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amazing place by the way

Tags for this video have been changed from 'waterpark, watersides, giant, biggest, resort, hangar, airship, germany, indoor' to 'waterpark, watersides, giant, biggest, resort, hangar, germany, indoor, amazing places' - edited by lucky760

Tags for this video have been changed from 'nuclear, disaster, steel, arch, decommission, waste' to 'nuclear, disaster, steel, arch, decommission, waste, amazing places' - edited by lucky760

Some people are never satisfied. Personally, I'm so tired of the extremists views on both sides (and believe me, Pat Robertson is often the source of pretty nasty extreme views) that this was actually refreshing. Some people are just so cynical, they can't appreciate anything less than Pat Robertson and Jesus himself coming forward as atheists.

Here's my view on it for those who may care:

Religion is pretty worthless. Sure it's been the cause of lots of horrible (and good) things through history, but it's also an attempt to combine what some deem as fact with something that's so beyond fact that we can't even comprehend it. It's man made. Full of errors and contradictions, blah, blah, blah. We all know that. Basically it all just falls apart whenever you try to throw science in there. It's like judging an apple by the standards of screwdriver.

So let's look at just the spiritual side of things. This is where I hang out. I see it as something beyond science (though uses science as it's tool) and factual understanding. It goes beyond nitpicking this fact and that falsehood. It's just a thing in the air that you can either be in touch with or not. If you are (and I am) then it fills a gap. Gives you hope. Comfort. Peace. Lots of things that are indescribable. But you feel better when you have it and you can't choose to believe in it or not. You just do. If you don't buy into it, then there is no gap to begin with. Doesn't make you smarter or better. You just have different needs.

Now maybe that means that in some dark recess of your psyche that if you're in touch with this spiritual side of things, then you die believing you'll be in an amazing place for eternity. And so you are. Or you don't believe, and so you aren't. Neither is better or worse compared to the other because they have no business being compared to the other. They don't coexist. They just both exist.

I think whatever it is that you believe in sets a standard for your life. Following those things, being true to those things, is what it's all about. This completes you. You can't force them on others or yourself for that matter. You can't punish others for not playing by your rules. You just have to play by your own (as long as you don't harm others).

And I'm tired of spiritualism HAVING to mean pure magic. Science is magic. Science is the most amazing magic. Does things you'd never believe. It's not an insult. It's just makes the whole damn system that much more incredible. If you choose to call that magic, go right ahead. It's just a word. Before long we'll realize that science can do things magic only dreamed of and that's pretty damn magical.

By the way, I'm not typing this trying to change anyone's mind or act like it's some kind of original thought. I'm just typing some thoughts. I like this kind of shit. Debates are great and healthy. I'm just sick of people hating on or insulting folks for believing in their heart something that's different.

Iceland is a fascinating country populated by equally fascinating people.

Of the "western" world, they have the highest proportion of people who accept evolution, but at the same time they have a significant portion of the population that wont dismiss the existence of elves.

Politically, they had a joke party, called The Best Party win the Reykjavik city council elections on a platform of, among other things, being opening corrupt (as opposed to secretly corrupt).

Quite an amazing place

I still say Montreal would be an amazing place for a GTA game.

Apparently the dividing line between poor and not poor was whether you had a garden or not, a place to corral animals.

If you had a garden, then you had a source of food. If you had a pig, and a cow, and chickens, you were doing just fine.

My dad lived in a two room shack, with the porch screened in for additional sleeping quarters. In these three rooms lived his widowed mother, her newly married brother and young wife, and five kids, the oldest of whom was 8 when his father died. Uncle Buck would wake up in the winter and have to shake the snow off his blanket - it had drifted in through the porch screen, accumulating on him as he slept.

But they weren't poor. They had a garden and a rifle and a means to feed themselves.

Now my dad has a Master's degree in mechanical engineering from MIT, thanks to the GI Bill and WWII.

The world is an amazing place, isn't it?

In reply to this comment by mentality:
>> ^bareboards2:

Seeing this vid prompted this story from my dad -- He grew up on a dirt farm in Oklahoma during the depths of the Depression. One of their sources of food was my dad's ability to kill squirrels for the stew pot.
He was 15-16 years old, out hunting. Saw a squirrel in the crook of a tree, just its head popping up. He got it with one shot, picked up the body and stuffed it in the back pocket of his overalls and started walking home.
Halfway home.... his pocket started wriggling. He had just creased its head, grazing the hair right between its ears. Knocked it unconscious but otherwise it was fine.
He says he built a cage for it, where it lived for months before escaping. Took up residence in the roof, until it eventually disappeared.
I was surprised it didn't end up in the cooking pot, but as dad says, they weren't poor. The folks living in a cave in the riverbank were poor.


I'm guessing that if he could afford guns and ammo (even if it was just a .22), then you weren't that poor.

This is wonderful stuff. To be sure it's dangerous, and idiots who don't think can indeed get themselves very hurt, but things like that first disused station are amazing places, really beautiful and I love them because they are little time capsules.

Just a word on how he handles getting into places like when he removes the drain cover... just wear a yellow/orange vest and look like you're supposed to be there and you'll have no problem. Wearing 'civilian' clothes and looking around suspiciously is the things that makes people think you're up to no good. It's hiding in plain view, and can work a lot better than trying to not be seen.

But exploration of abandoned places is something I'd love to do, never have... so do so vicariously though a number of sites, http://www.opacity.us and http://www.abandoned-places.com being my two favourite for their superb photography.

>> ^direpickle:

>> ^shuac:
I'm getting a new passport ready just in case the 2012 election goes from "Entertaining as the 2008 Election" to "Holy Shit, I've got to leave this country now."
Can anyone make a good suggestion of where I can go? I don't really speak any other languages. I took some French in high school and I know a little German (he's sitting over there <- awesome Top Secret reference).
Seriously though. Any ideas?

Don't be one of those guys, man.
Also, you're probably fooling yourself if you think there's anywhere better. Corruption is a huge problem the world over. The UK is a nanny state, surveillance state, and general purpose Orwellian nightmare. It sounds like much of mainland Europe is being flooded with Fundie Muslims, and the governments are kowtowing before all of their demands (hence all of the anti-heresy laws). Oceania is going crazy with their Internet Filtering and whatnot. Canada's far too easily influenced by the US.
They're all bowing before the American Intellectual Property Juggernaut.
You will pretty much never be able to become a citizen in most of Europe. The Japanese government is corrupt, and the people will never accept you as one of them. I'd be leery of settling in in most of the rest of Asia. North Korea and South Korea could go to war again at any moment. China's not exactly the place I'd go to flee from an insane government. Maybe India, Nepal, something.
Maybe there's some amazing place in South America or Africa.


Bogus. UK is just as free as the USA, if not freer, with the exception of libel laws and traffic cameras. And you're not goinh to move to any other european country just because of the few percent Muslim minority that has emigrated there? Racist.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Bangkok is an amazing place with lots of talented people.

>> ^shuac:

I'm getting a new passport ready just in case the 2012 election goes from "Entertaining as the 2008 Election" to "Holy Shit, I've got to leave this country now."
Can anyone make a good suggestion of where I can go? I don't really speak any other languages. I took some French in high school and I know a little German (he's sitting over there <- awesome Top Secret reference).
Seriously though. Any ideas?


Don't be one of those guys, man.

Also, you're probably fooling yourself if you think there's anywhere better. Corruption is a huge problem the world over. The UK is a nanny state, surveillance state, and general purpose Orwellian nightmare. It sounds like much of mainland Europe is being flooded with Fundie Muslims, and the governments are kowtowing before all of their demands (hence all of the anti-heresy laws). Oceania is going crazy with their Internet Filtering and whatnot. Canada's far too easily influenced by the US.

They're all bowing before the American Intellectual Property Juggernaut.

You will pretty much never be able to become a citizen in most of Europe. The Japanese government is corrupt, and the people will never accept you as one of them. I'd be leery of settling in in most of the rest of Asia. North Korea and South Korea could go to war again at any moment. China's not exactly the place I'd go to flee from an insane government. Maybe India, Nepal, something.

Maybe there's some amazing place in South America or Africa.

The internet is an amazing place.

Pretty well summed up. Kashmir is an amazing place, but it's unfortunately situated in between three pretty crazy nuclear-armed nations. I spent some time in Srinagar last May and it was really interesting place. It's like heaven on earth in terms of natural beauty and culture, but I've never been surrounded by so many armed men before in my life. Shortly after I arrived, two muslim girls were raped, murdered and dumped in a stream and the Indian Security Forces were blamed for it. The Islamic separatists groups called a general strike throughout the whole region and I was stuck in my houseboat for a few days because there were roadblocks everywhere. I had to hire a driver to get me out of the city at the break of dawn. I'll never forget the mountain roads in Kashmir! I'd love to go back and spend more time there again someday though. It really is an incredible place.