Sunday 26 June 2011

Big Spikey Thing


Dublin is doing its best to make sure that it will never become a Zeppelin destination city.  To that effect, they have erected this giant dirigible deterrent, called The Spire of Dublin.  Just kidding, this is apparently some form of public art that the public is still scratching their heads over.  I'm not sure the public likes it, because it has a rude nickname, which I will mention at the bottom of this post in a comment.

Construction of the 121 meter tall sculpture began in December 2002 and finished just over a month later in January 2003.  The base is 3 meters wide and the tip is 15 cm wide.  It contains a Tuned Mass Damper, which is a stabilising component to reduce harmonic vibration.  No news yet on when they will install the 1.21 gigawatt Flux Capacitor.  The Spire cost 4 million euro to build and is full of used pinball machine parts.  (Ok I made that last part up, but it did cost €4,000,000.)
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9 comments:

  1. Hitchhiker4226 June 2011 at 09:03

    The locals call it The Stiffy by the Liffey.

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  2. *karendianne.26 June 2011 at 14:48

    OMG that's hilarious!!! It's also rather interesting. What would the aliens think?

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  3. Hitchhiker4226 June 2011 at 15:55

    Dubliners have all sorts of funny nicknames for their local statues. I am told there is a bronze statue of Molly Malone, (she sang, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!") She is dressed in peasants' clothing with a very low-cut dress. Dubliners call her, "The Tart With the Cart."

    As for aliens, I'm sure the Vulcans find us fascinating.

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  4. Legolas26 June 2011 at 15:58

    oh, whaaat, it´s so high? but what happens during thunderstorms? I mean, the lighting must strike straight at it!
    it looks rather amazing tho

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  5. Hitchhiker4226 June 2011 at 23:07

    I think if lightning hits it, you should have a DeLorean wired to it, you know, like that movie. :) 1.21 Gigawatts!!

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  6. choc chip addict27 June 2011 at 20:56

    Very interesting sculpture/art. Remember that Doc Brown pronounced it "jigawatts".
    *sillysally*

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  7. Hitchhiker4228 June 2011 at 13:38

    Haha, yes he did. Personally I like "jigga-watts" better. I actually stole the joke about the pinball machine parts from Back to the Future. Doc tells Marty that he cheated the Plutonium out of the Libyans--who wanted him to build a nuclear weapon--by giving them a shoddy bomb casing filled with used pinball machine parts. Classic!

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  8. choc chip addict28 June 2011 at 20:04

    One of my all-time favorite movies. My son's name is Marty. Enough said.

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  9. Hitchhiker4229 June 2011 at 12:09

    Choc Chip Addict: You rock! Right on. That's totally cool. Hmm... I'm not sure the same thing would work for me though. If I had a kid, I'd be tempted to name him Indiana Blade Runner Tron LightCycle. He'd probably get beat up at school a lot. Ok true story: A friend of mine knew these people who were serious Star Trek fans and they named their girl T'Pring, after Spock's wife. That's hard core.

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