The World’s Greatest Bores

The latest Oobject list is a winner: a collection of the world’s largest tunnel boring machines, each one a lamprey-faced monstrosity straight from the bedside table of Brownleean fantasy.

20 interesting boring machines [Oobject]

1. [pork musket]

   Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich donated money for a giant tunneling machine to build a tunnel between Russia and Sarah Palin’s house, when he was governor of the adjacent region to Alaska.

   That cracked me up, comma abuse aside.

2. [TJ S]

   When I saw the title, I immediately though Al Gore.
   
   *ducks*

3. [bardfinn]

   How is it that I was never nominated to this list?

4. [Marley9]

   I have always been fascinated by TBM’s. My brother in law works for a company that does this, but is being sent all around the country to work. The only time when he was working near me, I had a chance to visit, but was unable to. I will never forgive myself for missing this opportunity.

   When it knocks, you bore. Life lesson #2349.

5. [meerkat]

   Anyone fascinated by these monsters should read this recent New Yorker article about Germany’s Herrenknecht AG – they probably are responsible for 90% of those puppies, like #1 and the company’s founder is a real interesting fellow:
   http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/09/15/080915fa_fact_bilger

   They talk a bit about #16 in the article, it’s nice to see a real photo of that bad boy!

6. [meerkat]

   Oops, the link I gave above was to the article summary, I dunno why they only post the full versions of select articles – bummer, it is a great piece

7. [nehpetsE]

   Gazing at the end of the machine on card #3 gives me trypophobia.
   (first)

8. [noetma]

   Boring just got more interesting. (ba dum psh)

   Seriously, I’d love to stand in front of one of these for the sheer scale.

9. [jjasper]

   Ming: Klytus, I’m bored. What plaything do you have to offer me today

   Klytus: An obscure body in the S-K System, your majesty. The inhabitants refer to it as the planet Earth.

   —

   Klytus: Bring me… the bore worms!

   Princess Aura: No! Not the bore worms!

10. [pauldrye]

    Every now and then I drive past a truck that has the delightful name “HORIZONTAL BORING” painted on the side.

    After which I always think “Maybe you should see a marriage counsellor about that”. And then I snicker to myself for a while.

11. [MrfixitRick]

    Man, with 1000 of these suckers burrowing under the planets skin, at 7 miles a day each…makes me itchy thinking about it…there’s probably one under me now…ahhhhh!

    Is there a Goggle Middle Earth?

12. [dainel]

    What we need is miniature versions of this, maybe about 15cm or so. We use them to dig millions of tunnels everywhere. It’ll give new life to snail mail … http://www.networkworld.com/news/2004/0524widernettubes.html

    If we make it bigger, maybe about 60cm, we could put people in there.