Greek Combat Sport and the Borders of Athletics, Violence, and Civilization

The Greek combat sports, boxing, wrestling, and pankration include elements of extreme violence. Wrestling and boxing bouts in Greek mythology not infrequently end in death. Contrary to the widely held view that the Greeks kept their boxing free of the dangerous spiked gloves that characterized Roman boxing, the Greek festivals at times did admit this murderous equipment. Why did the archaic culture of single combat described so vividly in Homer’s Iliad not find expression in the type of duelling seen throughout European history? The answer appears to lie in the Greek ability to engage and resolve through competitive athletics issues of honour and status that otherwise easily slide into far more destructive manifestations. This appears to be the reason there is a vibrant legacy of Greek combat sport, while the Hellenic world remained an antitype, not a precedent, for the carnage of sword and pistol duels in latter day Europe.

EMOTIVE FUTUROLOGY: WILL ROBOTS BE ABLE TO FEEL AS HUMANS DO?

The path is traced from folklore, mythological and fantastic dreams of the human being to modern scientific technologies – helpers to humans in all spheres of their activity. Particular attention is paid to cybernetic achievement and a variety of social networks. Numerous functions of already existing robots and their different types are listed. A brief excursion is traced in an attempt to create artificial intelligence. Certain difficulties in solving the problem of emotive lacunarity are emphasized. The article analyzes artistic images of artificial intelligence in the variety of their types and subypes, including human-like ones. The problem of emotionalization of artificial intelligence is raised, and ways of their theoretical and applied solution are proposed. Robot – programmers are supposed to master the latest achievements in emotiology and emotive linguoecology in order to reproduce adequate roboto sentiens. The possibility of a cyber rebellion in a single combat between a robot and a human is touched upon as a warning to scientists about the repeated tragic outcomes of nanotechnology.

Features of control of competitive activity of strikers in football aged 14-15 years

Comparative analysis of competitive performance indicators between the strikers of the children's and youth sports schools Arsenal and children's and YSS № 7 in Kharkov showed that the quantitative and qualitative aspects in the execution of the TTA had significant differences with respect to the players in the TTA, namely: receiving the ball - an increase of 6,48 TTА on average per game (t=2,89; p <0,05), passing back and across the field - more by 3,09 TTА (t = 2,89 ; p <0,05), ball keeping - an increase of 3,07 TTА (t = 2,50; p<0,05), martial arts at the top – 2,19 TTА, respectively (t = 2,20; p>0,05), single combat below – 1,69 TTА (t= 2,38; p<0,05), kicks in the goal - the result was more by 1,7 TTА (t=2,46; p> 0,05). For example, the young strikers of the СYSC Arsenal of Kharkiv, in comparison with the YSS № 7, Kharkiv, are performing qualitatively and tactically actions: namely, in receiving the ball, the result is better by 14.49% (t = 2,18; p > 0,05), short passes back and across the ball - by 12,64% (t = 2,23; p <0,05), ball keeping - by 17% (t = 2, 14; p <0, 05), single combat below - at 23,57% (t = 2,16; p <0,05), leg kicks – 19,3% (t = 2,24; p> 0,05).

ON DETERMINATION OF ASSAULT AVIATION AIRCRAFT EFFECTIVENESS

When analyzing typical assault aviation combat missions, the most common objects for each aircraft actions should be identified, a preliminary estimate of their distance from the front line has to be provided, and one of the objects should be selected as the typical target for evaluating the aircraft effectiveness. A destruction of a typical target by an aircraft with a certain probability is one of the main components of the assault aviation aircraft effectiveness, but it does not fully characterize the effectiveness of the aircraft. In the course of assault aircraft combat mission accomplishment, the generally accepted approach is identification the four aircraft flight phases with a purpose of destruction a surface target. As a combat mission for assault aircraft the striking for destruction an enemy airfield or division of guided missiles can be considered. The choice of flight route and profile is related to the assessment of the enemy's actual areas of engagement to determine the line of maneuvering. The feature of devastating effect of attack ammunition is the conditional law of target destruction. For the means of destruction of a remote action the feature of devastating effect of attack ammunition is a cumulative effect of each munitions at known coordinates of impact points. For the means of destruction which are used in cluster bombs, as a result of small caliber live ammunition scattering the total area of destruction is created. The cover area for single cluster bomb is ellipse shaped. Thus, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the assault aviation aircraft employment it is advisable to use an indicator such as the effectiveness of the aircraft in one combat sortie. Evaluation of aircraft effectiveness in one sortie consists of estimates of the probability for penetration the means of air defense, the probability of target detection, the probability of target attack, the probability of target destruction and reliability of aviation equipment. For assault aviation, the effectiveness of an aircraft in a single combat sortie has the notion of a total probability of a target destruction or a mathematical expectation of a target destruction.

HISTORICAL LEGENDS OF WAR WITH ABLAI-TAISHI IN THE MAZAN-BATYR FOLKLORE CYCLE

The article deals in the historical legends about Mazan-batyr, a popular hero of the Kalmyk folklore, in which he thwarts hostile khan – the rival of the Kalmyk ruler. Although less popular than other types of narratives about that hero, the corresponding texts have been still regularly recorded from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. It appears that by now enough material has been accumulated for an analytical study of such a layer in oral tradition. The main plot of those legends seems to be loosely based on the events of 1671–1672, during when the Khoshut taishi Ablai (Ovla tәәsh) invaded the Kalmyk nomad territories, but was defeated by Ayuka Khan. While there is no evidence that the historical Mazan participated in those events, the folklore accounts often make him one of the central figures in the conflict, usually as the leader of Kalmyk forces who defeats the forces of Ablai, and in a single combat champions over Taishi himself and captures him. This particular discrepancy, as well as the number of other features, is generally viewed as a result of the influence of the oral epic poetry on the legendary narratives. Another interesting feature of the plots is a relatively high degree of historical accuracy, as far as the historical accuracy in folklore studies goes. The most part of the characters in these legends can be correlated with the various figures of Kalmyk history, also a number of the events described in them are confirmed by different written sources, and the tactical techniques used by Mazan-batyr have direct analogues in the traditional warfare of the Mongol people.

Mos geometricus v. Reality: Quantity, Quality, Time and Information in Combat Simulations since the Middle Ages

The non-lethal simulated training of lethal reality, whether it be single combat or war, was historically a question of life and death. We provide an analytical framework for evaluating historical precedents in fight simulations by focussing on two key questions: What was the philosophy guiding the conception of reality – in particular, did historical practitioners see reality as deterministic, and if not, how did they see it? And how did the simulations deal with the elements of quantity, quality, timing, and information? The analysis shows that our ancestors’ perception of the reality of fighting chan-ged over time, as their interpretations of reality for the world at large changed. Considerable intellectual effort and ingenuity were invested into attempts to understand reality and formulate corresponding realistic simulations, making these ludic artefacts reflective, sometimes iconic for, and occasionally ahead of their historical-cultural context. Seemingly irrational phenomena, such as the persistence of lethal duelling, had perfectly pragmatic elements.

Effect of different helmet shell configurations on the protection against head trauma

Head trauma following a ballistic impact in a helmeted head is assessed in this work by means of finite element models. Both the helmet and the head models employed were validated against experimental high-rate impact tests in a previous work. Four different composite ply configurations were tested on the helmet shell, and the energy absorption and the injury outcome resulting from a high-speed impact with full metal jacket bullets were computed. Results reveal that hybrid aramid–polyethylene configurations do not prevent bullet penetration at high velocities, while 16-layer aramid configurations are superior in dissipating the energy absorbed from the impact. The fabric orientation of these laminates proved to be determinant for the injury outcome, as maintaining the same orientations for all the layers led to basilar skull fractures (dangerous), while alternating orientation of the adjacent plies resulted in an undamaged skull. To the authors knowledge, no previous work in the literature has analysed numerically the influence of different stack configurations on a single combat helmet composite shell on human head trauma.

The Golden Age and Imperial Dominance in the Aeneid and Serenity (2005)

In the second of two chapters that treat promises of an imperial golden age in Aeneid Book 6, Rea extends Kirsten Day’s work on the Vergilian golden age and the American Western to Joss Whedon’s Space Western film Serenity. Rea identifies this descendant of the Aeneid as skeptical about the utopian promises of the imperialistic Alliance, a technologically advanced group of central planets that defeat the “Independents” on the outer planets(known as the frontier) and proceed to impose their will upon these recalcitrant pioneers. When the contested frontier moves from exterior space to the recesses of subjects’ minds, imperialistic conquest endangers the very people supposedly benefiting from the imposition of “civilization.” The Alliance’s disastrous application of “Pax,” an experimental nerve agent, to the unwitting population of a frontier planet echoes pessimistic readings of the Aeneid and its undercurrent of anxiety about what sacrifices are required for a new golden age of peace, prosperity, and security to arise. Rea also examines the point at which Serenity’s protagonist Mal Reynolds, a veteran Independent, takes on an Aeneas-like role in single combat with his adversary: not to found a golden age of empire, but to protect universal freedom.