Mechanical / Electrical Engineering – Olympia Ice Resurfacers

In a bid to create the ‘greenest games ever’, to make everything carbon neutral, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) decided to use electric powered Olympia-branded ice resurfacing machines for the marquee Richmond Olympic Oval instead of the tried-tested-and-true (but gas powered) Zamboni machines in used nearly everywhere else in the world (including Calgary and Salt Lake City, the two fastest venues in the world).

Olympia Ice Resurfacer breaks down on the ice, causing leakage and delays

In the last two days of long track speed skating competition, the ice resurfacing machine (more precisely, the three ice resurfacing machines) have failed spectacularly, breaking down on the ice surface on numerous occasions, leaking snow and hot water all over the racing surface, causing huge delays and concerns about the safety and integrity of the competition.

In a country where there are as many ice rinks as churches, and where the arenas operate nearly 24/7, one would hope that we could at least make one of these damn things work. Instead, the world was treated to a spectacle of failure not once – but on two separate competitions with two separate machines.

Here’s where the Engineering fails. Sure, it was probably unexpected that one of the machines broke as the lever raising the scraping blade stopped working. One failure is acceptable in the grand scheme of things. However, on the second day, they used their backup machine, which had the exact same problem. Now, it becomes obvious that there was a major design flaw leading to the same failure on both machines. But wait: here’s what struck me as extremely odd. The ice operators thought about this problem enough to have two machines (safety factor is good)… except ‘Plan A’ was exactly the same as ‘Plan B’.

Anyone who’s worked on an Engineering project knows that something will break, something will probably fail. That’s why you have safety factors and Plan Bs. In most cases, Plan Bs are practical, and ’sure things’. In this case, their Plan B was no different than Plan A, and knowing that Plan A failed, they continued nonetheless with their flawed backup plan.

Plan C? Well, that was even worse – the third machine, owned by the City of Richmond, who owns the facility (and not VANOC), tore up the ice entirely, creating giant potholes as the operators forgot to remove the studs in the wheels.

The organizers have finally enacted Plan D. A Zamboni machine from Calgary’s excellent speed skating track is being flown in to Richmond today.

Operations / Structural Engineering – Cypress Mountain Standing Room Gallery

By now you’ve undoubtedly heard about the lack of snow and ice at Cypress Mountain, the site of mogul skiing and snowboarding just north of Vancouver. About one month before the Games began, the organizers could no longer wait for the snow. They decided to truck and airlift snow from nearby sites. However, to reduce the use of snow where not necessary, the organizers used hay bales to fill out some of the features and terrain on the hills, and covered the surface with snow.

This has proven to be successful enough for the hillside itself, as the moguls and snowboard cross events have already been finished (despite some weather related delays). On the other hand, it has been a massive failure for general public.

You see, VANOC had designed the audience gallery with both seating and standing admission. There was a large seating section made of big bleachers at the bottom of the hill – and immediately in front of this seating grandstand was standing room for about 8,000.

The problem is, this standing room was on top of the hay. For whatever reason, VANOC had decided to line the ground where spectators were expected to stand with the giant hay bales they were using to shape the terrain, and covered it with snow. With the relentless rain that hit Cypress Mountain in the recent days, the snow covering the standing room had been all but wiped out. What was left was a huge layer of slush on top of a 6-foot layer of hay, causing a massive danger for anyone standing on top (very much like quicksand).

Look at this picture:

Cypress Mountain gallery, with hay bales underneath standing room

It is a little difficult to see due to the size, but notice the bales of hay right in front of the seating, where 8,000 fans were supposed to stand.

Who in their right mind designs standing room on top of hay? There are so many things wrong with this, I don’t even know where to start. For one, the structural properties of hay, are, well, less than stellar. Wet hay? Let’s not even get started.

Thus, 20,000 standing room tickets have been canceled for various snowboarding events, in addition to over 8,000 on the day after the rain storm. VANOC will refund these $50 tickets (at a loss of $1.5 mil) - but we all know there are bigger issues. Some people have travelled across the world just to watch one or two events, and many are not out of luck with no alternative, permanently ruining their Olympic experience. Others, I am sure, have bought these tickets from auctions or scalpers, paying much more than the $50 face value, and now being able to get no more than that in return for their efforts.

Structural Engineering / Architecture – Luge Track

Much has been written about the Luge Track since the extremely unfortunate death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. In the aftermath, everyone has been pointing fingers at everyone. The various national luge federations have blamed the designers (who also created the 2002 Salt Lake City track) for creating the world’s fastest – and most dangerous – track. The lugers themselves have blamed VANOC for not allowing enough practice runs prior to the Olympics (the Georgian rider had gone down the track over 20 times before his death – by comparison, the Canadians had each gone down over 300 times). Worst of all, the International Luge Federation has blamed Nodar Kumaritashvili himself for not being skilled enough.

Importantly, the cause of death is pretty well established. There is no doubt that the luger’s 140 km/h head-first crash into the large steel support columns killed him.

Now, I hate to show this photo, as we have all seen it a thousand times, along with the video replays of the horrific event. But some explanations need to be made.

Georgian luge rider crashes into steel columns

Notice two things here. On the right of the picture, there are the obvious tall steel beams, which support the overhang structure at the finish line, just beyond where the crash occured. Next, at the end of the track, notice the half-wall on the right, which is, for some inexplicable reason, angled outwards. As anyone who has seen the video can attest, the luger was out of control by this point, and was being thrown along the wall, reaching past the end, and into the steel column at an extremely high speed.

Why were the steel columns exposed, and not walled off? Why was the wall angled outward towards the beams? These questions will forever haunt the engineers and architects who designed this section of the track, I am sure. VANOC has since addressed both of these issues, building a wooden wall to cover the columns, and extending the half wall as well as removing the angle.

They have also changed the starting position, ruining the competition for many riders, who had practiced hundreds of times on the old configuration, and now must readjust (arguably making it more dangerous) in the span of only a couple of days.

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My fellow engineers and I should heed the lessons learned here, and uphold our oath to safety.

$300 million later, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have little to show for it but a meagre 1% increase in popularity and a dozen more seats in Parliament. While he claims to have gained a mandate to govern with his new ’strong minority’, little has changed in Ottawa. The Liberals will still cower in big votes for some time while they recover and regroup; the NDP’s will continue to make big noises and do little; and the Bloc will continue to dawdle around as always.

The major newspapers are all calling for Dion’s head, justifiably so, but all agree that Harper will keep his job. The fact is, Harper suffered a huge blow yesterday when he failed to win a majority government, even with the weakest Liberal opposition in more than a century. A couple years from now, when there will undoubtedly be another election after the Liberals regroup and finally grow some backbone, voters will once again show their lack of confidence in this compromise of a Prime Minister. When that time comes, it’s likely that Harper will be defeated, if he’s still the Prime Minister by then. Voters will be tired of listening to his attacks and cynicism, and give him a run for his money.

Dion, of course, will be gone. His stoic speech may hold the party over for a while, but the fact is, he gave the Liberals their worst result in living memory. When all is said and done, it’s more than likely that Dion will be only the second Liberal leader not to be Canada’s Prime Minister. His ideas may have been far too ahead of his time, especially in an era of economic uncertainty. One day, voters will embrace a green plan. One that is less complicated and expressed in more eloquent terms than Dion’s broken English could muster.

This election, however, was Harper’s to win. Harper’s rise to political power has been an improbable one, and although his shrewd political maneuvers have certainly helped him on the way, it has mostly been the Liberals’ mistakes that gave him the country’s top job. From Paul Martin’s dithering campaign to the internal power struggles to the sponsorship scandal, the Conservatives have been feasting on the skeleton of a party. Through two terms, Harper has failed to define himself as someone Canadians can embrace. He has alienated voters as well as the opposition.

When Harper leaves power, his legacy will be likely one of scorn rather than reverence. He leaves behind a trail of debris where politics is concerned. Harper brought to Canadian federal politics the now-familiar negative attack ads, complete with ominous music and gloomy graphic art. He survived, not won, two elections without promoting any policy, without standing on any political platform. His party benefited from the best possible timings, and yet could not be trusted enough with a majority government. For what it’s worth, he won by Americanizing Canadian politics. Instead of promoting big ideas, or debating policy, he pointed fingers and endlessly smeared his opponents.

What has been made clear by this election is that at least some degree of political reform is necessary. With the lowest voter turnout in history (59%), it is obvious to everyone that the system isn’t working. Our antiquated First Past the Post system failed to represent Candians’ interests, and the Parliamentary dialogue between parties has broken down. The final results show that 51% of the electorate voted for combined centre-left parties (Liberal, NDP, and Greens), compared to the Conservatives’ 38% (the only right-leaning party). Despite this, we will be entering our second session of the most conservative government in a century.

Electoral reform proponents have been trumpeting proportional representation for years. However, this proposal has never received any traction, likely due to its complexity and ambiguity. (How do you decide which people go to parliament in proportional representation? How are regions represented? How do you ensure individual accountability?) Many of the benefits of proportional representation can be had by instead implementing an Instant Run-Off or Preferential voting system. While it adds complexity to the ballot counting, it is certainly less of an overhaul than proportional representation, with less of its associated costs and uncertainty. This would solve the biggest problem we have in today’s political atmosphere, with a united right and a fracture left (or conversely, a decade ago with a strong left and a fractured right).

What is also needed is a better check-and-balance mechanism. Unlike in the United States, where there are three separate elected legislative branches (the President, the Senate and the House of Representatives) each keeping the others in check, we have in Canada only a misrepresented House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Whatever the reforms are, it is clear that an appointed Senate is no longer appropriate. Since this “Upper House” already exists, simply making it an elected body will not be difficult. Doing so also increases the accountability of our government, and can serve to keep the House of Commons in check. It will also give voters more confidence in our leaders, yielding a greater chance of productive majority commons, given that there is an elected Senate to keep the House in check.

But with Harper’s ironclad rule, will he listen to cries of electoral reform? Or will he ignore them, turning his back on promises of reform and accountability, and his political youth when he, too, called for change?

Normally, I have no problem with the concept of patriotism – it’s great to be proud of your own country, and to represent yourself as such. But come on, these books have nothing particularly interesting about them, or even particularly special – it’s just that they’re from Canada. Will I read a book because it’s from Canada? No. I will read a book if it interests me, and I will read it if it’s good. I don’t care at all where it’s from, or where the author is from.

It’s kind of like that book I read for grade 12 english – The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence. It was only on the reading list because she was Canadian. Sure, I live in Canada, and it’s important to know about Canada, but the book was terrible, to be honest. It was a boring monologue written from the perspective of a dying senile Canadian woman. That she was Canadian did not add anything to the story. It could have taken place in any countryside, anywhere in the world. And it would still have been an utterly boring read. Yet I read this book, because it was by a famous Canadian author.

This is a blatant case of patriotism for the sake of patriotism. It added no value, no history, nothing at all to the book. If you’re going to be patriotic, please do it with  something worthwhile and meaningful. Like, you know, be proud of being in the homeland of hockey, a worldwide sport. Or the world’s largest exporter of that really delicious maple syrup. Something like that. Please don’t give me a book and tell me to read it just because it’s Canadian. Tell me to read it if it’s good. If it happens to also be Canadian, then all the better – as long as it’s good.