All posts tagged: collapsed

A -billion Las Vegas dream collapsed and left angry investors in its wake

A $5-billion Las Vegas dream collapsed and left angry investors in its wake

Published by Sam

LAS VEGAS  — Even in a city accustomed to outlandish projects and long-shot bets, Jackie Lee Robinson’s $5-billion vision for Las Vegas stood out. The NBA champion proposed building an arena — sheathed in giant LED screens and crowned with a retractable roof — to anchor an enormous development without a casino in a less-visited part of the Strip. At a celebratory news conference in October 2022, a promotional video promised to transform 27 acres of barren land into a world-class destination. Robinson called it the All Net Resort and Arena, using basketball slang for a shot so perfect the ball passes through the net without touching the rim. A member of the powerful Clark County Commission seated next to Robinson praised “the faith, the belief, the moxie to dream outside the box,” while Nevada’s then-lieutenant governor gushed that the privately financed project “truly is incredible.” Small-time investors had faith in Robinson, too, and had poured millions into the undertaking. But the land between the Sahara and Fontainebleau hotel-casinos remains empty. A Times investigation has found …

“Modern Economy Rests On Single Road” In North Carolina Where Hurricane Collapsed Bridges 

“Modern Economy Rests On Single Road” In North Carolina Where Hurricane Collapsed Bridges 

Published by skeptic

In March, a Wharton professor who studies artificial intelligence and start-ups claimed on X, “The modern economy rests on a single road in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. The road runs to the two mines that are the sole supplier of the quartz required to make the crucibles needed to refine silicon wafers.”  Ethan Mollick noted at the time, “There are no alternative sources known” if supply disruptions were seen in Spruce Pines.  The modern economy rests on a single road in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. The road runs to the two mines that is the sole supplier of the quartz required to make the crucibles needed to refine silicon wafers. There are no alternative sources known. From Conway’s Material World: pic.twitter.com/mYfrfub8dw — Ethan Mollick (@emollick) March 9, 2024 Fast-forward to this past weekend across the Western North Carolina area, where a major disaster continues to unfold after tropical system Helene dumped torrential rains and unleashed devastating floods that pulverized entire towns, destroyed roads, highways, and bridges, and left tens of thousands without power.  Absolutely horrid photos coming out of Spruce …

5 workers dead after a building collapsed in South Africa

5 workers dead after a building collapsed in South Africa

Published by skeptic

The scene of a collapsed building in George, South Africa, on Tuesday. AP hide caption toggle caption AP The scene of a collapsed building in George, South Africa, on Tuesday. AP CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Rescue teams worked through the night searching for dozens of construction workers buried for more than 12 hours under the rubble of concrete after a multi-story apartment complex that was being built collapsed in a coastal city in South Africa. Authorities said early Tuesday that the death toll had risen to five, while 49 workers remained unaccounted-for in the mangled wreckage of the building, which collapsed on Monday afternoon. Authorities said a further 21 workers had been rescued from the rubble and taken to various hospitals, with at least 11 of them suffering severe injuries. The collapse happened in the city of George, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Cape Town on South Africa’s south coast. More than 100 emergency personnel and other responders were on the scene, using sniffer dogs to try to locate the workers, some …

Missing in action: How two key parties in India’s largest state collapsed | India Election 2024 News

Missing in action: How two key parties in India’s largest state collapsed | India Election 2024 News

Published by Sam

Lucknow, India – Ensconced in a bustling part of northern India’s sprawling Lucknow city is Lal Kuan, a predominantly Dalit neighbourhood. The Dalits – who fall at the bottom of India’s complex caste hierarchy – are believed to be a loyal vote bank of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), currently led by Mayawati, the 68-year-old former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, whose capital is Lucknow. And yet, in the narrow, winding bylanes of Lal Kuan, BSP symbols are missing, with the saffron flag of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) near ubiquitous in the area. It is not much different nearly 230km (143 miles) away in Etawah, a small town in western Uttar Pradesh and a bastion of the Samajwadi Party (SP) of Akhilesh Yadav, another former state chief minister, who was in power from 2012 to 2017. There is little to be seen of the SP in terms of campaign props, and once again, saffron flags sit atop houses, commercial buildings and other establishments. Uttar Pradesh is India’s …

How under-35s’ interest in news has collapsed and what we can do about it

How under-35s’ interest in news has collapsed and what we can do about it

Published by skeptic

Young person reading a newspaper. Picture: Shutterstock/Pixel-Shot Ever since I started working in the media industry two decades ago – initially as a research expert – the question of how to engage young audiences with news has been one of the most frequently deliberated issues within news organisations and at news conferences. We all agree that the news industry must do better. But I did not appreciate just how poorly the industry had done in the last decade until I researched this article: since 2013, millennials’ and Gen Z’s engagement with news has simply collapsed. In the UK, interest in news among all adults has declined by a quarter since 2013, while it has halved for under-35s, with data indicating that the younger the news consumer, the less interested they are in the current news offer. While the Reuters Institute Digital News Reports showed 64% of under-35s (and 59% of 18-24s) claiming to be extremely or very interested in news in 2013, by 2023 those figures fell to 32% of under-35s. The picture is similar …

Traffic moving on California highway after lane collapsed during storm

Traffic moving on California highway after lane collapsed during storm

Published by skeptic

Traffic was moving again Sunday on California’s scenic Highway 1 after a section of the coastal route collapsed during an Easter weekend storm, forcing closures and stranding motorists near Big Sur, authorities said. The collapse occurred amid rain Saturday afternoon near Rocky Creek Bridge about 27 kilometers south of Monterey, sending chunks of asphalt tumbling into the ocean from the southbound side of the two-lane roadway. The highway was closed in both directions in the mountainous area of the central coast as engineers assessed the damage, said the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans. “We are working on a plan to get motorists evacuated from the area,” the California Highway Patrol said Saturday. Officials didn’t say how many people were stranded. By Sunday afternoon, crews had determined that travel in the northbound lane was safe, and authorities began escorting motorists around the damaged section. The famous highway has seen frequent closures because of collapses, mud flows and rockslides during severe weather. The slow-moving storm dumped heavy rain at lower elevations and more than 30 centimeters …

Crews start removing first piece of twisted steel from collapsed Baltimore bridge

Crews start removing first piece of twisted steel from collapsed Baltimore bridge

Published by skeptic

BALTIMORE — Teams of engineers worked Saturday on the intricate process of cutting and lifting the first section of twisted steel from the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, which crumpled into the Patapsco River this week after a massive cargo ship crashed into one of its supports. Sparks could be seen flying from a section of bent and crumpled steel in the afternoon, and video released by officials in the evening showed demolition crews using a cutting torch to slice through the thick beams. The joint incident command said in a statement that the work was being done on the top of the north side of the collapsed structure. Crews were carefully measuring and cutting the steel from the broken bridge before attaching straps so it can be lifted onto a barge and floated away, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath said. Seven floating cranes — including a massive one capable of lifting 1,000 tons — 10 tugboats, nine barges, eight salvage vessels and five Coast Guard boats were on site in the water southeast of Baltimore. Crews work on the …

Experts Say Bridge Collapsed Because It Was Struck by Giant Ship

Experts Say Bridge Collapsed Because It Was Struck by Giant Ship

Published by skeptic

“My crazy conspiracy theory is the bridge collapsed because it got hit by an absolute unit of a boat.” Ship Shape Ever since a huge cargo ship leveled Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday — tragically killing six road crew workers — the internet has been filling up with deranged conspiracy theories. But the simplest explanation is overwhelmingly the most likely: the impact caused catastrophic “structural failures” that the aging structure couldn’t withstand, University of Warwick civil engineering professor Toby Mottram told the Independent. “It’s conceivable that the piers weren’t designed to withstand the magnitude of today’s ship impacts, as vessels like the ‘Dali’ weren’t navigating the Port of Baltimore during the era,” he told the newspaper. Whether any bridge could have withstood such an impact is unclear. Reporters at the New York Times pulled out the calculators and determined that to stop the ship would have taken a third of the force “it took to launch the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo Moon missions.” Basically, an unstoppable force ran into a not-quite-indestructible object, with devastating …

Focus Shifts to Weighty Job of Removing Collapsed Baltimore Bridge

Focus Shifts to Weighty Job of Removing Collapsed Baltimore Bridge

Published by skeptic

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND —  Teams of engineers are now focused on the formidable job of hauling the shattered remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge out of Maryland’s Patapsco River, the first step toward reopening the Port of Baltimore and recovering the bodies of four workers who are still missing and presumed dead. A massive cargo ship felled the span Tuesday after striking one of its main supports. Experts are trying to figure out how to “break that bridge up into the right-sized pieces that we can lift,” U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said Friday at a news conference. The tools that are needed have been coming into place. They include seven floating cranes — one of which is one of the largest on the Eastern Seaboard, capable of lifting 1,000 tons — 10 tugboats, nine barges, eight salvage vessels and five Coast Guard boats. “To go out there and see it up close, you realize just how daunting a task this is,” Governor Wes Moore said Friday afternoon as the massive crane loomed …

Workers were on break in cars when Baltimore bridge collapsed, wife of survivor says | Baltimore bridge collapse

Workers were on break in cars when Baltimore bridge collapsed, wife of survivor says | Baltimore bridge collapse

Published by skeptic

The construction workers who were on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday were on break in their cars, according to the wife of one of the construction workers who survived. Speaking to NBC on Thursday, the wife of Julio Cervantes, one of the eight construction workers who was on the bridge when it collapsed, said: “All of the men were on a break in their cars when the boat hit. We don’t know if they were warned before the impact.” “My husband doesn’t know how to swim. It is a miracle he survived,” Cervantes’s wife said, adding that her husband was treated for a chest wound in the hospital and released on the same day. On Wednesday, officials announced that the bodies of two men who were trapped in their vehicle were recovered from the Patapsco River. The men were identified as 35-year old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, who was originally from Mexico living in Baltimore, as well as 26-year old Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, who was from …