Hidden dungeons of the London Underground | Hacker News Reader

Hidden dungeons of the London Underground

michalpaszkiewicz.co.uk

155 pointssuperqwert27 comments

The BBC (unsurprisingly) have a fascinating documentary that goes behind the scenes during the construction of a new tube line - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04b7h1w

It shows the unbelievable precision required to build a new tunnel given the amount of existing tube lines and other, often unexpected, underground structures. Well worth watching.

Nice find! I know what I'll be watching when I get home

"BBC iPlayer only works in the UK. Sorry, it’s due to rights issues." Is there a easy workaround?

Geographical restrictions are the worst. They want more money and advertisers aren't paying international broadcast rates. have you tried one of those browser add on vpn tunnels. theyre often dodgy as fuck but get the job done.

In this case, it's a legal requirement on the BBC. Their funding for iPlayer comes directly from the license fee that UK live-TV watchers legally have to pay annually. They do re-sell their content around the world and even have a commercial branch, BBC Worldwide, which creates content for the US and other markets, and also allows them to show adverts in those markets (which they can't do in the UK, again due to the license fee).

I guess they don't put everything on BBC Worldwide due to costs (getting permission from rights holders etc.) and instead prioritise those things they think are likely to sell.

BBC World used to be awesome. I used to look forward to staying in a hotel that had it to catch up on some British shows that I normally don't see. However nowadays it seems to be mostly Star Trek reruns. (?)

is it not the same as this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RnuIiaLxCs

well, it looks like they're similar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH5_jLrVfQU&list=PL2tufbjcRa...

I see torrents on Skytorrents.in.

For a while you could use a VPN to make it look like you were in the UK. They seem to have found some ways to crack down on this a bit recently.

It's as if they _want_ us to BitTorrent Great British Bake-Off.

Using a VPN still works fine for me on all my devices (iPhone, various computers, streaming boxes etc) - as a UK expat iPlayer via VPN is a critical lifeline to home.

Things are probably going to get trickier in this regard shortly though once user accounts are made mandatory. Despite the BBC's claims, I wouldn't be surprised if this is step one in a plan to ensure all viewers have paid the UK TV Licence fee, especially following the recent closing of the loophole that allowed you to legally view iPlayer content in the UK without a TV licence if you didn't have a physical TV set.

(For those not familiar, UK residents are typically required to pay 147 quid or so a year if they own a TV or access the iPlayer service, which contributes to funding the BBC. Hilariously there is still a discount if you only have a black and white TV...).

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/11/iplayer-catchu...

For those interested in how some of this money is spent on salaries see http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/managementstru...

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a833482/bbc-stars-salaries...

Discount? I thought you didn't need one at all if you were using a B&W TV?

A black and white TV Licence costs £49.50 (about a third of the price of the standard licence), according to the TV Licensing website:

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/for-your-...

The law also covers any type of live TV incl online. So watching live US TV in the UK would also be criminally illegal without a TV license

If you like this article you might like Subterranea Britannica:

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/

And also https://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/forum.php and https://www.28dayslater.co.uk for the more adventurous, both of which have underground subforums.

I should mention that trespass on live railways (and a few other places) is a criminal offence throughout the UK, so you must get permission if you want to go anywhere on them not open to the public. Subbrit occasionally arrange tours of closed tube stations such as Down Street and South Kentish Town.

Both sites have intriguing reports of closed/abandoned Tube stations, tunnels and bomb shelters. Very impressive.

What is up with the blur effect when loading this site? It makes me dizzy.

I was like, how bad could it be. Loaded up the page and it also made me dizzy. Such an awful load screen.

Another instance where NoScript makes the web work better, not worse.

>A number of the rooms included some fans - these were monstrously huge metal tubes that hold fans inside that can be more powerful than airline jet engines

Are we talking CFM or specific impulse?

He's probably exaggerating, but smoke evacuation fans with very high power are not unusual. I was at the LA convention center once when some bozo apparently tossed a cigarette into a dumpster and set it on fire. This wasn't a big deal, because the place is concrete and fully sprinklered, but it produced a lot of smoke. The smoke evacuation fans high above the lobby were started, and wound up to aircraft propeller noise level as they sucked the smoke out of the building. Worked fine; SIGGRAPH went on as scheduled.

Hi - author here. I'm afraid I don't have any statistics on this matter - in this case I was relaying what the staff told me. I will see if any of my friends in engineering can confirm this.

Why are the photos so dark, small, and black and white?

for the ambience. The pictures were taken on a mobile phone. They may also be particularly small if you are viewing them on a small device.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com