leviramsey Posted May 16, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted May 16, 2009 Well, in the show there are two distinct factions when it comes to drugs kingpins. East side and West side. I often wondered what the boundary was, now I think I know. wiki"] Baltimore is officially divided into nine geographical regions: Northern, Northwestern, Northeastern, Western, Central, Eastern, Southern, Southwestern, and Southeastern, with each patrolled by a respective Baltimore Police Department district. However, it is not uncommon for locals to divide the city simply by East or West Baltimore, using Charles Street or I-83 as a dividing line, and/or into North and South using Baltimore Street as a dividing line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted May 25, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted May 25, 2009 Various cities of the world compared by the areas encompassed by their outermost ring road, as rendered by the Rice University School of Architecture (in Houston) Perhaps as befits Houston's (and Texas's for that matter) reputation, they cheated a bit to give themselves the largest ring road designation: the area for Houston is based on a prospective alignment for an unfinished third orbital/beltway. It should also be noted that comparing the territory implied by Houston to those for London and Berlin (whose orbitals are roughly the same length: Berlin's is about 5 miles longer than the M25), they seem to be exaggerating Houston's area: the unfinished orbital is only about 1.4 times longer than the M25, which would imply roughly double the area encompassed by the M25. As perhaps some of you were expecting, I am mildly disturbed by the failure to include Boston on the list. Boston is a Beta world city (and tied for 7th most important city in the USA), whilst Houston is a Beta-minus world city (10th in the USA), so perhaps there is an inferiority complex there (it's interesting to note that only one of Houston's betters (no Houstonian would ever agree that Dallas was a better city) is included on the map; Atlanta is renowned for having a fairly small ring road). Boston's outermost ring road, I-495, is roughly the length of the M25, but only covers roughly 195 degrees of the circle, due to the minor inconvenience of having an ocean on one side of the city. Compensating for this, one gets an area very close to Houston's on the map, and it's based on a road that actually exists. A similar argument can be made for New York, with respect to I-287. Should I have posted this in the "Things that Piss You Off but Shouldn't" thread? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted May 26, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted May 26, 2009 Freddy Heineken (the guy who built the beer into a global brand synonomous with malty beer at best marginally better than other mass-produced lagers) made this proposal for reorganizing Europe into a collection of member states roughly equal in population on the theory that it would make feuds between states less significant. Hungary would become the largest member state of the EU and most would be between 5 and 10 million people. The British Isles' states would be: Scotland (capital: Edinburgh): 5.1m Ireland (Dublin): 5.1m Northumbria (York): 8m Lancaster (Manchester): 5.4m Wales (Cardiff): 2.9m Mercia (Birmingham): 7.4m East Anglia (Cambridge): 5.3m Essex (London): 8.3m Wessex (Plymouth): 5.9m [is it just me or might Bristol be more logical?] Kent (Southampton): 5.4m Heineken was, obviously, a dedicated advocate for the EU. One wonders if his brewery's longtime sponsorship of the Champions League is at least partially a result of his support for a more united Europe. Of course, reorganizing Europe along these lines would have the salutary benefit of essentially guaranteeing Villa a Champions League spot each year! Given that there are now 77 clubs entered into the CL and 75 countries, the new CL would presumably be national/state champions only with the 2nd place clubs fighting for 2 spots in qualifying: Scottish champions: Rangers Irish champions: Cork City (by virtue of winning the most recent Setanta Cup) Northumbrian champions: Sunderland ?? (not entirely sure about which side of that map's Northumbria/Lancaster line Blackburn is on) Lancastrian champions: Man Utd Welsh champions: Cardiff (presuming a dissolution of the FA and Football League) Mercian champions: Aston Villa East Anglian champions: Ipswich Town Essex champions: Chelsea Wessex champions: Reading? Bristol City? Kent champions: Portsmouth I don't really have much of a problem with that list... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted May 26, 2009 Share Posted May 26, 2009 Very interesting that, Levi. Champions! Champions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted May 26, 2009 Author Share Posted May 26, 2009 made this proposal for reorganizing Europe into a collection of member states roughly equal in population on the theory that it would make feuds between states less significant. Where as History has already proved him wrong .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted May 28, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted May 28, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 Having a game of "spot the muslim countries" on that map would be quite easy, wouldnt it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted May 28, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted May 28, 2009 Though a couple of them are rather prominent... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jondaken Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 Ireland Good bunch that lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidlewis Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 what are your thoughts on this? basically flight routes in a underground map format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSufferingVilla Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 The Southside Chicago slum I have to visit for work tomorrow. You guys think Baltimore in the Wire is bad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 Avon Barksdale doesnt live in Chicago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturdaygig Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 aha, that kind of slum where everyone has a large detached house. Just like Lozells then basically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beasley Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 It doesn't look like much of a slum from the air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briggaman Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 Sorry to lower the tone but I found these two quite amusing: I found the following to be good in one way or another: Shows exactly what it says on the tin. This one shows underwater telegraph cables in 1901. Shows the extent of Roman rule throughout a large chunk of Ancient History. Very old map of the world, although I am not sure of when it dates from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted May 29, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted May 29, 2009 aha, that kind of slum where everyone has a large detached house. Just like Lozells then basically. Most of those are likely multiple dwelling houses... not quite the triple deckers that dominate the New England urban landscape Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted May 29, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted May 29, 2009 And TSV, three shootings since April a slum does not make... Though a comparison to Baghdad might a slum make Englewood is not multi ethnic, the area is 99.9% black. Lots of gangs, drugs, prostiution and other vices going on here. Basically, it's the ghetto Englewood has had 700 murders in the last 10 years as a former resident I wouldn;t recommend moving there west englewood is nice and quiet. But englewwod is a living hell, death is a normal thing there if your not from chicago you have no buisness in englewood. West Englewood is nice and quiet??? Compared to what -- Baghdad? In the last full year for which data is available (May 21 2006 through May 20 2007) there were 18 murders in West Englewood, compared to "only" 14 in Englewood during the same time period. If that's your idea of "quiet" then Englewood must have been a special kind of Hell when you were living there. (Looks like it was -- just read somewhere that between January and April 1991 there were EIGHTY murders there. Holy sh#t.) I drove through West Englewood yesterday. I took a detour off of Western Avenue to try to scoot around some traffic and drove through a portion of the residential area on the western edge of West Englewood. I have a pretty high tolerance for urban conditions and I don't spook easily, but I've never wanted to get the hell back onto a main thoroughfare so badly in my life. Funny thing is, the first two houses I drove past had pefectly landscaped/manicured yards out front (though I technically wasn't in West Englewood yet); in one of 'em I saw the lady out tending to her garden. I thought to myself, "hmm, this isn't so bad." Then it went downhill before I even got to the other end of the block. There were an awful lot of shady-looking characters sitting around doing a whole lot nothing, and naturally, a couple of them thought it necessary to fulfill the stereotype by drinking 40s. I've driven through a lot of areas in this city that I wouldn't necessarily want to live in. I did the same in Pittsburgh too when I lived there. And I never in my life got a creepier vibe from a neighborhood than I did there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted May 29, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted May 29, 2009 Though a Chicago version of The Wire would probably have to be on the South Side, perhaps (if it were set decades ago) in the Robert Taylor Homes, quite possibly the worst high-rise public housing project ever (though Cabrini-Green gave it a run for its money): [On the Taylor Homes] Planned for 11,000 inhabitants, the Robert Taylor Homes housed up to a peak of 27,000 people. Six of the poorest US census areas with populations above three people were found there. Including children who are not of working age, at one point 95 percent of the housing development's 27,000 residents were unemployed and listed public assistance as their only income source, and 40 percent of the households were single-parent, female-headed households earning less than $5,000 per year. About 99.9 percent were African-American. The 28 drab, 16-story concrete high-rises, many blackened with the scars of arson fire, sat in a narrow two-block by 2.5-mile stretch of slum. The city's neglect was evident in littered streets, poorly enforced building codes, and scant commercial or civic amenities. Police intelligence sources say that elevated number of homicides was the result of gang "turf wars," as gang members and drug dealers fought over control of given Chicago neighborhoods. Its landlord, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), has estimated that $45,000 in drug deals took place daily. Former residents of the Robert Taylor Homes have said that the drug dealers fought for control of the buildings. In one weekend, more than 300 separate shooting incidents were reported in the vicinity of the Robert Taylor Homes. Twenty-eight people were killed during the same weekend, with 26 of the 28 incidents believed to be gang-related. On June 25, 1983, an infant, Vinyette Teague, was abducted from Robert Taylor Homes after her grandmother left her alone in the hallway for a few minutes to answer a phone call. An estimated 50 people were in the hallway at the time of the abduction, but police were unable to gather enough evidence to make any arrests. She has never been seen or heard from since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted June 11, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted June 11, 2009 Propaganda from Salazar-era Portugal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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