Links Galore

If you look beyond the US, there are even more abandoned places.

The obvious example, not on that list, is Chernobyl, which can apparently be traveled in parts.

I think Andrew has posted about Gunkanjima before, an abandoned city in Japan.

But what fascinates me is the second one on the list, Varosha, Cyprus. A perfectly-good city, a beachfront paradise, even, was abandoned (well, the residents were forced out, apparently). What’s odd is that, vacant for thirty years, the military aggressively patrols the area, not just with myriad guards outside but, apparently, guards inside in case anyone jumps the fence. Even photographing the city is forbidden. (Which, of course, adds to the intrigue and, subsequently, the desire to photograph!)

How interesting it would be to explore! (When you’re done checking out the Cyprus photos, check out the rest of the site, which is also fascinating!

Now this is really interesting: abandoned places in the US.

Apparently a big problem, that I’d never really thought about, is that the owner goes belly up, the place falls into abandon, and then the cleanup costs pile up, to the point that some of the places would cost tens of millions of dollars to clean up, so no one wants them.

Personally, I think the first one, Mt. Hope Cemetery, would be an incredible buy, as would Sun’s Palo Alto facility, which still looks pretty useable.

This is (years) old, and it’s been all over the place lately, so many of you have probably seen it. But here goes anyway…

This has got to be the funniest eBay profile page ever.

The town of Chelmsford, MA has a sign outside one of their schools for the holidays, aimed at deterring drunk driving. It loops three different bits of text, something like “Drive Drunk, Over the Limit, Under Arrest” or something. It seems like a trio of phrases thrown together haphazardly. But my point isn’t really the grammar, it’s the timing. Unless you’re stuck in traffic as we were, you might not even see the whole message, and instead, you’ll just see this:

Unidentified Gift Object, courtesy of this Ask MeFi thread.

What was this [WARNING: frightening image of plastic teddy bears] doing in my history? I’ve never seen it before. I clicked the wrong list and instead of viewing a list of recent changes on a Wiki I patrol, I saw some haunting image of possessed toys.

Matt mentioned that there’s an increasing amount of music being posted on YouTube — and a lot of it from legitimate sources. Here’s an online FLV transcoder; download your YouTube videos as an AVI, MOV, MP4, or (perhaps most interesting, to me at least), an MP3 (audio only).

(I’m engaged in an informal boycott of the RIAA and MPAA, but this doesn’t infringe on my boycott!)

Universal Music posted a lot of music videos on Youtube. (Warning: noise starts immediately.)

Two I like: Fergie’s Clumsy (the refrain is downright obnoxious, but the rest is catchy!) and The Killers’ When You Were Young. Even those who don’t have good taste in music will recognize the latter, as it appears in Rock Band. (It’s actually a fairly difficult song.)

Enjoy the free music. Now you don’t have to fund the RIAA.

This is a few days old, but I’ve mentioned it to a few people, so I thought I’d post it here. (It’s certainly more newsworthy than Hillary’s sister’s baby.)

The Boston Globe endorsed Obama. And it’s well-written.

A case of a picture being worth a thousand words: The problem with mainstream news.