Holland Keeps Afloat; Why Can't New Orleans?

America, Europe, Government, Hollywood, Technology

It ought to be called The Anatomy of a Disgrace. The latest word on why the levees of New Orleans failed, faults their design, construction, and maintenance. In shorthand: everything about them!

I have not read the report, however, if it didn’t, it ought to have mandated, first, that the US Army Corps of Engineers be summarily dismissed—and then dismantled. And second, that the job be privatized. And pigs will fly, I know. Since these solutions are a pipedream, let our excuse for an Engineering Corps be forced to visit The Netherlands, and and learn from the masters who designed the great Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier in Hoek van Holland.

You must have heard the saying, “God created the world and the Dutch created the Netherlands.” This is not an exaggeration:

“The name the Netherlands refers to the low-lying nature of the country (nether means low). Its highest point is the Vaalserberg hill in the south east, which reaches 321 meters above sea level. Many areas in the north and west, constituting more than 25% of the total area of the country, are below sea level. The lowest point near Rotterdam is some 6.7 meters below sea level.

I believe New Orleans is only about 3 meters below sea level.

Earlier this month I visited the Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier, a true monument to human ingenuity. Engineers should find the information on this site fascinating. The mechanism is described as follows (I watched the mini-models in action):

“If a water level of 3.00 meters above NAP is anticipated for Rotterdam the Storm Surge Barrier in the New Waterway has to be closed. In these circumstances the Storm Surge Barrier computer – the Command and Support System (Dutch acronym BOS) instructs the Control System (BES) to shut the barrier. The BES implements the BOS’s commands.

In the event of a storm tide, the docks are filled with water, so that the hollow gates start to float and can be turned into the New Waterway. Once the gates meet, the cavities are filled with water and the gates sink to the bottom, thus sealing off the 360 meter-wide opening. After the high water has passed the gates are pumped out and the structure begins to float again. Once it is certain that the next high water will not be another abnormally high one, the two gates are returned to their docks.

When the New Waterway is sealed off it is no longer possible for shipping to pass. The storm-surge barrier will only be closed in extremely bad weather—in probability once every ten years. A test closure will probably be conducted once a year in order to check the equipment. This will be done when there is little shipping. With the rise in sea levels the storm-surge barrier will need to close more frequently in 50 years time, namely once every five years.

Incidentally, CNN subjects us to endless Katrina kvetching from its edgy, newest, girl reporter, Anderson Cooper. But Cooper is no journalist; he’s an instrument in the Oprahfication of the news. Has he done a story on how the Dutch stay afloat? Of course not; why supply your viewer with useful information, when you can continually tug at their heartstrings instead? Or has he deigned to report on how many people died due to the colossal collapse of these Third-World compatible structures? We still don’t know.

Holland Keeps Afloat; Why Can’t New Orleans?

America, Europe, Government, Hollywood, Technology

It ought to be called The Anatomy of a Disgrace. The latest word on why the levees of New Orleans failed, faults their design, construction, and maintenance. In shorthand: everything about them!

I have not read the report, however, if it didn’t, it ought to have mandated, first, that the US Army Corps of Engineers be summarily dismissed—and then dismantled. And second, that the job be privatized. And pigs will fly, I know. Since these solutions are a pipedream, let our excuse for an Engineering Corps be forced to visit The Netherlands, and and learn from the masters who designed the great Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier in Hoek van Holland.

You must have heard the saying, “God created the world and the Dutch created the Netherlands.” This is not an exaggeration:

“The name the Netherlands refers to the low-lying nature of the country (nether means low). Its highest point is the Vaalserberg hill in the south east, which reaches 321 meters above sea level. Many areas in the north and west, constituting more than 25% of the total area of the country, are below sea level. The lowest point near Rotterdam is some 6.7 meters below sea level.

I believe New Orleans is only about 3 meters below sea level.

Earlier this month I visited the Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier, a true monument to human ingenuity. Engineers should find the information on this site fascinating. The mechanism is described as follows (I watched the mini-models in action):

“If a water level of 3.00 meters above NAP is anticipated for Rotterdam the Storm Surge Barrier in the New Waterway has to be closed. In these circumstances the Storm Surge Barrier computer – the Command and Support System (Dutch acronym BOS) instructs the Control System (BES) to shut the barrier. The BES implements the BOS’s commands.

In the event of a storm tide, the docks are filled with water, so that the hollow gates start to float and can be turned into the New Waterway. Once the gates meet, the cavities are filled with water and the gates sink to the bottom, thus sealing off the 360 meter-wide opening. After the high water has passed the gates are pumped out and the structure begins to float again. Once it is certain that the next high water will not be another abnormally high one, the two gates are returned to their docks.

When the New Waterway is sealed off it is no longer possible for shipping to pass. The storm-surge barrier will only be closed in extremely bad weather—in probability once every ten years. A test closure will probably be conducted once a year in order to check the equipment. This will be done when there is little shipping. With the rise in sea levels the storm-surge barrier will need to close more frequently in 50 years time, namely once every five years.

Incidentally, CNN subjects us to endless Katrina kvetching from its edgy, newest, girl reporter, Anderson Cooper. But Cooper is no journalist; he’s an instrument in the Oprahfication of the news. Has he done a story on how the Dutch stay afloat? Of course not; why supply your viewer with useful information, when you can continually tug at their heartstrings instead? Or has he deigned to report on how many people died due to the colossal collapse of these Third-World compatible structures? We still don’t know.

Party of Traitors

Britain, Democrats, Republicans

“The Republican Quislings have contributed greatly to the convergence of Left and Right. What we have now is a cartel, the traditional ideological differences between the political parties having been permanently blurred (both Democrats and Republicans, for instance, see merit in wars for democracy, limitless immigration, and a massive expansion in Medicare and other entitlements). If anything, antitrust laws ought to be deployed, not against business, but to bust this two-party monopoly, which subverts competition in government and rewards the colluding quislings with sinecures in perpetuity.”

The excerpt is from my new column, “Party of Traitors,” in which I quote Sean Gabb, Director of Communications at the Libertarian Alliance of Britain, extensively. (The above lines are my own, though.) Sean and I had admired one another’s work from afar, until we met at a Liberty-Fund colloquium, last month.

What I find so extraordinary is that Sean is very involved in Britain’s public political life. He is on the television or radio (BBC, no less) just about every week , discussing the issues of the day from a libertarian perspective.

Enron: Criminal Conviction Absent Proof of Intent

Criminal Injustice, Enron

As the Associated Press has reported, “Former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted [today] of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud in one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history.” (Curious about what Stephen Bainbridge has termed the Left’s penal philosophy? Check out “Bend over Kenny-Boy” at Air America. Foul and cruel).

Securities Fraud? Read “Communism in Capital Markets” to find out what I think of that charge. Wire fraud? Observe what libertarian economist Pierre Lemieux has to say: “Mail and wire fraud are just manufactured crimes by the Surveillance State—crimes that do not exist in civilized countries. Fraud, defined in its politically correct, anti-business, catchall sense of today, has come to mean what the state does not like.”

But mainly, has intent been proven? Have the self-righteous prosecutors, preening for the cameras, proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the men at the helm of this once-fantastic corporation intentionally made predictions that didn’t pan out? Or that their exuberant optimism, which translated—if my recollection serves me—into aggressive bookkeeping, was intended to deceive and defraud?

Has this been proven? Hardly. Even so, as Bill Anderson has repeatedly maintained, cases like this belong in civil court.

As for the market, it certainly doesn’t need the prosecutors or the regulators. The market punctured the dot.com hype, and it did the same to Enron. If you recall, the saga began when Enron came up with an innovative way to trade energy. Soon, other companies got a whiff of the initial exorbitant profits, entered the same market, and competed away the Enron advantage, putting the squeeze on the company’s margins.

When the company emerged as no more than hedge funds and hot air, the same self-regulating market saw companies wooing the wary investor with open accounting practices, offering transparent, cash-flow-based financial statements, as well as vouching that their auditors do not double up as consultants, ala Arthur Andersen.

However, the people were angry, even though many of Enron’s employees had made the kind of money off the company you and I will not see in our lifetimes. They hoisted their pitchforks, and Bush responded with regulation first (The “Sarbanes-Oxley Act” aka the Corporate Corruption Bill), and prosecutions later. All very sad.