if the earth had rings

it's a neat video and a neat concept but one thing they don't really mention (though it can be plainly seen in some of the shots) is the major downside to having rings - and that is a BIG FARKING SHADOW that would no doubt have a disastrous effect on plant life in the affected regions. (found on boingboing)

dumb or smart?

smart: tricking out a recliner so you can drive around on something that looks like this


dumb: getting pulled over in it for driving while intoxicated (see boing boing article)

where's my mind today?

apparently it's somewhere near the gutter. when i saw this picture my first thought was that yoda's shake weight has an 'unusual' attachment. in reality this is supposed to go on top of your christmas tree.



(via ohgizmo)

shooting anvils

i've never considered anvils as projectiles (even though it did happen on roadrunner cartoons) but this video shows how cool an idea it can be (via boing boing)



it's almost as good as demolition, only nothing's destroyed at the end.

mezmerizing highspeed close-up video of bullets smashing things

title says it all, really - via ohgizmo

not impressed

we have a leaky roof... and water damage - lots of water damage - enough that it went through the 2nd floor and into the first floor...

the condo corp is supposed to deal with this... the outside problems are always their responsibility and if those lead to problems on the inside they're responsible for that too..

and so, after reporting that there was water dripping onto the tv in the first floor livingroom we find out that they're going to do something about it... they're going to repair the roof and replace the ceilings in the affected rooms...

this will be the 3rd time in 5 years that they've had to do something about the roof - maintenance, both preventative (they used to have someone go and shovel snow off the roof to help prevent problems but not anymore) and restorative, has been markedly inadequate...Clearly...

now the problem (as if there aren't enough visible already)... the contractors hired by the condo corp's insurance agency need the affected rooms cleared out so they can work... in our house that accounts for the entire back half of the house and since the front half incorporates a garage, that means more than half of the above-ground living space needs to be cleared out and can't be used for actual living... that's a lot of space and a lot of stuff in it, and the condo corp has made no offers to help us with this - they've left us on the hook for the expense of enabling their contractors to clean up the mess caused by their negligence...

so we could pile all that stuff in the remaining living space and make it completely unlivable and move into a hotel until they're finished, or we could hire movers to move that stuff into storage that we'd need to rent until the contractors are finished and then hire more movers to move the stuff back - but both of those are expensive and rather a big hassle..

enter PODS (portable on-demand storage) which, instead of requiring you to bring your stuff to the storage container, brings the storage container to your stuff - it's a great option for us because it eliminates the cost of movers and unnecessary transportation of our belongings and still allows us to remain living in our townhouse while the work is going on...

but then the condo corp complains about the the storage pod, saying we needed to get permission from them first!... the nerve - the unmitigated gall - of complaining about a solution we found to a problem they manufactured for us... well, you can probably guess what i think of their complaint...

peel condo corporation #60 - you suck...