random journal update.

[rmd]

a pretty nifty account of vadding behind niagra falls

GDP displayed in terms of geographic density

othermag.org, even if they do have freaky tron sex, there, on the cover of the current issue.

in other news, ubuntu linux is cheesing me the fuck right off.

Comments

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

When I was about 10 years old, my family's vacation was to Niagara Falls. We took the tour "under" the falls. This tour consisted of a guide who outfitted the group in serious raincoats/boots/hats/etc then yakked about the falls. At that point there used to be a place where tourists could stand on a damp walkway ledge, holding onto a guardrail, and put your hand out to touch the underside of the falls. I did that.

Since then, I believe that tourist spot has been destroyed by the falls. I think it recedes like a foot a year (or so) thus that locale where I touched the underside of the falls has been long destroyed by water erosion, or at least the amount of rust that destroyed the walkway those nutty vadders walked on.

[aram-fingal.livejournal.com]

Actually they're still there. There are tunnels that run behind the falls and in the summer you can get out close enough to get pretty wet. In the winter time they have gates back farther because there's a lot of ice buildup.

Here's the official website:

http://www.niagaraparks.com/nfgg/behindthefalls.php

Wikipedia entry with more information and better pictures than the official website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_Behind_the_Falls

[gayathri.livejournal.com]

wow. those pictures are amazing.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. That's incredibly inspiring.

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

Those Niagara pictures make me think of Half-Life, apocalyptic movies filled with CHUDs, and D&D dungeon crawling, all at the same time. Cool stuff.

In the last couple of days, I saw a different GDP map that takes the United States and labels each state on the map with the country with the closest GDP. It really gets across the size of our economy--California has the GDP of France, Texas has the GDP of Canada, Sweden's something like Tennessee. I can't remember the link, though.