A comforting thought

quote:

Did you know that the clap didn't exist in Hawaii until the missionaries showed up?

Yep. Mark Twain's "Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World" gives a pretty good account of Hawaii in the late 1800s. (and large parts of the rest of the world too) Great book.

Ever seen a deep open pit mine? Would Butte Montana Count?
A large fish market? Hamburg, oldest in Germany I believe
An auto assembly plant? A really cool one in Dresden, the building had an entire side of widow's so you could watch the cars during the entire process.
Tea plantation? Not yet.
A bird market? Nope
Strip coal mine? Montana
Oil refinery? Nope
Major shipping port? Yes, I do live in NYC, I believe there are many here.
A cattle stockyard/auction? Yes, actually I work for the largest pork and 5th largest beef processor in the US
A major red-light/working girl zone? Amsterdam
Aircraft graveyard? Nope
Nuclear missle in a silo? I think there are some in New Jersey

quote:

Nuclear missle in a silo? I think there are some in New Jersey

This made my heart skip a beat - so I looked into it, and found this (albeit from a 1995 report)

"U.S. nuclear weapons are currently stored at some 33 locations in 17 states and seven foreign countries, a significant decline from just three years ago (see "Nuclear Notebook," September 1992 Bulletin). From a peak in the 1980s of roughly 24,000 warheads, the number of U.S. nuclear weapons currently deployed stands at about 9,000.

Since 1992, nine types of nuclear weapons have been eliminated from the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and nuclear weapons have been completely removed from eight states (Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York). The numbers of nuclear weapons stored in Georgia, Louisiana, and North Dakota have increased."

[source]

Wonder what the status is these days...

A lot of the Manhantten project took place in NJ. I believe that most of the nuclear stuff is gone, but the empty silo's still stand. There is a great magazine called Weird NJ that has all sorts of interesting stories about the Garden State.

quote:

Originally posted by Kathryn M:
Did you know that the clap didn't exist in Hawaii until the missionaries showed up?

among many, many, many other diseases and conditions

Admittedly I havent read Twain on HI, except in excerpts, but other (better?) suggestions might be:

"Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen" - by Queen Lili'uokalani
"To Steal a Kingdom" by Michael Dougherty
"Then There Were None" by Martha H. Noyes
"From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii" by Haunani-Kay Trask

quote:

...I believe that most of the nuclear stuff is gone, but the empty silo's still stand...

Would be cool to go tour those - wonder if that's a possibility..

quote:

Originally posted by Capt Steve:
To answer circusoflife's questions:

Ever seen a deep open pit mine? Yes (arizona)
A large fish market? Does Pike's Place count?
An auto assembly plant? Not yet.
Tea plantation? Not yet.
A bird market? Yes (hong kong)
Strip coal mine? Yes (arizona)
Oil refinery? Yes (toured one in TX)
Major shipping port? Yes (many)
A cattle stockyard/auction? No, but have seen a "stock show & rodeo"
A major red-light/working girl zone? Yes (amsterdam, naturally)
Aircraft graveyard? Yes, (Davis Monthan, & many others in my aviation career)
Nuclear missle in a silo? Not yet.

Great stuff. These are the things I seek out in my travels as well. Am inside look at the day-to-day life and what's behind it all. Let us know when you publish the list.

A kindred spirit! I can see myself publishing a book on it someday. A guide to these places. With explanations about how our world is globalized and connected. Not any time soon as I'm neck deep in fiction...for now, the somewhat disorganized section of Ideas and Dreams on my website will have to do. A VERY complicated subject to be sure. At least I'm a few steps above cluelessness - which is where I was before I started traveling and making a concerted effort to find these places.

In response to your list ---

- Pike Place doesn't count. http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen3/f36d.html
...and that is only one section! the big tunas get flown in from all over the world.
- Tell me about the bird market in HK. Where was it? You have a weblink?
- Stock show and rodeo...hmm..not sure. How many cattle we talking? The one I went to has 1.25 million going through every year.
-Amsterdam counts...but also check out Bangkok. The scale and corporateness of the industry there is large to say the least and is a different beast altogether than just walking through (I ain't talking about touristy Patpong either) Amsterdam.

It's like a string of mom and pops vs a bunch of superstores. Scary. There was even a super upscale men's club next to a upscale mainstream dance club I went to in Bangkok. I was with a neighbor in my apartment and his girlfriend and we didn't know what it was at first. Upon walking in though...let's just say the ornate decoration could match or exceed what you might find in some rooms of European palaces.
-Would be curious to know of other large aircraft graveyards other than AMARC/Monthan in Arizona that you have seen. Next time you are in Arizona - the TITAN MISSLE MUSEUM. Only $6! 100 foot missle in a silo. Minuteman missle site opening in the Dakotas soon, if not already.

I have. Not really leagal though. It was before I could get into a bar. That's all I did in my first years of college really. Drive around looking for weird stuff and breaking into abandoned stuff. Maybe not so smart, but a lot of fun.

Ever seen a deep open pit mine? Highway 2 outside of Minot, North Dakota. Trucks the size of, well really big buildings. (My metaphore fell apart there.)
A large fish market? Not a fish market, but a huge fish processing plant in Maine.
An auto assembly plant? Many, many, many. I was in one last Thursday and Friday. I was in the Dearborn Assembly Plant in the Rouge Complex the week before it opened. These days the place is all eco-friendly. I remember when the place was dirty and dangerous There were huge rats jogging by. I was there when they had an explosion and the power went out. Great fun.
Tea plantation? Not yet.
A bird market? Nope.
Strip coal mine? Yes, a couple. The one's in western Maryland are called "strip jobs" by the locals. Cracks me up every time. Plus, they have a weird accent so it's hard to understand what they just said.
Oil refinery? Not up close and personal, but they have plenty of them in Michigan.
Major shipping port? Several. Nova Scotia and Vancouver, BC.
A cattle stockyard/auction? Not on a grand scale, but yes.
A major red-light/working girl zone? Not really. Though I once got lost in Detroit and found myself in hooker heavan. (or hell?)
Aircraft graveyard? No.
Nuclear missle in a silo? Not up close and personal, though I did protest at one in Michigan when I was a kid.

quote:

Originally posted by Kathryn M:
Ever seen a deep open pit mine? Would Butte Montana Count?
A cattle stockyard/auction? Yes, actually I work for the largest pork and 5th largest beef processor in the US

Kathryn,

Maybe we went to the same one - the Berkeley copper mine?
Strip coal mines in Montana...whereabouts? The one I went to is in the center of that industry - Gilette, Wyoming.

the Georgetown, Kentucky Toyota plant (Largest outside of Japan for Toyota) puts out 500k cars per year. You don't need to look through windows...they give you a tour on a extended golf cart type vehicle.

Hmm...can I get a tour of a pork and beef processing plant?

Thanks for the other answers...I'll do some google work on em' someday.

PS: re: strip coal mines - check this list:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/acr/table9.html

I saw #6. Would have gone to #1 if I knew about it at that time - which I didn't. I have a great panorama photo.
There's big....then there is really really BIG.

just for the record, i read following the equator and didn't care much for it. it had its moments, as only twain can offer, but, overall, i thought it was weak-sauce. more importantly, how does the inscription at the beginning (SEE BELOW) translate to you all?

BE GOOD AND YOU WILL BE LONESOME.
- MARK TWAIN

I know Jimmy Buffett pays homage to Twain and sings a chorus with that line in his song "That's What Living is To Me." Buffett adds:

"Be good and you will be lonesome. Be lonesome and you will be free. Live a lie, and you will live to regret it. That's what living is to me."

I've always struggled with what it all means. Thoughts?

'Be good' might mean a perfection streak/without bad habits/'pure'/untouchable...so perhaps lonesome.

'Be lonesome and you will be free' -- you're not tied to anyone, thus you can do whatever the heck you want.

'Live a lie, and you will live to regret it' -- not being your total self and not being honest doesn't really help anyone in the big picture. Not yourself, and not others. It's not the real deal.

and summing it up with 'That's what living is to me.' -- none of us are perfect, and we're all going to ebb and flow, and true life is about making mistakes, learning from them, etc etc. It seems to be rather a circular lyric - it does all kind of tie together. At some point, we're all gonna 'be good,' we're all gonna 'be lonesome,' we're all gonna 'live a lie.' At least, I think we all will. ;-)

I'm no Buffett fan, but that's my analysis. Stuff like that can be analyzed in many ways, no doubt. So that's the Eowyn take on the matter.

I don't know about that but I think Buddah (sp) once said something like you can not tell how smart someone is by how well educated they are or by how old they are. You can only tell this by how well travelled they are.

the bulk of it IS pretty self explainatory, but it's the first part that i've never been comfortable with: "be good and you will be lonesome."

I see it two ways, and wish I knew which one he meant.

1) be good - don't party your ass off, don't live a exploratory life, and don't throw caution to the wind - and you will be one lonely son of a bitch because being good is dull

2) the other theory suggest that if you truly are a good human being, in this world where everyone else is just bad and self-centered, you will be lonely in that other good people to be your companions come at a premium.

either way, being lonely is being free: when you have noone to answer to and worry about, you can do whatever the hell you want. so, perhaps, freedom does come at quite a cost. the rest of it is simple... living a lie, etc. anyway, my $0.02

Yeah, I don't know which he means either. Maybe both. Who knows!

Hey, have you ever read 'The Idiot'? It's kinda the whole theme on being truly good, and what the consequences are...Dostoyevsky was trying to make his main character almost a christlike figure.

And sorry if I seemed kind of dopey in my response; I thought you were wondering what all of it might mean.