likes abandoned places, art and artists, books, buildings (preferably old or vernacular), Europe, Greece, history, Italy, Palestine, pirates

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No fixed abode

 

Some of the images here match my dream from childhood days of living on a train. Most important inclusions were (are) a library of books and accommodation for my best friends. Each day on arrival at a new destination I would be met by a guide who can show me what's essential about each new place.

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If you are getting on board the Royal Scotsman, then you must have really deep pockets – it’s the most expensive train ride on the planet. Just consider the fact that a 4-day trip on the Royal Scotsman costs more than an entire 19-day first-class trip on the Trans-Siberian, and you will get the idea. The observation car accommodates 36 passengers (yes, only 36 passengers allowed) in comfortable armchairs along with cabins specially designed for dining and other purposes.

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Royal Scotsman

 


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Stretching between the ultra-modern Singapore and Bangkok, and traveling through lush green tropical forests, the Eastern and Oriental Express is modern, stylish and comfortable.

 

Read more at blog.hotelclub.com

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Brilliant resource for word-lovers

 

. . . say for writing a really impressive Twitter update or trumping others in a conversation. Search Shakespeare's works by word or phrase, narrowed down by character or work as you wish. Or as you like it ;=)

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Goodbye Bloglines - and, apparently, RSS readers

 

Bloglines is to close down on Oct 1 and this story discusses the decline of RSS readers in general, citing losses to Facebook and Twitter. Bad news to me, as FB - no matter how I filter my lists - is no substitute for Google Reader, Netvibes or Bloglines, all of which can be tuned more finely as to info included and ordering.
FB is, frankly, dumber as a dedicated reader, and Twitter gives nothing more than a bare-bones link, barely even a headline, and its only real asset is its speed of delivery.
Speed to the inclusion of all else, and I'm thinking here too of Tumblr users who, for reasons I can't fathom, post 100 unconnected images a day - merely scatters the mind and leads to exhaustion and confusion. Nothing is contemplated, nothing digested.

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A jaw-dropping account of justice, Israeli-style

 

"Must read" (cick pic for link) on the Corrie family's action against the Israeli government

-- a story not even covered by Israeli media (consider what that says about Israel)

-- involves a pathologist called Dr Yehuda Hiss who sounds fictitious but comes right out of the Mengele lab

-- shows courage runs in the Corrie family



"The Corries are saddled with a judge who is said to have never ruled in favor of any plaintiff in a civil rights-related suit. And the defense has claimed unspecified state security concerns in its successful bid to avoid revealing the full contents of the investigation into Rachel Corrie's killing -- the family's lawyers have only been allowed to view a summary . . ."

And this sounds like parody but unfortunately it's not: a pathologist called Dr Yehuda Hiss(!!) carried out the autopsy. Back-note (supplied by the indefatigable Blumenthal): he was the chief pathologist of Israel for a decade and a half, implicated by a 2001 investigation by the Israeli Health Ministry of stealing body parts ranging from legs to testicles to ovaries from bodies without permission from family members then selling them to research institutes . . . Hiss admitted that he harvested organs if he was confident relatives would not discover that they were missing. He added that he often used glue to close eyelids to hide missing corneas.

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Fear and trembling in New Zealand

 

Saturday's earthquake in New Zealand was as big as the Haiti one -- but with the blessings that NZ has long had building codes that take quake risk into account, and it happened at a time when people were at home in (quake-resistant) wooden houses.

It was the large old stone and brick public buildings that fared worst, and it will be tragic for Christchurch if it loses some of them as they are its defining glories (along with Hagley Park).

On the news I saw a restaurant in a building that lost its walls but still had its tables laid with everything in place. This in a quake that lifted whole chunks of road and split floors.

The whole disaster is a shock to me. I used to live in Chch, and its orderliness is always remarked upon -- nothing ever out of place, everything neatly arranged; all rather British, in fact.

Or it was!

Click pic for story

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Gritty history

 

 

Each blog entry at AmericanUrbex explores a building that was once important enough to be shown in postcards. All are now boarded up. The locations are shown on Google Maps and some history is explored, with photos of course, and links.

Some thought goes into this project, most of it done by Wisconsin-based Ken Fager.

 

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abandoned

 

 

 

Englishman RomanyWG is one of the real forces in urbex photography, and has lately produced a book called Beauty In Decay, featuring 49 photographers. I wouldn't normally promote a book but must make an exception here because I bought it and have been quite bowled over by the quality. It is a well-bound hard-covered art book and sells at Amazon for only $US25.

Click pix here through to my collection of favourite pix of abandoned buildings and industry, and to their source pages. Those above these words are by RomanyWG himself and those below by German Kiekmal.

 

 

 

 

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RomanyWG also documents street art and murals . . .

 

 

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Facts only get in the way of a good story

 


Scientific research reveals how easily we can ignore facts that don't fit our agenda


In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds.
In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs.
Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation.
Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

 

These observations or findings rang a bell with me as I work in newspapers myself and have always been curious about the way facts are put and how they're interpreted. There is and always will be spin and vested interests where newspapers are concerned, but you can still learn a lot as details emerge in an investigation, war or court case, even if you have to read between the lines.

But I have noticed among both staff (usually well educated) and readers and correspondents that minds have often been made up at the beginning, on a hunch or because of skewed information when a case is far from proven.
And those who have made up their minds so firmly are only really looking for details that can reinforce that view; they're not actually looking for answers.
EG they've decided at the outset that So-and-so did the crime or fired the first shots, and no new evidence will budge them on that.

You have to wonder sometimes if the story is being placed in their memory alongside something similar they "already know" (possibly only subconsciously), because no thought processes are evident and their gut reactions can be unpredictable.
I am convinced some people buy into a conspiracy theory simply on the basis that it has been stated as fact by someone they trust or the first thing they read or heard about it made a deep impression.
This sort of wrongheadedness is indeed disturbing, because it is quite perverse and -- according to the article -- widespread. So people in the most responsible positions (judges, managers, politicians, journalists and the like) are likely just as susceptible as the rest of us, deep down.

 

The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.

 

Our need to believe and to belong makes a mockery of our rational thinking at times. How else to explain why we fell for X (whether X be a lover, a product or a lifestyle), or continued with Y even when it was clearly not working out?

And how else to explain why otherwise intelligent, articulate people join dubious cults and movements, swallow communion wafers, attend church or persist in delusions about themselves or someone they loathe or worship?
There is nothing rational about anorexia, binge eating or compulsive exercise, and equally advocacy and activism often require all-or-nothing states of mind and an ability to block out facts that don't help a cause.

In all these cases there is a potential enemy, real or invented, that can annihilate or diminish us if we don't get support from the group/party/tribe we belong to.
If we looked beyond the tribe we might realise we don't actually need it. But more likely we're so uncomfortable about going it alone that we will simply conform; anything for love and an easy life.

 

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Buy me!

 


Pic source -- a photoset in Flickr

 

Battersea Power Station is the biggest brick building in Europe and was pumping out power until 1983. It's power now is in our memories if we ever had the Pink Floyd Animals LP, and the familiar site of the landmark on the Thames.

The station is heritage-listed and ideas for redeveloping it have come and gone -- all eventually deemed too expensive. An Irish property group owns the building and a large amount of surrounding land and is now trying to spin the building off and develop the rest as housing.

 


 

No-one has been able to make Battersea earn its keep in a clean-energy era and demolishing it would be unthinkable, so . . . would YOU like to buy it? No real-estate spin here: I will just tell you it consists of two seamlessly adjoining stations each with two chimneys.
Battersea A, built in the 1930s, is the more elegant, with a turbine hall of Italian marble, polished parquet floors and wrought iron staircases (revamp as exclusive hotel???) Battersea B -- to the east -- was built in the 50s with less money around, and its fittings are made of stainless steel. (Restaurant precinct???)
Photo tour of Battersea as it is here . . . and below one of the development plans. There is no roof across the centre; that was removed in the 80s and the ground is exposed to the elements (outdoor cafes? concert space?)
I hope it does find a new life.

 

 

 

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