[Vision2020] A 1.6 million-pound megaload, huh?

[Kenneth Marcy]

On 5/20/2014 12:25 PM, Saundra Lund wrote:
>
> What an asinine thing to say.  But, if we're going for the truly 
> absurd, which both Scott and Gary seem to want, saying that a best 
> case scenario for those objecting to the mega-loads would be a 
> catastrophic bridge collapse is like saying that a best case scenario 
> for those who worship at the 2A alter is for more school shootings so 
> that one will eventually happen in a school where a 2Aer has a gun to 
> "take out" the goblin and hence make the ideal 2"A trumps all" case.
>

Your use of the words goblin and catastrophic bridge collapse remind me 
of a new book title -- Raising Steam -- which is the 40th volume in 
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of humorous fantasy entertainments.  
I borrowed the audio book version of this title from the local library 
and used it to acclimatize myself to a new pair of headphones -- 
wireless ones this time -- and was quite pleased with the performance of 
the audio performer Stephen Briggs of Terry Pratchett's text.

The relevance of this material to the matter at hand is merely to note 
that, unlike in Discworld, when it seems necessary to move very heavy 
loads across bridges that may be either non-existent or not designed for 
such heavy loads, additional calculations and engineering are strongly 
advised.  In this world, unlike in Discworld, solutions involving the 
surreptitious use of magical municipal assets are not available.  
Getting and applying the knowledge of the sliding rule, as one of the 
book's characters would suggest, is a prerequisite for becoming a master 
engineer and successfully solving such problems.


Ken

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