1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Engineer vs Congressman

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by bwilson4web, May 20, 2010.

  1. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2005
    27,397
    15,521
    0
    Location:
    Huntsville AL
    Vehicle:
    2018 Tesla Model 3
    Model:
    Prime Plus
    This isn't politics but a Congressman lying by shaving the truth. So how can you tell if a Congressman is lying? ... His lips are moving. But this ain't right:

    This is what good engineers do to understand and diagnose a problem. So this is what the Congressman said:
    Congressman Waxman had this testimony, this transcript. Engineers, good engineers, discuss a problem and seek to identify the parts, the elements. That is what the engineer was describing. Instead, Waxman takes a cheat "no written list of the potential causes to be explored."

    Congressman Waxman, engineers do not live in a world of written laws and precidents and manufactured rules. We deal with the natural world in part because it frequently surprises us with stuff we'd never seen before. We deal with reality, Mother Nature, and she is coy with her secrets. We don't have a stinkin' "written list of the potential causes" and if you, Congressman Waxman, think there is one . . .
    STAND AND DELIVER!
    ​
    Bob Wilson, one pissed engineer!
     
    #1 bwilson4web, May 20, 2010
  2. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

    Joined:
    Jul 5, 2009
    7,543
    1,558
    0
    Location:
    Alaska
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Testify brother!
     
    #2 spiderman, May 20, 2010
  3. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2009
    12,470
    6,862
    2
    Location:
    Greenwood MS USA
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Three
    My favorite saying as a Software engineer: So far as we know, we have no undetectable errors.
     
    #3 JimboPalmer, May 20, 2010
  4. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2007
    7,512
    1,185
    0
    Location:
    Carmichael, CA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Exponent engineer = Dilbert

    Congressman Waxman = Pointy Headed Boss
     
    #4 dogfriend, May 21, 2010
  5. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2005
    27,397
    15,521
    0
    Location:
    Huntsville AL
    Vehicle:
    2018 Tesla Model 3
    Model:
    Prime Plus
    I'm at page 19 of the transcript and I can only read a couple of pages . . . and then I have to do something else. It is obvious the committee lawyer wanted "the secret plan" or "the answer" and has absolutely no concept of the scientific method. It is the clash of two cultures and one carries the 'thinking' patterns of the Inquisition.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #5 bwilson4web, May 21, 2010
  6. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2007
    7,512
    1,185
    0
    Location:
    Carmichael, CA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    The scientific method does not make good political theater.
     
    #6 dogfriend, May 21, 2010
  7. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2010
    6,035
    3,855
    0
    Location:
    Rocky Mountains
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    Is this your hypothesis? :D
     
    #7 2k1Toaster, May 21, 2010
    2 people like this.
  8. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 21, 2004
    13,439
    640
    0
    Location:
    Winnipeg Manitoba
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    As a consulting engineer who has occasionally butted heads with legal types, I can only confirm that Shakespeare had the right idea
     
    #8 jayman, May 21, 2010
  9. Stev0

    Stev0 Honorary Hong Kong Cavalier

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2006
    7,201
    1,073
    0
    Location:
    Northampton, MA
    Vehicle:
    2022 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    #9 Stev0, May 21, 2010
  10. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2004
    14,487
    1,518
    0
    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Snopes does not mention Indiana, but does have the following, which suggests to me that the Indiana one might also be urban legend.

    Alabama says pi = 3?

    On the other hand, I would not put it past the goofuses who run our nation to do something like this, so maybe Indiana really did.
     
    #10 daniel, May 21, 2010
  11. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2007
    7,512
    1,185
    0
    Location:
    Carmichael, CA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    I prefer 22/7. Can we expect the people in Indiana to know how to divide two numbers? :madgrin:
     
    #11 dogfriend, May 21, 2010
  12. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2005
    27,397
    15,521
    0
    Location:
    Huntsville AL
    Vehicle:
    2018 Tesla Model 3
    Model:
    Prime Plus
    I've always been fond of 355/113 ... division of two pairs of three digit, odd numbers to approximate an irrational.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #12 bwilson4web, May 21, 2010
  13. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    May 11, 2004
    14,816
    2,498
    66
    Location:
    Far-North Chicagoland
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Advanced
    HEY! I'm a Hoosier.

    And yes, we can divide two numbers. It's just like dividing one only twice as hard.
     
    #13 TonyPSchaefer, May 21, 2010
  14. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2004
    14,487
    1,518
    0
    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    I've always found that 3.1415927 works well enough for my purposes.
     
    #14 daniel, May 21, 2010
  15. Stev0

    Stev0 Honorary Hong Kong Cavalier

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2006
    7,201
    1,073
    0
    Location:
    Northampton, MA
    Vehicle:
    2022 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    From the last paragraph of the Snopes article:

    And the only reason it died on the Senate floor is because a mathematician was coincidentally just happening to be visiting the senate at the time the bill was being debated and told everyone what nonsense it was.

    At the time I wrote the above post, I couldn't link to Wikipedia. Now I can, so here's a link to the article about [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill"]it[/ame].

    Also, recommended book: A History of Pi by Petr Beckmann.
     
    #15 Stev0, May 22, 2010
  16. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 21, 2004
    13,439
    640
    0
    Location:
    Winnipeg Manitoba
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    I often wonder why I spent all that time in school to become an engineer. It quickly became apparent, out in The Real World, that nobody listens to us. Critical decisions are made by bean counters and political hacks, not trained folks

    The worst - or best, depending on your perspective - example of this is Public Works. Key decision making responsibility is held by appointed political nice person kissers, who have zero knowledge of the systems they are in charge of

    I once had to explain why a given pump wasn't able to keep up with water demand. Put on the whiteboard many equations regarding various pump performance characteristics.

    The political hack looked at the white board, and his eyes glazed over. He finally stopped me and asked what the "x" stood for.

    "Which one?" I asked him

    "Any one" he replied

    Oy
     
    #16 jayman, May 22, 2010
  17. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    108,888
    49,478
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    probably why the tunnel ceiling collapsed here in boston or the 10' water main coupling let go after only 6 years.
     
    #17 bisco, May 22, 2010
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)