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Chewing-Gum Invasion & Pavement Blobs

Cause for Spotty Pavements?

  • It's only just been highlighted; it was always there.

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • The chewing gum has changed ingedients.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Every person is chewing gum except Stormkhan!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Unknown atmospheric/weather phenomenon

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1

augustverango

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Aug 12, 2001
Messages
265
Pavement blobs

Taken from -

http://www.geocities.com/graham-stuart/coverup.html

I have over the last Two and a half years been fascinated by the cover-up being perpetrated by our government with the involvement of big companies and maybe unsuspecting newspapers and the gullible public. I am afraid that this is not to do with UFO's (or maybe it is???!!).
I began noticing 'White Blobs' on the pavements and roads of Hartlepool, thinking it was probably a by-product from the big ICI chemical plant in the area I thought nothing of it, I found surrounding towns of Middlesbrough and Stockton had the same covering. It was not till I started to travel around the country, that I discovered that these 'White Blobs' are covering the roads and pavements of most of Britain. On a visit to London in January 1996 to the AGM of The Essene Network International for whom I am editor. I noticed that London was covered with these same 'white blobs', on drawing this to the attention of the members, I then left it to them to study their home areas, with positive results from all over Essex, Wessex, Derbyshire, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and all towns in-between.
On to the cover-up. All the while in newspapers throughout the country there were small columns describing the 'chewing gum menace' that is littering our country (sure you've seen them). Subliminally the British public has been fed over the years that there is this problem with chewing gum, granted there is a problem, but not to the extent of the even covering of roads and pavements the length and breadth of the British Isles.
As to the whitewash last month the 'Sunday Post' ran a full page devoted to the chewing gum menace, with a quarter page from Wrigley's themselves on about their disposal of used gum campaign. And the following week a column inch devoted to the £100,000 clean up costs of chewing gum.
Once you are aware of the 'White Blobs' and keep an eye on its coverage, and shake off the subliminal 'Chewing gum' proposition, you will soon realize that it is something more sinister that these councils and governments are trying to clean up - all right at first sight it looks like chewing gum, but start to weigh up the facts that are presented to you. The even coverage of roads and pavements, is too much to believe.
Which newspapers and magazines have got their 'D' notices on the coverage of this subject -'Fortean Times' have so far failed to mention the subject, after a first enthusiastic phone conversation, the follow up article, and e-mails to each of the editorial team, have failed to produce any results - the local Hartlepool Mail have failed to follow up even though they usually tend to print 'any old rubbish' - But for the 'Northern Echo' at Darlington, who ran the following on 17/2/98 :-


........The more intractable riddle, however, concerns the stuff stuck to the pavements of half the streets in the North-East. Last week's column simply supposed it to be chewing gum, echoed Basil Noble's call for a clean-up and moved gingerly on. Over in Hartlepool, however, Graham Broughton has made a two year study of the underfoot phenomenon and believes that there's a cover-up. "My best guess," he says, "is that it's something to do with fall out from acid rain. Its definitely not chewing gum." Graham has feelers out all over, wrote a piece (yet to be published) for the Fortean Times, is awaiting news from his man in New Mexico. "At first I thought it might be emissions from ICI, or somewhere similar, but it's all over the country. There's something we're not being told."
Perhaps Mr. Broughton is simply one careful step ahead of Peter Halliwell Dobing, who writes from Salters Lane South, on Darlington's northern verge. He's convinced it's not chewing gum, either. "Several times last year I noticed a manifestation of these blobs outside my door and couldn't imagine that there had been an overnight convention of gum chewers." He scraped some up, found it putty-like ("Oil-based," confirms Graham Broughton.) Arden Street, near the town centre, had a high concentration the same morning. There had been a high wind. I came to the conclusion that it must be an airborne by-product of some factory on the outskirts of town."
The plot thickens, like the stuff on the pavements.
.............Whatever the blobs are they must come down as a mist, and then solidify, as undercover areas in stations and Covent Garden are also affected by them.


WE MUST BE BREATHING THIS INTO OUR BODIES.
How far the cover-up goes is hard to say, I have managed to make quite a few people aware of the blobs and even posted it to the Alt. Conspiracies newsgroup on the World Wide Web. But the more people aware the better - Maybe it does come down from 'space', it would be more exciting than 'acid rain'.
I hope that you can find a corner to investigate the 'White Blob Phenomenon'.

G. S. Broughton
 
Re: Pavement blobs

August Verango said:
The even coverage of roads and pavements, is too much to believe.

Even coverage? Within a couple of hundred yards of my home, there are 3 separate and distinct patches of WBP (White Blob Phenomenon). Two of these patches are inside bus shelters, and therefore highly unlikely to be
fall out from acid rain.


The third is an area in front of the local chippie. Guess where the local kids hang out? :rolleyes:

:D
 
Re: Re: Pavement blobs

DerekH said:
Even coverage? Within a couple of hundred yards of my home, there are 3 separate and distinct patches of WBP (White Blob Phenomenon). Two of these patches are inside bus shelters, and therefore highly unlikely to be


The third is an area in front of the local chippie. Guess where the local kids hang out? :rolleyes:

:D

perhaps the blob was on the ground before the bus shelterwas built and also perhaps the blobs outside the chippy are simply chewing gums spots and the two are being confused.
Ive never noticed these blobs that youve mentioned August, but next time i o back home ill keep an eye out for them.
 
Re: Re: Re: Pavement blobs

tang-malow said:
perhaps the blob was on the ground before the bus shelterwas built

...and forced their way back up through the pavement when it was relaid a few months back? (there were about a dozen yesterday).

:confused:
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Pavement blobs

DerekH said:
...and forced their way back up through the pavement when it was relaid a few months back? (there were about a dozen yesterday).

:confused:

this just goes to show that these blobs are some sort of mutant life form feeding on the soles of our shoes

nice work Dez (joke) ;)
 
Wow, something I can actually comment on first hand :)
Where I grew up just outside Liverpool, the pavements were littered in this stuff, and I was always told it was chewing gum. Being one of those annoying kids who questions everything though, I realised pretty soon it was something else. What exactly, I'm not sure but I'm fairly convinced from the look of it that it's some sort of fungus.

The oddest thing about The Stuff is that it seems to be only in certain areas - I now live about 3 miles from there, and I haven't seen any at all in years. Whatever it is, it hasn't managed to cross a 3 mile span in 15 years.
I do seem to remember only ever seeing it on paving stones. Maybe it's a type of fungus that only grows on certain types of conrete?
 
Like tang said, isn't it just chewing gum?
 
Which newspapers and magazines have got their 'D' notices on the coverage of this subject -'Fortean Times' have so far failed to mention the subject, after a first enthusiastic phone conversation, the follow up article, and e-mails to each of the editorial team, have failed to produce any results - the local Hartlepool Mail have failed to follow up even though they usually tend to print 'any old rubbish'
I rather object to anyone (even FT) saying they print any old rubbish.

Mind you this could be part of the conspiracy :D
 
Go out on the hottest day in Summer with a screwdriver and pick at one of the blobs- you will smell the mint .
 
are these blobs seperate from the pavement or are they a growth or fungus type blob stuck on to the pavement??

Marion is right, next time you guys see one scrape it off and if your not convinced its gum then try sending it to some local lab to be analyised. Im pretty sure they will be able to solve the riddle of the blobs.
 
Marion said:
Go out on the hottest day in Summer with a screwdriver and pick at one of the blobs- you will smell the mint .

Of course it smells of mint, they dont want you to detect the true smell of sulphur.:devil:
 
Originally posted by tang-malow
Marion is right, next time you guys see one scrape it off

I would, but it looks a bit icky :)
Now that I think about it (without the whole lack of sleep thing I had going on the other day) it could be chewing gum, if it's sort of dried out and cracked. It just always looked to me more like the type of fungus you get on trees than squashed chewy.. I dunno :)
 
Cewing gum does go pretty hard once dried out and pounded upon underfoot. As I've never seen this 'phenominon' before, nor live anywere near the named areas, perhaps someone who does could try and take a sample. You could try getting it tested at your local collage or uni so no expence. That'll be the quickest way to sort out what it is. I'm really surprised the guy with the initial belief that it ain't gum hasn't done this already?
On another story, but same topic, ISTR a letter I think, in FT magazine from a guy about wierd white blobs in the wood. He was going to gather some for anaylasis. Does anyone else recall this or know of any futher info? (Would have been published in the last year and a half.)
 
If its on wood then its a strong possibility that it is some form of fungus that is growing on it. Ive seen white blotchy fungus on trees before which i thought was paint or something, i inverstigated further and found it was almost furry to touch, unless someone was chewing furry chewing gum and stuck it to a tree ill stick to my fungus theory :D
 
OK - I work at a College, and there's tons of white blobs in my neck of the woods: I'll scrape some up and give it to my pet chemist.

Watch this space (it'll be a few days, probably - he spends a lot of time blowing his eyebrows off....)
 
*Wohoo!* Thanks Stu, it'll be great to get some kind of analysis, I'll deffinatly check back in a few days.
 
I remember seeing these in Detroit all the time when I was a little kid, if I remember it's a kind of silicone or expanding foam that's used to fill small gaps in the street.
 
SAMPLE RESULTS!

Very quick for a chemist, I know...

Scraped a blob from pavement in front of my house (to much neighbourly comment, I might add) and gave it to pet chemist.

Result?

A mixture of Calcium Carbonate, Titanium Dioxide and various silicates and hydrocarbons.

In short, it's road marking paint.

How does it get there? When they lay the stuff, they use high pressure hoses, and there's some stray globules that leave the nozzle at a tangent, falling outside the target area (sound oddly familiar, gentlemen?). Also, after they've done a short stretch, they tend to park up on the pavement before moving on, so further drips may fall out then.

That's the stuff from outside my house, anyway - there are different blobs of differing sizes and hues in my general area, so can't say it's representative of all of them, but I wasn't going to festoon the poor bugger with loads of samples. Besides, it seems a reasonable explanation.

I hope someone else from another part of the country/world gives this a go: there may be weirdness afoot yet (hope so:) )
 
Lichens

outside the holt road news agents in kesington liverpool is an asmazing site, hundreds of these white blobs have been joined by pink and purple couloured blobs on the pavement, this sugests they may be evolveing:eek!!!!: or the newsagent sells more than one flavour of gum.

On the subject of fungi as a biologist I may be able to answer this one... they are not fungi as to my knolage they have not produced large fruiting bodys to send thier spores all over the area.

however some of these are definatly lichens as sugested by pinklefish. there are white lichens (a symbiotic relationship between a fungi and algae) that don't produce visible fruiting bodies. the lichens are most likly to be found on trees, walls and roofs in areas of low polution, this rules out most big cities whose lichen populations still have yet to recover from the industrial revolution. also it is extramly dificult for a lichen to establish on the ground where people are constantly walking over it.
Some lickens look like an old paint job and others have a crust or are hairy, all are sensative to air polution to differing degrees.

on balace I would rank these causes in order of magnetude:
1) old gum
2)lichens
3)paint splatter
4)vesicles formed in limestone infilled by another sedimentary rock. (not comman as 'imperfect limestone is rarely used by councills).
5) some sort of alien species bent on world domination and the enslavement of mankind that the govenment is covering up posibly because it donated money to the labour party.
 
Stu Neville said:
OK - I work at a College, and there's tons of white blobs in my neck of the woods: I'll scrape some up and give it to my pet chemist.

Watch this space (it'll be a few days, probably - he spends a lot of time blowing his eyebrows off....)

he's not called Denzil, is he, Stu? :p

Carole, who thinks the white blobs are chewing gum (or bubble gum)
 
I know the ones in Leeds are chewing gum.

Because if you look carefully, you can find all the gradations of it from the "just dropped, still sticky" to the "dried out, flattened, dusty" to the "been there two years and worn completely flat by repeated treading-on" varieties. I've also seen road marking blobs, but they can be recognised by being rounded on top as opposed to wafer-flat.

But trust me, the majority of them are chewing gum. If you really want to prove it, drop a piece of chewing gum in a public street, ideally a pedestrian precinct, and go back to examine it every day for six months. You can watch your very own alien blob develop to maturity - always assuming the local council don't cut its life short with a high-pressure hose of course...


Razorwire
 
Chewing-gum Invasion

In London, there's been a big upsurge in chewing-gum "spots" on the pavement. Councils spend ages (and lots of money) trying to clean the stuff off. I'm not sure if other cities have the same problem.

What I want to know is ... where the stuff is coming from?

I cannot recall this pavement "marking" in my youth, nor it being brought to attention up until the last few months. But now I notice it on nearly every paving slab. The official theory is people are chewing it then spitting it out onto the pavement. It then "melts" and dries into the spots we see.
However, the number you see in, say, 100m of pavement would imply literally hundreds of people chewing and spitting at the same time. It even appears on pavement slabs which are rarely used, such as the central reservation of the North Circular! I simply cannot believe that chewing gum is that endemic, coupled with the disgusting habit of flobbing it out on the pavement, it marks every paving slab in the city!

Might it be an unnoticed atmospheric phenomenon? Has chewing gum ingredients changed so drastically, it's become practically indestructable? Where are all the little gobbers that do this?

A petty and minor point, but it's got me baffled...
 
Ever since I was small I've noticed the amount of chewing gum stuck to pavements in any town or city, so I don't think it's anything new ;) My dad's always been quick to point out that chewing gum is made of plastic too (hence his disgust at eating it), and the internet seems to confirm it:

http://ndnd.essortment.com/chewinggumhis_rdjz.htm
Today, bubble gums are made from sugar, corn syrup, flavorings, softeners and latex or plastic

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/chewing gum
Chicle is a natural latex product that was widely used as a base for chewing gum. Many modern chewing gums use petroleum based plastic instead of chicle. Chicle is still the base of choice for some "upscale" gum brands, as well as some regional markets, such as that of Japan.

http://www.junglegum.com/Joy/gumfacts.html
Gum base is mostly synthetic (plastics and rubber), but it may also contain a natural product called latex.

So that's presumably why the gum hangs around for so long after being spat out ;) I know that city councils often also have schemes to clean it up, it at least used to be done using steam blasting equipment (e.g. a jet of hot steam/water comes out a nozzle, I assume similar to those things you can buy for cleaning your car/carpet/etc. these days)
 
We had a thread on Pavement Blobs which was started over 2 years ago!

[Emp edit: removed as we have merged the two threads thanks to the fine bit of detective work here.]
 
Colin said:
... My dad's always been quick to point out that chewing gum is made of plastic too (hence his disgust at eating it), and the internet seems to confirm it:

http://ndnd.essortment.com/chewinggumhis_rdjz.htm
Today, bubble gums are made from sugar, corn syrup, flavorings, softeners and latex or plastic

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/chewing gum
Chicle is a natural latex product that was widely used as a base for chewing gum. Many modern chewing gums use petroleum based plastic instead of chicle. Chicle is still the base of choice for some "upscale" gum brands, as well as some regional markets, such as that of Japan.

http://www.junglegum.com/Joy/gumfacts.html
Gum base is mostly synthetic (plastics and rubber), but it may also contain a natural product called latex.

...
Well, I never knew that! I always thought it was just chicle. :eek:
 
I think that they have always been there. It's just more noticable now because more people chew gum, and more people spit it onto the pavement.

I think gum should be illegal but thats just me.
 
i think its down to banning smokeing in lots of places...people are chewing nictotine chewing gum and grumpily spitting it all over the place.
 
sidecar_jon said:
i think its down to banning smokeing in lots of places...people are chewing nictotine chewing gum and grumpily spitting it all over the place.

i'm pretty sure that's not it. for a start smoking isn't banned on the street, where the chewing gum in question has been spat.


what sort of timescale are people talking about here? when do people think there was less chewing gum on the streets? i don't remember there ever having been less, but i am only ickle.
 
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