I Like To Move It Egyptian Style!

The Fifty-Nine-Story Crisis Case Study

Responsibility is one of the most important issues in people’s lives. Although it may seem as it all depends on the person and his moral judgment, but still, there are some ethical rules that sometimes affects those decisions. Responsibility could be represented by an individual or in a group such as a company or a soccer team for example, where every individual is responsible for his actions toward his teammates and the team itself. Engineering, as a serious career, is full of these accountable decisions toward many perspectives, as engineers, usually, are in the number one spot where they are responsible for their work. In The Fifty-Nine-Story Crisis case study by Joe Morgenstern, a great example of a professional engineer who faces an engineering problem exists. William J. LeMessurier, and other stakeholders involved are faced with a dilemma when they discover that the building they built is having serious problems that could lead to its catastrophic failure.

After finishing the building of Citicorp Center, a fifty-nine-story building, and the
People are already in the building, LeMessurier discover that wind-bracing system he designed for Citicorp, is having serious problems, especially that a massive hurricane is expected soon. LeMessurier then told Citicorp so they can try to find a solution that would satisfy the stakeholders involved. What they are not sure about though, is to whether to notify the people in the building or not about such an issue. Ethically, most people would say that the people have the right to know, especially when it comes to possibly threatening their lives. However, the different stakeholders in this issues have different opinions and have their own analysis of what is good and what is bad for the stakes.

The stakeholders involved here are first of all, the main engineer LeMessurier. LeMessurier is fully responsible to build a safe and a well designed structural building. It would be a plus that the building is cheap and still competitive but that is not necessary. He also has to follow the Code of Ethics for his society, such as the American Society of Civil Engineers, ASCE. Then there are the builders, Bethlehem, who are responsible for a competitive building with an average cost. The architecture designer here is Stubbens, and he is responsible for designing a safe building and fixing architecturally what is wrong with it, this person, I think, has one of the main stakes in this issue besides LeMessurier. There are the employees in the company who are just following the rules and they are responsible for reporting illegal actions for example. Citicorp the company has an obligation to tell the people the truth about what is wrong with the building and they have the right to whatever is best for their company. The public and the surrounding buildings have the right to know what could affect them and their lives and they can certainly sue any of the other stakeholders if they wanted to. Lastly there are the lawyers and the insurance company, NBIC, as the main thing here for NBIC is to know what is wrong with the building, because they are the ones who would have to pay for any damage, and they do not want to do that, they can affect other stakeholders’ decisions based on their analysis.

Now all of these stakeholders have an obligation to do what is better for his stake, but in such situations, they can be more negotiable with other stakeholders so they can work the problem out easily. I want to talk here about Citicorp and its stake, as they represent a big piece of the final decisions that will be made toward any resolutions toward this problem. They represent also the money here, and Citicorp does not want to spend more money after doing their analysis. After LeMessurier have told Citicorp about the problem, Citicorp decided to lie to protect its stake, but this lie could have affected hundreds of people lives. Now that the people are in the building, and a storm is on the way, they would want to know if anything was wrong with the building. It was very serious because LeMessurier had discovered that “the weakest joint was at the building’s thirtieth floor; if that one gave away, a catastrophic failure of the whole structure would follow.”

In a strategic way, I think that Citicorp did what was best for its stakes when they released some words for the public, but I do not think it was ethical at all. First, you do not fix a lie with a lie. On the press release, they said that the wind-bracing system needs to be strengthened and nothing dangerous is involved. They said that although they know that the upcoming hurricane could blast down the building. As a human living on that building I would want to know the truth especially if it is affecting my life, that is the main idea of the people’s stake, the right to know. Citicorp and LeMessurier “did not think that an evacuation plan would be necessary,” and they left the chances open for the fate of the building in a way. Instead of Citicorp to lie to the public, they could have simply told the people to evacuate the building for a period of time, until it has been fixed. Now at least, they would not have to worry about the reactions if the building actually fell because they did what was ethical at least. As a person, I would be happy to know that, especially if it was in the short-term side as the hurricane was coming soon, rather than having a chance of the building falling. Very simple negotiations between Citicorp and the engineers could have worked out between the different stakeholders involved here. Luckily, this ended up safely and the storm was gone, but what if it did not, it would have been another case study and Citicorp would have been gone with the engineers. Not only that, hundreds and maybe thousands of people would have died without knowing the truth.

It is such a dilemma when Citicorp was faced with this decision, a truth vs. loyalty and a long-term vs. a short-term. They knew that this could have happened in the next 16 years, something in their lifetime, so they had to make good decisions in such as issue. Citicorp, as any other company would have done, have done the right decision toward their stakes by lying to the people, but is it ethical, I do not think so. Citicorp knew also that it would have cost them more money if they have not lied. Money is not everything as we all know that, but it may seem it is when it comes to companies. Citicorp just followed its rules to protect its stakes, as everyone would have done so. Telling the truth would have cost them more money, but it would have been the right thing to do from other perspectives as it could have saved the lives of people and the reputation of the company. Protecting the stakes has rules, but sometimes breaking these rules is ‘ethically’ the right choice for us as humans with intelligent minds.

The above images are from:

http://www.uh.edu/engines/citigroupcenter2.jpg

http://www.newyorker.com/images/covers/1995/1995_05_29_v256.jpg

http://www.duke.edu/~hpgavin/ce131/citicorp1_files/lemess_33.JPG

The "Shoes" That Were Thrown At Bush

Hello everyone,

I am sure many of us would like to know what kind of shoes were thrown at George W. Bush and the shoemaker.

Here is a video if you do not remember the "Bush & Shoes" incident or if you do not know what I am talking about:

The shoes were made in Turkey. The company name is "Baydan Shoes" and it has been manufacturing these shoes for more than 10 years.

Here is some interesting facts:

The shoemaker sold about 19000 pair of shoes which is the black leather type (oxford-type), the type that was thrown at Bush.

After the incident, The company got 300,000 orders for the same pair of shoes!

And just so you know 120,000 orders from Iraq, 95,000 orders from Britain, and 18,000 from U.S.A.!

A rumor said that many bidders would pay up to $10,000,000 for the actual pair of shoes that were thrown at Bush at the incident. Got money!?

The above information is from:

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20081224p2a00m0na010000c.html

The above images are from:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iklJF8TqT37xeWvOs8XR1EQMVAsw

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7796047.stm

The above video is from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uIj0YvDBKE

The Coolest Math Trick

Hello everyone, This is a nice math trick that you can use on anyone ONLY in 2008.

Follow the questions and do the simple math involved and you should end up with a cool answer about yourself!!! (DONT SKIP TO THE LAST QUESTION!!!)

1. Guess how many times you are going to eat dinner outside your house this week?

2. Multiply the number from the previous question times two (X 2)

3. Add +5 to the previous number

4. Multiply the previous number by fifty (X 50)

5. If you already had your birthday in the year 2008 add +1758 to the previous number. If you DID NOT have your birthday in the year 2008 yet add + 1757 to the previous number

6. LAST STEP: Subtract the previous number from your year of birth.

7. DONE!

RESULTS: The first number from the left side is how many times you are going to have dinner outside your house this week. The second two numbers is your age!!! :D

This will only work in 2008!

The above image is from:

http://pmespages.org/sotolongo/math_symbol.jpg

The Golden Bug In Egypt

Under the sun of the Sahara desert, everything was getting hot. The sand was soft like a smooth blanket. The wind was blowing everywhere carrying sand with it at the sound of emptiness. There was no sign of clouds and the sun was covering its light everywhere. There was no place to hide, no trees or branches to escape the hot temperature, and no caves to hide in. No one can see far ahead as the sand was covering the earth in curves as if they were waves on the ocean.

It was June 1890 in the middle of summer. Down in the Egyptians valleys, in a small camp in the desert. There were only 200 and some people living that village. The king of that village was known as king Doody. He was known as a very strong king with various power skills such as using magic. No one knows where he got this power from, but there were some rumors saying that he had found a frozen bug besides the famous kiko tree somewhere in the desert. That tree had been there for over 5000 years, it was there at the times of pharaohs. The bug was known to be golden, it was very famous but no one knew where it was hidden. There have been words flying around saying that this bug was the secret behind the power of king Doody, no one yet knows the truth.

In a small home made out of cotton sheets and branches of trees, there lived a happy family. Ali and Ahmed were the two kids of Mr. and Mrs. Jamil. Ali was a grown young man at 17 years old, while Ahmed was only 10 years old, a young crazy kid who always follow his brother everywhere. Ali was a very smart kid who studied ancient history. He knows everything about Ancient Egyptians history, he knows secrets that he kept for himself, and he was the only person on the village who can read Heroglephe. From the rumors that were said in the village, Ali knew that the golden bug was the source of king Doody’s power and the reason for the village to be in a bad condition such as lack of food and water. It was known to bring peace and happiness to the village as long as it stays under the sand beside the kiko tree.

Ali did not like the recent conditions for the village and how things have been going so far. People did not have much food and water to support the entire village. Children were sick and dry from hunger. Old people were in their beds all day with nothing to do. King Doody had hanged the priest, which made sick people die without their cure. The rains have stopped for over a month now, and the water supply is going down. No food to grow in farms and food supply was also decreasing. Ali decided to do something to help the people and the village. Since he is the only one that knows history very well, the secret behind king Doody, and knows the secrets of the golden bug with all its tricks. To do that, Ali needed some help for the mission, to steal the golden bug and bury it back under the sand beside the Kiko tree, from people he knew very well and have good experience with skills. Professor Tooshi was one of them, he was a very famous well-known science teacher in school, and he had spent the last 10 years of his life doing researches on the golden bug and its magic powers. He is a very old experienced man but he also has a genius mind in science and history. Sumbo is another man who Ali decided to take him on the mission. Sumbo is Ali’s friend, he is 25 years old, he is a very strong person with muscles, and he was known to be the best warrior in the land of Kofta with his magnificant with action and sword fights. Besides that, he was also a very smart man. Ali has chosen those two people for his team to represent experience, smartness, and power. With these elements, Ali decided that he should set a meeting between those people, and create a good plan to steal the golden bug, kidnap king Doody, and bury the golden bug again in the same place to bring peace and happiness to the village and its people.

The next day Ali had met with professor Tooshi and Sumbo at Ali’s house. After talking about the mission and how is it very important to happen as soon as possible, they have all decided that they will attack the castle of king Doody on his birthday. It will be easy to sneak on his birthday because they will have a party and everyone will be drunk on that day. They will attack at 4 a.m. in the morning when it is the end of the party because everyone will be either sleeping or heavily. At the end of the meeting, they all swore that they would never cheat on each other and they will do their best to get this mission done. They all sang their famous song of “Doody A, Doody Ah” for 1 hour to give themselves courage for the mission which will be the next day after midnight.

The next day came, and it was now 4 a.m. in the morning. They all met in front of the castle main door. No guards were there because everyone was at the party inside the castle. They all got into the castle from its huge a door. In their eyesight there was stairs on the right that goes up to Doody’s room, on the left there were stairs downwards toward a door where the golden bug is because it has to be saved underground as Ali said, and in front of them, there huge curtains toward the dancing place for the party. They decided to break each other up. Ali went to the underground room, Sumbo went to search for Doody to kidnap him, and Dr. Tooshi was guarding the place. Ali went to downstairs toward the secret room where the golden bug is held. He opened the door using secret old words from the time of pharaohs. He managed to get inside. It was very dark inside, all you could hear was emptiness and darkness. The sounds of people in the party seemed to be very far away. The room smelled with dust and fear. It was a very long passage and at the end, their seemed to be a shining light. Ali knew that this was the golden bug. He headed straight towards it and he saw it, the golden bug seemed to be resting on a huge stone. Ali took it very fast and put a pair of shining gold shoes on it. Ali put the golden bug in the bag and ran outside. He saw Dr. Tooshi standing in the hall waiting for Sumbo to come down with king Doody.

Ali and Dr. Tooshi waited for along time and they were afraid that the guards might see them although they were all drunk. Ali ran upstairs to make sure that everything was going well. Ali started to hear sounds of someone screaming and the floor seemed to be moving as if there was an earthquake. Ali was not worried about Sumbo as much as he was worried about king Doody because they want him alive. Sumbo was so strong that he could eat Doody alive no matter what, besides king Doody was a very fat king. Ali quickly opened the door of king Doody’s bedroom and he saw Sumbo beating up King Doody as he were hanged from his legs on a hook at the ceiling. King Doody was screaming like a baby and he was laughing loud as he was very drunk. Sumbo told Ali that everything was good and that he was just having some fun just to teach King Doody a lesson. Sumbo carried King Doody and went downstairs with Ali to Dr. Tooshi. Dr. Tooshi told them that we had to leave as soon as possible. They all ran outside taking King Doody with them and they rode the carriage and headed straight to the Kiko tree in the desert to burry the golden bug.

Three days later, Ali buried the golden bug under the soft sand of the desert. They shined again at the light of sun came down on it. It brought peace again to the entire village and its people. It rained for 2 weeks after that and the food started growing up again in the farms. Children and adults were not sick anymore. A new priest came and started curing people using the golden bug again. The peace and happiness have returned to all the people in the land of Kofta. King Doody was introduced to the government of the village and they decided that he should leave Kofta in a sailing ship that no one knows where it is going. They put him on the boat while he was tied inside and they let the wind carry him anywhere. The golden bug have helped the people and made great changes to everyone. Everyone can see how it affected everything when it was gone and when it returned. It has a magic power in it that bring tranquility and peace to everything around it. Now in these days, magic is beginning to disappear, and everyone is making fun of other people who use magic to do their needs and wants. India for example is a country who is famous using magic. Magic is true and its powers are mentioned in all three religions that believe in God. Although it may sound funny to say that the golden bug had helped hundreds of people with its magic power, it is true that it actually did. People would not realize how magic is powerful until they see another miracle that would change their lives forever.

The above image is form:

http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/Travel/MiddleEast/GizaPyramids1.jpg

Carbon 60

The discovery of Carbon 60, C60, is one of the most important discoveries in the 20th century. It was even more important that it lead its professors to winning a Nobel Prize later on. Carbon 60 was discovered unintentionally in a regular science experiment. The goal of the experiment was simulating conditions under which carbon nucleates in the atmosphere of a cool carbon-rich red giant star. The heart of the experiment was to explore the possibility that long carbon chain molecules, such as HCN, can form when carbon vapor nucleates in the presence of hydrogen and nitrogen.

During the experiment, Hary Kroto, Richard Smalley and Robert Carl later on, the researchers behind this experiment and later the founders of C60, discovered that a variety of carbon clusters were produced and that the distribution of cluster sizes depended on the experimental conditions. When the firing of the vaporization laser was delayed until most of the helium pulse had passed, a large even-numbered clusters with 38-120 carbon atoms resulted. The C60 peak was largest but not dominant. When the vaporization laser was fired of maximum helium density, the C60 peak grew 5 times stronger, besides C70. When these conditions were duplicated, the cluster distribution was completely dominated by C60. The carbon molecule that resulted from the experiment consisted of 60 carbon atoms, which has a mass of 60 times 12 grams that equals 720 grams. This important discovery was then published in 1985 in an article in “Nature” by the three researches mentioned above.

Now that C60 was discovered, scientists have found a way to produce it in macroscopic quantities. In 1990, Wolfgang Kratschmer and Donald Huffman, two famous scientists, discovered C60 in graphitic carbon “soot”, which is produced by evaporating graphite in an atmosphere of ~100 torr helium. It turned out that C60 and C70 were the smallest carbon clusters for which the production of them using macroscopic quantities method can be achieved.

To confirm this discovery and the structure of C60, scientists have used spectroscopic techniques, for example the mass spectrum. Originally, theorists had previously showed that C60 have four infrared active vibration modes, and positions of their peaks matched calculated line positions. The four-line IR Spectrum for C60 supported these results, also, the C60 NMR spectrum of the purified C60 showed the same thing. To sum this up, the C60 NMR spectrum showed that C60 existed and that the spectrum showed five peaks with C60 as the dominating one. These techniques have showed how the number 60 in the C60 molecule was important as the bonding structure of the molecule had a special shape. Each carbon atom in the molecule is three-connected to other atoms by one double bond and two single bonds. That kind of bonds has a hybridization of SP2. The bonds between atoms form a pattern of joined hexagons and pentagons that are similar to the panels of a soccer ball.

After the discovery and the confirmation of C60, the scientists behind this experiment could not find a name for this molecule. However, later on they decided to call it the “Buckminsterfullerene” molecule because the shape of it was reminiscent of the geodesic domes popularized by the architect Buckminster Fuller.

The above image is from:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/31/88271993_a423e7cf4e_o.jpg

Ford Pinto Case Study

Safety has been a very important issue for everyone in the daily lives. It is one of the main reasons, which allow the people to survive and keep humans alive. When it comes to business for example, the owners are put in a position to choose what is best for its company and what would it take to achieve their goal. Safety is the number one criteria for such a case most of the time, but sometimes the companies are forced to choose profit over safety according to different analyzes. In the ford pinto case study, the owners of ford have been accused of choosing knowingly and recklessly profit over safety.

In order for the American market to be more competitive with the European market for cars, they had to come up with new ideas and design new vehicles, especially those small ones, which will dominate the streets in America. That is the overall goal, but from Fords point of view and the owners, it was somehow different. Ford designed the pinto as small and cheap car to serve most people around the U.S and to reduce the sales of other European cars such as the Volkswagen. All sounded nice until Ford was accused of designing a bad vehicle for the people as it had serious problems in its gas tank that eventually was causing burn and death injuries. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), “although Ford makes 24 percent of the cars on American roads, these cars account for 42 percent of the collision-ruptured fuel tanks.”() Different stakeholders showed up here to analyze this case and see who was wrong here, if any.

For Ford stakeholders, as the owners, their goal is to put in the cheapest income to get the greatest outcome and maximize the profit. This is usual, as this is probably the main goal for most businesses around the world. In the company still, there was the engineers and the workers. Their goal was to design a safe and cheap car to be competitive in the market. They are limited however by the budget of their company, Ford. Then there is the NHTSA, which are responsible of constructing safe highways to serve all kind of vehicles and setting the safety standards to prevent collisions. The public or the people stakeholders who represent the customers here are looking for an affordable and safe car to serve their needs and wants in their lives. There are also the victims in those death injuries, in either the pinto or the other affected cars, whom are looking again for a safe and affordable car. Every one of those had his own point of view on the case and everyone was affected by the other.

Ford was being accused from different perspectives, especially from Mother Jones the magazine, which represents the public opinion. In response to the number of accidents that Ford was responsible for, Ford said that “statistics imply that Pintos were involved in only 1.9 percent of such accidents.” () On the other hand, Mother Jones claimed that the standards for rear end accidents should be able to “withstand a fixed barrier impact of 20 mph without losing fuel.” () For the Pinto however, according to analyzes it could not stand this safety standard, which meant a new design for the rear end of the car. Ford was not happy with these accusations and had other opinions to protect their products.

With already the Pinto in the streets and new cars are being produced. Designing a new rear end for the car was not the best choice for Ford. Ford have done analyzes and found that it would approximately cost $11 per car to do some improvements which will prevent the gas tank for capturing fire so easily. Ford however convinced the federal government that this improvement “was not cost-effective for society.” () These Cost-Benefit analysis showed that it would be much more profitable if they ignored the improvements of the car as the value of human deaths, injures and burns, was beneficial for Ford at a value of $49.5 million. In contrast, analysis shows that the $11 per car improvement would cost Ford a value of $137 million. There is a huge different here in the profit and loss comparison, and as a company, Ford choose profit over safety of the people. Most business would have done that, as no one would start a business to lose money. Business is based on profit and money is what runs the society. For instance, if Ford would have chosen to improve their cars, it would have meant a big lose the company and the employees, and it would have taken a long time to stand on their feet again.

Mother Jones magazine was probably shocked by Ford analysis for choosing profit over the value of human beings. According to the magazines’ analysis, Ford could have fixed the problem by “installing a rubber bladder inside the gas tank for only $5.08 per car,” () which is about half the way less than $11 per car, still though, it is not enough profit for Ford to do it, that if they could have actually done so. Ford could have negotiated with that price and play around with it to make Mother Jones but that would have meant choosing safety over profit, and no business would probably do that. Mother Jones also suggested that they could have made it an optional product for Pinto’s customers and let them know that what they are driving was not safe. Los Angeles safety expert Bryon Bloch argued that “Ford made an extremely irresponsible decision when they placed a weak tank…in such a soft rear end. It’s almost designed to blow up.” () Now Ford did not design the car to blow up, the aim here is not to make a bomb and killing people, Ford, the company is serving the public, and without customers, it will mean a great lose.

What Ford have done to choose profit over safety was reasonable according to what they had to say. They knew what they want to choose, but they never “recklessly” choose profit over the values of the human lives. They had tables and date to prove that this was not carelessly done and they chose based on their analysis. It was one specific incident for the Pinto that led all this arguments to come out. It was a 50 mph impact to a stand still Pinto, any car would have suffered that, but the teenagers who died in that accident were just an example for the people to loose their stakes, as Ford did not give them exactly what was good for them. There were also no safety standards that Ford had violated, and everything was legal about what they were doing. As humans though, we would not do something that is unsafe to others. On the other hand, no reasonable mind would choose lose or safety over profit, which makes no point of his business at all. That what makes this case a dilemma and it is hard to make a choice about who is right and who is wrong. It all depends on which stakeholder do you represent and what is your stake to do what is good for your company, yourself and the others.

The image above is from:

http://www.martprint.com/foto/loga_firm/Ford.gif