Pub Trivia - AKA things that may be beyond the scope of Moorey’s knowledge

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

No takers? Well I'm off out so the floor's open.

The answer was Roosevelt Island.

 

[grimzentide]

Name 3 bands that contains siblings..

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

Orbital, AC/DC, The Veronicas

 

[grimzentide]

Orbital, AC/DC, The Veronicas

That will work Good job.

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

What city has the most skyscrapers in the world?

 

[johnny]

How do we define Skyscraper and who collected this data and when (not being a tightarse, I'm actually interested in this topic)

There's about six it could be.

I'll go ahead and say Tokyo.

 

[scblack]

Hong Kong?

New York? seems too obvious.

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

Wikipedia's list is taken at 150m and higher. There are a few other lists kicking around that have lower thresholds however it's the same winner in every case.

 

[johnny]

Which isn't Tokyo, I gather.

Well it has to be one of:

Tokyo
Chicago
NYC
Beijing
Shanghai
Chongqing
HK
Sao Paulo
Mexico City

and possibly Taipei as an outside favourite.



fuck it, I'll say Sao Paulo.

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

And SCblack takes it with Hong Kong.

Wikipedia's threshold of +150m has Hong Kong at 300 buildings compared with #2 city New York's 187.

Construction data website Emporis takes +100m as their benchmark and Hong Kong wins again with 1,268 against New York's 600

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

Which isn't Tokyo, I gather.

Well it has to be one of:

Tokyo
Chicago
NYC
Beijing
Shanghai
Chongqing
HK
Sao Paulo
Mexico City

and possibly Taipei as an outside favourite.



fuck it, I'll say Sao Paulo.

For the record here's the top ten using the 100m+ threshold.

1 Hong Kong 1,268
2 New York City 600
3 Tokyo 411
4 Chicago 295
5 Dubai 249
6 Shanghai 241
7 Seoul 227
8 Toronto 214
9 Singapore 171
10 Osaka 143

 

[johnny]

That's pretty awesome for a few reasons.

The idea of the world's biggest city gets debated ad nauseam with cities like Tokyo, Chongqing, Sao Paulo and Mexico City having arguably taken that title out in the past. How to define a city is interesting - is it population, is it urbanisation, is it density and how do you separate cities from suburbia and when two cities are conjoined by suburbia does that make them one city, etc.

What is interesting here is that HK is nowhere near the biggest city in the world yet it has the largest concentration of tall buildings. That is likely driven by two considerations, the confined space with which to build on and the capital available for construction. Then you have demand for real estate, the proximity of the largest national population and densities close by, being surrounded by huuuge economies, being an excellent warm water deep port city, etc. etc.

For a geographer/sociologist/political thinker/etc. this issue is super interesting.

 

[scblack]

Woohoo, I guessed Number 1 & 2.

Keeping on skyscrapers:
The Woolworth Building in Manhattan was the World's tallest when built in 1913 by F.W.Woolworth. It cost $13.5m in 1913 dollars (lots).

What was remarkable about how he paid for the building?

 

[grimzentide]

What was remarkable about how he paid for the building?

Blackjack and hookers?

 

[scblack]

Blackjack and hookers?

No, its not Bender!

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

That's pretty awesome for a few reasons.

The idea of the world's biggest city gets debated ad nauseam with cities like Tokyo, Chongqing, Sao Paulo and Mexico City having arguably taken that title out in the past. How to define a city is interesting - is it population, is it urbanisation, is it density and how do you separate cities from suburbia and when two cities are conjoined by suburbia does that make them one city, etc.

What is interesting here is that HK is nowhere near the biggest city in the world yet it has the largest concentration of tall buildings. That is likely driven by two considerations, the confined space with which to build on and the capital available for construction. Then you have demand for real estate, the proximity of the largest national population and densities close by, being surrounded by huuuge economies, being an excellent warm water deep port city, etc. etc.

For a geographer/sociologist/political thinker/etc. this issue is super interesting.

Yup, there's not a lot of flat land to build on and the terms of Britain's ownership of the colony ('permanent' colonies on Hong kong Island and Kowloon with a 99 year lease on the new territories) meant that most of the construction and investment were further concentrated on the areas that people thought would remain British forever. Add in a shitload of banking cash and a population not overly concerned with close living conditions and you've got a BASE jumpers paradise.

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

Woohoo, I guessed Number 1 & 2.

Keeping on skyscrapers:
The Woolworth Building in Manhattan was the World's tallest when built in 1913 by F.W.Woolworth. It cost $13.5m in 1913 dollars (lots).

What was remarkable about how he paid for the building?

He used his 'EverydayRewards' points

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

He paid cash?

 

[johnny]

Paid in Doubloons?

 

[scblack]

He paid cash?

Yup. That's what I was told.

But not quite. He set up a company with his bankers as a finance vehicle to build the building, but prior to completion he bought out all shares in the company, therefore having zero debt prior to purchase, and owning it outright.

But your answer is right, he owned it debt free - take it away.