Can you believe this bridge collapse in Minneapolis?

[merv]

For you in Auckland hope your bridge never does this http://www.stuff.co.nz/4150404a10.html

No mention of bikers involved.

[Winston001]

Yeah that is bloody horrifying, saw it on tv tonight. Not exactly third world construction, you'd wonder how it could happen.

[kro]

Bizarre thing. The yanks are usually so gung-ho on engineering standards, and often over engineer to ensure longevity. Sad state of affairs when people die as a result of structural failures.

[The Pastor]

too many fat yanks.


Good to see our harbour bridge has nice large cracks in the welds :)

[karmakillernz]

What I can't believe is that they had to reassure people it wasn't an act of terrorism - as if nothing bad in the world happens unless terrorists are involved. :mellow:

[merv]

Good to see our harbour bridge has nice large cracks in the welds :)

Yeah man your Nippon Clip-ons have been on the verge of collapse for years especially when the hikois march over the bridge.

[Steam]

Disaster in first-world country claims seven lives!
And makes great TV!

Meanwhile...

Daily death toll from starvation: 35,000 deaths per day.
Daily death toll of civilians in Iraq according to conservative UN estimates: 100 deaths per day.
Daily death toll from AIDS: 8,000 deaths per day.


Still, it made interesting TV, to see that mangled bridge. Disasters are cool.

[karmakillernz]

Disaster in first-world country claims seven lives!
And makes great TV!

Meanwhile...

Daily death toll from starvation: 35,000 deaths per day.
Daily death toll of civilians in Iraq according to conservative UN estimates: 100 deaths per day.
Daily death toll from AIDS: 8,000 deaths per day.


Still, it made interesting TV, to see that mangled bridge. Disasters are cool.

Ahh, but of course those things are happening every day so it's not technically news, is it? ;) People wouldn't tune in every day to hear "x people died today from AIDS... again."

And of course 7 people dying in a western country is much more digestable and relateable to Joe Public than many thousands dying in some far-away foreign land. I mean, look how quickly they were to start comparing it to our own Harbour Bridge.

[Steam]

You are quite right. We even recorded tv1 news while watching TV3, to see more pictures of it. But they were the same.

[sAsLEX]

America has a long legacy of crappy bridges.


Tacoma Narrows.

[Street Gerbil]

The worst part is that they are now using the term "recovery" instead of "rescue".

[Waylander]

Oh yes a Bridge collapses and it's fat stupid lazy americans. We try to help others, we get told to get lost not wanted, yet at the same time we're ridiculed for not helping.

Get fucked the lot of you.
How about no more TV for you? Cars? Computers? Phones? The internet?
Also, I see more fat people when walking down the street in this country, no matter what city, than I EVER did anywhere back in the states.

[MisterD]

I work for a Minneapolis-based company (not hard to guess which one), still waiting for confirmation that nobody I work with is affected...mobile network totally clogged yesterday afternoon.

[Dave Lobster]

Also, I see more fat people when walking down the street in this country, no matter what city, than I EVER did anywhere back in the states.

That's because all the fat people in the States are in cars!!

[Kickaha]

How about no more TV for you? Cars? Computers? Phones? The internet?


You're claiming Merkins invented all of those? :lol: you need to do a bit more research

[SARGE]

You're claiming Merkins invented all of those? :lol: you need to do a bit more research

the internet was developed by DARPA... an American Military project..

Henry Ford developed mass production of autos

most of the TV shows in NZ originate from the States...correct me if im wrong , but nz didnt have widespread TV until the mid 60's?


the PC was developed by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates..


granted .. Alex Graham Bell was a Scotsman but he was living in the US...



ive done my research .. please let me know if im mistaken about any of those ..

[Dave Lobster]

most of the TV shows in NZ originate from the States...

..

Is this a good thing?

[limbimtimwim]

the PC was developed by Steve Jobs and Bill GatesIf you mean 'PC' as in the concept of personal computer, then I would think Sir Clive Sinclair would be the one. He wasn't American.

Anyway, bridge tradgedy, really bad.

[James Deuce]

the internet was developed by DARPA... an American Military project..

No, the technology framework was paid for by military funding and was to provide a decentralised communications network for missile silos, air bases, and submarines. The Internet was the result of Universities using that technology for something other than launching WOMD. It started off in Berkeley and VERY quickly became an international project.


Henry Ford developed mass production of autos

No he didn't, and his wife came up with the idea for the production lines in Ford factories, based on sewing sweatshops of the time.


most of the TV shows in NZ originate from the States...correct me if im wrong , but nz didnt have widespread TV until the mid 60's?

Two separate lines of development for TV broadcast and reception, one Italian, on English following 40 years of development by French, Scots, Russians, and Italian electrical engineers and physicists. Without Michael Faraday the TV would never have happened.

WWII interrupted the roll-out of TV, and after WWII the US had a series of massive production industries with no war stuff to make. Meanwhile the millions of dollars demanded by the US from Great Britain kept that country impoverished for 20 years after WWII



the PC was developed by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates..

The Desktop PC was conceived by a team at IBM, and a focus group was setup to build a Personal Computer that would sit on a desk. Bill Gates made a steal when the IBM focus group was disbanded at the end of the project and folded back into "real" computing projects. He bought the rights to sell the O/S developed for the IBM PC and turned it into PC-DOS and then MS-DOS. C:\DOS. C:\DOS\RUN. RUN\DOS\RUN.

The less said about Steve Jobs the better. Until the iPod he hadn't made a single commercial usable product with mass-acceptance. He's not a technologist, and neither is Bill Gates. They are Geek marketing experts, using the brilliance of others for financial gain. Actuall physical PCs that people could by and use? A British invention. Go Sinclair!



granted .. Alex Graham Bell was a Scotsman but he was living in the US...

Telephony wasn't invented by any one person. The First telegraphic transmission was French and was a Fax transmission. In 1861 the first commercial fax machine was designed constructed and sold by an Italian called Giovanni Caselli.



ive done my research .. please let me know if im mistaken about any of those ..

There's a bridge in there somewhere.

They interviewed quite a few people on TV who'd fallen into the water. Didn't sound like something you'd want happening to anyone.

[Donor]

Meanwhile...

Daily death toll from starvation: 35,000 deaths per day.
Daily death toll of civilians in Iraq according to conservative UN estimates: 100 deaths per day.
Daily death toll from AIDS: 8,000 deaths per day.


2 out of three of these issues are fixable through a 12 minute vasectomy...

[Street Gerbil]

Guys, guys, calm down. What difference does it make at the moment. Most of the things you are talking about were invented by several people in different parts of the globe at the same time. The lucky ones who got into history books just managed to get more attention from press/were more interested or had better opportunities to patent their inventions.
Don't you think that in this particular instance bragging rights are irrelevant?
We can talk shit about american engineering screwups or talents later. For now, how about showing a bit of good old respect for the dead?

[86GSXR]

Bloody Hell. I drove across that bridge several times in 2005. I'm glad it didn't collapse then. What a terrible thing!

[Finn]

The less said about Steve Jobs the better. Until the iPod he hadn't made a single commercial usable product with mass-acceptance. He's not a technologist, and neither is Bill Gates. They are Geek marketing experts, using the brilliance of others for financial gain. Actuall physical PCs that people could by and use? A British invention. Go Sinclair!

If Steve Jobs apologised, would he say iSorry?

[merv]

If Steve Jobs apologised, would he say iSorry?

That sounds kind of Asian.

What are you doing digging this thread up are you just catching up on everything we wrote on KB while you were avoiding us or something?

[avgas]

Oh poor Jim2 - he never owned an apple 2 :(
It had DOS and was mass produced to the consumers back in the early 80's.
But now im confused - bridge?
And it wasnt C: Dos
it was a:dos as the old computers had no hard drive, just a massive 32 (if you were lucky) kB of memory and either tape or (if you were ultra mobile and trendy) 5.25" floppy.
This was a major avantage over the horrible, input/output and card systems of the past.
Now im going crazy off topic.
Why did the bridge fall again?

[avgas]

Daily death toll from starvation: 35,000 deaths per day.
Why don't they eat - silly monkeys deserve to die if they cant figure out why they are hungry