Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones are the Map Men, ready to explain geography to us and entertain us at the same time. This one is about Netherlands, which jutted out into the sea and resembled Swiss cheese for most of its history. The area of its land rose and fell with the whims of the ocean, and settling there was a problem when you could expect floods at any time. So the Dutch engineered dikes and dams to hold back the sea and create fertile farmland below sea level.
There's an epiphany that comes early in the video when I learned, for the first time, that Dutch windmills aren't there to grind grain. They aren't actually windmills at all, but pumps to control the water level! There' a 90-second skippable ad at 4:25. The last 90 seconds is promotional, too. (via Laughing Squid)
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Living Below Sea Level
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4 comments:
Never ever, in my life, never even down in my nether regions, did I think the word nether was in the name Netherlands.
Absolutely obvious when you know, not so clear when you had heard the name Netherlands first, before nether.
So easy to tether oneself to a post of lesser knowledge, rather than feather your world with vast tracts of knowledge and smart sounding facts.
Nether ... whatever !
The skippable ad ... was it for Monty Python ?
Ponders - oh is this how they aren't "windMILLs," because they don't mill, they are wind-powered pumps? I guess I could watch the video, but I'm mostly here for the visuals - neurology interferes with doing anything (including "just watching video") for long.
(No need to answer - this is me showing off, if I actually guessed the answer correctly, and looking silly if I didn't.)
It's not a riddle, but you are right.
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