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Author Topic: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge  (Read 11348 times)

ajaffa1

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Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« on: March 06, 2018, 11:05:39 AM »
At first I thought this was funny, then I realised that as a tax payer in NSW the joke is on me https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/nsw-government-ordered-trains-worth-202120497.html

ajaffa1

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2018, 09:11:39 PM »
Sounds like a communist plot to me.

Vladimir: Comrade Bruce I want you to go and buy trains that won`t work, here`s 3 billion quid.
                                                                 
                                                           A week later

Vladimir: Comrade Bruce how did you get on?
Bruce: Very well comrade Vladimir, I bought trains that are too wide for the tunnels.
Vladimir: Good work Bruce, how much did it cost?
Bruce: Sadly they would only take 2.5 billion so I sent the balance to North Korea.
Vladimir: Well done, I`ll contact our man in parliament house and get it all approved. I want you to get on the phone and see if you can get the manufacturer to change the gauge of the wheels, that way they will have to replace all the track as well as the tunnels and platforms.

BruceM

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2018, 10:59:50 PM »
Alas, the problem isn't unique just to government-  large corporations have the same problems.  Basically any large group of humans results in the same thing.  The eventual death of Motorola came as no surprise to me after working for them for a few years and attending their global marketing conference for upper managers...amazing things are done to improve appearances on the next quarterly report...despite the eventual consequences. Ditto for utterly incompetent management at a big military contractor...an entire huge facility built, staffed and closed (leased) in 7 years...I'd guess hundreds of millions lost but can't even think in numbers that big.

The problem we face is that we must continue to have humans "in charge", and most have already risen to their level of incompetency.  Ignorance and greed are the traits you can really count on, anything else is a fluke.

 

EdDee

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2018, 07:41:50 AM »
The law of business.... Promote staff to their 1st level of incompetency.....
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BruceM

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2018, 05:44:04 PM »
Total absence of rational decision making when staring at clear, unequivocal evidence of very serious problems is an all to common theme for humans.   

It's distressing for those who care about the future collective state of humans.  It's hard to see a way through.

BruceM

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2018, 10:12:25 PM »
I'm in complete agreement on nuclear power and the human issue with building and operating, though the waste disposal problem is also very real and much hairier than presented to us as young engineers.  Every single one of the methods proposed at that time (1975) has since failed profoundly, such as dilution an mixing with cement or creating a ceramic composite- anything to stabilize the crap so it can be stored in a hole somewhere safely.  They all failed as the radioactive bombardment destroys the structure of anything tried so far. Other ideas were tested and also failed miserably.

There still is no good plan, and the current farce is that barrels of liquid waste will be replaced with new barrels (aka the shell game) before they leak for 10,000+ years, as if stability of government for that duration has ever happened.  At Yucca mtn. in the US, where our depository is supposed to be, specially tagged water was released, and found to show up in area aquifers in only a few years.  They also found it to be on a previously unnoticed fault line.  No worries, we'll just keep stockpiling at the points of use! 

I think a good measure of the rationality of nuclear power as built and operated  are the insurance costs; for nuclear power plants, NO insurance company in the world will insure them.



« Last Edit: March 08, 2018, 05:12:07 AM by BruceM »

BruceM

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2018, 12:59:08 AM »
It's really sad that government acts like a big corporation in dealing with it's own citizens and screws them when there is a toxic injury.  You'd think such deep pockets would allow a bit of compassion but it's no different.


« Last Edit: March 08, 2018, 05:11:25 AM by BruceM »

BruceM

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2018, 05:23:15 AM »
The US media has been very quiet about Fukishima. Last I read it was still pouring radiation directly into the ocean, and there was no way to deal with much of the source radiation as robot electronics were destroyed in short order by the intense radiation.
From the start there was an appeal by nuclear scientists about the seriousness of the situation that recommended a huge multinational effort to deal with Fukishima and it was ignored.  Humans prefer denial when faced with complexity or difficulty.

buickanddeere

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2018, 03:14:25 PM »
The US media has been very quiet about Fukishima. Last I read it was still pouring radiation directly into the ocean, and there was no way to deal with much of the source radiation as robot electronics were destroyed in short order by the intense radiation.
From the start there was an appeal by nuclear scientists about the seriousness of the situation that recommended a huge multinational effort to deal with Fukishima and it was ignored.  Humans prefer denial when faced with complexity or difficulty.

Everything is radioactive . It is just how much . Ever look at the cancer rates of a couple of  particular Japanese cities ? The amount of radiation from Fukushima leaking into the ocean is how much compared to natural occurring potassium 40 ?

LowGear

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2018, 05:26:33 PM »
You've got to look out for those cruise missiles armed with natural occurring potassium 40.

Once you start to understand how many people suffer and die because of tobacco, alcohol and sugar every year all over the world you start to understand how innocent war is.

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BruceM

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2018, 06:43:15 PM »

buickanddeere

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #11 on: March 10, 2018, 12:09:25 AM »
You've got to look out for those cruise missiles armed with natural occurring potassium 40.

Once you start to understand how many people suffer and die because of tobacco, alcohol and sugar every year all over the world you start to understand how innocent war is.

Sleep tight.

 Tell us how much time that you have spent inside containment at a nuclear power plant.

ajaffa1

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #12 on: March 10, 2018, 12:51:21 AM »
The real problem with safety of these plants has and always will be human error. Engineers assured the public, when these things were built, that the chance of a major incident was less than a million to one. so Fukashima, Chernoble and Three Mile Island  makes three that I know of. Thus it stands to reason that there must be at least three million of these plants operating.

A second problem is disposal of radioactive waste. This material will remain hazardous for tens of thousands of years. Can any one think of a way of marking a burial site so that humans thousands of years in the future will know not to dig it up?

The third major issue is that the engineers designing and building this sh1t had no idea of how to decommission them at the end of their life. They went ahead and built them hoping that improvements in technology would provide a solution. It hasn`t, the consequence of this is that we have now have dozens of plants that have or are reaching the end of their useful lives. The structures are made of concrete and steel and will probably decay away in a thousand years or so. The radioactive waste inside them will still be a hazard in tens of thousands of years.

So the promise of unlimited cheap electricity was a lie. If you remove government subsidies from nuclear generation coal, gas, hydro and solar are all cheaper. If you add in the costs of waste storage and decommissioning we are looking at the most toxic white elephant in human history. Incredible as it may sound, governments around the globe are still planning to build more of these poisonous money pits, further evidence of the stupidity/corrupt nature of our leaders.

Grumpy Bob

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #13 on: March 10, 2018, 01:04:53 AM »
Countries are like long queues of traffic, the are invariably led by the slowest and least competent

ajaffa1

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Re: Further evidence of the stupidity of those in charge
« Reply #14 on: March 10, 2018, 06:15:59 AM »
I really worry that we are leaving future generations with a toxic and polluted planet. Carcinogenic air, sea full of plastic, all useful resources used up. A fiery, poisonous hell hole.

How did we achieve this in such a short time? Greed, stupidity, unaccountable politicians and over population.

What can we do about it? A total change in the global economic model is required. Chasing ever increasing growth, in a finite environment, is madness. Why has no one figured out that what we need is no growth and a massive decrease in population. Imagine how well off we would all be with the same amount of money and resources shared out amongst half as many people.

I am not advocating for war, famine or disease but if we don`t do something soon you can be absolutely sure that nature will. Locust plagues always start with excessive breeding and end with famine and extinction.

Still grumpy Bob