For those of you not familiar with cult 1990s children’s television, Teletubbies was a program primarily aimed at 1-4 year olds which followed the life of four colourful characters, notable for their camp outfits and love of Tubby custard. The Teletubbies (Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po) eventually became a worldwide success amongst children and ‘grown-ups’ alike, lasting 365 episodes before filming finally ended in 2001.

Their unique domed house in Tellytubbyland was actually in the middle of farmland in Warwickshire, England. The dome was 16 feet high - big enough to accomodate the Tellytubbies themselves, who ranged in height from 6ft 6in up to 10 feet tall. To help make the characters appear less enormous, the rabbits used in the programme were actually Flemish Giants - which can grow to over 20lbs!

Sadly, the shame must have been too much to bear for the landowner, as this more recent Microsoft Live Map shows that he has since converted this fascinating historical site into a small lake instead.

Here’s a great article about the filming location.

Thanks: Cookie Monster, Greg M and Jasmine.

Originally conceived by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1785, the panopticon was intended to be a type of prison that allowed the guard to observe any of the inmates without them knowing if and when they were being watched. The design features a central platform surrounded by a ring of cells - thus enabling a clear view of every prisoner.

A panopticon was never built in Bentham’s lifetime, but the idea was revived many years later for the design of Statesville Correctional Centre in Crest Hill, Illinois. Opened in 1925 it has two ’roundhouses’, and is the only working example of a panopticon in the United States. Here’s a great photo which clearly illustrates what the interior is like.

Although genuine panopticons are very rare, outside of the US there are a few more for us to see.

The Presidio Modelo on the Isla de la Juventud in Cuba was directly inspired by Statesville, completed in 1931, and remains one of the best examples of Bentham’s concept. Originally holding up to 6000 prisoners, its most famous inmate was probably the current President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, who was held here between 1953 and 1955. The last prisoner was released in 1967 however, and it is now a national museum - this photo shows how it looks inside today.

Chi Hoa prison in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is an outdoor version of the panopticon, but still has the central observation tower and cells ringed round it. During the Vietnam War, the prison was used to hold Viet Cong members, and still serves as the main correctional facility for the city.

Finally, Holland actually has three panopticons - in Haarlem, Breda and Arnhem. Designed by Willem C. Metzelaar, Haarlem’s domed prison has four floors of cells, and was completed in 1901.

Merzelaar’s father was the architect for Breda and Arnhem, which perhaps explains the similar style of the three buildings. The Dutch government refurbished these prisons in 1979, choosing to remove the central observation platforms, but keeping the rings of cells intact.

Wikipedia has more on panopticons, Jeremy Bentham and the Separate System.

On a rooftop in the Netherlands we find a blurry picture that may, possibly, if-you-squint-your-eyes, might appear to be two people that are lying very close to each other.

Now, I’m not going to speculate what these people are doing in the privacy of their rooftop. In fact, I’m not even sure that there’s more than one person there!

For all we know this is just some run-of-the-mill topless sunbathing, right? I mean, what else could it be?

Thanks to “IRoN CYbOrG”

In the past we’ve featured some incredible feats of engineering in service of canals and their traffic, but perhaps none as elegant as the Barton Swing Aqueduct, England.

Designed by Edward Leader Williams¹ and first used in 1893, the aqueduct carries the Bridgewater Canal over the Manchester Ship Canal. If a tall vessel needs to pass underneath on the MSC, the 71m-long iron trough swings through 90° to allow them clear passage.

Gates at either end of the bridge hold around 800 tonnes of water in place while it swings, and another set of gates on either bank hold back the rest of the canal.

Furthermore, this is actually a double swing bridge, as the Barton Swing Bridge pivots on the same purpose-built island simultaneously. How cool is that?

More about the Barton Swing Aqueduct, the Manchester Ship Canal and Edward Leader Williams at Wikipedia.

See our other posts on European Barge Lifting, A Canal Across Germany, the Corinth Canal, the Caen Hill Flight and the Saint Lawrence Seaway for more impressive canal engineering.

Although it appears to be one of the scariest sports in the modern world, land sailing (or land yachting) has apparently caught on in a big way on this beach in Malo Les Bains, near Dunkirk, France.

The premise is essentially the same as water sailing - except there are wheels, speeds of up to 70mph, and a harder surface to fall on! Participants sit or lie in a kayak shaped hull, and use pedals or levers to control the sail. Ironically, right next to the water appears to be the best place to do this!

There are multiple size classes, with the most powerful being Class 2 (which boast 8 metre sails), progressively getting smaller and less powerful.

Also hoping to take advantage of the favourable wind conditions are some kite buggies. These are similar to land yachts, but using a power-kite to propel you along the ground, instead of a sail, and can also reach speeds of 70mph.

For more on parasailing, check out Wikipedia, as well as the Dunkirk landsailing club’s website, where there are plenty of photos!

Thanks: James

Yesterday, 27th January, various countries celebrated Holocaust Memorial Day, which is dedicated to remembering the victims of the Holocaust.

27th January was chosen as it was the date on which Auschwitz was liberated in 1945. The concentration camp is not currently covered by high resolution imagery but you can see archive aerial shots as Google Earth overlays.

In 2004 the monument to the murdered Jews of Europe was established in the centre of Berlin. The monument is over 19,000 m², the entirety of which is covered with 2,711 concrete slabs of various heights. Between the slabs the ground slopes about unevenly, and there is no predefined path through the monument.

An underground museum below the monument holds the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims and a quote above the entrance reads:

“It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say”.

Further information on the monument on Sacred Destinations.

Thanks: Chris Westbrook, Stephan Gajewski, Leon el africano and David Boardman

Brú na Bóinne (Palace of the Boyne) is a World Heritage Site situated in a bend of the River Boyne, County Meath, Ireland. The site contains around 40 passage graves as well as other standing stones, henges and later features. Brú na Bóinne is the location of some of the world’s most historically important Neolithic passage graves, Newgrange, Dowth and Knowth.

Newgrange

The Newgrange passage grave was built between 3300 and 2900 BC, making it more than 500 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Hidden for over 4,000 years, Newgrange was only re-discovered accidentally in 1699, but it was hugely restored between 1962 and 1975 and today consists of a huge mound retained within a circle of 97 intricately carved kerbstones, topped by a high wall of white quartz and granite.

Newgrange was built in such a way that at dawn on the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, a narrow beam of sunlight for a very short time illuminates the floor of the chamber at the end of the long passageway.

The Newgrange mound is 76m across and 12m high, and within the mound an 18m-long passage leads to a cross-shaped chamber with an arched roof. The ceiling of the chamber rises to a height of nearly 6m, and incredibly, has remained essentially intact and waterproof for over 5,000 years.

Dowth

The oldest of the three principal tombs, Dowth has been less developed as a tourist attraction than its neighbours (it was partly excavated in 1847 though it had been pillaged long before that). Quartz was found around the mound, indicating that the entrance to this tomb was surrounded by glittering white, just like Newgrange.

Dowth has two passages leading to two separate chambers, one cross-shaped, and one circular. The circular chamber is, again like Newgrange, touched by the light of the low sun around the time of the winter solstice. A convex central stone reflects the sunlight into a dark recess, lighting up the decorated stones there.

Knowth

The largest of all the passage graves at Brú na Bóinne, Knowth contains more than a third of the total number of examples of megalithic art in all Western Europe.

Made up of one large mound and 18 smaller satellite tombs, the large mound contains two independent passages running east to west, which both lead to a central burial chamber. This east-west orientation suggests that at one time there may have been an astronomical alignment with the spring and summer equinoxes, but this no longer occurs today.

Full scale excavations began on Knowth in 1962, and in contrast to the restoration efforts at Newgrange, it was decided that the fallen quartz surrounding the mound would not have been part of a front wall, but rather laid out to form a white “apron” in front of the entrance.

Other

The 780 hectares of Brú na Bóinne are absolutely loaded with other Neolithic structures - I easily found Dowth Henge, and many others - and yet the reason that so many structures were built in this specific location remains completely unknown.

More about Brú na Bóinne, Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth at Wikipedia, or visit the much more in-depth Knowth.com for some excellent inforation and some great aerial photos.

Baa baa, baa! Cluck cluck, moo? Moo. Moo! Mooooo! Oink! Oink! Oink!

(Many thanks to my 18-month-old son, Mylo, for writing today’s post.)