| Author | Message | ||
     Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.29 |
Been there a week;  | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.224.78 |
They're obviously looking for chthonian entities. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.29 |
Some of my possible answers incorporated here: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2008/11/heavy-steps-2.html | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Is it Jesus? | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.43.119.113 |
The Kon-tiki? gcw | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.224.78 |
Horrors! It's "The Derelict"! Mould, tons of mould, by gum! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.29 |
The 'pendulum' from 'The Pit and the Pendulum'? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.180.139 |
My guess - Jason and the Argonauts. ;-) | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.209.220.3 |
The Flying Dutchman | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.235.146.197 |
Clearly somebody's pet whale's pooper-scooper. | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 192.26.212.72 |
A very tiny offshore drilling rig. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.180.139 |
The 'Elizabeth Dane'! | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.180.139 |
I bet if you take another picture today, Des, there'll be an ominous fog bank on the horizon... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.20.12 |
The other week we saw such an odd contraption out at sea, too, off the coast of Whitley Bay. It was very far away and to my eyes looked disturbingly like a little old fairground and street on an island, like a shanty sort of place. Hey, that's a fucking story! Yay! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.29 |
The true explanation included here; http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/heavy_steps_4.htm | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Well, the top photo turned out to be the very beginning of the process. (Nov 2008) Below is the end of the process today (4 Feb 2010). I thought you'd like to see.  | ||
| Clive (Clive) Username: Clive Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 81.104.165.168 |
Aww! So the contraption in the top photograph was laying eggs. Thats so sweet! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Indeed! Tripods. Incidentally, can anyone tell me why the wind turbines look much bigger when viewed from the bottom of a road leading to the sea front than when viewed from the sea front itself? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
This exact area of the North Sea was occupied in the Nineteen Sixties by the Pirate Ship Radio Stations - Radio Caroline & Radio London (Big L) - to which I listened regularly at that time. At night, Johnny Walker often invited cars to flash their headlights from the shore out towards the ship at sea where he was playing records - and he created a code for conversation that way with courting couples! Radio Caroline had a famous 'Dong Dong' station signal. With this wind farm we have a different Dong! (Dong being the Company running the Wind Farm). | ||
| Clive (Clive) Username: Clive Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 81.104.165.168 |
I love wind farms. Large parts of the Mid-Wales countryside are covered with them and i find them beautifully surreal when driving through the hills. They do remind me of the Teletubbies though but that is no bad thing. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
That's the funny thing about wind farms. There's HUGE resistance in Yorkshire to building any more of them here, and, in fact, Yorkshire has one of the fewest numbers of wind farms in the country - which is a pity when it's so windy! People worry about what they look like, spoiling the countryside, etc. Personally, I'm with you Clive - I love them. I find the windmills so relaxing to watch and, despite the fact that I normally dislike modern constructions, I actually love the shape and the look of them. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels like that about them! They really should site more up here - on top of the windy Pennines, on the high parts of the moors - but there seems to be no will to do so on the part of the authorities, and strong opposition to doing so from pressure groups worried about what they look like. I say, we need more wind farms (and other renewable sources of energy)! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Yes, there are 48 of them out at sea here. 6 rows of seven and one row of six. You can see three of the rows above with a bit of Clacton Pier poking out in front of them (to compare with the original photo that started this thread.) I have watched them daily sprout up over the last year. And I've grown to love them. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
I guess it's the same as electricity pylons and telegraph poles? When they first appeared, people hated them, but now they're just part of the landscape. Not only that but telegraph poles seem to act as substitute trees for the birds where there aren't so many trees around! There's one just outside our house and the birds congregate there regularly (it's unwise to park cars underneath where they sit though!  ) I do wonder about the effects on seabirds of wind farms out at sea. Couldn't the turbines pose a hazard to them, or do the birds avoid them? I'd hate to think of chopped up seagulls.  | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
That's a point of Caroline. Not thought of that! I think these wind turbines at sea are for more attractive than those old pylons. Still, pylons are often in the landscape of Horror Stories. But Wind Farms? Nobody has answered my genuine question yet: "Can anyone tell me why the wind turbines look much bigger when viewed from the bottom of a road leading to the sea front than when viewed from the sea front itself?" i.e they look bigger the further away they are. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
I might be able to help answer that one, Des. I have in front of me a very old introductory psychology textbook which talks about a perceptual process called "size consistency", and has a picture in it showing a "size illusion". However, my scanner is playing up so I can't post the pic which seems to show the perceptual illusion you're talking about. I'll have a quick look on the internet to see if I can find it there. It'll be easier if I can just direct you to a link explaining it! But if you try searching terms like "perception", "size consistency", "size illusion", you might find something on it yourself? I've got to go and have something to eat shortly so I'll try to do it later ... | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Ah, that took less time than I thought! Try this: http://www.brisray.com/optill/ovision1.htm Scroll down past the Bayeaux Tapestry and you'll see what I'm talking about. OK, now I'll go and have my tea ...  | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
I've had a look, Caroline, at your suggestions. Thanks. But nothing seems to cover this effect. When looking towards the wind turbines from down the road leading up towards the sea front, they look really large - in fact significantly larger. When you walk up to the sea front, they then become the size I show in the photograph above and relatively tiny on the horizon. The comparison is not a subtle one. It is a major difference. Eqaually, in addition, when driving into Clacton from a distance, one begins to glimpse the tops of the blades turning above distant treetops. In this context, they look literally giantesque. To repeat, on the sea front itself, the turbines become relatively insignificant. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Caroline,I wrote my last post before I read your previous post. They must have crossed. I will read that new article with interest. Thanks. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Hmmm, I'm not sure... But thanks Caroline. Food for thought. | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
We've just had a turbine 'officially opened' here in Metro Vancouver of the top of Grouse Mountain. Chances are you'll see it in the coverage of the Winter Olympics starting a week or so from now. Lord knows why, but people were screaming about how it'll "destroy the beautiful view of the mountains!" It's hardly blocking anything, and if nothing else it ensures we'll not have to tear the damned mountains down in order to harvest the minerals to heat the cedar cabins and igloos we live in here. …narrow-minded gits. | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.249.106.207 |
"Horrors! It's "The Derelict"! Mould, tons of mould, by gum!" I absolutely love that Hodgson story!! One of my all time favorites! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.236 |
This probaly disproves the illusion of what I see with my own eyes (regarding my earlier question above) but, for what it's worth: One set of seven turbines as seen from down the road:  Same turbines as seen from the sea front:  | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.156.233.165 |
They look somewhat the same. And odd, for turbines. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.156.233.165 |
D'oh! My post rendered nonsense by some glitch in which 'your image here' appeared twice.  | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.153.33 |
What am I missing Des? Is it that they look smaller with no foreground objects? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.236 |
And here's one further up the road:  | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.153.33 |
"Incidentally, can anyone tell me why the wind turbines look much bigger when viewed from the bottom of a road leading to the sea front than when viewed from the sea front itself?" They're abstract shapes which coudl be almost any size at a distance. But once you see a small car in front of them you know they're objectively big. Or They're space/time distortion machines or They're propellers to move the Earth further from the Sun. or, as Gary said They are a Jesus. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.236 |
Yes, they actually look *much* smaller with no foreground objects - much smaller than he photos show, in fact. It must be me | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.156.233.165 |
No - it happens with the moon. When it's near the ground it looks vast. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.153.33 |
You can blot the moon out with the tip of your index finger extended to arm's length. It's just half a degree across. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.236 |
I think they're fanblade fables! | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Hmmm, I still reckon my "size consistency" theory above is the answer to that one, Des. What we need is another psychologist like Gary to come along and be arbitrator here. What do you reckon, Gary - am I right? Is it the perceptual process of size consistency? | ||
| Coral (Coral) Username: Coral Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 90.216.127.4 |
Wot's the other thing, then? The thing that isn't a wind turbine, to the right on the "same turbines seen from the seafront" photo? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.236 |
Coral, that other thing is this, I reckon: http://www.bbc.co.uk/essex/content/articles/2009/03/18/gunfleet_sands_windfarm_f eature.shtml | ||
| Coral (Coral) Username: Coral Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 90.216.127.4 |
Ah! A substation. I did wonder how they worked. Could the difference in size be something to do with the curvature(sp?) of the horizon when you are actually next to the sea,as opposed to looking from land. The view at sea is different on the eyes, and it does cause optical illusions. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 217.43.29.197 |
Possible cover image for NULL IMMORTALIS based on the above windfarm: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/basis_for_null_immortalis_book_cover.htm It would be nice if at least one story refers to it. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.204.111.236 |
I find structures like that terrifying. It's the same with oil rigs. Scary as hell. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 217.43.29.197 |
hey, Steve, some more sea trees here: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_sea_trees.htm | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.131.110.123 |
I might be going up in a wind turbine soon, if my son lets me go along to his nature club with him. Want some pics of it, des? There'll be a little window to look out of. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 217.43.29.197 |
Pics will be wonderful. Here are my sea trees altogether: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=3968 | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.175.213 |
 | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.176.254.46 |
Yep, saw that in the news today. Scary stuff. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.140.213.156 |
Just to keep you up to date on this whole thread. There are now (in addition to the original close-up forty-two) thousands, it seems, of wind turbines further out to sea here where I live, having been built without me noticing. You can't see them very well from this photo I took this morning but they are there.  | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.118.77.194 |
They are in fact propellers to mitigate the effects of the earth's slowing rotation. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.140.213.156 |
Below, in the distance, is the turbine-building crane contraption (seen for the first time at the very top of this thread in 2008) that has been brought to land becuase of today's approaching storm. This is taken from the Pier and to the right of the crane you can just see a Martello Tower from the war.  Below are some more images I took today:    | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.140.213.156 |
This morning's Autumn walk. Sorry it's a bit blurred. The wind was blowing around my ipad as I used it to take this photo. You can just see the crane-tower beyond the pier, sheltering from the storm.  | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.244.38 |
Blimey, Des, you've got blue skies! I don't think I've seen one of those for a few days! |