The Beer Can (2023)(brr.fyi)
288 points by Michelangelo11 3 days ago | 52 comments
- stared 21 hours agoSo, from what I read, it's not that the bar can structure is special - it's more about the author's infatuation with. I resonate with that. I often find some structures (especially technical ones, occasionally - ruins) causing this kind of sensation. (Is there a word it?) Metal grid staircases, pipes often invoke it for me.
To some extend, I like these feelings also in some games (notably: Half Life, including Alyx and the remake Black Mesa).
Also - given current technology, both with both tech for scanning and creating models, and generative one - I would love to turn some real locations into "walking simulator games". As a side note, "The Vanishing of Ethan Carter" was based on a real location in Poland.
[-]- cnity 17 hours agoWhen I moved to London I used to love listening to ambient electronic music and taking the tube at night, and many of the quieter lines and back routes up emergency staircases and so on evoke what I suspect is a similar feeling (at least I think it's similar because it too reminds me of the HL aesthetic).
I wonder if growing up with particular kinds of video game experiences produces a particular affinity with certain situations in real life.
[-]- exmadscientist 11 hours agoI think places like these take on totally different feelings for people who actually have to live or work with them (like the author) versus people who are just passing through. They're a lot less... romantic... when they're your daily life, but that by no means makes your connections weaker. Just different, in a way that's really hard to reify. At least for me.[-]
- Aeolun 7 hours agoI feel like I’ve had this feeling quite often. I’ll say it definitely happens in office buildings pre and post being hired.
- MomsAVoxell 19 hours agoThe beer can feels a bit like stacks I’ve worked on. Connects everything together, is cheaply made, often requires Herculean effort to keep functional at ground level, has a utility elevator only for special things, and becomes an object of cult-like obsession by anyone who has to labor under its cover.
Could say that pretty much all of my projects have some kind of beer can or other.
- kulahan 13 hours agoI wonder how much you would enjoy exploring old mountain bunkers. I bet there is a TON of that aesthetic. Might be worth a look to see if you can find any!
- semolino 13 hours agoMaybe this is a clue toward understanding my recent inexplicable obsession with shipping containers.
- inanutshellus 19 hours agoCan't view this in any other context than John Carpenter's The Thing (1982).[-]
- mixmastamyk 16 hours agoAlso the Empire Strikes Back, ‘80.
- lqet 23 hours agoGreat post. I have been intrigued by the life in Antarctica (especially the people living this life) ever since watching Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World. This place seems to attract a fascinating variety of characters, many of which seem to have sprung from a 19th-century adventure novel (or even from one of the expeditions of the Heroic Age).
- dswalter 3 days agoThe title is correct, but it obscures the fact that it's discussing life in Antarctica!
Living in antarctica is one of our closest analogues to long-term space habitation.
[-]- inanutshellus 19 hours agoAgreed. Wasn't interested in the article at all based on the zero-context title. Glanced at the comments anyway and ... Antarctica?[-]
- mixmastamyk 16 hours agoNote the brrr.fyi, it’s a long running series.
- a_t48 24 hours agoThat's a sick job. I had been wondering if there's roles for IT in Antarctica, but I fear my wife may be angry if I dip off to an isolated continent for a year.[-]
- IAmBroom 19 hours agoI have a friend who's worked in Antarctica as IT support (US) for...ever. Decades.
He may or may not have been one of the last two people to ever set foot in the original McMurdo Station, before the weight of snow crushed it. Cool stories.
- rexarex 14 hours agoThey have a hard time staffing the IT roles usually. Throw an app in, you can just do a 90ish day ‘summer’ deployment at some stations.
- lemonlearnings 21 hours agoI saw one advertised in 2001. Regret not applying! Bonus is it was only 3 months in Antartica I think and then rest not.
- pelagicAustral 20 hours agoBritish Antarctic Survey post IT roles every year...
- debo_ 21 hours agoThis would be such a great Doom map.
- Freak_NL 1 day agoWait, why are things getting buried to the extent that the ground level seems to rise? Does the snow level just gradually increase there? Does the station sink?[-]
- Pyrodogg 24 hours agoWind driven snow and drifting will continue to bury things. Check out the South Pole Topography post (and the rest of the blog) https://brr.fyi/posts/south-pole-topography
- tomaskafka 23 hours agoYes it does, and the process of regular re-raising it is fascinating.
- morninglight 20 hours agoAnd, where is the septic tank?[-]
- morninglight 20 hours agoHere is the wastewater treatment plant at McMurdo. https://brr.fyi/posts/wastewater-plant
- jgalt212 21 hours agoGiven that sea levels are rising, it seems that mean snow and ice levels should fall. So on average, foundations should get more exposed rather than buildings getting buried.[-]
- Cthulhu_ 20 hours agoVaries by location, it seems the south pole isn't warmed up enough yet for that to happen. Big chunks are melting and drifting off though.
- ge96 16 hours ago-80F damn
I worked in an ice cream factory (palletizer) before I think that was -30F and you had to wear these cooler suits, that was brutal with frozen nostrils
- juujian 20 hours agoNotably in peril now, research in the Antarctic, where climate change is more apparent than in most places.
Edit, meant to add this: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01055-6
- Maxion 1 day agoThat was such a great blog
- oniony 18 hours agoWhy did I just watch a video of first-person perspective of someone climbing a few flights of stairs?
- metadat 18 hours agoWhat prevents unbounded frosty ice buildup in the unheated areas?[-]
- OskarS 16 hours agoI was wondering about the water and sewage pipes the author mentioned going through these unheated areas. Are the pipes heated? Or just so well-insulated that the contents doesn't have time to freeze before reaching their destination?
- baggachipz 20 hours agoOnce the elevated station becomes buried, will they build another one on top? When will the madness end!? It's south pole stations all the way down![-]
- twic 20 hours agoFrom a quick look at the construction, it seems that is the case.
The British and German stations (and perhaps others) use a different approach, standing on mobile legs that can be raised, allowing the snow foundation underneath to be built up:
https://youtu.be/LSCCi9ZhnZs?si=_nsyN5qfFeT-dCUa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6AfUJLtPcA
The British one can also be towed around if it needs to be somewhere else:
[-]- Cthulhu_ 20 hours agoI suspect this one can be raised and lowered too, given it's on piles.
- _da_ 16 hours agoIt's designed to be raised. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen–Scott_South_Pole_Stat...
- ortusdux 20 hours agobrr.fyi - perfect domain name
- jmux 18 hours agoI love reading these, for some reason the super remote mundane infrastructure is fascinating
- rodolphoarruda 19 hours agoThis is the kind of website I would sign-up for a monthly newsletter with updates.[-]
- layer8 17 hours agoWhy don’t you? https://brr.fyi/subscribe[-]
- rodolphoarruda 16 hours agoFor some weird reason I didn't see the option right there... ugh
- philipwhiuk 18 hours agoI'm intrigued by the author's potential views on Camp Century.
- nancyminusone 18 hours ago>-58°C
Probably a good contender for "coldest stairwell on earth"
- quickthrowman 16 hours agoI wonder if the electrical engineers used ambient temperature correction factors when designing the electrical system, -80F would let you use substantially smaller conductors.
The NEC allows conductor ampacity to be adjusted 1.2x if the ambient temp is below 50F, but that’s where the table stops, but I’m guessing lower temps would allow for even higher ampacities.
1.2x more ampacity would let you use #12s for a 30A circuit instead of #10s.
- antisthenes 19 hours agoThis is so cool. I think South/North pole expeditions/stations are up there with space science in terms of the awe and wonder they evoke.
Really feels like old internet too.
- maxlin 20 hours agoInteresting article just for how the structures tell stories about history of the place, under such unique constraints.
Browsing the site made me find the "Engineering for slow internet" article too, which appears to have been a big thing here lol. Very interesting! Dunno if Elon's Starlink already one-shotted that whole issue, but I imagined a whole remote access piece of software that could avoid a lot of the related pains ... Something across lines of remote sending low bitdepth very compressed images back, and only on user interaction, clicks / typing in the input fields working in "turns" instead of realtime-by-default. Constraining the bitrate even more, the returned data could be just rects with AI labeling them either "some graphic" or "text" with the text content of the image only being transmitted. The remote could also send basic updates based on reading the screen like "page loaded and visual of it has been static for x seconds" to avoid wasting any data.
- dchow1 18 hours agothe photos really bring it all to life - thanks!
- vicentwu 20 hours agoI like the vibe.
