Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Tennessee State Penitentiary - Beautiful Abandoned Buildings
Tennessee State Prison is a prison in Tennessee that has been closed since 1989.
The prison's 800 cells opened to receive prisoners on February 12, 1898, and that day admitted 1,403 prisoners, creating immediate overcrowding. To a greater or lesser extent, overcrowding persisted throughout the next century. The original Tennessee State Penitentiary on Church Street was demolished later that year, and salvageable materials were used in the construction of outbuildings at the new facility, creating a physical link from 1930 to the present.
The Tennessee State Penitentiary had its share of problems. In 1902, seventeen prisoners blew out the end of one wing of the prison, killing one inmate and allowing the escape of two others who were never recaptured. Later, a group of inmates seized control of the segregated white wing and held it for eighteen hours before surrendering.
In 1907 several convicts commandeered a switch engine and drove it through a prison gate.
In 1938 inmates staged a mass escape. Several serious fires ignited at the penitentiary, including one that destroyed the main dining room.
Riots occurred in 1975 and 1985.
Several buildings on the massive compound are still in some use today, but the rest of the prison lies in disrepair and deterioration. The Tennessee State Prison is now a wonderland of decay.
Not without danger, the buildings on the site are contaminated with black mould, asbestos, and lead based paint among other obvious perils. Yet, it is a completely fascinating location to explore.
Numerous films and music videos have been shot on the grounds of the prison.
The prison's 800 cells opened to receive prisoners on February 12, 1898, and that day admitted 1,403 prisoners, creating immediate overcrowding. To a greater or lesser extent, overcrowding persisted throughout the next century. The original Tennessee State Penitentiary on Church Street was demolished later that year, and salvageable materials were used in the construction of outbuildings at the new facility, creating a physical link from 1930 to the present.
The Tennessee State Penitentiary had its share of problems. In 1902, seventeen prisoners blew out the end of one wing of the prison, killing one inmate and allowing the escape of two others who were never recaptured. Later, a group of inmates seized control of the segregated white wing and held it for eighteen hours before surrendering.
In 1907 several convicts commandeered a switch engine and drove it through a prison gate.
In 1938 inmates staged a mass escape. Several serious fires ignited at the penitentiary, including one that destroyed the main dining room.
Riots occurred in 1975 and 1985.
Several buildings on the massive compound are still in some use today, but the rest of the prison lies in disrepair and deterioration. The Tennessee State Prison is now a wonderland of decay.
Not without danger, the buildings on the site are contaminated with black mould, asbestos, and lead based paint among other obvious perils. Yet, it is a completely fascinating location to explore.
Numerous films and music videos have been shot on the grounds of the prison.
The Million Mile Car
No other car has a heritage quite like G178 SGO, a 1990 BMW 325iS automatic built for the North American market. Happenstance dictated that it ended up as part of Mobil's research and development fleet, whereupon it spent four years on a rolling road, running around the clock at 45 to 85mph and pausing only for routine maintenance and synthetic oil changes every 6,000 miles.
We sometimes hear of antique cars that have covered 450,000 miles on their speedometer representing some kind of durability record, but this BMW was retained in captivity until it had been around the clock 10 times. It is a genuine 1,039,491-mile car, although the first million were covered in laboratory conditions.
Once its task was fulfilled, the car was stripped down (engine wear was found to be relatively light) before being reassembled and dispatched to work as a promotional vehicle in the US and Europe. Its recent history is a little blurred, but a trip to the scrapyard seemed imminent until Mobil rediscovered the car in Edinburgh, where it had spent a few years on a dealership forecourt. It has since been recommissioned and returned to active service… albeit in a real world contaminated by speed cushions.
The World's Best Complaint Letter
This is an actual letter that was written to Richard Branson, head of Virgin Travel. I thought it was most amusing and well written.
REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008
I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.
Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at thehands of your corporation.
Look at this Richard. Just look at it: [see image 1, above].
I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?
You don’t get to a position like yours Richard with anything less than a generous sprinkling of observational power so I KNOW you will have spotted the tomato next to the two yellow shafts of sponge on the left. Yes, it’s next to the sponge shaft without the green paste. That’s got to be the clue hasn’t it. No sane person would serve a desert with a tomato would they. Well answer me this Richard, what sort of animal would serve a desert with peas in: [see image 2, above].
I know it looks like a baaji but it’s in custard Richard, custard. It must be the pudding. Well you’ll be fascinated to hear that it wasn't custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It’s only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter. Perhaps the meal on the left might be the desert after all.
Anyway, this is all irrelevant at the moment. I was raised strictly but neatly by my parents and if they knew I had started desert before the main course, a sponge shaft would be the least of my worries. So lets peel back the tin-foil on the main dish and see what’s on offer.
I’ll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.
Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this: [see image 3, above].
Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it’s more of that Baaji custard. I admit I thought the same too, but no. It’s mustard Richard. MUSTARD. More mustard than any man could consume in a month. On the left we have a piece of broccoli and some peppers in a brown glue-like oil and on the right the chef had prepared some mashed potato. The potato masher had obviously broken and so it was decided the next best thing would be to pass the potatoes through the digestive tract of a bird.
Once it was regurgitated it was clearly then blended and mixed with a bit of mustard. Everybody likes a bit of mustard Richard.
By now I was actually starting to feel a little hypoglycaemic. I needed a sugar hit. Luckily there was a small cookie provided. It had caught my eye earlier due to it’s baffling presentation: [see image 4, above].
It appears to be in an evidence bag from the scene of a crime. A CRIME AGAINST BLOODY COOKING. Either that or some sort of back-street underground cookie, purchased off a gun-toting maniac high on his own supply of yeast. You certainly wouldn’t want to be caught carrying one of these through customs. Imagine biting into a piece of brass Richard. That would be softer on the teeth than the specimen above.
I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was relax but obviously I had to sit with that mess in front of me for half an hour. I swear the sponge shafts moved at one point.
Once cleared, I decided to relax with a bit of your world-famous onboard entertainment. I switched it on: [see image 5, above].
I apologise for the quality of the photo, it’s just it was incredibly hard to capture Boris Johnson’s face through the flickering white lines running up and down the screen. Perhaps it would be better on another channel: [see image 6, above].
Is that Ray Liotta? A question I found myself asking over and over again throughout the gruelling half-hour I attempted to watch the film like this. After that I switched off. I’d had enough. I was the hungriest I’d been in my adult life and I had a splitting headache from squinting at a crackling screen.
My only option was to simply stare at the seat in front and wait for either food, or sleep. Neither came for an incredibly long time. But when it did it surpassed my wildest expectations: [see image 7, above].
Yes! It’s another crime-scene cookie. Only this time you dunk it in the white stuff.
Richard…. What is that white stuff? It looked like it was going to be yoghurt. It finally dawned on me what it was after staring at it. It was a mixture between the Baaji custard and the Mustard sauce. It reminded me of my first week at university. I had overheard that you could make a drink by mixing vodka and refreshers. I lied to my new friends and told them I’d done it loads of times. When I attempted to make the drink in a big bowl it formed a cheese Richard, a cheese. That cheese looked a lot like your baaji-mustard.
So that was that Richard. I didn’t eat a bloody thing. My only question is: How can you live like this? I can’t imagine what dinner round your house is like, it must be like something out of a nature documentary.
As I said at the start I love your brand, I really do. It’s just a shame such a simple thing could bring it crashing to it’s knees and begging for sustenance.
Yours Sincererly
XXXX
* Paul Charles, Virgin’s Director of Corporate Communications, confirmed that Sir Richard Branson had telephoned the author of the letter and had thanked him for his “constructive if tongue-in-cheek” email. Mr Charles said that Virgin was sorry the passenger had not liked the in-flight meals which he said was “award-winning food which is very popular on our Indian routes.”
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Amazing Cave Hotels From Around The World
Sala Silvermine in Sweden attracts hundreds of visitors each year to view its vast caverns and beautiful underground lakes.
The Mine has it's own standard (above ground) hostel plus one 'mining' suite 155m underground.
There is plenty of cave accommodation in Cappadocia, but the pick of the bunch is this stylish boutique hotel.
There are five individually designed rooms: doubles cost from £105 per night, including breakfast.
Hotel Sant'Angelo - in the southern Italian town of Matera - features sixteen “historic dwellings” set amid a Unesco World Heritage site: doubles from £140 a night, including breakfast.
The Laleh Kandovan International Rocky Hotel, Iran
Located on the edge of the mountain village of Kandovan, 27 miles south of the city of Tabriz, the Laleh Kandovan has 10 rooms, with another 30 planned, and a large restaurant.
All the rooms have underfloor heating and some have whirlpool baths. There are Persian rugs on the floor and the walls have recessed lighting. The decor is stylishly minimalist, using plenty of tiles and letting the rough rock sides do the talking.
Kokopelli's Cave, USA
Located north of Farmington, New Mexico, close to the Mesa Verde National Park, guests at Kokopelli's Cave can enjoy views over four American states.
The Cave Resort offers eleven one- and two-bedroom cottages built into the limestone cliffs off Negril, on Jamaica's west coast.
Rooms feature bold, bright designs with large beds, louvered windows, handcrafted furnishings and original artwork.
Les Hautes Roches, Loire Valley, France
Part of this 18th-century manor house is cut into the rock face of low cliffs overlooking the banks of the Loire near Tours.
A Relais & Châteaux hotel, it has 15 rooms; doubles from £142 a night.
One of a number of hotels in the Cappadocia region of Turkey, Gamirasu is located in a restored Byzantine monastic retreat in Ayvali Village near Urgup.
The hotel is a combination of seven houses, converted into 25 rooms - each varying in size and shape.
Also found in Cappadocia, Elkep Evi offers cave rooms with modern facilities on a hill overlooking the town of Urgup.
Alexander’s Boutique Hotel, Santorini, Greece
Located on the top of a caldera, with views of the Aegean, Alexander's offers luxurious accomodation in a picture-perfect setting.
There are seven “cave villas” (from £185 a night for two with continental breakfast) and nine cave houses (from £114 for a house sleeping two people).
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