was reminded of that youtube channel that records footage of that bridge that scalps trucks today. one of the fascinating developments that's happened since i last heard about it is that, in one of their many attempts to stop the trucks from being can-opened, they installed a traffic light that detects when a vehicle that's over the allowed height is coming and turns red so the driver can stop and hopefully notice the signage all around that's screaming "YOUR VEHICLE IS OVERHEIGHT TURN AROUND" and avoid an accident. However as a result sometimes drivers see the light turning yellow and IMMEDIATELY start flooring it to avoid having to stop, ensuring that the roof of their truck just gets fucking annihilated instantly. Really beautiful stuff you should check it out

the comments have me in tears

@rogue-bard

It DOES have a sign. It turns on when it detects something too tall for the bridge. It even flashes. And the traffic lights will go red to get people to stop when it detects an over height vehicle so they read the signs. (note this lovely example where the lights are red, because the truck thought it was better than the lights)

every time I see this post I've forgotten how clearly signposted the canopener bridge is, and every time it hits me like a truck (hitting the canopener bridge and getting the top of its trailer ripped asunder)

Important update, out of curiosity I went to look at The Can Opener on google maps and discovered that they have since opened a THEMED FOOD TRUCK PARK RIGHT NEXT TO THE BRIDGE

Sit down and crack open a cold one and if you're lucky the bridge will crack open a cold one with you.

the webcam is also visible on street view

"i don't care if they make their whole way though uni with chatgpt" i think you guys are so internetpilled that you have forgotten there are actual jobs out there that require people to know what they are doing in any way possible or else people die

i know a lot of people study just to get paid well but girl this is engineering be for fucking real take this seriously

114 people died in the Hyatt Regency collapse, and in the US it's the third largest structural collapse fatality count, behind 9/11 and the Pemberton Mill collapse in 1860.

I've learned about this tragedy in my physics classes, to demonstrate tensile strength, and as a reminder about the importance of calculations being done right. I've also learned about it in my legal classes as an example of construction defect lawsuits. I've seen it referenced in disaster response classes.

Between AI and the current Presidential administration, we're barrelling right back towards this nightmare.

There are multiple errors that resulted in this collapse, but these stand out to me:

1. Kansas City was facing high unemployment and needed to attract jobs and business into the city. So the planning and inspection departments may have looked too closely at the designs.

2. An engineering firm too lazy to double check their designs or design changes by the manufacturer before approving them. The error that resulted in the collapse was one that the owner of the engineering firm said that a "first year engineering student" would spot.

3. The steel manufacturer treating preliminary plans as final plans, not verifying the math on their end.

The bridges' original design could only hold 60% of the minimum load required by city code. The design changes recommended by the manufacturer halved that. Less than a year and 3 weeks from opening to the public, the whole thing collapse.

Articles about the collapse say that everyone "trusted" the other party to have done the calculations correctly.

A significant portion of the population trusts what the computer or AI tells them, without checking. Imprecisely calibrated AI hallucinate information. The US economy is going into a downturn and federal regulatory agencies are being gutted.

We are going to see the Hyatt Regency Collapse repeat over and over for decades, not just in buildings, but in medicine, manufacturing, the environment, etc.

Some of this we're just going to have to weather, but the message for AI users comes straight from IBM (once the world's leading computer manufacturer) back in 1979:

"A Computer Cannot Be Held Accountable. Therefore A Computer Should Never Make A Management Decision."

The owner of the engineering firm that designed the Hyatt Regency spent the rest of his life lecturing on the disaster, to serve as a warning to his fellow engineers about the real-life consequences of sloppy design.

I don't think Sam Altman or Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk will have the courage or the honor to do that when OpenAI / Meta / xAI are responsible for getting people killed.

So if you're going to blindly trust the AI to do critical work tasks, I hope you're prepared to be making an apology tour for the rest of your life if it all goes wrong.

We've already seen AI give incredibly bad advice in numerous fields, including stuff like trail directions and identifying mushrooms. Pretty sure some AI "therapists" have convinced people to do drugs or kill themselves or other harmful acts.

We've already at the danger point, if not past it.

Cool Canadian history moment 🇨🇦:

We had some absolutely criminal negligence in the building of the Quebec Bridge, with multiple engineering firms ignoring real signs of structural issues.

There is some debate about this, but most engineers in Canada agree this started a new ritual upon graduation with a B. Eng from any Canadian university. You attend a ceremony upon graduation and are given an Iron Ring.

You wear it on the pinky of your dominant hand, so it touches any paper you are asked to sign. Every time you sign off on something in your capacity as an engineer, you are reminded of your duties and obligations.

I have engineers in my family, and it is considered a sacred oath. Much like doctors, Canadian engineers have an ethos to do no harm.

And if you genAI bullshitted your way through your degree, you didn’t earn your ring. How fucking dare you accept one.

my friend was testing perfumes out at the store and she sniffed a bottle and anounced "ngl this bitch kind of sucks" The girl at the counter suddenly looked really sad, and my friend was like "I'm sorry, I wasn't talking about you." And the girl looked up and said "No don't worry, I didn't think that, but I just crushed a ladybug with my shoe" We both took a peak over the counter. she'd stepped on a red m&m

this post is like five posts per post

We doing Backrooms levels lava lamps now. Here’s level 94 otherwise known as Motion.

I have been a fan of Backrooms lore for years. This lava lamp series has been on my mind for a while now. I was a little worried it would be too niche. However, YOLO.

While watching a DVD from the library my TV popped up a message saying to press a button if I wanted to watch this from additional providers.

It's never done that before so I looked it up and turns out Roku TVs have added all sorts of creepy things in the privacy section since I last checked.

One of which being they take screenshots from what you're watching and send them to third parties to identify it.

Fucking hell! Remember when every fucking device in your life wasn't a spy implanted in your home and working against your interests to try and sell your data? Remember how nice that was??

Remember when the TV was just a tool that would play the things you plugged into it?

Why must the future suck SO much?

A good rundown on what each brand of TV is up to and which settings you should turn off.

PSA - Do not buy an LG smart TV. They just added a line to their terms of use that it's the user's responsibility to inform any guests in their house that by entering they consent to be recorded, in order to comply with wiretapping laws. That thing is literally recording you.

You can find tutorials online telling you how to open that thing up and physically remove the mic and wifi module. Frankly I don't trust anything less.

Please watch the Gamers Nexus video on LG Smart TV's and monitors! It's basically malware at this point.

Crimpoid Deluxe

The most top-tier edition of the Crimpoid range. You could go for the Crimpoid Basic but we can't guarantee it will work properly. But, you know, sometimes compromises have to be made and if it means your crimps are slightly off-kilter then so be it. In fact, doesn't that make it more unique?

do you like my kerdly vision #mykerdly

jokes that i’m sure ppl have made already lol

I've had my Borderlands AU for a while now, and I've been working on a lot of things dedicated to it.

It's a passion project of mine that combines everything I love and crave in media: an old-fashioned cartoon look, 2D animation, Atlantis- and Sinbad-inspired visuals and storytelling, and characters and dynamics that I personally enjoy. My dream is to create an actual cartoon one day, but for now, that's too much work for one person xD

I started learning animation because I wanted to bring Vaughn, Hedwig and my other characters to life, and I'm slowly getting there 🐸 I haven't posted everything here, and there's a lot more on my Patreon, take a look if you're interested.

I’ve also spent most of this summer struggling with my health after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, which is why I haven't posted in a while. I'm slowly getting better now, though. Working on this project gives me life and helps take my mind off things 💀💅

P.S. The three-eyed mutant frog is supposed to search the ground for truffles and other edible things, like chicken-flavored larvae, lol. That was my idea.

Don't forget to look for more frogs hidden in some of the artwork!

Also, check out Pticenoga hashtag for more

Bonus thing with my husband and me cosplaying them! We actually went out to the desert for it, which was a huge deal for me since I’m not originally from the USA and never even thought I’d actually get the chance to do something like this. More here

“Dark World food has no nutritional value, she can't eat breakfast there” I have great news about the breakfast situation implied by someone eating classroom supplies the moment they get to school

screenshotting prev tags because it's important. toby's been around the block! he knows how many artists and writers and musicians were inspired by the works of fiction he's created! he's seen the messages everyone sent in for the 10th anniversary of undertale! it would be a ridiculous heel turn for him to be like "actually that's stupid and you need to stop investing yourself in this"

Hahaha Snoozy! They drown each other EVERY YEAR, we fish them out the next day!!! - Toriel and not me in denial

‘:◂D

But what if they met earlier

Legends say her shout still echoes through the school halls

does anyone have the gamer dance gif because i need it

This? 

Hmm…………….. not quite. try again

Only gif I got, boss.