4 Comments

1. Huzzah! Rafa and his wife Maria have brought forth a child. Do you know why people from the Balearic Islands (Rafa is from Majorca/Mallorca) are such good tennis players? A Spaniard told me this. I got home and looked this up on wikipedia and apparently it’s true. For three millennia Balearians have been throwing stones, tennis balls, whatever, often to lethal effect:

   In ancient times, the islanders of the Gymnesian Islands (Illes Gimnèsies) constructed talayots, and were famous for their skill with the sling. As slingers, they served as mercenaries, first under the Carthaginians, and afterwards under the Romans. They went into battle ungirt, with only a small buckler, and a javelin burnt at the end, and in some cases tipped with a small iron point; but their effective weapons were their slings, of which each man carried three, wound round his head (Strabo p. 168; Eustath.), or, as seen in other sources, one round the head, one round the body, and one in the hand. (Diodorus) The three slings were of different lengths, for stones of different sizes; the largest they hurled with as much force as if it were flung from a catapult; and they seldom missed their mark. To this exercise, they were trained from infancy, in order to earn their livelihood as mercenary soldiers. It is said that the mothers allowed their children to eat bread only when they had struck it off a post with the sling.^[23]

   Log in to Reply

   • As a child, a friend showed me an article about slings in, if memory serves, Boy’s Life magazine. The article quoted that information about the Balearians and talked about how incredibly efficient and highly lethal slings were. I of course made myself one and taught myself to use it, and still can, to great effect. Every few years I make a new one. They’re light, easy to carry, and there’s ammunition lying everywhere you go. Whenever I’m hiking or whatnot I get some practice in. Some info:

     1. Slings can deliver more impact that arrows, unless it’s a crossbow. Yes, David could kill Goliath with one. The velocity you can achieve is incredible. My arms aren’t what they used to be, but I used to be able to hit things so hard with rocks that they would split open.

     2. Teams of slingers would work together in war alternately hurling projectiles, and they could launch projectiles so quickly it was almost like automatic weapons fire.

     3. I say projectiles because they typically used lead shot, not rocks. The smooth shot was more accurate. But yes, when your ammo ran out, rocks work too.

     4. You can sling pretty much any object you can lift and spin. Heavier ones don’t go as far, but I’ve thrown bricks.

     5. Learning to sling is a solitary activity. If you don’t know what you’re doing, the projectile can fly in literally any direction, including straight up.

     6. People freak when they see you doing it. For some reason, they think that it was impossible or magic or something. Then they want to try. See point 5.

     Log in to Reply

     • This sounds like the perfect skill for protestors when the police/army start using lethal force. But only if they master it…wouldn’t want to injure/maim/kill another fellow protestor.

       Log in to Reply

2. That QL joke is fucking hilarious.
   I hope the new one lasts at least 5 seasons so I can go back and watch it. They have an interesting concept which is these people are actually restarting Beckett’s program to see if they can make it work properly. I like that more than just another remake.

   Log in to Reply