Wales to get an 82ft dragon

By Timon Singh
From: http://www.euinfrastructure.com/

Waking the Dragon

Here at Infrastructure EU, we are generally concerned about construction, transportation, water infrastructure and other things of note; but when plans are unveiled that state Wales may get a 82ft bronze dragon sculpture sitting atop a 131ft tower... well, we have to take a look!

It is hoped that the sculpture, called Waking the Dragon, will dwarf the Angel of the North - the UK's current biggest sculpture - as well as driving tourism to region. It is hoped that the project will be undertaken in north Wales near Wrexham, a region which in this writer's opinion needs substantial redevelopment.

Enter the Dragon

The project is the brainchild of local business Simon Wingett who hails from Wrexham. It is his hope that the GBP£6 million scheme will "strengthen and develop" tourism in the area.

Speaking to WalesOnline, Wingett said, "The idea was spawned because of all the time spent driving up and down motorways and seeing cars and lorries displaying Welsh flags, the drivers obviously very proud of their heritage.

"I just thought that we must be the proudest nation in the world. The thought came about, ‘why not have a colossal Welsh dragon?’ Something of the Statue of Liberty proportions."

The dragon will definitely be colossal. Current plans have the dragon's wingspan at 170ft – bigger than a Boeing 737.

Of course, the project isn't simply about Welsh Pride, Wrexham borough council leader Aled Roberts hopes that the project will "strengthen and further develop the tourism and heritage available to visitors in this part of North-East Wales."

"The dragon project will not only celebrate our unique heritage and culture, it will also boost the local economy with the creation of local jobs," he said.

The plan would also see the construction of an art centre and gallery next to the tower. Reinforcing the core message of Welsh art and tradition, the project would be build in a landscaped area of trees and paths depicting the four branches of the Mabinogion, the collection of mythological tales of early Wales. Dafodills will also be present.

However, it still costs GBP£6 million, so where will the money be coming from?

Way of the Dragon

Mr Wingett has stated that he hopes to fund the project without using taxpayers' money, instead attracting capital through commercial sponsorship as well as charitable donations, the sale of steps within the the tower and investor finance.

The art dealer also hopes that any money raised by the tower, once built, will go to the Frank Wingett Cancer Appeal, named after his father, who died from throat cancer in 1988. The 30-year-old organisation specialises in improving cancer sufferers’ quality of life.

It is hoped that the tower will house an interactive display relaying local stories and myths. Meanwhile, the top of the glass and concrete tower will boast an observation deck giving panoramic views across the border into England and back into Wales across Wrexham.

While planning permission has yet to be improved, it has already garner a lot of media press and attention. Many locals are already dubbing it the 'Eighth Wonder of Wales', though they haven't specified what the other seven are.The beginning of a trend building massive sculptured national symbols? Can we expect an enormous thistle in the centre of Edinburgh in the future? A giant glass cloverleaf in Dublin? A gigantic pint glass in London...?

Photographers get up close and personal with wildlife

Pictures that make you say 'wow':

By Daily Mail Reporter

A stark but stunning image of a damselfly in silhouette has landed its creator with the title of British Wildlife Photographer of the year.

The shot, of the insect clinging to a dew-flecked reed, won photographer Ross Hoddinott a prize of £5,000 in the inaugural British Wildlife Photography Awards.

It was competing against an array of dazzling images which included a flock of birds amassing above a service station canopy and a deer bathed in golden dawn light.

Compelling: The judges awarded photographer Ross Hoddinott first prize for his image of a damselfly silhouette

Judge Sue Herdman, editor of the National Trust Magazine, said of the winner's work: 'We were looking for a winning image that stood out as the most memorable and striking.

'Almost monochrome in tone, this beautiful silhouette is both intriguing and haunting, with a delicate composition and admirable clarity.

Lorne Gill took this image of birds circling above a petrol station called 'The ultimate flock' by Lorne Gill

Ben Hall won praise for his Fallow buck at dawn image

'Droplets of water shimmer on the wings; a fuzz of hairs bristle from the body and, perhaps most fascinating of all, the photographer has caught the "face" of our fly which holds, in profile, a curiously human look.

'No one viewing this photograph, we concluded, could fail to find it anything other than compelling.'

A photo of blackbirds fighting was taken by David Slater who won the wildlife behaviour category

Will Nicholls won the Young British Wildlife Photographer Under 18 award for his image of a red squirrel taken in Kielder Forest, Northumberland

The awards recognised the efforts of amateur and professional photographers.

A shot of a red squirrel peeping from behind a tree in Kielder Forest, Northumberland, landed 14-year-old Will Nicholls the under-18s award and a £500 prize.

A grey seal was captured through the skills of Alexander Mustard who won the Coast and Marine category

Dalmally Primary School in Glenview, Dalmally, Scotland, took the School Youth and Community Group Award for a series of studies. The school was awarded £1,000.

An exhibition of around 80 images, including all the winning and commended entries, opens at the Hooper's Gallery in Clerkenwell, London, tonight and a year-long tour of the exhibition will follow throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

The winner of the Animals Portraits award went to Ben Hall for his Gannet portrait

The winner of the category 'Wildlife in my locality' was this image of a canal by Noel Bennett

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1215658/Pictures-make-say-wow-Photographers-close-personal-wildlife.html#ixzz0S8kc27NF

Stone Age satnav: Did ancient man use 5,000-year-old travel chart to navigate across Britain

By David Derbyshire

It's considered to be one of the more recent innovations to help the hapless traveller.

But the satnav system may not be as modern as we think.

According to a new theory, prehistoric man navigated his way across England using a similar system based on stone circles and other markers.

Enlarge

Connected by triangles: Some of the sites created by Stone Age man (below)

The complex network of stones, hill forts and earthworks allowed travellers to trek hundreds of miles with 'pinpoint accuracy' more than 5,000 years ago, amateur historian Tom Brooks says. The grid covered much of southern England

and Wales and included landmarks such as Stonehenge and Silbury Hill, claims Mr Brooks, a retired marketing executive of Honiton, Devon.

He analysed 1,500 prehistoric sites in England and Wales and was able to connect all of them to at least two other sites using isosceles triangles - these are triangles with two sides the same length.

This, he says, is proof that the landmarks were deliberately created as navigational aides. Many were built within sight of each other and provided a simple way to get from A to B.

For more complex journeys, they would have broken up the route into a series of easy to navigate steps.

Anyone starting at Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, for instance, could have used the grid to get to Lanyon Quoit in Cornwall without a map.

Mr Brooks added: 'The sides of some of the triangles are over 100 miles across, yet the distances are accurate to within 100 metres. You cannot do that by chance.

One of the monuments was on Silbury Hill, Wiltshire. It was part of a giant geometric grid used for navigating

'So advanced, sophisticated and accurate is the geometrical surveying now discovered, that we must review fundamentally the perception of our Stone Age forebears as primitive, or conclude that they received some form of external guidance.'

On the question of 'external guidance', he does not rule out extraterrestrial help.

However, Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology, said: 'The landscape of southern Britain was intensively settled and there are many earth works and archaeological finds. It is very easy to find patterns in the landscape, but it doesn't mean that they are real.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1213400/Ancient-man-used-stone-sat-nav-navigate-country.html#ixzz0RISPlPGx

A Night Out In Cardiff, Wales

Cardiff, the epicentre of the European avant-garde, like this bunch of dreamers, poets, artists & philosophers, to the untrained eye they look like degenerate binge drinkers wading through their own bodily fluids, but these are the cultural elite!

click here for the pics..... | digg story