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The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

entrances2hell.co.uk

121–130 of 148 posts

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#121
post #54

This reminded me of the Hidden London tours, which allow guided access to staff-only disused and abandoned parts of the London Underground. There's a real excitement in taking a peek behind one of these dusty, abandoned-looking doors you walk past every day.

Those sort of tours are often listed on https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/

Haha "things to do in London Today: https://i.imgur.com/Qpu7ZKd.png

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#122

> "© J H Irvine 2002" Yes. This is a taste of what the web was like before it became shit. And it's the way it should be again. Weird, quirky, fun, no ad-tech, no trying to hard sell anything. God, I miss this era.

No ad-tech, and 2002? What web were you on? 2002 had popups, pop-unders, frantically blinking banners, pages opening many other pages when you click on them, search results poisoned with transparent or small text, and barely any tech in the user's hand to fight these.

The web is, I think, friendlier now than it was in 2000-2005. And much, much more useful in general.

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And also this gem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout_Appreciation_Societ... which got its meme explosion from a calendar of 12 roundabouts, here is the latest 2024 edition: https://dullkev.com/product/roundabouts-of-the-world-2024-ca...

Ah yes, the Arc de Triomphe, notable for its location in one of the great roundabouts of the world. Speaking as someone with a predilection for photographing fire hydrants and manhole covers, this seems like an entirely reasonable perspective.

Ah yes, the Arc de Triomphe, celebrating victory in 1806, which turned to tragic defeat by 1812, and invasion by 1814, with 500k French dead, and the Russian Tsar marching into Paris - presumably inspecting the shiny new Arch of Victory LOL. The French invasion of Russia turned into the Russian (allied) invasion of France.

The aforesaid roundabout (12 avenues meeting in a neat circle, containing some vague gallic-shrug number of unmarked lanes) will always be the Place D'Etoile for me, never the Place Charles de Gaulle - but that's another long story of French arrogance and hubris. I do believe the Nazis also paraded around the French Arc de Triomphe.

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#126

> "© J H Irvine 2002" Yes. This is a taste of what the web was like before it became shit. And it's the way it should be again. Weird, quirky, fun, no ad-tech, no trying to hard sell anything. God, I miss this era.

The era of ratemypoo . com (I've not checked if this site still exists or what, ymmv).

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#127

If that's too scary for you, you could always look at "Pylon of the Month" https://www.pylonofthemonth.org/ The website was set up by an Englishman, of course, because that's what us British do best: quirky and underwhelming. I heard a fund manager in the energy sector the other day who said that PotM was the thing that fascinated listeners most. Spoiler alert: January's pylon is from Cadiz in Spain, has its own Wiki…

Spoiler alert: January's pylon is from Cadiz in Spain

Thank you for bringing me back. I wish I'd be there now for the Carnival.

Those towers are a nice landmark. The photo is great, but it lacks perspective of how they connect Cádiz and Puerto Real over the bay. A video:

https://www.endesa.com/es/proyectos/todos-los-proyectos/sect...

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And also this gem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout_Appreciation_Societ... which got its meme explosion from a calendar of 12 roundabouts, here is the latest 2024 edition: https://dullkev.com/product/roundabouts-of-the-world-2024-ca...

On the topic of Appreciation Societies , I'd like to add the World Bollard Association which has brought me much joy. https://twitter.com/WorldBollard As an aside, what's today's preferred alternative Twitter/X frontend, now that nitter.net seems to have shut down?

In London, some bollards have been made out of recycled cannons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxdJrqV0l4c

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#129

If that's too scary for you, you could always look at "Pylon of the Month" https://www.pylonofthemonth.org/ The website was set up by an Englishman, of course, because that's what us British do best: quirky and underwhelming. I heard a fund manager in the energy sector the other day who said that PotM was the thing that fascinated listeners most. Spoiler alert: January's pylon is from Cadiz in Spain, has its own Wiki…

> quirky and underwhelming Describes Stonehenge perfectly. Which I suppose could be some sort of ancient pylons?

You might be interested in "Crap Days Out", a book published about 1 decade ago. In it you can find out such treats as the Dinosaur Museum, which has no dinosaurs, the Pencil Museum, which boasts the world's largest pencil, and Teapot Island, home to more than 8,000 teapots. Of course Stonehenge appears in it.

Here's a review in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2011/aug/21/crap-days-out...

"And that's Stonehenge!" I announced. "Is it?" replied Maria. "It's a bit small and rubbish, isn't it?" "Yes," I said proudly. "It is."

Re: The Catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (2002)

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And also this gem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout_Appreciation_Societ... which got its meme explosion from a calendar of 12 roundabouts, here is the latest 2024 edition: https://dullkev.com/product/roundabouts-of-the-world-2024-ca...

On the topic of Appreciation Societies , I'd like to add the World Bollard Association which has brought me much joy. https://twitter.com/WorldBollard As an aside, what's today's preferred alternative Twitter/X frontend, now that nitter.net seems to have shut down?

I use twiiit.com (and have a rule in kagi to replace twitter.com with twiiit.com in search results)

It uses a random nitter instance each time.

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