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Leaning Tower of Pisa Secure For 300 More Years
Ponca City, We Love You writes "The tower of Pisa began to lean five years after its construction began, in 1178, and by 1990 it had tilted more than four meters off its true vertical. Conservationists estimated that the entire 14,500-ton structure would collapse 'some time between 2030 and 2040.' Now the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been stabilized and declared safe for at least another three centuries. The stabilization, which cost $30M, was accomplished by anchoring it to cables and lead counterweights, while 70 tons of soil were removed from the side away from the lean, and cement was injected into the ground to relieve the pressure. The tilt has now returned to where it was in the early 19th century. Nicholas Shrady, author of Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa, says that the tower was destined to lean from the outset because it was built on 'what is essentially a former bog.' Shrady adds that the tower previously came close to collapsing in 1838, 1934, and 1995. (The commission convened in 1990 to study the tower's stability was the 17th such.) Although Galileo Galilei is said to have dropped cannon balls from the tower in a gravity experiment, Shrady says the myth is the result of 'the overripe imagination of Galileo's secretary and first biographer, Vincenzo Viviani.'"
As it is thus in ye olde lands whichst doth overflow with malodorous Gauls, so be it in Pisa, land of bogs and arduous oil-soaked men. The tower, it leans.
...tower of Pis began...The first of those is pretty obvious.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Hmm, proof readers day off then?
I'm usually leaning when I have a tower of piss.
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
I had Aug 2034 in the office pool.
You bastards.
He who said 1,000,000 monkeys on 1,000,000 typewriters would eventually type the great novel, never saw an AOL chat room
Hint: Remember when Supes straightened the Tower after being exposed to the tar-kryptonite?
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
Remarks like that are an open invitation for epic failure.
To me, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was a monument of how human mistakes live on for centuries, and it was a miracle it was still standing. Now they've gone and reinforced it and taken all the fun out of it. They might as well have straightened it... It was also funny to me how an utterly useless building (who'd want to work with gravity pulling you gently towards the open window?) is conserved simply because it's old. If the same thing had happened today, which it does on a regular basis, the building would have been torn down.
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
Am I right?
Tower Of Pies
Crivens! I kicked meself in me own heid!
Another 300 years of putting up with Leaning Tower of Pizza jokes.
If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
Of course if they straightened it totally it would be worse, because the top leans the other way slightly as the builders attempted to compensate.
Reading the comments so far about the summary, it seems you're all being just a wee bit insensitive.
It's not "proofreaders' day off", you insensitive clods.
"5 years aer its construction began" is just Scots...
It's right besides the Empire Scat Building!
Let it fall already.... please!!
I'm sorry, this is totally off topic, but to get an answer to this, posting it in the first thread is my best chance, probably.
;)
I used to get 5 moderator points, then a while ago, I had 10, now I have 15... Does anyone have any clue what on earth is going on? Do they stack over time if unused?
And to stay slightly on-topic: I find it hilarious that they're fixing old engineering mistakes using modern engineering principles that are technically over 3000 years old
Coz eternity my friend, is a long *ing time.
Isn't that one of the tech descriptions for Gal Civ 2?
/me goes to look in the xml files
Yup.... it's the tech description for Soil Enhancement:
<Details>The other civilization leaders said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one...stayed up! So now you can do the same! Good luck to ye!</Details>
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
For $30 Million do you not think they could save it longer by straightening it?
...built.
There was a baker who had become rather popular with his breads, sandwiches and soups. He experimented with new and wonderful, and sometimes not so wonderful meal idea. By accident one day a shelf bracket in his kitchen gave way and though nothing had gotten broken various item spilled onto the counter where he was making various products. In cleaning up the mess he scoped meats and chesses and sauces onto a flatten, by the shelf, bread dough. Being the experimental type and not wanting to waste his supplies he decided to put the results in the oven instead of throwing it out.
This was the first pizza, but it wasn't perfected as the dough seemed to be a problem. Regardless he found the meal was good and decided to offer it to his customers, one of which was a close friend and building contractor who had been given a contract for a tower. These fluffy pies were selling well but the bread was still a problem and he couldn't figure out what had gotten mixed in the accident to cause the bread to stay flat rather than rise and spill the toppings.
He got to talking with his building contractor friend and explored ideas as to how to make the dough stay flat. They thought they figured it out, with a hard object (shelf) suddenly against the bread dough to flatten it. The contractor had an idea, that he'd build the building just slightly off level so his good friend could drop the dough from a height that would flatten the dough as it hit he hard ground. And once the building was built they tried it, and it worked. They were going to many many such pies and become rich. Teh lower they dropped the dough, teh thicker the crust, the higher the thinner.
So theu went to work, moving dough ingredients and tools to make it and lots of water up the tower. Of course teh overflow of water that had to keep away from teh spot where they woudl drop teh dough, so the contractor made a drain that diverted the drained water to under the building. This pie production went on for a few months but another problem was discovered, a seasonal one... birds and more specifically bird poop. Seems the bread also attracted birds and the slight tilted angle of the building, upon which teh birds would purch, was also contributing to the collection of bird poop on the ground right where they would drop the dough.
Customer began to notice the underside of the pies and questionable taste. and there were many such customer and notables.
Anyways Italy started to become embarrassed with this "bakers invention" and decided to put a stop to it but realized it word had spread far about this new and wonderful pie invention. So they had to cover it up and deny it ever existed. So they renamed the tower of pizza to Pisa. As things were, teh water being directed under the building weakened the foundation and teh building has ever since continued to tilt more and more.
But the custom of dropping the dough from a height to flatten it, still exist today and some still do it outside, so check the bottom of any pizza you by for white spots.
This story details may be expanded by any other in the know...
It seems unlikely that removing 70 tons of soil and replacing it with concrete is going to do anything.
You've got 11,000+ tons of tower with a looong lever arm. Doing anything with under 1% of that mass at the base does not sound too effective.
... said I was daft to build a tower on a bog, but I built it all the same, just to show them.
Dear Will, the plums were poisoned. -- Cheese Club
Actually, they can be considered fact. I think you will find, however, that discerning minds would only consider one of the two works you mention as fact.
Perhaps you meant to say that neither can be known as fact.
Then again perhaps not. I doubt you meant to say that at all. Writing accurately would belie your selfish agenda; that is, attempting to compare the culmination of human discernment and human logic that is modern science to the culmination of human creativity that is religion.
Trying to do that shows me you aren't very scientific. But you know what? It also shows me that you aren't very religious.
-- arstchnca
--
I reckon they've actually done a really good job here. With modern equipment, I think that technically they could just fix the foundations and set it back to vertical. But if it's not leaning then it's not much of a tourist attraction anymore.
Stabilising an ancient tower in a still leaning position is pretty impressive.
Hmmm, I wonder if there will be something similar for our "tower" in the future...
Conservationists estimated that the entire 14,500-MB structure would BSOD 'some time between 2030 and 2040.' Now the Vulnerable Windows of Microsoft have been stabilized and declared safe for at least another three centuries. The stabilization, which cost $30M, was accomplished by anchoring it in a virtual machine with multi-megabyte counterweights, while 70 GB of malware was removed from the side away from the vulnerabilities, and x86 opcodes were injected into the image to relieve the pressure. The open vulnerabilities have now returned to where they were in the late 20th century.
"I find that work perfectly cromulent."
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
According to Wikipedia, they moved it about 45 cm, meaning 45 cm is the difference between toppling in the next few decades vs the next few centuries.
So, it seems that those builders, besides not being able to choose a good place to begin with, were unable to extrapolate. Which part of "if this goes on" they couldn't understand?
If it were me, I would stop building when it started leaning, and do it over somewhere else. To reduce the cost, the stones could be reused, just take it apart and put it back together where the ground is more suitable.
You've got a point. Maybe they would have been better off spending all those stabilization funds on eliminating noobishness.
Insightful.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
don't sweat the mod system.....keep posting and you'll get some points and see how it works.
Did you see the BBC played Python all day on Memorial day? I watched it for about 5 hours....haven't watched MP in a long time, laughed my ass off, again.
http://www.demotivators.com/med24x30prin.html
Damn interesting indeed! you should submit this to damninteresting.com!
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
I don't know why this is suddenly news, I saw a tv program on this, at least 5 years ago. They showed the cables and supports being fitted, and a few of the less successful methods too.
What? No Italian (or atleast Soviet Russia) jokes yet ? Well here goes -
Mario Luigi (Prince of Italy, 1624): I want-a tower a-so high that I take-a pis-a and it-a doesn't fall-a to the ground!
it really embiggens the discussion
The summary has a error. Cementicious grout is injected under the tower to *increase* the bearing pressure of the soil, not to reduce it as stated in the the summary.
no text
That could never work. The Tower has to be infinitely high. Although I hear in some flat states they've tried to built it one story tall:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_341.html
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Gallileo had a blogographer? wtf?
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Like 4. Tower of Quattro.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
With the Italians not having babies, who will see the tower in 300 years?
My guess is it will be used to call the faithful to pray 5 times a day.
Ironic how Europe worked so hard to kill off Christianity only how their atheism give way to Islam in 2 generations
Oh well, the future of Europe is a brown hand pulling a white life support cord out of the wall.
I wanted to see it come crashing down in my lifetime!
This sig is false.