New Show about engineers 10

[Lutfi]

Tunring like to change to a lighter subject, TV.

I like to hear my colleagues in put on a national TV show about engineers. What would you call it? What disciplines would you portray? Which actors would you like to see in it?

 

[JAE]

Call it "CSI" for Collapse Scene Investigation...

The hero engineer is called in the middle of the night while sleeping with a beauty next to him. He quickly pops out of bed, springing into immediate action.

It seems an evil architect had discovered numerous flaws in their design, and had sent in a team of CADD underlings to break into a structural engineer's office and move some columns around to avoid the conflicts in the architect's drawings....

After the building was constructed, an entire floor in the building dropped due to the fact that the ductwork just couldn't hold up the concrete floor any longer and the columns were no help as they were only attached to the drywall surrounding them.

Our hero arrives at the scene, directing his team of top engineer analysists and begins to direct the police and helicopters overhead....


This all reminds me of the great line in "Ghostbusters" by Bill Murray where he said to someone questioning his authority - to the effect of -

"Cool it man, we're scientists"

 

[samdamon]

You gotta laugh! "The ductwork could no longer hold the building up.....". Pretty funny stuff.

 

[Ron]

OK...JAE gets Head Writer position (that's 'writer', not 'waiter').

 

[Lutfi]

I would make a show where we can tie sound engineering principals to real life and body problems.

First episode is about the relation between lower back pain and big bellies. Assume the belly has mass (P). The centroid of the belly has a longer eccentricity (e) and flatter tummy. Therefore the maximum bending moment (M) = P*e. Back bone has cross sectional area (A) and moment of Inertia (I).

The back stress = (P/A) plus and minus (Mc/I). Also known as back pain.

Stay tuned for episode two coming soon at theater near you.

 

[pennpoint]

Whoa!!!Way too much reality going on here..ugh!
pennpoint

 

[LittleWheels]

I liked one line in "Proof of Life", a Meg Ryan/ Russell Crowe crock about recovering a kidnapped engineer in Columbia or somesuch. It was along the lines of "He's not worth that much money, he's only an engineer!"

 

[notnats]

Dilbert is an engineer.

Who got the bright idea of using the same radiography report over and over in "The China Syndrome"? was that the evil engineer or the evil contractor?

In the sixties there was a British TV series called "The Planemakers" about a company building a VTOL aircraft. Very low budget production, lots of stock footage of a Harrier wobbling in the background. Lots of political moves and backstabbing, running over budget, missing deadlines. It was terrific, we used to discuss it every Monday morning. It would probably be corny now.

Jeff

 

[eric1037]

Has anyone every checked out Mythbusters? The guys on there try "scientific" methods to debunk urban myths. They aren't really engineers, but they use engineering principles. It's kinda funny when they have their concepts completely wrong and their results are meaningless.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Lutfi - I like your plot. Maybe this could be developed into another episode.
Poisson's ratio: As a person gets fatter, their pants get shorter.

 

[rowe]

I think the authors of the AISC Steel Manual (ASD) could probably write some romantic screen plays. Some of the specs appear pretty graphic...

i.e.
Section F3.2
"For box-type and tubular members that meet..."

 

[jheidt2543]

I want the job that Howard Hughes gave to a structural engineer on one of his Jane Russell movie sets. As I've heard it told, it seems Jane was rather well endowed and need more "hitching up" shall we say. Howard hired an engineer to design a new bra for her and it became the forerunner of the Cross-Your-Heart bra.

Oh, the thought of a job like that! Infact, job really isn't the right term. Dream on!

 

[HgTX]

Wasn't there a Dilbert TV show for a little while? It disappeared before I ever got to see it.

Whoever used the same radiography report over and over again was probably the same person who used three identical images of Earth's moon for the three moons of the home planet in the Stargate movie.

Hg

 

[JAE]

jheidt2543 - isn't that called a "labor of love"??

 

[jheidt2543]

It could also be called a real "hands on project"!

 

[KarlT]

I love the book Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. In the story, a bunch of guys escape the civil war in a hot air balloon and then get stranded on a tropical island.

As I recall, the engineer was the hero of the story...the other guys were terrified that he might not make it as he was pretty banged up early on but eventually he revived and sprung into action. The guy made a crude telephone system for the island, steel tools - there wasn't anything he couldn't do. And the author described the stuff the engineer did in pretty amazing and believeable detail!

I wonder if he was well paid before he left the USA?

 

[crossframe]

Sounds like the Professor on Gilligan's Island. He could build a working car out of coconut shells and palm fronds, but couldn't repair the hull nor the engine of the S.S. Minnow.

 

[pmkPE]

What ever the show the following should be the mantra at each and every ending; (My favorite line from GhostBusters)
"No job is too big; no Fee is too big!"

 

[notnats]

Did you ever see the movie "Flight of the Phoenix"?. A bunch of soldiers crash landed in the Sahara damaging the aircraft beyond repair. One of them was a model aircraft nut and convinced the others to build a new plane from the bits.

Because there was no fuselage, it was a flying wing, and guess where the passengers travelled. Lying side by side on top of the wing with a nifty little windshield just about where the spoilers are placed on most aircraft these days. Despite this it flew them all to safety.

If they had had an engineer with them it wouldn't have flown and they all would have perished in the desert.

Jeff

 

[bridgebuster]

Uncle Bill wasn't architect and it was never clear if he was an engineer. He was a partner in a construction company, who started out in life as a welder. Can anyone imagine an architect welding?

Supposedly Ward Cleaver, father of The Beaver, was a civil engineer. He worked for Lumpy's father, who was also an engineer.

Ron: Have you ever been to Queens? It's a great place.

 

[crossframe]

Nothing was ever mentioned about Ward Cleaver and Fred Rutherford's company. The only mention was the occasional reference by Fred to the "salt mine." Ward Cleaver was a SeaBee in WWII, as mentioned in the episode where Beaver found a theodolite in the garage.

Now you know how I spent my youth.