I spent much of today hauling a bunch of heavy stuff. One of the techniques I used was to unroll a tarp, pile a bunch of boards on it, and then tug it up a hill using some rope tied to the edges of the tarp. I learned this idea from a nifty book called Moving Heavy Things, which was recommended on Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools site.

This is one of those books which serves to remind you that, even before the invention of power tools, quantum mechanics, World of Warcraft, and late-night pizza delivery, human beings were very, very smart. Consider this video of a retired construction engineer who can single-handedly construct Stonehenge without using power tools.