SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The ESA's web report discusses subsidence and (more rarely?) elevation of the earth's surface. It works especially well in cities, “down to millimetres. The technique works well with buildings because they better reflect the radar beam” They're studying the phenomenon worldwide.
The Sentinel-1 satellites have shown that the Millennium Tower skyscraper in the centre of San Francisco is sinking by a few centimetres a year. [...] Completed in 2009, the 58-storey Millennium Tower has recently been showing signs of sinking and tilting. Although the cause has not been pinpointed, it is believed that the movements are connected to the supporting piles not firmly resting on bedrock.
The Register succinctly summarizes the whole situation in this report:
It was expected to sink less than 10 inches during its lifetime. It's already slumped 16 inches, is listing a few inches to the northwest, and it could sink a further 31 inches. The European Space Agency today said its Sentinel-1 satellites, having scanned the city's surface, have found that the building is disappearing into the ground at a rate of a few centimetres a year.
The problem appears to be that it was not built all the way down to the bedrock, and instead is sitting on a concrete slab with piles that go down just 60 to 80-feet into an underlying layer of landfill. Lawsuits against the developers are, as expected, in flight.
It's alleged that the city's building inspectors knew back in 2009 that the tower was sinking but did nothing about it – not even alerting the public nor the apartments' owners. San Francisco magazine's Lauren Smiley and Joe Eskenazi have detailed this ongoing clusterfsck at length here; it's worth the read.
The Register article also provides a copy of the ESA's displacement map for San Francisco with the tower's location marked and provides a link to a higher-res map.
(Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday November 28 2016, @04:27PM
Millennials are always slacking off on the job. No reason their tower should be any different.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday November 28 2016, @06:13PM
Nah, what figures is that cheating, lying, covering up, and denialism is going on, just like with Global Warming.
Pathetic that some of the residents are in denial that there are foundation problems, and are doing all they can to suppress fact finding and research. Perhaps they're anxious to sell their pig-in-a-poke residences to new suckers before any more damaging findings come out, after which let the disclosures flow. They're also scrambling for ways to blame others. Some are making a contrived argument to place blame on the construction of neighboring buildings.
Seems denial occasionally happens with construction. How about that 2013 building collapse in Bangladesh, in which garment workers were ordered to go to work as usual despite the discovery of huge new cracks in the structure? Or if that's too far away, there's the infamous 1928 St. Francis Dam disaster in California, in which the dam had developed new cracks and leaks over a 2 year period, and each time was inspected and declared safe, with the final inspection done by the top official the day before the catastrophic failure.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @10:02PM
A little context [smithsonianmag.com] would have been nice:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @06:33PM
Leaning left, no doubt.
(Score: 3, Touché) by janrinok on Monday November 28 2016, @06:48PM
As usual, that would depend on your own position... ;-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @06:52PM
Relax, there's probably an app to fix it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Zz9zZ on Monday November 28 2016, @10:33PM
Sweet, TMB ruining shit again.
I really appreciate the freedom of speech focus on this site, and I will never advocate censorship, but I will repeatedly ask that you and other such users stop degrading the quality of discussions here. As one of the founders / maintainers I would think you would have more respect for the site, but instead you seem to treat it like your personal playground.
Spare me the "don't like it go build your own" speech, because that is just another immature reaction to avoid responsibility.
Can you express your response without diving back into ad-hominem attacks using SJW / snowflake / cuck / or whatever other insults I'm sure you'd like to throw my way? I expect something like "It was just a joke, come on 'Millenial tower sinking' was begging for that joke!" I doubt you'd admit that the "millenial" label is a bunch of crap and the characterization of entire generations is deeply flawed.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by LoRdTAW on Monday November 28 2016, @10:57PM
Seriously. I came here for a technical discussion but the first post is a crappy jab at Millennials from buzzard. Really sets the mood when you have a few more twats join in.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 29 2016, @01:48AM
Really, I came here expecting a jab at millennials, and I was not disappointed. Thank the Niggery Buzzard!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 29 2016, @03:07AM
You really should acquire a sense of humor. That's entirely too high a level of butthurt for a joke that wasn't a particularly harsh or even realistic dig.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Troll) by https on Tuesday November 29 2016, @09:40AM
First, it's not a joke. Or funny. Second, it is a continuous whining, like that of a mosquito. Maybe with malaria. Just a sound, you say? Ignore it? FUCK YOU. You're the forum equivalent of water torture.
Near as I can tell, you've got nothing but poison in your heart, and it regularly comes out in your posts. If I am wrong, I'm sure others shall forgive my error - given the evidence available.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 29 2016, @11:41AM
Oh now I call serious butthurt there. I make a lameass joke, you go absurdly over the top with rage. This is yet another reason why everyone else is disgusted with Millennials.
You need two things to stop this happening in the future:
Get both of those and you will cease being hate-filled little twats. People might even start to enjoy your company.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Wednesday November 30 2016, @09:38PM
The gripes aren't about your millenial joke, if it had come from another user or at least include something like (j/k you millenials are all right) THEN it would be a lame joke people could laugh at. However, you are very vocal about your opinions and they are often very negative about the younger crowd and more liberal crowd. With the election over it seems the more conservative user base feels that it is suddenly ok to be serious jerks and spew nasty shit everywhere just as the new president elect does. It is not OK, and its been recently ramped up to a degree that has been hurting discussions here.
The hallmark of insecure people is they lash out when called out for their own bad behavior and they put on the macho attitude and pretend like everything is OK. Walter from The Big Lebowski is probably the best pop culture reference I can provide, with his "calmer than you are" phrase when the Dude finally unloads his frustrations.
The extreme reactions you get are from people who have tried to be level headed (I think) yet all they get is serious crap back from you that derides them. Now, I will agree that the post you replied to was over the top on the rage aspect but that should clue you in that your behavior has some serious flaws. If that has zero effect on you then you should consider that you may have some sociopath/psychopath (I forget which is the one where people lose all empathy etc.) tendencies or are just repressing a lot of stuff.
I normally wouldn't have commented on your lame joke in the first place, but the constant bashing during the election and more so after has been getting out of hand. Sore winners are the absolute worst, so stop taking every little shot at people younger and more liberal than yourself before the site devolves further into shouting matches.
PS: the last while I've noticed better discussion so that has been a nice change of pace, lets keep it up.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday November 30 2016, @10:19PM
You mean just like every barely old enough to vote douchebag has been doing the past ten years or so? Cry me a river. The little fucktards decided this was the tone they'd prefer to argue in, so it's the tone they're getting.
And, no, you have no seen me explode all over anyone who was trying to have a civil conversation lately. If you think you have, you need to check your definition of civil for severe bias.
And, no yet again, I am not a sore winner. I voted for Johnson. This in no way precludes me from thinking Hillary supporters should take a long walk off a short pier though. The regressive left today is far, far worse than anything the right has going for it. Up to and including the bible thumpers and even the KKK.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Thursday December 01 2016, @06:41PM
I shouldn't say you raged out on people, I don't often see that level but I do see my points validated in your response here. There is plenty to dislike on both sides of the isle, but your approach to discussion is combative and rude. As shown here, being called out only makes you ratchet up. The mature thing to do would have been to call out the rage and address the actual points. I don't think you're about to let go of your stereotyping prejudice, and if you think Hillary supporters should drown themselves then you should equally apply that to Trump supporters. Anything less is hypocrisy pure and simple.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday December 01 2016, @11:24PM
Dude...just foe him, apply a downmod to that, and move on. Soylent has PLENTY of settings to better control which comments you see. It's far easier than feeding the trolls in an attempt to train them ;)
(Score: 3, Touché) by rondon on Tuesday November 29 2016, @01:28PM
It was a joke, and it was kind of funny (not really funny, but I still cracked a bit of a grin).
I agree with TMB's political positions approximately 20% of the time, and I think that some of his positions are really, really wrongheaded - that doesn't mean that he can't crack jokes and be funny on occasion. In fact, for this joke, he might have even been making fun of his own tendency to blame "others" (in this case, millennials) for all of the worlds problems.
Jokes where you are poking fun at yourself are the best jokes! You should laugh!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by AssCork on Tuesday November 29 2016, @02:04PM
First, it's not a joke. Or funny.
I disagree. I found it hilarious, mainly because I was thinking the exact same thing. There's nothing wrong with a bit of levity in a technical discussion.
My god, man. Have you even read some of the Linux/BSD source code? The comments alone are priceless.
Here's a link [c2.com] to some gems (admittedly not Linux or *BSD specific, but still cute).
Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.