Industrial delights

First, the industrial chicken vaccuum (thanks to Collision Detection).

Second, the industrial shredder. Thank God Saddam can't have fun with these any more...

UPDATE: Oh yeah, hat tip to Garfield Ridge for the shredder link.

UPDATE 2: Man, the Web site for Shredding Systems Inc. (SSI to those in the biz) is hilarious. They have a "Shred of the Month" feature.

They have a useful page called "Things to know about shredding", kind of a FAQ for us shredding n00bs.

For instance, did you know that three actions -- shearing, tearing and fracturing -- are at work during the operation of a shredder? I did not.

Before I read this site, if someone told me to think of things that are "friable" I would have immediately thought of potatoes, chicken and Twinkies. But it turns out that would be incorrect. "Friable" refers to hard materials that fracture easily -- stone, glass, cast metal, etc. Who knew?

You can pick up a basic SSI shredding solution for as little at $30,000, or splash out millions on their high-end machines, presumeably packages including the top-of-the-line Q160 Quad Shredder, with 600 horsepower.

I'd love to pick one up, but have a bad feeling about keeping one about the home. Sure, I'd start with small, annoying objects I wanted to get rid of, like my Richard Clayderman CD collection, old tupperware and Chihuahuas. But pretty soon I'd want to push that baby to its limits, and it wouldn't be long before I did something rash like toss in a 1969 convertible Ford Galaxie 500 XL.

And then I would be sad.