Comments on: A seismic shift for San Francisco Bay Bridge

The new eastern span of the Bay Bridge will include the largest self-anchored suspension construction in the world.
Photos: A Bay Bridge for all seasons

[imoretti]

Original numbers

When the original plan to replace the bridge was funded under
AB 1171 in 2001, the completion date was to be this year at a
total cost of around $1.3 billion. The added complexity of
including the SAS component, instead of the recommended
continuation of the skyway, has more than quadrupled the
original costs. And, the new budget doesn't include what
Caltrans calls "program contingencies". Still, it's pretty
impressive and I'm looking forward to my first crossing, even
though it may be a decade from now.

[anarchyreigns]

2013?

If you start from the beginning of construction of the Golden Gate, to end of the construction of the Bay Bridge, it took less time than for these clowns today to build a little span. <shakes head>

By the time they finish (and this is if it's in 2013) it will have been nearly 25 years since Loma Prieta.

Yeah, America is still a "can do" nation. <rolls eyes>

[ParadoxianGiant]

Earth's Purging

The recent earthquake in Peru got me to thinking about something. I'll say this up front, I'm not in a good mood today, so this will probably not be a peachy piece of writing. So, if you are one of those people who only wants to hear positive things, probably best you go away.

Up until very recently, I belonged to the group of people who said that we humans had very little effect on the planet, on the environment, on nature. Well, I've changed my position, mostly after I began to think about the natural disasters throughout history. Are these happenings coincidence, or the result of cause and effect?

There have been diseases that have killed millions, there has been, and still is famine that kills millions, there are severe earthquakes that have killed thousands in just a few minutes, hurricanes and tornadoes, the killer tsunami that killed all those people in Thailand in 2004, the list goes on.

All this being said, I believe that in this life, some things, well, most things, are random, BUT, on the other hand, there are many things that are not. There is this thing called cause and effect - I am a big believer in cause and effect. I also believe that our planet is a living thing and has a life force of its own. This fact is not as glaringly obvious as it might be in some other living organisms, but if you look closely, you'll see undeniable evidence that the earth does, after all, have a life force of its own.

In recent history, we've seen examples of all of the things I mentioned above. In all the locations where these "disasters" have happened, there is and has been some very bad energy circulating the area. What got me to thinking about this was, I spent the last 15 months in Lima, Peru. I just moved back to the U.S. a couple of weeks ago, so I wasn't there for the earthquake. Well, I'll tell you from first hand experience, something is dreadfully wrong with the general population there. The selfish, rude, filthy attitude of the majority of people there is beyond belief - much worse than anywhere else I've ever been. The nasty energy just sits in the air there. I don't feel the need to go into all the gory details, you'll just have to take my word for it for now. If ever you do, though, get the opportunity to visit Lima, please do it so you can see for yourself. Granted, the quake didn't take a lot of human lives - not this time, anyway, but if I'm right about this, it's only a matter of time before something similar to the Indian Ocean tsunami of last year happens in Peru - well, in lots of other places for that matter.

So, where do we stand in America? We had the quake in San Francisco in 89, we've had tornadoes ripping through places where they normally inhabit, but we've also had them in places where it's not normal for them to happen, we had Katrina last year. AIDS, cancer, and other dreaded diseases are running rampant right under our noses. Auto accidents have killed more people than all the wars in the history of man - and cars have been around for HOW long - a hundred years or so (the car thing is more cause and effect than earth's purging)? Keep in mind that we humans are only using a tiny fraction of the space on the planet - in fact, if you took every human on the planet and gave them a square yard to stand in, you could fit them all in a space half the size of New Hampshire (I did the math myself). BUT, with all that area on the planet that has no people on it, how many natural disasters (hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis) occur in uninhabited areas? Yes, there are scientific facts that can explain away why these occurrences happen in highly populated areas, but how did those scientific facts become scientific facts? In other words, was it a coincidence that the 89 San Francisco quake happened close enough to the city to have caused all that damage? Do we know about any major earthquakes hitting uninhabited areas? There is all that California coastline that is very lightly inhabited - why did it not hit those places instead of the highly populated San Francisco area? Was it a coincidence that Katrina blasted the highly populated, underwater city of New Orleans head on? The giant tsunami that hit Thailand - coincidence that it hit where it killed thousands?

How many of you out there think that it's normal to contract cancer, or AIDS, or any of the dreaded diseases that are killing humans by the millions every year? How many think that it's normal for millions of people in Africa to starve to death? How many think it's normal for people to be murdering each other? There are direct causes for every one of these horrible tragedies. The scary thing is, the attitudes of humans in general are not good - never have been, and the result is, the bad energy circulates and causes these killer occurrences. Inherent greed, gross selfishness, and just general bad thoughts and intentions - all contributing to the premature loss of human life.

Well, this brings me to my sad assessment of the human race as a whole. I believe that humans are not good by nature. My proof is, watch just about any kid - he or she will spend much of their time seeing what they can get away with, and very little time seeing what good they can do. As a person gets older, these tendencies become somewhat under control, but the intentions are still there. Someone came up with the idea of a "Higher Power" that we all must answer to - in order to try to keep people from completely being evil, and it seemed to work for a while, but it appears that it is losing its effect. No, not positive thoughts or beliefs, but as I always say, reality is not always pretty.

So, what's the answer? I have no answer. If magically, people's attitudes change for the better, then great, we would all have a much better world to live in, but I don't foresee that happening. Denial, or reality, you choose.

ParadoxianGiant