Comments by "Peter Jacobsen" (@pjacobsen1000) on "The B1M" channel.

  1. Eysturoy, Streymoy, Sandoy. The -oy means 'island' and is the same word we see in some Scottish islands once populated by Vikings, like the -ey in Orkney, the -ay in Stornoway and Islay. Possibly even the same in the more southern Channel Islands, Jersey and Guernsey. In Norwegian it's -øya, in Swedish it's ö, and in Danish it's ø. Just in case you were wondering....
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  2. I hope the Korean financiers, the Australian crane company, the Danish engineers, and the Turkish construction crews had a great feast to celebrate the completion, with Döner Kebab, shrimps on the barbie, Bibimbap and Danish pastry.
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  3.  @ArghyadeepPal  It's a long and tedious story: The SWFC (bottle opener) was designed, built and partly financed by the Japanese developer Mori Corporation, quite famous in Japan for several iconic projects in Tokyo. After construction had begun and the designs became more well known, an overly nationalistic Chinese citizennoticed the circle on top and came up with the conspiracy theory that it symbolized Japans Imperial 'rising sun' flag (with the red and white rays) used during WW2. He came to the belief that this was meant to symbolize Japan's eternal supremacy over China, even in modern times, with the 'flag' flying high (SWFC was China's tallest building at the time) over the nation. He spread this theory far and wide, more people got alarmed by this until the local govt. felt they could no longer hold back this anti-Japanese sentiment. So they consulted with the developer and got to the agreement that the design had to be changed. Thus, the trapezoid.
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  4.  @ArghyadeepPal  There's no nickname for the Jinmao Tower. Jinmao is an easy name to remember and say. The 'bottle opener' has a much more complex name: Shanghai World Financial Center, or SWFC for short. But even SWFC can be difficult to remember, thus The Bottle Opener. Originally, it wasn't supposed to look like a bottle opener, as the hole up top was designed to be circular. But for political reasons, they changed it to a trapezoid.
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  5. My prediction: Apart from the airport, none of these projects will ever be realized. But they make for great headlines.
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  6. When I traveled across Sumatra in 1989, it REALLY was mostly rainforest. Now, it's mostly palm oil plantations. We might decry that, but the palm oil industry has been very good for Indonesia's economic development. Going forward, I hope they find a good balance between economic development and protection of their natural habitat. I think this new highway will be a great help for Indonesia.
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  7. There are lots of fighting words in the comment section, but perhaps we can agree that of all the countries currently involved in railway building in Africa (China, Germany, France, Canada, Turkey), at least it is good that they are all building Standard Gauge Railways, so they can one day all be linked together to create a pan-African railway system.
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  8.  @juliusnigelmarturillas3629  I'm not over dramatizing, or even dramatizing it. It happened as I describe. I was here during the entire project, from start to finish. Also, feel free to look up the Wikipedia page, which says much the same: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_World_Financial_Center. That is sure to make you think "Fucking hell, that Peter Jacobsen was right, after all, as he always is!"
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  9. It's hard to compare costs between countries, but Denmark has just completed a double-track high-speed railway (250 km/h) at $30 million/km. The Mombasa-Nairobi Line is single-track, design speed 120 km/h. Cost: $6.2 million/km. So there definitely a difference in cost, but also in specifications, and in location, of course.
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  10. It's a small community, with relatively few stakeholders, a small legislature. It's a lot easier to make decisions under those conditions. There won't be drawn-out lawsuits, because everybody can have their say and arrive at a compromise by just meeting each other face to face and talk it out. Once the decision is made, they most likely will get a construction company from outside, it'll all be transparent, no one will profit personally. On the downside, 200 million Euros is still a lot of money for just 50,000 people.
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  11.  @V100-e5q  Well, I'm a little more optimistic. Let's give it twenty years and come back and continue the discussion. See you on October 26, 2041 😃
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  12.  @r3dpowel796  I have an old friend in Surabaya. Maybe one day I'll take the train all the way from China to visit her.
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  13.  @StubbyPhillips  "Does dolphin taste anything like fish?" Though I haven't eaten dolphin, I have eaten whale, and a dolphin is a kind of whale. Whales are mammals and their flesh has a muscle structure more similar to other mammals, somewhat more fibrous than fish. It's hard to describe the flavor of whale, but it does have a slightly fishy taste, though not unpleasant.
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  14.  @giffarysuwandi  My friend and I were on a bus from Dumai to Bukittinggi. Except around towns, it was all thick, dense, pure, undisturbed jungle. Two young Europeans, we had only ever seen unspoiled rainforest on TV. It was an awesome experience I will never forget.
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  15. It's a great starter-project for the casual hobbyist.
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  16.  @JeZZGro  "Russia helped my country......USA bombed my country" So you could be from, let's see.... -Vietnam, Laos -Syria, Iraq, perhaps Yemen? -Or maybe Serbia? I'll say the most likely candidates are Vietnam, Syria, Serbia.
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  17. "One of the world's most livable cities". KL certainly has some nice aspects, but also some terrible ones. It is a hellscape for bicycles. I once rode into town from the north-west. There was zero way to get into town without going on expressways with flyovers, on- and off-ramps, no traffic lights and no bicycle lane. In my many decades of cycling all over the world, this was by far the worst and scariest cycling environment I have ever experienced. With just a few regular ground level roads, this problem can be easily solved. Or build small connecting roads between the many isolated neighborhoods. (I understand that access to and from the east is a little better)
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  18. So Disappoint Panda is, for once, not disappointed. That's an achievement in itself.
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  19.  @hansheinrich958  Please see my answer to অର୍ଘ୍ୟਦੀప पाல
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  20.  @markmh835  I tried my whale meat at a dedicated whale restaurant in Tokyo. We had whale cooked in several different ways, including sashimi, tempura, grilled, pan fried. It wasn't all equally good, but the grilled whale meat was excellent.
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  21.  @jdoggtn7  Possibly, but that was probably not named by vikings themselves.
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  22.  @zhewu9052  I used to teach 雅思 IELTS in Shanghai. Level 6 is pretty good.
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  23.  @archie1554  Is there no toll fee? User payment for crossing large bridges is common in other places.
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  24.  @archie1554  There's a toll fee, so tax payers don't have to pay anything. Only vehicles crossing the bridge will pay. The toll fee is 50 Turkish Lire.
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  25.  @aditatva  I'm glad we agree.
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  26.  @lif3andthings763  You may be right, but we can never really know because the terms and conditions are secret. The Kenyan people can't know and the Chinese people can't know.
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  27.  @andysol.4593  If the projects are not funded by German and French loans, then definitely no.
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  28.  @ballyhigh11  Yes, you're right.
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  29. The B1M should make a video around 'fires in old buildings during renovation projects'. There are so many examples of fires starting in historic buildings exactly because they were in the process of being renovated, sometimes because a welding machine was left on or similar occurrence. That should then be followed up by another video that examines efforts to develop new, better and safer practices in construction and renovation projects.
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  30.  @freddy4603  There is some Western investment in Africa, but perhaps not as much as that from China. Lake Turkana Wind Power Project in Kenya is the largest private investment in Kenya's history. It is not a loan that Kenya has to pay back, but there is an agreement that Kenya buys all the electricity at a fixed price for a fixed term. Investors are mostly from Northern Europe and Africa itself.
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  31. Dissing+Weitling and COWI again?! Seems like they're designing all big bridges nowadays.
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  32.  @ginawiggles918  Please see my answer elsewhere in this comment thread.
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  33.  @哈尼腥  That is correct.
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  34.  @AlbertoLicandro13  Well, it was designed by an American architect firm, so I don't think that's a correct conclusion.
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  35.  @Fred_the_1996  XC = cross country. Pretty nice. Do you do overnighters or even multi-day trips?
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  36.  @aditatva  The bridge's tender project was designed by Tekfen Construction and Installation(Turkish company), Detailed design, construction engineering and technical follow up during construction by COWI A/S (Danish company), with design of cable and approach bridge by PEC (Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants) from Korea. Any other questions?
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  37. Does anybody know what that tenor sax music at the last 45 seconds was?
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