Apache Ring and Thing

            Busy day today, had to be up early and did not sleep well. I have several topics to investigate but neither the time nor energy to do them justice today. So I will post a photo and link on these interesting ring and hand weapons that were allegedly used by the French street thugs known as  “Apaches” (pronounced “ah – PAHASH”)

            The item on the right resembles the more modern Comtech Stinger.

            The Apache were known for a variety of nasty tricks and were a considerable hazard to public safety until the majority of them lost their lives during the first world war.

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Sin - save yourself first?

There is a wise maxim about not taking refuge in absolutes, and one of the reasons to follow this occurred to me today.

I seem to see a lot of people getting very worked up about things they regard as sin. Gay marriage seems to be the current fashion but there is no shortage of other issues it seems.

Next time someone appears on your TV telling you something they don’t approve of is sinful, stop and have a good look at that person. Two of the “Seven Deadly Sins” are Sloth and Gluttony. These are things that knowingly hurt other people either by action or omission, so qualify as genuine sins by most reasonable definitions. Does this moral crusader look like they eat way more than they actually need? Do they look like they could change this behaviour, but can’t be bothered? There is probably a big chunk of self-pride thrown in there too, which is another sin we are told. If they are so passionate against sin, why are they so tolerant of their own?

Why are you listening to protestations about another’s alleged sinning from someone who makes no efforts to deal with their own actual sinful behaviour? It is something to think about when you have a spare minute.

If gay is wrong should nuns be allowed to be fat?

 

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Handy Light

            I have been known to follow my own advice occasionally, so yesterday I went looking for a new external hard drive. I have a couple of 320GB examples, but since my laptop is 1000GB a bigger model seemed a sensible investment. It would also give me a chance to rearrange the files in both my main computer and back-up drives so it would be easier to find things.

While I was paying for my selection I noticed a rack of torches and this model caught my eye.

            It may not be apparent from the photo but this model has a subtle “coke-bottle waist” styling that was very attractive. I also promised to provide a secure grip. The base of the torch had a rubber press button switch, allowing it to be easily turned on and off without fiddling with a twist bevel, as is often the case with torches this size. I like easy one hand operation. It was time for the acid test. I closed my hand on it and it disappeared. Too short, even for the girlfriend’s hands! Just 20mm longer and it would have been a very nice item.

            I notice they have another budget aluminium torch. It looks a shade longer and costs less.  I may have to investigate that.

 

 

 

 

Swings and Uppercuts

            Just before I started this blog I spent a couple of weeks reading through around 340 books on martial arts and self-defence. While that number sounds improbable you have to understand that many of these books are very similar. I have become rather good at picking out the duplicated information and concentrating on the more unique.

            One technique that stays in mind was a sequence on “How to defend against the Hook punch”.  According to this book you use your hand to block the puncher’s upper arm. The main problem was this is that the photos were clearly not showing a hook punch. As I detail in my book, a hook punch has elements of a wheel. The upper arm is the spoke and the forearm and fist lie along the imaginary rim. It also tends to be used at very close range because of this. You would need very long and probably very thin arms to reach past that fist and push on the biceps to stop that punch.
            The punch that was actually being thrown was a swing, and a pretty wide one. The swing is one of those techniques real boxers are told never to use since it leaves you wide open. A caught a few seconds of the Women’s boxing in the Olympics and there were a couple of swings being traded. That is not a criticism of women boxing by the way, just a criticism of how far some combat sports have strayed from viable techniques.           Yesterday I came across this technique, which I am sure will give anyone remotely familiar with boxing a good chuckle. This guy is supposed to be attacking with an uppercut. A good upper cut tends to come straight upwards vertically and only travel about six inches of distance. The attacker will be virtually touching you before he sends an uppercut up like a rocket. Even if this attack is a shovel hook the interval between fighters would be much smaller and probably need alternate defensive strategies.

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