Sunday, March 14, 2010

It Pays to Draw Second

In gunfights, at least as portrayed in many Western films, the good guy character always waits that one split second to draw his iron, and ends up putting down the Black Bart bad guy character who drew his iron first.  Doesn’t seem realistic, does it?  Well it is.

If only everything in life was so simple. New research from the University of Birmingham suggests the best strategy may actually be to wait for the other guy to make his move.

In a series of “laboratory gunfights” - with pistols replaced by electronic pressure pads - researchers found that participants who reacted to their opponent’s movement were on average 21 milliseconds faster to the draw.

Not only this research supports the draw second conclusion.  Danish physicist Niels Bohr calculated on this, with the following conclusions.

It turns out that the celebrated Danish physicist and Nobel laureate, Niels Bohr, liked to take time off from figuring out the structure of the universe by watching westerns.

Bohr noticed that the man who drew first invariably got shot, and speculated that the intentional act of drawing and shooting was slower to execute than the action in response.

Here was a hypothesis that could be tested, and with the aid of cap guns hastily purchased in a Copenhagen toyshop, duly proved it.

In a series of mock gunfights with colleagues Bohr always drew second and always won.

The gunfighter’s dilemma

Linked via an Attack Cartoons titled Vente Grande Magnum.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/14 at 04:21 PM
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Big Brother Is Indeed Watching You, and Me

A post by Karen De Coster, in its entirety, titled Confirmed: The FBI is Watching.

A good friend and freedom activist colleague of mine is going to appear on the radio show of Dale Williams (Salt Lake City) on Monday, March 15th to discuss a few things, and among the topics will be a recent visit he received from the FBI. Why did he receive the visit? Because he’s a war vet (who also spent time at the Pentagon and NSA) who gets it, and he has become an important liberty activist as well. And he’s a leading gun expert who lives on an isolated farm in the West because he wants to be left alone, which of course is reason enough to harass him.

And the FBI’s visit? They had a photo of me and him, along with a column that I wrote for LewRockwell.com. My “crime,” I suppose, is being active in libertarian/gun rights/anti-state/antiwar circles, thereby making me a dissident of the omnipotent state. The assorted agents of the state have contempt for people like me who spread truth, stand by their principles, and openly dissent against the elite powers that crush the helpless middle class. People like me – that is, peaceful people who just want to be left alone to make their own decisions about their own lives.

Got that?

Posted by John Venlet on 03/14 at 11:41 AM
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Michigan Loses More Face(book)

The State of Michigan is not only an economic wreck, but an exceptionally mentally challenged wreck, as the state decides to invest $1.15 million dollars in a web-based platform to assist students and their families in making college and career connections.  Isn’t that what Facebook does, you ask?  Well, yes that is what Facebook does, but socially, and the State of Michigan’s Michigan College Access Portal (MiCAP) is so much more than that, at least according to snake oil salesman extraordinaire ConnectEDU President and CEO Craig Powell.

“It’s a purpose network,”...We leverage concepts of social networking, but for a defined purpose of education and career transitioning. This could not be replicated in a Facebook environment. It’s tough to explain without seeing it.”

Yeah, “it’s tough to explain with seeing it,” sort of like ObamaCare (DeathCare) bill I guess, but hey, it’s “purpose driven,” so it has to be good.

States Bring Purpose-Driven Social Networking Tools to Schools

Linked via Samizdata via OhMyGov!

Posted by John Venlet on 03/14 at 09:15 AM
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Brits’ Quivering Upper Lips

Though the British are supposedly renowned for their stiff upper lips, their continued nannying has produced the quivering upper lips so valued by the State in their quest to create a nation of blubbering dependents.

Panicked residents of a southern England village barricaded themselves inside their homes and prepared for disaster after mistaking a training exercise for a nuclear accident.

England nuke drill mistaken for attack

Via The Stupid Shall Be Punished.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/14 at 08:42 AM
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Japanese Architectural Ingenuity

What does a contractor in real estate space challenged Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Japan do if they desire to put up a building where a highway stands in the way?  Why, they rent out a couple floors to the highway and build away.

Expressway runs through Gate Tower Building in Osaka, Japan

Via Weird Universe.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/14 at 08:35 AM
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ObamaCare (DeathCare), so You Can Be Comfortably Unemployed

Being unemployed can lead to financial hardships, which I can be sympathetic to.  But being unemployed also acts, or should act, as an incentive for individuals to get out there and find new employment to alleviate their financial hardship.

Nancy Pelosi, leader of the congressional socialist cheerleading squad, is also sympathetic to the unemployed, but in a dis-incentive way, as is illustrated by the following Pelosi quote uttered on the The Rachel Maddow Show.

“Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance.”

If that utterance from Pelosi’s mouth is not perfectly clear to you, Weekly Standard blogger Mary Katherine Ham provides a plain English translation of Pelosi’s quote in a post titled Pelosi’s Republic.

The House Speaker says health care reform will finally allow artists to focus on being unemployed, comfortably.

Nothing like encouraging individuals to be deadbeats and to live off of the productivity of actual working individuals.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/14 at 06:37 AM
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