Blog
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
site updates, news
Lots of video-related news. First of all, Google has "encouraged" everyone with videos on the old Google Video service to transition to YouTube. This was something that we saw coming a couple years ago when Google bought YouTube, which is why our last several years' worth of videos have been uploaded onto YouTube. Now Google is looking to close down the old service, and we had a dozen or so of our old videos on there. Luckily, Google made an easy way to switch the videos over, which we did a month ago. All embed code on the Team Urban Siege website is now running YouTube code.
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| Jul 13, 2011
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
site updates, news
That's right, we have actually released plans that we created! The plans will enable you to build and even tune a small desktop-sized Hinged Counterweight Trebuchet (HCW) that will throw a small rubber ball 20 feet! Begin war today on your cubicle neighbors! See the page here: Mini-HCW Plans.
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| May 02, 2011
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
news
For the second year in a row, Team Urban Siege will be exhibiting some of our trebuchets at the Imagine RIT festival on Saturday May 7, 2011. We will be bringing the Melon Felon, Janus, and possibly a FAT Whipper which operates very similarly to Janus. Hopefully this time Janus will be firing all afternoon, as it is a VERY impressive machine when it fires, easily topping 100 miles per hour at launch with only 100 pounds of counterweight. If you are in the Rochester, NY area, feel free to stop by the festival, it is free and open to the public. We are exhibit 198, and there will apparently be a rocket exhibit right next to us!
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| Apr 04, 2011
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
site updates
Team Urban Siege has (once again) updated the website. Hopefully this is the last major update for a long time. The visual changes are obvious to those familiar with the site before. We have hopefully made the site much less cluttered while still maintaining an easy navigation. All of the original pages are still here, but most have been renamed.
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| Apr 03, 2011
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
news, launches, WCPC
What a great showing for Team Urban Siege at the 2010 World Championships of Punkin Chunkin. Owing to the team being scattered around New York and Massachusetts this fall, we didn't even get Medieval Postal Service out of storage until the day before we headed to Delaware. But the machine went right back up without a hitch, and fired beautifully right out of the gate. Test shots on Wednesday were around what later was found to be the 1150-1200 mark, and then heavy winds came for the weekend.
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| Dec 12, 2010
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
launches, WCPC
The final day of the 2010 World Championships of Punkin Chunkin saw major winds kill the distances of many teams, but there were still some nice shots. In the trebuchet division, none of the top 3 machines from Day 2 shot any further, although First in Fright shot a solid 1815' into a stiff headwind. Tired Iron also shot less, so 1443' was his top shot. Shenangians recovered from a disasterous free fire shot Saturday morning that resulted in missing the day 2 shot and popped a 1391' shot into the wind, the machine is certainly capable of more. Hokie Hurler shot less again, so 850 was it's final top distance of 2010, they are not sure why it shot so much less this year.
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| Nov 07, 2010
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
launches, WCPC
Another day gone at the 2010 World Championships of Punkin Chunkin. Some interesting results. The Day 1 leaders, Pumpkin Hammer, added counterweight and didn't change their sling, resulting in a late release netting them a much shorter shot than Friday's 1979. They have added more weight for Sunday, allegedly 2000 pounds total, and tweaked pin/sling. Time will tell if that gets them over the hump. American Chucker chucked their throwing arm 100 feet downrange and the pumpkin maybe 1300 or so, so they retain their day 1 shot as well which was just under 1800 feet. First in Fright added 300 pounds to his counterweight, tweaked his tuning, and blasted a TREMENDOUS 1920 shot, moving it into a close second place. Rumor has it that they are adding more weight tomorrow.
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| Nov 06, 2010
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
launches, WCPC
A windy by rain-free day helped to slightly dry out a very messy cornfield today in Delaware as the 25th annual World Championships of Punkin' Chunkin' kicked off. Another long day of waiting in the wind for the air cannons to finish saw the firing end at 6PM, shortly before all light was gone in the sky.
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| Nov 05, 2010
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
launches, WCPC
Testing day for Team Urban Siege is in the books. It took until early afternoon before the Safety Committee started inspecting machines, but we got off 3 solid shots before deciding we were ready. Medieval Postal Service is firing great just as it was the last time it fired, at last year's chunk. We reverted to the pre-chunk tuning from last year which was firing at roughly 25 mph faster than we got at during competition last year, and the distances looked great. The pumpkins were falling beyond a drainage area well down field, but we are not sure exactly how far out that is this year, it was around 1200 feet last year though.
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| Nov 03, 2010
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
launches, WCPC
Quick update for everyone wondering if we are still alive. Yes we are. We traveled down to Delaware yesterday (Monday) and set up Medieval Postal Service today for the 25th Annual World Championship of Punkin Chunkin, which is this weekend. As in previous years, we will try to post daily updates about how the day went, where teams stand, etc. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is our testing day since we have not fired the machine since last year's chunk. Stay tuned for more!
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| Nov 02, 2010
