In 2005, the world’s largest all-wood treehouse was built amongst the lime trees of the non-profit Alnwick Garden in Northumberland County, UK. This 6,000 square foot treehouse is comprised of walkways, cottages, shops, a restaurant, and play areas. It is even wheelchair accessible, and holds close to 1,000 people, so everyone can play.

The Treehouse from Outside:

The treehouse’s wooden suspension bridge:

Inside the treehouse (fireplace, gift shop, restaurant):

It takes a lot of support to hold up the treehouse:

If you have kids, you may want to wait until they’re older and tired of treehouses to take them to Alnwick. Otherwise, you can be certain their current playset or treehouse will never be used again.

Thanks to Alnwick Garden, Chung-tung Yeh and fatcontroller for most of these pictures.

LATE UPDATE:
Since a lot of you feel strongly about the definition of a treehouse, I’ve added a quick poll. My vote is that it’s a treehouse since it’s suspended off the ground and amongst the trees, but I’m looking forward to your votes:

If you never saw Trigger Happy TV, you missed some of the best hidden camera and harmless pranks ever conceived. Since the show has been off the air in both the UK and U.S. for a couple years, I thought you might enjoy a few of my favorites.

Don’t Feed the Pigeons:

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

A Spy Among Us:

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

Still spying:

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

Snail Crossing (not surprisingly, some slow parts):

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

Walking the Dog (a little twisted):

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

Original Mob of 100 (inspired the Japanese Mob of 100):

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

For Trigger Happy viewers … what was your favorite skit?

Would you eat dinner in an open air restaurant, with 21 of your closest friends, suspended from a crane at 160 feet above the ground?

Interested? Before answering “Yes”, look at the Dinner in the Sky in action, and see if you detect anything missing:

Imagine 8 hours of eating and drinking, secured only by a seatbelt rigged dinner chair, with NO BATHROOM! For the $9,000+ rental cost, I’d at least expect a port-a-potty … watch out below!

There’s not even a pesky floor to ruin your view (or your aim after a few drinks):

On the plus side, Belgium-based Dinner in the Sky will drive their invention to almost any accessible destination (sorry fellow Americans, our only option is to buy the contraption, no rentals available stateside). The mobility of the venue opens up some fantastic viewing opportunities, like at this Formula One race:

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

Considering some box seats can run $1,000 apiece at high profile events, this could be a bargain for those with the money (and the bladder control).

Link

When I was in school, girls would put teethmarks all over their pencils, while boys would chip off the paint with fingernails. Those of us who carried pocket knives for sharpening pencils (most of us) might also carve out rings and spirals when we were bored. We had nothing on these guys though.

Ball joint pencil:

Just one hiccup could destroy a carving in progress. The photos are from a 1990’s Japanese exhibition by Kato Jado and Mizuta Tasogare, titled “The JAD Project”. Unfortunately, the website is limited in English descriptions, but the photos speak loudly…

My favorite - all from the same Ticonderoga H pencil:

A Six-fold spiral pencil:

Honeycomb pencil:

Link

I must be slow - it just looked like a random street picture to me at first. A friend had to point out the folks in the upper right. I wonder how they walk sideways like that?

This ripped little guy did 10,000 at once … and he’s only six!

Lu Di performed these 10,000 pushups in only 200 minutes at a Kungfu school in Central China’s Henan Province, at least according to the school’s president Shi Yongdi. Here he is in action:

The school decided that he showed so much potential that they waived his tuition for ten years. Talk about a scholarship!

via China Daily

What kid wouldn’t love to open up their lunchbox to find a tub of rice sprinkled with shriveled green seaweed that somewhat resembled Pokemon cartoon characters?

Or maybe they would prefer Hello Kitty seaweed?

Or seaweed designed to make rice look like soccer balls?

All three odd seaweed products are examples of kirinuki nori, meaning “cut-out seaweed”. They’re also available in generic shapes such as animals, trucks, and airplanes. If I had the patience, the soccer balls actually look like they’d be fun for my 2 year old - although can you really trust seaweed purchased on ebay?

Soccer ball and Hello Kitty are available for purchase here and here. Pokemon seaweed via Kotaku.

Not good with directions? Then buy a TomTom or a car with built-in satellite navigation. Directionally challenged, but driving a sporty $100,000 Mercedes SL500? Then follow the navigation system’s instructions precisely, regardless of how illogical they may seem.

Sounds like ridiculous advice, right? Not to the 20-something British driver:

The young woman, identified only as Hayley, was recently on her way to a party in central England when the navigation system led her down an old farm road. She completely ignored signs stating that the road was impassable by non-farm vehicles, and continued until she reached a ford in Sheepy Magna.

Even though the usually shallow river was swollen from flooding, the driver accepted her navigation system’s instructions and attempted to cross. Almost half a mile downstream, the car finally ran aground and the woman was rescued by a local villager. Within minutes, the car became dislodged again, and completely filled with water.

Little additional information is available regarding the navigation-deficient driver, although we do know she was finally rescued from the village itself by a chauffer-driven Bentley. How tragic.

via

Despite the 8 inches of new snow outside my window, I’m told that Spring is still just around the corner. While we may think of Spring in terms of flowers, sports, and allergies, these squirrels have only one thing on their mind.

Thanks Tim!

This video illustrates one of the many reasons that I don’t own a swingset:

(if you can’t see the video, click here)