MetaFilter posts tagged with destruction

The Natural History of Destruction

hydatius — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 10:37:29 -0800

Seven years ago today, the German writer W.G. Sebald was involved in a fatal car accident near his home in Norwich, England. Sebald worked as an academic at The University of East Anglia, but some of his writings found a receptive wider readership. The works which brought him to public attention were four books, written originally in German, which seemed to blend memoir and fiction, photography and prose: Vertigo, The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn, and Austerlitz. He also wrote poetry, and used some of those poems to collaborate with visual artists. In the main, his sad, erudite work revolves around themes of loss, destruction, landscape, and memory, and it continues to inspire exhib itions, stage plays, reflections, and tributes (not to mention blo gs and videos). His voice is missed.

Aeneas Wilder's Untitled #133

Brockstar — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 12:24:57 -0800

The destruction of Untitled #133 by Aeneas Wilder took place on Labor Day. He knocked down his latest piece at the San Francisco Exploratorium to cheers from the audience and applause. The giant wooden sphere took 10 days to make out of painstakingly stacked (never fastened) wooden planks. Is it an artistic expression of the impermanence of man? Another chapter in the ongoing discussion about the nature of art? Or just every little kid's ultimate building-blocks-meet-Godzilla fantasy?

shock doctrine at work

specialk420 — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:22:13 -0800

shock doctrine at work
Fisk documents the dismantling of Iraqi culture - Klein exposes the history behind the destruction.

"World's last tea clipper" no more.

hydatius — Sun, 20 May 2007 22:58:04 -0800

The Cutty Sark burns. Nineteenth century tea clipper, preserved as a museum-ship in Greenwich since the fifties, is currently ablaze.

Vanilla Ice hates himself.

Afroblanco — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:27:52 -0800

In 1999, MTV aired 25 Lame, a show where retired 25 of their worst and most overplayed videos. Rob Van Winkle (aka Vanilla Ice) showed up to help them retire the video for "Ice Ice Baby." The result - violence, hilarity, and broken mannequins (video, 30-second ad shows before video). Apparently unplanned, nobody knows for sure if this outburst was the product of genuine anger, or if he was just playing around. An unedited version (YouTube, lower quality) leads me to think that it was the former.

indonesia mud eruption

thirteenkiller — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:26:14 -0800

Oops! A mud eruption probably triggered by oil exploration has been making thousands of Indonesians' lives miserable since May.

Stuff blowing up is awesome

jonson — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 11:10:38 -0800

For those who worry that the concrete pillars around U.S. Federal buildings aren't strong enough to stop a motivated car bomber in an 18 wheeler, this video should comfort you. Similarly, for those of you who are worried that the concrete shielding around our weapons bunkers is not thick enough, this video should put you at ease. And finally, for those of you that worry that dogs & monkeys are putting aside their differences to team up against mankind, this video should lay that myth to rest.

Rebuilding New Orleans from Within

fenriq — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 11:36:49 -0800

An Exclusive and Brutally Frank Report by JT Nesbitt, a New Orleans resident and the designer of the radically cool Confederate Motorcycles' B91 Wraith (pictured here), in the wake of the destruction of the company's factory during Hurricane Katrina. via

MOWZILLA!

arto — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 11:50:13 -0800

Can your lawnmower do this? MowZilla, born a garden-variety (so to speak) Craftsman mower, is now a nitrous-oxide injected, vastly overpowered engine of destruction! (Google Video link) [previous tales of lawnmower abuse: Lawnmower Racing, German style or American style]

Co-Directed by Chuck Jones and Tex Avery

jonson — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 16:40:56 -0800

It Only Takes A Second is the name of this 1996 industrial film from Federated Mutual Insurance. Essentially 3 straight minutes of chaotic on the job accidents geared towards terrifying the customers into being more careful (and thus more profitable), it may be my favorite industrial film ever. link goes to embedded QT video

Willy Pete I shall hate you

elpapacito — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 17:48:33 -0800

La strage nascosta (italian language) Today Rainews 24 part of RAI Television (Italian possible equivalent of PBS) broadcasted on a satellite channel a short documentary concerning the conquest of Falluja city. The documentary presents many images and allegations suggesting that U.S. army probably used White Phosphorous on the city during the offensive of 8 November 2004 with devastating consequences on civilians and insurgents. The substance is used on battlefield for purposes including production of dense smoke (M156) and also for incendiary purposes.(Warning, disturbing pictures of dead people). Direct link goes to documentary, English audio WMV link here. NSFW, extremely graphic, and very disturbing. Previous reference [1] here on Meta.

noveaux

The Jesse Helms — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 07:32:23 -0800

Bring New Orleans Back. The sparsely populate city is grasping for a means to recovery, as even today the mayor laid off half of the city work force.

This Hurt to Watch

fenriq — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 12:07:47 -0800

How Much Abuse Can the new iPod Nano Take?
Ars Technica digs deep and finds out just how much abuse the Nano can take (Hint: alot) before the music stops. And then performs an autopsy on it.
Warning, do not click link if the abuse of electronic items makes you queasy or sad.

Boom

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:02:17 -0800

Electric power transmission and distribution explosions and fireworks for your Fourth of July weekend.

A decimated, burnt pony

nathan_teske — Sat, 26 Mar 2005 20:54:34 -0800

Net Disaster lets you destroy your favorite websites.

It's the end of the World as we know it...

Chunder — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 06:03:13 -0800

How will civilization end? With a b a n g, a c r u n c h(last link is PDF), a s p l a s h? Are we no longer more likely to kill ourselves than being killed by "Mother Nature"? (more inside)

Mountaintop Removal Mining - High Resolution

grefo — Fri, 01 Oct 2004 08:29:02 -0800

Mountaintop Removal Mining. Now in High Resolution. Some amazing pictures of this mining process.

Veterans Implosion.

brent — Fri, 19 Mar 2004 08:16:51 -0800

Another stadium bites the dust. Make sure to avoid the Veterans stadium, South Philly area Sunday, unless you would like to witness the destruction first hand. Next on the chopping block? (Insert desired stadium demolition). But coming new in 2004, Petco and Veterans replacement Citizens Bank Park.

Paging Chicken Little...

Ufez Jones — Wed, 25 Jun 2003 09:59:56 -0800

We're all gonna die! But how? Wired breaks down the likelihood of ten (and a half) options.

adamgreenfield — Sun, 10 Nov 2002 20:17:38 -0800

Cheer up, things could be worse. War hysteria and Republican triumphalism got you down? Contemplate the array of potential extinction-level events that Nature has seen fit to confront us with, no matter what we monkeys choose to do. What do you think? Are we approaching another evolutionary bottleneck?

MAYORBOB — Fri, 23 Nov 2001 19:58:36 -0800

The Taliban's war on art extended beyond merely blowing apart the two monumental Buddhist statues. Here's a nice little piece about a wrecking party at the Kabul Museum of Art lead by the Taliban Ministers of Information and Finance. Their acts of barbarism against women and people who failed to live up to their religious code was unspeakable, but IMHO this willful destruction of art is also worthy of condemnation. This is nothing less than the destruction of a people's culture.

tranquileye — Wed, 12 Sep 2001 04:54:03 -0800

How are we really any different from them if we can suggest "selective genocide" and "complete destruction and annihilation"?

rushmc — Thu, 01 Mar 2001 10:39:11 -0800

All your cultural treasures are belong to us! At least in China it was the accidental kind of stupidity...

Mars Saxman — Sat, 10 Feb 2001 14:23:55 -0800

Artist Demolishes Belongings Inside a defunct department store in the heart of London's shopping district, dozens of yellow bins move slowly along conveyor belts toward the mouth a gigantic blue machine. Workers in jumpsuits systematically catalogue and weigh the contents of each one. This is British artist Michael Landy's newest work: The items in the bins - coats, photographs, paintings, furniture - are all of his belongings. Over the next two weeks, everything he owns - including a red Saab - will be destroyed.

rory — Wed, 07 Feb 2001 14:22:19 -0800

Gives a whole new poignancy to the term 'hosed'. Hearing about this sort of destruction always makes me feel like time is running out to see the world's wonders before they're gone.