Random thought: Why does South America seem so irrelevant to world affairs? It literally seems to be the continent that pretty much everyone on earth just doesn't care about. I've always been fascinated by Buenos Aires. I want to spend time there. Also, mega-cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. If you type Sao into Google, Sao Paulo isn't even the first or second thing to come up in the suggested results.

 

I've spent time in all.  Highly recommend if you get the chance someday.

Random thought: Why does South America seem so irrelevant to world affairs? It literally seems to be the continent that pretty much everyone on earth just doesn't care about. I've always been fascinated by Buenos Aires. I want to spend time there. Also, mega-cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. If you type Sao into Google, Sao Paulo isn't even the first or second thing to come up in the suggested results.

 

Mostly it's because of too much governmental corruption and instability.  Brazil should be a world power, but isn't.  For that reason.  To a lesser degree, Argentina should be as well.

 

Another historical reason is distance.  It spent the time between the Panama Canal's opening and the advent of air travel being too unimportant and remote from the more influential parts of the world to be bothered with. Especially since its "mother countries" of Spain and Portugal were on the wane as well.  Australia was also remote, but tied to the UK and indirectly to us.

 

"Sao" is saint in Portugese, that's why the city doesn't come up so quickly.

the Oberbrecht scandal is massive, all over S. America and Caribbean. This and Venezuela has been under reported up here IMHO.

 

That could be because they are failures of leftist politics.  Lula in particular was a darling of the international left, and it turns out he was basically one of Marcelo Odebrecht's higher paid employees.

Random thought: Why does South America seem so irrelevant to world affairs? It literally seems to be the continent that pretty much everyone on earth just doesn't care about. I've always been fascinated by Buenos Aires. I want to spend time there. Also, mega-cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. If you type Sao into Google, Sao Paulo isn't even the first or second thing to come up in the suggested results.

 

Mostly it's because of too much governmental corruption and instability.

 

Africa seems on par. The world seems to care more about Africa than S. America, though.

Random thought: Why does South America seem so irrelevant to world affairs? It literally seems to be the continent that pretty much everyone on earth just doesn't care about. I've always been fascinated by Buenos Aires. I want to spend time there. Also, mega-cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. If you type Sao into Google, Sao Paulo isn't even the first or second thing to come up in the suggested results.

 

Mostly it's because of too much governmental corruption and instability.

 

Africa seems on par. The world seems to care more about Africa than S. America, though.

Equally ignored IMHO.

Random thought: Why does South America seem so irrelevant to world affairs? It literally seems to be the continent that pretty much everyone on earth just doesn't care about. I've always been fascinated by Buenos Aires. I want to spend time there. Also, mega-cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. If you type Sao into Google, Sao Paulo isn't even the first or second thing to come up in the suggested results.

 

Mostly it's because of too much governmental corruption and instability.

 

Africa seems on par. The world seems to care more about Africa than S. America, though.

 

We started talking about Africa on another thread, one that got shut down in the latest spat.  The problems there are tribal hatreds, combined with radical socialism that dictates governmental control of nearly everything.  Colonial boundaries that threw together mutually hostile tribes don't help, though if they all had their own nations there would probably  be a lot more wars.  Africa didn't discover draft animals or the wheel on its own and had very few navigable rivers south of the Sahara.  There was very little trade and tribes usually only encountered each other as part of wars over territory.

 

Africa is physically closer to Europe and the Middle East, indeed North Africa is really part of the latter.  Until much more recently it contained a lot of colonies, and the parent nations stayed globally relevant longer.  Also, resources:  the Congo and South Africa in particular were the primary sources for key strategic materials.  Western patience with the Union of South Africa had a lot to do with metals otherwise only found in large quantities in the Soviet Union.

Argentina as a whole probably had one of the most dramatic rises and falls of any modern nation. It really seemed to be on track to becoming a de facto "U.S. of South America" with its vast wealth and huge immigrant population. The popularity of pizza in Argentina seems weird until you learn that the largest ethnicity in Argentina is actually Italian. I think that its economic woes that have been going on for so long have done a lot to push it out of the public consciousness, at least up here in North America.

 

But yeah, South America gets forgotten a lot beyond Rio and the Amazon and maybe Costa Rica. Peru and Bolivia both seem like really interesting countries (If you've never seen the work of the Bolivian architect Freddy Mamani Silvestre you should google it, it's a trip), and all of Colombia's cities look pretty impressive. As that country cleans up more it keeps growing higher on my list of places I'd like to visit if I get a chance.

 

I think in the Western Hemisphere, though, Buenos Aires and Havana still top my list for cities I *have* to go to before I die.

There were a lot of Germans in Brazil and Argentina in the 1920s and 1930s and prior to WWII there was a fear in the United States that Germany would come to dominate South America and Central America.  Indeed, if Germany had not been completely devastated in WWII, that might have come to be the case.  Instead, the power vacuum led to scattered activities by Communists -- Che in Bolivia, for example. 

 

The fascists in the United States wanted the U.S. to enter WWII on the side of Germany.  That big business influence helps explain why we were so slow to come to the aid of France and Great Britain, and that if someone other than FDR had been sitting in the White House, there was a greater chance that world history could have taken a dramatically different tack.  It's not inconceivable that the United States + Germany could have defeated the Soviets prior to the development of nuclear weapons and prevented the communist takeover of China by Mao.  However, that would have obviously changed one set of gigantic problems for another. 

There were a lot of Germans in Brazil and Argentina in the 1920s and 1930s and prior to WWII there was a fear in the United States that Germany would come to dominate South America and Central America.  Indeed, if Germany had not been completely devastated in WWII, that might have come to be the case.  Instead, the power vacuum led to scattered activities by Communists -- Che in Bolivia, for example. 

 

The fascists in the United States wanted the U.S. to enter WWII on the side of Germany.  That big business influence helps explain why we were so slow to come to the aid of France and Great Britain, and that if someone other than FDR had been sitting in the White House, there was a greater chance that world history could have taken a dramatically different tack.  It's not inconceivable that the United States + Germany could have defeated the Soviets prior to the development of nuclear weapons and prevented the communist takeover of China by Mao.  However, that would have obviously changed one set of gigantic problems for another. 

 

 

I’ve studied that period rather extensively and don’t recall the Bund or any other such groups trying to get the USA to enter the war on Germany’s side against France and Britain.  That was asking too much, especially when Hitler’s anti-Semitic views became known.  They were pushing for isolationism.  As of course were the Communists.  A lot of non-ideological Americans were isolationists, actually.

 

One speculation I’ve seen is that if Hitler had found another scapegoat and cultivated the Jews, he would have been able to defeat the Communists, and perhaps the western European nations as well.  Promising to end the pogroms and even let the Zionists have an Israel taken away from the British might have been very compelling, and he would have gained sympathetic communities throughout Europe.

 

As is usually the case with haters, he wasn’t smart enough to do that.

 

The German war machine was funded in large part by confiscating Jewish wealth (in the late 30s, Jews who sought to leave Germany had to sacrifice 90% of their personal wealth).  Killing everyone off meant there would be no descendants to make claims to the lost property and cash. 

 

Also, this piece by former VP Wallace under FDR is a brilliant document:

http://newdeal.feri.org/wallace/haw23.htm

 

7. The European brand of fascism will probably present its most serious postwar threat to us via Latin America. The effect of the war has been to raise the cost of living in most Latin American countries much faster than the wages of labor. The fascists in most Latin American countries tell the people that the reason their wages will not buy as much in the way of goods is because of Yankee imperialism. The fascists in Latin America learn to speak and act like natives. Our chemical and other manufacturing concerns are all too often ready to let the Germans have Latin American markets, provided the American companies can work out an arrangement which will enable them to charge high prices to the consumer inside the United States. Following this war, technology will have reached such a point that it will be possible for Germans, using South America as a base, to cause us much more difficulty in World War III than they did in World War II. The military and landowning cliques in many South American countries will find it attractive financially to work with German fascist concerns as well as expedient from the standpoint of temporary power politics.

[...]

 

A description of Fox News and the Koch Bros.:

 

 

11. The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

 

Several leaders of industry in this country who have gained a new vision of the meaning of opportunity through co-operation with government have warned the public openly that there are some selfish groups in industry who are willing to jeopardize the structure of American liberty to gain some temporary advantage. We all know the part that the cartels played in bringing Hitler to power, and the rule the giant German trusts have played in Nazi conquests. Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, they certainly didn't mention all that in Social Studies.

Well, they certainly didn't mention all that in Social Studies.

 

I think the really critical detail of the Wallace remarks in our time is that there needs to be a continual shifting of wealth in order to avoid a rigid multi-generational power structure from forming.  The rise of tech in the United States has done much to keep the legacy industries (energy, automobiles, banking, insurance) out of complete power as they are in most countries. 

 

Luckily, land ownership and shares of business ownership in the United States are widely dispersed today as they were 100 years ago.  However, wealth inequity and minimal inheritance taxes mean wealth and power will steadily concentrate in the United States in the absence of continual economic shifting. 

Too soon?

 

Navy destroyer collides with building in downtown Houston

 

https://www.duffelblog.com/2017/08/navy-destroyer-collides-with-building-in-downtown-houston/

Loving certain books can be bittersweet and frustrating. Caleb Carr invented this amazing late 19th century NYC universe in the Alienist (my favorite book) and Angel of Darkness (not as good but still highly enjoyable) - and that's it. He's written other books but there are no rumors of continuing this series, and don't get me started on that abomination of a televised series. The less said about that nonsense the better.

 

It is so frustrating falling in love with these characters, their quirks, the occassional cameo of real historical figures, and seeing a New York and culture in the midst of massive changes and reforms. And that is all we got; in a way I feel cheated despite the illogic.

 

Yeah, TV adaptations can be crappy - but TNT new series based on The Alienist might at least be worth checking out. I just saw the promo last night and I will at least take a look.

Too soon?

 

Navy destroyer collides with building in downtown Houston

 

https://www.duffelblog.com/2017/08/navy-destroyer-collides-with-building-in-downtown-houston/

 

Hell, that's tame.

 

 

Also, this piece by former VP Wallace under FDR is a brilliant document:

 

 

Joseph Stalin's Mortimer Snerd?

 

(Clare Booth Luce with one of the greatest putdowns in American political history)

D@mn. I'm far from being PC but I couldn't find those memes funny at all. I can laugh at a lot of things but when folks lose everything they have for reasons completely out of their control and can't find their loved ones who are missing, I just can't see humor in anything related to that Not saying I'm offended, just surprised that I couldn't find it the slightest bit funny, even though it's clever.

Anybody know where there is a legit, old school dining car diner in Northeast Ohio? If not a dining car, just a good old school greasy spoon. I have a friend coming from Germany in a few weeks and Europeans are strangely fascinated by these things... Too many movies.

http://www.cleveland.com/cleveland-heights/index.ssf/2015/11/northeast_ohio_diners_independ.html

 

John's Diner in Lakewood (cash only!!) on Detroit near the west end of town.

 

Also, the Diner on 55th is not an authentic diner car, but definitely a classic looking diner. https://www.facebook.com/Dineron55th/ 

- From there, it's a short jaunt to Goldhorn for a good beer, too.

 

The Fourty-Niner on Broadway is one of those old school greasy spoons where you can picture the hard hatted steel workers stopping for breakfast on their way to the mill... https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bob-and-Sheris-49er-Restaurant/489575761059732

 

---

 

And if they might be interested in a classic drive-in restaurant, there's Dog-n-Suds in Elyria (https://www.facebook.com/Ilenesdognsuds/) or Swenson's...

Those are perfect, thank you!!

http://www.10tv.com/article/you-could-be-eligible-900-receiving-robocalls

 

Check the link to see if you could be eligible for $300 per scam call (up to $900 total).

I need to do this whenever I ride the health line. All of the seats look and smell like they've been soaked with p!ss and malt liquor.

 

http://metro.co.uk/video/the-seats-london-underground-bacteria-1531893?ito=vjs-link

 

I have a theory that the more a website looks like its interface was last refreshed in 1998, the better the quality of the information on that website. Every hyper-detailed website related to specific, esoteric interests/hobbies (particularly transportation and roadfanning type stuff) looks impossibly old, and I've found it to be a pretty good sign of whether the information on the website is high-quality or not. It's not like these websites are necessarily "dead and forgotten" either; there's still some webmaster sitting around uploading photos of Dayton trolleybuses and highway bridges of Minnesota in 2017, but the look of the website itself never changes. Now I don't know if it's because these folks are more interested in just disseminating their information and don't really want to bother with updating the website or what, but I just think it's interesting. Obviously, it takes a lot of time to refresh the look of your site and I'm certainly not faulting any of these people for the looks of their sites, but it's just an interesting observation that these sites probably came online in the very early days of the internet and still stick around, virtually unchanged from the day they were launched. 

It's easier to screw up and create a difficult-to-use interface using today's tools. An old style nav on the top and/or side link structure is hard to screw up unless the creator's mind is screwed up. haha

 

For example, Tim Brown's and jmecklenborg's roadgeek sites are straight up 1998 and have lots of good shit. There is a NY-based roadgeek to remain nameless's site that I can't stand to navigate since it uses a somewhat modern design that is executed very poorly IMO simply because it can be. There's some decent content on there, but good luck finding it.

That's a pretty good theory. The reason I got interested in urban planning, transit, and other related topics is by reading various website like jmecklenborg[/member]'s http://cincinnati-transit.net/ and UrbanOhio. Since it required a bit of effort to publish a website 10+ years ago, it weeded out people who weren't willing to put in the work.

The three longest roads in the USA and four of the top six pass through Cuyahoga County.  The top three all pass through downtown Cleveland.

 

 

 

The three longest roads in the USA and four of the top six pass through Cuyahoga County.  The top three all pass through downtown Cleveland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a related note, my wife and I took a road trip via US42 a couple of weeks ago. We started at the corner of West 25th and Detroit Avenue and head south to its southern terminus in Louisville, Kentucky. Took about 11 hours (vs the 4+ hours on the way back via I71)

The three longest roads in the USA and four of the top six pass through Cuyahoga County.  The top three all pass through downtown Cleveland.

 

This is pretty obvious on a map of the US, but you can reach nearly every major metro in the country just by picking one of the interstates that passes through Ohio and riding it all the way to the end. The I-10, corridor and SoCal are the two major exceptions, and a few other random metros throughout the south and Plains states.

 

The three longest roads in the USA and four of the top six pass through Cuyahoga County.  The top three all pass through downtown Cleveland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a related note, my wife and I took a road trip via US42 a couple of weeks ago. We started at the corner of West 25th and Detroit Avenue and head south to its southern terminus in Louisville, Kentucky. Took about 11 hours (vs the 4+ hours on the way back via I71)

 

I've been tempted to do part of that (to West Jefferson where my dad lives) but maybe not with a six year old in the car asking "how much longer??!" every few minutes.

RIP Cassini.  Been a wild ride.

Jesus. Just heard a huge bang noise and knew it couldn't be anything good. I looked out my window at Cedar Rd and Cottage grove Av. and saw this. A truck slammed into an 18 wheeler at a red light right in front of my house in Cleveland Hts. I called 9/11 to let them know what happened, in case no one else had called them before. I was particularly concerned and felt compelled to call them after seeing that no one involved in the wreck actually got out of their car. The fire department came soon after and sprinkled some sort of powder around the truck. I don't know what that was about but I'm curious what the hell that was. They're currently huddled around the truck for some reason. I have a feeling that the guy in the truck didn't make it out alive  :cry: I hope everyone is okay.

 

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=n560k8&s=9#.Wbvs4YWcHug

I dunno, the NY Times liked it, sort of :| (although admittedly I didn't understand half of the review). Maybe it's payback to Jennifer Lawrence for her ridiculous comments about Trump and hurricanes the other week :wink:

 

‘Mother!’ Is the Worst Movie of the Year, Maybe Century

By Rex Reed • 09/15/17 3:00pm

 

http://observer.com/2017/09/darren-aronofsky-mother-worst-movie-of-the-year/

"This delusional freak show is two hours of pretentious twaddle that tackles religion, paranoia, lust, rebellion, and a thirst for blood in a circus of grotesque debauchery to prove that being a woman requires emotional sacrifice and physical agony at the cost of everything else in life, including life itself. That may or may not be what Aronofsky had in mind, but it comes as close to a logical interpretation as any of the other lunk-headed ideas I’ve read or heard. The reviews, in which a group of equally pretentious critics frustratingly search for a deeper meaning, are even nuttier than the film itself. Using descriptions like “hermeneutic structure,” “phantasmagoric fantasia,” “cinematic Rorsach test” and “extended scream of existential rage,” they sure know how to leave you laughing."

I went looking for the perfect "Mother" cover to follow-up that post. 

 

Instead, I found this guy covering "Little Whip", probably the third-tackiest Danzig song behind She Rides and the above-mentioned Mother.  The dude doesn't even bother to tune the guitar, plus he messes up a solid 6-7 times:

 

 

In a statement, Matt Hancock, the minister of state for digital and culture, said the pornography block would be "fully in place" by April 2018. Today, parliament will appoint a regulator who will draw up guidelines as to how the legislation will be enforced.

 

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/porn-block-ban-in-the-uk-age-verifcation-law

 

This is hilarious. The UK currently has a serious issue with Muslim gang-rape culture (which commonly happens in broad daylight) and a government official by the name of 'Hancock' is concerned about banning porn from the internet.

I never understood why non-prescription drugs are called, "Over the counter." The good stuff at the pharmacy you need a prescription for, are over on the other side of the counter.

I never understood why non-prescription drugs are called, "Over the counter." The good stuff at the pharmacy you need a prescription for, are over on the other side of the counter.

 

They're over the counter from the pharmacist versus behind the counter.

Mind. Blown. Haha. :)

The term "over the counter" just refers to any thing that you buy "normally" without any special procedure. For example, stocks that are not listed on Nasdaq or NYSE and just bought/sold between individuals are referred to as Over-the-Counter (OTC) stocks.

Taestell, I'm going to start calling you Snopes because you have to ruin everything with your facts. I was just trying to be funny!

Good god was getting from La Guardia to midtown Manhattan awful. A city with under 9 million people, obviously a much larger region, and a half a trillion+ GDP -- and shuttles to the Roosevelt subway are the only way out??? Cab drivers must be eating well.

 

Also, seeing Manhattan was a shock for good reasons. Almost no panhandlers except for the occasional gutterpunk and homeless. No visible gangbangers or hoodrats from 79th down to Brooklyn past the bridge. No one screaming on cell phones or at their kids. Some but not too many obese/overweight people. Overall, no real tensions.

 

And the biggest change of all - there were so many Asian people. At times they seemed the plurality, and I'm not including Chinatown/Little Italy.

 

The subway was also a little underwhelming (every trip felt slow). And the garbage bags stacked in front of trendy and expensive stores was an amusing juxtaposition. Never take alleys for granted.

^ haha -- very good observations!

 

yeah for sure the lga traffic is bad, especially with the new construction. still my favorite area airport though, believe it or not.

 

i would adjust thoughts about a city under 9 million though, because its well, well over that, especially during the workday and with the undocumented and tourists and the like. for example, i know manhattan alone at least doubles its population for workday commuters.

 

yes, definately less annoying humanity stuff around manhattan these days like obvious gangbangers and the like as the city races toward being a disneyland for the rich. although more cell phone zombies though.

 

for sure more asians around manhattan lately too, for one thing i notice across the board they seem really enamored of the local colleges.

 

yep again i also agree that the subway system is certainly having its troubles lately. i work all over the city, so i know it too well unfortunately.

 

as for the trash, actually there are alleys and mid-building type trash alleys in the boroughs, but yeah lower manhattan struggles with that. its probably impossible, but someday it would be cool to have a system in downtown/midtown like they have on roosevelt island where trash is just vacuumed away:

 

https://www.wired.com/2010/08/trash-sucking-island/

 

^ hmm, now i wonder if they did something like that at the hudson yards developments?

I showed you guys a picture of the $1.3M mansion Kid Rock grew up in. When you get a chance, check out his latest video, "Podunk." He's going to make a great politician, the way he's mastered pandering to his audience. It's hysterical how white trash the video is. It literally has every white trash stereotype you could imagine. Pregnant women running around half naked, confederate flag shirts, ATVs, people jumping in pools of mud, fake pink flamingos in the yard, kids running around with no shirt or shoes, women shooting guns, people drinking beer, dead animals mounted to the wall, a guy cleaning his gun on his front porch and of course a holy bible.

 

 

 

It reminds me of this video.

 

^That's all day every day when you're more than 5 miles outside an outerbelt.

If you guys ever get the chance, play some 90s country at a bar that has a TouchTunes jukebox. There's no better way to make a bar full of bros angry than playing some Alan Jackson.

 

If you guys ever get the chance, play some 90s country at a bar that has a TouchTunes jukebox. There's no better way to make a bar full of bros angry than playing some Alan Jackson.

 

I've spent the last 20 years trying to un-hear this song.  Thanks.  :whip: :drunk:

 

 

Love this site as it parallels a story from when I interned at the Natural History Museum.  Same chemicals:

 

http://www.funraniumlabs.com/2016/05/im-not-allowed-four-day-weekends/

 

I especially like this picture, because of the bubble wrap:

 

Saw this on Twitter:

 

Hugh Hefner lived so long that his first wife's name was Mildred and his last wife's name was Crystal.

 

And it's actually true!

Saw this on Twitter:

 

Hugh Hefner lived so long that his first wife's name was Mildred and his last wife's name was Crystal.

 

And it's actually true!

 

Friend of mine asked the rhetorical question "what if he didn't die it was the beginning of the rapture?"

If you guys ever get the chance, play some 90s country at a bar that has a TouchTunes jukebox. There's no better way to make a bar full of bros angry than playing some Alan Jackson.

 

 

Or Hank, Jr. talking about how hard he and his dad worked in "if that ain't country....".

^That's all day every day when you're more than 5 miles outside an outerbelt.

 

Maybe the mixed race kids at the end threw off the "pander to stereotypes" a bit...

What's worse? Rap music glorifying riches and material things or country music glorifying being poor and acting ignorant? I'm going with the latter.

 

Kid Rock is probably the worst example, though.