DC metro transit deals another duo death

Baltimorean's asked themselves this week, What is it with the Washington, D.C. Metro this week as two more people were killed.  This time, two Metro track workers were killed in an incident near Rockville, MD station that occurred at 1:45 a.m. 2 nights ago.

Five D.C. Metro workers have been killed in the past year, the system has its most strained budget ever, it is still looking for a new head to replace the old one that resigned, at least 17 passengers in at least 2 crashes have been killed, and prices may go up or service could be cut.

Weight Watchers fail during attempt to march to the scale

This is a kind of sad event, and it almost did not make it into the blog here.  I certainly do not want to pick on people who are overweight.  Picking on people who are losing weight is absurd too.

The incident in question involved a group of people in Sweden who were lined at a weight loss clinic to be weighed.  Well, one corner of the room fell and the floor tilted down.

The report is here in Weight Watchers clinic floor collapses under dieters by the Telegraph (UK).

I think society in general needs to be more cautious about how many people it squeezes in a room, with regard to weight.  Sometimes, we need to wait elsewhere, rather than adding our weight to a crowded room.

Last year, there was at least one incident where people plunged to their death becaue too many people had squeezed onto a crowded elevator.  There are plates on those that tell how many people and how much weight on fit on them.

We take buildings for granted but they do fall down.

The reason California does not completely collapse where an earthquake hits is that civil engineers and architects have carefully worked out formulas to tell them how much weight a design can withstand.  Construction companies have to use concrete that is up to a certain standard.  If they do not buildings collapse during a quake, or even during construction.  The system of science and regulations works.

Haiti had a terrible disaster this week.  People there were not rich.  They were not expecting an earthquake.  Nobody expected such a strong one to hit there.  In that case, buildings collapsed without anyone overcrowding an elevator or a room.  It was an honest to goodness tragedy brought on by an act of nature.

Some people took that opportunity to belittle the Haitians.  I hope they do not do that again.

There have been photos and video out of Hait that make you face this is a natural disaster, not a moral failure.  We need to look at Haiti the way we hope our engineers, architects, and construction companies build our buidings:  strong and true.

Do not make fun of the victims when their building collapses.  If you do, then you are a bit strange.