Topic for Practical Engineering's previous video on the disaster itself: https://tildes.net/~science/wus/what_really_happened_at_the_oroville_dam_spillway cc: @aphoenix, since you might be...
I watched this last night; it's a great update to the original video with a great summary to start so you don't have to rewatch the original. The thing that stood out to me about this (other than...
I watched this last night; it's a great update to the original video with a great summary to start so you don't have to rewatch the original.
The thing that stood out to me about this (other than the cool engineering stuff) was how bureaucracy can actually be sidestepped when it's important, and how bureaucracy does seem like it more frequently stands in the way of progress instead of supporting it. Sending people to work full time only on approvals for this specific spillway rebuilding was great, and made it so that disaster could be averted. It's reminiscent of vaccine development in the last couple of years; when red tape can be cut, science / engineering can make great leaps forward and get great things done.
That's not to say that regulation isn't exceptionally important, but I think societally we need to get back to the idea that regulation has a point, and it's not just to regulate for no reason; we tend to get caught up in process for the sake of process, and then the process stands in the way of what actually need to get done.
Topic for Practical Engineering's previous video on the disaster itself:
https://tildes.net/~science/wus/what_really_happened_at_the_oroville_dam_spillway
cc: @aphoenix, since you might be interested in this follow up video
I watched this last night; it's a great update to the original video with a great summary to start so you don't have to rewatch the original.
The thing that stood out to me about this (other than the cool engineering stuff) was how bureaucracy can actually be sidestepped when it's important, and how bureaucracy does seem like it more frequently stands in the way of progress instead of supporting it. Sending people to work full time only on approvals for this specific spillway rebuilding was great, and made it so that disaster could be averted. It's reminiscent of vaccine development in the last couple of years; when red tape can be cut, science / engineering can make great leaps forward and get great things done.
That's not to say that regulation isn't exceptionally important, but I think societally we need to get back to the idea that regulation has a point, and it's not just to regulate for no reason; we tend to get caught up in process for the sake of process, and then the process stands in the way of what actually need to get done.