• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Second rate reporter says what?

People are weird.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

The willow is too close to the house.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

How stupid are these people?

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / This Is…Not Good

This Is…Not Good

by Tom Levenson|  January 23, 201410:29 pm| 29 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, WTF?

FacebookTweetEmail

No fun if you have to get to work through certain swathe of London, but this item certainly satisfied the quota for my nightly weird:

London’s Victoria tube line is currently suspended after an engineering team flooded a control room with fast-setting concrete.

That would be a problem.  Photos at the link.

Claude_Monet_-_Train_in_the_Snow

I suppose this is as good an excuse as any of us need for an open thread.

Image: Claude Monet, Train in the Snow, 1875

 

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Sad News: R.I.P. Paddy, of The Political Carnival
Next Post: Oops I Did It Again »

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    ? Martin

    January 23, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    How the hell do you do that without noticing?

  2. 2.

    The Dangerman

    January 23, 2014 at 10:36 pm

    New rules to live by:

    (1) Never trust London engineers with a hot load

    (2) If ever visiting Cole in West Virginia, never ask for a shaved ice

  3. 3.

    John Cole

    January 23, 2014 at 10:36 pm

    No shit. It’s not like it’s just a little bit of quickcrete. Didn’t anyone pouring say to themselves- wow, this is taking a lot of cubic meters of concrete to fill this little area.

    Tell me why we are worried about legalized marijuana again? Look at what we do sober.

  4. 4.

    BruceFromOhio

    January 23, 2014 at 10:39 pm

    It pumps like slurry, or sludge. Not quite water, but very water-like in behavior. If the target construction site is below ground, and the big cement truck is up on the surface, it’s an easy jump to have something give way and let the goo push into someplace it’s not intended to go. Like a data center, from the looks of it.

    Pull out the disaster recovery plans! Oh…. you don’t, uh …. have one of those … do you?

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 23, 2014 at 10:43 pm

    Apparently, the pouring was being done nearby, and it leaked into the control room. So it’s not like it’s totally braindead, just mostly.

  6. 6.

    jl

    January 23, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    This is almost as bizarre as some of Cole’s household disasters. Almost.

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    January 23, 2014 at 10:51 pm

    Meanwhile, a ghost ship filled with cannibal rats heads for Britain’s shores.

    Or so the intertubes tell me.

  8. 8.

    Ken

    January 23, 2014 at 10:51 pm

    Given the underground location, probably a black op to put down a ghoul infestation. You’d think they could come up with a better cover story, though.

  9. 9.

    Ignaz Playel

    January 23, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    Hmmm. I suppose this problem could be solved if the “insert concrete here” pipe and the “data center drainage” pipe were different sizes. Like diesel and unleaded gasoline nozzles.

  10. 10.

    chopper

    January 23, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    @jl:

    “Inflammable means flammable?! what a country!”

  11. 11.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 23, 2014 at 10:55 pm

    @Ken:

    The Laundry is usually much better at covering their tracks than this. I am concerned.

  12. 12.

    jl

    January 23, 2014 at 10:59 pm

    @chopper: For the sake of this blog, I’m glad Cole has been home, (edit: at least partially) sound if not entirely safe, and that Tunch has been called away on higher business. Sounds like something they could pull off, so I was worried for a sec, at least about Cole.

  13. 13.

    Ignaz Playel

    January 23, 2014 at 11:00 pm

    @Elizabelle: o.k. I understand why the Candian’s didn’t bother to fetch their ship. They were taking it to a scrapyard in the Dominican Republic anyway. But if canibal rats are o.k. for the Dominican Republic, why should the UK be worried. It’s not like they don’t have rats there already.

  14. 14.

    Librarian

    January 23, 2014 at 11:00 pm

    “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Concrete?”

  15. 15.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 23, 2014 at 11:01 pm

    @John Cole: Look at what we do sober.

    Like attempt to shave our cat’s ass.

  16. 16.

    jl

    January 23, 2014 at 11:03 pm

    @Ignaz Playel: It concerns me that Canada is behind the deserted cannibal rat ship apocalypse. In an earlier thread, I wondered whether Canada has gone rogue. Time for some ‘nation building’ up north? Rob Ford, Justin Bieber, now this enormity.

  17. 17.

    catclub

    January 23, 2014 at 11:08 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Who says he was sober doing that?

    Although he apparently sobered up pretty quick.

  18. 18.

    gbear

    January 23, 2014 at 11:08 pm

    @John Cole:

    I’ve heard a horror story about a house that had a fuel oil furnace but updated to a natural gas furnace. The oil tank was removed from their basement, but whoever removed the tank didn’t remove the exterior fill pipe. The fuel oil company came by the house on a regular schedule, and it wasn’t until he noticed that the tank was really taking a lot of fuel that he realized he was filling up the basement of the house with fuel oil. Bummer.

  19. 19.

    jl

    January 23, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    Time for something uplifting, wholesome and edifying: Other than not having enough pics of Ms. Vonn to illustrate the basic principles involved, it is an excellent story.

    Lindsey Vonn: It’s Sexy to Be Strong Instead of ‘Skinny-Fat’
    http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/lindsey-vonn-39-sexy-strong-instead-39-skinny-130840441–abc-news-celebrities.html

  20. 20.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 23, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    On the subject of cat’s asses:

    OK, I understand what Cole was trying to do. Dingleberries on medium/longhairs are a problem. However, one trims gently, one does not attempt to turn them into feline opposite ends of Yul Brenner or Patrick Stewart. Also, one calls in help to control the nervous animal (hey, how would YOU like to have some hairless ape poking around your nether regions with sharp objects, ESPECIALLY considering what happened the last time you were not wary in that situation) you call in a friend to assist, don’t try this by yourself, people. I mean, if there’s ever a “what could possibly go wrong?” situation, this is definitely it.

  21. 21.

    scav

    January 23, 2014 at 11:17 pm

    That spill of coffee is a little unusually thick . . . what did they use for creamer again?

  22. 22.

    chopper

    January 23, 2014 at 11:27 pm

    @? Martin:

    “Waddya mean ‘you can’t put dish soap in the dishwasher’?!”

  23. 23.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 23, 2014 at 11:30 pm

    @John Cole: John, you’ve obviously never worked with people from the UK.

  24. 24.

    RepubAnon

    January 23, 2014 at 11:40 pm

    It really sounds like something the BOFH and his sidekick, the pimply-faced youth (PFY) would come up with. Check http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/23/bofh_2013_episode/

  25. 25.

    Jim Bales

    January 24, 2014 at 12:26 am

    Tom,

    A colleague of mine in one of the Engineering departments and I were looking at the photos this afternoon. Our response was two-fold
    1) Thank God we were several thousand miles away when it happened, and
    2) My day is not going nearly as poorly as I thought.

    Here’s hoping that they can get the signaling/switching gear set right quickly (where “quickly” means “given that you’ve snuck a chunk of it in concrete”)!

    And, the worldwide understatement of the day may go to the Tube management:
    “[S]ervices are now unlikely to return to normal today on the entire line.”

    Or tomorrow either!

    Best
    Jim

  26. 26.

    ? Martin

    January 24, 2014 at 12:44 am

    @chopper: Well, you can put dish soap in the dishwasher…

  27. 27.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 24, 2014 at 12:49 am

    @Jim Bales:

    Here’s hoping that they can get the signaling/switching gear set right quickly

    Fortunately, the Victoria line is only fifty years old, so those switches are probably easier to fix or replace than the ones on the older lines. It’s actually one of the best Tube lines, too, and the work on the station is needed to accommodate the thousands of commuters going between the mainline station and Underground at rush hour.

    The contractors? The hilariously named Vinci/BAM Nuttall

    Like most London construction projects, you’re dealing with years and years of previous work, lots of which isn’t well-documented, but this was clearly a fuckup for the ages.

  28. 28.

    DaddyJ

    January 24, 2014 at 4:05 pm

    Ye gods, dodged a bullet! We were just in London for four days and Victoria was our nearest tube stop. Would have thrown a big monkey wrench into our trip. Nothing beats the tube for getting around London.

  29. 29.

    Starlit

    January 25, 2014 at 5:13 pm

    I found this an inspiration to us all, but that was when I thought this story was a preface to a union strike story, or summat.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - beckya57 - Copper Canyon, Mexico, April 2025
Image by beckya57 (7/31/25)

World Central Kitchen

Donate

Recent Comments

  • zhena gogolia on Open Thread: Good for Rep. Jeffries (Jul 9, 2025 @ 6:44pm)
  • WTFGhost on Open Thread: Good for Rep. Jeffries (Jul 9, 2025 @ 6:43pm)
  • Jay on Open Thread: Good for Rep. Jeffries (Jul 9, 2025 @ 6:41pm)
  • zhena gogolia on Open Thread: Good for Rep. Jeffries (Jul 9, 2025 @ 6:41pm)
  • Eolirin on Open Thread: Good for Rep. Jeffries (Jul 9, 2025 @ 6:41pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!