Damn I wish I had mod points...

If this made you scratch your head:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Field

Simple - dampen the shaft of the arrow so it doesn't catch fire, and replace the feathers with a mini-rocket-come-tazer for both longer range, and an anti-personnel element... ;-)

I didn't know you worked for Microsoft? :-p

Only 1 meter thick?
From http://history.howstuffworks.com/middle-ages/castle2.htm
"The outer curtain wall was high, thick and made of stone or brick. Walls could range from 6 to 10 meters high and 1.5 to 8 meters thick."

So that worked well then...

I won't ask why you are sticking pigs up chimneys... :-p

It's here: http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1785

I guess you don't get many visitors then?

Oh, and did you get any mail recently? :-p

...for some nice gates: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8064794.stm and a moat: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5315477/Clearing-a-moat-costs-thousands-of-pounds.html

Fascinating. It would be interesting to talk to a blind person and see if they experience anything like this...

Following Ley lines? :-p

The odd thing is, I don't need magnets to navigate back to a point I started at. I couldn't easily tell you which way is north, but I can usually point in the direction of my car/hotel/etc from anywhere in the city provided I walked there (without any deliberate attempt to memorise landmarks or turns).

I was once 'lost' in Munich - lost in the sense of being able to point in exactly the direction of my car, just not being able to find streets that would take me that way. I came back via a completely different route, apart from the last 200 metres or so, but still knew exactly which way I needed to be heading...

I used to get a slight headache and involuntarily shudder whenever we drove under high voltage power lines as a kid. It doesn't seem to happen now I'm grown up, but I still seem to have some sensitivity to magnetic fields - I worked for a company that sold "magnetic health products" and had to insist that I really didn't want any of their stuff near me because it would give me a headache... Of course, some of that could be psychological, I've not experimented to see if I could tell the difference.

Also, with older mobile (cell) phones I used to be able to tell when they were broadcasting (most likely polling the base station as it wasn't making/receiving a call) by a kind of slightly painful sensation in my hand if I was holding it. I only get that now with modern mobiles if my hands are wet.

The three of us together can bring the world to its knees! (With laughter)...