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In Atlanta, an electrical problem in a "Buss Duct" has caused the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center to be closed for at least a week. 5,000 federal employees work at the center.
While many might view this as another example of The Infrastructure Crisis in the USA, it may also be another example of mismanagement at the General Service Administration (GSA), landlord for the complex.
The GSA has had many scandals and has been the subject of several Congressional Hearings, including an August 1, 2012 hearing titled "GSA: A Review of Agency Mismanagement and Wasteful Spending - Part 2". That hearing followed an $823,000 GSA employee conference in Las Vegas and a one-day-long $250,000 GSA employee conference in Crystal City, Virginia.
The closed Atlanta complex is named for Samuel Augustus "Sam" Nunn, Jr., who served for 24 years as a United States Senator from Georgia and whose daughter is the current Democratic Party nominee for a Georgia Senate seat.
(Score: 2) by MrGuy on Monday July 28 2014, @09:03PM
I thought the wording seemed awfully familiar, so I checked...
Someone with the same username (McGruber) submitted the same article with a VERY similar summary to Slashdot (several sentences of the summary, including the speculation of GSA mismanagement, is identical in both places and does not appear to be from TSA). http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/07/26/2031255/bad-buss-duct-causes-week-long-closure-of-5000-employee-federal-complex [slashdot.org]
I don't generally mind the fact that we overlap with "that other place" in terms of stories, but are we OK with the same individual submitting effectively the same story in both places? I'm slightly uncomfortable that it appears to a casual reader that SoylentNews basically plagarized SlashDot here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @09:16PM
> are we OK with the same individual submitting effectively the same story in both places?
Yes. This issue has been hashed out before.
(1) It isn't like the story was "stolen" from there, it was the same submitter.
(2) Even if it were "stolen" it is no big deal. All these technews sites have a common story pool and there is tons of duplication. If it isn't with slash it is with ten other technews sites.
What matters is the quality of discussion.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday July 28 2014, @09:38PM
Heh, good catch.
Better to have the same guy submitting it than two different guys I suppose.
But the story is strictly a local issue, and i don't see how it makes it into SN or /. without pointing the finger of political blame.
The complex was built in the 60s, but incorporated an old department store built in 1924. So its not surprising that the 9th largest building in the country is going to have some problems over its life span.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by mrider on Monday July 28 2014, @09:42PM
Too bad (s)he didn't catch on that it's "bus duct" and not "buss duct" while at the other site. :)
Doctor: "Do you hear voices?"
Me: "Only when my bluetooth is charged."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @10:35PM
I think buss is actually correct because they're talking about the electrical buss, aka a large electrical conductor. I don't know why they don't just call it an electrical conduit or a wire duct, but I haven't really dealt with large facility electrical systems and that parlance before.
(Score: 2, Informative) by NoMaster on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:45AM
A lot of people seem to think that "buss" is an incorrect spelling derived from Bussmann (now Cooper Bussmann) fuses. Or that it's simply incorrect because "buss" meant "kiss" in an archaic language and the term has lingered on in North American useage, while "bus" is correct because it so obviously derives from the word "omnibus".
Which is post-facto bullshit, since the term "buss" for a mechanical or electrical power distribution shaft or rail predates the Bussman company by a good 30 or 40 years, was in common use in several languages across the major European industrialised countries at the time, and likely comes to English from a totally different route (Germanic -> northern European -> English, probably via Scots Gaelic) than the term "bus" (based on "omnibus", which came to English as a French term based on Latin).
And yes, I did post a similar explanation on The Other Site...
Live free or fuck off and take your naïve Libertarian fantasies with you...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @11:26PM
> Too bad (s)he didn't catch on that it's "bus duct" and not "buss duct" while at the other site. :)
Buss duct is correct. [ccmillwright.com]
(Score: 2) by mrider on Tuesday July 29 2014, @02:05AM
Apparently the people that manufacture "Bus Duct" [eaton.com] disagree with the people that install it.
Doctor: "Do you hear voices?"
Me: "Only when my bluetooth is charged."
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:00PM
That's just illiteracy on the part of a contractor who should know better, or far more likely, just a typo. Doesn't mean very much.
Does your computer have a PCI Buss or a PCI Bus? Its exactly the same situation.
In the history of engineering I've never seen a Buss only Bus. power distribution bus, ISA bus, bus and tag IBM connectors, unibus and qbus, etc. A bus is a topology so it doesn't matter much if its power or signal, or even fluid (although they tend to call those manifolds just to confuse things), all that matters is how its wired up.
One odd exception I've seen in engineering is a compressed air bus in a factory tends to get weird names, air system, stuff like that.