http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/1...pse-have-history-fines-failures-lawsuits.html

I'm waiting for some real news about what actually happened to cause the failure before pointing blame. The video of the collapse clearly shows the construction and engineering crews were doing some sort of testing or adjustment using a crane and what looks like a lifting jig on one of the support truss mounts. I can see the cable snap from the crane but can't really tell if that's a result of the drop or an initiating factor in the drop.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article205443304.html

 

In other words, they didn't know when to call it quits...

Not necessarily. The $5 billion in debt didn't come from being unprofitable, it came from a heavily leveraged buyout back in 2005. As a result, the company's cash flow had to be diverted to service the debt.

I don't know if it's even possible to count the number of stable, solvent companies that have been dragged under because of leveraged buyouts.

It's something that I have a hard time wrapping my mind around. If I go out and borrow $100,000 to buy, say, 10% of the stock in some company and I can't service that debt, the holder of the debt might take my shares and sell them and/or come after my other assets. So I might lose my house because I made a poor decision to borrow money to play in the market, but it will have little, if any, impact on the company.

But if I borrow enough money to buy 100% of the stock (or possibly even just a controlling interest), NOW I can obligate the company to service the debt that I took on and isolate my personal wealth from it. So now I don't have to worry about losing my house because I made a poor decision to borrow money to play in the market, but instead I can cause thousands of people to lose their jobs.

 

I'm waiting for some real news about what actually happened to cause the failure before pointing blame. The video of the collapse clearly shows the construction and engineering crews were doing some sort of testing or adjustment using a crane and what looks like a lifting jig on one of the support truss mounts. I can see the cable snap from the crane but can't really tell if that's a result of the drop or an initiating factor in the drop.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article205443304.html

I'm curious what they were doing at the time. Usually, around here anyway, whenever they are doing anything significant to a bridge of any kind they close the road underneath it (as well as the traffic across the bridge as well).

 

I'm waiting for some real news about what actually happened to cause the failure before pointing blame. The video of the collapse clearly shows the construction and engineering crews were doing some sort of testing or adjustment using a crane and what looks like a lifting jig on one of the support truss mounts. I can see the cable snap from the crane but can't really tell if that's a result of the drop or an initiating factor in the drop.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article205443304.html

I don't know what the frame rate on the clip is, but it looks like the actual collapse was very quick - almost like a free-fall

 

Not necessarily. The $5 billion in debt didn't come from being unprofitable, it came from a heavily leveraged buyout back in 2005. As a result, the company's cash flow had to be diverted to service the debt.

The history of what happened sounds very familiar to the antics that lead to the deaths of other companies. Leveraged right into the crapper. Sucked dry by a vampire.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathan...ion-on-the-toys-r-us-bankruptcy/#4c662796308f

KKR, Bain and Vornado purchased Toys "R" Us in 2005 in a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout, but more than $5.3 billion of the purchase price was paid using debt. Toys "R" Us has adapted to many changes in the toy industry since Charles Lazarus started the company as a baby furniture store in 1948, but spending $400 million annually to service its debt made it impossible in 2017 for Toys "R" Us to deal with the competition coming from online and big box retailers like Amazon and Wal-Mart.

“The company’s overleveraged capital structure has constrained it from making necessary operational and capital expenditures, including investing in the revitalization of stores,” said Brandon in his bankruptcy-court declaration. “As a result, the company has fallen behind some of its primary competitors on various fronts.”

 

I don't know what the frame rate on the clip is, but it looks like the actual collapse was very quick - almost like a free-fall

My first WAG is a lack of redundant supporting structures in the design for why it fell so quick. The one truss seems to have pulled out or broke from the I-beam. The future cable structure seems to be only a harmonic damper for pedestrians not a structural support needed by the bridge.

 

I'm trying to figure out how to read the following sentence so that it makes coherent sense and can't figure out how.

"The magnificent singular structural concrete shape of I-beam features this one of a kind open all elements with both structural purpose and aesthetic form."

Either I can't figure out which words to put emphasis on and where to pause when reading it, or their proof reader needs to be shot.

I love the, "A low maintenance bridge with innovation for over 100 year life." Tragically ironic, in addition to being another poorly constructed sentence.

Hopefully they paid more attention to detail on their design than they did on their propaganda -- though I suspect that their propaganda meisters got paid a lot more than their engineers did.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/1...pse-have-history-fines-failures-lawsuits.html

I doubt there are too many large companies that have been around for a significant amount of time that haven't had failures and fines. So this, by itself, doesn't necessarily mean much.

 

I'm trying to figure out how to read the following sentence so that it makes coherent sense and can't figure out how.

"The magnificent singular structural concrete shape of I-beam features this one of a kind open all elements with both structural purpose and aesthetic form."

Either I can't figure out which words to put emphasis on and where to pause when reading it, or their proof reader needs to be shot.

I love the, "A low maintenance bridge with innovation for over 100 year life." Tragically ironic, in addition to being another poorly constructed sentence.

Hopefully they paid more attention to detail on their design than they did on their propaganda -- though I suspect that their propaganda meisters got paid a lot more than their engineers did.

Once you strip it all down the bridge is just an I-beam with most of the center support plate missing.

Once the center vertical support disconnects under load from the upper and lower plates the shear stress cracks them almost instantaneously.

 

One of the most interesting and IMO really useless ideas I've seen in a long time.

 

One of the most interesting and IMO really useless ideas I've seen in a long time.

It could be useful for people with disabilities... but I sincerely doubt it...

 

It could be useful for people with disabilities... but I sincerely doubt it...

Even this is a better idea.

 

A NSFW theory of the bridge collapse.

HD bridge collapse dash cam footage 2:40

 

Millennials may never have seen one.

The "elderly" among us associate them with "red box" and 2600 Hz.

There are still 100,000 in the US!

What am I?

Spoiler

It surprised be to learn there are that many left as I honestly don't remember seeing any in recent memory.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/19/news/companies/pay-phones/index.html

 

Busted.

 

Total Terror.

 

Strawberry fields, for Robots.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesal...trawberries-so-far-theyre-not-very-good-at-it

 

https://www.afp.com/en/news/23/not-rude-just-french-fired-waiter-claims-discrimination-doc-1369jj2

A French waiter fired for being "aggressive, rude and disrespectful" says his behavior wasn't out of line -- he's simply, well, French.

Guillaume Rey, who worked at a Vancouver restaurant on Canada's Pacific coast, filed a complaint with British Columbia's Human Rights Tribunal against his former employer, claiming "discrimination against my culture."

 

https://www.afp.com/en/news/23/not-rude-just-french-fired-waiter-claims-discrimination-doc-1369jj2

Worst excuse for mediocrity I've ever heard...

 

Worst excuse for mediocrity I've ever heard...

NSFW language.