Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
Investigate Centre – NHM
I'm a friend of the Natural History Museum and I go there a lot, especially with the kids. Both of them love the place. Today though we found a new part of the NHM that we'd never been in before. Hidden away in the basement, under the green zone, there is the Investigate Centre which is generally open to the public. As the demonstrator told us "Everything in here is real, except the human skeleton, because we're not allowed to let you handle human bones". Alex finds out about a toad grasshopper in the Investigate Centre @NHM_London (Photo credit: James Kemp) In the centre there are a lot of artefacts that you can handle, look at with magnifying glasses, video cameras and microscopes. As well as that you can look them up on the computers in the centre that use…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
2D Morale Chart
Further to the previous post Faith in Morale I've tried to synthesize the varioius readings on military psychology into a set of morale rules that might give a realistic ebb and flow to an engagement. I've not had a chance to test these yet, but here's what the chart looks like. v01 of the 2D Morale Chart, (c) 2014 James Kemp Reading through the various OR type publications it seems to me that morale is affected by proximity to both friends and the enemy. The closer solders get to the enemy the more they seem to do things other than follow orders. This is not really a surprise, but it's nice to see the research back up the gut feel. Where I can find hard numbers for things I have used them to construct the 2D morale chart. In some…
Faith in Morale
I've been reading operational research on the psychology of combat recently. It got me to thinking about the role of religious faith in maintaining soldiers' morale. I'm not personally religious and don't have an axe to grind on this. Does having faith help soldiers deal better with combat? What I am trying to do is build a game design model that properly accounts for relevant factors. The thought that struck me was that combat is very stressful and that soldiers are called on to do unpleasant things to others. This isn't an every day thing but it does happen. The after effects can be very severe, PTSD isn't pleasant for anyone and can last for years after the traumatic events have finished. Psychological casualties are as real as the physical ones, they just have a delayed onset and are harder…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
Cub Camp 2014 – pt.2
So here are a couple of photos to give you an idea of what Jordan Heights looks like. I didn't take that many photos, largely because my phone ran out of battery before the end of the weekend. So this is the pizza oven, made from a metal dustbin with racking inside. It's just outside the covered area with a bespoke raised fire pit. The picture doesn't show the door for the front, it was a wooden door lined with a metal plate and with a couple of handles to make it easy to move back and forth. When it was on it kept the heat from escaping from the front. I kept it off while I was getting the fire lit. I spent the weekend telling the boys that they'd been eating food out of the bins! It worked…
Cub Camp 2014
I got back yesterday evening from a two night camp with Clark Pack of 5th Reigate (Merstham) cub scouts. We were up at Jordan Heights, a little piece of unspoilt wilderness hidden on the back of Reigate Hill about 100m from the A217. The campsite is appropriately spartan. The facilities are geared for adventure rather than comfort. This is a good thing when you are scouting. There are some custom built outdoor cooking facilities (see the photos), a hut for storage and as a backstop against inclement weather. There are also air rifle and archery facilities with a trained instructor available. The campsite is a couple of flattened areas both bigger than our scout hall and it is set in the woods on the side of Reigate Hill. There are other facilities too, and you can see the details on…