Here's A Playhouse That's Wrong, Very Wrong [Design]

Sculpturist Dietrich Wegner created a playhouse for children that resembles a mushroom cloud. Yes, this is the same formation you would find after the detonation of an atomic bomb.

Wegner created the structure using Poly-fil, rope, wood and steel. According to him and perhaps other adults, it represents the contradiction of "two conflicting ideas." But for kids its one fantastic place to play. Seriously, it's mushroom cloud playhouse, what more could you want? [Laughing Squid

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Holy F**K That's a Big Crocodile [Video]

This 21-foot, 2,375 pound megacroc destroyed four traps, one water buffalo, and possibly a fisherman before finally being captured in a specially-designed, reinforced, steel-wire trap. Trapped, not killed? And cue Jurassic Park theme music in 3... 2... 1...

Dang, Philippines, y'all got some big reptiles. This crocosaurus stands accused of killing one large water buffalo, and is the prime suspect in the case of a missing fisherman from back in July. Once it was finally trapped, it took approximately 100 men to drag it out of the water. It was then lifted by a crane into a truck and transferred to a temporary holding cell. He will eventually be the star of an eco-tourism park, which will hopefully bring some much-needed cash-flow to the impoverished area of Agusan, approximately 500 miles southeast of Manila. He is one of the largest crocodiles ever captured alive.

Oh, but here's some good news. Wildlife official Ronnie Sumiller is leading the hunt for another croc which may be even bigger.

Backed by five village hunters he has trained, Sumiller has set 20 steel cable traps with an animal carcass as bait along the creek where the first crocodile was caught and in a nearby vast marshland.

Sumiller said he found no human remains when he induced the captured crocodile to vomit.

You induced a giant crocodile to vomit? How, by holding back its scales and sticking your finger down its throat? Or is that some sort of croco-emetic you're pouring down that pipe into its mouth in the video? Regardless, the guy who has to pick through the croco-spew looking for human remains is underpaid no matter how much he makes. [AP via Business Insider]

Image/Video credit: AP Images You can keep up with Brent Rose, the author of this post, on Google+ or Twitter.

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CLOO App Lets You Rent Your Bathroom to Strangers Because that's a Totally Safe and Normal Thing [Video]

Places I don't want complete strangers: #1, lying on top of my bed while I'm having sex. #2, relieving themselves inside my bathroom. CLOO thinks I'm in the minority, and is facilitating the latter. NO. NO NO NO. WHAT. NO.

The crew behind CLOO, who apparently think putting a sassy salsa soundtrack to their demo video somehow makes the notion of a stranger coming in off the street and taking a shit in your bathroom (or doing Christ only knows what else) more palatable, are incorrect in their assumption. Unless I need spare dollars to feed the worst heroin addiction mankind has ever known, or am conducting a social experiment to see how many times I can be strangled to death, I don't want strangers in my apartment using my bathroom. I don't want strangers in my apartment baking cakes. I don't want strangers in my apartment reading to me as I fall asleep. I don't want strangers in my apartment. I don't care if we have mutual friends on Facebook, as CLOO points to as a means of mitigating creepiness. Hey! It's still creepy! They're still strangers to me. I think the basic ground rule of If you don't have my phone number to personally call me for permission to use my toilet, the answer is no, works pretty well.

No matter how much snazzy UI work and Google Maps integration you throw at something, some ideas are just bad ideas at their very foundation. And now, I turn the hourglass over and wait until someone invests $25 million in this ludicrous idea. [CLOO via Laughing Squid]

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Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi Merge Just Merged Their Small Screens, and Why That's Great [LCD]

Early this morning, Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi came out hand in hand to declare that they were merging their small screen divisions into one liquid crystal behemoth. The new entity will be known as Japan Display. And it's a good thing for you.

By Voltron-ing their LCD businesses, the three companies have created the largest manufacturer of LCD screens for phones, cameras, and tablet displays. Which is a good thing for their collective business, as all three companies have lost money in previous years. The merger allows them to focus their energies on combating the might of Samsung, as well as aggressive companies like Sharp, who's expected to get a billion dollar investment from Apple soon.

All this kind of screams anti-competition, but it's the exact opposite. Samsung, for one, is larger and more connected than any other Japanese company in the market. By joining forces, they're able to pool their resources and create better, more competitive products. More competitive also means cheaper, all great for the average consumer who wants a good phone or camera for a good price. And don't forget that all three companies will remain distinct save for this one sector.

Now let's see where this goes. [Reuters, NYT]

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara

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That's No Rubber Band Gun. This Is a Rubber Band Gun. [Video]

The nice man explaining the in's and out's of this slingshot cannon looks and sounds exactly like he did the other day when I was imagining what slingshot cannon aficionados might look and sound like. This is not an insult.

If it were, I'd no doubt be pavement paste by now, my head and body smashed to a smear by metal projectiles hurled at me from afar by a slingshot cannon that is nothing like the meager, eye-poking variety you may have constructed in class or during a particularly harrowing workplace meeting. This one kills.

Not people, yet, but automobiles and beer cans certainly, as this video (complete with high-speed camera footage) shows.

All that power is provided by 24 Thera Band Gold exercise bands and some solid woodworking. Maybe a little madness too, but you didn't hear that from me. [technabob]

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