A couple of years ago I wrote how, in their infinite wisdom, the morons (legislators) in charge of Oregon attempted to make nicotine a controlled substance in order to stop the spread of vaping.
Apparently their stupidity extends beyond vaping and into general engineering as well.
From Motherboard: Man Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am An Engineer' in an Email to the Government
From the article: "In September 2014, Mats Järlström, an electronics engineer living in Beaverton, Oregon, sent an email to the state's engineering board. The email claimed that yellow traffic lights don't last long enough, which "puts the public at risk."
Järlström provided complete documentation and analysis of his findings (see image below from Motherboard). His wife got pinched for running a red light and he thought that the way the lights worked were unfair.
The result of this?
A letter from Oregon's State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying (here) explaining that since Järlström had not registered with them (the OSBEELS) he was committing a crime and would be fined $500.
Mind you Järlström is an "electronics engineer."
So what if someone where to report something like this - a real danger (the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse)?
I guess they'd get fined too.
Seems like the right thing... doesn't it?
So what does Oregon the State think is an engineer? According to OSBEELS (see this) their idea of an "engineer" involves (as of 2015):
1. "Practice of engineering" or "practice of professional engineering" means doing any of the following:
(a) Performing any professional service or creative work requiring engineering education, training and experience.
(b) Applying special knowledge of the mathematical, physical and engineering sciences to such professional services or creative work as consultation, investigation, testimony, evaluation, planning, design and services during construction, manufacture or fabrication for the purpose of ensuring compliance with specifications and design, in connection with any public or private utilities, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, works or projects.
(c) Surveying to determine area or topography.
(d) Surveying to establish lines, grades or elevations, or to determine or estimate quantities of materials required, removed or in place.
(e) Surveying required for design and construction layout of engineering and architectural infrastructure.
(f) Performing photogrammetric mapping.
One might imagine that they meant "civil engineering" because they talk in adjacent paragraphs about land surveying but that's not what is explicitly said.
In Oregon if you provide a "professional service or creative work requiring engineering education, ..." or "Applying special knowledge of the mathematical, physical and engineering sciences to such professional services or creative work as consultation, investigation, testimony, evaluation, planning, design and services during construction, manufacture or fabrication for the purpose of ensuring compliance with specifications and design, in connection with any public or private utilities, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, works or projects." you must be an OSBEELS-registered engineer.
Offering handyman services to the widow next door to calculate the distance her porch swing will travel, mudding drywall (because you need physics to figure out how much mud to use), or even paying the neighborhood kid to sweep a side walk to clear it of debris someone might trip over clearly qualifies as "engineering" under 2015 ORS 672.007
Acts constituting practice of engineering, land surveying or photogrammetric mapping.
Poor Järlström never saw it coming!
Now he's a criminal. And let's bet that the OSBEELS "code of ethics" (if there is one) prevents criminals from being engineers.
So Järlström is out!
I guess I better not go to Oregon or get paid for doing the work I do there for I would be a criminal also.
I wonder if the lay people at the OSBEELS who get paid to "ensure compliance with specifications and designs," - like did you use the right bathroom, did you follow the instructions on the toilet plunger box, did someone write a letter using the word "engineer" incorrectly, etc. get a pass.
But not Järlström.
Poor bastard.
This type of control via groups like OSBEELS is used to control competition all the time (see this). All the clubby members of the OSBEELS don't want folks like Järlström questioning their authority.
If they allow that then issues such as the one Järlström brings up expose the OSBEELS short comings.
(Hey I get letting professionals design things related to public safety, but there are reasonable limits one would hope. On the other hand snowflakes graduating probably can't do real engineering so maybe for them the OSBEELS makes sense.)
No one will trust an engineer if they appear to make mistakes, e.g., building something like this (from this):
(Imagine this thing full of water! This is not from Oregon... but I think even those without engineering credentials would agree this looks a bit cagey.)
Oregon has their own dam failures like this:
Then again, perhaps the OSBEELS is not doing such a good job (see this): "Half Of Oregon's Critical Bridges Could Collapse In Quake"
Perhaps the OSBEELS better get their own, existing "portfolio" of engineering problems in hand before going after guys like Järlström.
Just saying...
Apparently their stupidity extends beyond vaping and into general engineering as well.
From Motherboard: Man Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am An Engineer' in an Email to the Government
From the article: "In September 2014, Mats Järlström, an electronics engineer living in Beaverton, Oregon, sent an email to the state's engineering board. The email claimed that yellow traffic lights don't last long enough, which "puts the public at risk."
Järlström provided complete documentation and analysis of his findings (see image below from Motherboard). His wife got pinched for running a red light and he thought that the way the lights worked were unfair.
The result of this?
A letter from Oregon's State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying (here) explaining that since Järlström had not registered with them (the OSBEELS) he was committing a crime and would be fined $500.
Mind you Järlström is an "electronics engineer."
So what if someone where to report something like this - a real danger (the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse)?
I guess they'd get fined too.
Seems like the right thing... doesn't it?
So what does Oregon the State think is an engineer? According to OSBEELS (see this) their idea of an "engineer" involves (as of 2015):
1. "Practice of engineering" or "practice of professional engineering" means doing any of the following:
(a) Performing any professional service or creative work requiring engineering education, training and experience.
(b) Applying special knowledge of the mathematical, physical and engineering sciences to such professional services or creative work as consultation, investigation, testimony, evaluation, planning, design and services during construction, manufacture or fabrication for the purpose of ensuring compliance with specifications and design, in connection with any public or private utilities, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, works or projects.
(c) Surveying to determine area or topography.
(d) Surveying to establish lines, grades or elevations, or to determine or estimate quantities of materials required, removed or in place.
(e) Surveying required for design and construction layout of engineering and architectural infrastructure.
(f) Performing photogrammetric mapping.
One might imagine that they meant "civil engineering" because they talk in adjacent paragraphs about land surveying but that's not what is explicitly said.
In Oregon if you provide a "professional service or creative work requiring engineering education, ..." or "Applying special knowledge of the mathematical, physical and engineering sciences to such professional services or creative work as consultation, investigation, testimony, evaluation, planning, design and services during construction, manufacture or fabrication for the purpose of ensuring compliance with specifications and design, in connection with any public or private utilities, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, works or projects." you must be an OSBEELS-registered engineer.
Offering handyman services to the widow next door to calculate the distance her porch swing will travel, mudding drywall (because you need physics to figure out how much mud to use), or even paying the neighborhood kid to sweep a side walk to clear it of debris someone might trip over clearly qualifies as "engineering" under 2015 ORS 672.007
Acts constituting practice of engineering, land surveying or photogrammetric mapping.
Poor Järlström never saw it coming!
Now he's a criminal. And let's bet that the OSBEELS "code of ethics" (if there is one) prevents criminals from being engineers.
So Järlström is out!
I guess I better not go to Oregon or get paid for doing the work I do there for I would be a criminal also.
I wonder if the lay people at the OSBEELS who get paid to "ensure compliance with specifications and designs," - like did you use the right bathroom, did you follow the instructions on the toilet plunger box, did someone write a letter using the word "engineer" incorrectly, etc. get a pass.
But not Järlström.
Poor bastard.
This type of control via groups like OSBEELS is used to control competition all the time (see this). All the clubby members of the OSBEELS don't want folks like Järlström questioning their authority.
If they allow that then issues such as the one Järlström brings up expose the OSBEELS short comings.
(Hey I get letting professionals design things related to public safety, but there are reasonable limits one would hope. On the other hand snowflakes graduating probably can't do real engineering so maybe for them the OSBEELS makes sense.)
No one will trust an engineer if they appear to make mistakes, e.g., building something like this (from this):
(Imagine this thing full of water! This is not from Oregon... but I think even those without engineering credentials would agree this looks a bit cagey.)
Oregon has their own dam failures like this:
Then again, perhaps the OSBEELS is not doing such a good job (see this): "Half Of Oregon's Critical Bridges Could Collapse In Quake"
Perhaps the OSBEELS better get their own, existing "portfolio" of engineering problems in hand before going after guys like Järlström.
Just saying...
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