The Fake Buildings That Hide LA’s Massive Oil Industry

[@zacharyjensen7661]

Imagine breaking into a house, planning to steal some valuables, but instead finding an electrical substation.

[@ashmellow78]

steal the electrical substation

[@chrisbourque8196]

You seem to have mistaken Toronto for an American city ;)

[@gearloose703]

With the price of copper today, gutting transformers is way better business than breaking into pretty much anything else.

[@TehKaiser]

Texas has those.

[@wishivme3252]

@@chrisbourque8196 alot of houses get broken into in toronto too lol

[@thetransplanner]

My hometown disguises sewer pumping stations as residential homes, but trust me, the smell gives them away.

[@drewzerna4087]

A little ironic that California, probably the state with the most restrictive regulation on everything pollutant, allows millions of barrels to be extracted every year 😉

[@thattallassnikka]

I remember seeing some oil being pumped out in the Target parking lots 😂

[@JJtoob]

Huh, that explains that building I could see from my room in the Queen Mary, and also, a pointless control tower looking building in my city.

[@thomasnorge2245]

Imagine living in a neighbourhood with only oil rigs as neighbours.

[@gfuterfas]

There's a huge building up the street from me and it doesn't have windows and no one uses it, so I've wondered what it was. It says LADWP though. it's a completely fake building on Pico Blvd near Fairfax. And sure enough you showed a picture of it.

[@_Mr.Tuvok_]

There’s a communications tower in a neighboring town that’s enclosed in a structure that looks like the Washington Monument

[@zinnstigertownmowers780]

California raises a fuss about pollution but they allow this?? Smh. I don't wanna hear nothing else about California restrictions on emissions

[@masterxious6419]

Oil is bad, lithium is good. Got it.

[@darthmaul216]

Lithium is still bad. But it’s better then oil

[@crochetcocoking4275]

I actually didn't know that and never even heard of it.

[@rebeccaaldrich3396]

Wow! Thanks for the info. I had no idea.

[@ArmyofSeaturtles]

and some how gas is 5.20$ a gallon here

[@daneblackburn2803]

1/2 of Houston does not look like that. That's a shot of Baytown.

[@AwokenEntertainment]

I always knew those windowless buildings in the middle of the city were sus.. people don't really think of LA as an oil hub - but growing up I had a family friend whose wealth came from their grandpa striking oil by surprise in his backyard.. they never had to work a day in their lives

[@Tubes12AX7k]

'Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea...'

[@AGDinCA]

LOL! Those floating oil platforms off the coast of Long Beach are literally called The Oil Islands. We all know they are pumping oil, but the islands do look rather nice from a distance. However, if you drive your boat up close to one if the islands, you'll see some gross foam in the water.

[@alexander-mauricemillamlae4567]

Why didn't you guys call it The Oilands

[@noisycarlos]

@@alexander-mauricemillamlae4567 that's how Scottish people say islands anyway

[@polishsmolish19]

Yeah from Long Beach you can see them right from the beach

[@GringoLocoo_]

@@noisycarlos lmao

[@Djuntas]

Arent they litterally ruining the beach and water then?

[@WSleeman]

As a local pilot, we actually use a lot of these as visual reference points to tell ATC where we are. They tend to be fairly large structures that stand out well from the air, but a lot of the other local pilots I've chatted with don't realise why.

[@jerry3790]

This is like when you build a city in Civ V but then after oil is revealed on the map it turns out that your city is on top of it

[@ValiantValium]

"I know we got like 12 pop here, but in 10 turns, all of you will have become settlers, or else."

[@Deilwynna]

in civ 6, if you place a district on a hex that later is revealed to have a late game resource, it automatically gathers that resource when its discovered with the district remaining in place. doesnt matter if its the city center district, cultural wonder or even a housing district, it will still automatically work the resource when it pops up under it

[@MrGilang100]

@@Deilwynna well, like this video then.

[@p00bix]

Iraq IRL It sucks how badly Iraq got fucked over by Colonialism, Poverty, the Saddam Regime, and War. Basra could scarcely be more perfectly positioned to among the world's great metropolises.

[@yusufhanif3704]

Basra was one of the world’s greatest metropolises, I believe sometime right after WW2 Ireland was actually poorer than Iraq. Colonialism, foreign, and internal agendas messed that all up and on top of that Iraqis will have to deal with climate change, dwindling water resources, dying rivers, and desertification. There few countries my heart hurts harder for than Iraq.

[@ice319]

3:22 I'm a supervisor for the New York Subway. I've been to this building before. It is literally a shell of a building over the ventilation. It blew my mind when I first started working here and I was shown it. BTW, we in NYC pronounce it Joral-Lemon St, not Jor-a-lemon lol

[@yeri786]

I live a few blocks away from one of those oil drilling sites. Yes, it's ugly, but the good news for home owners is that the oil company who owns it must transport their oil from the well to a refinery using pipes. When those pipes go through your property, they have to pay your "rent" for the privilege of using your land. The amount they pay is proportionate to oil prices: high prices mean they may be paying hundreds or thousands of dollars. Pretty nice side income for doing nothing.

[@EebstertheGreat]

In Ohio, they just buy your mineral/subsurface rights. But they don't buy them from you, because you never had them; somebody else sold those rights long ago, so they didn't come with the house when you bought it.

[@jarjarbinks6018]

I suppose that would offset the potential impact oil rigs have on home values

[@depressed.lemonade]

passive income 😈

[@User31129]

Kind of like being a farmer and letting the power company put wind turbines on your land. I'd do that if I was a farmer.

[@yeri786]

@@User31129 I think that's a fair comparison if you tweak it slightly. You've already got wind turbines up when you bought the property and just inherit then rights to the profits from them. It's a sweet deal unless you want to, say, put in a pool which would require digging up the yard, but you can't because the oil pipe is in the way and it can't be moved.

[@KJAYG]

One of my favourite hidden pieces is for cellphone towers. They’re often disguised as palm trees in places like Hawaï, or pine trees in other places. Similarly they often get put alongside a church and disguise the tower as a giant cross.

[@Saladdressing67]

the pine trees are hilarious cause theyre so bad. theyll put one up in an area with all oak trees and like no pine trees, and its also like 4x taller then all the surrounding trees. theyre just comically awful

[@CJ-fb5ni]

@@Saladdressing67 Ikr I live a very forested area and the freaking pine tower is still 2-3times larger than the surrounding trees and has like 10 "branches" its so funny.

[@johnfromthewest]

So interesting side note, not all of the oil rigs are hidden, especially in east L.A. it's really not weird to see totally normal looking oil rigs

[@andie_pants]

Now I've got the Cheech Marin song playing in my head. :-P

[@mikebar42]

Do u know what happens if they have a blowout in the building?

[@albear972]

Yeah, because wealthy people don't live in East LA ese!

[@ronaldweasley6175]

yep. lots of oil rigs east and northeast of mirror park

[@mikebar42]

@@andie_pants low ride ER

[@Pedantic2025]

As a Texan, I can confirm that the schools definitely describe crude oil as a vegetable. Part of the food pyramid.

[@TulliverS]

*food derrick

[@jarradscarborough7915]

*crude pyramid

[@s9josh778]

I hope this is a hyperbole. I've heard it said seriously twice now.

[@ricky-sanchez]

*To make sure you consume your daily oil and minerals.

[@Pedantic2025]

@@s9josh778 I was only half joking when I made the comment, lol

[@ryanm.191]

In Switzerland, especially along the borders, there are fake barns/chalets/houses that are actually armoury stores, artillery guns or other military supplies. They’re disguised to blend into and some actually have slightly transparent windows and you can see into them Edit: you can tell which ones have artillery guns, they have a strong concrete lower floor, and the windows are the holes they stick the barrel through

[@xX_MC_OvU_PvP_YT_Xx]

Round these parts brother you just go to any old Walmart and they'll have the same supplies

[@Carewolf]

Well, they are not designed that way to look pretty, but to confuse any particularly confused french army that accidentality invades.

[@jabber1990]

That's cool. Other countries should take note

[@R_V_]

Yes, for example "The Tim Traveller" made a video on a fort disguised as a house on the road between Geneva and Nyon.

[@tenalafel]

they also have airbases disguised as motorway tunnels and so many bunkers disguised as other things that's difficult to count them all.

[@honkhonk8009]

Vancouver does this too, but with those BC Hydro boxes/transformers typ eshit that just sit on the sidewalks. Their painted with some graphic to look like some grass or some random art shit. Its not supposed to actually blend in, but its supposed to be barely noticeable.

[@Unownshipper]

My personal favorite is cell phone towers disguised as trees. They're always about 3-4 times taller than all the trees around them, and stand out as awkwardly as an undercover narcotics cop at a rave, but there's something hilariously charming about these failed attempts to blend in. Edit: Wow, this is undoubtedly my most liked and replied to comment I've ever made on KZbin. And it's not even specifically about the video's subject. I guess people just really have thoughts on monopoles. Thanks everyone!

[@TheAtomBuilds]

Ya and they have like four branches at the top

[@Kamushy]

they have these in aus too they look really dumb

[@j-network1214]

the ones around here are made to look like palm trees, but only so much as I can tell what they are supposed to look like

[@DanburyDK]

I noticed these years ago in Connecticut. Also flagpole antennas.

[@SoCalSeaChaser]

I think it’s in El Monte, but there’s one that someone put the branches on a “pine tree” wrong, so it looks like an upside down triangle 😆

[@samiramin3463]

Alright, now that episode of Saved By The Bell where a company was going to put an oil rig in the middle of their football field makes sense. I thought it was a ludicrous premise.

[@moronsaltable]

Woops!! The judge granted a summary judgement against the plaintiff and the school district was reimbursed $450,000 for legal fees. One of the lawyers who helped in the Erin Brockovich PG&E case was Tom Girardi who's character was Kurt Potter still owes money to the estate of Ed Masry

[@gNatflaps]

if you’ve ever driven from LAX to hollywood on city streets you’ll also see just the massive, still out in the open oil fields dotting the hillside

[@THRDNL]

well that’s kenneth hahn for ya 🤷‍♂️

[@gNatflaps]

@@Stevie-J would you walk the 2 and a half miles across the inglewood oil fields?

[@zonaryorange8734]

@@THRDNL underrated park imo, but i’m glad the oil fields keep people away because the views on that park are phenomenal

[@tfinkens]

you seem them through the north side of ORange county, as well.

[@RONPEE-STINGER]

In watts too

[@wach2]

0:24 hey thats where I live!

[@erikapauley7391]

The Long Beach oil platforms were designed to look like hotels and were actually designed to blend into the Long Beach skyline. And they kinda do a good job because practically every visitor asks how they can go visit them (spoiler: you can’t)

[@Network126]

Just swim over 🤣

[@ciello___8307]

@@Network126 not worth it haha

[@nemou4985]

I wonder if some hotel would make more money than a drillling site...

[@robertjones7419]

Living in the middle of a massive oil field and paying some of the highest gas prices in the nation…

[@homeskillet3173]

Midland?

[@taliwalt5332]

I grew up two blocks from that "beige rectangle" and only recently discovered that my parents still receive quarterly checks because that kept the mineral rights when they sold my childhood home. So weird.

[@443DM]

how much is it every quarter?

[@geton9882]

Very cool

[@klayman2]

@@443DM depends how much is pumped out, when i was in Texas we got $300 every quarter for our rights

[@johndc2998]

@@breakingthemasks 😂😂😂

[@KB-ke3fi]

@@klayman2 yeah us too here in west TX. we have 8,000 acres with 37 pumps. Most of it is sold to California refiners because it's closer to Long Beach than Houston. Ours was $1,500 each well per year...so about $55,000 a year lease and the federal tax rate was high, but Biden administration made us cap the drilling when he got in office and put everyone out of work, so now nothing for us and the government gets no tax money, and now Long Beach has to get oil from overseas at a much higher rate and the oil is dirty oil and takes a lot more money to refine as opposed to Texas sweet crude which is cheap to refine, so the refineries have to pollute more to refine the dirty a$$ foreign oil so the price goes way up for gasoline and plastics because they don't use Texas crude anymore.

[@kimConrad4643]

I live in Huntington Beach, a bit south of LA, and I still see pumps everywhere on every day drives, even in the downtown area. The name for all the sports teams at my local Highschool was the “Oilers”

[@vale.antoni]

London doesn't only have vents for the tube, they have entire plots bought to have open tunnels on, where the smoke could exit the system (from back when they had steam locomotives pulling the carriages in a pretty enclosed tunnel). And for it not to be just a hole between 2 Victorian houses with TRAINS going up and down, they put up Victorian looking hose facades made of essentially cardboard (Same idea as seen in Coyote and the Roadrunner)

[@Lemonaitor]

the lie of leinster gardens! I was so disappointed Sam didn't mention this.

[@xander1052]

@@Lemonaitor same, there's also all the ventillation shafts for the central line and co. dotting the streets of central london.

[@PhilLesh69]

Most cities also put transformers, telephone switches and other public utilities in buildings that look exactly like all the other neighboring buildings. For years I thought a house near mine was really just a house, but one day as I was walking my dog I caught a peek inside as a Pepco utility worker pulled his truck into the garage and I could see there was no wall between the garage and the house, and all kinds of transformers and big cables. They even built light boxes around the front windows which had curtains and everything, so they could have lights go on an off to make it look lived in.

[@pwhnckexstflajizdryvombqug9042]

He didn't mention the London building because it's probably the most over mentioned one of the lot. In fact it is mentioned so much that it kind of defeats the whole purpose of covering it up in the first place. The real special "fake facades" are the ones we still don't know about.

[@mastertrams]

Ah yes, that old prank pulled on junior postmen! Go and deliver post to No.14 Leinster Gardens (that is the right house number, isn't it?)

[@Ch0c0lateChimp]

Thank you for finally putting my mind to rest. I always knew that the "Synagogue" near Pico x Robertson was an oil derrick but I never knew the massive building near Pico x Fairfax was one too, I always just assumed it was the world's most depressing-looking office building.

[@jabber1990]

i'm glad to see that the oil industry is putting their infinite amount of money to good use!

[@i2rtw]

If only it were infinite.

[@jabber1990]

@@hamsandwichindahouse ...and how'd that work out for Venezuela?

[@i2rtw]

@@hamsandwichindahouse lol. I see what you did there.

[@indicus9075]

@@hamsandwichindahouse id rather not be like venezuela

[@johncampbell829]

@@hamsandwichindahouse lol!! funny!

[@DanRustle]

0:29 uhhh no half on houston does not look like that, thats not even houston, its more on the coast by galveston

[@darkplayer2557]

He was using that as an example

[@UrMom-jb7vl]

Yeah it only looks like that on the ship channel along Buffalo bayou.

[@DanTehBro]

Imagine planning to go to an air show but it gets cancelled because of an oil spill

[@usensitivead]

@GABRIELLA what?

[@Minty_Fern]

It was a huge bummer because it was one of the incredibly rare shows where both the blue angels and thunderbirds were going to perform.

[@dragonace119]

@@usensitivead Its a bot.

[@burgerking3392]

It was super disappointing. I was waiting the entire year for it and 😭

[@GAURAV25855ify]

2 words for the Deepwater Horizon

[@skie6282]

This is actually extremely smart strategically too. Imagine an enemy wanting to destroy oil rigs, they either need to find them to target them, or bomb the whole city of civilians...

[@teamextremepk]

Except the location of all of them is publicly available😂 it's more to visually hide them

[@YoutubeChannel-ll6sw]

nah information like this video makes it pretty easy to take these out without taking out civilians

[@JohnA891]

Why destroy a rig, couple of 2000lb surprises at the destination makes every pump useless. Don't attack the source, demolish the destination.

[@meppho]

That's using civilians as human shield. "extremely smart".

[@Partyrockscool]

I thought LA was fake in the first place, thanks for clearing up that it isn’t

[@dannypipewrench533]

No, you are actually right. Los Angeles is all of the infrastructure, mainly the highways, but also all of the other stuff like this. The buildings just happen to be there. The capital of Los Angeles is Interstate 405, because California sucks, Los Angeles sucks harder, and Interstate 405 is the hardest sucking thing in existence.

[@flp322]

No that's Bielefeld, Germany

[@TheWeekndGaming]

the lakers are a fake team so would make sense for the whole city to be fake

[@whathell6t]

@@TheWeekndGaming Are you being serious or joking? Have you actually visited Pico-Union, Lincoln Heights, Paicoma, El Sereno, Sylmar, West Adams, Leimert Park, Hyde Park, Figueroa Corridor, Ethiopian Corridor, El Salvador Corridor, Filipinotown, Koreatown, Tehrangeles, Virgil Village, Cypress Park, Heritage Square, Lakeview Terrance-Hansen Dam, Green Meadows, Vermont Knolls, Vermont Square, Central-Alameda, Harbor Gateway, Wilmington, San Pedro, Boyle Heights, etc; of Los Angeles, CA?

[@TheWeekndGaming]

@@whathell6t no i havent cause it’s not real

[@lucykwiatek5159]

Sam Yorty calling a petroleum derrick "civic beauty" is EXTREMELY on-brand.

[@Am-Not-Jarvis]

Sam Yorty was LA's first part-time, absentee mayor. The second was Eric Garcetti.

[@lucykwiatek5159]

@@Am-Not-Jarvis As a great man once said to LA pols, "I yield my time, fuck you."

[@theyoutubecommentator7733]

How civic is civic beauty in honda civics?

[@toyocolla]

@@theyoutubecommentator7733 depends on how well you tune it

[@kzang386]

@@theyoutubecommentator7733 rice/10

[@sameoldcircus]

I remember being a teen and Signal Hill when oil derricks became housing. At nights we'd occasionally wander around the construction site and climb on the equipment

[@leogrievous]

3:30 lol I literally live 2mins away from that sculpture and never noticed.

[@NoJusticeNoPeace]

They've also started disguising cellphone towers as plastic trees. I hate it. There is an authentic beauty to industrial architecture, an unapologetic paean to function and utilitarianism. I don't need my infrastructure to look like ticky-tacky suburban kitsch.

[@AGDinCA]

Started? My friend, that's been going on for at least a decade.

[@demoniack81]

They've been doing this for ages m8

[@michaelmccarthy4615]

People don't notice anything above their head unless they are looking for something

[@inCawHoots]

I’ve always wondered what those towers in The Long Beach islands were. They seemed like bird preservations or something. They looked ominous or hiding something.

[@jeremymurphy7320]

I worked in the communication tower business for 12 years and yeah, they're not very attractive. One tower owner decided that they'd have their 180' tower painted a shade of blue that matched the sky. It stood out worse than the standard galvanized finish.

[@Yawyna124]

There are some in my area that are disguised as older coniferous trees and they pass pretty well. Wouldn't even cross your mind until you scrutinize them more, since it isn't exactly unheard of for there to be tall elder trees at the tops of hills. I've heard that success can be a bit more mixed for other sorts, though.

[@marcellkovacs5452]

I've seen GSM towers disguised as palm trees in tropical areas

[@juliogonzo2718]

You would think that would be an aircraft hazard

[@stephenroberts1776]

@@juliogonzo2718 Its probably so badly done its not even a hazard😂. Big blue tower on a cloudy day

[@filanfyretracker]

@@juliogonzo2718 I suspect they are shorter than the height the FAA requires one to consider for aircraft.

[@robertmagpizza]

Just casually dropping my hometown Nürnberg XD awesome to hear it!!

[@omarkorayem6611]

One way that cell phone towers are "hidden" in the Middle East is by making them look like palm trees. Of course it's easy to tell that they aren't palm trees because of how much taller and straight they are.

[@JonReevesLA]

They do that in L.A., too.

[@angelrobles7201]

They do that in Mexico too. Guess they do that everywhere.

[@MottyGlix]

I've seen that in New Jersey and in Maryland, along (or on the medians of) highways.

[@brookeking8559]

In New England many cell phone ground stations are inside the steeples of old churches on hills. If the church didn’t have an adequate steeple for the purpose or had no steeple, the ground station operator paid to construct what’s needed. The ground station operators pay handsome rent to the churches whose steeples they utilize.

[@brookeking8559]

@@Stevie-J LOL! I never thought of it that way. If the signal is bad, should one ask for forgiveness or for a blessing?

[@pobbbb]

LA really is one of the worlds stickiest cities

[@captainmacmellon2333]

that and Las Vegas

[@vincenttt8289]

Immediately after the Great Molasses flood, it was Boston

[@tobiasrud]

@@vincenttt8289 this guy Sam O' Nellas

[@skenzyme81]

Especially the Valley. Avoid couches.

[@Ginrikuzuma]

must be all the crap on the floor

[@calebhutchison8915]

I wish you would have included the El Segundo Offshore Terminal. To maintain the attractiveness on the shore from Santa Monica to Manhattan Beach, chevrons oil refinery in El Segundo has underground pipes that go a few miles out under the beaches and into the ocean. Oil tanker ships like the one I used to work on drop anchor at the end of these pipes and the refinery specifically employs people whose job it is to get on a launch boat and connect the ship while it is anchored in the ocean. The oil keeps flowing and the beachgoers have no idea.

[@GAURAV25855ify]

Diu know Louisiana Oklahoma and Alaska are also oil and gas driven states as well Oklahoma is a vineyard for rich Texans

[@seanthe100]

@@GAURAV25855ify the difference is none of them have 10 million people living right on top of the industry.

[@oilman5578]

@@GAURAV25855ify yep add in Arkansas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, for a bit New York, some in Idaho, Colorado, some in Montana, pretty a bunch of the East Coast. (There is actually the potential for a north sea sized field off the east coast but people don't want rigs in thier backyard).

[@brookeking8559]

In New England many cell phone ground stations are inside the steeples of old churches on hills. If the church didn’t have an adequate steeple for the purpose or had no steeple, the ground station operator paid to construct what’s needed. The ground station operators pay handsome rent to the churches whose steeples they utilize.

[@leerman22]

lol they pay rent to god, in a manner of speaking

[@ctk3316]

The irony For being so stereo typically progressive and green LA’s literally drilling in their own city

[@safebox36]

We have facade buildings in London for when the subway trains used to use steam and needed somewhere to vent. Somewhat ironically most of them are in the more expensive neighbourhoods, where residents didn't want a subway tunnel passing through when they were originally built.

[@violenceisfun991]

@GABRIELLA wasteman

[@maquettemusic1623]

Subway? Underground you mean

[@will7its]

Imagine that......

[@unbanned6175]

@@maquettemusic1623 sub = under. Way = road. So maybe, but maybe those lines go specifically under roads, which would make them technically a subway

[@unbanned6175]

@@maquettemusic1623 they call it the tube over there though

[@jackshofner8580]

Texas public schools also consider people who live in LA vegetables

[@Tbug20]

I live somewhat close to LA and its perfectly normal to see a bunch of those see-sawing oil things just off the freeway

[@ethanclupper7034]

Those are called pumpjacks, you probably don't care but there is the name

[@Tbug20]

@@ethanclupper7034 the more you know

[@katieandkevinsears7724]

I call them nodding donkeys.

[@Ch0c0lateChimp]

@@katieandkevinsears7724 I called them rope hammers

[@hackarma2072]

"The most american solution : Keep drilling for oil and just cover it up ! Like literally... cover it up" I had a good laugh from this one 🤣

[@leerman22]

They're just hiding it from Karen.

[@sandersson2813]

Why not? Its hidden not because they are covering it up, but to make it look more attractive.

[@rosevelvet4357]

This is some good content my dude. In hindsight it makes a lot of sense that certain things need to exist but people don’t want to look at so they just hide them. Now down a rabbit hole trying to see if there’s anything in my country like this

[@rimeeny]

as a houstonian I must say the oil rigs + other facilities are more on the way to Galveston/surfside than like right by the city

[@alessandro7805]

There was a Simpson episode about that. America is a joke 😂😂😂

[@Krisjoverovovejovovichtski]

Ouch. Its regrettable its in a state but its not a joke

[@soggylegos8545]

Alternative title: How Fake Buildings Hide LA'S Slicky Icky

[@alkali99]

"sipping that spicy jurassic juice" is beautiful. i am going to try my hardest to work this phrase into conversation

[@jpaugh64]

@@SuperEgo1989 The effect is greater if you can successfully use the phrase in a conversation that someone else starts. That's really tricky to get right, but has a huge payoff if the joke lands.

[@nuclearcatbaby1131]

More like Pleistocene juice since that's when all the La Brea fossils come from

[@colincopland3665]

Fossil fuels are just vegetation that’s mellowed for a very long time. Long story short, check the odd corners of your refrigerator at home- you might catch some vegetables transitioning into fossil fuel.

[@jpaugh64]

😂 That's a *very* short version of a very long story!

[@krashd]

You need to add pressure in to the equation, organic material + time + compression = magic black sauce.

[@jpaugh64]

@@krashd Oh, yeah! 🤔 But that's not terse enough! It got cut from the final (movie) script! 😂

[@tiagoprado7001]

That's a decent effort, but I have to admit that oil platforms look way too cool to cover up. Land derrecks, not so much though. And living in Shipyard Town, Oil Sate, I get to see them in't harbour quite often. Though the drilling is done out of view in the middle of the ocean, I only see them when they're not operating.

[@ciello___8307]

It depends. In a residential area, they are an eyesore

[@dovechocolate8847]

“And most of them are digging for that sweet black, dinosaur vinegar.” Beautiful. 😂

[@JKTCGMV13]

“Which knowing my audience is probably most of you” I feel so called out

[@Dabidto]

This could be a plot for a hollywood movie. just saying. it's literally in their backyard.

[@moderndissident5930]

do this in detriot and they will just steal the oil rig

[@chinmaym1612]

Explains why you can't enter most buildings in GTA 5.

[@TeleportingBread161]

There is disappointing amount of gta5 references in this comment section

[@jpaugh64]

🤣 That always bothered me, but at least now I know why!

[@imlovely6522]

The fact that we get free documentaries on KZbin by Half as Interesting is truly a gift. 👍

[@aidancaughran]

If California has an oil industry then why are gas prices so high? In Texas they’re nearly the lowest in the country and I thought this was the reason why

[@nickwestbrook5913]

3:13 I thought that was a joke you made, and then I looked back to my screen and saw the article 😳

[@jpaugh64]

I know!!! It a citing a school newspaper, so it was a bunch of high-schoolers making that joke. It was their friends who were getting cancer, so I guess they're entitled to their humor.

[@Diwasho]

How does being around an oil drill site give you cancer? Does it release hazardous underground fumes into the air or something? Never heard of cancer risks from oil digging.

[@air2091]

Not an expert but if I had to guess I’d say it’s the fumes

[@LyonTheGreat]

I live in Toronto and used to have one of those hidden substations next to my condo. It was demolished a few years back and I moved from the area shortly thereafter, but I've always wondered what they did with the space. The plot of land was between two residential buildings and too small to do a lot with. I assume it has something to do with the Eglinton Crosstown LRT but I'm not sure.

[@GAURAV25855ify]

No offense Toronto has no oil Riggs

[@NebulonRanger]

In the east end, it was also really common to not know where your Bell CO or Rogers distribution building was, because they're often hidden in storefronts or doctor's office buildings, like the Bell one near where I used to live at Danforth and Main.

[@charleswoods2996]

This video triggered memories of working in an auto parts store in the vary late 80s to early 90s where I saw the word "synthetic" used on the labels of "motor oil", that as that auto parts store chain was going out of business thus the "oil shelves" went empty! However, obviously, "synthetic" oil can be produced in a laboratory rather than drilled up out of the Earth - for much less money!

[@LeftInBama]

All my life living in LA we all see the oil drills in random spots, but *I NEVER KNEW THEY WERE HIDDEN AROUND* 🤣

[@azeemkhan3642]

I thought at 2:03 he was gonna say: 1. They like synagogues 2. But they like money even more (potential oil money that is)

[@metropod]

There is a video on Defunctland about a small LA amusement park that used a working pump as their advertising by making it look like a grasshopper.

[@jdatlas4668]

Whee, oil wells, fake facades, and possibly intrigue! This sounds like the setup for a movie.

[@rileypugh6412]

Bro said: huge environmental disaster….? Don’t give a fuck. But I couldn’t go see planes fly around in loops so it’s bad

[@offichannelnurnberg5894]

Of all the videos on youtube, I least expected the Nuremberg U-Bahn to be mentioned in a video about drilling oil in LA.

[@RobinMueller1]

Alter same haha, der Brunnen kam aus dem nichts

[@offichannelnurnberg5894]

@@RobinMueller1 Wobei ich ja fast alles über die U-Bahn weiß, aber das mit dem Brunnen war tatsächlich etwas neues für mich, ich wusste zwar, dass da die U-Bahn fährt, aber dass der Brunnen was mit der U-Bahn zu tun hat war mir nicht klar.

[@aanmerie]

I remember seeing all the oil wells in Marina Del Rey before it was populated in the 70s. Also Balogna Creek is built sacred indian burial ground

[@Crossark1]

As a born-and-raises Texan, I love me some roasted crude with my morning longhorn steak.

[@NuclearGunner]

I had a friend from Texas who was living in the LA area for years, who had no idea about this, even though at the entrance to his job was a very poorly hidden one across the street.

[@davidthomson802]

Texas tea

[@eggseventy4905]

We have a lot of rigs where i live too and theyre not even hidden. They're even within like. a quarter mile of a local nature preserve. Kinda fucked up.

[@haroon420]

You missed the army bases in Switzerland disguised as normal houses but house massive gun batteries to defend against invasion!!!

[@davidthomson802]

and the "mountains". That's what they want you to think they are.

[@prime_optimus]

@@davidthomson802 Yeah. And the grains of sand are secretly a bunch of super small nuclear bombs.

[@kevurx]

So thats why you cant go to any house in GTA or any open world game? Just giant oil rigs?

[@peskypigeonx]

2:56 wow an oil derrick really gives me hope for the future, especially when global warming and pollution will just disappear when you can’t see it directly

[@waffle3632]

You mean the domestic oil that could make us energy independent and lower gas prices. Sure would be nice not to rely on Russian oil imports.

[@realkingofantarctica]

I hope that one day, all my years of walking into random buildings to see what's inside will pay off and I'll find one of these bad boys.

[@3lapsed]

And Wednesday the LA city council is going to vote on banning new oil drilling sites and phasing out these old ones. Really well timed HAI crew!

[@Chris0nF1re]

Time to fill my brain with more facts that I can annoy my friends and family with.

[@gtbkts]

Same. Muhahahahha

[@pandoraeve9751]

Big mood. (Though my father also listens to this channel and thus we often team up to just go on about a thing we learned about that's super cool and possibly annoying everyone else in the process who is not also like us.)

[@jpaugh64]

@@pandoraeve9751 You're lucky to have such a supportive dad! I hope to be like him someday!

[@svntn]

my “neighbor” is one of those electricity houses in Toronto. i love it honestly, only have one neighbor to worry about, and they’re a really cool family. no noise pollution either. couple trucks once in a while but thats it

[@zahdoma]

Imagine breaking into a house and literally striking oil

[@FalafelTheBurner]

It will be cool of new open-world games would use these as collectibles. Instead of looking for some obscure random graffiti in the middle of a dark alley, you would observe every structure you could see and figure out if any of them feels "off". It's a great way to encourage exploration without making it seem like a chore.

[@qactustick]

Why wouldn't it seem like a chore? Still sounds like basically the same thing to me.

[@FalafelTheBurner]

@@qactustick Well for one, they're basically huge, but just hidden in plain sight. You don't really need to go to every nook and cranny like most standard collectibles do. You can simply look for them by just looking at the skyline whenever you're driving off to somewhere else.

[@cyber_dragon_123]

*screams in The Witness*

[@megamaser]

Sounds like the most boring game ever.

[@tannernewbanks5961]

There’s an allegory here in regards to modern environmentalism… still trying to figure it out though.

[@jerseygunz]

Huh, so that episode of saved by the bell where they find oil at Bayside wasnt as unrealistic as I always thought it was…….. well the finding oil part, the fact they didn’t end up drilling is still unbelievable

[@ciello___8307]

I Dont really think a school district would approve an active oil drill on a school today

[@svchineeljunk-riggedschoon4038]

Jurassic juice sounds good, but oil actually comes mostly from the Carboniferous period.

[@nelsonricardo3729]

As a New Yorker, I always knew L.A. is fake, but I never realized the extent.

[@GAURAV25855ify]

LA is t fake the people living there might be but LA is real 2 nd largest city in USA

[@nuclearcatbaby1131]

I wonder if Potemkin villages are full of shit like this

[@miggzzz]

How else do you think they power the electric vehicles in Los Angeles 😂😂😂

[@Am-Not-Jarvis]

I live a couple blocks away from one of the many oil derricks in LA, but it's not cleverly hidden at all, and it's actually a huge issue for the community from a health perspective.

[@sandersson2813]

Why is it a health risk? A derrick pumps oil up a pipe into a container.

[@Am-Not-Jarvis]

@@sandersson2813 A study in Colorado found that people living within 500 feet of an oil and gas facility have a lifetime excess cancer risk eight times higher than the upper limit set by the Environmental Protection Agency. Denver Post article from 2018

[@sandersson2813]

@@Am-Not-Jarvis Theres similar studies for everything, for example peolle who live near to pylons, granite deposits, coal deposits, rubbish dumps etc. Who cares and who the fuck live just 500ft from an oil facility? 😂 😂 😂 😂 You might as well say studies show higher rates of ill health among those who live at Chernobyl

[@nemou4985]

@@sandersson2813 You are very dishonest, you asked "why is it a health risk" and he answered. Who lives 500ft from an oil facility? Well apparently a lot of people.

[@sandersson2813]

@@nemou4985 How many? Lots of things are a health risk. We take risks every single day. No one makes you live near a well. Move.