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Workers rely on medieval era tech to reconstruct the Notre Dame

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Re: Workers rely on medieval era tech to reconstruct the Notre Dame

#11
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Save the costs" is the official religion of the MBA era we live in and no sacrifice is too big. Am I sarcastic? I can't tell.

Yep, to the modern administrative class "don't shit where you eat" is laughably old fashioned. Modernity brings a new contest: who can shit where they eat the most for the longest? Last one to get cholera wins! And don't worry about the actual cholera infection, that's what taxpayer bailouts are for!

"where you eat" is too vague to be actionable policy the real profit is in boundary pushing. Just how close can you get the shit to the food? In this century we will find out.

Re: Workers rely on medieval era tech to reconstruct the Notre Dame

#12
post #5

They also rely on medieval era trees to reconstruct it, as the more than 1000 oak trees painstakingly sought through entire France had to be more than 1 m wide. Okay not medieval - they are only about 200 years old. Could have made a nice title though.

Between 200 and 400 years old, yes, exactly ! Most of those trees are older than the United States :)

Re: Workers rely on medieval era tech to reconstruct the Notre Dame

#13
post #2

I've seen some videos on TikTok by stonemasons who are re-building the decorative shapes in chunks of marble; it's very cool to watch and see them doing it. It's probably not even remotely economic or "productive", but sometimes that's OK.

The whole building isn't economic or productive. They could probably make more money tearing it down and replacing it with a Starbucks.

The vast majority of human activity isn't productive. And that's awesome. We've got so much wealth that we can afford to use it on things that are merely pretty or interesting, like video games and space telescopes and flowers.

It would be nice if we could use more of it to ensure that people have the basics, but that's rarely about lack of money. It's nearly always due to some more systemic problem that can't be fought just by throwing money at it.

Re: Workers rely on medieval era tech to reconstruct the Notre Dame

#15
post #4

The rebuilding is apparently going well, but this is hiding the fact that nobody seems to be doing any inquiry about why the fire wasn't stopped in time. As far as we know, the fire was an accident (not foul play) -- but an extremely preventable one. There were works in progress on the roof of the cathedral, so people were coming and going, some of them possibly smoking, electrical devices were being used, etc. And t…

> some of them possibly smoking

I lived in Paris for a time, I would say it is guaranteed some were smoking.

Re: Workers rely on medieval era tech to reconstruct the Notre Dame

#16
post #4

The rebuilding is apparently going well, but this is hiding the fact that nobody seems to be doing any inquiry about why the fire wasn't stopped in time. As far as we know, the fire was an accident (not foul play) -- but an extremely preventable one. There were works in progress on the roof of the cathedral, so people were coming and going, some of them possibly smoking, electrical devices were being used, etc. And t…

>As far as we know, the fire was an accident

“As far as we know”

In the same sense of like “innocent until proven guilty”

But is that the right lens to be looking through here?

What is the rate of accidental church fires, let alone at somewhere that is such a treasured location as this?

Then factor in, wasn’t there an ongoing spate of what were clearly church arson attacks going on at the time?

Then factor in what you were describing of what seems to be an inexplicably lackadaisical approach of getting to the bottom of what occurred, giving the impression of some wanting above all else to divert attention from what one would think to be the most pertinent questions about what occurred.

Then do the calculus of, okay, if it could be shown to be a clear cut case of being accidental why wouldn’t people in a position to do so, show that? That would have minimal, if any, political ramifications. Whereas the political ramifications of other possible causes of the fire would be much higher.

It raises some questions doesn’t it?

Why aren’t people in positions of influence on this matter and in political leadership doing what their office calls on them to do?

And given what can be observed of their actions what is one to make of their intentions?

Why aren’t they safe guarding and defending the nation’s culture and heritage? Why are they leaving it open and vulnerable to attack?

Re: Workers rely on medieval era tech to reconstruct the Notre Dame

#18
post #13
post #2

I've seen some videos on TikTok by stonemasons who are re-building the decorative shapes in chunks of marble; it's very cool to watch and see them doing it. It's probably not even remotely economic or "productive", but sometimes that's OK.

The whole building isn't economic or productive. They could probably make more money tearing it down and replacing it with a Starbucks. The vast majority of human activity isn't productive. And that's awesome. We've got so much wealth that we can afford to use it on things that are merely pretty or interesting, like video games and space telescopes and flowers. It would be nice if we could use more of it to ensure th…

> The whole building isn't economic or productive. They could probably make more money tearing it down and replacing it with a Starbucks.

It likely has economic impact vastly larger than any Starbucks via tourism.

Re: Workers rely on medieval era tech to reconstruct the Notre Dame

#19
post #4

The rebuilding is apparently going well, but this is hiding the fact that nobody seems to be doing any inquiry about why the fire wasn't stopped in time. As far as we know, the fire was an accident (not foul play) -- but an extremely preventable one. There were works in progress on the roof of the cathedral, so people were coming and going, some of them possibly smoking, electrical devices were being used, etc. And t…

> As far as we know, the fire was an accident “As far as we know” In the same sense of like “innocent until proven guilty” But is that the right lens to be looking through here? What is the rate of accidental church fires, let alone at somewhere that is such a treasured location as this? Then factor in, wasn’t there an ongoing spate of what were clearly church arson attacks going on at the time? Then factor in what y…

The rate of construction accidents is what you should look at, not church fires.

Re: Workers rely on medieval era tech to reconstruct the Notre Dame

#20
post #13
post #2

I've seen some videos on TikTok by stonemasons who are re-building the decorative shapes in chunks of marble; it's very cool to watch and see them doing it. It's probably not even remotely economic or "productive", but sometimes that's OK.

The whole building isn't economic or productive. They could probably make more money tearing it down and replacing it with a Starbucks. The vast majority of human activity isn't productive. And that's awesome. We've got so much wealth that we can afford to use it on things that are merely pretty or interesting, like video games and space telescopes and flowers. It would be nice if we could use more of it to ensure th…

>but that's rarely about lack of money

Yes, it is the lack of action. People are selfish. End of story. We have the tech and knowledge to fix it all, but burning a ton of kerosene to travel to the other side of the world for 2 a weeks vacation is more desirable.

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