Pix from Afghanistan

Believe it or not, the thing that saved him in the concentration camp was he could play a tuba so the Nazis stuck him in a band and he ended up playing a lot of Wagner each night.
 
this is how bad my education is..and I'm self educated..but wasn't there a sympany composed by Jewish musicians/prisoners for the Nazi's and actually performed on makeshift instruments?

The composition was about, what else, concentration camps and death.

munk
 
There's a movie about it -- Meryl Streep stars but I can't remember the name of the movie. Somebody will be along who does.
 
I just had to confirm Rob's story on the Hawaiian centipede thing. I was dead asleep one night on the Big Island out at some folks house in the Puna Distict and all of a suden my left temple starts burning and hurting. Cotton pickin centipede had bitten me right on the side of the head. Thought I was going to die. The bite remained tender for months afterwards. A hateful insect to be sure
 
And you have to wonder as a survival strategy; what's the point? I'd step on every centipede I could find after an episode like that. The dominant species on the planet hates your guts? How smart is that? Same for Rattlesnakes..and I kinda like them, in a way, but the rattlesnake that scientists admire for being the most evolutionarily advanced snake, people hate. And that rattle to ward off plains buffalo just aint much good against a semi tractor in the road...seems to me they went down a evolutionary dead end. Wrong road.


munk
 
munk--

Evolution is slow--except for things like bacteria and viruses that have several generations a day.

I'm glad that I will be long gone before rats, coyotes and other such critters have had a chance to fully adapt to us newcomer humans--at least considering the changes we've made so far. Those animals have been around a lot longer than us... the story ain't over yet unless we humans blow it all up. In the long run, should we be applying pressure on such species to become total badasses to maintain their survival? We are already running into problems with evolved bacteria and overuse of antibiotics. Imagine similarly evolved coyotes--the buggers are smart enough already.
 
Yes, the coyotes are doing fine. Evolution is not as slow as you think, science now coming up with a theory of dynamic change to account for missing documentation in our own evolution.

God has lots of dynamic change.

In the words of Charles Bukowski, "The cockroach is going to win, we're just going to make him wait a little while."

munk
 
I just had to confirm Rob's story on the Hawaiian centipede thing. I was dead asleep one night on the Big Island out at some folks house in the Puna Distict and all of a suden my left temple starts burning and hurting. Cotton pickin centipede had bitten me right on the side of the head. Thought I was going to die. The bite remained tender for months afterwards. A hateful insect to be sure
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ON THE HEAD!?!:eek: Man, that must've been horrible!!:eek:

That's got to be the SECOND worst place to be bitten;):D

I met a guy who had been bitten you know where by one. I didn't know him that well (dad on a field trip with his daughter where I taught)and there were kids around, but he got really pale when he told me the story! Said he and his wife worried that he might not be able to have more kids until they had another and were proved wrong.
 
Yeah, but how many legs did the kid have?
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:D:D

Guy I worked with told me a funny centipede story. He was doing some demolition work (knocking down walls in an old house) and suddenly he felt something tickling the heck out of his leg down by the calf. he froze, having had centipedes on him before (he and his friends used to catch them and "defang" them, let them crawl on themselves to scare the girls--another story...) he knew what was in his pants. Well by the time he was forced into action by the centipede making its way UP his leg, it was about 6 inches from the family jewels:eek: So he did the only thing he could think of---grabbed ahold of it through his pants with one hand while trying to hop around and pull down his pants. Well turns out he couldn't do it. He had to yell to his boss (only guy around) to help him. The funny part is that my friend was so freaked out all he could say was "take my F***ing pants off NOW". The boss looked at him holding his upper upper thigh and yelling that and gave him a pretty strange look! Finally he screamed that there was a centipede in his pants and the boss yanked off his pants:D Didn't even get bitten, but he told me it was a long time before he didn't tuck his cuffs in on the job even though he got teased for it:)
 
Firkin, evolution is not faster because of only a high reproduction rate and a short generation time in bacteria and viruses. It is faster mainly because of a higher mutation frequency in bacterial and viral DNA than in mammalian DNA. Humans have the lowest mutation frequency measured among any species. A higher mutation frequency coupled with a higher number of individuals in a population (=high number of genetic experiments) produces a faster evolution in virus and bacteria. It is correct as you said that a shorter generation rate is part of the reason for faster evolution since this multiplies these mutations very fast and in a much greater number and variation than any mammal can ever do. But bacteria are also able to exchange genetic material without reproducing, so they have many ways of maintaining a high evolutionary rate.

Munk, just a supplement to your introduction of this thread into what you refer to as theory of dynamic change. It is called Punctuated Equilibrium and is from 1972. The names behind it are Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould.

I'll throw in a scorpion history. I was in Chile and was sleeping under the open sky in the desert. I was familiar with some of the scorpions there and I knew the sound and rythm of their feet walking. So while I was lying on the ground sleeping with a light and wind proof textile thing over me folded in several layers, I suddenly heard the unmistakeble sound of scorpion feet from between the thin layers of cloth I was sleeping in. It sounded as if he was stuck in between the layers close to my feet, walking hard and spinning with his feet. Well, I knew those scorpions are attracted to heat so I figured he had only gotten lost on his search for a warm mammal. I told my female travel mate not to worry, since she was sharing my bed cloth, and so we went back to sleep again. And the next morning the scorpion was gone. Some people tell me I lack fear, but I don't know, I had no problems sleeping with a scorpion at least.

Back to Afghanistan matters.
At this link you will find a pic from Afghanistan:
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=2040948

It shows special forces (Norwegian) not in combat but in the field at least. I don't know if it is taken during a real time mission or just during practice. Anyway, it gives an idea of what it looks like over there for The Western soldiers. The soldier at the pic is using equipment for laser guidance of bombs (Laser Target Designation).

Since people here at this forum feed on knife information about various ethnic knives I will give you this:
Unfortunatly the Norwegian soldiers don't use khukuris... But they use the Saami Knife. A knife that is native to the Mongolian population called Saami in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Kola of Russia. The Norwegian military held a European competition between knife producers to find the best suitable knife for arctic and subarctic warfare, and the choice was naturally a knife that has been used by arctic/subarctic reindeer herdsmen and nomads for generations.

Saami knife here:
http://www.knivsmed-stromeng.no/docs/kniver_9_14.htm
 
"Rustfritt stål i blad. "

nice looking blades! Does the above mean that they are stainless steel? I would guess not, but it looks to be a cognate of "rust free" perhaps a false one?
 
Originally posted by MauiRob
"Rustfritt stål i blad. "

nice looking blades! Does the above mean that they are stainless steel? I would guess not, but it looks to be a cognate of "rust free" perhaps a false one?
Click to expand...

Yes your translation is correct.
rust = rust
fritt = free
stål = steel
Hence "rustfree steel" is the direct translation. Norwegian and English have many similair basic words that share a common Germanic origin.

The producer of the Saami Knife has blades of other qualities too if you are scared by stainless steel (tourist quality). They also have knives with a more old fashion type of steel which rusts easily on the surface but the steel is of a more durable quality. The military version is of this better quality.

One more thing about the steel is that they use a steel that is so hard that normally it would break under stress. To compensate for this they laminate the steel so it does not break, and so you get a steel that is harder than normally found in knives. I have even thrown my own 35 cm Saami with full force against mountain. It hit with the tip and all I could find was a microscopic damage on the thinnest part at the tip of the blade. It was so small that I could not see it but had to feel the edge with my finger nail before I could discover it. Swedish high tech quality steel.
 
Swedish high tech quality steel
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I do love Norwegian knives, currently own about three each from Helle and Brusletto. But, I've got to admit that pound for pound and dollar for dollar, the red wooden handled knives from Frost's or Eriksson in Mora, Sweden, are my all time favorite "work knife". Dirt cheap, light as a feather, and hold a good sharp edge a good long time. Of course, with my ever present Kagas Katne, I'd almost forgotten I own other knives;)

Sarge
 
..Thanks! I really get the feel of Norwegian being quite similar to english, especially about 1000a.d. Looks like my Olde English language training ome in handy after all! Icelandic is like an Old Norse variant, as well

I have some of those Mora Sweden blades too! Nice laminated steel, simple and hardy fittings, flat ground for ease of sharpeining and raw cutting power. Good stuff. Also excellently priced.

Keith
En Ferro Veritas.
 
Norwegians hate it when the Cute Brother Swede does something better than us, and they the same with us Cute Norwegians. But I hear many people say the Mora is great, so I will give Cute Brother the victory on that one. ;)

Scandinavian blade style is the best for working with wood, both because of shape of the blade and steel quality.

Khukuris are the best for chopping, even better than axes. They are also good for cutting off people's heads.

But for subarctic and arctic conditions wearing anything but a Saami is pure suicide.
 
But for subarctic and arctic conditions wearing anything but a Saami is pure suicide.>>> Eikerang

Does anyone know what the Himilayan people living high in the mountains carry?

munk
 
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