that was great
I'm a big fan of monty python and I recognized the name but couldnt figure out who Palin was until they showed the monty python clip, had no idea he was a journalist now.
Ive always thought that NK has been unfairly demonized; they were victims of imperialism and the cold war, and sabre rattling aside they havent actually gotten into any wars beyond their own independence/civil war. The food shortages and poverty, I believe the western powers have a big hand in (much like in Cuba, Chile, Venezuela, and everywhere else capitalism was shunned). Not saying i'd model my ideal society on them, but i dont think they are as evil as they are made out to be..

This is the same difference as a broadsword trying to slice through a pillow and a sabre trying to cut through wood.

I'd like to see how Aksel would do on the racetrack.

Bob,

This is one place where you and I agree on something: Obama fucked up in Syria and fucked up bad. He should have never said that line about the "red line" on chemical attacks unless he was fully willing to back it with US forces and see it all the way through. All he did there was make the US look weak and embolden Assad.

Now we've got a world-class cluster-fuck over there.

Bismark supposedly foresaw WW1 with the statement about "some damned fool thing in the Balkans", well WW3 might start with "some damned fool thing in the Levant", especially given that you've got Iran, Russia, the Kurds and Turkey -- not to mention al Qaeda and ISIS -- all pursuing their interests in the region through Syria.

Right now, Israel and Russia are sabre rattling at each other over those S-300 missiles and each side is all but daring the other to try something.

The best case scenario is a total bloodbath in Idlib and the worst is a shooting war between nuclear-armed opponents. As the old saying goes, "This can only end well".

Darn animator drawing a sabre instead of a broadsword!

PS: Awesome story! Definitely needs a movie!

Even if they DID make their own desktop sized 3D Laser Printer... it's beside the point. Those machines aren't big enough to create enough carbon monoxide to kill people. The kind that I worked on a Gerber Sabre is fucking MASSIVE. So, it has huge ventilation systems built in for that reason.

Mutually assured destruction I think is often woefully overlooked as a stabilising force in the world.

I don't think it's at all a co-incidence that since nuclear proliferation we have only seen wars vs non nuclear nations. You can never really win meaningfully vs a nation that has the thermo-nuclear trump card in their back pocket.

When superpowers come to blows now, proxy wars are the only realistic option. That may still suck for the poor bastards that get caught up with it, but it does mean a world war is somewhat off the table (even if they like to rattle the sabres from time to time).

Also Starship troopers is an oft misunderstood book I think. Some people get so hung up on the underlying idea of a Military dictatorship that they miss much of the nuance and wisdom woven into it.
I'm not even sure Heinlein was even necessarily advocating such a world, but rather using it as a narrative device to explore how our societies really work once you drop the wishful pretences (especially the stable ones).

It seems like there is perhaps some intrinsic relationship between peace and the capacity for effective and controlled violence. There are few people as calm and non aggressive as the ones who truly know they have nothing to fear from you in a fight.

I enjoyed that a lot.

Some good fencing from the soldiers with the sabres too. The others, not so much.

Quite a few little stylistic hat-tips to Ridley Scott's first film, The Duellists.

As a (slightly retired) fencer I love this, but I'd say a couple of things about the description.

The 'whap on the back' needs to apply 500g of pressure for 15ms in order to count. The time rule came in a while back to discourage 'flicking' - that exact problem.

The idea of dropping someone 'before he strikes back' is central to the roots of foil (fleuret in the video) and sabre. Essentially, if your opponent is attacking you have to parry them as a priority. The foil was traditionally the practice weapon which prioritised blows to vital areas, and defence over attack. Unfortunately, this also makes them very hard to follow if you don't know what you're watching.

Great video though. Makes me want to pick up a weapon again. Feel free to imagine some tragedy that made me swear never to fence again.

1. I tend not to like lists like these, so I always ensure that at least some answers are completely made up. In protest I will not reformat this list to make it more readable.
2. I was quite good at fencing. I was Irish national sabre champion, but that's a lot less impressive than it sounds.
3. I won Miss Fencing Intervarsities 3 years running. I'm male.
4. I'm a Monty Python fan to an unhealthy degree. I co-wrote the first Python FAQ online, based on actual questions that were asked frequently.
6. I have called every living member of Monty Python 'Michael' except Michael Palin. I called him Terry. None of them called me on it.
7. I have what amounts to a secret crush on someone here on the sift. They always say what I'm thinking, but far more eloquently than I ever can. I grin when they upvote me.
8. I have a Scaramanga-style extra nipple.
9. I have a son. My girlfriend's waters broke while I was watching Alien. I'm more proud of the second part than the first... lots of other people have tiny pet humans.
10. I was once kicked in the head by Armand Assante (a b-list-ish actor).
11. I can sing the names of about 20 particularly nasty diseases.
12. I'm batman.
13. I've been online since the 80s, but at this stage the web is pretty much read-only for me. I'm more active here on the sift than anywhere else, and that's not saying much.
14. I was in Russia during the 'invasion of Georgia' in 2008. In fact, I was in the mountains bordering the two countries and saw the situation almost first-hand. Before then I had little confidence in the news we get here in the west; now I have almost none. Stuff broadcast as fact was (to me) easily proven false at the time, and the subsequent UN report backs up my side of the story.
15. I teach tai chi.
16. One of my happiest memories is not sleeping with a hot (and very cool) Norwegian woman.
17. I once ran a marathon backwards. It's not as easy as it sounds.
18. My grandmother owned race horses, including one who holds a significant record in Cheltenham. She's quite famous here in Ireland (to a certain generation at least).
19. Online (and sometimes off) I tend to use anagrams of my name. The idea is that it's hard to find Noims from my real name (until someone ruins that), but not too hard to go the other direction. My avatar is based on the same principle. There are at least 3 other Noimses online, but I was the first.
20. My favourite piece of software is the vi editor (specifically gvim). I have no idea what my favourite book, music, or non-python film are.
21. I'm a keen gamer, but most offline. I hate Steam. I've been playing Nethack since the 80s, and still play in the devnull competition yearly... it's the longest running online game tournament there is.
22. I think one of the worst facts in the world is that marketing works.
23. I was in a metal band called the Bubonic Duck-Fuckers from Hell (BDF).
24. I used to be big into RPGs (role playing - not rockets). I once got first prize in 3 games in a single weekend convention with 4 game slots.
25. I love the number 12, and know all the powers up to 12^12. Consequently I dislike the number 5. I strongly tend to favour multiples/powers of 12 over those of 5.

You don't think that Trump won't make an unfair system even worse? Do you know what kind of scam operations he runs? Read up on Trump University, and if you don't think a mind like his won't immediately start eroding the as of yet intact elements of our government, then I have a bridge in the bay area to sell you. Not to mention that Scalia is not my definition of 'bright' by any standard. Bloviating quasi intellectual douchenozzle, sure, but not exactly a contributor to constitutional scholarship.

Hillary will be a boring drag; an uninspired and predictable apparatchik, but not remotely as harmful as the narcissistic psychopathy that's absofuckinglutely going to get us into severe confrontations around the globe that a Trump administration would bring.

Think about it. Yesterday the Russians put out a sabre-rattling presser about a US destroyer in the Black Sea (its international waters). Under Obama or Clinton, I can be pretty confident that any ruffled feathers will be smoothed and that things won't escalate. With Trump, if he has a bad morning because the viagra didn't kick in on time, or Ivana talks back or whatever, god knows what his decisions would be.

Yes, because online videos of policing practices are representative of the whole. Excellent comparison, your degree in statistics serves you well. If the civilian standing in his doorway at 0:15 becomes the target for some reason, and this lunatic goes after him with his knife, then is it ok to shoot him? If this lunatic was in the middle of a mall or on a busy street and pulled this shit, I would hope that they would shoot him instead of trying to wrangle him to the ground with shields and batons... to serve and protect and all that. If he sliced up a civilian during this kinder gentler policing, the populace would be screaming for heads and at the police for more assertive action. Give them a taser, give them some non lethal rounds, give them a fine Calvary Sabre but control the situation immediately and remove the threat. The fact is the cops weren't in control at all.

They should invest in some new sabres, those ones seem a bit rattly.

FAKE!

Chipmunks use blue sabres.

Vasiliev in black seems to have some classical sabre training, which he uses well. A strong defensive guard and very quick and precise ripostes, especially in the first round.

I was really surprised to see the other guy win (5-8, if my meager Russian serves).

It's strange, but mostly sabre rattling at this point I think.

The Grauniad points out that Varoufakis predicted this move in 2012 - https://twitter.com/loukia_g/status/563251749080018944/photo/1

It also suggested that Schäuble's position isn't as strong as he thinks.

We'll just have to wait and see.