More stupid animal tricks

Courtesy of Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club):

In the 1870s, a man named Spencer Baird, playing God, decided the cheapest form of protein for Americans was the European carp. For twenty years, he shipped baby carp to every part of the country. He convince a hundred different railroads to carry his baby carp and release them in every body of water their trains passed. He even outfitted special railroad tanker cards that carried nine-ton shipments of baby carp to every watershed in North America.
In 1890 another man, Eugene Schieffelin, released sixty Sturnus vulgaris, the European starling, in New York's Central Park. Fifty years later, the birds had spread to San Francisco. Today there are more than 200 million starlings in America. All this because Schieffelin wanted the New World to include every bird mentioned by Shakespeare.
Ever since they reengineered the Welland Canal in 1921 to allow more shipping around Niagara Falls, the sea lamprey has infested all the Great Lakes. These parasites suck the blood of the larger fish— trout and salmon— killing them. Then the smaller fish are left with no predators and their population explodes. Then they run out of plankton to eat and starve by the millions.
Either a species learns to control its own population, or something like disease, famine, war, will take care of the issue.

Rico says see his post about the death of China for a real-life equivalent...

Money talks, the environment walks

From the Peripatetic Engineer:
Nakheel, one of the developers of mega-projects in Dubai, has announced the construction of The Universe, another group of man-made islands off Jumeirah Beach in Dubai. This one is inspired by the solar system. Never mind that only about half of the islands being built for The World have been sold. Never mind that the whole ecology of this part of the Gulf has been destroyed by the continuous dredging.
You can never have enough private islands.
Don't buy any land on these islands. The sea will reclaim them by eroding the sand, grain by grain, until they no longer exist. If you want a job with long term security, get the job to replenish sand to these icons of hubris.

Yet more Dubai hubris

From the Peripatetic Engineer:
Construction of the Palm Islands have affected Dubai beaches. A number of surf spots are no longer surfable, and there are possible erosion problems.
The water within the Palm Island area was becoming stagnant due to natural water flow but this has hopefully been solved by adding gaps to the outer breakwaters.
Possible erosion of the beaches on the fronds and breakwater and disturbance of marine life during the dredging and reclamation process. Nakheel claim they have done exhaustive studies and have a responsible approach to the environment.
Expected completion date of the first villas has moved from end of 2005 to end of 2006.
A number of people have noted that the villas seem to be constructed much closer together than what appeared to be the case in marketing brochures (it is of course debatable whether that's a problem with Nakheel or a problem with not reading the small print).
There are reports of villas showing structural defects - cracks in walls, and unstable foundations with villas 'settling'.
Villa owners are reportedly finding it difficult to visit their own villas. Whether this is due to normal access restrictions for a construction site or because Nakheel does not want owners to have an opportunity to complain depends on who you listen to.
Concerns about quality of finish - another Nakheel development (Jumeirah Islands) had reports of poor quality when residents moved in. It was also delayed by 18 months.

Burj al-Arab:
All around the world, it is known as the landmark of Dubai.
Here is Dubai, it's known as our very own "leaning Tower of the UAE'; the island wasn't constructed well enough, and with the settling sand the hotel needs to be propped-up every once in a while.
The service is totally overdone & exaggerated: I went to the men's room & whilst relieving myself an attendant stood 2 inches behind me, waiting to hand me a towel. ( Privacy, please...)
Your own private butler for your suite is available 24-hours just for you. Great, but could he please stop knocking on the door every 30min, asking if we need anything?
And the entire cleaning staff manages to make you feel positively filthy: I sat on one of the grand sofas, then stood up to greet someone, and within seconds a cleaner was busy vacuuming the spot I'd sat on... I then lit a cigarette, and every time I flicked ash into the ashtray a waiter exchanged it.
The restaurant at the top is called al-Muntaha. It has been voted Dubai's worst restaurant for two consecutive years! The quality & taste of the food is atrocious. I'm not picky, but the mashed potatoes were reheated & dry, the spinach was bitter & unseasoned, the fish was half raw and cold inside, and of course it's totally overpriced.
And finally, my favourite little-known fact about the Burj Al Arab (I know someone who works there): the sewage pipes & pumps have needed serious hands-on cleaning more than once a month. Why, you may ask? Well, many of the rich & almost-famous guests of the hotel decided to bring lady-company to their rooms at night. To put it bluntly: high-class hookers. The hotel has turned into such a huge brothel that the toilets, etc. are regularly clogged with hundreds of used condoms.
The UAE prides itself on being "tolerant towards all religions", but I guess there's a limit to everything: the restaurant that swoops around the back & top of the hotel creates a sort of... well... Christian symbol. That's why you will never see official photos of the Burj al-Arab from the sea (the rear side): because it looks like a giant cross:

More Dubai hubris

From the Peripatetic Engineer:
Burj Dubai (Arabic: برج دبي 'Dubai Tower') is a supertall skyscraper currently under construction in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. When it is completed in late 2008, it is predicted to be the tallest man-made structure in the world, as well as the tallest building by any measure. Scheduled for occupancy in September 2009, the building is part of a 2 km² (0.8 sq mi) development called 'Downtown Burj Dubai' and is located at the 'First Interchange' (aka 'Defence Roundabout') along Sheikh Zayed Road at Doha Street.
The tower's architect is Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the architecture and engineering firm in charge of the project. The primary builder is Samsung, along with Besix and Arabtec. Third party peer review has been performed by CBM Engineers.
The total budget for the Burj Dubai project is about $4.1 billion US, and for the entire new 'Downtown Burj Dubai', $20 billion US.
As of 27 December 2007, Burj Dubai has reached a height of 598.5 m (1,964 ft), with 158 completed floors.
Burj Dubai's last two milestones will be to surpass the 628.8 m (2,063 ft) height of the KVLY-TV Mast in North Dakota, United States to become the world's tallest structure and to pass the Warsaw radio mast in Gąbin, Poland (646.4 m (2,121 ft) until it collapsed in 1991) to become the world's tallest structure of any type ever built.
The projected final height of Burj Dubai is officially being kept a secret due to competition from other buildings under construction or proposed; however, figures released by a contractor on the project have suggested a height of around 818 m (2,684 ft). Based on this height, the total number of habitable floors is expected to be around 160. However, when pressed for a more precise figure, the project manager merely repeated that he was able only to guarantee that the final height would be higher than 700 m (2,297 ft), and it would be the world's tallest free-standing structure when completed.
Though unconfirmed, Burj Dubai has been rumoured to have undergone several height increases since its inception. Originally proposed as a virtual clone of the 560 m (1,837 ft) Grollo Tower proposal for Melbourne, Australia's Docklands waterfront development, the tower was redesigned with an original design by Skidmore Owings and Merrill seen above and discussed below. This design should put it at approximately 705 m (2,313 ft). Contradictory information abounds regarding the official height of the building, which is to be expected, considering the building seeks to acquire the designation as the world's tallest structure upon completion in 2009. One website mentions a rumoured final height of 916 m (3,005 ft) in a September 28, 2006 posting, but this is contradicted by a September 20, 2006 article listing a height over 940 m (3,084 ft).
The design architect, Adrian Smith, felt that the upper-most section of the building did not culminate elegantly with the rest of the structure, so he sought and received approval to increase it to the currently planned height. It has been explicitly stated that this change did not include any added floors, which is fitting with Smith's attempts to make the crown more slender. However, the top of the tower, will be a steel frame structure, unlike the lower portion's reinforced concrete. The developer, Emaar, has stated this steel section may be extended to beat any other tower to the title of tallest; however, once the tower is complete the height cannot be changed.
Several other major projects in the region may vie for the title of tallest structure. These other projects are in various states of planning and/or construction.
One of Burj Dubai's potential competitors is the proposed Murjan Tower, in Manama, Bahrain. Designed by the Danish architects Henning Larsens Tegnestue A/S, it is expected to be 1,022 m (3,353 ft) in height with 200 floors.
Also potentially competing with Burj Dubai is the proposed 1,001 m (3,284 ft) Burj Mubarak al-Kabir to be erected in Kuwait as part of a massive development project called Madinat al-Hareer (City of Silk). The project also includes an Olympic stadium, residences, hotels, and retail facilities. However, the project may take 25 years to complete.
Another proposed tower which may surpass the height of Burj Dubai, is Al Burj (The Tower). If built, it will form the centrepiece of Dubai Waterfront, the world's largest waterfront development situated only 50 km (31 mi) from the Burj Dubai site. Speculation has suggested various heights between 700 m (2,297 ft) and 1,200 m (3,937 ft), but the developer is keeping the final height tightly under wraps.
The tower is being constructed by a South Korean company, Samsung Engineering & Construction which also built the Petronas Twin Towers and Taipei 101. The tower is designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who also designed the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Freedom Tower in New York City, among numerous other famous high rises. The building resembles the bundled tube form of the Sears Tower, but is not a tube structure. The design of Burj Dubai is reminiscent of the Frank Lloyd Wright vision for The Illinois, a mile-high skyscraper designed for Chicago. Burj Dubai is expected to rise to 150% of the height of the Sears Tower. Emaar has also engaged GHD, an international multidisciplinary consulting firm, to assist with the design, review and assessment involved in the construction process.
The design of Burj Dubai is ostensibly derived from the patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture, with the triple-lobed footprint of the building based on an abstracted version of the desert flower hymenocallis native to the region. The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. As the tower rises from the flat desert base, setbacks occur at each element in an upward spiralling pattern, decreasing the cross section of the tower as it reaches toward the sky. At the top, the central core emerges and is sculpted to form a finishing spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Persian Gulf. Viewed from above or from the base, the form also evokes the onion domes of Islamic architecture.
The exterior cladding of Burj Dubai will consist of reflective glazing with aluminium and textured stainless steel spandrel panels with vertical tubular fins of stainless steel. The cladding system is designed to withstand Dubai's extreme summer temperatures.
The interior will be decorated by Giorgio Armani. An Armani Hotel (the first of its kind) will occupy the lower 37 floors. Floors 45 through 108 will have 700 private apartments on 64 floors (which, according to the developer, sold out within eight hours of going on sale). Corporate offices and suites will fill most of the remaining floors, except for a 123rd floor lobby and 124th floor (about 440 metres (1,444 ft)) indoor/outdoor observation deck. The spire will also hold communications equipment. An outdoor zero-entry swimming pool will be located on the 78th floor of the tower.
It will also feature the world's fastest elevator, rising and descending at 18 m/s (40 mph). The world's current fastest elevator (in the Taipei 101) travels at 16.83 m/s (37.6 mph). Engineers had considered installing the world's first triple-decker elevators, but the final design calls for double-deck elevators. A total of 56 elevators will be installed that can carry 42 people at a time.
Engineers rotated the building 120 degrees from its original layout to reduce stress from prevailing winds. Over 45,000 m³ (58,900 cu yd) of concrete, weighing more than 110,000 metric tons (121,000 S/T/108,000 L/T) were used to construct the concrete and steel foundation, which features 192 piles buried more than 50 m (164 ft) deep.
Burj Dubai has been designed to be the centerpiece of a large-scale, mixed-use development that will include 30,000 homes, nine hotels such as the Burj Dubai Lake Hotel & Serviced Apartments, 0.03 km² (0.01 sq mi) of parkland, at least 19 residential towers, the Dubai Mall, and the 0.12 km² (0.05 sq mi) man-made Burj Dubai Lake. Burj Dubai will cost US$ 800 million to build and the entire 2 km² (0.77 sq mi) development will cost around US$ 20 billion.
The silvery glass-sheathed concrete building will give the title of Earth's tallest free-standing structure to the Middle East — a title not held by the region since 1311 AD when Lincoln Cathedral in England surpassed the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which had held the title for almost four millennia.
The decision to build Burj Dubai is reportedly based on the government's decision to diversify from a trade-based economy to one that is service- and tourism-oriented. According to officials, it is necessary for projects like Burj Dubai to be built in the city to garner more international recognition, and hence investment. "He [Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum] wanted to put Dubai on the map with something really sensational," said Jacqui Josephson, a tourism and VIP delegations executive at Nakheel Properties.
Burj Dubai is made from reinforced concrete. As construction of the tower progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to vertically pump the thousands of cubic metres of concrete that are required. The previous record for pumping concrete on any project was set during the extension of the Riva del Garda Hydroelectric Power Plant in Italy in 1994, when concrete was pumped to a height of 532 m (1,745 ft). Burj Dubai now holds this record as of August 19, 2007, as it has a height of 536.1 m (1,759 ft), to hold the record for concrete pumping on any project; and as of October 2, 2007 concrete was pumped to a delivery height of 588 m (1,929 ft).
Special mixes of concrete are made to withstand the extreme pressures of the massive weight of the tower; each batch of concrete is tested and checked to see whether it can withstand certain pressures. The head of Concrete Quality Checking on the Burj Dubai project is Alam Feroze, who is in charge of concrete on the whole project.
As the consistency of the concrete on the project is essential, it was difficult to create a concrete that could withstand the thousands of tonnes bearing down on it, but also to withstand Gulf temperatures that can reach +50 °C (122 °F). To combat this problem, the concrete is not poured during the day. Instead, ice is added to the mixture and it is poured at night when it is cooler and the humidity is higher. A cooler concrete mixture cures evenly throughout and therefore is less likely to set too quickly and crack. Any significant cracks could put the whole project in jeopardy.
Burj Dubai is being built primarily by immigrant engineers and workers from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, China, and the Philippines. Press reports indicate that skilled carpenters at the site earn US$7.60 (£4.34)/day, and laborers earn US$4.00 (£2.84). Unions were forbidden in the United Arab Emirates until recently, when the government announced steps to allow construction unions. On March 21, 2006, workers upset over low wages and poor working conditions rioted, damaging cars, offices, computers, and construction equipment. A Dubai Interior Ministry official said the rioters caused approximately US$1m (£488k) in damage. Most workers returned the following day but refused to work. Workers building a new terminal at Dubai International Airport also joined that day's strike action.
The United Arab Emirates dirham's close connection with the low US dollar, and the increased cost-of-living in the region, has made it increasingly difficult for immigrant construction workers to survive on their wages. An offer by the UAE government in June 2007 to fly home illegal immigrant workers free-of-charge, with no questions asked, was met with overwhelming demand, further threatening the supply of workers on the Burj Dubai and other Dubai construction projects.

Rico says if you wonder where all the money you pay at the gas pump goes, this is it.

Sheikh Mo's Folly

From the Peripatetic Engineer: Work is starting on the $11 billion Arabian Canal in Dubai. This sea level canal will connect the Jebel Ali Palm with the Jumeirah Palm via a 75 km long canal that will extend south past the new Jebel Ali Airport and Dubailand before making a loop back north. The canal will be six meters deep and will accommodate vessels up to 135 feet in length. Obviously, this is not intended to be an industrial canal but a land development scheme to provide more 'waterfront' real estate in Dubai.
The sheikh is well known for his massive construction projects but this one may well be the icing on the cake. (Rico says more like the whipped cream on the moose-turd pie...)
In order to build it they will have to cross two major highways, Sheikh Zayed Road and the Emirates Ring Road, twice.
It will cross the new light rail system currently under construction.
It also may take a piece of two golf courses - Montgomerie Golf Course and the Emirates Golf Club.
And there is also the utilities infrastructure that will have to be moved.
But these issues have never been a concern when Sheikh Mo has a brain fart.
My friend, the Peripatetic Engineer, predicts that the canal will turn into a stagnant swamp because there is not enough tidal range to adequately flush the canal and there is no natural flow.

Stupid Aussie tree...

"In California, early on, there sprang up botanists and enthusiasts who introduced the general populace to eucalyptus and advanced subsequent efforts on its part. One such person was Ellwood Cooper who came to California in 1870 and settled in the Santa Barbara area. He took early note of the eucalyptus species already growing there, and could see the potential of such a tree. He immediately bought land and planted eucalyptus groves covering some 200 acres. His groves became renowned for their beauty and lushness. This was said in 1904: One can stroll through his groves as through primeval forests. In the canyons, Eucalypts twenty-five years old tower high above oaks..."
"A successor to Cooper was Abbot Kinney of Los Angeles. He was chairman of the California Board of Forestry from 1886 to 1888 during which time he launched a program that resulted in the planting of thousands of eucalyptus."
"Next on the eucalyptus scene was Woodbridge Metcalf. For over fifty years, he would dominate the field. He began his professional career in 1914 at the University of California, Berkeley where he taught forest botany, tree management and tree identification. In 1926, he became the first California Extention Forester who strongly advocated the usage of eucalyptus as windbreaks for citrus groves."
John Hittel wrote in his 1863 book on California: "Most of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, the Colorado Desert, the eastern slopes of the Coast Mountains, and the Coast Range south of latitude 35 degrees, are treeless."
"It was during the gold rush, that the eucalyptus was introduced into California either by Australians, or by Americans who had been to Australia, or knew of the tree and had seed shipped in."
"In 1849, over 2,600 Australians left Sydney for San Francisco. It took between three to four months to make the passage with the American clipper ships completing the trip quicker than the more bulky blue gum vessels. It was on one of these voyages that the first sack of eucalyptus seed was imported. Because eucalyptus seed is tiny, a small sack, which can hold several thousand seeds, was all that was needed."
"There is some speculation as to who was the first person to plant eucalyptus in California. Most accounts seem to point to W.C. Walker who was the owner of the Golden Gate Nursery in San Francisco located at Fourth and Folsom Streets. It is believed that he planted the first seeds in 1853 from 14 different species."
"The eucalyptus tree was a curiosity to most and were bought for beauty or shade."
"In 1877, Assistant Chief Engineer for the Central Pacific Railroad, J.D. Scupham, bought 40,000 eucalyptus seedlings, mostly blue gum, from nurseries in Oakland and Hayward. The railroad planted the seedlings in the San Joaquin Valley and in some instances near wells as an attraction to settlers. The next year, 250,000 seedlings were bought from Locke of Pasadena and 300,000 from George Baxter of Hayward. In the two year planting program, the railroad planted about one million trees. The program was a bust though. Soon it was discovered that eucalyptus ties would crack and check if not seasoned properly. These ties could not hold a spike in place securely which was obviously of great importance to track stability. The eucalyptus wood also rotted away easily. Thus ended the first real experiment of eucalyptus for an industrial purpose."
"By the end of the nineteenth century, California had been fully invaded by the eucalyptus. It could be seen most anywhere in the state where climate permitted. It was being used for fuel, windbreaks, medicines, shade, and beautification. Writing in Out West in 1904, Alfred McClatchie observes, "Without the Eucalyptus, California would be a very different state. What she owes to them it is impossible to fully estimate. Nothing short of being entirely deprived of these trees would enable her citizens to realize how much their presence means. Without them, landscapes now varied and softened by their presence would be comparatively monotonous and unattractive. Winds would sweep unchecked over regions where their progress is now impeded by avenues and groves of Eucalypts. Orchards that in the shelter of Eucalypts are profitable would be unproductive. Had not these trees been introduced, the fuel problem would be a very different one. Were some agency to destroy all the Eucalypts now growing in California, the price of real estate would fall at once.
The whole eucalyptus tree could be used from its roots to its crown, from its bark to its foliage. It not only provided fuel, windbreaks, medicine, shade and beauty, it also was lumber for implements, nectar for bees, pulp for paper, and chemical for boiler cleaning. When cut down, the eucalyptus would resprout providing yet another crop of products within a few years. It appeared to be a miracle tree only limited by one's imagination. It created an excitement leading to a surge of interest that would become the boom of 1905 to 1912."
"But not everyone was enchanted by the genus, and the numbers would grow when soon its true economic value would be revealed. These disgruntled individuals would disdainfully refer to the eucalyptus as the "Australian weed." In this passage from Old Calabria, novelist Norman Douglas vents his disgust on the wonder tree: A single eucalyptus can ruin the faire landscape. No plant on earth rustles such a horribly metalic fashion when the wind blows through these everlasting withered branches; the noise chills on the marrow; it is like the sibilant chant of ghosts. Its oil is called "medicine" only because it happens to smell rather nasty; it is worthless timber, objectionable in form and hue; objectionable above all things, in its perverse, and inhuman habits. What other tree would have the effrontery to turn the sharp edge of its leaves; as if these were not narrow enough already! of their minimum of shade and maximum discomfort to mandkind?"
"Many of the eucalyptus trees seen today in California base their existence on the eucalyptus boom of 1905-1912, during which time, large eucalyptus plantations were created with the hope of reaping sizeable profits. The tree promised much. Its rapid growth and size were well-known. Californians had developed valuable uses for it. It was promoted by the print media, government, the University, and enthusiasts who gave lectures and published essays on it. It was a rising star that received yet another boost in 1907. The U.S. Forest Service issued a report entitled The Waning Hardwood Supply and the Appalachian Forests. The eucalyptus is a hardwood which could fill this void."
"Building on this idea in 1888, George McGillivrey published an article in Overland Monthly entitled The Economic Value of the Eucalyptus in which he presented the many possible products the eucalyptus could produce. He based his pitch on the manufacturing done in Australia; however, this was manufacturing that utilized centuries-old eucalyptus instead of young trees which is a crucial distinction. McGillivrey went on to praise the adaptability of the eucalyptus to California and the possibilities of its many species. It was quite simple to him. Just plant eucalyptus and "while quietly the forest advances almost without expenditure and care, its wood treasures increase from year to year without taxing the patience of generations." He summarizes, "The propagation of Eucalyptus is easy, rapid, and inexpensive." Who could argue differently after seeing the process and its living results."
"The reason for this caution and guarded skepticism can be seen in this comment from the authors Betts and Smith: " The problem utilizing eucalyptus wood readily without undue waste is a difficult one because of its tendency to warp, shrink, and check during drying. They went on to note that the promise of eucalyptus in California was based on the old virgin forests of Australia. This was a mistake as the young trees being harvested in California could not compared in quality to the centuries-old eucalyptus timber of Australia. It reacted differently to harvest. The older trees didn't split or warp as the infant California crop did. There was a vast difference between the two, and this would doom the California eucalyptus industry."
"Its text made claims in the usual superlative fashion, such as, This tree at this particular moment is in many instances the most valuable one on the face of the globe. Maturity is in a decade or two. No Teak, Mahogany, Ebony, Hickory or Oak was ever tougher, denser, stronger or of more glorious hardness..."
"The eucalyptus companies advertised for investors to be partners in the enterprise. An investor could buy land fully planted and make monthly payments. The company did all of the work, and shared what profits there were with their business partners. It took normally ten years before a profit could be realized. An acre planted in eucalyptus cost $250 with the promise of making $2,500 an acre at harvest time ten years later. This offer was tempting, and widows, teachers, and small businessmen invested their life savings in the eucalyptus boom. Farmers ripped out staple crops to plant eucalyptus."
"The railroads took an interest. Santa Fe Railroad planted eucalyptus on thousands of acres at Rancho Santa Fe for ties, poles, and interior woods for railroad cars. By 1908, the railroad discovered, just as the Central Pacific Railroad did several decades before, that unseasoned eucalyptus wood twisted and cracked thus putting an end to their project. Even the novelist Jack London got into the act. He planted 100,000 trees on his ranch with the intention of using the wood for furniture. This would not eventuate."
"From Fall 1909 to Spring 1910, 23,000 acres in California were planted in eucalyptus, mostly red and blue gums. These investments were obviously at an infancy stage as it would take years before harvesting could take place. Eucalyptus still at this point was being used primarily for firewood."
"The boom fizzled. It was found that eucalyptus wood could not be seasoned properly to do the things that had been anticipated. Tests of seasoning were performed and processes were structured for proper curing, but there was a great dissatisfaction with these. Eucalyptus wood warped, cracked, twisted, and became too tough once cured. The yields that were projected it was found would take too many years to be realized. The hardwood shortage that spurred the boom was resolved by the use of steel, cement, and other substitutes. Wagons and carriages were being replaced by metal automobiles, thus ending that hardwood market. Using eucalyptus for fuel was diminished by the discovery and rising use of oil, gas, and electricity."
"The boom ended. Lumber mills using exclusively eucalyptus timber closed. Furniture manufacturers moved back East. Plantation trees were sold for firewood. Pharmacologists dropped their support which meant that eucalyptus would not be used in most medicines. Prime agriculture land was returned to traditional crops. Nurseries unloaded their eucalyptus stock. Through the rest of the twentieth century eucalyptus would be used mostly for fuel, windbreaks, and in certain medicines.
Not everyone was enchanted with the eucalyptus anyway, and now even more felt a dislike as represented in this sarcastic piece from The Argonaut:
There is a craze all over the state about the eucalyptus or Australian blue gum tree... Eucalyptus will frighten away fevers and murder malaria. Its leaves cure asthma. Its roots knocks out ague as cold as jelly. Its bark improves that of a dog. A dead body buried in a coffin made from the wood of the blue gum will enjoy immunity from the exploring mole and the penetrating worm... this absurd vegetable is now growing all over the State. One cannot get out of its sight... crops up everywhere in independent ugliness. It defaces every landscape with botches of blue and embitters every breeze with suggestions of an old woman's medicine chest. Let us have no more of it."
"There are between 70 to 100 species growing in California today."

So we have Cooper, Kinney, Metcalf, Walker, and some nameless Australians to blame for "this absurd vegetable".
Having raked tons (literally) of fallen eucalyptus bark, branches, and nuts out of our gravel driveway in northern California when I was a kid, I really really hate the tree and anyone responsible for bringing it from Australia to California.
It's too late for California and the eucalyptus, but as for the future of hubris, "let us have no more of it".

Nasty little buggers...

"The brown garden snail (European brown snail) Helix (Cyptoomphalus) aspersa Müller, was described by O.F. Müller in 1774 from specimens collected in Italy. This plant feeder has been disseminated into many parts of the world intentionally as a food delicacy, accidentally by the movement of plants, and by hobbyists who collect snails. It was introduced to California in the 1850s as a source of escargot. It has adapted well to California and is very troublesome as a pest of crops and ornamentals (Capinera 2001)."

Adapted well to California?
That's like saying humans adapted well to California.
Though there may be more humans there than snails, but not by much.

Escargot? Must have been a Frenchman...
Shoulda known.

Upcoming commentary

Just so we don't forget, here are some classic examples of hubris (to be mentioned in more detail later):

kudzu
the breakup of the Ottoman Empire
the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
the breakup of the Soviet Union, after nearly a hundred years of pax Russica
Wars on Anything: Drugs, Pornography, Terrorism

That'll teach me

Speaking of hubris, not two months after I launched this site I was hit by what the insurance guys call a "pre-existing condition": a Pontine hemorrhage (currently of unknown origin) in my brain stem.
Of course, you don't know you have such a "pre-existing condition" until it starts to bleed into your brain and you go to the hospital, but try telling that to an insurance company...
If you care, check out the blog of my illness at http://markwseymour.blogspot.com/
Trust me, you don't want one.

What we have here is a failure to communicate

A recent fatal air crash at Lexington, Kentucky had enough hubris to go around (inattentive pilots who'd first boarded the wrong plane, a lone air traffic controller because of "cost cutting" decisions at the FAA, poor runway lighting, etc.), but there seems to have been one factor not mentioned in the press, though noted via email by an expert observer:

"Comair and the press will tell you what a great plane it is. This is a total lie. The Bombardier CRJ-100 was designed to be an executive barge, not an airliner. They were designed to fly about ten times a month, not ten times a day. They have a long history of mechanical design shortfalls. I've flown on it and piloted it. It is a steaming, underpowered piece of shit. It never had enough power to get out of its own way and this situation is exactly what everybody who flies it was afraid of.
"The senior member of the crew had about five and a half years of total jet experience. The copilot less. They had minimum training (to save money; enjoy that discount ticket!) and were flying a minimally equipped POS on very short rest. The layover gets in about 10pm the night before. They report for pick-up at 4:30am. (This would support an NTSB statement that there was "a lack of precision and accuracy in their actions", but contradicts a statement that "the pilots had arrived the previous day and had plenty of time to sleep, according to a timeline provided by the NTSB".)
"I'm sorry if I sound bitter but this is exactly the direction the entire airline industry is going. Expect to see bigger, more colorful crashes in the future."

Crikey is as crikey does

Shooting a segment for a series called Ocean's Deadliest, Steve Irwin, the 'Crocodile Hunter', was "stung in the chest by a stingray" in Northern Australia and died.
According to University of Queensland marine neuroscientist Shaun Collin, stingrays have a serrated, toxin-loaded barb, or spine, up to 25 centimeters (10 inches) long on top of their tails. The barb flexes reflexively if a ray is frightened, and a sting to a person is usually excruciatingly painful but not deadly. Collin said he suspected Irwin died because the barb pierced under his ribcage and stabbed directly into his heart. "It was extraordinarily bad luck. It's not easy to get spined by a stingray, and to be killed by one is very rare," Collin said.

Underwater at 0200 in the morning, playing with deadly sea animals, fifty miles offshore and hours from a hospital in Cairns. Was Irwin's death extraordinarily bad luck, extraordinarily bad judgement, or just plain hubris?

They were thinking of calling it Soylent Green...

The first genetically engineered bentgrass (designed to resist the effects of the herbicide glyphosate, commonly known as Roundup) has escaped into the wild.
Intended for use on golf courses, the joint venture by Scotts Miracle-Gro & Monsanto went wild when "seed from a test plot escaped several years ago while it was drying following a harvest in Oregon's Willamette Valley, home to most of the U.S. grass seed industry and the world's largest producer of commercial grass varieties".
While some industry experts believe development of the engineered grass may be an economic question rather than a biological issue, acquired resistance could force land managers and government agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, which relies heavily on Roundup, to switch to "nastier" herbicides to control grasses and weeds, according to Norman Ellstrand, a geneticist and plant expert at the University of California, Riverside, who noted "This is not a killer tomato, this is not the asparagus that ate Cleveland."

No. Neither was kudzu. And look how well that turned out...

A city under water

According to his biography on Wikipedia, Albert Baldwin Wood was an inventor and engineer from New Orleans. Hired by the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans in 1899 to try to improve the flood-prone city's drainage, Wood invented various hydraulic devices, most notably the Wood Screw Pump.

"Wood spearheaded the reclamation efforts to make developable much of the land now occupied by the city of New Orleans."

By allowing the ecological disaster that is New Orleans to exist, Wood easily qualifies for a Hubris award.

Not wormwood, but might as well have been

Contrary to popular belief, Chornobyl (the proper spelling of Chernobyl) does not mean wormwood (Artemisia absinthium; the city is named after the more mundane species Artemisia vulgaris L. or mugwort) in Ukranian, thus preventing it from representing the Biblical disaster foretold in Revelation 8:10-11.

Chernobyl was, however, the worst peacetime nuclear disaster the world has yet seen, far surpassing the Three Mile Island incident.

What sets both Chernobyl and Three Mile Island apart from the horrific effects of the nuclear explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki is, of course, that the two Japanese blasts of 1945 were deliberate.
The American and Ukranian disasters happened because, like any good act of hubris, the people responsible were convinced that nothing could possibly go wrong.

The entire nuclear experience has been fraught with hubris-laden events. In December of 1942, Dr. Enrico Fermi achieved the first controlled nuclear chain reaction, with a natural uranium device moderated with graphite. Fermi conducted the process using the first demonstration reactor, Chicago Pile 1, though some of his graduate students were concerned that the reaction would melt into the ground under the stadium bleachers. In November of 1955, an experimental breeder reactor in Idaho partially melted down during a test; the cause was attributed to operator error. In October of 1957, the plutonium production reactor at Windscale in England caught fire and spread approximately 20,000 curies of radioactive iodine across Great Britain and northern Europe. During 1957, Soviet nuclear facilities near Kyshtym in the Urals exploded due to poor waste handling procedures, spreading contamination over an enormous area. In January of 1961, the reactor at Idaho Falls went out of control causing a rupture of the building; the damaged core was reported to have emitted more than 500 rems per hour. In October of 1966, the Enrico Fermi experimental breeder near Detroit was the site of what was considered an "uncomfortably close call," as its core partially melted. Although a runaway reaction was prevented, the reactor was permanently disabled. In March of 1979, equipment failures and human error contributed to a partial core melt at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. In January of 1983, the Atomic Industrial Forum, a pro-nuclear power group, published a statement that "No member of the public has been injured or killed from a reactor accident at a commercial nuclear power plant... No plant employee ever has exhibited clinical evidence of serious injury from radiation... The nation's most serious commercial nuclear plant accident (the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island) did not alter this unparalleled record of safety." This language, of course, smacks of industrial-grade hubris...

In April of 1986, runaway reactions during a test at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor near Kiev in the Ukraine caused a series of explosions that ruptured the containment structure and sent massive amounts of radiation throughout the Northern Hemisphere; the incident at Chernobyl resulted in over 75 million people being exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation. In August, Soviet medical experts predicted an increase of nearly 30,000 cancer-related deaths over a 50 year period due to exposure to radiation from Chernobyl.

One site gives a capsule history that "Russian engineers and scientists began preliminary tests on Chernobyl power plant's reactor. In order to control the experiment, the automatic control system was shut down. Stability was reached at very low power outputs, but manual control of the water pressure wasn't maintained and, without the automatic system, the control rods couldn't be reinserted in time. Within three to four seconds, the reactor went from five percent output to one hundred times its normal level. The water in the reactor flash-boiled, and the steam carried nuclear material out of the reactor into the environment. Several thousand volunteers died on the scene, and it is estimated that 7,000 to 10,000 volunteers died in total. The Ukrainian birth defect rate is now double the world average, 150,000 were put at risk for thyroid cancer, over 800,000 children may contracting leukemia, and two million acres of land (one fifth of the usable farmland in the Ukraine) was, and remains, completely unusable."

In the aftermath, the Russians eventually admitted that workers on the site were overruled by superiors, and safety practices were ignored because "nothing can go wrong". Eventually, they built a 'sarcophagus', a pile of 300,000 metric tons of concrete, to try and encase the destroyed reactor. (Twenty years later, of course, it is leaking. They are now trying to build a super-sarcophagus, designed to last a hundred years. The pile of nuclear material it contains may well be 'hot', however, for thousands of years.)

Before that, of course, the Soviets tried to conceal everything: that an accident occurred at all, that it was of significant magnitude, that their efforts to control it had failed, that the public was in danger, that many firefighters and construction workers were being killed or maimed in the cleanup efforts, and that the danger would both spread and last a long time.

Hubris killed thousands of Ukrainian and Russian workers and soldiers, poisoned wide areas of Central Europe, and will continue to sicken children in the Ukraine and Belarus for decades to come.

Warwick Kerr, poster child for hubris

Apis mellifera scutellata

In 1956, geneticist Warwick Kerr began breeding experiments in Piracicaba, Brazil with African honeybee queens and European honeybee drones, creating the Africanized honeybee. The new bees however produced less honey and due to their highly defensive nature they were kept in a box with queen excluders (slats that allow only the smaller workers to fly out), to stop them ever reproducing in the wild. However in 1957, an uninformed beekeeper noticed the excluders and removed them, as it wasn't the season for their typical use. 26 queens escaped and rapidly reproduced in the wild, dominating the indigenous honeybee. At first, it was assumed that the Africanized bees would mate with other European bees and lose their African temperament. Unfortunately, this did not happen and very soon reports of violent bee attacks began to occur. In 1963 the first death occurred, when Lino Lopez was attacked while attempting to destroy a hive hanging from a building.
Arizona university paper on Africanized bees

Think this is all much about nothing? From the same site:
"Africanized honeybees have accounted for 7 human fatalities in the US and 175 fatalities in Mexico alone since 1985."

Hubris was not only in doing the experiment in the first place, but assuming that all their 'safeguards' (and one can only assume that they did not even have a "Mantenha as barras sobre, stupid" sign in place or, if they did, that the poor 'uninformed beekeeper' could read it) would protect us.
Think of that, the next time someone at a press conference assures us, with a straight face, that "everything has been done to prevent anything bad from occurring".
At a place called, say, Chernobyl...

Always remember that Murphy was an optimist.

Hubris

Definition: "Excessive pride displayed by a character and often taking the form of a boastful comparison of the self to the divine, the gods, or other higher powers, often also resulting in harsh punishment."