The Sarawak Chamber is the largest known underground chamber of its kind in the world. It is part of the ‘Good Luck Cave’ system which is located in Gunung Mulu National Park, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo.

The chamber is not yet fully explored, and roughly measures about 700m (2,300 feet) long, 400m (1,300 feet) wide and at least 70m (230 feet) high. To get a sense of how much space this is, imagine the amount of land you would need to park ten Boeing 747-400 aircraft in line.  That’s a lot of space! The irregular shape of Sarawak Chamber would probably fit at least 30 more inside if the ground was flat, and the entrance was big enough… well, it’s safe to say that I would have to be making a good number of assumptions indeed. In any event- It’s BIG.

There are no good photos of the chamber because it’s rather difficult to get to, and lugging along a light source powerful enough to light up the entire chamber just to get a photograph is not a trek that would provide a very good bang for the buck.

The story of the initial discovery itself is quite interesting as well. Andy Eavis, Dave Checkley, and Tony White – all highly accomplished spelologists wandered into the chamber not quite realizing what they were in. At some point they realized from the air and how sound carried that they were inside a large chamber, but their lights were not powerful enough to see where the border walls were. Imagine the terror of not knowing where the walls are, and that you’re just in the dark somewhere underground, clambering about in a field littered with giant boulders.

One of the men had a panic attack (the other two won’t say who of course) and they spent some time just trying to find a wall so that they could make a bearing. The whole story is documented in greater detail in the book “Underground Worlds” by Donald Jackson.

There are few places left on Earth that inspire such wild imagination of the unknown.

Some workers at Alang, by carrieteicher@flickr

Alang is where ships of all sizes and nationalities go to die.
Located on the western coast of India, the great differences in shoreline between low and high tides allow ships to easily beach themselves where they are then disassembled on the spot. Dozens of ships are broken up here every year, and tens of thousands of workers flock here to earn a living in what could best be described as a free-for-all involving hand labor, blowtorches, and hammers.

It’s not easy work. Aside from the relatively low pay (by the civilized world’s standards), there are many hazards on the job. You could get crushed by falling steel components from other workers too hastily blowtorching beams above you. You could get cut up by exposed steel (metal versus flesh… metal usually wins). You could weld your way through what you thought was a bulkhead but actually was filled with fuel vapors (boom!). You could inhale too much asbestos (from older ships) and we all know what happens with that. I could go on, but frankly it’s pretty clear that there are all sorts of physical, chemical, and biological hazards from this sort of work. Health insurance for the workers? Fuggedaboudit! You’re lucky enough to have a place to sleep in the shantytown when your shift is done.

On the flip side of the gruesome human toll being inflicted from daily grind, the amount of recycled materials that are accumulated and resold by the breakers at Alang are truly staggering. Aside from the millions of tons of steel that are reclaimed every year, there is a vast amount of copper wire, brass, electronic components, wood, aluminum – basically all of the things that would be on a ship that was paid off to the shipyard. It also must be stated that the alternative of not having a job versus the chance to strike a better life for your family is part of the allure of working here.

Is it all worth it in the name of recycling? And who really profits from all of this? That’s for you to decide. For now, behold the spectacle that is Alang.

Picture taken by Gabuchan@Flickr

Recycling light bulbs, by SwiatoSlaw WojTkowiak@flickr

Stack of reclaimed windows, by toujjval@flickr

Part of the Alang Yards, by carrieteicher@flickr

Something I had not noticed before until the other morning, when I took a different subway going to work. Hidden in a fenced-off garden just feet away from the street. Shot was hastily taken as the lighting was perfect, with the Cosina-Voigtlander Ultron 40mm f/2 manual focus lens.

Dragon's Blood Tree, by dianadrz@flickr

Socotra is an archipelago of islands in the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa that hosts some of the more interesting plant and animal species in the world.

Its separation from the African mainland occurred sometime in the Miocene geologic era, a period roughly 5 to 23 million years ago, and this isolation is one of the primary causes for the continued survival of its indiginous species.

The main island of Socotra is almost exactly the same land area as Long Island, has a similarly elongated (but stubbier) shape, a whole hell of a lot less traffic, and has a desert climate punctuated with a brief monsoon season each year.

Socotra, by Hoops & Yooyo@flickr

Dragon's Blood Trees by Valerio Pandolfo@flickr

Socotra - Qalansiyah Beach by Valerio Pandolfo

"Desert Roses" of Socotra, by x_serpico_x@flickr

Taken by Misha Kalyustin (Михаил Капустин)

Quick! You’re going to build one of the tallest hotels ever, and where would you possibly put it on the world? Could it be London? New York? Dubai? Las Vegas?

Most people would not have answered North Korea, one of the most isolated countries on the planet.

Well, that’s where the Ryugyong Hotel is. This monstrousity of a pyramid-shaped tower, built in celebrated brutalist style sits right in North Korea’s capital of Pyongyang, not too far from the Taedong river.

At the top of the spire of this three-legged pyramid is a series of rotating restaurants. Seven of them. Yup. Well, that seems a bit unusual, but to put things in perspective there are a quite a few rotating restaurants in North Korea. Quite a bit of things rotate over there, such as museum exhibits and dioramas, so you could say that’s not too out of place. But seven floors of rotating restaurant goodness might be a bit much.

In any event, the hotel was never finished to the point of being occupied. It was planned rather quickly, as a Cold War era response to the Swissotel The Stamford, completed in 1986 in South Korea, which stands at a ‘measly’ 740 feet tall. If you’re going to build something taller, you might as well let it all hang out, which was probably what North Korea’s leader at the time, Kim Il Sung was thinking.

The Ryugyong hotel broke ground in 1987, and construction ceased in early 1992 as the country endured the trifecta of floods, famine, and the loss of their main benefactor (the Soviet Union had broken apart the year before).  Its 3000 rooms of vision pretty much stayed unchanged since then. Reports from visitors to North Korea indicate that there are visible cracks in  the facade of the structure, and the quality of the construction leaves a lot to be desired. Of course, the construction site is sealed off by a perimeter, and the ability to travel freely to take a closer inspection is basically nonexistent.

Apparently some construction has resumed recently, and reports are that the tower is due to be opened in 2012, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birth. Talks about workers focusing on the glass cladding of the tower were afoot, but photographic evidence remains to be seen.

UPDATE 23 Mar 2009 – The source of some recent images that have circulated appears to be from this thread at the “Korean Friendship Association”, an organization that is pro-DPRK in its political stance and affiliation.

I have saved copies of the original images here:

The original links to the images are below:

http://www.korea-dpr.com/users/thai/slides/BiZFEB009.htm

http://www.korea-dpr.com/users/thai/slides/BiZFEB010.htm

The local population does not talk about it, as it’s a bit of a sore point for their pride in general. The shell of the hotel is apparently not even depicted on local maps. But looking on the bright side, at least it didn’t burn into a smoldering wreck mere months before it was due to open like the Mandarin Hotel in Beijing, China was.

You can see the tower here in Google Earth at these coordinates.

Udachnaya Pipe from the air, taken by Alexander Stepanov

This is one of the largest man-made holes in the world, a diamond mine deep in the reaches of Siberian Russia. It is about 600 meters deep (that’s over 1800 feet for the American folks). The top layer of the hole is about a mile across, and a little over half a mile wide.

According to the Wikipedia article, the open-air mining will cease around 2010, and operations will shift into an underground manner. A few of the research papers devoted to this mine state that diamonds are probably still available to a depth of about 1000 meters or so.

The settlement near the mine is named after it (Udachny), and also feels local weather patterns because of being next to this giant hole.

You can see this mine for yourself via Google Maps.

I stumbled into this today, and it was a complete sensory treat.

This is definitely something I’ve had dreams about before, a pet store filled with hot dogs, sausages, fishnuggets, bunnies, chicken nuggets, deli meats, plastic plants, and other goodies.

Okay, perhaps I did not dream about the masturbating monkey, or the aged Tweety bird, or the CCTV nest, but perhaps it’s better that way that I didn’t.

This was put up by the Wooster Collective, and i’m really glad that they did it. Apparently the owner behind all of this is Banksy. This display brightened up what was a fairly hectic and wild work day. Tomorrow, i’ll try to take my colleagues there for lunch and try to impart some of the non-sequitur goodness that it has to offer upon them.

Location

89 Seventh Avenue South, New York, NY (Don’t forget the SOUTH part)

It is conveniently between West 4th and Bleecker Street in the West Village.

For those who operate on landmarks, it’s right next to Jekyl & Hyde’s.

What To Do

Bring a camera. Preferably something that records video.

The quality of the animatronics is very good. No visible wires or servo sounds. Study the mechanics of everything in action.

Taking pictures of the people’s reactions is something I should have done. People for the most part are generally amused by the exhibit, and their reactions border on hilarity. I’m sure I was like that too.

Bring a marker, and be prepared to tag the signature books that are at the cashier counter (No, it does not cost anything).

Some More Pictures…