Since bridges are generally over-engineered, small cracks usually don’t add enough stress on their own to cause further cracking. But combined with the external forces that created the crack in the first place at some point they lead to progressively larger cracks. Then the stresses start accumulating on the part of the concrete that is still intact as the load shifts, and the process accelerates.

The problem can more probably be seen as a choice between roads and humans services. Seattle chose services.

Are we just bidding farewell to the old normal before entering the new? What’s remarkable is how long-ago that old normal seems now.

Books are a big draw, but the Gronigen Forum also has lots more: movie theaters, exhibition halls, an auditorium, a comics museum, a hip restaurant and bar, and a rooftop "market square" with great views. (And shops.)

It seems to me, having just gotten my daily fill of coronavirus coverage on CNN and MSNBC, that we are moving rapidly into the strange realm of plague mentality, which often results from ignorance and fear.