WEBVTT - Selects: Why is Venice so wet? 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.400 Hi, everyone, It's Charles W. Chuck Brian here on a 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.880 lovely Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia, co host of the Stuff 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:09.959 You Should Know podcast, bringing you with this Saturday Selects 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:15.600 episode all the way back from June. Why is Venice 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:26.400 so wet? The answer coming up right now. Welcome to 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:35.320 Stuff you Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:38.760 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:44.480 Chuck Bryant Nols with us again and it's another morning edition. Yeah, 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:46.800 we got an email. I think we had our last 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.600 morning thing not session, not too long ago, and someone 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:51.680 wrote in and said, please don't do that again. I 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:53.600 didn't think it was that bad. You guys are clearly 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.920 like really tired and not the same. So what I 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.720 say is, if you have a choice, is save this 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.360 one the morning and just pretend like where your local 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:06.399 MPR station or a cup of Joe like Josh is drinking. Yea, 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.920 and yeah it smells so good, and let's let's do 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:14.840 this morning style. Let's do it man, um, let's do 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:18.640 this more style in Italian. Yeah, this is gonna be 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.840 a fan favorite, I predict because there's some Italian pronunciations 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:25.200 that I'm sure you will do for everybody, Right, I'm 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.920 gonna do with my best. That was a good, good 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.280 little taste of it. Yes, that's one of the accents 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:33.440 you can have a great time with without people saying 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:39.080 that you're offensive. That's a T shirt. Yeah, so Chuck, 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:44.000 you heard about them sea levels yeahs and fallen. Yeah, 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:47.760 due to climate change, that's what some saying. Well, it's 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.960 climate change. To the big bone of contention is whether 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:56.840 it's human cause, right or anthropogenic? Ye? Uh. The thing 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.360 is there are there. It is undeniable that see levels 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:05.000 are rising rate of about three millimeters a year, which 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.600 doesn't sound like much, But buddy, if you live for 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.680 a thousand years, you'd see the sea levels rise by 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:14.359 three meters, which is almost ten ft in America. Yeah, 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.000 not the biggest deal in some parts of the world. 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.520 Big deal in Venice. Yeah. And you know, if you're 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.040 waiting a thousand years to watch it rise three ms 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.440 that's the current rate of sea level rise, it could 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:31.160 speed up tremendously. And while three millimeters might not sound 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:37.360 that much to you out in the Rockies, yeah, because 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.800 it's nice and dry there in the middle of the Mountain. 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.360 They're all stoned, right, Yeah, because it's legal there. Who cares. 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:48.560 If you're in a place like um, the Maldives, you're saying, wow, 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.160 my country is probably not going to exist in the 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:55.520 next like twenty years. If you're in New Orleans worried 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.799 about the same thing. And a little town known as Venice, 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:02.640 Italy is facing the same problem. It has been for 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.600 a very long time. And you say little town, Uh, 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.120 it is getting smaller, not only physically, but the population 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.720 because Venice is such a mess, has declined down to 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:17.440 about sixty people now. Yeah, over the years from like 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:20.320 a hundred and eighty. Yes, because people are tired of 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:24.359 getting wet. They are they used to get wet. Um, say, 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.120 back in nine they would get wet about ten times 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.640 a year due to flooding. They could expect ten noteworthy 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.160 floods a year. And when we say not worthy floods, 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:37.360 we mean like the squares in the throughout the city 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:39.920 are flooded up to maybe your knees, kind of like 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.040 the whole ground floor of Venice. Yeah, it gets flooded 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.480 like you're slogging around, which I mean sounds kind of 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:47.800 fun when you're a kid, but it's not that fun, right, 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:51.400 especially when you're an adult who maybe a germophobe. Because 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:56.200 Venice has an antiquated sewer system that's antiquated a is 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.680 uh the perfect word. Yeah. By antiquated, we mean all 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.440 of the um sewer pipes go right out into the canals, 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.680 and they have along the um along the years added 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.520 like septic tanks to treat the stuff first. But not 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.920 everybody has those um and sometimes they get backed up too. 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:18.880 But the raw sewage or septically treated sewage in Venice 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.680 goes into those canals that you float around in um boats. 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.279 And when you're swimming around in the flood like a tourist, 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.400 you're swimming around in fecal material. The tours get in 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.960 that water. There's a picture of it um on a 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:36.400 oh Man, I can't remember. I think like a Bloomberg 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.840 article about Venice or maybe wired. But it's like, if 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.480 you know about Venice, you'll think these people are crazy 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:46.000 for swimming in this floodwater. And it shows a couple 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.160 of tourists like swimming in a flood in the middle 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:53.320 of the square um a San Marco, the San Marco Square. Yeah. Yeah, 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:55.960 And now that you know it's it's gross to see. 0:04:56.160 --> 0:05:00.680 They're like, it tastes briny and sort of om me right, 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:05.040 why are my lips swollen? Yeah, it's uh, it's that's 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.640 one of many many problems facing Venice right now, an 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.920 antiquated sewer system, and a lot of the problems are 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:16.000 unique just because of the city and how it's created. Yeah, 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:19.960 let's talk about this because Venice is not something I 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:21.560 knew a ton about. I knew it was on the water. 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:23.719 I knew it was sinking. Shout out by the way 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:29.000 to Venice is sinking Athens band and stuff. You should 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:33.200 know fans. Um, well, then I like them already, Yes, no, 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.800 you know those guys. He does, in fact, says Nold 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:41.240 talks Jerry doesn't like. Oh yeah, they're great. He launches 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:44.200 into like a five minute discourse. Uh So, I knew 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:46.040 a little bit about Venice, very little though I've never 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.000 been there. But when I watched this awesome video that 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.200 Josh found, yeah, um, we should go ahead and plug 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.200 it because it's just super cool. Yeah, it's called um 0:05:55.400 --> 0:06:00.120 Venice backstage period. How does Venice work? And it is 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.760 created by the Insula SPA, which is I guess the 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.920 production arm of the city of Venice. Yeah. So it's 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.280 like a locally produced video about Venice, but it's one 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:15.160 of the most fascinating, like eighteen minute videos I've ever seen. Yeah, 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.320 I mean they pack a lot of learning into that 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.520 eighteen minutes. Um. So if you don't know much about Venice, 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:22.680 imagine if you do know something about New York City, 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.200 imagine like the Greenwich Village. Uh. And I use Greenwich 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:28.920 Village because it's not on like the direct like north 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.440 south east west grid. They got all those crazy diagonal streets. 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:37.760 Imagine if it's so hot right now because yeah, true. Um, 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:42.320 imagine Greenwich Village if every block was an island. And 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.960 that's essentially what Venice is, right. It is a hundred 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:51.839 and twenty four tiny little islands I'll pack together. And 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.240 instead of streets, you have water, a hundred and eighty 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.320 three canals and it's all connected by little foot bridges 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:03.680 and real bridges. Uh and yes, canals by boat. Yeah. 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.040 I mean it's crazy when you've never even seen like 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:09.440 the big zoom in from above bird's eye view of 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:11.520 what Venice looks like. And I was like, that's what's 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.080 going on. Yeah, it's crazy because I mean when especially 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.680 when you're in the city, like you're walking over canals, 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:18.880 but you don't give too much thought to him. You're 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:21.520 just like, oh, that's so quaint. You're almost thinking like 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.960 they dug that out on purpose or something to get tourists. 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:29.000 Now those are necessity. It's it's odd. It was an 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.360 odd and different way for a city to form. They 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.480 didn't start from a city center and grow out. Each 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:39.480 little block in section was its own little thing. Yeah, 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.440 it was kind of its own little municipality. Um. And 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.280 the reason that these people set up shop hundreds and 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:49.800 hundreds of years ago on these islands was for for protection. 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:55.960 Venice was a very well protected municipality or cluster of municipalities. Right. Yeah. 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.880 It sits in a lagoon, and there are three water 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:04.160 ways that flow water in and out every day twice 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:06.720 a day. With the tides. Yeah, the Adriatic flows in 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.920 um to the lagoon and uh brings it out, brings 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:15.080 the water back out at low tide, right yeah, high tide, 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:17.160 it brings water in. Low tide, it takes the water out, 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.600 which is why they're not that worried about their sewage 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.760 going into the canals because because the the water comes 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:25.760 in and kind of brings all the trash out to 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:27.600 the sea and then no one sees it. So like 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:30.400 it's a self a flushing system. Yeah, well, I mean 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.840 it pretty much is. So that's how they've been able 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:35.720 to put up with that for so long because twice 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.280 a day, Um, the waters exchange. There's there's a big 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.520 exchange to it. The problem is when that water comes in, 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:48.280 especially when you include sea level rises and now up 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.440 to six times more flooding per year. Remember it was 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.960 like ten times a year. Now that's up to about 0:08:55.000 --> 0:09:00.440 sixty floods. Um, you have kind of a problem. You've 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.800 got the you you have a sinking city essentially, is 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:06.920 what it's what it amounts to. Yeah, I mean it's 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:11.359 it's two things. It's the water rises in Venice itself. 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.240 The buildings are sinking. So those are two bad things 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.320 that go you know, that don't taste great together. The 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:22.200 reason that sinking is because they extract freshwater from beneath 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:27.000 the city, right, Yeah, so there's less of a solid 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:33.160 foundation now and um there's also drilling nearby, like for 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:38.280 natural gas or um fossil fuels and uh, it's also 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:40.720 just a roading. Well yeah, they've done a lot of 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.000 things over the year. When you've got seawater lapping up 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:47.160 against well, let's step back, it's not just dirt and stuff. 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.320 They realize pretty early on, we're not going to be 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:54.520 around unless we, in case, the entire city basically in brick, yeah, 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:56.640 below the water line, and they came up with some 0:09:56.679 --> 0:10:00.320 really ingenious construction methods that you can super engine in 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:05.640 that Venice back stage video on vimeo. Yeah, but even 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.440 though they've been ensconced the whole city and brick as 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:12.520 a foundation, that's was lapping salt water and it's you know, 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.600 these canals are busy. It's not just the gondolier singing 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.840 the song like there. If you see real footage and 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:22.800 that movie footage, they're packed with boats, motor boats, cruise ships, 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:26.439 all sorts of stuff. And that action creates a lot 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.839 of movement in the water and it just whittles away 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.480 at those bricks little by little over the years, over 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:35.800 hundreds and hundreds of years, and then that's why Venice 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.280 is sinking. Um. Part of the other problem too, is 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.600 h sediment builds up in the canals. They're supposed to 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:45.079 close them down on a fairly regular basis. Yeah, basically 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.480 damn them up, drain them and then remove the sediment 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.600 and basically called the dead bodies. Yeah, Um, they stopped 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.400 doing that as frequently is before, and there there's been 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:59.160 a problem as a result. Plus, salt water permeates bricks. 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:03.960 Bricks are um semipermeable and they have capillary action, so 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.280 it draws saltwater up into the bricks, which I mean, 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:10.319 as long as bricks are connected by mortar, that water, 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:12.280 that saltwater will rise all the way to the top 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.800 of a building. And when the water evaporates, the water 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.720 is gone, but the salt stays and it apparently increases 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:21.760 in volume tremendously and basically crushes the bricks from the 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.080 inside out. Yeah, and they've they've been taking steps and 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.480 measures a little by little in different ways over the 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:29.600 years to help. But they're they're kind of fighting a 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.440 losing battle. They're like inject resin into the between the 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.400 bricks and into the bricks with hydraulics a barrier. But 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:39.959 you know, they're fighting, like I said, they're fighting mother 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.520 nature here, right. So finally they've said, let's turn our 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.720 attention from these um these piecemeal measures of you know 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:52.360 kind of of treating bricks and go to where the 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:54.600 problem is. Let's go to the doorstep of the problem, 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.720 which is the Adriatic and the three inlets into the lagoon, 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:02.320 and they turn their attention to that. And now they've 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:06.439 come up with a pretty great plan for dealing with 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:35.200 rising tides and floodwaters. M all right, so there's a plan. 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:38.280 You know one thing on that video too quickly that 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:42.320 amazed me. You're talking about the building construction. Um, the 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:45.600 walls in Venice. The exterior walls have a tendency to 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.040 bow out at the top, and uh so they have 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:54.440 these these basically hooks that pull from the inside the 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:59.320 walls in and then those long metal hooks travel into 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:01.199 the floor where they spiked into the floor. So they're 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:03.360 trying to pull it in there. And then the roofs 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.280 of the buildings in Venice aren't just like hey, let's 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:11.360 keep the water out there, literally like caps that locked 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:15.720 the walls in right at the top. So it's, uh, 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.760 it's not just like a weather protector roof. It's it's 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.360 actually like if the roof wasn't there, the walls would 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.959 bow out, and then the interior walls don't even connect 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:27.040 rigidly to the exterior walls. Yeah, it allows some gives 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:28.920 so that they can move back and forth. Is the 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.319 wave action basically moves the walls. So, I mean, we 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.120 we're saying Venice is a mess, but it's really an 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:39.640 ingenious city of just engineering the fact that it's still 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:44.120 there at all. You know. Another construction point that kind 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:46.640 of stuck out to me was that buildings in Venice 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:51.520 are built on piles of steaks, like wooden stakes driven 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.160 into the ground to kind of reinforce the mucky ground 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.080 to build on first. It's really a remarkable place when 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:58.600 you look at all the things they've had to do 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.080 just to make that what shouldn't even be a city. 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.520 I mean, let's let's get real. Well, it's a very neat, 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:06.720 beautiful city. Have you been, you mean, and I went 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:12.760 last summer and it is gorgeous. Yeah, very neat. Yeah yeah, 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:15.240 just walking around and all of a sudden you're like, oh, 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.040 I'm next to three thousand year old ruins. It's just 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:20.600 basically part of the city escape, right, Whereas here in 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.200 Atlanta you're like, oh, there's a Burger king, all right, 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.560 but it's from the sixties exactly, alright, So we we 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:29.640 had a pretty good cliffhanger that they had an idea. 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:34.280 So let's we'll go ahead and announce it. Okay, Well, 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:40.360 the idea is called Mosa or you should do this, chuck, 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:49.400 the modulo sperimentale electoral bad electro mechanico. So that's the 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:54.080 experimental electro mechanical module. Which is the reason that that 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.280 has that clumsy name is because the M O S E. 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:02.840 The acronym is also so the Italian spelling from Mosa 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.840 or Moses and basically what the what Moses was well 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.840 known for. One of his many hits was parting the 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.120 Red Sea. Right, well, they thought that was very clever. 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.360 That's as big as hit they were coming. I don't know. 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:17.520 He did a lot of stuff. In Commandments that was 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:21.320 a pretty big hit, Burning Bush. I would say the 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:25.080 Red Sea was his American Pie or no, yeah, that 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.840 was his Baker Street. The Ten Commandments was his uh, 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:33.400 right down the line, who did Jerry rafferty Baker Street? 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.840 That was the saxophone one, right yeah, and Right down 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:38.520 the Land was his other hit. So I've never heard 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.200 that one. You have? You just don't know it, Okay, 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.440 says you was just about to bust it. Out too early. 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:50.000 So anyway, Mosa moses in Italian. Uh, it's a that's 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.880 a clever use of an acronym because this thing, the 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.280 contraption they came up with, it's pretty ingenious and clever 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.120 to defend against these rising high tides, which are known 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:05.040 as aqua alta, aqua alta. Yeah, and this is one 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.520 of those things where you say ingenious and clever, but 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.600 I would add in its simplicity. Right, These are my 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:15.440 favorite kinds of projects. When man looks at something and says, well, 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.160 why don't we just build a big gate? That's pretty 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:21.640 much what it is. Yeah, yeah, but it is more 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.040 complicated than that. And let's let's talk about the Mosa So. Um. 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.960 Remember we said sea levels are rising in general, but 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:32.160 high tides are a really big problem in Venice because 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:37.520 they're getting higher. Um. So the Mosai project, uh is 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.520 it consists of a bunch of gates that can be 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:45.360 brought up and raised on command. They have a magician 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:50.160 who commands the gates to rise, and um the gates 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:55.200 come up and basically separate the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea. Yeah. 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:59.800 So imagine a big, huge steel door that lays flat 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:04.439 the bottom of the ocean, and uh, they fill it 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:06.800 with air and it's got two hinges on one side, 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.040 so that big steel door just raises up as it 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:13.919 fills with air, obviously becoming more buoyant, and until it 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.320 looks like about a forty five degree angle, uh, facing 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:22.120 out into the sea away from the city. And that's it. 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.080 It's just a barrier. It just swings up and I 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:27.520 think there's about a two foot differential in the water 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:32.160 levels and uh, it essentially prevents high tide from happening 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:37.600 within the Venice Lagoon. That's exactly right. And um, these 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.200 these basically walls, floating walls is what they amount to. 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:43.800 Like you said, they have hinges on the bottom. Uh. 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.840 And there's all sorts of pictures of the Mose project, 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:50.040 the mosa A project, um all over the internet. I 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:55.000 found it exponentially easier to understand when I saw what 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.280 they were talking about. Yeah, it's like, oh, that's all 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:02.240 it is. It'll allow us to clumsily try to get 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:06.680 this across. So you've got the hinges, um hinge, the 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.520 metal wall to the bottom of the sea floor right, well, 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.439 not to the sea floor, well to a concrete trench 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.400 within the sea floor that the thing sits in when 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:17.280 it's not in use. Yeah, they tried to pound it 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:19.119 right into the sand and they were like, it's not 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:23.680 a working right, get us some concrete. So they These 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.000 trenches also provide a place for engineers to go underneath 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.119 and basically fix things and fiddle with stuff. And it 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:33.159 also provides the delivery system for the compressed air that 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:38.840 the hollow metal walls gates. Basically um fill up with 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.320 air so that they start to stand upright, Yeah, And 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.720 how long does that take? Like twenty minutes or thirty minutes, 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.879 and then uh, it takes about the same time for 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:49.400 to fill them with seawater again to return them back 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.159 to their laying position on the floor. It was a 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.320 little quicker going down, but which makes sense. Yes, but 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.240 that's pretty much it. When the high tides coming, they 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.719 fill them with air so that the eight stand up 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.960 above water. And then on the lagoon side, the sea 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:06.840 level stays low. On the sea side, it can get 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.639 as high as it likes. And because they're hinged and 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.600 filled with air, they're not rigid, which means that they 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:15.280 can take a pounding and they can sway back and 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.440 forth a little bit and still not give. So it 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.000 is like you said, it's it's ingenious and its simplicity, 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:24.280 it is and it's uh. It officially launched in two 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:27.000 thousand three, and that was and this was after years 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:33.400 and years of um I guess ideas and bids and plans, 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.199 and the Mosai project is what finally went out. They 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.120 said it was gonna be two to three billion dollars 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:44.560 and would be done in uh. It's still not done. 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.480 They're looking at six now. Um. They did the first 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:51.840 successful test late last year, and like with every big project, 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:53.919 city project like that, it's going to be over budget 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.120 and over uh schedule. Yes, but there's a lot of 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:03.920 accusations of corruption. Really yeah, Southern Italy, a big public project, corrupt. 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.679 The The group that suggested the thing in the first 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.840 place is called the you want to take it? Someone's 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.800 gonna be offended by me, by the way. Maybe I'll 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:21.040 bet they're not Italian, the Consortio no Eva, So that's 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.520 basically the new Venice Consortium. It's a group of companies 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:27.639 and construction companies that said, hey, we've got an idea 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.879 for this problem. Let's try this, yeah, and we'll build 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.280 it for you. We had all the companies under our 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.080 banner that can provide everything you need. And they said, 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:40.119 we'll build it for you for two to three billion dollars. 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.400 And everybody went, what which sounds like a lot, including 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:46.560 to people in Venice. Is that American dollars or is 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.200 that euros? That's American dollars as far as I'm seeing 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:54.960 right here. Um, but if you go to Venice, like uh, 0:20:55.240 --> 0:21:00.440 martinis like fifteen dollars, it's like twenty or only five 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:03.160 bucks for like a little tiny martini at Harry's Bar. 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:06.880 I know, so it sounds like a lot. But all 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:08.879 you have to do is go open the cash register 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:11.000 at Harry's Bar in a Tuesday afternoon and you can 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:13.400 get two to three billion dollars to pay for this project. 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:16.760 You know, all right, someone's a little salty about their business. 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:20.600 It was really expensive. Yeah, it was neat, but it's 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:49.600 also like really expensive. Europe's not cheap. No, So there 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.920 was a lot of a lot of accusations of corruption, 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:58.639 of kickbacks, the other thing being artificially expensive. Apparently there 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:01.640 was a study that found like this thing is they've 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:06.080 padded this tremendously. But by the time this came out, um, 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.880 public opinion apparently wasn't enough to stop at construction had started. 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:12.919 They did their first test in two twelve. Apparently it 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:17.119 was successful, and the Mosai project continues, and I believe 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:20.760 they're they're tracking for two thousand sixteen to have all 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:26.400 of the gates across all three of the inlets operational. Yeah, 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:29.840 and you said multiple gates, so each of these uh inlets. 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:34.679 You have the Leado, uh, the Malamoco, and then I 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:38.200 pronounce this Cheogia, but I heard it much much differently 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:40.840 on the video, so I know that's not right. But 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:43.399 those are the three inlets, and um, well that was 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:45.480 a British student. They just pronounced things however they want. 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:51.280 And then we assume because their European they know you're right. Uh. 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:53.280 So it's not like one big gate for each of 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:55.679 these things because that it's on a curve and you 0:22:55.720 --> 0:23:00.520 can't just have one huge gate. So the um, the Alamoco, 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:06.040 and the Geogia have. The Malamoco has nineteen gates, Theoga 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:07.840 has eighteen, and they're all in one row. And then 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:11.320 the big daddy, the Leado has two rows, one with 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:14.359 twenty gates and gates. Yeah, and they're not all the 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:16.639 same same they're the same width, but they're not all 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:20.640 the same height, right, and I mean they don't need 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:23.600 to be summer taller than others. They're all about sixteen 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:28.600 ft thick. So these are huge, huge walled gates. So yeah, 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:30.240 I think we should. I don't know if we've gotten 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:32.639 across how big they are. You said there's sixteen ft 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:38.440 or about five meters thick. Um, they're the the deepest 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:42.320 amount of water is a hundred feet, which is like 0:23:42.359 --> 0:23:45.439 thirty meters. Uh, so these things are taller than that 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:49.720 or if need be. Yeah, uh and then they're uh, 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:54.240 what about three fifty tons. I think that's just for 0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:58.439 like one of the gates. Yes, like one single panel 0:23:59.080 --> 0:24:02.760 could weighs as much as a seven thirty seven seven 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:06.600 forty seven. And they they are using something that Rolls 0:24:06.680 --> 0:24:10.119 Royce makes that is basically an elevator for ships to 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:14.359 convey each of the gates out to the sea floor. Yeah, 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:17.080 and it takes three days to move a gate. Yeah. 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:20.560 So they're really really big gates, but they are going 0:24:20.640 --> 0:24:23.119 to be very nimble when filled with compressed air and 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:26.560 smacked around by waves. Plus they're in water. Yeah, so 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:29.480 that helps with the weight that reminds me that this 0:24:29.480 --> 0:24:32.960 project faces a lot of problems that that the project faces. 0:24:33.280 --> 0:24:36.639 So there's there's some people have said, maybe this is 0:24:36.680 --> 0:24:39.359