English/metric measurement error in the Mars Climate Orbiter

[mklotz]

mklotz,
I don't believe he meant that everyone who is "University Educated" is an idiot, nor was he purposely demeaning education. I think he is talking about those who are too full of themselves and think they cannot make a mistake. I think we have all ran across a few of those kinds of people in our lifetimes, I know I sure have met my share of them.

I'm glad you don't; I do.

There's a growing tendency in society today to put down education. Given that education was once a respected attribute and much sought after, it's hard to understand this turn around in popular opinion. I have my own ideas about its causes but presenting them would just cause a lot of bickering that we don't need on this forum.

If you want to badmouth the engineer who didn't get it right, do so with my blessing but, when you do it, leave out the generalizations like "university-educated idiot" and concentrate on describing how dumb the offending individual was.

If one thinks that, because of all his hands-on experience, the fellow who provided the plans has missed the boat he should do the calculations himself and present the results to the fellow, proving to him the error of his ways. You'll either be thanked and given a bonus or fired for your impertinence. Either way you win; if fired, you'll be freed up to find a job with a firm that appreciates your on-job-learned engineering design skills.