National, Regional and Local News

[ti-amie]

[MJ2004]

[Suliso]

This really is uniquely American. I've never heard of similar movements in EU. Our extremists are usually ethnic based or religious.

[ti-amie]

Condo Wreckage Hints at First Signs of Possible Construction Flaw
Engineers studying the collapsed Florida tower said there seemed to be less steel reinforcement in certain areas than would have been expected from the 1979 design drawings.





By James Glanz, Mike Baker and Anjali Singhvi
July 3, 2021
Engineers who have visited or examined photos of the wreckage of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex have been struck by a possible flaw in its construction: Critical places near the base of the building appeared to use less steel reinforcement than called for in the project’s original design drawings.

The observation is the first detail to emerge pointing to a potential problem in the quality of construction of the 13-story condo tower in Surfside, Fla., that collapsed last month, killing at least 24 and leaving up to 121 still unaccounted for.

Reached by phone, Allyn E. Kilsheimer, a forensic engineering expert hired by the town of Surfside to investigate the collapse, said the investigation was still in its early stages. But he confirmed there were signs that the amount of steel used to connect concrete slabs below a parking deck to the building’s vertical columns might be less than what the project’s initial plans specified.

“The bars might not be arranged like the original drawings call for,” Mr. Kilsheimer said in an interview. He said he would need to inspect the rubble more closely to determine whether in fact the slab-to-column connections contained less steel than expected.

R. Shankar Nair, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and former chairman of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, was among the other engineers who reviewed photographs and saw inconsistencies between the design and the steel that remained visible in the columns.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/us/f ... rebar.html

[mmmm8]

I've always been freaked out by residential buildings on stilts or with more than one level of parking in the basement. Especially in climates with natural elements a potential factor. I logically understand they've been engineered to work, but just don't believe all circumstances are foreseen and/or there was no human error. This all doesn't help my fears.

[JazzNU]

Florida Twitter has been talking about the ground in many parts of South Florida being built on a bedrock of porous limestone. With an ocean and sea surrounding it and rising sea levels. Yikes.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[Suliso]

Simple mathematics will show that keeping everyone when earning collapse would work only for deep pocketed corporations. Let's have a very simplified example. I alone own a mid size company employing 100 people with an average income of 40k per year and overall per employee cost of business of 75k per year. That would be a total expenditure of 7.5 millions. In an average year we earn 8.5 million leaving about a million for me, say 0.6 million after taxes. Very good life and I could still absorb small fluctuations (10-15%) without downsizing. Now let's consider a pandemic - business collapses by 70%. We only earned 2.5 millions. Let's assume business costs have also decreased to 55k per year, but salaries stay the same. That means we're in a read by 3 million dollars per year or 4.5 million since the beginning of the pandemic. That's 7.5 years of my previous after tax income, no chance of me having that kind of savings. Only possible by going heavy in debt or massive government help.

Note that I deliberately modeled a company with high labor costs and tight margins as would be common in hospitality, entertainment, retail etc. Tech companies earn vastly more per employee, but those were also not that affected by this crisis.

[ponchi101]

Sure. Your math is flawless.
But what Miss Peck says about companies treating people like widgets is also true. "We have to answer to our shareholders" will always win.

[Suliso]

But what Miss Peck says about companies treating people like widgets is also true. "We have to answer to our shareholders" will always win.

Yeah, but that applies mostly to 1,000+ employee publicly traded companies.

[JazzNU]

Product recall just came out, pretty damn urgent given the heat waves we have across the country. Please share this info with your family and friends. Both Tweets have links that list the products clearly, the CNET has photos of the products as well.

[ti-amie]

Gee I wonder who wa$ the in$pector who found a gift ba$ket under the table?

[ponchi101]

Better for it to collapse now than when the next hurricane hits and the entire root flies off into Georgia.
I said it before. I would not buy real estate in FL now, regardless of the price. Buying DOGECOIN looks safe in comparison.

[ti-amie]