MetaFilter posts tagged with decay

Why'd you FPP a broken link?

flatluigi — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:31:09 -0800

For each unique visitor it receives, Temporary.cc deletes part of itself. (archive video with project description)

Detroit schools urban exploration & reclamation.

Item — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 03:49:39 -0800

Urban exploration has been featured here once or twice before, but Jim Griffioen's site photo-documenting his discoveries in and around Detroit deserves a look. Griffioen was recently interviewed [direct mp3 link] on the American Public Media radio program The Story. Jim is most interested in schools. He's taken photos of trees growing through books and other things left behind. Recently Jim has gone beyond documenting what he sees and is reclaiming what he finds. He collects abandoned library books and other school supplies and gives them to community centers. Previously - blog post by Griffioen on Detroit's abandoned Belle Isle Zoo

Stages of Decay

netbros — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:43:38 -0800

Julia Solis, who brought us Dark Passage (previously), is still exploring derelict sites, both subterranean and in urban decay. Her most recent project is Abandoned Theaters, a look at grand old movie palaces, school auditoriums, and theaters that have become, shall we say, retired. Julia still keeps a photoblog that she calls Dark Passage Travelogue, and partnering with Suzy Poling, she chronicles the decrepitude of hospitals long abandoned in Fantastic Degradation.

Leaving the Ghosts in Peace

netbros — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:11:33 -0800

When thousands of people depart, leaving an entire city dead that’s a real tragedy. There are mainly two reasons why people leave the place where they used to live for years or even generations: danger, and economic factors. Abandoned Places In The World. ( previously 1,2)

Genuine random numbers, generated by radioactive decay

parudox — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:46:51 -0800

HotBits is an Internet resource that brings genuine random numbers, generated by a process fundamentally governed by the inherent uncertainty in the quantum mechanical laws of nature, directly to your computer in a variety of forms. HotBits are generated by timing successive pairs of radioactive decays detected by a Geiger-Müller tube interfaced to a computer. (Warning: random sounds.)

Ghost Train

Artw — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:31:06 -0800

Abandoned Amusement Parks in Asia - 1, 2, 3

The City Where the Sirens Never Sleep.

chunking express — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:07:02 -0800

"The city is so cash-strapped that firefighters have to purchase their own toilet paper and cleaning supplies. Their aging bunker gear is coated in carbon, 'making them the equivalent of walking matchsticks.' The firehouses' brass poles have been removed and sold off by the city." - The City Where the Sirens Never Sleep by Matt Labash.

Why is Paul McKee ruining the north side?

tss — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:30:29 -0800

Blairmont: The Final Dose. Yesterday Rob Powers of Built St. Louis (prev.) completed a 189-post tour of the North St. Louis properties bought and left to ruin by developer Paul McKee's Blairmont Associates LLC. Residents trying to rebuild in this area have had to deal with nearby Blairmont properties catching fire, collapsing due to brick rustlers, and obstructing their efforts to improve their own homes. Four years this has been going on and still nobody knows what McKee is up to. Much more information at Ecology of Absence.

Not-so-faded glory

madamjujujive — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:07:54 -0800

Perhaps you think you've had your fill of photographs of decaying architecture and abandoned buildings. If so, the rich color and play of light in Michael Eastman's beautiful body of work from Cuba, Europe, and the U.S. may change your mind. His site is flash - for non-flash folks, the Duane Reed Gallery has additional works, including his B&W portfolios on horses, landscapes, and succulents. (no relation to the Kodak family; via BB-Blog)

The Colors of Decay

Hollow — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:46:28 -0800

Keith Thorne has stunningly colored pictures of decaying urban spaces on his Flickr stream, including some taken at an abandoned German military hospital that once treated Adolf Hitler. A few pictures feature himself. Via.

State of decay

dhruva — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:36:56 -0800

State of decay :"Over the years, Boston artist Rosamond Purcell has photographed goliath beetles and translucent bats culled from the backrooms of natural history museums; a collection of teeth pulled by Peter the Great; moles flayed by naturalist Willem Cornelis van Heurn; and scores of worn and weathered objects, like termite-eaten books and fish skeletons."

Decaying photos

parudox — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:48:08 -0800

Decaying memorial photos at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Detroit Public Schools Book Depository

ottereroticist — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:54:09 -0800

"This is a building where our deeply-troubled public school system once stored its supplies, and then one day apparently walked away from it all, allowing everything to go to waste...All that's left is an overwhelming sense of knowledge unlearned and untapped potential." (Via Making Light.)

MetroDream

parudox — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:45:01 -0800

Russos takes photos of Moscow Metro construction. Also of a half-abandoned river port, a cool bridge being put together, and an old underground nuclear submarine base. But mostly of the Metro, behind the scenes. (Don't ask me how he gets access.) The Balaklava submarine base photos were actually the fodder for previous posts. And if you want conventional views of the (beautiful) Moscow Metro, go look elsewhere. A few of his photos. One blogger's sampling; another's. An index of old posts. Posts by tags: abandoned, industrial, aviation, devices, "other" metro, megadevices, metro, metro build, escalator. Elsewhere around Balaklava. The Neglinka (river under Moscow): 1 2 3 Tunnel vision. Tunnels: 906, 938, 940. Point D. Point S. TBMs: Taking delivery, plant that makes parts for them, lowering Julia down, taking apart Claudia, more. Borovitskaya: in the station, on the tracks, into the tunnel. Dostoevskaya station tunnels got a bit rusty: 1 2 Sretenskij bul'var is amazing. Trubnaya is pretty good too. Test rides and checking dimensions: 1 2 (Bonus: Victory Day train: 1 2 3 4. Photo chronicle of Sergei Kirov. Cats.)

Railway of Bones

parudox — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:36:08 -0800

Dead Road - Museum of Communism in the Open. "It was one of the most ambitious projects of the Stalin era, known as the 'railway of bones'. At least 10 people a day died during the four years of its construction [actually 1947-1953], but unlike most of Uncle Joe's grand designs it was never completed and now sits unfinished in the tundra, an icy road to nowhere." The transpolar railway was built by labour camps^ 501 and 503 and construction was stopped after the amnesty following Stalin's death in 1953; 800km, about half, was built. Some sections are currently in operation, but much is abandoned: depot and locomotives in Dolgoe, Dolgoe itself, labour camps, more spectacular decay. (Previously: Norilsk, which was supposed to see an extension of the line.)

Nature Slowly Reclaims Abandoned Amusement Park

jonson — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 14:55:19 -0800

Chippewa Lake Park is a former amusement park in Ohio; opened in 1878, it closed in 1978 due to lack of attendance. During the decades since then, the ballroom, roller coasters & other rides have lain abandoned as the surrounding forest reclaims them.

Can America Survive Suburbia?

lonefrontranger — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:58:03 -0800

The National Automobile Slum: I propose that we now identify the human ecology of America precisely for what it really has become: the national automobile slum.-- James Howard Kunstler “Can America Survive Suburbia?”

Decaying Thermal Generating Plant

jonson — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 22:30:42 -0800

Despite the occasional cheesy superimposed nude (nsfw), for the most part this photo series of images taken by Charles Bodi inside a decaying thermal generating station is quite nice; my personal favorite.

Christ of the Deep

jonson — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 23:53:15 -0800

Christ of the Deep.

AT&T-->NSA. WTF? -EFF

jikel_morten — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 07:27:06 -0800

EFF Accuses AT&T of diverting internet traffic to NSA. "More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now." More details from the EFF.

Street Photography

cmonkey — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 14:31:42 -0800

Street photography. Beautiful photos of urban life and decay.

My City is Almost Gone

Oriole Adams — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 09:16:55 -0800

While reading up on the Detroit City Council's latest brainstorm, African Town, I stumbled upon this blog that highlights many of the once great, now decaying buildings of my former hometown. If you've ever wondered what was inside some of those ancient, boarded up buildings, there are some great photos here.

BT — Wed, 03 Apr 2002 20:53:42 -0800

Things Fall Apart. Particularly in urban environments. Individually, the moments of entropy-in-action caught here may not mean much; collectively, they recite a visual poem about decay. A slightly melancholy site for you insomniacs out there. (By the way, you have to scroll right to get to the thumbnails.)

skallas — Wed, 09 Jan 2002 23:14:25 -0800

Interview with the certified forensic entomologist. In other words she examines insects in dead bodies for criminal investigations. Its good to know that there are dedicated professionals doing this just in case I happen to wash up on the shores of Lake Michigan. Hey, it could happen to any of us.