Malignance:
Madman.
Tyrant.
MetaVillain.
Dire Ruler of the Mighty Colorado Holdfast, pursuing the unknown in the Malignanceship, an impossible ship of his Will and Imagination.
And then - Tragedy. Hurled into the unfathomable deep reaches of outer space.
Lost
Here's a magical demonstration of superconductivity from Tel-Aviv University. Of course, superconductors are key to the future vision for high-speed maglev trains. (Thanks, Ariel Waldman!)
There has been the First Challenge, and the Second Challenge, and now, honoring the traditions of our culture, it is time once more for the First Challenge of Villainy.
Long ago, at the beginning of the Modern Age of Villainy, a great unknowable mystery moved within the ranks of Villainy, bringing fear to the hearts of heroes, and inspiring many a Villain to strive to be more... unknowable.
This harbinger of unfathomable secrecy was the man(?) known as Grand Master Calamity, and though out of respect for his wish to remain a myth is upheld throughout the year, on this upcoming Villainous Holiday, we celebrate Evil, and his malificent contributions. And so...
The Third Annual Grand Master Calamity's Halloween Super Villain Challenge!
The Rules (though as Villains, you will be expected to break them as you see fit);
1) A picture taken outside of your lair posted, possibly taking advantage of the Halloween opportunity.
2) Points are given for theme, and for daring. Obviously anything Evil (but Legal!) is always appreciated. Anything bold, and uncompromising also.
3) Agent Beryllium, Aluminum Chef, and Fatal Phyllo KILLED, the first year, and set a high standard to attempt to reach. Malvado won last year, and One has lost both years (Year1 and Year2), and is thirsting for a chance to finally achieve victory, and salvage my reputation. Just because One hasn't yet won, don't YOU be deterred: You don't have to exceed the best Ever, just the best this year.
4) Judging is by community accolades. If you must cheat, cheat with style and don't get caught. Payoff witnesses, and bribe and blackmail as you must.
5) If you photoshop, make it a convincing conterfeit, or dazzle with style.
6) If you are a screaming megalomaniac in a snowstorm losing your mind due to frostbite, limit your attempts to only a few.
7) Have fun. None can judge you, save yourself (and that pesky "World Court") and none to think less, should you not participate. Again, as a Villain, it's entirely up to YOU.
The judging is held in the earliest part of November, and if someone would like to be Judge this year, you are welcome to enjoy the power. One hasn't lost and yet been the judge because the contest was ever even close. One has lost spectacularly both years, by people much more talented than Oneself. As you know however, One IS a competitor and enjoys the opportunity to once again challenge worthy Villains.
One frequent question I get is whether we can break the light barrier—because unless we can break the light barrier, the distant stars will always be unreachable.
Most textbooks say that nothing can go faster than light, but that statement actually should be qualified: The answer is yes, you can break the light barrier, but not in the way we see in the movies. There are, in fact, several ways to travel faster than light:
1. The Big Bang itself expanded much faster than the speed of light. But this only means that "nothing can go faster than light." Since nothing is just empty space or vacuum, it can expand faster than light speed since no material object is breaking the light barrier. Therefore, empty space can certainly expand faster than light.
2. If you wave a flashlight across the night sky, then, in principle, its image can travel faster than light speed (since the beam of light is going from one part of the Universe to another part on the opposite side, which is, in principle, many light years away). The problem here is that no material object is actually moving faster than light. (Imagine that you are surrounded by a giant sphere one light year across. The image from the light beam will eventually hit the sphere one year later. This image that hits the sphere then races across the entire sphere within a matter of seconds, although the sphere is one light year across.) Just the image of the beam as it races across the night sky is moving faster than light, but there is no message, no net information, no material object that actually moves along this image.
3. Quantum entanglement moves faster than light. If I have two electrons close together, they can vibrate in unison, according to the quantum theory. If I then separate them, an invisible umbilical cord emerges which connects the two electrons, even though they may be separated by many light years. If I jiggle one electron, the other electron "senses" this vibration instantly, faster than the speed of light. Einstein thought that this therefore disproved the quantum theory, since nothing can go faster than light.
But actually this experiment (the EPR experiment) has been done many times, and each time Einstein was wrong. Information does go faster than light, but Einstein has the last laugh. This is because the information that breaks the light barrier is random, and hence useless. (For example, let's say a friend always wears one red sock and one green sock. You don't know which leg wears which sock. If you suddenly see that one foot has a red sock, then you know instantly, faster than the speed of light, that the other sock is green. But this information is useless. You cannot send Morse code or usable information via red and green socks.)
4. The most credible way of sending signals faster than light is via negative matter. You can do this either by:
a) compressing the space in front of your and expanding the space behind you, so that you surf on a tidal wave of warped space. You can calculate that this tidal wave travels faster than light if driven by negative matter (an exotic form of matter which has never been seen.)b) using a wormhole, which is a portal or shortcut through space-time, like the Looking Glass of Alice.
In summary, the only viable way of breaking the light barrier may be through General Relativity and the warping of space time. However, it is not known if negative matter exists, and whether the wormhole will be stable. To solve the question of stability, you need a fully quantum theory of gravity, and the only such theory which can unite gravity with the quantum theory is string theory (which is what I do for a living). Sadly, the theory is so complex that no has been able to fully solve it and give a definitive anwer to all these questions. Maybe someone reading this blog will be inspired to sovle string theory and answer the question whether we can truly break the light barrier.
Breaking the Speed of Light and Contemplating the Demise of Relativity
Michio Kaku on September 30, 2011, 6:02 AM
Einstein released many theories during his scientific career, but it was the publishing of his two theories of relativity that literally shook the foundations of physics. The theories proposed by him still stand today even though there are many individuals who have tried to challenge them. It started in 1905 with the publishing of his special theory of relativity and was later followed by the general theory of relativity in 1915 . Each of these theories are comprised of their own sets of equations, laws and principles that explain why things act the way that they do, from the largest of galaxies right now to the smallest of particles.
Einstein was in his mid-20's when he published his special theory of relativity which become an absolutely essential tool for scientists, physicists, theorists and experimentalists around the world today. Some of the concepts that were introduced were time dilation, length contraction, and his famed theory of mass-energy equivalence with the introduction of E = mc2. One of his other concepts, and the subject of this blog entry, was Einstein's introduction of the cosmic speed limit which states that no physical object or information can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum.
Shortly after the publishing of his special theory of relativity, he immediately began working out equations that encompassed geometric views of gravitation and introduced new and exciting concepts that replaced Newtonian mechanics, which had lasted 250 years. Scientists had been able to calculate low energy effects of gravity for centuries with Newton's theory, but until Einstein, what actually caused it had remained a mystery. Einstein's general theory showed the world that gravity was caused by the bending of space and time. So in short, it's not a gravitational force that is holding us all firmly down to the ground but it's space that is actually pushing you down. The theory explained such phenomenon as the bending of light by gravity and opened up the entirely new field of cosmology. The theory also made entirely new predictions, such as the Big Bang theory and also black holes, which continue to be a rich source of research for scientists.
Needless to say, Einstein's theory has with stood the test of time for almost a century and if there's one data-point out of place, we would have to throw the entire theory out. So everywhere we look into the heavens, Einstein's theory of general relativity comes right on the spot.
Last week, an international team of researchers and scientists reported that they have recorded sub-atomic particles appearing to travel faster than the speed of light. Over a period of three years, neutrinos were shot from the particle accelerator at CERN in Switzerland to a detector in Italy (the OPERA - Oscillation Project with Emulsion Tracking Apparatus) about 500 miles away. What the team found interesting was that the neutrinos arrived around 60 nanoseconds quicker than the light would have traveled. This recent result from the accelerator at CERN, which seems to contradict Einstein's theory of relativity, has generated enormous interest, among scientists as well as the public. However, not much has been written about precisely what this means for relativity itself.
Special Relativity of 1905, as discussed above, is based on the idea that the speed of light is the same, no matter who measures it, as long as you move smoothly and do not accelerate. This violates Newton's common sense notion that there is nothing special about the speed of light. Hence, something has got to give. So, our common sense notion of the universe must change if light speed is the same no matter how we measure it, whether it is coming toward us, away from us, or sideways. What gives is space-time. Hence:
Time gets slower in a rocket ship as it goes faster.
You get heavier as you approach light speed.
You get squeezed the faster you move.
All of the effects above have been observed. For example, our GPS satellites slow down a bit as they whiz overhead, just as Einstein predicted. There is also cosmic waves and particle accelerators that are also used to verify this fact.
If you get heavier the faster you move, then the energy of motion has turned into mass. The precise amount of kinetic energy that turns into mass is easily calculated using relativity (the derivation is 1 line long) and that result is the most celebrated equation in science, E = mc2.
So why is light speed the maximum speed in the universe? As you approach the speed of light, bizarre things begin to happen such as:
Time Stops
You are Infinitely Heavy
You are Infinitely Thin
If you exceed the speed of light, then you get nonsense such as:
Time Might go Backwards
You are Heavier than the Universe
You have Negative Width
For these reasons, Einstein stated that you cannot go faster than the speed of light. This also affects general relativity, which is the foundation of cosmology, since (for small distances) general relativity reduces down to special relativity. Hence, both are wrong if the recent CERN experiments are correct. Not only is cosmology, nuclear physics, atomic physics, laser physics, etc. all in doubt, but also the fundamental theories of particle physics are also thrown in doubt. The Standard Model of particle physics (containing quarks, electrons, neutrinos, etc). is also based on relativity and would also mean that string theory, my field, may also be wrong. String theory has relativity built-in from the start and the lowest octave of string contains the entire general theory of relativity.
So you can see why physicists are breaking out in a cold sweat contemplating the demise of relativity. Not only will all textbooks have to rewritten but we will also have to recalibrate all our physics calculations, not to mention all of our theories of both nuclear, atomic physics and cosmology. What a headache! So, I think most physicists are holding their breath, wishing that the recent CERN experiment is shown to be flawed and something of a false alarm. However, there is the slim chance that the result holds up. Then relativity may fall and we will have to await the coming of the next Einstein who can make sense out of it all -- In retrospect however, This is How Science is Done.
Extraordinary flora and fauna abound in our round-up of the globe's most unusual gardens, greenhouses and Arctic Doomsday seed vaults!
The Atlas Obscura recently organized a trip to the gnarled remains of the Jardin d'Agronomie Tropicale in Paris for Obscura Day 2011. The site boasts a beautiful and overgrown expanse of wild flora and fauna and an incredible history. Inspired by the beauty and backstory of the garden we have assembled a short list of some of the Atlas Obscura's favorite unusual gardens from around the world.
Established in 1899, the "Jardin d'Essai Colonial's" original purpose was to cultivate plants that could take root and flourish in the far-reaches of the French colonial empire. The garden was divided into geograhically distinctive sections -- Indochine, Congo, Tunisia, among others -- based on where the plants were to be introduced.
However during the summer of 1907, a bizarre plan emerged -- instead of exporting plants to the colonies, the French government began importing native people from its colonies and into the gardens.
Like a perverse precursor to Disney's "It's a Small World" ride, this human zoo became home to six mock villages where native peoples lived and worked for nearly 6-months. Nearly 2 million curious Parisians flocked to the garden to view their colonial subjects in their "typical" environments, view their architectural aesthetic and purchase indigenous goods and foodstuffs from them.
Today the garden is left as a ruin in what is now a hip quarter of Paris. Wandering the grounds and winding paths, the visitor will encounter crumbling buildings engulfed in ivy and greenhouses long decayed. All that remains of the native peoples habitation in the garden is a tattered Tunisian flag and the fading remains of the Chinese Gate. The fate the native peoples following the exhibition is unclear.
A collection of glowing biomes -- the largest in the world.
Traveling through southwestern England you come across a strange sight. Two enormous hexagonally-patterned structures arc out of the rolling hills of the English countryside in marked contrast to the pastoral turned industrial landscape around them. Welcome to the Eden Project.
Comprised of two massive biomes, the Eden Project is home to over 1 million plant species, flowing streams and cascading waterfalls. Borne out of a dilapidated clay mine that, along with the nearby town St. Blazey, was slowly degrading into a visual and economic wasteland, the project has transformed St. Blazey into a mecca of botany and sustainability.
Split into two greenhouses, one mediterranean, the other tropical, the tropical biome features rubber plants, bananas, and bamboo stalks towering above visitors, while the Mediterranean Biome boasts olive plants and grape vines. Visit the Core for an educational crash-course in improving human's relationship with nature or stay until night to witness the biomes colorful futuristic glow.
"These plants can kill." These ominous words welcome visitors to the Alnwick Poison Gardens. The gardens were established on a small patch of a palatial estate in 2005 by the Duchess of Northumberland who's affinity for the apothecary gardens of yesteryear inspired the collection of nearly 100 deadly and hallucinogenic plants. The Duchess is not the first royal to grow such a garden however. The nefarious Italian Medici family was infamous for its legendary poisonous botanical gardens, and for the sudden and mysterious death of their enemies.
Deadly fauna can be viewed, some behind cages, on the modest swath of the castle's grounds and some notably sinister flora including the Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), Strychnos nux-vomica (strychnine), and Conium maculatum (hemlock). Illicit delights can be found among the gardens as well, in the form of opium poppies, cannabis and magic mushrooms, though these are kept cordoned off. Tours can be arranged year-round.
Art and science collide on the grounds of the metaphysical Garden of Cosmic Speculation.
The imaginative vision of architectural theorist Charles Jencks and his late wife, Maggie Keswick, the Garden is a strikingly original vision, marrying physics and horticulture. Braided spiral sculptures represent the DNA helix, while oscillating collections of rhododendrons and angular mounds protrude from the Earth in a magificent display of mathematical theorems.
Meandering through the unorthodox landscape one can spot black holes, string theory, and the "Big Bang" inspiring the geometric compositions of the thirty-acre grounds. The Garden is only open to the public one day per year.
The notion of the "lost garden" has always been captivating, with its visions of prim gardens gone wild. Among the best is the Lost Gardens of Heligan which were in fact recently re-found.
Established in the 1500s by the Tremayne family in Cornwall, the Lost Gardens of Heligan has evolved from one extravagant vision to the next as households passed the palatial estate from one generation to another.
During the course of the 19th century, as the gardens blossomed and thrived, an extensive staff maintained and enhanced them. But following World War I, when many of the highly skilled gardeners were sent to the front, never to return, the gardens vibrant past dwindled to an afterthought.
75 years after their abandonment the gardens were rediscovered by a distant relative of the Tremayne estate. Eventually, Tim Smit, the very same architect who conceived the aforementioned Eden Project, undertook the opportunity to restore the lost garden.
Under his innovative and watchful eye, Smit re-imagined the Heligan Gardens, restoring them to their original size installing artistic pieces such as the Giant’s Head and the Mud Maid, a sleeping woman of the forest made out of wood, grass and earth.
As much as the vegetable aisle in your local supermarket may look bountiful, it's not. It is, in fact, a desert of biological diversity. The perception of choice clouds the reality that Western eaters consume a minuscule fraction of the possible fruits and vegetables that are out there. Enter, the Svalbard Seed Bank. Not a garden by any stretch, but in reality, probably the most important biological building on Earth.
Pushed by modern industrial agriculture's need to create a reliable and repeatable product, much of modern produce has been narrowed into monoculture. Apples, potatoes and bananas are each represented by only the smallest sliver of their genetic diversity.
A consequence of this over time is the loss of seed variety and diversity. As a result, the Svalbard Seed Bank was set up as a safety net, a reserve of last resort that functions as a genetic safe-deposit box. Nuclear war and rising sea levels don't stand a chance against Svalbard's impermeable structure.
Duplicate specimens of seeds from around the world are stored there in an effort to safe-guard their genetics for future generations. With over 4.5 million seed samples stored at near freezing temperatures, the goal is to keep the seeds safe and sound for anywhere between 2,000 and 20,000 years.
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Tell us about your favorite horticultural marvel. Are there any in your hometown?
2011 Ig Nobels: beetle-on-beer-bottle sex and a wasabi-based fire alarm win big
By Matt Ford| Published September 30, 2011 9:45 AM
Past Ig Nobel winners Don and Nancy Featherstone (1996 for the creation of the plastic pink lawn flamingo) talk at the 2011 Ig Nobel Cermony
Fall kicks off the scientific awards season, which revved into high gear last night with the 21st annual Ig Nobel awards. The ceremony, held once again at Harvard's Sanders Theater, played host to scientists, interested academics, Nobel laureates, mini-operas, past Ig Nobel recipients, paper airplanes, and this year's winners, whose research "makes people laugh, then think."
The Ig Nobels are run by The Annals of Improbable Research, a publication that highlights real research from around the world that might be overlooked, but that still has the potential to make people think. The journal is open access and published every other week. It's chock full of research from innumerable journals the world over, containing gems such as "Apples and Oranges -- A Comparison," "The Taxonomy of Barney," and "Does a cat always land on its feet?" Ig Nobel awards recognize the best of the funniest research, and they were handed out last night in ten categories ranging from literature to peace to public safety.
Science
First up was the physiology prize—a category that will also be awarded in the actual Nobel announcements next week. The Ig Nobel went to a team from the UK, Austria, and the Netherlands that found no evidence of contagious yawning in red-footed tortoise (PDF).
The Ig Nobel in biology went to a team of Australian researchers who discovered that a certain type of male Australian beetle (the buprestid beetle) would readily mate with a certain type of Australian beer bottle. (Turns out it has to do with the little grip-enhancing bumpies on the bottom of the bottle.)
Moving from animals to humans, the Ig Nobel award for psychology went to a researcher who wanted to understand the everyday meaning of why people sigh. According to his work, people perceive sighing as an indication that a person is sad, when in reality it just means the person has given up. His method of study: give the subject something so hard to do that they give up and sigh about it.
Rounding out the human-focused work was the Ig Nobel award for Medicine. It went to a pair of research teams which found that people make better decisions about some things, and worse decisions about other things, when they have a strong urge to urinate. As put succinctly by Peter Snyder, principal investigator from one of the teams, "When you gotta go, you gotta go!"
The Chemistry Ig Nobel went to a large team of Japanese researchers who all made the journey to Boston to accept their award in person. Their work? Determining the ideal concentration of airborne wasabi for use in a wasabi-based fire alarm. The alarm needs to wake you from a dead sleep, but not render you incapable of bugging out. (The idea actually has a US patent already.)
The team behind the wasabi alarm made the trip from Japan.
The Physics award went to a Dutch team that, while studying the mechanics of human balance, discovered why discus throwers become dizzy even as their track and field brethren, the hammer tossers, do not.
Rounding out the science awards, the Ig Nobel committee went outside the ivory tower of academia to recognize a select group of individuals: Dorothy Martin, Pat Robertson, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Harold Camping (twice!), Lee Jang Rim, Shoko Asahara, and Credonia Mwerinde for all making failed predictions of the date for the end of the world. Their predictions "taught the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations." Good advice for all.
Humanities
In the humanities, the Ig Nobel peace prize went to Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, for showing that the scourge of illegal parking by people who own luxury cars can be solved by the simple act of crushing the cars with a giant armored tank. (He was also there to collect the award, sans tank.)
The prize for public safety went to John Senders for his pioneering work on distractions while driving. Carried out in the 1960s, long before the days of talking or sexting while driving, Senders' research devised a visor (of the sort later worn by Luke Skywalker for his Jedi training) that would blind drivers for short periods of time at certain frequencies to see how well they could still carry out the task of driving. As Obi-Wan said, "your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them."
Finally, the prize for literature, which I must say hit close to home for me, went to John Perry of Stanford University for his Theory of Structured Procrastination. Perry postulates that, to be a high achiever, one must always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid something even more important. (Much as I am doing as I write this article; the bills that need to be paid can wait.)
A proud tradition
Each winner gave a brief acceptance speech. Their speeches were kept short thanks to Miss Sweetie Poo, the eight year old who makes her boredom and displeasure known to all when the speeches have gone on for too long. The original Miss Sweetie Poo is probably in her late 20s now, but the tradition continues. Only one team, the winners of the biology prize for beetle-beer-bottle coitus, thought far enough ahead to bring a grocery bag full of candy to shut the little girl up long enough so they could continue ramble on.
Miss Sweetie Poo repeats "I'm bored, please stop" until people get off the stage.
Along with the 24/7 lectures—where world leaders in scientific thought must describe their research in complete technical detail in 24 seconds, then describe it so anyone can understand it in seven words—there was a premiere of a new mini opera about coffee and chemistry, the win-a-date-with-a-Nobel-laureate contest, cameos from Nobel Laureates, and past Ig Nobel winners. The ceremony highlighted the fact that science can pull the meterstick (metric!) out of its backside and have fun for a night.
For those in the Boston area, a second part of the Ig Nobel tradition is that the winners give public lectures on their research the Saturday after the ceremony. This year's lectures will take place at MIT's Building 26, Room 100 at 1:00 PM on Saturday, October 1st. Admission is free, but seating is limited.
When One does so-called "Bad Science" (SCIENCE!), the "Ethical Elite" Scientists are always screaming "Monster Trials!", "Crimes Against Nature*!", "National Security!" and "Abominations!". Where are the awards for Villains working tirelessly in their Labs? Not One Plutonium Isotope Award (the "Topey") anywhere on the Horizon. Bah.
It's SCIENCE you Fools. SCIENCE!!!
-Lord Malignance
(When time allows, there should be a "Topey" award created and given In Honor of Scientific Evil.)
Nerf's new Vortex blasters: who needs darts when you're shooting discs?
By Ben Kuchera| Published September 29, 2011 1:49 PM
Remember when Nerf blasters were simple, toy-like affairs? Times have changed, and now we have heavy, belt-fed, battery-chugging monstrosities that appeal to cubicle warriors as much as to children. Our house has a long history of Nerf wars using each new generation of guns, so when I heard that Nerf was releasing an entirely new line of blasters with discs instead of darts, I was both excited and a little hesitant. Would it really be fun to shoot my children and pets with tiny frisbee-style projectiles?
The answer is yes. The new discs travel greater distances than the darts, the mechanism for firing is easier on young hands, and the first wave of guns are fun to use.
A picture of all four blasters next to a PS3 game for reference. These are some large weapons.
Above, you can see the four guns we're going to review, and we will render a verdict on each one individually. A few notes: the green discs these guns shoot aren't hard exactly, but the guns do spit them out at a good clip. At close range, you can expect a slight sting; be careful with children. (I learned this by lining my kids up and shooting them at different ranges to see whether or not the discs hurt. Everyone learned valuable lessons during my testing.)
Also, standard Nerf darts cut through the air and begin to lose altitude quickly. These discs actually catch the air and can fly significantly longer, though if you don't hold the blasters level you may see the discs bank after a few dozen feet. Here's a quick range test I shot in my back yard.
Range test
The bottom line: if you're getting into it with an opponent who's packing the standard darts, you have quite a reach advantage.
The 20 disc clip can be used on the Praxis as well.
This $39.99 blaster holds up to 20 discs, features a light-up scope, and requires six "C" batteries. It may not feel heavy at first, but once you load all those batteries, you're going to gain some heft.
The battery-powered Nerf guns are hard to aim with any precision. There are actually two triggers. You have to hold down the bottom button to spin up the firing mechanism, and if you hold down the traditional trigger with that bottom button held down, you fire the discs. The firing rate isn't fast, although it is fun to use any Nerf gun that features automatic fire. You also don't have to work the mechanism or cock the gun before each shot, which might make this gun ideal for smaller children, except for the size and weight issues.
The scope is fun, and it lights up green and moves in three speeds. It does wobble more than I'm comfortable with when attached to the gun; during a hard battle, you run the risk of the scope falling off.
Full Auto
The 20-disc clip is great, and it can be used in any of the other Vortex guns that take a clip. Fully automatic fire makes this fun to try, but if you're actually hoping to put discs on target, this isn't the best gun. Especially with the high price tag, this is more of a gimmick than a gun you'll want to take into battle. Verdict: Skip
The Praxis has a very satisfying shotgun-style pump
Okay, this $25 blaster is way more my speed. The clip holds 10 discs, and the shotgun-like pump action means you can pump out a good number of discs in a very short time. This gun has good range, fires discs with enough force to sting in a very slight way, and is fun to use. When I went child hunting, this is the gun I took.
Hunting children
Clearing jams is simple thanks to the sliding door on top of the blaster. This is one of my favorite guns in the Vortex line, and when you add the 20 disc magazine from the Nitron, it's even better. The removable stock could be a little more sturdy, but the gun works fine with or without it. Verdict: Buy
Photo illustration by Aurich Lawson
Nerf's new Vortex blasters: who needs darts when you're shooting discs?
By Ben Kuchera| Published September 29, 2011 1:49 PM
The Vigilon has an MSRP of $16, it holds five discs, it's easy to load and cock before firing, and it looks like something out of Robocop. I don't have anything negative to say about it, and in many ways I find this blaster a better sidearm than my standard Maverick. I know that may sound like heresy, but seriously—the way this gun reloads makes it easy to dump in more discs and it takes less weight to cock than the Maverick. My younger children have a much better time with it.
The vigilon opened to show how discs are loaded. By pushing the orange tab with your thumb, the built-in clip snaps back. Pull back on the rear portion of the gun to cock.
The Proton is only $10, and although I used this gun for my range test above, I wasn't impressed with it at first. It feels a bit wimpy in the hand and it doesn't have a striking design, but I did find one use for this gun that makes it a great addition to the line: it's very easy for kids to use.
Loading the Proton is simple. Pull back on the plastic ring on the rear of the gun, put in a single disc, and then thumb the orange tab to snap the assembly back into the gun. You're ready to annoy a cat or dog!
Most Nerf guns that require you to cock the blaster before each shot can be hard on small hands, but even young kids will be able to pull the Proton's ring out to load the single disc and then hit the tab on the side to load the gun. My two year old thinks this is the best thing since sliced bread simply because it's not hard for him to load and use, and it still has good range. It wouldn't be my favorite gun in a fight, but it's not bad, especially if you have smaller kids or children with slight dexterity issues. Verdict: not my bag, but thumbs up for children and ease of use
Summing up
The Vortex line of guns looks and feels different from the classical Nerf weapons, but their lighter feel and pull makes them even better for younger kids. Heck, even my wife likes these, and she's usually not into my Nerf arsenal. These guns may feel light, but they've each survived a child's birthday party and several wars; they don't look likely to break easily. As for the green discs, they're easy to find in most cases, but there's little to no hope of recovery if you're firing in a grassy field. Plan accordingly.
Be sure to shop around; I've listed the MSRP for each model as provided by Nerf and linked to the guns on Amazon, but you can often find them cheaper at different retailers.
I liked three of these four guns, and my skepticism toward battery-powered Nerf toys remains intact. I can actually pump the shotgun-style gun faster than the fully-automatic gun can fire, and the shotgun will always be ready to go. There's nothing worse than girding your loins for a serious Nerf war only to find your batteries dead... and then you trudge off to grab new batteries and dig up your screwdriver while the other team is already shooting you in the head. No thanks.
These are great additions to the Nerf line of guns, so long as you stick to the human-powered blasters. Changing the batteries in the Praxis can be just as expensive as some of the smaller guns—and wouldn't you rather spend your money on expanding your armory?
If you haven't played (yes, One plays - though not as frequently as One would like) "Wanted" with Nerf guns, you haven't lived. Curve the Bullet - try it. Great Villain movie, and a great music download to get in the right mind set.
YOU are a member of the Fraternity of Assassins. Nerd out.
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