Survival Arts

A claimant to the manufacture of "Vampire Killing Kits"

A couple of years ago, I posted a short entry about an auction titled "Rare Mid to Late 19th Vampire Killing Kit" on eBay. Today, a fellow posting as "Michael de Winter," whose IP address indicates he's writing from Gibraltar, has posted a rather long and interesting commentary claiming the phenomenon as originating from a hoax he perpetrated in 1972. I have no way of knowing whether the guy is for real, but he spins an interesting yarn nonetheless, so I'll mention it here in this separate entry.

I should do this more often for those blog entries that surprise me by taking on lives of their own. Undead threads, anyone?

"The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster"

This got slashdotted yesterday: Darth Vader's blog (or one of them.) My ribs hurt.

"Correcting a Steel Mistake"

My friend L. Neil Smith emailed this today:

"Russell --

I thought you and Dale [Seago] might enjoy seeing a project I put together a long time ago, possibly before you came to Fort Collins the first time. As you can see, it's a Camillus Marine Corps knife wedded to a bayonet. It fits my M1 Carbine, the standard issue bayonet for which is a disgrace.

Note the serrated portion at the base of the blade. That was done with a
checkering file. Ahead of my time, I guess."

Here's another:

My Bujinkan teacher Dale followed up:

"Very sweet piece of work -- nicely done!!

BTW, the Marine Corps has adopted a new official-issue bayonet which largely retains the look of the old Ka-bar, but with a longer blade (8" instead of 7"). It's an issue item for Marines, but available commercially for private purchase as well."

This is the new Marine issue item, the "ON3S ONTARIO Marine Bayonet Khaki Brown Handle And Sheath 8" Blade":

"Serenity" trailer now online!

Bruce Sommer informs me that Apple has released the online trailer for "Serenity," the film adaptation of Joss Whedon's tragically short-lived "Firefly" television series. It looks fantastic!

Quote of the Day

Cops are armed when civilians can't be, often with weapons civilians can't have. I can't tell you how sick I get of seeing notations in catalogs like Brigade Quartermaster that certain items are for cops only.

Cops live and operate within a strict hierarchy, usually with titles like "sergeant", "lieutenant", "captain", and so forth. Most of them wear military-style uniforms, and an argument can be made that so-called "plainclothes" operations ought to be outlawed. Increasingly, they wear military battledress and carry military weapons.

Cops form a culture all to themselves, like professional soldiers, and usually have little to do with those who are not cops. They do call us "civilians". I never heard this term "little people" before. They also call us "assholes" and say that the public just consists of criminals who haven't been caught yet. I know because I was there at one time.

Yeah, I understand the theory that they're civilians, too. I repeat that it's bullshit. What they are, in fact, is an occupying military force, with strategic bases in every hamlet in the nation -- which is why they and their hangers-on lie to us and possibly to themselves about being civilians, too.

They are the very standing army that the Founding Fathers were afraid of.

And for good reason.

L. Neil Smith
In response last night to a post I made on a mailing list about how cops refer to non-cops as "civilians" when they, too, are in fact "civilians."

Pics of Dale Seago's Musso-Style Bowie

Dale Seago received his Imperial Weapons replica of a Joseph Musso Collection Bowie very recently, and has posted pictures of it on Sword Forum International. Very nice.

pKa of the N-H proton on LDA

I needed to look this up for study so, given how difficult it was to find this value, I'm mentioning it for future Googlers:

According to "Chemistry of Amines," in section 4, "Important Reagent Bases", the pKa of the N-H proton on the conjugate acid of lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) is 35.7.

Bono for Pope

Thomas Knapp has created a petition urging the College of Cardinals to vote for Bono as the next Pontiff.

Does supporting this petition make one pro Bono?

Rifles forbidden in Beihai Park

Another image from my recent trip to Beijing, this one a sign at Beihai Park admonishing visitors not to do or bring certain things into the park. I'm still trying to figure out what it all means. One is a pictogram apparently forbidding rifles in the park:

Quote of the Day

Indeed, I am opposed even to free market supplied "police" in the conventional sense. The potential - indeed, universal reality - of armed agencies abusing their power is such that I believe that it is foolish for individuals to delegate their use of just force and to rely on third parties. We need an armed citizenry, the "hue and cry", and the use of specialist/expert "martials" for arrest only in restricted cases.

Dr. Chris R. Tame
Excerpted with permission from a recent private correspondance

Another cameraphone tidbit from Beijing

Seen in an elevator in the office building where my friend Serin works:

Posted by Russell Whitaker at 08:53 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Wangfujing Bookstore in Beijing

In the heart of Beijing is the huge, well-stocked Wangfujing Bookstore. If you need maps, there are thousands of them available on the first (ground) floor, just inside the main doors. English-language books can be found on the 3rd floor. Here's a pic I snapped with my Treo 650 cameraphone:

"Minarchy in the funnies"

Thanks to Anton Sherwood for pointing this out a few minutes ago on a mailing list:

In Sunday's "Beetle Bailey" strip (linked today by FFF), Pvt Plato writes a minarchist screed on walls, even supporting selfishness.

For non-American readers, Beetle Bailey is a very well known American icon, syndicated in newspapers for decades.

Quote of the Day

If a cat scan of my brain or my EEG looks like Terry Schiavo's, do NOT put me on machines, do NOT insert a feeding tube(unless you're feeding me margaritas), do not take extraordinary measures to prolong my life. And especially do NOT call Jesse Jackson. If you call Jesse Jackson to stand over my bedside and pray, I will come back and HAUNT your ass. Correction. I will come back and haunt your ass and then BEAT it.

Bill Hartwell

"Layered Communism" in Poland

I just got back from a meeting of an organization of which I'm a member, and was talking with a Polish acquaintance at the potluck which followed. We were discussing the until-recent history of Russian occupation of his country, and he told me that some Poles he knew had during that time advocated "Layered Communism":

"Layer of Communists, layer of sand, layer of Communists, layer of sand..."

Interesting podcast on the Firefly phenom

Renny Manne has done an interesting podcast on the Firefly phenomenon.

But wait, there's more

Not only did I indulge myself with scorpions in Beijing last week, I also had snake meat and silkworm pupae. I've eaten plenty of snake, and this one was undistinguished (they're usually pretty rubbery), but the silkworm was new to me: a soft, pulpy interior in a paper-thin skin. I didn't have more snake later, but I did follow up with another silkworm grub skewer a while later.

Beware, beware of Baijiu!

Beware, beware of Baijiu! Within my first two hours in Beijing, I was taken out for kebabs and beer by my friend Serin. We met this affable guy, Ken, who'd enquired "Naguoren? (where ya from?)" and offered me one of his sealed shot glasses of baijiu. This was an 80-proof (40%) standard formula. After two shots, he brought out a bottle whose name translates from Chinese simply as "56 Percent." We shared that bottle. Apparently, I pulled out my Sony CyberShot to Capture the Moment:

I tried red eye reduction in iPhoto in an attempt to clear up my eyes in this photo, but apparently, the red-eye in this case is not a camera artifact.

I paid dearly the next morning for this act of intercultural male booze bonding, comparable only to an episode I experienced after boot camp, half a lifetime ago, when I swore, "I'll never drink that again."

There's a star rating for everything

With an endorsement like this, I had to visit. It surprises me to find out that this palatial facility (literally: it's on the grounds of the Summer Palace) is not listed in Frommer's.

A quiet moment in Beihai Park

One afternoon last week I rented an electric boat and plied around the north lake in Beihai Park. After returning the craft to the boathouse, I came across this guy doing taijiquan near the shore, practicing a jian form:

When he'd finished several iterations of the same form, he walked over to the bench where a couple of older women had been watching intently. He then started pushing the tip of the jian into the bench near them! What the hell?

Ah... it was a collapsing practice piece, neatly converting into an 8-inch assembly, which he then slipped into the carry pouch his wife held out for him. Neat! I wanted one of those jian then and there, but didn't have time left in the trip to shop for one. Rest assured it's on my shopping list for my next Beijing visit.

A little walking-around food

A little walking-around food (or "little food that was recently walking around") in Beijing's Wangfujing: Yanjing beer and scorpions. These little buggers are actually very good indeed. I've had scorpion once before, a different variety with a thicker, blacker thorax, in Thailand, also spiced, and also very good.

Sucking the marrow in Beijing

Last night, before leaving Beijing, my friend Serin and I had a late night snack at a small neighborhood shop specializing in kebabs and Hui specialties. It was pretty chilly outside, so we ordered some comfort food, such as this mutton bone soup, with the shafts cracked to expose the marrow, straws provided for convenience: