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Beer?
[ 1 ] (33.3%)
Beer?
[ 2 ] (66.7%)

Total Members Voted: 2

Topic: Infrastructure (Read 64731 times)

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #125
Speaking of infrastructure and China, the world's now longest sea bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai in Mainland China linked up last week. It will take another year for the bridge to finish, thus opening for traffic in 2017, but it already qualifies as "longest".


https://youtu.be/O0rfO0GiEgY



I guess a road bridge would be more statistically manly then. I have a thing for international bridges and tunnels, and the Hong KongZhuhaiMacau  tunnel-bridge to open in 2016 kind of fits the bill. Though Hong Kong and Macau are no longer British/Portuguese colonies, they will not administratively join the mainland for at least another 33 years, while Zhuhai is part of the mainland.

The bridge joins the outlying Lantau Island of Hong Kong (with the airport, Disneyland and a very tall Buddha statue) with the casinos of Macau (Macau is the Las Vegas/Atlantic City of Asia), and a branch to Zhuhai north of Macao. Macao (and Zhuhai) may branch out to the west to the (soon former) island of Hengqin, which is going to be a special economic zone, and which Macau may partially lease, increasing the size of Macau substantially (Hengqin is three times the size of Macau).


Just as one huge project is finishing, they are planning the next, connecting Shenzhen and Zhongshan. That too doesn't seem to include rail, so at some point a third bridge, for better high-speed rail to connect the lines on either side, will probably be built.

By the look of things all the cities in the neighbourhood are congealing into a Pearl River megacity.


While within one country, Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China are separate territories, so there will be border controls between the three.



Re: Infrastructure

Reply #126
There's no infrastructure as phallic infrastructures. Stonehenge rules.
Who cares about Chinese bridges.
A matter of attitude.

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #127
Bridges are not usually considered phallic (that aside the sidetrack on feminine/masculine gender of the word "bridge" in different languages).

Speaking of Trans-Eurasian infrastructure, Google kindly reminded us that it's been a century since B&R 2.0, the Trans-Sibirian Railway, was completed:

https://youtu.be/Zik9bc9A-Es

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #128
Bridges are not usually considered phallic (that aside the sidetrack on feminine/masculine gender of the word "bridge" in different languages).
Longer bridges are meandering snakes. Doesn't seem that far-fetched. :P



Re: Infrastructure

Reply #131
Dream on! :)
But SNL is the sine qua non of liberal argumentation… If it doesn't appear on Saturday Night Live, it doesn't matter. And if their juvenile humor doesn't sway Democrats than the "bit" has failed, and the writers need to be fired! (Or, at least, put on the "back bench"… That is, forced to earn an honest living.)
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #132
But SNL is the sine qua non of liberal argumentation... If it doesn't appear on Saturday Night Live, it doesn't matter.
Wrong thread? Or does infrastructure in the US have to be SNL-approved?

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #133
Oops! Yes, it must have been the wrong thread… But I'll go back and look.
____
Nope! Google and Facebook are going to lay high-speed cable… You are the one who's delirious, jax: These companies only spend money for frivolous purposes! :) (Like buying politicians.)
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #134
That headline was misleading, the two Trans-Pacific cables (60 Tbps US-Japan and 120 Tbps US-HK) have Google involvement, while the one with Facebook and Microsoft involvement is Trans-Atlantic (160 Tbps US-Spain). The misleading headline came from Wired, Facebook and Google Will Stretch Internet Cable from LA to Hong Kong



Re: Infrastructure

Reply #135
The below picture isn't exactly infrastrucure related. However it's an eye-catching, futuristic decoration of a house in Lithuania.


Re: Infrastructure

Reply #136
I had a house like that once… But I put the pots on the floor, to collect the rainwater. :)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)


Re: Infrastructure

Reply #138
I wonder when some humanist movement will appear with the only and sole desire and goal of destroying all materialist infrastructures.
That would be a major civilizational  breakthrough.
A matter of attitude.

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #139
I wonder when some humanist movement will appear with the only and sole desire and goal of destroying all materialist infrastructures.
That would be a major civilizational  breakthrough.
No need for a humanist movement therefore. A humanitarian intervention disguised as a shock and awe campaign can do it.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R30cbnkMG3s[/video]


Re: Infrastructure

Reply #141
Very impressive.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #142
Another crime against nature.
A matter of attitude.

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #143
…it's odd, how Nature doesn't include human beings… You'd think Nature would have wised up, by now! :)

Nah! Gaia is the same bitch that killed the dinosaurs. (Weren't they magnificent!) You lizards just laying out in the sun should be able to tell the rest of us, huh? :)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #144
...it's odd, how Nature doesn't include human beings... You'd think Nature would have wised up, by now!  :)
Does Reinhard Heydrich's committing of crimes against humanity mean he isn't part of humanity? Your argument doesn't hold up. :)

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #145
It certainly does: Unless we recognize that such is a potential part of humanity, we're likely to allow it again… And again. (Of course, he didn't commit crimes against "humanity"… That's just a European euphemism for "a really bad man who killed a lot of people"; otherwise known as what used to be your typical European ruler. You folk used to take it in stride! :) )
Indeed, had it not been for the Portuguese bringing potatoes back to the Old World, the 30 Years War might have halved the population of Europe…
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #146
It certainly does: Unless we recognize that such is a potential part of humanity, we're likely to allow it again... And again.
Apparently your argument is something else than I thought it was. Could you spell it out for me? Because humanity is rather obviously a part of nature.

[Crime against humanity is] just a European euphemism
Genocide is one crime against humanity. Heydrich did a whole lot more than that. Hence crimes against humanity, not a crime. But that aside. I see you've wholeheartedly accepted that Americans are Europeans. :) After all, George Washington Williams came up with the phrase to describe the state of affairs in the Congo Free State.

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #147
"Lafayette" Johnson, who might or might not have been there, might disagree… But what does central African atrocity at the hands of Europeans in the late 1800s have to do with the Wiki sentence you'd like to quote, other than to fuel anti-American sentiment?
Quote
In this letter, he [GWW] condemned the brutal and inhuman treatment the Congolese were suffering at the hands of Europeans and Africans supervising them for the Congo Free State. He mentioned the role played by Henry M. Stanley, sent to the Congo by the King, in deceiving and mistreating local Congolese. Williams reminded the King that the crimes committed were all committed in his name, making him as guilty as the perpetrators. He appealed to the international community of the day to "call and create an International Commission to investigate the charges herein preferred in the name of Humanity ...".
Good rhetoric! Very good! Silly and pompous and ineffectual; but good!
Think about the things that have been done, in the name of Humanity! Surely you'll relent… Your position is untenable.

Each crime is cognizant; else there are no humans. Where such crimes are both numerous and condoned by governments, then war is the likely result —if there are any moral regimes— and we all (don't we?) hope for better arrangements?
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #148
Indeed, had it not been for the Portuguese bringing potatoes back to the Old World, the 30 Years War might have halved the population of Europe..
First time I see someone mentioning us as the saviors of half of European population... :)

The 30 Years War affected mainly the German territories not the rest of Europe and potatoes were originary from the Andes civilizations therefore imported by the Spanish. We were much more interested in gold from Brazil, not potatoes from lake Titicaca.

Sorry to disappoint you, we didn't save half of Europe and I doubt very much that we would ever do it even if we could, that half didn't interested us too much, we were precisely attacking it. :)
A matter of attitude.

Re: Infrastructure

Reply #149
I stand corrected! And abashed…

If your opinions are common, the EU should finance "shovel-ready" jobs: Sever Portugal from the continent! :) Dig, Dig! Send it off into the Atlantic Ocean…
(Who knows? You might repeat Columbus's feat!)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)