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Hello Fellow Engineers!

Welcome to Real Civil Newsletter, the only newsletter where moles build better economies than humans, Romans school us on gravity-powered plumbing, and architects waste millions on a tango-themed bridge.

This week we’ve got it all: a giveaway of Moleconomy (the game that proves worms are a valid currency), a trip back to Roman aqueducts that bullied gravity into submission, and a bridge review so savage it’ll make architects rethink their career choices. Oh, and yes, Paddy the Labrador makes an appearance, because no great infrastructure project is complete without a good boy on site.

Strap in, engineers, there’s plenty of concrete (and nonsense) to get through.

Let’s dive into it 👇

This week, we’re giving away TEN copies of Moleconomy! 🦡💰

It’s the underground city-builder where you engineer the perfect economy for mole society. Conveyor belts, crushers, worm-based trade… basically SimCity, if everyone lived in tunnels and ate bugs. (So, better than most architect-designed cities already.)

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for… 🥁

🏆 josephdsl38 🏆
🏆 rhysking104 🏆
🏆 t-reineke 🏆
🏆 cavbeachfamily 🏆
🏆 marcus 🏆
🏆 djsloth10 🏆
🏆 ansreyhan 🏆
🏆 coco_y_tata 🏆
🏆 othemighty04 🏆
🏆 steebeen 🏆

Check your inboxes for your game key and get ready to dig deep into moleconomics! ⚒️🐀

Missed out? Don’t worry - plenty more giveaways are on the way.

Want a shot at the next one? Vote for a bridge in the poll in this email! 🌉🔥

🏛️ Truss Me, I’m an Engineer: Ancient Edition

🌉 Pont Du Gard, France

Today’s lesson in “engineers are built different” takes us back to 2,000 years ago and the Roman aqueducts.

Imagine being an architect in 19 BC. Your job? Sketch a villa with nice columns for some senator. Meanwhile, Roman engineers are out there casually moving entire rivers. That’s like showing up to a knife fight with a hydraulic excavator.

Some gloriously nerdy facts:

• The Pont du Gard in France (still standing, by the way) carried water for nearly 50 km. The slope? Just 34 cm drop per kilometer. That’s engineering accuracy so tight, your laser level would be ashamed.

• No pumps. No electricity. Just stone, arches, and stubborn Roman brains that went: “Gravity exists, we should bully it into watering cities.”

• The system delivered 200 million gallons of water a day. Enough for baths, fountains, and probably one guy’s extremely overwatered houseplants.

• Many aqueducts lasted longer than the empire itself. The Romans collapsed in 476 AD. Their waterworks? Still flowing centuries later.

Architects like to brag about “form meeting function.” Romans just built massive stone water highways across Europe and said: “Function is the form. Now fetch me some wine.”

📖 Want to see it? Check out UNESCO’s page on Pont du Gard.
💧 Curious how much water those things carried? Smithsonian has a great breakdown of Roman aqueducts.
📸 For some drool-worthy stone arch pics: Pont du Gard official site.

So, next time you see an “architectural marvel” that leaks when it rains, remember: Roman engineers were carving rivers through mountains while architects were doodling more columns.

⚡ Cool Links

🦿 Robots Literally Learn to Walk on Water
Researchers created a new film material so slick that tiny robots can skate across the surface of water like insects. The breakthrough could lead to disaster-response robots that traverse floods, or medical bots that move through fluids in the body.

🔬 Tiny Chip Could Unlock Gamma Ray Lasers
A pocket-sized quantum device has the potential to revolutionize medicine, energy, and physics. Think curing cancer, exploring new states of matter, or even unlocking technologies straight out of science fiction.

🧲 Magnetic Trick May Finally Fix Quantum Computers
One of quantum computing’s biggest headaches is keeping qubits stable long enough to calculate. Engineers just discovered a magnetic method that could make qubits more reliable, bringing the futuristic machines one step closer to reality.

🚗 Laser Sensor the Size of a Coin Boosts Self-Driving Cars
Autonomous vehicles are only as good as their sensors, and a new penny-sized laser could help them see more clearly and react faster. Smaller, cheaper sensors mean safer self-driving cars might actually be within reach.

🎮 Gaming News

🌍 Plan B: Terraform Hits 1.0
Take a barren rock of a planet and build it into a thriving ecosystem. Part logistics sim, part climate experiment, imagine Cities: Skylines, but you’re also Mother Nature.

🎭 Triple-I Initiative Drops Indie Bombshells
A new showcase revealed indie titles like Void/Breaker, Neverway, and Ikuma: The Frozen Compass. Lots of creativity, lots of weirdness, and plenty for strategy and sim fans to keep an eye on.

🕹️ Upcoming Indie Games to Watch
From the quirky walking simulator Baby Steps to the gothic action of Mina the Hollower, the next wave of indie releases is stacked. Proof that if it exists, someone will gamify it.

⚙️ Kaizen: A Factory Story
Puzzle-automation meets 1980s factory floors. You’ll build production lines, debug inefficiencies, and even get scored globally. Basically Factorio with a time machine and a report card.

🐕‍🦺 Paddy’s Corner

Black Labrador Puppy's FIRST DAY HOME! SUPER CUTE!

On the cold morning of January 23rd, 2021, our lives changed forever as the beautiful Paddy, the black Labrador, finally came home with us.

This video covers his pawesome first day with us, which was mainly the trip to go get him and then lots of playing and getting settled in!

👾 Indie Game of the Week:

A huge welcome to all the new readers who joined through the Moleconomy Steam key giveaway, you’ve officially tunneled into the newsletter burrow! 🦡

This week I engineered the perfect economy… for moles. In Moleconomy you’re running conveyor belts, crushers, and worm-fueled trade stalls, while micromanaging mole workers with names like Moliva and Ray Mo. At one point I had to pay off sky-hawks demanding a tax, which honestly still felt more fair than council planning fees.

It’s time for a Bridge Review!

Alright folks, buckle up, because today we’re reviewing a bridge that proves what happens when architects are left unsupervised: the Puente de la Mujer, built in 2001 in Buenos Aires.

This thing is supposed to represent a couple dancing the tango. Romantic? Maybe. Functional? Not so much. It’s basically an oversized sculpture that also lets pedestrians cross the river… when it’s not jammed shut because the whole middle section rotates open like a pizza paddle.

Spoiler: it looks nice on a postcard. As an actual bridge? Questionable.

Alright folks, buckle up, because today we’re reviewing a bridge that proves what happens when architects are left unsupervised: the Puente de la Mujer, built in 2001 in Buenos Aires.

This thing is supposed to represent a couple dancing the tango. Romantic? Maybe. Functional? Not so much. It’s basically an oversized sculpture that also lets pedestrians cross the river… when it’s not jammed shut because the whole middle section rotates open like a pizza paddle.

It looks nice on a postcard. As an actual bridge? Questionable.

Engineering Feats 🛠️

• It rotates on a single mast with a counterweight system, basically a giant spinning ballerina. Credit where it’s due, the mechanics are slick.

• But… the opening span is only 102 meters. For all that drama, it doesn’t actually carry that much traffic.

• Fun fact: it cost $6 million. For a bridge that mainly says, “look at me, I’m an architect!”

The Verdict 🔨

The Puente de la Mujer is basically an architect’s sketch that got accidentally funded. Sure, it’s pretty, but it’s form way ahead of function. Want to walk across a sculpture? Great. Want reliable engineering muscle? Keep walking.

Final Score: 3.4/10