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Elvis the crocodile lives at Australian Reptile Park near Sydney. He did not appreciate the noisy lawnmower that was invading his territory, so he captured it and pulled it into his underwater home. Elvis stood guard over his catch until park staff could lure him away with kangaroo meat. When they recovered the mower, two of Elvis’ teeth were still embedded in the engine casing from the attack! Link -via Arbroath
In a story that sounds like it came straight from a Flintstones episode, Pinta Island conservations are using giant tortoises to regulate out of control native vegetation. The island was home to Lonesome George once thought to be the last of the Pinta giant tortoise breed. These lawnmowers on the half shell were sterilized to prevent them from colonizing the island. Plans are afoot to recolonise Pinta Island with Española tortoises who are more closely related to Lonesome George. Reports say the tortoise/lawnmowers have wasted no time in getting down to the business of regulating the herbaceous plants.
Link – (Image: Jose Jacome/EPA/Corbis)
John Hinton of Horsham in West Sussex, England, combined a boat and a lawnmower to make a vehicle he can drive around traffic jams by slipping into a canal.
John’s ‘Shortcutter’, made from a sit-on lawnmower and an old boat, can chug along the roads at a ‘relaxing’ 9kph (6mph), then take to the water at the first sign of a snarl-up.
Of course, with a top speed that could cause more traffic jams than it solves and a propeller that spins wildly behind it on dry land, the four-wheeler is still very much a work in progress.
The downside is that now no one can use the term “shortcutter” for the Name That Weird Invention contest this week. Hinton says his vehicle is a prototype and he will continue to improve it. Link -via Arbroath
Last weekend, American Bobby Cleveland took his lawn mower out to the Bonneville Salt Flats and accelerated to a record-breaking 96.529 MPH. This performance took the title away from British driver Don Wales, who had reached a speed of 87.833 MPH on his lawn mower.
Link via The Presurfer
Steve McGranahan calls himself “the world’s strongest redneck”. That’s why he’s able to wield his hedge-trimming invention: the lawnmower on a stick. His YouTube channel is filled with similar farcical inventions, including Windows Vista.
via The Presurfer | Official Website | YouTube Channel
The present landspeed record for a lawnmower is 80.792 mph. Project Runningblade, led by Stephen Vokins of the Beaulieu National Motor Museum in the UK, hopes to break that record with a lawnmower capable of reaching 100 mph. Note that these are not just small race cars made to resemble lawnmowers — they must cut grass on racing day and be manufactured by a lawnmower producer.
Link via DVICE | Official Website | Photo: Gizmag
Forget gas-guzzlin’, smoke-belchin’ lawnmowers. The eco-friendly way to mow grass and get rid of unwanted vegetation is to … rent some goats!
The city of Andover, Massachusetts has some unwanted guests: invasive species like the European buckthorn tree and the strangling bittersweet vine from Asia are shouldering out local wildlife. To make matters worse, in tight times the city can’t always afford the mowing machines and the manpower required to keep the invaders at bay. That was until they brought in the experts–goats.
The mowing “machines are massive, constantly breaking down, [and they] use a lot of fuel so we have actually had to skip several years of the mowing program because it’s very expensive,” says Bob Douglas, the director of Andover’s Conservation Commission.
Luckily, the commission recently hit upon a neat solution when one of their volunteers spoke to Lucy McKain, who tends dairy goats next to one of the city’s preserves. They worked out an arrangement where her animals get to graze the land and the commission saves a few thousand dollars a year. The fix was a win-win for everyone.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by bizwiz27.
