The Big Think

A few days ago I picked up a copy of William Gurstelle’s The Art of the Catapult. I sat down a bit before dinner tonight just intending to read a few pages but ended up plowing through the entire book. It’s a fascinating and accessible short book (168 pages) written for a slightly younger market, but it still has a lot to inform an adult. Gurstelle’s nine chapters are each divided into two sections. The first part of each chapter has a historical overview of the time period of a specific type of catpult. He describes the development and use of basic catapults, ballistae, trebuchets, onagers, and other types of missile-tossers, complete with some rather harrowing descriptions of actual battles. One of the few books I’ve read that have made me want to learn more about history.

The second part of each chapter has a section that describes how to build a tabletop version of that specific catapult. Excellent! His instructions won’t really let you build anything of massive destructive power, but they will give you the basics (and a *cough* skilled woodworker might consider it childs-play to scale some of the designs up to a “lethal” size).

Reading this book has made me think about using the Hirst blocks to construct a medieval diorama of a castle siege complete with little catapults. Heh.

All in all, a great little book, especially since Half-Price Books is currently featuring it for around five bucks.

A worth1000 Star Wars photoshop contest.

The brilliant and subversive group Improv Everywhere is at it again.

Child stars, then and now.

Turns out, over is right, under is wrong. I knew it.

Just don’t give these things real bullets.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog!

Check out this spectacular New York penthouse. It has a library that makes me giddy.

Bill Gates has left the building. Say what you want about him, the man could laugh at himself.

How do you hide a WWII airplane factory? This is how. Wow.

New Math! Lipsynched.

No, this isn’t a photoshop. It’s the for-real title on the Wisconsin State Journal’s homepage… and it’s been up for fourteen hours. See it here for yourself if they haven’t corrected it. Oh, who am I kidding?

I thought the mainstream media was all about fact checking their stories. Can’t they at least get a major headline right? Or do they need to hire some bloggers to do that for them?

It’s been a slightly frustrating last few hours as I ransack the house looking for a battery that came via UPS a few days ago. I misplaced it and can’t seem to find it. Not a big deal except that it cost me $30 and I really want to find it.

So I’m digging around and take a break to check my email. A google search puts me on the YouTube video called “Where the Hell is Matt?”. It’s a short film that made all of my frustration go away. I’ve always believed that simplicity and repetition can be two of the most powerful forces in art, and a simple idea repeated well can communicate where lots of detail sometimes won’t. This video does it very well indeed (and my hometown even makes an appearance). I won’t spoil the joy for you. Yes, if you watch the first five seconds, you’ve seen the video, but I dare you to sit through the whole 4:30 and not laugh. Wonderful.

I’ve watched it twice now, and somehow I don’t really care about the dumb battery any longer. It’ll turn up tomorrow. Right now I’m going to bed with a smile on my face.

But first, I think I’ll do a little dance…

(whoa! I just checked his website. Guess where he is?) *Well, when I wrote that he was in Austin, but he’s since moved on.

Now here is a serious cubicle makeover!

Good advice on what to do if you suddenly find yourself 1000 years in the past.

Very cool and spookily accurate. Erin and I played this using the most obscure Harry Potter references… and it got them!

Amazing! And a great physics lesson, too.

Ckeck out this amazing clock, made from the hands of hundreds of tiny sub-clocks.