I have long joked that I have no “normal” English friends, that the English friends that I have are all not actually English or are otherwise somehow sympathetic to my plight having been expats themselves, or married to foreigners, etc. I had dinner and a few drinks at the pub recently with one of [...]
In Minnesota we used to joke that there were two seasons, winter and road construction. Here in England I find there are two seasons, winter and building work that requires lots of scaffolding. Admittedly I live in an old part of an old town, but I have never seen so much scaffolding in my life. [...]
Last summer when there was the Minneapolis bridge collapse, I was thoroughly annoyed because I knew I had some really good photos of the bridge intact from underneath, with a focus on the steel, and I simply could not find them. Today I randomly stumbled across them, so here we go. From underneath, taken on [...]
It’s been quite a while now since my posts about the Minneapolis bridge collapse last summer, but my closet interest in structural engineering has not gone away. Today Mental Floss had a great list of the biggest recent “oops” moments in Structural Engineering and it’s a lot of fun. London’s infamous wobbly bridge made the [...]
I promised my sister that I would comment on the tiny Asus Eee when I had a chance. My official verdict is simple: two thumbs up, no questions. But I can see where the response could be mixed either way. It really depends what you are looking for as to whether or [...]
Heathrow’s Terminal 5 opened this week to the sort of bumbling incompetence some have come to expect out of British engineering projects. Luggage handling was a mess, and at a point they were back to the draconian restrictions (”we will not handle any checked luggage” 
that occurred at T4 last month. They are [...]
Anyone who has been following the ups and downs of my English life will be glad to hear of my progress this week and the manner in which it drives more up than down feelings. Tuesday I had a new book-case and cabinet delivered to my office. Wednesday I had a massive delivery [...]
I feel as though the Brits are obsessed with Fire Safety. I never recall the subject having so much importance back home in the US. I don’t know if it’s because a large population are confined to a relatively small island, or if it’s some strange hangover from the great London fire of [...]
I’ve been uncharacteristically behaving as an American Tourist in Bath, England this weekend. Admittedly, I only had to take a train here since I am a UK resident. I had been to this part of the UK — Bath and the surrounding regions — before, but only for work, and had never [...]
Kare11 reports on the NTSB plan for bridge analysis, but doesn’t get the engineering aspects quite right (I know, how terribly shocking and surprising, right?) They say:
He said that investigators were going to take a look at any unique design features that could have created a shift of 50 feet. To assist investigators they’ll [...]
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