UK : Wales/Cymru : how brave Welsh firemen saved a ship from tapioca peril aaar....
In August 1972, stacked timber that the Swiss freighter Cassarate was carrying in its upper holds caught fire. The crew kept the situation under control by wetting down the smoldering wood for 25 days, until the blaze flared up and the ship was forced to dock at Cardiff, Wales. Unfortunately, the Cassarate was also carrying 1,500 tons of tapioca in its lower hold, and the heat from the timber fire, combined with the extinguishing water sprayed on it (which seeped down to the lower holds), proceeded to cook the tapioca. The mass of tapioca — enough to make hundreds of thousands of plates of pudding — started to expand as it reached its boiling point, threatening to buckle the ship's steel plating before it could be offloaded from the hold:
CARDIFF, Wales, Sept. 14 (AP) — The biggest tapioca pudding in the world is cooking in the hold of a fire-swept Swiss freighter and threatening to split the vessel at its seams.
"It's like a huge tapioca time bomb," said an incredulous fire chief today as he watched the smoldering 12,165-ton Cassarate at the Cardiff docks.
Fireman earlier controlled the fire which started in timber stacked in the upper holds 25 days ago at sea. The crew kept the smoldering timber dampened until the ship docked here late [on September 12].
But the water from the Cardiff hoses seeped down to the lower holds where 1,500 tons of tapioca from Thailand were stored.
The water swelled the tapioca and the heat from the flames started to cook the sticky mess.
The swelling tapioca — enough to serve a million plates — could buckle the ship's steel plates, fire chiefs warned.
"It's got to burst somewhere," one said. "It will take dockers a couple of days to clear the smoldering lumber before we can reach the tapioca."
The plan is to load the gluey mess onto a fleet of trucks and dispose of it. One report said there was enough to fill 500 trucks.
But where do you dump 500 truckloads of tapioca pudding?
A followup news report from the next day indicated fire crews were successful in extinguishing the shipboard blaze before the tapioca swelled to plate-threatening proportions:
Welsh firemen defused the terrible tapioca time bomb yesterday.
The atmosphere in Cardiff docks was a bit starchy as 1,500 tons of the stuff cooled down after threatening to burst open a blazing freighter.
A spokesman for the South Wales Fire Service said the blaze on board the 15,000-ton Swiss-registered Cassarate had been stamped out. Timber and rubber in the cargo destined for Britain had been damaged but unloaded.
But what about the tapioca?
"Well," the spokesman said, "it seems to have subsided but we don't know what condition it is in. It is bound for Rotterdam and the Dutch will have to decide whether it can still be used or scrapped."
The Cassarate caught fire [five days ago]. Firemen fought the blaze for three days, pumping thousands of gallons into the ship's holds. The water got to the tapioca and the ship turned into a gigantic steam oven.
As the glutinous mass swelled, one fire chief likened it to "a huge tapioca time bomb" that was about to tear the ship apart. The Cassarate was reported damaged yesterday but preparing to sail for Rotterdam.
Cardiff port authorities said it would have taken 200 trucks to unload the swollen tapioca.
snopes.com: Tapioca Sinks Freighter
UK : Marketing isn’t rocket science…. Two British telecoms companies (Cable and Wireless and Thus) have decided to celebrate their merger with this "space age" leaflet..
(ask your older siblings/parents if you don't get the joke :wink:)
IN : Indian railways employ "monkey man" to protect passengers Walking round on all fours, with a tail sticking out of his red shorts and a brown face mask, Acchan Miyan scares the monkeys at Lucknow station, northern India.
Railway bosses insist their "monkey-man" is an effective way to protect their passengers from the mischievous animals, which are prone to snatch food from travellers and tear seat covers from trains.
Indian railway employs 'monkey-man' to protect passengers | World news | guardian.co.uk
Old People Mental?
Swedish woman in airport muddle.
An elderly Swedish woman tried to get herself on board an international flight by climbing onto an unmanned luggage belt after her suitcase...
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Swedish woman in airport muddle
UK : East : Only in Norfolk…. The dark underbelly of the miniature train world was revealed yesterday as members of a Norfolk railway model club appeared in court over allegations of stealing a model engine.
As magistrates decided that former Yarmouth & District Model Railway Club member Paul Bowdler was guilty of theft they heard tales of backstabbing, deceit, imaginary burglaries and rampant egos.
EDP24 - The feud at the model railway club
Funny or Not? 3 kids are sitting with their mum in the garden...
The first child said: "Mum why am I called rose?".
Mum replied: "Because when you were born a rose fell on your head".
The second child said: "Mum why am I called Lily?".
Mum replied 'Because when you were born a Lily fell on your head".
The third child said: "Uhfgdvmuuuu!".
Mum replied 'shut up fridge'
raaa
Police Complaint Apparently this is a genuine complaint to Devon & Cornwall Police Force from an angry member of the public.
E-mail sent to the force, lengthy but brilliantly written...
Dear Sir/madam/automated telephone answering service,
Having spent the past twenty minutes waiting for someone at Bodmin police station to pick up a telephone I have decided to abandon the idea and try e-mailing you instead.
Perhaps you would be so kind as to pass this message on to your colleagues in Bodmin, by means of smoke signal, carrier pigeon or Ouija board.
As I'm writing this e-mail there are eleven failed medical experiments (I think you call them youths) in St Marys Crescent, which is just off St Marys Road in Bodmin.
Six of them seem happy enough to play a game which involves kicking a football against an iron gate with the force of a meteorite.
This causes an earth shattering CLANG! which rings throughout the entire building.
This game is now in its third week and as I am unsure how the scoring system works, I have no idea if it will end any time soon.
The remaining five walking abortions are happily rummaging through several bags of rubbish and items of furniture that someone has so thoughtfully dumped beside the wheelie bins.
One of them has found a saw and is setting about a discarded chair like a beaver on speed.
I fear that it's only a matter of time before they turn their limited attention to the bottle of calor gas that is lying on its side between the two bins.
If they could be relied on to only blow their own arms and legs off then I would happily leave them to it.
I would even go so far as to lend them the matches.
Unfortunately they are far more likely to blow up half the street with them and I've just finished decorating the kitchen.
What I suggest is this - after replying to this e-mail with worthless assurances that the matter is being looked into and will be dealt with, why not leave it until the one night of the year (probably bath night) when there are no mutants around then drive up the street in a panda car before doing a three point turn and disappearing again.
This will of course serve no other purpose than to remind us what policemen actually look like.
I trust that when I take a claw hammer to the skull of one of these throwbacks you'll do me the same courtesy of giving me a four month head start before coming to arrest me.
I remain sir, your obedient servant
???????
Mr ??????,
I have read your e-mail and understand you frustration at the problems caused by youth playing in the area and the problems you have encountered in trying to contact the police.
As the Community Beat Officer for your street I would like to extend an offer of discussing the matter fully with you.
Should you wish to discuss the matter, please provide contact details (address / telephone number) and when may be suitable.
Regards
PC ?
Community Beat Officer
Dear PC ?
First of all I would like to thank you for the speedy response to my original e-mail.
16 hours and 38 minutes must be a personal record for Bodmin Police station, and rest assured that I will forward these details to Norris McWhirter for inclusion in his next book.
Secondly I was delighted to hear that our street has its own community beat officer.
May I be the first to congratulate you on your covert skills?
In the five or so years I have lived in St Marys Crescent, I have never seen you.
Do you hide up a tree or have you gone deep undercover and infiltrated the gang itself?
Are you the one with the acne and the moustache on his forehead or the one with a chin like a wash hand basin?
It's surely only a matter of time before you are headhunted by MI5.
Whilst I realise that there may be far more serious crimes taking place in Bodmin, such as smoking in a public place or being Muslim without due care and attention, is it too much to ask for a policeman to explain (using words of no more than two syllables at a time) to these twats that they might want to play their strange football game elsewhere.
The pitch on Fairpark Road, or the one at Priory Park are both within spitting distance as is the bottom of the Par Dock.
Should you wish to discuss these matters further you should feel free to contact me on If after 25 minutes I have still failed to answer, I'll buy you a large one in the Cat and Fiddle Pub.
Regards
?
P.S If you think that this is sarcasm, think yourself lucky that you don't work for the cleansing department, with whom I am also in contact!!
:laugh_at: :laugh_at: :laugh_at:
Leather jeans i want some skinny black leather jeans
i put it into google and this site came up .....not the type of trousers i was on about ..o.m.god!!!! :laugh_at:
Wearwolf | Women's Leather Trousers and Jeans
Boy in bizarre ‘fish in penis’ accident.. Doctors treating a 14 year old boy from India were shocked to find a 2cm long fish had "slipped" up his penis and into his bladder.
The patient, who was admitted to hospital with complaints of pain, dribbling urine and acute urinary retention spanning a 24-hour period, gave an interesting explanation.
Details of the case, which was documented in The Internet Journal of Urology, have revealed that the patient claimed that the fish "slipped" into his penis while he was maintaining his aquarium.
:laugh_at: :you_crazy: :hopeless:
Boy in bizarre fish in penis accident | Practical Fishkeeping magazine
Jokes I Feel Should Never Be Said i dnt bout u but sumtimes wen i hear certain jokes i fink wot was da point or dat really shudnt of been sed im interested 2 hear wot jokes uv bn told dat av da same effect
for exmple il start it off...
Q) wots da difference between a prostitute and a drug dealer...
a) a prostitute can clean there crack and sell it again
i mean dats a pretty bad joke :crazy_diz
UK : East : Norfolk road signs now in local dialect So next time yew're troshin' up tuh the cust for a day trip, and go threw woindy ole Wiveton … dew yew mind how yew go tergether.
EDP24 - Village says 'Slow You Down' to drivers
Can the King Arthur levitate Heelstone? Heelstone lion head, calf head, man face (clockwise) flying eagle wings centering on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Panoramio - Photo of Heelstone lion head, calf head, man face (clockwise) flying eagle wings centering
Druid Continues Stonehenge Protest (from This Is Wiltshire)
Druid Continues Henge Protest (from Wiltshire Times)
Can the King Arthur levitate Heelstone?
Wizard Merlin1234
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