Swords

Someone's email this week reminded me I have a Neal Stephenson link in my To-Blog queue, so here it is:
CLANG!
No, I didn't just drop something, this is a new project of his, on the Kickstarter "Crowd Funding" website.
Although he is best known for writing sci-fi, a few of these novels reveal he has a strong interest in the low-tech pursuit of sword fighting. He has also noticed that modern computer games do not do it justice (pressing a button to swing a sword is not much fun). So he is co-founding a company to make a swing-able game sword. The main video is worth watching as it is quite amusing; I haven't watched the update videos near the bottom yet. They have only 9 days to go to reach their target... perhaps they will make it, who knows?

Phonecall

*riiiiing*
"Hello, is that NASA? Hi. I'd just like a quick word about your space telescope. Yeah, the Hubble one. I heard it was getting old and you haven't been able to get enough money together to buy a new one. It just so happens we have two spare to give away. Do you want them? No, I didn't give my name, and I can't tell you who I work for. They are good ones - you just need to strap on a few cameras and put 'em on a rocket. No, I'm serious, really. Shall I tell the boys in the warehouse to ship 'em over? Hello?