What Are You Currently Reading? 2013

[ganulv]

Interesting, that might be worth a read. Still can't figure out what the author has against our alpine style.

I get the impression that he enjoys the emphasis being put on being out in the wilderness rather than on fancy technique. I didn't get the impression from the book that he had anything against Alpine per se; he is honest about the fact that apart from Telemark that no Nordic style ski or technique is really up to a big run in the Alps.

Downhill is great fun indeed and 'Alpine touring' as it seems to be called in English, is a fantastic sport

In the U.S. there are two kinds of touring. Alpine touring emphasizes descent and usually means free heel skis and stepping up to climb (with skins, if need be) with randonee bindings offering the option to clamp down the heels on the way down. Light or Nordic touring allows for kicking and gliding as well as moderate turns during descents (the skis have a little width and metal edges).

which sadly costs quite a bit of lifes every winter.

Avy beacons, probes, and shovels are de rigueur in the western part of the United States, even for a lot of lift-served pistes.

Technology has come a long way indeed.

I spotted a pair of Kandahar bindings (aka bear traps, aka ankle-breakers) while I was rummaging around yesterday. Yikes!

[Firn]

1. A question for the moderator first: Can we include MOOCs* in our 'reading' list?

I recently came after some quick personal research to the youtube channel of Standford and became interested first in a specific class and then in the broader concept.

2. General Overview and the Development of Numbers is the specific lecture and it is great from a mathematic but also an broader economic point of view. Great stuff and absolutely logical. Love the Babylonian bank deposits.

It is always a bit funny to hear an Englishman saying Franci, Pisano and so forth. It is of course the same the other way around.

P.S: Ganulv, I missed your reply and enjoyed it now. You will love to see how Didier Cuche skies goodbuy

*Interesting that MMOs, the games that is came first

[davidbfpo]

Firn you asked:

1. A question for the moderator first: Can we include MOOCs* in our 'reading' list?

I see no problems with that; we sometimes link elsewhere to podcasts and the like.

[ganulv]

This was on display at the new book table at my local library and I gave it a read. I enjoyed it well enough, but I was most interested in discussion of the author’s time spent as commander of training at Ft. Bragg and there actually is not a lot of that in the book.

P.S: Ganulv, I missed your reply and enjoyed it now. You will love to see how Didier Cuche skies goodbuy

That is an awesome video, thanks for sharing! I actually own and regularly use both a pair of boiled wool mitts and a set of waxed wool gaiters!

[Firn]

Thanks for the quick answer of the moderator.

Part 3 discusses the 'arab' contributions to mathematics, for example algebra. It is amazing and logical to see the geometric roots of many approaches. Love the influence of business on the devlopment of that noble and 'pure' science.

I loved that show by soft-spoken Didier and it really shows how things have changed in the last couple of years. The Austrians also put up a good farewell for the Swiss rival.* It also reminds me to actually spell-check my posts because it was certainly a nice goodbye and has nothing to do with a good buy. Too much finance ruins your brain, but if you watch the online class it shows that it certainly helped a great deal to develop math. Incentives and utility.

*The Swiss and the Austrians are big rivals, even if it has soften up in the last years. I actually had some nice chats with Italian, Swiss and German coaches at the junior level and all of them say that the Austrians have more funding. The Swiss juniors are training often in Italy because is cheaper and the parents face a much steeper bill for giving their kids the chance to compete at high levels. It is not a healthy sport on the higher levels, and the cousin of one of my classmates, a multiple worldcup winner had to recently give up after another brutal training injury.

The great Ghedina has fun and impresses also the Austrians. He is from the small 'ladin' minority in Italy.

P.S: Love the gaitors. For hunting modern ones tend to be a bit loud. Many use Loden gaitors for short hunts. Good for powder and colder temps but terrible in wet snow on warm days.

[Firn]

The Complete Guide to Tracking: Concealment, Night Movement, and All Forms of Pursuit Following Tracks, Trails and Signs

I actually have owned that book for quite a while now, but with the start of the hunting season I like to refresh mentally some of the basics. It helps a great deal to make use of your rifle and sometimes also after the shot your own or that of others.

Cheap and possibly even cheaper looking - not even basic pictures made it into the book - it is arguably the best manual I know and has helped me a great deal. A very well organized and structed book, it blends tracking with other fieldcraft important for a hunter and offers you an efficient path for learning and improving said skills.

The track pursuit drill with it's 7 steps is a no-nonsense approach to follow a track and to stalk. It helped me to slow down, hone my stalking and to increase my overall awerness. If you know the area well you can stalk well and pick up tracks to get a sense of the game patters. We have a vastly different situation from Austria and Germany as well from a good deal of Italy, with the red deer being very hard to hunt.

It goes very well with Practical Tracking and Mammal Tracks & Signs. Fantastic books. The informations on lynx, bears and wolves are becoming highly relevant for my region.

German-speaking, European readers interested in local fauna should like Tierspuren erkennen & bestimmen or Tierspuren&co.

[davidbfpo]

Thanks to a "lurker" I have finally read 'The Defence of Duffer's Drift' by E.D. Swinton; well a retired police officer takes his time to read classic texts for the military.

Well worth a read, although I suspect many here already have. On a search I found it featured on nearly twenty threads, with Tom Odom especially citing it's value.

There are numerous places to get a copy, here is one I found:http://regimentalrogue.tripod.com/du...fers_Drift.htm

Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Def...ffer%27s_Drift

[Tukhachevskii]

...I too like to read multiple texts (are you Dyslexic Dave?)

Anyway I'm the process of reading or have read the following...

Brian ldiss, The Dark Light Years

K. S. Friedman, Myths of the Free Market

Frederick Forsythe, The Dogs of War. Much, much better than the film.

L. I. Held, The Quirks of Human Anatomy (A real gem)


G. Till, Seapower
&

D. J. Lonsdale, Alexander the Great: Lessons in Grand Strategy

[Firn]

Thanks to a "lurker" I have finally read 'The Defence of Duffer's Drift' by E.D. Swinton; well a retired police officer takes his time to read classic texts for the military.

Well worth a read, although I suspect many here already have. On a search I found it featured on nearly twenty threads, with Tom Odom especially citing it's value.

There are numerous places to get a copy, here is one I found:http://regimentalrogue.tripod.com/du...fers_Drift.htm

Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Def...ffer%27s_Drift

I finished that book quite recently. I really like the way it presents a problem and helps the reader to interact and to learn step by step. Needless to say that the specific pedagogic approach can be valuable in other areas as well.

From a military point of view firepower certainly made it's weight felt already there and even earlier with all the logical ramifications.