Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

North Carolina tells retired engineer he can't talk about engineering

ij.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 408 posts

Re: North Carolina tells retired engineer he can't talk about engineering

#331

Post by LanceH »

brudgers wrote: post #162
mindslight wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, an engineer without a Professional Engineer license is not "cutting corners". They most likely just don't do the type of work that requires getting a PE. The article says 80% of engineers are working without a license. From experience, this is especially true for electrical engineering. Someone designing a building's electrical system would have a PE to sign off on plans (or be working under someone with a PE). B…

The person subject to the complaint prepared stormwater calculations and submitted it as evidence in a legal proceeding. The letter that person received from the board is linked in the article. It states the person is charged and gives them the opportunity for a written response. Civil engineering typically requires a PE.

Nothing is being built from this. It is testimony on the quality of something else. People other than engineers get to have opinions on the validity of something. It is up to the opposition to discredit him.

He has not practiced engineering in any way whatsoever.

Re: North Carolina tells retired engineer he can't talk about engineering

#332

Post by jandrese »

Swenrekcah wrote: post #183
tablespoon wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just the concept of “jaywalking” as a punishable offense is revolting to me. It's a required compromise to allow pedestrians and high-speed automobile traffic to coexist. This unfairly-dead comment has a good discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27561530 Get rid of it, and you'll either have more pedestrians getting run over (e.g. some distracted guy on his cell phone accidentially rushing out in front…

> e.g. some distracted guy on his cell phone accidentially rushing out in front of some car, getting killed in the process and traumatizing some driver I think this comment demonstrates the perverse value system I’m commenting against. I don’t mean this as an insult to you, merely to point out how people have been programmed to think people shouldn’t be able to live in a city without being terrified of their lives so…

Jaywalking is also the crime when the person is walking across the Autobahn wearing all black at night in a rainstorm.

Re: North Carolina tells retired engineer he can't talk about engineering

#333

Post by cwilkes »

teorema wrote: post #74
erikerikson wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Particularly in advertising providing medical advice and what can be said is highly regulated. For good reason too. Intravenous bleach suggested by someone we trusted may have caused some real harm. It would seem reasonable to remove a doctor's license to practice medicine for giving such advice. Of course broad scale communication is different than specific testimony in court, especially from a seasoned practitioner…

I'm probably in the minority with this, but I think all licensing laws should be abolished. Even with cases like the one you describe, other mechanisms could be used to handle the problem and those individuals likely at are risk for doing things on their own anyway. I'd say if someone took IV bleach and it caused harm, the appropriate response isn't license revocation, it's a civil or criminal lawsuit. The past year…

What about in trials? If a defendant grabs some rando off the street to be their attorney and they lose he’ll likely try for an appeal, thus clogging up the court system.

In that case it is an efficient use of resources to require anyone that practices law in a court room to meet some minimum bar (hey I think I found out why it is called the bar exam).

Re: North Carolina tells retired engineer he can't talk about engineering

#334

Post by mind-blight »

systemvoltage wrote: post #187
irrational wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Oregon, but grew up outside the state so fortunately I do know how to pump my own gas. One thing that has fascinated me is that our gas is no more expensive, and often cheaper, than surrounding states despite providing many jobs. One benefit of this system was shown recently when no truck beds or plastic bags were filled with gasoline.

If you want a jobs program, do something for the crumbling infrastructure in Oregon. Actually provide value to the society . Pumping gas is a giant waste of tax dollars and it is not preparing the populace for better jobs - it is the equivalent of flipping burgers. It is the worst possible way to create a 'jobs program'.

I've lived in Oregon most of my life, and while I think the law is basically pointless and would love to have it revoked, it doesn't waste any tax dollars. It just makes running a gas station more expensive

Re: North Carolina tells retired engineer he can't talk about engineering

#335

Post by brudgers »

jbluepolarbear wrote: post #304
brudgers wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The person without a license who is doing something that requires a license is not taking full responsibility for what they are doing. They are doing something that is only to their own benefit in a context where other people’s lives are at stake. Quite simply it is unprofessional. A person without a license can hire a licensed professional for oversight. That’s the responsible thing to do. In the US, engineering lic…

But who decides it needs a license? Other licensed individuals? I would do a better job sticking to requirements than a lot of licensed engineers. It’s cheaper and easier for me to do all the work, and then hire a firm to say it passes requirements than getting said license. It gives me the freedom to engineer in any field I’m interested. I have previously done mechanical, electrical, structural, and medical engineer…

The legislature delegates authority to the board.

Yes you can hire an engineer to supervise your work.

Then you have successfully avoided responsibility for it.

And legally as well.

A license would allow you to take responsibility for what you do.

I can understand why someone wouldn't want it.

I don't understand why someone who has chosen that route whines about it.

Re: North Carolina tells retired engineer he can't talk about engineering

#336

Post by mind-blight »

systemvoltage wrote: post #123
travisjungroth wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst example of this is Oregon has their own version of the FAA. It’s grandfathered in because it was established before the FAA. You pay $12 a year for an Oregon pilot’s registration. And in return for this bureaucracy, society gets... nothing.

Oregon’s gas pumping laws has some hilarious justifications. > “The dangers of crime and slick surfaces described in subsection (3) of this section are enhanced because Oregon’s weather is uniquely adverse, causing wet pavement and reduced visibility” More here: https://medium.com/policy-northwest/the-insanity-of-oregons-... Safety is important but wet pavements are also a hazard when you leave your house or literall…

If you're looking for a mess of laws, take a look at the OLCC trying to wrestle hemp regulation from the department of agriculture. It hasn't happened yet, but they've been working for years to try to get it under their jurisdiction and impose a lot of new fees.

Hemp definitely needs regulation, but the OLCC notoriously over-regulates for the sake of control and income. I'm pretty confident that is OLCC got control, they'd end up putting a lot of folks out of business through excessive red tape

Re: North Carolina tells retired engineer he can't talk about engineering

#337

Post by ineedasername »

erikerikson wrote: post #49
the_lonely_road wrote: post #20

What a fascinating case. There are so many details in such a short articles that is each worth its own discussion! Let’s start with my personally theory that hopefully won’t color all of the conversation about the individual points. This guy pissed off some people and those people are using their petty power to make his life hell. It’s like the 10’s of thousands of people jaywalking without issue and then the homeles…

Particularly in advertising providing medical advice and what can be said is highly regulated. For good reason too. Intravenous bleach suggested by someone we trusted may have caused some real harm. It would seem reasonable to remove a doctor's license to practice medicine for giving such advice. Of course broad scale communication is different than specific testimony in court, especially from a seasoned practitioner…

Yet we allowed someone without a medical license to say that with no consequence to the speaker. The AMA did not sue them, no one fined the. Because it is not illegal to give an opinion on something, even if it is a bad uninformed opinion.

Re: North Carolina tells retired engineer he can't talk about engineering

#338

Post by ineedasername »

_ea1k wrote: post #317
erikerikson wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Particularly in advertising providing medical advice and what can be said is highly regulated. For good reason too. Intravenous bleach suggested by someone we trusted may have caused some real harm. It would seem reasonable to remove a doctor's license to practice medicine for giving such advice. Of course broad scale communication is different than specific testimony in court, especially from a seasoned practitioner…

> Intravenous bleach suggested by someone we trusted may have caused some real harm. Who that was even remotely trustworthy suggested that?

A very stable genius.

Re: North Carolina tells retired engineer he can't talk about engineering

#339

Post by ineedasername »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #33

Texas may do a lot of crazy things when it comes to state government, but one thing I think we definitely got right is the Texas Sunset Commission ( https://www.sunset.texas.gov/ ). Basically, all boards set up by the state government are automatically abolished every 10 years I believe unless the state legislature passes a law to continue the board. So every 10 years the Sunset Commission evaluates agencies/boards a…

How often do they actually abolish something vs. rubber stamping their approval?

If something is disbanded, how often was it due to a legitimate issue of not being necessary, and how often to satisfy a political grudge, bias, or simple lack of understanding by non-expert politicians?

I like this idea in theory, but I'd also like to know more of what the results have been in actual practice because there seem to be multiple failure modes.

Re: North Carolina tells retired engineer he can't talk about engineering

#340

Post by hef19898 »

tablespoon wrote: post #121
Swenrekcah wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just the concept of “jaywalking” as a punishable offense is revolting to me.

> Just the concept of “jaywalking” as a punishable offense is revolting to me. It's a required compromise to allow pedestrians and high-speed automobile traffic to coexist. This unfairly-dead comment has a good discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27561530 Get rid of it, and you'll either have more pedestrians getting run over (e.g. some distracted guy on his cell phone accidentially rushing out in front…

A country without a general speed limit, and home to a couple of companies manufacturing fast cars, begs to differ. But then getting a driver's license here takes real education and practice.
Post reply on HN