Another sharp debate

Another sword design blog here. I always wondered what was better the straight cavalry saber or the curved cavalry saber. I personally believe the curved is better but I decided to research it and find out exactly what the facts were. I found out that both designs have their strengths and weaknesses. First well start with my least favorite, the straight bladed cavalry saber has the advantages of being slightly lighter and also it happens to be smaller however it is a stabbing weapon and stabbing from horseback is unnatural. Also straight blades tend to need a reverse motion to pull it out of the enemy you just stabbed so while moving on horseback it’s either let go of the sword or get pulled of your horse by your sword. As for the Curved blade it is a little larger and takes a little more practice too move around however it doesn’t get stuck in the enemy and is much easier to defend with.

Katana and Claymore debunked

This one is about sword design. I was watching a movie the other day in which a knight was making wide swings with his claymore (a 2 handed great sword) and I started laughing because that was how one was supposed to use a Katana not a greatsword. Then I began to wonder why is that not the right way so I went to Google and found a huge article called “there is no perfect sword” I had to dig through the massive amount of sword debate to find the katana claymore argument. Apparently the claymore can’t be used in wide swings because it would vibrate so much from impact that you would injure yourself not to mention that its cutting edge is not designed to cut. If the knight really wanted to “cut” with his sword yet still have a European sword he would need a long sword or short sword. These two swords are lighter and better designed to cut however the best two weapons to slash with are still the Katana and the Falchion. Katana is better for lightly armored foes and if you run into plate mail go falchion.

What is that head piece she has?

Have you ever noticed all those fancy headpieces people wear in those fantasy stories and games? Well the other day I was sketching and apparently called a circlet a tiara, I thought they were the same thing but I went and looked it up partly because I wanted to prove I was right and also it would make a decent blog. I found out that circlets are made of metal and circle the entire head they usually had a single gem in the front. Tiaras on the other hand only circle around half the head and thus leave the back open. Circlets came first but as hairstyles became more complex the back part of the circlet began to cause problems and so they took out half of the circlet and the tiara was born. The circlet didn’t die off though many people who weren’t of the upper class and thus didn’t have fancy dancy huge hairstyles tended to wear the circlet. The tiara thus became a symbol of the noble class and the circlet a headpiece of the lower.

NightNight

You ever lay your head down at night and wonder why your bed is the way it is? Well I haven’t either but I did wonder where people in past ages laid their heads so it’s kind of the same thing. This blog is about the one thing that I would hope everyone has a bed. The bed was first seen in Egypt although there beds where just a frame with cloth so it was more of a hammock really. Its not clear when the first mattress was invented however the word mattress come from the Arabic word for “to throw”. This is because during the crusades the Europeans adopted the Arabian way of sleeping which was too throw a ton of cushions on the floor and sleep on them. This most likely means that the mattress was invented sometime during the Dark Age. Early mattresses used natural materials like straw or feathers, today’s mattresses however use everything from nylon too foam. As for the design of the bed frame itself, It only makes since too prop the mattress of the ground so the crawling creature don’t end up in bed with you.

FOOTBALL

So I overlooked my dad watching the football game and noticed something odd. The football that I used for back yard no rules pigskin throwing had stripes on it and the ones being used by the professionals didn’t so I decided to head out and looks it up. Originally all footballs had stripes the reason for this was too make it easier to pick out of the air and thus much easier to catch however when they designed the official ball for the NFL they decided to leave the stripes off so it would be more challenging to catch than its striped counterpart. The college leagues however did not remove the stripes from there balls. This is most likely because although some college players might be good they are still not considered professionals so they deemed that the aid of the stripes should be kept. The stripes are also kept on the commercially sold balls that you and I throw to or at each other every day.

Be square Be a TV

Ever notice that all TVs have been square. I found this odd since we can obviously see a more rounded view because of peripheral vision so why do we not make large round TV screens. Well in the past we simply did not have the technology with simple cathode ray tube TVs too make a round all in composing image nor did our cameras pick it up. Another commonly accepted opinion to why TVs are square is because a TV was seen as a large window into another world and as we know most windows are well square. I also found a really good answer that I think makes more since than the other two it also gives a reason why we haven’t changed it yet however it’s too hard for me to put into my own words so here it is. “San Diego Art Nut is pretty correct, but the answer is twofold.
Initially, we have become used to viewing images that reflect the line of the horizon, the horizon being the inbuilt control that our brain constantly refers to when maintaining balance, perspective etc. Paintings and architecture have followed this basic pattern ever since, as the one the brain prefers.
Now, we have the technology to make any shape, but don't. The roundness of the eye is useful only for focusing light; it has no relevance to the brain. The brain makes the eye flick left/right along the horizon, up/down using the horizon as base. Your peripheral vision remains dependent on the horizon as ever, so TV’s and cinema screens remain horizon friendly and probably will until our brains rewire!” (Steve J, yahoo answers)

screen position

This is a fun little thing I wanted to know. Why is it that almost all RPGs have the health and status bar on the left side or bottom of the screen. So I typed in everything I could think of to find a reason why this was true and I found out that there really is no historic reason clearly stated however my theory is that its set on the left and along the bottom for two reasons. One those spots are out of the way and allow the player to see what’s going on in the playing field. Reason number two is that player in most cases is trained too those spots by habit. So its most likely going to stay the same just because of tradition instead of any real reason.