IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

Public Safety Be Da……ed - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

My parents were married in 1942. My father was then an ironworker in the Bridge Department of the City of New York. Shortly thereafter, Mayor LaGuardia laid off those ironworkers as part of a cost cutting policy of “deferred maintenance” of New York City bridges. My father found work in Pittsburgh where he was kept away from his new bride. New York City bridges began to rust and decay to the point where LaGuardia’s unwise decision was rescinded and the bridge workers were recalled. Several New York City bridges themselves, according to my dad, had decayed to near collapse. Public safety concerns apparently played no part in Mayor LaGuardia’s administrative conduct.

Chevrolet introduced the Corvair automobile in 1960 with dynamic instability caused by rear end placement of the car’s engine. The issue was brought to public attention by Ralph Nader in his book “Unsafe At Any Speed”. Public safety concerns apparently played no part in Chevrolet corporate administrative conduct.

Ford introduced the Pinto automobile in 1971 with car fire danger arising from vulnerable rear end placement of the car’s gas tank. Public safety concerns apparently played no part in Ford corporate administrative conduct.

President Reagan laid off air traffic controllers in 1981 with no regard for replacements to fulfill the departed workers’ responsibilities. Diminished air traffic control capabilities were the result of a deliberate decision to take the risk of an airline catastrophe. Public safety concerns apparently played no part in President Reagan’s administrative conduct.

A container ship attempting in 2024 to leave Baltimore collided with and caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. I read that the ship’s radio operator tried to summon tug boat assistance when control power aboard the ship failed but there were no tug boats at hand. A decision had been made to leave the container ship to navigate past the bridge on its own power toward open water without tugboat assistance or backup. Public safety concerns apparently played no part in harbor resources administrative conduct.

We next read of a suspected suicide by John Barnett, formerly of Boeing:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-barnett-boeing-whistleblower-family-interview/

Please study the following excerpt.

We repeatedly receive jargon like “The safety of our ……. is our highest priority.” but I hold that such palliative verbiage is only there for show and tell. Over and over again, a disregard of public safety is the outcome of pressure for cost savings, of pressure for speedy production, of pressure to meet shipping schedules and even apparently of deliberate malfeasance.

To be utterly blunt, I deeply fear for my family’s safety. Their safety is NOT in good hands.

 

An Antique Ruler and A Safety Warning - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

This item turned up the other day. It’s a folding ruler made of wood with three brass hinges. The ruler can be set to six inches fully closed or, in increments of six inches, up to twenty four inches when fully extended.

The specific item’s identification is visible:

Putting “Stanley No. 68” into Google yielded some catalog info about this ruler and others too.

The uppermost left image appears to be the item at hand. I suspect that this device is older than I am and I am very much a “greybeard”. It is best however when examining a treasure like this to be on the alert for safety issues because this seemingly harmless ruler has something that almost injured me.

Two views are shown just to make sure of seeing that there are two metal spikes placed quite precisely on two of the six inch sections. There are corresponding holes in the other two six inch sections where the spikes can penetrate.

I discovered these spikes by accident while I was first examining the ruler. I was lucky not to have gashed myself. These spikes are that sharp, that hard and that firmly embedded. What purpose these spikes served seems unclear, but they might have served as retainers to keep the two outer hinges from being forced from side-to-side when the ruler was being carried in someone’s pocket. I don’t really know if that was their purpose or not. I do not even know if they were part of the original product or if they were put in place by somebody later. All I do know is that they are there and I wasn’t aware of that.

In any case, it is pretty clear that this ruler was manufactured well before OSHA or any other safety regulations were in place which points up a basic rule that I personally ignored but was lucky enough to not have suffered the consequences.

When first examining something unfamiliar, especially when first examining something unfamiliar and old, bear in mind that you might get hurt if you are not extremely cautious.

 

Alley Oop - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

The cartoon caveman Alley Oop is depicted as having been brought by scientist Dr. Wonmug out from his home community of Moo back in the stone age into this modern era. The question arises: Is Alley Oop an undocumented immigrant?

In a recent strip at   https://www.gocomics.com/alley-oop/2022/05/04   where Oop and his lady friend Ooola have been verbally driving Dr. Wonmug up the proverbial wall, the good doctor says to them:  "You can both change your last names to 'Da this cushy job' once I fire you for being so annoying."

Fire Oop and Ooola? From this dialog, if we infer that Oop and Ooola are each an undocumented immigrant, may we additionally infer that each of them is gainfully employed by Dr. Wonmug? Shall we therefore take it that each of them is operating as an independent contractor and is any of that legal?

In what currency are the two of them being paid? Are they being paid in cash? Dollars aren't going to be useful millions of years ago back in Moo and I can’t imagine either one of them shopping at Macy’s.

Also, what about income tax? Does their tax money go to the Internal Revenue Service or does it go to King Guz? (I put aside the question of whether King Guz and Queen Umpa are still Moovian monarchs.)

I  guess it's nice to work in a comic strip where such considerations just don't matter.

Verb Suffixes - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

You might have noticed that there are a lot of English language verbs that end either with the suffix “..ize” or with the suffix “..ate”. There don’t seem to be obvious reasons for one suffix being used instead of the other, but it can be a bit amusing to look at what would come out if one suffix were to be replaced by the other.

Please see:

Radio host Garrison Keillor once invented an organiztion called POEM (Professionial Organization of English Majors) from which perhaps some member could shed light on why one suffix is conventional and the other is not.

While composing this list by the way, guess what happened when I went to use the Spell Check.