Amazing Photos Of Abandoned Soviet Infrastructure Will Show You the Meaning of Desolate From 2013 to 2015, Russian photographer Danila Tkachenko traveled thousands of miles to some of the most remote regions of the country to photograph once-proud structures of the Soviet Union that have fallen into ruin. The collection, titled Restricted Areas, focuses on society's desire to create utopia through advances in science and technology. The photos serve as a reminder of what can happen when a nation reaches too far. As Tkachenko writes on his own website: "I travel in search of places which used to have great importance for the technical progress—and which are now deserted.
2015 Dodecahedron Cartographic Review - ZERObarrier The 2015 Dodecahedron Cartographic Review is an 88-page curated collection of most of the maps and descriptions thereof that appeared on Dyson's Dodecahedron throughout 2015. Designed to be a letter-sized spiral bound book, this digital edition also includes a second version of the book where many of the maps have been resized (larger) to better fit the page once all the text has been removed. Unlike the maps of Dyson's Delves I and Dyson's Delves II, the maps I drew for the Dodecahedron in 2015 were predominantly drawn on letter-sized paper, so a different format of map book was needed for this review of the year's cartography. The PDF edition of these maps is provided as a convenience for readers of the blog and fans of RPG cartography and contains no exclusive content - everything in this PDF can be hunted down on the Dyson's Dodecahedron blog and downloaded at high resolution.
This Awesome Urn Will Turn You into a Tree After You Die You don't find many designers working in the funeral business thinking about more creative ways for you to leave this world (and maybe they should be). However, the product designer Gerard Moline has combined the romantic notion of life after death with an eco solution to the dirty business of the actual, you know, transition. His Bios Urn is a biodegradable urn made from coconut shell, compacted peat and cellulose and inside it contains the seed of a tree. I, personally, would much rather leave behind a tree than a tombstone. Related Content If You Liked the 'Bios Urn,' You'll Love 'The Spirit Tree' Daniel Honan Managing Editor, Big Think Abandoned Places: 10 Creepy, Beautiful Modern Ruins Abandoned Places: 10 Creepy, Beautiful Modern Ruins Abandoned Places | We humans are explorers by nature. The quest for discovery, both old and new, is part of what separates us from rest of the animal kingdom. Since the world we live in has been largely mapped and plotted, we urban adventurers turn our sights toward the relics of old and the ruins of the recent past. If you find beauty in urban decay, in the crumbling and abandoned places of yesteryear, you’ll want to read on. Abandoned Submarine Base, Ukraine In a bay on the northern shores of the Black Sea, the Soviet army maintained an elaborate submarine base throughout much of the Cold War. Abandoned Submarine Base Gallery The Ruins of Detroit by Marchand and Meffre In the United States, few cities have felt the burn of urban decay more than Detroit. Ruins of Detroit Gallery Beelitz Military Hospital, Berlin It is rare that a ruin like this should decay so gracefully and without the marks of vandalism. Beelitz Military Hospital Gallery
Hitler's Olympic Village – Berlin, Germany Little known to most tourists and even Germans, on the edge of Berlin lie the chilling abandoned remains of “Hitler’s Olympic village,” built for the so-called Nazi Games of 1936. Germany won the bid to host the 1936 Summer Olympics two years before the Nazi Party came to power, and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler saw this as an opportunity to spread Nazi propaganda and build up Germany’s military machine. Hitler oversaw the construction of the Olympic village in Wustermark, on the outskirts of Berlin. In its heyday the now decaying complex included state-of-the-art dormitories, dining areas, training facilities, a swimming pool and hosted some 4,000 athletes in luxury accommodations the likes of which had rarely be seen. Ironically, it was designed to portray an idyllic, picturesque image of a peaceful Germany to the world (the 1936 Games were the first to be televised) and the Führer even named the complex the “village of peace.”
What's Hiding Beneath New York City Is Amazingly Creepy Posted in New York February 04, 2016 by Lea Monroe Full of historical secrets and wonder, the ground you’re walking on in New York may hold more mystery to it than you would ever imagine! Hiding over ten stories beneath the streets of the city and the world-renowned Waldorf Astoria luxury hotel, lies a secret subway platform that will have everyone wishing these walls could talk. Like something out of your favorite book, at the turn of a brass knob behind a secret door on 49th Street, awaits Track 61. When the Waldorf Astoria first opened its doors, it had publicly announced the high-end private railway would be available for use to its guests, but would never be intended for public passenger use. Due to the overall secrecy surrounding Track 61, it's often hard to distinguish between rumor and truth when it comes to stories of those who have supposedly used the railway. So, how did President Roosevelt benefit from this hidden track and how exactly did this all work?
Lost City …emerged from the water-Villa Epecuen, Argentina | moco-choco Travel a few hundred miles south of Buenos Aires, and you’ll find Villa Epecuen. This eerie real-life Atlantis has reappeared from under flood waters after spending 25 years submerged. The small Argentinian spa town sits along the shore of Lago Epecuen, a beautiful indigo blue lake nestled high in an alpine valley. Back in the 1920s, a tourist village was established along the shore of Lago Epecuen, a salt lake some 600 kilometers southwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the time of the disaster, the flood gave the town’s residents little time to gather their belongings. A slow-growing flood consumed the town until it reached a depth of 10 meters (33 feet) in 1993. Lago Epecuen is like most other mountain lakes, except for one important difference. Lago Epecuen’s theraputic powers have been famous for centuries. Villa Eqecuen’s neat, symmetrical rows of dead trees look like they’ve been burned instead of drowned. During the day, Vella Epecuen is quiet as a ghost. “I am OK here. Related
theconversation Without farming, Britain’s countryside would be drastically different. Imagine walking through landscapes un-tilled, un-sown, un-fertilised and un-treated, nor grazed by cattle or sheep. Following the Brexit vote, the government has to decide what to do about the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU’s subsidy scheme for owners of farmed land. Some of these subsidies support food production while others support environmental protection on land suitable to be farmed. In 2015, British farmers received roughly £3.2 billion from the EU. Agricultural land covers 70% of the UK. This may be unlikely (and it’s certainly not what I’d recommend) but it’s still worth exploring an even more dramatic scenario: what would happen if Britain’s farmers sold all their livestock and equipment and abandoned their land? There would be cultural, social and economic shock for sure. Scenario one: land abandonment In time, shrubs and trees will venture into abandoned fields from woodland and hedgerows.
Maps | Dyson's Dodecahedron Updated July 18th 2018 – 625 Maps Good lord I love maps. When I started this blog I hadn’t even considered using it to fulfill my map fetish in some twisted way. But now it is best known for my maps. So here I’m collecting all my maps so you don’t have to dig through the whole archive of blog posts to find them. I’ve also included a legend of the majority of the mapping symbols used throughout these maps (well, mostly the overhead maps – the side-views are pretty much the same and/or self-evident I hope). Overhead Map Key There are several groups of maps I’m not linking to here, for those you’ll have to go to their appropriate pages: Ruins at the Three Pillars of Ssa-Tun Delren Street Sewers DiTullio Islands The Dragons Nest Proving Grounds of the Mad Ogre Lord Wharton Mine Crypt of the Queen of Bones Temple of the Jade Gorgon The Savage Caves Guimond’s Tower and Lair of the Druid Lich Lair of the Golden Wolf Vault of the CaveMorphs! Baraloba: Forest Paths Baraloba – The Eagle Hills Mines Quebec Region
Rybinsk Reservoir, a Russian Atlantis by design By Slava Tsukerman When I was 19, I took a cruise along the Volga River. We were crossing the Rybinsk Sea late at night. The endless water surface was illuminated to the horizon. Thousands of multicolored lights mounted on buoys were spread over the manmade sea, appearing as though stars in the sky. It was a breathtaking, mesmerizing view. I was young, naïve and enthusiastic. Rybinsk Reservoir was built as a necessary part of Volga-Baltic Waterway, an expansive system of canals and reservoirs connecting Moscow to St. After the fall of Communism, Russians discovered a lot of information about how the Rybinsk Sea was created. Among them was one of the biggest and most famous Russian convents – Leoshin Convent – a home of 700 nuns. Up to the moment of liquidation, the city lived a full life. Gulag prisoners were brought to the area. The prisoners died by the hundreds. In this nightmare, residents were told to take only what they needed most and go to be resettled.
Abandoned Orient Express Photos The Orient Express is one of the few true relics we have of Old World splendor. Though it was created in 1883, it's best remembered as the luxury travel line that carried wealthy aristocrats from Paris to Constantinople in the Roaring Twenties. Stéphane Peres/Flickr Creative Commons Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Made infamous by Agatha Christie's 1934 novel Murder On The Orient Express, the name itself still evokes imagines of wispy woman draped in fur, smoking long cigarettes while lounging in the luminescent glow of the dining car. While The Orient Express does still run today, its truncated route and exorbitant pricing has turned it into more of a tourist attraction for people willing to pay a high price to relive a bygone era. Getty Images But Dutch photographer Brian Romeijn managed to come across–and take stunning photos of–an actual Orient Express train from the 1930s that was abandoned in the woods. Brian Romeijn/PreciousDecay.com From: The Newsroom
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