Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Crafty_Dog

Pages: 1 ... 145 146 [147]
7301
Martial Arts Topics / DB in the media
« on: June 26, 2003, 02:22:13 PM »
Woof Lynda:

  I know Ricco from his first day at the Machados forward and I gotta say that was ROTFLMAO funny. 8)

Yip!
Crafty

7302
Martial Arts Topics / DB in the media
« on: June 26, 2003, 12:36:20 AM »
Woof Lynda et al:

We shot it today and it will air sometime in August. The show is called "Tail Dating" and is a less smutty and slutty version of "Blind Date".  Apparently it airs in the afternoon for the young teen audience and later for the stoners (this is the director's description).

A silly and fun time at the shoot.

Woof,
Crafty Dog

7303
Martial Arts Topics / Weird and/or silly
« on: June 24, 2003, 06:29:43 PM »
This thread is for the weird:

Crafty
--------------------------

Tomorrow's headlines, today. Better not allow the prisoner internet access to some of our more wacky song sites. Like this lovely database of horrible, uneasy listening. I recommend "My
Bathroom is My Special Place."

http://www.miserablemelodies.com/index.php

==========================
Man killed for singing Sinatra off-key
June 25 2003

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/24/1056449243426.html

A 25-year-old Filipino man has been stabbed dead for singing a Frank Sinatra classic out of tune during a birthday party.  Police officer Noel Albis said the victim, Casimiro Lagugad, was asked to sing Sinatra's popular song My Way during the party in the Manila suburban city of Caloocan on Sunday.

"Witnesses said the suspect, Julio Tugas, 48, one of the guests and a neighbour of the victim, got irked because Lagugad was singing out of tune," Officer Albis said.

"Tugas suddenly attacked the victim and stabbed him in the neck," he added.

Guests rushed Mr Lagugad to the hospital, but he died while being treated.
Tugas later surrendered to village security officials, who turned him over to authorities.  Police are preparing homicide charges against the suspect, who apparently admitted to the crime.

7304
Martial Arts Topics / Upcoming Tournament
« on: June 24, 2003, 09:59:15 AM »
Woof Dan:

  No age limit!

Crafty Dog

7305
Martial Arts Topics / "Energy" drills and real contact stick fighting
« on: June 23, 2003, 04:04:39 PM »
Woof All:

  I just took a look at my Rambling Rumination piece on Trapping http://www.dogbrothers.com/trapping.htm and stand by what I wrote there.  I believe in trapping and use it regularly in my empty hand sparring.  I believe my stickfighting has been indispensible for me in developing the understanding of how to use it.

  Matt, Burt and the SBG crew were hanging out on the Inosanto Forum expressing their thoughts on all this and after a while I weighed in on behalf of Guro I.   I'll see if I can track down my posts there and repost them here.

  For me after a while the conversation turns into a "Tastes great! No, less filling!" kind of thing after a while.

  So, very briefly:

  I think the Dog Brothers have a pretty good track record of Alive training.   Top Dog, Salty Dog, many other of the Dog Brothers and I all have extensive "dead pattern" training.  

  I think I have a good record as a teacher of taking regular guys and getting them to where they do well at our DB Gatherings.  I use Dead Pattern training as PART of the process.   For me as a fighter and as a teacher, mastery of the weapon(s) for fighting is best achieved with training that includes DP training.   To achieve the highest levels, as noted by bruiseseasily, in my experience is most readily achieved with training that includes DP training.   Underlining the point further, some of my best fights directly called upon DP learning-- my seemingly spontaneous improvs were really but a recognition of opportunities that I would have missed but for this training.

Training DPs by themselves likely will not yield results.  It is also entirely possible to train DPs and suck.  It is also entirely possible to train without DPs and still suck.  If you get good results without DPs, great.  But there is no need or call to trash those who do use DPs.  If you trained DPs and are disappointed by your first efforts at fighting, then fight some more.

Woof for now,
Crafty Dog

7306
Martial Arts Topics / Blood Clotting Technology
« on: June 23, 2003, 12:55:24 PM »
From today's LA Times:
---------------------------

Lifesaving product of the war

Bandages that stop bleeding instantly may have saved the lives of soldiers wounded in Iraq. Now they're making their way to your home medicine chest.
     
By Melissa Healy, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON ? One of the Iraq war's most dramatic lifesaving technologies is expected to make its civilian debut this fall, when it becomes available for household use, according to the company that makes it.

QuikClot is a granular powder, a refined mineral called zeolite that looks like cat litter and has many industrial uses. But when poured onto a grievous, bleeding wound, QuikClot staunches blood loss almost instantaneously. It is one of a group of new "hemostatic agents" that are on the market or in development. Two of them were sent into battle. The small bag of clotting agent was carried in every Marine rucksack and appeared to spell the difference between life and death for 19 soldiers wounded in Iraq, according to Defense Department medical officials, who helped speed Food and Drug Administration clearance for QuikClot in May 2002. In the process, the new product ? along with other innovations in military trauma care ? significantly boosted survival rates among those wounded in the Iraq war.

In one case, a Marine was shot through the neck. The bullet nicked his carotid artery before exiting from the back of his skull. As the Marine bled profusely, QuikClot was poured onto his wound, sealing it immediately. He made it alive to a field hospital and later to a Navy hospital ship ? a casualty that probably would have been a fatality in the Persian Gulf war.

Now, however, Z-Medica, the small Connecticut company that makes QuikClot, has its eye on saving those wounded in civilian life: in automobile wrecks, shootouts, airline disasters and household accidents. Late this summer, the company said, it expects to begin selling QuikClot through U.S. retail stores with no prescription required. Its sales pitch: Having the product handy could help a person with no medical or emergency training stop the massive bleeding that causes some 50,000 deaths a year, mostly the result of traffic accidents.

The military-issue "trauma pack" carries a price tag of about $22; the smaller version for household use will sell for less than $10.

*

Enhancing self-reliance

At a time when terrorist attacks have blurred the line between combatants and bystanders, experts say the growing number and availability of hemostatic agents such as QuikClot and HemCon ? another military clotting product that draws blood into tiny vessels and effectively plugs a gaping wound ? could make almost anyone with a well-equipped first aid kit an emergency first responder.

"Issues of self-reliance have become very important in the context of homeland defense," said Bart Gullong, executive vice president of Z-Medica, which makes and markets QuikClot, its sole product. In disasters and public health emergencies, Americans want to be able to help themselves and their families, he said, and the company's plans fit in with that.

But these wonder products are not without risks. Because of the speed with which it draws water into itself, QuikClot can generate enough heat to burn tissue if too much is used.

According to a study to be published next month in the Journal of Trauma, researchers with the Uniformed Armed Services Health Services found that, compared with two other clot-boosting bandages and traditional wound dressing, QuikClot performed best overall. But the product HemCon, which the Army favors, is believed to stem blood loss better in certain smaller injuries. It may have to be removed more quickly than other hemostatic bandages, however, and is several times more expensive than QuikClot.

Fibrin, another clotting agent under joint development by the Army and the American Red Cross, is derived from human blood and could cost $2,000 per application.

"I don't like it, but when you ask me one of the best ways to stop bleeding, it's QuikClot," said Dr. Peter Rhee, a trauma surgeon at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, who has used the newest hemostatic agent extensively in the last year.

"It does stop bleeding, and it does save lives. In trained hands, it does work well," said Rhee, who also directs the Navy's Trauma Training Center at County-USC.

Rhee is concerned that QuikClot could be risky if used by consumers with a poor knowledge of the product and of traumatic injury. He has higher hopes for other coagulant bandages making their way onto the market.

Dr. Hasan Alam, a trauma surgeon at Washington (D.C.) Hospital Center who participated in the testing of QuikClot, said the product should be put in a form different from the 3.5-ounce packets provided to Marines.

"If you start selling it in Wal-Mart, you have to come up with a strategy to prevent its misuse," Alam said. Given the risks of burns, pouring the substance onto skinned knees and shaving cuts is "like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly."

Z-Medica is exploring whether QuikClot may someday be used to stem bleeding in surgery (an internal use that probably would require extensive additional testing for FDA approval), or for the management of unusual bleeding among hemophiliacs, diabetics and those taking blood thinning medication, company executives say.

Rhee provided a dramatic preview of QuikClot's possibilities in emergency surgery at County-USC last winter. A patient with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest was bleeding everywhere. In spite of frantic efforts, the bleeding continued unchecked.

With the man's life ebbing away, a colleague urged Rhee to try using QuikClot internally ? an "off-label," or unapproved, use considered acceptable in cases when no viable alternative is available to save a patient. He did, and the bleeding stopped.

"It was absolutely the last thing" available, Rhee said. "I had actually made my decision to let him die This guy walked out of the hospital a week later."

*

A longer 'golden hour'

On the battlefield as well as closer to home, uncontrolled bleeding kills many in the first hour following an injury. For others, massive blood loss can cause shock, which can cause complications and death later, even for patients who make it quickly to a hospital.

When emergency medical technicians, fire and police units and even ordinary citizens can apply dressings that staunch bleeding well before a victim arrives at the hospital, doctors such as Terry Soldo, a Navy "Devil Doc" who served in Iraq and saw QuikClot used twice, are certain that more lives can be saved.

"They talk about the 'golden hour' " in which EMTs and doctors can keep a bleeding injury victim from dying, Soldo said. "If you could control hemorrhage earlier, the 'golden hour' can last longer. If they can control that, in my opinion, it would make a huge difference."

Francis X. Hursey, who developed QuikClot, discovered the properties of zeolite, a granular volcanic material, when he was developing gas-separation and -purification equipment for medical and industrial uses. One day more than a decade ago, he sliced himself shaving and decided to apply a bit of the water-absorbing zeolite to the cut.

By sucking up the water from the exposed blood, the material concentrated the blood's remaining coagulants. To Hursey's astonishment, his shaving nick sealed itself in seconds.

Other "hemostatins" seek to achieve the same effect with different materials and in different ways. Although some add coagulants at the wound site, others constrict bleeding arteries near the wound and activate platelets to speed healing.

QuikClot and Emergency Medical Products' TraumaDex, one of the early entrants into this field, work on the "aquasponge" principle. HemCon and Marine Polymer Technologies' RDH bandage effectively plug a wound. All but QuikClot are made of a sugar-related substance called chitosan that comes from shrimp shells, seaweed and algae.

Doctors say each has an area of strength. The RDH bandage, for instance, has shown particular promise for in stemming bleeding from liver lacerations but may be less effective in larger, gaping wounds. The TraumaDex bandage is absorbed by the body; unlike HemCon and QuikClot, it doesn't have to be removed by a doctor before repairs can be made.

QuikClot currently is distributed to police departments, fire and rescue squads, and hikers and hunters who venture far from emergency health care. Starting in September, Z-Medica plans to sell it over the counter in pharmacies, convenience stores and supermarkets.

Z-Medica executives believe that in addition to its still-preliminary record of effectiveness on the battlefield, their product has two things in its favor for consumer use: low price and ease of use. The packet , which was carried into combat by more than 50,000 U.S. troops, can be applied by the wounded soldier himself ? if necessary, held in one hand and torn open with the mouth. Pressure must be applied to the wound before and after the application. During the Iraq conflict, the QuikClot packets were so coveted by British soldiers that they offered to trade bottles of Scotch and war trophies to secure them from American GIs.

*

Battlefield lives

HemCon Inc., a Portland, Ore., company that received FDA approval for its bandages in November 2002, is working on new versions for the Army and for testing by the Marines, said Dr. William Weismann, the company's founder.

Military planners long have recognized that slowing blood loss on the battlefield and during evacuation is their best chance of reducing fatalities. Shortening the time to a field hospital can help, and U.S. forces accomplished that in Iraq by dispatching medical teams and rapidly movable treatment facilities to areas closer than ever to the front lines. But if blood loss also could be stemmed, according to Pentagon estimates, 1 in 5 men and women who might otherwise die in war could go home to their families.

7307
Martial Arts Topics / Ruptured achilles tendon - getting back up
« on: June 21, 2003, 05:44:41 AM »
Woof My Friend:

  Most important is that you have your mind right.  There is no more important piece to this challenge.  

  One specific suggestion I would emphasize is to focus on walking with a natural stride as much as and as soon as possible.  This IMHO is VERY important.  Avoid weird gates even if they enable you to go faster.  Walk as slowly as you need to in order to walk with an even stride.    Uneven strides will have fugly consequences for the alignment of your whole body.  

Also this is a very good time to really focus on your core/waist strength-- not only as a way to be productive with this time, but also as a preventive measure against postural alignment problems due to your unavoidably unnatural stride in the near term.  Also a good time to work grip and neck.

Also, walk barefoot on soft earth and/or sand when given clearance by your doctor.

Woof,
Crafty Dog

7308
Martial Arts Topics / Violence against Women
« on: June 20, 2003, 10:16:20 AM »
Woof All:

  Just a quick yip as I dash about my day:

  Thank you Lynda for the terminology assist!

  "Social Constructivism, or Phenomenology, for example. But the 'problem' with ideology is not what it values, Truth for the Realist, and experience for the Phenomenologist, but what's at stake in an ideology is the elimination of all the opposing voices. I did a lot of research for my philosophy of science course on Nazi science and it became quite clear to me that Nazi science was so successful because it existed within a paradigm of science known as Realism where scientific Truth is waiting to be 'discovered' by the scientist. Further, it was the very nature of Realism as a scientific ideology which fed the Nazi ideology and was in turn fed by it."

Some questions and comments:

1)  Social constuctivism/Phenomenology?  What's that?

2)  Was Nazi science successful???  Wasn't it at variance with the facts???
  e.g. are Jews really inferior?  Are Aryans really superior?  

3)  Speaking with less that certainty, I was under the impression that the Nazis were rather full of non-factual mystical notions such as the collective unconscious of the German Aryans, astrology, etc.  Indeed wasn't the Nazi symbol itself taken from Tibettan religion?

4) "I seek truth through our subjective experiences." That's all well and good, but speaking as a one who has more than a little reading background in this area (I'm Jewish) I would offer that this is exactly how the Nazis got to some of their most hideous conclusions of racial differences-- the absence of facts and the primacy of emotion and subjectivity.

5) "I made some points throughout this forum for which I chose not to provide "evidence" to substantiate them, because a) I wanted to avoid a battle of "facts" (I have confidence that we can do our own research if something sparks our interest further), and b) it is my politics to subvert our cultural bias that the Truth is in the "facts"."

Well, you have succeeded in making assertions without evidence :twisted:    

I think this is going to get too Mars and Venus for me for now!

Woof,
Crafty

7309
Martial Arts Topics / Guns and Drugs
« on: June 19, 2003, 01:43:03 PM »
Conservatives, Guns, and Drugs
by Sheldon Richman, September 2001


Conservatives are generally good at arguing against gun control. Besides the constitutional case ? that the Second Amendment protects an individual right keep and bear arms ? they are also well versed in the ?pragmatic? arguments.

For example, they say that gun laws will not be respected by people intent on committing crimes of violence because it is unlikely that a person who has no moral scruples against committing murder, assault, or robbery would shrink at running afoul of mere gun laws.

The 20,000 firearms restrictions now on the books have not prevented gun violence, including horrific shootings by teenagers. On the contrary: to the extent that gun laws impede law-abiding citizens from obtaining and carrying firearms, those laws encourage gun violence.

Conservatives also justifiably raise the specter of the black market when gun controllers propose making it tougher, if not impossible, to buy guns legally. With at least 65 million handguns in private hands currently, black-market thugs would have no difficulty finding a supply.

Moreover, an essentially open society with long borders and coastlines could not prevent the smuggling of firearms. Guns also can be made in clandestine domestic factories if necessary. If the demand is there the supply will follow. Since guns are the tools of the criminal trade, the demand will be there.

Gun restrictions (or prohibition) combined with the black market in guns for outlaws result in the endangerment of law-abiding citizens, who are rendered defenseless by law in the face of well-armed criminals. Thus gun control not only is futile; it also makes things many times worse.

The corollary is that gun ownership by law-abiding people makes things better. That is the upshot of the work of John Lott, who has shown that states which recognize a citizen?s right to carry concealed handguns have seen their crime rates go down.

Conservatives understand all this ? which makes it puzzling that they favor laws against the manufacture, sale, and use of narcotics and other illegal drugs. If the connection between the two is not obvious, read on.

The pragmatic arguments against gun control and drug control are similar. Not much argument is required to show the futility of drug control. The war on drugs has been fought for decades. Yet today drugs are more plentiful, more potent, and cheaper than ever. New drugs are developed all the time. The authorities can?t keep drugs out of prisons ? which fact alone should end all argument.

What we observe in the illegal gun trade we also observe in the illegal drug trade: when human beings demand something, entrepreneurial ingenuity is summoned forth to satisfy that demand and to reap profits that reflect the risk.

No matter what the drug warriors do, the flow of drugs continues essentially unabated. When the heat gets too great on one foreign or domestic source, another emerges to take its place. Regardless of what one thinks of the product, the market for drugs works just as it does for other goods and services. Attempts to rid society of drugs are hopeless.

There is one key difference between a legal and an illegal market. In the latter a premium is placed on skill at employing violence. In a black market, normal security and dispute-resolution procedures are unavailable. So ?justice? is procured more directly. This offers an advantage to people proficient in the use of physical force. The drug trade is violent not because of drugs, but because of the war against drugs. If drugs are outlawed, only outlaws will sell drugs. And outlaws tend to be not only skilled but also uninhibited in the use of force.

Why don?t most conservatives apply the same logic to drugs that they use for guns? It can?t be because there is no amendment in the U.S. Constitution that specifies a right to ingest the substance of one?s choice. For one thing, there is an impeccable constitutional case against national drug prohibition, one which an older generation of conservatives understood better. That case begins by noting that, as the Constitution is constructed, the federal government may exercise only the powers expressly delegated in Article I, Section 8.

If the Constitution is silent on a matter, that matter is left to the states or to the people, according to the Tenth Amendment. One does not look first at the Bill of Rights to determine whether individuals should be free from federal restraint. One looks at the enumerated powers. If a claimed power is not there, the feds are sidelined.

Is Congress given the power to forbid the sale and ingestion of drugs? No one has been able to point to the relevant clause. Some might invoke the General Welfare and Commerce Clauses, but conservatives have been properly wary of how the ?living Constitution? crowd has stretched those clauses beyond recognition. Besides, neither clause would support a war on drugs.

As Madison said, making the General Welfare Clause into a grant of plenary power would fly in the face of enumerated powers and thus transmogrify the Constitution into something it was never meant to be.

And the Commerce Clause was intended merely to create a free-trade zone in the United States. The Left has used that clause to smuggle all kinds of illicit powers into the central government?s hands, including gun, anti-discrimination, and sexual-violence laws. The Right would use it for its own pet projects.

When the idea of alcohol prohibition got up enough steam to prevail, its proponents obtained a constitutional amendment, conceding that the Constitution did not empower the central government to outlaw consumer products. Why is no amendment thought necessary for drug prohibition? Are we all ?living constitution? advocates now?

If conservatives don?t have a constitutional case for drug prohibition, they may think they have a cultural case. In their view, drugs are part of a left-wing package deal they want no part of.

While some anti-war student activists in the 1960s celebrated drug use (hard Left elements opposed legalization), the conservative view is an association by nonessentials. Drug use has nothing to do with ideology.

Moreover, the issue is really not drug use, but government power. To defend the freedom to use drugs is not to advocate the use of drugs. Conservatives seem to understand that for tobacco. Why the lapse when it comes to drugs?

They may respond that someone who wrecks his life using drugs harms not only himself but his family and others. But that is also true of someone who wrecks his life with alcohol or gambling.

Yet most conservatives do not seek a new prohibition of alcohol or gambling. Not everyone who uses, say, marijuana, wrecks his life or hurts other people. By what right does the state intervene before an actual crime of force is committed?

Guns can harm innocent people, but conservatives properly demand that government not interfere with any gun owner unless he has actually committed a crime.

Conservatives apparently see no great harm in the drug war. Leave aside the little matter of official corruption and its corrosive effect on the rule of law. Forget its routine assault on our right to be secure in our homes. (Pre-dawn raids by militarized law-enforcement officers did not begin with Eli?n Gonzalez.) Never mind the violations of our financial privacy to combat the drug kingpins? money laundering.

We may also ignore the foreign intervention the U.S. government commits in combating the drug trade; it has escalated its participation in the decades-long civil war in Colombia in the name of stopping drugs at their source. (?Colombia is the heart of the drug war, and we?d better get on with it,? said the late Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell of Georgia. ?If we lose in Colombia, then we lose everywhere.? Where have we heard that before?)

The conservatives are wrong. The war on drugs wreaks great harm on us. And among those harms is the war on guns. Guns are integral to the black market in drugs, overshadowing the common, but largely unseen, use of guns to defend innocent life.

According to a 1998 Canadian Department of Justice study, which examined the literature on the connection between drugs and guns in the United States and elsewhere, ?There is clear and substantial evidence that firearms are an essential tool for regulating the illegal trade in drugs, including protecting shipments of drugs, enforcing debts, resolving disputes, eliminating competition, killing or injuring informants and defending against enforcement personnel.?

The study pointed out that since drug dealers can?t call the police and tend to avoid banks and other legitimate security measures, they are tempting targets for thieves. They compensate by being heavily armed.

The study quoted Steven Duke and Albert Gross?s book America?s Longest War:

?As drug proceeds mushroomed during the seventies and early eighties, midlevel drug distributors were able to buy not only rifles and handguns, but automatic weapons, bazookas, grenades, even rockets.... To counteract such offensive and defensive power, other more powerful weaponry is marketed, and so on up the spiral. Virtually everyone who deals in drugs or drug money has at least a handgun. Stash houses and laboratories are arsenals?

Drug-law critic Ethan Nadelmann is also quoted:

?Most law enforcement officials agree that the dramatic increases in urban murder rates during the past few years can be explained almost entirely by the rise in drug-related killings.?

In the last several years the anti-gun movement has gotten a boost from the specter of well-armed youth gangs fighting with each other and police and committing drive-by shootings. Those gangs are deeply involved in the drug trade, and their black-market revenues have financed massive arsenals that rival those of the local police.

Guns are the gangs? means of resolving disputes between competitors and between buyers and sellers. ?Gang activity and violence, which have increased greatly over the past decade, have been directly associated with drug sales,? wrote Barry Stimmel in 1996 (quoted in the Canadian study).

This is the source of the alarm about guns and ?children,? in which category the gun controllers misleadingly include adolescents and young adults up to 19 years old.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, in 1997, 85 percent of the 4,200 intentional (including suicide) and accidental gun deaths of ?children? actually involved victims 15 to 19 years old, many of whom were inner-city gang members.

The U.S. Justice Departments acknowledges that the problem of gun violence and youth is mostly an inner-city problem, which means a black-market drug phenomenon (?Promising Strategies to Reduce Gun Violence,? Department of Justice monograph, February 1999).

Violent resolution of drug disputes can also set a tone for the wider community where affluent gang members with fancy cars and flashy firearms are objects of admiration and role models for fatherless boys.

The willingness to use a gun to settle scores and gain respect can become part of a subculture?s way of life. The six-year-old boy who shot a schoolmate to death with a stolen handgun lived in his uncle?s crack house.

There is no question that drug-related gun violence has scared people. Some have armed themselves in self-defense, although government has made this more difficult.

But many others ? after being bombarded with countless images of criminal gun use on television and no images of the defensive use of guns ? have been softened up for the anti-gun movement?s demagogic appeals.

Well-meaning or not, anti-gun activists, rather than rethinking the drug war, have instead offered this simple-minded palliative: end gun violence by passing more laws against gun possession.

The advice is ironic: if the laws against drug trading and possession have not made drugs disappear, why should we expect gun laws to make guns disappear?

The greater irony is that to the extent that conservatives have encouraged the government in the war on drugs, they have unwittingly helped advance the war on guns. Their enthusiasm for anti-drug laws contributes to the conditions that make some people eager to accept anti-gun laws.

Decriminalizing the use of and trade in drugs would take the drug industry away from the most violent elements of society and place them in the open marketplace, where civil dispute resolution would replace gunfights. It would also deprive thugs of a superlucrative occupation.

That combination would be a blow to the anti-gun lobby. The absence of routine gun violence by reviled drug sellers would deprive the lobby of some of its most potent propaganda. Then Second Amendment champions could begin to rehabilitate firearms as a reasonable tool self-defense.
 
Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation in Fairfax, Va. (www.fff.org), and editor of Ideas on Liberty magazine.

7310
Martial Arts Topics / Mexico City this weekend
« on: June 18, 2003, 10:58:28 PM »
Woof All:

  Brought over from our Spanish language forum:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

      El pasado 14 y 15 de Junio se llevo a cabo en la Ciudad de M?xico el primer seminario de Dog Brothers Martial Arts, organizado por la Academia de Artes Marciales Sistemas Integrados de Combate, impartido por Guro Marc “Crafty Dog” Denny por invitaci?n del profesor Mauricio S?nchez Reyes, director general de SIC.

    El seminario estuvo enfocado al desarrollo de habilidades en combate con palo sencillo y para compartir las experiencias y conocimientos de Guro Marc Denny, quien siempre demostr? un gran respeto hacia los otros sistemas y practicantes que participaron en el evento.

    Se cont? con la presencia de participantes del Distrito Federal y del interior de la Rep?blica como Chiapas, Veracruz, Can-Cun Quintana Roo y Estado de M?xico.

    El S?bado 14, se inicio el seminario con una explicaci?n sobre la filosof?a y conceptos sobre los cuales esta basado el Sistema Dog Brothers Martial Arts, as? como la manera en que est?n enfocadas las peleas en los Gathering of the pack, subrayando que DBMA tiene como meta ofrecer a los practicantes un sistema con el cual puedan “caminar como un guerrero por todos sus d?as”, es decir, que el sistema esta dise?ado para practicarse durante toda la vida por personas de cualquier edad y no solo para j?venes de tendencia competitiva. Posteriormente se dio una explicaci?n sobre las siete distancias del combate con palos, se trabaj? sobre el juego de pies, desplazamientos (tri?ngulo, diamante interior y exterior, colmillo y driveby) y la movilidad del cuerpo en combinaci?n con golpes y defensas, de all? se paso a la aplicaci?n de los desplazamientos en t?cnicas de combate, todo esto acompa?ado de m?sica para llevar el ritmo de los movimientos. El entrenamiento con m?sica fue un aspecto innovador que Guro Marc implanto en los m?todos de entrenamiento.

    El Domingo 15, se trabajo sobre los conceptos en los que se basa el sistema tailand?s de Krabi Krabong y como est? incorporado en el sistema Dog Brothers Martial Arts; t?cnicas de defensa y ataque b?sicos y sus aplicaciones en combinaci?n con pateo, as? como los conceptos para desarrollar potencia en los golpes. Posteriormente se inicio el trabajo de la distancia media y como pasar a las t?cnicas de stick-grappling. Tambi?n se trabajo sobre la manera de usar el palo contra la mano vac?a.

    Todos los participantes disfrutaron con gran inter?s de la practicas de los conceptos, y t?cnicas de DBMA, as? como de los comentario y charlas de Guro Marc. Cabe destacar que el seminario fue muy revelador en cuanto a la manera de entrenar las t?cnicas enfocadas al combate real con palos.

    Finalmente se paso a la clausura del evento no sin antes recalcar que Guro Marc Denny regresar? a M?xico en Febrero de 2004 para dar continuaci?n a los contenidos de este eficaz sistema de combate que es Dog Brothers Martial Arts.

    De parte de la organizaci?n Sistemas Integrados de Combate les hago extenso mi agradecimiento a todos los participantes de este magno evento, as? como a la Sra. Blanca Elvira Cabello Cruz y mis estudiantes por su colaboraci?n en la realizaci?n del mismo.

  Infinitas Gracias Guro Marc Denny.

Prof. Mauricio S?nchez Reyes
Sistemas Integrados de Combate
56-05-80-59 / 50-97-82-54
www.artes-marciales.com.mx
mauricio@proyect.com.mx

7311
Martial Arts Topics / DB and DBMA in the media
« on: June 18, 2003, 12:37:41 PM »
Woof All:

  The adventure continues.  I just got a call from MTV asking for me to teach a private lesson as a "fun activity" for a "Blind Date" program they are doing 8)

yip!
Crafty Dog

7312
Woof David and Raf:

  My life is too full for the forseeable future to go read about this so I am delighted to have the two of you here to help extend my education.

Woof,
Crafty Dog

7313
Woof All:

  Tuhon Raf wrote:

"Guro Crafty, Another thing to be considered are the thousands of Africans who came to the Americas as slaves and fought alongside the conquistadores. Much of their contribution has been ignored by the Spanish chroniclers of course. Again Restall states, " As with so much else in the evolution of the Conquest into a collage of myths (some of which David has also exposed in his mention of Cortes' status amongst the natives) subsequent historians and others consolidated this marginalization. Evidence of black roles is thus scattered and often opaque, but when the pieces are put together, it is incontrovertible".

Here we drift into waters somewhat more familiar to me-- my major at U. of PA was "International Relations" with focus on Latin America, especially Mexico.

Dredging through some 25 years of mental silt, this is how I remember things regarding the Africans, slave trade and related matters.  Slave trade to the US was relatively less important than to Latin America.  The climate and working conditions were less brutal and, forgive the technical term, domestic reproduction, especially in VA as versus the deep south, was more succcessful.  In the Carribean, i.e. under Spain, after the natives were wiped out (e.g. by diseases, inability to adapt to slave conditions) conditions were more brutal and mortality rates quite high, necesitating continuous replenishment from Africa.  I am unaware of any use of Africans/slaves in a fighting capacity.  Brazil, under Portugal, was perhaps the most brutal-- slaves were easily replaced from nearby Africa.  Again, I am unaware of any military use of slaves.  My lack of knowledge of such use in all of these cases may simply be a matter of my own ignorance.

  Black blood is spanish-speaking Latin America is pretty much limited to the Caribbean area-- although when in Peru a couple of months ago I was surprised to see occasional black-mestizo Peruvians.

"Btw, Guro C, how much info can be gathered where you are in Mexico City about the origins of their knife systems? I have read other knife instructors here and there mention a Mexican knife fighting system. Often, it is to promote the tapes/books they are selling by downplaying FMA's contributions, as in "Filipinos are not the only ones who know the knife - so do Mexicans". Which with evolution of tactics is most likely the truth these days, but I wonder how far it goes back?"

Back in the 70s and 80s I travelled quite extensively throughout the length of Mexico by motorcycle as well as studied there and even worked there one summer.  This included time with Mayan indians in Quintana Roo (which including clearing jungle with machete) and travel through the interior of Chiapas (resulting in three days in prison in San Cristobal de las Casas for a fight (2 versus 4) BTW-- a lively story!)   To be fair, it must be pointed out the era pre-dates my involvement in martial arts (indeed the SC de las C episode was the event that got me to enter into martial arts even though it had gone well enough).  That said, nothing ever came across my horizon back then or since then.  In short, I am unaware of any Mexican martial art as such.    However, one of my students has shown me some Mexican gangbanger/prison  moves such as "The Folsom Two-Step".   One might plausibly hypthesize that "Mexican knife systems" might best be studied/experienced in prison-- but this is an area where I do not have much basis for an opinion.

"As many people do not know, the Tondo rebels during the early occupation of the Spaniards in Luzon were exiled to of all places... Mexico. Tondo is known in FMAs circles as the home of Illustrisimo and to many Filipinos as a very dangerous area... and these are the folks who weren't exiled! Subsequent galleons through hundreds of years also had many Filipinos jump ship and reside in Mexico. Intermingling and raising familes there. Some words in the Mexican dialect are rooted in old Tagalog. As David wrote, the Spaniards did not mention any blade culture prior to their arrival."

The major port of Acupulco, in the state of Guerrero (Warrior!) does have a history of rebelliousness.  If memory serves, in the early 1970s a governor, son of a governor? was held and the government sent some 10,000 troops into the mountains to settle things.  Although specifics slip my mind at the moment, I do recall having heard and noticed certain things that would be consistent with the idea of Filipinos jumping ship in Acapulco and then blending in locally.


Woof,
Crafty Dog

7314
Martial Arts Topics / hit to the knee
« on: June 16, 2003, 11:10:49 PM »
Salty Dog was the last man certified by GM Braulio Pedoy (or was is Pedoy Braulio) before his death at the age of 92.  Born and raised in the Philippines, GM BP spent the latter part of his life in Hawaii.  

Dan Medina of Albuquerque New Mexico was Salty's teacher for the bulk of his training in the system which is also noted for elaborate stick locks and traps.

If I am not mistaken there is also some legitimate instruction in the San Diego CA area but the names involved slip my mind.

Hope this helps,
Crafty

7315
Martial Arts Topics / Metronome training?
« on: June 12, 2003, 07:43:47 PM »
Woof SG et al:

  Yes the feeder is also called "the metronome".

  And exactly right that the speed is steady.  In the beginning and intermediate levels of the training, the fighter controls the tempo.  It is only after he has a decent grasp of the coordinations in question that the feeder/metronome might pick up the tempo in order to push him.

Guro Crafty

7316
Martial Arts Topics / Latosa escrima
« on: June 12, 2003, 07:40:51 PM »
Ola Amigo:

  Una de las primeras lecciones es limitarse a hablar de lo que sepas-- y no tengo conocimiento del sistema Latosa, por lo cual no ladro :)

  Cambiando de tema, estoy muy interesado en el palo de las Islas Canarias.   Un hombre agradable de las IC ha asistido unos de mis seminarios en Cartagena y ha tenido la grazia de mandarme un video de una muestra de palo largo de IC y tambien unos libros al respeto.  !Muy interesante!  Mi estudiante y cabeza de nuestra organizacion, Alfonso Acosta Gil de Cartagena, ha comenzado estudiar el estilo Acosta y ha invitado su maestro a Espana para presentar un seminario este fin de semana http://www.ctv.es/USERS/kali.jkd/Directorio.htm

Yo regreso a Espana por la sexta vez en la primavera y si sea posible, me gustaria entrenar en/con Palo Largo Islas Canarias.

Guau,
Crafty Dog

PD:  Cabe mencionar que no veo ningun limitacion con tu ingles y espero que vayas a seguir participando aqui.

7317
Martial Arts Topics / Mexico City this weekend
« on: June 11, 2003, 07:12:19 PM »
Woof All:

  Just a reminder that I will be teaching a seminar in Mexico City this weekend.  Info on seminar page.

Woof,
Guro Crafty

7318
Martial Arts Topics / Defend your family, go to jail
« on: June 11, 2003, 10:51:32 AM »
'Defend your family, go to jail'
Dad who saved son from intruder incarcerated for unregistered gun

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: June 11, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern



? 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

A Brooklyn man who shot and wounded an intruder while defending his family will spend three days in Rikers Island, the same jail housing the burglar who terrorized his home, because he owns an unregistered gun.

Ronald Dixon, a 27-year-old father of two, caught an intruder rifling through drawers in his son's room early on Dec. 14.

"I went in. ... I looked in his face. I didn't know this guy; I was so shocked ... In a nervous voice I said, 'What are you doing in my house?' and he ran toward me yelling, 'Come upstairs!' like there were other people with him. I shot him 'cause I thought more people were in the house," Dixon told the New York Daily News.

Dixon fired two shots from his 9 mm pistol, wounding the suspected burglar in the chest and groin.

"The only thing I could think about was my family ? there was no telling what he would do to my children or girlfriend," he told the paper.

Authorities charged Dixon with illegal possession of a firearm when they discovered his gun was not legally registered in New York, a charge that carries up to a year in prison.

When Dixon proved he had obtained the firearm legally in Florida and tried to register it in New York, the prosecutors agreed to a charge of disorderly conduct.

Dixon pleaded guilty to the disorderly conduct charge, which will allow him to do time without carrying a criminal record. Sentencing is scheduled for June 27, WINS Radio reports.

The intruder turned out to be Ivan Thompson, a career criminal with a 14-page rap sheet. Thompson has been arrested 19 times and been convicted of criminal trespass, burglary and attempted assault. He currently is on parole until 2004 on burglary charges.

"Clearly [Dixon] was justified in shooting this burglar, and the burglar is going to get as much jail time as we can get him," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes told the News.

But Hynes will not budge from his tough anti-gun policy.

"If you get caught with a gun in Brooklyn, you're going to do jail time," said Hynes, who has held that stance since taking office in 1990, when, he says, "Brooklyn was like Dodge City."

Dixon's case has attracted widespread attention and many letters addressed to Hynes, including this anonymous letter, which sums up the feelings of many supporters:

"If you were in the same position that Mr. Dixon was in, I would be willing to wager that you would also use whatever means you had on hand to defend your loved ones, as any of us would.

"By prosecuting Ronald Dixon on spurious charges, you are sending a very dangerous message to the residents in your jurisdiction: Defend your family, go to jail. You are also sending an equally dangerous message to the criminal element, who would realize that law-abiding citizens would now be hesitant to defend themselves for fear of criminal prosecution, and therefore make prime targets for violent crime."

A Jamaican immigrant, Dixon served in the Navy from 1994 to 1997 in weapons ordnance and holds down two computer-related jobs.

"I work seven days a week. I have been doing it for three years, because I wanted a safe haven for my family," he told the News.

"I thought the house would give me a safe haven. Now I'm thinking if I didn't buy this house this never would have happened."

7319
Martial Arts Topics / Latosa escrima
« on: June 11, 2003, 09:40:24 AM »
Guau Amigo:

Bienvenidos :)

Tengo entendido que Rene Latosa estaba involuncrado con la gente "Ving Tsun" en Europa, pero yo vi en las revistas que la gente VT han tenido un gran lio de politica y la organizacion se ha divido con mal humor por parte de varias personas.

Vi a Rene Latasa en el "Dragonfest" este ano y platicabamos unos minutos.  Me decia que ya no se asocia con la gente VT por la politica alli.  Tenia una actitud muy tranquilo en frente de la situacion.

Del sistema Latosa, no tengo ningun conocimiento.

Si estas ubicado en Espana, permitame mencionar que nosotros tenemos una organizacion alli encabezado por Alfonso Acosta Gil.  Se puede encontrar mas informacion en http://www.ctv.es/USERS/kali.jkd/  Llevo 5 anos viajando a Espana y la organizacion alli esta' creciendo bien.

Cabe mencionar que estare' en Switzerland (Suica?) en Septiembre, y en Inglatierra en Octubre.

Este viernes (osea el 13 de Junio) salgo para el Distrito Federal, Mexico por tres dias-- dos dias de seminario, y un dia de entrenamiento particular.  

De vez en cuando voy a Peru, donde mi madre vive para visitarla.

De donde eres tu?

Guau
Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

7320
Martial Arts Topics / Violence against Women
« on: June 09, 2003, 05:21:54 AM »
Woof All:

  It seems like there will be no answer to my question :?   Oh well.

  Changing subjects, I see that there is an article in today's NY Times discussing a matter that was discussed earlier in this thread--the subject of rape during war:

"Congo's Warring Factions Leave a Trail of Rape
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Sexual attacks have become endemic during Congo's war as soldiers from one armed group after another have seized villages."

I have somehow cleverly blocked myself from accessing the NYT and have been unable to figure out how to do it :? --- is there someone out there who can access the article and post it here?

TIA,
Crafty Dog

7321
Martial Arts Topics / Bilateralism
« on: June 08, 2003, 09:55:04 PM »
Woof David:

IMHO there are also trainings intended to give results over short, medium and long terms.  Each has its place.  In my own experience, if I had to fight single stick as an older fighter (I fought until I was 48 ) I would have had lesser results than I had with the skills accumulated over the years that allowed me to evolve into a double stick fighter.  I feel I was able to compensate for being slow of stick and foot by the acquired coordinations of years of siniwali training that allowed me to put out a volume of strikes in a given amount of time that imitated speed and by the years of work on bilateralism I could zone to either side and thus take genuine advantage of the much vaunted but rarely seen triangular footwork of the FMA because it was a matter of indifference to me which side was forward.

It is not necessary to equal a GM Luna Lema to have results in this regard.  Indeed in DBMA one of the reasons we include KK in the curriculum from the beginning is because of its cultivation of bilateralism (albeit linear) under conditions of primal power.

Time to put my son to bed-- gotta go,
Guro Crafty

7322
Martial Arts Topics / Metronome training?
« on: June 08, 2003, 09:37:18 PM »
Woof All:

  Pretty good SG.

  Before entering into the substance first a terminology clarification:

  In the FMA consistent use of terminology between different systems is permitted only to the extent that it enables maximum confusion when terminological usage is inconsistent.  :wink:  Thus for example, in DBMA an "umbrella" is a palm up parry that roughly mirrors a roof block-- a usage unlike other systems.

  With the metronome training, there is the "feeder" and the "fighter".  (This complies with the criterion of maximum confusion for those of us who also train in Sayoc.)  Thus when it is time to exchange roles I will say "Feeder fights, fighter feeds."  

By training with rhythm we:
1) allow unequal skill levels to work together
2) give honest feedback of coordination
3) develop rythm, the antecedant to timing
4) research ideas.

Woof,
Guro Crafty

7323
Martial Arts Topics / DB Real contact tournament ?
« on: June 06, 2003, 08:36:23 AM »
Woof BG:

  Why do you ask?

Crafty Dog

7324
Martial Arts Topics / Medical Privacy
« on: June 05, 2003, 05:09:34 AM »
ORWELL REDUX

Health Sciences Institute e-Alert

April 14, 2003

**************************************************************

Dear Member,

If you're a U.S. citizen, as of today you now have a medical today you now have a medical
identification number.

Some will tell you that your new ID number helps protect
your privacy. And while to some extent it does, the
protections are largely superficial. The disturbing truth is
that your medical privacy is now beyond your control.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Just sign here...
--------------------------------------------------------------

The next time you visit your doctor, you may notice some
changes.

For instance, you might see privacy screens placed around
the edges of computer monitors to prevent someone from
glancing at your personal medical information. And once
you've received your new medical ID number, the receptionist
may call you in from the waiting room by your number instead
of your name - a procedure designed to protect your privacy
from others in the waiting room. (Speaking for myself, this
completely impersonal and unnecessary procedure is not a
protection that I've been longing for.)

More importantly, you'll be asked to read a description of
the new federal regulation that, in theory, is designed to
protect the privacy of your medical records in this new age
of electronic record-keeping and file transfer. And you'll
be asked to sign a document, stating that you've read about
the new regulation, understand it, and agree to the new
procedures.

Ready for the kicker? If you don't sign the form, your
doctor is allowed to refuse to treat you and your insurance
company is allowed to refuse coverage.

If you're wondering why this new "privacy" that's granted to
you is, in effect, being forced down your throat, the answer
lies in the fact that these regulations actually weaken your
ability to restrict access to your medical history.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Regs running roughshod
--------------------------------------------------------------

The source of the revised federal medical privacy rule is
the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA), passed by Congress in 1996. And I'll offer this
benefit of the doubt: the original idea that led to this act
may very well have had a good intention to protect the
privacy of our medical records. But something went awry as
this good idea passed through the massive Congressional and
regulatory maze. If you roll a snowball down a long muddy
hill, you end up with a muddy snowball.

As the rule now stands, doctors, dentists, pharmacists,
hospital personnel, and even psychotherapists have to abide
by new requirements that can be as simple as providing a
secure area for private consultations, or as high tech as
encryption software for computer programs. The government
estimates that healthcare providers will spend as much as $4
billion to comply with these measures. And do you imagine
those costs will be passed along to the patients? You can be
absolutely sure of that.

So what will we get in return for all of this bureaucratic
effort and exorbitant expense? Here are a few of the
realities of the new "privacy" rule:

* Doctors and insurance companies may now share a patient's
health information with third parties (including the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) without
asking the patient for permission.
* A patient cannot withhold medical information from HHS.
* Doctors and insurance companies are not required to give
patients an accounting of third parties with whom their
information is shared.
* A patient's request for such an accounting can be denied.
* Doctors and insurance companies can share a patient's
medical records with the FDA as well as foreign
governments who may be collaborating with U.S. health
officials.
* If the privacy of a patient's medical records has been
violated, the patient can issue a complaint to HHS, but
the department is not required to investigate the
complaint. Furthermore, the patient cannot bring a lawsuit
against a doctor or an insurance company for a breach of
privacy.

To say that these regulations shamefully contradict the
ethic of doctor/patient confidentiality is to put it mildly.
That age-old standard is now out the window. But I saved the
best one for last: HHS may now access a patient's
phychotherapy notes. That's right: the most sacrosanct area
of all - the health of your psyche - is now open to
government examination. They don't have to ask for your
permission, and they don't have to tell you if they're
sharing your most private thoughts with third parties.

Welcome to "1984" - just 19 years late.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Speak now
--------------------------------------------------------------

What can you do about all this? Frankly, not much. The
Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health
Information rule officially went into effect on April 14,
2001. The "enforcement" of that rule goes into effect today.

Normally I don't report to you about situations in which you
have no course of action. But even though this new rule is
signed, sealed, and (as of today) delivered, there is one
way you can make your voice heard.

The Citizens' Council on Health Care (CCHC - a non-profit
organization that promotes the right of each individual to
control his health care decisions) has prepared a form
titled "Declaration of Medical Privacy Intent." You can
print out this form from their web site (cchconline.org),
fill in the appropriate information, and then instruct your
doctor, psychologist, pharmacist, and insurance companies to
include the form with your permanent records. Or, if you
don't feel comfortable using the CCHC form, you can write a
letter declaring that you do not wish to have your private
medical information shared with any third parties without
your written consent.

What authority this letter or the CCHC form might carry is
questionable. It's certainly possible that someone might see
it and respect your wishes. And I imagine that at some point
push will come to shove and the legality of this new rule
will be tested in court. In that case, a written declaration
insisting that your medical records remain private could
carry weight in a legal proceeding. I should know better,
but I find it hard to believe that any judge sworn to uphold
the U.S. Constitution would deny a patient his right to
doctor/patient confidentiality.

But then, I find it hard to believe that this new rule is
being allowed to trample our basic right to privacy in the
first place. Laura Sherrill, a hospital administrator in
charge of medical records, told the Honolulu Star Bulletin
last week, "From now on, it's going to be a new world." I
hope she's wrong, but I'm afraid she's right.

 

Sources:
"Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health
Information" 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164, access.gpo.gov
"Declare Your Medical Privacy Intentions" Citizens' Council
on Health Care, cchconline.org
"Update on the Federal Medical Privacy Rule: Questions and
Answers" Sue Blevins, Deborah Grady, Institute For Health
Freedom, forhealthfreedom.org
"Patient Rights Under HIPAA" Washington Post, 4/8/03,
washingtonpost.com
"New Federal Health Privacy Rules Readied" James
Hagengruber, Billings Gazette, 4/10/03, billingsgazette.com
"New Privacy Rules Mean More Paperwork" Lara Hueth, The
Caledonian-Record Online Edition, 3/31/03,
caledonianrecord.com
"'New World' Imminent For Medical Files" Helen Altonn,
Honolulu Star Bulletin, 4/9/03, starbulletin.com


Copyright (c)1997-2003 by www.hsibaltimore.com, L.L.C.
The e-Alert may not be posted on commercial sites without written
permission.

7325
Martial Arts Topics / Bilateralism
« on: June 05, 2003, 04:18:04 AM »
Woof All:

  What follows is a recent post of mine on the ED-- posted here in hopes of stimulating sharing of the perspectives of others.

Crafty Dog
-----------------------

> Hi
>
> I was just wondering how list members train their left and right hands.  I tend to work my left hand in a thrusting motion, while my right hand moves in a cutting motion. My rationale is that as a right hander I am highly unlikely to ever even think about fighting somone with a longer weapon in my left hand.  The focus of my eskrima is very much on single stick & espada y daga.
>
> How do other people approach this?
> Jon

This has come up a couple of times before.  To briefly summarize Dog
Brothers Martial Arts (DBMA) in this regard:

Our system has as its mission statement "To walk as a warrior for all our
days".  The Real Contact Stickfighting that the Dog Brothers are known for is seen as a testing ground for the system, not merely as young sweaty smelly psychopaths with sticks airing it out.

Outside the ritual context of our "DB Gatherings of the Pack" multiple
player situations are a part of reality and we take training for such
eventualities seriously.  The 360 degree awareness and capabilities required we feel are greatly enhanced by what we call "Bilateralism": the ability to work with either hand, foot or shoulder forward and either hand in dominant modality.  To this end we do a lot of siniwali work with an emphasis on integrating foot and triangular footwork, blending in the footwork of Krabi Krabong.

This is in the context of short term, middle term and long term training.
If I had a beginner who needed to be a man to be reckoned with in short
order, this is not the portion of the program I would emphasize.  On the
other hand, by working at this material steadily over time and acquiring the skills and coordinations necessary one can, IMHO, have a formidable and highly adaptable skill set for a wide range of situations even when the
explosiveness of youth declines.  This applies to empty had as well as
weapons.

Although long & short is more of a subset of single stick in DBMA -- used
for developing the ability to really hit with the live hand-- I have high
regard for merit of long and short and was particularly impressed with the
time I saw GM Ben Luna Lema-- he readily did long & short both left and
righty-- which is a very high level of coordination indeed.

I do confess to a bias against emphasizing single stick out of concern for
its tendency to affect many people by increasing the disparity between the dominant hand and the complementary hand-- unlike a boxer who usually specializes in one side forward, but uses both hands.

Woof,
Guro Crafty
DBMA

7326
Martial Arts Topics / Violence against Women
« on: June 02, 2003, 09:24:52 AM »
Woof Ony et al:

To refresh memories, my question presented on the previous page was:

"A question for the women here:

Hypothetical: You are 18 years old. You attend the Air Force Academy. If I have it correctly, to do so you are a member of the US Air Force, with all the oaths and responsibilities thereof. In violation of Air Force Academy regulations, at night you go to the room of man cadet and get so snookered on Tequila that you are drifting in and out of consciousness. Sex occurs without resistance on your part.

Question presented: What do you do?"

The AF has the regs that it does that this cadet broke (both on the alcohol front and going to opp sex's room) precisely because this is the sort of thing that happens.  This is pretty obvious, yes?  

Again, if you were this female cadet, what would you do the morning after?

Woof,
Crafty

PS:  Ony, forgive my martian linearity but I really do want to isolate this point.  I know that there are many other points, including personal ones, in your post.

7327
Martial Arts Topics / Stockton, CA memories
« on: June 01, 2003, 05:15:30 PM »
From 5/31/03 LA Times:
-------------------------------------
Saving a Harsh Picture of the Past
Filipinos hope to preserve Stockton's Little Manila to tell their story.
By John M. Glionna, Times Staff Writer


STOCKTON ? Leatrice Bantillo-Perez knows they're not much to look at ? these three dilapidated storefronts slouching in the shadow of a noisy downtown freeway in this heat-raked Central Valley community. The boarded-up hotel, abandoned dance hall and former union lodge are all that remain of a once-vibrant Philippine American neighborhood known as Little Manila.

But Bantillo-Perez has a message for development-hungry city officials: Leave those buildings alone.
 
The 74-year-old activist and other Filipinos here are battling a plan to demolish the structures and build an Asian-themed mini-mall and parking lot. They want to save a neighborhood that was once home to the largest population of Filipinos outside the Philippines, one that for years was considered the center of Philippine American culture nationwide.

Already devastated by urban renewal, what remains of Little Manila should be preserved as recognition of the migrant workers who endured decades of racism as they toiled in the growing fields of the San Joaquin Valley, they say.

Stockton officials reply that developers are waiting eagerly, cash in hand, to rejuvenate a four-block area long left for dead. It's home to auto parts stores, vacant lots and fences topped with concertina wire. They say the activists have no money to finance their dream of turning the buildings into a museum and cultural center with affordable housing.

But now activists have an ally. On Thursday, the Washington, D.C.-based National Trust for Historic Preservation included Little Manila on its 2003 list of America's 11 most endangered historic places.

Historic Sites

The neighborhood joined other threatened sites such as the old Trans World Airlines Terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, the Amelia Earhart Memorial Bridge in Atchison, Kan., and the U.S. Marine Hospital in Louisville, Ky.

About 1.5 million Filipinos live in the United States today, about 750,000 of them in California, according to census figures. In San Joaquin County, 17,000 remain, scattered across the rural landscape.

The Stockton effort is among several in California for Philippine Americans aiming to reclaim a sense of community. Los Angeles activists hope to build a Filipino cultural center in an area west of downtown that was recently designated Historic Filipinotown. And in San Francisco, a Manilatown center and museum will be built on the site of the old International Hotel, from which elderly Filipinos were ousted in the 1970s to pave the way for a proposed parking lot.

For Bantillo-Perez, the three Stockton buildings evoke both proud and painful memories. She stands outside the old dance hall with its peeling paint and describes how sunburned Philippine farm workers would flock there at night in their zoot suits, crowding three deep onto the sidewalks because it was considered a crime for them to wander outside Little Manila.

She recalls the mistreatment at the hands of townspeople; the shop signs reading, "No Dogs and No Filipinos Allowed"; how workers who entered white businesses were beaten and carried away in an ominous-looking old "paddy wagon" known as the Black Maria. Some of the insults still sting: "Filipinos were known as 'brown monkeys,' " she said.

Good or bad, activists say, Little Manila's history should be preserved for a new generation, many members of which have no idea of the sacrifices made by their ancestors. Local schools and universities all but ignore local the history of Filipinos. Apart from their recollections and fading photographs, all they have left of the past is Little Manila.

"Filipinos are this city's invisible residents, but we had our neighborhood, the place where we thrived, where we made our friends and left our cultural mark," Bantillo-Perez said. "Once it goes, I fear that a large part of all of us will go with it."

Immigration of Filipinos to the Central Valley began around 1900. Forty years later, more than 40,000 newcomers, most of them male, worked the migrant farm circuit. They provided back-breaking labor that helped drive the local economy ? harvesting fruit, asparagus, peas, lettuce and tomatoes ? and were among the earliest union organizers in the fields.

Life in Stockton was anything but easy. Most of the men lived in residential hotels, because laws prohibited immigrants from owning land.

Until the 1960s, officials maintained a "Mason-Dixon Line" along Main Street, forbidding Filipinos to venture north into white areas. As a result, El Dorado Street in Little Manila became so crowded that it become known as the "Filipino Freeway."

Residents were constantly on the lookout for whites who used baseball bats to assault male Filipinos who dared to date whites, activists say.

Segregated Era

Filipinos were banned from the town's sole bowling alley and were shunted to side rows in the Fox Theater. In the 1930s, there were riots and the bombing of a Filipino building by agitators who believed that the immigrants took jobs away from white residents.

"We accepted it; we were told we had to," Bantillo-Perez said. "We were living in another country, where white people had supremacy. Our elders always told us: 'Know your place.' "

As a response to the hostility, Little Manila developed its own social world. Until the 1970s, dozens of businesses thrived there, including the Aklan Hotel, P.D. Lazaro Tailoring, the Three Star Pool Hall and the Lafayette Lunch Counter.

Workers flocked to the AFL-CIO labor hall to plan the 1939 uprising against asparagus growers. And they frequented the taxi-dance hall next door, where they would shell out cash to dance with white girls in short dresses. Many lived in the adjacent Mariposa Hotel.

If Little Manila was built as a byproduct of racism, it was virtually destroyed in the 1960s by redevelopment, activists say. To make way for a cross-town freeway in 1972, many elderly Filipinos, or pinoys, were displaced from aging hotels that were soon demolished.

"People were told to leave their homes," said Dawn Mabalon, chairwoman of the Little Manila Foundation. Her doctoral dissertation at Stanford University will include the history of the Stockton neighborhood. "It was easy to build the freeway through the ethnic part of town where residents had no political power."

In 2000, activists persuaded the city to erect signs recognizing Little Manila as a historic site ? a move Mabalon called mere lip service: "One politician told me that without money to save this neighborhood, all we had was a dream."

Councilman Gary S. Giovanetti, whose district encompasses Little Manila, says even national recognition can't save the neighborhood. "Do they have some severe hurdles to climb?" he said of activists. "Yeah, they do."

'Not Beautiful'

He said there are other ways to recognize the achievements of local Philippine Americans. "Just not these three buildings and not on this spot."

Leslie Crow, chairwoman of the city's cultural heritage board, agreed that the buildings seemed destined for demolition. "It's easy to sell the idea of saving a pretty building," she said. "But when it's not beautiful or awe-inspiring and has few redeeming qualities ? other than significance to one part of the community ? it's a much tougher sell."

Added Stockton Vice Mayor Gloria Nomura, herself a Philippine American: "Faced with well-funded developers on one side and a grass-roots group with big dreams to preserve the integrity of the area, but with no money, which way do you think most cities would go?"

That attitude angers Mabalon, who says the group has its own investors. "It's an outdated urban development theory to think we have to bulldoze these downtown areas to build anew," she said.

On a tour of Little Manila, she visited a hotel and card club, relocated here during a previous redevelopment.  As men played cards nearby, Mabalon sighed. "This will eventually have to go too," she predicted. "Is this what they call progress?"

Dillon Delvo, another activist, says that little of the Philippine American experience is taught in Stockton schools.  "For young Filipino children not to know this history is like black kids in Birmingham, Ala., not knowing who Martin Luther King is," he said. "Keeping Little Manila will help avoid that."

7328
Martial Arts Topics / Violence against Women
« on: May 28, 2003, 10:06:28 AM »
Woof All:

  While we breathlessly await any anwers to my hypothetical nearby, this on the real world variation:

Crafty Dog
-------------------------------

Item Number:22
Date: 05/28/2003
USA - PANEL TO STUDY AIR FORCE ACADEMY MISCONDUCT VIOLATIONS (MAY 28/DOD)

DEPT. OF DEFENSE -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the
appointment of a seven-member panel to review allegations of sexual
misconduct at the U.S. Air Force Academy, the Dept. of Defense
reports.

Former Rep. Tillie Fowler (R-Fla.), who served on the House Armed
Services Committee, will lead the panel. Other panel members include social scientists and mental health experts, the former judge advocate general of the Army and military academy graduates.


The panel will conduct a 90-day study that reviews the policies,
management, organizational practices and cultural elements of the
Air Force Academy that may have been led to alleged sexual
misconduct, including sexual assaults and rape.

7329
Martial Arts Topics / Matrix2: Kurzweil
« on: May 27, 2003, 09:33:17 AM »
Origin > Virtual Realities > THE HUMAN MACHINE MERGER: ARE WE HEADED FOR THE MATRIX?
Permanent link to this article: http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0552.html
Printable Version
 
      THE HUMAN MACHINE MERGER: ARE WE HEADED FOR THE MATRIX?
by   Ray Kurzweil
 


Most viewers of The Matrix consider the more fanciful elements--intelligent computers, downloading information into the human brain, virtual reality indistinguishable from real life--to be fun as science fiction, but quite remote from real life. Most viewers would be wrong. As renowned computer scientist and entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil explains, these elements are very feasible and are quite likely to be a reality within our lifetimes.


To be published in Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix (Ben Bella Books, April 2003). Published on KurzweilAI.net March 3, 2003.
----------------------------

The Matrix is set in a world one hundred years in the future, a world offering a seemingly miraculous array of technological marvels?sentient (if malevolent) programs, the ability to directly download capabilities into the human brain, and the creation of virtual realities indistinguishable from the real world. For most viewers these developments may appear to be pure science fiction:interesting to consider, but of little relevance to the world outside the movie theatre. But this view is shortsighted. In my view, these developments will become a reality within the next three to four decades.

I've become a student of technology trends as an outgrowth of my career as an inventor. If you work on creating technologies, you need to anticipate where technology will be at points in the future so that your project will be feasible and useful when it's completed, not just when you started. Over the course of a few decades of anticipating technology, I've become a student of technology trends and have developed mathematical models of how technologies in different areas are developing.

This has given me the ability to invent things that use the materials of the future, not just limiting my ideas to the resources we have today. Alan Kay has noted, "To anticipate the future we need to invent it." So we can invent with future capabilities if we have some idea of what they will be.

Perhaps the most important insight that I've gained, which people are quick to agree with but very slow to really internalize and appreciate all of its implications, is the accelerating pace of technical change itself.

One Nobel laureate recently said to me: "There's no way we're going to see self-replicating nanotechnological entities for at least a hundred years." And yes, that's actually a reasonable estimate of how much work it will take. It'll take a hundred years of progress, at today's rate of progress, to get self-replicating nanotechnological entities. But the rate of progress is not going to remain at today's rate; according to my models, it's doubling every decade.

We will make a hundred years of progress at today's rate of progress in 25 years. The next ten years will be like twenty, and the following ten years will be like 40. The 21st century will therefore be like 20,000 years of progress?at today's rate. The twentieth century, as revolutionary as it was, did not have a hundred years of progress at today's rate; since we accelerated up to today's rate, it really was about 20 years of progress. The 21st century will be about a thousand times greater, in terms of change and paradigm shift, than the 20th century.

A lot of these trends stem from thinking about the implications of Moore's Law. Moore's Law refers to integrated circuits and famously states that the computing power available for a given price will double every twelve to twenty-four months. Moore's Law has become a synonym for the exponential growth of computing.

I've been thinking about Moore's Law and its context for at least twenty years. What is the real nature of this exponential trend? Where does it come from? Is it an example of something deeper and more profound? As I will show, the exponential growth of computing goes substantially beyond Moore's Law. Indeed, exponential growth goes beyond just computation, and applies to every area of information-based technology, technology that will ultimately reshape our world.

Observers have pointed out that Moore's Law is going to come to an end. According to Intel and other industry experts, we'll run out of space on an integrated circuit within fifteen years, because the key features will only be a few atoms in width. So will that be the end of the exponential growth of computing?

That's a very important question as we ponder the nature of the 21st century. To address this question, I put 49 famous computers on an exponential graph. Down at the lower left hand corner is the data processing machinery that was used in the 1890 American census (calculating equipment using punch cards). In 1940, Alan Turing developed a computer based on telephone relays that cracked the German enigma code and gave Winston Churchill a transcription of nearly all the Nazi messages. Churchill needed to use these transcriptions with great discretion, because he realized that using them could tip off the Germans prematurely.

If, for example, he had warned Coventry authorities that their city was going to be bombed, the Germans would have seen the preparations and realized that their code had been cracked. However, in the Battle of Britain, the English flyers seemed to magically know where the German flyers were at all times.

In 1952, CBS used a more sophisticated computer based on vacuum tubes to predict the election of a U.S. president, President Eisenhower. In the upper right-hand corner is the computer sitting on your desk right now.

One insight we can see on this chart is that Moore's Law was not the first but the fifth paradigm to provide exponential growth of computing power. Each vertical line represents the movement into a different paradigm: electro-mechanical, relay-based, vacuum tubes, transistors, integrated circuits. Every time a paradigm ran out of steam, another paradigm came along and picked up where that paradigm left off.

People are very quick to criticize exponential trends, saying that ultimately they'll run out of resources, like rabbits in Australia. But every time one particular paradigm reached its limits, another, completely different method would continue the exponential growth. They were making vacuum tubes smaller and smaller but finally got to a point where they couldn't make them any smaller and maintain the vacuum. Then transistors came along, which are not just small vacuum tubes. They're a completely different paradigm.

Every horizontal level on this graph represents a multiplication of computing power by a factor of a hundred. A straight line in an exponential graph means exponential growth. What we see here is that the rate of exponential growth is itself growing exponentially. We doubled the computing power every three years at the beginning of the century, every two years in the middle, and we're now doubling it every year.

It's obvious what the sixth paradigm will be: computing in three dimensions. After all, we live in a three-dimensional world and our brain is organized in three dimensions. The brain uses a very inefficient type of circuitry. Neurons are very large "devices," and they're extremely slow. They use electrochemical signaling that provides only about 200 calculations per second, but the brain gets its prodigious power from parallel computing resulting from being organized in three dimensions. Three-dimensional computing technologies are beginning to emerge. There's an experimental technology at MIT's Media Lab that has 300 layers of circuitry. In recent years, there have been substantial strides in developing three-dimensional circuits that operate at the molecular level.

Nanotubes, which are my favorite, are hexagonal arrays of carbon atoms that can be organized to form any type of electronic circuit. You can create the equivalent of transistors and other electrical devices. They're physically very strong, with 50 times the strength of steel. The thermal issues appear to be manageable. A one-inch cube of nanotube circuitry would be a million times more powerful than the computing capacity of the human brain.

Over the last several years, there has been a sea change in the level of confidence in building three-dimensional circuits and achieving at least the hardware capacity to emulate human intelligence. This has raised a more salient issue, namely that "Moore's Law may be true for hardware but it's not true for software."

From my own four decades of experience with software development, I believe that is not the case. Software productivity is increasing very rapidly. As an example from one of my own companies, in 15 years, we went from a $5,000 speech-recognition system that recognized a thousand words poorly, without continuous speech, to a $50 product with a hundred-thousand-word vocabulary that's far more accurate. That's typical for software products. With all of the efforts in new software development tools, software productivity has also been growing exponentially, albeit with a smaller exponent than we see in hardware.

Many other technologies are improving exponentially. When the genome project was started about 15 years ago, skeptics pointed out that at the rate at which we can scan the genome, it will take 10,000 years to finish the project. The mainstream view was that there would be improvements, but there was no way that the project could be completed in 15 years. But the price-performance and throughput of DNA sequencing doubled every year, and the project was completed in less than 15 years. In twelve years, we went from a cost of $10 to sequence a DNA base pair to a tenth of a cent.

Even longevity has been improving exponentially. In the 18th century, every year we added a few days to human life expectancy. In the 19th century, every year, we added a few weeks. We're now adding about 120 days every year to human life expectancy. And with the revolutions now in an early stage in genomics, therapeutic cloning, rational drug design, and the other biotechnology transformations, many observers including myself anticipate that within ten years we'll be adding more than a year, every year. So, if you can hang in there for another ten years, we'll get ahead of the power curve and be able to live long enough to see the remarkable century ahead.

Miniaturization is another very important exponential trend. We're making things smaller at a rate of 5.6 per linear dimension per decade. Bill Joy, in the essay following this one, has, as one of his recommendations, to essentially forgo nanotechnology. But nanotechnology is not a single unified field, only worked on by nanotechnologists. Nanotechnology is simply the inevitable end result of the pervasive trend toward making things smaller, which we've been doing for many decades.

Above is a chart of computing's exponential growth, projected into the 21st century. Right now, your typical $1000 PC is somewhere between an insect and a mouse brain. The human brain has about 100 billion neurons, with about 1,000 connections from one neuron to another. These connections operate very slowly, on the order of 200 calculations per second, but 100 billion neurons times 1,000 connections creates 100 trillion-fold parallelism. Multiplying that by 200 calculations per second yields 20 million billion calculations per second, or, in computing terminology, 20 billion MIPS. We'll have 20 billion MIPS for $1000 by the year 2020.

Now that won't automatically give us human levels of intelligence, because the organization, the software, the content and the embedded knowledge are equally important. Below I will address the scenario in which I envision achieving the software of human intelligence, but I believe it is clear that we will have the requisite computing power. By 2050, $1000 of computing will equal one billion human brains. That might be off by a year or two, but the 21st century won't be wanting for computational resources.

Now let's consider the virtual-reality framework envisioned by The Matrix?a virtual reality which is indistinguishable from true reality. This will be feasible, but I do quibble with one point. The thick cable entering Neo's brainstem made for a powerful visual, but it's unnecessary; all of these connections can be wireless. Let's go out to 2029 and put together some of the trends that I've discussed. By that time, we'll be able to build nanobots, microscopic-sized robots that can go inside your capillaries and travel through your brain and scan the brain from inside. We can almost build these kinds of circuits today. We can't make them quite small enough, but we can make them fairly small.

The Department of Defense is developing tiny robotic devices called "Smart Dust." The current generation is one millimeter?that's too big for this scenario?but these tiny devices can be dropped from a plane, and find positions with great precision. You can have many thousands of these on a wireless local area network. They can then take visual images, communicate with each other, coordinate, send messages back, act as nearly invisible spies, and accomplish a variety of military objectives.

We are already building blood-cell-sized devices that go inside the blood stream, and there are four major conferences on the topic of "bioMEMS" (biological Micro Electronic Mechanical Systems). The nanobots I am envisioning for 2029 will not necessarily require their own navigation. They could move involuntarily through the bloodstream and, as they travel by different neural features, communicate with them the same way that we now communicate with different cells within a cell phone system.

Brain-scanning resolution, speeds, and costs are all exploding exponentially. With every new generation of brain scanning we can see with finer and finer resolution. There's a technology today that allows us to view many of the salient details of the human brain. Of course, there's still no full agreement on what those details are, but we can see brain features with very high resolution, provided the scanning tip is right next to the features. We can scan a brain today and see the brain's activity with very fine detail; you just have to move the scanning tip all throughout the brain so that it's in close proximity to every neural feature.

Now how are we going to do that without making a mess of things? The answer is to send the scanners inside the brain. By design, our capillaries travel by every interneuronal connection, every neuron and every neural feature. We can send billions of these scanning robots, all on a wireless local area network, and they would all scan the brain from inside and create a very high-resolution map of everything that's going on.

What are we going to do with the massive database of neural information that develops? One thing we will do is reverse-engineer the brain, that is, understand the basic principles of how it works. This is an endeavor we have already started. We already have high resolution scans of certain areas of the brain. The brain is not one organ; it's comprised of several hundred specialized regions, each organized differently. We have scanned certain areas of the auditory and visual cortex, and have used this information to design more intelligent software. Carver Mead at Caltech, for example, has developed powerful, digitally controlled analog chips that are based on these biologically inspired models from the reverse engineering of portions of the visual and auditory systems. His visual sensing chips are used in high-end digital cameras.

We have demonstrated that we are able to understand these algorithms, but they're different from the algorithms that we typically run on our computers. They're not sequential and they're not logical; they're chaotic, highly parallel, and self-organizing. They have a holographic nature in that there's no chief-executive-officer neuron. You can eliminate any of the neurons, cut any of the wires, and it makes little difference?the information and the processes are distributed throughout a complex region.

Based on these insights, we have developed a number of biologically inspired models today. This is the field I work in, using techniques such as evolutionary "genetic algorithms" and "neural nets," which use biologically inspired models. Today's neural nets are mathematically simplified, but as we get a more powerful understanding of the principles of operation of different brain regions, we will be in a position to develop much more powerful, biologically inspired models. Ultimately we can create and recreate these processes, retaining their inherently massively parallel, digitally controlled analog, chaotic, and self-organizing properties. We will be able to recreate the types of processes that occur in the hundreds of different brain regions, and create entities?they actually won't be in silicon, they'll probably be using something like nanotubes?that have the complexity, richness, and depth of human intelligence.

Our machines today are still a million times simpler than the human brain, which is one key reason that they still don't have the endearing qualities of people. They don't yet have our ability to get the joke, to be funny, to understand people, to respond appropriately to emotion, or to have spiritual experiences. These are not side effects of human intelligence, or distractions; they are the cutting edge of human intelligence. It will require a technology of the complexity of the human brain to create entities that have those kinds of attractive and convincing features.

Getting back to virtual reality, let's consider a scenario involving a direct connection between the human brain and these nanobot-based implants. There are a number of different technologies that have already been demonstrated for communicating in both directions between the wet, analog world of neurons and the digital world of electronics. One such technology, called a neuron transistor, provides this two-way communication. If a neuron fires, this neuron transistor detects that electromagnetic pulse, so that's communication from the neuron to the electronics. It can also cause the neuron to fire or prevent it from firing.

For full-immersion virtual reality, we will send billions of these nanobots to take up positions by every nerve fiber coming from all of our senses. If you want to be in real reality, they sit there and do nothing. If you want to be in virtual reality, they suppress the signals coming from our real senses and replace them with the signals that you would have been receiving if you were in the virtual environment.

In this scenario, we will have virtual reality from within and it will be able to recreate all of our senses. These will be shared environments, so you can go there with one person or many people. Going to a Web site will mean entering a virtual-reality environment encompassing all of our senses, and not just the five senses, but also emotions, sexual pleasure, humor. There are actually neurological correlates of all of these sensations and emotions, which I discuss in my book The Age of the Spiritual Machines.

For example, surgeons conducting open-brain surgery on a young woman (while awake) found that stimulating a particular spot in the girl's brain would cause her to laugh. The surgeons thought that they were just stimulating an involuntary laugh reflex. But they discovered that they were stimulating the perception of humor: whenever they stimulated this spot, she found everything hilarious. "You guys are just so funny standing there" was a typical remark.

Using these nanobot-based implants, you will be able to enhance or modify your emotional responses to different experiences. That can be part of the overlay of these virtual-reality environments. You will also be able to have different bodies for different experiences. Just as people today project their images from Web cams in their apartment, people will beam their whole flow of sensory and even emotional experiences out on the Web, so you can, ? la the plot concept of the movie Being John Malkovich, experience the lives of other people.

Ultimately, these nanobots will expand human intelligence and our abilities and facilities in many different ways. Because they're communicating with each other wirelessly, they can create new neural connections. These can expand our memory, cognitive faculties, and pattern-recognition abilities. We will expand human intelligence by expanding its current paradigm of massive interneuronal connections as well as through intimate connection to non-biological forms of intelligence.

We will also be able to download knowledge, something that machines can do today that we are unable to do. For example, we spent several years training one research computer to understand human speech using the biologically inspired models?neural nets, Markov models, genetic algorithms, self-organizing patterns?that are based on our crude current understanding of self-organizing systems in the biological world. A major part of the engineering project was collecting thousands of hours of speech from different speakers in different dialects and then exposing this to the system and having it try to recognize the speech. It made mistakes, and then we had it adjust automatically, and self-organize to better reflect what it had learned.

Over many months of this kind of training, it made substantial improvements in its ability to recognize speech. Today, if you want your personal computer to recognize human speech, you don't have to spend years training it the same painstaking way, as we need to do with every human child. You can just load the evolved models, it's called "loading the software." So machines can share their knowledge. We don't have quick downloading ports on our brains. But as we build nonbiological analogs of our neurons, interconnections, and neurotransmitter levels where our skills and memories are stored, we won't leave out the equivalent of downloading ports. We'll be able to download capabilities as easily as Trinity downloads the program that allows her to fly the B-212 helicopter.

When you talk to somebody in the year 2040, you will be talking to someone who may happen to be of biological origin but whose mental processes are a hybrid of biological and electronic thinking processes, working intimately together. Instead of being restricted, as we are today, to a mere hundred trillion connections in our brain, we'll be able to expand substantially beyond this level. Our biological thinking is flat; the human race has an estimated 1026 calculations per second, and that biologically determined figure is not going to grow. But nonbiological intelligence is growing exponentially. The crossover point, according to my calculations, is in the 2030s; some people call this the Singularity.

As we get to 2050, the bulk of our thinking?which in my opinion is still an expression of human civilization?will be nonbiological. I don't believe that the Matrix scenario of malevolent artificial intelligences in mortal conflict with humans is inevitable. At that point, the nonbiological portion of our thinking will still be human thinking, because it's going to be derived from human thinking. Its programming will be created by humans, or created by machines that are created by humans, or created by machines that are based on reverse-engineering of the human brain or downloads of human thinking, or one of many other intimate connections between human and machine thinking that we can't even contemplate today.

A common reaction to this is that this is a dystopian vision, because I am "placing humanity with the machines." But that's because most people have a prejudice against machines. Most observers don't truly understand what machines are ultimately capable of, because all the machines that they've ever "met" are very limited, compared to people. But that won't be true of machines circa 2030 and 2040. When machines are derived from human intelligence and are a million times more capable, we'll have a different respect for machines, and there won't be a clear distinction between human and machine intelligence. We will effectively merge with our technology.

We are already well down this road. If all the machines in the world stopped today, our civilization would grind to a halt. That wasn't true as recently as thirty years ago. In 2040, human and machine intelligence will be deeply and intimately melded. We will become capable of far more profound experiences of many diverse kinds. We'll be able to "recreate the world" according to our imaginations and enter environments as amazing as that of The Matrix, but, hopefully, a world more open to creative human expression and experience.

SOURCES

BOOKS

Kurzweil, Ray, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Intelligence (Penguin USA, 2000).

? 2003 BenBella Books. Published on KurzweilAI.net with permission.
   Join the discussion about this article on Mind?X!

--------------  
 
     [Post New Comment]
   Mind?X Discussion About This Article:

 
  Seperate realities and consciousness
posted on 03/03/2003 7:49 AM by Timothy
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 There is a strong parallel between the concept behind the Matrix and dreaming, particularly lucid dreaming - where the dreamer is aware he or she is dreaming while dreaming. The parallel of course is the experience of a separate reality. I expect the experience of full-immersion in a virtual reality to be very similar to the experience of lucid dreaming. But what will be the consequence of being able to move between all these different realities?

It will make people - or intelligent machines - wonder how real our so-called reality actually is. In the end it will become clear that the only thing that persists in all of these realities is consciousness itself, not the world, not even you as a person, but undefined consciousness itself.

We will find our home is consciousness, not any one of the realities we'll experience. Of course, this can be realized even now, but experiencing a multitude of seperate realities will put all realites in a new, more dream-like perspective. Consciousness will naturally emerge as the "really real" because it's the only common ground in all realities.

So, by all means, take the red pill!

For more on "consciousness":
http://www.7freedom.com/consciousness.htm

Timothy Schoorel
 
--------------------    
 
  Re: Seperate realities and consciousness
posted on 03/12/2003 4:26 PM by DaVinci
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 1. What?s the difference between Morpheus and Agent Smith?

Suppose you are Neo and you have heard both Morpheus and Agent Smith make eloquent speeches about how they see the world, about their reasons, about their feelings. Based on that you have to answer a fundamental question, that is: Who is real? Who is conscious?
Morpheus? Agent Smith? Both? None?
All you can say is that you know that you are conscious and that?s all. You cannot say the same about other people. You see them, you smell them, you touch them, and you talk to them. They talk back to you and it seems they react as conscious beings would do. But how can you be sure? How can another person prove to you that he/she really exists as a being having emotions and volitions?

If in a hardware or software simulation of a human being, words and gestures are produced by lines of programmed software, a similar process occur when you dream. In your dreams there are other people with whom you interact and they appear as conscious as the persons in real life but it?s only your brain simulating them. So where is the difference? If you cannot tell a machine simulating conscience from a real conscious machine, if you cannot tell a dreamed person from the real one, then how can you judge what conscience is in the first place?

2. What?s the difference between Zion and The Matrix?

Suppose that you are Neo again. You are sound asleep and you are dreaming. While you dream the dreamscape is what is real, maybe the sun is shining and you feel the summer breeze. It seems real. The images of persons that populate the dreamscape are like real persons. They interact with you as expected, they get angry if you annoy them, they even laugh at your jokes. Well everything seems coherent. Maybe deep inside you feel that this reality is not solid enough, that there must be something else, but then you reject the whole idea as nonsense?
Suddenly you awake and perceive with sadness or relief that what you tough was reality was just another dream.

So now you are in the real world and must do the things real people do: brush your teeth, eat your cereal and crawl to your boring workplace, right? Not today. Today events will occur that will end with you taking a red pill and...

Suddenly you awake and perceive in excruciating agony that what you tough was reality was nothing more than a massive computer simulation.
Hey, but now is for real! Now you know what The Matrix is: It?s the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. Exactly, so how can you tell when the blindfold has been removed?

You where fooled by your brain dreaming reality, then you where fooled by an electronic brain simulating reality. Now, how can you be sure that you are not been fooled by this cool dressed man named Morpheus. Where it all ends?

If you accept that a particular reality is a dream or a simulation, what stops you from accepting that the world in which this reality is being simulated is not another simulation.

It cannot be that The Matrix is not but an insignificant part of realities inside realities?

?you dream that a computer simulates that you dream a dream?

---------------  
 
  Re: Seperate realities and consciousness
posted on 03/13/2003 5:18 AM by Timothy
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 In response to 1:

Your question is how one can judge what conscience - being conscious - is in the first place. The article by David Chalmers on this website, "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness", takes the first steps in laying down a framework for judging whether something or someone is a conscious entity. Mr. Chalmers basically says that we may not be able to prove consciousness, but that there is a possibility that we might understand the requirements for "subjective experience". I can see his point and I think his approach to this problem is very promising.

When you say "All you can say is that you know that you are conscious and that's all.", I think this is not correct. All I can say is that there is consciousness. In this consciousness different realities appear, exist, and dissapear. In this consciousness different "me's" appear, exist, and dissapear. It seems to me that this unmovable consciousness is much, much more fundamental than any human being or intelligent machine could ever be.

I do not think that consciousness emerges from within the human being, rather, the human being and all of these realities that we are talking about emerge from consciousness! But David Chalmers is right in that there are requirements for "subjective experience". For example, if I stop eating and drinking, pretty soon the subjective experience of "Timothy" will disappear. Consciousness however, does not disappear as should be clear from the fact that many people have died in your lifetime, yet you are still conscious!

In response to 2:

As I said in the post you replied to, none of the realities we will ever experience is ultimately real. This was what I was trying to convey. Neither Zion nor The Matrix is ultimately real. Consciousness will be understood as the "really real", as the ultimate reality. For no reality can exist without consciousness. If there was no awareness whatsoever, then in what way would reality exist? Consciousness is the background, the in-ground of any so-called reality.

Links:
Article by David Chalmers:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/ar ticles/art0512.html
Consciousness does not emerge from within the human being:
http://www.7freedom.com/humanparadigm.htm

Timothy Schoorel
----------------    
 
  Re: Seperate realities and consciousness
posted on 03/13/2003 9:56 AM by DaVinci
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 If consciousness is absolute and independs from the ideas of self and reality, then why should experience arise from the physical? When dreaming, experiences are not arising from physical stimulus. If all sensorial input to a conscious being ceases, subjective experience would just fade away? Or will this conscious being create a virtual reality of it?s own and continue experiencing? Will it create an entire universe of it?s own complete with physical laws and logic and internal coherence? If this can be, then it could be said that a reality exists only because there is a consciousness willing to experience it.
In this way, the world has not been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. You created the world. Indeed there is not even You, not in the normal sense. The notion of You as an entity separated from the ?others? does not make sense in this context. There is, as you say it, only this unmovable consciousness. There are no separate realities and consciousness.
There is only You.
But like in a dream you just don?t remember.
 
   
 
  Re: Seperate realities and consciousness
posted on 03/14/2003 6:37 AM by Timothy
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 The question of how and when subjective experience arises from the physical is beginning to be answered by science, the question of why may or may not be of a different order. It's possible that we discover that experience simply has to arise from the physical in order for the physical to exist. Subjective experience could be a Quantum Mechanical imperative: without subjective experience no physical universe.

When you say "a conscious being" you continue and seem to mean consciousness itself. Consciousness itself however is not "a being", is not divided into seperate "consciousnesses". Spiritual traditions may have called it "The Supreme Being", or "the Creator". But consciousness is impersonal, has no will of its own and therefor the universe is a natural and spontanuous thing, rather than the result of a willfull act of creating.

If you did not mean consciousness itself but an entity that has a level of complexity and sophistication that results in subjective experience then it's just a question of whether the conditions for subjective experience are fulfilled or not, and not a question of "a consciousness willing to experience" something.

You say: "When dreaming, experiences are not arising from physical stimulus." This may be true but dreams do arise from some physical process in the brain. In other words, the subjective experience still has a physiological basis.

Your last comment: "But like in a dream you just don't remember.", is not necessarily true: in a dream there is the possibility of being aware that you are dreaming - as I pointed out in my first post in this thread. And it is just as possible to realize that you are really this undefined, unmovable, boundless and placeless consciousness: that's when you discover the reality beyond "the Matrix", beyond experience. In Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta this is called Realization, Self-Realization or Enlightenment. This may not be a very common phenomenon but has nevertheless occured many times throughout human history.

Links:
For more on "Enlightenment":
http://www.7freedom.com/enlightenment.htm

Timothy Schoorel

 ----------------    
 
  Re: Seperate realities and consciousness
posted on 05/24/2003 12:07 PM by surf_the_now
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 I have had some experience in this endevour. I am initiated in himalayan yoga by a teacher who has passed on at 95 and I have taken peyote with the Native American Church in Sante Fe, New Mexico in 1966. So the linkage between consciousness and the ego is an interesting one and as far as spirituality an important nexus. Jung, the man who invented the term archetypal played with the concept of mass consciousness and man's symbols. So as in the Matrix where there is a battle of ego, some defining super-ego and the ego-less hive mentality [in this case represented by the adversary] the journey of the individual 'soul' to join the ocean of the 'supreme consciousness or being' is a question I have asked also. One perplexing and difficult situation for the individual in my mind is: When am I not myself and the feeling of loss of self. Sleep is 'the little death' and we enter into it not only to dream but repair the physical body and perhaps more balancing of functions I am not defining. The old vedic expression 'this is not the real body' may be more on target than we can even know.
 
   
 
  Re: THE HUMAN MACHINE MERGER: ARE WE HEADED FOR THE MATRIX?
posted on 03/04/2003 3:27 AM by Thomas Kristan
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 Ray said:

> The thick cable entering Neo's brainstem made for a powerful visual, but it's unnecessary;

Not only that! People will not _like_ the 'cable future'! Less than cloning, I think.

The Matrix is a bad example. A scary one.

- Thomas

--------------------    
 
  Re: THE HUMAN MACHINE MERGER: ARE WE HEADED FOR THE MATRIX?
posted on 03/04/2003 12:32 PM by grantcc
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 The purpose of the cable was to scare the film goer. Just as nearly all Hollywood aliens are ugly (they are, after all the villains and we have to hate them to enjoy killing them) and most heros are good looking (by Hollywood standards) we have to take into account the purpose of the depiction -- to scare and thus give a thrill to the filmgoer. It's a mild substitute for a drug addiction. We love the chemicals of emotion that rush through our veins when we see certain things that look dangerous. And it's why we pay big bucks to visit Disneyland and Magic Mountain. We need our emotional fix and we're willing to pay for it.

Grant
 
   
 
  Re: THE HUMAN MACHINE MERGER: ARE WE HEADED FOR THE MATRIX?
posted on 03/05/2003 3:35 PM by tharsaile
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 I agree, Thomas. BTW, the cable stuff comes from a comic book created by Geof Darrow.
[Newsweek, Dec 30 / Jan 6 double issue, page 84]
 
   
 
  Re: THE HUMAN MACHINE MERGER: ARE WE HEADED FOR THE MATRIX?
posted on 03/10/2003 5:05 PM by atkamano
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 After reading this article I am both terrified of, but anticipating the future that we will see within the next couple of decades. Although I am very closely following the improvements and breathroughs in technologies of our time, and for one would love to see the future described in the article, I am also terrified of the possibilities that humans as a whole could do wrong with it. A world where tiny robots have the ability to control our 5 senses have the ability to, in a both practical and ironical sense, shut us down. I am not going to discuss the possibilities that certain groups of extremists might do with these technologies, as we hear these scenarios from our government on a daily basis in the United States. (As of 9-11) This technology might also have the power to effectively destroy the social structure that we live by today. Here is one scenario; Suppose a company needs highly intelligent scientists to work on the anti-gravity airplane that it has started working on. The company, instead of hiring a graduate from MIT and paying him/her 200 thousand dollars annually might instead hire a bum off the streets, implement nanobots into the individual's brain, and upload the information necessary for him to begin his work. This would effectively lead to the collapse of Universities, as students will no longer need to go to college to recieve the education necessary to become a scientists, or a professional in any field for that matter. In a sense, everybody would be capable of getting the job done, but not enough jobs to go around. This would also give a ton of power to the Government, corporate businesses, and so on. I hope that this scenario will never become reality, but we can never stop ourselves from wondering what the possibilities of such technologies could lead us to in the future.
 
   
 
  The Eventuality of The Human Machine
posted on 05/23/2003 4:16 PM by SyneZ333
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 "Fear" in itself is a very ancient animalistic reaction to chemicals which govern our current bodies and brains. The potential of a world where nanobots invade and eventually replace our bloodstreams gives us the potential to alter our bodies from the inside out. So much more will be possible if we aren't haunted by these old and outdated emotions which no longer have any purpose. Our bodies could be rebuilt to live without water or food or even oxygen, and perhaps to be able to withstand being in space or even travel at great speeds.

What you fail to realize in your prediction of the collapse of our current way of life is that a completely new way of life will be born. Universities are a band-aid, a bridge trying to gap our animal instincts with our evolving human brains. They already do not have a purpose, as most people which attend school are only seeking to recieve a piece of paper which will give them a job in a cubicle and have their life fade into oblivion. The true essence of LEARNING has long been forgotten, save for a few places on earth like MIT.

A world where we no longer have to wait a decade to learn something so simple as medical science gives us the possibility, nay, the opportunity to leave behind this rotting flesh and bone and advance to true quantum way of life. Bums and cops and governments and corporations will become extinct and completely irrelevant. To me, this is an inspiring notion. Not a frightening one.
 
   
 
  Re: The Eventuality of The Human Machine
posted on 05/24/2003 9:00 PM by mindxx
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 We have to make predictions.



To guarantee safeties.





The wave of technological acceleration may be modified by individuals ating OUTSIDE the trend, and speeding it up.





The fundamental tennant that everything human can be classified beggars belief.



Implotion may well have occurred as a sine qua non of life or even atomic existance. the quark, the lepton, the plank, the elctron, upon whom the long night of A.I. mmust fall, are nothing to what infinite implotions may lie withing what is presently too small for science even to theorise about.



There is the vastness of the infinite, the density of imagination to-the power of N at any level that we must surley run into.





I couldn't care a quark whether you resurrect a matrixed copy of my mother with red hair, instead of green hair, may not seem much of a difference, but because of the issues of the butterfly effect, may make all the difference.


Ta Salutant!







 
   
 
  Re: THE HUMAN MACHINE MERGER: ARE WE HEADED FOR THE MATRIX?
posted on 05/26/2003 10:46 AM by Cybermynd
 [Top]
[Mind?X]
[Reply to this post]  
 Actually there is very little to say that we aren't there already. What about those little gliches in reality? You've experienced them. Think about it.

I have this vision, looking down on an individual from a great height, seeing the world become indistinct just outside of his/her range of vision, a person isolated in 'reality' with gray fog all around.

If the matrix was clipped just outside your perception the programming and hardware support would be so much simpler. Remember, the thing in the corner of your eye right now just doesn't seem real unless you turn to look at it. Maybe the fog is closer than we think...

7330
Martial Arts Topics / The Matrix 2
« on: May 26, 2003, 10:24:26 PM »
Today: Memorial Day, The Matrix

I took down the flag at sunset, and did my little memorial day ceremony then. There?s something about the folding of the flag that makes you stand up straight and wipe that smile off your face, because you can?t help but wonder what it would feel like to hand it to a widow.

I?m particularly grateful today for the sacrifice of the soldiers, who allowed me to live in a nation whose Constitution does not permit my child the right to whine for chocolate milk for six straight hours. The EU Constitution will, it seems, at least as I read Article 24: ?(Children) may express their views freely.? And these views ?shall be taken into consideration on matters which concern them, in accordance with their age and maturity.? I WANT CANDY is now a Constitutional issue. I exaggerate of course, but the EU Constitution gives me the creeps. The more specific the set of rights, the easier it is to deny all others, and infringe on the rights your Eurobetters kindly deign to grant.

I?m doing a Newhouse column on this, and alas I haven?t the space to draw all the parallels with the 1977 Soviet Constitution, which I have right before me now. It?s a masterpiece of high-minded hypocrisy, and there are so many passages that mirror the EU Constitution - which of course proves nothing. <sgtschultz voice. IT PRRRRUVS NOTINK! </sgtschultz voice> But one does get the impression that in either case it?s the state granting the rights, not acknowledging that you have these rights already and that the state shall promise to get out of the way. Small, tiny, minor point. Almost too small to mention.

I saw the Matrix Reloaded Friday. I was looking forward to this one, since I loved the original. I don't care about any of the subtextual meanings or the backstory or whether it's the purest distillation of the zeitgiest, etc. - I just thought the first Matrix was like no other movie I'd seen, and I wanted to go back to that story and get knocked around some more.


Short version of the review - Attention, Wachowski Brothers: put down the bong and step away from the script.

Long version follows.

Of my innumerable complaints, the one that rankles me the least is Zion, but it's a long-standing worry of mine: who builds these massive lairs? Zion is a gigantic underground complex; looks to be about thirty stories deep. Who built it? Oh, I know: after the machines took over, everyone got down on their hands and knees and just dug like crazy until they heard Chinese voices. No, that can?t be right. It appears to be some sort of pre-Matrix industrial facility; I think I saw ?ZION STEEL? on the side of some great wheel. If so, that makes perfect sense. Let?s imagine the pitch to the board of directors:

?Ladies, gentlemen, thank you for coming. I have here the design for our latest, most modern steel plant, a facility I believe will be the envy of the industry. We?ll be locating it here, three-quarters of a mile underground, right by downtown. As you can see from this diagram, there will be a thirty-story chamber that will house the 250,000 people required to staff the facility; over here, in a separate 10-story chamber, we will house the machinery necessary for growing food, recirculating the water, and so on. Of course, you?re wondering - where will we put the hovercraft that will ferry the steel to the surface through huge tunnels? Right here, in a vast bay the size of three Sydney Opera Houses. I expect that we can begin work on the service tunnels next year, and complete them within seven years. Questions??

?Um - it?s all underground? The steel mill is entirely underground??

?That?s right. Tall as a 50-story building, when completed. It will be the world?s biggest underground steel mill.?

?It?ll be the world?s only underground steel mill.?

?True, but even if that were not the case it would probably be larger than any other by a factor of five.?

?Mate, this Australia. We have land. You can drive for three days without seeing another car. And you want to dig a mile deep pit in a Melbourne residential district to build a steel mill??

?Well, if you put it right in the suburb, they?d complain about the pollution, now wouldn?t they? And the noise. And the lights at night. This way no one smells or hears a thing.?

?Yes, but isn?t that what industrial parks are for? And you could take the steel out on trains.?

?I?m not quite following you.?

?Trains. Choo-choos? I think I can I think I can? They go on the ground on tracks -?

?So you want to put tracks in the tunnels??

?No! I don?t want to build any bloody tunnels at all! Your design calls for the equivalent of seven Chunnels to be constructed before we even get around to building the steel mill - and at a time when international steel prices are at historic lows!?

?Which is why we should get started as soon as possible, yes.?

Yet the visionary prevailed, and Zion was built. I don?t know what the filmmakers thought our reaction would be, but to me it was sheer hell: a rusted hole full of hippies in robes. One look at the place and I?d lasso a squiddie, head to the surface, and bang on the door of Evil Machine HQ: Hello, one Coppertop wants in, sign here, THANK you.

The Matrix may be fake, but so is lo-fat soft-serve dessert. Zion is that crappy homemade ice-cream that has chunks of salt and carob instead of proper chocolate. Everyone?s commented on the infamous rave scene, in which the population of Zion crams into the Temple Of No Particular Faith and confronts their imminent death by dancing ecstatically. Big huge slo-mo close-up of feet squishing in the mud. All of a sudden I was channeling my inner Agent Smith. I can?t stand the smell, he said of the Matrix. Buddy, if you thought an average air-conditioned office was bad, try 3 AM in a huge nightclub packed with a quarter-million sweaty people who live on beans.

Did I mention that there?s a Spunky Kid in Zion? An eager Spunky Kid who idolizes Neo? Gosh, Neo, next year I?ll be old enough to join a crew, and I was thinking I could join yours! It?s as if someone sampled a ladleful of an early draft of the script, pursed their lips, and finally said ?Needs more Wesley Crusher. And maybe a dash of Short Round.? At one point the Spunky Kid gives Neo a gift from all the other orphan kids down at the Zion Orphanage and Bean-Paste Processing Center. It?s a spoon. Get it? A SPOON! Because as we know from the first movie, there is no spoon. Except when there is.

That?s the level of metaphysical pretension at work here. The first hour of the movie is so incredibly talky you begin to wish Freddy or Jason would show up and start disemboweling people. Every scene goes like this:

?Let?s have supper. I want some beans.?

?Ah, you think you want beans. But what are beans? Do you want the beans you are thinking of, or the beans you will have??

?I am not certain. Perhaps the Oracle will know.?

?Perhaps. The Oracle knows beans. Whether she knows whether the beans she knows are the beans that are right for you only she will know. You must choose whether you accept what she says.?

?But what if I do not??

?Then perhaps you wanted a nice salad. Perhaps you wanted the salad all along.?

?But I have chosen beans.?

?Did you really? Or did you not choose the beans because you were predestined to do so by the fact that you bought corn chips last week? And is that really choice??

I?m not kidding. By the time they sit down with the Marovingian we?ve had half a dozen of these gas attacks. And then the Marovingian launches into another. By way of demonstrating what an evil SOB the Marovingian is, we see him make a woman eat a slice of cake that makes her . . . do what? Explode? Speak in tongues? Fly out the window? No: it makes her get up from her table and go to the bathroom. He?s invented cybernetic laxative! But do we really choose to run to the bathroom with the cake suddenly causes our bowels to flutter, or -

And so forth and so on, for two-plus hours. More wire-fu, none of which means anything because it?s apparent you could drop a Monty-Python-brand 10-ton weight on Neo and it wouldn?t ruffle his hair. He?s Superman, flying with his fist outstretched. Actually, given his status as the Savior / pagan renewal archetype, he?s SuperChrist the Systemic Anomaly Fisher King.

I knew I was disengaged from the movie when the Oracle told Neo to find ?the keymaker,? and I thought of Harold Ramis joining Sigourney Weaver to bring about the rule of Zuul. Come to think of it, the movie needed a big dose of Ghostbusting. Not in the gentle wisecracking Bill Murray sense. It needed plagues, ghosts, apparitions, giant Sta-Puft Marshmallow Men stalking down the streets in Matrixland. If Neo and his crew wanted to defeat the machines, why not play with the heads of everyone in the Matrix? Get inside the program. HACK IT. Use your m@d h@X0r skilz and give everyone a reason to disbelieve reality. But from what we see Neo et al have spent the last four years doing nothing but assembling a top-notch team of Scowling Operatives whose day jobs consist of crafting really cool sunglasses. Because, you know, you really need sunglasses on a planet with no sunlight.


Finally: there?s that interminable highway set-piece. A few minutes into the much vaunted highway chase, I realized that the opening trailer for Bad Boys 2 had been much more exciting. Oh, I wanted to enjoy this part, and I did, I suppose. (Whenever someone decides to go the wrong way on a freeway in a movie, I always wish they?d be passed by William Pederson.) But from the start you had to deal with the Albino Twins, both of whom studied marksmanship at the Fett School of Riflery. And after they?d been dispatched, we had a very, very, very long fight on top of a semi trailer. Lots of kicking. Lots of not-quite-falling-off-the-truck moments. Oh, it had some spectacular visuals, but compare it with the penultimate action scene in the original Matrix. That scene consisted simply of two protagonists walking & shooting the length of a office building lobby. And it was more exciting than 12 minutes spent racing down a hundred miles of highway.

The Architect: good scene. It could have been a little clearer, and if they hadn?t spent half the movie ladling out cold chunks of dormroom reefer-party philosophy, this could have been a killer scene. This would have yanked the carpet out from beneath the entire premise, but by the time we got to him he was just another character with a sackful of cynical bromides. At least you?re glad it?s not Donald Sutherland, because when we first see him you think: hey, it?s Donald Sutherland. Any movie that gives you Anthony Zerbe is warning you that

At one point the Architect notes that he had to add the blacker, badder human elements to the Matrix to make the simulation work. The video screens show Hitler. And for a second they show George Bush Sr. Boy, that?s the sort of insightful commentary I thought you had to read Boondocks to find.

When the green-and-grey Warner Brothers appeared and the CRT characters started raining down, I was happy. It reminded me of how I felt with the first Matrix began, how I instantly felt dread, strangeness, and anticipation. Not a single moment in the two hours gave me any of those feelings. The action scenes all moved quickly but you had the feeling of an immense machinery beneath the surface laboring hard to produce the illusion of fleetness. After the opening sequence I had the exact same impression I had after the opening sequence of ?Batman Returns.? Ten times the budget, ten times the production values, ten times the hype. One tenth the enjoyment.

There were six other people in the theater. Two of them rose at the end of the movie, went down the hall to another theater where the ?Matrix Reloaded? was also playing.

If Star Trek fans are Trekkies, does that make Matrix fans ?Trixies??

7331
Martial Arts Topics / The Matrix 2
« on: May 25, 2003, 08:46:09 PM »
The always thoughtful Ed Rothstein who does cultural columns for the NYT-- but don't hold that against him.

Crafty
--------------------------------

May 24, 2003
Philosophers Draw on the Film 'Matrix'
EDWARD ROTHSTEIN


Hundreds of millions of dollars ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a hacker named Neo reached into his bookcase and pulled out a leatherbound volume with the title "Simulacra and Simulation" ? a collection of essays by the French postmodernist philosopher Jean Baudrillard. But when Neo opened it to the chapter "On Nihilism," it turned out to be just a simulacrum of a book, hollowed out to hold computer disks.

It resembled, then, the rest of the real world in the 1999 film "The Matrix" ? the first of a trilogy directed and written by Larry and Andy Wachowski. That world, with its office buildings and restaurants and teeming populace, was, like its book, a hollowed-out illusion, a virtual universe filled with computer code, a simulacrum of ordinary life, which Neo, a master hacker, is gradually taught to see for what it is: the Matrix.

Neo is inducted into the horrifying truth: that human beings are unknowingly being force-fed this virtual fantasy while their bodies are held captive in gelatinous pods by bug-eyed machines. And as Neo learns to perceive how hidden code shapes the apparently real world surrounding him, so too did fans begin to examine the coded allusions lying within the film itself. Mr. Baudrillard was only the beginning. When asked how many hidden messages there were in "The Matrix," the Wachowski Brothers once teased, "More than you'll ever know."

Now that its sequel, "Matrix Reloaded," is out, the interpretive industry is also gearing up. After the first film, Christian allegorists leaped at the bait the authors left: characters named Neo and Trinity, allusions to Jesus and resurrection, a city named Zion. The Buddhist character of Neo's "awakening" to reality's veil of illusion was discussed. And academic interest grew because the film self-consciously tapped current fascination with pop culture and critical theory. Recent anthologies have included " `The Matrix' and Philosophy," edited by William Irwin (Open Court), "Taking the Red Pill," edited by Glenn Yeffeth (Benbella Books), and "Exploring the Matrix," edited by Karen Haber (St. Martin's Press). Even the Warner Brothers "Matrix" Web site contains a growing collection of papers by academic philosophers: (whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rl_cmp/new_phil_main.html).

Descartes, of course, is a recurring presence in these anthologies, since, like Neo, he attempted to discover what man can be certain about, even if, as he put it, a "malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me." Plato is invoked as well, particularly his allegory of the cave, in which prisoners are convinced that shadows on the cave's walls are the sole reality until they are freed by philosophical inquiry and led upward into the sunlight.

The problem is that in the movie, the cave is the reality ? the rebels hide out from demonic machines in the sewers of this post-apocalyptic world ? while those who dwell in the illusions of the Matrix bask in sunlight. One character, Cypher, explicitly prefers the world of the programmed Matrix, with its sensual pleasures, compared with the reality of darkness, warfare and struggle. So some philosophical essays ask, is there a reason the choice of the real world is more ethical?

But there is another twist to the Wachowskis' fable. The Matrix is not arbitrary; it is the world of contemporary America. It is our world. And the rebels, in discovering its illusory quality, the film suggests, are discovering the truth about our world: that it deserves to be overturned. "The Matrix" is a political allegory.

This is why Mr. Baudrillard's book "Simulacra and Simulation" is so closely associated with the film (some cast members were asked to read the book, which Morpheus, the rebel leader, also quotes). In these essays, mostly written in the 1970's, Mr. Baudrillard suggests that because of technology and the rise of modern capitalism, everything has become a simulacrum; as in the Matrix, nothing real remains. Disneyland is one of his examples: an imaginary world that invokes something "real," though that "real" world is just as imaginary. In fact, Mr. Baudrillard argues, Los Angeles and California are as fantastical as Disneyland.

There is a distaste for contemporary American culture in many of Mr. Baudrillard's analyses, and a distaste too for American power and its images. This is also shared by the rebels of "The Matrix," who reflect a kind of hacker ideology, seeking to "free" information from its "system" of control, to overturn the Matrix and its tyranny of images.

But this has a disturbing side. In the essay "On Nihilism" Mr. Baudrillard announces that in the face of "hegemonic" power, there is but one response: terrorism. He writes, "I am a terrorist and nihilist in theory as others are with their weapons." Similarly, in "The Matrix," Morpheus tells Neo he must regard all inhabitants of that virtual world as enemies that may be killed; anyway, most people are "not ready" for the truth. Morpheus is even wanted by the Matrix's ruthless agents for "acts of terrorism." While we are meant to cheer him on, neither Mr. Baudrillard nor the Wachowskis nor the philosophical essayists explore the ethical limits of these all-too-familiar convictions.

Now, though, in "Matrix Reloaded," something else takes place. At the risk of spoiling some plot twists, it is worth pointing out that, despite the film's flaws and misjudgments, it seems intent on questioning many ideas from the first film.

Some things stay the same. Neo and the rebels must head off a full-scale attempt by the machines to destroy the underground city, Zion, so the basic revolutionary posture remains intact. In some ways the film becomes even more extreme in its objections to American life (at one point, as a character speaks of the "grotesqueries" of human nature, background images of Hitler and George W. Bush appear).

But other things change. What exactly is Neo supposed to do? In the first film Morpheus hailed Neo as the One, the Savior of the real world. This belief in the real may be one reason Mr. Baudrillard has never found identification with "The Matrix" congenial, suggesting it has "stemmed mostly from misunderstandings" of his own work. But in the sequel he seems a nearer presence. Boundaries and premises break down. Morpheus's prophetic claims begin to seem strident. Neo can't even trust what he is told by the Oracle, a woman who foresees the future but who may also be manipulating Neo with her prophecies.

In fact we eventually learn through cryptic pronouncements of the Architect of the Matrix ? its software writer, its God ? that Neo is actually living in the sixth version of the Matrix. In each, a savior figure has arisen. And in each earlier case, the savior has not been able to free humanity at all. Instead, the result has been a large-scale loss of life, until the Matrix begins again, with an apparent upgrade ? a new web of earthly illusions ? allowing no recollections of the disastrous past. By the end, Neo has reason to wonder whether any revolutions accomplish what they claim, whether he is free to make a choice at all and whether even the real world is what it seems.

So the third movie, scheduled for November release, faces its own choice. It could end up moving even closer to the nihilism of Mr. Baudrillard and its ultimately sordid message. But faced with what Mr. Baudrillard has called "the desert of the real," it could also find some other path, as yet undreamed of in its philosophy, that may bring hackers, humans and machines together.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top

7332
Martial Arts Topics / Violence against Women
« on: May 24, 2003, 03:47:45 AM »
Woof All:

  Well no one has joined in on the question of how to get women started since my reply to Russ on Monday-- so allow me to stir things up a bit :twisted:

A question for the women here:

Hypothetical:  You are 18 years old.  You attend the Air Force Academy. If I have it correctly, to do so you are a member of the US Air Force, with all the oaths and responsibilities thereof.  In violation of Air Force Academy regulations, at night you go to the room of man cadet and get so snookered on Tequila that you are drifting in and out of consciousness.  Sex occurs without resistance on your part.

Question presented:  What do you do?

Woof,
Crafty Dog

7333
Woof W et al:

A Police organization in favor of more laws and regulations with themselves in charge?  I'm shocked, absolutely schocked!  

For a summary of issues involved, from our Rambling Rumination page something I wrote in 1999:

Crafty
----------------------------------------

State of New Jersey to Regulate Martial Arts


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recently there has been a push in the State of New Jersey to regulate martial arts. Originally it was pushed as protection from child molesters, but when it was pointed out that if that were the case then those regulated should be all who dealt with children, not martial arts. So now they're baaack, seeking to set up 5 bureaucrats to study things and make rules. This of course shows that "the children" had nothing to do with the original impulse to regulate. These 5 bureaucrats are the proverbial camel's nose and we must stop hit this initiation of yet another attack on our lives as a free people. So I will be writing yet again and ask you to do so as well. I know that many people are not sure of what to say and this hinders them from getting started. So, if you want to use any passages from this for "write-your-congressman" efforts, then DBIMA and Marc Denny waive copyright. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Do your part.

Crafty Dog

PS: Thanks to Jeff Finder for getting me going on this.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Concerning the proposal to regulate martial arts:

People who are not involved with the martial arts usually have no idea of the extraordinary breadth and depth of martial art world, both in its offerings and in the people who come to the arts and the reasons for which they come. My particular martial art comes from the Philippines, which has nearly 1,000 islands and 90 major dialects. The result is that not even the name of our art is agreed upon! In can be Kali, or Arnis, or Eskrima, or simply FMA (short for "the Filipino Martial Arts"). There are hundreds of styles within the FMA.

Similar diversity can be found in the Chinese Arts, even though it is all lumped together in the general public's mind as "kung fu". To a person in the martial art world, the statement "I practice kung fu." can properly be answered with the question "Which style?" Is it Wing Chun- a close quarter trapping system with mostly linear strikes? or Hung Gar a deep stance system with more emphasis on slashing strikes? or is it one of the northern Chinese systems with an emphasis on kicking? Or acrobatic Wu Shu? Or meditational Tai Chi? Similar variety can be found amongst the Malay cultures (Indonesian, Malaysian, southern Filipino) or the Japanese/Owkinowan systems. And what about the Indian systems? Or the European, e.g. France's Savate, or English quarterstaff? Martial arts is much more than a matter of the few names with which the American movie going public is familiar. Martial Arts is about the study of what to do about human aggression and the solutions are as various as the human condition.

Look at the array of reasons that people come to martial arts: Some come for fun, some come for fitness, some come for functionality as they percieve it, some come for moving meditation, some come to socialize. Some are young males looking to compete. Some are women looking for anti-rape skills, Some are big and strong, many are not. Some want to grapple, some want to strike. Some practice forms, some do not. Some are children looking to join the Ninja Mutant Turtles, some are prison guards and law enforcement officers with real and immediate practical needs.

The interaction of all these styles and the people who come to them also leads to a variety of organizational structures. Some of the very best teach in their back yards for pocket money, others have an independent school and may even support themnselves. Others have large organizations that are financially successful. Some offer belts, others do not. Some require the student to sign up for a period of time, others do not. Some require a testing of the skills (fighting/sparring) others do not. Of those who have impressive looking certifications, some are good and some are not. And ditto for those lacking certifications.

In my humble opinion, THERE IS NO WAY THIS INCREDIBLE VARIETY OF PEOPLE OR STYLES CAN BE FAIRLY OR COMPETENTLY REGULATED. The People's search of what is right for them, the "pursuit of happiness" of our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution if you will, is most eminently something for the American way, the free market and its protection by the State in the area of defending against theft and fraud in their many forms. Giving the State the power to determine who may teach martial arts and how they may and may not be taught only lessens both the freedom of choice and of responsibility, but also as a practical matter is quite likely to lead well-known big organization styles to use this regulatory process to squeeze out competition and so deprive individuals who need or desire approaches outside of theirs.

Ultimately, the study of martial arts is, regardless of approach, is a study of aggression, how it is done and how to deal with it. The State is those areas of life which we as a people determine must be dealt with by force. The goal for us is to learn to deal with each other through voluntary interactions- free minds and free markets. When we or the State defend ourselves or the weak from attack, whether by foreign armies or by criminals, we lessen violence. When we make others do what we think is "a good idea" we increase it. Rather, We the People must say to the State, and to the Politicians, the IRS, the factions, the special interests, the computer generated governmental actions so seemingly beyond human control, DON'T EVEN GET STARTED, JUST LEAVE US ALONE.

Sincerely,
Marc Denny
Co-founder: The Dog Brothers
Head Teacher
Dog Brothers Inc. Martial Arts.

7334
Martial Arts Topics / Violence against Women
« on: May 21, 2003, 11:41:20 AM »
Woof FG et al:

  Actually one has to be careful with the term "sodomy"; in some statutes the term encompasses fellatio  :shock:

  Similarly the term "assault":  "Assault" to ordinary English speaking people means  , , , assault.  But "assault, as in "Assault and Battery" means the threat, and the battery the physical contact.  

  The quicker witted amongst us may be left wondering over the meaning of the term "sexual assault":  Is it:
1) a hostile physical grab with sexual overtones
2) a rude/crude pass
3) an unsuccessful pass
4) rude/crude comments?

Crafty Dog

7335
Martial Arts Topics / Violence against Women
« on: May 19, 2003, 05:44:06 PM »
Woof Russ, Linda et al:

  I'll put aside some intended comments on the Air Force Academy affair :wink: and turn to the interesting question Russ poses.

  Peyton Quinn (author: A Bouncer's Guide to Barroom Brawling, columnist, SD instructor of note, etc) used to come around when he was in LA and I've seen what he does (Bullet Man training for citizens and martial arts people alike) and FWIW IMHO it may have a lot of merit when it comes to the question of "What to teach first?".

  Women:

1) Tend to be of a victim mindset-- which is understandable.
2) Have a place of ferocity of which they are completely unaware unless they have already had to go there.

Tangent/Story:  My friend the late Carl James, (you see him in the interviews at the end of RCSFg#6 saying "Being your own private eye.")
was a man of a highly adventurous life and one of the chapters was being a bouncer in a tough bar in a tough section of Detroit.  He told me that the fight to break up that he feared the most was between two women.  (Trivia-- Carl is the man who as a bodyguard saved Larry Flynt's life when his wife went off and tried to kill him with a knife)

What Peyton and people in his field do is after some quick and dirty tools training (this is a headbutt, this is how to throw an elbow, that sort of thing) create scenarios that trigger the adrenal state and then person in the training connects that state with being able to pull the trigger and really tee-off on the "attacker".

I haven't had many women students and have had uneven results, but my sense of it is that this is not a bad place to start-- and having experienced it, the woman will understand and benefit from her martial art training in a higher trajectory.

Woof,
Crafty Dog

7336
Martial Arts Topics / A Tale of Two Nations
« on: May 19, 2003, 02:36:09 PM »
Woof McIver:

  That was very good.  Thank you.

Crafty

Pages: 1 ... 145 146 [147]