy an android product they are all rubbish. better late than never here's some pics.
many thanks to the Ellen MacArthur cancer trust for organising the event - and switching on the revolving floor! Check out their website and all the good work they do helping young people with and recovering from cancer and leukaemia.
www.ellenmacarthurcancertrust.org/
restricted access
22mph
i think 17 people is optimistic.. double height ceiling in the lift though
UCL library
City
University of London
Regents Park and Primrose Hill
Colourful vans of royal mail
Security office on 35th floor access to outside viewing platform - now victim of H&S
Bloomsbury's highest stairs
The spinning room
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Sun is out on telecom tower
Turns out its not that difficult a structure to find in this city. All the satelite dishes have been removed
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
BT Tower
Built in 1964 its definitely an icon but a somewhat awkwardly dated and ugly thing. The 1990s forgot about what was a one off nothing followed it to Bloomsbury and it has stayed alone. Ocassionally it's the focus of children in need or some other charity but now it's looking old and tired I m starting to love it...
Join me tomorrow for exclusive pics from inside the tower.
Join me tomorrow for exclusive pics from inside the tower.
Saturday, 21 April 2012
Civilengineered purposive intent
Easily the world's biggest industry, yet often the driest and least entertaining industry. Civilengineered cuts through the dullness, with the occasional light hearted look at whats hot and what not in Civil Engineering.
Sometimes my own opinion sometimes posts from others i like, and not often enough some of my holiday pics.
Get involved join the fun, lets find out what's interesting from what we do round the world.
Sometimes my own opinion sometimes posts from others i like, and not often enough some of my holiday pics.
Get involved join the fun, lets find out what's interesting from what we do round the world.
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