Paraphrasing Capo Ferro: Introduction, pt1

[ Posted by Janka Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:06:36 GMT ]

First part of the introduction goes roughly like this, except with ever so many words more, and sentence structures that would make a German philosopher look concise:

Yo Duke.

Here’s a book I wrote.

I dedicated it to your son.

I am sure he will be awesome when he grows up.

Just like you.

Hope you like the book and show it around.

Sincerely,
CF

Apparently (according to translator’s footnote) the Duke’s son did not turn out to be awesome, but quite the black sheep, and in fact ended up dead at 18 in mysterious circumstances, without the Duke minding all that much.

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Reading Capo Ferro

[ Posted by Janka Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:05:38 GMT ]

I will now undertake a project to read through Capo Ferro’s treatise “The Great Simulacrum of the Art and Use of Fencing”, from 1610. Not speaking any Italian, let alone 17th Century so, beyond random fencing terms, and not wanting to take the time to learn much now, I will use the translation by Jherek Swanger and William E. Wilson, available here in PDF. The translation does not include figures, but the ARMA facsimile has them.

(I have compiled the translation and pictures into a single PDF file formatted for my Sony PRS-505 reader, but before distributing it I need to obtain permission from Swanger & Wilson.)

To facilitate my learning, there will follow on this blog a series of posts, partly probably informative but more likely mostly hilariously embarrassing and irreverent, of my paraphrasings and WTFs about said manuscript, starting now and lasting for a couple of months. Apologies to the readers who find this utterly boring. For those who understand the inherent and utter coolness of 17th Century rapier, I take absolutely no responsibility whatsoever on any injury (on bodies, minds, pride or otherwise) of people who happen to read this and decide to act based on anything that I say. I have dabbled in the art and I am taking lessons while I read, but hell if I have any real clue what I am talking about.

To first get some idea of what I am doing here, the manuscript is organized as follows:
  • 2 introductory chapters, one to some duke dude and one to the reader
  • 13 chapters on the “art” of fencing, each divided into numbered paragraphs
  • an introductory chapter to the “use” of fencing
  • 2 general chapters about the use of fencing, again divided into numbered paragraphs
  • 42 “plates”, each consisting of a picture of two figures in action and a chapter of text explaining the exchange of actions depicted
  • 2 additional chapters (one on cuts, one on “a sure way to defend oneself”)

Click the “paraphrasing Capo Ferro” tag to see all entries so far.

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Civilization. Yay.

[ Posted by Janka Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:45:21 GMT ]

Hi I’m baaaack! It was a good vacation, and it was good to come back, and that is as it should be. I have been feeling really good the past couple of weeks, starting from the week before my vacation and still lasting even after all the unpacking and “what the hell is this work thing about again?” experiences. Enough so to have been mentally checking to see that I am not manic or anything, but so far I do not seem to possess megalomaniac thoughts or spend money recklessly or any that sort of thing (let me know if I am just delusional about this).

Some random hints for travelers:

In Iceland:
  • The Laugavegur hiking trail is awesome, but the first two days (coming from Landmannalaugar) are fairly tough, with a total elevation difference of 500 meters, and should be taken seriously.
  • The hot pool in Landmannalaugar, the trail head, should not be missed, it is total pure awesomeness.
  • The possibility of snow and/or high winds at the Hrafntinnusker is very real, which should also be taken seriously. Do not set out without proper rain gear, you will regret it. (We almost did, and praised our common sense of buying proper stuff several times on the way up.)
  • The huts are often fully booked, especially the high one, but it still makes sense to ask for places every time before setting up your tent. People cancel often, and those places go on first come, first served basis. Wardens are awesome people and should all reserve hugs and free beers.
  • Instead of ending the second day in Alftavatn, you can continue about 5 km to Hvanngil. This makes your next day fairly short and easy, in case you need a rest day, or makes it easier to press days 3 and 4 together, taking only a lunch break at Ermstur.
  • In the city, take advantage of the Reykjavik Welcome Card. It includes public transport, entrance to many museums, and most importantly, to the pools. With free hot geothermal water, the local pools are awesome stuff. It takes just about 4 trips on the buses, or fewer + one entrance fee daily, for the card to be good value, and it is really nice and easy to use.
  • The Saga Museum in the Perlan is worth seeing, despite not being included in the aforementioned card.
  • The BSI bus terminal has a luggage storage for a minimal fee. The Reykjavik Excursions FlyBus to the airport will pick you up from your hotel, stop at the terminal, and proceed to the airport, so it is possible to pick up luggage on the way. Very practical for hiking gear or so that you do not want to drag around town.
  • All food in restaurants and cafes is generally very good, but fish and lamb or mutton are the best choices, being fresh and locally produced. Local sheep wander the highlands freely during summer, and you can taste the benefits of that.
  • Iceland is not a cheap country. Accommodation especially is seriously expensive. If you are on a budget, considering a workaround such as begging for friends of friends to let you crash on their couch, or CouchSurfing, or a house exchange plan, are recommendable.
  • Buses that wade rivers are seriously cool stuff. Taking a bus to some nature reserve such as Thorsmörk is worth just to see that—and the nature is awesome too.
  • The Blue Lagoon is exactly as it is pictured on the web: touristy, but still very much worth it. I really want to be on some winter-time flight with a long transit in Keflavik one day, just to see it in the dark.
In Death Valley:
  • Going in the summer will make LA residents roll their eyes and tell you you are totally nuts. Go anyway. The heat is an experience.
  • Going in a new car with an AC that can cope with 45+ degrees of C is a very good idea.
  • Do not leave the car without water and sunscreen.
  • Badwater is not just a point in the desert saying “lowest point here”, there’s actually stuff to see there. And even water, for some values of water.
In Black Rock City:
  • Having a shade for your tent for morning hours after sunrise really pays off. Those extra couple of hours of sleep every morning really are worth the hassle.
  • Used sails make good shade structures, if (and only if!) you understand how to make stuff hold in the wind. They are also good for demonstrating where all the power that moves sailing boats comes from.
  • Principle of anchoring stuff to the playa is this: triangular 3D structures of tension will hold. “Flat” structures will fall. It is not enough to fasten a tent or a shade structure to the ground from its corners, you need sidelines from each corner to some way away from the tent. For bigger structures and for poles holding up structures, you want two sidelines per corner/pole, angled away from each other.
  • Hammering rebar into the playa is a matter of technique. 1) When you first think it will not sink further, the work actually starts. 2) Bend the rebar, and bend it so that the angle is sharp enough, not curved. Bending makes it less likely someone will hurt themselves on it, and the sharp angle makes it less likely it will bend instead of sinking when you hammer it in. 3) Use a piece of mat, a towel, or whatever, for padding between the hands of the person holding the rebar and the rebar itself (or between the feet of the person doing the job solo, and the rebar). 4) Place the rebar in roughly 45 degrees to the playa, away from the direction where you expect it to be pulled, not directly perpendicular to ground. When you hammer, stand in that direction, not “outside” of the rebar. This will make it less likely to bend instead of sinking. 5) When I say “hammer”, I mean a proper sledgehammer.
  • Leopardy rocks. Highly recommended afternoon activity.
  • Playa Info volunteering is fun, for some bizarre and probably braindead values of fun.
  • Alcohol (or other such stuff) is actually not a very necessary part of the Burning Man experience. Morning coffee would have been useful.
  • Dave is still the Prince of Black Rock City, and don’t believe him if he tells you otherwise. So there.

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Don't be a selfish moron!

[ Posted by Janka Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:48:33 GMT ]

I will more or less disappear for four weeks soon-ish (we are taking the TinyComputer this time, so updates from along the way are possible, but the thing is mostly for Orava’s photos and my writing, so don’t hold your breaths), but before that, a public health announcements follows.

As we are expecting an influenza epidemic, here’s the most important thing (together with washing your bloody hands) you can do to help: if you are sick, stay home. While the swine flu seems to turn out not as deadly as originally feared, influenza still is a killer of the weak, and a nasty and uncomfortable waste of time even for the strong, as are ever so many diseases circling the community. Going to work (or the gym, or pub, or class) while sick is not heroic or plucky or persistent – it is irresponsible and selfish. I do not want your flu and neither does anyone else, so stay the fuck home.

Thank you.

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Kesäkeitto!

[ Posted by Janka Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:42:25 GMT ]

1. Loottaa äidin siirtolapuutarhapalsta. 2. Paista kaikki vähänkään pehmeämpi sälä (yrtit, herneet, pavut) runsaassa määrässä voita. 3. Lisää maitoa ja kaikki kovempi sälä sopivina palasina. 4. Odota. 5. Suurusta vehnäjauhoilla (eli lisää vehnäjauhoja reilu ruokalusikallinen puolta litraa kohti, sekoitettuna ensin pieneen määrään nestettä). 6. Lisää suolaa ja pippuria. 7. Odota vielä vähän.

Ihan parasta, kaikki kasvit suoraan maasta.

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I can has IRC from sailing boat!

[ Posted by Janka Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:47:11 GMT ]

Sometimes a thing happens that really drives home how much technology has gone forward in fifteen years.

When I was a child, my family had a sailing boat. Internet was not invented yet. Neither were mobile phones. Sea charts had a special sign for harbors with a pay phone, and we turned on the radio every day at the exact hour when they sent out weather forecasts and emergency contact notifications to persons traveling.

Now I am sitting in the boat of a friend’s parents, in Kasnäs visitor harbor (which is huge, compared to what I think it used to be), writing a blog entry, and chatting on IRC.

My friend says that pretty much every visitor harbor has wifi these days. This one is apparently crappy.

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Kivasti listan laittaa internettiin info

[ Posted by Janka Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:34:14 GMT ]

Yleisön pyynnöstä (huolimatta) tässä lista Ropeconin yövuoron YouTube-soitosta. Ei varmaan kata kaikkea, varsinkaan yleisötoiveista, minä muista mitä kaikkea tuli soiteltua. Ei missään erityisessä järjestyksessä, kuten ei yölläkään. Ei sisällä uusintoja.

By/despite popular demand, here is a list of the YouTube songs played by the Ropecon info desk night shift. I probably miss a lot, but you can be happy that this does not include the reruns.

Random good and “good” songs: From Monty Python: Flash classics: Mixtures and mashups: Literal videos: From the awesome band Flight of the Conchords:

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I want to believe

[ Posted by Janka Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:19:41 GMT ]

Yes, I know, lots of this stuff lately. Sue me.

> Human rights refer to the “basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.”

> (Wikipedia)

> We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

> (United States Declaration of independence)

For an atheist like myself, to believe that human beings are ultimately “entitled” to something, nor that any truths are “self-evident”. It is actually obvious, if you look at the world, that general human rights are far from self-evident to members of the human race, and that we are inherently entitled to exactly nothing. If these truths were indeed self-evident, simple, and obvious, we would have been spared from a lot of atrocities and suffering in our history.

The most important words of sentence of the US Declaration of Independence above are not “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”—they are “we hold”. We hold these truths to be self-evident: we believe in this, we will make it so, we choose these principles to be the basis of our government. (Never mind for now that the States just like everyone else at the time sort of failed in that mission what with all the racial stuff that came later, this point is more general.)

The most important words in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights are not so much the exact listings of the rights. The most important stuff is in the Preamble, where they give the reasoning for formulating these rights:

> Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

> Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

>[...]

>Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.

This document, which might very well be the most important document in existence regarding our current civilization, even when it speaks of “inherent” dignity, is in an end an agreement. A contract. A sacred pledge between people and peoples. It is not written because you are entitled to something, because you are born with rights bestowed upon you by Gods or Nature, because the universe is benevolent and made it so. No, it is written exactly because of the opposite. God does not exist and Nature is totally indifferent to your dignity. People are products of their upbringing and whims and some very minimal effect of learning and independence on that.

This is serious stuff now, so pay attention. Human rights exist because we choose to believe in them. Emphasis on we, and emphasis on choose. We choose it because we believe it is necessary, or the right thing, or for whatever other reason, but in the end, it is we who choose. You cannot just expect these rights to exist, because they are not, not really, “self-evident”, or “inalienable”, or “inherent”, or “universal”. They need your belief in them, and your work against everyone who tries to take them away from anyone, to exist.

> If you do not believe in freedom of speech for those you despise, then you do not believe in it at all.

> (Noam Chomsky)

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Above doing adult work?

[ Posted by Janka Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:37:16 GMT ]

> Ma and her girls were Americans, above doing men’s work. >(Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter)

When I first read those words as a child, they shocked me. I had not before that realized how it is possible to oppress someone by praise, by convincing them that they are so precious and so fragile that they take pride in not even trying. Those words are burned to my brain now, and pop up whenever anything remotely like that seems to be happening around me. (For example, whenever “women’s pushups” are mentioned.)

Sometimes these days I wonder if we are oppressing our children and especially teenagers that way, trying to push the idea that childhood is so precious that people should be completely free of cares and responsibilities during it, to the point of not asking 12-year-olds to do chores, and not letting 16-year-olds work during summer breaks.

Free Range Kids seems to think so, anyway.

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Oil, and the coming lack there-of

[ Posted by Janka Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:04:58 GMT ]

I fly a lot. By “a lot” I mean more than twice a year, typically one or two of those intercontinental. Definitely more than my share. Occasionally, I get asked if I do not feel guilty about that, by friends or colleagues, and a bit more often I seem to sense a subtle (or not so much so) disapproval when my preferred form of vacationing comes up.

On one hand, yes, I do. This is the hand that puts the CO2 and stuff in the atmosphere, something I seriously think we should not do quite as much as we do. I feel vaguely uncomfortable about the fact that all my efforts to consume less are more than offset by the fact that I am one of those people who gladly travel to the other side of the globe to see a frigging big tree while rarely bothering to see one in their own country. Not to mention offset by that I consider it a good use of my time to spend an extra week in a total braindead jetlag just so that I can spend a week working face-to-face with collaborators (and doing that in a total braindead jetlag too). I find it less and less easy to justify flying and I think that with a couple of more years my vacationing habits will change because of that alone.

On the other hand, it is likely we will never find out if they would, since it is so likely that flight prices will skyrocket inside that same time frame so that it becomes economically too silly for me to buy a ticket, anyway. (I can then stop because I am forced to and convince myself I stopped to be ethical, of course; always nice to feel good about yourself without extra effort, right?) On this hand, no, I do not feel guilty: not at all about using “more than my share” of the world’s oil. Conservation of materials only makes sense to me if either 1) by conserving you can balance consumption and production so that you can make it reasonably likely that we will never run out (e.g. we should use only so much wood that we can grow enough to replace it), or 2) the stuff is worth conserving because it has some inherent value and you want to make sure something of it exists for your children’s children to admire too. Natural life, landscapes, etc have the latter kind of value to me; oil doesn’t, maybe apart from a sample in a jar in some museum.

My understanding is that we will run out of oil, sooner or later, and that there’s pretty much nothing we can do about that. By conservation of oil, we can delay that point, but I fail to see what the point of that delay would be—theoretically, it would allow for more time to develop alternative technologies, but in practice it seems that large scale development will only start for real when oil starts to be prohibitively expensive. Times will likely get rather nasty for a while when that starts to happen, in any case, and then we will either pull through or not. Personally I think we will, and while the world will definitely change, dark fantasy fans will have to wait for their post-apocalypse a bit more… but you never know. So bring it! Since it is inevitable, we might as well start, and have it over with, rather than fiddle and fret about estimates of how much longer we really do have.

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