It's my martial arts world

[King Bob]

Wouldn't have expected that from the lyrics. That's the best song on that album, about the only one I really liked.

[King Bob]

Today I saw a copy of DM's book at Recycle Books. I didn't have enough credit to buy it - they wanted $15.50, which is higher than most used books there. (I never pay cash for books at Recycle.) I have some things to take in to trade, so I'll get it then.

[Drunk Monk]

Ha! I feel as if I’ve arrived. 

Finally…

[King Bob]

Well they did sell it...

[Drunk Monk]

Yay! 
I've often toyed with the idea of just leaving copies of my book on the shelves in bookstores.

[thatguy]

https://www.neatorama.com/2024/04/29/The...-Festival/

The Annual Crying Babies and Sumo Wrestlers Festival

John Farrier




The Nakizumo Crying Baby Festival is an annual ritual conducted in Shinto shrines across Japan. Sumo wrestlers carry babies into a dohyo (a sumo ring). Priests put on bird demon masks and taunt the babies. The first baby in a pairing to cry wins. If both cry at the same time, the baby that cries the loudest is the winner.
Why do Japanese families do this? Traditionally, an innocent baby's cry is thought to ward off evil spirits. But the mothers interviewed for this video seem to be participating just to have a good time. They attended the festival in the city of Asakusa neighborhood of Tokyo, which is so popular that babies have to enter a lottery for the chance to participate.
-via Dave Barry

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Wow. Totally poaching this for KFM. Thanks tg!

[thatguy]

https://gizmodo.com/dendra-armor-test-ex...1851492724

Marines Fought Each Other in Ancient Mycenaean Armor to See How Well It Worked

Thankfully it was, as eleven hours of simulated Bronze Age combat revealed.


Sixty-four years ago, a team of archaeologists found a 3,500-year-old suit of armor in Dendra, Greece, several miles from the ancient site of Mycenae. Known as the Dendra Panoply, researchers were unsure if the resplendent suit of armor was purely ceremonial or battle-ready. 

Now, a team of experimental archaeologists has put replicas of the armor through rigorous testing using Greek Marines and found that the ancient armor was indeed fit for use in Bronze Age combat. The team’s findings were publishedtoday in PLoS One.

“First, we analyzed Homer’s Iliad and combined the information that we extracted with physiological and biometeorological knowledge to create an 11-hour combat simulation protocol replicating the daily activities performed by elite warriors in the Late Bronze Age,” said Andreas Flouris, an exercise scientist at the University of Thessaly and lead author of the study, in an email to Gizmodo. “The references in Homer’s Iliad can now be seen as real memories not poetic fantasy.”

The study authors recruited thirteen volunteers from the Hellenic Armed Forces Marines and ran them through exercises informed by the descriptions of combat in Homer’s epic while in replica Dendra armor, made from 95% copper and 5% zinc—the closest alloy to the original bronze possible, the team said in the paper.

In preparing the combat simulation, the team considered aspects of Bronze Age warfare detailed by Homer including the environments in which battles took place, the daily duration of army operations, activities of the warriors throughout the day, the amount of food and water consumed by fighters, and the actual physical characteristics of the warriors. The simulated combat actions included dodging spear throws and strikes (of course), encounters between foot warriors and chariots, and a “chariot vs. warrior on ship” exercise in which the participants shot arrows at close range. The research team weighed the volunteers and took urine and blood samples before and after the exercise module.

The Marines were not physically constrained by the armor during the combat simulation, the team found, nor did it cause particular strain on them to wear it. In other words, while it’s still unknown if the actual Dendra panoply was used in battle, it certainly was designed to be.

“The Dendra armour was made for use in battle, not just for show (i.e., for ceremonial purposes), which means that Mycenaean warriors were some of the best equipped in the Eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Bronze Age,” said Yiannis Koutedakis, a sport scientist at the University of Thessaly, in an email to Gizmodo.

The researchers also developed a freely-available software for archaeologists to produce simulations of other Bronze Age combat scenarios, to promote more insights into similarly ancient conflicts.

More: The Experimental Future of Digging up the Past

—tg

[Drunk Monk]

Poaching this for Kfm later…

[Drunk Monk]

ADIDAS TAEKWON DANCE CHALLENGE SEASON 2

[thatguy]

ADIDAS TAEKWON DANCE CHALLENGE SEASON 2

Cause when I think of Adidas, I think of shoes...

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

ADIDAS TAEKWON DANCE CHALLENGE SEASON 2

Cause when I think of Adidas, I think of shoes...

--tg

Adidas is a major martial arts gear supplier. They started with shoes but then moved on to uniforms and now oversee the Olympic TKD scoring vests (akin to electric fencing, TKD is now scored with electric vests that register hits). Tiger Claw carried Adidas brand gear for many years but we let go of it when they did some major price hikes (for suppliers) and their quality dipped. There's still some in our remainder bins, heavily discounted. 


https://martialartsmart.com/collections/...white-trim

---

Meanwhile, back at Shaolin Temple...

[Drunk Monk]

Chop Chop

VIKS

[Drunk Monk]

The Kungfu Robot

---

The Karate Kid
Coldplay

[thatguy]

Reminded me more of Peckinpah's "Salad Days"

--tg