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Pim Fortuyn

Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn (19 February 1948 – 6 May 2002), was a Dutch politician, author, civil servant, businessman, sociologist and academic who founded the party Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF) in 2002.

Fortuyn worked as a professor at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam before branching into a business career and was an advisor to the Dutch government on social infrastructure. He then became prominent in the Netherlands as a press columnist, writer and media commentator.

Initially a Marxist who was sympathetic to the Communist Party of the Netherlands, and later a member of the Dutch Labour Party in the 1970s, Fortuyn's beliefs began to shift to the right in the 1990s, especially related to the immigration policies of the Netherlands. Fortuyn criticised multiculturalism, immigration and Islam in the Netherlands. He called Islam "a backward culture", and was quoted as saying that if it were legally possible, he would close the borders for Muslim immigrants. Fortuyn also supported tougher measures against crime and opposed state bureaucracy, wanting to reduce the Dutch financial contribution to the European Union. He was labelled a far-right populist by his opponents and in the media, but he fiercely rejected this label. Fortuyn was openly gay and a supporter of gay rights.

Fortuyn explicitly distanced himself from "far-right" politicians such as the Belgian Filip Dewinter, Austrian Jörg Haider, or Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Pen whenever compared to them. While he compared his own politics to centre-right politicians such as Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and Edmund Stoiber of Germany, he also admired former Dutch Prime Minister Joop den Uyl, a social democrat, and Democratic U.S. president John F. Kennedy. Fortuyn also criticised the polder model and the policies of the outgoing government of Wim Kok and repeatedly described himself and LPF's ideology as pragmatic and not populistic. In March 2002, his newly created LPF became the largest party in Fortuyn's hometown Rotterdam during the Dutch municipal elections held that year.

Fortuyn was assassinated during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign  by Volkert van der Graaf, a left-wing environmentalist and animal rights activist. In court at his trial, van der Graaf said he murdered Fortuyn to stop him from exploiting Muslims as "scapegoats" and targeting "the weak members of society" in seeking political power. The LPF went on to poll in second place during the election but went into decline soon after.

Early life and education
Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn was born on 19 February 1948 in Driehuis within the Dutch municipality of Velsen, as the third child to a middle class Catholic family. His father worked as a salesman and his mother was a housewife. He attended Mendelcollege secondary school in Haarlem where he was described as an academically gifted pupil. As a youth, Fortuyn initially wanted to train as a priest, but in 1967 he began to study sociology at the University of Amsterdam and transferred after a few months to the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. In 1971 he ended his study with the Academic degree Doctorandus. In 1981 he received a doctorate in sociology at the University of Groningen as a Doctor of Philosophy.

Professional career
Fortuyn worked as a lecturer at the Nyenrode Business Universiteit and as an associate professor at the University of Groningen, where he taught Marxist sociology. He was also an employee of the Groningen University Newspaper for which he wrote columns. He was a Marxist at the time and sympathized with the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN), although he never became a full member. Later, he joined the Labour Party.

In 1989 Fortuyn became director of a government organisation administering student transport cards and worked as an advisor to the Social and Economic Council (SER). In 1990 he moved to Rotterdam. From 1991 to 1995, he was an extraordinary professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, appointed to the Albeda-chair in "employment conditions in public service" and ran an education consultancy business.

When his contract ended, he made a career of public speaking, writing books and press columns, and worked as a weekly columnist for Elsevier. He gradually involved himself in politics through regularly appearing on televised debate shows and became a familiar public figure for his charismatic and flamboyant speaking style. In 1994 he began hosting his own radio program on RTV Rijnmond and often appeared on the political debate show Buitenhof and later as a commentator on the business current affairs program Business Class on RTL Nederland. Fortuyn was openly gay, and said in a 2002 interview that he was Catholic.

Political career
Fortuyn began his political career on the left and was initially a Marxist due to an aversion to the Dutch political establishment which he described as dominated by pillarization and a "regent mentality." He was sympathetic to the Dutch Communist Party but chose not to become a member due to personal disagreements with the party leadership and self-identified as a Marxist without becoming active in any communist organisations. In the 1970s he joined the Labour Party and became a social democrat. In 1986, his views shifted towards neoliberalism in the hope that the free market would lead to further individual emancipation, ending a perceived oppression by state bureaucracy. In 1991, he proposed firing half of all civil servants and promoted privatisation and decentralisation. In 1992, Fortuyn wrote Aan het volk van Nederland ("To the people of the Netherlands"), in which he declared himself to be the spiritual successor of the charismatic but controversial 18th-century Dutch patriot politician Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol. The book urges the already culturally emancipated citizen to use the free market to also liberate himself economically, from the welfare state. In 1989, Fortuyn left the Labour Party and during the 1990s became a member of the centre-right VVD and was briefly a political consultant to the Christian Democratic Appeal in the early 2000s.

Though on economic matters Fortuyn would largely remain a neoliberal, culturally he soon became strongly influenced by the neoconservative political philosopher and chief editor of the weekly Elsevier Hendrik Jan Schoo who made him a columnist in 1993. Schoo deplored that a progressive new class would have promoted multiculturalism, founding an anti-racist civil religion on article 1 of the Dutch constitution, forbidding discrimination. Whereas in the early 1990s Fortuyn had held liberal views on immigration, this changed under the influence of Schoo.

Dutch neocons understood that in the evermore secularising Netherlands a change on the lines of the Reagan Revolution had become highly improbable. Women's rights, gay rights, abortion and euthanasia had been generally accepted. In his 1995 book De verweesde samenleving ("The orphaned society"), Fortuyn claimed that the progressive movement of the 1960s had eroded traditional norms and values. Both the roles of the "symbolic father" and the "caring mother" had been lost, leaving an orphaned population without guidance, to live out a meaningless decadent existence. However, Fortuyn did not propose a return to old socially conservative or Dutch Calvinist and iconoclastic values and argued that the media, schools and artists should provide a moral leadership, explicitly promoting and defending the new values of modern Western society, constantly recreating the Dutch identity. Fortuyn consistently retained a liberal stance on matters such as LGBT rights throughout his political career.

Adopting the philosophical analysis by Carl Schmitt, it was assumed that such an identity could only be defined in antithesis to some actually existing concrete enemy. Inspired by Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations, Dutch ethnicity was to be re-invented by identifying that enemy as Islam. In his 1997 book Tegen de islamisering van onze cultuur ("Against the islamisation of our culture"), Fortuyn proposed that after the fall of communism a new adversary would be found in Muslim culture. Fortuyn explained the global fundamentalist wave of the 1990s as a backlash against the insecurities caused by globalisation. The Dutch should counter Islamic fundamentalism by promoting and defending their own fundament, Dutch culture, especially modernism and the Enlightenment values. These should not yet be imposed on the Dutch population as a whole, with the exception of immigrants. Whereas American neoconservatives promoted hard power policies in relation to the Muslim world, Dutch neocons favoured a soft power approach. Shortly before the September 11 attacks, Fortuyn called for a Cold War against Islam, meaning a non-military defensive enmity. The attacks and the War on Terror made Islam a main issue in Dutch politics for the first time.

Fortuyn announced his intention to run for parliament in a television interview with EenVandaag in 2001, although he did not specify which party he would seek to stand as a candidate with. Although he was already in contact with the newly formed Livable Netherlands (LN) party, he also considered running for the Christian Democratic Appeal which he had worked as a consultant for, or even creating his own list. Livable Netherlands founder Jan Nagel subsequently invited him to run as party leader and Fortuyn was elected "lijsttrekker" (lead candidate) by a large majority of party members at the LN conference on 26 November 2001, prior to the Dutch general election of 2002. In his leadership bid and general election campaign, Fortuyn attacked the mainstream parties on multiculturalism, immigration and law & order. He also called for less government interference and for a reform of the Dutch public health and education systems. He concluded his acceptance speech by saying the words in English that would become his slogan; "At your service!" Support for LN rose dramatically during Fortuyn's brief leadership, climbing from 2% in opinion polls to about 17%.

On 9 February 2002, Fortuyn gave an interview to Volkskrant, a Dutch newspaper (see below) regarding his beliefs on immigration and Islam. His statements were considered so controversial that LN dismissed him as lijsttrekker the next day. Against the advice of his campaign team, Fortuyn said in the interview that he favoured closing borders to Muslim immigrants and if possible he would abolish the "peculiar article" of the Dutch constitution forbidding discrimination (at the time it was generally assumed that he referred to Article 1, the equality before the law; it has been argued, however, that Fortuyn and the interviewer had confused this with Article 137 of the Penal Code, incitement to hatred).

Founding the LPF
Having been rejected by Livable Netherlands, Fortuyn founded his own party Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) on 11 February 2002, taking many former LN members and supporters with him. Heading the list of the Livable Rotterdam party, considered to be the local counterpart of the LPF, he achieved a major victory in the Rotterdam municipal council elections in early March 2002. The new party won about 36% of the seats, making it the largest party in the council. For the first time since the Second World War, the Labour Party was out of power in Rotterdam.

Fortuyn's victory made him the subject of hundreds of interviews during the next three months, and he made many statements about his political ideology. In March he released his book The Mess of Eight Purple Years (De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars), which criticised the current political system in the Netherlands and was used as his political agenda for the upcoming general election. Purple is the colour to indicate a coalition government consisting of left parties (red) and conservative-liberal parties (blue). The Netherlands had been governed by such a coalition for eight years at that time.

On 14 March 2002, Fortuyn was pied by a left-wing activist from the Biotic Baking Brigade in The Hague. As a result, Fortuyn began to express a fear of being injured or assassinated and accused members of the Dutch political establishment of encouraging violence against him.

Assassination

On 6 May 2002, at age 54, Fortuyn was assassinated by gunshot in Hilversum, North Holland, by Volkert van der Graaf. The attack took place in a car park outside a radio studio where Fortuyn had just given an interview. This was nine days before the general election, in which he was running. The attacker was pursued by Hans Smolders, Fortuyn's driver, and was arrested by the police shortly afterward, still in possession of a handgun. Months later, Van der Graaf confessed in court to the first notable political assassination in the Netherlands since 1672 (excluding World War II). On 15 April 2003, he was convicted of assassinating Fortuyn and sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was released on parole in May 2014 after serving two-thirds of his sentence, the standard procedure under the Dutch penal system.

The assassination shocked many residents of the Netherlands and highlighted the cultural clashes within the country. Various conspiracy theories arose after Pim Fortuyn's murder and deeply affected Dutch politics and society. Politicians from all parties suspended campaigning. After consultation with LPF, the government decided not to postpone the elections. As Dutch law did not permit modifying the ballots, Fortuyn became a posthumous candidate. The LPF made an unprecedented debut in the House of Representatives by winning 26 seats (17% of the 150 seats in the house). The LPF joined a cabinet with the Christian Democratic Appeal and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, but conflicts in the rudderless LPF quickly collapsed the cabinet, forcing new elections. By the following year, the party had lost support, winning only eight seats in the 2003 elections. It won no seats in the 2006 elections, by which time the Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders, had emerged as a successor.

During the last months of his life, Fortuyn had become closer to the Catholic Church. To the surprise of many commentators and Dutch TV hosts, Fortuyn insisted on Fr. Louis Berger, a parish priest from The Hague, accompanying him in some of his last TV appearances. According to The New York Times, Berger had become his "friend and confessor" during the last weeks of his life.

Burial
Fortuyn was initially buried in Driehuis in the Netherlands. He was re-interred on 20 July 2002, at San Giorgio della Richinvelda, in the province of Pordenone in Italy, where he had owned a house.

Islam and immigration
When asked about his opposition to Muslim immigration, Fortuyn explained that, "I have no desire to go through the emancipation of women and homosexuals all over again." In August 2001, Fortuyn was quoted in the Rotterdams Dagblad newspaper saying, "I am also in favour of a cold war with Islam. I see Islam as an extraordinary threat, as a hostile religion." In the TV program Business class, Fortuyn said that Muslims in the Netherlands did not accept Dutch society; he believed that the religion of Islam was fundamentally intolerant and incompatible with Western values. He said that Muslims in the Netherlands needed to accept living together with the Dutch, and that if this was unacceptable for them, then they were free to leave. His concluding words in the TV program were "... I want to live together with the Muslim people, but it takes two to tango." Fortuyn also maintained that he did not object to Muslim immigrants because of their race or ethnicity, and was not against a multi-racial society, but opposed what he saw as lack of integration and unwillingness to adapt to Dutch standards of modernity and social liberalism within Muslim communities.

On 9 February 2002, additional statements made by him were carried in the Volkskrant. He said that the Netherlands, with a population of 16 million, had enough inhabitants, and the practice of allowing as many as 40,000 asylum-seekers into the country each year had to be stopped. The actual number for 2001 was 27,000, down slightly on the previous year. He claimed that if he became part of the next government, he would pursue a restrictive immigration policy while also granting citizenship to a large group of illegal immigrants.

He said that he did not intend to "unload our Moroccan hooligans" onto the Moroccan King Hassan. Hassan had died three years earlier. He considered Article 7 of the constitution, which asserts freedom of speech, of more importance than Article 1, which forbids discrimination on the basis of religion, life principles, political inclination, race, or sexual preference. Fortuyn distanced himself from Hans Janmaat of the Centrum Democraten, who in the 1980s wanted to remove all foreigners from the country and was repeatedly convicted for discrimination and hate speech.

Fortuyn proposed that all people who already resided in the Netherlands would be allowed to stay, provided the immigrants adopted the Dutch society's consensus on human rights as their own. He stated: "not integrating means leaving" and "the borders have to be hermetically closed". He said "If it were legally possible, I'd say no more Muslims will get in here", claiming that the influx of Muslims would threaten freedoms in the liberal Dutch society. He thought Muslim culture had never undergone a process of modernisation and therefore still lacked acceptance of democracy and women's, gays', lesbians' and minorities' rights.

When asked by the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant whether he hated Islam, he replied:

"I don't hate Islam. I consider it a backward culture. I have travelled much in the world. And wherever Islam rules, it's just terrible. All the hypocrisy. It's a bit like those old Reformed Protestants. The Reformed lie all the time. And why is that? Because they have standards and values that are so high that you can't humanly maintain them. You also see that in that Muslim culture. Then look at the Netherlands. In what country could an electoral leader of such a large movement as mine be openly homosexual? How wonderful that that's possible. That's something that one can be proud of. And I'd like to keep it that way, thank you very much."

Fortuyn used the word achterlijk, literally meaning "backward", but commonly used as an insult in the sense of "retarded". After his use of "achterlijk" caused an uproar, Fortuyn said he had used the word with its literal meaning of "backward".

Fortuyn wrote Against the Islamization of Our Culture (1997) (in Dutch).

Fortuynism
The ideology or political style that is derived from Pim Fortuyn, and in turn the LPF, is often called Fortuynism. Observers variously saw him as a political protest targeting the alleged elitism and bureaucratic style of the Dutch purple coalitions or as offering an appealing political style. The style was characterized variously as one "of openness, directness and clearness", populism or simply as charisma. Another school holds Fortuynism as a distinct ideology, with an alternative vision of society. Some argued that Fortuynism was not just one ideology, but contained liberalism, populism and nationalism.

During the 2002 campaign, Fortuyn was accused by some of being on the "extreme right", although others saw only certain similarities. While he employed anti-immigration rhetoric, he considered himself neither a radical nationalist nor a defender of traditional authoritarian values. On the contrary, Fortuyn claimed he wanted to protect the socio-culturally liberal values of the Netherlands, women's rights and sexual minorities (he was openly gay himself), from the "backward" Islamic culture. He held liberal views favouring the drug policy of the Netherlands, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and related positions. Fortuyn was also a member of the Republican Society, and favoured a US-style system with an elected president, elected mayors and police commissioners. He also expressed support for the state of Israel throughout his political career.

The LPF also won support from some ethnic minorities; one of Fortuyn's closest associates was of Cape Verdean origin, and one of the party's MPs was a young woman of Turkish descent.

His ideology comprised the following positions:

 * Civil liberties
 * Classical liberalism
 * Criticism of Islam
 * Deregulation
 * Direct democracy
 * Euroscepticism
 * Freedom of speech
 * Laissez-faire
 * LGBT rights
 * Republicanism
 * Secularism
 * Separation of church and state
 * Small government
 * Women's rights

Criticism
Fortuyn was compared with the politicians Jörg Haider and Jean-Marie Le Pen in the foreign press. These comparisons were often referred to by Dutch reporters and politicians. An explicit comparison with Le Pen was made by Ad Melkert, then lijsttrekker of the Labour Party, who said in Emmen on 24 April 2002: "If you flirt with Fortuyn, then in the Netherlands the same thing will happen as happened in France. There they woke up with Le Pen, soon we will wake up with Fortuyn."

On 5 May, the day before the assassination, Fortuyn in a debate with Melkert organized by the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper claimed that he was demonized. In it he said that he often had to tell journalists that the image created of him in the media was incorrect.

Columnist Jan Blokker wrote that "[a]fter reading [...] I realized once again that Professor Pim may really be called the Jean-Marie Le Pen, the Filip Dewinter, the Jörg Haider and the new Hans Janmaat of the Netherlands." Prime Minister Wim Kok accused Fortuyn of stirring up fear and stimulating xenophobia among the Dutch people. In the run-up to the 2002 election, GroenLinks leader Paul Rosenmöller claimed Fortuyn's policies were "not just right but extreme right".

Fortuyn often responded to criticism by stating that his views were misunderstood or distorted by the media, and in turn rejected comparisons and expressed his personal distaste for radical far-right politicians in other European countries. He explicitly distanced himself from Jean-Marie Le Pen and criticised some of his policies, including Le Pen's downplaying of the Holocaust. In domestic politics, Fortuyn also distanced his views from hard-right Dutch politicians such as Hans Janmaat and Joop Glimmerveen (who called for the mass expulsion of foreigners from the Netherlands) by maintaining that if he came to power, he would pardon existing illegal immigrants if they had lived in the Netherlands for over five years and offer them a path to citizenship if they could be assimilated into society.

In an interview on the Dutch talk show Jensen! that was broadcast shortly before his death, Fortuyn accused members of the Dutch government and political establishment of putting his life in danger through repeatedly demonizing him and his beliefs.

Legacy
Fortuyn changed the Dutch political landscape. The 2002 elections, only weeks after Fortuyn's death, were marked by large losses for the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and especially the social democratic Labour Party (whose parliamentary group was halved in size); both parties replaced their leaders shortly after their losses. The election winners were the Pim Fortuyn List, and the Christian democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) whose leader Jan Peter Balkenende went on to become Prime Minister. Some commentators in the mainstream political class speculated that Fortuyn's perceived martyrdom created greater support for the LPF, hence that party's brief surge to 17% of the electoral vote and 26 of the 150 seats in the Dutch Parliament. Others opined that voters who would have otherwise supported the LPF had Fortuyn not been murdered voted for the CDA as Balkenende had not joined in with other party leaders in attacking Fortuyn. Balkenende later claimed to have shared some of Fortuyn's opinions and pledged to implement some of his policy ideas. Although the LPF was able to form a coalition with the Christian Democratic Appeal and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, it was bereft with internal strife and quickly lost steam. The coalition cabinet of Jan Peter Balkenende fell within three months, due to infighting within the LPF. In the following elections, the LPF was left with only eight seats in parliament (out of 150) and was not included in the new government. Many of the LPF's successive leaders were not regarded as charismatic as Fortuyn and as the next cabinet under Balkenende continued many of the former coalition's policies, it became harder for the LPF to present an alternative image to the government. However, political commentators speculated that discontented voters might vote for a non-traditional party, if a viable alternative was at hand. Later, the right-wing Party for Freedom, which has a strong stance on immigration, proposing to deport criminal, unemployed or not assimilated non-western immigrants, won nine (out of 150) seats in the 2006 elections and became the largest party in the 2023 elections, reaching 37 seats.

The Netherlands has made its asylum policy more strict. Opponents of Fortuynism, such as Paul Rosenmöller, Thom de Graaf, and Ad Melkert (all labelling Fortuyn as a right-wing extremist), have objected to what they think is a harsher political and social climate, especially towards immigrants and Muslims.

However, other commentators such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, David Starkey and Douglas Murray have retrospectively defended some of Fortuyn's beliefs. Former Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende also stated that he later agreed with some of Fortuyn's criticisms of multiculturalism and the purple coalition under Wim Kok.

Contemporary Dutch politics is more polarized than it has been in recent years, especially on the issues for which Fortuyn was best known. People debate the success of their multicultural society, and whether they need to better assimilate newcomers. The government's decision in 2004 to more strictly expel asylum seekers whose applications had failed was controversial. Fortuyn had advocated for a one-time amnesty for those asylum seekers who had resided in the Netherlands for an extended period.

In 2004, in a TV show, Fortuyn was chosen as De Grootste Nederlander ("Greatest Dutchman of all-time"), followed closely by William of Orange, the leader of the independence war that established the precursor to the present-day Netherlands. The election was not considered representative, as it was held by viewers' voting through the internet and by phoning in. Theo van Gogh had been murdered a few days before by a Muslim, which likely affected people's voting in the TV contest for Fortuyn. The program later revealed that William of Orange had received the most votes, but many could not be counted until after the official closing time of the television show (and the proclamation of the winner), due to technical problems. The official rules of the show said that votes counted before the end of the show would be decisive, but it was suggested that all votes correctly cast before the closing of the vote would be counted. Following the official rules, the outcome was not changed.

Right-wing politicians gained greater public influence after Fortuyn's death, such as former Minister for Integration & Immigration Rita Verdonk, the prominent critic of Islam, Member of the House of Representatives Geert Wilders who in 2006 formed the Party for Freedom (which became the largest party in the House of Representatives in 2023) and Thierry Baudet, leader of the Forum for Democracy party. These politicians often focus on the debate over cultural assimilation and integration.

Supporters of Fortuyn went on to set up the annual Pim Fortuyn Prize which is awarded to opinion makers, politicians or commentators who best convey the ideas of Pim Fortuyn. Winners have included Ebru Umar and John van den Heuvel.

Selected publications

 * Het zakenkabinet Fortuyn (A.W. Bruna, 1994)
 * Beklemmend Nederland (A.W. Bruna, 1995), (ISBN 90-229-8234-3)
 * Uw baan staat op de tocht!: Het einde van de overlegeconomie (A.W. Bruna, 1995) (ISBN 978-90-229-8264-8
 * Mijn collega komt zo bij u (A.W. Bruna, 1996), (ISBN 9789022983119)
 * Tegen de islamisering van onze cultuur: Nederlandse identiteit als fundament (A.W. Bruna, 1997), (ISBN 90-229-8338-2)
 * Zielloos Europa (Bruna, 1997), (ISBN 90-229-8352-8)
 * 50 jaar Israel, hoe lang nog?: Tegen het tolereren van fundamentalisme (Bruna, 1998), (ISBN 90-229-8407-9)
 * De derde revolutie (bruna, 1999)
 * De verweesde samenleving (Karakter Uitgevers, 2002) (ISBN 90-6112-931-1)
 * De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars (Karakter Uitgevers, 2002), (ISBN 90-6112-911-7)

In popular culture

 * The song "Feint" by Epica was made right after and about Pim Fortuyn's death.
 * Fortuyn's death is referenced in the novel De zesde mei (The Sixth of May) by Tomas Ross.
 * 06/05, a 2004 film directed by Theo Van Gogh based upon the murder of Pim Fortuyn albeit with fictitious elements.
 * Het jaar van Fortuyn (The Year of Fortuyn), a 2022 five-part biographical drama broadcast on AVROTROS which depicts Fortuyn's political rise ahead of the 2002 election to his assassination. Fortuyn is portrayed by Jeroen Spitzenberger in the series.

title: Pim Fortuyn


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Wikipedia talk:GNE Project Files/Proposed GNU Moderation System

The whole area of reputation is problematic - hierarchy is the result of poorly thought out delegation systems. wikipedia does fine with informal negotiations via the "talk" meta encyclopedia. A formalization of this, via a consensus process (where no one person but perhaps any two people registering a reason or objection could remove an entry), seems more useful than an elaborate tangle of signatures, permissions, promotions. "Any two" could be expanded to a whole system of filters, where the reader not the editor chooses whose diffs to trust. Strong moderation style can be enforced by ruthless appeals based on the "reason or objection", and having articles spend some time "in the doghouse" before they are (automatically) promoted to visible... all of which is lower overhead than the system as proposed above.

Some systems like this were discussed by the United Nations University years ago - I believe the 1993 State of the Future report of the Millenium Project (of the American Committe for the UNU http://acunu.org) addresses this issue in some depth, based on the assumption of variant points of view. Not sure what was done about it.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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User:Dimadick

First off, welcome to Wikipedia! Great contributions to Donald Duck and all his relatives and associates. But there's a couple of things I've noticed that I've had to fix in every article so far which you should keep an eye out for in the future: They're just minor things, but since they're consistently in need of correction I figured I'd take it to the source. -user:Bryan Derksen
 * Don't indent paragraphs. This is wikipedia's way of doing preformatted text, and it makes the page look horrible.
 * It's "born," not "borned." Borned isn't a word as far as I know.
 * Put a space after the end of each sentence. Like the previous sentence, for example.

I've emailed a gif of a family tree for the McDucks starting from Dingus McDuck to wikipedia; it should be showing up in The Clan McDuck when it gets posted. If there are any errors or omissions in it, I will be more than happy to make an updated version fixing them. Just giving you a heads-up. --user:Bryan Derksen

Whatever you do... Don't mess with my, Weng Weng. InternetHero (talk) 20:26, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi. I hope this is the correct way to contact you - if not, please forgive and suggest a more appropriate way.

I have received an advisory about your new page on the Palace of Khudáyár Khán, which was on my watch list. I have already contributed a pic to the Kokand page. I have several pix of the KK palace at http://www.panoramio.com/user/463501/tags/Kokand and would be happy to contribute if you think they would be helpful, but am loath to do all the work of uploading to Commons if they are not wanted. Could you kindly let me know, and I'll upload them. You can contact me directly on gwatson@alice.it. Best wishes. aqsakal 10:50, 18 March 2015 (UTC) http://moa.omnimulti.com/41st_Century_BC

Hi, cup and ring mark fan here, what's this about cup and ring marks in Azerbaijan? I'm intrigued, but disappointed that you didn't reference anything. Oh wait, actually it wasn't your addition, it was from the random IP user below you. Now I suppose I have to either research it for myself or delete the claim. How irritating. Card Zero (talk) 22:50, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

title: User:Dimadick


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User:Don Kenney

A paleontologist? A new wikipedian, anyway!

Welcome, Don!

Are you responsible for the paleontology article? Excellent work! --Larry Sanger

title: User:Don Kenney


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User:DrBob

a.k.a. Bob Mellish, editor of mostly optics related stuff. You may mail me at bwp(at)mellish.org.uk.

My username comes from the staring rôle of this guy.

If you want a figure added to an article, let me know on my talk page. I can do technical diagrams (e.g. lens (optics), rainbow, diode bridge) and chemical structures (benzene, caffeine).

Here's a page of figures that I've added to Wikipedia.

The following are hideously outdated, but are kept purely for historical interest:

Articles I have a major interest in

Articles I have a minor interest in

To do list

As of November 2005 I am an administrator. Thanks to all those voting in my recent RFA, especially user:Duk for nominating me. I appreciate it!

I've had very little time to devote to Wikipedia recently. I may take some time to respond to any messages left for me.

User:DrBob/sandbox

title: User:DrBob


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User talk:Dr.scientist

You are hearing me talk. -- Dr.scientist

title: User talk:Dr.scientist


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User:Dweir

Hello.

I'm from Scotland and as such, most of my meddling is with Scottish articles. I've also contributed plenty to (admittedly short) articles on Scotland's ancient heritage, and other science articles where I've got in there in time.

Talk Articles

title: User:Dweir


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User talk:Dweir

Dinna fash yerself, Dweir :) (Learned that from Oor Wullie comics my Scottish granny always used to give me for Xmas!) The beauty of Wikipedia is that it makes fumbles easy to fix. -- Paul Drye

Hmm - well, I've tried it again and I got the same error. Now we're back to charles I! -- Dweir.

 * Try putting the text you want added on the talk:History of Scotland page and I'll have a go at adding it myself. If it craps out then, we know we have a larger problem. If not, we know that Wikipedia just hates *you*.... -- Paul Drye

I think Oor Wullie deserves a page of his own. My grandmother gave me Oor Wullie annuals every Christmas, despite me being a very middle-class Londoner. I later found out that her husband was Scots. Maybe she was trying to tell me something... -- RobertBrook

 * Don't forget The Broons. And I sure could go a cow pie right about now... wait, I'm vegetarian. Still, a Desperate Dan article wouldn't go amiss --Dweir

Just found the page on Vegetarianism! (Same here, by the way.) -- RB

buses
In a rather old (pre-history) addition to the talk page of london underground you mentioned that Edinburgh bus routes are rather hard to judge. Wouldn't this be the case with every bus service?

Mind you, having just worked out a journey to ikea it could be simpler... want to create a underground network with me? :) --BesigedB 21:41, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Dweir


text:
User:AxelBoldt/test

So:

\begin{array}{ccc} \operatorname{Hom}_C(FY',X)&\xrightarrow{\Phi_{Y',X}}&\operatorname{Hom}_D(Y',GX)\\ \\ \downarrow{\scriptstyle \operatorname{Hom}_C(Fg,f)}&&\downarrow{\scriptstyle \operatorname{Hom}_D(g,Gf)}\\ \\ \operatorname{Hom}_C(FY,X')&\xrightarrow{\Phi_{Y,X'}}&\operatorname{Hom}_D(Y,GX')\\ \end{array} $$

title: User:AxelBoldt/test


text:
Structural engineering

Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and joints' that create the form and shape of human-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and calculate the stability, strength, rigidity and earthquake-susceptibility of built structures for buildings and nonbuilding structures. The structural designs are integrated with those of other designers such as architects and building services engineer and often supervise the construction of projects by contractors on site. They can also be involved in the design of machinery, medical equipment, and vehicles where structural integrity affects functioning and safety. See glossary of structural engineering.

Structural engineering theory is based upon applied physical laws and empirical knowledge of the structural performance of different materials and geometries. Structural engineering design uses a number of relatively simple structural concepts to build complex structural systems. Structural engineers are responsible for making creative and efficient use of funds, structural elements and materials to achieve these goals.

History

Structural engineering dates back to 2700 B.C. when the step pyramid for Pharaoh Djoser was built by Imhotep, the first engineer in history known by name. Pyramids were the most common major structures built by ancient civilizations because the structural form of a pyramid is inherently stable and can be almost infinitely scaled (as opposed to most other structural forms, which cannot be linearly increased in size in proportion to increased loads).

The structural stability of the pyramid, whilst primarily gained from its shape, relies also on the strength of the stone from which it is constructed, and its ability to support the weight of the stone above it. The limestone blocks were often taken from a quarry near the building site and have a compressive strength from 30 to 250 MPa (MPa = Pa × 106). Therefore, the structural strength of the pyramid stems from the material properties of the stones from which it was built rather than the pyramid's geometry.

Throughout ancient and medieval history most architectural design and construction were carried out by artisans, such as stonemasons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. No theory of structures existed, and understanding of how structures stood up was extremely limited, and based almost entirely on empirical evidence of 'what had worked before' and intuition. Knowledge was retained by guilds and seldom supplanted by advances. Structures were repetitive, and increases in scale were incremental.

No record exists of the first calculations of the strength of structural members or the behavior of structural material, but the profession of a structural engineer only really took shape with the Industrial Revolution and the re-invention of concrete (see History of Concrete). The physical sciences underlying structural engineering began to be understood in the Renaissance and have since developed into computer-based applications pioneered in the 1970s.

Timeline

 * 1452–1519 Leonardo da Vinci made many contributions.
 * 1638: Galileo Galilei published the book Two New Sciences in which he examined the failure of simple structures.
 * 1660: Hooke's law by Robert Hooke.
 * 1687: Isaac Newton published Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which contains his laws of motion.
 * 1750: Euler–Bernoulli beam equation.
 * 1700–1782: Daniel Bernoulli introduced the principle of virtual work.
 * 1707–1783: Leonhard Euler developed the theory of buckling of columns.
 * 1826: Claude-Louis Navier published a treatise on the elastic behaviors of structures.
 * 1873: Carlo Alberto Castigliano presented his dissertation "Intorno ai sistemi elastici", which contains his theorem for computing displacement as the partial derivative of the strain energy. This theorem includes the method of "least work" as a special case.
 * 1874: Otto Mohr formalized the idea of a statically indeterminate structure.
 * 1922: Timoshenko corrects the Euler–Bernoulli beam equation.
 * 1936: Hardy Cross' publication of the moment distribution method, an important innovation in the design of continuous frames.
 * 1941: Alexander Hrennikoff solved the discretization of plane elasticity problems using a lattice framework.
 * 1942: Richard Courant divided a domain into finite subregions.
 * 1956: J. Turner, R. W. Clough, H. C. Martin, and L. J. Topp's paper on the "Stiffness and Deflection of Complex Structures" introduces the name "finite-element method" and is widely recognized as the first comprehensive treatment of the method as it is known today.

Structural failure
The history of structural engineering contains many collapses and failures. Sometimes this is due to obvious negligence, as in the case of the Pétion-Ville school collapse, in which Rev. Fortin Augustin " constructed the building all by himself, saying he didn't need an engineer as he had good knowledge of construction" following a partial collapse of the three-story schoolhouse that sent neighbors fleeing. The final collapse killed 94 people, mostly children.

In other cases structural failures require careful study, and the results of these inquiries have resulted in improved practices and a greater understanding of the science of structural engineering. Some such studies are the result of forensic engineering investigations where the original engineer seems to have done everything in accordance with the state of the profession and acceptable practice yet a failure still eventuated. A famous case of structural knowledge and practice being advanced in this manner can be found in a series of failures involving box girders which collapsed in Australia during the 1970s.

Theory

Structural engineering depends upon a detailed knowledge of applied mechanics, materials science, and applied mathematics to understand and predict how structures support and resist self-weight and imposed loads. To apply the knowledge successfully a structural engineer generally requires detailed knowledge of relevant empirical and theoretical design codes, the techniques of structural analysis, as well as some knowledge of the corrosion resistance of the materials and structures, especially when those structures are exposed to the external environment. Since the 1990s, specialist software has become available to aid in the design of structures, with the functionality to assist in the drawing, analyzing and designing of structures with maximum precision; examples include AutoCAD, StaadPro, ETABS, Prokon, Revit Structure, Inducta RCB, etc. Such software may also take into consideration environmental loads, such as earthquakes and winds.

Profession
Structural engineers are responsible for engineering design and structural analysis. Entry-level structural engineers may design the individual structural elements of a structure, such as the beams and columns of a building. More experienced engineers may be responsible for the structural design and integrity of an entire system, such as a building.

Structural engineers often specialize in particular types of structures, such as buildings, bridges, pipelines, industrial, tunnels, vehicles, ships, aircraft, and spacecraft. Structural engineers who specialize in buildings often specialize in particular construction materials such as concrete, steel, wood, masonry, alloys, and composites, and may focus on particular types of buildings such as offices, schools, hospitals, residential, and so forth.

Structural engineering has existed since humans first started to construct their structures. It became a more defined and formalized profession with the emergence of architecture as a distinct profession from engineering during the industrial revolution in the late 19th century. Until then, the architect and the structural engineer were usually one and the same thing – the master builder. Only with the development of specialized knowledge of structural theories that emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries, did the professional structural engineers come into existence.

The role of a structural engineer today involves a significant understanding of both static and dynamic loading and the structures that are available to resist them. The complexity of modern structures often requires a great deal of creativity from the engineer in order to ensure the structures support and resist the loads they are subjected to. A structural engineer will typically have a four or five-year undergraduate degree, followed by a minimum of three years of professional practice before being considered fully qualified. Structural engineers are licensed or accredited by different learned societies and regulatory bodies around the world (for example, the Institution of Structural Engineers in the UK). Depending on the degree course they have studied and/or the jurisdiction they are seeking licensure in, they may be accredited (or licensed) as just structural engineers, or as civil engineers, or as both civil and structural engineers. Another international organisation is IABSE(International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering). The aim of that association is to exchange knowledge and to advance the practice of structural engineering worldwide in the service of the profession and society.

Building structures

Structural building engineering includes all structural engineering related to the design of buildings. It is a branch of structural engineering closely affiliated with architecture.

Structural building engineering is primarily driven by the creative manipulation of materials and forms and the underlying mathematical and scientific ideas to achieve an end that fulfills its functional requirements and is structurally safe when subjected to all the loads it could reasonably be expected to experience. This is subtly different from architectural design, which is driven by the creative manipulation of materials and forms, mass, space, volume, texture, and light to achieve an end which is aesthetic, functional, and often artistic.

The structural design for a building must ensure that the building can stand up safely, able to function without excessive deflections or movements which may cause fatigue of structural elements, cracking or failure of fixtures, fittings or partitions, or discomfort for occupants. It must account for movements and forces due to temperature, creep, cracking, and imposed loads. It must also ensure that the design is practically buildable within acceptable manufacturing tolerances of the materials. It must allow the architecture to work, and the building services to fit within the building and function (air conditioning, ventilation, smoke extract, electrics, lighting, etc.). The structural design of a modern building can be extremely complex and often requires a large team to complete.

Structural engineering specialties for buildings include:
 * Earthquake engineering
 * Façade engineering
 * Fire engineering
 * Roof engineering
 * Tower engineering
 * Wind engineering

Earthquake engineering structures
Earthquake engineering structures are those engineered to withstand earthquakes.

The main objectives of earthquake engineering are to understand the interaction of structures with the shaking ground, foresee the consequences of possible earthquakes, and design and construct the structures to perform during an earthquake.

Earthquake-proof structures are not necessarily extremely strong like the El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza shown above.

One important tool of earthquake engineering is base isolation, which allows the base of a structure to move freely with the ground.

Civil engineering structures
Civil structural engineering includes all structural engineering related to the built environment. It includes:

The structural engineer is the lead designer on these structures, and often the sole designer. In the design of structures such as these, structural safety is of paramount importance (in the UK, designs for dams, nuclear power stations and bridges must be signed off by a chartered engineer).

Civil engineering structures are often subjected to very extreme forces, such as large variations in temperature, dynamic loads such as waves or traffic, or high pressures from water or compressed gases. They are also often constructed in corrosive environments, such as at sea, in industrial facilities, or below ground.

Mechanical structures
The principles of structural engineering apply to a variety of mechanical (moveable) structures. The design of static structures assumes they always have the same geometry (in fact, so-called static structures can move significantly, and structural engineering design must take this into account where necessary), but the design of moveable or moving structures must account for fatigue, variation in the method in which load is resisted and significant deflections of structures.

The forces which parts of a machine are subjected to can vary significantly and can do so at a great rate. The forces which a boat or aircraft are subjected to vary enormously and will do so thousands of times over the structure's lifetime. The structural design must ensure that such structures can endure such loading for their entire design life without failing.

These works can require mechanical structural engineering:
 * Boilers and pressure vessels
 * Coachworks and carriages
 * Cranes
 * Elevators
 * Escalators
 * Marine vessels and hulls

Aerospace structures

Aerospace structure types include launch vehicles, (Atlas, Delta, Titan), missiles (ALCM, Harpoon), Hypersonic vehicles (Space Shuttle), military aircraft (F-16, F-18) and commercial aircraft (Boeing 777, MD-11). Aerospace structures typically consist of thin plates with stiffeners for the external surfaces, bulkheads, and frames to support the shape and fasteners such as welds, rivets, screws, and bolts to hold the components together.

Nanoscale structures
A nanostructure is an object of intermediate size between molecular and microscopic (micrometer-sized) structures. In describing nanostructures it is necessary to differentiate between the number of dimensions on the nanoscale. Nanotextured surfaces have one dimension on the nanoscale, i.e., only the thickness of the surface of an object is between 0.1 and 100 nm. Nanotubes have two dimensions on the nanoscale, i.e., the diameter of the tube is between 0.1 and 100 nm; its length could be much greater. Finally, spherical nanoparticles have three dimensions on the nanoscale, i.e., the particle is between 0.1 and 100 nm in each spatial dimension. The terms nanoparticles and ultrafine particles (UFP) often are used synonymously although UFP can reach into the micrometer range. The term 'nanostructure' is often used when referring to magnetic technology.

Structural engineering for medical science

Medical equipment (also known as armamentarium) is designed to aid in the diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of medical conditions. There are several basic types: diagnostic equipment includes medical imaging machines, used to aid in diagnosis; equipment includes infusion pumps, medical lasers, and LASIK surgical machines; medical monitors allow medical staff to measure a patient's medical state. Monitors may measure patient vital signs and other parameters including ECG, EEG, blood pressure, and dissolved gases in the blood; diagnostic medical equipment may also be used in the home for certain purposes, e.g. for the control of diabetes mellitus. A biomedical equipment technician (BMET) is a vital component of the healthcare delivery system. Employed primarily by hospitals, BMETs are the people responsible for maintaining a facility's medical equipment.

Structural elements

Any structure is essentially made up of only a small number of different types of elements:
 * Columns
 * Beams
 * Plates
 * Arches
 * Shells
 * Catenaries

Many of these elements can be classified according to form (straight, plane / curve) and dimensionality (one-dimensional / two-dimensional):

Columns
Columns are elements that carry only axial force (compression) or both axial force and bending (which is technically called a beam-column but practically, just a column). The design of a column must check the axial capacity of the element and the buckling capacity.

The buckling capacity is the capacity of the element to withstand the propensity to buckle. Its capacity depends upon its geometry, material, and the effective length of the column, which depends upon the restraint conditions at the top and bottom of the column. The effective length is $$K*l$$ where $$l$$ is the real length of the column and K is the factor dependent on the restraint conditions.

The capacity of a column to carry axial load depends on the degree of bending it is subjected to, and vice versa. This is represented on an interaction chart and is a complex non-linear relationship.

Beams

A beam may be defined as an element in which one dimension is much greater than the other two and the applied loads are usually normal to the main axis of the element. Beams and columns are called line elements and are often represented by simple lines in structural modeling.
 * cantilevered (supported at one end only with a fixed connection)
 * simply supported (fixed against vertical translation at each end and horizontal translation at one end only, and able to rotate at the supports)
 * fixed (supported in all directions for translation and rotation at each end)
 * continuous (supported by three or more supports)
 * a combination of the above (ex. supported at one end and in the middle)

Beams are elements that carry pure bending only. Bending causes one part of the section of a beam (divided along its length) to go into compression and the other part into tension. The compression part must be designed to resist buckling and crushing, while the tension part must be able to adequately resist the tension.

Trusses

A truss is a structure comprising members and connection points or nodes. When members are connected at nodes and forces are applied at nodes members can act in tension or compression. Members acting in compression are referred to as compression members or struts while members acting in tension are referred to as tension members or ties. Most trusses use gusset plates to connect intersecting elements. Gusset plates are relatively flexible and unable to transfer bending moments. The connection is usually arranged so that the lines of force in the members are coincident at the joint thus allowing the truss members to act in pure tension or compression.

Trusses are usually used in large-span structures, where it would be uneconomical to use solid beams.

Plates
Plates carry bending in two directions. A concrete flat slab is an example of a plate. Plates are understood by using continuum mechanics, but due to the complexity involved they are most often designed using a codified empirical approach, or computer analysis.

They can also be designed with yield line theory, where an assumed collapse mechanism is analyzed to give an upper bound on the collapse load. This technique is used in practice but because the method provides an upper-bound (i.e. an unsafe prediction of the collapse load) for poorly conceived collapse mechanisms, great care is needed to ensure that the assumed collapse mechanism is realistic.

Shells
Shells derive their strength from their form and carry forces in compression in two directions. A dome is an example of a shell. They can be designed by making a hanging-chain model, which will act as a catenary in pure tension and inverting the form to achieve pure compression.

Arches
Arches carry forces in compression in one direction only, which is why it is appropriate to build arches out of masonry. They are designed by ensuring that the line of thrust of the force remains within the depth of the arch. It is mainly used to increase the bountifulness of any structure.

Catenaries
Catenaries derive their strength from their form and carry transverse forces in pure tension by deflecting (just as a tightrope will sag when someone walks on it). They are almost always cable or fabric structures. A fabric structure acts as a catenary in two directions.

Materials
Structural engineering depends on the knowledge of materials and their properties, in order to understand how different materials support and resist loads. It also involves a knowledge of Corrosion engineering to avoid for example galvanic coupling of dissimilar materials.

Common structural materials are:
 * Iron: wrought iron, cast iron
 * Concrete: reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete
 * Alloy: steel, stainless steel
 * Masonry
 * Timber: hardwood, softwood
 * Aluminium
 * Composite materials: plywood
 * Other structural materials: adobe, bamboo, carbon fibre, fiber reinforced plastic, mudbrick, roofing materials

title: Structural engineering


text:
Talk:Structural engineering

Untitled
I wanted to learn more about this topic, but the page doesn't point me in interesting directions. It's done too summarily. Should talk about skyscrapers, what are the issues there, link to skyscrapers; earthquakes, what are the issues, link; history of, link; bridges, link; you get the picture. --Rmalloy 05:47, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

History of structural engineering
This section suddenly has a bunch of information on Sri Lanka, can someone please provide citation? --RedIsaac (talk) 19:48, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

New project proposal related to this article

There is a new project proposal that some of you here may be interested in: Wikibuilder - a knowledge base covering the design and construction of the built environment, in its entirety, in all languages. See Proposals for new projects and Wikibuilder for more information, and feel free to add your comments to meta:Talk:Wikibuilder —Christiaan -  ☎   09:41, 18 Jan 2005

Insert some articles or links to stress analysis examples, Mohr's Circle, The famous galloping bridge in Tacoma Narrows, etc.

Write up of the structural failure of 9/11, explosion blew insulation off and structure soaked up heat from fire feuled by jet feul. Yield strength reduced and collapse like a house of cards. Impact took lower floors with the mass now accelerating (via gravity) to the ground.

Structural Engineering, while sharing many similar concepts with Mechanical Engineering, is actually a branch of Civil Engineering.

In the US, a Structural Engineer is a Civil Engineer who also has a Structural Engineering license. The additional license is required to design buildings over a certain height (in my state more than 3 stories or over 45' tall as measured from deepest footing) or (in some states) bridges over a certain span. So in the US, at least, not all engineers who design structures are Structural Enigneers. Not sure how to treat this in the article without "limiting the geographic scope", however in general I think it's fair to say that a Structural Engineer is one who speciallizes in very large structures. Toiyabe 00:43, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

Merge
I suggest merging most (or all) of Structural engineer into Structural engineering. The rest can go into Engineer, provided that is not itself merged into Engineering: see Talk:Engineer/Archives/2012. jnestorius(talk) 22:03, 22 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Oppose useful to have separate articles... Addhoc 15:37, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

 * For. My two cents: it's working fine for us in Architectural engineering.  Be sure to have redirects to your main page, however, including all variations in capitalizations. Remember the KISS principle ...  :-)  129.237.114.171 20:00, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Oppose I disagree. They should be two seperate areticles.  Structural Engineering should have information about the subject.  Structural Engineer should have information regarding the engineer's role and specific tasks, as well as qualifications, training etc.129.11.76.216 12:11, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

 * Oppose A Structural Engineer is a person who is licensed either as a Professional Engineer or a Structual Engineer to design the structural systems needed to support a building.  This would follow the model set up around architect and architecture.  By the way not all structural engineers are civil engineers some structural engineers come from an architectural engineering background or actually have degrees in structural engineering.  In addition most states do not license engineers as structural engineers.  There are less than 20 states (CA, IL, NE, NV, UT, WA, etc) with SE licensure. Engr civil 21:59, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

 * Oppose Useful to distinguish training of structural engineers; not everyone who partakes in structural engineering has the same background. Dlodge 18:19, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

 * For (Please note new addition to old subject) I know I'm very, very late to this issue, but is anyone else in favor of ramping up the discussion again? The more I think about it, the more combining the articles makes sense to me.  I understand they are different, but the overlap is so strong that it makes more sense, to me, to combine the articles and explain the differences, rather than have two separate articles that sort of pretend the other one isn't there.  Both articles are relatively short, there is some major overlap, and right now, no discussion on what the differences are.  A combined article could, in a few paragraphs, cover all the ground of both articles, plus address the concerns listed above by discussing the difference between what Structural Engineering is, and what it takes to be a Structural Engineer in the US, UK, Canada, NZ/AUS, etc. ,etc.  If I came too late to play, so be it, but I think it's worth re-considering. --barneca (talk) 04:15, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose After looking at the Architecture and Architect pages, I've changed my mind and agree with the consensus above. I like how that works better.  I may try to incrementally revise this article to be organized somewhat more like Architecture. --barneca (talk) 17:13, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Notable Structural Engineers
In the course of removing a fictional character from the list (which, off topic, I assume most others agree with?), I finally registered something that I hadn't noticed before: there is a list of notable structural engineers in both Structural Engineer and Structural Engineering. Surely one list is enough, and it seems natural that it would go in Structural Engineer rather than this article.

Anyone agree/disagree? I'm thinking of consolidating the list, removing it from Structural Engineering, and putting it in Structural Engineer. But I hate being bold, and would like some feedback first. --barneca (talk) 04:05, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

 * Update: I didn't know that the List of structural engineers already existed, but it does. It is much more complete than either article's list, and the natural place for such a list.  I'm removing the list from both articles, adding the 6 engineers on either list that aren't already there, and including a "See also" heading that refers you to it.  --barneca (talk) 16:29, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Is SE a specialty discipline of CE?
FYI, there is a discussion at Talk:Structural engineer about whether Structural Engineering should be considered, for the most part, a specialty, or sub-discipline, or whatever you want to call it, of Civil Engineering or not. --barneca (talk) 21:01, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Improvement
Fantastic improvement ! Well-organized article ! (User_talk:tigershark82007} —Preceding comment was added at 14:59, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

I think the article needs to be improved and revised. I don't know if some of the changes can be discussed first here and then transferred to the main document. --Ivantafur (talk) 04:15, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Materials folding and doming as structural elements?
Where does folding and stressing fit into the topic of structural engineering? (Perhaps not used in building construction specifically, but as structural elements of engineered devices/products.)

Folding of sheet steel into a column containing a large number of lengthwise folds yields a very strong shape.

Designing domes and arcs into cast/pressed objects provides crush-resistance and resilience compared to using just a flat surfaces.

For example, the bottom of an aluminim soda can is domed inward to provide deformation strength against internal gas pressure, while the folded V-edge around the dome provides can crush resistance against external loads pressing on the can.

Is there some method of calculating how much strength a fold or dome will add to a structure? Is there a method of determining what specific fold and dome placements will provide the best strength for a structural design application, or is it all just guesswork and experimentation to see what works best?

DMahalko (talk) 08:46, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Safety Factor Section Update
I suggest that somebody fixes, updates, or deletes the section "Safety Factors." It references numerical values for safety factors (1.2 for DL, 1.6 for LL and Wind Loads), but makes no reference to factored load combinations as specified by ASCE 7-05 (or even the IBC). Safety factors should not be referenced without mentioning the load combinations, and especially the section of ASCE 7-05 that controls. Saying that DLs are typically factored by 1.2 is not necessarily correct because without any other loading, the DL is factored by 1.4, etc. I will maybe try in the future to change this, but no guarantees. But it should be changed. Wadester16 (talk) 23:08, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Reorganisation/splitting
There's absolutely no doubt that this article is informative, relevant, interesting, notable and well-written. Its problems now relate to its style and layout. The problem is that it's absolutely filled with information! Of particular note is the sheer number of subsections—27, to be exact—and how this actually decreases readability. The article is currently 61kB; as per WP:SPINOUT, this article "probably should be divided (although the scope of a topic can sometimes justify the added reading time)." Some of the sections and its subsections would be better served in list format and/or categories. "Structural engineering theory" easily merits its own article. In short, this article has reached a point where adding content is harmful. Surely an article on Structural Engineering ought to be more structured... ;) — Skittleys (talk) 19:15, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

In the World Trade Centre collapse section it mentioned 'creep' as a reason for the structural response of the heat from the jet fuel. Basic(instantaneous)creep is the Stress-Dependent response to initial load; the additional deformations due to heat are more likely the result of thermal expansion or changes in the material properties of the concrete (at different temperatures). - Jamahl Rigby - B.Eng Civil(Structures)(Hons) - University of Sydney - jamahlspam@gmail.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.171.192.165 (talk) 03:57, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Etymology box
I just removed this box, for a couple of reasons: Obviously, I'm happy to discuss if you disagree. --Floquenbeam (talk) 20:33, 18 September 2009 (UTC)
 * The meaning of the English words "structural" and "engineering" are pretty clear; no sense giving etymology of them.
 * Much of the rest has nothing to do with "etymology"; it's a re-statement of the text in the section, and of the text in the article Structural engineer.
 * The article is somewhat long, and this seems a pretty painless place to cut out some material that is covered adequately elsewhere.

structural engineering
Do structural engineering and civil engineering have same meaning? Can i understand it as one term? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Billylight (talk • contribs) 07:53, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Article needs help!
This article has been vandalized, and I need help fixing it. I've posted a cleanup tag for the time being, but it certainly needs more than that. Ideas?
 * Done. Reverted to the last good version. I'll keep an eye out in case there's more vandalism, but I don't think semi-protection or blocks are necessary quite yet. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 19:50, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

title: Talk:Structural engineering


text:
Tetanus

Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial infection caused by Clostridium tetani and characterized by muscle spasms. In the most common type, the spasms begin in the jaw, and then progress to the rest of the body. Each spasm usually lasts for a few minutes. Spasms occur frequently for three to four weeks. Some spasms may be severe enough to fracture bones. Other symptoms of tetanus may include fever, sweating, headache, trouble swallowing, high blood pressure, and a fast heart rate. Onset of symptoms is typically 3 to 21 days following infection. Recovery may take months; about 10% of cases prove to be fatal.

C. tetani is commonly found in soil, saliva, dust, and manure. The bacteria generally enter through a break in the skin, such as a cut or puncture wound caused by a contaminated object. They produce toxins that interfere with normal muscle contractions. Diagnosis is based on the presenting signs and symptoms. The disease does not spread between people.

Tetanus can be prevented by immunization with the tetanus vaccine. In those who have a significant wound and have had fewer than three doses of the vaccine, both vaccination and tetanus immune globulin are recommended. The wound should be cleaned, and any dead tissue should be removed. In those who are infected, tetanus immune globulin, or, if unavailable, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is used. Muscle relaxants may be used to control spasms. Mechanical ventilation may be required if a person's breathing is affected.

Tetanus occurs in all parts of the world, but is most frequent in hot and wet climates where the soil has a high organic content. In 2015, there were about 209,000 infections and about 59,000 deaths globally. This is down from 356,000 deaths in 1990. In the US, there are about 30 cases per year, almost all of which were in people who had not been vaccinated. An early description of the disease was made by Hippocrates in the 5th century BC. The cause of the disease was determined in 1884 by Antonio Carle and Giorgio Rattone at the University of Turin, and a vaccine was developed in 1924.

Signs and symptoms
Tetanus often begins with mild spasms in the jaw muscles—also known as lockjaw. Similar spasms can also be a feature of trismus. The spasms can also affect the facial muscles, resulting in an appearance called risus sardonicus. Chest, neck, back, abdominal muscles, and buttocks may be affected. Back muscle spasms often cause arching, called opisthotonus. Sometimes, the spasms affect muscles utilized during inhalation and exhalation, which can lead to breathing problems.

Prolonged muscular action causes sudden, powerful, and painful contractions of muscle groups, called tetany. These episodes can cause fractures and muscle tears. Other symptoms include fever, headache, restlessness, irritability, feeding difficulties, breathing problems, burning sensation during urination, urinary retention, and loss of stool control.

Even with treatment, about 10% of people who contract tetanus die. The mortality rate is higher in unvaccinated individuals, and in people over 60 years of age.

Incubation period
The incubation period of tetanus may be up to several months, but is usually about ten days. In general, the farther the injury site is from the central nervous system, the longer the incubation period. However, shorter incubation periods will have more severe symptoms. In trismus nascentium (i.e. neonatal tetanus), symptoms usually appear from 4 to 14 days after birth, averaging about 7 days. On the basis of clinical findings, four different forms of tetanus have been described.

Generalized tetanus
Generalized tetanus is the most common type of tetanus, representing about 80% of cases. The generalized form usually presents with a descending pattern. The first sign is trismus or lockjaw, then facial spasms (called risus sardonicus), followed by stiffness of the neck, difficulty in swallowing, and rigidity of pectoral and calf muscles. Other symptoms include elevated temperature, sweating, elevated blood pressure, and episodic rapid heart rate. Spasms may occur frequently and last for several minutes, with the body shaped into a characteristic form called opisthotonos. Spasms continue for up to four weeks, and complete recovery may take months.

Neonatal tetanus
Neonatal tetanus (trismus nascentium) is a form of generalized tetanus that occurs in newborns, usually those born to mothers who themselves have not been vaccinated. If the mother has been vaccinated against tetanus, the infants acquire passive immunity, and are thus protected. It usually occurs through infection of the unhealed umbilical stump, particularly when the stump is cut with a non-sterile instrument. As of 1998, neonatal tetanus was common in many developing countries, and was responsible for about 14% (215,000) of all neonatal deaths. In 2010, the worldwide death toll was approximately 58,000 newborns. As the result of a public health campaign, the death toll from neonatal tetanus was reduced by 90% between 1990 and 2010, and by 2013, the disease had been largely eliminated from all but 25 countries. Neonatal tetanus is rare in developed countries.

Local tetanus
Local tetanus is an uncommon form of the disease, in which people have persistent contraction of muscles in the same anatomic area as the injury. The contractions may persist for many weeks before gradually subsiding. Local tetanus is generally milder; only about 1% of cases are fatal, but it may precede the onset of generalized tetanus.

Cephalic tetanus
Cephalic tetanus is the rarest form of the disease (0.9–3% of cases), and is limited to muscles and nerves in the head. It usually occurs after trauma to the head area, including: skull fracture, laceration, eye injury, dental extraction, and otitis media, but it has been observed from injuries to other parts of the body. Paralysis of the facial nerve is most frequently implicated, which may cause lockjaw, facial palsy, or ptosis, but other cranial nerves can also be affected. Cephalic tetanus may progress to a more generalized form of the disease. Due to its rarity, clinicians may be unfamiliar with the clinical presentation, and may not suspect tetanus as the illness. Treatment can be complicated, as symptoms may be concurrent with the initial injury that caused the infection. Cephalic tetanus is more likely than other forms of tetanus to be fatal, with the progression to generalized tetanus carrying a 15–30% case fatality rate.

Cause

Tetanus is caused by the tetanus bacterium, Clostridium tetani. The disease is an international health problem, as C. tetani endospores are ubiquitous. Endospores can be introduced into the body through a puncture wound (penetrating trauma). Due to C. tetani being an anaerobic bacterium, it and its endospores thrive in environments that lack oxygen, such as a puncture wound. With the changes in oxygen levels, the drumstick-shaped endospore can quickly spread.

The disease occurs almost exclusively in people who are inadequately immunized. It is more common in hot, damp climates with soil rich in organic matter. Manure-treated soils may contain spores, as they are widely distributed in the intestines and feces of many animals, such as horses, sheep, cattle, dogs, cats, rats, guinea pigs, and chickens. In agricultural areas, a significant number of human adults may harbor the organism.

The spores can also be found on skin surfaces and in contaminated heroin. Rarely, tetanus can be contracted through surgical procedures, intramuscular injections, compound fractures, and dental infections. Animal bites can transmit tetanus.

Tetanus is often associated with rust, especially rusty nails. Although rust itself does not cause tetanus, objects that accumulate rust are often found outdoors or in places that harbor soil bacteria. Additionally, the rough surface of rusty metal provides crevices for dirt containing C. tetani, while a nail affords a means to puncture skin and deliver endospores deep within the body at the site of the wound. An endospore is a non-metabolizing survival structure that begins to metabolize and cause infection once in an adequate environment. Hence, stepping on a nail (rusty or not) may result in a tetanus infection, as the low-oxygen (anaerobic) environment may exist under the skin, and the puncturing object can deliver endospores to a suitable environment for growth. It is a common misconception that rust itself is the cause, and that a puncture from a rust-free nail is not a risk.

Pathophysiology
Tetanus neurotoxin (TeNT) binds to the presynaptic membrane of the neuromuscular junction, is internalized, and is transported back through the axon until it reaches the central nervous system. Here, it selectively binds to and is transported into inhibitory neurons via endocytosis. It then leaves the vesicle for the neuron cytosol, where it cleaves vesicle associated membrane protein (VAMP) synaptobrevin, which is necessary for membrane fusion of small synaptic vesicles (SSV's). SSV's carry neurotransmitter to the membrane for release, so inhibition of this process blocks neurotransmitter release.

Tetanus toxin specifically blocks the release of the neurotransmitters GABA and glycine from inhibitory neurons. These neurotransmitters keep overactive motor neurons from firing, and also play a role in the relaxation of muscles after contraction. When inhibitory neurons are unable to release their neurotransmitters, motor neurons fire out of control, and muscles have difficulty relaxing. This causes the muscle spasms and spastic paralysis seen in tetanus infection.

The tetanus toxin, tetanospasmin, is made up of a heavy chain and a light chain. There are three domains, each of which contributes to the pathophysiology of the toxin. The heavy chain has two of the domains. The N-terminal side of the heavy chain helps with membrane translocation, and the C-terminal side helps the toxin locate the specific receptor site on the correct neuron. The light chain domain cleaves the VAMP protein once it arrives in the inhibitory neuron cytosol.

There are four main steps in tetanus's mechanism of action: binding to the neuron, internalization of the toxin, membrane translocation, and cleavage of the target VAMP.

Neurospecific binding
The toxin travels from the wound site to the neuromuscular junction through the bloodstream, where it binds to the presynaptic membrane of a motor neuron. The heavy chain C-terminal domain aids in the binding to the correct site, recognizing and binding to the correct glycoproteins and glycolipids in the presynaptic membrane. The toxin binds to a site that will be taken into the neuron as an endocytic vesicle that will travel down the axon, past the cell body, and down the dendrites to the dendritic terminal at the spine and central nervous system. Here, it will be released into the synaptic cleft, and allowed to bind with the presynaptic membrane of inhibitory neurons in a similar manner seen with the binding to the motor neuron.

Internalization
Tetanus toxin is then internalized again via endocytosis, this time, in an acidic vesicle. In a mechanism not well understood, depolarization caused by the firing of the inhibitory neuron causes the toxin to be pulled into the neuron inside vesicles.

Membrane translocation
The toxin then needs a way to get out of the vesicle and into the neuron cytosol for it to act on its target. The low pH of the vesicle lumen causes a conformational change in the toxin, shifting it from a water-soluble form to a hydrophobic form. With the hydrophobic patches exposed, the toxin can slide into the vesicle membrane. The toxin forms an ion channel in the membrane that is nonspecific for Na+, K+, Ca2+, and Cl− ions. There is a consensus among experts that this new channel is involved in the translocation of the toxin's light chain from the inside of the vesicle to the neuron cytosol, but the mechanism is not well understood or agreed upon. It has been proposed that the channel could allow the light chain (unfolded from the low pH environment) to leave through the toxin pore, or that the pore could alter the electrochemical gradient enough, by letting in or out ions, to cause osmotic lysis of the vesicle, spilling the vesicle's contents.

Enzymatic target cleavage
The light chain of the tetanus toxin is zinc-dependent protease. It shares a common zinc protease motif (His-Glu-Xaa-Xaa-His) that researchers hypothesized was essential for target cleavage, until this was more recently confirmed by experiment: when all zinc was removed from the neuron with heavy metal chelators, the toxin was inhibited, only to be reactivated when the zinc was added back in. The light chain binds to VAMP, and cleaves it between Gln76 and Phe77. Without VAMP, vesicles holding the neurotransmitters needed for motor neuron regulation (GABA and glycine) cannot be released, causing the above-mentioned deregulation of motor neurons and muscle tension.

Diagnosis
There are currently no blood tests for diagnosing tetanus. The diagnosis is based on the presentation of tetanus symptoms, and does not depend upon isolation of the bacterium, which is recovered from the wound in only 30% of cases, and can be isolated from people without tetanus. Laboratory identification of C. tetani can be demonstrated only by production of tetanospasmin in mice. Having recently experienced head trauma may indicate cephalic tetanus if no other diagnosis has been made.

The "spatula test" is a clinical test for tetanus that involves touching the posterior pharyngeal wall with a soft-tipped instrument and observing the effect. A positive test result is the involuntary contraction of the jaw (biting down on the "spatula"), and a negative test result would normally be a gag reflex attempting to expel the foreign object. A short report in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene states that, in an affected subject research study, the spatula test had a high specificity (zero false-positive test results) and a high sensitivity (94% of infected people produced a positive test).

Prevention
Unlike many infectious diseases, recovery from naturally acquired tetanus does not usually result in immunity. This is due to the extreme potency of the tetanospasmin toxin. Tetanospasmin will likely be lethal before it will provoke an immune response.

Tetanus can be prevented by vaccination with tetanus toxoid. The CDC recommends that adults receive a booster vaccine every ten years, and standard care practice in many places is to give the booster to any person with a puncture wound who is uncertain of when he or she was last vaccinated, or if he or she has had fewer than three lifetime doses of the vaccine. The booster may not prevent a potentially fatal case of tetanus from the current wound, however, as it can take up to two weeks for tetanus antibodies to form.

In children under the age of seven, the tetanus vaccine is often administered as a combined vaccine, DPT/DTaP vaccine, which also includes vaccines against diphtheria and pertussis. For adults and children over seven, the Td vaccine (tetanus and diphtheria) or Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis) is commonly used.

The World Health Organization certifies countries as having eliminated maternal or neonatal tetanus. Certification requires at least two years of rates of less than 1 case per 1,000 live births. In 1998 in Uganda, 3,433 tetanus cases were recorded in newborn babies; of these, 2,403 died. After a major public health effort, Uganda was certified as having eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus in 2011.

Post-exposure prophylaxis
Tetanus toxoid can be given in case of suspected exposure to tetanus. In such cases, it can be given with or without tetanus immunoglobulin (also called tetanus antibodies or tetanus antitoxin ). It can be given as intravenous therapy or by intramuscular injection.

The guidelines for such events in the United States for people at least 11 years old (and not pregnant) are as follows:

Mild tetanus
Mild cases of tetanus can be treated with:
 * Tetanus immunoglobulin (TIG), also called tetanus antibodies or tetanus antitoxin. It can be given as intravenous therapy or by intramuscular injection.
 * Antibiotic therapy to reduce toxin production. Metronidazole intravenous (IV) is a preferred treatment.
 * Benzodiazepines can be used to control muscle spasms. Options include diazepam and lorazepam, oral or IV.

Severe tetanus
Severe cases will require admission to intensive care. In addition to the measures listed above for mild tetanus:
 * Human tetanus immunoglobulin injected intrathecally (which increases clinical improvement from 4% to 35%).
 * Tracheotomy and mechanical ventilation for 3 to 4 weeks. Tracheotomy is recommended for securing the airway, because the presence of an endotracheal tube is a stimulus for spasm.
 * Magnesium sulfate, as an intravenous infusion, to control spasm and autonomic dysfunction.
 * Diazepam as a continuous IV infusion.
 * The autonomic effects of tetanus can be difficult to manage (alternating hyper- and hypotension hyperpyrexia/hypothermia), and may require IV labetalol, magnesium, clonidine, or nifedipine.

Drugs, such as diazepam or other muscle relaxants, can be given to control the muscle spasms. In extreme cases, it may be necessary to paralyze the person with curare-like drugs, and use a mechanical ventilator.

To survive a tetanus infection, the maintenance of an airway and proper nutrition are required. An intake of 3,500 to 4,000 calories and at least 150 g of protein per day is often given in liquid form through a tube directly into the stomach (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy), or through a drip into a vein (parenteral nutrition). This high-caloric diet maintenance is required because of the increased metabolic strain brought on by the increased muscle activity. Full recovery takes 4 to 6 weeks, because the body must regenerate destroyed nerve axon terminals.

The antibiotic of choice is metronidazole. It can be given as intravenously, by mouth, or by rectum. Of likewise efficiency is penicillin, but some raise the concern of provoking spasms because it inhibits GABA receptor, which is already affected by tetanospasmin.

Epidemiology
In 2013, it caused about 59,000 deaths—down from 356,000 in 1990. Tetanus, notably the neonatal form, remains a significant public health problem in non-industrialized countries, with 59,000 newborns dying worldwide in 2008 as a result of neonatal tetanus. In the United States, from 2000 through 2007, an average of 31 cases were reported per year. Nearly all of the cases in the United States occur in unimmunized individuals, or individuals who have allowed their inoculations to lapse.

In animals
Tetanus is found primarily in goats and sheep. The following are clinical symptoms found in affected goats and sheep. Extended head and neck, tail rigors (tail becomes rigid and straight), abnormal gait (walking becomes stiff and abnormal), arched back, stiffness of the jaw muscles, lockjaw, twitching of eyes, drooping eyelids, difficulty swallowing, difficulty or inability to eat and drink, abdominal bloat, spasms (uncontrolled muscular contractions) before death. Death sometimes is due to asphyxiation, secondary to respiratory paralysis.

History
Tetanus was well known to ancient civilizations, who recognized the relationship between wounds and fatal muscle spasms. In 1884, Arthur Nicolaier isolated the strychnine-like toxin of tetanus from free-living, anaerobic soil bacteria. The etiology of the disease was further elucidated in 1884 by Antonio Carle and Giorgio Rattone, two pathologists of the University of Turin, who demonstrated the transmissibility of tetanus for the first time. They produced tetanus in rabbits by injecting pus from a person with fatal tetanus into their sciatic nerves, and testing their reactions while tetanus was spreading.

In 1891, C. tetani was isolated from a human victim by Kitasato Shibasaburō, who later showed that the organism could produce disease when injected into animals, and that the toxin could be neutralized by specific antibodies. In 1897, Edmond Nocard showed that tetanus antitoxin induced passive immunity in humans, and could be used for prophylaxis and treatment. Tetanus toxoid vaccine was developed by P. Descombey in 1924, and was widely used to prevent tetanus induced by battle wounds during World War II.

Etymology
The word tetanus comes from the τέτανος, which is further from the τείνειν.

Research
There is insufficient evidence that tetanus can be treated or prevented by vitamin C. This is at least partially due to the fact that the historical trials that were conducted in attempts to look for a possible connection between vitamin C and alleviating tetanus patients were of poor quality.

title: Tetanus