self defense courses

Apparently there is a $100 discount per person if I get 2 or more friends to sign up. I've got one, is anyone else interested in a self-defence course? They have classes in SF, Oakland, and Redwood City.

Without the discount, the 25 hour course is about $495. That's $20/hour of instruction, btw, which is pretty cheap, when you look at it that way.

For my technophile readers...

gizmodo.com is where its at for technology news and news on nifty products and gadgets.

And reading it makes me want to weep. Because North American technology is SO behind the ball, its frightening. I see these AMAZING products being released (most especially in the cellphone, pda, and computing world), but they are always for release only in Asia, or only in Europe, or something like that. Sure, there's some stuff that's pretty nifty coming out here, but the stuff coming out in Europe is EVEN COOLER, or being released there as many as 6 months earlier.

What does that mean?

Well, from a personal point of view it means I'm not going to get the nifty technology. Suck it up and deal.

What does it mean in the bigger picture? The bigger picture is so complicated. The thing is that... the location a product is being released in this case may have little to do with where the technology was developed. And if the company developing the technology is located in country A and owned by a company in country B, what does that say about both country A and B? So before we can figure out what that means, I think we need to know WHY the products are being released here so late or not at all.

My initial instinct is to believe that this situation is another sign of the stagnation of American culture, an indication that the future lies elsewhere, that the American empire is crumbling even though it isn't obvious yet. But am I jumping to conclusions? Well, obviously. Are those conclusions wrong? Unknown.

Thoughts?