China's Parkland Utopia: Chengdu, Sichuan's Megacity

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Chengdu is southwest China’s largest metropolis and greenest big city. With a population of nearly 21 million, it exemplifies Beijing’s quest to modernize the country’s vast interior and is the lynchpin of an emerging mega-region. Subscribe to TDC: https://www.youtube.com/TheDailyConversation/

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00:07:40

The Extreme Engineering Behind Washington, D.C.

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4K views 5 months ago

,Imagine causing a sinkhole that collapses the Washington Monument? Subscribe to TDC: https://www.youtube.com/TheDailyConversation/ Main Sources: DC Flood Risks https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/dc-low-lying-city-flood-risks/ Potomac Basin https://potomacdwspp.org/resources/about-the-potomac-basin/ Flood proofing Federal Triangle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goFC7H8DN5o CBS: Rising Waters in Tidal Basin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPLedIobHRw New Flood Wall https://youtu.be/XMFcJ_ttSZI?si=1clHozSB2nlmKnV4&t=62 DC Water's Clean Rivers PDF https://www.dcwater.com/sites/default/files/project/2016-12/presentations/2024-04-10%20WABA%20%28WPP%29%20Briefing%20Presentation.pdf DC Clean Rivers video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCOXuWgPnXw Lady Bird Tunnel Boring Machine https://youtu.be/J5oEqtpB1go?si=1LgeBHozH_k9x1_u&t=69 Tour of Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant https://youtu.be/Rm_iyxwAx94?si=NCL1T0C_B-RLsOCY That nightmare scenario haunted the team excavating the 75 foot-deep site for the National Museum of African American History and Culture after they accidentally hit the aquifer under the National Mall. If too much water gushed into their giant pit, they could destabilize their neighbor, the great structure just a few hundred feet away, causing it to shift or even fall over. So they acted quickly to pump water back in to stabilize it. When their instruments showed the ground pressure holding firm, they plugged up the leak and focused on modifying the museum’s design to mitigate this new risk. To maximize its exhibit space, while limiting its above ground footprint, the museum’s first four levels are underground. To keep them dry, visitors safe, and the 91,000-ton monument next door standing tall, they encased the subterranean levels in two walls, with eight feet of porous stone fill in between, to catch and hold any water that might penetrate the foundation. It was an ingenious solution, but for builders in the federal District of Columbia, dealing with a shallow water table is nothing new. When President George Washington chose this idyllic spot to be the national capital, it was a land of farms and woods, rich with surface water. Small brooks trickled into streams, like Rock Creek. Marshes and tidal flats swelled and receded as the 14,700 square-mile Potomac basin drained through the District and mixed with the tidal flow of the Chesapeake Bay–the largest estuary in the United States. But as the city's boulevards and grand buildings were constructed over the past two-and-a-half centuries, 70% of these natural streams have disappeared: diverted into sewers, culverts, or filled in and paved over. Tiber Creek flowed through what has become the National Mall. First, it was converted into a canal, and then piped into sewers buried beneath Federal Triangle. Today, this group of large neoclassical buildings - between Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues - is home to numerous large government agencies. It’s also the lowest point in downtown. In 2006 it rained heavily for an entire week, leaving the Triangle submerged, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage and disrupting government operations. It wasn’t the first time this has happened here. Experts fear the most extreme storm would put the American History Museum under 16 feet of water. Engineers have taken steps to protect the buildings, like installing temporary barriers, retractable gates, and raising core utilities out of their basements. There’s even now a temporary levee that’s trucked over and dropped in along the Mall for added protection ahead of big storms. But throughout the rest of DC, an estimated 16,000 homes and businesses have had little protection from flooding when it rains. Some residents have water gush in from the street, others confront it bubbling up from their toilets when old sewers overflow and long-buried “zombie” streams gurgle back to life. On the southernmost edge of the district, along the Potomac, another major flooding threat looms. Over the past century, the waterline has effectively risen four feet, a combination of sea level rise and the land sinking under the weight of development. I’ve definitely noticed the water getting a little higher every year. The area where the water is is actually a portion of the seawall that has settled over the years. During high tide, when the ocean pushes the Chesapeake Bay further up the Potomac, 250 million gallons of river water enter the Tidal Basin. But it was constructed in 1897, it can no longer contain the river at high tide, causing the walking paths around the monuments and iconic cherry trees to flood twice a day like clockwork. Atlanta Megacity Megacities Detroit Pittsburgh Philadelphia Delhi Los Angeles Chicago Lincoln memorial capital one Georgetown highlights commanders wizards capitals art museum national history natural history Smithsonian MLK Obama Mall Metro FDR Jefferson

00:08:26

The Improbable Rise of Dublin, Ireland

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1 views 11 months ago

,The story of how Dublin and Ireland has transformed from one of Europe's poorest countries to one of its wealthiest--an improbable rise in just 30 years. Subscribe to TDC for regular episodes: https://www.youtube.com/TheDailyConversation/ Main Sources: Ireland GDP Growth https://rb.gy/kzop2h Dublin stories w/ Prof David Dickson https://t.ly/_WBWK Partition https://rb.gy/95oufv Dublin wikipedia https://t.ly/p93Hr Why Dublin became a tech hub https://bit.ly/4cnBpOl Ireland wiki https://t.ly/ap4_4 The Troubles https://t.ly/rvdfA What's weird about Ireland's GDP https://linkye.net/pk8m Ireland Corp Tax rates https://rb.gy/hfz7jv Healthcare system overhaul https://rb.gy/dh6zia Budget surplus https://rb.gy/dorxl5 Ireland's wind export potential https://rebrand.ly/7qfbjge European wind generation by country https://rebrand.ly/5pubvqq Demographics of Ireland (Population and Immigration) https://rebrand.ly/pvxnt7z Americans with Irish descent https://t.ly/VLNXe Welcome to Dublin 0:00 Geography of Dublin 0:36 Vikings settle Ireland 0:53 English take control 1:04 Irish Rebellion 1:30 Partition of Ireland 2:19 Troubles 2:36 Good Friday Agreement 3:10 Economic Boom 3:27 Brexit bonus 4:12 Tax Haven 4:22 US Corporations 5:01 High living standards 5:22 Wind energy potential 6:10 Guinness 6:54 Loses 1/2 population 7:05 31.5 Million Irish Americans 7:22 Immigrants in Ireland 7:37 Script: The capital of the only native English-speaking country in the European Union is considered one of the most liveable and richest places in the world, but this success is a very recent phenomenon. For a millennium this rocky island was occupied by Vikings, then the English. Independence only came a century ago, and peace less than 25 years ago after the end of a decades-long low-level war with its neighbor to the north. This is Dublin, Ireland. On a bay where the River Liffey flows into the sea lies Ireland’s prime city, with a metropolitan population of 1.26 million, four times as large as Cork, the country’s second-largest metro area, 215 kilometers to the southwest. In 841 seafaring Vikings established a fortified base that grew into a substantial port and commercial center. In 1169 the Anglo-Normans invaded Ireland and for the next 750 years English Kings and Queens controlled the island. Dublin Castle, first founded in 1204, was the nerve center of the crown’s power here. Under the Protestant English the Catholic Irish were oppressed. Their land rights and ability to self-govern were stripped away. Influenced by the American and French Revolutions, Ireland’s push for independence began in earnest in the spring of 1798 when rebel leader Wolfe Tone led peasants against the highly trained redcoats in a prolonged campaign of battles throughout the island. Although it was ultimately snuffed out, for the next 125 years it inspired a series of agitations and uprisings against the British that extracted more and more rights for the Irish. A group of Irish rebels declared Independence in 1916, withstood six years of violent struggle with the empire by riding a growing wave of nationalist support, and ultimately won the right to self-government. But the island’s 6 northernmost counties with a Protestant majority chose to remain in the United Kingdom as a separate country called Northern Ireland. This was unacceptable to the Catholic majority in the South who wanted the entire island to be a unified free Republic. So a force calling themselves the Irish Republican Army launched a guerilla campaign of armed resistance against the British and the North focused on its capital, Belfast. This period, known as The Troubles, lasted for three decades, with violence spilling south into parts of the Republic and even across the sea in England. Finally, everyone had had enough, and peace was achieved with the Good Friday agreement. Between 1995 and 2000 growth averaged an astounding 9.4%, and stayed strong at 5.9% per year until 2008. This dramatic rise meant Irish incomes surged past every other European Country except tiny Luxembourg But the biggest key to Dublin’s turnaround may be its ridiculously low headline corporate tax rate that stood - as of 2023 - at 12.5%, compared to 29.9% in Germany, 25.8% in France and the Netherlands, and 25% in Spain and Turkey. But for lawmakers in Dublin, transforming into one of the world's largest tax havens was a brilliant move at the end of The Troubles, with U.S.–controlled multinationals now making up twenty-five of the top 50 businesses in Ireland, including the EU headquarters of giants Pfizer, Microsoft, Google, and Apple. For example, every Irish has access to low-cost public healthcare, and leaders from every major political party are united in undertaking an ambitious transition to a universal system - Sláintecare. wind power, which now makes up 36% of Ireland’s electricity generation, the second-highest ratio in Europe. A new electricity interconnector with France is coming online in 2026

00:12:12

City of the Future | Chicago Part 3: The Atomic King

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1 views 1 year ago

,Chicago has always been on the cutting edge of industries. Today, it is the epicenter of quantum technology research, the country’s leading nuclear energy producer, the logistics hub of the United States, the capital of Black America, and the forefront of the battle against rising coastlines and urban flooding. Watch Part 1 Now https://youtu.be/pNdX0Dm-J8Y Part 2 https://youtu.be/V9LQ2oWZlZI Subscribe to TDC: https://www.youtube.com/TheDailyConversation/ Main sources: University of Chicago’s Atomic Ambitions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCvLuKqv9-s&pp=ygUPY2hpY2FnbyBxdWFudHVt Nuclear Industry of Illinois https://apnews.com/article/illinois-nuclear-moratorium-modular-reactors-solar-wind-225d14cefb03793e08f0802745df4e02 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Illinois Demographics of Chicago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Chicago Timuel Black Interview on The Great Migration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqn5OmF23HY&pp=ygUUY2hpY2FnbyB0aW11ZWwgYmxhY2s%3D Create Rail Improvement Projects https://www.createprogram.org/projects/ Renovating Union Station https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS2veYdpjEk Chicago is America’s Rail Hub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYfxo2otxCw&t=6s&pp=ygUld2FsbCBzdHJlZXQgam91cm5hbCBjaGljYWdvcyByYWlsIGh1Yg%3D%3D Chicago by L https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wXB8htl3Zo&t=381s&pp=ygUMY2hpY2FnbyBieSBs City at War: Chicago’s Steel Industry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMvSoMkT1iQ&t=1416s&pp=ygUTY2l0eSBhdCB3YXIgY2hpY2Fnbw%3D%3D NYT: A Battle Between a Great Lake and a Great City https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/07/07/climate/chicago-river-lake-michigan.html Metro Water Reclamation Department Virtual Tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__yXMrBYek4&pp=ygURbXdyZCB2aXJ0dWFsIHRvdXI%3D NBC: How Chicago drains its river during flooding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVSvoIQjin4&pp=ygUXbmJjIHJpdmVyIGxha2UgbWljaGlnYW4%3D Air temperature increase https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/national/202313 Hydrologist Drew Gronewold on Lake Michigan’s High Water Level https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBCA209dWOk&t=1s&pp=ygUOZHJldyBncm9uZXdvbGQ%3D True to its innovative spirit, the Chicago area is home to several cutting-edge industries, like the emerging field of quantum technology. Fermilab is America’s premier particle physics research facility, Argonne National Laboratory, connected by a fiber-optic cable to the University of Chicago. Scientists there are trying to apply atomic principles to improve communications and computing. Four of the ten quantum labs in the United States are located in Illinois, which receives roughly four of every 10 dollars the federal government invests. Illinois also produces far more nuclear power than anywhere else in America. 75% of Chicago’s electricity needs are now met by the state’s 11 reactors. Chicago was where the dawn of the Nuclear Age happened, as America’s Manhattan Project raced the Germans during World War 2. It did just that on December 2, 1942, when Enrico Fermi’s team achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in a facility hidden underground on campus. Waves of European immigrants during the 1800s made the city’s population 98.1% white in 1900. But over the next 60 years, in a period known as The Great Migration, six million African Americans left the South to settle in Chicago and other cities in the North. By the 1990s, Chicago's South Side and its adjoining suburbs had become the largest African American majority region in the country, fostering all sorts of talent, from academics, activists, and rappers, to global icons like Michael Jordan (arguably the most successful American pro athlete), Oprah Winfrey (the richest African American of the 20th century), and the Obamas. Create projects. 70 rail improvement projects are in various stages of completion, with more than two dozen already finished. Renovating Union Station. With 8 lines, the amount of metal required to build the L turbo-charged Chicago’s steelmaking industry. During World War 2, it nimbly shifted to producing bombs, jeeps, tanks, and planes, and was a vital contributor to the Allied cause, producing more tons of the super-strong metal than the entire United Kingdom every year from 1939 to 1945, and all of Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945. The city has transformed itself into the Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics leader of the world’s largest consumer economy. Vast warehouses are clustered all along the canal and river, around its many large railyards, and to the west of O’Hare–the world’s second-busiest airport in terms of aircraft movements per day. Since the 1970’s it has been adding massive tunnels, cavernous holding chambers, and gigantic lagoons like this one–a repurposed old mine. When this latest round of extreme engineering capacity to store 20 billion gallons Lower Wacker Drive to flood and key buildings like Willis Tower to lose power. Part 3 1 2 4

00:11:28

Chicago's Astounding Early Growth | Building Modern Chicago: Part II

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1 views 1 year ago

00:12:10

Chicago: The Crossroads of America

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1 views 1 year ago

,Chicago is the crown jewel of the post-industrial United States with a metropolitan population of 9.5 million. Its economy is considered the most balanced and resilient on earth. America's railroad hub also has the world's most orderly grid. This is the making of modern Chicago, the crossroads of America. Subscribe to TDC for Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/TheDailyConversation/ Thanks to Paul Durica and the Chicago History Museum https://www.chicagohistory.org/ Main clip sources: WTTW Chicago's local PBS station https://www.youtube.com/@wttw This futuristic urban river canyon reflects a staggering amount of resources, capital, and innovation. It’s also America’s railroad hub and the central node in America’s extensive system of navigable freshwater ways. Its roads lead to most corners of the continent, and its runways send direct flights to over 200 destinations–all of this supports one of the planet’s most productive regions for growing crops and extracting raw materials. The opportunities available in and around this prairie boomtown have attracted hungry young workers for nearly two centuries. In fact, so many arrived daily that it sustained the highest population growth rate on earth for several consecutive decades in the late 1800s. Its story began when a Haitian-born fur trader [Jean Baptiste DeSalle] and his wife [Kitihawa], a member of the local indigenous Potawatomi tribe, established an outpost here in 1779. It remained a sleepy frontier village for decades until Chicago’s first locomotive, the Pioneer, made its inaugural trip out to nearby Des Plaines in 1848. I learned about this pivotal moment firsthand when I visited the Chicago History Museum for a trip back in time with Paul Durica. These products were listed in mail order catalogs, an industry invented and based in Chicago. The conveniences of online shopping can be traced directly back to Montgomery Ward and Sears–businesses that were only possible because the railroad reliably delivered. By the beginning of the 20th century. Chicago had close to 40 different railroad lines running through it. Most cities today will have like maybe one Union Station or a central terminal–but by the early 1900s, Chicago had six different ones. Chicago was also responsible for the rapid growth of the vast prairies that stretched westward to the Rocky Mountains. A Chicagoan had invented the mechanical reaper, freeing wheat farmers from the backbreaking, inefficient work of harvesting their crops by hand. And when they shipped their wheat into the city, 12 massive grain elevators stored it before it was sent across the lake to Buffalo, or downriver and onto oceanliners waiting in New Orleans. But even with this bounty, prairie farmers couldn’t build much of anything, because their lands had few trees to harvest. Good thing there were expansive forests in Wisconsin and Michigan north of Chicago, and soon it became the world’s largest lumber market. “The Union Stockyard in many ways is the kind of natural culmination of how the city's been growing and developing because it's all about centralization and expanding markets. Hundreds of millions of calories were passing through the processing plants and storage facilities of Chicago every single day, feeding the ravenous Union Army in its hardfought victory in the Civil War. “Chicago is situated magnificently for trade, but it’s a pestilential swamp–it’s a horrible place for a city. It’s an absolute hellhole… Children were playing with maggots as if they were little pets.” Before long, Cholera had crept up the Mississippi to kill 60 Chicagoans a day during the warm summer months. To find a solution, Chicago brought in Ellis Chesbrough, one of America’s brightest sanitation engineers. He designed gravity-fed sewers to flush the waste into the river, and then deepened the river by dredging it and using the fill to raise Chicago’s ground level 10 feet. Lifting all the existing buildings safely required widespread adoption of a new system: George Pullman’s jack. “So, how could you reverse the flow? Well, you must realize that the land form drops off. You get down to the city of Joliet and you’re 40 feet below Lake Michigan. The idea was to link up the south branch of the Chicago River with the Des Plaines river and to break through that subcontinental divide. When they had finally finished the Chicago Shipping and Sanitation Canal, and were ready to let the water in, they still weren’t positive it would even work. After a few tense moments, amazingly, the water began to flow slowly downhill. 0:00 Welcome to Chicago 1:20 A Sleepy Frontier Town 2:04 Railroads Help Industry Takes Off 3:10 Prarie Boomtown 5:00 Union Stockyards 6:24 The Battle Against Cholera 7:10 Chicago's Innovative Water System 9:02 Reversing the River 11:12 Outro: Part 1 of 4

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