board77

Yeah, people are dumb, but not that dumb.

I don't think it's so dumb, though! They either didn't know how much weight the cranes could pull, or how much the things being pulled weighed.

All the same:






*E*

*E*V*E*N*S*T*A*R* wrote:

I don't think it's so dumb, though! They either didn't know how much weight the cranes could pull, or how much the things being pulled weighed.
*E*

Actually, it is more a question of leverage and torque.

Torque - Wiki

Even if the crane could pull that much weight, it might not be properly secured, and the moment arm might be such that it would fall over regardless.

In such a case, the strength of the crane would be pulling itself down as much as pulling the other object up. Some people might not consider that. In the first pics, there is no effort at all to counter this, they are relying purely on the weight of the crane to be enough, and it clearly is not, given the leverage required. However, in the latter pics you can see the large stabilizing legs where they attempt to account for this, but the legs are just not wide enough. I would estimate that the legs would need to be at least twice as wide, maybe three times, in the direction that they are trying to lift. (However, there isn't enough room without pushing the crane further back from the edge, which would require a longer reach--which would require a longer leg etc. The other option would be a counter weight.)

BTW love the Natural Selection pic.

BrianIs Atyou

Stolen from someone on Facebook (think it was Wolfie) and courtesy of the Boston Globe.

Too many large cool pics to post, so here is the link to pics of an underwater volcano erupting.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/0 ... tonga.html

Neat! Thanks for posting it!

Very cool pics of the eruption!

Thanks!

BrianIs AtYou

I think these are more "silly" than "awesome," but I still enjoy them.





Zoomed in on Food


Daydream Believer:


Showtime!

Han hoped the Imperials would fall for the same old song and dance.

Oh noes!

It's bad enough that Billy had to keep an eye out for cats, hawks and territorial squirrels. The last thing he needed was grief from an Ewok.

From powerpig on flickr

Definitely awesome, Rebecca!

BrianIs AtYou

I would certainly classify those as awesome.

I made pancakes the other day. This was completely unintentional.

rofl I love it. Similar to Rebecca's spilled tea smiley!




*E*

Yay!

Real life smileys!

BrianIs AtYou

i c wut u did there...



moar here.




*E*

I found the story behind the truck images on the previous page.

It is a true incident, and happened in Roundstone Village in County Galway, Ireland, in September 2004.

However, only one truck fell in. The original set of photos was added to with doctored images to extend the humor of the incident, although the other photos are real.

Here is the original set, with the final image doctored.

The story about what happened is on the last page with the doctored image:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/mishap ... of-Errors/

Quote:

Tow Truck Comedy of Errors


Comments: Let's face it, the best laid plans do go awry, and there are few things funnier than seeing someone make the same catastrophic mistake twice. This would be a perfect example, but for the fact that these images don't tell an entirely true story.

The incident did happen, yes -- but, contrary to the photographic "evidence," only one tow truck fell into the harbour while trying to salvage a wrecked vehicle, not two. The final image in the series was doctored (compare images).

The true story is told in a suitably Joycean account penned by Richard De Stacpoole of Roundstone Village in County Galway, Ireland, where the events actually transpired in September 2004:

We have certainly have had our ups and downs in the village this year what with somebody falling off the village wall, thank god not killed, and then in the wee hours of Saturday morning, a car goes into the Harbour, with a young man at the wheel, the car landed upside down and if it was not for the vigilance [of] Mary King who alerted Sean de Courcey, Sean fair play to him pulled this man out of the car, which was nearly totally submerged in the tide and pulled him to safety, what ever way you look at it, Sean saved his life, yet again another near fatal accident, and then I suppose on the slightly humorous side and to add insult to injury, a tow truck was called out to pull the car out, now get this, the truck fell in while trying to lift the car, no donít worry there was no one in it, it was remote controlled, but the machine was not heavier enough to lift the car out, therefore, a proper professional machine had to be called in, and the job was done, no loss of life, what was interesting the amount of people that came to have a look at this task you would think we had another social event going on.

The photos were taken by Nicholas Griffin, who owns the copyright and kindly supplied us with high-resolution copies for publishing.

BrianIs AtYou

Hand of God





http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... atory.html

I saw that and that it was totally awesome!