Lunch
 

Supposed to be somewhere in Austria (according to one comment).

Just looking at this picture gives me shrinkage.

http://i37.tinypic.com/2z3xb3b.jpg

The ladies have fall arrest harnesses on. Not like the famous pictures from the 30's of Manhattan skyscraper builders.

OK, I think I'm ready to vomit just form looking at them.

This is one of those times I wish I was a man. After drinking all of that pop, I'd totally pee off the end of that girder...

:lol: But I'd skip the "shake."

These are fun

Any stats on fatalities from falls from those days, I wonder?

Did you say "stats" or "splats" from falls in those days?

The original Flat Stanley.

I just found the motherload of pictures. Won't post them all here. Just a teaser.

Those pics are giving me the jibblies, and I like heights

:vomit:

and why are those pics on an obviously foreign site?

I remember my brother nearly went into steel erecting. He stood there, aged 19, in the kitchen telling mum all about his intention to go for a job in that field...apparently a 'vacancy' had come up...let's just say somebody had dropped out, or off the job.

I googled trying to find some kind of info on fatalities from the old days of building skyscrapers, all I could find was a nod to the lack of safety devices. You can't tell me people weren't dropping off like The Happening.

I Googled too, and only found one item: that when they planned the Empire State Building, they "bugeted" one death per floor, and were happy when only a "handful" of people died building it instead of the hundred or so they expected.

16 people died during the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Apparently when the Brooklyn Bridge was built 139 died.

I hope their families are rich although I doubt it.

Oh yeah. Bridges. Can you imagine working in the cassions, underwater, digging the foundation for the bridge in the dark mud with the river out there, trying to kill you?

So many of these large constructions were built during years when jobs were hard to come by, and I guess the extra few dollars made the idea of working on them very tempting. These days people on these types of jobs get paid huge amounts of money, and they have safety gear...AND they have agreements as to how much their families get paid if they should die.

Although these constructions are marvels, I find it hard to get that excited about them due to the sacrifices made by people who didn't have much other choice.

Those days may be coming back.

When we talk about welfare vs taxing the rich, remember, a fair few rich people got rich at least in part by treating workers as disposable, or otherwise exploiting their desperation.
Rich person complaining about tax? How did you get so rich in the first place? Purely by innovating and improving the world, and skimming a fair share for yourself? (Bill Gates MAY be an example) Or squeezing more profit out of workers with a take-it-or-starve negotiation?
Look at the whole picture, is what I am trying to say.

Apparently BG donates 98% of his income to charity.

That's just a random fact.