What Day Is This?

I know it's Saturday once I hear Alan faintly gasp, "I can't breathe ...".

Weerd Beard cums through for me again.

:)

He Shot Me!

It happened here as part of this event and the gun was an up-scale version of one of these designed* for live fire training.

And truth be told, I was kinda expecting it to happen, but still ...

Re-Direct comes first on the list for a reason!

:)

Re-direct
Control
Attack
Take

* The pistols described here if I'm not mistaken.

When Does The Future Get Here?

On last nights Fast Forward Radio from The Speculist guys, the question arose as to what development(s) qualifies as a hallmark of "the future". My off the cuff response was that the future never arrives; we always live in the now after all. Upon somewhat deeper thought, I do have a technology standard that quantifies my personal vision of "the future".

All of the potential technology we variously anticipate is dependent upon a source of electrical energy. With that universal condition in mind, my metric for arrival at "the future" is a realistically portable source of electrical energy that contains sufficient energy to power my abode and all the other devices I possess (if not all of them at the same time necessarily), other than my transportation, without need for re-fuel for at least 10 years. Think Hyperion Power Module as a model, but not necessarily a nuclear or radioactive decay process being involved. If you're a sci-fi reader, think Heinlein's Shipstone power supply.

So there you have it, I will have lived to see the future when I have the option to purchase personal energy independence on an at-least-decadal cycle.

For Stephen and Phil

Fantasy fulfilled, you can check that one off the list now. :)

Via Al Fin comes notice of a practical, and - importantly - currently license-able for public by-ways use apparently, a flying car (OK, more of a dune buggy really). As Al Fin notes, the engineering requirements seem fairly modest to modify this for a pontoon arrangement of some sort and create a true all-surface accessible vehicle.

We're gettin' there fella's.

The Race To Genomic Identity

Eric Raymond has an incite-full (I pun) post up at his blog Armed and Dangerous titled A Specter Is Haunting Genetics. His principle point (I pun again) being that, as we come to more fully classify a statistically meaningful representative sample of the human population, we will almost certainly discover ... well, let him say it for himself:

(1) we will shortly have genomic-sequence information on hundreds of thousands of human beings from all over the planet, enough to build a detailed map of human genetic variation and a science of behavioral genetics. (2) We will confirm that variant alleles correlate strongly with significant measures of human ability and character, beginning with IQ and quite possibly continuing to distribution of time preference, sociability, docility, and other important traits. (3) We will discover that these same alleles correlate significantly with traditional indicia of race.

As I take his meaning to be, we will be able to identify the individual genetic variations that are presently classified by external physical appearance - in a word: race. The squabbles begin and degenerate rapidly thereafter.

In the early-to-mid 1980's I worked for the US Navy at a research facility. Along with one other man named Peter, we were the only two people within the building during the night shift we worked. The building was fairly well RF shielded so, to the limited extent talk radio existed back then, it wasn't really an option anyway. :) The job largely consisted of setting up multi-hour long sequences and the occasional crack of dawn customer requirement. IOW we talked. A lot - and about much we wouldn't ordinarily have inspiration or inclination to consider in other circumstance.

As it happens, this same general topic (the socio-political impact of genetic identifiers) was one we repeatedly considered.

Now remember, this was the '80's; Reagan was walkin' the walk, the economy was roaring back, Crick and Watson and DNA were a recurring theme in news stories of the day (much of them crime related) and the "nurture/nature" argument was much in vogue due to the prominence of the McMartin Pre-School (and other sex abuse) trials over those years. Peter's family was politically active (and significant in state politics) and he had a trained artist's sense of story, while I was a longtime reader of speculative fiction with an eclectic employment and education history; we were well equipped to apply "what if ..." to a wide range of topics. No real way for us to tell how well grounded, or even if, those thoughts were, but there you have it ... stopped clocks and all that comes quickly to mind.

We eventually settled on the creation of a personal "label" as the most direct means to overcome the history and industry that has accrued to race and eugenics-related perceptions. The idea being that, since individuals are apparently the result of some mixture of genetic inheritance and social environmental inputs, an individual identification code based on their individual genetics would be a method for refuting the opposition that seemed even then an almost certain response to such detailed knowledge of humanity. This would only work if there was a large enough sample base to make such classification statistically meaningful and there was created a social-input chart of some nature (that quantified the general characteristics of a given growth experience or influence - much in the manner that present-day dating sites do, as it turns out). This last was always the critical stumbling block since we couldn't envision a means for doing such a thing (neither of us being surnamed Berners-Lee you understand :)).

I'm hopeful that with his professional background and personal depth of interest, Eric will have a better sense of the practicality of Peter's and my early stumbling about in the night hours. If one day I become Will Brown XY-7543GT-&%76-%#$@&54A instead of XXX-YY-ZZZZ, then it becomes possible to argue that my (everyone's) genetic code isn't "racist" at all, but is an accurate measure of both my potential medical state as well as my capability generally, absent some form of intervention. Instead of sticking me in a niche, it becomes possible to quantify the trans-human fantasy onto a scale of feasibility as well as work to remove group classification from societal consideration. To the extent that humans are social animals, possession of a means to characterise each other in advance of detailed individual knowledge will remain necessary to continuation of the human condition. Having a mechanism to make such pre-judgement as individually accurate as clinically possible seems a useful alternative to the historical standard.

Or, so said all both of us.

Krav, Y'all

Some days ago (OK, 10 days ago :)) Helen Smith wrote a post asking how people cope with the stress induced by the news reports and commentary we all are inundated with. I found her principal response particularly interesting:

My positive activity has been to re-read a book entitled Krav Maga: How to Defend Yourself Against Armed Assault and to think about returning to the Kra Maga lessons I was taking ...

This book by Imi Sde-Or (aka: Imrich Lichtenfeld, founder of the Krav Maga system) has much to recommend it, especially as a means of insight into thinking that lead to Krav Maga, but it isn't all that clearly written without an additional source of explanation/instruction. With that in mind, I would like to recommend to the good Doctor she also read these two books as well:

KRAV MAGA The Contact Combat System Of The Israeli Defense Forces by David Kahn.

KRAV MAGA For Beginners by Darren Levine, John Whitman & Ryan Hoover.

Imi's book presents Krav Maga as the complete system he taught in an apparently holistic manner. The other two books present the material in a format based upon the latter-day belt ranking system Imi grafted onto Krav Maga to better correlate his school with other established martial systems. I find the subject matter to be more clearly presented in the hierarchical structure although it is helpful to be able to orient a given instruction in Imi's format upon occasion.

Full disclosure; I train here. East Texas Krav Maga is part of Darren Levine's Krav Maga Worldwide self-defense and fitness organisation and I'm pretty sure I trained with Darren Levine himself on at least a few occasions (as part of a large class in 1990/91 when I still lived in the Los Angeles area).

I'm hopeful that Dr. Helen will be willing to engage in a somewhat wide-ranging discussion of issues and questions that relate to Krav Maga directly as well as to its place in society at large, perhaps as a series of post-and-response on our respective blogs. With that in mind, one of the issues I think I see occurring is formation of a type of schism within the ranks of Krav Maga practitioners. My impression (largely from David Kahn's books as well as Krav Maga websites like this one) is that there is some dispute regarding the type as well as methodology of the instruction being variously offered at Krav Maga International (centered in Israel) schools and Krav Maga Worldwide or Alliance schools (centered in the US). I'm quite sure that at least some of this is an unintended consequence of marketing efforts within the various school organisations. I'm also certain that some of it is a fundamental dispute.

This KMW school is in Knoxville, but it is unclear to me which tradition Dr. Helen trained in; International, Worldwide or Alliance. What I'm especially hopeful she can offer informed insight into is the human psychology of combat training, both the effects upon the individual as well as upon the system itself (how much does the psychological trauma associated with combat and its after effects influence the form and content of the course of instruction for civilians/military and the in-between circumstance of police as example). Since Dr. Helen is also a shooter, I look forward to her observations and insights into that aspect of the Krav Maga experience as well. While I don't share her particular health concerns, I have my own and hope to share thoughts on the fitness benefits of Krav Maga as opposed (or perhaps better, as well as) to other techniques.

What I'm not interested in is some sort of comparative analysis or politicization of the various viewpoints within KM. It is useful to understand what those are and the history behind them (if only to better understand the issues that lead up to their development), but my interest is in better understanding the capabilities of KM and gaining a more complete understanding of the system.

I will be writing more on this topic in future, but for the moment await the doctor's response.

'Cause Purty Girls Poot

That's the reason Why Beauties Get Cheated On Big Time.

Those of us who inherit "beauty" from our parents aren't especially different from the rest of us (that would include me, just for the record). Which means that their failure(s) to live up to our (initial and generally quite shallow) expectations inevitably leads to disappointment. Disappointment in ourselves, disappointment of our fantasies ... it's hard to see beyond the personae we all project and beautiful people can't avoid (without being at least a little disgusting). People make assumptions based upon their own experience of life, some of which are as silly-seeming as how another looks. How much more so for people who's occupation is much about their appearance, their looks?

Sandra Bullock's marriage ending as it appears to have is the example offered above, and makes clear just how complex all this love and marriage business is in practice. Jesse James gets no sympathy from serial divorcee me, but I like to think his now-infamous display of human frailty is at least understandable. Sandy Bullock (aka Mrs. James-as-was) isn't Sandra Bullock, movie star who thanks her husband for his support in her Academy Award acceptance speech. Waking up next to the one and getting breakfast going while jockeying around the morning bathroom routine is hard to assimilate with the demands imposed by the other's requirements.

While the circumstances confronted by a movie star and his/her spouse and family aren't exactly the norm, all of us face the same trials and temptations if to different degree and scrutiny. Brad Pitt has morning breath and, yes, Sandra Bullock occasionally poots. And we all disappoint, if not quite so publicly. Maybe that's the "secret" of marital success; accept the failings of those we most trust and share ourselves with ... perhaps most especially our own, while working to avoid actually committing as many as we can.

Desperately Seeking Context

Via Instapundit comes notice of a prime example of the headline writers art. Do appreciate the somewhat-less-than subtle avoidance of blatant editorializing by the no-doubt deliberate lack of any "Well ...".

There are standards to be maintained after all. Usually in the Evening over there.

In the US national context Prof. Reynolds noted, I recommend waiting until early December this year when the potential for a much increased bag is likely. Much like politics itself, bragging rights are very much a numbers game, don'cha know.

Man O Man, O

Updated 5/7/10 below.

When unexpectedly amidst the minefield, straightforward seems as good a path as any. From last Friday's edition of the Democrat-leaning Hill Buzz comes the following passage from an article by-lined "hillbuzz" about the recent re-airing of a possible romantic relationship between Barack Obama and Vera Baker:

That’s ridiculous.

Baker works for Burris because she’s damn good at what she does, is incredibly bright, and Baker’s well-connected with Burris’ team in Chicago. And, we repeat, she did not have an affair with Obama

This is all really suspicious, though, because during the campaign we truly believe the Obama team pushed the Baker affair story because they wanted people not to talk about Obama’s gay relationships.

Larry Sinclair, Reggie Jones, Kal Penn, Donald Young, nameless men at Man’s Country. You name it.

Who’s pushing the Baker business now, and why? Is there a himbo eruption coming for the White House, so they want to preemptively start rumors the current president is such a stud he’s bedding down a woman like Baker?

Could this have anything to do with the fact that, surreally, even people like Maureen Dowd have been hinting at a sexual relationship between Obama and his “basketball buddy” and “body man” Reggie Love…or is it linked to Kal Penn’s firing?

Is Penn threatening to talk?

Was he really robbed at gunpoint coincidentally in Dupont Circle, or was someone sending Penn a message not to talk about what went on with Obama?

It wouldn’t be the first time a man romantically linked to this president found himself in front of the business end of the gun.

Curiouser and curiouser.

As it happens, I don't particularly care if Our Man O is homo or phobe so long as he keeps it private and out of his politics. What pegs my Oh-Shit-O-Meter in the present example is that neither appears to be the case. Mr. Obama ran for office as a sincere (need I say hetero?) married man, with two kids, and now a dog, and all the standard trappings of familial bliss normally associated with all that. Who openly and matter of factly courted the homosexual community's vote and to whom promises were made and - not uniquely, sad to say - ultimately broken. As for the rest, there's simply no publicly available evidence to support speculation regarding the chain of events involving actor Kal Penn beyond their quite-possibly coincidental timing, but should that change then the apparent willingness to openly resort to violence must be publicly considered as well (an act of private thuggery or a corruption of official agency?).

For now, what we have is a decidedly Democratic Party-supporting publication openly speculating about a potential "himbo eruption" being preempted by the White House, and nobody else in the press (I'm looking at you Drudge) has anything to say about such a thing?

I thought Don't Ask Don't Tell was an unpopular policy.

h/t to James Hudnall's The Hud blog

5/7/10 Update: OK, maybe I was a little hasty describing Hill Buzz as "Democratic Party-supporting" above, see here for example.

We’ve been seeing a lot of people, across a wide spectrum, who consistently feel the current White House and Socialist-Democrats in office nationwide will manufacture a crisis that allows Obama to declare martial law and suspend November’s elections, declaring himself Lightbringer and, essentially, Pharaoh.

We don’t believe this will happen, because we think the slumbering giant of the American spirit is already waking from its nap. Socialist-Democrats and the White House don’t realize it yet, and the MSM is too busy running spin operations to pick up on it, but Democrats are toast. Party-ending toast. They went too far in the Golden Age of Hope and Change. People like us, who were lifelong partisan Democrats now hate the Democrat Party and work hard every day to do everything possible to take the DNC down, bankrupt it financially, and salt its ruins like vanquished Carthage.

[My Bold]

OK then! And Good Luck with all that, too.

Just to reiterate; my interest in all this has more to do with the determined lack of interest the media generally has demonstrated in the allegation raised by Hill Buzz rather than the nature of the allegation itself. What is of most concern to me is the degree and apparent fundamental nature of lie and distortion Barack Obama (and those who enable him) have consistently displayed throughout his public life. Disturbing behavior in any public figure, such conduct is potentially catastrophic for the entire country when performed by the President of the United States and well beyond the more-than-a-little-hyperbolic nostrum, "... lies, damned lies and politics".

Sorry for the inadvertent slander boys; mea culpa and all that.

Great Minds (snicker! :))

Via Instapundit comes notice of Jonah Goldberg's latest contribution to Commentary Magazine in which he examines the nature and degree of Barack Obama's putative socialism.

Ahem!

Obviously, Mr. Goldberg has gone into considerably more depth and provides much greater detail, but he gets paid to do all that . Nonetheless, we arrive at similar enough conclusions that I find myself sort of surprised.

I know, even a stopped clock gets it right twice a day. Allow me my moment, please.

Good one, Jonah; too bad about that slow editorial cycle. :)