Learning to shoot recurve bow

After getting that lovely old bow a while back, I've been aching to get some actual practice in.  Archery clubs don't let you just turn up and play until you've got some sort of competence credit; you get one by doing a newbie course, and mine started last night.  The newbies were a diverse mix: couple of folks my age, some oldsters, plenty of kids (the youngest was just ten, and he was a decent shot).  Good mix of men and women too.  

We started out (as you might expect) with lessons in bow anatomy and safety and etiquette and safety and local rules and safety.  Good stuff.  Then we got fitted out with bows - I have a 28# lefty for the duration of the course - and got to shoot half a dozen sets (ends? rounds?) with one-on-one coaching, shooting at 10-metre indoor targets.

Okay, so the first arrow missed the huge 5' butt and went into the netting, but by the end of the session the old LRP skills were oozing back and I'm happy to report something resembling actual groupings.  Quite pleased with that.  :)

The newbie course runs for ten weeks and by the end we should be putting shots into 20-metre targets happily.  Day one was good.  

Good old-fashioned propaganda

You'd think that the Powers that Be would be more subtle in their attempts to win the minds of the young, but no: take a look at Northrop Grumman's propaganda puff-piece on how techno-war is great.  Wham!  Blam!  Aiee!

Maybe they just know that Iraq will run for a generation.  Not that the rest of us don't, but hey.  Yeesh. 

Baby unicorns and human nature: the kinky shall inherit the Earth

Look!  Cute baby unicorns in Second Life!  They completely fulfill the assessment of human nature which is best codified as "on an anonymous chalkboard, 90% of people will draw a penis".  Why?  Because you can only get a baby unicorn by loving a daddy unicorn very very much.  Proof that when absolute anonymity and safety is assured, very many people are astonishingly weird perverts and that perversion is, in fact, the norm.

Innate morals?  Bah.  What can we get away with?  That's more like it.  And if I can get away with being a rainbow unicorn with a spiral penis for a horn, hell, that's what I'll get away with!

If you are not grinning at the thought of your own vile depravity right now, you'd better pray the Singularity never comes.