Tag Archives: stuff that weighs more than me

Stuff That Weighs More Than Me: Antique Bath

If you are a major bath lover and I am a MAJOR bath lover, you know that antique, claw footed tubs totally rock for long happy soaks. You also know that these cast iron beauties are heavy–especially when full of water. You don’t want to put one of these into a bathroom without a reinforced floor! But they are totally worth the hassle. Because as far as I am concerned, taking a bath is one of life’s great joys.

My bathtub is a total immersion thinking device. Seriously, there is something about the warm water and the bubbles that allows my brain to relax. I have seriously considered adding a “tub time” line item to client invoices, because I get a lot of my very best thinking done in there.

But an antique claw foot tub is not something to be taken lightly. Getting one of those bad boys up to a second story bathroom is a major, storming-the-Alamo-level undertaking. Here’s the stats:

Length: 3-5 ft.

Width: 30″

Height: 24″

Capacity: 40-60 gallons

Water Weight: 300-500 lbs.

Tub Weight: 300-400 lbs.

Total Filled Tub Weight: 600-900 lbs.

Conclusion: A claw foot tub filled with warm water and bubbles (of course) weighs more than me.

Stuff that Weighs More than Me: World’s Largest Chocolate Bunny

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Sorry for the schedule change kids. But look at it this way, you’re not just getting the newest episode of “The Right Now Show” late, you’re also getting “Stuff that Weighs More than Me” early. So look on the bright side.

And once again, for your viewing and imagining pleasure, I bring you a truly massive chocolate sculpture. I bring you, the world’s largest chocolate bunny! This guy was created in South Africa by artist Harry Johnson. Apparently this sculptor is well known for creating sculptures really, really fast, so he was pretty excited about working in chocolate.

Harry says, “This was the first time I have ever worked with chocolate. I would do it again in a heartbeat! Having worked with so many different materials, I was truly amazed as to what you can actually do with chocolate.”

Me too, Harry. I am consistently amazed by chocolate. Which possibly explains why chocolate has made such a frequent appearance on this blog, notably the world’s largest chocolate egg, the world’s largest chocolate kiss, and the world’s largest box of chocolates. Actually maybe such a large amount of chocolate could turn me off. World’s Largest Chocolate Bunny (WLCB) co-creator Mark Fruhauf admits:

“At the moment, I don’t like chocolate at all. After that sweetness and working so intimately with chocolate for three days and that smell, no. I’ve got to say I have a chocolate lying on my desk and I don’t want to touch it.”

So perhaps there is help for my unbridled desire for chocolate after all…

The world’s largest chocolate bunny was created in three days. It contained an inner structure of powder-coated steel. And here’s the stats:

Height: 12 feet, 5 inches (3.82 meters)

Weight: Over 3 tons

Conclusion: The World’s Largest Chocolate Bunny weighs more than me.

Stuff That Weighs More Than Me: Edible Hotel Made of Cake!

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YAY this marks my 400th blog post. Woo Hoo! Let’s break out the bubbly! And you know what goes great with champagne? Cake!

Look out Hansel and Gretel, what we have here is an entire hotel made entirely of cake! With walls and rugs made from homemade cookies, treasure chests created of marzipan and window sills made of fudge this is one suite with a serious sweet tooth! This hotel within a hotel is located in central London. It took an army of 14 chefs over 2,000 hours to bake and over 900 hours decorate the confection which includes windows and walls created from over 2,000 macaroons and a multicolored rug fashioned from 1,801 meringues.

The eight tasting rooms contain a variety of special features including a Caribbean-inspired room with a treasure chest with edible pearls and a South Pacific-inspired room complete with a Easter Island statue made entirely of chocolate mud cake which stands over two meters high!

It’s difficult to estimate the entire weight, but here are a few stats:

1. Number of rooms: 8

2. Marshmallow Garlands: 20 kilos (over 40 lbs.)

3. Edible Bunting: 10 meters long (over 30 ft.)

4. Sugar used in the project: Over 600 Kilos (Over 1,322 pounds)

Conclusion: The Soho London Hotel made completely out of cake weighs more than me!

Stuff That Weighs More Than Me: The Taj Mahal

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The Taj Mahal is big. In fact, for many centuries, it served as the epitome of big. While best known for it’s central large domed structure, the Taj Mahal is actually a series of structures. It was built between 1632 and 1653 by Mughal Emporer Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife Mumtaz Mahal.

The massive structure, still impressive today, is even more impressive when you consider the building construction technologies available at the time it was built. The tomb is the central structure of the complex. The base is essentially a cube (with chamfered or cut corners) approximately 55 meters on a side composed of millions of bricks faced by huge marble blocks. Some of the larger marble blocks are estimated to weigh about 6 tons. They were quarried just south of present day Jaipur–about 200 miles away. They were carried to the site in wagons drawn by twelve oxen or several elephants. (In all, over 1,000 elephants were used to transport the building materials.) Next, the blocks traveled up a 10-mile long ramp of tamped down earth that ran through Agra. Finally they were hoisted into place by two elephants or a team of oxen via a series of post and beam pulley systems. The most impressive (and recognizable) part of the site is the huge onion-shaped dome on the central building. This dome is 35 meters high and is 35 meters in diameter at the base.

In short, this series of buildings is really, really big! Here’s some stats:

Main Building: 55 meters or about 180 feet by 55 meters

Main Dome: 35 meters (about 115 feet) high with 35 meters diameter

Minarets: each more than 40 meters (130 feet) in height

Scaffolding: Made of brick rather than lighter weight materials. Legend tells that when the Shah was told it would take several years just to dismantle the scaffolding, he decreed that anyone who worked to dismantle the scaffolding could keep the bricks for themselves. The legend further states that the scaffolding was removed by peasants “overnight”.

Estimated Weight: 2.5 thousand trillion kilos

Conclusion: The Taj Mahal weighs more than me.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter your miles or minutes to help the Fit Fatties get across America today! We’re aiming to cross the finish line to Seal Beach TOMORROW. Thanks!

Stuff That Weighs More Than Me: World’s Largest Treadmill

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In honor of yesterday’s post about exercise equipment, today I present, the world’s largest treadmill. Apparently this huge piece of gear was originally designed to be used by Maggie, an elephant at the Alaska Zoo. Being the only elephant in Alaska, Maggie was lonely. So what did the zookeepers do? They had a treadmill custom created for her to run on. This worked about as well as can be expected (Maggie wanted nothing to do with it). So what to do? A depressed pachyderm who doesn’t want to exercise and a $100,000 treadmill that nobody is using. First the Alaska Zoo got Maggie a new home at an animal sanctuary in Northern California. To which I say, good on yer Maggie. Way to hold out the big prize. And then The Alaska Zoo did what we all do with our old treadmills–tried to sell it on Craigslist. But given the fact that this treadmill is 5 feet wide and 22 feet long, there weren’t a lot of takers. (Can you imagine how many hand washable pieces of lingerie you could dry on that thing?)

But this treadmill story has a happy ending. It was acquired by four-time Iditarod winner Martin Buser. He brought the behemoth to his place of business (Buser’s Happy Trails Kennes) and planned to modify the machine to train his teams of of racing dogs. Buser thinks he can easily train an entire team of sled dogs at one time using the treadmill and is excited to use the treadmill to help track scientific data on his prized pups.

And here’s the stats:

Width: 5 ft.

Length: 22ft.

Weight: Over 10,000 pounds

Conclusions:

1. When you’re lovesick and blue, do NOT accept a treadmill. Hold out for a vacation somewhere warm.

2. One of the hardest things to shift in the universe is a used treadmill.

3. The World’s Largest Treadmill weighs more than me.

Stuff That Weighs More than Me: Mars-bound SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft

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Not only is super-rich civilian space traveler Dennis Tito planning a private mission to do a Mars flyby, the mission pilots are gonna do it in a commercial space vehicle that weighs more than me!

Dennis Tito recently hosted a press conference announcing the new privately funded space mission where a man and a woman (probably a married couple) will take a 501 day space mission leaving Earth, circling Mars and flying back home. (Boy I hope those guys can get space counseling. 501 days with your husband in a little tiny space capsule? YIKES! Get Deanna Troi on board, STAT!) The commercial Dragon spacecraft created by SpaceX is relatively small, but it’s no space bike. The capsule has to be large enough to contain the crew and enough supplies to last 501 days. (Just how many bags of Doritos would that be I wonder? At the press conference Tito announced that the science geniuses have calculated that the couple will need another roll of toilet paper every 3 days.)

The amazing project is dependent on Tito’s ability to raise the cash. But Tito seems optimistic. At the press conference he said, “Let me be clear, I will come out a lot poorer as a result of this mission but my grandchildren will come out a lot richer for the inspiration it will give them.” Nicely said Dennis.

And, here’s the stats:

Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9

Crew: 2

Cargo: Supplies to last 501 days (including 167 roles of toilet paper)

Height: 20 feet

Diameter: 12.1 feet

Dry Mass: 9.260 pounds (without payload)

Conclusion: The Mars-bound modified SpaceX Dragon Capsule will weigh more than me.

P.S. Special thanks to my space buddy Rod Pyle for giving me the heads up on his facebook wall. :o)

Stuff that Weighs More than Me: The H2 in the Best Buy Lot

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In honor of Wednesday’s post, I present the H2: a not so very fuel efficient ve-hic-le that I feel fairly confident weighs more than me. This bad boy gets less than 10 MPG and decidedly does NOT belong in the compact parking spots in the lot because friends, it is one big brute of a SUV.

Here’s the stats:

Engine: 6.2 Liter V8

Wheelbase: 122.8 inches

Height: 79 inches

Width: 83.1 inches

Length: 203.5 inches

Curb Weight: 6614 pounds

Conclusion: The H2 weighs more than a ton more than me.

Stuff that Weighs More than Me: World’s Largest Box of Chocolates

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Well I hope your Valentine’s Day was full of everything you desired. Like this GIANT box of chocolates maybe? This colossal confection was commissioned by Thornton’s and holds the record for the World’s Largest Box of Chocolates. This giant box of sweeties was unveiled in London, U.K. back in 2008 to advertise the (then) new Thornton’s Box of Moments Chocolates.

The giant box of chocolate sported thousands of the assorted twist wrapped candies that were available free to passersby. So enjoy the vicarious thrill of imagining the best Valentine’s Day present ever while you peruse these sweet stats:

Box Height: 5.04 meters (16.5 feet)

Box Width: 3.5 meters (11.5 feet)

Total Number of Chocolates: 220,052

Total Box Weight: 4,805 pounds (over 2 tons!)

Conclusion: The World’s largest box of chocolates weighs more than me!

Stuff That Weighs More Than Me: Big Ben at Dickinson College

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In honor of my upcoming appearance at Dickinson College, I thought I’d find something on campus that weighs more than me. And it didn’t take me long to settle on Big Ben. I’m not talking about the big clock in London here. Nope, by Big Ben, I mean the large bronze statue of Benjamin Rush that was unveiled at the college on June 11, 2004. The sculpture is actually a replica of one accepted precisely 100 years earlier by President Theodore Roosevelt as a gift from the medical profession to the nation.

Benjamin Rush is an important person to both American history and the history of Dickinson college. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and was an important figure in psychology and medicine. He fought against slavery, and for universal education (for both boys and girls) and for universal health. He also fought for women’s rights and better treatment of patients with mental illness. Benjamin Rush was one of the first to envision Dickinson College and served as an important trustee from the founding of the College until his death.

Let’s look at the statue stats:

First statue to grace Dickinson Colllege

Material: Bronze

Artist: Recast from statue originally created by Roland Hinton Perry

Height: 7 ft.

Weight: 568 pounds

Conclusion: Big Ben weighs more than me.

Stuff That Weighs More than Me: Oscars Night Red Carpet

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Sporting my black dress at the Producers Guild Awards

It’s getting close to that time again. The Oscars are nearly upon us and you can’t spit in Hollywood these days without hitting an awards show or two. So it got me thinking. Just how much does that red carpet weigh? Yup, that’s the kind of stuff I think about these days. So I set out on a mission to find out.

First I had to figure out how big the Oscars red carpet is. The answer is, it’s HUGE! Check out this photo from Google maps:

That’s a loooong walk in 4-inch heels. My research tells me that the Oscars red carpet which takes a large chunk of Hollywood Boulevard measures 33 feet wide and over 500 feet long! That’s 16,500 square feet of carpet! Apparently the rental cost on this much red carpet could range between $20,000 and $30,000 once service and maintenance fees are taken into account. (That’s not counting the cleaning bill. And somehow I don’t think renting a Rug Doctor machine from the local grocery store is gonna cut it.)

Estimates for the weight of carpet are all over the map. But the most consistent guess I saw puts the weight at about 5 pounds per square yard. So let’s do the math:

Rug Area (in feet) 16,500

Rug Area (in yards) 1,834

Carpet Weight (in pounds) 9,170

Conclusion while many of the starlets on it may not, the red carpet at the Oscars weighs more than me.

P.S. Be sure to enter your miles or minutes at Fit Fatties Across America before noon today in order to count towards this week’s goals. Let’s get out of Colorado people!

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