Sunday, July 05, 2009
[fastest human being] non power-assisted
Fastest woman on earth, Sanna Tidstrand [Sweden], downhill skier, 242,590 km/hSailing
In line with what was said in the last post, water really does cut down on speed. The current speed record holder is Alexandre Caizergues [France], on a kiteboard, at 93.66 km/h. Hydrofoils have not bettered this.
Ice sailing
The highest confirmed speed is 135 km/h although a vastly higher speed was claimed at the turn of the century. This needs to be regulated and measured.
Land sailing
The world record is by Richard Jenkins [Great Britain], in a craft called Greenbird, at 203.09 km/h.
Skiing
The downhill record is held by Simone Origone [Italy], at 251.40 km/h. I just can't conceive of that speed and how the legs are kept together without suddenly shooting apart. The girl in the pic above was not that far away either and look at her slight bodyform.
Bicycle
I'm not sure this should be included. On a bicycle treadmill indoors, Bruce Bursford [Great Britain] peddled at enough revolutions to do the equivalent of 334.6 km/h.
Personal
The fastest I've gone on water, in the A Class cat, might possibly have been around 44 km/h, which sounds so slow but I can tell you that when you're controlling an 18 foot boat with a 30 foot mast, it's no picnic. On snow, an Austrian lady once said, as a put down, that I'd been doing about 50 km/h and that was difficult enough. I did do luge in Finland, in 1989 but have no stats. They said it was 1km and I know I did 53 seconds on the run before I broke my wrist. The world record in luge is 139.37 km/h .
250 km/h though? The mind just can't get round that speed.
[outrigger canoe] best all round performer
Water has this annoying habit, like millions of tiny fingers, of dragging on any underwater surface it comes in contact with. Therefore, the greater the area of the boat’s hull exposed to the water, the slower it will be.
The best hull design is long, thin and as close to a circle underneath as possible. The problem with the circle is that it is harsh, as the boat crashes down after each wave and so a compromise towards the soft and forgiving V shape, which has a larger wetted area, is necessary.
It’s interesting how the Pacific islands and the west have approached the problem from different angles. Thinking western, one solution to the problem you can see below in the International Canoe – the use of a hiking plank or a trapeze, to shift weight outwards from the boat.
This, as you can see, is highly unstable though exhilarating in short bursts. The essential problem is that the wind is not even – it comes in bursts or ‘gusts’ and often changes direction, sometimes constantly. The result is sudden tipping over or ‘heeling’ moment and sudden crashes backwards.
The Pacific islanders said: simple – just put a log, an ‘ama’, of neutral buoyancy [i.e. one which can equally be pushed under or lifts into the air] at some distance from the main hull [vaka].
This is the solution which Gary Dierking chose in his Waapa below and it is quite workable in a small boat.
Where it comes unstuck is in larger, more extreme craft, such as the Hawaiian canoe below and you still have that sudden lift or crash problem. In the Pacific, where labour is plentiful and cheap, the answer is to load more bodies onboard and they run back and forth into certain positions to keep the boat balanced.
Added weight is the problem – the bane of sailcraft.
Going the other direction, the log can no longer be a log – it needs to be another thin hull with buoyancy and that is added weight.
One western solution is to have two equal outriggers either side, as you see below. Thus the trimaran was born although it is not specifically western – the west just adopted it in a big way.
The downside of the trimaran is that the weight is doubled and therefore you need much more sail, which tends to go upwards, cutting into the stability and creating serious fore and aft [front and back] stability problems.
With a western rig on board, the strain on the hulls is enormous and things can snap quite quickly. Tris have a nice motion through the water but the western variety are quite highly strung and temperamental.
The west tended to go the other way, traditionally. Widening the one and only hull, they put lead down below in a keel and this balanced the sail.
No matter which way the west tried to refine the design – space-age plastic materials, clever hull section design, variations on the keel, these boats were still tubs, slow due to their wetted area and inability to carry much sail. The west reacted against this inferiority by pumping in more power, more stress and a greater need for tougher materials, such as titanium and kevlar, at a hideously out of control cost.
Monohull sailors cite their safety record – that they’ve been plying the oceans for centuries. Yes they have – and they’ve been sinking too, especially when the lead keel falls off.
The only good things about a monohull is that if they are suddenly hit by a gust, they go over but then come back up again [something the multihull doesn’t] and they are good-looking. They really are beautiful to look at.
The west then looked at the Pacific for a solution and found it in the catamaran. Pound for pound, foot for foot, the cat gives the best and most stable performance and almost all the speed records at sea are held by cats or sailboards although this doesn’t include the outriggers, which might be faster, by a process of logic.
The downside of the catamaran is that it is not stable past a certain point. To illustrate this, put a plank on the floor, against a wall. Try pushing sideways with your fingers and it won’t budge but then, suddenly, with enough pressure, the edge of the plank suddenly shoots up and over.
That’s the catamaran.
The solution? Back to the trimaran. No other craft absorbs punishment as well and if you look at it it, it’s easy to see why. In a sudden ‘knockdown’ by the wind, no matter in which direction it’s going, the lee [or downwind] hull simply buries itself in the sea and when the gust dies, it comes back up again.
The trimaran is a very forgiving design, which is why it is preferred by so many these days for sea voyaging and island hopping. Yet if the outrigger is designed well [see below], then it can be excellent.
The best compromise of all – low wetted area, light weight, long, thin hull, comfort through the water, stability, both sideways and fore and aft, low stress on the rigging and on the boat, low cost of materials and the ability to be amateur built and repaired at sea, has to be a variation of the outrigger. It’s no accident that the Pacific islands have used them for centuries.
Of course, any yacht is only as good as its rig [sails] but that’s another topic. Looking only at hull design, if you can give the ama enough buoyancy and yet enough weight as well [a critical calculation], then on one tack [direction of travel], it will act as a trimaran and on the other – will be stable enough so as not to flip, providing you don’t build a huge deck across the akas [crossbeams], which the wind would use as a scoop.
Pound for pound, foot for foot, this enables a longer, thinner hull and that augurs well for comfort and safety at sea, along with speed - surely what one is aiming for.
Why won’t the west adopt this? For a start, it’s asymmetrical and the west loves symmetry. It is less comfortable, accommodation wise – most westerners prefer the floating home concept and then there is the evolution of sailcraft in the west. People tend to go with what is readily available, the accepted technology and its apparent superiority [though not borne out by test tank results] and innate conservatism, even for the lesser product – remember VCRs?
I can tell you – if I go to sea, I want to be in the best available craft and to hell with convention. A stable outrigger is most certainly the best all round performer and the best all round for safety.
But even more than that is the sheer joy of the motion for such a low cost - anyone can enjoy this without having to be a millionaire.
.
The best hull design is long, thin and as close to a circle underneath as possible. The problem with the circle is that it is harsh, as the boat crashes down after each wave and so a compromise towards the soft and forgiving V shape, which has a larger wetted area, is necessary.
It’s interesting how the Pacific islands and the west have approached the problem from different angles. Thinking western, one solution to the problem you can see below in the International Canoe – the use of a hiking plank or a trapeze, to shift weight outwards from the boat.
This, as you can see, is highly unstable though exhilarating in short bursts. The essential problem is that the wind is not even – it comes in bursts or ‘gusts’ and often changes direction, sometimes constantly. The result is sudden tipping over or ‘heeling’ moment and sudden crashes backwards.
The Pacific islanders said: simple – just put a log, an ‘ama’, of neutral buoyancy [i.e. one which can equally be pushed under or lifts into the air] at some distance from the main hull [vaka].
This is the solution which Gary Dierking chose in his Waapa below and it is quite workable in a small boat.
Where it comes unstuck is in larger, more extreme craft, such as the Hawaiian canoe below and you still have that sudden lift or crash problem. In the Pacific, where labour is plentiful and cheap, the answer is to load more bodies onboard and they run back and forth into certain positions to keep the boat balanced.
Added weight is the problem – the bane of sailcraft.
Going the other direction, the log can no longer be a log – it needs to be another thin hull with buoyancy and that is added weight.
One western solution is to have two equal outriggers either side, as you see below. Thus the trimaran was born although it is not specifically western – the west just adopted it in a big way.
The downside of the trimaran is that the weight is doubled and therefore you need much more sail, which tends to go upwards, cutting into the stability and creating serious fore and aft [front and back] stability problems.
With a western rig on board, the strain on the hulls is enormous and things can snap quite quickly. Tris have a nice motion through the water but the western variety are quite highly strung and temperamental.
The west tended to go the other way, traditionally. Widening the one and only hull, they put lead down below in a keel and this balanced the sail.
No matter which way the west tried to refine the design – space-age plastic materials, clever hull section design, variations on the keel, these boats were still tubs, slow due to their wetted area and inability to carry much sail. The west reacted against this inferiority by pumping in more power, more stress and a greater need for tougher materials, such as titanium and kevlar, at a hideously out of control cost.
Monohull sailors cite their safety record – that they’ve been plying the oceans for centuries. Yes they have – and they’ve been sinking too, especially when the lead keel falls off.
The only good things about a monohull is that if they are suddenly hit by a gust, they go over but then come back up again [something the multihull doesn’t] and they are good-looking. They really are beautiful to look at.
The west then looked at the Pacific for a solution and found it in the catamaran. Pound for pound, foot for foot, the cat gives the best and most stable performance and almost all the speed records at sea are held by cats or sailboards although this doesn’t include the outriggers, which might be faster, by a process of logic.
The downside of the catamaran is that it is not stable past a certain point. To illustrate this, put a plank on the floor, against a wall. Try pushing sideways with your fingers and it won’t budge but then, suddenly, with enough pressure, the edge of the plank suddenly shoots up and over.
That’s the catamaran.
The solution? Back to the trimaran. No other craft absorbs punishment as well and if you look at it it, it’s easy to see why. In a sudden ‘knockdown’ by the wind, no matter in which direction it’s going, the lee [or downwind] hull simply buries itself in the sea and when the gust dies, it comes back up again.
The trimaran is a very forgiving design, which is why it is preferred by so many these days for sea voyaging and island hopping. Yet if the outrigger is designed well [see below], then it can be excellent.
The best compromise of all – low wetted area, light weight, long, thin hull, comfort through the water, stability, both sideways and fore and aft, low stress on the rigging and on the boat, low cost of materials and the ability to be amateur built and repaired at sea, has to be a variation of the outrigger. It’s no accident that the Pacific islands have used them for centuries.
Of course, any yacht is only as good as its rig [sails] but that’s another topic. Looking only at hull design, if you can give the ama enough buoyancy and yet enough weight as well [a critical calculation], then on one tack [direction of travel], it will act as a trimaran and on the other – will be stable enough so as not to flip, providing you don’t build a huge deck across the akas [crossbeams], which the wind would use as a scoop.
Pound for pound, foot for foot, this enables a longer, thinner hull and that augurs well for comfort and safety at sea, along with speed - surely what one is aiming for.
Why won’t the west adopt this? For a start, it’s asymmetrical and the west loves symmetry. It is less comfortable, accommodation wise – most westerners prefer the floating home concept and then there is the evolution of sailcraft in the west. People tend to go with what is readily available, the accepted technology and its apparent superiority [though not borne out by test tank results] and innate conservatism, even for the lesser product – remember VCRs?
I can tell you – if I go to sea, I want to be in the best available craft and to hell with convention. A stable outrigger is most certainly the best all round performer and the best all round for safety.
But even more than that is the sheer joy of the motion for such a low cost - anyone can enjoy this without having to be a millionaire.
.
[shriners] behind the red fez
Represents the blood of the massacred Christians - interesting symbol within a supposedly Christian countryQuite interesting to me was that both Earl Warren and Abraham Zapruder were both Shriners.
On the surface, this organization is a charitable boys club which generates money through fundraising and donates it to the upkeep of Shriners Hospitals across America. Understandably, there are countless testimonials from those whose children have been to those hospitals and have been benefited.
The Shriners are known for their conventions, wearing the familiar red fez and for the hi jinx at their gatherings. Bill Bryson covered one of their gatherings in his Lost Continent. They're also known for the street parades where they hire pretty young ladies and drive miniature sports cars.
All good clean fun.
Just who are they?
"The Mystic Shrine, an Illustrated Ritual of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine" Revised Edition 1975, Ezra A. Cook Publications, Inc. ("Serving the Craft Since 1867) Chicago defines it thus:
...Our alliance or the Rite of our Mystic Shrine is ancient, honorable, benevolent and secret. It is devoted to the cause of justice, truth and mercy. It is ancient as the corner-stone of Mohammed's Temple of Mecca; as secret as the Moslem that bound the tribes of Arabia to Allah or their god; as honorable as the Christian, and the tenets to which it is dedicated when once assumed cannot be eschewed or cast aloof. ...We require absolute secrecy and desire all our disciples to hold and interest in our noble cause and a just observance of the tenets of our faith. ...By the existence of Allah and the creed of Mohammed; by the legendary sanctity of our Tabernacle at Mecca we greet you, (p. 17-18)
The obligation is:
...and now upon this sacred book, by the sincerity of a Moslem's oath I here register this irrevocable vow, subscribing myself bound thereto as well as binding myself by the obligation of the prerequisite to this membership that of a Knight Templar or that of a thirty-second degree A. and A, Scottish Rite Mason. ... may Allah, the god of Arab Moslem and Mohammedan, the god of our fathers, support me to the entire fulfillment of the same, Amen, Amen, Amen. (p. 22)
The next stage of the ceremony is:
This is the place where our brethren stop to sprinkle the Devil's Pass with urine. You will contribute a few drops of urine to commemorate the time and place where all who pass here renounce the wiles and evils of the world to worship at the Shrine of Islam. Only a few drops will do. (p. 28)
For a start, the organization is not Christian, by definition. It is also not Muslim as Muslims have a distinctive set of practices, none of which embrace this relativistic Shriner ritual. Urinating and sexual licence is the province of a completely different arcane religion.
So who is this god they follow?
It's a god who has this penalty for any who dare tell what goes on:
The oath of the Shrine A.A.O.N.M.S. (Shriners) concludes as follows: "...in willful violation whereof I may incur the fearful penalty of having my eyeballs pierced to the center with a three-edged blade, my feet flayed and I will be forced to walk the hot sands upon the sterile shores of the Red Sea, until the flaming sun shall strike me with livid plague, and may Allah the God of Arab, Muslim and Mohammedan, the God of our fathers support me to the entire fulfillment of the same, Amen, Amen, Amen."
Virtually the same as the Masonic 3rd degree oath, with the added Islam.
How did the idea of setting up hospitals get going?
William J. Whalen, [Professor of Journalism, Purdue University, retired], Christianity and American Freemasonry, Ignatius Press 1958, 1987, 1998, explains:
"I hope that within two, or three, or four or five years from now we will be impelled from the wonderful work that has been done, to establish more of these hospitals, in easy reach of all parts of North America, and let it be known that while our friends, the enemy, is now about the only institution that is establishing hospitals and schools and things of that kind for the benefit of humanity, the Shrine is going to do them one better."
No one in Noble Adair's audience had any doubt as to the identity of "the enemy". To allay the fears of the Nobles, another speaker assured them that if the hospital committee did not "do it right and devoted themselves too much to Catholic children or Negro children we can fire them and get another committee."
The Orlando Sentinel, on June 29, 1986, explored the distribution of collected moneys to the hospitals:
They claim about 300 Million Dollars a year to hospitals and other institutions, which is good but not that much, considering that if every Mason contributes just 5 Dollars per week, they can collect 1.3 Billion Dollars per year... they are a good way to deceive the outsiders, like its secrecy, it is often a cloak to hide its real teachings and goals, and a good way to obtain propaganda... and even the so called "charity" is a way to get money for the Order: In 1985, "Circuses" of the Shriners generated 23 Million Dollars, and only 2% went to medical care of children. In 1984, out of 17 Million Dollars only 1% went to charity, the rest for the Order!
On 12/27/2004, Stacy Johnson, of KOB TV, Albuquerque, reported:
The American Institute of Philanthropy is one of several national charity watchdog organizations. It recently published its report card on 100 “failing” charities… charities that the AIP would not recommend you donate money to.
And you might be surprised at some of the results. Top failing charities in AIP’s estimation?
1. Research to Prevent Blindness
2. Shriners Hospitals for Children
3. Seeing Eye
4. Guide Dogs for the Blind
5. Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch
6. Diabetes Trust Fund
7. Give Kids the World
8. Southern Poverty Law Center
9. Omaha Home for Boys
10. YWCA of the USA-NO
The circuses they organize around America have garnered a litany of complaints for years and the USDA has cited Shrine Circus exhibitors for failure to provide veterinary care, adequate shelter from the elements, nutritious food, and clean water, as well as failure to handle animals in a manner that prevents trauma and harm and ensures public safety. Animals used by Shrine Circus have caused deaths and injuries.
Kevin Rollason,of the Winnipeg Free Press, wrote on Jan 28, 2001:
The Khartum Shriners are worried that sick children in Manitoba could suffer the fallout from a fund-raising scandal after an event for Shrine charities this week was revealed to have included sex acts and sexual fondling of nude performers.
And Canada Safeway, one of the charity's major supporters, will be asking the Shriners for an explanation. Gervin Greasley, public relations director for the Khartum Shrine in Winnipeg, said he's worried about what will happen to the organization's fund-raising.
"It will take a long time to live this down and regain the confidence of the community".
On Thursday night at the Garden City Canad Inn, two Free Press reporters witnessed two female performers climb upon a banquet table, fondle each other, kiss and be touched by as many as eight men at one time. Some of the men were seen to pour beer on the women and put beer bottles between their legs. Patrons performed oral sex on the women in view of more than 100 men. At several points, the women tried to stop the men from fondling them, complaining they were in pain and discomfort...
Elsewhere in the hotel, some patrons visited a guest room where a man at the door told them they could get sexual intercourse for 100 Dollars or oral sex for 75 Dollars. Organizers of the Shriners' Motor Patrol "V.I.P. Gentlemen's Dinner," attended by more than 400 men, told the Free Press on Friday that proceeds from the event would be used to cover motor patrol operations and support Shrine children's charities.
No better nor worse than other parties going about except that these men are meant to be the pillars of society, with wives and families. The idea of men of 'honour', pillars in the community behaving in most ungentlemanly ways still astounds so many people. I'm not astounded at all - just look at the Franklin coverup and how, if you don't accept the initial court exoneration but look at subsequent judgements and the further one investigates, the more evidence there seems to be for the goings on.
But that's another story. Back to the Shriners. Dan Slater reported in the NYT, September 8th, 2008:
The NYLJ reports that Ronald H. Tills, a retired New York Supreme Court justice, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Buffalo, N.Y., to violating the Mann Act by transporting a prostitute across state lines.
According to the NYLJ, the 73 year-old Tills admitted that he recruited prostitutes to service members of a fraternal club, the Royal Order of Jesters, at gatherings in Pennsylvania, Florida, Kentucky and Ontario, N.Y., in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
In his plea agreement, Tills also acknowledged arranging for women to attend a meeting of the Buffalo chapter of the Jesters in 2001 in Dunkirk, N.Y., to have sex with members of the club. He faces from 27 months to 33 months in prison during sentencing, which is scheduled for Jan. 12.
The anecdotal evidence for what the Shriners do is folklore and there's hardly and American who does not know of their excesses and yet actual evidence still comes as a bit of a shock.
A little more:
On September 1, 2006, both Shriners charitable and fraternal corporations filed a complaint alleging defamation against Shriner whistleblower Vernon Hill and Charity Watch Center, an online watchdog site, owned and operated by Paul Dolnier, a former IRS agent. On November 6, 2007, the Clerk of the Thirteenth Circuit court of Hillsborough County, Florida, filed a "Notice of Intent to Dismiss" the Shriners v James Vernon Hill and Charity Watch Center (CWC) lawsuit because of "lack of prosecution." (1)
This means that for the past ten months, the Shriners have not pursued the case. Noting this, the clerk of the court sent out the "Notice of Intent to Dismiss" to all parties, letting them know that a hearing was scheduled for January 18, 2008 at 9 a.m. before the honorable Judge Charlene E. Honeywell.
Why the red fez?
As Christians well know, in 980 AD, 50,000 Christians, including women and children, were murdered by the Muslims. As the streets ran red with blood, the Muslims dipped their hats in that blood as a testimony to Allah.
Shriners, on admittance to the order, are given a red fez, an Islamic sword and a crescent jewel. They obviously don't give a damn about Islam but the symbology of hatred for Christianity is too good an opportunity to pass up.
The Shriners. Would you let your daughter marry one?
.
[reason and enlightenment] the greatest joke perpetrated on man
Would you place your faith and the fate of your family in the hands of these murderous buffoons and their prostitute goddess or something a bit more eternal?The reign of terror is reason? Sigh.
"Goddess of Reason, The. The central figure in an attempt to supersede Christianity during the French Revolution. The first Feast of Reason was held on 20th Brumaire [November 11], 1793, when the 'goddess', Mlle Candeille of the Opera, was enthroned in Notre Dame Cathedral, which became the Temple of Reason.
She was dressed in white with a red Phrygian cap (liberty cap) and the pike of Jupiter-Peuple in her hand. Mme Momoro, wife of a member of the Convention, was later installed at St Sulpice. Goddesses of Liberty and Reason were soon set up throughout France, one allegedly wearing a fillet bearing the words 'Turn me not into License!'
Saturnalia of an uninhibited kind accompanied these installations." [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, 15th Ed. Revised by Adrian Room, HarperCollins, 1995]
Also see here and here.
For 3½ years, beginning November 24, 1793 to April 1797, religion was banned and a substitute put in place. They even changed the calendar.
Beginning with that period (November 24, 1793 or 3rd Frimaire in Year II), the churches of Paris were closed and the public reading of the Bible forbidden. Immediately, almost all parts of the town renounced religion, closed parish churches and reopened them as temples of reason.
In these temples, a prostitute, Désirée Candéille, was installed as the Goddess of Reason after she paraded naked through the streets of Paris. The goddess, after being embraced by the president, was mounted on a magnificent car, and conducted, amid an immense crowd, to the cathedral Notre Dame, to take the place of Deity.
There she was elevated on a high altar, and received the adoration of all present.
The forces of chaos are never chaotic - they have their agents in the field and in the revolution, these were the Illuminati Masons. The three greatest obstacles to chaos are the presence of G-d, through socially constraining scripture, the family unit and loyalty to a nation.
Once these can be broken down and it takes generations to achieve this - just look at our current four decades of history - once you have your people in place in the law, in medicine, in education and in all arms of the government, you're ready to move, through subterfuge and misdirection.
Once you've got the chaos moving along nicely, then you can drop in mischievous little hints - a Noyade here, a massacre there, the reign of terror facilitating all. People are easily cowed and when they sign away all freedoms in their rage against an organized grain shortage and happily go along with the sweeping away of that which they no longer value, e.g. the Christian message, only then can the wolves reveal themselves and run amok among the sheep.
The solution is oh so simple - retain your faith in G-d and keep the precepts in the back of your mind, no matter how much against the grain it goes with you, as there lies the knowledge of right and wrong on a sustainable basis, especially for your children, try to stay with your partner and family and be loyal to your nation. As long as sufficient people can hang on to these, the forces of chaos are not going to prevail.
This is what reason dictates. This is what enlightenment really is. The opposite - your Kants, Hegels, Voltaires and Nietzsches, those who argue the perfectability of Man, the fools - that is the road to darkness and chaos and that's where we're now headed, inch by inch.
These are times we're now living in when primal concepts will once again come to the fore.
.
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