the most organised shanty town on earth

pre-2001, the residents of dignity village in portland, oregon, were part of a mobile ‘tent city’ founded by 8 local homeless people desperate to find some kind of semi-permanent shelter. in 2001, following much campaigning and media support, portland city council agreed to allow the camp legal campground status on the basis that they move to an area called sunderland yard, thus securing dignity village’s short-term future.

the world’s nicest social-housing complex?

welcome to alt-erlaa, a social housing complex in vienna.

built between 1973 and 1985, this incredible, government funded 27-storey complex accomodates approximately 10′000 low-income residents amongst a healthy amount of greenery. as you can see, the blocks are topped with outdoor swimming pools, but the facilities available to residents don’t end there…

the return of baby hatches

it’s an unfortunate fact of life that all over the world newborn babies are abandoned on a daily basis, in bins, on doorsteps, in bushes. just searching for ‘abandoned baby’ on the google news search brought up these results and that’s just a selection of the cases that are actually reported.
centuries ago a device called […]

berlin’s holocaust memorial

opened in 2005 after years of disagreements, the ‘monument to the murdered jews of europe’ is a stunning sea of concrete blocks situated in the heart of berlin.

the memorial was designed by american architect peter eisenman and each of the 2711 stones, all without plaques or inscriptions, is unique in size, the design intended to […]

where vehicles are left to die

here are some examples of vehicle cemeteries around the world, areas on earth that have unwittingly become the home to rusting, unused machines - remember, this is just a selection of the many boneyards on earth and while they often look stunning and make for a great photo, the environmental costs far outweigh the view.
(photos […]

extreme rich-poor divides

here’s a quick selection of shocking photos / google maps links to start the day. they all illustrate an extreme degree of wealth divide in different parts of the world.
1. paraisópolis favela, morumbi, sao paulo

(above: check out the size of the tennis courts in comparison to the size of the housing on the left)
the shantytown […]

and you think you’re cramped?

kowloon walled city, hong kong

area - 0.026 km²
population prior to demolition - 50,000, approx
population density - 1,900,000 / km²
(it’s interesting to note that the city of london has a population density of 4,669 / km² and that hong kong itself a density of 6,206 / km2)

said to be the most densely populated area on earth […]

product placement in politics

i watched the new transformers movie the other day. quick review: the cgi blew me away, everything else just fucking blew.
the worst thing though was the product placement for ebay, culminating in one of the funniest product placement moments in history (i don’t want to spoil it for you but let’s just say that a […]

this film is not yet rated (2006)

get it while you can chaps, this’ll be gone soon.
it’s the full movie and if you don’t already know it’s about the motion picture association of america (mpaa) film rating system - imdb link.
it’s funny and worrying in equal doses and the best thing you can do right now is watch it through your balls (eye)….

(there’s […]

the best ever hoaxes

everyone loves a good hoax, as long as they aren’t the victim, and some people seem to take great pleasure from planning ‘em.
here’s a collection of some of the best.

the yes men - dow chemical hoax
‘On December 3, 2004, the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal chemical disaster, Andy Bichlbaum appeared on BBC World as “Jude […]