zenpundit.com

My CTLab colleague Michael Tanji is calling for participants to play a prediction market built at the old groupintel site.

Sounds good. I did this once before, a few years back with a closed Google Group but my attention wandered when the topics drifted away from my core research interests. I suspect this one will be more to my liking.

Was admitted to the beta test version of uber-cool Sliderocket.

About damn time. Unfortunately, it’s too late to start fiddling with some of my old powerpoints. Have to do that this weekend.

I was amused.

I have been tagged by the mighty General of the Hordes. So be it!

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Present an image of martial discord from whatever period or situation you’d like.

Here are the facts:

1. I own an authentic, WWII era Gunto sword as well as a Red Army cavalry sabre, an Indonesian katar, an Arab, possibly Yemeni dagger and a fair number of replicas of various edged weapons. The katar could easily be used to punch through a car door and the sabre, while too heavy for sword fighting, was cast to slash through unarmed crowds. The flat would be an effective bludgeon. Nice guys, those Soviets.

2.  I played golf on and off through my twenties, never playing particularly well despite lessons, dedication and endless buckets emptied at the driving range. Then, in my early-mid thirties I was on a trip to California and played 18 with a borrowed set of clubs that were too long for me on a fairly tough course. I shot an 82 that day and handily beat several much better golfers. I have not played a round of golf since.

3.  I save a great deal of time not caring a whit about professional sports. Most sportswriters and TV commentators come across to me as undersized, ill-informed louts who vastly underestimate how physically talented even the mediocre players are at that level. Or how hard most of them worked to get there. I keep hoping that one of the ex-athlete, color commentators will just go postal someday and strangle one of them on live television. I’d also settle for George Foreman punching out Larry Merchant.

4. I find that sipping excellent liquor, smoking a good cigar and having intelligent company is a high point of civilization.

5. I met my wife on Match.com.

6. My two educational regrets are not opting to study Russian in college and not taking at least a minor in physics. I did not take Russian because I needed a language program that could be done in a year ( I should have just gone straight through to the MA or PhD but that’s a different issue) and my interest in physics did not begin until later.

7.  I’ve wandered through the halls of the Capitol building and enjoyed a Diet Coke outside the office door of Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.).

I herby and irrevocably tag the following unfortunates:

Dan of tdaxp

HistoryGuy99

Jeremy Young

Michael Tanji

Dave Schuler

Tim Stevens

Selil

Because Senator Barack Obama once taught Constitutional law at Chicago and he’s read section 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution.