this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
577 points (97.8% liked)

Not The Onion

11843 readers
494 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

  1. Links to news stories from...
  2. ...credible sources, with...
  3. ...their original headlines, that...
  4. ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Comments must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] topinambour_rex 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

He was testifying in front of a commission, about a bad designed drain, for a HOA, or similar.

[–] ook_the_librarian 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You're correct that the headline is misleading. He's not just posting in some forum. He is testifying as an expert. So there is a little more subtly.

I would like to add. He was not paid. He also was not certifying any designs as safe. You should not need to be a licensed expert to show faults in existing designs.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If your argument is that you're an expert, then you need to have the credentials you claim to have. Anyone can show the faults in a design, but he's explicitly doing novel calculations and analysis - ie not just reviewing someone else's work.

Now that being said, it looks like he never needed a professional license as he fell under an exemption, in which case I feel like they shot themselves in the foot. He's got previous experience doing the same thing he's examining - hydraulics and fluid flow analysis. Regardless of his status as "professional engineer", his previous experience sould qualify him to testify.

[–] ook_the_librarian 3 points 8 months ago

You're right. I was just adding more considerations.

The lawyer son should have taken the calculations to a licensed professional engineer to sign off on. In this particular case, I like the ruling in the headline, but I understand the importance of licensing boards for professionals.