Competitive Shooters Have a Combat Advantage

Sunday, August 7th, 2011

Competitive shooters and mixed martial artists have a combat advantage, according to special operator H.B.:

Real violence is not sporting; it is confusing, often grotesque, and characterized by intense physical effects upon combatants. In a real fight, the winner is often the individual or individuals who employ simple, effective maneuvers in a precise and deadly manner. But the application of these techniques in a fight can be quite difficult. Countless repetitions have to be performed for a gross motor skill, such as a punch, to be performed upon a resistant opponent. For a complex motor skill, such as marksmanship, thousands of repetitions are performed before an individual can utilize that technique against any sort of resistance. Therein lies the beauty of competition; competitive training does not dwell on tactics or mindset, but instead on the constant repetition of key skills. It is in this context that I believe that sporting events can function as a decisive training tool for martial-minded individuals.

Jeff Gurwitch, a former special operator turned competitive shooter, discusses the differences between military marksmanship and competitive shooting:

In the military, especially in Special Operations, the method of engagements are based on team tactics. Training on the range is conducted in support of covering angles and engaging targets in a certain order to facilitate shooting as a member of an assault team. That does not always equate to a good fast time when shooting as a lone shooter on a course of fire in a match. A good example of this would be having to shoot in ‘Tactical Priority’ (all targets get one shot before giving them another) in IDPA. This is totally contrary to military training. As a military shooter you would at least double-tap a target (shoot the target at least twice, rapidly) before moving on to the next one, knowing that your teammates are at the same time engaging the other targets. This works out to a “wall of lead” being thrown out to however many targets are present at the same time. So it is with this method of engaging targets that shooters are trained, with maximum emphasis on accuracy, then speed. Reason: your job is to drive down the target in your primary engagement zone.
[...]
I believe military training does get the edge over civilian competitive training in 2 areas: The first is moving and shooting. It is a necessity to be able to engage targets while on the move in CQB situations, and this is one skill at which Special Operations soldiers excel. Again, because training has to support team movements, shooting on the move is a key task trained-on with both pistol and rifle. Hands down, in a soldier’s first match against the average civilian competitor, you can bet soldiers are not afraid to take shots moving and are pretty good at it.

I must add, though, that shooting on the move is not always the fastest way to shoot a stage in a match. As many seasoned competitors know one of the best methods to take on a stage, especially field courses, is to move from point to point (as few possible) in a way that offers you the best view of the most targets at any one time, and then engage them that way, as opposed to trying to move at a set controlled pace and shoot on the move. This is the “game” part of competitive shooting that everyone, military and civilian, usually learn over time through experience.

The second area soldiers generally excel at is rifle shooting. Running an AR hard and fast is what Special Operations soldiers do. There are a few reasons: 1) the military has tons of ranges where soldiers can shoot anywhere from 25 meters out to 600 meters and beyond for practice. 2) ammunition for training is not usually an issue. Shooting 5000-7000 rounds of rifle ammo (per soldier) during pre-mission training over a period of a few weeks is not uncommon.

Posted in Education, Martial Arts, War | No Comments »

Probability of Pregnancy by Age

Saturday, August 6th, 2011

Razib Khan found that he had to do some digging to create his own chart of the probability of pregnancy by age, because most of the information out there is for women undergoing treatment for infertility.

Posted in Science | No Comments »

Old Europe as Tigana

Friday, August 5th, 2011

The fate of old, pre-World War Europe reminds Mencius Moldbug of Guy Gavriel Kay’s fantasy novel, Tigana:

The plot focuses on a group of rebels attempting to overthrow both tyrants and win back their homeland. Many of the rebels are natives of the province of Tigana, which was the province that most ably resisted Brandin: In a crucial battle, Brandin’s son was killed. In retaliation for this, Brandin attacked Tigana and crushed it more savagely than any other part of the Palm; then, following this victory, he used his magic to remove the name and history of Tigana from the minds of the population. Brandin named it Lower Corte, making Corte, their traditional enemies to their north, seem superior to a land that was all but forgotten.

Only those born in Tigana before the invasion can hear or speak its name, or remember it as it was; as far as everyone else is concerned, that area of the country has always been an insignificant part of a neighbouring province, hence the rebels are battling for the very soul of their country.

This makes more sense when you realize that modern Europe, according to Moldbug, was remade by the American Left after World War II, and old Europe was equated with fascism.

Posted in Media, Mencius Moldbug, Policy | No Comments »

Summer TV’s Top Target: Boys

Friday, August 5th, 2011

I’ve heard good things about Phineas and Ferb, but I didn’t realize the Disney show was part of a strategy to break out of their girl-orientation and target boys:

“We definitely set out to create a boy’s franchise. That was our goal. That group was underserved,” says Adam Sanderson, senior vice president, franchise management, at Disney-ABC Television Group. A nationwide live stadium show set for 85 cities, “Disney’s Phineas and Ferb: The Best Live Tour Ever!,” kicks off this summer.

Disney has put its licensing heft behind Phineas and Ferb, who have appeared on Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Johnson & Johnson’s Band-Aid bandages and Kellogg’s Fruit Snacks, among other products. Skateboards, guitars and raincoats sold at stores like Wal-Mart, Kohl’s and Target are geared to young adults, so little boys will aspire to have them, too. “Disney’s whole thing was to develop a boy’s brand because it’s always been about princesses,” says Griffin Bentley, vice president of licensing for Mad Engine Inc., of San Diego, which has sold more than two million “Phineas and Ferb” T-shirts since 2008.

The approach seems to be working. Of the series’ 1.3 million viewers ages 6 to 11, roughly 48% are boys, compared with 39% for the Disney Channel overall. In May, a “Phineas and Ferb” show launched at Disney World. A feature film is in development.

The 6-to-11 age range is television programmers’ sweet spot. TV for kids under 6 can be controversial, and shows aimed at preschoolers generally have an educational or an emotional lesson, which appeases parents and cuts down on criticism from advocacy groups looking to curb TV-watching among young children. But there’s no need for tricky educational story lines for older kids. Shows can be purely entertaining.

Starting somewhere around 6, kids start exercising more independence in their TV viewing. A 2010 study from ad-buying firm Horizon Media found 55% of 6- to 11-year-olds have a TV in their rooms. Advertisers, led by fast food and movie studios, spent $121 million last year to reach kids via network and cable TV, according to Kantar Media.

It’s also the age when boys’ viewing takes a sharp turn away from girls’. “Kids watch the same stuff until age 5 or 6, and then they start to diverge,” says Linda Simensky, vice president of children’s programming at PBS, which in January came out with “Wild Kratts,” an animated show about brothers who travel the world looking for animals and acquiring their characteristics.

Some time after viewers hit age 6, story lines that appeal to girls—about friendship, romance, gossiping—start to make boys cringe. Boys like TV shows about robots and action. They prefer shows with male leads.

And according to recent research, they also prefer animation. Cartoons have dominated preschool programming, but few recent animated shows have had the boy-only appeal of “Transformers,” “G.I. Joe” and other retro classics. Meanwhile, live-action shows, with few exceptions, have tended to feature female leads, whether it’s Disney shows with stars like Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus, or Nickelodeon’s “iCarly” (about girl with a Web show) and “Victorious” (about a girl at a performing-arts high school).

I’m still baffled that a media empire that has had so much success with princesses hasn’t found a way to work in a few masculine knights.

Posted in Business, Media | No Comments »

The Secret Origin of the Transformers

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Jim Shooter explains the convoluted origin of the Transformers:

In 1983, a toy company approached Marvel Comics seeking development of a toy property for comics, animation and other entertainment. The toys in question were cars and other vehicles that could be opened and unfolded into ROBOTS. Very cool.

The toy company was KNICKERBOCKER TOYS. They called their toy property, based on technology licensed from a Japanese company, the “MYSTERIONS.”

Marvel Comics was their second choice as a creative services provider. They had gone to DC Comics first. The executive who approached us showed us what DC had created for them. It was a comic book. He only had photocopies. I don’t believe the thing was ever printed.

It was awful.
[...]
So, we made a deal and began work. I wrote the back story and the treatment for the first story. They loved it.

The plan was for us to publish comics and for our studio, Marvel Productions, to produce a number of animated half-hours — six, I think. I forget. We would launch just before the pre-sale of the toys. Then follow it up in the spring when the initial wave of low price point items shipped. The usual.

We were asked to come to a meeting at Knickerbocker’s offices out in the wilds of Jersey somewhere.
[...]
The next day we learned that, just before our meeting, Hasbro had announced that it was acquiring Knickerbocker. Shakeup, indeed.

The deal with Knickerbocker fell victim to the takeover by Hasbro. The Hollywood term for similar events is “turnaround.” Projects begun by previous administrations are automatically put into turnaround, that is, on hold — usually permanently.
[...]
Some months later, the Hasbro exec who was Marvel’s main contact, Bob Prupis, came to my office. He pulled a few toy vehicles out of his bag and proceeded to open and unfold them into ROBOTS.

They were bigger and much more complex than the Mysterions. Different Japanese technology, same general idea.

Hasbro, he said, had the rights to the technology and toys based upon it. The problem, he said was story. He said that the Japanese storyline associated with the toys wasn’t useful. Japanese kids, apparently, don’t require much justification. Cars become robots, robots become cars. Well, of course they do. What do you mean, “why?”

(P.S. To this day I’ve never read or seen any of the Japanese storyline.)

American kids, he thought would like to know why. Did I think we could develop this toy concept for comics, animation and other entertainment the way we developed G.I. JOE?

Sure.

I didn’t mention the Mysterons, but, hey, if I could do it once, I figured I could do it again. I had to wonder, though, whether the Knickerbocker Mysterions somehow inspired Hasbro’s acquisition of the Transformers toys and technology.

Following the success of G.I. JOE, these toy developments had become a regular thing.

Marc Miyake has this to add:

As for the Japanese storylines associated with the Transformers before they became the Transformers, I can assure you they were detailed with logic behind the transformations: e.g., the transforming cassette tapes and so on were part of a boy’s secret arsenal against an alien invasion. And the transforming cars were supposed to fool alien invaders who would otherwise shoot at obvious military vehicles. I speak and read Japanese, and I spent my youth reading the backstories in the catalogs for Takara’s Microman and Diaclone lines. These backstories were expanded upon in spinoff manga: e.g., Yoshihiro Moritou’s Microman which ran in Japan’s TV Magazine for years. It would have been easy to fuse the backstories and adapt this existing material for the US market. (I spent 7th and 8th grade figuring out how to do that!) But for whatever reason, Hasbro didn’t like the Japanese backstories, and the Transformers backstory you created has endured 27 years, eclipsing the originals even in Japan itself.

Posted in Business, Media | No Comments »

Breivik’s Mother

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

I was aware that Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik’s father had remarried multiple times and abandoned Anders at a young age. I hadn’t heard much about Breivik’s mother though:

According to him, she has been debilitated by an STD. At the age of 48, she married a man who regularly frequents hookers in Thailand, and she contracted herpes.

In his words (pg. 1172):

The herpes infection went to her brain and caused meningitis (this condition is usually rare and occurs in less than 1% of herpes infected individuals). As a result of this brain infection, which prevented the spinal fluid from flowing freely, she had to operate a shunt into her brain as the herpes attacks occurred regularly. She was forced into early retirement as a result and her life quality has been significantly reduces since, and she now has the intellectual capacity of a 10 year old. Her STD has not only cause her much hardships, but it has also cost her and the state up to 1 million Euro.

Both my sister and my mother have not only shamed me but they have shamed themselves and our family. A family that was broken in the first place due to secondary effects of the feministic/sexual revolution. I can only imagine how many people are suffering from STDs as a result of the current lack of sexual moral.

Delightful family.

(Hat tip to Mencius Moldbug.)

Posted in Mencius Moldbug, Policy | No Comments »

U.S. Weapons Now in Somali Terrorists’ Hands

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

It apparently surprises some people that U.S. weapons are falling into Somali terrorists’ hands:

Bad news in America’s five-year-old proxy war against al-Qaida-allied Somali insurgents. Half of the U.S.-supplied weaponry that enables cash-strapped Ugandan and Burundian troops to fight Somalia’s al-Shabab terror group is winding up in al-Shabab’s hands.

The kicker: it’s the cash-strapped Ugandans who are selling the weapons to the insurgents.

This revelation, buried in U.N. reports and highlighted by controversial war correspondent Robert Young Pelton at his new Somalia Report website, raises some unsettling questions about Washington’s plans to out-source more wars in the future.

Posted in Policy, War | 2 Comments »

Vote For Top-100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Titles

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

NPR is torturing geeks by asking them to vote for the top 100 science fiction and fantasy titles of all time.  Or at least I feel tortured by the limit of 10 votes.

Here is the long list of choices:

  • The Acts Of Caine Series, by Matthew Woodring Stover
  • The Algebraist, by Iain M. Banks
  • Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan
  • American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
  • Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
  • Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
  • Animal Farm, by George Orwell
  • The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers
  • Armor, by John Steakley
  • The Baroque Cycle, by Neal Stephenson
  • Battlefield Earth, by L. Ron Hubbard
  • Beggars In Spain, by Nancy Kress
  • The Belgariad, by David Eddings
  • The Black Company Series, by Glen Cook
  • The Black Jewels Series, by Anne Bishop
  • The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
  • Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
  • Bridge Of Birds, by Barry Hughart
  • The Callahan’s Series, by Spider Robinson
  • A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
  • The Cat Who Walked Through Walls, by Robert Heinlein
  • Cat’s Cradle , by Kurt Vonnegut
  • The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
  • The Change Series, by S.M. Stirling
  • Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
  • Children Of God, by Mary Doria Russell
  • The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
  • The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
  • The City And The City, by China Mieville
  • City And The Stars, by Arthur C. Clarke
  • A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
  • The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
  • The Coldfire Trilogy, by C.S. Friedman
  • The Commonwealth Saga, by Peter F. Hamilton
  • The Company Wars, by C.J. Cherryh
  • The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
  • Contact, by Carl Sagan
  • Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
  • The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
  • The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
  • The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
  • The Day of Triffids, by John Wyndham
  • Deathbird Stories, by Harlan Ellison
  • The Deed of Paksennarion Trilogy, by Elizabeth Moon
  • The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester
  • The Deverry Cycle, by Katharine Kerr
  • Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany
  • The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
  • The Difference Engine, by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
  • The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
  • Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
  • Don’t Bite The Sun, by Tanith Lee
  • Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
  • Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
  • Dreamsnake, by Vonda McIntyre
  • The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
  • Earth, by David Brin
  • Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart
  • The Eisenhorn Omnibus, by Dan Abnett
  • The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
  • Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
  • Eon, by Greg Bear
  • The Eyes Of The Dragon, by Stephen King
  • The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
  • The Faded Sun Trilogy, by C.J. Cherryh
  • Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser Series, by Fritz Leiber
  • Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
  • The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
  • The Female Man, by Joanna Russ
  • The Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy, by Guy Gavriel Kay
  • A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
  • The First Law Trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie
  • Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
  • The Foreigner Series, by C.J. Cherryh
  • The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
  • The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
  • Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
  • The Gaea Trilogy, by John Varley
  • The Gap Series, by Stephen R. Donaldson
  • The Gate To Women’s Country, by Sheri S. Tepper
  • Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
  • The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway
  • The Gormenghast Trilogy, by Mervyn Peake
  • Grass, by Sheri S. Tepper
  • Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon
  • The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
  • Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End of The World, by Haruki Murakami
  • The Heechee Saga, by Frederik Pohl
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
  • The Hollows Series, by Kim Harrison
  • House Of Leaves, by Mark Danielewski
  • The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
  • I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
  • I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
  • The Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
  • The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
  • The Incarnations Of Immortality Series, by Piers Anthony
  • The Inheritance Trilogy, by N.K. Jemisin
  • Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
  • A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
  • Kindred, by Octavia Butler
  • The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
  • Kraken, by China Mieville
  • The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
  • Last Call, by Tim Powers
  • The Last Coin, by James P. Blaylock
  • The Last Herald Mage Trilogy, by Mercedes Lackey
  • The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
  • The Lathe Of Heaven, by Ursula K. LeGuin
  • The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
  • The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
  • The Lensman Series, by E.E. Smith
  • The Liaden Universe Series, by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
  • The Lies Of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
  • Lilith’s Brood, by Octavia Butler
  • Little, Big, by John Crowley
  • The Liveship Traders Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
  • Lord Of Light, by Roger Zelazny
  • The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • Lord Valentine’s Castle, by Robert Silverberg
  • Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
  • Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees
  • The Magicians, by Lev Grossman
  • The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
  • The Man In The High Castle, by Philip K. Dick
  • The Manifold Trilogy, by Stephen Baxter
  • The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
  • Memory And Dream, by Charles de Lint
  • Memory, Sorrow, And Thorn Trilogy, by Tad Williams
  • Mindkiller, by Spider Robinson
  • The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
  • The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
  • The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
  • Mordant’s Need, by Stephen Donaldson
  • More Than Human, by Theodore Sturgeon
  • The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
  • The Naked Sun, by Isaac Asimov
  • The Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy, by Robert J. Sawyer
  • Neuromancer, by William Gibson
  • Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
  • The Newsflesh Trilogy, by Mira Grant
  • The Night’s Dawn Trilogy, by Peter F. Hamilton
  • Novels Of The Company, by Kage Baker
  • Norstrilia, by Cordwainer Smith
  • The Number Of The Beast, by Robert Heinlein
  • Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
  • On Basilisk Station, by David Weber
  • The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
  • Oryx And Crake, by Margaret Atwood
  • The Otherland Tetralogy, by Tad Williams
  • The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
  • Parable Of The Sower, by Octavia Butler
  • The Passage, by Justin Cronin
  • Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson
  • Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
  • The Prestige, by Christopher Priest
  • The Pride Of Chanur, by C.J. Cherryh
  • The Prince Of Nothing Trilogy, by R. Scott Bakker
  • The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
  • Rainbows End, by Vernor Vinge
  • Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
  • Replay, by Ken Grimwood
  • Revelation Space, by Alistair Reynolds
  • Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban
  • The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
  • Ringworld, by Larry Niven
  • The Riverworld Series, by Philip Jose Farmer
  • The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
  • The Saga Of Pliocene Exile, by Julian May
  • The Saga Of Recluce, by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
  • The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
  • The Sarantine Mosaic Series, by Guy Gavriel Kay
  • A Scanner Darkly, by Philip K. Dick
  • The Scar, by China Mieville
  • The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
  • The Shattered Chain Trilogy, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
  • The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Sirens Of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
  • Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
  • The Snow Queen, by Joan D. Vinge
  • Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem
  • Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
  • Song for the Basilisk, by Patricia McKillip
  • A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
  • The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis
  • The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell
  • The Stainless Steel Rat Books, by Harry Harrison
  • Stand On Zanzibar, by John Brunner
  • The Stand, by Stephen King
  • Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
  • The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester
  • Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
  • Stations Of The Tide, by Michael Swanwick
  • Steel Beach, by John Varley
  • Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
  • Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
  • The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
  • The Swordspoint Trilogy, by Ellen Kushner
  • The Tales of Alvin Maker, by Orson Scott Card
  • The Temeraire Series, by Naomi Novik
  • The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
  • Tigana , by Guy Gavriel Kay
  • Time Enough For Love, by Robert Heinlein
  • The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
  • The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
  • To Say Nothing Of The Dog, by Connie Willis
  • The Troy Trilogy, by David Gemmell
  • Ubik, by Philip K. Dick
  • The Uplift Saga, by David Brin
  • The Valdemar Series, by Mercedes Lackey
  • VALIS, by Philip K. Dick
  • Venus On The Half-Shell, by Kilgore Trout/Philip Jose Farmer
  • The Vlad Taltos Series, by Steven Brust
  • The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
  • The Vurt Trilogy, by Jeff Noon
  • The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
  • Watchmen, by Alan Moore
  • Watership Down, by Richard Adams
  • The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
  • Way Station, by Clifford D. Simak
  • We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin
  • The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
  • When Gravity Fails, by George Alec Effinger
  • Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
  • Wild Seed, by Octavia Butler
  • The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi
  • World War Z, by Max Brooks
  • The Worm Ouroboros, by E.R. Edison
  • The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
  • The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, by Michael Chabon
  • 1632, by Eric Flint
  • 1984, by George Orwell
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
  • 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne

I may need some help deciding how to cast my final votes.

Posted in Media | 6 Comments »

Fatah Youth condemns Norway attacks

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

The Ma’an News Agency reports that the Fatah Youth released a statement on Saturday condemning the recent attack against their Norwegian Labor Youth comrades:

“It is with consternation that we have received the dramatic news of an awful terrorist attack against a summer camp ran by our comrades of Norwegian Labor Youth ‘AUF,’” the statement said.

The Fatah Youth group had taken part in the summer camp in the past on the Island of Utoya, near Oslo, where over 90 people were reportedly killed in a shooting spree on the Island and a bomb attack in Oslo on Friday, news reports said.

“Fatah Youth declares its consternation about the terror attack. There are no words to describe an attack against people that have been our comrades in our struggle for freedom and independence. Very few people have stood by our side as much as the Norwegian people, and particularly our AUF comrades.”

“We know those who have been cowardly assassinated. Those are people that have stood for the human and national rights of the Palestinian people both in Europe and while visiting Palestine.

“Fatah Youth has participated for almost 15 years in the same summer camp and our youth has benefited by learning and sharing experiences on democracy and advocacy for peace and justice.

“We hope that those responsible for this criminal terror attack will be brought to justice. Such sick minds should not have a place in any society.

“As a people that has been victim of state terror for the last 64 years, the Palestinian people and particularly Fatah Youth presents its condolences to the families of those killed and sends a strong message of support to our comrades from the Norwegian AUF as well as from other sister parties that were participating in this summer camp,” the statement concluded.

A commenter at Lawrence Auster’s site follows up another comment with this:

“Fatah is Norwegian Labour’s sister party through the Socialist International.”

This sentence is so fascinating. It is like finding a living fossil in a quiet, bucolic, farm pond. It is like walking into a small town general store and finding life-sized images of Lenin and Stalin hung in places of honor.

The sad history of the 20th century is studded with horrible episodes, and often one finds the Socialist International bound up in them. Mussolini broke with the Socialist International over Italy’s entry into World War One, but took much of his Fascist philosophy from that organization. If I recall correctly, Orwell mentions the Socialist International in “Homage to Catalonia” more than once, not always in a favorable context to be sure. The various Soviet-run “peace” groups of the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s were almost always affiliated with the SI.

Vidkun Quisling’s party had a sister party, too, through a different Socialist organization. It seems to me that Norwegian Labor’s alliance with Fatah is a lot closer to Quisling’s alliance than the left would care to admit.

(Hat tip to Mencius Moldbug.)

Posted in Mencius Moldbug, Policy | 1 Comment »

Extraordinary teachers can’t overcome poor classroom situations

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

An LA teacher argues that even extraordinary teachers can’t overcome poor classroom situations, like the kind she faces:

The kid in the back wants me to define “logic.” The girl next to him looks bewildered. The boy in front of me dutifully takes notes even though he has severe auditory processing issues and doesn’t understand a word I’m saying. Eight kids forgot their essays, but one has a good excuse because she had another epileptic seizure last night. The shy, quiet girl next to me hasn’t done homework for weeks, ever since she was jumped by a knife-wielding gangbanger as she walked to school. The boy next to her is asleep with his head on the desk because he works nights at a factory to support his family. Across the room, a girl weeps quietly for reasons I’ll never know. I’m trying to explain to a student what I meant when I wrote “clarify your thinking” on his essay, but he’s still confused.

It’s 8:15 a.m. and already I’m behind my scheduled lesson. A kid with dyslexia, ADD and anger-management problems walks in late, throws his books on the desk and swears at me when I tell him to take off his hood.

The class, one of five I teach each day, has 31 students, including two with learning disabilities, one who just moved here from Mexico, one with serious behavior problems, 10 who flunked this class last year and are repeating, seven who test below grade level, three who show up halfway through class every day, one who almost never comes. I need to reach all 31 of them, including the brainiac who’s so bored she’s reading “Lolita” under her desk.

I just can’t do it.

After describing “the challenges of teaching a large and diverse class,” she argues against large classes — but not against diverse classes:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently said that, in his view, the billions spent in the U.S. to reduce class size was a bad idea. Many countries with high academic achievement, he noted, have accepted larger class sizes to pay talented teachers more and concentrate larger numbers of kids with the best teachers. “The best thing you can do,” he said recently in an interview with Andrea Mitchell, “is get children in front of an extraordinary teacher.”

That’s a common viewpoint at the moment. Every day I see data showing that in countries such as Japan and South Korea, students score higher in reading and math, often with larger classes, and that the U.S. has spent a tremendous amount of money reducing class size to little effect.

But a huge percentage of students in Japan and South Korea pay for after-school tutoring to make up for a lack of individualized attention at school. Finland, with the best scores in the world, has average class sizes in the 20s, and it caps science labs at 16. Still, it’s become a popular fantasy that all you need is a superstar teacher, and that he or she will be just as effective even as budget cuts force us to pack more kids into each classroom.

I’m sure her students would thrive with a little after-school tutoring. That must be what’s missing.

Posted in Education, Policy | 2 Comments »

Such a Nice Boy

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

Recently, around 11 PM in a “bad” part of Chicago, police shot a teenager who was holding a gun. It turned out to be a realistic-looking BB gun.

Anyway, here is the photo his family sent the media:

And here’s how his photo appeared in the media.

Naturally the cop community considers this yet another media cover-up designed to make them look bad:

It has been pointed out to us by a number of commentators that he is representing one of the most violent street gangs ever to grace the streets of Chicago, namely the vice lords. It has also been mentioned that the nearby Piccolo Elementary School has suffered a rash of windows being shot out by BB’s over the past week along with neighborhood cars. Also, the time of the shooting (after 2300 hours) indicates a curfew violation. But none of this is being covered in the media reports now. All we’re hearing is how police are too heavy handed, Jimmell was a good boy, there was no gun, blah blah blah.

A commenter emailed the reporter:

Your first picture on the tribune website, WAS CROPPED, to eliminate the fact this teen was flashing GANG SIGNS. The full picture is available all over the internet. Now your picture of this teen in the hospital is bordering on scandalous. How dare your newspaper use these subtle techniques to slant the news. The fact is he had a realistic looking gun. Was already in the grip of a street gang, these are the things your story should mention, and that this is a BIG problem with youth in certain areas of the city. These are the facts. I feel sorry for the officer and the rest of the CPD that the trouble that your slanted biased coverage will cause. Yellow Journalism is alive and well in Chicago.

The reporter replied:

A couple of things…

Our “first” picture — I take it you mean the first photo we posted — was uncropped. If you’re a regular reader on our site, you’ll know that most of the pictures we post are cropped, so our photo folks cropped it as they always do.

I’m not aware whether the picture is “all over the internet” but we posted it with the family’s permission.

I don’t know if the gun in question was realistic looking, I haven’t seen it, though from past experience, many BB or pellet guns do look like their real counterparts. I don’t know if he was “already in the grips” of gang life, either.

Yellow journalism refers to the sensationalism of the news. What you’re accusing us of is the exact opposite: still incorrect, but not yellow journalism by its definition. Your statement is wrong because it flatly states that we as a newspaper, or I, as a journalist, have a pre-determined point of view.

I’m a fact gatherer. Sometimes we get the facts, sometimes we don’t. Whatever we get, we pass it on to our readers.

I like to interact with readers. I like it even better when they’re correctly informed.

I hope this clears a few things up.

W.

(Hat tip to Mencius Moldbug, who considers this a dispatch from the real America.)

Posted in Mencius Moldbug, Policy | No Comments »

Secrets of the Navy SEALs

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

Popular Mechanics looks at the secrets of the Navy SEALs, emphasizing the new technologies they might deploy in hypothetical scenarios dubbed conceptual operations and illustrated with these graphics:

Posted in Technology, War | No Comments »

I’m prepared too

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

Dilbert is preparing for the complete meltdown of our financial system. So is his coworker. (Hat tip à mon père.)

Posted in Policy, War, Weapons | No Comments »

Hitler Was a Control-Freak

Monday, August 1st, 2011

The German army had a proud history of giving only high-level orders and allowing its junior officers to exercise their creativity — but Hitler was a control-freak, as von Mellenthin (Panzer Battles) explains:

Hitler’s method of direct command hastened Germany’s defeat. Orders to “fight for every foot” had disastrous effects. But apart from strategy, his methods of control affected the whole war machine. In democratic states the branches of the armed forces and the various aspects of war economy and industry were firmly coordinated, but in Germany there was a strange separation into independent powers. The army, the navy, the air force, the SS, the Organization Todt, the NSDAP, the commissariats, the numerous branches of economy, all worked separately, but all received their orders directly from Hitler.

At home and on the front these branches ceased to function together and began to work on their own, the one regardless of the needs of the other. The reason for this strange and sinister phenomenon was undoubtedly Hitler’s craving for power and his distrust of any independent force. The old motto, “divide and rule,” was carried to its logical absurdity. To keep the army in its place the Waffen-SS was created.

Posted in Panzer Battles, Policy, War | 1 Comment »

Planning and Executing the Mission to Get Bin Laden

Monday, August 1st, 2011

Nicholas Schmidle’s New Yorker piece on planning and executing the mission to get Bin Laden lacks the Soldier of Fortune tone, but it nonetheless gets to the requisite “shopping list” soon enough:

James, a broad-chested man in his late thirties, does not have the lithe swimmer’s frame that one might expect of a SEAL — he is built more like a discus thrower. That night, he wore a shirt and trousers in Desert Digital Camouflage, and carried a silenced Sig Sauer P226 pistol, along with extra ammunition; a CamelBak, for hydration; and gel shots, for endurance. He held a short-barrel, silenced M4 rifle. (Others SEALs had chosen the Heckler & Koch MP7.) A “blowout kit,” for treating field trauma, was tucked into the small of James’s back. Stuffed into one of his pockets was a laminated gridded map of the compound. In another pocket was a booklet with photographs and physical descriptions of the people suspected of being inside. He wore a noise-cancelling headset, which blocked out nearly everything besides his heartbeat.

The assault plan was honed at replica sites in North Carolina and Nevada:

Helo one was to hover over the yard, drop two fast ropes, and let all twelve SEALs slide down into the yard. Helo two would fly to the northeast corner of the compound and let out Ahmed [the translator], Cairo [the dog], and four SEALs, who would monitor the perimeter of the building. The copter would then hover over the house, and James and the remaining six SEALs would shimmy down to the roof. As long as everything was cordial, Ahmed would hold curious neighbors at bay. The SEALs and the dog could assist more aggressively, if needed. Then, if bin Laden was proving difficult to find, Cairo could be sent into the house to search for false walls or hidden doors. “This wasn’t a hard op,” the special-operations officer told me. “It would be like hitting a target in McLean” — the upscale Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C.

The replicas weren’t quite perfect:

On the office’s modestly sized LCD screen, helo one — grainy and black-and-white — appeared above the compound, then promptly ran into trouble.

When the helicopter began getting away from the pilot, he pulled back on the cyclic, which controls the pitch of the rotor blades, only to find the aircraft unresponsive. The high walls of the compound and the warm temperatures had caused the Black Hawk to descend inside its own rotor wash — a hazardous aerodynamic situation known as “settling with power.” In North Carolina, this potential problem had not become apparent, because the chain-link fencing used in rehearsals had allowed air to flow freely. A former helicopter pilot with extensive special-operations experience said of the pilot’s situation, “It’s pretty spooky — I’ve been in it myself. The only way to get out of it is to push the cyclic forward and fly out of this vertical silo you’re dropping through. That solution requires altitude. If you’re settling with power at two thousand feet, you’ve got plenty of time to recover. If you’re settling with power at fifty feet, you’re going to hit the ground.”

The pilot scrapped the plan to fast-rope and focussed on getting the aircraft down. He aimed for an animal pen in the western section of the compound. The SEALs on board braced themselves as the tail rotor swung around, scraping the security wall. The pilot jammed the nose forward to drive it into the dirt and prevent his aircraft from rolling onto its side. Cows, chickens, and rabbits scurried. With the Black Hawk pitched at a forty-five-degree angle astride the wall, the crew sent a distress call to the idling Chinooks.

James and the SEALs in helo two watched all this while hovering over the compound’s northeast corner. The second pilot, unsure whether his colleagues were taking fire or experiencing mechanical problems, ditched his plan to hover over the roof. Instead, he landed in a grassy field across the street from the house.

No American was yet inside the residential part of the compound. Mark and his team were inside a downed helicopter at one corner, while James and his team were at the opposite end. The teams had barely been on target for a minute, and the mission was already veering off course.

“Eternity is defined as the time be tween when you see something go awry and that first voice report,” the special-operations officer said. The officials in Washington viewed the aerial footage and waited anxiously to hear a military communication. The senior adviser to the President compared the experience to watching “the climax of a movie.”

After a few minutes, the twelve SEALs inside helo one recovered their bearings and calmly relayed on the radio that they were proceeding with the raid. They had conducted so many operations over the past nine years that few things caught them off guard. In the months after the raid, the media have frequently suggested that the Abbottabad operation was as challenging as Operation Eagle Claw and the “Black Hawk Down” incident, but the senior Defense Department official told me that “this was not one of three missions. This was one of almost two thousand missions that have been conducted over the last couple of years, night after night.” He likened the routine of evening raids to “mowing the lawn.” On the night of May 1st alone, special-operations forces based in Afghanistan conducted twelve other missions; according to the official, those operations captured or killed between fifteen and twenty targets. “Most of the missions take off and go left,” he said. “This one took off and went right.”

Let’s skip ahead:

A second SEAL stepped into the room and trained the infrared laser of his M4 on bin Laden’s chest. The Al Qaeda chief, who was wearing a tan shalwar kameez and a prayer cap on his head, froze; he was unarmed. “There was never any question of detaining or capturing him — it wasn’t a split-second decision. No one wanted detainees,” the special-operations officer told me. (The Administration maintains that had bin Laden immediately surrendered he could have been taken alive.) Nine years, seven months, and twenty days after September 11th, an American was a trigger pull from ending bin Laden’s life. The first round, a 5.56-mm. bullet, struck bin Laden in the chest. As he fell backward, the SEAL fired a second round into his head, just above his left eye. On his radio, he reported, “For God and country — Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo.” After a pause, he added, “Geronimo E.K.I.A.” — “enemy killed in action.”

Hearing this at the White House, Obama pursed his lips, and said solemnly, to no one in particular, “We got him.”

Posted in War | No Comments »

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