tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70390938706221731192024-02-20T15:35:53.781+11:00Daniel Keating's blogAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-68013003599033495172013-07-07T13:16:00.000+10:002013-07-07T13:16:32.679+10:00Ground fighting and dealing with conflict in "The Street"<b>This thread on Bullshido has a string of great responses to the "NEVER GO TO THE GROUND IN TEH STR33T" philosophy. I'll post the best bits here. </b><br />
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<b>The OP:</b><br />
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<i>Don't ever take a fight to the ground or willingly allow yourself to be put onto the ground.</i><br />
<i>For me it is the golden rule of streetfighting.</i><br />
<i>You don't know how many buddies this guy has around the corner just waiting for you to hit the concrete.</i><br />
<i>In toxteth in Liverpool it is practically a death sentence to take a fight to the ground, because guaranteed there will be 15 - 20 guys who will jump in and stomp the crap out of you, whether they are anything to do with the fight or not.</i><br />
<i>Keep to your feet in case you need to take to your heels.</i><br />
<i>Of course if you get taken down hard you need good ground game, but only to get them off of you so you can get back up.</i><br />
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<b>The first response:</b><br />
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<i>Streetfighting... you've done some of that then ?</i><br />
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<i>Given it's your "golden rule" I'm gaining the impression from that, that this is something you're actively involved in.</i><br />
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<i>Give me an example, if you'd be kind enough to indulge me when...</i><br />
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<i>The last occasion you were required to street fight, and the circumstances of that situation where you'd found yourself unable to avoid it. </i><br />
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<i>I ask because having spent a number of years employed within a role which required conflict resolution dealing with people whom, some of which, had little to lose from inflicting serious bodily harm, if not death on others, EVERY encounter ultimately ended up on the floor no matter how many people were involved.</i><br />
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<i>There are three types of control mechanism which resolves human conflict.</i><br />
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<i>1. AVOIDANCE </i><br />
<i>2. PHYSICAL RESTRAINT </i><br />
<i>3. INCAPACITY</i><br />
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<i>- Avoidance is by far the best option but isn't always 100% in your control</i><br />
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<i>- Physical Restraint requires you (or someone else) to retain a hold of some description but will often require that person to be prone for the restraint to be fully effective for any period of time.</i><br />
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<i>- Incapacity of your opponent by KO</i><br />
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<i>You're able to hit/kick or choke-out your opponent to the point where they have nothing left.</i><br />
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<i>Now, unless we're training regularly in a system which is proven to fully function against opponents who are actively resisting what we wish to do to them, options 2 & 3 are actually incredibly difficult to achieve with any degree of consistency. Being able to choke-out means you're likely not being on your feet when you do it - so we're on the ground, high kicking is a risky option in many respects and you're not always in an environment where you can effectively do it. Finally, hitting a moving target whilst under stress and doing so effectively and hard enough within the first few seconds of conflict is likewise very difficult to achieve - more to the point you have no idea until you actually hit the individual for the first time, how they're going to cope/compensate your attempts at a KO strike.</i><br />
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<i>What I've driving at here is there's no single solution at dealing with conflict.</i><br />
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<i>In some respects I'm agreeing with the sentiments of your original post however, learning how to effectively deal with being taken to the ground, obtaining positional advantage, then being able to fight or flight from there is far better than just learning a stand up game... Because, every cuntfuck who looks for trouble of this sort will want to put you in, what they will inherently see as a position of disadvantage, by taking that shit to the floor. They may do this intentionally or subconsciously but in a game with no rules the floor provides the ideal place to stop someone from easy escape.</i><br />
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<b>And a few other great posts:</b><br />
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<i>You'll have to tell us how you manage to deal with 15-20 people joining in while you're still on your feet. </i><br />
<i>-------------------</i><br />
<i>Maybe you need more friends? It always seems people are worried about the other guy having friends. My friends usually spend 3-4 days a week punching, choking, and slamming people. You should probably be worried about my friends.</i><br />
<i>-------------------</i><br />
<i>Okay, now how do you avoid being taken there unwillingly if your opponent(s) are practised and experienced in takedowns and you're not practised and experienced in defending takedown attempts?</i><br />
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<b>Entire thread:</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=121295&p=2788645">http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=121295&p=2788645</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-80621261920472079622013-06-19T01:04:00.001+10:002013-06-19T01:04:58.293+10:00Illustrations for essay by Damon Young published in Meanjin<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
Damon Young, the erudite and dapper young philosopher from Melbourne, has once again been gracious enough to commission some artwork from me. Here are a few words from the beginning of the essay:</div>
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<i>A blond, square-jawed man is splayed on the stone steps of the New York Federal Courthouse. Blood runs from his mouth. The white star on his chest is spattered. He is muscular but limp. Two figures crouch over him: a man in a black leather jacket, sunglasses and a baseball cap, and a woman in a black and white paramilitary uniform. The first swears. The second cradles the downed man’s head, screaming ‘no’ and whispering, ‘Oh God, Steve.’</i></div>
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<i>There is no divine miracle for Steve Rogers. He dies of gunshot wounds, still in handcuffs. Placards are on display nearby: ‘Free Captain America’ and ‘Cap Traitor’. Captain America is arrested by his own government and assassinated outside an iconic house of law.</i></div>
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<i>It is testament to the power of contemporary superhero comics that this scene, in Ed Brubaker’s Captain America no. 25, actually moved me. I was surprised.</i></div>
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Read the rest here:</div>
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<a href="http://meanjin.com.au/articles/post/illustrating-ethical-dilemmas/">http://meanjin.com.au/articles/post/illustrating-ethical-dilemmas/</a></div>
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And here are the pictures I drew'd:</div>
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<a href="http://meanjin.com.au/static/files/assets/b950cdf6/Young1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://meanjin.com.au/static/files/assets/b950cdf6/Young1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://meanjin.com.au/static/files/assets/bfd886a2/Damon1_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://meanjin.com.au/static/files/assets/bfd886a2/Damon1_large.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-31787730612273948252013-05-19T19:17:00.000+10:002013-05-19T19:17:06.290+10:00Why the ignorant, unskilled and inept over-estimate their abilities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkOp7rEt7-Dcsy4AaSQjXbZlV6nPiy47dLRBPM6RaX7ObgfQofkR-KLDsu9bBwxTEfZ9MjEMqmDoFkh4Ii-Nhe3PZnR_vHRRy2gnjxjwFBl0t3bWpB_d7HJrfv3eRBXc7eeKxAE0TmbIs/s1600/Bertrand+Russell+Dunning+Kruger+effect.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="419" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkOp7rEt7-Dcsy4AaSQjXbZlV6nPiy47dLRBPM6RaX7ObgfQofkR-KLDsu9bBwxTEfZ9MjEMqmDoFkh4Ii-Nhe3PZnR_vHRRy2gnjxjwFBl0t3bWpB_d7HJrfv3eRBXc7eeKxAE0TmbIs/s640/Bertrand+Russell+Dunning+Kruger+effect.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes.</div>
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Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell University conclude, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others".</div>
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Dunning and Kruger proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:</div>
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1. tend to overestimate their own level of skill;</div>
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2. fail to recognize genuine skill in others;</div>
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3. fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy;</div>
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4. recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if they are exposed to training for that skill.</div>
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Meanwhile, people who find tasks to be relatively easy erroneously assume, to some extent, that the tasks must also be easy for others, and so under-rate their own abilities.</div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-75458589154490648542013-05-05T21:51:00.000+10:002013-05-05T21:51:38.961+10:00A music playlistI started making a youtube music playlist. 3 hours later I've had to force myself to stop adding tracks... Hope you enjoy it.<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tcVLIN1cJQ8?list=PLWVWmdcWwLkTBxK286xptcSzKivIb46w1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-16939002272649721402013-03-30T16:44:00.002+11:002013-03-30T18:05:38.194+11:00Hot cross buns contain palm oil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSp128NrSiYkVwZQY3qW88-XFM5kDKUk-PVb0VfFjsu9T3ptiNq1IxcXSOAU50QphturheI55ca9hCHJkEjh1z0fO9JbXNP9MM4oJYlWhVyAbwJJqMiSjKluIWFq0Vrc_EMS7MRXfinTM/s1600/hot+cross+bun+contains+palm+oil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Hot cross buns contain palm oil" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSp128NrSiYkVwZQY3qW88-XFM5kDKUk-PVb0VfFjsu9T3ptiNq1IxcXSOAU50QphturheI55ca9hCHJkEjh1z0fO9JbXNP9MM4oJYlWhVyAbwJJqMiSjKluIWFq0Vrc_EMS7MRXfinTM/s320/hot+cross+bun+contains+palm+oil.jpg" title="Hot cross buns contain palm oil" width="320" /></a></div>
I first noticed a few posts on Facebook about palm oil, then today I saw it on the news - hot cross buns from Woolworths and Coles contain palm oil, sourced from growers who destroy the habit of Orangutans.<br />
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<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-30/consumer-backlash-over-palm-oil-hot-cross-buns/4601930">http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-30/consumer-backlash-over-palm-oil-hot-cross-buns/4601930</a><br />
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To me, the real news was how few people actually knew about this. They also don't seem to realise that about half the products available at any supermarket contain palm oil, it just happens to be that Coles and Woollies decided to label this particular product as containing palm oil specifically. They absolutely could not have predicted the public reaction.<br />
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So now some people are boycotting these buns, and in some cases the supermarkets. I really think this is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. In a sea of lava. Populated by fireproof sharks.<br />
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It's simply guilt mitigation.<br />
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The problem isn't farmers in Indonesia, or Coles or Woollies. It's the fact that you exist.<br />
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You're reading this on a computer which is connected to the internet, so I'm going to make some assumptions which should be pretty accurate for the majority of you.<br />
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To eat, you have to damage or destroy multiple ecosystems. Industrial agriculture is about commandeering land and replacing it with food production for humans. You have to mine Phosphorus from places like Morocco, and transport it to your country to manufacture fertiliser. Both the transport and the creation of fertiliser requires massive amounts of fossil fuels. Farming requires lots of fresh water, which comprises about 1% of the total water on the planet. No matter what you eat, even if you're vegetarian, you're funding this process.<br />
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The plastic in every object in your daily life comes from petrochemicals - oil. Once used they go into landfill or wreak havoc in ecosystems.<br />
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The phone you own contains at least a percentage of conflict minerals from mines in Africa.<br />
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The electricity you use is mostly derived from fossil fuels.<br />
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The building you live in sits on what was once pristine habitat.<br />
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The car you drive. The road you drive on. The clothes you wear. The meat you eat. Everything you depend on.<br />
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It's <i>systematic</i>. The very systems we depend on are not sustainable. Every time a new human is introduced, the resources must be found to sustain them, and those resources must be commandeered from non-humans.<br />
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For us to exist, to maintain our modern lifestyle and grow the population and it's wealth, we have to remove ecosystems and take their resources for ourselves. That's just how it is.<br />
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This isn't by design. No one made a choice for the world to turn out this way. No one can predict what is going to happen, just as no individual neuron can comprehend the emergent behaviour of the brain.<br />
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Rather than starting from a position of certainty and Googling articles which reinforce your decision to boycott buns, you should be completely fucking confused, bewildered and at a loss as to what to do. And then, if it makes you feel better, boycott the buns anyway.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-19664555119724851822013-03-05T13:30:00.003+11:002013-03-05T13:30:37.796+11:00Vegetarians can't survive on grassland, cattle help restore it<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This is the best TED talk I've seen for a while. I totally agree with Savory.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/vpTHi7O66pI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-75763766445028631562012-12-18T16:20:00.000+11:002012-12-18T16:20:23.658+11:00Philosophy in the Garden published<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBiTf5nzWrByKMxLk_H-H5Mjp48U0xFkC2lAqkcP_YC8mdFLmIK9a8Iz52NlsN5CeGK84ScD66DPnQyuWqseg5b0tcpubrRaKCZazrtLpRgn_SIa5wd2tFWL0QSGp-gXlOCJgvw8NUgEl2/s320/philosophy+in+the+garden+final+cover.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBiTf5nzWrByKMxLk_H-H5Mjp48U0xFkC2lAqkcP_YC8mdFLmIK9a8Iz52NlsN5CeGK84ScD66DPnQyuWqseg5b0tcpubrRaKCZazrtLpRgn_SIa5wd2tFWL0QSGp-gXlOCJgvw8NUgEl2/s320/philosophy+in+the+garden+final+cover.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click image to buy the book</td></tr>
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After a couple of years chipping away at it with Damon Young, I'm very happy this book is finally on the shelves. My illustrations appear throughout the book. Visit Damon's blog for more info:<br />
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<a href="http://damon-young.blogspot.com.au/p/philosophy-in-garden-why-did-marcel.html">http://damon-young.blogspot.com.au/p/philosophy-in-garden-why-did-marcel.html</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-68429776603563310542012-12-18T16:13:00.002+11:002012-12-18T16:14:25.414+11:00Logo Design for Bon Voyage ProductionsI was recently commissioned to design this logo:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNQW-KC_cXM1Aho-WUZIV5qPHL27nLuHanv6R-zAK5m50uDJTFkCpE9GLN5oDXrm6Nx3Xh76Q3lixFYtkyuvPGn-gF_kl_Th4zCq9LNy8Sqzt1gry_sifLNdYezrh4eh2DPu22ApqMHAE/s1600/bon+voyage+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNQW-KC_cXM1Aho-WUZIV5qPHL27nLuHanv6R-zAK5m50uDJTFkCpE9GLN5oDXrm6Nx3Xh76Q3lixFYtkyuvPGn-gF_kl_Th4zCq9LNy8Sqzt1gry_sifLNdYezrh4eh2DPu22ApqMHAE/s320/bon+voyage+logo.jpg" width="285" /></a></div>
Visit the Bon Voyage Productions site here:<br />
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<a href="http://www.bonvoyageproductions.com/">http://www.bonvoyageproductions.com/</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-38598432260369141042012-10-02T21:31:00.003+10:002012-10-02T21:31:54.484+10:00what im doing with my life?Some internet philosophy courtesy of youtube comments:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIdB5dXjJo5uGoRDEoeOzujHSd77vwC-wycSfmIjNMPhZarq6ZX_XhLIHOm2a_2hrYe359J9LpUiDSLCC71jiJGk_2zqWkBvg_6cQQvvLf4tOIVi12lFYIcCH828vQymAS5offx2tA9ZA/s1600/Nyan+cat+philosoophy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Nyan Cat Philosophy" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIdB5dXjJo5uGoRDEoeOzujHSd77vwC-wycSfmIjNMPhZarq6ZX_XhLIHOm2a_2hrYe359J9LpUiDSLCC71jiJGk_2zqWkBvg_6cQQvvLf4tOIVi12lFYIcCH828vQymAS5offx2tA9ZA/s640/Nyan+cat+philosoophy.jpg" title="Nyan Cat Philosophy" width="548" /></a></div>
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"what im doing with my life?"<br />
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Indeed my friend, indeed.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-36036985576152447312012-09-30T15:23:00.001+10:002012-09-30T15:33:07.281+10:00Why are the Japanese still whaling?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOHKgqRvwYcm4jpFutIjapznIzp_CtY00KxOkFZUUP4vcfqceh4qqRqdFWZXG0hWBezkHBXyuCA99CEDQXq3Tc3rcW5cYKKayHOJ3-0Ysj6kTFjG2F-7aNawmetpDspJdt9NTtMNCnxFM/s1600/minkewhale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOHKgqRvwYcm4jpFutIjapznIzp_CtY00KxOkFZUUP4vcfqceh4qqRqdFWZXG0hWBezkHBXyuCA99CEDQXq3Tc3rcW5cYKKayHOJ3-0Ysj6kTFjG2F-7aNawmetpDspJdt9NTtMNCnxFM/s320/minkewhale.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-09/minke-whale-carcass-tied-to-whaling-ship/4119394">File Photo lifted from the ABC</a></td></tr>
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The media spins us the same story every time - the Japanese use a legal loophole so they can whale under the guise of scientific research. To me, this narrative quite happily endorses the old WW2 racial stereotype that the Japanese are sneaky and underhanded. They'll do whatever they can to get their whale meat, those Japs. They think they're smarter than us, they think they've fooled us into believing they're performing scientific research. They eat whale meat while thumbing their nose at the rest of the world.<br />
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Here's the reality: the Japanese don't really like to eat it that much. The World Wildlife Fund reckons they subsidised the '08-'09 Antarctic whale hunt alone by $12 million just to break even. Right now, more than 6000 tonnes (according to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-26/whaling-doubts/4282428">ABC news</a>) of unwanted whale meat sit frozen in storage.<br />
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The Japanese government has been trying to encourage more people to eat whale meat, so as to reduce the stockpile. A government initiative to serve whale meat in schools has meant about 3,500 are serving it to their kids. Some of it was even ending up in dog meat!<br />
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So why does the Japanese government still want to whale?<br />
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The answer is<b> FOOD SECURITY</b>. Japan is a food importing nation, only about 40% self-sufficient. There isn't much room on land for agriculture and fish stocks are plummeting.<br />
<br />
It means Japan is walking on a knife edge. In the event of national and/or international disasters which reduce the amount of possible food imports, people may starve. If I were a Japanese conservative, this would definitely keep me up at night.<br />
<br />
In 1996, the Japanese minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, Takao Fujimoto, gave a speech at the world food summit in Italy:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>...instability of food supply and demand as well as fluctuations in food prices due to natural disasters and unfavourable climatic conditions are matters of serious concern for many countries and people.<br />...<br />In order to achieve world food security, it is important for each country to adopt appropriate policies and actions according to its respective position.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>First, it is not appropriate for food importing countries, irrespective of developed or developing countries, to excessively rely on food imports, considering the possible negative effects on international markets made by large amount purchases by one importing country, the possible uncertainty of food imports in times of food shortages, and future population increase. It would be particularly important, therefore, that food importing countries, including my country, promote domestic production by effectively utilizing their productive resources.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>...it is difficult to supply all the necessary food from domestic sources because of constraints in their production resources and available technologies. Therefore, it is important to appropriately combine the three elements, that is food imports, stockpiling and domestic production, according to the specific conditions of each country, in order to secure a stable food supply.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Secondly, food exporting countries should be responsible for maintaining stable food supplies to importing countries even during periods of poor harvest. They should fully recognize that importing countries may face a crisis situation if their food supply is restricted by exporting countries' unilateral measures. In addition, particularly those having inadequate foreign currency holdings may greatly suffer from increased world market prices caused by export restrictions. Exporting countries should fully recognize this point as well.<br />...<br />Japan's self-sufficiency ratio for cereals is as low as 30 percent, an exceptionally low level compared to other developed countries. Because of this background, most of our nationals are concerned over the future food situation in our country. Taking this into account, our agricultural policy stresses the maintenance and expansion, as appropriate, of domestic production, making effective use of our existing production resources.<br />However, since it is difficult to supply all necessary food from domestic production, due to limited production resources such as land, we are striving to best respond to the needs of our nationals by appropriately combining food imports and stockpiling in addition to domestic food production.</i></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x0736m/rep2/japan.htm">http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x0736m/rep2/japan.htm</a><br />
<i><br /></i>
As it stands, whaling is unsustainable. There just aren't enough whales to take it seriously as a source of food for a large number of people. Taking a small catch of whales might help somewhat, but even so, high levels of mercury mean that it shouldn't be eaten by children and pregnant women at all, and everyone else should eat very little to avoid health problems. If you let the whale populations increase dramatically (Minke whales, the main target for Japanese whaling, are relatively "abundant", but simply increasing quotas would quickly change that) and remove the health risks, you might have an argument for sustainable whaling - however, neither will happen within the next couple of generations. Japanese pro-whalers, the conservatives, won't listen to this.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But if we're really honest about it, if we just look in the mirror, it's obvious that the countries criticising Japan are quite happy to stick their fingers in their ears and say "LALALA" when it comes to environmental issues like global warming, deforestation, species extinction, harmful agricultural practices etc., each of which feed back to make the others far worse.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
"We need food security, therefore whales are abundant and healthy for children to eat." </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
"We need oil, therefore global warming doesn't exist."<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The point I want to make here, is that rather than rolling our eyes while parroting the "sneaky Japs" narrative, I think we should look at it from a broader perspective and include everyone else in the story. What the Japanese are doing with whaling is really par for the course. In reality, we have exactly the same world view.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>DRILL, BABY, DRILL!</b></div>
<div>
<b>WHALE, BABY, WHALE!</b></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-84679685915526117712012-09-16T14:41:00.000+10:002012-09-16T14:41:50.088+10:00Here's the situationWe burn a lot of fossil fuel<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixsDQGDjbOsUblMxuHXoySeyYzhxGOJcWkF_4ayPV2hNoBlJY2wyvNmz6yB_Be8yAdkbNl9Ld52lcU3Lsh5naCIy3KrAU7A42wCNt1TDZonDiLaW19kkjTTGW44DquH4u2d883lZdTyxo/s1600/800px-Global_Carbon_Emissions.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixsDQGDjbOsUblMxuHXoySeyYzhxGOJcWkF_4ayPV2hNoBlJY2wyvNmz6yB_Be8yAdkbNl9Ld52lcU3Lsh5naCIy3KrAU7A42wCNt1TDZonDiLaW19kkjTTGW44DquH4u2d883lZdTyxo/s400/800px-Global_Carbon_Emissions.svg.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Global fossil carbon emission by fuel type, 1800–2007</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Which is increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnc7ADOZmZtD2Xu3A5HMpmkwNNSj2sd_cag5HZIbbPqPwrQ4EdOFWKtmAyWLslgeIc33SSHE92SQAjbOYbxwvgz6-TQU6X4aJ0H5rZHO9yZC-txdQemjPMbOrAyClRq8SgIKfEt6-Au9c/s1600/800px-Mauna_Loa_Carbon_Dioxide-en.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnc7ADOZmZtD2Xu3A5HMpmkwNNSj2sd_cag5HZIbbPqPwrQ4EdOFWKtmAyWLslgeIc33SSHE92SQAjbOYbxwvgz6-TQU6X4aJ0H5rZHO9yZC-txdQemjPMbOrAyClRq8SgIKfEt6-Au9c/s400/800px-Mauna_Loa_Carbon_Dioxide-en.svg.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
CO2 is a greenhouse gas, so the increase is raising the global average temperature<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNWNgmDDwg1Lk0EITjfDvHZneeG5oI7xVTnw4pzZo_QXn8SHQrVJ1mtGyZYtKh3a0RTMfPXI9JnjenYm7rHes2ndilTHE-0eBXOF_oEPWe2j0PCrxzB8oyCx_tTxT26KmJHCgTAqmYX0M/s1600/Global_Temperature_Anomaly_1880-2010_(Fig.A).gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNWNgmDDwg1Lk0EITjfDvHZneeG5oI7xVTnw4pzZo_QXn8SHQrVJ1mtGyZYtKh3a0RTMfPXI9JnjenYm7rHes2ndilTHE-0eBXOF_oEPWe2j0PCrxzB8oyCx_tTxT26KmJHCgTAqmYX0M/s400/Global_Temperature_Anomaly_1880-2010_(Fig.A).gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Meanwhile the global population is increasing<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZ5C47ormtM7tRMCtaRPK4_ZWKHoJUP69fP1LhGUyct_-EZWpT7plupn6QGyinTddgMSml05CE08JT6SjZh9peZ0aELhaZEU-coYWDWLFwsdkHFIxnwEqk7H06SmePKnPw0Smo_TBZd4/s1600/512px-World_population_history.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZ5C47ormtM7tRMCtaRPK4_ZWKHoJUP69fP1LhGUyct_-EZWpT7plupn6QGyinTddgMSml05CE08JT6SjZh9peZ0aELhaZEU-coYWDWLFwsdkHFIxnwEqk7H06SmePKnPw0Smo_TBZd4/s400/512px-World_population_history.svg.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The demand for oil is rising<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ZOzCPyQcGc2EDm20bsH6hWtLSq03jBD1GafhWdXc4v9WTk-1Z-TKpFEAEVLTEMzuCI9xxVNIKMBAwNabrFX1GsslmEjc25jY5gYPxxw4u4G7D-UrMK-EUCPels_q3-3GPZJcSAGyGnA/s1600/600px-Oil_consumption_per_day_by_region_from_1980_to_2006.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ZOzCPyQcGc2EDm20bsH6hWtLSq03jBD1GafhWdXc4v9WTk-1Z-TKpFEAEVLTEMzuCI9xxVNIKMBAwNabrFX1GsslmEjc25jY5gYPxxw4u4G7D-UrMK-EUCPels_q3-3GPZJcSAGyGnA/s400/600px-Oil_consumption_per_day_by_region_from_1980_to_2006.svg.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Oil is becoming more expensive at the moment<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvcVKsS0ITiXRGtJZuN98M_EpI47E4yOZcOD187mwKxTX1_JPkO-Le1pLZgGVjVMSiwQikbRm-vUvo22IoUcERo3abkUnjvXWWtRUFy6ovtO6E5WQI5SrKP-1nsZ5QG4CeyijBMqPDdoQ/s1600/800px-Oil_Prices_1861_2007.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvcVKsS0ITiXRGtJZuN98M_EpI47E4yOZcOD187mwKxTX1_JPkO-Le1pLZgGVjVMSiwQikbRm-vUvo22IoUcERo3abkUnjvXWWtRUFy6ovtO6E5WQI5SrKP-1nsZ5QG4CeyijBMqPDdoQ/s640/800px-Oil_Prices_1861_2007.svg.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Causing investment in more difficult to reach oil and alternative energy like biofuels<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>U.S. energy legislation requires that 4.9 billion bushels of corn [4]--46% of a projected harvest of 10.8 billion bushels [1]--be used to produce ethanol for fuel. This mandate diverts corn from food and feed production, driving up prices faster and further than they might have otherwise. Despite claims that ethanol as a "renewable fuel" might help with energy independence, the total amount of energy obtained from ethanol is only 1% of American energy consumption [5], and the amount of fossil fuel energy needed to grow the corn and convert it to ethanol is at least 3/4 of the ethanol energy yield [6].</i></blockquote>
<a href="http://necsi.edu/research/social/foodprices/briefing/">http://necsi.edu/research/social/foodprices/briefing/</a>
<br />
<br />
The grain diverted to produce ethanol means less food, which raises global food prices.<br />
<br />
The rising cost of oil increases food prices, since it is required to produce and transport food.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2NybJILEqLPW7dJxunnbhTOjyJUUl1MVlzXSfdI-_wS_BZcOaxTVne-4MH1b3ZFRqBMKoJLYZC5XKzoSEL9D_T0iNzT04ODbrBAcpHuCIDbZoaRGk7BppKa8U_gju-BH61iQI1RvevyY/s1600/02-03-11-World_Food_Index-vs-Brent_Oil_Price.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2NybJILEqLPW7dJxunnbhTOjyJUUl1MVlzXSfdI-_wS_BZcOaxTVne-4MH1b3ZFRqBMKoJLYZC5XKzoSEL9D_T0iNzT04ODbrBAcpHuCIDbZoaRGk7BppKa8U_gju-BH61iQI1RvevyY/s400/02-03-11-World_Food_Index-vs-Brent_Oil_Price.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Global warming increases the likelihood of droughts, reducing the amount of grain produced and further increasing global food prices.<br />
<br />
Rising food prices increase social unrest<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihKX24PuQr5hydWbd0U7ocS-bpHfECYzjsrG9UAbS9-r6Yfno42bZWDQMd6V8KzN94kdCb4mZxB2heSN2gl6Mq2-3JT0vj65oPybAMwuOSp4fev9vpA_A9l1EzNq-odYhl4KJxP6GH-8c/s1600/fig1_crises.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihKX24PuQr5hydWbd0U7ocS-bpHfECYzjsrG9UAbS9-r6Yfno42bZWDQMd6V8KzN94kdCb4mZxB2heSN2gl6Mq2-3JT0vj65oPybAMwuOSp4fev9vpA_A9l1EzNq-odYhl4KJxP6GH-8c/s400/fig1_crises.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Food prices (black line) and food riots and the Arab Spring (red lines).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Global warming is causing Arctic ice to melt faster than worst case scenarios modelled by sceintists<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB_6fIsf3uWhG9d3iZZa8P6GF2b-LP6iwF7KiaafZDpgJRox-_Uq7dePMu6BGqrzxIdSmAZg_TFnt2oh0dxGLgScPvP7Cj0AXSmIp5izANKnH0Iv6gGAsJ2MUoDQvD_-alx96mMPigWJY/s1600/Arctic_models_obs.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB_6fIsf3uWhG9d3iZZa8P6GF2b-LP6iwF7KiaafZDpgJRox-_Uq7dePMu6BGqrzxIdSmAZg_TFnt2oh0dxGLgScPvP7Cj0AXSmIp5izANKnH0Iv6gGAsJ2MUoDQvD_-alx96mMPigWJY/s1600/Arctic_models_obs.gif" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
As the Arctic melts and more open ocean is exposed, it becomes easier to drill for oil there, allowing us to increase global oil production. Interesting times ahead.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-81625044432985627532012-07-22T15:42:00.003+10:002012-07-22T15:54:37.535+10:00Street Fight Reality? Or imagination?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/6V97Pnljj7I?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
In the above video, a fellow who goes by the moniker of "Hedgehogey" on the martial arts message board <a href="http://www.bullshido.net/">bullshido.net</a> prevented another man from assaulting a woman. Hedge holds a purple belt in in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.<br />
<br />
Videos like this often generate some interest on martial arts message boards and spark a lot of discussion simply because it's an example of martial arts technique applied effectively in reality. Not sport, not the movies, not a hypothetical.<br />
<br />
Many self defense "experts" are adamant that you should never go to the ground in a street fight. They say you definitely can't tap out in a street fight, and you should immediately attack the eyes and groin of your opponent. There are always multiple opponents, weapons, and it's a fight to the death - this is street fight reality. I'm going to challenge those ideas with this video as a reference.<br />
<br />
<b>Most street fights are not necessarily a fight to the death.</b> Hedge didn't need to eye gouge this man and bite his nuts off before killing him. He used what I consider an appropriate amount of force, prevented the assault of a woman, and allowed everyone to walk away practically unhurt.
<br />
<br />
<b>Do not escalate the level of violence when you are at a <a href="http://danielkeating.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/groin-strikes-eye-gouges-and-other.html">disadvantage</a>. </b>Hedge gave his opponent a chance to stop fighting and walk away. Instead, he punched Hedge in the face while he was in an inferior position on the ground, and again after being let up. Hedge punched and strangled the man in retaliation.<br />
<br />
For the same reason, it's not always a great idea to start eye gouging and biting when you're losing a fight - you're sending a message to your opponent that it's OK to start trying to blind each other now. The problem is that you're the one who is more likely to get blinded because you're already losing the fight. <a href="http://danielkeating.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/eye-gouge-in-street-fight-case-study.html">Even if you successfully eye gouge and partially blind someone, there is no guarantee it will deter them.</a><br />
<br />
<b>You <i>can </i>go to the ground in a street fight</b>. Hedge took the fight to where he had the greatest advantage - sitting on top in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_(grappling)">mount position</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>You <i>can </i>tap out in a street fight.</b> If you're getting strangled, and the person strangling you knows what a tap out means and they accept your admission of defeat, they may actually let you go, <i>just like in this video</i>. I'm not saying you can rely on this, not at all. It's simply an admission of defeat, and depending on the conditions of the fight, they may let you go. And they may not. In this case, Hedge was <i>forced </i>to let go because:
<br />
<br />
<b>Bystanders can have complete control of what happens in street fights.</b> Their role cannot be underestimated. In this case, they orchestrated the fight from start to finish. Hedge wanted to let the guy up and pass him off on to someone else. They refused and encouraged him to continue fighting. When Hedge was in the process of strangling him unconscious, they intervened to stop it when they saw the tap.<br />
<br />
Hopefully this image drives my point home. This is the hand of one of the bystanders coming into frame, letting Hedge know that he should stop choking the guy:
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6EtoQBwraIjhoKt_31h7GAp74idzZcgqQ6EiI4THRldLKrd3PeVifFw6XEnX-M0_BBtQAHWjiys_DDRddhKhY_xACOLWSwtX0sBKT5k3I-PEc_JpXkd6HykZlQcbRSyVtopT-QlsYysk/s1600/hedgegetstap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6EtoQBwraIjhoKt_31h7GAp74idzZcgqQ6EiI4THRldLKrd3PeVifFw6XEnX-M0_BBtQAHWjiys_DDRddhKhY_xACOLWSwtX0sBKT5k3I-PEc_JpXkd6HykZlQcbRSyVtopT-QlsYysk/s1600/hedgegetstap.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A bystander telling "Hedgehogey" to stop.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<b>The multiples might be on your side.</b> In discussions of self defense, we almost exclusively hear about being attacked by multiples. That isn't always the case. Here, Hedge managed the situation in such a way that he kept the crowd on his side, which was essential - if he didn't do this, they might have turned on him.<br />
<br />
This is why it was a good idea to take his time and give the man chances to admit defeat. Hedge's performance won over the audience, they perceived him as fair and just. No matter what happened during the fight, he would be safe. They were going to protect him if it all went south. Hedge knew that his opponent had no friends there.<br />
<br />
<b>There <i>are </i>rules in every street fight.</b> But every time you fight, those rules will be different. I don't mean rules in the sense that some kind of organisation has written down rules that you must follow. I mean that there will always be a number of restrictions, obstacles, limitations, unknown variables.<br />
<br />
These "rules" appear in the moment. Not before or after the fight. And they change during it. If you decide, for example, to "never go to the ground in a fight", then you're locking yourself into a specific scenario before you actually know what scenario you'll be involved in.<br />
<br />
You might say that this is a single isolated case and it's wrong to hold this up as an example of how a street fight might play out. I disagree based on my personal experience. In fact, I've written an article in this blog about a very similar situation I was in, but in this case <a href="http://danielkeating.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/so-i-was-bouncer-at-strip-club.html">I was working as a security guard, fighting two people, and they didn't tap out.</a> The circumstances, the "rules" were slightly different in that case, so there was a different outcome. But there were many similar elements.<br />
<br />
If you think Hedge was just lucky he wasn't stabbed or beaten by multiple opponents, try looking at it from the other side - his opponent was lucky. Lucky that Hedge is a nice guy. Lucky Hedge didn't decide to kill him, lucky that the bystanders wouldn't have allowed it anyway. He was at a complete disadvantage. He put his life in the hands of others when he tried to harm that woman.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP7GrAsD_NyfgmIMqhQp8i_EWDd5kOQEkGw6vYMVAD5i9FMh3iInRZf3ZrAP8KG8glKCffgRCSbWqc1dqNKruhsg-zvlQJYTZi1Gs2OCtwin2MPBxMy7SiddzhKVN0bvMtGtfTyzHvzpg/s1600/bear-shark-unicornsurfing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP7GrAsD_NyfgmIMqhQp8i_EWDd5kOQEkGw6vYMVAD5i9FMh3iInRZf3ZrAP8KG8glKCffgRCSbWqc1dqNKruhsg-zvlQJYTZi1Gs2OCtwin2MPBxMy7SiddzhKVN0bvMtGtfTyzHvzpg/s400/bear-shark-unicornsurfing.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Personally, this is the scenario I would choose.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"But what if this, what if that?". Listen - you're ignoring what happened in the video. You're ignoring everything happening in the environment around the fight, especially his interaction with the bystanders. You're inventing your own conditions which didn't exist in this circumstance. There were no guns, knives, helicopter gunships, dinosaurs. The background is not a special effects green screen where you can switch in any scenario you like. The reality is that <b>social dynamics dictated how it played out.</b></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-73482825362439885042012-07-16T22:54:00.000+10:002012-07-16T22:54:43.723+10:00Why this site has a dark backgroundIt's not because I think it looks good. I do it on principle.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqKMY-26xiHMUMjWvGO4o240xi390SpU3rs36OFMvhuG6S7SWo7FuJHrBUi-5wQagPizhKdQ9eSDiaog8595APrZMVm8G6Uvt6Q2UExk0Vwye8yzTOTnMjmWzRKTcjDt93-Nt7y8pAEuA/s1600/LEDRoadTrafficSign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqKMY-26xiHMUMjWvGO4o240xi390SpU3rs36OFMvhuG6S7SWo7FuJHrBUi-5wQagPizhKdQ9eSDiaog8595APrZMVm8G6Uvt6Q2UExk0Vwye8yzTOTnMjmWzRKTcjDt93-Nt7y8pAEuA/s320/LEDRoadTrafficSign.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Imagine that the road sign above was inverted, so that all the lit LEDs switched off, and all the off LEDs were switched on. That would be the equivalent of a computer screen with black text on a white background. As the sign actually appears in the photo, it's equivalent to a screen with light text on a dark background, because the background pixels are "switched off", and the part you want to read is switched on. Paper and computer screens work differently because paper reflects light, while computer screens emit light.<br />
The main reason we use white backgrounds is because it aesthetically resembles printed paper. And many claim it's easier to read that way. I personally find the opposite to be true, and I think perhaps people are just conditioned to think that way. I don't really know for sure.<br />
<br />
So it's dark here because that just makes more sense to me. Even though many consider it to be bad design.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-88291090211086163592012-07-16T13:35:00.000+10:002012-07-16T15:59:27.572+10:00No, It's not Jurassic Park in a Petri Dish. Or a 500 million year old gene.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-HK_OSbxAgserrxY6ZD7TIr_VBDtmP2Q4grRbMJgzngsQk1A0trZMPhDLfVBAr3R1WSfUYV-5k7EkNQE2ELkf4v6j_E5wnxayHRShYFeGTfyb-gdxkc8ySjNmd0frbx4Rb21JIMvxl4Q/s1600/bad_science.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Science Journalists" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-HK_OSbxAgserrxY6ZD7TIr_VBDtmP2Q4grRbMJgzngsQk1A0trZMPhDLfVBAr3R1WSfUYV-5k7EkNQE2ELkf4v6j_E5wnxayHRShYFeGTfyb-gdxkc8ySjNmd0frbx4Rb21JIMvxl4Q/s320/bad_science.jpg" title="Science Journalists" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Science Journalists</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This has popped up in the news quite a bit over the last few days:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=138621">Scientists place 500-million-year-old gene in modern organism</a>
<br />
<br />
Very interesting, but a couple of things bothered me.<br />
<br />
First of all, it's difficult enough to find genetic information from thousands of years ago, let alone from more than 500 million years ago, a time which pre-dates the colonisation of land by plants. I was hoping to read that ancient DNA had been found and inserted into a modern bacteria. Nope. No mention in any article I could find about where the gene actually came from.<br />
<br />
Secondly, I could imagine the horrendously bad science news reporting which would follow. Probably something mentioning Jurassic Park and comments from readers about how evil and stupid scientists are. Lets see...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2172406/Jurassic-Park-Petri-dish-Scientists-recreate-500-million-year-old-bacteria-lab--possibly-wrong.html">Jurassic Park in a Petri dish: Scientists bring 500 million-year-old bacteria back to life - what could possibly go wrong?</a><br />
<br />
<b>- 'Frankenstein' germ spliced with gene from 500-million-year-old bacteria</b><br />
<b>- Bacteria is now thriving in lab</b><br />
<b>- Some of the 'chimeric' E Coli is now stronger than normal bacteria</b><br />
<b>- Scientists hope to 'restage' evolution</b><br />
<br />
OH NOES!!! <br />
<br />
Some comments from that article: <br />
<br />
<i>"Sounds like a wild card for more funding" </i><br />
<br />
<i>"we have a mistrust of the responsibility of scientists, since they poured their cultures of Foot and Mouth down the sink and started the biggest epidemic in recent history" <br /> <br />"Dinosaurs would be a lot easier to kill and much safer to have around than a rapidly mutating bacteria" <br /> <br />"It's like a cross between "I am Legend" and "Jurassic Park". Bacteria that died out millions of years ago has not place in today's world. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should!" <br /> <br />"Scary what scientists are allowed to play with these days, it will be in the military's hands by the end of the day guaranteed." <br /> <br />"What if something bad was to happen, why do these scientists get funded to potentially put the innocent lives of people at risk?" <br /> <br />"This brings the old saying, "curiosity killed the cat" to the forefront of my mind. Damn Scientists, will they ever learn?" </i><br />
<br />
I wanted to know where the hell this single gene which creates a particular protein actually came from, so I emailed the media relations bloke from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where the research was performed. He sent me a couple of articles, one being <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v425/n6955/abs/nature01977.html">the published scientific article itself</a>, and another being a <a href="http://www.astrobio.net/interview/698/hot-world-from-resurrected-proteins">helpful article</a> in relatively plain language: <br />
<br />
<i>"The method is analogous to historical linguistics, which reconstructs ancient languages by finding similarities in their descendant languages. Instead of words or sounds, scientists match up similarities in the amino acids of various existing proteins to reconstruct the amino-acid sequences of ancient proteins. They then recreate, or "resurrect," these proteins in the laboratory." </i><br />
<br />
So there you have it. They didn't find 500 million year old DNA and resurrect an ancient bacteria, they recreated a protein which probably existed in the common ancestor of modern bacteria. <br />
<br />
<i>"He and Benner then tested what happened to the protein at various temperatures. Between 130 and 150 degrees [Farenheit], it performed best at its task -- which involves translating the information in its DNA through RNA into the completed protein. At hotter temperatures, the ancient protein fell apart. <br /> <br />Benner cautions the findings do not imply that the entire Earth was 130 to 150 degrees a billion years ago or longer, but rather that the bacterium whose genes survived to be relayed into descendant organisms thrived at that temperature. Why it proved so successful is a mystery, he said. <br /> <br />"For some reason, bacteria living at 130 to 150 degrees have made some innovation which allows them to leave their descendants all over the planet, not the other guys that we presume were living in other environments," he said. "And that's an astonishment to me.""</i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-74053326186751212532012-06-03T01:09:00.001+10:002012-06-03T01:09:13.165+10:00Bearded Hunter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Another Sketch</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPCg3PuuP1PZmQwNYMVHo_9gLKfne0xiK9zqvowy5yAjccG12oWYXvuAK21rcdqm-wGvzn3kYc40rTeiTk44dexD7qL89ho_Y2Fgjmnb8_EAsru4izVh0kl2JDzmL7x5uHQrO9BA4H1bg/s1600/bearded_hunter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPCg3PuuP1PZmQwNYMVHo_9gLKfne0xiK9zqvowy5yAjccG12oWYXvuAK21rcdqm-wGvzn3kYc40rTeiTk44dexD7qL89ho_Y2Fgjmnb8_EAsru4izVh0kl2JDzmL7x5uHQrO9BA4H1bg/s640/bearded_hunter.jpg" width="571" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-26272261931069497572012-05-19T16:14:00.002+10:002012-05-19T22:27:44.125+10:00Nunchucks Are Fucking Useless<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhprwVuxFhy7esB8pwA0PF7PMiU_9KTEOkMvb_ZAIo_DSw66Idi-Y9QMqgxZWTdsVpLW1rgB_2VcgAjHd97Q9iPK2bfZ_jFUS2M3VHjZFomgUFmgrpVs0GJf-2v5ojA1ZR2UJutTdCahq8/s1600/Nun+Chucks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nun Chucks" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhprwVuxFhy7esB8pwA0PF7PMiU_9KTEOkMvb_ZAIo_DSw66Idi-Y9QMqgxZWTdsVpLW1rgB_2VcgAjHd97Q9iPK2bfZ_jFUS2M3VHjZFomgUFmgrpVs0GJf-2v5ojA1ZR2UJutTdCahq8/s320/Nun+Chucks.jpg" title="Nun Chucks" width="284" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nun Chucks. Geddit?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Nunchaku is a <i>light </i>flail weapon. And that is why it's fucking useless.<br />
<br />
Flailing weapons sacrifice accuracy, control and are mostly ineffective at close quarters. The joint allows the weapon to bounce off it's target after contact, preventing any follow-through which might help cause more damage. They're also more difficult to use in formation than a sword or spear.<br />
<br />
Because nunchaku handles are both the same length, it makes own-goals much more likely. Don't be surprised if you end up hitting yourself.<br />
<br />
Flails need to have an extremely heavy striking end to make them worthwhile. Then the extra speed generated by the joint can actually be useful. For example:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguBLrEaZJ4u41_7CpgvKLKhRaZcYV5ACrM5Q505ibYe-vBhPObmQlmXKRKv_T4s6fjTDFlQ_rX-_pg2lmdHq7ZYcpFMZPPK4KMQ36ngbFM6p_bVMYC19QN47iyTGGdTP86UIbeMAjODXo/s1600/flail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="European military flail" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguBLrEaZJ4u41_7CpgvKLKhRaZcYV5ACrM5Q505ibYe-vBhPObmQlmXKRKv_T4s6fjTDFlQ_rX-_pg2lmdHq7ZYcpFMZPPK4KMQ36ngbFM6p_bVMYC19QN47iyTGGdTP86UIbeMAjODXo/s640/flail.jpg" title="European military flail " width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">An actual European military flail.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzdnsn82sPVZnr_zo2qFawBM4Zevv3vVU0gfSVNgTdXv6U-J-bMA5XM-BZvE3ttUpVPgHbinxHP5XqM0ybwykMD1eJtPXBczlzK2DT440z43Q6-zne0fWjz7OweQJ0P05iCarO9t-OKEQ/s1600/agricultural+flail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzdnsn82sPVZnr_zo2qFawBM4Zevv3vVU0gfSVNgTdXv6U-J-bMA5XM-BZvE3ttUpVPgHbinxHP5XqM0ybwykMD1eJtPXBczlzK2DT440z43Q6-zne0fWjz7OweQJ0P05iCarO9t-OKEQ/s200/agricultural+flail.jpg" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flails are more useful as <br />
agricultural tools (shown here<br />
threshing wheat in 1270).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This thing will cause a lot of damage if it makes direct contact. And you won't accidentally hit yourself because the handle is so long. There are still drawbacks - low accuracy, ineffective at close range, and now it's slow and heavy too.<br />
<br />
But it can come in handy if your opponent has a shield. It can wrap around the shield, striking the defender even if the handle is blocked. Other than that, I really can't think of a good reason to use a flail/nunchaku. Which is probably why they weren't actually very popular weapons historically.<br />
<br />
Typical modern nunchaku are both difficult to use and cause little damage. Instead of cutting a stick in half and tying the ends together, leave it in one piece and you'll have a much more effective weapon.<br />
<br />
-------------------<br />
<br />
EDIT:<br />
<br />
Wow. This giant dildo is a more effective weapon than any nunchaku I've ever seen. I'm totally serious. I've watched as many videos of people fighting with 'chucks as I can find on the internet (google "nunchuck felony fights"), and I've never seen anyone get dropped like this.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/9X_nDMeY5Lk/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9X_nDMeY5Lk&fs=1&source=uds" />
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<embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9X_nDMeY5Lk&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-71757444137370540242012-05-10T23:42:00.003+10:002012-05-10T23:42:58.452+10:00Ecology in a nutshellI was just reading some science news and came across an article about developing fuel from algae, which surprised me in that it made a good little summary of how ecologies work. This understanding of ecology is really what underpins <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture">permaculture</a>, which I've been very interested in lately. Relevant parts are in bold.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
For algae to power our cars and planes, production needs to be low carbon and cost effective, which means working with natural processes, not against them, say scientists. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Algae could become an important source of sustainable biofuel, as production doesn't compete with food crops for land. But <b>we may need to change the way we grow algae from closed systems to open ponds if it is to be low-carbon and cost-effective</b>. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
This is because current algae production in closed systems – usually for cosmetic ingredients – <b>uses too much energy keeping the ecosystem isolated from the surrounding environment</b>. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b>To overcome this issue, scientists from the University of Cambridge suggest that when grown in open ponds, algae should be supplemented with multiple species that help support the algae in some way. This would make the system less vulnerable to outside influences such as predators.</b> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b>They say that ecosystems with greater numbers of species are more stable and more resilient to change than monoculture systems made up of just one crop.</b> The scientists have coined the term synthetic ecology to describe the creation of artificial ecosystems with multiple species. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
"A complex synthetic community mirrors natural communities much more closely," argues Elena Kazamia, whose scientific review is published in the Journal of Biotechnology. <b>"Monoculture is not very natural. There is a tendency towards complexity in the natural environment - communities get more complex with time." </b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b>In a natural ecosystem there are plenty of potential roles, or niches, to be filled by species. The more developed the ecosystem is, the greater its complexity as more of these roles will be filled. These complex ecosystems often reach a stable state, which is best adapted to the local conditions, and all of the niches are filled. </b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b>It is difficult for any new species to get a foothold in the community as they have to compete against established species in that niche. As new species are unlikely to invade successfully, the ecosystem doesn't change. For the algae, it could mean that no pest species will be able to easily establish themselves in the crop area. </b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b>The other species in this artificial ecosystem would have more roles than just protecting the ecosystem against invaders. Adding grazing animals like plankton that eat algae other than the crop might prevent these other types of algae from taking over. Carefully selected bacteria might provide essential vitamins or nutrients for the algae. </b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b>"There is a point for all communities where growth is limited by nutrients available in the ecosystem. One thing synthetic ecology can do is look into clever ways to get round this. In a nitrogen poor environment you could use nitrogen fixing bacteria, for example,"</b> Kazamia explains. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<b>Nitrogen fixing bacteria convert nitrogen in the air to more easily used nitrate compounds. They are an essential part of most ecosystems, enabling plants to use nitrogen to make proteins. The researchers are also looking at combining algae with bacteria that produce the essential vitamin B12. </b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
"Because we have little or no experience of growing algae on a large scale, we have a good opportunity to try something new, based on the science," Kazamia adds. For the researchers, algae as a new crop represent a chance to start developing techniques from scratch, using science to inform the techniques used and working with nature instead of against it. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
There's still a great deal of debate over the best way to harness algal fuels, and industrial trials are few. The scientists have published their work as a call to action for the new algal biofuel industry to put ecological principles into practice. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
"Maybe we could do with a better understanding of algal biology but we have enough theoretical knowledge about ecosystems - what we need are some trials in the field," says Kazamia. "We should be looking at how many players we need for a robust system. Earlier studies on land-based agriculture suggest we need 20 species. Is that the same for aquatic ecosystems? It's still very much an unknown."</blockquote>
<a href="http://phys.org/news/2012-05-green-fuel-artificial-ecosystems.html">http://phys.org/news/2012-05-green-fuel-artificial-ecosystems.html</a><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-68939583996524272262012-05-10T01:36:00.000+10:002012-05-10T01:36:43.579+10:00Light Dog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVU7Ls-uwsLQw04_dzuvfsb4GY7ms9mVEk5qeFFzPbpEpo8ejnQ4_ch21k-K5Ch-zcC-Pt_YhWRLkxRLnErFGK7tsQEKSrtb2E5O6RtSaeUEdjAKapT6xrbVvk47BIUKwmfrIb5x1lbhI/s1600/dog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVU7Ls-uwsLQw04_dzuvfsb4GY7ms9mVEk5qeFFzPbpEpo8ejnQ4_ch21k-K5Ch-zcC-Pt_YhWRLkxRLnErFGK7tsQEKSrtb2E5O6RtSaeUEdjAKapT6xrbVvk47BIUKwmfrIb5x1lbhI/s640/dog.jpg" width="456" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-84933433666927181672012-05-05T16:05:00.001+10:002012-05-05T16:08:43.826+10:00Was Malthus Wrong?<br />
A Malthusian Catastrophe, in a nutshell, is what is was predicted to happen by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus">Thomas Robert Malthus</a> when population outpaces agricultural production. Too many people + not enough food = problems.<br />
<br />
The man did not mince his words:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world".</blockquote>
It's often said that Malthus has been discredited because he predicted a global catastrophe that never happened. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution">Green Revolution</a>, for example, is one of the many instances where we have found technological solutions to stay ahead of the game and feed an ever growing population.<br />
<br />
Malthusian predictions do not (and I'd add <i>cannot</i>) take human ingenuity into account. Does this mean he was wrong, and the catastrophe he described will never happen? Can we assume that people will always find solutions and never run out of food?<br />
<br />
I think that these assumptions miss the point. We should look at the idea more broadly. To assume that it is impossible that some countries in the developed world might descend into a food crisis is foolhardy. There is no guarantee that we will find a solution <i>every single time</i>.<br />
<br />
I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future. I'm just saying it isn't impossible. In fact, there are places in the world where it's happening <i>right now</i>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>In Somalia, a two-year drought – which is phenomenal in now being the driest year in the last 60 – has caused record food inflation, particularly in the expectation of the next harvest being 50% of normal. Somalia already had levels of malnutrition and premature mortality so high as to be in a “normalized” state of permanent emergency. This is true too in pockets across the entire region.</i></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.oxfam.org/en/emergencies/east-africa-food-crisis/famine-somalia-what-needs-be-done">http://www.oxfam.org/en/emergencies/east-africa-food-crisis/famine-somalia-what-needs-be-done</a>
<br />
<br />
Somalia is not a developed nation. But this is an example of an entire country which cannot produce enough food to feed itself during drought. They have not developed their own technological solution as some believe is simply an inevitable human response to such a catastrophe. It's true that these people could be saved if there were not so much conflict and violence in the area. It would be easier to deliver aid, for one. But as a closed system, the human population seems to exceed the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrying_capacity">carrying capacity</a> of the local land. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough water.<br />
<br />
There are other regions where significant numbers of people are undernourished.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvYe6unVXdbHdKI-L4SsUaMtA4T3T89suqyR39IX4lRBF35ldJECJOyzKkNpKIkSN0P6v7CZNwDIJb_oTRlTOwD4xVpx3pW31wT9USGOhcZf3-cG53UmXz8zjPBl3U_VtCXjKw5CjvGCw/s1600/Percentage_population_undernourished_world_map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvYe6unVXdbHdKI-L4SsUaMtA4T3T89suqyR39IX4lRBF35ldJECJOyzKkNpKIkSN0P6v7CZNwDIJb_oTRlTOwD4xVpx3pW31wT9USGOhcZf3-cG53UmXz8zjPBl3U_VtCXjKw5CjvGCw/s640/Percentage_population_undernourished_world_map.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map showing areas where significant portions of the population are undernourished.</td></tr>
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Globally, total food production could easily feed the world. But because wealth is not evenly distributed, neither is the food. So despite globalisation and industrial agriculture, there are many regions which must rely on their local ecosystems and farming techniques to support them.<br />
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In reality, humans CAN and DO create their own food crises. In the future, any combination of the depletion of natural resources, population growth, economic crises and violent conflict could create a crisis in <i>any</i> country. I wouldn't dare predict how, when or where. No prediction of the behaviour of complex systems can be made with 100% certainty. I can't even imagine a famine in any developed nation in the foreseeable future. But to say this is <i>impossible </i>because a particular prediction was wrong, I think, is irrational.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-15645680271479503902012-04-29T21:34:00.003+10:002012-04-29T21:34:44.971+10:00Girl Sketch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtdVIm1BWM7doXBYr-ugmHV-UQGDZH-EERrGKuUXEAzkwgMaUqLAFCVCSsylBxG5sZxi1SASUq0Ulkdd1je6Jk0Gwria3vVPIy5LuLfi7kBnZ06kxUwgOc7wpb-7aEU1tIPCDN85HpD6w/s1600/emilydickinson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtdVIm1BWM7doXBYr-ugmHV-UQGDZH-EERrGKuUXEAzkwgMaUqLAFCVCSsylBxG5sZxi1SASUq0Ulkdd1je6Jk0Gwria3vVPIy5LuLfi7kBnZ06kxUwgOc7wpb-7aEU1tIPCDN85HpD6w/s640/emilydickinson.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-51424887808969014852012-04-29T21:29:00.000+10:002012-04-29T21:35:04.492+10:00Grandma Illustrations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Some illustration ideas which were pitched for a book about grandmas :-)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAyE01eEdDm-OmEp6KdfJzPLiUWHI5o3QtdraZadeep6CjwXQcpmomVeaTwcq__pfexEkaeiMr-WIyG_uYRMcU-GJtl6s0WeYyHFskd-iUdeWQEKxwRel-4LQhG3r6s1ZsuA5MxcQo5ZA/s1600/juggling_simpleBG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAyE01eEdDm-OmEp6KdfJzPLiUWHI5o3QtdraZadeep6CjwXQcpmomVeaTwcq__pfexEkaeiMr-WIyG_uYRMcU-GJtl6s0WeYyHFskd-iUdeWQEKxwRel-4LQhG3r6s1ZsuA5MxcQo5ZA/s400/juggling_simpleBG.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJ8xKd8UoKt0WF7HdwDVDhz7ajZygU5s3Ou346Myo5waGPsv4ki1Nljs6WUbcwSnNbPAPYpK6jgx-cWU9fKMyT7bTKrppEVrYl3ZPBXnXubXZcGSx1rox2aBJPqYrU_s8C5xGLJoNt7I/s1600/gandma+face.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJ8xKd8UoKt0WF7HdwDVDhz7ajZygU5s3Ou346Myo5waGPsv4ki1Nljs6WUbcwSnNbPAPYpK6jgx-cWU9fKMyT7bTKrppEVrYl3ZPBXnXubXZcGSx1rox2aBJPqYrU_s8C5xGLJoNt7I/s400/gandma+face.jpg" width="345" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-44490024695760357132012-04-28T12:08:00.000+10:002012-04-30T11:45:26.750+10:00About The Future Of Human Activity In SpaceA company called <a href="http://www.planetaryresources.com/">Planetary Resources</a> intends to mine asteroids. I think this could potentially <i>change everything</i>. I've been waiting and hoping this might happen for a long time, thinking about the possibilities. Here is a short outline of what the company hopes to achieve, and where I hope we'll end up.<br />
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First the company plans to mine minerals and fuel from asteroids. The minerals will be returned to Earth, which they claim will make formerly rare things like gold and platinum common, and add trillions of dollars to the global economy. Technologies could develop on Earth which were too expensive otherwise. The fuel could make the cost of space travel much, much cheaper.<br />
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They're sincere. They have backing from some big investors. Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Engineer, almost started crying at the press conference when he talked about the positive reception from the public. That shouldn't mean anything I know, but it made me think, "shit just got real".<br />
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Now I'm going to<i> speculate wildly</i>.<br />
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The more mining can be done, the more mining can be done. The wealth it creates will bring greater investment. Rare minerals like gold and platinum will become abundant. All the while, economies of scale, development of new technology and especially the massive amount of fuel mined (which is actually water - it can be split into H and O) will make it ever cheaper.<br />
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So we have all these robots out in space, and the tech is improving, and the investment is growing along with it. And there will be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_manufacturing">space manufacture</a>. We no longer have to build space craft on Earth and waste time and energy to send it up. The material gathered directly from asteroids will be used to build in zero gravity. Space manufacturing enables more spacecraft to be built. Which leads to more mining, and more factories. I'm talking about an <a href="http://danielkeating.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/what-does-exponential-mean-simple.html">exponential growth</a> of the industry.<br />
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This would involve swarm robotics:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/JnkMyfQ5YfY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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And technologies like 3D printing:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/PEIS9Sixgdk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgheYXbgBowGfOcYJIcJp52yP68XWHet0iM-GOgOOSche6JZ5b7NlfWRfHVOR_5f1rj1gqTcqXkljpagPQMqAf1XYrV2VY5iiXdbiiV3rk20-xzVrlkxM8UXKTrZBtCAewOj8JusCfw5t8/s1600/solarpower.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgheYXbgBowGfOcYJIcJp52yP68XWHet0iM-GOgOOSche6JZ5b7NlfWRfHVOR_5f1rj1gqTcqXkljpagPQMqAf1XYrV2VY5iiXdbiiV3rk20-xzVrlkxM8UXKTrZBtCAewOj8JusCfw5t8/s200/solarpower.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Space based solar power</td></tr>
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We could build <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megascale_engineering">megastructures</a> in space. For example, massive solar arrays which power factories, and maybe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power">beam down energy to Earth as microwaves</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuSBp3jGRJN3lR5wRb1QJVy-97TTiTmokibGVlCAH3jQBEwI92Jdh2lAlkH1qpcbaQJYQef7MJjUx9zZiXMW6X4SNYCUp86iau-vuWQAl_M0nd39sE6O7dStg1K6TVVjDhmJoo-7c0O4o/s1600/Internal_view_of_the_Stanford_torus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuSBp3jGRJN3lR5wRb1QJVy-97TTiTmokibGVlCAH3jQBEwI92Jdh2lAlkH1qpcbaQJYQef7MJjUx9zZiXMW6X4SNYCUp86iau-vuWQAl_M0nd39sE6O7dStg1K6TVVjDhmJoo-7c0O4o/s200/Internal_view_of_the_Stanford_torus.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Space Habitat</td></tr>
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One of the hardest things to do, but I think one of the most exciting: the colonisation of local space, by building <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_habitat">Space habitats</a>.
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We may develop <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft">Von Neumann probes</a> - self replicating spacecraft which could travel to other star systems, build more copies of themselves and then head off to explore other systems.<br />
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Perhaps it would eventually be feasible to finally build a gigantic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion">nuclear pulse propulsion</a> spacecraft to fly to the nearest stars within a human lifetime, rather than the 50,000 years it would take with current technology.<br />
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I think this could be a catalyst for exponential wealth and development. A second industrial revolution. The graph below shows population and oil production. If you included average lifespan, literacy, technological development and many other factors, they'd all be doing the same thing - going up exponentially.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL5DbF_uoRJrfrsWqSoc3XDO_K_h3QyDGHnXqp3aIw_-r2bBxEO3fAs4yeyy7cSD5Nlf26-CLh3MtClvGLkKqC3s6ft7yVd3tbWrkLVEO1vitv_c2PJFuiRjB_N2KW1uTG_Kz2UWoyftE/s1600/World+Population+and+Oil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL5DbF_uoRJrfrsWqSoc3XDO_K_h3QyDGHnXqp3aIw_-r2bBxEO3fAs4yeyy7cSD5Nlf26-CLh3MtClvGLkKqC3s6ft7yVd3tbWrkLVEO1vitv_c2PJFuiRjB_N2KW1uTG_Kz2UWoyftE/s400/World+Population+and+Oil.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oil production and population</td></tr>
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See where those lines take a sharp angle upwards at the end of the graph? I think (hope/speculate) we're again sitting in that corner just before everything changes. This could possibly be one of those moments.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-65180213971823472132012-04-17T14:13:00.000+10:002012-04-17T14:13:00.116+10:00The Perfect Definition of Perfection<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>That which lacks nothing and to which nothing can be added.</b></blockquote>
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- Daniele Barbaro, 1567</blockquote>
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I find it really entertaining that I can't think of a way to add or subtract anything to that definition which might improve it. Let me know if you can do so ;)<br />
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Of course, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesthetic_relativism">aesthetic relativism</a> blah blah blah.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-73239546355447996692012-03-20T16:13:00.000+11:002012-03-20T16:13:53.083+11:00Graphic Novel: Pig Dog Part One<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.4shared.com/office/SDOiKOy2/pigdog.html?refurl=d1html" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://dc533.4shared.com/img/SDOiKOy2/pigdog.pdf" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pig Dog Part One - PDF download</td></tr>
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I've put it all together into a single PDF with higher quality images than I've been posting on the blog. Some of the pages have been modified too. Click on the image above to download it for free (3.3MB).</div>
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Please share it around and let me know if you like it. I'm not certain that I'll continue with this, but if I get a lot of feedback I definitely will. Regardless, I'll probably finish a few other pages designed for later on, as they work pretty well as images on their own.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039093870622173119.post-27149961009254114042012-03-15T00:03:00.000+11:002012-03-15T00:17:18.618+11:00Eye gouge in a street fight: a case study<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwDNsRyxjyx93dHM23ZVijkGf2V1R9Sza4sZfnNCKfObodlQe7l3V4ttqAPvKa5P7k30igg0xFIVYMEsBjbGNYhq-lSR83TCdQv-njVw-KrcU8zGaRcdWD56uVfHgFzEbMsepPv-a_uO0/s1600/Eyegouge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Eye gouge technique" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwDNsRyxjyx93dHM23ZVijkGf2V1R9Sza4sZfnNCKfObodlQe7l3V4ttqAPvKa5P7k30igg0xFIVYMEsBjbGNYhq-lSR83TCdQv-njVw-KrcU8zGaRcdWD56uVfHgFzEbMsepPv-a_uO0/s320/Eyegouge.jpg" width="220" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eye gouge image stolen from Wikipedia</td></tr>
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In this article: <a href="http://danielkeating.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/groin-strikes-eye-gouges-and-other.html">Groin Strikes, eye gouges, and other maiming techniques in self defense</a>, I used the example of Yuki Nakai as someone who suffered an eye gouge, yet continued fighting and won the match.<br />
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I like the anecdote below because it describes an eye gouge and how it felt in some detail. It's also an example of someone continuing to fight after being injured via an armbar.<br />
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<i>I used to bounce full-time (despite my smaller stature) for years, and recently started picking up door shifts here and then to supplement my income. </i></blockquote>
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<i>Long story short, I was working a punk rock show a few weeks ago, and this young punk rocker was really wasted and pissing people off. He already had a goose egg on his head from running into a pole, and he had also slapped me in the face (!) earlier in the night. He ended up getting attacked by a girl, and they were full-on fist fighting, so I stepped in, broke it up, and kicked him out. </i></blockquote>
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<i>When I threw him out, he attacked me. Blocked his right hand, kosoto gake to the ground, and then he shoved his thumb about a knuckle deep in and behind my eye. I could feel it bulging out through my eyelid. Ended up fighting his hand off, sitting up on his shoulder, and leaning back into an armbar, breaking his arm. He was so tweaked that he was still fighting. (and oddly enough, my eye was scratched and torn badly, but healed up in just a few days. that part of the body is amazing.) </i></blockquote>
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<i>So this is the second time that I can recall someone using d34dly technique on me in the street, only to lose horribly. I'm no badass, but I do train every day. He even used proper eye gouging technique, ie rolling the eye out from the inside, etc etc. So was it just not enough d34dly, or does that stuff just not work against a trained individual? Years back, a guy grabbed my sack, and I took knee-on-belly, shoved his neck against a fence, and he ended up shitting himself (literally, it smelled horrible). Just wondering, since I don't ever use "street" type techniques. </i></blockquote>
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<i>Interestingly enough, he verbally submitted to me after his arm popped, but then kept challenging one of the other door guys (6'3", 240lbs, also a judoka and sambist) for another 20 or so minutes. </i></blockquote>
Posted with the author's permission. See the original thread here:<br />
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<a href="http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=115431">Bullshido - street fight a few weeks ago</a><br />
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The point I'd like to emphasise here is:<br />
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<b>There's never any guarantee that maiming your opponent will end the fight.</b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11969746750814827956noreply@blogger.com0