Infrastructure: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) on HackerTube: recommended by 2 Hacker News commenters across 2 separate months, 2016–2023.
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A John Oliver Last Week Tonight segment on America's crumbling infrastructure and why maintenance is neglected and underfunded. It mixes comedy with real examples such as aging bridges and dams.
HN commenters link it when discussions turn to dam failures, bridge collapses, or the unglamorous work of maintenance.
“John Oliver did a pretty good piece on infrastructure”
7 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
actually the imgur.com comments were very insightful one of several recommended videos about the topic, this one is quite funny even if it's very real: ▶ this video
in “Images and video showing extent of Oroville dam damage” · View on HN
John Oliver did a pretty good piece on infrastructure: ▶ this video No politician gets to cut a ribbon with a giant pair of scissors when they fund routine maintenance. So why bother.
in “Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killing 1M people” · View on HN
This reminds me of the episode of Last Week Tonight where John Oliver points out the problems America has on infrastructure maintenance: ▶ this video
in “Let Maintainers Be Maintainers” · View on HN
I used to live next to the bridge mentioned here by John Oliver. Pittsburgh is something. ▶ this video "One of these arch bridges actually has a structure built under it to catch falling deck ... see that structure underneath it, they actually built that to catch falling concrete." ... "They built a bridge under the bridge..." They've since repaired this one.
in “Bridge collapse in Pittsburgh’s Frick Park” · View on HN
Added to the problem is the general lack of funding around the world for infrastructure, owing to the fact that politicians control the purse strings and infrastructure isn't "sexy" [1][2]. Building something new that can be named after someone is no doubt easier to fund than the maintenance of something that already exists. "we always forget that maintenance in perpetuity is much much harder" I imagine that part of the problem is that the heavy maintenance for large engineering projects begins years or decades after completion. Upon completion, it's hard to imagine these huge creations falling apart; add to this an element of "this won't be my problem (I won't be here in 50 years)" and you've got a recipe for short-term thinking - especially by those who don't have the expertise (read: the politicians and bureaucrats). [1] [link] [2] John Oliver: ▶ this video
in “The World’s Aging Dams” · View on HN
I live in a liberal bubble and hear about infrastructure woes often enough, for example from John Oliver here: ▶ this video
in “California Dam Crisis Could Have Been Averted” · View on HN
You know, if Hollywood made the blockbuster movie "Infrastructure" [1], maintenance might be views as a "good thing." [1] ▶ this video
in “Maintainers make the world go round: Innovation is an overrated ideology” · View on HN