For most of us, our jobs are shitty only in the figurative, but not literal sense. That’s not true for Julio Cou Cámara, who literally spends his workday swimming in excrement, urine and other waste products in the sewers of Mexico City. Because of a odd way the city’s sewage system was constructed, if a blockage occurs, it can cause flooding immediately—or worse—so the government employs two full time divers who jump into the stinky muck and then grope—blindly, of course—to find the obstuctions and remove them before any damage is done. Yucky, yes, but fascinating!

From a long and interesting article on Edible Geography:

People often ask me what I see down there. Do I find money or jewellery?  No, you can’t really see any of those things. Montezuma’s treasure may be down there, but I will most likely never find it, because you can’t see anything—all you can do is feel blockages.

In terms of things we come across: we find lots of cigarette butts. I’ve had blockages caused by pieces of carpets, pieces of cars, or even body parts. Removing these kinds of things from the sewage is part of our work. People who work nearby or are walking past think, “Look at that crazy guy, he’s getting into the sewage.” But yeah, of course—that’s just what we do.

A normal day for me… well, what can I tell you? I go into the office, and if there are no emergencies then we work on maintaining the equipment. This equipment has to be in one hundred percent perfect condition—it mustn’t fail. My other colleague and I have our gear ready at all times. We work during the night as well as during the day. It’s not as though day or night makes a difference for us, because we can’t see anything down there anyway.

Julio the Sewer Diver (Edible Geography)

Deep-Slime Divers Keep Vast and Smelly Sewers Flowing (Washington Post)

Thank you Paul Gallagher!

 
Dangerous Minds pal Mike Backes writes:

“From Hardened Structures, a survivalist construction company, comes their line of 2012 Shelters…  Here’s their threat assessment (emphasis mine)... Which engineers and scientists might those be?”

Threat Assessment: While the shelter will be designed and constructed to mitigate the anticipated effects of 12/21/2012, no one knows for certain what, if anything will actually occur on this date. However, most engineers and scientists agree that for a fully protected 2012 shelter the following threats must be mitigated;

3-Bars Blast Overpressure of 45 psi
Force 10 Earthquake in successions
450 MPH winds
Extreme Gamma & Neutron attenuation from a 100 megaton air burst detonated 20 miles away
Solar Flares with 1,000,000 volt EMP
Flooding (complete submersion for 100 hours)
Extreme External Fires at 1250 F for 10 days
Magnetic Pole Shift
Radiological, Chemical and Biological Weapons
Forced Entry and Armed Assaults
12’ of snow and 10’ of rain
500 lb Hail Stones or flying debris at a speed of 100 mph

Their website has some 3-D fly throughs. I like the one that shows the underground bunker and breaks through the earth’s crust to show you the fortified shelter below. These guys are hardcore! Hardcore “what” I leave to you…

 
This is wrong on so many levels.
 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Tobacco: Little Pink Riding Hood
Tobacco: Hawker Boat (Trippy Beta Carnage)
 
(via Nerdcore )

 
My esteemed associate Mike Paradinas (a.k.a. µ-Ziq) brings us this very interesting mix of what he tags as Juke/Ghettotech /Footwork /Ghetto House /Chicago House. Basically what the kids are dancing to in Chicago and other points in the midwest. Sez the man himself:

Here’s what I’m excited about right now. A mix of Footworking tracks from Chicago. Footwork has hyper syncopated rhythms, sub-bass, offbeat tom fills, triplets and pitch manipulated pop samples; it takes a while to reprogram your brain, but it’s worth it. This sound has evolved over the decades from Chicago House, Ghetto House, and is part of Juke.

Leave it to a Brit to pluck the best of an American phenom (again) ! I often think that rock music has utterly failed for at least the last 20 years to be any kind of irritant for the older folks, but here... well that’s a different story all together. I’d like to believe that this music would likely drive most people over 30 completely batshit. And that’s an excellent thing !
 

 
Richard sez : “That music is the precise intersection between Steve Reich and Larry’s Theme by Grandmaster Flash!” Sounds about right to me…

 
The wonderful Tracii Macgregor at Gargamel Music hepped me to this latest project put together by New York hip-hop DJ/producer/scene-vet Rich Medina. Like any device, the mash-up/remix can yield a good amount of garbage (Gaga vs. Bieber, etc.), unless the sources are well-chosen and assembled.

It hardly gets better than pop king Michael vs. Nigeria’s Afrofunk prez Fela Kuti—much has been made of how Fela and James Brown mutually influenced each other, so the R&B/Afrofunk connection is hardly a surprise. Medina’s put together 10 rounds of it for The King Meets the President in Africa, which is downloadable for free. Unfortunately, the videos below are uncredited—if Rich did these as well, I’d consider him even more of a badman talent than I already do.
 

Thriller vs. Zombie from MJ Fela on Vimeo.

Billie Jean is Shakara from MJ Fela on Vimeo.

 
Absolutely superb! More from Chenille Steele here.

Via Popbitch

 
Over a year ago, Bournemouth University student Jack Chute released this truly impressive short film chronicling the hard lives of Sudanese, Afghani, Palestinian and other immigrants stuck in the French port city of Calais. On a clear day, these guys can see England, a country with far more lenient visa regulations than those of France. In short, they see their futures.

Located directly across the English Channel from the White Cliffs of Dover, Calais has been a historical touch-point between France and England since ancient times.  It was bounced back and forth between the two countries from the 14th through 19th centuries, and served as a crucial decoy to Hitler while the Allies invaded Normandy.

Now it’s a harrowing human locus of the New World Order. Since the film’s release, French police have raided and destroyed the migrant’s refuge, unofficially known as the Jungle.
 

Reaching Albion from Jack Chute on Vimeo.

 
Don’t bury the lede!
 
(via BuzzFeed)

 
Yes indeed, it’s time again for me to pimp some o’ my own wares here on the DM. The lovely and talented Hometapes imprint, the label which released my first solo LP, Neighbor Singing a few years back, has announced an August 24th release date for my latest psycho-delic art-rock LP entitled Natural Selections. That’s the cover image up there, a photo of my boss son, Julian who also sings a tune of his own creation on the LP. Have a listen to one of the cuts below if you wanna.

 
Read more of the comic here.
 
(via The Daily What)