I was introduced to Ruby for the first time in a morning pre-compiler session at Codemash 2.0.1.0. The purpose of the session was to get introduced to Ruby syntax and have a solid base to grow from. The method used Ruby Koans from EdgeCase. You can get the files from Github. An explanation of koans is also available.
Basically, koans are a series of failing tests that you have to fix in order to move forward. As you fix each test in a file, you run the file in a terminal window to see the results. If you fixed the test correctly, it will move on to the next error. The point is not to move through the test as quickly as you can, but to stop and understand each test as you go. First, why is it broken, second, fix it, third, improve it (Red, Green, Refactor). Every time you solve a test, go back to make sure you understand what you actually fixed and why it works. The koans each build upon each other and upon your knowledge of Ruby as you gain it.
If you have ever been interested in learning Ruby, koans are definitely a great way to get acquainted with the language!
One of the best new shows from the Spring 2009 TV season was Deadliest Warrior on Spike.
Wikipedia has a fairly concise summary of the show:
Historical warriors are put against each other to see who can outlast the other. Each episode showcases two warriors in a hypothetical battle to the death. Each warrior is given weapons from the particular group they are associated with. Modern fighters and experts on said weapons present the strengths, and weaknesses of each arsenal, including real tests of the weapons. The data collected is then fed into a computer simulation based on an unreleased commercial game engine developed by Slitherine Strategies to determine the average winner of one thousand battles. After the winner is determined, a mock battle takes place to showcase how each weapon is used in a real battle situation, and to determine which combatant is the “deadliest warrior”.
The show is hosted by Geoff Desmoulin, a biomedical scientist and martial arts expert who collects the data created when testing the weapons, Max Geiger, a video game designer who runs the data through the simulation engine, and Dr. Armand Dorian, an ER doctor who serves as the show’s medical consultant.
There is no real formula to determine who fights against whom. The only rule is that the warriors cannot have met in actual combat. In Season 1, the matchups fell into 3 categories: one-on-one combat between warriors from specific cultures (ex. Spartan vs. Ninja), group-on-group combat (ex. Green Beret vs Spetsnaz), and one-on-one combat between specific historical figures (ex. William Wallace vs Shaka Zulu).
Deadliest Warrior is an exciting, action-packed, and extremely gruesome show. No announcements have been made for a second season, but my fingers are more than crossed!
In my hope for season 2, I decided to put together a list of warriors and warrior cultures that I would like to see if the show returns. I tried not to list any warrior cultures with similarities to those already featured on the show. In no particular order:
In warfare they utilized the bow and javelin. The arrowheads and javelin tips were made from bone. They also fought using iron swords and lassos in close combat. The Hun sword was a long, straight, double-edged sword of early Sassanian style. These swords were hung from a belt using the scabbard-slide method, which kept the weapon vertical. The Huns also employed a smaller short sword or large dagger which was hung horizontally across the belly
The Rajput ethos is martial, in spirit, and fiercely proud and independent, and emphasizes lineage and tradition. Rajput patriotism is legendary, an ideal they embodied with a sometimes fanatical zeal, often choosing death before dishonour. Rajput warriors were often known to fight until the last man.
The Rajput warrior clans venetrated the khanda as a weapon of great prestige…The khanda is a double-edged straight sword. The blade is usually broad and quite heavy, and broadens from the hilt to the tip…The hilt has a small metal spike coming out in the opposite direction which is typical of khanda. Many other straight swords around the world were primarily used for thrusting and stabbing with the tip, whereas the khanda was mainly used to hack or cleave with the edge of the blade.
The warrior carried a protective shield of light yet effective leather armor, which was impregnated with a lacquer-like substance in order to make it more impervious to penetration by arrows, swords and knives, and also to protect it against humid weather…Each warrior carried a battle axe, a curved sword known as scimitar; a lance, and two versions of their most famous weapon: The Mongol recurved bow.
The Assyrians took their warfare seriously; in fact they studied war techniques like a science. The Assyrian army was feared for many reasons one including the use of iron in their weapons. Their bowmen were also among the worlds finest. Other weapons used by the infantry wear the spear, the javelin, slings, and swords.
Amazons
I know they are probably mythological, but it would still be cool!
A nation of all-female warriors in Classical and Greek mythology. Hippocrates describes them as: “They have no right breasts…for while they are yet babies their mothers make red-hot a bronze instrument constructed for this very purpose and apply it to the right breast and cauterize it, so that its growth is arrested, and all its strength and bulk are diverted to the right shoulder and right arm.” Herodotus reported that the Sarmatians were descendants of Amazons and Scythians, and that their females observed their ancient maternal customs, “frequently hunting on horseback with their husbands; in war taking the field; and wearing the very same dress as the men”. Moreover, said Herodotus, “No girl shall wed till she has killed a man in battle.”
Now, Spike just needs to tell us they are bringing the show back! If you love Deadliest Warrior as much as I do, contact spike-feedback@spike.com
Remember that report by the Department of Homeland Security(.pdf) that was released in April warning that right-wing extremism is on the rise throughout the country? Remember the outrage from the right wing? Remember how they demanded the report be retracted and that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano apologize and step down? Remember how they claimed that there is no threat from right-wing extremists like abortion activists, immigration activists, and white supremacists? Remember that?
The piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives. And the intent is clear. As the two spokespeople I talked with on the phone today made clear: They both pinpointed the recent “economic downturn” and the “general state of the economy” for stoking “rightwing extremism.”
There’s the usual stuff about guns, illegal immigration, and disgruntled war veterans, plus the new wrinkle of our having elected an African-American President. The report concludes, unsurprisingly, that we have to worry more about “lone wolves and small terrorist cells” than anything else.”
The report compares the current climate to the 1990s, “when right-wing extremism experienced a resurgence fueled largely by an economic recession, criticism about the outsourcing of jobs, and the perceived threat to U.S. power and sovereignty by other foreign powers.” It specifically cites concerns about disgruntled war veterans, anti-government activists, anti-abortion activists, anti-Semites, and anti-immigration activists who work alone of in small groups.
The right-wing insists that there is no threat.
Saturday, April 4, 2009:
Richard Poplawski shoots and kills 3 police officers in Pittsburgh, PA during a 4 hour stand-off with SWAT officers. Poplawski was (via Salon.com)
A devotee of the white supremacist Web site Stormfront, Poplawski believed that the United States was controlled by a secret Jewish cabal that had a master plan to abrogate freedom of speech and use the U.S. military to police Americans… As his friend, Edward Perkovic, told the Associated Press, Poplawski feared “the Obama gun ban that’s on the way” and “didn’t like our rights being infringed upon.”
Sunday, May 30, 2009:
Scott Roeder shoots and kills Dr. George Tiller in his church in Wichita, KS. From McClatchy:
Those who know Roeder said he believed that killing abortion doctors was an act of justifiable homicide. “I know that he believed in justifiable homicide,” said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City anti-abortion activist who made headlines in 1995 when she was ordered by a federal judge to stop using a bullhorn within 500 feet of any abortion clinic. “I know he very strongly believed that abortion was murder and that you ought to defend the little ones, both born and unborn.”
Wednesday, June 10, 2009:
James von Brunn, an 88-year-old gunman shoots and kills a security guard inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum before being shot by other officers on duty. From Think Progress:
Brunn has been approvingly cited on Stormfront, a national white supremacist website. He is apparently the author of a tract called, “Kill the Best Gentiles,” which his website describes as “a new, hard-hitting exposé of the JEW CONSPIRACY to destroy the White gene-pool.” Brunn, a WWII veteran, also wrote a screed on President Obama’s citizenship that was re-posted to popular right-wing blog Free Republic.
Disgruntled war veterans? Check (x2) Anti-government activists? Check. Anti-abortion activists? Check. Anti-Semites? Check (x2). The only box unchecked is anti-immigration activist. How long until we get one of those? Maybe someone from The Minuteman Project will make their fantasies a reality and kill some immigrants crossing the border?
Discussing the shooting, Fox News’ Shepard Smith reminded the audience that when the Department of Homeland Security released a report warning of violent, right-wing extremists earlier this year, “the right went absolutely bonkers!” He called the report a “warning to us all,” and said DHS was “warning us for a reason.”
And yet manyotherright-wingers out there are doubling down on their position and are insisting that the DHS report is a disgrace and simply picking on conservatives and that Shep and the left-wing are fools for suggesting otherwise. (via Think Progress)
You right-wingers are all crazy! I hope you enjoy the political wilderness, because I don’t see you coming out for a while.
This story has been churning in my stomach for the last few days and really makes me sick. For anyone living in a cave (from the NY Times):
WICHITA, Kan. — George Tiller, one of only a few doctors in the nation who performed abortions late in pregnancy, was shot to death here Sunday in the foyer of his longtime church as he handed out the church bulletin. The authorities said they took a man into custody later in the day after pulling him over about 170 miles away on Interstate 35 near Kansas City. They said they expected to charge him with murder on Monday.
Not surprisingly, the suspect, Scott Roeder was heavily involved in the “pro-life” movement. He obviously isn’t your typical pro-lifer, among whom are many of my close friends, but rather a subscriber to the extreme positions of the “pro-life” movement.
Those who know Roeder said he believed that killing abortion doctors was an act of justifiable homicide.
I know that he believed in justifiable homicide,” said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City anti-abortion activist who made headlines in 1995 when she was ordered by a federal judge to stop using a bullhorn within 500 feet of any abortion clinic. “I know he very strongly believed that abortion was murder and that you ought to defend the little ones, both born and unborn.”
Dinwiddie said she met Roeder while picketing outside the Kansas City Planned Parenthood clinic in 1996. Roeder walked into the clinic and asked to see the doctor, Robert Crist, she said.
Robert Crist came out and he stared at him for approximately 45 seconds,” she said. “Then [Roeder] said, ‘I’ve seen you now.’ Then he turned his back and walked away, and they were scared to death. On the way out, he gave me a great big hug and he said, ‘I’ve seen you in the newspaper. I just love what you’re doing.’”
Roeder also was a subscriber to Prayer and Action News, a magazine that advocated the justifiable homicide position, said publisher Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Des Moines, Iowa.
I met him once, and he wrote to me a few times,” Leach said. “I remember that he was sympathetic to our cause, but I don’t remember any details.”
Leach said he met Roeder in Topeka when he went there to visit Shelley Shannon, who was in prison for the 1993 shooting of Tiller.
He told me about a lot of conspiracy stuff and showed me how to take the magnetic strip out of a five-dollar bill,” Leach said. “He said it was to keep the government from tracking your money.
In the last few days many anti-choice activists and groups have come out with statements condemning the killing, however, some of these statements seem only to try to distance themselves from the killing without actually condemning the act.
Randall Terry, founder of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, a group that Roeder had associations with and whose Senior Policy Advisor’s phone number was taped to his car dashboard (via C&L)
George Tiller was a mass-murderer. He had blood all over his hands. Now we grieve for him that he was shot in this deplorable manner and he did not have a chance to get things right with his maker perhaps. Every man deserves to have a trial of a jury of his peers and then a proper execution, not to have somebody become judge, jury and executioner on their own.
We must not fear, we must not flinch, we must not retreat a single inch. George Tiller was a mass murderer, and we must continue to say so in his death just as we did in his life.
Others just come out and say it with joy (from the website of anti-abortion group Army of God *very graphic link, so don’t scroll down*):
The lives of innocent babies scheduled to be murdered by George Tiller are spared by the action of American hero Scott Roeder. George Tiller the Babykiller reaped what he sowed and is now in eternal hell.
Admittedly, the second group isn’t one of the well anti-abortion groups, like National Right to Life and is as far from mainstream as it gets, but in this case, it is groups like these that lead to the idea of justifiable homicide. If you don’t like the extremist groups and think it is unfair to lump the pro-life movement in with this kind of hate speech, how about someone a little more prominent? How about a TV and Radio host whose shows reach an audience of millions?
Lets take a look at some of Bill O’Reilly’s comments during his 5 year war against Dr. Tiller. Since 2005, O’Reilly has ranted at least 29 times about Tiller on his Fox News show The O’Reilly Factor:
Records show he’ll do it for vague medical reasons, that is, he’ll kill the fetus, viable outside the womb if the mother wants it dead.
I don’t care what you think, we have incontrovertable evidence, incontrovertable evidence, alright, that this man is executing babies about to be born, in late term, because the woman is depressed.
Tiller himself, when he injected the fetus with the killing agent, then when he took the afterbirth, he never said anything to you at all?
Tiller the Baby Killer, as the Factor has been reporting, this man will terminate fetuses at any time for $5000.
I wanted George Tiller, Tiller the Baby Killer going YEAH! I can make more money killing babies now!
And here is the best video compilation of Bill-O’s hate speech from Daily Kos TV:
Now, I would never say that Bill O’Reilly or any of the other people mentioned in this post were complicit in this murder. Scott Roeder did this. He made a choice to murder someone whose views differed from his own. What I will absolutely say is that people like Bill O’Reilly should be held accountable for the words they use. It is clear that his words were meant to dehumanize Dr. Tiller, to make him into a monster rather than a man. For a person like Scott Roeder, these kinds of words work. There must be some accountability for public figures who use language to demonize a person to the point that people no longer view them as a human being.
Anyone who brands a man as “Baby Killer” is a part of the reason why someone would feel it was justifiable to kill that person. Bill O’Reilly obviously sees it differently (via AP):
O’Reilly said that he had never incited people to do anything, and that he wished he heard more compassion expressed by some of these critics for the aborted fetuses.
I’m coming at it from a factual point of view,” O’Reilly said. “The man aborted 60,000 fetuses, potential human beings, all right? Human beings to some, not human beings to others but to everyone 60,000 potential human beings were aborted by the man who made millions doing it. To me, that’s unconscionable. As an American, I have a right to say that.”
Rather than condemn the murder, O’Reilly joins the “It’s bad to kill someone, but he got what was coming to him” crowd. As if anyone would expect him to do differently.
