Never has a domestic train reached 140mph in Britain. All that changed today when the latest (Japanese imported) bullet train took a test run. Dubbed the Javelin, this train clocked 143mph on a test roll from London to Kent and back as the journey began from platform 13 at St Pancras.

Javelin - Britain's Bullet Train

In a regular routine the train would stop at Ebbsfleet -a journey of 17 minutes. For the test run though, it zipped straight to Ashford, covering 70 miles in 30 minutes and 40 seconds. The train promises to cut journey time from Ashford to Central London in half, covering it in 37 minutes.

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No matter who or what caused it – human or natural causes, global warming is a fact and we should do our best to prevent any of “deadly” effects. With that in mind a group of artists from England came up with an interesting public art project meant bring awareness into our lives. Dubbed the Watermarks project, it uses official UK government predictions and large-scale projections to show possible water levels of a potential future flooding onto buildings. Now in Bristol, we’d definitely love to see the Watermarks caravan in New York or San Francisco. It has an amazing message isn’t it? [via StyleCrave]

Hundreds of Swans that normally migrate from the cold Arctic to the warmer locations in England each year have decided that there is no necessity to go all the way across to UK on a 1,864 kilometer trip as the Siberian winter is still not as cold as it should be.

Wildlife experts were expecting 300 migrating Bewick's swans to have arrived by late October

23,000 swans that visit different parts of Europe in the winter have not yet started their migratory flight back to places like Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre in UK because the winters this time around in Siberia are simply not cold enough to force them to take the long journey.

Scientists across the globe view this as another effect of the Global Warming phenomenon, which is the reason for warmer winters in Siberia.

The birds normally move out to various places in Europe seeking out shelter by following an in-built biological pattern that is apparently triggered by temperature changes. With global warming keeping Siberia warmer than usual, the birds do not feel a necessity to move out as yet.

Apart from disappointing bird lovers across Europe, this new development could mean that within the next few years, the swans would forget their intuitive migratory patterns that are passed on genetically. If a cold Siberian winter strikes them at that point, they might just not know what to do.

Temperatures have been rising dramatically in the Arctic during the last decade and while some dismiss it as an over-reaction, there surely can be no accusations made that the Swans are a part of the conspiracy theory as well! – via The Independent

Images by BARRY BATCHELOR/PA and josefuteimu

The north-east of England is soon to become the centre of an enormous wind farm industry that is being proposed to be set up because of its close proximity to the sea. Today with 3GW (a supply enough for 2m homes) of the 75GW of electricity consumed, Britain has come up to the fifth position, leaving behind Denmark in the European green league.

By the next decade 40GW of electric power will come from off-shore wind farms with a clear 50% of it coming from the British shores. Apart from this, the booming wind farm industry would attract over £50 billion in investments, provide 50,000 jobs and by the year 2010 earn UK 50% of the shares in the European market.

The British Wind Energy Authority (BWEA) is quite confident that it will be able to reach its target by 2020 but the only obstacle in their path to success is the delay on the part of the Government in sanctioning their plans. Isn’t that what Governments are for? – via Telegraph.co.uk

Image courtesy of CovLtwt