Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Pretty soon it will lend new meaning to "taking forever"...

It looks like the time to build a big skyscraper in America is doubling every 35 years.
...and then he does the math.

I LOL'ed.
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why did you laugh?

Those of us working with government agencies know this to be true right now and deal with it daily. What used to be a verbal over the phone "go ahead" then moved to a form that took a day which has morphed to a series of reports and studies that now take over a year.

We joke about it at the office to the effect of which one of us will do the last project in the US? I got mine done so I am the current holder. Maybe it will be the last? I doubt it, maybe one possibly two more until the red tape stops everything.


You would not believe the studies and reports you have to do. For example we had to do Archaeological work on a particular spot, when it was obvious to the casual observer that the spot should have been a few hundred yards west. Even the Arch's admitted it was the wrong spot, but it took to much paperwork to try and change it so we just Arched where we were told to.

Or the bird watcher watching the eagle's nest to make sure that the construction equipment did not disturb the bird. But there was no bird. The bird moved to a spot right above our main equipment yard where we had equipment going 24/7. Bird watcher knew it, gov agency knew it, I knew it. No one would admit it because then they could not say that the eagle was disturbed by the equipment since it chose to move there after we showed up. So we had a bird watcher watching an empty nest. I used to go by and ask if he saw anything. He would just smile and say, go ahead, no problems today.

This is the type of stuff we deal with every day and then some. Like I said, I got my project done, maybe the last, but I am betting on one or two more.

11:42 AM, December 29, 2009
Tam said...

I didn't say it was a happy laugh... :(

11:50 AM, December 29, 2009
Montag said...

I'm not really sure, but this sounds a heck of a lot more like a logical puzzle: a Zeno's paradox like Achilles and the turtle - if the turtle has a head start, Achilles will never catch up to it - than anything else.

I mean, you might as well say that every time we spend $10 billion on security, it drives the terrorists bombs further into their undergarments...or something...not sure anymore.

7:18 PM, December 29, 2009
theirritablearchitect said...

Think about this; The Empire's steel isn't bolted together like today's buildings, they riveted that fucker together, and they were far more conservative with their calcs in those days (read, more steel).

I about pee my pants even looking at pictures of those guys jumping around, untethered, at 1,000 feet.

11:19 PM, December 29, 2009
Mikael said...

"I mean, you might as well say that every time we spend $10 billion on security, it drives the terrorists bombs further into their undergarments...or something...not sure anymore."

I guess eventually they'll be surgically implanted, with chemical timers(eg: epoxy charges with barriers that erode in a predictable amount time when in contact with one of the substances) or pressure activated(joe bomber opens escape hatch to explode), or something equally hard to detect.

Heck you could have a bomber who swallows a condom full of nitroglycerin and sets it off by gulping down hot coffee or just slamming himself into something.

2:13 PM, December 30, 2009

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