MMA: Jose Canseco to make MMA debut

Cut and pasted from http://content.usatoday.com/communities/mma/post/2009/04/66217631/1:

Even by Japanese standards, Dream's open-weight tournament has an eclectic mix. There's Gegard Mousasi, ranked fourth among middleweights in the new USA TODAY/SB Nation rankings. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou has slipped in light heavyweight rankings. Bob Sapp, a former NFL lineman turned Japanese ring celebrity, will squeeze in an appearance between his Dec. 31 demolition of a cartoon character and his upcoming bout with former pro wrestler Bobby Lashley. Then we have two kickboxers who occasionally dabble in MMA -- Mark Hunt and 7-foot-2 Korean Hong Man Choi.

Choi's first opponent: former baseball player Jose Canseco. Yes, that Jose Canseco.

Multiple sources are reporting this, Sherdog and MMA Junkie among them. The official Dream site has a cardboard cutout of Canseco next to a cardboard cutout of Choi. Safe to say Choi will have the reach advantage.

Canseco's boxing experience is mixed. Former NFL player Vai Sikahema knocked him out. He then earned a majority draw against radio personality and former Partridge Family star Danny Bonaduce.

Choi mostly sticks to kickboxing but has been a fixture of New Year's Eve MMA cards for the past three years, including a credible bout against No. 1-ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko. He's 1-2 in official MMA bouts.

By Beau Dure

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Say it ain't so! I don't know how much training Canseco has had in MMA, but how old is he? 40-something going on 50? He has had steroid issues, marital issues, and I'm sure financial issues, in which this appearance at Dream may be one of the last paydays he may see. I hope I'm wrong ... I want Canseco to prove me wrong and be successful... I want him to have had MMA training and I hope he wins. But I really cannot help but think this is one of his last shots at any kind of payday. Good luck to Jose Canseco!

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LINKS: Silat.tv

Welcome to Silat.TV - The First Social Network Dedicated to Silat!

The Best Source of Silat Videos and Information on the Internet!


Image borrowed from Silat.tv.



Silat.TV aims to bring together Silat practitioners from around the world in a thriving, video-centric online community. Silat.TV is a community of mutual respect and camaraderie. All are welcome!

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I've known of the site for some time but never had time to surf over there to check http://www.silat.tv/ out. From what I hear, it truly is THE site for silat. Check it out if you are into silat.

Enjoy!

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MMA: Kyle Maynard - A True Inspiration

Here's the American news program 20/20's piece with Kyle Maynard:

Kyle Maynard of Suwanee, Georgia, U.S. was born on March 24, 1986 with a rare disorder called congenital amputation. He has no elbows and no knees, yet he competed in the 2004 Georgia High School Wrestling Championships. He graduated from Collins Hill High School with a wrestling record of 35 wins, 16 losses and a 3.7 GPA.

He is the recipient of a 2004 ESPN Espy Award for the Best Athlete With A Disability and has been featured on many radio interviews, talk shows, and television programs. He has modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch. Currently he works as a speaker for the Washington Speaker's Bureau, specializing in motivational speeches. He is also the author of the memoir, No Excuses: The True Story of a Congenital Amputee Who Became a Champion in Wrestling and in Life (Regnery Publishing, 2005).

Kyle Maynard is attending the University of Georgia, continues to wrestle, and expects to graduate in 2008 with a B.A. in Broadcast News. Also, Kyle has recently began training in Mixed Martial Arts, and there is an upcoming doctumentary on his story entitled A Fighting Chance.

Video source: ABC News 20/20 (2006)

http://abcnews.go.com/2020

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There are a few more videos of Kyle Maynard on youtube. Check them out.

Remember when you don't feel like training or ever want to give up on something, there are champions like Kyle Maynard out there who won't give up, won't take no for an answer, always pushing themselves to the limit, giving 110%, ... Let Kyle Maynard inspire you in your endeavors!

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MMA: Kyle Maynard - No arms, no legs... no problem!

Cut and pasted from CagePotato:

Kyle Maynard – the former collegiate wrestler/congenital amputee with no arms past the elbow and no legs past the knee – will soon make his amateur MMA debut. If the name sounds familiar it’s because Maynard’s almost ridiculously inspirational story of overcoming his disability and wrestling at the University of Georgia has spread far and wide by now, and he even won an ESPY award in 2004 for “Best Athlete With A Disability.”

Now he trains at the Hardcore Gym in Athens, Georgia and has been saying for the past couple of years that he wants to get into MMA, but was denied a license to fight in Georgia. Apparently he faced no such issue in Alabama, because he’ll be competing at Auburn Fight Night on April 25.

A lot of people are going to say it’s crazy and maybe even dangerously negligent to let a guy with no hands or feet into a fight where his opponent is allowed to punch him in the face.

Here’s the thing: screw those people. Do a quick YouTube search and you’ll see he knows what he’s doing on the mat. He’s not some guy off the street, which is more than you can honestly say for Ross Clifton. Maynard trains at an MMA gym, and one assumes he has a plan for how he’s going to deal with the striking game (a plan I’m really interested to see put into action, BTW).

So to hell with Georgia, for not licensing him, and to hell with the people who think he shouldn’t fight. He’s going to fight, and we’re just glad not to be the poor schmuck who has to face him. Not only would that guy get booed if he just started teeing off on Maynard, there is also the very real possibility that Maynard will totally own his ass, like he did to this dude.

Here's a short clip of his MMA fight:



Not to trivialize Kyle Maynard's accomplishments... I am reminded of the scene in Monty Python's The Quest for the Holy Grail in which Arthur takes on the Black Knight. Both Maynard and the Black Knight are a testament to the indomitable human will! An inspiration to us all! I wish Kyle Maynard continued success in his endeavors.

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NEWS: Girl beats off muggers with marching band baton

QUARTZ HILL, Calif. – Don't mess with the marching band. That's what California authorities are saying after a 17-year-old girl used her marching band baton to beat back two would-be muggers.

Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Michael Rust says the Quartz Hill girl was walking to school April 24 when two men approached her from behind, tried to grab her coat and demanded money.

Instead, one got a punch in the nose and the other a kick to the groin. Rust says the girl then beat both of them with her band baton before she ran away.

The men had not been caught. But Rust says there's a clear message to take from the encounter:

"The moral to this story is don't mess with the marching band girls, or you just might get what you deserve. Final score: marching band 2, thugs 0."

Cut and pasted from Yahoo News.

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YES! One for the good guys!

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NEWS: Black belt teen strikes back at bully, and rallies community against racism

JOE FRIESEN
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
April 30, 2009 at 4:21 AM EDT

KESWICK, ONT. — The 15-year-old black belt thought he was doing his tormentor a favour when he elected to fight back with his weaker left hand.

He had heard his white classmate throw an angry racial slur in his direction after an argument during a gym class game of speedball, and now the student was shoving him backward, refusing to retract the smear.

The white student swung first, hitting the 15-year-old with a punch to the mouth.

The 15-year-old heard his father's voice running through his head: Fight only as a last resort, only in self-defence, only if given no choice, and only with the left hand.

His swing was short and compact, a left-handed dart that hit the white student square on the nose.

The nose broke under his fist, igniting a sequence of events - from arrest to suspension to possible expulsion - that has left the Asian student and his family wondering whether they are welcome in this small, rural and mostly white community north of Toronto, one that has been touched by anti-Asian attacks in the past.

The 15-year-old, the only person charged in connection with the April 21 school fight, faces one count of assault causing bodily harm.

But a remarkable thing happened this week.

On Monday, 400 of his fellow students, wearing black in solidarity and carrying signs of support, walked out of Keswick High School to rally in protest in front of their school.

Organizer Mathew Winch, a Grade 12 student, said the school has fewer than 10 Asian students, but everyone wanted to stand up against bullying and racism. The story even hit the front page of local newspapers.

After the public outcry, the York Regional Police hate crimes unit reopened the case. Although the other student has not been charged, further charges are possible, a spokesman said yesterday.

The case is particularly sensitive because of a series of attacks on Asian fishermen in the same area in 2007 - given the name "nipper tipping" by locals - which led to a high-profile investigation by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Five such cases in 2007, ranging from violent car chases to fishermen on piers being pushed into the water, led to criminal charges. As a result of the publicity, many other Asian anglers came forward to say they had been abused or harassed while fishing in the Lake Simcoe area.

The Asian boy's father is a martial-arts master who trained with the Korean national team. He brought his family to Canada in 2004.

They settled in Keswick in 2006, and his son, who is still learning English, has studied hard to become a top student.

He proudly showed off a report card with a 90-per-cent average. The boy has struggled a little socially, his parents said, which makes the outpouring of support from his classmates all the more remarkable.

"It's the first time in my life I ever fought someone. I've been trained not to attack. It's total self-defence," the boy said. "I felt sorry because I broke his nose, but I can say he deserved it because he called me the racial comment. He started the fight, he punched me first."

He said the boy called him a "f*cking Chinese," a comment he instantly knew was far from a joke.

"It's upsetting," he said. "I don't know how better to tell it."

For the moment, both students are suspended from Keswick High School, but the Asian student's parents have been told he could be expelled and forced to find a new school.

They are shocked and saddened by the ordeal.

The day after the fight, an older cousin of their son's antagonist approached him in the school cafeteria and uttered a similar slur, compounding their sense of despair.

"He said, 'You punched my cousin you Chinese f*ck,' " the 15-year-old said. That student was overheard by a teacher and suspended.

His father explains that the easiest course would be to move somewhere else and get a fresh start for his son. But he can't do it.

"I don't want to run away. If another Asian kid comes to this school, what happens to him? Will he run into problems? Will they think they can just kick him out? I don't want to set that example," he said.

"Personally, for my kid, I should move. But as a Canadian I cannot move."

Cut and pasted from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

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This is really sad at first, but heart-warming in the end.

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EBOOKS: Stephan Kesting's A ROADMAP FOR BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU

Check out http://www.beginningbjj.com/ for your free copy (if you haven't already) of Stephan Kesting's "A Roadmap for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu".

You have to add your email address to the form and you will be emailed the pdf or a link to to download the free pdf (forget which at the moment). In addition you will get a complimentary Beginning BJJ eCourse courtesy of Stephan Kesting.

If you have not heard of Kesting before, here is his bio (cut and pasted from his site):

"Hi there, and thank you for visiting my site!

My name is Stephan Kesting and I operate BeginningBJJ.com and Grapplearts.com. Through my DVDs, articles and newsletters, I have helped tens of thousands of grapplers all over the world improve their Brazilian Jiu-jitsu skills.

Grappling is my passion, and I want to help it become yours too. Whether your goal is to compete, challenge yourself, improve your fitness level, lose weight, or acquire some serious self defense skills I truly think that Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ) has a lot to offer you. I'm not kidding when I call it the most sophisticated martial art in the world.

Why should you listen to what I say? Here's my brief biography and Martial Arts resume:

I am a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu black belt, and have been doing martial arts for over 25 years. I am also a certified instructor in Erik Paulson's Combat Submission Wrestling, a black belt in Kajukenbo Karate, an instructor in Dan Inosanto's Jun Fan JKD, Maphalindo Silat and Filipino Martial Arts program. Additionally I have also studied Japanese Judo, Russian Sambo, various Chinese Kung Fu systems, Brazilian Capoeira, Muay Thai Kickboxing, and many other martial arts."

Read more of his bio at http://www.beginningbjj.com/about-stephan-kesting.html.

For anyone into BJJ or just grappling, this should really help your game. Check out the testimonals on his site.

Enjoy!

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MUSIC: "Take Five" ~ The Dave Brubeck Quartet

These two youtubes are not the studio version on the cd, but live performances. First one if from 1961 and the 2nd is from 1972.





This next clip is Kurt Elling and Al Jarreau performing "Take 5" from the LEGENDS OF JAZZ episode, The Jazz Singer.



Like life, jazz is the same, yet sometimes improvisation makes it different.

Enjoy!

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MUSIC: "Let's Get Lost" ~ Chet Baker

Another of my favorite jazz songs.

Enjoy!

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VIDCLIP: Time Warp - Kali Dog Brothers Real Contact Stickfighting

2 days ago, 4/15/09, Discovery Channel had Time Warp: Slings, Rockets, Sticks. For the sticks portion of the show, Nick Papadakis, Roan Kalani Grimm and Erik Bryant, associated with the Dog Brothers -- demonstrate the Filipino art of Kali. MIT scientist Jeff Lieberman and the Time Warp team use the latest in high-speed photography to capture the stick strikes against stick, against a coconut, and against the human body.

One word: OUCH! ;-)

NOTE: My thanks to lone_wolf for the headsup on this.

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ARTICLES: Kelly McCann in Black Belt magazine

Profile/Articles

Black Belt magazine profile of Kelly McCann
Forged At The Crucible By E. Lawrence article on Elite Training Organization Creates the World’s Best Warriors

Techniques Videoclips

Kelly McCann: How to Handle "Handshake" Situations
Kelly McCann: Jugular Notch Demo Video
Kelly McCann: Time Lag in Combatives
Kelly McCann: Lapel Grab / Chin Jab Demo Video
Kelly McCann: Baton vs. Knife Demo Video
Kelly McCann: Arm-Drag Takedown Demo Video

Enjoy!

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ARTICLES: Close Combat by Robert Bolt with Carl Cestari

Check out this Black Belt magazine article with Carl Cestari, Close Combat by Robert Bolt.

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LINKS: Battlefield forum aka Close-Combat forum

Image borrowed from Battlefield forum

Welcome to the Close-Combat Forum. This is a Close-Combat board, devoted to discussion on WWII-Combatives Close-Quarters Battlecraft, Reality Based Self-Defense, Edged-Weapons, Knife-Fighting, Impact-Weapons and the Tactics, Strategies and Concepts used in the REAL WORLD!

Check it out: Battlefield forum aka Close-Combat forum.

Loads of knowledgeable members, including Combatives luminaries such as Clint Sporman, Ralph Grasso, V42", "stickfighter", and more. Various sub-forums including a special section archiving Carl Cestari, Clint Sporman and also Ralph Grasso posts. Great subsection with Techniques with pictures. Veritable goldmine of combatives/self-defense info!

Enjoy!

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LINKS: CarlCestari.com

Picture borrowed from http://www.goshindosamurai.com

Speaking of Carl Cestari, please check out http://www.carlcestari.com/ for photos, video clips, articles and more on the man. Loads of practical advice on self-defense as well as the history of combatives.

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LINKS: Clint Sporman's Gutterfighting.org

For a great site about the WW2 Combatives, please check out Clint Sporman's Gutterfighting.org. Lots of information on there, including an archive of some of Carl Cestari's articles/posts.

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Finally, I added a site counter to my blog

For the heck of it, finally, I added a site counter to my blog... Site Meter. For whatever reason which I'm clueless as to why... I've never added one to the blog until now.

LOL @ me.

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LINKS: Personal Protection Systems / Darren Laur

Check out Personal Protection Systems / Darren Laur.

When I used to have more time in the past, Mr. Laur was prolific on many of the "martial arts" forums, and I would love to read his posts. He shared with the members of those forums various articles he wrote, and more importantly, his experience and wisdom in street situations. He was mostly concerned with "reality-based self defense" (RBSD)... what and how we trained in the "dojo" may not be what will really happen on the streets. His articles has helped me tremendously! Other RBSD instructors have material that is similar, but Mr. Laur was prolific in helping people with questions on the various forums as well as providing ease of access to his articles.

IMO, Mr. Laur's 40 or so articles should be on everyone's required reading list, that is, if your focus is on self-defense. Do yourself a favor and read his articles. It may save your butt!

Start with:

Street 101: How fights go down on the street and what to look for

I can go on and on from here on what to read and in what order, but your focus may not be my focus... your experience may be at a different level than mine... read the rest in any order you fancy.

The articles are mostly, if not all, in MS Word format, therefore, just right-click the link and do a save-as.

Enjoy!

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LINKS: Sun Bear's Training Hall

Check out Sun Bear's Training Hall. He is a martial artist who is getting back into training after raising a family and will be learning Silat again. I wish him the best of luck and happiness on his journey in the martial arts! I look forward to reading his blog and seeing how he is progressing in his journey.

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VIDCLIP: Dude Mugged On Bus In Paris

The footage seems to be taken 7/12/2008, but was uploaded to the net yesterday.

A guy gets his wallet stolen by a gang while riding a bus in Paris. He is beaten up in front of the other passengers while he tries to get it back.

2 links... the same vid, in case one of them goes down.

http://www.break.com/index/dude-mugged-on-paris-bus1.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTU3AOIfwVU


Embedding is disabled, so just click the link... lots of interesting dynamics going on IMO in this clip.

NOTE: I watched both the break.com and 2 youtube links earlier this AM, got busy with work and now as I post this, I cannot access one of the youtube links and the 2nd, I have only because my browser was still up. Youtube says "This video is not available in your country."

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MMA: Crazy 20 second Capoeira MMA Knockout!

Marcus "LELO" Aurelio of AXE Capoeira Vancouver knocks out Keegan "The Marshall" Marshall at North American Challenge #24 in North Vancouver, BC on April.4th.2009.

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NEWS: Google’s Plan for Out-of-Print Books Is Challenged

April 4, 2009
Google’s Plan for Out-of-Print Books Is Challenged
By MIGUEL HELFT

SAN FRANCISCO — The dusty stacks of the nation’s great university and research libraries are full of orphans — books that the author and publisher have essentially abandoned. They are out of print, and while they remain under copyright, the rights holders are unknown or cannot be found.

Now millions of orphan books may get a new legal guardian. Google has been scanning the pages of those books and others as part of its plan to bring a digital library and bookstore, unprecedented in scope, to computer screens across the United States.

But a growing chorus is complaining that a far-reaching settlement of a suit brought against Google by publishers and authors is about to grant the company too much power over orphan works.

These critics say the settlement, which is subject to court approval, will give Google virtually exclusive rights to publish the books online and to profit from them. Some academics and public interest groups plan to file legal briefs objecting to this and other parts of the settlement in coming weeks, before a review by a federal judge in June.

While most orphan books are obscure, in aggregate they are a valuable, broad swath of 20th-century literature and scholarship.

Determining which books are orphans is difficult, but specialists say orphan works could make up the bulk of the collections of some major libraries.

Critics say that without the orphan books, no competitor will ever be able to compile the comprehensive online library Google aims to create, giving the company more control than ever over the realm of digital information. And without competition, they say, Google will be able to charge universities and others high prices for access to its database.

The settlement, “takes the vast bulk of books that are in research libraries and makes them into a single database that is the property of Google,” said Robert Darnton, head of the Harvard University library system. “Google will be a monopoly.”

Google, which has scanned more than seven million books from the collections of major libraries at its own expense, vigorously defends the settlement, saying it will bring great benefits to the broader public. And it says others could make similar deals.

“This agreement expands access to many of these hard-to-find books in a way that is great for Google, great for authors, great for publishers and great for readers,” said Alexander Macgillivray, the Google lawyer who led the settlement negotiations with the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild.

Most of the critics, which include copyright specialists, antitrust scholars and some librarians, agree that the public will benefit. But they say others should also have rights to orphan works. And they oppose what they say amounts to the rewriting, through a private deal rather than through legislation, of the copyright rules for millions of texts.

“They are doing an end run around the legislative process,” said Brewster Kahle, founder of the Open Content Alliance, which is working to build a digital library with few restrictions.

Opposition to the 134-page agreement, which the parties announced in October, has been building slowly as its implications have become clearer. Groups that plan to raise concerns with the court include the American Library Association, the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School and a group of lawyers led by Prof. Charles R. Nesson of Harvard Law School. It is not clear that any group will oppose the settlement outright.

The groups representing publishers and authors, which filed a class-action lawsuit against Google in 2005 in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of their members, are defending the settlement, as are some librarians at major universities.

“What we were establishing was a renewed access to a huge corpus of material that was essentially lost in the bowels of a few great libraries,” said Richard Sarnoff, former chairman of the Association of American Publishers and co-chairman of the American unit of Bertelsmann, the parent company of Random House.

The lawsuit claimed that Google’s practice of showing snippets of copyrighted books in search results was copyright infringement. Google insisted that it was protected by fair use provisions of copyright law.

The settlement, which covers all books protected by copyright in the United States, allows Google to vastly expand what it can do with digital copies of books, whether they are orphans or not.

Google will be allowed to show readers in the United States as much as 20 percent of most copyrighted books, and will sell access to the entire collection to universities and other institutions. Public libraries will get free access to the full texts for their patrons at one computer, and individuals will be able to buy online access to particular books.

Proceeds from the program, including advertising revenue from Google’s book search service, will be split; Google will take 37 percent, and authors and publishers will share the rest. Google will also help set up a Book Rights Registry, run by authors and publishers, to administer rights and distribute payments.

Authors are permitted to opt out of the settlement or remove individual books from Google’s database. Google says it expects the pool of orphan books to shrink as authors learn about the registry and claim their books.

While the registry’s agreement with Google is not exclusive, the registry will be allowed to license to others only the books whose authors and publishers have explicitly authorized it. Since no such authorization is possible for orphan works, only Google would have access to them, so only Google could assemble a truly comprehensive book database.

“No other company can realistically get an equivalent license,” said Pamela Samuelson, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.

Mr. Macgillivray said Google shared with many of its critics the goal of making orphan works more widely accessible. He said Google would continue to lobby for legislation to that effect. And he said that nothing prevented a potential rival from following in its footsteps — namely, by scanning books without explicit permission, waiting to be sued and working to secure a similar settlement.

Yet even Michael J. Boni, the lead lawyer representing the Authors Guild, conceded that “Google will always have the advantage of having access to 100 percent of the orphan works.”

Mr. Darnton of Harvard said he feared that without competition Google would be free to “raise the price to unbearable levels.”

But Mr. Macgillivray and Mr. Boni said prices would be kept in check, in part by the goal, spelled out in the agreement, to reach as many customers as possible.

Some of Google’s rivals are clearly interested in the settlement’s fate. Microsoft is helping to finance the research on the settlement at the New York Law School institute. James Grimmelmann, an associate professor at the institute, said its work was not influenced by Microsoft. Microsoft confirmed this but declined to comment further.

Amazon also declined to comment. An unmatchable back catalog could eventually make Google a primary source for digital versions of books, old and new, threatening other e-book stores.

Cut and pasted from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/technology/internet/04books.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

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NEWS: NY gunman kills 13, commits suicide

NY gunman kills 13, commits suicide
By WILLIAM KATES, Associated Press Writer William Kates, Associated Press Writer 6 mins ago

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – A gunman barricaded the back door of a community center with his car and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking a citizenship class Friday, killing 13 people before apparently committing suicide, officials said.

Investigators said they had yet to establish a motive for the massacre, which was at least the fifth deadly mass shooting in the U.S. in the past month alone.

The attack came just after 10 a.m. at the American Civic Association, an organization that helps immigrants settle in this country. Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said the gunman parked his car against the back door, "making sure nobody could escape," then stormed through the front, shooting two receptionists, apparently without a word.

The killer, believed to be a Vietnamese immigrant, then entered a room just off the reception area and fired on a citizenship class.

"The people were trying to better themselves, trying to become citizens," the police chief said.

One receptionist was killed, while the other, shot in the abdomen, pretended to be dead and then crawled under a desk and called 911, he said.

Police said they arrived within two minutes.

The rest of those killed were shot in the classroom. Four people were critically wounded.

The man believed to have carried out the attack was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an office, a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck, authorities said. Police found two handguns — a 9mm and a .45-caliber — and a hunting knife.

Thirty-seven people in all made it out of the building, including 26 who hid in the boiler room in the basement, cowering there for three hours while police methodically searched the building and tried to determine whether the gunman was still alive and whether he was holding any hostages, Zikuski said.

Those in the basement stayed in contact with police by cell phone, switching from one phone to another when their batteries ran out, Zikuski said. Others hid in closets and under desks.

Police heard no gunfire after they arrived but waited for about an hour before entering the building to make sure it was safe for officers. They then spent two hours searching the building.

They led a number of men out of the building in plastic handcuffs while they tried to sort out the victims from the killer or killers.

Most of the people brought out couldn't speak English, the chief said.

Alex Galkin, an immigrant from Uzbekistan, said he was taking English classes when he heard a shot and quickly went to the basement with about 20 other people.

"It was just panic," Galkin said.

Zhanar Tokhtabayeva, a 30-year-old from Kazakhstan, said she was in an English class when she heard a shot and her teacher screamed for everyone to go to the storage room.

"I heard the shots, every shot. I heard no screams, just silence, shooting," she said. "I heard shooting, very long time, and I was thinking, when will this stop? I was thinking that my life was finished."

Dr. Jeffrey King, speaking at a Catholic Charities office where counseling was being offered Friday night, said he was certain his mother, 72-year-old Roberta King, who taught English at the community center, was among the dead.

Authorities read a list of survivors and his mother's name wasn't on it, he said.

King, one of 10 children, described his mother as a woman brimming with interests ranging from the opera to the preservation society to collecting thousands of dolls. He recollected a recent conversation in which he told her to enjoy her retirement.

"I said, 'Mom you're in your 70s,'" King said. "She said, 'What? You don't think I enjoy working?'"

Gov. David Paterson said the massacre was probably "the worst tragedy and senseless crime in the history of this city." Noting mass killings in Alabama and Oakland, Calif., last month, he said: "When are we going to be able to curb the kind of violence that is so fraught and so rapid that we can't even keep track of the incidents?"

The community center was holding class "for those who want to become citizens of the United States of America, who wanted to be part of the American Dream, and so tragically may have had that hope thwarted today," the governor said. "But there still is an American dream, and all of us who are Americans will try to heal this very, very deep wound in the city of Binghamton."

The suspected gunman carried ID with the name of 42-year-old Jiverly Voong, of nearby Johnson City, N.Y., but that was believed to be an alias, said a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A second law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two handguns were registered to Jiverly Wong, another name the man used. Both officials were not authorized to speak publicly.

Initial reports suggested Voong had recently been let go from IBM. But a person at IBM said there was no record of a Jiverly Voong ever working there.

The police chief would not confirm the name of the dead man with the ammunition satchel, saying authorities were still trying to establish with certainty that he was the gunman.

"We have no idea what the motive is," Zikuski said.

He said the suspected gunman "was no stranger" to the community center and may have gone there to take a class.

A woman who answered the phone at a listing for Henry D. Voong said she was Jiverly Voong's sister but would not give her name. She said her brother had been in the country for 28 years and had citizenship.

"I think there's a misunderstanding over here because I want to know, too," she said.

Friday evening, police searched Voong's house and carried out three computer hard drives, a brown canvas rifle case, a briefcase, a small suitcase and several paper bags.

Police leaving the Voong home shortly before 8 p.m., soon after four people arrived by car and went into the house. It wasn't clear who they were, but they promptly turned out the lights.

Crime scene tape was stretched across the street about 20 yards from the house, and a steady rain fell as two state troopers stood guard to keep anyone but neighborhood residents from entering the dead-end street.

Waiting outside a Catholic Charities office where counselors were tending to relatives of victims, Omri Yigal said his wife, Delores, was taking English lessons when the gunman attacked. He had no word on what happened to her.

He finally left the center feeling sullen shortly before 8 p.m.

"They told me they don't have much hope for me," the Filipino immigrant said before going home to wait for a telephone call.

The American Civic Association helps immigrants in the Binghamton area with citizenship, resettlement and family reunification. The shootings took place in a neighborhood of homes and small businesses in downtown Binghamton, a city of about 47,000 situated 140 miles northwest of New York City.

The Binghamton area was the home to Endicott-Johnson shoe company and the birthplace of IBM, which between them employed tens of thousands of workers before the shoe company closed a decade ago and IBM downsized in recent years.

A string of attacks in the U.S. in the last month left 44 people dead in all.

A gunman killed 10 people and himself in Samson, Ala.; shootings that began with a traffic stop in Oakland, Calif., left four police officers and the gunman dead; an apparent murder-suicide in Santa Clara, Calif., left six dead; and a gunman went on a rampage at a nursing home Sunday, killing seven elderly residents and a nurse who cared for them.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers George M. Walsh and Chris Carola in Albany; Kimberly Hefling and Devlin Barrett in Washington; Michael Hill in Binghamton; and John Wawrow in Buffalo; John Kekis in Johnson City; and the AP News Research Center.

Cut and pasted from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hostage_shooting

My sincerest condolences to the victims' families and loved ones.

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READING LISTS: Terry Trahan's Required Reading

Check out Terry Trahan's blog and his post about Required reading.

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MUSIC: Olivia Ong ~ L.O.V.E

Enjoy!

Olivia Ong: L.O.V.E from the album, "A Girl Meets Bossanova 2" (2006)



L is for the way you look at me
O is for the only one I see
V is very, very extraordinary
E is even more than anyone that you adore

Love is all that I can give to you
Love is more than just a game for two
Two in love can make it
Take my heart and please dont break it
Love was made for me and you



L is for the way you look at me
O is for the only one I see
V is very, very extraordinary
E is even more than anyone that you adore

Love is all that I can give to you
Love is more than just a game for two
Two in love can make it
Take my heart and please dont break it
Love was made for me and you
Love was made for me and you
Love was made for me and you

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MUSIC: Olivia Ong ~ Fly Me to the Moon

Forgot who turned me onto Olvia Ong, but she has an awesome voice. Technically not jazz, but bossa nova, but like the Cowboy Bepob entries, I'm not making a separate category bossa nova LOL

Enjoy!

Olivia Ong: Fly Me to the Moon from the album, "A Girl Meets Bossanova" (2005)



Fly me to the moon
Let me sing among those stars
Let me see what spring is like
On jupiter and mars

In other words, hold my hand
In other words, baby kiss me

Fill my heart with song
Let me sing for ever more
You are all I long for
All I worship and adore

In other words, please be true
In other words, I love you

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MUSIC: Astrud Gilberto ~ The Girl From Ipanema (sung all in English)

One of my all-time favorites! Well not quite "jazz", it's categorized more as 'bossa nova'. This Youtube is all in English. The original version starts off in Portuguese and then changes to English. The original is much better. Still looking for it.

Enjoy!

Song is from the 1964 album "Getz/Gilberto" by Stan Getz & João Gilberto. Music video is from the 1964 film "Get Yourself a College Girl"

Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, each one she passes goes - ah

When she walks, shes like a samba
That swings so cool and sways so gentle
That when she passes, each one she passes goes - ooh

(ooh) but I watch her so sadly
How can I tell her I love her
Yes I would give my heart gladly
But each day, when she walks to the sea
She looks straight ahead, not at me

Tall, (and) tan, (and) young, (and) lovely
The girl from ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, I smile - but she doesnt see (doesnt see)
(she just doesnt see, she never sees me,...)

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MUSIC: "Rush"/"NY Rush" from anime Cowboy Bebop

Yet another favorite!



A variation of "Rush" called "NY Rush".

Enjoy!

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MUSIC: "Clutch" from the anime series Cowboy Bebop

Another of my favorites!

Enjoy!

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LIFE: Infidelity and Talkativeness -- 2 Cavemen Theories

December 11, 2008: our department had a Holiday Dinner party. As we were leaving for it, the breaking news was that Bernard Madoff was arrested for operating the largest Ponzi scheme in history. We had drinks before the dinner party and the chatter got to Madoff and cheating. It was easy to understand why Madoff cheated ... greed... pure and simple.

Then one of my co-workers started talking about infidelity. One of his former co-workers cheated on his wife. The talk went back and off amongst us and we all were married and said we would not cheat on our wives. Some of them wondered why men cheat. Most of them knew a cheater... they have money, they hadvea loving wife, they have children. Why do men cheat on their wives?

I mentioned that I heard some theory about infidelity and it was hardwired to our genetic makeup to ensure the survival of the human race. Cavemen would mate with whichever cavewomen they could. I also stated that I had no backup to this, that is, I didn't have books/authors/sites etc to back up what I heard. One of my co-workers mentioned that he has heard that, but if he ever cheated on his wife (he wouldn't), but if he ever did cheat, he could not use the "caveman/survival of the race" defense. He has already used 'cavemen' as a defense for something else. I was curious as to what he was talking about. I was puzzled.

My coworker says that back in the cavemen days, it was a hunter-gatherer society. I nodded in agreement. He says that men were the hunters and the women were gatherers of fruits, nuts, etc. So far, so good, I understood this. I was curious where he was going with this.

He described a typical hunting foray... men go out with their weapons... they lay in hiding when they see an animal... they had to be quiet or else they scare off their prey. An image of Elmer Fudd in Fred Flintstone's outfit holding a spear and whispering, "Shhhh! I'm hunting mastodons." came to mind. LOL

My co-worker then goes on to describe how women went out to gather food. They would all go out and make as much noise as they can... talking to each other loud enough for the wild animals to hear and be scared off. That made sense. That was their survival mechanism.

And then he laid it on me... the punchline... mental drumroll please.....

He doesn't talk much to his wife just to talk or to pass time, and his wife blabbers on and on constantly whenever. He says generally men are taciturn and women are verbose. Everytime his wife is in the mood to talk, he doesn't converse back. She gets upset and asks why he doesn't talk to her. He says, "Blame it on the cavemen!". And then he says, "If I ever cheated on my wife, I couldn't use your 'cavemen defense' as I use it already for not talking to her."

We both broke out into a good long laughter!

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THIS DATE IN HISTORY: March 30

A belated selective cut and paste from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_30:

Events

240 BC - 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

1822 - Florida Territory created in the United States.

1842 - Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long.

1858 - Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.

My father has always taught me 'Men are not perfect and will make mistakes. That's why there's an eraser at the end of the pencil." Now I know... I can thank Hymen Lipman for allowing us to be imperfect. :-)

1867 - Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The media call this Seward's Folly.

1870 - Florida territorial government is established.

1909 - The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan and Queens.

1939 - The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph.

1954 - Yonge Street subway line opens in Toronto. It is the first subway in Canada.

1981 - President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.



One of the earliest instances in my memory of seeing the Secret Service in action. Check out the agent with the Uzi.

Births

1853 - Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (d. 1890)



Know him best for THE STARRY NIGHT JUNE 1889.

1913 - Frankie Laine, American singer (d. 2007)

I know him best for singing RAWHIDE.

1927 - Peter Marshall, American game show host

The host of the game show THE HOLLYWOOD SQUARES... a staple of our household when I was a kid.

1930 - John Astin, American actor

Probably best known to TV fans as Gomez Adams of THE ADDAMS FAMILY. Another staple of my childhood TV.

1937 - Warren Beatty, American actor and director

1945 - Eric Clapton, British guitarist

1957 - Paul Reiser, American actor

1962 - MC Hammer, American rap musician

1964 - Tracy Chapman, American singer

1968 - Celine Dion, Canadian singer

1970 - Secretariat, American racehorse (d. 1989)

1979 - Norah Jones, American singer and pianist

Deaths

1986 - James Cagney, American actor (b. 1899)

The second movie Cagney's company produced was Blood On the Sun. Insisting on doing his own stunts, Cagney required judo training from expert Ken Kuniyuki and Jack Halloran, a former policeman.

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NEWS: Man Hit by Spear Done With Underwater Fishing

Man Hit by Spear Done With Underwater Fishing

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 1, 2009
Filed at 4:07 p.m. ET

SAO PAULO (AP) -- A Brazilian man who came to a hospital with a spear stuck in his head after a diving accident says he is done with underwater fishing. Three days after doctors surgically removed a 6-inch spear from his brain, Emerson de Oliveira Abreu says ''never more'' will he get back into the water to fish with spears. Abreu is in stable condition and expected to be released in 10 days.

Abreu told Globo TV on Wednesday that he felt ''a sharp pain'' after his shot apparently ricocheted off a rock and entered his head just above his left eye.

He said the pain was unbearable every time he touched the spear or when the ambulance hit bumps in the road on the way to the hospital.

cut and pasted from http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/04/01/world/AP-LT-Brazil-Spear-in-Head.html?_r=1.

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THIS DATE IN HISTORY: March 29

A belated selective cut and paste from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_29:

Events

1799 - New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state.

1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.

Shaka Zulu... 'nuf said!

1886 - Dr. John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia.

I'd like to teach the world to stop drinking soda...

1951 - Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.

1971 - A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers.

1973 - Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.

1987 - WrestleMania III sets a world indoor attendance record at the Pontiac Silverdome with 93,173 fans.

2004 - The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.

Births

1867 - Cy Young, American baseball player (d. 1955)

1913 - Tony Zale, American boxer (d. 1997)

Hmmm...listed as May 29 for Zale's birth date, yet, the wiki page for March 29 has Zale's birthdate as March 29.

1917 - Man o' War, American thoroughbred racehorse (d. 1947)

The greatest Thoroughbred racehorse of all time... The name "upset" is thought to have come from the horse Upset, the only horse ever to beat the great "Man o' War".

1928 - Vincent Gigante, American mafioso (d. 2005)

aka The Chin aka The Oddfather because often wandered the streets of Greenwich Village, Manhattan in his bathrobe and slippers, mumbling incoherently to himself, in what Gigante later admitted was an elaborate act to avoid prosecution.

1940 - Astrud Gilberto, Brazilian singer

Astrud Gilberto (born March 29, 1940) is a Brazilian singer best known for her samba and bossa nova music, most famously as the vocalist on the Grammy Award-winning song "The Girl from Ipanema".

One of my favorite songs ever!

1943 - Vangelis, Greek musician and composer

Best known for BLADE RUNNER and CHARIOTS OF FIRE.

1944 - Denny McLain, American baseball player

Last major league baseball pitcher to win 30 or more games in a single season.

1945 - Walt Frazier, American basketball player

Former NY Knick, Frazier is regarded as one of the best point guards in the history of the game.

1955 - Christopher Lawford, Irish actor

1955 - Marina Sirtis, English actress

Any Star Trek fan can tell you who this beautiful actress is :-)

1957 - Christopher Lambert, French actor

There can only be one!!!!! If you have never watched HIGHLANDER, you should. Cult classic.

1964 - Elle Macpherson, Australian model

Yummy! Supermodel alert!!

1968 - Lucy Lawless, New Zealand actress and singer

XENA!!!

1976 - Jennifer Capriati, American tennis player

Deaths

2005 - Johnnie Cochran, American lawyer (b. 1937)

Hmmm...OJ Simpson... glove....

"If the glove don't fit, you must acquit!"

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THIS DATE IN HISTORY: March 28

A belated selective cut and paste from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_28:

Events

1834 - The United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in de-funding the Second Bank of the United States.

1910 - Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion, after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.

1979 - In Pennsylvania, operators fail to recognize that a relief valve is stuck open in the primary coolant system of Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor following an unexpected shutdown. As a result, enough coolant drains out of the system to allow the core to overheat and partially melt down.

This, at the time, was very very scary for me.

1990 - President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.

Births

1613 - Xiaozhuangwen Grand Empress Dowager, Empress of Manchu (d. 1688)

1919 - Vic Raschi, American baseball player (d. 1988)

Part of the powerhouse NY Yankees teams of the 1940's-1950's. He, along with Allie Reynolds and Eddie Lopat, were the "Big Three" pitchers of the Yanks.

1922 - Joey Maxim, American boxer (d. 2001)

He was a light heavyweight champion of the world. He took the ring-name Joey Maxim from the Maxim gun, the world's first self-acting machine gun, based on his ability to rapidly throw a large number of left jabs.

1958 - Curt Hennig, American professional wrestler (d. 2003)

Hennig aka Mr. Perfect. Described by WWE as "one of the best in-ring technicians of his generation", peers including Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Randy Savage consider Hennig to be one of the most gifted in-ring performers in professional wrestling history.

Deaths

1953 - Jim Thorpe, American athlete (b. 1887)

In 1950 Thorpe was named the greatest athlete of the first half of the twentieth century by the Associated Press (AP). In 1999 he was ranked third on the AP list of top athletes of the 20th century.

1969 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (b. 1890)

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IN MEMORY OF: Mrs. Vicenta Ong Canete

Just saw this post by Pat O'Malley on Martial Arts Planet:

It is with my heart and sould that I unfortunetly have to inform you that that on April 1, 2009 at 10:59am Cebu time, Mrs Vicenta Ong Canete died. Mrs Canete is the loving wife of GM Dionisio Canete.

Our thoughts and prayers are with GM Dionisio Canete and his family at this sad time. We will miss Mrs Canete's kind hospitality and presence at the Doce Pares HQ. We are very grateful to Mrs Canete's hard work and help with many things over the years and we will never forget the extra mile Mrs Canete went to make our wedding day so special. Wishing a lovely lady well on her journey.

The O'Malley Family xx.

My sincerest condolences to GM Dionisio Canete and his family.

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LINKS: The renowned Sandow Plus website

Sandow and the Golden Age of Iron Men
The Online Physical Culture Museum

http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/

There are articles and ebooks/pdf's as well as ebooks in html/jpg format on the old-time strongmen and physical culture of that period.

Sometime ago, I surfed across this site when I was looking for information on Farmer Burns. Check out:

http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Burns/burnsindex.htm

for info on Martin 'Farmer' Burns as well as a free pdf download of his "Lessons in Wrestling & Physical Culture", which is the famous Farmer Burns Mail Order Course. Scanned direct from a 1912 set of lessons!

Loads of cool & good information on this site. Enjoy!

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READING LISTS: Kelly McCann's Reading List

Want to learn something new? Read an old book. Combative concepts have been around forever. Techniques don't vary much but the concept behind their use, method of application and mindset may. Not to be flippant but frankly I've never cared whether a strike is called a "tiger claw" or "face mash" or who called what when - you don't whip anyone's ass reciting proper terminology. All I care about is effectiveness.

Read as much as possible about combatives. Form your own educated opinions. Combatives are only a loose set of finite techniques applied violently - they're not meant to be difficult to understand or practice, they're designed to be simple, effective and easy to recall under duress. There's not a combatives "system." Combatives comprise a collection of techniques each practicioner chooses from and relies on based on his / her personal attributes and preferences. By the way, just because a technique appears in an old black & white book doesn't mean it is "battle-proven" or provides an assurance of success. Some of the old stuff plain sucks. So don't do what sucks. Combatives - as promulgated by ANY author - are not sacrosanct. Use techniques that are most powerful and effective for you, dump the rest.

When combatives are made difficult, they're no longer combatives.

Know what you're talking about. Bang hard and work out your own "system" or curriculum.

There are some exhaustive reading lists on Combatives websites. Surf around and see what's out there. I tend not to read everything from any one author as a lot of it has been repackaged and repackaged again. Once I think I have a feel for what the author's about I'll pick something else up. I like old books and always keep my eyes open in antique stores, at the odd flea market and dusty joints selling old stuff. I scored "Boxing" (1940) Edwin Haislet - a great boxing reference - an edition of "The Complete Jujitsuan" (1914) W.H. Garrud and a 1943 United States Prison Service defensive tactics reference titled, "Physical Training" at a remote gas station I stopped at when traveling once - you'll be amazed what you'll find around when you start looking.

In no particular order of preference:

John Styers "Cold Steel"

W.E. Fairbairn "Defendu","Get Tough","Scientific Self-Defense"

Joseph Rosa "The Gunfighter - Man or Myth?"

B.J. Cosneck "American Combat Judo"

John Martone "Handbook of Self-Defense - for Law Enforcement Officers"

Rex Applegate "Kill or be Killed"

W.E. Fairbairn & E.A. Sykes "Shooting to Live"

USMC Field Manual (Dermot O'neil) "Combat Conditioning"

US Army 21-150 (circa 1940's) "Combatives"

Wesley Brown "Hand to Hand Combat","Self Defense"

Leon Claire Metz "The Shooters"

Drexel Biddle "Do or Die"

James Hipkiss "Your Answer to Invasion"

Francois D'eliscu "Hand to Hand Combat"

Cut and pasted from: http://www.kellymccanncombatives.com/?itemCategory=34162&siteid=314&priorId=0

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READING LISTS

From time to time, I will come across various authors'/martial artists' recommended reading lists. I will put them up and of course, with full credit to the author and the book/website/source I cited it from.

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SUBMISSIONS

Submissions? No, not the fang choke, rear naked choke, double top wrist lock, surfboard, rolling kneebar or heelhook LOL

From time to time, I may be putting up articles that were submitted to me for inclusion to my blog/site... articles that seemed informative and interesting.

As with anything archived to my site or put up to my blog, YMMV (your mileage may vary). I don't expect everything I've found informative or interesting to be the same for you. But if even one article, archived thread, or piece of info I've put up or mentioned has any merit to you, then I've done my service and have added value. The name of the game is value added in my book.

Very truly yours in the MA,

~sg

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NEWS: Computer Virus 'Time Bomb' Could Go Off April 1, 2009

Cut and pasted from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510296,00.html:

Computer Virus 'Time Bomb' Could Go Off April 1

Tuesday , March 24, 2009

The Conficker Internet worm could strike at infected computers around the world on April 1, a security expert warned Monday.

Conficker is a sophisticated piece of malicious computer software, or malware, that installs itself on a Windows PC's hard drive via specially written Web pages. It then conceals itself on a computer.

Graham Cluley of the British security firm Sophos confirmed that Conficker is programmed "to hunt for new instructions on April 1."

However, he added, "This does not mean that anything is going to happen, or that the worm is actually going to do anything. Simply, it is scheduled to hunt a wider range of Web sites for instructions on that date."

One strange thing about Conficker is that no one yet has any idea what it is programmed to do.

In February, Cluley told The Times: "It's as if someone is assembling an army of computers around the world, but hasn't yet decided where to point them."

A worst-case scenario for April 1 would be for all the world's millions of infected computers to receive simultaneous instructions to attack, or to flood the Internet with spam e-mail.

Ed Gibson, Microsoft's chief security adviser for the U.K., was reluctant to make predictions about Conficker's behavior.

"April 1 is a classic date for anything like this to go off," he said. "But I really would hate to say that April 1 is going to be unlike any other day."

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THIS DATE IN HISTORY: March 27

A belated selective cut and paste from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_27:

Events

1871 - The first international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, is played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.

1958 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union.

1970 - Concorde makes its first supersonic flight.

1993 - Jiang Zemin is appointed President of the People's Republic of China.

1998 - The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.

Births

1901 - Carl Barks, American illustrator (d. 2000)

His name may not ring a bell, but his creations probably will... he created Duckburg and its inhabitants including Scrooge McDuck. His stories have influenced the likes of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. A legend in the history of comics illustration.

1942 - Michael York, English actor

LOGAN'S RUN!! THE THREE MUSKETEERS!!

1963 - Quentin Tarantino, American director, writer, and producer

One of my favorite directors.

Deaths

1972 - M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (b. 1898)

If you have never heard of him, just check out his art... a mind-trip!

2002 - Milton Berle, American actor and comedian (b. 1908)

2002 - Billy Wilder, American director (b. 1906)

A giant amongst directors. Directed so many classics, for me, he directed possibly the best (or 2nd best) film noir of all time, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck.

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THIS DATE IN HISTORY: March 26

A belated selective cut and pasted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_26:

Events

1953 - Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.

1982 - A groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, D.C..

1979 - Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C..

1997 - Thirty-nine bodies found in the Heaven's Gate cult suicides.

1999 - The "Melissa worm" infects Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems around the world.

2006 - The military junta ruling Burma officially names Naypyidaw, a new city in Mandalay Division, as the new capital. Yangon had formerly been the nation's capital.

Births

1874 - Robert Frost, American poet (d. 1963)

One of Frost's most famous poems, THE ROAD NOT TAKEN:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I first heard of Frost when I was trying to find some lines used in the Charles Bronson movie, TELEFON, which was used to trigger sleeper agents into action. The lines came from this poem: STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING, which was Frost's favorite of all his poems.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
but I have promises to keep.
And miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep.

1904 - Joseph Campbell, American author (d. 1987)

Campbell was a mythologist, writer and lecturer best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. What he basically did was extract the essence of universal symbols in the world's myths and religions. He noted that the world's myths are similar and there are common themes. One of his famous books is THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES. His works have influenced George Lucas when Lucas crafted the STAR WARS saga.

1916 - Sterling Hayden, American actor (d. 1986)

One of the great film noir classics, Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING, starred Hayden. This movie had some influence on Quentin Tarantion's PULP FICTION. What was great for me about this movie was not just Hayden's solid performance, but also how the movie followed one character's actions through to the caper heist, then picks up on a different character and follows his actions until the heist at the racetrack. Non-linear storytelling.

1931 - Leonard Nimoy, American actor and director

Mr. Nimoy, Live Long and Prosper!

1940 - James Caan, American actor

So many great, classic movies with Caan: GODFATHER, ROLLERBALL, WAY OF THE GUN and more!

1943 - Bob Woodward, American journalist

Probably best known for co-authoring the book, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, on Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal.

1954 - Curtis Sliwa, American founder of the Guardian Angels

I don't have statistics or anything, but I believe Sliwa and the Guardian Angels helped to cut down crime in New York City subways.

Deaths

1959 - Raymond Chandler, American-born novelist (b. 1888)

Crime writer who is practically synonmous with 'hardboiled' fiction... creator of the quintessential private detective, Philip Marlowe.

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STICKGRAPPLING: Martell's Simplified Ju Jitsu (1942)

Author Jules Martell calls this hold simply a 'neck breaker'.

Click for a bigger picture.

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THIS DATE IN HISTORY: March 25

A belated selective cut and pasted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_25:

Events

1911 - In New York City, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 garment workers.

Just yesterday I was watching some of the bonus features of the GANGS OF NEW YORK dvd. It mentioned that percentage-wise (based on population and real estate) that the damage from the fire was more catastrophic than September 11, 2001.

1965 - Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.

1972 - ABC sitcom Bewitched has its final episode aired.

1979 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.

1992 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.

1995 - The world's first wiki, a part of the Portland Pattern Repository, is made public by Ward Cunningham.

Nice... the first wiki was based on Apple Macintosh's HYPERCARD. I used to love Hypercard when I had a Mac.

Births

1908 - David Lean, English film director (d. 1991)

Director of film classics such as: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO and others.

1911 - Jack Ruby, killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1967)

Will we ever find out what really happened about the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963?

1918 - Howard Cosell, American sports reporter (d. 1995)

A legend. 'Nuf said.

1926 - László Papp, Hungarian boxer (d. 2003)

He won gold medals in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, the 1952 Summer Olympics, in Helsinki and the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia. In his final Olympic competition, he beat José Torres for the gold medal, to become the first boxer in Olympic history to win three successive gold medals.

1943 - Paul Michael Glaser, American actor

The original Starsky of STARSKY AND HUTCH. 1970's!!!!!!!

1955 - Lee Mazzilli, American baseball player

YANKEES AND METS!!!!!!!

1960 - Idy Chan Yuk-Lin, Hong Kong actress

Asian TV fans should know Idy. She is most famous for her role as Xiaolongnu in the 1983 TVB adaptation of Jinyong's novel, The Return of the Condor Heroes, costarring mega-pop idol Andy Lau.

1960 - Steve Norman, British saxophonist (Spandau Ballet)

Awesome 1980's music with songs such as TRUE and GOLD.

1965 - Sarah Jessica Parker, American actress

1966 - Tom Glavine, American baseball player

Former NY Met and Atlanta Brave... future Hall of Famer with 305 wins to his record.

1976 - Wladimir Klitschko, Ukrainian boxer

Deaths

1999 - Cal Ripken, Sr., American baseball manager (b. 1936)

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THIS DATE IN HISTORY: March 24

A belated selective cut and pasted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_24:

Events

1868 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is formed.

1900 - New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.

1934 - U.S. Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth.

1936 - The longest game in NHL history was played between Detroit and Montreal. Detroit scored at 16:30 of the sixth overtime and won the game 1-0.

1944 - World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.

1958 - Elvis Presley is officially inducted into the U.S.Army.

1989 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (42,000 m³) of petroleum after running aground.

1999 - Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.

Births

1855 - Andrew Mellon, American financier (d. 1937)

1874 - Harry Houdini, (Weisz Erik), Hungarian-born magician (d. 1926)

1930 - Steve McQueen, American actor (d. 1980)

Coincidentally, Steve McQueen starred in THE GREAT ESCAPE as mentioned above in the Events section on this date. Of course, in a previous post about movie car chases, he starred in BULLITT.

1951 - Tommy Hilfiger, American fashion designer

1960 - Kelly LeBrock, American actress

Probably best known for THE WOMAN IN RED and WEIRD SCIENCE. Wonder if she is still married to Steven Seagal?

1960 - Barry Horowitz, American professional wrestler

Barry Horowitz aka Mr. Technical's official site.

1960 - Nena, German pop singer

99 RED BALLOONS is a staple of 1980's music!

1965 - The Undertaker, American professional wrestler

1970 - Lara Flynn Boyle, American actress

TWIN PEAKS and RED ROCK WEST are 2 of my fave Lara Flynn Boyle's work.

Deaths

1905 - Jules Verne, French author (b. 1828)

A giant in the Science Fiction genre. Required reading.

1946 - Alexander Alekhine, Russian chess player (b. 1892)

A giant in the history of Chess.

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LINKS: Integrated Fighting Arts Academy / Frank Benn

Frank Benn should not be a stranger to anyone who has been to my site or to the grandfather of all martial arts discussion venues, Usenet's newsgroup: rec.marital-arts. Just found out his Integrated Fighting Arts Academy's website is up. Loads of information up on it.

His bio, cut and pasted from his site:

Frank Benn, the founder and chief instructor of IFA Academy, has been teaching martial art for over 20 years. He has an extensive background in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), Western Boxing, Muay Thai, Freestyle Wrestling, Filipino Martial Arts, as well as several traditional arts.

Frank has spent many years analyzing actual self-defense encounters, fights that occur on the street, as well as challenge matches between trained martial artists of various styles around the world. Based on this analysis, he designed a curriculum primarily emphasizing real world functionality, addressing all areas of combat including stand-up striking, clinch and ground fighting, and modern-day hand-to-hand weapons. It is a comprehensive system that teaches students to flow between different combat ranges and leverage the strengths of each most effectively. Training under this system has produced competent and skilled fighters, in competition, and in self-defense encounters.

If you are in the Austin, TX area, check out the IFAA and Frank Benn. Contact info is as follows:

University Towers Business Center
715 W 23rd St. Suite Q
Austin, TX 78705
Phone: 512.663.4242
Web: IFAacademy.com
E-Mail: info@IFAacademy.com

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LINKS: Integrated Close Combat Forum (ICCF)

Photo Credit:  ICCF

If you are into combatives, firearms, universal preparedness, and loads of other related subjects, check out the ICCF discussion site. Members are Mil/LEOs as well as civilians. They are knowledgeable and helpful. Below is a post by the founder/administrator of ICCF on what he wants the forum to be able to accomplish:

The Objectives of ICCF


I feel these intentions and objectives need to be clearly stated and, most significantly, appreciated by all. In fact, this should have been posted when I initiated the forum, my sincerest apologies for this oversight.

In founding ICCF, it is my intent and the forum’s objective to:

- Facilitate in the education of the concerned public, be they rookie or veteran, in all facets of close combat (or so-called self-defense), with or devoid of weaponry, basic first-aid and emergency preparedness, and other related issues et al.

- Discuss, evaluate, and advise members regarding the tools necessary to achieve these goals be they shovel or shotgun.

- Let no question go unanswered. However please consider your response with great care.

- Clearly and most succinctly, state these methodologies in an intelligent, educational, and non-confrontational manner. This is to include replies and/or rebuttals as well.

- Consider that ICCF is not strictly a firearm related forum.

- Remember that what is successful for you may not be so for everyone, therefore keep an open mind.

- Respect with vigilance that you are to view the issues from the perspective of an archetypal individual, if there is such, and that ICCF is not necessarily an instructor based forum.

- Differentiate between the needs of a civilian, police officer, and soldier. Not to overlook the sub-categories thereof i.e. handicapped person, beat officer, or forward artillery observer etcetera. While certain skills overlap, individual circumstance will dictated essential instruction and guidance.

…And finally:

- Maintain the integrity, respectability, and dignity of the forum at all times. As all our members are intelligent individuals, no additional explanation of this mandate is required.

Thank you all, a great deal, for your cooperation in heeding to these tenets.

~Kilogulf59

Check it out! http://kilogulf59.proboards.com/index.cgi




EDITED Feb 3, 2013:  That link is closed. Please check out the new forum:

http://www.stickgrappler.net/2012/12/links-new-integrated-close-combat-forum.html

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MOVIES: Ong Bak 2 (2009) Official Trailer

I cannot wait to watch this new Tony Jaa movie!

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THIS DATE IN HISTORY: March 23

A belated selective cut and pasted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_23:

Events

1775 - American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his famous speech - "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" - at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia.

1903 - The Wright Brothers apply for a patent on their invention of one of the first successful airplanes.

1919 - In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.

1935 - Signing of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.

1983 - Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.

2001 - The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.

2003 - In Nasiriyah, Iraq, 11 soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company as well as 18 U.S. Marines are killed during the first major conflict of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Births


1910 - Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director (d. 1998)

1931 - Viktor Korchnoi, Russian chess player

Korchnoi's matches with Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship is the stuff of legends.

1949 - Ric Ocasek, American musician (The Cars)

1980's music!!!!!

1950 - Anthony De Longis, American actor

Martial artist known as a whip expert as well as other weapons. Usually cast as a villain in the movies and IIRC, he trained Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford on the whip.









1953 - Chaka Khan, American singer

More 1980's music!! :-)

1965 - Richard Grieco, American actor and singer

1980's TV!!! Grieco played Booker from 21 Jump Street, and had a short-lived spinoff series called Booker.

Deaths

1964 - Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born actor (b. 1904)

Too many movies to his credit, but possibly, the best-known work he did was with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sidney Greenstreet in the film noir classic THE MALTESE FALCON.

2009 - Raúl Macías, A famous Mexican boxer (b. 1934)

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