Ninja Cat Doing Covert Stealth

This is a clip from YouTube about a cat that stealthily sneaks up on the man with the camera. The young moggy is like Doctor Who's Weeping Angle foes. Every time you blink, the creature gets closer...  :)

Dynamic German Engineering - Monster Railway Tunnel Builder in London

Metal moles begin work below London

Tunnelling work is about to begin on a grand scale in London as the £16bn Crossrail project gets set to build 26 miles (42km) of tunnels beneath the capital.

The first of eight highly specialised Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM), which each weigh nearly 1,000 tonnes, is being positioned at Royal Oak in west London. From here it will begin its slow journey east, as it carves out a new east-west underground link. The scheme is currently the largest civil engineering project in Europe.

Continue reading the main story

Described by Boris Johnson as "voracious worms nibbling their way under London", the 150-metre long machines will take three years to build a network of tunnels beneath the city's streets.

Tunnelling will start from the newly-constructed portal at Royal Oak

While tunnelling the TBMs will operate 24 hours a day and move through the earth at a rate of about 100m per week.
Each one is staffed by a 20-strong "tunnel gang" and comes with its own kitchen and toilet.
The machines are monitored from a surface control room which tracks their positions using GPS.
Hydraulic rams at the front keep the 980-tonne machines within millimetres of their designated routes.
A TBM will set you back about £10m.
Once their work is finished, the machines will be sold back to their German manufacturer Herrenknecht and refurbished for further use.

The TBMs will have to navigate London's existing subterranean infrastructure, including sewers, some 10 Tube lines and the Blackwall and Limehouse link road tunnels.
At the deepest point the machines will be travelling about 40m below ground.

The Crossrail scheme was first proposed in the mid 1970s, although plans to build full-size railways through central London were also drawn up after World War II.
When complete by 2018, the line will pass through 37 stations and run 73 miles (118km) from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

The line is expected to carry about 200 million passengers per year and expand London's rail capacity by about 10%.
Unlike the Tube, the line's rolling stock will be the same size as mainline trains and some 1,500 passengers can be carried in each train at peak periods.

Other tunnel boring machines from all over the world:

Will the human race begin to live underground? Not on Earth but perhaps somewhere else? On asteroids as they are mined etc? Such machines above or below might be a start to such excavations in creating underground artificial environments in places that are less hospitable on the surface but with valuable ore or minerals to be mined.

Below are other such monster boring machines:

Reggae, Ska, Skinheads of Retro Britain - late sixties early seventies.

Lots of the youngsters dressed this way in East London when I was a kid in the late sixties and early seventies. I don't remember the change or when they faded away, but when I look at the above photos it really takes me back and knocks me for six when I realise that all of this was over forty years ago now.

Now we are they ones who say; "It was not like this in my day." In that day I can remember my Grandparents saying exactly the same thing and my grandchildren think these people are from the olden days - the olden days...   :)

Petula Clark Sings Downtown

This is a good old Retro Brit song from the sixties decade when all of Britain was a green field with bunny rabbits hopping about beneath a blue sky with a rainbow across it. Yeah right....  :) I can hear many say.

In my little boy mind it was because I loved Britain and thought everything happened here and nowhere else. How naive I was. Still little kids must be allowed to play. This song was among my Mother's many records. (I'm sure it was not my Dads) 

Nic Jones - The Bonny Bunch of Roses

This song called; The Bonny Bunch of Roses is about Napoleon and his invasion of Russia in 1812 and Britain's stand against him. I always liked the lyrics on this and it starts of with young Napoleon talking to his mother about conquering Britain. Young Napoleon is either the grandson or son of Bonaparte. It is a song that 'bigs' itself up, but then we all like these type of things some time or other. This rendition is sung by Nic Jones but there are others that sometimes sing this song too. Fairport Convention being one of them. Hope you enjoy this version.

Steeleye Span - Saucy Sailor

I always had a soft spot for Steelye Span. I love their old world style combined with modern instruments. Many of their songs are old folk from all over the Isles and to listen to them often takes me back in time to a different world and way of life.

Moyra Melons Captivating Ear Rings

Moyra Melons husband came downstairs into the living room and saw his lovely wife sporting her new ear rings. His darling wife was always full of surprises, especially when posing with new ear rings. She always managed to flick a switch. Strange that - don't you agree.

"Are these subtle dear," asked Moyra turning sideways so that her husband might be able to see her ear rings to maximum effect.

He, of course, coughed slightly and was taken unawares upon entering the room, where his darling wife posed as you, the reader, can see in the photo opposite. Perhaps any man might cough at the captivating sight of such fine ear rings.

He dithered a little before stuttering. "Most elegant Moyra - very alluring darling - very compelling indeed."

"Oh good," she responded. "I was wondering if they might be for the more acquired taste - perhaps take a little time to get used to."

"Perhaps take a little time to notice would be more appropriate Moyra," grinned her husband warming to the sight of such fine ear bling. "There are more things about you then just fine ear rings my little petal."

She smiled back at him enthralled by such kind words. "Really? tell me what else."

"I can show you if you would like Moyra," he smiled enthusiastically.

"Oh please do darling," she replied.

He closed the door and BOY did he show her what he thought of her fine ear rings and other things too. Could you, the reader, be as complimentary as Moyra Melons' husband - would you like to be Moyra's husband?

Her fabulous ear rings are, after all, very enticing - don't you think.