Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (47922)	4/3/2004 3:43:16 AM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

the scribbler kept referring to "reinforced bars" Ray, I suspect this was partly a language translation issue. So China is slowing down? Like when you get to the top of the Ferris Wheel and your stomach floats up into your diaphragm. -Snow

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (47922)	4/3/2004 12:43:59 PM
From: RealMuLan	Respond to of 74559

Ray, "reinforced bars" or "reinforcing bar" , this is definitely a translation issue.

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (47922)	4/3/2004 2:13:38 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Blame it on the brits, they just don't know how to speak their own language: cite.org.uk

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (47922)	4/4/2004 2:38:15 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74559

Ray, they are called "starting rods", not reinforcing bar. A piece of rebar is stuck in newly poured concrete and left sticking out as evidence of the correct steel being installed in the concrete. The inspector comes around and sees the steel and is reassured that all is well. The process is supposed to be that the inspector checks the steel before the concrete is poured, but things are often done in a hurry in the construction industry and it's all about the profits. Quality control is not as of great concern to the contractor as their profits. I wonder if inspectors in China are ever offered bribes. Yiwu doesn't read my stupid rants [do you Yiwu?] but maybe Jay could say whether he's heard of bribery in China. If a building falls down in 20 years in an earthquake, well, bad luck. Design engineers use factors of safety, making the building stronger than necessary, so the contractor will probably get away with it anyway. Our concrete professor in the early 1970s thought that there could be a problem with buildings in Wellington, a major earthquake region, in the event of a decent earthquake as he didn't think the curing process was correctly handled in the rush to get the buildings up quickly. Concrete needs to stay wet to strengthen and the process takes weeks, not days. Membranes are sprayed on to maintain moisture. 28 day strength was the arbiter of whether the concrete was properly manufactured. No doubt design, construction, quality control and management techniques have moved on a lot since my day. But from watching buildings being built in China, they seem to be using the techniques we used 30 years ago. I expect the profit motive and indifference to other people means some buildings aren't as good as they look from the outside. Some roads leading north from Beijing are nice big highways, but they are already ruined by heavy trucks crushing grooves in them. Building failure shows up under load, which happens in earthquakes, high winds or other severe and infrequent conditions. Road failure shows up when the vehicles get on them. I wonder if Chinese buildings are built with starter rods instead of reinforced bars, reinforcing bars, rebar, or reinforcing steel. My experience of Chinese selling things was that honesty was irrelevant. It was to the extent that I am not sure that there is such a thing as an honest person in China. I'm sure there is, but I'm not sure I met them. Chinese culture is grab, lie and take. No wonder they want to attack Taiwan and somehow get their greedy clutches on Hong Kong's loot. They don't have Libertarian concepts as their impetus. They should be honest like King George II who only wants to liberate Iraq, and provide excellent services by Halliburton, bringing the joy of democracy and freedom to Iraqis and Afghanistan. It's nothing to do with oil or revenge against Saddam. Though it does puzzle me that he doesn't want a United Nations reformation with democratic processes running the UN in a nice, new, all-inclusive constitution for managing Earth's commons. He's in favour of democracy, but only as long as the PNAC is in charge. He's sounding very much like the King of England against whom the Declaration of Independence was written. Mqurice

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (47922)	4/4/2004 11:49:09 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

11 weeks to Iraq handover: Death toll rises as Shia confront US forces By Nicolas Pelham in Baghdad Published: April 4 2004 15:35 \| Last Updated: April 4 2004 19:42 news.ft.com. Seven US soldiers and at least 20 Shia protesters were killed in fighting across Iraq on Sunday in the US-led coalition force's deadliest confrontation with Shia groups since the invasion of the country a year ago. The US soldiers were killed fighting Shia militiamen in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, the US military said. At least 24 other US troops were wounded. The soldiers were seeking to evict militiamen loyal to Moqtada Sadr, a clerical firebrand, who were trying to take over police stations and government buildings. Earlier, coalition troops shot dead at least 20 Shia protesters in Iraq and wounded 140, further eroding their support among a Shia population that had largely welcomed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. The Spanish-led troops shot protesters marching on their garrison outside Najaf. A soldier from El Salvador was killed in the incident. "If the reports turned out to be correct, it will be one of the largest firefights" since President George W. Bush declared an end to hostilities, a military spokesman said. In another incident, troops fired on demonstrators in Baghdad's Firdous Square who were cheering clerical diatribes against the US. Sunday's gunfire ended coalition restraint in the face of days of protests orchestrated by Mr Sadr and his Mahdi army across central and southern Iraq. In a Friday sermon at his mosque near Najaf, Mr Sadr appealed to his followers to "be on the utmost readiness, and strike them [coalition forces] where you meet them". His aides interpreted the sermon, repeated in mass prayer gatherings across central and southern Iraq, as a licence to throw stones at coalition targets, formally ending one year of relative Shia quiescence and suggesting that some Shia groups could be joining a Sunni insurgency. Coalition troops responded by arresting Mr Sadr's assistant, Mustafa Yaqoubi, further antagonising his supporters. Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Baghdad, said people had "crossed the line and moved to violence". "This will not be tolerated," he said. Critics warned the crackdown would play into the hands of Mr Sadr's propagandists, who are seeking to mobilise the Shias. Unlike his exiled Islamist rivals, Mr Sadr represents those who endured Mr Hussein's rule and has become a symbol for poor and disenfranchised Iraqis. The violence overshadowed Mr Bremer's appointment of a defence minister, a key Iraqi demand. He named Ali Alawi, a financier and relative of Ahmed Chalabi and Ayad Alawi, two of the leading politicians on the Governing Council. How the US will do the handover to fighting tribes? How does Europe react (they also want the oil now that North Sea oil dried up)? How the US justify the billions spent and the dead?