Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[RED-DOG]

Had a walk around Croft quarry today. They've been digging this hole for about 300 years and it's pretty deep now.


It's hard to to see the scale on a photo but if you look carefully you can see the giant earth movers at the bottom.

Click to see full-size image.

[RED-DOG]

Lol. There's one near the lake but it looks exactly like the yellow flowers on the gorse.

[Tal]

Why do they dig down rather than across?

Serious question. Always wondered why quarries get so deep.

[RED-DOG]

Why do they dig down rather than across?

Serious question. Always wondered why quarries get so deep.

It's a good question.

I know that they wanted to take croft hill, (that's it on the right of the pic) but it's steeped in history and provoked a public outcry.


I managed to find a bit of Croft Hill and quarry info.

http://www.angelfire.com/ak/qweasd/

http://www.aggregate.com/about-us/history/croft/

 

[RedFox]

Had a walk around Croft quarry today. They've been digging this hole for about 300 years and it's pretty deep now.


It's hard to to see the scale on a photo but if you look carefully you can see the giant earth movers at the bottom.

Click to see full-size image.

That takes me back 20 off years when my brother in law rented a house opposite the quarry and i spent hours (it seems) absorbed by this huge hole

[tikay]

Why do they dig down rather than across?

Serious question. Always wondered why quarries get so deep.

By digging down......

A) They need much less land. Land comes expensive.

B) The minerals go down quite a depth, but first they have to remove all the overburden.

If they ever run out of mineral reserves, the hole can be used for landfill, charge a Local Authority X per ton, or cubic yard, to dump domestic waste in the hole. It's the perfect business model, get paid for the material in it originally, then get paid to allow it to be used for waste disposal. Then, when it's full, add topsoil, and methane extraction plant, and sell the land for development.

There you go, get paid 3 times.

[EvilPie]

Amazing hole. Looks pretty impressive on google earth.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.5640697,-1.2459564,1449m/data=!3m1!1e3

If you zoom in you can see the teeny tiny dumper trucks that have tyres 12ft tall and are about half the size of a 4 bed detached house!!

Fascinating...... If slightly geeky......

[MrDickie]

I was reminded yesterday, whilst driving, of "interference" on car radios back in the day, a terrible buzzing, when our car, or, more often, a passing motorbike, was not fitted with a suppressor. Motorbikes were particularly inclined not to have a suppressor. 2 of mine did not, & the neighbour use to kick up rotten, as it interfered with her TV.

Talking of interference on the car radio, MrsD and I were driving through the Limehouse Link Tunnel in London on Saturday evening listening to R2 when suddenly over the radio came “Police announcement…..caution ahead……slow down” and repeated itself several times before switching back to R2. We both gave each other the WTF look and sure enough a car had broken down a mile or so ahead of us. How the hell do they do that!

[tikay]

What is your view on this, Tom?


http://alphapet.co.uk/please-dont-throw-sticks-for-dogs-2/

[EvilPie]

What is your view on this, Tom?


http://alphapet.co.uk/please-dont-throw-sticks-for-dogs-2/

I've never thrown a stick for Ronnie for exactly this reason. Someone must've mentioned the risk to me years ago as it's been in my head since I first got him.

You often see dogs running with a stick poking straight forwards out of their mouths. The thought of them tripping whilst hurtling along at 20 odd mph is scary.

[tikay]

Have to say Matt, the thought had never occurred to me.

[tikay]

Sorry to pursue this, but it does interest me.

I always thought that when you throw a stick for a dog, the dog, as if by instinct, picks it up in the middle, not as the end, so it holds the stick laterally, not pointing forward. Can't say I've ever seen a dog carry a stick pointing forward.

 

[tikay]

And apropos nothing really, but this picture made me happy.

This appears to be Dog Heaven.

[tonytats]

If they ever run out of mineral reserves, the hole can be used for landfill, charge a Local Authority X per ton, or cubic yard, to dump domestic waste in the hole. It's the perfect business model, get paid for the material in it originally, then get paid to allow it to be used for waste disposal. Then, when it's full, add topsoil, and methane extraction plant, and sell the land for development.


Not so often these days Tony .modern landfill will produce methane for 40+ years and as the landfill breaks down differential settlement occurs creating problems for building devolpments ,it's more likely to be used for livestock grazing / country type parks
There's a lot of earth works that has to go into lining a quarry to make it gas / watertight these days for a general landfill regulations are much tougher !
Shallow workings are more likely to be used for inert waste / soil / builders waste
A lot of companies are getting out of landfill and into recycling now due to the landfill tax
Older landfill sites from pre 1970 s which contain mainly ash fill as people burnt waste in solid fuel fires ars slightly better ,but modern landfill sites can have horrendous pollution problems
Terminal 5 Heathrow for example is built on old landfills most of which involved the excavation of the landfill and redistribution of the contents ,most of which were shallow 5 m or less in that area having been gravel extracted first  ! A high water table doesn't help either !

[RED-DOG]

What is your view on this, Tom?


http://alphapet.co.uk/please-dont-throw-sticks-for-dogs-2/

It's never really been an issue for me.

Most people throw things for their dogs to fetch because it's an easy way to exercise them but unless it's very well controlled, chasing that stick, ball or whatever very soon becomes an all consuming obsession.

How often have you seen a dog that should be enjoying his walk or his surroundings totally preoccupied with persuading its owner to throw the ball again?

I rarely throw things for my dogs to fetch and if I do it's on my terms. I decide when the game starts and when it ends, what should be used and what happens to it afterwards. You've seen Kizzy and me play with a toy, when I say "That's it, we're finished" she stops and loses all interest in the object.

I'm not saying there in anything inherently wrong with fetch games, but if you're not careful, your dog will want to do that to the exclusion of everything else.

Take drug dogs as an example. The the one and only reason they search for drugs is to get that ball. For them it's an all consuming, life ruling passion. Well fair enough, they're happy and they do a good job but personally, I don't like it.