Slashdot Mirror
Big Dig - One of Engineering's Greatest Mistakes?
Enggirl1 writes "Design News discusses Boston's Big Dig and begs the question - is it one of engineering's greatest failures? The article reveals that forums and blogs are popping up all over the Internet as vehicles for engineers and contractors to discuss, under the guise of anonymity, their skepticism, thoughts and reactions to one of the biggest infrastructure failures in the news today." From the article: "One blogger, whose profile notes that he is an ICC Reinforced Concrete Special Inspector and an ICC Pre-stressed Concrete Special Inspector, among other specialties, says he has nearly 20 years of experience performing both placement and post-placement inspections of rebar, post-tensioning systems, concrete, masonry, etc. He says if structural engineers who specify epoxy for dowels and the like believe that the work is being done correctly then they live in a world unfamiliar to him."
Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
In languages, usage defines correctness. Therefore it is correct, whether you like it or not. QED.
Sorry, no. Take for example the lazy use of "I could care less," when the speaker actually means, "I couldn't care less."
There's absolutely no ambiguity about the meaning of these words:
"I"
"could"
"care"
and, "less"
Except, because people don't actually think about what they hell they're saying, they mumble "could" when they mean "couldn't" in the same way that they sing along with a song, uttering words that they know make no sense (but which they've been too lazy to actually look up), just because they think that's the sounds to sing. Phrases have meaning, and the more complex the phrase, the more precise the meaning. Plenty of people use phrases that mean the opposite of what they're trying to say... but their doing so doesn't mean we could flip around the meaning of "not" to its opposite. "I could not care less" doesn't mean the same thing as "I could care less," no matter how many people say it because their friends do. Un-QED. Back to you.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
The problem isn't one of changing usage, it's of namespace collision. 'Begging the Question' is the name of a specific logical fallacy. By claiming that it means something else, we are reducing the communicative capacity of the language. Tell me, when I want to refer to a logical conclusion being assumed in one of the premises, what do I say?
The same goes for the word "literally". That word has a well-defined, rather unique, meaning and by claiming it as something else, the language is damaged. It becomes more difficult to express a particular thought (that something actually happened, when the typical usage would imply that it merely happened figuratively).
If your theory is different from practice, then your theory is wrong.
Global Thermonuclear War. (From 'A Boy and His Dog').
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'