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April 21, 2006

FOR THE MILLIONS OF YOU WHO HAVE LONG WANTED TO BUILD A SMALL HOME TORNADO MACHINE, BUT COULD NOT FIND INSTRUCTIONS

...your wait is over.

(Via Gizmodo)

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There are millions of us? I wish I'd known. We could have formed a club.

But now the wait is over.

Sigh.

Seriously, I think this is way cool and I want to build it - does that mean I'm weird? (Dorothy!!! Dorothy Gale! You get in the storm shelter right now!).

Cool!

My cat is gonna love it!

Now when my Mom says that it looks like a tornado has gone through my room, I can finally defend myself.

Favorite quote:

ONLY BUILD THIS MACHINE FOR YOURSELF

I did not realize the tornado machine market was so lucrative that such a warning needed to be made.

Here in the midwest we already have a tornado machine. We call it "April".

"Flying debris and cows not included"

Maybe we could put one of those moo-cam cows into the system to see how a tornado looks from that point of view?

I love the slightly peevish tone of the instructions: here it is; build it if you want; don't come crawling to me for help; don't annoy me with your stupid questions; I'm much too busy on other projects; go away now; I'm building...a BIGGER tornado machine.

Big deal - Mr Wizard showed me how to make one of those with two 2 liter soda bottles a LONG time ago!

Cool. It will look great next to the bubonic plague disaster replica and the model locust infestation display.

This vortex generator puts things totally in perspective for me.

Slyeyes--Ditto here in Alabama. If I want a tornado, I just open the front door.

Q: How do you know it's spring in Alabama/the Midwest?
A: The local TV stations all have a weather map covering the lower right quarter of the screen--continuously.

Actually, that photo looks a lot like the X-ray my chiropractor took of my back...

What do a tornado and an Alabama cheerleader have in common? Sooner or later they'll both get a trailer.

" it is meant to be put in your living room or somewhere else that requires it to look nice. "

yes, my living room is required to look nice and if this will help, i'll gladly build it. i can't wait to see all the kids toys and socks sucked up out of sight by the tornado.

This reminds me of that lightning machine we tried to make out of a roll of tin foil and a fuse box.

Under their competent and professional veneer, those firemen can be really cranky.

Al, the other night, I SWEAR I found a magnolia branch in my yard that had been in Alabama earlier in the day.

Fed -- *snork* seems so inadequate.

Didn't someone already invent this? I think it's called a "Mobile Home Park."

for godssake, don't tell anyone at the american society for the conservation of gravity about this. (on second thought, maybe that's not such a bad idea...)

let's NOT tell PETA.

In October I did some relief work in MS. In one of the flooded houses we stripped I found a metal hurricane tracking map with magnetic markers that you place on it to follow the storm. This poor guy literally tracked Katrina right into his living room. One heck of a souvenier I guess.

Oh Boy! Dad's gonna have a Field Trip when he sees what i've done to the room! WWEEE! WWOOOSSHHHH!

slogan - "For an ear-popping good time!!"

SO this gives credence to the claim that the mafia caused Hurricane Katrina.

You Midwest(I assume you mean the Midwest as defined by the US aka Ohio and surrounding area, not the geographic Midwest) and Alabama people make me laugh, does "Tornado Alley" ring a bell? Oklahoma - The home of The Oklahoma City New Orlean's Hornets. Way to go, send them to the one other place in the universe where they are most likely to lose their home.

TORNADO IN A JAR

Recipe provided by my son's 3rd grade teacher

1) Fill a jar with water almost to the top, and 1/2 cup dishwashing liquid
2) Add small objects such as pebbles, shells, small cows, fence parts, Mini Coopers
3) Screw cap on jar. Tightly.
4) Spin jar in frenetic fashion.
5) Enjoy mini mayhem.

Oops, I meant 1/4 cup. 1/2 cup = overly sudsy vortex.

C'mon, Wile E. Coyote has been building tornado machines for decades. Or ordering them directly from Acme. Goodness sakes, he even had Instant Tornado pills (just add water).

*is sooooooooo going to build one of these*

Sympathy Bid: Not only do I live in Indiana where our Friday family night consists of everyone piling into the bathtub in a spirit of togetherness to wait for the tornado to hit; but I work in Indianapols, where NRA supporter Dick Cheney is putting in an appearance in about an hour. I am personally planning on cringing under my desk since the office doesn't have a bathtub.

Somewhere North,

SO this gives credence to the claim that the mafia caused Hurricane Katrina.
The Mafia! Balderdash! Everyone knows it was Karl Rove.


We gotta keep Carl away from those Fajitas.

Forget tornados. Real extreme weather geeks are building their own lightning machines.

While indoor lightnint is NOT suitable for a 3rd grade science project, it can be great at cocktail parties, particuarly the sort that start off by teleporting all of the hostess's undergarments three feet to the left.

Wurm42 - I love a good obscure Hitchhiker's Guide reference...!

I think this is a joke and you all are taking it seriously.

I'm embarassed for y'all. :)

Not quite, Eleanor! The picture on the gizmodo blog is of the tornado machine I built last week, which they picked up from the MAKE blog. Here's a video clip: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/homemade-tornado-machine-168536.php

Sorry, I pasted the wrong link. Here is the link to the video.

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