Pointless Endeavours (Arbitrary Pursuits; Not Record Attempts)

[Sollywos]

Yes, I will!!

Well how did it go?

 

[Yithian]

Consumes five litres of water in a shade over seven hours—with a fork.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1743367885492523186

 

[maximus otter]

Meet the DIY Diggers Who Can’t Stop Making ‘Hobby Tunnels’


Two years ago, Bryan Ritchie was shoveling dirt to put a walking path around his house in Huiroa, New Zealand, when he just felt the “urge to keep going.”

An environmental restoration specialist during the week, Ritchie, 58, now spends his Sundays with his well-worn shovel, indulging in his favorite hobby: tunneling. His hole now descends 16 feet underground and runs for 82 feet, stretching from behind his shed to the far end of his garden. “If I could, I would do it every day,” he said.

Ritchie isn’t digging with any destination in mind; he digs for the pure joy and meditation that comes with it.

“I just feel like a kid again,” Ritchie said. “It really puts me in the moment and relieves stress.”

Hobby tunneler Eric Sutterlin shows off part of his homemade underground labyrinth in Wisconsin. Photographer: Micah McMullin, courtesy of Eric Sutterlin

The roots of hobby tunneling go far deeper than the age of social media. In the 1880s, the 5th Duke of Portland employed 1,500 men to excavate several miles of tunnels, plus a subterranean ballroom, under his estate near Sheffield in the UK. A century later, Irish civil engineer William Lyttle — known as “The Mole Man” — spent 40 years creating a network of tunnels beneath his home in East London’s Hackney neighborhood. In 2006, Lyttle was evicted from his house after neighbors complained about sinkholes in the pavement. When pressed about the source of his fascination, Lyttle responded, “People ask what the big secret is. And you know what? There isn’t one.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...will-the-underground-world-of-hobby-tunneling

maximus otter

 

[PeteS]

There is a YouTuber tunnelling at his house, but at least he's using carefully designed support constructions.

 

[Floyd]

Meet the DIY Diggers Who Can’t Stop Making ‘Hobby Tunnels’


Two years ago, Bryan Ritchie was shoveling dirt to put a walking path around his house in Huiroa, New Zealand, when he just felt the “urge to keep going.”

An environmental restoration specialist during the week, Ritchie, 58, now spends his Sundays with his well-worn shovel, indulging in his favorite hobby: tunneling. His hole now descends 16 feet underground and runs for 82 feet, stretching from behind his shed to the far end of his garden. “If I could, I would do it every day,” he said.

Ritchie isn’t digging with any destination in mind; he digs for the pure joy and meditation that comes with it.

“I just feel like a kid again,” Ritchie said. “It really puts me in the moment and relieves stress.”

Hobby tunneler Eric Sutterlin shows off part of his homemade underground labyrinth in Wisconsin. Photographer: Micah McMullin, courtesy of Eric Sutterlin

The roots of hobby tunneling go far deeper than the age of social media. In the 1880s, the 5th Duke of Portland employed 1,500 men to excavate several miles of tunnels, plus a subterranean ballroom, under his estate near Sheffield in the UK. A century later, Irish civil engineer William Lyttle — known as “The Mole Man” — spent 40 years creating a network of tunnels beneath his home in East London’s Hackney neighborhood. In 2006, Lyttle was evicted from his house after neighbors complained about sinkholes in the pavement. When pressed about the source of his fascination, Lyttle responded, “People ask what the big secret is. And you know what? There isn’t one.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...will-the-underground-world-of-hobby-tunneling

maximus otter

I tried using one of those types of shovels once (ie the type without a T handle).
Just ended up with a huge blister after about ten minutes.

 

[Erinaceus]

That reminded me of the Margate Shell Grotto

The Shell Grotto is an ornate subterranean passageway shell grotto in Margate, Kent, England. Almost all the surface area of the walls and roof is covered in mosaics created entirely of seashells, totalling about 2,000 square feet (190 m2) of mosaic, or 4.6 million shells. It was claimed to have been "discovered in 1835", but its age and purpose remain unknown. The grotto is a Grade I-listed building and open to the public.

 

[escargot]

This is soooo going to end badly. Soooo badly.

Donald Campbell's Bluebird will run again after move into Lakes museum home

Donald Campbell's Bluebird will run again on Coniston Water after its move to a new museum home.

The hydroplane has returned to the Lake District, 57 years after the crash which killed its pilot.

Coniston's Ruskin Museum have revealed that they have engineers preparing to take the vessel out on water so the public can see her in all her "glory."