After the attack on the World Trace Center and the levee failures caused by Hurricane Katrina, the federal government paid the American Society of Civil Engineers to investigate what exactly happened and went wrong with these disasters. The professional orgainzation for engineeers who build our roads, dams and bridges have been accused of covering up designs flaws by their fellow engineers. They are accusing them of covering up engineering mistakes and not focusing attention on the need to change building standards.
An independent panel was put together to investigate the disasters. The panel is expected to issue a report about these disasters and may recommend that the society stop receiving funds from government agencies. Critic say the engineering society was wrong in their conclusions that skyscrapers cannot withstand getting hit by airplanes, like the disaster at the World Trade Center. Many accusations have been placed upon the engineering society and the Army Corps of collusion by Raymond Seed, who is a levee expert at the University of California.
In one of the published reports the World Trade Center was praised because the building held up long enough for thousands of people to escape from the building. But in this report it was said the skyscrapers were not designed to withstand airplane impacts.
Astaneh-Asi, a structural engineer and forensics expert received funds from the National Science Foundation to investigate the collapse. He questioned the fact that the makeup of the society's investigation team because the wife of the structural engineer was a part of the investigation. Astaneh-Asi called it all moral corruption and we see here where the morals and integrity of all involved have practiced poor judgment in their dealings. People were placed on the team because of their ties to the original builders to get inside information in their investigation. This is a difficult situation to assess because of all the politics involved with these castastrophies. The government and some of these engineers have a lot to answer to because they never thought about the well being and safety of the public. There should be more than investigations checking into these castastrophies because no one has shown to the public that these disaster won't ever happen in New Jersey. Someone needs to take control.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Ethics Law Isn’t Without Its Loopholes
WASHINGTON — The optimistically named Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 was supposed to prevent lobbyists from securing undue influence by taking members of Congress to intimate dinners at fancy restaurants.
But former Senator John B. Breaux, Democrat of Louisiana, said lobbyists had already come up with a way around the new law. They can make a political contribution to a member of Congress, and then have the member pay for the meal.
“If we call it a campaign contribution, that makes it legal,” Mr. Breaux said. “I can’t buy a $20 breakfast for a senator whom I’ve known for years, but I can give him a $1,000 campaign contribution.”
Starting Monday, Washington lobbyists must file detailed quarterly reports of their activities. In recent weeks, they have been hiring lawyers and going to seminars to decipher the law, passed in response to scandals involving the lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
But even as they try to figure out what the law requires, lobbyists are working to preserve the access and influence they have in Congress and at federal agencies.
Two top lobbyists, Tony and Heather Podesta, have brought in chefs from the famed California restaurant Chez Panisse to prepare fund-raising dinners at their home for two Democratic senators, Barbara Boxer of California and Tom Harkin of Iowa.
Lawmakers cannot accept free tickets from a lobbyist for a sports event. But the lobbyist can make a campaign contribution worth far more than the ticket.
The campaign committee for Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, is holding a fund-raiser with him at the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium just 15 blocks from the Capitol on April 24. The suggested contribution is $5,000 for political action committees and $1,500 for individuals.
Jan Witold Baran, a Republican expert on election law and government ethics, said, “One of the consequences of the draconian gift ban is to drive more and more social interaction between lobbyists and Congressional officials into campaign fund-raising, which is not subject to most of the gift rules.”
Complete Story - New York TimesFriday, April 25, 2008
Worker die from fall in NYC
It seem to have happened again this another construction worker has fallen to his death from an East Side building on Monday when a safety strap system intended to secure him to the building failed, the authorities stated. Intial report shows that the worker Kevin Kelly who is 25 years old fell from the 23rd fall to the 14th floor balcony as it reported by the New York Times, at the time before his death Kelly was said to be installing windows at a condominium tower which is under construction when he fell. This construction site has been cited by city inspectors for 25 code violations during the last year, city officials are saying, and also they are saying that Kelly’s safety strap had a failure if we going to give someone a job as dangerous as this why aren’t the gears given to these workers are made sure that they are properly and adequately safe for these construction workers. It also said that their will be an investigation of the methods the “crews used to install safety strap. I know for a fact by watching the News that there has been a lot of fatal accident on constructions sites because proper safety codes aren’t being followed or implemented, an article I read stated that ten people have been killed in high-rise construction accidents since January, and Jeff just posted an article on the seven who died on March 8 when a 200-foot crane collapsed at another East Side condominium project, demolishing a four-story town house on East 50th Street. All these deaths have sparks criticism of city safety rules and enforcement. To me it seems that the department of building isn’t taking these deaths seriously because no change has been done really. I feel that the project manager and Alexico Group which is a development company isn’t doing enough to protect their workers, Alexico Group have received citations for 38 building code violations which it being stated been issued to them since July 2005. Also is being said by department officials that 25 of the citations were issued since work on the building began in April 2007 and that the others were issued during demolition and other work to prepare for the construction. When does it stop these carelessness and negligence? There is no respect for person here I think Kant theory would apply to this case here.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Pirate Bay to Sue Music Industry
The Pirate Bay is threatening to seek damages from music industry lobby group The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for blocking access to its website.
In February the IFPI went to court to get Danish ISP Tele2 to block access to the website accusing it of aiding and abetting copyright infringement.
A blog post from one of Pirate Bay's administrators, Brokep, suggests the organisation will seek damages for the blocking should Tele2 win the ongoing court case. Tele2 is appealing the court's verdict, but the DNS block remains in place until the case is resolved.
The block had limited effect - the blog post quotes alexa.com figures showing Pirate Bay rose from 29th most popular site in Denmark to 24th as a result of the publicity around the court case.
Brokep said the money raised would be used to set up a fund to help aspiring Danish artists.
The amount demanded is not revealed but Brokep writes: "We will demand an amount of cash that we feel will be reasonable (Not counting like Ifpi themselves, we actually understand economy a bit more [sic])."
On 1 April the IFPI demanded $2.5m from Pirate Bay in damages for compensation for downloads of 24 albums, nine films and four games.
The Pirate Bay has previously promised to demand compensation from the Swedish government after police seized its servers.
Source - The Register (UK)
In February the IFPI went to court to get Danish ISP Tele2 to block access to the website accusing it of aiding and abetting copyright infringement.
A blog post from one of Pirate Bay's administrators, Brokep, suggests the organisation will seek damages for the blocking should Tele2 win the ongoing court case. Tele2 is appealing the court's verdict, but the DNS block remains in place until the case is resolved.
The block had limited effect - the blog post quotes alexa.com figures showing Pirate Bay rose from 29th most popular site in Denmark to 24th as a result of the publicity around the court case.
Brokep said the money raised would be used to set up a fund to help aspiring Danish artists.
The amount demanded is not revealed but Brokep writes: "We will demand an amount of cash that we feel will be reasonable (Not counting like Ifpi themselves, we actually understand economy a bit more [sic])."
On 1 April the IFPI demanded $2.5m from Pirate Bay in damages for compensation for downloads of 24 albums, nine films and four games.
The Pirate Bay has previously promised to demand compensation from the Swedish government after police seized its servers.
Source - The Register (UK)
Monday, April 21, 2008
Four killed as crane crushes NYC building
I would imagine that most of us in this class has heard and read several articles pertaining to the recent crane collapse that devastated a neighborhood on the East side of Manhattan. The skyscraper was planned to be a 43 storey condominium and 19 floors were completed. The crane was attached alongside the skyscraper and toppled over crashing into other residential buildings in the area of construction. There was a total of 4 deaths and they were believed to be the construction workers. Another 13 people were injured in what is called one of New York Cities worst construction accident in recent history.
The Crane split into pieces as if fell demolishing a townhouse and 3 other buildings. What seems to be the problem that caused the accident was that a piece of steel fell off and sheared a girder holding the crane to the building. Residents from the neighborhood complained about the construction site on several occasions. They cited the fact that workers were working illegal hours and said the building seemed to be going up very fast.
I also learned that prior to the collapse 13 violations were issued to the particular site in the past 27 months. There have been many things said about this destruction. With the tenants complaints and the violations at the sight should have brought inspectors should have been more adament by taking a closer look at these serious complaints. But someone obviously did not do their job effectively putting many precious lives at risk. New York City constructs high rise buildings all the time, so this is not something that is foreign to them and in this case red flags were certainly thrown to officials putting them in the position to make sure safety regulations and any building codes were enforced.
I've read several articles about this crane crash as well as seeing television reports on the news. Clearly who ever was in charge of the construction site knows that someone was not doing their job effectively. I see this as blame responsibility, because egineers are known for being responsible. But this was not the case in this collapse. Stricter codes must be enforced for the safety of all persons involved, including the construction workers and the residents of the neighborhood. If these inspectors are not doing their job, then perhaps someone needs to be checking on them to ensure the safety of the workers and community.
[This article can be found in our NJIT database]
http://www.lexisnexis.com.libdb.njit.edu:8888/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?risb=21_T3573061946&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T3573061955&cisb=22_T3573061954&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=244777&docNo=23
The Crane split into pieces as if fell demolishing a townhouse and 3 other buildings. What seems to be the problem that caused the accident was that a piece of steel fell off and sheared a girder holding the crane to the building. Residents from the neighborhood complained about the construction site on several occasions. They cited the fact that workers were working illegal hours and said the building seemed to be going up very fast.
I also learned that prior to the collapse 13 violations were issued to the particular site in the past 27 months. There have been many things said about this destruction. With the tenants complaints and the violations at the sight should have brought inspectors should have been more adament by taking a closer look at these serious complaints. But someone obviously did not do their job effectively putting many precious lives at risk. New York City constructs high rise buildings all the time, so this is not something that is foreign to them and in this case red flags were certainly thrown to officials putting them in the position to make sure safety regulations and any building codes were enforced.
I've read several articles about this crane crash as well as seeing television reports on the news. Clearly who ever was in charge of the construction site knows that someone was not doing their job effectively. I see this as blame responsibility, because egineers are known for being responsible. But this was not the case in this collapse. Stricter codes must be enforced for the safety of all persons involved, including the construction workers and the residents of the neighborhood. If these inspectors are not doing their job, then perhaps someone needs to be checking on them to ensure the safety of the workers and community.
[This article can be found in our NJIT database]
http://www.lexisnexis.com.libdb.njit.edu:8888/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?risb=21_T3573061946&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T3573061955&cisb=22_T3573061954&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=244777&docNo=23
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Tesla Motors Files Suit Against Competitor Over Design Ideas.
SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley maker of electric sports cars, filed suit in San Mateo Superior Court on Monday against a competing company and two of its employees, saying they stole some of Tesla’s design ideas and trade secrets.
Tesla, which has generated much interest among fans of cars and technology, recently started shipping a two-seat electric sports car in limited quantities. Last year it hired Henrik Fisker, a Danish-born designer who is known for his work on high-end exotic sports cars, to do the body design for a four-seat sedan, code-named White Star.
The Tesla lawsuit contends that Mr. Fisker and his chief operating officer, Bernhard Koehler, doing business under the name Fisker Coachbuild, fraudulently agreed to take on Tesla’s $875,000 design contract to gain access to confidential design information and trade secrets, then announced a competing vehicle. Last fall Mr. Fisker founded Fisker Automotive, which is backed by the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
The quarrel sheds a light on the insular world of the Valley’s investors in environmentally friendly technologies. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, whose Google search engine was originally backed by Kleiner Perkins, were both early Tesla investors.
Both the planned Tesla sedan and Mr. Fisker’s recently announced Karma are meant to be hybrid cars using a small gas engine to power a generator that charges a battery, which in turn powers an electric motor. The design, known as a serial hybrid, is thought to greatly extend the range and efficiency of hybrid vehicles.
The Tesla lawsuit states that before doing the design work for Tesla, Mr. Fisker had no experience with hybrid technology. It says that he did substandard work for Tesla, essentially sabotaging it, and then used the revenue from the design contract to develop his company’s car.
“I think it’s ironic that Fisker chose to name his car the Karma, when what he’s done is very bad karma,” said Adam C. Belsky, a lawyer at Gross, Belsky & Alonso who represents Tesla.
Calls to Fisker Automotive were not returned. A person answering the phone at Finck & Dadras, the San Francisco law firm representing Fisker Coachbuild, said it was the firm’s policy not to comment on litigation.
Tesla executives said they decided not to use Mr. Fisker’s design and were starting over on the design for White Star when they discovered that Mr. Fisker was going into competition with them. The design switch caused a three- to six-month delay in production of the car, which is now scheduled to go on sale in 2010, the company said. Tesla is building a factory in New Mexico to manufacture the sedan.
“It caused a slight delay in White Star because we could not use the Fisker styling,” said Elon Musk, chairman of Tesla. “The styling was substandard compared to what he unveiled for his product. He gave us an inferior work product, and it’s obvious why.”
Tesla has scrambled to come up with a new design with some help from Lotus, the maker of the bodies for the initial Tesla Roadster. Mr. Musk said that he was leading the effort.
“‘I’m not really a car designer,” said Mr. Musk, who was one of the founders of PayPal and started SpaceX, a developer of spacecraft. “We’ll see what people think of cars designed by me versus Fisker; it’s the amateur versus the professional.”
The Tesla lawsuit seeks to stop Mr. Fisker from using Tesla design documents, along with a return of the money from the contract and unspecified punitive damages.
Having previously designed cars for BMW and Aston Martin, more recently Mr. Fisker has modified BMW and Mercedes-Benz luxury cars to create even more expensive custom cars that cost as much as $234,000. Tesla’s White Star is expected to cost between $65,000 and $70,000. The Fisker Karma, which is also planned for delivery in 2010, is expected to cost about $80,000.
Source - New York Times
Tesla, which has generated much interest among fans of cars and technology, recently started shipping a two-seat electric sports car in limited quantities. Last year it hired Henrik Fisker, a Danish-born designer who is known for his work on high-end exotic sports cars, to do the body design for a four-seat sedan, code-named White Star.
The Tesla lawsuit contends that Mr. Fisker and his chief operating officer, Bernhard Koehler, doing business under the name Fisker Coachbuild, fraudulently agreed to take on Tesla’s $875,000 design contract to gain access to confidential design information and trade secrets, then announced a competing vehicle. Last fall Mr. Fisker founded Fisker Automotive, which is backed by the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
The quarrel sheds a light on the insular world of the Valley’s investors in environmentally friendly technologies. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, whose Google search engine was originally backed by Kleiner Perkins, were both early Tesla investors.
Both the planned Tesla sedan and Mr. Fisker’s recently announced Karma are meant to be hybrid cars using a small gas engine to power a generator that charges a battery, which in turn powers an electric motor. The design, known as a serial hybrid, is thought to greatly extend the range and efficiency of hybrid vehicles.
The Tesla lawsuit states that before doing the design work for Tesla, Mr. Fisker had no experience with hybrid technology. It says that he did substandard work for Tesla, essentially sabotaging it, and then used the revenue from the design contract to develop his company’s car.
“I think it’s ironic that Fisker chose to name his car the Karma, when what he’s done is very bad karma,” said Adam C. Belsky, a lawyer at Gross, Belsky & Alonso who represents Tesla.
Calls to Fisker Automotive were not returned. A person answering the phone at Finck & Dadras, the San Francisco law firm representing Fisker Coachbuild, said it was the firm’s policy not to comment on litigation.
Tesla executives said they decided not to use Mr. Fisker’s design and were starting over on the design for White Star when they discovered that Mr. Fisker was going into competition with them. The design switch caused a three- to six-month delay in production of the car, which is now scheduled to go on sale in 2010, the company said. Tesla is building a factory in New Mexico to manufacture the sedan.
“It caused a slight delay in White Star because we could not use the Fisker styling,” said Elon Musk, chairman of Tesla. “The styling was substandard compared to what he unveiled for his product. He gave us an inferior work product, and it’s obvious why.”
Tesla has scrambled to come up with a new design with some help from Lotus, the maker of the bodies for the initial Tesla Roadster. Mr. Musk said that he was leading the effort.
“‘I’m not really a car designer,” said Mr. Musk, who was one of the founders of PayPal and started SpaceX, a developer of spacecraft. “We’ll see what people think of cars designed by me versus Fisker; it’s the amateur versus the professional.”
The Tesla lawsuit seeks to stop Mr. Fisker from using Tesla design documents, along with a return of the money from the contract and unspecified punitive damages.
Having previously designed cars for BMW and Aston Martin, more recently Mr. Fisker has modified BMW and Mercedes-Benz luxury cars to create even more expensive custom cars that cost as much as $234,000. Tesla’s White Star is expected to cost between $65,000 and $70,000. The Fisker Karma, which is also planned for delivery in 2010, is expected to cost about $80,000.
Source - New York Times
Bush Reverses Course on Contract Fraud Loophole
WASHINGTON — A multibillion-dollar loophole that would have helped conceal abuse of overseas contracts has been eliminated from a Bush administration proposal to protect taxpayer dollars, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Reversing itself after months of criticism, the administration closed the loophole that was quietly slipped last year into a proposed Justice Department crackdown on government contract fraud.
The loophole specifically exempted contractors from reporting evidence of fraud or abuse in overseas work that cost taxpayers at least $5 million. An updated version of the proposal, drafted April 4, requires reporting on all contracts — whether at home or abroad.
The government has spent more than $102 billion since 2003 on contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan alone.
"This change would result in making the clause requirements for a contractor code of business ethics and conduct, business ethics awareness and compliance program, and internal control system applicable to contracts performed outside the United States," the new draft rule states.
Government policywriters said the original rule was drawn up quickly, and chided the Justice Department for not explicitly making sure that overseas contracts should be included in the crackdown. "It was only after publication of the proposed rule … that DoJ and other respondents expressed concern about the overseas exemption," the draft states.
Source - Rutland Herald
Reversing itself after months of criticism, the administration closed the loophole that was quietly slipped last year into a proposed Justice Department crackdown on government contract fraud.
The loophole specifically exempted contractors from reporting evidence of fraud or abuse in overseas work that cost taxpayers at least $5 million. An updated version of the proposal, drafted April 4, requires reporting on all contracts — whether at home or abroad.
The government has spent more than $102 billion since 2003 on contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan alone.
"This change would result in making the clause requirements for a contractor code of business ethics and conduct, business ethics awareness and compliance program, and internal control system applicable to contracts performed outside the United States," the new draft rule states.
Government policywriters said the original rule was drawn up quickly, and chided the Justice Department for not explicitly making sure that overseas contracts should be included in the crackdown. "It was only after publication of the proposed rule … that DoJ and other respondents expressed concern about the overseas exemption," the draft states.
Source - Rutland Herald
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