Extreme Engineering - Turning Torso

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Extreme Engineering - Widening The Panama Canal

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Extreme Engineering - Boston's Big Dig

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Extreme Engineering - Holland's Barriers To The Sea

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Extreme Engineering - Building Hong Kong's Airport

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Extreme Engineering - Tunneling Under The Alps

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Extreme Engineering - Bridging The Bering Strait

The Bering Strait Crossing : USA, RUSSIA

North America and Asia are no more two separate continents. They are getting connected with a bridge over ocean at the shortest possible strait, The Bering Strait. A documentary video on the proposals and construction of this by discovery channel gives a crystal idea on what is gonna happen at north pole, how the two continents are getting connected each other. One should watch what really a bridge means when it comes to this much lengthier construction and prestigious project. However a beholder may dream about making this type of bridge all over the ocean and make the entire world a single continent.

Now let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about this:

The Bering Strait (Russian: Берингов пролив, Beringov proliv, Yupik: Imakpik) is a strait 82 kms  wide between Cape Dezhnev, Chukchi Peninsula, Russia, the easternmost point  of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, USA, the westernmost point of the North American continent. The Strait has been the subject of scientific speculation that humans migrated from Asia to North America across a land bridge known as Bernicia when lower ocean levels--perhaps a result of glaciers locking up vast amounts of water--exposed a ridge beneath the ocean. A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel spanning the relatively narrow and shallow Bering Strait. With the two Diomede Islands between the peninsulas, the Bering Strait could be spanned by three bridges. Two long bridges (each almost 40 kms) would connect the mainland on each side to one island, and a third much shorter one between the two islands. However, the construction of a Bering Strait crossing would face exceptional political, engineering, and financial hurdles….read more

Navigate to YouTube to watch the video @ 

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Extreme Engineering - City In A Pyramid

The Shimizu Mega City Pyramid over Tokyo Bay : JAPAN

      It’s quite interesting and funny at the same time that the Japanese are always aware of their growing population (cool Indians and Chinese!!) their traffic congestion and their commuting problems. In order to have a final solution to their problems they always plan for something interesting that may feel like kidding on constructional wonders. After the successful thesis on their own “SKY CITY” now they are moving onto the pyramid which is also hypothetical solution for housing and commuting problems. Their own usual manthra of “vertical expansion” and “self sustainable buildings” joins here to form a pyramidal village which has apartments, office space, commercial area, cinema theatres, stadium, swimming pools, schools, hospitals, and even a monorail etc...as per the plan.

As Wikipedia says, The Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid is a proposed project for construction of a massive pyramid over Tokyo Bay in Japan. The structure would be about 14 times higher than the Great Pyramid at Giza, and would house 1,000,000 people. The structure would be 2000 meters (6,561 feet) above MSL, including 5 stacked trusses, each with similar dimensions to that of the great pyramid of Giza. This pyramid would help answer Tokyo's increasing lack of space, although the project would only handle 1/47th of the Greater Tokyo Area's population. The proposed structure is so large that it cannot be built with currently available materials, due to their weight. The design relies on the future availability of super-strong lightweight materials based on carbon nano tubes.

      First, the pyramid's foundation would be formed by 36 piers made of special concrete. Because the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire cuts right through Japan, the external structure of the pyramid would be an open network of mega trusses, supporting struts made from carbon nano tubes to allow the pyramid to stand against and let through high winds, and survive earthquakes and tsunamis. The trusses would be coated with photovoltaic film to convert sunlight into electricity and help power the city. The city will also be powered by pond scum or algae. Transportation within the city would be provided by accelerating, inclined elevators, and a personal rapid transit system where automated pods would travel within the trusses.Housing and office space would be provided by twenty-four or more 30-story high skyscrapers suspended from above and below, and attached to the pyramid's supporting structure with nano tube cables. Large robots would assemble the truss structure, and air bladders would be used to elevate trusses above the first layer using a construction system proposed by Italian architect Dante Bini. Spheroid nodes at the connections between trusses would provide structural support and serve as transfer points for travelers….read more

Watch on Youtube...

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Extreme Engineering - Transatlantic Tunnel

[The Trans-Atlantic Tunel : USA,UK]

Under ocean tunnels, not Overseas routes; a great concept!! Have you ever imagined that you are driving from New York to London? And what if through a Trans-Atlantic tunnel through the ocean? Surprised of such a tunnel? But short time left to make it a reality.  Engineers are working on it. One should rather watch the Extreme engineering video on that than simply talking on what they might have done what they have planned.

The tunnel is to be made of huge discrete hollow concrete ducts joined under the ocean to make up a path/tunnel under ocean. Several aspects like depth of ocean, safety, water current, hydrostatic force, water seepage, uplift, fixity under ocean, construction under water, emergency exit, bulky blocks, communication, feasibility, economy etc are discussed in the clip. The documentary discusses the constructional and operational aspects that would come across. And the main [points out of these were: It is challenging to keep floating-tunnel in position, not floating away. But with the use of cables it can be solved. Tunnel ducts will be suspended on cables like in bridges, but suspended upwards and under water current and buoyancy instead of gravity. And the first question from a common man would be that, would it be worth the effort? The answer is expected to be YES and if made clearer, SPEED. London to New York in 1hr. But for speed the tunnel should be made vacuum. But it should be made controllable. Passengers will feel discomfort. Human body can’t adjust with the acceleration in vacuum.

There arises the second question what if Fire comes? Or what if a nuclear submarine lost midway under the ocean hits the tunnel? All these are answered optimistically in the documentary. Astonishing computer graphics on what they are planning gives a clear idea on the project. This ambitious plan will be the world’s largest, most complex, most expensive, massive construction if done.

As Wikipedia says, A transatlantic tunnel is a hypothetical tunnel that would span the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe, and would carry mass transit of some type—trains are envisioned in most proposals. Using advanced technologies, speeds of 500 to 8,000 kilometers per hour (310 to 5,000 mph) are envisaged.Plans for such a tunnel have not progressed beyond the conceptual stage, and no one is actively pursuing such a project. Most conceptions of the tunnel envision it between the United States and the United Kingdom, or, more specifically, between New York City and London.The main barriers to constructing such a tunnel are cost - from $175 billion to $12 trillion - and the limits of current materials science. Existing major tunnels, such as the Channel Tunnel and Seikan Tunnel, despite using less expensive technology than any yet proposed for the transatlantic tunnel, struggle financially. A transatlantic tunnel would be 88 times longer than the Gotthard Base Tunnel and 36 times longer than the Delaware Aqueduct. In 2003, the Discovery Channel's show Extreme Engineering aired a program entitled "Transatlantic Tunnel", which discussed the proposed tunnel concept in detail.

Read about Trans-Atlantic Tunnel on Wikipedia...

 Better watch the video without wasting much time…

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Extreme Engineering - Subways In America

[East Side Access : United States of America]

And that was a rainy day when I was watching the extreme engineering documentary on subways in America. I felt so boring in the starting as it was just discussing on the history of subways. Like the end of world war, then first subway was made, then traffic increased drastically in the New York City etc… But later on they shows how our forefathers made these subway all through the endangered building foundations and piles. They felt several tragedies while constructing the basement of subways which we see today. Anyway, now the situation in the New York City is that traffic is completely struck due to enormous vehicles on the road. And there aroused the need of a rethinking on rehabiliting and improving the existing subways in the city. This leads to a great revolution in the city’s traffic, and mass commute system as well. 

As the Wikipedia says, The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York in the United States and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It is the most extensive public transportation system in the world by number of stations (468 stations in operation). The New York City Subway is also one of the world's oldest public transit systems. Overall, the system contains 209 miles (337 km) of routes, translating into 656 miles (1,056 km) of revenue track and a total of 842 miles (1,355 km) including non-revenue tracks. In 2011 the subway delivered over 1.64 billion rides, averaging approximately 5.3 million rides on weekdays, about 3.0 million rides on Saturdays, and about 2.4 million rides on Sundays. By annual ridership, the New York City Subway is the sixth busiest rapid transit rail system in the world. [The metro (subway) systems in Tokyo, Seoul, Moscow, Beijing, and Shanghai record a higher annual ridership]. In the United States, four rapid transit systems offer rail service 24 hours per day and 365 days per year.
The whole process worth watch and here it is…. 

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Extreme Engineering - Tokyo's Sky City

[Tokyo’s sky City : Japan]

Vertical Expansion!!!, not an unfamiliar term for civil engineers, researches and aspirants and even for the common man in Tokyo. Yes, they made it [or dreamt off]…a city vertically extending 1km!! towards the sky. People in Tokyo might have fed up with the traffic congestion, civilian crowd, long commutes, urban sprawl, air pollution and all other towny difficulties, that they started thinking of living top-on-top. Now I remember off my hostel days when we used to sleep on double ducker and triple ducker beds. Such a thought was not demanded by the necessity but by the difficulties in town. As the statistics shows, the town was over populated by 35 Million people, concrete forests, vehicles, circuited inaccessible roads. It was not just a thought of building up a giant structure that will accommodate a lump sum amount of people will several floors extending to the sky. Accommodating people along with their belongings and activities need more space and plan and that is what done very scientifically here. The plan was so fantastic that, as the name indicates, they literally created a small city over Tokyo- a city within a city. The building was planned and built to be sustainable that one residing inside should not step down the ‘city’ for anything else. And it was the right choice for building a green living cum working space inside the city.
Talking too much on what they planned and what all were their problems won’t do anything. The real surprise is in the specs of this radically new urban landscape. As said earlier the skyscraper is of 1,000 meters high with a total floor area of 800 hectares (and that’s a small village out there). Sky city is a super high-rise city comprising 14 concave dish-shaped aerial bases called “space plateaus” which was actually stacked one upon other. It can accommodate 35,000 residents and 100,000 workers and has apartments, office space, commercial area, cinema theatres, stadium, swimming pools, schools, hospitals, and even a monorail. Plateaus can be said as the organic part of the city as it contain green spaces, window side living rooms, balcony type play courts, lift/escalators and transport system.
See what Wikipedia has to say about this miracle: Sky City 1000 is a visionary supertall skyscraper in the Tokyo metropolitan area, Japan announced in 1989. The plan consists of a building 1,000 meters (3,281 ft) tall and 400 m (1,312 ft) wide at the base, and a total floor area of 8 km² (3.1 sq mi). The design, proposed in 1989 by Takenaka Corporation, would house between 35,000 and 36,000 full-time residents, as well as 100,000 workers. It comprises 14 concave dish-shaped "Space Plateaus" stacked one upon the other. The interior of the plateaus would contain green space, and on the edges, on the sides of the building, would be the apartments. Also included in the building would be offices, commercial facilities, schools, theatres, and other modern amenities….read more 

        Are you really thinking that all these would happen? Or all these were mere planning, as we often used to dream off? Have they constructed such a city in Tokyo? Now I hope you are highly eager to see a video on the construction and features of the miracle besides the fade picture seen as header. Since the Japan government’s announcement, the world's architectural establishment was attracted to this and was featured on Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering in 2003. 
And now let me invite you to watch the featured video on YouTube…

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Discovery Channel : Extreme Engineering

                                               

      Extreme Engineering, the documentary show on extreme engineering projects, was first aired on 13^th April 2003 on Discovery Chanel and Science Channel under the production of PowderHouse Productions.  After the great success of the pilot program ENGINEERING THE IMPOSSIBLE by PowderHouse Productions, which discussed incredible engineering projects and won the Beijing International Science Film Festival Silver Award, Extreme Engineering also became the trending show of such kind.

       The show goes around the world showing major incredible, extreme, mainly civil engineering, construction sites and wonders being constructed. A full length video coverage of WORK UNDER PROGRESS and narrates the construction to the viewers so that the viewers get a feel as if we were there on time. Rather than a documentary it gives a movie effect for the beholders as it is filming a real time work/ construction/ incident. Now see who all are there working behind this great show.

Directed by: Pip Gilmour, Sarah Holt, Jennifer Lorenz, Jackie Mow, Olympia Stone, Olivia Ahnemann, Rebecca Graham, Peter Frumkin

Written By: Alan Lindgren, Ed Fields

Starring: Danny Forster & John Littlefield (hosts), Joseph Giotta & Larc Spies (Narrators)

Produced By: Janel cunneen, Rebecca Graham, Chris Schmidt

Useful Links:

I think here we could have a platform to review all those extreme projects especially those shown on EXTREME ENGINEERING. I invite all to join the class and have comments on the civil engineering wonders of the world, the program and its episodes, share all you have on these...So; here we’ll discuss all the Extreme Engineering Episodes hereafter.

Online News Reading : A Force Of Habit

Today was a fine morning for me, and I read an online newspaper instead of hard daily copy. Now a tradition changes to technology for me personally. Conventional newspapers are no more.  That was quite charming experience as if I’m having a hot coffee. I got attracted to the headlines that were made eye-catching. Then I moved on to several such online new reader sites.  There are a plenty of online portals providing news updates and desktop offline widgets also. I setup certain extensions for my Google chrome and bookmarked certain such good pages. Now here I would like to familiarize you certain good top rated (personal) online news sources [click on the logo to navigate to the site] :

So, I wish everyone viewing this article may try these WebPages. I hope you’ll add one more daily routine and bring it to your computer table.

Youtube watch on NEWS UPDATES See :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn6OihOx_kE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TATr4nync-Q

OLED: The New Display Technology

SONY OLED DISPLAY PSP

Now, I’m here with an old but still trending technology in the new generation display system, The OLED. Obviously it demands an abbreviation half part of which every one guesses...Yes it’s a revised LED, better say Organic light Emitting Diode. I was searching internet for a new TV and found a picture showing something like an electronic gadget rolled up with a caption Sony PSP (OLED rollable display). And found OLED written everywhere on the page. It made me curious to know about the OLED... And I found something new in it even though it is a revised technology...Later on I googled much on it, certainly what people does sitting in their room without any job. Google has to say several stories, reviews about it and even was compelling me to buy something that uses this technology... As usual, the vacant Google search box in the new tab was exploiting my curiosity on the same. I read several reviews, saw several pictures on that and now I’m planning (dreaming) to have such a thing in my living room now. The invention of this technology says why this can be called as a new-old technology or old whine in a new bottle. This technology was invented by Eastman Kodak in early 1980s. Before going to what was that “thing” that admired me so much lemme talk on the new technology, OLED.

ORGANIC LIGHT EMITTING DIODE

As encyclopedia says, An OLED (organic light-emitting diode) is nothing but a light emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound which emits light in response to an electric current. This layer of Organic semiconductor is sandwiched between two electrodes among which one is metallic and other is generally transparent. OLEDs are used to create digital displays in television screens computer monitors, mobile phones etc... I confused with the two main families of OLEDs, those based on small molecules and those employing polymers. But I clarified it later. You’ll also understand the fact as you read on.  Adding mobile ions to an OLED creates a light emitting electrochemical cell or LEC, which has a slightly different mode of operation… Aha, okey! While reading this you’ll think where the hell this particular hero is having a difference with a conventional LED. And here describes that:

   

OLED displays can use either passive matrix (PMOLED) or Active-matrix OLEDs (AMOLED). AMOLEDs require a thin film transistor backplane to switch each individual pixel on or off, but allow for higher resolution and larger display sizes. Let’s leave those technical talks on the settings and features involved. But still, we should know that, an OLED display works without a backlight and hence, it can display deep black levels and can be thinner and lighter than a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)… More are the advantages to discuss on this technology. The eye-catching features of this technology are: display offers bright colourful images with wide angle view, low power, high contrast and fast response time. Displays can be made ultra thin as it requires no backlights. In short the colour, speed, thinness, transparency and flexibility make it the Display Technology of the 21st century.

But, what attracted me is not the technology. It’s the way it’s been applied to make such a new gadget category in TV display systems. The picture of a rollable display I was looking at was a SONY made display which I found something “delicious”, I should say. A rollable display is nothing but a flexible display that can be rolled up into a scroll. Technologies involved in building a rollable display include electronic ink, Gyricon and the real hero OLED. ‘Rollable’ is a convenience but when it comes to the curvature of the screen when opened up it really gives a stunning experience as if we are looking at the nature with your naked eye. It is not only the wide angle that gives you the feel, but the crystal pure screen glass and scientifically curved but flat screen. The curve gives the picture a depth and immersive quality, and the images onscreen just envelop you as you stare at the glass.

So, I’m still dreaming and whom you’re waiting. Buy a new Gadget, as it can’t be said as a TV even though it looks like. But your flat screen should be made something curvier. The gently swooping display is really beautiful to look at, almost a work of art.

XBOX 360 : Experience the new gaming technology..

It was very accidental that I found myself stick onto a tech program on TV in my local language while scrolling through different channels. And the program was discussing about the new XBOX 360 gaming console with kinect” which I found something interesting later on. Now let’s see what Microsoft has in its garage for the Game-o-maniacs….

Yes, The Xbox 360 was the predecessor of the NEW GEN videogame consoles and became a trend in the market by 2005. Overtaking the demand on playstations, 360 became a full-service digital entertainment media hub to bring home. And I was highly attracted to the technology used by Microsoft, “the kinect”. It is very interesting that now Microsoft is making us, the player, one of the gadgets. Besides the conventional input devices like joysticks which offers only limited features, the kinect will track our body and make it an input device. The sensors and Stereoscopic vision enabled high definition cameras captures the whole body motion and creates a complete virtualized gaming environment for us to start a game. I think this will improve the conventional mentality on lazy gaming and promotes a healthy gaming a some sweat has to be dropped on the grounds…

XBOX 360 GAMING CONSOLE WITH KINECT

        

The major features I found more attracting are: 120GB-250GB hard drive capacity, built-in support for High Definition TV and movie downloads, HDMI output, Built-in wifi, Ethernet port, customized interchangeable faceplates, adapter breakout-cable with both component [high definition] and composite [standard-definition], connectors, analog stereo audio and an optical audio jack for surround sound output, proprietary memory cards, infrared (IR) port, multi player (four wireless controllers), user friendly dashboard interface, compatibility of almost all types of USB keyboards…

XBOX 360 CONTROLLER

The brain part includes 3.2Ghz Tricore Xenon Processors clockspeed, 500Mhz additional graphics processor, 512MB internal RAM.

And with the console, exclusive and excellent collection of games are available in typical high definition format. Online Marketplace allows easy purchases of minigames, add-on gaming content,HD movies, and TV shows. A wireless controller and an Xbox Live Headset also surprises while opening our new kit.

Gaming online is gonna be more funny as Xbox Live service offers online multiplayer [with matchmaking and voice chat] and content downloads for most of the games

Higher price tag of the device is keeping the faces shrunk but once you take it to your home I’m sure that you’ll be busy enjoying the new world of gaming. Again, Wi-Fi adapter and the HD DVD drive still need to be purchased separately. And that is not a big deal to buy taming stick along with the purchase of an elephant. You won't be able to connect thumb/flash drives or such type of MP3 players; instead you can have separate connection cables. Now my friend who bought a new XBOX 360 with kinect is complaining for silly maters like the low quality noisy DVD drive and cooling fan. He has to say a lot of critics like, its bulky or better say gigantic, needs oversize power supply, only three USB ports, paid subscription to Xbox Live for online gaming,  proprietary wireless format is limiting foreign or third-party accessories, wired connections , movies played on the HD DVD add-on will be limited to standard Dolby Digital soundtracks. Among all those grievances, one thing I found reasonable is that the four-way D-pad, occasionally slips axes when tapped mistaking it with horizontal input for vertical.

Official Website: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox360