Hmmm, not sure how to respond to this.
Trust me, I was being completely serious. I honestly didn't know it was played at a competition level.

They sell them in the toy sections of every grocery and department store. It's a game, like lawn darts and bocci ball that we play when family comes to visit or at picnics. And every time we play it, even now, with my kids, we have to find the least broken rackets and the least squashed birdie to play with.

Seeing it played in competition, makes me think of competitive dodge-ball, something I also didn't know was a real sport other than in gym class.

A little farther and he could land on Sarah Palin's lawn.

I agree, but i have something else that it smells like too. Like when i was a kid and i'd be out with friends, unsupervised, not yet responsible, and let's say someone swings off a tree and the branch snaps off. He goes oh that shows how strong i am, so before long another kid starts trying to rip a branch off, people are mocking each other, challenging each other's strength. Before you know it, you're in a group with a load of kids like wild animals trying to destroy a tree on someone's lawn, branches and leaves everywhere, dirt and mud and the tree uprooting. I made that example up, but many people have been in that kind of situation as a kid. Mine was absentmindedly throwing mud at a wall because it made an interesting splat. I zoned in half an hour later from my daydream and realised i'd ruined someone's wall and covered their driveway in mud. I did clear it up.

What this smells of to me, is that they were after someone, getting excited and feeling the thrill, suddenly one turns to his mate and goes "dude! do you think we can use those new explosives...?", another one chips in "even better, we've got that APC!", and they all hoot and howl with excitement, grab all of their exciting new toys and go in like the charge of the light brigade. Take out those fences so we can surround them! We need that wall down! Maybe that one! By this time they've forgotten that they're trying to protect people's property and safety, but they're having the time of their lives.

That's what it smells of to me - out of control immaturity and gang/yob mentality. And they're armed with army equipment now. When things like this start to happen, you really have to start questioning how things are being run. How else could it have happened that they gut out a house like that?

Your video, Is that a... SWIMMING POOL under your lawn?!, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

"WE" is the nation as a whole. Because you wish to separate yourself from the rest of us does not mean 'there is no we', it only means you aren't one of us (or don't want to be).
I live in the real world, where most people are poor planners, and most people don't have the means to plan anyway (more every day, thanks to un-livable wages being the norm). It's not defeatist, it's realist. It would be wonderful if we all had the gift of forethought, perfect knowledge of financial planning, prognostication to be able to know what your needs WILL be, and the income to be able to follow through with financial plans. I live well on 1/2 of a <$30K income and take NO help from anywhere, but most people don't have my advantages or the willingness to live with less, or the time and space to do things like grow their own food, or the property and money/credit to get a solar/wind generation system, even though it saves them tons in the long term, they simply don't have the financial ability to plan long term.
I don't see what your next paragraph has to do with the topic. (It reminds me of the saying 'god only gives you the burden you can carry' which ignores the thousands that commit suicide because their burden was more than they could stand.) One can only rise to the opportunities one is presented with, those that have limited opportunities often have no way to 'rise to the occasion' or 'over come adversity', they can't even overcome their food bills, no matter how hard they work at Wendy's.

I'm for getting rid of 'government cheese' for anyone that does not need it, but removing all programs leaves us back in the 30's with roving gangs of the destitute clogging the streets, expensive abusive state run institutions for the elderly poor, and the economy tanking. I could support a 'means test' or the like for 'welfare' and social security, but it would benefit us all if everyone had access to healthcare, and in the long run would even save those who do pay for it, because as I've said repeatedly, we already pay their bills after the fact (by paying higher bills to cover for those that don't/won't/can't pay their bill). Giving us all access to healthcare outside the emergency room saves us ALL money...and removing the insurance industry middleman saves another 10%-25% that we get NO benefit from.

It's about addressing the real world, not insisting all people should act intelligently and fore-thoughtfully at all times, and designing a system that only works if they do and leads to disaster if they don't. I do not believe people, as a group, are good at planning for their future, and we all do better when at least the minimum of financial planning is taken care of by intelligent educated people rather than left to those who plan poorly. Sometimes that means paying to not have people camped on your lawn waiting to rob you...and it's cheaper to put them in an apartment than in jail. The systems could certainly be better (I'm not holding my breath that they will be improved though), but having no 'safety net' at all has already proven to be far worse for everyone, and the country as a whole in many ways.

This is truly bad, because the violence seems so transparently pointless, almost as though the dog cop thought "Pyro here" ("Fluffy" and "Blitzkrieg" must have been taken) "Pyro seems kind of listless, he needs some exercise, like ripping this poor bastard's face off."
And the little chat they have with him afterwards is almost as bad, in a "come here honey and give your abuser a nice kiss" kind of way.

Sure, the cops are responsible for their violence, and for their part in holding up the blue wall, but complicity does not end there. There's the busybody, either hateful or clueless, that called the cops in the first place. There are the legion of lawyers and judges that have carved out a gaping officer safety exception to the constitution. And, finally, because even a police state can't operate without the consent of most of the governed, there is the rest of us, anyone who has supported a candidate, or voted for one, because he promises lawn order uber alles.

We got your lawn order right here.

How does one arrange contests like these? I'd like people to come compete on my lawn.

New contest ever week!

Thing is, with a scythe you need the grass to be high like that. It's much harder to cut a lawn with a scythe because the grass simply must be a certain height.

Which in a neighborhood like mine means you will have nice neighbors banging on your door telling you to get your grass cut because it is too high. I guess you COULD use the scythe to dissuade them, but I don't know how the local authorities would feel about that.

Pretty good, and a good advancement in snow tires, but I'm sorry, this is no where NEAR the "fastest speed ever recorded for tractors" as they imply, maybe the 'fastest speed for unmodified (except for software, which is everything on new computer controlled motors) commercially available tractors on commercially available unmodified tires on ice'....
...because even lawn tractors have gone WAY faster, over 130MPH....
http://world.honda.com/news/2014/c140402Fastest-Lawnmower/

And according to Wikipedia, drag-pulling tractors theoretically reach over 200kph in short distances all the time.

Spoilers do follow:

What bugged me most was that as a last ditch attempt to save humanity, the NASA successors in the film decided to spend all their time and resources on sending first scouts, then hopefully colonists through an unprecedented wormhole, in the hopes that a suitably survivable planet might be found on the other side. To judge by the film, a lifeless, icy waste without a breathable atmosphere was considered a decent candidate.

So against that background, we come back from the wormhole to a city-sized space station, complete with lawns and baseball.

Why all the trouble? With that level of tech apparently within reasonable reach, why not at least consider colonizing a planet in our own solar system? Why risk everything on a complete unknown?

I think every kid needs to go through something like that.

I used to shoot pest rabbits around our house (in the country, far from any neighbors) with a BB rifle. Went through safety training, was always very careful, etc. etc.

One day I saw a rabbit hiding under a row of trees between myself and the back side of my house. I never shot towards the house / people / whatever, always away from. But, the rabbit was there. I could have walked around the trees, but the rabbit probably wouldn't have been visible from the other side. Plus, the land sloped up so there was a bit of a hill/grade between me and the house, not to mention the thick tree branches and underbrush. BBs almost never went clean through a rabbit, they'd get lodged in the body.

So, I rationalized all that. Five pumps instead of ten, make sure I hit the rabbit so the BB doesn't go through, plus I'm aiming down into the ground so even if I miss the BB will probably lodge in the ground or hit a tree or brush. Should be fine. Do it.

I pull the trigger, rabbit runs away, and I hear a really loud "thump". The BB had ricocheted off the ground and hit right in the dead center of a huge sliding glass door on the back of the house. Safety glass, so I saw it spread out in little spiderweb patterns from the impact point in the center over the course of about 30 seconds or so, and then all fall into a pile of glass bits.


So of course I run to my dad and said "no, I was totally aiming *away* from the house -- must have had a really unlucky ricochet off of the flagpole or something!" He just smiled and said "really?" and then explained that I'd be doing chores and mowing the lawn to help pay to replace the glass door -- which ended up being about $800.

But you can bet your ass that I never aimed even remotely in the direction of a house, car, or anything else that I didn't want to shoot after that...

"Keep it down *kids ... and Get OFF MY LAWN!"

No, you misguided fools, Thursdays is beer pong, whilst Wednesday is for flip cup and hooking up with other followers of Thor. As long as you honour your ancestors, we don't care who you hook up with. Heck, if you wanna marry a shoe, we'll marry you.

The weekend is the holiest of holy days, as we observe the sacred rituals of watching sporting events, and playing video games. I'm just saying, we have a pretty great church here. As long as you pitch in for buying kegs and food, and make sure everyone passes out on your lawn, or takes a taxi cab home, the Church of Thor will welcome all!

life hack dude, I just shoveled my lawn