I guess I found my opposite…

My wife is from Italy, so I printed out a topo of the valley where she grew up. It took me a long time to figure out how to change to the European projection in the software I was using, and I didn’t write down how I did it; unfortunately I’m not sure I can figure out it again! There’s a digital elevation TIFF of the whole EU available online, even Czechia! If you want to make it a project, I can point you in the right direction and give you some pointers on converting to a obj file to print. I found a couple websites that went through the process, but I didn’t find their directions very complete and had to figure a lot out myself.

I got addicted to converting USGS and European digital elevation data to 3d topo map prints; I just think they’re neat!

This is our recent creation!

I’m a bit doubtful of the animation they show in the article. There are active continental rift zones in East Africa and Asia, at lake Baikal, which doesn’t show any movement during the animation. The San Andreas fault isn’t shown having any movement in the animation either. Additionally, Europe and Africa are currently moving away from North and South America, but change direction in the animation so the four continents come together without explanation of data suggesting the direction reversal.

It seems like this is a “what if?” sort of thought experiment as opposed to based on actual data. I mean, even current direction of plates could change tomorrow in an unpredictable way, so there’s no knowing either way.

Not that it really matters in any case.

I agree. I’m a later born Gen Xer (mid 70s) and generally like Bill Burr; this trailer looks painfully tedious.

SAY OUR NAME, SAY OUR NAME!

I like neighborhoods and cities with mid or low rise housing. I spent a lot of time in Turin, Italy (I’m American) and most that city (and other European cities) have mid rise apartments. They’re in the 6 to 8 story range a lot of times, but still no high rises. It makes for a great walkable city. The street I lived on in Turin was this huge wide boulevard that probably could have accommodated six to eight lanes of traffic with a turn lane in the middle. Instead there was a two-lane road in the middle with turn lanes, followed by streetcar rails further out, then a line of gorgeous trees, then parking for local businesses, then a side street to access the local parking and finally a nice wide sidewalk in front of the shops and apartments.

It’s a great looking city for anyone who happens to be in Northwest Italy!

Thanks for the vids. I’m not sure “water is good for concrete, or doesn’t care” is accurate. In a controlled environment that may be true, however with corrosion from polluted rain (the lime in concrete is dissolved with acid rain), expansion and contraction (especially with freeze thaw cycles), and biological processes that may be encouraged to grow in damp conditions, water is pretty bad for concrete; these are examples of what I’ve encountered that caused degrading concrete structures.

That said, I was thinking about it more and things like dams and drilled t shaft concrete piles are obviously exposed to constant water. I’m wondering if what I experienced has to do more with exposure to aerobic and temperature fluctuating environments as opposed to drilled shafts and dams which would be more isolated from those conditions I described above.

Even if water itself isn’t the primary mode of failure, I guess my point still remains regarding the vegetation of "green"buildings; roots and what not definitely will start to degrade concrete.

Thanks for the comment, it gave me some points to think about.