Updated, 12:15 p.m.

The torture program established by the CIA appears to have played a minor role, at most, in the intelligence effort that eventually lead to Osama bin Laden’s death. From the evidence released so far, electronic surveillance and old-fashioned intel methods were far more important.

Check out the timeline presented by an Obama administration official on Sunday. The trail starts with al-Qaida detainees captured in the early days of the war on terrorism, when the Bush administration authorized the CIA to use abusive methods like waterboarding to extract information. Detainees...

It’s actually pretty simple, once you get down to trying it. Which is exactly what I do in my new book, The GeekDad’s Guide to Weekend Fun: Cool Hacks, Cutting-Edge Games, and More Awesome Projects for the Whole Family (available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, Powell’s, ThinkGeek, and your local bookstores). It hits stores — both brick-and-mortar and online — today, and I hope you’ll check it out. To whet your appetites, here is one of the easy, but surprisingly cool, projects from the book:

Illustration: Bradley L. Hill

Two slightly interesting facts about Nerf: It’s as old as I am ...