In reply to Toreador:
> (In reply to EddieA)
>
> Wonder why they've only just noticed after 2 years?
I would guess they keep a set of these kinds of features in reserve for slow news times like the middle of August. I thought they did a pretty good job of making an interesting tale out the non-story (in news-value terms) of a crack in a rock getting slowly wider and not being a threat to the people living below it.
For those who want to trundle the bit of rock splitting off, the Walter Scott lyrical poem (The Bridal of Triermain) had the same idea nearly 200 years ago - in that case the hero chucks his sword at the overhanging bit at the top and this is what happens:
And at the rocks the weapon threw,
Just where one crag's projected crest
Hung proudly balanced o'er the rest.
Hurl'd with main force, the weapon's shock
Rent a huge fragment of the rock.
If by mere strength, 'twere hard to tell,
Or if the blow dissolved some spell,
But down the headlong ruin came,
With cloud of dust and flash of flame.
Down bank, o'er bush, its course was borne,
Crush'd lay the copse, the earth was torn,
etc...
Bet they've got those lines saved up for when this chunk of rock does finally peel off.
Eddie