Gotch Ya

The May 2009 issue of Wired magazine had a write-up about spy gear. You can read it online. The item on their list that really attracted me was the pocket grappling hook (although the bulletproof dress shirt is pretty cool).

The collapsible aluminum and steel grappling hook is small enough to be called pocket sized, it can act as water proof container and only costs $30.

Holy crap, Batman! It's perfect. A must have.

This isn't a grappling hook for swinging from. It's designed for snagging trip wires and tearing down barbed wire. For something that I would actually consider climbing with check out Capewell's Retractable Grappling Hook. That's something I would actually expect Batman to use for scaling buildings.

Of course, we all know about Batman's secret superpower: his grappling hook. It's way too small to make any sense and to pull him at those speeds! Although, grappling guns that amazing don't actually exist, there are line launchers such as the one in the ResQmax kit. They don't seem to come much smaller than that and it just launches the line, either by compressed air or a small rocket. If you want to be mechanically pulled up you need a completely separate tool. If you thought the grappling hook launcher was big, you'll be very surprised by the size of existing motorized hoists, or ascenders. A company started by some MIT alumni, called Atlas Devices, builds these. They are simple (apparently the prototypes were built out of power drills) but big and probably pretty loud.

The really long, video about the pocket grappling hooks by Maratac:


The ascender by Atlas:


Oh and if you want to read some more facts about grappling hooks check out the eHow articles (don't forget the Related Articles on the side)

Picking Tumblers: Part I

We are going to start with tumbler locks. They aren't the easiest lock to pick and their not the hardest - they are the most common. But in order to pick the lock, we have to understand how the lock works. It's like old school hacking: we are bypassing security by taking advantage of internal weaknesses in how the system works. Tumbler locks are made up of only a few parts: the key goes in the keyway (the keyhole) so that it can turn the cylinder which is called the plug (Right? The key turns. Got it.). The plug is housed in the main casing.

Next part, the plug has a holes drilled in it and these continue up into the casing. Each of thise holes has a spring in it. The spring pushes two little pins down into the plug. The top pins (which are between the spring and bottom pin) are called drivingpins and they are all the same length. They push the lower pins (called the keypins) down. These keypins are all different lengths. They rest on a little ledge called a ward. Pull your keys out of your pocket and look at one. It has that little canal that runs all the way from the tip to the handle of the key. The ward slides in the canal. The point of the ward is to be a ledge that the keypins rest on when there is no key in the keyway.

So that's all the pieces of the lock. Now how does it work. I said that all the keypins were different lengths. Why? Well, what else are different heights? Answer: the teeth of the key.

So here is how it works. The key goes into the keyway. The notches and teeth push the pins up to exactly the right height so that each and every one of the top drivingpins is lifted (by the keypins) to the same height (exactly to the same height as the separation between the casing and the plug). This is the most important part to understand. When the key is inserted the gap between each and every keypin and drivingpin lines up with the gap between the hull casing and the plug. This separation is called the shear line. Once they are all lined up the key can turn and unlock the door. Tada! The mechanism of a tumbler lock explained!


Check out these wikis if you want to read about the mechanism of tumbler locks again. (Let's be honest. It's where I got the images)
Wikivisual
Wikipedia
Wapedia
BambooWeb Dictionary
BookRags

Let this settle for a day or so and then I'll post a How-To tutorial for picking tumbler locks.

Learning From the Best

Last night I taught a group of 3 friends how to pick locks. By the end of the night, each and every one of them had picked every lock I owned. I was really impressed.

After that victory, I thought I'd try to teach my friend's very young brother this afternoon. Even though I didn't think he would be able to, he eventually got one of the padlocks. I was even more impressed. He then proceeded to break the pick on the next lock I gave him. opps. Oh well I suppose.

This all reminds me: I haven't given a How-To about lock picking on my blog yet. I'll create one for the next post.

Speechless

Last night I had the chance to paint the face of a mime.

So? Batman does not paint faces, you say. That's true but he's got to be an expert actor to convince people of his Bruce Wayne charade. Plus, Bruce Wayne is one of the most recognizable faces in the DCU yet he wanders around Gotham city as Matches Malone without anyone being the wiser.

Batman's makeup skills are da'bomb.

And as you can see by these pictures, mine aren't so bad either. I may not be the next Barrett Kean but it's not so bad.

I'll try to do more stagemakeup in the future sometime. I'd love to learn impersonation but I don't know how to go about learning.

P.S. Sorry for the long delay in posting. I'll post what I've been doing this month over the next few days.