🏗 Floating Cows?!

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Hello Fellow Engineers!

Welcome to another thrilling edition of the newsletter, where we cross bridges, shoot too much web, and occasionally review floating farms (yes, you read that right). Ever wonder how cows do on a luxury cruise? Well, Rotterdam's Floating Farm has you covered—think milking robots, automatic feeding belts, and zero architects involved. 🐄

We’ve also got a spider game that broke reality, ancient engineers who’d laugh at modern blueprints, and, of course, a bridge made from actual living trees.

Let’s dive into it 👇

👷‍♂️ Truss Me, I’m an Engineer…

Floating Cows In Rotterdam

What’s better than a farm on land? How about a farm that floats!

In Rotterdam, dozens of cows are living their best lives on the Floating Farm, complete with milking robots, spacious stalls, and even an automatic feeding belt. It’s basically a luxury cruise for cows—just without the sunbathing. When they want to stretch their legs, they simply trot over to a nearby meadow.

The farm's origins trace back to Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when food trucks couldn’t reach New York City, sparking the idea of growing food closer to urban centers. Now, Rotterdam is home to the world’s first self-sustaining floating dairy farm, supplying fresh milk while educating city dwellers on sustainable agriculture. You can read more about how the farm is transforming food production in Rotterdam on Holland.com.

Let me know if you’d live there below 👇

It got me thinking about my own floating city experiment in Cities: Skylines, where I attempted to mimic Saudi Arabia’s Octagon project. Maybe my next floating city will nail the concept of floating cows. Check it out below 👇

⚡ Cool Links

👷‍♂️ Colossal Stone Monument Built 1,000 Years Before Stonehenge Shows Neolithic Engineers Understood Science
So, it turns out that 6,000 years ago, Neolithic folks in Spain built the Menga dolmen using techniques that would make today's architects weep into their blueprints. I mean, a 150-ton capstone? They did that without AutoCAD! Meanwhile, I worked on the Stonehenge tunnel project here in Salisbury... until they scrapped it. I guess the ancients had fewer architects to complicate things.

⚒ Someone’s making a game where you destroy nature to build parking lots!
Get ready for America Simulator 2024, where every quaint neighborhood transforms into a sprawling mega car park! Who needs green spaces when you could have concrete as far as the eye can see? Pay up, folks—because in this game, the only winners are the ones with more parking spaces than trees!

🔎 Discovery of submerged bridge built by ancient humans rewrites Mediterranean island’s history
Well, turns out early settlers on Mallorca were real overachievers, building a bridge 1,600 years before they were even supposed to exist! Guess they figured, "Why wait for humans to show up when we can get a head start on infrastructure?" Who needs time travel when you’ve got ancient engineers!

🐕‍🦺 Paddy’s Corner

The dinosaur family are reunited…

Big news: Paddy’s dinosaur collection just doubled! His new dino toy finally united with his old one, and now he's got a Jurassic duo ready to roam the garden.

👾 Indie Game of the Week:

In my latest video, I jumped into A Webbing Journey, a super unique platformer where you play as a spider zipping around, webbing everything in sight. Naturally, I had a classic Josh AKA LetsGameItOut moment and pushed the web-slinging to its limits—and, well, let’s just say reality couldn’t handle it!

This physics-based sandbox lets you explore a giant house, spin insane web structures, and tackle oversized chores in the most chaotic ways possible. Spoiler: the more web, the more things break. Don’t miss it!

It’s time for a Bridge Review!

Hey, architects, can your creations photosynthesize? Didn’t think so.

Today, we're reviewing a bridge that literally grows itself: the Living Root Bridge in Meghalaya! Forget your fancy architects with their steel and glass—this bridge is made of living tree roots, trained over decades to form a sturdy, self-sustaining structure.

Despite taking decades to grow, these root bridges get stronger with age—unlike most modern designs that need constant repairs. And while typical bridges generate emissions during construction, this one’s busy absorbing carbon like an eco-warrior. Plus, walking on it feels like stepping into a fantasy movie set, minus the dragons (but don’t quote me on that).

Final Score: 9.2/10 🌿
It may take a while to build, but at least we don’t have to listen to any architects’ design pitches while we wait!

🏗 r/realcivilengineer Spotlight

Thanks to u/Almico1 on Reddit for sharing the strongest neighborhood in the Netherlands.

🤔 Thoughts from an Engineer