15 MAR 2017 by ideonexus

 Forage on the Enemy

作戰: 故不盡知用兵之害者,則不能盡知用兵之利也。善用兵者,役不再籍,糧不三載,取用于國,因糧于敵,故軍食可足也。國之貧于師者遠輸,遠輸則百姓貧,近于師者貴賣,貴賣則百姓財竭,財竭則急于丘役,力屈財殫,中原內虛于家,百姓之費,十去其七,公家之費,破車罷馬,甲冑矢弩,戟楯蔽櫓,丘牛大車,十去其六。 Waging War: It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted...
Folksonomies: war strategy wargaming
Folksonomies: war strategy wargaming
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15 MAR 2017 by ideonexus

 Emulate Water

虛實: 夫兵形象水,水之形,避高而趨下:兵之形,避實而擊虛;水因地而制流,兵因敵而制勝。故兵無常勢,水無常形;能因敵變化而取勝,謂之神。故五行無常勝,四時無常位,日有短長,月有死生。 Weak Points and Strong:...: Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak. W...
Folksonomies: war strategy wargaming
Folksonomies: war strategy wargaming
  1  notes
 
03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 The Cuttlefish Uses Art to Hunt

The cuttlefish is mostly soft-bodied; the crab is all armor. As the cuttlefish approaches, the medieval-looking crab snaps into a macho posture, waving its sharp claws at its foe’s vulnerable body. The cuttlefish responds with a bizarre and ingenious psychedelic performance. Weird images, luxuriant colors, and successive waves of what look like undulating lightning bolts and filigree swim across its skin. The sight is so unbelievable that even the crab seems disoriented; its menacing gestu...
Folksonomies: evolution art adaptation
Folksonomies: evolution art adaptation
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It blasts its prey with a psychedelic display before it strikes.

03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 Alchemy VS Chemistry

He tapped the papers; the advice had been coming down since early winter. He remembered when Amdijefri had brought in the first pages, pages of numerical tables, of directions and diagrams, all drawn in neat but childish style. Steel and the Fragment had spent days trying to understand. Some of the references were obvious. The Visitor’s recipes required silver and gold in quantities that would otherwise finance a war. But what was this “liquid silver”? Tyrathect had recognized it; the M...
  1  notes

An alien from a mideval society receiving instructions to build advanced technology from aliens finds their directions full of digressions and careful methodologies to verify chemical compositions, where his alchemists' instructions are much more simple and poetic.