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Stupid Engineering Mistakes
lee1 writes "Wired has bestowed on us a list of the ten worst engineering mistakes of all time. We have the St. Francis Dam designed by 'self-taught' engineer William Mulholland, which burst and wiped out several towns near LA; the Kansas City Hyatt walkway collapse; the DC-10, and more, but my favorite is the one I'd never heard of: a giant tank of molasses that ruptured in 1919 and sent 'waves of molasses up to 15 feet high' through Boston, killing 21."
A common theme in half of these is that a small change was made at the last minute.
Lesson of Life: Trust the engineers, they do stuff for a reason
Of course the other half were just poor engineering
Lesson of Life: Never trust the engineers
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
You don't think a 15 foot wave of syrup engulfing a town is funny? Check his pulse, I think he's dead!
I regret spilling a glass of ginger ale on an achritect!
21 people couldn't avoid the flow of molasses? This seems very strange seeing that molasses is the canonical viscous fluid - slow as molasses in January. 15 foot amplitude, gotta wonder at the wavelength crest to crest...
Yeesh... Someone all ready posted a better and more detailed description of the lake. Anyway here is another engineering disaster. The Disney Opera House in California. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Concert_Hall It was a really nice building. Very ornate and very shiny and cool looking. The problem is that they designed and built Archimedes Death Ray. Certain parts of the building were curved that they were cooking the inside of people's apartments, melting trafic cones, blinding drivers, and setting stuff on fire. The solution was just to sandblast the offending objects but yeesh.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
News: Holy Shit! The town molasses has escaped! You have three hours to save yourselves!
Dude: Whoa, sounds pretty bad! I'd better...
News: Next on Six, that Paris Hilton sex tape in full! One hour later... Dude: Whoa, that ruled. I need a beer!
Dude wastes another hour or so drinking and watching pr0n.
Dude forgets about the molasses and goes to bed.
Molasses: I am nearing Dude's house.
Dude: I am now in bed sleeping, unaware of the impending danger.
The molasses eats Dude alive
Dude: What the fuck? Oh shit, the molasses! I totally forgot!
Molasses: And now there is no escape for you!
LOL TRUE!!
The Toronto Skydome beat them by 8 years.
Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
Since when has any engineering gone into Windows?
Is it weird in here, or is it just me?
More electrons run through the current. Since the wire is the same size, they get clogged and collect together. The extra mass causes the wire to sag a bit.
How may gave their asses to fill that giant tank?
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... the Windows Registry isn't on that list.
I guess that would be on the SOFTWARE engineering list.
P.S. I understand it's harder to have an orgasm using a horizontal-load washer than a top-loader. Not that this is relevant to the environment or anything. But I like noting it.
It's not funny to the 21 people who died.
Don't worry, they won't read the article
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
We're having a civilised discussion here. There's no need to go around mooning people! :)
That second one looks disturbingly like the goatse.cx guy.
"Are you being weird, or sarcastic?" said Emma. I said I didn't know because I get the two feelings mixed up.