Between 40 and 50 boaters raced Saturday along Crystal Lake’s Main Beach to join the 25th annual America’s Cardboard Cup Regatta as spectators cheered all ages who designed boats using cardboard, duct tape and creativity.

Taking five weeks to build was a Mystery Machine from the Scooby Doo cartoon, proving that vans can float.

“This is the one fun thing we do every year,” Lynette Collins said. “We put more into it than cardboard and duct tape.”

Some racers used oars or water wheels to move. Members of Lost Cause used snow shovels to cross the finish line first. Team member Josh Brownell of the eight-member crew said he was surprised, as they expected that their boat would sink halfway through.

“It doesn’t hurt we had twice as many people as the other boat,” Brownell said.

Races were filled with dramatic moments when team Down, who designed the house with balloons from the movie “Up,” took an early dive. There also were close races, such as when Shark Steaks defeated POS #4 by a nose.

“It was adrenaline that got us to the end,” teammate Joe Fike of Crystal Lake said.

If you’re looking for cardboard boxes why not pop into your local Lok’nStore Business & Household Self Storage centre. 

We have a huge range of boxes in stock from just £2! and bubblewrap from just 40p per mtr.  Have a look at what these guys did with their boxes:

Architectural studio Fantastic Norway has created this suspended installation for the Centre for Design and Architecture in Oslo, Norway, as part of an exhibition showcasing young Norwegian designers. The hanging display forms a pixelated cloud comprised of 3000 cardboard boxes that plays with ideas of packaging, recycling and affordability, while simultaneously breaking up the open layout of the space in unusual ways. The student work is arranged inside and around the boxes, adding an interactive quality that re-imagines the normal “look, don’t touch” museum experience - blending elements of curio cabinet curiosity with retail store familiarity. 

By Scott Lachut

LoknStore Business & Household Self Storage has heard that the new Commons Speaker John Bercow will be the first to move into Speaker’s House with a young family.

His wife Sally spoke of her pride in her husband’s achievement and disclosed that they were wondering how to fit their three children into the historic apartment in the Palace of Westminster.

Loknblog suggests that maybe they should de-clutter their new pad and put surplus belongings into storage?

She said: “We will have a look at it and see if we can make it more child friendly, that’s the plan.”I’m very proud of John. I think he will be a great reforming Speaker and a great credit to the country.”

The Bercows, who married in 2002, have two sons, Oliver, five, and Freddie, three, and daughter Jemima, one.

As the 157th Speaker, Mr Bercow gets a sumptuous grace-and-favour home within the Palace of Westminster, in addition to a salary of £146,041 and a pension for life of £40,000 a year on top of his MPs’ pension (alright for some).

If you’re moving house or you need to create some space, give LoknStore Business & household Self Storage a call on 0800 587 3322 or visit Loknstore.co.uk

There are certain situations in life when it is prudent to act very slowly, exercise great patience and to know exactly where your next move will take you.

One of those situations is when you are moving a two-story, 4,000-square-foot brick house that weighs almost 200 tons.

That, of course, is what happened on the campus of Elon University last weekend when the Holland House was taken on a trip a few hundred yards across campus to a new location near Holt Chapel.

Sounds simple enough when you say it that way. But it becomes a bit more complicated when you realize it had to be turned sideways to get it off the lot where it has been since 1963 and on to Haggard Avenue. Then just down the street there was another 90-degree turn on to Antioch.

Add to this situation the fact that the house is about as wide as the road, and that not only makes it hard to turn but it also interferes with big trees along the way, not to mention power lines and poles.

The streets were pretty level, but when you are moving something this big, even the slightest downhill movement is a problem. You have to hook trucks to the rear of the house to keep it from running down the grade too fast and overrunning the trucks doing the pulling. It looks a bit odd to see two trucks in front, two in the rear, apparently pulling in opposite directions. In truth, the ones in the rear are acting as brakes for the house.

The one thing that really made this move unique was the fact that the house had to be moved across the railroad tracks. And that, of course, meant close attention was paid to the train schedules. As soon as Amtrak passed, workmen built a large platform across the tracks. The house then began its crossing under the watchful eyes of a large crowd of spectators that had gathered. Carefully, slowly, ever so slowly, deliberately, an inch at a time.

And then it was across. Cheers, applause. The worst of it was over. Well, not exactly. Down in front of Johnston Hall, there are some very large and very old oak trees. And at Elon University oak trees are special. After all, Elon is a Hebrew word for oak, and oaks are tradition for the university. You just don’t tear down oak trees.   

Carefully, slowly, ever so slowly, deliberately, an inch at a time, and the house was moved past those trees, and the Holland House found its new location on the South Campus. 

Don Bolden 

In 1965 Riki Watanabe created the cardboard furniture series which was critically acclaimed then for its safety and elegance. Safety, because Japan falls under seismic zone and cardboard furniture pieces are always safer.

The Metropolitan gallery of Tokyo has reproduced these furniture pieces again and the Kids’ Set can hold the weight of an adult. The stools and tables are sturdy enough and even a hefty adult can sit on them without them breaking. They come in soft and pastel colours which make your interiors look great and stylish.

Jaiyant Cavale, Trends Update 

At first glance it looks like these gadgets have been carefully wrapped in brown parcel paper - but on closer inspection you can see they are made entirely out of cardboard.

Artist Kyle Bean, has produced the cardboard replicas of gadgets like iPod’s, the Nintendo DS and laptop computer’s as a comment on how quickly technology becomes out of date.

The 22-year-old design graduate from Brighton bends, folds and glues recycled corrugated cardboard to recreate the intricate shapes of the gadgets before adding a small battery pack inside to make a tracing paper screen glow.

He says each item takes him two days to create and is a statement about the way many people see modern technology as disposable … not because he can’t afford and Apple iPhone 3GS.

“I thought that making recycled cardboard ‘disposable’ clones of these gadgets would be an appropriate and engaging way of illustrating this observation.”

The ‘Disposable Technology’ artworks have been shown at a number of exhibitions where people have enjoyed both looking at them and the message they convey.

As for real life gadget Kyle says he could not live without his laptop or DSLR camera.

news:lite

Do you need self storage in Basingstoke?

If you do then why not pop into the LoknStore Business & Household Self Storage centre on Crockford Lane , Chineham.  They have all the space you’ll ever need plus boxes and bubblewrap.  Give them a call on 01256 474700 or visit loknstore.co.uk for more info.