The attempted ending of a longstanding farce: >https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/464542/customers-expected-to-bear-cost-of-1-point-3-billion-scheme-to-vet-engineers
They are projecting $1.3 billions to re-educate our inept civil
engineers, when a few convictions for malfeasance would clean up the
problem far quicker and better. Why no prosecutions?
What I have personally seen: starting in the 1980's, a trendy line of >thinking permeated our civil engineering ranks -- our foolish
engineers thought they could design earthquake-proof buildings from
first principles, without the standard rigourous testing. They
decided that flexible engineering would accomodate the shaking
earthquakes. Idiots.
It was bad enough that they built multi-storey buildings along these
lines, but also had the gall to judge older, better-built buildings to
their own meritless standards. Older building which had proudly stood
for 50, 60, 80 years were "stickered" as being earthquake hazards,
with their tenants ordered out. The landlords protested in vain.
Enter the 2013 Seddon earthquake which shook the bejeesus out of all
the newly-built Wellington wonder buildings, but left the old
stickered buildings undamaged. The 2016 Kaikoura quake provided the
coup de grace -- and the old buildings remained undamaged.
This was a cultural problem where today's civil engineers thought they
were simply smarter than the previous generations, but the truth was
entirely the opposite. Nothing like prosecutions for malfeasance, >convictions and jail time to fix this problem. Instead Labour punishes
the taxpayers instead of the true culprits.
Get a load of this -- Latest engineering finding out of Taiwan is that old-style buildings do *better* in earthquakes than the recent
buildings from our idiot engineers: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/578271/buildings-that-drift-less-perform-better-in-quakes-according-to-growing-global-consensus
excerpt: ****************
In a Taiwan warehouse, researchers hit a button, and a five-storey, steel-and-concrete box begins to buck and sway. That's about the
closest researchers can get to how the sort of multi-storey commonly constructed in New Zealand 9000km away might behave in a large
earthquake. The revelations from the work are now coming in.
"You know, partition walls, gypsum board that we use, windows, doors,
even ceilings, which previously we thought would do worse in more
robust buildings, we're seeing all these components do much better,"
said Santiago Pujol.
**** end excerpt **********
Who knew? Willy knew. Below is my article from a few years ago where
I laid this out exactly. Enjoy again, and remember, Willy is (almost)
always right:
On Sun, 03 Apr 2022, willynilly@qwert.com (Willy Nilly) wrote:
The attempted ending of a longstanding farce:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/464542/customers-expected-to-bear-cost-of-1-point-3-billion-scheme-to-vet-engineers
They are projecting $1.3 billions to re-educate our inept civil
engineers, when a few convictions for malfeasance would clean up the
problem far quicker and better. Why no prosecutions?
What I have personally seen: starting in the 1980's, a trendy line of
thinking permeated our civil engineering ranks -- our foolish
engineers thought they could design earthquake-proof buildings from
first principles, without the standard rigourous testing. They
decided that flexible engineering would accomodate the shaking
earthquakes. Idiots.
It was bad enough that they built multi-storey buildings along these
lines, but also had the gall to judge older, better-built buildings to
their own meritless standards. Older building which had proudly stood
for 50, 60, 80 years were "stickered" as being earthquake hazards,
with their tenants ordered out. The landlords protested in vain.
Enter the 2013 Seddon earthquake which shook the bejeesus out of all
the newly-built Wellington wonder buildings, but left the old
stickered buildings undamaged. The 2016 Kaikoura quake provided the
coup de grace -- and the old buildings remained undamaged.
This was a cultural problem where today's civil engineers thought they
were simply smarter than the previous generations, but the truth was
entirely the opposite. Nothing like prosecutions for malfeasance,
convictions and jail time to fix this problem. Instead Labour punishes
the taxpayers instead of the true culprits.
The ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, etc. built places like the
Pyramids which have stood for thousands of years ...
On Sun, 9 Nov 2025 10:56:26 +1300, Your Name wrote:
The ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, etc. built places like the
Pyramids which have stood for thousands of years ...
If you set up a pile of a million tons of rock, it will take a while for Nature to tear it down again.
Only the Pyramids were that big, and even they donrCOt look much like they were when new. See the Sphinx, and how badly battered that has been by the elements.
Nobody lives inside a solid mass, so there is no incentive to tear it down and replace it with something else.
On 2025-11-08, Lawrence DAOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:The Pantheon in Rome was built about 2000 years ago and has survived earthquakes, storm s etc and is still safely standing. If this was a
On Sun, 9 Nov 2025 10:56:26 +1300, Your Name wrote:
The ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, etc. built places like the
Pyramids which have stood for thousands of years ...
If you set up a pile of a million tons of rock, it will take a while for
Nature to tear it down again.
Only the Pyramids were that big, and even they donAt look much like they
were when new. See the Sphinx, and how badly battered that has been by the >> elements.
The pyramids were also covered in shiny rock which has weathered away.
Nobody lives inside a solid mass, so there is no incentive to tear it down >> and replace it with something else.
The pyramids are do have chambers in them, even if on one lived in them.
The Pantheon in Rome was built about 2000 years ago and has survived >earthquakes, storm s etc and is still safely standing. If this was a >building in NZ it would if would have been condemned as an earthquake
risk and been demolished like the tuff old Wellington buildings that
they forced demolished in the 1970s.
... the Pantheon is built largely out of concrete, that is,
Roman concrete which is super-tough and lasts for thousands of years,
Also, about 60 years ago, the French/Italians built a highway through
the Alps, with lots of ingenious ways of getting through. But while
doing physical inspections, the designers kept seeing traces of an old roadway there, like someone had done this before.
On Mon, 10 Nov 2025 22:33:32 GMT, Willy Nilly wrote:
... the Pantheon is built largely out of concrete, that is,
Roman concrete which is super-tough and lasts for thousands of years,
If itrCOs supposed to last rCLfor thousands of yearsrCY, why is it a ruin?
Also, about 60 years ago, the French/Italians built a highway through
the Alps, with lots of ingenious ways of getting through. But while
doing physical inspections, the designers kept seeing traces of an old
roadway there, like someone had done this before.
Why only traces? Because most of it had crumbled away?
On Mon, 10 Nov 2025, Lawrence Oliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Mon, 10 Nov 2025 22:33:32 GMT, Willy Nilly wrote:
... the Pantheon is built largely out of concrete, that is,Roman
concrete which is super-tough and lasts for thousands of years,
If itrCOs supposed to last rCLfor thousands of yearsrCY, why is it a ruin?
Wow, you're dumb. The Pantheon is not a ruin at all, it is fully intact
and functional, and is used by the Catholic church today. It features
an astonishingly large domed central room, the dome made out of Roman concrete is so large that no concrete today can construct it. Only the Romans could ever have built it. Gets huge tourism.
Also, about 60 years ago, the French/Italians built a highway through
the Alps, with lots of ingenious ways of getting through. But while
doing physical inspections, the designers kept seeing traces of an old
roadway there, like someone had done this before.
Why only traces? Because most of it had crumbled away?
Alas, Roman roadways cannot levitate when the mountainous slopes
beneath them erode away.
On Mon, 10 Nov 2025, Lawrence Oliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Mon, 10 Nov 2025 22:33:32 GMT, Willy Nilly wrote:
... the Pantheon is built largely out of concrete, that is,
Roman concrete which is super-tough and lasts for thousands of years,
If itrCOs supposed to last rCLfor thousands of yearsrCY, why is it a ruin?
Wow, you're dumb. The Pantheon is not a ruin at all, it is fully intact
and functional, and is used by the Catholic church today.
Alas, Roman roadways cannot levitate when the mountainous slopes
beneath them erode away.
On Tue, 11 Nov 2025, Mutley <mutley2000@hotmail.com> wrote:Their secret ingredient was Volcanic ash from what I say on a
The Pantheon in Rome was built about 2000 years ago and has survived >>earthquakes, storm s etc and is still safely standing. If this was a >>building in NZ it would if would have been condemned as an earthquake
risk and been demolished like the tuff old Wellington buildings that
they forced demolished in the 1970s.
Indeed, and the Pantheon is built largely out of concrete, that is,
Roman concrete which is super-tough and lasts for thousands of years,
unlike our own crumby concrete which lasts 100 years if you're lucky.
We still don't know how the Romans achieved this -- latest thinking is
that the Romans mixed their concrete very hot, at 300C or hotter. But
no one today can replicate their amazing concrete.
Also, about 60 years ago, the French/Italians built a highway through
the Alps, with lots of ingenious ways of getting through. But while
doing physical inspections, the designers kept seeing traces of an old >roadway there, like someone had done this before. Turns out that a
Roman road was there, following pretty much the same pathway.
Those earlier generations did a lot with a little. Never
underestimate how smart and capable they were. Or maybe, to look at
it another way, how dumb our "experts" are today.
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