Understanding Engineers

[Gurm]

tjalfe,

Ok then. Does this secret ritual include Masonic handshakes?

How about engineers who get their degrees by mail or by PC? Is it a virtual ceremony and a virtual ring?

ROFLMAO.

You're starting to sound like _hpar.

- Gurm

[GNEP]

There's one set of engineers (I forget which) who have octagonal rings (like nuts) - you can tell how long they've been engineers by the degree to which the corners have been smoothed off. Kind of a nice concept really

[Brian Ellis]

Originally posted by GNEP
(like nuts)

That's all right, being an engineer since 1951, I can certify they are all nuts.

Did you know there is something about engineers in the Bible:
The wages of sin is death; the wages of engineers is worse.

[Gurm]

This may be some kind of "stodgy college in the UK" thing, or perhaps a "if you sign up for the civil society of engineers membership" thing.

My friends who are engineers have no such rings, of any variety.

- Gurm

[MultimediaMan]

Actually, it comes from Canada.

I don't think it is stodgy at all... it is a reminder of the commitment of what it is that you do. Too many of us don't always think in terms of "What will happen if this fails?".

Engineers, no matter the discipline, should.

[mutz]

That bridge from which the rings were made was NEW! (back then). Civil engineering includes bridges and roads, case you didn't know. More accidents have been caused by bad engineering than by, say, bad car design.

[Gurm]

Cars... are... designed by engineers...

- Gurm

[GNEP]

/methinks we have more than our fair shair of engineers here on murc. I know I am (was) one until going to the dark side of finance/accountancy/MI

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Gurm
tjalfe,

Ok then. Does this secret ritual include Masonic handshakes?

How about engineers who get their degrees by mail or by PC? Is it a virtual ceremony and a virtual ring?

I know about the rings. They're very common in Canada, but not in the US. It's also supposed to be for certified PEs (professional engineers). A lot of projects require the signature of a PE that the job has been done properly. The idea is that with the ring on the pinky of your writing hand, the iron crosses the signature line, reminding you of what happens when projects that shouldn't go ahead are allowed to.

[GNEP]

The Canucks seem to have it OK in their professional bodies - in the accountancy world the firms employing them pay for their membership fees (even if they are in the UK for several years! - several of my colleagues are from "over there") - this isn't the case in the UK where accountancy membership fees are payable by the individual and NOT tax deductable (possibly unless you are an auditor but hey, who counts them? )

[Tjalfe]

Originally posted by Gurm
tjalfe,

Ok then. Does this secret ritual include Masonic handshakes?

How about engineers who get their degrees by mail or by PC? Is it a virtual ceremony and a virtual ring?

ROFLMAO.

You're starting to sound like _hpar.

- Gurm

I am not making this up... all engineers in Canada knows about this. It is a Canadian thing, hence your american Engineering buddies don't have a ring.

Iron Ring

[mutz]

Uh, Gurm, roads and bridges are by civil engineers, cars by mechanical and automotive engineers. Two very different ilks that don't seem to talk to or understand each other, though they have the same laws of physics in common.

But of course if you want to defy the laws of physics and thumb your nose at civil engineers, you go out and buy yourself a BMW!

[GNEP]

I did a general engineering degree, but chose any options I had in civil - because it was the easiest But if you want to know all about how to work out the strength of prestressed concrete beams, just ask

[Gurm]

I never liked Engineering. I always left something out at the end, causing whatever I was building to collapse tragically, killing everyone onboard.

Usually the thing I left out was fairly important... like gravity.

- Gurm