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?

 

[SperlingPE]

Another facet of civil/structural engineering that we have over looked is the work of military engineers. This would possibly attract the public's eye. I am sure there are several stories from the past and present. The History Channel has had programs that touch on these stories but I can't remember any that put a face with a name and followed the story from an engineer's perspective.

 

[bridgebuster]

Douglas MacArthur was trained as a civil engineer. His first assignment was supervising the construction of docks and piers in the Philippines.

Robert E. Lee also began his army career as a civil engineer.

In the Middle Ages, when armies would lay siege to castles, they brought with them a trebuchet engineer. His responsibility was to design and construct trebuchets a.k.a. catapults on-site.

 

[egoodwin]

I don't claim to have made this up; whoever did is absolutely brilliant!!!



A scene from "A Few Good Structural Engineers"


Engineer (Jack Nickelson): You want answers?

Architect (Tom Cruise): I think I'm entitled to them.

Engineer: You want answers?

Architect: I want the truth!!

Engineer : You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has FLOORS.

And those FLOORS have to be SUPPORTED BY COLUMNS.

Who's gonna DESIGN THEM? You? You, MR. ARCHITECT?

I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.

You weep for LOST FLOOR SPACE and you curse the COLUMNS.

You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that THOSE COLUMNS, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth.

Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that DESIGN TEAM. You need me on that DESIGN TEAM.

We use words like DESIGN, code, ANALYSIS...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent SUPPORTING something. You use 'em as a punchline.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain my DESIGN to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very STRUCTURES I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a STEEL MANUAL and DESIGN a post.

Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!

Architect : Did you SCHEDULE THE COLUMNS?

Engineer : (quietly) I did the job you HIRED me to do. Architect : Did you SCHEDULE THE COLUMNS? Engineer : You're goddamn right I did!!

 

[fryed911]

ROTFLMAO at egoodwin's post!

 

[bridgebuster]

How about a take off of the old Art Linkletter show, "Kids Say the Darndest Things"?, It could be called "Contractors Say/Do the Darndest/Dumbest Things"

 

[dpa]

There must be four movies where the Duke died. There was an old movie about the shipwreck salvaging business in Key West in the 1800's. The Duke worked for John Carradine, an evil salvager who would set out false lights to lure ships onto the reefs so he could claim their cargo. John Wayne is a hard hat diver who is killed at the end of the movie by a Giant Squid. The only time I can recall him playing the villian. The movie is actually based in the early history of Key West. Salvage was a huge business and between salvage and cigar making Key West had the highest per capita income in the US at that time.

DPA

 

[HgTX]

Hey, CBS has a new show called "Numbers". 'Scuze me, "NUMB3RS". Not about an engineer, but a mathematician. Which is a start--except that they're stealing engineering plotlines! Looks like this Friday's episode features a plot element right from the Citicorp Building story.

("What if the wind comes at the building diagonally?!!")

Hg

 

[JAE]

Oh, c'mon....wind NEVER blows diagonally!!

 

[HgTX]

http://www.fox.com/prisonbreak/

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[techmaximus]

Ron (Structural) 20 Oct 04 6:42
"Yeah, about the only way to make it exciting is to have Engineer vs. crooked (developer, contractor, architect..etc) with a collapse involved.!"

This was done as Towering Inferno. A structural engineer, as another person mentioned, figured out how to put the fire, but remember why the fire started in the first place? Who ordered the installation of out of spec wiring that caused the fire?


Techmaximus

 

[drawoh]

There is a TV show in Canada, aired also in Britain, called Holmes on Homes. Mike Holmes is a contractor who comes in and fixes the messes made by previous contractors. There are all sorts of lectures about idiots, crooks and bad workmanship.

Holmes is not an engineer. Sometimes he brings in engineers to look at stuff. An equivalent program starring a professional engineer might be scary.

JHG

 

[HgTX]

I think the Fox show "Prison Break" is going to be about a structural engineer who uses his knowledge of the prison (cuz he was on the team wot renovated it) to break himself and his brother out of jail.

No collapse, unless Our Hero causes one.

Hg

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