Today marks the 20th anniversary of Brandon Lee's tragic passing. In memory of him, I made some animated GIF's from his best action movie, Rapid Fire.
Enjoy!
Part 2 in this series tomorrow.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
IN MEMORY OF: Brandon Lee (February 1, 1965 – March 31, 1993) [Rapid Fire GIF Set 1]
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Brandon Lee's tragic passing. In memory of him, I made some animated GIF's from his best action movie, Rapid Fire.
Enjoy!
Part 2 in this series tomorrow.
Eric Knaus aka Top Dog Seminar footage
 |
| Eric "Top Dog" Knauss Photo Credit: www.dogbrothers.com |
Check out these four vidclips of Eric Knauss seminars! Enjoy!
Eric Knaus gives his thoughts on how to deal with an opponent who closes while stick fighting.
Eric Knaus explains how to REALLY strike the knee and recover safely.
Eric Knaus giving the BEST advice you could ever get. Always stay on guard.
Erik Paulson and Erik Knaus demonstrate stick grappling at the North
American Self Defense Institutes, Martial Arts Continuing Education
Association Seminar. 11/7&8/2009.
In case you missed these earlier postings that also had Top Dog in action:
The Balisong Knife in Movies: Nice Dreams (1981)
This is the first in a series of posts which will feature animated GIF's of the usage of the Balisong Knife in the movies and TV.
First up, in the 1981 Cheech and Chong movie, Nice Dreams, Jeff Imada played "Wine Steward". He opens a wine bottle with a balisong.
My deepest gratitude to Don Rearic for the help in letting me know about this movie!
More to come!
Saturday, March 30, 2013
The Brutal, Terrifying, & Sobering Reality of Knifefights
WARNING!
THIS VIDCLIP IS VERY GRAPHIC!
IT IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!
WARNING!
Pretty decent vidclip IMO on showing the realities of the Knife. It's like a "one-stop shopping" on almost all facets of knifework. Today's society is clueless what a violent encounter involving a knife really looks like. Society is brainwashed by TV and the Movies. Traditonal Martial Arts teaches one slow lunge by the "Bad Guy" and the "Good Guy" does his fancy disarms and a gazillion followups to the immobile BG.
One neglected aspect I would've liked to have seen was the video creator's inclusion of the sources/credits of the various clips and information s/he assembled to produce this vidclip. Give credit where credit is due. I understand the parameters of Youtube's maximum of 9-10 minutes length may have been had a factor in this but it would go a long way if the respective instructors were credited.
A lot of information/material has been published via books, articles and videos on "knifefighting". Hopefully that vidclip depicting the realities of the Knife is not new for you. If it is, WAKE UP! This is no game. The Knife, even in the hands of an untrained person is deadly.
Some of my thoughts on the knife. In all likelihood, I will expand on these thoughts in a future blog:
- Know your local knife laws first, then if you travel, know the laws where you are going to as well as where you are traveling through too. If you want to check on the knife laws, please check out this earlier post:
LINKS: www.knife-expert.com & NYC Knife Laws
- No fancy knife, high-priced knife, or any knife will do you any good if you don't train deployment of your knife. Then consider less than ideal conditions of deployment once you have "mastered" deployment under ideal conditions. While under duress, train your draw... also train both your dominant hand as well as your complementary hand. can you deploy your EDC with gloves on when weather is cold? Loads to think of along these lines and train.
- Learn basic first aid.
- It's not like in the movies. realities of "knifefights" are way more brutal than gunfights.
- Knife vs knife is rare. Develop your awareness (and avoidance). Train knife vs empty hands (best to run, if can't run, find an equalizer (chair, trash can lid, etc)
- Your EDC may be confiscated so if you have some fancy $1,000+ knife don't cry if it gets taken away.
- Don't go cheap ever when it comes to tools... bought a cheap knockoff balisong in the 80's for $20 off of Canal Street in NYC... couldn't afford the $80+ back then for a Pacific Cutlery balisong or other companies... flipped it for a week or so and it broke apart on me and i was lucky the flying blade didn't take my eye out!
My 2 cents.
Train and Be Safe!
Friday, March 29, 2013
Some notes on Deception by RPP Part 4
Today's entry is the last in RPP's Notes on Deception which he posted to Spladdle Forum.
If you missed the previous parts of the series, please read:
- Some notes on Deception by RPP Part 1
- Some notes on Deception by RPP Part 2
- Some notes on Deception by RPP Part 3
Notes from Chapter 23 of Robert Greene's 33 Strategies of War
Chapter 23 - Weave a seamless blend of fact and fiction: Misperception strategies
Since no creature can survive without the ability to see or sense what is going on around it, you must make it hard for your enemies to know what is going on around them, including what you are doing. Disturb their focus and you weaken their strategic powers. People's perceptions are filtered through their emotions; they tend to interpret the world according to what they want to see. Feed their expectations, manufacture a reality to match their desires, and they will fool themselves. The best deceptions are based on ambiguity, mixing fact and fiction so that the one cannot be disentangled from the other. Control people's perceptions of reality and you control them.
Military deception is about subtly manipulating and distorting signs of our identity and purpose to control the enemy's vision of reality and get them to act on their misperceptions.
- It is the art of managing appearances.
Since appearances are critical and deception is inevitable, what you want is to elevate your game - to make your deceptions more conscious and skillful.
To master this art, you must embrace its necessity and find creative pleasure in manipulating appearances -- as if you were directing a film. The following are the six main forms of military deception, each with its own advantage.
(1) The False Front
Oldest form of deception.
- Originally involved making the enemy believe that one was weaker than in fact was the case.
The appearance of weakness often brings out people's aggressive side, making them drop strategy and prudence for an emotional and violent attack.
Controlling the front you present to the world is the most critical deceptive skill. People respond most directly to what they see, to what is most visible to their eyes.
- You need to present a front that disarms suspicions.
That best front is weakness, which will make the other side feel superior to you, so that they either ignore you (and being ignored is very valuable at times) or are baited into an aggressive action at the wrong moment.
- Once it is too late, once they are committed, they can find out the hard way that you are not so weak after all.
Making people think they are better than you are -- smarter, stronger, more competent -- is often wise.
- It gives you breathing space to lay your plans, to manipulate.
(2) The Decoy Attack
This ruse began as a solution to the following problem.
If the enemy knew you were going to attack point A, they would put all their defenses there and make your job too difficult. But to deceive them on that score was not easy: even if before battle you were able to disguise your intentions and fool them out of concentrating their forces at point A, the minute they actually saw your army headed there, they would rush to its defense. The only answer was to march your army toward point B or, better, to send part of your army in that direction while holding troops in reserve for your real objective. The enemy would have to move some or all of its army to defend point B. Do the same with points C and D and the enemy would have to disperse all over the map.
The key to this tactic is that instead of relying on words or rumours or planted information, the army really moves.
- It makes a concrete action.
- The enemy cannot afford to guess whether a deception is in the works: if they guess wrong, the consequences are disastrous.
The decoy attack keeps the enemy dispersed and ignorant of your intentions.
To keep people from defending the points you want to attack, follow the military model and make real gestures towards a goal that does not interest you.
You must seem to be investing time and energy to attack that point, as opposed to simply trying to signal the intention with words. Actions carry such weight and seem so real that people will naturally assume that is your real goal.
(3) Camouflage
The ability to blend into the environment is one of the most terrifying forms of military deception.
Preventing your enemies from seeing you until it is too late is a devastating way to control their perceptions.
There are two applications of the camouflage strategy:
(1) Blend into the social landscape. Avoid calling attention to yourself unless you choose to do so. When you talk and act like everyone else, mimicking their belief systems, when you blend into the crowd, you make it impossible for people to read anything particular in your behaviour (Appearances are all that count here -- dress and talk like a businessman and you be must be a businessman).
(2) If you are preparing an attack of some sort and begin by blending into the environment, showing no sign of activity, your attack will seem to come out of nowhere, doubling its power.
(4) The Hypnotic Pattern
Machiavelli's view of people: human beings naturally tend to think in terms of patterns. They see events conforming to their expectations by fitting into a pattern or scheme. They believe the chaos of life is predictable.
Machiavelli's "acclimatization": deliberately creating some pattern to make your enemies believe that your next action will follow true to form.
- Having lulled them into complacency, you now have room to work against their expectations, break the pattern, and take them by surprise.
Once people feel you have deceived them, they will expect you to mislead them again, but they usually think you'll try something different next time. No one, they will tell themselves, is so stupid as to repeat the exact same trick on the same person.
- That, of course, is just when to repeat it, following the principle of always working against your enemy's expectations.
Poe's "Purloined Letter": hide something in the most obvious place, because that is where no one will look.
(5) Planted Information
People are much more likely to believe something they see with their own eyes than something they are told. They are more likely to believe something they discover than something pushed at them.
If you plant the false information you desire them to have -- with third parties, in neutral territory -- when they pick up the clues, they have the impression they are the ones discovering the truth.
No matter how good a liar you are, when you deceive, it is hard to be completely natural. Your tendency is to try so hard to seem natural and sincere that it stands out and can be read.
- This is why it is so effective to spread your deceptions through people whom you keep ignorant of the truth -- people who believe the lie themselves.
- When working with double agents of this kind, it is always wise to initially feed them some true information -- this will establish the credibility of the intelligence they pass along.
(6) Shadows Within Shadows
Deceptive maneuvers are like shadows deliberately cast: the enemy responds to them as if they were solid and real, which in and of itself is a mistake.
- In a sophisticated, competitive world, however, both sides know the game, and the alert enemy will not necessarily grasp at the shadow you have thrown.
So you have to take the art of deception to a level higher, casting shadows within shadows, making it impossible for your enemies to distinguish between fact and fiction.
Make everything so ambiguous and uncertain, spread so much fog, that even if you are suspected of deceit, it does not matter -- the truth cannot be unraveled from the lies, and all their suspicions gives them is torment.
- As they strain to figure out what you are up to, they waste valuable time and resources.
If you are trying to mislead your enemies, it is often better to concoct something ambiguous and hard to read, as opposed to an outright deception -- that deception can be uncovered and enemies can turn their discovery to their advantage, especially if you think they are still fooled and act under that belief. You are the one doubly deceived. By creating something that is simply ambiguous, though, by making everything blurry, there is no deception to uncover.
Chapter 23 -- Reversal
To be caught in deception is dangerous.
- If you don't know that your cover is blown, your enemies have more information than you do and you become their tool.
- If the discovery of your deceit is public, on the other hand, your reputation takes a blow, or worse.
You must use deception with utmost caution, then, employing the least amount of people, to avoid the inevitable leaks.
You should always leave yourself an escape route, a cover story to protect you should be exposed.
Be careful not to fall in love with the power that deception brings; the use of it must always be subordinate to your overall strategy and kept under control.
If you become known as a deceiver, try being straightforward and honest for a change. It will confuse people and your honesty will be a higher form of deception.
This was the final installment in the series of RPP's Notes on Deception. Deepest gratitude to RPP. Hope it helps you in your Sojourn of Septillion Steps!
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Some notes on Deception by RPP Part 3
Continuing from yesterday's entry of RPP's Notes from Deception in War by Jon Latimer, here is Part 3, which he posted to Spladdle Forum.
If you missed the previous parts of the series, please read:
Notes from H. John Poole's Phantom Soldier: The Enemy's Answer to US Firepower
H. John Poole's Strategies for Deception List (from the appendix of Phantom Soldier). I'll flesh these out with more notes when I get time, as some of them sound cryptic.
Stratagems when in a superior position
- Openly cross an open area
- Seize something valuable the enemy has left unguarded
- Use the enemy against himself
- Make the enemy come to you
- Capitalize on a natural disaster
- Pretend to attack from one side and attack from another
Stratagems for Confrontation
- Make Something out of nothing
- Attack from one side and switch to another
- Give Murphy's law time to work on the enemy
- Mask a sinister intention with a good impression
- Sacrifice minor concerns for the sake of the overall mission
- Seize the chance to increase the odds
Stratagems for Attack
- Make a feint to discover the foe's intentions
- Steal the enemy's source of his strength
- Draw the enemy away from his refuge
- Give a retreating adversary room
- Discover a foe's intentions by offering him something of value
- Damage the enemy's method of control
Stratagems for Confused Situations
- Erode the enemy's source of strength
- Create chaos to make an opponent easier to beat
- Leave behind a small force to slow and deceive pursuers
- Encircle the foe but let him think he has a way out
- Concentrate on the nearest opposition
- Borrow from the enemy the instrument of his own destruction
Stratagems for Gaining Ground
- Attack the enemy's habits to undermine his foundation
- Make an example of someone to deter the enemy
- Feign lack of military ability
- Lure the foe into poor terrain and cut off his escape route
- Mislead the enemy with false information
- Secretly occupy an enemy-controlled area
Stratagems for Desperate Situations
- Lull the enemy to sleep with something beautiful
- Reveal a weakness to cause the enemy to suspect a trap
- Attack the enemy's cohesion from within
- Feign injury to yourself
- Combine stratagems
- Refuse to fight
The third installment tomorrow. HTH!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Some notes on Deception by RPP Part 2
Following up on yesterday's entry of RPP's notes on Deception from Silent Warfare by Shulsky and Schmitt, here is Part 2, which he posted to Spladdle Forum. If you missed Part 1 of the series, please read Some notes on Deception by RPP Part 1.
Notes from Deception in War by Jon Latimer
Quote:
| "Surprise is a principle of war … It should primarily be directed at the mind of an enemy commander rather than at his force. The aim should be to paralyse the commander’s will." ~From Design for Military Operations: The British Military Doctrine |
- The most important factor contributing to the achievement of surprise is deception.
It might be argued that security is an even more important concern, but in battle it is not sufficient for a commander to avoid error; he needs actively to cause his enemy to make mistakes through deception.
To be successful in the art of deception a deceiver needs to know and understand the mind of the enemy commander.
Quote:
| "Rashness, excessive audacity, blind impetuosity, or foolish ambition are all easily exploited by the enemy and most dangerous to any allies, for a general with such defects in his character will naturally fall victim to all kinds of stratagems, ambushes and trickery." ~Polybius in The Rise of the Roman Empire |
- We view our experiences through these mental templates, and whatever does not fit our prejudices tends to be overlooked or discarded.
- All deception in war should be based on what the enemy himself not only believes, but hopes for.
Skilfully conveyed false information on an information-flooded battlefield often has great influence on the mind of an enemy and the course of operations.
Since military organizations look through doctrinal and physical templates as well as the mental templates of its individual members, it is this that provides the basis for deception. The information an enemy requires to make decisions can be manipulated, if one understands the templates he is using.
A reputation for being crafty and deceptive will enhance the anxiety and uncertainty of one’s opponent.
War is not a gentlemanly pursuit but often a matter of survival requiring ruthless measures in its pursuit.
- It is often times of weakness that commanders first think of deception as a means of evening the odds.
- In the West, deception is seen as immoral and counters military honour.
The most effective deceivers display unorthodoxy of thought that is usually little appreciated in a peacetime army.
- Successful deception is an art not a science.
- Many of the best practitioners have had backgrounds in both the visual and the performing arts.
The art of deception is most successful when applied patiently, with proven techniques guided by solid principles.
The Intelligence Process
A general who knows his opponent’s intentions has an advantage. Knowledge of the enemy’s intelligence capabilities and weaknesses will facilitate feeding him false information and help ensure that he accepts it.
If the enemy has a predilection for particular sources of information, deception planning can be tailored accordingly.
It is important to distinguish between information and intelligence.
- Information is fact.
- Intelligence is the significance of the fact after it has been processed.
The business of collecting information about the enemy is reconnaissance.
- Surveillance, a part of recon, is the systematic observation of selected areas.
The specific purpose of military intelligence is to forecast what the enemy will do, where and when he will do it, how and in what strength. To be of any use, this must be disseminated to decision makers as quickly as possible.
- Always bear in mind that there is a distinct and important difference between an enemy’s capabilities (which are relatively easy to define) and his intentions (which seldom are).
Quote:
| "If there are three courses of action open to the enemy, he invariably chooses the fourth." ~Helmuth Graf von Moltke |
- A commanders snubbing of intelligence staff can be useful to deceivers
Quote:
| "A great part of information obtained in war is contradictory, a
still greater part is false, and by far the greatest part is of doubtful
character." ~Clausewitz |
- Contradictory indicators
- Missing data
- Fast moving events
- Time lags between data collection and analysis
- Pure chance
The aim of the intelligence officer is to watch the picture take form and predict what it will become.
In attempting to create a misleading image the deceiver is not trying to fool the opposing intelligence officer so much as the opposing commander, a process that requires an understanding of both the opponent’s intelligence processes and the enemy commander’s attitude towards it.
The intelligence process takes the form of a simple cycle.
- Direction: The commander must tell his staff what he needs to know so that they can allocate resources to collect information.
- Collection: Information comes in from sources and collection methods.
- Process: Information then processed into intelligence.
- Dissemination: Intelligence disseminated to those who need it. By constantly re-evaluating what is known by what is not, the cycle then continues.
From a deceiver’s point of view, the critical phases of enemy’s intelligence cycle are the collection and processing phases.
It is directed towards the enemy’s sources and agencies that false information must be directed, and a knowledge of what he is looking for during processing will assist in sending the ‘correct’ wrong information, since it is by reading ‘signatures’ of operation that intelligence staffs make predictions.
Each army has its own characteristics, which must be carefully studied, and knowledge of one’s own characteristics immediately opens up deceptive possibilities for the display of false ones.
Sources and Agencies involved in the process
An intelligence source is anyone or anything from which information can be obtained.
An intelligence agency is any organization or individual dealing in the collection of information for intelligence use.
Sources of intelligence throughout history include:
- HUMINT: Spies, prisoners, locals and other people. Captured enemy documents and prisoners of war. Although the reliability of both is very questionable: documents can easily be plated and prisoners are not always trustworthy.
- Reconnaissance: By foot, horseback or armour.
- SIGINT: radio intercepts, electronic warfare
- IMINT: Aerial photography, imagery analysis
Security
Security is as fundamental a principle of war as intelligence.
- Detailed knowledge of enemy’s reconnaissance and intelligence capabilities are vital if one’s secrets are to be preserved.
Field or operational security involves the concealment of one’s own strengths and intentions from the enemy.
For the purposes of both security and deception Napoleon was in the habit of continually altering the composition of his major formations.
The larger a proposed operation, the more difficult that concealment becomes.
- Operational security is most effective when applied systematically; it must be directed from the highest level and must concentrate on critical activities, identifying what indicators an enemy will look for and what information these might convey to the enemy.
- It must also take account of the enemy’s reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition capabilities; so that measures can be designed to neutralize these. There is no form of camouflage more effective than putting out the enemy’s eyes.
- Assessments must be made before and during an operation and continuously revised, since any protection measures taken must appear a normal part of activity: routines can thus both aid security and provide a basis for deception.
- The plan must be capable of change at a short notice.
The very identity of a general must be subject to security, and deception can aid this.
- A general’s personal routine can be an indicator of forthcoming operations.
Before offensive deception measures can be planned, friendly surveillance effort must be directed towards establishing the type and density of the enemy’s sources and towards looking for weak spots.
- As an aid to security and an integral part of the information battle, counter-surveillance, involving all those active and passive measures taken to prevent hostile surveillance of a force or area, forms the first category or level of deception.
An enemy deprived of all intelligence or faced with ambiguous information may react unpredictably, and his actions may not necessarily be exploitable. Nevertheless, denial of genuine information is always an important objective and confusion may in some cases be a useful method of supporting deception by undermining the enemy’s intelligence effort.
Active counter-surveillance measures include attacking enemy reconnaissance forces and passive ones.
- The priorities for defensive deception measures should be related to the enemy’s reconnaissance priorities and capabilities, underlining again the need to understand as far as possible the enemy’s intelligence cycle.
Camouflage is a key element of counter-surveillance.
- Deception, not concealment, is the object of camouflage.
The penultimate installment tomorrow. HTH!
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Some notes on Deception by RPP Part 1
My friend RPP took some notes on Deception which he posted to the Spladdle Forum. Today's entry is the first of four in this series. Deepest thanks to RPP for taking the time to type this up and share.
I'm somewhat obsessed with deception. So, I'm gonna post various notes on Deception I've gathered over the last few years here (originally I had them on a now defunct blog, but they'd probably serve more of a purpose here). Hopefully the concepts will be useful for others.
Notes from Silent Warfare by Shulsky and Schmitt pages 116-126
Deception is the attempt to mislead an adversary’s intelligence analysis concerning the political, military, or economic situation he faces, with the result that, having formed a false picture of the situation, he is led to act in a way that advances one’s interests rather than his own.
- Considered a form of counterintelligence
- Deception and intelligence failure are related concepts.
- One side’s successful deception implies the other side’s intelligence failure.
- Deception can be applied in war or peace.
- It is more often applied in wartime.
- Deception ranges from tactical to strategic.
Peacetime deception operations are not common, tend to be less well known, and are sometimes harder to identify as such.
The content of the deception – the false view one wishes one’s adversary to adopt – obviously depends on the situation and on how one wishes one’s adversary to react.
Situations
(1) Situation: Wartime
- Deception: Launch a surprise attack and convince adversary no attack is coming
- Deception: Launch an attack with enemy knowing attack is coming by convincing adversary attack is coming at a time, in a place, or in a manner other than what is actually planned.
(2) Situation: Peacetime
- Deception: Convince adversary that one is stronger than one really is
- Deception: Conceal one’s actual military strength to lull one’s adversary into complacency and failure to increase his own military forces.
If we visualize the intelligence process as the reception and interpretation of signals emitted by the activities of the side under observation, then implementing a deception operation involves blocking, to the extent possible, the true signals (those that reflect actual activities) and substituting misleading ones.
The first half of the task is the problem of security.
- If too many true signals get through, the adversary is unlikely to be deceived, although he may be so confused by the mixture of true and false signals that he cannot form a coherent picture of the actual situation.
- The first prerequisite of successful deception is the ability to block most, if not all, of the channels by which the adversary collects intelligence information about one’s activities.
- This is easier to do in war than peace.
Blocking intelligence-gathering channels requires:
- A comprehensive knowledge of the intelligence channels by which the adversary receives signals.
- A good counterespionage capability, as one well-placed human source could reveal the actual situation or deception plan.
- Know the adversary’s technical intelligence-collection capabilities in order to thwart them.
The second half of the task is manufacturing false signals
- Planned with the adversary’s human and technical intelligence-collection capabilities in mind.
Feedback
In conducting a deception operation, one faces major uncertainties:
- Were all the real signals blocked?
- Did the manufactured signals reach the adversary?
- Did he draw the desired conclusions from them?
To answer the questions, successful deception employs some method of finding out how the adversary is assessing the situation.
- If he is not alert enough to have noticed the false signals, or if he has not interpreted them as the deceiver wished him to, more can be manufactured to get his attention and lead him to the desired interpretation.
- If he begins to sense anomalies in the (false) picture of the situation the deceiver has planted in his mind, new signals can be created to explain them away.
- If enough true signals have reached the adversary to enable him to understand the situation correctly, one may wish to abandon the deception and change plans.
Feedback can be obtained in many forms:
- In some cases (such as wartime deception, or deception in support of surprise attack), the adversary’s actions (or lack of them) may be sufficient indication of whether he has been deceived.
- In other cases, adequate feedback may require good intelligence about the other side’s views of the situation
The more long-term and strategic the deception, the more important good intelligence feedback becomes.
- The deceived party’s responses to such deception take longer to become manifest: thus, one needs some other way of knowing whether the bait has been taken.
Peacetime deception requires better intelligence feedback than wartime.
- In wartime adversary is more likely to act quickly based on his understanding of the situation, during peacetime the adversary is under less pressure to act quickly
- This is why deception is rarer in peacetime than in war.
- The adversary in wartime is also more likely to be deceived because he is under pressure to act quickly and has less time to analyse the situation.
Deception and Self-Deception
The false view must be plausible to the adversary
- Success is more likely if the deception scenario is based on what the adversary thinks is the case anyway.
Experience shows that defeating every attempt an adversary might make at deception is very difficult.
- There is a strong psychological resistance to the idea that one is being deceived.
Understanding deception is the first step toward figuring out how to avoid being deceived; by understanding the factors that facilitate deception, one can at least be alert to the possibility of deception and recognize some warning signs.
One is particularly vulnerable to deception when one is dependent on a small number of channels of information and when the adversary is aware, at least in general terms, of the nature of these channels and their mode of operation.
- When one understands the risk of being deceived that comes from heavy reliance on a single known channel, one can decide what to do about it. The best corrective is to maximise what might be called “unexpected collection,” such as collecting information at times and places when the adversary doesn’t anticipate it.
Part 2 tomorrow. HTH!
Monday, March 25, 2013
IN MEMORY OF: Joe Weider (November 29, 1919 – March 23, 2013)
Copied from www.cnn.com:
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Joe Weider created Mr. Olympia, Ms. Olympia and various fitness competitions
- He also published magazines such as Shape, Men's Fitness and Flex
- Schwarzenegger describes him as kind, generous and "a titan in the fitness industry"
- Weider died Saturday at a Los Angeles hospital; he was 93
(CNN) -- A bodybuilding icon. A fitness innovator. A magazine publisher. A mentor to one of the world's biggest action heroes.
A pioneer.Joe Weider was all those things and more in his 93 years, right up until his death Saturday morning at a Los Angeles hospital.Calling his "dear friend and mentor ... a titan in the fitness industry and one of the kindest men I have ever met," Arnold Schwarzenegger said "very few people can claim to have influenced as many lives as Joe did through his magazines, his supplements, his training equipment and his big-hearted personality.""Joe was known for urging everyone, 'Exceed yourself,'" Schwarzenegger wrote on his website. "And there is no question that throughout his life, he did just that."Growing up in a tough part of the Canadian city of Montreal during the Great Depression, the once undersized Weider's life started to turn when he began lifting a makeshift barbell.Weider entered his first weightlifting contest at age 17, soon earning a name for himself in Canada, according to his website.At age 20, he started his first magazine, Your Physique. It proved to be the first of several successful business ventures, one of them being the Weider Barbell Co.Over the next few decades, Weider went onto become attached especially to the bodybuilding world -- having helped create, in 1946, the International Federation of Bodybuilders and, in 1965, creating the inaugural Mr. Olympia contest. Other competitions followed, such as Ms. Olympia in 1980, Fitness Olympia in 1995 and Figure Olympia in 2003.He also built out his magazine publishing empire with titles that included Shape, Men's Fitness, Flex, Natural Health and Muscle and Fitness.Schwarzenegger was one of the thousands who read Weider's magazines growing up, saying they "provided me with the inspiration and the blueprint to push myself beyond my limits and imagine a much bigger future."
Later, it was Weider who invited Schwarzenegger to leave Austria for the United States, financed his move and helped to propel his career in bodybuilding, acting and business."He freely gave of his time and expertise and became a father figure for me," recalled Schwarzenegger, who became a top-grossing movie star and governor of California. "He advised me on my training, on my business ventures, and once, bizarrely, claimed I was a German Shakespearean actor to get me my first acting role in "Hercules in New York", even though I barely spoke English."Weider remained active "almost until the end," even after being diagnosed 12 years ago with a heart condition, amyloidosis, said his publicist Charlotte Parker."That never slowed him down," said Parker, who worked with Weider for about 20 years. "He was amazing."By helping popularize weight training, supplement and vitamin use, and fitness equipment -- whether in a gym, a school or a home -- Weider helped change the way the world looks at fitness and health, according to Parker.Outside of all that, his friends knew him as a very giving, smart person.
My deepest condolences to Joe Weider's family, friends, associates and fans."He was generous, loving, full of life," said Parker. "He was a great man."
For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Weider
Saturday, March 23, 2013
LEARNING: Effective Learning Strategies
My friend RPP posted to the Spladdle Forum a paper he came across on how effective various learning strategies were including the old stand-bys: highlighting and summarization.
You may be surprised which learning strategies ranked High and which ranked Low. Irrespective of how your favorite learning strategy ranked, if it works for you, keep doing it! However, check out the Study, perhaps you may improve your learning using one of the strategies which ranked High.
Found this article on Reddit:
http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/
Based on the following paper: Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology.
It has a list of effective learning strategies ranked.
Techniques ranked High
Techniques ranked Moderate
Techniques ranked Low
- Summarization
- Highlighting
- Mnemonics
- Imagery use for text learning
- Rereading
Thank you RPP. Hope this helps your Learning on your Sojourn of Septillion Steps!
Friday, March 22, 2013
BOOKS: Jimmy Wilde's "Hitting and Stopping" & E.R. Voight's "Modern Wrestling Holds" reprints
Reprint of Jimmy Wilde's rare boxing manual "Hitting and Stopping" is available via Amazon UK. [edited 3/27/13]
Paperback, 93 Pages
Price: $19.95
Ships in 3-5 business days12 page preview available.
Modern Wrestling Holds is a rare Catch wrestling book that features a wealth of historical photos celebrating the golden era of Australian professional wrestling.
UPDATE 3/27/13: It has come to my attention by the Copyright Holder of the Jimmy Wilde book that the Lulu editon is in copyright violation and that a copy is available via Amazon UK. At the request of the Copyright Holder, taking down the Lulu info.
UPDATE 5/7/13: Apologies to the Estate of Jimmy Wilde and publisher Peerless Press for the delay in replacing the Lulu cover to the authorized cover.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
500 Posts!! & Top 25 Popular Posts
Dear Readers/Visitors:
*Bows deeply*
I never thought I would reach this milestone! I sincerely thank the readers/visitors as well as the various authors/instructors whose material I've archived!!
Of the 500 posts, only 25 or so are popular with over 500 views. In other words, only 5% of my 500 posts have 500+ views and 95% are, well, not popular LOL. There are a few with 100+ views but mostly the less-than-popular posts average 25 views. Although, it still baffles me to this day how two posts that were Links to a Forum could be so popular?!?! I haven't actively tried to promote my site/posts because I feel the layout is still not up to par yet. Still working on it. I imagine once I start actively pimping posts, the word will spread.
Well, here's to my next 500 posts... hopefully all quality and content-rich. Also, hoping that you will find useful and help you in your Sojourn of Septillion Steps!
Some reminders:
- Should you need to Contact me, you can click the Contact button located on the Top Menubar. You can use the Contact form there or find my email address. On the Sidebar, there's an Email icon with a White envelope and green background - that may be a faster way if you only want to email me.
- Also, should you want to Subscribe to my site and be informed of new updates/posts without having to surf to my site, there are two methods: 1) RSS feeds and 2) Email subscription. Check my Subscribe page for information.
... Sometimes the posts can be long. Instead of scrolling back via the scrollbar, check this out. This button located in the lower right corner of the page when clicked will send you back to the top. Very fast!
- In the lower left corner of the page, there is a green circle. Please click that and check out its function. Pretty nifty!
- Lastly, please feel free to leave Comments in posts if you desire. It is Moderated, therefore, after I check it out, I will post the Comment. Just making sure it's not Spam. For a spell, I didn't select the Moderated Comments and my site's comments was spammed by Asian Pr0n sites and sites selling counterfeit handbags!!
My sincerest thanks for your support and joining me on my Sojourn of Septillion Steps in these "things" we call Martial Arts and Life!!
Very truly yours in the Martial Arts & Self-Defense,
~sg
Top 25 Popular Posts
I've noticed the Popular Posts widget located in my Sidebar to the right is not reflecting correctly the true Popular Posts. Not sure why. Tried to figure it out with no headway for now. May take down that part of my Sidebar. *shrugs*
Below are the true Popular Posts... instead of 10, I went to 25 though which coincided with the 500+ views cutoff boundary I arbitrarily picked.
Without further ado, I present to you the Top 25 Popular Posts (as of this writing March 20, 2013):
25. EBOOKS: JudoInfo
NOTE: ACK! I didn't remember about this project. Gotta start it up soon!
NOTE: This entry shows up as #10 on my Sidebar from the automated Popular Posts widget when in fact it's #14.
NOTE: This thread amassed extensive views in a brief period which I've noted in the following entry:
TRENDING NOW: The Jabbing File by Rastus
Since then it dropped down a few spots.
12. SELF-DEFENSE: Lee Aldridge - Rear Bear Hug Escape
NOTE: This entry shows up as #9 on my Sidebar from the automated Popular Posts widget when in fact it's #12 as of this postiing 3/21/13.
11. MOVIES: Donnie Yen's Ip Man (Chain Punches)
NOTE: 2 more GIF's in the above link.
10. MMA: Lyoto 'The Dragon' Machida 1 - Background and Takedowns
9. TV: The Return of American Gladiators to TV
8th Popular Post all the way to #1 are the same as the Sidebar's Widget.
Thank you one and all!! Enjoy!!!
Monday, March 18, 2013
KNOCKOUTS: Uriah Hall X Adam Cella
This season's The Ultimate Fighter (Season 17 Episode 3) witnessed one of the most nastiest knockouts ever. It came about from a spinning kick too! Uriah Hall takes on Adam Cella. I made a few animated GIF's:
This was the KO in real-time. It took 2-3 seconds!
This was Uriah Hall celebrating before how badly he KO'd Adam Cella.
Here is a vidclip of it:
Was that brutal scary or what?
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Poem by Dan Inosanto
Throughout history, there were martial artists who also were masters of the Arts. Some of history's famous examples include:
- Miyamoto Musashi, in addition to being one of Japan's greatest swordsmen, was also an accomplished artist, sculptor, and calligrapher.
- Yamaoka Tesshu, also amongst Japan's greatest swordsmen, was a master of swordsmanship, Zen, and calligraphy.
- Cheng Man-ch'ing/Zheng Manqing of Tai Chi/Taiji fame, was often referred to as the "Master of Five Excellences." The Excellences were as follows: poetry, calligraphy, painting, Chinese medicine, and taijiquan.
Let's fast forward to a modern example. Arguably one of the 20th and 21st century's famous martial artists, Guro Dan Inosanto, needs no introduction. I present to you a poem by him:
We are all climbing different paths through the mountain of life,
and we
have all experienced much hardship and strife.
There are many paths
through the mountain of life,
and some climbs can be felt like the point of a knife. Some paths are short and others are long, who can say which path is right or wrong? The beauty of truth is that each path has its own song, and if you listen closely you will find where you belong. So climb your own path true and strong, but respect all other truths for your way for them could be wrong. |
Check out this cool video with a reading of Guro Inosanto's poem:
Did Guro Inosanto's poem inspire you to try your hand at writing poetry?
If you missed the other entries in this series, please check out:
- "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley
- "The Man in the Arena" by Theodore Roosevelt
- "If" by Rudyard Kipling
- "Desiderata" by Max Ehrmann
- Assorted poems by Yamaoka Tesshu
- Aubrey Marcus' What is a Warrior?
- "Anyway" by Mother Teresa/"The Paradoxical Commandments" by Dr. Kent M. Keith
- "Samurai Song" by Robert Pinsky (1940-) & World Poetry Day
- "Fearless" - a poem by Renzo Gracie
- "For I Have Strayed From the Path..." - a poem by Stickgrappler
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Assorted poems by Yamaoka Tesshu
Continuing my series on poems which may inspire you to pursue poetry writing or one of the other Arts, today's entry is on Yamaoka Tesshu. He was considered one of Japan's greatest swordsmen. Not only was his skill with the sword superb, his poetry was just as good. Here are a few:
On Training and Enlightenment:
Confronting every challenge steadfastly.
The walls surrounding me suddenly crumbled;
Like pure dew reflecting the world in crystal clarity, total awakening has now come.
Using thought to analyze reality is illusion;
If preoccupied with victory and defeat all will be lost.
The secret of swordsmanship?
Lightning slashes the spring wind!
Mt. Fuji is the subject of his most famous poem and is a classic:
Perfect when cloudy,
Mount Fuji's
Original form
Never changes
Some Doka (Songs of the Way):
Do not desire money,do not depend on empty principles,do not seek fame:just go with what you haveand you will pass safely through this world.
He knew he was dying and he composed this Death Poem:
against the pain.
The caw of a morning crow.
Now get to it... starting composing some poems!
If you missed the other entries in this series, please check out:
- "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley
- "The Man in the Arena" by Theodore Roosevelt
- "If" by Rudyard Kipling
- "Desiderata" by Max Ehrmann
- Poem by Dan Inosanto
- Aubrey Marcus' What is a Warrior?
- "Anyway" by Mother Teresa/"The Paradoxical Commandments" by Dr. Kent M. Keith
- "Samurai Song" by Robert Pinsky (1940-) & World Poetry Day
- "Fearless" - a poem by Renzo Gracie
- "For I Have Strayed From the Path..." - a poem by Stickgrappler