Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "The Questionable Engineering of Oceangate" video.

Do you think he's alone?? I'm an aerospace engineer who works in industrial control systems and automation. A lot of that includes safety control functions like Emergency Stops and Safety interlocks. You know that stuff that keeps hands attached and prevents stuff blowing up. I eventually got the second highest qualification any engineer can get in that field. Getting that qualification has kept me OUT OF WORK. The last time I saw a job specifically asking for that qualification I called up the recruiter to enquire. By that time my qualification needed to be renewed, but that was just a fee. I asked that if I was offered the job I'd pay the fee before starting. The reply was "Your the 4th or 5th person to put that too me today" and then they hanged up. That meant that other engineers had been experiencing EXACTLY the same situations I had. That's what being qualified means to engineers these days. You work you ass off to get your degree which with all the math and applied math classes is damn lot harder than any arts degree. If you then take the effort to get further qualified your job prospects can GO DOWN not up. People like Managers and their Human Resource minions don't like people who speak out and people with qualifications are often caught out. Their employment contacts often include clauses where "if you know something you must speak out" which clashes with the reality that if you speak out you get your contract cut WHICH HAS HAPPENED TO ME just like it happed to the submariner/engineer David Lochridge who's suing Oceangate. If you think engineers are angry over this sort of crap YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT and its about time there were some actual laws that protected us. Because when we're allowed to do our jobs YOUR LIVES are safer. - When your driving a car its mechanical engineers who designed the brakes to help you stop before the tree; - When you plug something in its electrical engineers who make it so you don't get shocked; - When you drink a glass of water its chemical engineers who make it so you don't get poisoned; - When you get in a jet to fly off on your holiday its aerospace engineers who keep the wings attached. We keep you clowns alive in 100s of ways every day. And before any of you complain just note you wouldn't even be able to read this with out engineers.
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Its why engineers end up hating clowns with arts degrees. I did aerospace engineering and I had to do 2 additional pure maths classes before we started on the wonders of aerodynamics and other fun stuff. The actual number of classes I had to take added up to the equivalent of an extra semester but planned to be done in the same time as an arts degree. I have spent most of my career in industrial control systems and automation. A lot of that includes safety control functions like Emergency Stops and Safety interlocks. You know that stuff that keeps hands attached and prevents stuff blowing up. I eventually got the second highest qualification any engineer can get in that field. Getting that qualification has kept me OUT OF WORK. People like Managers and their Human Resource minions don't like people who speak out and people with qualifications are often caught out. Their employment contacts often include clauses where "if you know something you must speak out" which clashes with the reality that if you speak out you get your contract cut WHICH HAS HAPPENED TO ME just like it happed to the submariner/engineer David Lochridge who's suing Oceangate. You can't imagine how much I hate recruitment people these days. If you think engineers are angry over this sort of crap YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT and its about time there were some actual laws that protected us. Because when we're allowed to do our jobs properly YOUR LIVES are safer. - When your driving a car its mechanical engineers who designed the brakes to help you stop before the tree; - When you plug something in its electrical engineers who make it so you don't get shocked; - When you drink a glass of water its chemical engineers who make it so you don't get poisoned; - When you get in a jet to fly off on your holiday its aerospace engineers who keep the wings attached. We keep you clowns alive in 100s of ways every day. And before any of you complain just note you wouldn't even be able to read this with out engineers.
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@existentialcrisisactor Go look at the photos of that boat leaving the dock in Tunisia. It was a tragedy in the making from the moment they put 700 people on board that rust bucket. Absolutely tragic, but also just as stupid as Oceangate.
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I was doing my degree in aerospace when that happened. I was actually in Florida only weeks before and watched the previous mission take off from about 60 miles away. Even at that distance it was impressive. A year later when I was working in the summer for my professor in some of his consulting work I walked into his office one day to see him head in hands. When I asked, all he said was "They're going to do it again." He'd actually been at Morton Thiokol the day before to meet with the engineers from Lockheed to discuss their simulation results on the redesign for the SRBs. My professor's specialty was the structural analysis of axisymmetric structures using computers. What we call Finite Element Analysis (FEM). At the time he was one of the top 2 or 3 in the world on the subject. He was so dismayed by the behavior of the people involved that he predicted they'd lose another Shuttle. The SRBs didn't fail the second time but the ATTITUDES of people making decisions certainly played a major factor in the loss. So you know - the engineers knew within a few hours that there had been a significant strike to the wing. They had requested it be examined by re-tasking a spy satellite to take photos. They were overruled because someone decided they couldn't do anything anyway and that the photo would cost too much money. What that did was take away ANY OPTIONS. By doing stupid things LIKE NOT having a backup ROV on the support vessel Oceangate took away ANY OPTIONS that might have existed once they started getting into trouble.
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GREAT TO SEE YOU CALLING OUT CORPORATE STUPIDITY I'm an aerospace engineer who works in industrial control systems and automation. A lot of that includes safety control functions like Emergency Stops and Safety interlocks. You know that stuff that keeps hands attached and prevents stuff blowing up. I eventually got the second highest qualification any engineer can get in that field. Getting that qualification has kept me OUT OF WORK. The last time I saw a job specifically asking for that qualification I called up the recruiter to enquire. By that time my qualification needed to be renewed, but that was just a fee. I asked that if I was offered the job I'd pay the fee before starting. The reply was "Your the 4th or 5th person to put that too me today" and then they hanged up. That meant that other engineers had been experiencing EXACTLY the same situations I had. That's what being qualified means to engineers these days. You work you ass off to get your degree which with all the math and applied math classes is damn lot harder than any arts degree. If you then take the effort to get further qualified your job prospects can GO DOWN not up. People like Managers and their Human Resource minions don't like people who speak out and people with qualifications are often caught out. Their employment contacts often include clauses where "if you know something you must speak out" which clashes with the reality that if you speak out you get your contract cut WHICH HAS HAPPENED TO ME just like it happed to the submariner/engineer David Lochridge who's suing Oceangate. If you think engineers are angry over this sort of crap YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT and its about time there were some actual laws that protected us. Because when we're allowed to do our jobs YOUR LIVES are safer. - When your driving a car its mechanical engineers who designed the brakes to help you stop before the tree; - When you plug something in its electrical engineers who make it so you don't get shocked; - When you drink a glass of water its chemical engineers who make it so you don't get poisoned; - When you get in a jet to fly off on your holiday its aerospace engineers who keep the wings attached. We keep you clowns alive in 100s of ways every day. And before any of you complain just note you wouldn't even be able to read this with out engineers.
1
@danasmith3288 I have spent more time in the last few years informally studying economics than anything else. The simple fact is unless I can make the economic arguments then I can't get anything done. Economists simply dominate the big decisions that affect all our lives and unless you can deal with them face to face then you're stuffed. To do that takes time and effort to learn their language.
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