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| funny civil engineering failures: To Engineer is Human Henry Petroski, 2018-10-16 “Though ours is an age of high technology, the essence of what engineering is and what engineers do is not common knowledge. Even the most elementary of principles upon which great bridges, jumbo jets, or super computers are built are alien concepts to many. This is so in part because engineering as a human endeavor is not yet integrated into our culture and intellectual tradition. And while educators are currently wrestling with the problem of introducing technology into conventional academic curricula, thus better preparing today’s students for life in a world increasingly technological, there is as yet no consensus as to how technological literacy can best be achieved. I believe, and I argue in this essay, that the ideas of engineering are in fact in our bones and part of our human nature and experience. Furthermore, I believe that an understanding and an appreciation of engineers and engineering can be gotten without an engineering or technical education. Thus I hope that the technologically uninitiated will come to read what I have written as an introduction to technology. Indeed, this book is my answer to the questions 'What is engineering?' and 'What do engineers do?' - Henry Petroski, To Engineer is Human |
| funny civil engineering failures: Hostages of Each Other Joseph V. Rees, 2009-08-03 Rees offers the first in-depth account of the extraordinary transformation in the safety standards, operations, and management of the nation's nuclear facilities spurred by the accident at Three Mile Island. Detailing the surprising success of self-regulation within the nuclear industry, his book reveals the possibilities for effective communitarian action. |
| funny civil engineering failures: To Forgive Design Henry Petroski, 2012-04-13 Argues that failures in structural engineering are not necessarily due to the physical design of the structures, but instead a misunderstanding of how cultural and socioeconomic constraints would affect the structures. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Humble Pi Matt Parker, 2021-01-19 #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER AN ADAM SAVAGE BOOK CLUB PICK The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, “When am I ever going to use this in the real world?” “Fun, informative, and relentlessly entertaining, Humble Pi is a charming and very readable guide to some of humanity's all-time greatest miscalculations—that also gives you permission to feel a little better about some of your own mistakes.” —Ryan North, author of How to Invent Everything Our whole world is built on math, from the code running a website to the equations enabling the design of skyscrapers and bridges. Most of the time this math works quietly behind the scenes . . . until it doesn’t. All sorts of seemingly innocuous mathematical mistakes can have significant consequences. Math is easy to ignore until a misplaced decimal point upends the stock market, a unit conversion error causes a plane to crash, or someone divides by zero and stalls a battleship in the middle of the ocean. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Historic Ground Failures in Northern California Triggered by Earthquakes T. Leslie Youd, Seena N. Hoose, Geological Survey (U.S.), 1978 |
| funny civil engineering failures: Ask a Manager Alison Green, 2018-05-01 From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together |
| funny civil engineering failures: Site Reliability Engineering Niall Richard Murphy, Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, Jennifer Petoff, 2016-03-23 The overwhelming majority of a software system’s lifespan is spent in use, not in design or implementation. So, why does conventional wisdom insist that software engineers focus primarily on the design and development of large-scale computing systems? In this collection of essays and articles, key members of Google’s Site Reliability Team explain how and why their commitment to the entire lifecycle has enabled the company to successfully build, deploy, monitor, and maintain some of the largest software systems in the world. You’ll learn the principles and practices that enable Google engineers to make systems more scalable, reliable, and efficient—lessons directly applicable to your organization. This book is divided into four sections: Introduction—Learn what site reliability engineering is and why it differs from conventional IT industry practices Principles—Examine the patterns, behaviors, and areas of concern that influence the work of a site reliability engineer (SRE) Practices—Understand the theory and practice of an SRE’s day-to-day work: building and operating large distributed computing systems Management—Explore Google's best practices for training, communication, and meetings that your organization can use |
| funny civil engineering failures: CivilWarLand in Bad Decline George Saunders, 2016-04-26 Since its publication in 1996, George Saunders’s debut collection has grown in esteem from a cherished cult classic to a masterpiece of the form, inspiring an entire generation of writers along the way. In six stories and a novella, Saunders hatches an unforgettable cast of characters, each struggling to survive in an increasingly haywire world. With a new introduction by Joshua Ferris and a new author’s note by Saunders himself, this edition is essential reading for those seeking to discover or revisit a virtuosic, disturbingly prescient voice. Praise for George Saunders and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline “It’s no exaggeration to say that short story master George Saunders helped change the trajectory of American fiction.”—The Wall Street Journal “Saunders’s satiric vision of America is dark and demented; it’s also ferocious and very funny.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “George Saunders is a writer of arresting brilliance and originality, with a sure sense of his material and apparently inexhaustible resources of voice. [CivilWarLand in Bad Decline] is scary, hilarious, and unforgettable.”—Tobias Wolff “Saunders makes the all-but-impossible look effortless.”—Jonathan Franzen “Not since Twain has America produced a satirist this funny.”—Zadie Smith “An astoundingly tuned voice—graceful, dark, authentic, and funny—telling just the kinds of stories we need to get us through these times.”—Thomas Pynchon |
| funny civil engineering failures: Debugging Teams Brian W. Fitzpatrick, Ben Collins-Sussman, 2015-10-13 In the course of their 20+-year engineering careers, authors Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman have picked up a treasure trove of wisdom and anecdotes about how successful teams work together. Their conclusion? Even among people who have spent decades learning the technical side of their jobs, most haven’t really focused on the human component. Learning to collaborate is just as important to success. If you invest in the soft skills of your job, you can have a much greater impact for the same amount of effort. The authors share their insights on how to lead a team effectively, navigate an organization, and build a healthy relationship with the users of your software. This is valuable information from two respected software engineers whose popular series of talks—including Working with Poisonous People—has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Civil Engineering Pe Practice Exams Civil PE Practice, 2018-01-25 Two Full Breadth Practice Exams for the Civil Engineering PE Exam Contains 80 problems that are representative of the actual Civil Engineering PE Exam. Each question has been designed in accordance with the latest NCEES specifications. These questions were created by real, practicing civil engineers that are familiar with the actual exam. Each question comes with a detailed solution to help you study efficiently and effectively. Register your book at CivilPEPractice.com for additional practice questions! Exam Topics Covered: Project Planning Means and Methods Soil Mechanics Structural Mechanics Hydraulics and Hydrology Geometrics Materials Site Development |
| funny civil engineering failures: Conference on Civil Engineering Problems in the Colonies Institution of Civil Engineers (Great Britain), 1953 Proceedings of a conference held on 16-20 June 1952. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Monsters Edward Regis, 2015-09-08 Oh, the humanity! Radio reporter Herbert Morrison's words on witnessing the destruction of the Hindenburg are etched in our collective memory. Yet, while the Hindenburg -- like the Titanic -- is a symbol of the technological hubris of a bygone era, we seem to have forgotten the lessons that can be learned from the infamous 1937 zeppelin disaster. Zeppelins were steerable balloons of highly flammable, explosive gas, but the sheer magic of seeing one of these behemoths afloat in the sky cast an irresistible spell over all those who saw them. In Monsters, Ed Regis explores the question of how a technology now so completely invalidated (and so fundamentally unsafe) ever managed to reach the high-risk level of development that it did. Through the story of the zeppelin's development, Regis examines the perils of what he calls pathological technologies -- inventions whose sizeable risks are routinely minimized as a result of their almost mystical allure. Such foolishness is not limited to the industrial age: newer examples of pathological technologies include the US government's planned use of hydrogen bombs for large-scale geoengineering projects; the phenomenally risky, expensive, and ultimately abandoned Superconducting Super Collider; and the exotic interstellar propulsion systems proposed for DARPA's present-day 100 Year Starship project. In case after case, the romantic appeal of foolishly ambitious technologies has blinded us to their shortcomings, dangers, and costs. Both a history of technological folly and a powerful cautionary tale for future technologies and other grandiose schemes, Monsters is essential reading for experts and citizens hoping to see new technologies through clear eyes. |
| funny civil engineering failures: The Sky Scrappers Mabel Osborne, Caroline Wright, Sara M. Bourke, 1906 |
| funny civil engineering failures: Black Klansman Ron Stallworth, 2018-06-05 The #1 New York Times Bestseller! The extraordinary true story and basis for the Academy Award winning film BlacKkKlansman, written and directed by Spike Lee, produced by Jordan Peele, and starring John David Washington and Adam Driver. When detective Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, comes across a classified ad in the local paper asking for all those interested in joining the Ku Klux Klan to contact a P.O. box, Detective Stallworth does his job and responds with interest, using his real name while posing as a white man. He figures he’ll receive a few brochures in the mail, maybe even a magazine, and learn more about a growing terrorist threat in his community. A few weeks later the office phone rings, and the caller asks Ron a question he thought he’d never have to answer, “Would you like to join our cause?” This is 1978, and the KKK is on the rise in the United States. Its Grand Wizard, David Duke, has made a name for himself, appearing on talk shows, and major magazine interviews preaching a “kinder” Klan that wants nothing more than to preserve a heritage, and to restore a nation to its former glory. Ron answers the caller’s question that night with a yes, launching what is surely one of the most audacious, and incredible undercover investigations in history. Ron recruits his partner Chuck to play the white Ron Stallworth, while Stallworth himself conducts all subsequent phone conversations. During the months-long investigation, Stallworth sabotages cross burnings, exposes white supremacists in the military, and even befriends David Duke himself. Black Klansman is an amazing true story that reads like a crime thriller, and a searing portrait of a divided America and the extraordinary heroes who dare to fight back. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Rosie Revere, Engineer Andrea Beaty, 2013-09-03 In this beloved New York Times bestselling picture book, meet Rosie Revere, a seemingly quiet girl by day but a brilliant inventor of gizmos and gadgets by night. Rosie dreams of becoming a great engineer, and her room becomes a secret workshop where she constructs ingenious inventions from odds and ends. From hot dog dispensers to helium pants and python-repelling cheese hats, Rosie's creations would astound anyone—if only she'd let them see. But Rosie is afraid of failure, so she hides her inventions under her bed. That is, until her great-great-aunt Rose (also known as Rosie the Riveter) pays her a visit. Aunt Rose teaches Rosie that the first flop isn't something to fear; it's something to celebrate. Failure only truly happens if you quit. And so, Rosie learns to embrace her passion, celebrate her missteps, and pursue her dreams with persistence. This empowering picture book encourages young readers to explore their creativity, persevere through challenges, and celebrate the journey toward achieving their goals. Whether you're a budding engineer or simply love stories of resilience, Rosie Revere, Engineer is a delightful read for all ages. Add this inspiring tale to your family library and discover the magic of celebrating each failure on the road to success. Don’t miss the book that the Duchess of York recently chose to read aloud at a Literally Healing visit to a children’s hospital. For more STEM-themed adventures, check out other titles by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts, including Ada Twist, Scientist, Iggy Peck, Architect, and Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters. “Will no doubt inspire conversations with children about the benefits of failure and the pursuit of dreams.” —School Library Journal Check out all the books in the Questioneers Series: The Questioneers Picture Book Series: Iggy Peck, Architect | Rosie Revere, Engineer | Ada Twist, Scientist | Sofia Valdez, Future Prez | Aaron Slater, Illustrator | Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year The Questioneers Chapter Book Series: Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters | Ada Twist and the Perilous Pants | Iggy Peck and the Mysterious Mansion | Sofia Valdez and the Vanishing Vote | Ada Twist and the Disappearing Dogs | Aaron Slater and the Sneaky Snake Questioneers: The Why Files Series: Exploring Flight! | All About Plants! | The Science of Baking | Bug Bonanza! | Rockin’ Robots! Questioneers: Ada Twist, Scientist Series: Ghost Busted | Show Me the Bunny | Ada Twist, Scientist: Brainstorm Book | 5-Minute Ada Twist, Scientist Stories The Questioneers Big Project Book Series: Iggy Peck’s Big Project Book for Amazing Architects | Rosie Revere’s Big Project Book for Bold Engineers | Ada Twist’s Big Project Book for Stellar Scientists | Sofia Valdez’s Big Project Book for Awesome Activists | Aaron Slater’s Big Project Book for Astonishing Artists |
| funny civil engineering failures: Albion's Seed David Hackett Fischer, 1991-03-14 This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are Albion's Seed, no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Engineering and Mining Journal , 1916 |
| funny civil engineering failures: Teaching Engineering, Second Edition Phillip C. Wankat, Frank S. Oreovicz, 2015-01-15 The majority of professors have never had a formal course in education, and the most common method for learning how to teach is on-the-job training. This represents a challenge for disciplines with ever more complex subject matter, and a lost opportunity when new active learning approaches to education are yielding dramatic improvements in student learning and retention. This book aims to cover all aspects of teaching engineering and other technical subjects. It presents both practical matters and educational theories in a format useful for both new and experienced teachers. It is organized to start with specific, practical teaching applications and then leads to psychological and educational theories. The practical orientation section explains how to develop objectives and then use them to enhance student learning, and the theoretical orientation section discusses the theoretical basis for learning/teaching and its impact on students. Written mainly for PhD students and professors in all areas of engineering, the book may be used as a text for graduate-level classes and professional workshops or by professionals who wish to read it on their own. Although the focus is engineering education, most of this book will be useful to teachers in other disciplines. Teaching is a complex human activity, so it is impossible to develop a formula that guarantees it will be excellent. However, the methods in this book will help all professors become good teachers while spending less time preparing for the classroom. This is a new edition of the well-received volume published by McGraw-Hill in 1993. It includes an entirely revised section on the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and new sections on the characteristics of great teachers, different active learning methods, the application of technology in the classroom (from clickers to intelligent tutorial systems), and how people learn. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Seeing Like a State James C. Scott, 2020-03-17 “One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.”—John Gray, New York Times Book Review Hailed as “a magisterial critique of top-down social planning” by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail—sometimes catastrophically—in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters. “Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.”—New Yorker “A tour de force.”— Charles Tilly, Columbia University |
| funny civil engineering failures: A Life in Error Professor James Reason, 2013-11-01 This succinct but absorbing book covers the main way stations on James Reason’s 40-year journey in pursuit of the nature and varieties of human error. He presents an engrossing and very personal perspective, offering the reader exceptional insights, wisdom and wit as only James Reason can. A Life in Error charts the development of his seminal and hugely influential work from its original focus on individual cognitive psychology through the broadening of scope to embrace social, organizational and systemic issues. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure Department of Defense, 2009-12-31 The Standards of Conduct Office of the Department of Defense General Counsel's Office has assembled an encyclopedia of cases of ethical failure for use as a training tool. These are real examples of Federal employees who have intentionally or unwittingly violated standards of conduct. Some cases are humorous, some sad, and all are real. Some will anger you as a Federal employee and some will anger you as an American taxpayer. Note the multiple jail and probation sentences, fines, employment terminations and other sanctions that were taken as a result of these ethical failures. Violations of many ethical standards involve criminal statutes. This updated (end of 2009) edition is organized by type of violations, including conflicts of interest, misuse of Government equipment, violations of post-employment restrictions, and travel. |
| funny civil engineering failures: The Cult of Smart Fredrik deBoer, 2020-08-04 Named one of Vulture’s Top 10 Best Books of 2020! Leftist firebrand Fredrik deBoer exposes the lie at the heart of our educational system and demands top-to-bottom reform. Everyone agrees that education is the key to creating a more just and equal world, and that our schools are broken and failing. Proposed reforms variously target incompetent teachers, corrupt union practices, or outdated curricula, but no one acknowledges a scientifically-proven fact that we all understand intuitively: Academic potential varies between individuals, and cannot be dramatically improved. In The Cult of Smart, educator and outspoken leftist Fredrik deBoer exposes this omission as the central flaw of our entire society, which has created and perpetuated an unjust class structure based on intellectual ability. Since cognitive talent varies from person to person, our education system can never create equal opportunity for all. Instead, it teaches our children that hierarchy and competition are natural, and that human value should be based on intelligence. These ideas are counter to everything that the left believes, but until they acknowledge the existence of individual cognitive differences, progressives remain complicit in keeping the status quo in place. This passionate, voice-driven manifesto demands that we embrace a new goal for education: equality of outcomes. We must create a world that has a place for everyone, not just the academically talented. But we’ll never achieve this dream until the Cult of Smart is destroyed. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Traffic Tom Vanderbilt, 2009-08-11 Driving is a fact of life. We are all spending more and more time on the road, and traffic is an issue we face everyday. This book will make you think about it in a whole new light. We have always had a passion for cars and driving. Now Traffic offers us an exceptionally rich understanding of that passion. Vanderbilt explains why traffic jams form, outlines the unintended consequences of our attempts to engineer safety and even identifies the most common mistakes drivers make in parking lots. Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, Traffic gets under the hood of the quotidian activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological and technical factors that explain how traffic works. |
| funny civil engineering failures: The Failure of Success Robert Theobald, Stephanie Mills, 1973 |
| funny civil engineering failures: Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials Shuenn-Yih Chang, Suad Khalid Al Bahar, Jingying Zhao, 2012-10-31 Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials presents the state-of-the-art development in: - Structural Engineering - Road & Bridge Engineering - Geotechnical Engineering - Architecture & Urban Planning - Transportation Engineering - Hydraulic Engineering - Engineering Management - Computational Mechanics - Construction Technology - Building Materials - Environmental Engineering - Computer Simulation - CAD/CAE Emphasis was given to basic methodologies, scientific development and engineering applications. Advances in Civil Engineering and Building Materials will be useful to professionals, academics, and Ph.D. students interested in the above mentioned areas. |
| funny civil engineering failures: The Control of Nature John McPhee, 2011-04-01 While John McPhee was working on his previous book, Rising from the Plains, he happened to walk by the engineering building at the University of Wyoming, where words etched in limestone said: Strive on--the control of Nature is won, not given. In the morning sunlight, that central phrase--the control of nature--seemed to sparkle with unintended ambiguity. Bilateral, symmetrical, it could with equal speed travel in opposite directions. For some years, he had been planning a book about places in the world where people have been engaged in all-out battles with nature, about (in the words of the book itself) any struggle against natural forces--heroic or venal, rash or well advised--when human beings conscript themselves to fight against the earth, to take what is not given, to rout the destroying enemy, to surround the base of Mt. Olympus demanding and expecting the surrender of the gods. His interest had first been sparked when he went into the Atchafalaya--the largest river swamp in North America--and had learned that virtually all of its waters were metered and rationed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' project called Old River Control. In the natural cycles of the Mississippi's deltaic plain, the time had come for the Mississippi to change course, to shift its mouth more than a hundred miles and go down the Atchafalaya, one of its distributary branches. The United States could not afford that--for New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and all the industries that lie between would be cut off from river commerce with the rest of the nation. At a place called Old River, the Corps therefore had built a great fortress--part dam, part valve--to restrain the flow of the Atchafalaya and compel the Mississippi to stay where it is. In Iceland, in 1973, an island split open without warning and huge volumes of lava began moving in the direction of a harbor scarcely half a mile away. It was not only Iceland's premier fishing port (accounting for a large percentage of Iceland's export economy) but it was also the only harbor along the nation's southern coast. As the lava threatened to fill the harbor and wipe it out, a physicist named Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson suggested a way to fight against the flowing red rock--initiating an all-out endeavor unique in human history. On the big island of Hawaii, one of the world's two must eruptive hot spots, people are not unmindful of the Icelandic example. McPhee went to Hawaii to talk with them and to walk beside the edges of a molten lake and incandescent rivers. Some of the more expensive real estate in Los Angeles is up against mountains that are rising and disintegrating as rapidly as any in the world. After a complex coincidence of natural events, boulders will flow out of these mountains like fish eggs, mixed with mud, sand, and smaller rocks in a cascading mass known as debris flow. Plucking up trees and cars, bursting through doors and windows, filling up houses to their eaves, debris flows threaten the lives of people living in and near Los Angeles' famous canyons. At extraordinary expense the city has built a hundred and fifty stadium-like basins in a daring effort to catch the debris. Taking us deep into these contested territories, McPhee details the strategies and tactics through which people attempt to control nature. Most striking in his vivid depiction of the main contestants: nature in complex and awesome guises, and those who would attempt to wrest control from her--stubborn, often ingenious, and always arresting characters. |
| funny civil engineering failures: When Science Goes Wrong Simon LeVay, 2008-03-25 Brilliant scientific successes have helped shape our world, and are always celebrated. However, for every victory, there are no doubt numerous little-known blunders. Neuroscientist Simon LeVay brings together a collection of fascinating, yet shocking, stories of failure from recent scientific history in When Science Goes Wrong. From the fields of forensics and microbiology to nuclear physics and meteorology, in When Science Goes Wrong LeVay shares twelve true essays illustrating a variety of ways in which the scientific process can go awry. Failures, disasters and other negative outcomes of science can result not only from bad luck, but from causes including failure to follow appropriate procedures and heed warnings, ethical breaches, quick pressure to obtain results, and even fraud. Often, as LeVay notes, the greatest opportunity for notable mishaps occurs when science serves human ends. LeVay shares these examples: To counteract the onslaught of Parkinson’s disease, a patient undergoes cutting-edge brain surgery using fetal transplants, and is later found to have hair and cartilage growing inside his brain. In 1999, NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft is lost due to an error in calculation, only months after the agency adopts a policy of “Faster, Better, Cheaper.” Britain’s Bracknell weather forecasting team predicts two possible outcomes for a potentially violent system, but is pressured into releasing a ‘milder’ forecast. The BBC’s top weatherman reports there is “no hurricane”, while later the storm hits, devastating southeast England. Ignoring signals of an imminent eruption, scientists decide to lead a party to hike into the crater of a dormant volcano in Columbia, causing injury and death. When Science Goes Wrong provides a compelling glimpse into human ambition in scientific pursuit. |
| funny civil engineering failures: PPI PE Civil Practice Problems, 16th Edition – Comprehensive Practice for the NCEES PE Civil Exam Michael R. Lindeburg, 2019-03-01 CEPP16 - The Most Comprehensive Practice on the Market for the PE Civil exam! PE Civil Practice Problems contains over 900 problems designed to reinforce your knowledge of the topics presented in the PE Civil Reference Manual (CERM16). Short, multiple-choice problems that focus on individual engineering concepts and longer, more complex problems challenge your skills in identifying and applying related engineering concepts. Problems will also familiarize you with the codes and standards you’ll use on the civil engineering exam. Topics Covered: Civil Breadth Project Planning; Means and Methods; Soil Mechanics; Structural Mechanics; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Geometrics; Materials; Site Development Construction Earthwork Construction and Layout; Estimating Quantities and Costs; Construction Operations and Methods; Scheduling; Material Quality Control and Production; Temporary Structures; Health and Safety Geotechnical Site Characterization; Soil Mechanics, Laboratory Testing, and Analysis; Field Materials Testing, Methods, and Safety; Earthquake Engineering and Dynamic Loads; Earth Structures; Groundwater and Seepage; Problematic Soil and Rock Conditions; Earth Retaining Structures; Shallow Foundations; Deep Foundations Structural Analysis of Structures; Design and Details of Structures; Codes and Construction Transportation Traffic Engineering; Horizontal Design; Vertical Design; Intersection Geometry; Roadside and Cross-Section Design; Signal Design; Traffic Control Design; Geotechnical and Pavement; Drainage; Alternatives Analysis Water Resources and Environmental Analysis and Design; Hydraulics–Closed Conduit; Hydraulics–Open Channel; Hydrology; Groundwater and Wells; Wastewater Collection and Treatment; Water Quality; Drinking Water Distribution and Treatment; Engineering Economic Analysis Key Features: Over 900 practice problems to help prepare you for the NCEES PE Civil Exam. Frequent references to figures, tables, equations, and appendices in the PE Civil Reference Manual. Six-minute, multiple-choice problems that follow the NCEES PE Civil exam problem format and focus on individual engineering concepts. Complex problems that challenge your skills in identifying and applying related engineering concepts. Equally supports U.S. customary and SI units and meticulously identifies units that carry through in all calculations. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Schneier on Security Bruce Schneier, 2009-03-16 Presenting invaluable advice from the world?s most famous computer security expert, this intensely readable collection features some of the most insightful and informative coverage of the strengths and weaknesses of computer security and the price people pay -- figuratively and literally -- when security fails. Discussing the issues surrounding things such as airplanes, passports, voting machines, ID cards, cameras, passwords, Internet banking, sporting events, computers, and castles, this book is a must-read for anyone who values security at any level -- business, technical, or personal. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Blindsight Peter Watts, 2006-10-03 Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Engineering in Emergencies Jan Davis, 2002 Includes statistics. |
| funny civil engineering failures: A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole, 2007-12-01 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize “A masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.”—The New York Times Book Review A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times). |
| funny civil engineering failures: Ethical Issues in Engineering Deborah G. Johnson, 1991 This anthology focuses on ethical issues confronting individual engineers and the entire engineering profession. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Fifty Challenging Problems in Probability with Solutions Frederick Mosteller, 2012-04-26 Remarkable puzzlers, graded in difficulty, illustrate elementary and advanced aspects of probability. These problems were selected for originality, general interest, or because they demonstrate valuable techniques. Also includes detailed solutions. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Working Guide to Process Equipment, Third Edition Norman Lieberman, Elizabeth Lieberman, 2008-05-18 Diagnose and Troubleshoot Problems in Chemical Process Equipment with This Updated Classic! Chemical engineers and plant operators can rely on the Third Edition of A Working Guide to Process Equipment for the latest diagnostic tips, practical examples, and detailed illustrations for pinpointing trouble and correcting problems in chemical process equipment. This updated classic contains new chapters on Control Valves, Cooling Towers, Waste Heat Boilers, Catalytic Effects, Fundamental Concepts of Process Equipment, and Process Safety. Filled with worked-out calculations, the book examines everything from trays, reboilers, instruments, air coolers, and steam turbines...to fired heaters, refrigeration systems, centrifugal pumps, separators, and compressors. The authors simplify complex issues and explain the technical issues needed to solve all kinds of equipment problems. Comprehensive and clear, the Third Edition of A Working Guide to Process Equipment features: Guidance on diagnosing and troubleshooting process equipment problems Explanations of how theory applies to real-world equipment operations Many useful tips, examples, illustrations, and worked-out calculations New to this edition: Control Valves, Cooling Towers, Waste Heat Boilers, Catalytic Effects, and Process Safety Inside this Renowned Guide to Solving Process Equipment Problems • Trays • Tower Pressure • Distillation Towers • Reboilers • Instruments • Packed Towers • Steam and Condensate Systems • Bubble Point and Dew Point • Steam Strippers • Draw-Off Nozzle Hydraulics • Pumparounds and Tower Heat Flows • Condensers and Tower Pressure Control • Air Coolers • Deaerators and Steam Systems • Vacuum Systems • Steam Turbines • Surface Condensers • Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers • Fire Heaters • Refrigeration Systems • Centrifugal Pumps • Separators • Compressors • Safety • Corrosion • Fluid Flow • Computer Modeling and Control • Field Troubleshooting Process Problems |
| funny civil engineering failures: California Engineer , 1923 |
| funny civil engineering failures: Engineering a Life Krishan K. Bedi, 2018-04-03 Included on BookBub’s The Most Exciting Memoirs Coming Out in 2018” list Krishan Bedi came to the United States in December of 1961 at the tender age of twenty. He had only $300 in his pocket, and he had made it out of his small village in India on sheer faith, determined to get education in the US. For him, there was no option but to succeed—so he began his new life in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he had to adapt to the culture shock not only of being in the US but a Punjabi man in the South in the 1960s. Engineering a Life is an examination of Bedi’s life, and how he has handled the plethora of curve balls thrown his way with determination, humor, and an unwavering faith that everything would work out. This is a book about values and faith and the importance of friendship, family, and hard work. It’s a story about achieving the American Dream, proving that no matter how thoroughly you map out your life’s journey, no matter how many blueprints you draw up, when you veer off the course you’ve plotted—as we all do, somehow, in the end—you end up where you’re supposed to be. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Strong Towns Charles L. Marohn, Jr., 2019-10-01 A new way forward for sustainable quality of life in cities of all sizes Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work. New development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle. Read this book to find out how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life. Develop in-depth knowledge of the underlying logic behind the “traditional” search for never-ending urban growth Learn practical solutions for ameliorating financial struggles through low-risk investment and a grassroots focus Gain insights and tools that can stop the vicious cycle of budget shortfalls and unexpected downturns Become a part of the Strong Towns revolution by shifting the focus away from top-down growth toward rebuilding American prosperity Strong Towns acknowledges that there is a problem with the American approach to growth and shows community leaders a new way forward. The Strong Towns response is a revolution in how we assemble the places we live. |
| funny civil engineering failures: Failure Case Studies Navid Nastar, Rui Liu (Structural engineer), 2019 This book gives examples of failed civil engineering projects and the lessons learned from the failures. The case studies were gathered by ASCE's Forensic Engineering Division-- |
| funny civil engineering failures: The Cornell Civil Engineer , 1913 |
r/funny - Reddit
r/funny: Reddit's largest humor depository. Memes of any sort are expressly forbidden. This includes any variety of memetic image or video format, any footage or photographs of memes …
Best Funny Posts - Reddit
Screenshots of Black people being hilarious or insightful on social media, it doesn't need to just be twitter but obviously that is best.
Funny India - Reddit
If a given piece of content has appeared on r/Funny before, do not post it. Sites like KarmaDecay and TinEye can help to determine the uniqueness of a given submission, but since neither site …
r/DadJokes - the best (and worst) Dad Jokes on reddit
Welcome! This is a friendly place for those cringe-worthy and (maybe) funny attempts at humour that we call dad jokes. Often (but not always) a verbal or visual pun, if it elicited a snort or face …
Minecraft Troll Commands : r/MinecraftCommands - Reddit
Jan 23, 2022 · The subreddit for all things related to Modded Minecraft for Minecraft Java Edition --- This subreddit was originally created for discussion around the FTB launcher and its …
Funniest/interesting character names : r/wow - Reddit
Really only funny because it's so stupid but my 12-13 year old main's name is cleverly named Dwarffguy. (I was 8-9 years old) I unfortunately had to add the 2nd F when I transferred realms …
r/dankmemes - Reddit
reposting a meme you saw on hot because you thought it was really funny; your post contains an advice animal format; you post an image with no caption and use the title as the text; posting …
Funny Pics - Reddit
A woman is driving a sports car around Hollywood and Los Angeles, California, with 'Thor the Great Dane' riding in the passenger seat. .
Funny Text-To-Speak Lines. : r/discordapp - Reddit
Jan 13, 2017 · This will be extremely long and annoying, but funny. Discord also describes emojis, so have fun with that. Namely, pile of feces, hands clapping, fork and knife, etc. Also, don't …
What is the Funniest Joke You've Ever Heard/Read?
A kindergarten teacher is trying to explain to her class the definition of the word "definitely". To make sure the students have a good understanding of the word, she asks them to use it in a …
r/funny - Reddit
r/funny: Reddit's largest humor depository. Memes of any sort are expressly forbidden. This includes any variety of memetic image or video format, any footage or photographs of memes …
Best Funny Posts - Reddit
Screenshots of Black people being hilarious or insightful on social media, it doesn't need to just be twitter but obviously that is best.
Funny India - Reddit
If a given piece of content has appeared on r/Funny before, do not post it. Sites like KarmaDecay and TinEye can help to determine the uniqueness of a given submission, but since neither site …
r/DadJokes - the best (and worst) Dad Jokes on reddit
Welcome! This is a friendly place for those cringe-worthy and (maybe) funny attempts at humour that we call dad jokes. Often (but not always) a verbal or visual pun, if it elicited a snort or face …
Minecraft Troll Commands : r/MinecraftCommands - Reddit
Jan 23, 2022 · The subreddit for all things related to Modded Minecraft for Minecraft Java Edition --- This subreddit was originally created for discussion around the FTB launcher and its …
Funniest/interesting character names : r/wow - Reddit
Really only funny because it's so stupid but my 12-13 year old main's name is cleverly named Dwarffguy. (I was 8-9 years old) I unfortunately had to add the 2nd F when I transferred realms …
r/dankmemes - Reddit
reposting a meme you saw on hot because you thought it was really funny; your post contains an advice animal format; you post an image with no caption and use the title as the text; posting …
Funny Pics - Reddit
A woman is driving a sports car around Hollywood and Los Angeles, California, with 'Thor the Great Dane' riding in the passenger seat. .
Funny Text-To-Speak Lines. : r/discordapp - Reddit
Jan 13, 2017 · This will be extremely long and annoying, but funny. Discord also describes emojis, so have fun with that. Namely, pile of feces, hands clapping, fork and knife, etc. Also, don't …
What is the Funniest Joke You've Ever Heard/Read?
A kindergarten teacher is trying to explain to her class the definition of the word "definitely". To make sure the students have a good understanding of the word, she asks them to use it in a …
