When we last spotted Thomas the Tank Engine he was happily entertaining children on the Isle of Wight. People said things like “Best. Sight. Ever!“, and we all reminisced about the favourite anthropomorphised train from our childhood.

Since those halcyon days, Thomas has relocated to the English seaside resort of Paignton where he has, distressingly, hit hard times.

The creaky blue locomotive now spends his days slumped in a corner at the back of the station car park, where locals report he is often seen glugging from a bottle of diesel and telling the platform attendants to “feck off”.

Thanks to Anthony Houghton.

The web is abuzz today with news that an English animal sanctuary has applied to the Guinness Book of World Records to have one of their bullocks, “Chilli”, recognised as Britain’s tallest cow.

The giant Friesian apparently measures a staggering 6ft 6ins (1.98 metres), which raises the question - can we pick Chilli out amongst all the other cows at the Ferne Animal Sanctuary?

The current world record holder for tallest living cow is 6ft 8in Italian “Fiorino”, who was unavailable for comment.

Also see our previous coverage of the World’s Largest (model) Cow.

Thanks to Rob

Last Sunday saw the swearing in of Boris Johnson, conservative MP for Henley (and renowned committer of gaffes), as the new Mayor of London. This means that, not only will he have power over nearly everything in Greater London, he will also take up office in London’s rather spectacular City Hall.

Opened in 2002, the glass clad building contains a 500 metre helical walkway, which eventually reaches ‘London’s Living Room’, a large space 10 floors up which affords rather spectacular views over the River Thames, and which also played host to Boris’ acceptance speech at the weekend (and unsurprising trip-up beforehand!).

Perhaps the new Mayor will be more accepting of the Norman Foster design than Ken Livingstone, who famously likened the building to a ‘glass testicle’. Boris however is said to refer to it as ‘The Onion’ - which fits, since the nearby ‘Gherkin’ is another work by Foster and Partners.¹

Here’s a link to the Live Maps Bird’s Eye view of London City Hall which really demonstrates the tower’s bizarre shape, or you can see lots of pictures and read more about it at GreatBuildings and wikipedia. Thanks to Krusader.

Just off the coast of Portsmouth, England, we can a group of sailing vessels engaged in some competitive harbour or buoy racing.

The vessels just rounding the buoy as the image was captured were facing some stiff competition, but the leaders of the pack appear to be way out in front.

On the beach we can see the Seafarers Sailing Club, and according to Google Earth the image that captured the race was taken on April 21st 2007 - which would mean that we’re seeing the 3rd race in the Seafarers Sailing Club Spring Series, which was won by sail number 1178 with K. Stares at the helm!

Given that Portsmouth has such a long naval history¹ is hardly surprising that there’s about a hundred zillion different kinds of boats to see in the area, so why not go for a virtual wander and see what interesting boats you can find?

See our previous post about Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower and some of the ships on display there, or brush up on this kind of Yacht racing and the Racing Rules of Sailing at Wikipedia.

Thanks to ZaberNS.

Near Llanarthney, Wales we find a serene scene of rolling green hills, well pruned gardens and a few grazing sheep. Then, sticking out like a sore thumb is the massive Great Glasshouse of the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

Designed by renowned British architect Sir Norman Foster, this is the largest single-span greenhouse in the world. 95m long and 55m wide, the roof contains 785 panes of glass and is partially built below ground level, so that it seems to “swell from the ground like a grassy hillock”…

The Great Glasshouse contains more than a thousand plant species – many endangered – and conserves specimens from warm climates around the globe including Chile, Western Australia, South Africa, California, the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean. If you zoom in close enough you can actually see some of the plant-life that is able to survive here thanks to this massive glass roof.

Read more at Wikipedia. Thanks to TorIV

Across the globe there are various land reclamation projects which aim to create new building sites by dredging up the seabed.

However, in the small English town of Happisburgh that process is being reversed, as the waves tear apart the coast and drag the land away into the North sea.

The rate of erosion is so fast that houses are being abandoned as they fall into the sea, and homes that once boasted a long garden up to the sea edge now hang precariously over it.

In 1959, work began to build sea defences along the edge of Beach Road to stop the tide eroding the cliff. As you can see, the defences had all but disappeared by the early 90s and in some places Beach Road now lies over 80m into the sea.

It’s a similar story near the small Brazilian city of São João da Barra, where high temperatures have accelerated coastal erosion and 183 buildings have fallen to the sea in the last 30 years.

The most recent building to be lost at Atafona beach is this high rise which just yesterday it finally gave up the struggle and collapsed. Local news broadcast a video clip of the building falling.

There’s more history and pictures of Happisburgh on the official website and pictures of Atafona and the fallen building on Flickr.

Thanks to Rob and Leo Carbonell.

Alan Turnbull (no relation) contacted us to tell us about his bizarre find at RAF Feltwell in Norfolk, England, which at first glance looks like it might be the world’s most complicated sports pitch.

But what is it really? RAF Feltwell is currently used by the United States Air Forces Europe, and Alan suggests that this could be some sort of satellite calibration test card for the US ‘Son of Star Wars’ missile defence programme!

Naturally a MoD spokesperson quoted in The Metro newspaper suggested that this is simply a “motorcycle range”¹, but interestingly there are another two of them side by side at the absolutely massive US Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia².

Alan’s website has more details on various crazy conspiracy theories, and the Metro went with the “proof of aliens” headline - so we’re left without a definitive answer so far. What do you think these things are for?

Parked in this rather unassuming car park at a very boring-looking business park near Leicester, England, we find a surprisingly impressive vehicle - an Ultima GTR, which is capable of 0-60 mph in 2.6 seconds, and which the manufacturers claim is the fastest supercar in the world.

Of course it isn’t really that surprising that there’s an Ultima here, as this is actually the headquarters of Ultima Sports Ltd. Which explains how I was able to find a ground-level picture of what is very likely exactly the same car, parked in what is clearly the same carpark.

Despite a little confusion over the numbers¹, at around £30,000 this is definitely the cheapest way to become the owner of one of the world’s fastest cars. Provided you’re willing to build it yourself of course - these cars are usually supplied in component form for home assembly. However a few - presumably like this one - are factory built as “turnkey” models.

More info at Wikipedia, and at the SAE page about the car.

Thanks to Jesus Carrillo.