• @neonred
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    153 hours ago

    Being “trebuchet master” without “Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics”… doubt

  • @iAvicenna
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    62 hours ago

    wait they did not ask for 10 years experience in the field?

    • @hexabs
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      11 hour ago

      100 hours of aoe2 and we’ve got a deal

  • Jolteon
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    133 hours ago

    Since they specified female, there is presumably also at least one male trebuchet master as well, meaning that the UK considers trebuchets important enough to have multiple trebuchet Masters.

    • @[email protected]
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      21 hour ago

      The new alternative to Trident. It’s cheaper to have trebuchets posted around the coastline than nukes scooting around on submarines and offers about the same amount of protection from the country being nuked.

  • @HonoraryMancunian
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    4810 hours ago

    Anyone else find it weird how articles often tend to add the parental status of the subject in the title?

    • @[email protected]
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      64 hours ago

      I guess it’s bait for people who like to judge. The idea could be: it’s not responsible to quit science for this and being a mother makes irresponsible choices even worse. That’s not my point of view, but I know people whose life seems to be so empty that they feel a constant need to look down on others and the “mother” information gives them at least 5 more minutes of talking shit about how this is a terrible decision.

    • @Hagdos
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      255 hours ago

      Only if it’s about a mother though.

      • @cmhe
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        21 hour ago

        I guess being a mother is considered an important life achievement, while being a father does not.

    • @aeronmelon
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      76 hours ago

      Mother, 33, stops being a scientist to do science.

    • FuglyDuck
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      3710 hours ago

      I don’t know of a single engineer who has never built a trebuchet.

      I’m not even a “proper” engineer and I have like, five desktop trebs, 2 ballistae and some other odds and ends (3d printed, of course,)

      It’s like, a right of passage or something.

      • @[email protected]
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        43 hours ago

        I’m a software engineer and I built a trebuchet during lockdown to launch Easter eggs at the neighbours’ gardens since we weren’t allowed to go see them.

        • FuglyDuck
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          13 hours ago

          The plastic candy-filled kind…. I hope.

          Or. I hope they weren’t very good neighbors….

          • @[email protected]
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            53 hours ago

            No, tiny bits of hidden software. It’s not a very efficient way of distributing code, but it was fun.

            • FuglyDuck
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              23 hours ago

              Yeah. You’re not allowed to stuff Easter eggs for Easter.

              Also, we’ll add “get the Halloween candy”, too. Probably give people apple 2’s or something,

      • @[email protected]
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        179 hours ago

        I have a scar over my eye from a trebuchet I built in high school, then I went to college for engineering, so that checks out

        • @[email protected]
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          22 hours ago

          Probably better than the scar my cousin has on his thigh from an ad hoc fulcrum catapult.

        • FuglyDuck
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          59 hours ago

          yeah. Gotta be careful with them.

          even the desktop variety has a lot of energy in the system.

      • J'Pol
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        89 hours ago

        I’m a machinist, which is kind of engineer adjacent. We make cannons.

    • Annoyed_🦀
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      38 hours ago

      And M. A lot of M actually. And S. Also T. Put some A in it to make it not threatening.

  • @ArgentRaven
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    4112 hours ago

    I would, too. Which is the more exciting job? Unfortunately there probably isn’t much call for a trebuchet bombardment these days.

    • @[email protected]
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      3512 hours ago

      Fun fact, only one trebuchet has ever been deployed for combat in the new world.

      The conquistadors and coalition forces built one during the siege of Tenochitlan, they tried to fire it but the sling snapped, rock went up, rock came back down.

      Thus ended the storied military record of trebuchets in the new world.

    • @tomatolung
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      211 hours ago

      Perhaps this should be decreed in a new Geneva convention as the only allowed long range missile system? That would make wars less deadly and more useful.

    • Justin
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      169 hours ago

      Over 300 meters. Truly the superior siege engine.

      • @chiliedogg
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        38 hours ago

        But I still love the Ballista.

        I’ve made several over the years for demonstrations using a couple 2x4s, 2 oak dowels, a steel rod, and nylon rope that’ll hurl a “bolt” (tube used to separate clubs in a golf bag with a tennis ball on one end) 400 yards.

        They’re just fun.

    • FuglyDuck
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      810 hours ago

      Depends on the mass of the projectile, and how the throwing arm is tuned.

      If its release is tuned for distance and they’re flinging period-accurate projectiles, tuned firmly distance a typical period tree could throw stones about 300 meters.

      Depending on the kind of fortifications they were against (and if they had siege engines of their own, or other artillery- bow and arrows, whatever) they might set up a little closer and tune instead for more forward velocity rather than range.

      The typical mass was about 200-300 kilograms, or a small sedan. You could go heavier, but that typically reduced range.

      • @scutiger
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        8 hours ago

        200-300 kilograms, or a small sedan

        A small sedan weighs about four times as much as that

      • @Shard
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        39 hours ago

        And cheese my cows. They could launch cows as well.

  • @[email protected]
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    1113 hours ago

    Scientist in the UK wear surgical caps and carry stethoscopes? I guess doctors are a subcategory of scientists.