John Noble (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jackofallgeeks) wrote2007-03-14 09:50 pm
jackofallgeeks) wrote2007-03-14 09:50 pm
Augmented Solidiers: Cyborgs, MOM, Juicers
Be All More Than You Can Be
This is some interesting stuff on DARPA's projects to augment soldiers biologically and mechanically. Very interesting stuff.
The Glove: Vinh Cao, their squat, barrel-chested lab technician, used to do almost 100 pull-ups every time he worked out. Then one day he cooled himself off between sets with an early prototype. The next round of pull-ups — his 11th — was as strong as his first. Within six weeks, Cao was doing 180 pull-ups a session. Six weeks after that, he went from 180 to more than 600. Soon, Stanford’s football trainers asked to borrow a few Gloves...
I’ve started shivering again — all across my legs and chest, muscles pulse to a manic rhythm. And then I start having tremors. My thighs jackknife to my chest, unbidden. I moan, and darkness closes in from the edges of my vision.
Then, just like on the treadmill, Grahn takes my wrist. He slips each of my hands into a modified Glove prototype. This time, the metal hemispheres inside are hot to the touch — 113 degrees. After two minutes, I can think again. The tent comes back into focus. “You can stay this way indefinitely now. You’re at a thermal equilibrium; the heat going into these two hands is equivalent to what’s going out of the rest of you,” Grahn says. “Now you’re uncomfortable again — merely uncomfortable. That’s a huge difference when you’re talking about survival.” The water is still bitter, of course. But now I can take it.
This is some interesting stuff on DARPA's projects to augment soldiers biologically and mechanically. Very interesting stuff.
The Glove: Vinh Cao, their squat, barrel-chested lab technician, used to do almost 100 pull-ups every time he worked out. Then one day he cooled himself off between sets with an early prototype. The next round of pull-ups — his 11th — was as strong as his first. Within six weeks, Cao was doing 180 pull-ups a session. Six weeks after that, he went from 180 to more than 600. Soon, Stanford’s football trainers asked to borrow a few Gloves...
I’ve started shivering again — all across my legs and chest, muscles pulse to a manic rhythm. And then I start having tremors. My thighs jackknife to my chest, unbidden. I moan, and darkness closes in from the edges of my vision.
Then, just like on the treadmill, Grahn takes my wrist. He slips each of my hands into a modified Glove prototype. This time, the metal hemispheres inside are hot to the touch — 113 degrees. After two minutes, I can think again. The tent comes back into focus. “You can stay this way indefinitely now. You’re at a thermal equilibrium; the heat going into these two hands is equivalent to what’s going out of the rest of you,” Grahn says. “Now you’re uncomfortable again — merely uncomfortable. That’s a huge difference when you’re talking about survival.” The water is still bitter, of course. But now I can take it.
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WDF is a pet project of mine that has seen some playtesting and come off pretty well. It's a rather aggressively tweaked port of white wolf's revised Dark Ages rules over to the Warhammer fantasy setting. I love the grimness and squalor of that setting, and at least if you read the older Warhammer books they were looking for a horrific and foreboding feel that the minis game kinda squished in favor of selling minis to kiddies. I've got a functional but incomplete magic system at this point (I mostly just need to flesh out specific Arts. The mechanics, as adjusted to fit the setting's metaphysics, are in place). It's been quite a while since I've done much with it but if you'd like to take a look I'd love to share. Commentary and help with tweaking would be most welcome.
Yes, the nWoD is superior by far to the oWod in nearly every way other tan in support for large simultaneous playgroups like LARPs and online chats. The old worked better for that because it actually supported the idea of large groups of supers hanging out with each other and having an overarching worldwide organization ... a concept absent from nWoD. I consider that fact very beneficial for tabletop play, but deleterious for the aforementioned venues. now, I liked (and still like) the oWoD, but I'm glad it's gone since its younger brother is better.
Changeling the Dreaming was a game with tremendous potential and moments of greatness that was overall a failed effort. Its mechanics didn't support its intentions very well, and there was too much of exactly what you describe. Fortunately, the guys behind CtL agree with my assessment, at least based on what of their writings on the subject I've gone over. Matt McFarland in particular will hopefully have done a stellar job. After Dark Ages: Fae, I expect great things from him on this score.
The CoC books are great for ideas, not so good for rules IMHO.
human protagonists are awesome, and so are mages. Speaking of mages, you'd have liked my hermetic. There's a guy with major geek cred. Dude was a math/law mage.
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And yes, eventually all of the Traditions were given Revised tradition books, and yes I have Order of Hermes (and VAs, and Verbena, and Celestial Chorus, marking my 4 favorite Traditions; I prolly have all the revised Tradition books). But when I got it, there was an announcement that The World Was Ending, and most traditions we as-yet unrevised. I have a first- (or is it second- ?) edition Hermetic tradition book (which has, I think, a few source points they were wrong to neglect in the revision) because I was afraid it was the only thing I'd ever be able to get. I can be short-sighted at times. :p
I've only ever heard good things about McFarland; if he's working on CtL, I'm expecting good things.
-grins- I've been tweaking a Hermetic mage for years now. He's never seen play (*I* have never seen play, sad to say), but he's a mash-up physics/philosophy sort taking cues from quantum mechanics, Aristotle, and Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer, in particular, I've started reading in my own time just to get ideas for this guy, and with a whole text entitled "The World as Will and Representation" how can you go wrong?
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The basic concept for my mage was that he was a middle-aged man that made his living as a professor in advanced mathematics and as a professional parliamentarian. Two very different but somehow appropriate fields to connect, I thought at the time (and still do). He was a brilliant thinker, organizer and orator... and despite his crustiness and age he was a fervent Pymanderphile Ascension war idealogue, intent on bringing Ma'at to the world (of course, he was a Quaesitor). Franklin had one major problem, though: he Awoke in his fifties, and not long before the start of play. Accordingly, he didn't have a lot of actual magical power under his belt to get his tradition to actually listen to him while much younger and less worldly-wise men who just happened to have more magical juice and thus traditional authority led his local trad down the tubes. What's a middle-aged Initiate got to say that's worth listening to, after all?
That's the problem with revisions... you can't cover every base and still hit new territory. How'd you like the changeover from Thig to Houses Verditius and Xaos?
Hmm... I'll reopen some of my old WDF files, putter with them a bit more and then toss some stuff over your way for perusal.
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I liked the Verditius bit pretty well, but House Xaos personally annoyed me. The Thigs were never a group that I liked anyhow. Give me a staunch Quaesitor filled with righteous indignation in his heart and justice in his hands any day.
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Side note: do you pronounce it Tre-Mere or Tray-Mere-Ay? I've always taken the first, but given Ars that would make the Mercere Mare-Sare and not Mer-care-ay, and I don't like that.
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I believe that Tremere is pronounced Tre-Mere, which actually should have virtually no impact on how Mercere is pronounced; the house leaders in question have different cultural backgrounds.
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