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back to article Giant flying pliers menace West Bromwich

We're obliged to all those readers who've sent us new Street View sightings gleaned from the pretty-well nationwide coverage now enjoyed by the UK, especially those involving surveillance feedback loops. We'll be doing something on your spots next week, but in the meantime we invite you to ponder the disturbing case of the …

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  1. Yas
    Alien

    Invasion of the DIY'ers

    I for one welcome our DIY Overlords!

    May they repair my electrical appliances in peace.

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  2. paulf
    Coat

    Woa? Huh? Wha?

    Just how do you get a Fail on this level? Its off the register (ahem, apols). I thought things couldn't get more surreal than "Soul Godfather's body snatched" was enough Bootnotes to set me up for the weekend, but this has just about wrapped it up for Friday.

    Time to get out of the office just in case it is the Borg-pliars invasion. Mines the one with the "POETS day" card in it.

    Paul

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  3. The Indomitable Gall

    Isn't that...

    Isn't this just a publicity shot from the next Doctor Who Christmas Special?!?

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  4. Martin 19
    Boffin

    Clearly a local objected to being photographed

    and wanged his pliers at the Orwellian spymobile.

    Every true midlander has a pair of pliers within easy reach, after all.

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    1. Robert E A Harvey
      Reply Icon

      or

      or, indeed, a pair of someone else's pliers..

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  5. Tom 35

    Maybe

    They are testing the new system to cut off internet P2P users.

    2 0
  6. Les Matthew

    What's the betting

    That somebody left them on top of the camera after a bit of impromptu repair work?

    1 0
  7. Alex 75

    What's even more disturbing...

    This street view must be from an alternate reality because what's even more disturbing is that everyone is driving on the wrong side of the street.

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  8. ElNumbre

    Hmmm

    I wonder if this is the precusor to 'The Great Adjustment' that is due in West Bromwich? I should know, I'm only a few miles from there.

    IFO welcome our Giant Plier weilding overlords.

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Pliers?.....

    Nope, look much more like side-cutters to me.

    Mine's the one with the round-nosed circluip pliers in it....

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    1. jake Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Not side cutters.

      Linesman's pliers.

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  10. EmperorFromage
    Terminator

    I for one

    I for one welcome our Chrome Vanadium Overlords ...

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  11. David 132 Silver badge
    WTF?

    Someone at Google's a "Look Around You" fan?

    Any fan of "Look Around You" knows that this is what happens when you put AC and DC current through an iron pyramid.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eVN55NEREo

    It could be a bizarre photo-stitching accident after a Google Earth operative left a pair of pliers on the spymobile camera.. but I prefer the first explanation!

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    1. Eddy Ito
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      bum civilian

      Clearly it was no pure iron pyramid that made this. It must have been allied with another metal and only partly ironic or someone reserved the annoyed and cathoyed battery terminals providing a negative initial molarity, that's magnetic polarity for the unscience terrific types.

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      1. Steve Evans
        Reply Icon

        Hmmm

        I'm not sure. Whilst an impure iron sample could be responsible for the sub-standard result, I believe the pyramid itself may have been a cheap irregular Chinese manufactured one.

        I've seen many Iron experiments ruined by bad geometry.

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Advertising coup?

    It appears just outside the 'Cutting and Welding' store!

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  13. Ugotta B. Kiddingme
    Coat

    And the Lord said...

    "Oi! Your chimney cap's not tight. No bother, I'll take care of it meself!"

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  14. Brian Miller

    What were those snipping?

    Those aren't really pliers, those are wire cutters which are designed to make a flush cut.

    So what was being snipped, and who is God's maintenance man? Do we live on a clockwork Earth?

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    1. jake Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      @ Brian Miller

      See my reply to Brian Morrison.

      'tis truly the life of Brian tonight :-) Beers all around?

      (Gawd/ess ... that's the second time I've used an icon in under a fortnight ... I must be mellowing in my old age ...)

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  15. Mr_Pitiful
    Stop

    Ok so WHO

    Nicked my bloody plyers again

    I'm fed up with this. every time I put them down they are stolen

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  16. Stewart Haywood

    Ooops

    These pliers will be dropped by a femail astronaut working outside on her way to Mars in 2051. They will then fall into a highly eliptical sun orbit where they will be accelerated to light speed and beyond resulting in them expanding and traveling back in time to menace West Bromwich six months ago.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      Nooo

      You broke teh physics! Fix it now! Recursive servalence was bad enough, now look what youve done.

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  17. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Scared now

    the icon says it all

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  18. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Or

    These are normal pliers and Google has responded to public concerns by adopting microscopic spy cars - that can zip around the streets unnoticed.

    Good job us northerners always tuck our trousers into our socks

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  19. Petrea Mitchell
    Black Helicopters

    Adjustment captured in progress?

    I think what this picture shows is that Google is tired of getting complaints about its database being inaccurate-- now when it finds a discrepancy, it adjusts the material world to match the virtual one. That house probably used to be on a completely different street...

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  20. Gavin Jamie
    Alien

    They are enormous

    You don't really get the scale of these things until you view all the pictures all the way down the road to Lidl. They are so far away (and therefor huge) that the car does not appear to move relative to them at all.

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  21. Alan Esworthy

    Oh, get a grip.

    Th-th-th-that's all, folks.

    2 0
  22. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    In tha Black Country

    they'm known to professional tradesmen as an omma

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  23. Trevor Pott o_O Gold badge

    Only one question:

    How?

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  24. Crazy Operations Guy
    Boffin

    I have to point out

    That those aren't actually pliers, they are wire cutters.

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    1. jake Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      @COG ... They are Linesman's pliers ...

      Oh, faggedaboudit. What do I know.

      Mod(s): I'll stop now. You're quite welcome ;-)

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  25. disgruntled yank

    Clearly

    They have something to do with that giant clothes pin shown on the other display.

    What that is, I can't guess, for they do look like wire cutters.

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  26. WhoIsThis?
    Happy

    Drive along the street then look up

    These pliers were left on top of the camera - move along the street and then look up - the pliers have moved with you. Or maybe that's just what they want you to think.......

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    1. Steve X
      Reply Icon
      Black Helicopters

      Paranoid?

      Or are they really following me...

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  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

    It's the Anti-flying spaghetti monster come to snip at his noodlely goodness.

    Quick gather together my hearty pirate crewmates we need to repel this foul demon.

    1 1
  28. ElNumbre
    Stop

    An important question.

    So where's the Giant Chaka Demus?

    Stop (Omma Time).

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  29. Dave 62
    FAIL

    suprised at ElReg

    As a few have pointed out above, those appear to be cutters, not pliers.

    I am deeply disappointed that you cocked this one up. How can you fail to recognise everyone's favourite tool after the hammer? You can do anything with a claw-hammer and a good pair of wire cutters.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      pliers.

      Rotate the image in the streetviewfun link. They're a pair of pliers with a side-cutter section. So essentially both pliers and cutters.

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    2. Paul 4
      Reply Icon

      Don't forget...

      The gaffer tape.

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  30. Blofeld's Cat
    Coat

    At last

    Somebody's finally decided to fix that faulty thermostat and put an end to Global Warming.

    It has the Haynes "Habitable Planets" manual in the pocket.

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  31. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    It was probably...

    Someone trying to protect his privacy by throwing the nearest convenient object at the camera to try and break it.

    1 0
  32. jake Silver badge

    Obligatory ...

    Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers ...

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  33. ShaggyDoggy

    Street name

    Why has Google mostly blocked out the street name sign of Whitehall Road,

    while at the same time their own captions say "Whitehall Road" twice on my screen.

    Oh wait, it can't be Whitehall Road unless Google says it is. I can sleep now

    0 1
  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think we would all agree...

    ...that God uses a good quality set of professional sockets, spanners and allen keys - in Imperial, if I am not mistaken - in no more than three sizes, i bet, as he no doubt carefully planned the whole "firmament" thing with long term maintenance in mind.

    It is the devil who takes to creation with his sloppy, gnarled, pliers and wrenches. We will all be familiar with the old folk-warning "Beware the devil for his iron jaws will strip your nuts, and leave your cotter pin twisted and fatigued. "

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    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Imperial sizes?

      Don't be daft, it would have been Whitworth back then.

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    2. Paul 4
      Reply Icon

      Imperial

      "in Imperial, if I am not mistaken"

      Of course. God uses proper mesurments, non of this heathen metric. He also drinks ale and enjoys cricket. Its a fact!

      *fade to the gental sound of Jerusalem*

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  35. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Plier Propellers?

    Could be perfectly Innocent- by there are a couple of kids who appear standing on the green junction box in some shots as you move round the t-junction.

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  36. gimbal
    Happy

    It's, like, one of those Star Trek things, right?

    I bet, it's all from a set for the new Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Joe the Electrician, in which Joe steals a Romulan pliers-ship, so as to subject Captain James T Kirk to an adulthood Bris -- the catch phrase, "From hell's electrical closet, I snip at thee! Snip snip!"

    ...and all that, just because Joe's union was denied the right to take Earth Day as a holiday. Pure Evil (R)!

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  37. Mark York 3 Silver badge
    Pint

    Spare Us The Cutter

    They are clearly on the way to get rid of those old rooftop TV aerials in the picture.

    Sory for the title title - Had an 80's flashback to Echo & The Bunnymen.

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  38. Argus Tuft
    Big Brother

    what's with the " ®"?

    "Just in case it's the latter, I for one would like to welcome, and so forth... ®"

    If i want to grovel to our supreme robo overlords, I should be free to do so without fear of litigation..... Maybe Reg is taking lessons from Apple?

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