catapults
Gadgets
Altoids Tin Catapult Will Make You Feel, And Act, 10 Years Old Again
3:00PM Dan Nosowitz | Here’s an Instructables to bring back the obnoxious kid that lives not so far down in all of us: Learn how to turn one of those miniature Altoids tins into a tiny catapult. It’ll be fun for nobody but you. More »
Design
Cardapult: Score a New Job With The Business Card That Transforms Into a Catapult
2:00AM Sean Fallon | Unemployment is high these days—which means you have lots of competition when it comes to job searching. Lay siege to prospective employers with the Cardapult and you will certainly win the day. More »
Gadgets
Homemade Human Catapult Provides Not-Quite-Safe Fun
4:20AM Adam Frucci | Not too long ago, I told you about the AirKick Human Catapult, a device designed to fling people into or at bodies of water. There was no video, sadly. Now, we have a video of what appears to be a homemade catapult very similar to AirKick’s model, and it looks awesome. Just be sure to turn the volume down on the video before hitting play otherwise you run the risk of getting all aggroed up by the music and punching somebody in the face. [Uberreview via Geekologie] More »
Gadgets
Vertical Squirrel Launcher Takes Furry Terror to New Heights
11:00PM Jesus Diaz | Here’s the Short Take-Off Vertical Landing version of one of Giz’s classics: the squirrel catapult. Somehow, I think this one is less cruel than the original one, as the squirrel is more used to these kind of jumps and landings than horizontal launches. But yes, I can’t stop watching this time either. Sosumi. More »
Gadgets
AirKick Human Catapult Sends Your Flailing Body 8 Metres Into the Air
12:45AM Adam Frucci | We’ve seen before how fun getting launched in the air over a body of water can be. Now we have another way to do it: the AirKick Human Water Catapult. More »
Weapons
Water Balloon Slingshot Brings the Wet into Hot American Summers
4:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | Now that we’re headed deep into the middle of summer, it’s time to bring out water balloons and figure out ingenious ways to fling them at your enemies. Here’s a great tutorial at Instructables for making a wicked water balloon catapult using surgical tubing, a rag and other random doohickies from around the house. According to the dude responsible for this weapon of watery destruction, this shooter will never explode the water balloon prematurely, unlike some of the types you get in stores. [Instructables] More »
Gadgets
Thirty-Foot Trebuchet Fires Chicken Poop at Potential Thieves
3:15AM Addy Dugdale | A businessman in the UK has come up with a novel way to deal with potential thieves: firing chickenshit at them from a 30-foot catapult. Joe Watson-Webb, a retired showman, had the iron trebuchet left over from his days as a showman, and gets his avian ammo from the farm next door. Local cops have said that they will prosecute Watson-Webb if he uses the catapult to defend his property against arsonists and robbers—but what would they think about the other weapon he has up his sleeve? Watson-Webb is also the proud owner of a 20-foot-long cannon, out of which he used to fire his wife! More »
Robots
$70,000 Industrial Robot Modded to Fire Flameballs
1:30AM Jesus Diaz | There’s only one thing better than robots that can destruct things: robots that can destroy things and terrify people by firing flameballs, bowling balls, watermelons and bloody pig entrails at high speed. Like the Robopult, a gigantic $US70,000 industrial robotic arm hacked to throw all these things like a Terminator version of Roger Clemens. We talked with Aaron Rasmussen about how the heck they managed to get an industrial robot and some of the details of this crazy project: More »
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Air Catapult Launches Man Into the Sky, Requires Parachute to Land
11:50PM Jesus Diaz | This crazy giant catapult, probably built by Will E. Coyote out of two construction cranes and ACME industrial-grade rubber bands, is designed to send a man into space with no security cables or net. As you will see in the video, after surviving the bazillion-G-force launch in one piece, he has to open a parachute to return safely to land. After seeing this 125 times today, I’m convinced this guy should have been the pilot of the X-Wing rocket. [LiveLeak] More »
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