There’s a strange kind of freedom in the dark; a terrifying vulnerability we allow ourselves at exactly the wrong moment, tricked by the darkness into thinking it will keep our secrets. We forget that the blackness is not a blanket; we forget that the sun will soon rise. But in the moment, at least, we feel brave enough to say things we’d never say in the light.
We had given in to our vulnerability and cast down any pretenses that we were too strong to be weak.
knghtbrd: there may be no spoon, but can you spot the vulnerability in eye_render_shiny_object.c? -- rcw
A sharper perspective on this matter is particularly important to feminist thought today, because a major tendency in feminism has constructed the problem of domination as a drama of female vulnerability victimized by male aggression. Even the more sophisticated feminist thinkers frequently shy away from the analysis of submission, for fear that in admitting woman's participation in the relationship of domination, the onus of responsibility will appear to shift from men to women, and the moral victory from women to men. More generally, this has been a weakness of radical politics: to idealize the oppressed, as if their politics and culture were untouched by the system of domination, as if people did not participate in their own submission. To reduce domination to a simple relation of doer and done-to is to substitute moral outrage for analysis. -- Jessica Benjamin, "The Bonds of Love"
The Roechling-Rodenhauser furnace is unfitted, by the vulnerability of its interior walls, for receiving charges of cold metal to be melted down, but it is used to good advantage for purifying molten basic Bessemer steel sufficiently to fit it for use in the form of railway rails. Entry: 108
The argument as to the vulnerability of shielded guns is not at present strong. Sir George says (ib. p. 94), "If the high angle fire ... is ever to find a favourable opportunity, it will surely be against a cupola, the site of which can generally be determined with accuracy." On the other hand he says (p. 90), "During the long and costly experiments carried on at Bucharest in 1885-1886, 164 rounds were fired from the Krupp 21 cm. mortar at targets of about 40 sq. metres area" (about 430 sq. ft.) "without obtaining a single hit. The range was 2700 yds.; the targets were towers built upon a level plain; the shooting conditions were ideal, and the fall of each shell was telephoned back to the firing point; but it must have been evident to the least instructed observer that to attempt to group 6 or 8 shells on an invisible area 2 metres square would have been absolutely futile." These facts are adduced to prove that it is not necessary to give great thickness to concrete casemates, to resist successive bursts of shells in the same place; but surely they are equally applicable to cupolas. Again (p. 252), "The experience gained at Port Arthur was not altogether encouraging as regards the use of high angle fire. The Russian vessels in the harbour were sunk by opening their sea-valves.... Fire was subsequently directed upon them from 11 in. howitzers at ranges up to about 7500 yds. This was deliberate practice from siege batteries at stationary targets; but the effect was distinctly disappointing." The cupolas therefore can hardly be considered ideal targets: and the probability is that they would hold their own against both direct and indirect fire for a long time. There are other and stronger arguments against the general use of them, all of which are clearly set forth by Sir George Clarke. Entry: FIG
_Neuro-paralytic Keratitis._--When the fifth nerve is paralysed there is a tendency for the cornea to become inflamed. Different forms of inflammation may then occur which all, besides anaesthesia, show a marked slowness in healing. The main cause of neuro-paralytic keratitis lies in the greater vulnerability of the cornea. The prognosis is necessarily bad. The treatment consists in as far as possible protecting the eye from external influences, by keeping it tied up, and by frequently irrigating with antiseptic lotions. Entry: 2
The use of the machine-gun (apart from savage warfare) that first commended itself in Europe was its use as a _mobile reserve of fire_. Now, the greatest difficulty attending the employment of a reserve of any sort is the selection of the right moment for its intervention in the struggle, and experience of manoeuvres of all arms in Germany, where "machine-gun detachments" began to be formed in 1902, appears to have been that the machine-guns always came into action too late. On the other hand, the conditions of the cavalry _versus_ cavalry combat were more favourable. Here there was every inducement to augment fire-power without dismounting whole regiments for the purpose. Moreover, vulnerability was not a fatal defect as against a battery or two of the enemy's horse artillery, whose main task is to fire with effect into the closed squadrons of mounted men on the verge of their charge, and above all to avoid a meaningless duel of projectiles. The use of wheeled carriages was therefore quite admissible (although in fact the equipment was detachable from the carriage) and, given the rapidity and sudden changes of cavalry fighting, both desirable and necessary. Thus, thanks to the machine-gun, the eternal problem of increasing the fire-power of mounted troops is at last partially solved, and the solution has appealed strongly both to armies exceptionally strong in cavalry, as for example the German, and to those exceptionally weak in that arm--Denmark, for instance, having two or three light machine-guns _per squadron_. The object of the weaker cavalry may be to cause the onset of the stronger to dwindle away into a dismounted skirmish, and this is most effectually brought about by a fire concentrated enough and heavy enough to discourage mounted manoeuvres; on the other hand, the stronger party desires to avoid dismounting a single squadron that can be kept mounted; and this too may be effected by the machine-guns. What the result of such a policy on both sides may be, it would be hard to prophesy, but it is clear at any rate that, whether on the offensive or on the defensive, skilfully handled machine-guns may enable a cavalry commander to achieve the difficult and longed-for result--to _give the law_ to his opponent. The principal difference between the tactics of the stronger and those of the weaker cavalry in this matter is, that it is generally advantageous for the former to act by batteries and for the latter to disperse his machine guns irregularly in pairs. Entry: ORGANIZATION
The vulnerability of machine-guns is quite as important as is their accuracy. At a minimum, that is when painted a "service" colour, manoeuvred with skill, and mounted on a low tripod--in several armies even the shield has been rejected as tending to make guns more conspicuous--the vulnerability of one gun should be that of one skirmisher lying down. At a maximum, vulnerability is that of a small battery of guns and wagons limbered up. Entry: ORGANIZATION
Between these extremes, a moderate school, with the emperor William (who had more experience of the human being in battle than any of his officers) at its head, spent a few years in groping for close-order formations which admitted of control without vulnerability, then laid down the principle and studied the method of developing the greatest fire-power of which short-service infantry was supposed capable, ultimately combined the "drill" and teaching ideas in the German infantry regulations of 1888, which at last abolished those of 1812 with their multitudinous amendments. Entry: INFANTRY