Latest news with #ThreeGorgesDam
Sustainability Times
15 hours ago
- Science
- Sustainability Times
'Nasa Confirms the Unthinkable': China's Giant Water Diversion Project Will Slow Earth's Rotation and Disrupt Global Timekeeping
IN A NUTSHELL 🌍 NASA confirms that human-made structures, like the Three Gorges Dam, subtly affect Earth's rotation. confirms that human-made structures, like the Three Gorges Dam, subtly affect Earth's rotation. 🏗️ The Three Gorges Dam in China is the largest hydroelectric dam, impacting both energy production and global dynamics. in China is the largest hydroelectric dam, impacting both energy production and global dynamics. 🔄 Mass movements, from natural events to infrastructure projects, can alter the planet's rotation by microseconds. ⚠️ The interplay between human activity and natural systems raises questions about unforeseen global consequences. Human-made structures have always pushed the boundaries of what's possible, affecting not just our landscapes but also, according to NASA, the very rotation of our planet. As we continue to develop massive infrastructures, we inadvertently cause minute changes in Earth's rotation. This phenomenon is compounded by climate change, which alters the distribution of the Earth's mass. The implications of these changes are not entirely understood, but they underscore the interconnectedness of our actions and the environment. Let's delve deeper into some of the most significant structures that illustrate this impact on a global scale. Ever Taller and More Massive The era of skyscrapers and colossal constructions is well upon us. Iconic structures like the Burj Khalifa, the Shanghai Tower, and The Clock Towers symbolize humanity's drive to reach new heights. However, few structures can compare to the Three Gorges Dam in China when it comes to sheer mass and impact. Situated in Hubei Province, this hydroelectric dam is the largest in the world and took nearly 18 years to complete, from 1994 to its final phase in 2012. The dam serves multiple purposes: it asserts China's newfound power, controls a dangerous river, and supports the country's energy needs. 'We'll See Gravity Like Never Before': NASA's Wild Quantum Gradiometer Will Map Earth's Invisible Forces From Orbit According to the National Center for Space Studies (CNES), the dam aims to balance territorial dynamics by emphasizing the interior over the coastal regions. This underlines a strategic goal to integrate less developed areas into the national economy. As we construct ever more massive infrastructures, we must consider their broader implications, not just their immediate benefits. 'Nuclear Breakthrough at NASA': New Space Power System Passes First Test Using Fuel That's Five Times Cheaper Than Before The Largest Hydroelectric Dam in the World China stands as the world's leading producer of hydroelectric power, both in capacity and output. Yet, despite its monumental size, the Three Gorges Dam only meets a mere 3% of China's energy demands, far less than the initially projected 10%. This discrepancy highlights the challenges of meeting national energy needs even with massive projects. However, the dam's significance extends beyond energy production; it may slow Earth's rotation. 'China Disrupts Earth's Rotation': NASA Confirms Massive Project Is Slowing the Planet With Unprecedented Global Consequences A 2005 NASA article suggests that global events involving mass movement, such as the 2004 earthquake and tsunami, can influence Earth's rotation. Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center points out that all mass movements, from seasonal weather patterns to driving a car, have an effect. This theory raises intriguing questions about the cumulative impact of our constructions and activities on a planetary scale. 0.06 Microseconds To better understand these changes, consider an analogy from IFLScience: an ice skater increases their spin by bringing their arms closer to their body. Similarly, the 2004 earthquake altered Earth's seismic structure, shortening the day by 2.68 microseconds. If the Three Gorges Dam's reservoir were filled to capacity, it would hold 10 trillion gallons of water. This mass redistribution could increase the length of a day by 0.06 microseconds, making Earth slightly more oblate. While these changes may seem negligible, they exemplify the profound influence of human activity on our planet. The potential implications for timekeeping, navigation, and even climate patterns warrant further investigation. As we continue to build and expand, understanding these subtle shifts becomes increasingly important. As humanity continues to construct monumental infrastructures, the intricate relationship between our endeavors and natural systems becomes ever more apparent. While the direct impacts of such projects are often well-studied, their broader effects, like those on Earth's rotation, remain largely speculative. What other unforeseen consequences might arise as we push the boundaries of engineering and technology? Our author used artificial intelligence to enhance this article. Did you like it? 4.4/5 (24)
San Francisco Chronicle
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Review: The sweep of history courses through Jia Zhang-ke's ‘Caught By the Tides'
Tao Zhao in a scene from 'Caught By the Tides.' Photo: AP Photo: AP Jia Zhang-ke's 'Caught by the Tides' is less than two hours long and yet contains nearly a quarter-century of time's relentless march forward. Few films course with history the way it does in the Chinese master's latest, an epic collage that spans 21 years. Jia undertook the film during the pandemic, assembling a mix of fiction and documentary, including images from his earlier films as well as newly shot scenes. That might sound like a mishmash kind of moviemaking. But for Jia, the preeminent cinematic chronicler of 21st century China, it's a remarkably cohesive, even profound vessel for capturing what has most interested him as a filmmaker: the tidal wave-sized currents of technological progress and social transmutation that wash over a lifetime. The high-speed upheavals of modern China are, of course, a fitting setting for such interests. Jia's films are often most expressed in their surroundings — in vistas of infrastructure that dwarf his protagonists. Fans of Jia will recognize some from his previous films. For me, there's never been a more moving backdrop from him than the rubble and mass displacement of the Three Gorges Dam project (seen here, as in his 2008 film 'Still Life'). Tao Zhao in a scene from 'Caught By the Tides.' Photo: AP Photo: AP 'Caught by the Tides' is ostensibly about Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao, Jia's wife and muse) and her lover Bin (Li Zhubin), whom she searches for years after a row sent them in different directions. But in 'Caught by the Tides,' these characters are more like life rafts bobbing in expansive waters, making their way aimlessly. The poetry of 'Caught by the Tides' comes from a grander arc. In one of the film's opening scenes, shot on grainy digital film, women in a Datong city room laugh together, singing old, half-remembered songs. The film's final scenes, set more than two decades later in the southern city of Zhuhai, are more crisply photographed and depict a more impersonal world of smartphones, robots and QR codes. For a moment, Jia even adopts the perspective of a surveillance camera. Tao Zhao in a scene from 'Caught By the Tides.' Photo: AP Photo: AP Another moment: a shot, from pre-digital times, drifting down a street with men looking back at us, smoking and mildly curious. Cut then to what might be the same street years later, where a woman parades as a model in front of a sprawling shopping mall. In 'Caught by the Tides,' these changes go unexplained and unspoken. But the evolutions they chart are deeply familiar to anyone who has lived through even some of these years, in China or elsewhere. We see how people once moved differently, spoke differently and sang differently. Progress and loss exist together as one. Zhao and Li age through the film, leaving them weathered, too, by time. A song late in the film goes: 'I can't grasp the warmth we once shared.' More Information 'Caught by the Tides': Romance drama. Starring Tao Zhao, Zhubin Li and You Zhou. Directed by Jia Mandarin with English subtitles. (Not rated. 116 minutes.)
Associated Press
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Movie Review: The sweep of history courses through Jia Zhangke's ‘Caught By the Tides'
Jia Zhangke's 'Caught by the Tides' is less than two hours long and yet contains nearly a quarter-century of time's relentless march forward. Few films course with history the way it does in the Chinese master's latest, an epic collage that spans 21 years. Jia undertook the film during the pandemic, assembling a mix of fiction and documentary, including images from his earlier films as well as newly shot scenes. That might sound like a mishmash kind of moviemaking. But for Jia, the preeminent cinematic chronicler of 21st century China, it's a remarkably cohesive, even profound vessel for capturing what has most interested him as a filmmaker: the tidal wave-sized currents of technological progress and social transmutation that wash over a lifetime. The high-speed upheavals of modern China are, of course, a fitting setting for such interests. Jia's films are often most expressed in their surroundings — in vistas of infrastructure that dwarf his protagonists. Fans of Jia will recognize some from his previous films. For me, there's never been a more moving backdrop from him than the rubble and mass displacement of the Three Gorges Dam project (seen here, as in his 2008 film 'Still Life'). 'Caught by the Tides' is ostensibly about Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao, Jia's wife and muse) and her lover Bin (Li Zhubin), whom she searches for years after a row sent them in different directions. But in 'Caught by the Tides,' these characters are more like life rafts bobbing in expansive waters, making their way aimlessly. The poetry of 'Caught by the Tides' comes from a grander arc. In one of the film's opening scenes, shot on grainy digital film, women in a Datong city room laugh together, singing old, half-remembered songs. The film's final scenes, set more than two decades later in the southern city of Zhuhai, are more crisply photographed and depict a more impersonal world of smartphones, robots and QR codes. For a moment, Jia even adopts the perspective of a surveillance camera. Another moment: a shot, from pre-digital times, drifting down a street with men looking back at us, smoking and mildly curious. Cut then to what might be the same street years later, where a woman parades as a model in front of a sprawling shopping mall. In 'Caught by the Tides,' these changes go unexplained and unspoken. But the evolutions they chart are deeply familiar to anyone who has lived through even some of these years, in China or elsewhere. We see how people once moved differently, spoke differently and sang differently. Progress and loss exist together as one. Zhao and Li age through the film, leaving them weathered, too, by time. A song late in the film goes: 'I can't grasp the warmth we once shared.' 'Caught by the Tides,' a Sideshow and Janus Films release, is unrated by the Motion Picture Association. In Mandarin. Running time: 116 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
San Francisco Chronicle
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Movie Review: The sweep of history courses through Jia Zhangke's 'Caught By the Tides'
Jia Zhangke's 'Caught by the Tides' is less than two hours long and yet contains nearly a quarter-century of time's relentless march forward. Few films course with history the way it does in the Chinese master's latest, an epic collage that spans 21 years. Jia undertook the film during the pandemic, assembling a mix of fiction and documentary, including images from his earlier films as well as newly shot scenes. That might sound like a mishmash kind of moviemaking. But for Jia, the preeminent cinematic chronicler of 21st century China, it's a remarkably cohesive, even profound vessel for capturing what has most interested him as a filmmaker: the tidal wave-sized currents of technological progress and social transmutation that wash over a lifetime. The high-speed upheavals of modern China are, of course, a fitting setting for such interests. Jia's films are often most expressed in their surroundings — in vistas of infrastructure that dwarf his protagonists. Fans of Jia will recognize some from his previous films. For me, there's never been a more moving backdrop from him than the rubble and mass displacement of the Three Gorges Dam project (seen here, as in his 2008 film 'Still Life'). 'Caught by the Tides' is ostensibly about Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao, Jia's wife and muse) and her lover Bin (Li Zhubin), whom she searches for years after a row sent them in different directions. But in 'Caught by the Tides,' these characters are more like life rafts bobbing in expansive waters, making their way aimlessly. The poetry of 'Caught by the Tides' comes from a grander arc. In one of the film's opening scenes, shot on grainy digital film, women in a Datong city room laugh together, singing old, half-remembered songs. The film's final scenes, set more than two decades later in the southern city of Zhuhai, are more crisply photographed and depict a more impersonal world of smartphones, robots and QR codes. For a moment, Jia even adopts the perspective of a surveillance camera. Another moment: a shot, from pre-digital times, drifting down a street with men looking back at us, smoking and mildly curious. Cut then to what might be the same street years later, where a woman parades as a model in front of a sprawling shopping mall. In 'Caught by the Tides,' these changes go unexplained and unspoken. But the evolutions they chart are deeply familiar to anyone who has lived through even some of these years, in China or elsewhere. We see how people once moved differently, spoke differently and sang differently. Progress and loss exist together as one. Zhao and Li age through the film, leaving them weathered, too, by time. A song late in the film goes: 'I can't grasp the warmth we once shared.' 'Caught by the Tides,' a Sideshow and Janus Films release, is unrated by the Motion Picture Association. In Mandarin. Running time: 116 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Movie Review: The sweep of history courses through Jia Zhangke's 'Caught By the Tides'
Jia Zhangke's 'Caught by the Tides' is less than two hours long and yet contains nearly a quarter-century of time's relentless march forward. Few films course with history the way it does in the Chinese master's latest, an epic collage that spans 21 years. Jia undertook the film during the pandemic, assembling a mix of fiction and documentary, including images from his earlier films as well as newly shot scenes. That might sound like a mishmash kind of moviemaking. But for Jia, the preeminent cinematic chronicler of 21st century China, it's a remarkably cohesive, even profound vessel for capturing what has most interested him as a filmmaker: the tidal wave-sized currents of technological progress and social transmutation that wash over a lifetime. The high-speed upheavals of modern China are, of course, a fitting setting for such interests. Jia's films are often most expressed in their surroundings — in vistas of infrastructure that dwarf his protagonists. Fans of Jia will recognize some from his previous films. For me, there's never been a more moving backdrop from him than the rubble and mass displacement of the Three Gorges Dam project (seen here, as in his 2008 film 'Still Life'). 'Caught by the Tides' is ostensibly about Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao, Jia's wife and muse) and her lover Bin (Li Zhubin), whom she searches for years after a row sent them in different directions. But in 'Caught by the Tides,' these characters are more like life rafts bobbing in expansive waters, making their way aimlessly. The poetry of 'Caught by the Tides' comes from a grander arc. In one of the film's opening scenes, shot on grainy digital film, women in a Datong city room laugh together, singing old, half-remembered songs. The film's final scenes, set more than two decades later in the southern city of Zhuhai, are more crisply photographed and depict a more impersonal world of smartphones, robots and QR codes. For a moment, Jia even adopts the perspective of a surveillance camera. Another moment: a shot, from pre-digital times, drifting down a street with men looking back at us, smoking and mildly curious. Cut then to what might be the same street years later, where a woman parades as a model in front of a sprawling shopping mall. In 'Caught by the Tides,' these changes go unexplained and unspoken. But the evolutions they chart are deeply familiar to anyone who has lived through even some of these years, in China or elsewhere. We see how people once moved differently, spoke differently and sang differently. Progress and loss exist together as one. Zhao and Li age through the film, leaving them weathered, too, by time. A song late in the film goes: 'I can't grasp the warmth we once shared.' 'Caught by the Tides,' a Sideshow and Janus Films release, is unrated by the Motion Picture Association. In Mandarin. Running time: 116 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
