High-class Hobbit hole by piratenews

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High-class Hobbit hole

POSTED BY: PIRATENEWS
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 15:11
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Monday, January 25, 2010 8:36 AM

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!

This subterranean house in Vals, Switzerland is just the sort of place that Bilbo Baggins would have loved had he been able to blow his loot on such conveniences as digital satellite television and outside lights...

The house, designed by SeARCH and Christian Muller Architects, includes "all the facilities a common house has, such as a guest room, an entertainment area, but also 'specialized' interiors like an underground pathway. The entrance is a wide oval opening that you are driven to by some traditional stairs made in stone. Large windows make it noticeable and draw attention to the inside décors- that is when the people living there are up for some company."

http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/2010/01/high-class-hobbit-hole.html

more photos:

http://freshome.com/2009/12/05/incredible-underground-residence-in-swi
tzerland/

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Monday, January 25, 2010 10:55 AM

LITTLEBIRD

Not sure why you titled this thread the way you did. That house is awesome!

My great grandfather lived in a sod house when he first came to this country. They are very economical. I wonder what he would think of this? :)

This house rocks!

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Monday, January 25, 2010 11:15 AM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!

"High-class" is a term routinely used for describing hos.

The blog played on that with the title "high-class hobbit hole".

High-class ho is an oxymoron BTW. Inara notwithstanding.

What would a high-class hobbit ho look like?

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Monday, January 25, 2010 11:33 AM

LITTLEBIRD

Ok, got it. Guess I was just objecting to my dream home being described as a 'ho'. That word does not sound very 'high class' to me. I'm not sure Hobbits have ho's. Yikes ... this conversation is devolving rapidly. I'm outta here.

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Monday, January 25, 2010 11:40 AM

WULFENSTAR

http://youtu.be/VUnGTXRxGHg

"Yikes ... this conversation is devolving rapidly."

lol

Welcome to fireflyfans.net and RWD.

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Monday, January 25, 2010 1:04 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

I agree, Little...I think the house is amazing. Dunno how I'd feel about the rest of it being buried under the ground...about the same as the ones I posted in CA with "living roofs".

But it's sure purty, and a neat idea. Bet it keeps the temps more even, too, Winter and Summer, and thus costs less electricity?

Forget about the devolution of the conversation, the house is a good subject!

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Monday, January 25, 2010 2:26 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Y'know, PN, neither of those sites said anything about "hos"; I think you just have whores on the brain. Better hope your wife doesn't find out.

By the way, that house is a little bit gorgeous, at least inside. One could almost say its design is... well, ahem... groundbreaking! (Bah-dah-DUM!)

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Monday, January 25, 2010 3:30 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Having been accused of being "half-hobbit" by some of my larger friends cause of my stature and behavior, I gotta say that house completely rocks.

Although, had I the money, I would instead buy one of those empty missle silos, and have something like this built on top of it.
http://www.silohome.com/

Sink me a well, run septic to the other side, plenty of room for a fleet of solar panels and a couple windmills, and still enough left over to plant some tasty goodies - not like a place for your storage battery racks or pantry is gonna be hard to find either.

And we're workin on an interesting little widget recently - I've always adored the Dominator ultralight cause it glides so well and works fine even off the minimal power of two chainsaw motors... well, imagine the wing surface being made of solar-cell-film with electric motors.

Do it right, being able to tell the rest of the world and it's twisted social structure to stick it would be a glorious thing...

Which is, you think about it, prettymuch what Hobbits generally DID, isn't it now ?

-F

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Monday, January 25, 2010 5:33 PM

LITTLEBIRD

LOL Frem!

Yeah, I suppose the Hobbits were telling the rest of Middle Earth to stick it. Me and my silly sensibilities. I'm still a work in progress as far as the development and utilization of anarchist skills. :) That said, I still think Gandalf or one of the hobbit elders would of probably whacked whoever said something like that up side the head. (gently and in love of course.)

I'll have to check out the Dominator Ultralight. That sounds cool.

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Monday, January 25, 2010 7:42 PM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!

Switzerland... Don't the Swiss govt give every male citizen a full-auto machine gun and require them to hide it?

So this hobbit house is more like a bunker, built to withstand attack from the hoards of Mordor. Note the handy concrete-rebar wood-pile wall, perfect defense for your machine gun nest, handy for shooting down Nazgul and dragons.

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Monday, January 25, 2010 10:08 PM

LITTLEBIRD

I don't have a machine gun. Don't want one. For my protection I will have Hobbit Trees. The ones that throw boulders and step on people.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/j_mac_tt/3539403015/

Looks pretty innocent doesn't it?

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 12:00 AM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!

Quote:
Originally posted by Littlebird:

I don't have a machine gun. Don't want one. For my protection I will have Hobbit Trees. The ones that throw boulders and step on people.

We've got those here in TN.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/jan/25/trees-toppling-national-park-
kill-sevierville-woma/

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 12:22 AM

LITTLEBIRD

My trees only kill bad people, not innocent bystanders or drivers.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 7:23 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

PN, your brain is pathetic.

Little...how little you know of Hobbits! They wouldn't tell ANYONE to stick it, they're much too peace loving! However, Gandalf would happily whack someone upside the haid, and not necessarily in love...but maybe not too ungently

I'd like to have a few Ents, too...redwoods always reminded me of ents, except they're straight, their arms would be puny. Then again, there are many kinds of ents...

Funny, Frem: Marine Mammal Center, where I work, was orginally built atop two missle silohs. We have them all around the Coast here. They stored their freezers with fish down one; a friend who worked on my crew became de facto "night watchman" (for the seals; there wasn't anything to steal!) and lived in the other with his dog. Stuck me when you said that...'course, both ours weren't quite as spiffy as you envisioned!!

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 7:40 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Well, the Dominator isn't an off the shelf design, it's prettymuch the bare minimum to get in the air, more powered glider than anything else - and it takes a certain amount of natural instinct and skill to fly, unlike the GT400, cause it has a weird control setup and no instruments.

On the plus side, it'll glide almost indefinitely, and with any wind at all can damn near VTOL even on the most improvised field, if you don't mind the landing being a little rough.

Downside is... you either CAN fly it, or you can't.

And there's only ONE way to find out....

Come this spring, me and some of the Geek Farm guys are gonna mess with it, provided I can get one of them to fly it without breakin their damn fool neck.

Just imagine a cross between a typical hang glider, but wider, and a butterfly/dragonfly - it's got a kind of organic look to it and the whole thing, frame and all is non-rigid, save for the engine mounts.

-F

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 10:12 AM

LITTLEBIRD

Gee Niki, I was not the one suggesting that the Hobbits tell anyone to stick it. I was the one suggesting a good whack up side the head for that entire line of thought. Ouch!

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 10:30 AM

LITTLEBIRD

Hmm... I lost the first post I was writing to Frem. Hope this doesn't double post.

The Dominator sounds like an interesting contraption. I would be interested in hearing how your 'flight test' goes this spring. Your butterfly/dragonfly description of it sounds beautiful. Will you be naming it Serenity Junior? :)

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 1:18 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Well, I've heard it's beautiful in flight, but it's not all that pretty from the control sling, and it looks like a pile of junk and rags on the ground.

It also has considerably more wing surface than it actually needs, and some tricks related to that, and that can only be done with a non-rigid airframe, but again, it makes it a bit tricky to fly.

Let's see if I can't give you some idea, look up the Dragonfly ultralite and the Weedhopper for a general idea of what the base is...
http://www.usua250.org/history/earlyul.htm

Then add an extra set of halfsie-wings down and behind the main, kind of like a sopwith 1-1/2 strutter, plus a wider tail with dual fins, but instead of taut fabric, more of a loose, flexi-bouncy kinda look to it, with tricycle landing gear backed up on the front by the smallest, lightest automotive shocks I could find and the rear is a suspension shock absorber from a honda spree.

For something more conventional though, I spotted one while trying to find a close picture (apparently no one has ever built one like the dominator) which looks pretty damn cool itself.
http://www.hartaero.com/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=645&g2_GALLERYSID=8e
2a3323520ff918d81249371dd5a554

Anyhows, ain't so hard to build one, it's the nerve to get it off the ground - ultras don't require a license, see, and if you are going to drop the HUUUUUGEE bundle of money on a training course, might as well go the rest of the way, so most ultra pilots are bush bangers and barn stormers, and due to lack of training and experience, have about the same flight continuance expectancy as they did in WWI...

So, if you make it past the first 17 minutes, you're ok, and you ain't done something fatal in the first 90 days, you're golden - but a LOT of folk, wellllll...

Problem is, the regulations make them unsafe by *design*, this is intentional, so the FAA can then go "See, you need us, there's the proof!", and point to the folk they hindered by crippling their design to where it cannot possibly BE safe - adding extra lift or engine power will get you fined, if not charged.

That's almost like safety belt makers outlawing airbags, really.

-F

PS. It's also a very physically demanding thing, and I've gotten too damn old and battered for it, although I could prolly fly the GT400 still, there's no way I could effectively "fly" the dominator no more *pout*.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 1:21 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Quote:
I was not the one suggesting that the Hobbits tell anyone to stick it.

Doll, I was responding to your

Quote:
I suppose the Hobbits were telling the rest of Middle Earth to stick it.

that's all.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 1:41 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

It's a beautiful house. (The title put me off of looking into the thread until now... really. You should change it PN.) It's landscape-friendly (doesn't spoil any views), wonderfully easy to heat and (if necessary) cool.

I only have two LEETLE quibbles... (1) The entry-way is basically at the bottom of a hole. I would worry about snowmelt and flooding... altho that problems could be taken care of by a through-the-ground drainpipe downslope.
(2) I don't see any provision for indoor lighting at the back of the house except artificial... altho, again, that problem could be solved with solatubes.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 1:54 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

I was thinking that it looked like it was built for passive solar heating. It's got what looks like large south-facing windows - it's a standard technique to let light shine through glass onto a high heat-capacity surface (which they used to call a trombe - and THAT was originally a thick wall - tho I'm not sure what the current name is).

It would be hard to cool, though, if cooling is an issue.

And then there's the granite/ radon problem. Is that granite ?

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 2:00 PM

LITTLEBIRD

Niki,

Ahh.. I see. I should of said that in a better way. In my own mind I was thinking that their 'attitude' could appear to be saying 'stick it' to those out in Middle Earth, but I did not say it right.

This is why I am cutting my teeth on a Hobbit thread before I jump into the deep end of some of the other discussions here in RWED. :)

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 2:06 PM

LITTLEBIRD

And I should now add,that no, this is not really a Hobbit thread, but a house thread. Keep up Littlebird. :)

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 2:41 PM

LITTLEBIRD

Sig

Sig

"It is a beautiful house." ... That was my first impression of it also. And I liked the way it blended into the landscape and would be easy to keep warm. Sod type style houses saved lives. And I was thinking what if the grid went down and so forth. You'd need alternative energy sources to keep the utilities up and running. Frem had some good ideas on that.

I'd never heard of solatubes before. What a neat idea!

And you identified and solved the front drainage problem.

Now all I need is lots and lots of money. :)

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 2:47 PM

LITTLEBIRD

Rue

It does look like it could be using passive solar heating. Also, not sure if that is granite or not. Wish the site had more details. I'll look around.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 2:49 PM

KWICKO

Quote:
Originally posted by Littlebird:

Niki,

Ahh.. I see. I should of said that in a better way. In my own mind I was thinking that their 'attitude' could appear to be saying 'stick it' to those out in Middle Earth, but I did not say it right.

This is why I am cutting my teeth on a Hobbit thread before I jump into the deep end of some of the other discussions here in RWED. :)

Bah. Jump in, the water's fine. Although it's deep, and there ARE sharks. But we like to think the rewards far outweigh the risks. :)

Oh, and I changed the title, if anybody cares. Sorry, PN, but it makes more sense this way.

Mike

Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 3:11 PM

LITTLEBIRD

Thank's Kwicko

Jumping in now. I may need some helpful advice from the Grammar Nazi from time to time. And don't even get me started on the Punctuation Genie. We've tangled. The spelling fairy gave me a real handy tool called spell check so I think we're good on that one. :)

thank's again ...

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