Awesome stuff you see on the internet

Crucial

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="red terror" data-cid="410445" data-time="1389647569">
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<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.buzzfeed.com/drewphilp/why-i-bought-a-house-in-detroit-for-500?src=longreads'>Why I Bought A House In Detroit For $500</a>
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.buzzfeed.com/drewphilp/why-i-bought-a-house-in-detroit-for-500?src=longreads'>After college, as my friends left Michigan for better opportunities, I was determined to help fix this broken, chaotic city by building my own home in the middle of it. I was 23 years old.</a>
 
 
Awesome story, and worth a click alone to see a great pic in the urban decay of a graffiti cartoon of a fat bloated Captain America with a corn-dog in one hand and a Big Gulp in the other. If you get a chance to travel to America, you have to visit this place.
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</blockquote>
 
Good read thanks RT.
 
My parents lived in Flint for a few years while dad went to MIT on a scholarship from General Motors (in fact they got married there). They still have friends that have stuck it out in the general area and visited them a few years back. Dad went for a drive to try and find their old house and it was a boarded up wreck in the middle of a wasteland just like the photos in that story.
 
The amazing face of capitalism where whole cities can go from boom to bust in less than a generation. It makes you wonder what may happen in places like Silicon Valley as the the tech industries move away from the birthplace to find more profitable homes.

red terror

A scholarship from GM to attend MIT? Or a work placement from MIT to work at GM? (I'm confused.)
 
I might have told the story about a business meeting in Flint in 1997 when I asked some engineers, who were lifetime Flint residents, about the "Rabbit-Lady." The three of them didn't know what I was talking about. I thought, that's fuckin' bizarre -- surely one of them had seen "Roger & Me." None of them had. I mentioned Michael Moore's documentary about the city, and as I say, they hadn't seen it, but they all had an opinion about it, going full-Caesar on me, "THAT COMMUNIST!!!" At the time, Flint had the biggest per-cap murder rate in the United States, or No. 1 for gunshot homicides, or something like that. It's eerie. Detroit has miles of neighborhoods of rubble - it's post-apocalyptic, and you have to believe the creators of Robo-Cop knew what the future looked like when they chose it as Delta City.

Crucial

I think it was a scholorship type package from GM to work for them while studying at MIT. It was arranged by his NZ employers as a kind of 'sabbatical' to gain quals and experience not available in NZ at the time then come back to work for them (which he did until he retired).

jegga

Cheers for the link to that article RT.

taniwharugby

I got one of those e-mails recently that people forward on to everyone and it was about 20 images of Detroit, was quite haunting.

Tim

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Crucial" data-cid="410473" data-time="1389661560">I think it was a scholorship type package from GM to work for them while studying at MIT. It was arranged by his NZ employers as a kind of 'sabbatical' to gain quals and experience not available in NZ at the time then come back to work for them (which he did until he retired).</blockquote>
 
What did your dad do their, Crucial?

red terror

<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='

'>Julius Erving "The Doctor" Documentary</a>
 
"He was the Epitome of Cool. If you looked up a dictionary for the definition of "Cool" in the 1970s, it says "See: Julius Erving." And it starts with the Afro."

Crucial

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="410507" data-time="1389695959">
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What did your dad do their, Crucial?
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He was a HVAC design engineer. I guess this was in his early days, learning the ropes. Back in those days all you could get in NZ training wise was basics at a polytech. At least he got a job with a forward thinking company that sent him overseas so he'd come back and serve them well.
Did a lot of big scale stuff like shopping malls (even commissioned one in China IIRC)

NTA

That Detroit thing was pretty good. Aspirational, sure, but you can't let someone else do it for you all the time. Backed into a corner, I'd like to think a lot of us would pull out a hammer and make something happen.
 
Detroit, for me, represents everything that has failed about capitalism. While rednecks still demand their ignorant "right" to drive oversized utes with 7 Litre V8 engines around, blowing away wild animals with automatic weapons, the nation can no longer sustain the incredible amount of money required to subsidise production of these vehicles. But the average man on the street finds it easier to blame Obama than they do to look in a mirror.
 
They could be a shining beacon, but professional politics finds it easier to keep the 99% down by buying them off, keeping them stupid. They don't consider anything past the next four year term. Its where most Western nations are headed, even Australia where voting is compulsory, but lobby groups are slowly pouring more money into the grinder...

taniwharugby

jegga

18 foot stewart island great white

jegga

Oh I want one of these,

taniwharugby

<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/9615765/Swimming-with-sharks-in-a-budgie-cage'>http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/9615765/Swimming-with-sharks-in-a-budgie-cage</a>

jegga

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="410648" data-time="1389820088"><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' class="bbc_url" href='http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/9615765/Swimming-with-sharks-in-a-budgie-cage'>http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/9615765/Swimming-with-sharks-in-a-budgie-cage</a></blockquote>
 
I saw that, what a tool.

Tim

Tim

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/hEYCI59.jpg" alt="hEYCI59.jpg">
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10936232.Darlington_stray_puppy_which_swallowed_Bridget_Jones_style_knickers_hopes_life_won_t_be_pants_anymore/'>http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10936232.Darlington_stray_puppy_which_swallowed_Bridget_Jones_style_knickers_hopes_life_won_t_be_pants_anymore/</a>

taniwharugby

Cactus spoke about feeling old...I know this is a couple of years old, but....
 
 
<img src="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/images/kgo/cms_exf_2007/news/entertainment/8368959_448x252.jpg" alt="8368959_448x252.jpg">
 
"Nevermind" Nirvana cover baby is now 20, just like the album
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<div>By the CNN Wire Staff</div>
<div>September 26, 2011 -- Updated 1422 GMT (2222 HKT)</div>
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<div>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</div>
<ul><li>As a baby, Spencer Elden was thrown into a pool for the cover photo of Nirvana's famous album</li>
<li>Released in 1991, Nirvana's "Nevermind" launched grunge rock</li>
<li>Elden, now 20, loves Nirvana music</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
<div> </div>
(CNN) -- As an infant 20 years ago, Spencer Elden was thrown into a pool in Southern California to be photographed, naked, underwater, appearing to reach for a dollar bill. The photo would become one of the most iconic images of 1990s music: Nirvana's "Nevermind" album cover.
Released on September 24, 1991, "Nevermind" catapulted the band and its music to the top of the charts, with songs including "Smells Like Teen Spirit" giving birth to the Seattle-based grunge musical style.
On the 20th anniversary of the album's release, Elden, the now-20-year-old son of an artist, said in jest that now he suffers more tribulations than other famously photographed babies whose images are associated more with cuteness than grunge.
"When I am introduced, they introduce me as the Nirvana baby," said Elden.

<div><img height="120" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/110926053642-nr-lemon-nirvana-baby-intv-00013318-story-body.jpg" width="214" alt="110926053642-nr-lemon-nirvana-baby-intv-">'Nevermind' baby grows up</div>
And because he was sans diaper when the famous shot was taken, there are other questions.
"They usually poke fun at me asking me, 'Is it the same size?'"
"I always say, "It's changed, do you want to see it?'"
Elden, also an artist, said he never met Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, whose looks and demeanor epitomized the '90s Generation-X subculture, a group and a mindset chronicled in films such as "Slacker."
"Definitely, I like Nirvana a lot and there are no songs that I don't like -- they all have a special place for people," Elden said.
Elden said he is not swimming in cash as a result of his baby celebrity status. His father, artist Rick Elden, agreed in 1991 to work on the cover with fellow photographer Kirk Weddle. He received no royalties for the job.
"My dad was an artist rigging special effects for Hollywood," said Elden.
"They went to the local pool, threw me in the water and that was it. It was a friend-helping-a-friend kind of thing."
On Saturday, Elden said he celebrated the historic release of "Nevermind" with friends.
"We hung out ... and just listened to Nirvana music, drank beer and hung out. It was a good time," he said.

jegga

Cool story , kind of like when I hear a song on the Sound and I think "that's not old enough to be played on this staion it only came ......out ......oh right".

jegga

Davis-Monthan air force base, aka the military aircraft graveyard. 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.google.com/maps/preview#'>https://www.google.com/maps/preview#</a>"!q=Davis-Monthan+Air+Force+Base&data=!1m4!1m3!1d1078!2d-110.8681224!3d32.1405788!2m1!1e3!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x86d6653db2375c9b%3A0xdf50c8f87748ce38!3m8!1m3!1d6687!2d-116.996088!3d33.070859!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m2!3d32.155285!4d-110.860593&fid=7

red terror

<img src="http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/epaselect_brazil_weather_rain_87303069.jpg?w=720&h=480&crop=1" alt="epaselect_brazil_weather_rain_87303069.j">
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://nypost.com/2014/01/17/lightning-breaks-finger-off-christ-the-redeemer-statue/'>Lightning breaks finger off Rioâ€s Christ statue</a>

The Silver Fern

Awesome stuff you see on the internet