Slashdot Mirror
Spelunking in Las Vegas
LowellPorter writes "There's an article here about some reporters who check out the sewers in Vegas after a known criminal escapes a police dragnet through them. They expect to find lots of people living in there, but only end up interviewing a couple of bums."
Must be some kind of annual conference, surely?
They expect to find some people living in there, but only end up interviewing a couple of bums who live there.
So what are you trying to say, bums aren't real people?
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
I guess bums don't qualify as people.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
Why are you calling them bums, the politically correct term is "trailer impaired".
Maybe they'd find some Missing phone lines?
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
spellunking... well its more caveclan style.. damn i miss the caveclan outings from australia.. london lacks an organised caveclan... (caveclan info here
no sig for you
"Josh, slow down," I said. "I can't see shit."
Weren't they looking hard enough?
Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
They expect to find some people living in there, but only end up interviewing a couple of bums who live there.
Gee, they didn't find any people that lived there, only some bums who lived there.
What exact species classiciation are bums, if not Homo Sapiens (people)?
Just wondering...
SlashSigTheorem: Humorous, Political, Critical, Constructive- If you have a
Next week: They're going to explore the woods on the side of the highway with nothing more than a flashlight and a scimitar. Nobody knows whats there....
"There was a brief flash of light as another truck went by. While it passed, the world seemed to stand still as my companion and I forgot to breathe in our quiet terror. The smell of exaust was almost overpowering, and I longed to be free of this hell. Suddenly, we heard a soft crunch from right at our feet! Jimmy fumbled for his scimitar while I readied the flashlight. It was what appeared to be a dixie cup. From how long ago, we couldn't say... There appeared to be a drying brown substance in the bottom of it, which we suspect is human blood. We had no time to ponder that however; we had a long journey ahead."
The reporters were looking for a troll in the sewers, but couldn't find him.
I guess they had their threshold too high.
The should have looked at -1.
DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
I read the whole thing when I woke up, thinking there might be some reason to why you decide to post it.
Are the reporter guys your friends ? Or is the guy who originally posted the story your friend ?
I mean, the whole thing is a little interesting, told in the perspective of two reporters, alternately, but when you half expect them to find an ogre or a troll, finding bums just isnt enough.
Thats just my opinion.
Rapid Nirvana
Devon
...So there's gotta be some one-armed bandits down there.
Were the bums playing craps?
Man, I can't believe I said that...
They found large concrete pipes with 5-6 people living inside them. These stories are far more interesting!
Here in Luxembourg, we have kilometers of casemates [pdf]. Only two sites are open to the public, but I've had the chance to explore a couple. Two years ago I saw some graffiti by people who fled underground during air strikes in WWII. I've never met any bums though.
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
While not exactly a tech story, the artice is an interesting reminder (imho) about what can happen in our society. Remember the dot-com boom? Remeber the crash? Know anyone who lost their job and *still* hasn't found another? Just because we work in a (usually) highly-paid industry, doesn't mean we're any more immune from total poverty then John Q. Citizen labourer.
Living in the tunnels is what some people are reduced to, when they suddenly find they've got no more money left to pay the rent or the electricity or the gas bills. Perhaps those of you making jokes about the differences between bums and people may not be so high and haughty if you lose your job and you're down there yourself in six months time.
Janie took my gun...
I think they were expecting a bunch of dog-boy Recombinants, on the run from the sinister government agency which was breeding them to be super-soldiers. But all they found was a hot brunette chick with puffy lips and a barcode on her neck. She told them to pull their heads out of their asses, and do something useful, like write a halfways decent piece about the homeless.
Freedom: "I won't!"
Why, Mutant Ninja Turtles, of course!!!
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
Nah...if it can handle DefCon for 10 years, Vegas can handle a couple of terrorists in the sewers.
How's that not "news for nerds, stuff that matters?"
Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.
It just seems a bit too dangerous to me, even if the weather isn't calling for rain. Last time I was in Vegas (last October) a freak storm blew through and killed some kid playing in a wash somewhere in town...
I use to live in suburb of Houston and I remember driving along creeks and rivers to find such storm drains. I loved exploring them or hanging out in them. The only downside is that the gulf coast gets heavy downpours quite often on any such given day especially during the spring or summer. So be aware if any of you want to do this. You can easily drown in some of these smaller drains. Me and an old buddy of mine did this once and within only 3 minutes of the heavy rain the small trickling stream only a few inches wide turned into a white water river. It roared and had a current to it and it was hard to stand up. I was afriad of being sucked down and having my head slamed into the concreate as I fell down or having my lamp get washed away. Pretty scary. Luckly we were only 700 or 800 feet in and close to a larger pipe that wouldn't filled over our heads with water. We quickly headed for the bigger pipe and barely made it out. I always watched the weather channel before I entered another drain pipe after that. I am moving to Las Vegas this July so I will check these tunnels out. I sure miss my drain pipe spelunking pals from High School.
http://saveie6.com/
MAG-lites are wonderfully durable, but their bulbs and batteries are still prone to damage in an abusive environment like a cave. I know: on my one caving trip in college, my primary mag-lite gave out halfway through. Fortunately I had a AA backup. Better yet would be an LED flashlight: they're incredibly tough.
Secondly, a kukri? Please. I own one, and it's mostly useless except as a heavy-duty machete. And it might get you arrested. And was he carrying it stuck through his belt without a sheath?
Important stuff for caving:
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
Have you ever been to Circus Circus. Just as filthy but more accessable ;)
-- Probability does not dismiss possibility --
Exploring tunnels, rooftops, et al has been a traditional pastime at many colleges with a strong geek culture.. MIT; CMU; probably RIT (only visited there)...
Proteus' Child
Doko ni datte; hito wa, tsunagette iru.
It's a documentary about people living in the Amtrak subways in New York, and is both fascinating and moving.
...or they might have been eaten by a Grue.
-Ed
docbrown.net
Graphic Design, Web Design, Role-Playing Games...all the good stuff
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net
Oh, and is it just me, or is the author the most condescending fucker on the face of the planet?
Actualy I would say the ten dozen people making jokes about bums in this discussion are.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
- Up to 12 levels of tunnels
- Nuclear bunkers
- Lots of human skulls
- Whole tribes of people living there
- Mass burial sites
- A hastily abandoned chemical laboratory
- A 3000-seat bunker under a cathedral
- Strange religious rites
- All kinds of other weird stuff
It would be scary if it wasn't so fascinating. The article linked to above is quite old; have any Russian slashdotters seen the TV programme mentioned?My kukri was bought from Himalayan Imports, and was made in Nepal. It's their 15" Ang Khola. It's pretty solid, and looks nice, but it arrived dull, and sharpening it properly took HOURS. For $150, a knife should come sharp.
The edge on these is supposed to be indestructible, onine reviews talked about chopping off car doors without harming the edge. Well, they're all full of shit. After an hour clearing light brush with mine, the edge was noticeably messed up. I would have expected better from a $15 machete.
I probably should have gotten the Cold Steel one, quality control would have been better. As it is, I pretty much feel I got a Shemp.
Lastly, the main reason I think a Kukri is a bad choice for a stroll through the Mines of Moria or some such nonsense is that it's a chopping weapon, and in a tunnel you want a thrusting point. The bend in the Kukri that makes it a good chopper tends to make it a poor thrusting weapon.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
Unfortunately, the site seems to be having problems, but infiltration.org is a 'zine that covers these kinds of urban expeditions. Some great stuff there, when it's working (and google seems to have spidered it yesterday).
Real people call it spelunking. Elitists who feel the need to seperate themselves from the vulgar great unwashed call it caving. S'true.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Have you ever met the engineer who designed the red bridge? He lives near the train station, as a bum. I can't remember his name, but I think he was featured in Ons Staad. He reportedly helps the kids on the block do their maths homework and such. There's also the redhead junkie who used to have a dog. The last time I saw her, she was juggling.
I think we have nice bums, overall.
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
Also, the URL you gave failed, though there was a Google cache.
A nasty little dwarf throws a stone knife at you and misses...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
So is anybody organizing tunnel hacking at DefCon ?
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
It was really weird and I was sorry I didn't have my camera.