Strategy or Who Needs Fiction. You Decide.

In our review of The 36 Strategies, remember #31, Scheme with Beauties? Well here's an example from real life. It's just so absurd, I'd be tempted to put it in the Who Needs Fiction category as well.

The story has appeared in many news outlets. Below is an excerpt from ComputerWorld. The whole article may be read here.

Fake femme fatale shows social network risks

Researcher Thomas Ryan says fictitious Robin Sage character fooled many holding security, military and intelligence posts

By Jaikumar Vijayan

Computerworld - Hundreds of people in the information security, military and intelligence fields recently found themselves with egg on their faces after sharing personal information with a fictitious Navy cyberthreat analyst named "Robin Sage," whose profile on prominent social networking sites was created by a security researcher to illustrate the risks of social networking.

In a conversation with Computerworld, Thomas Ryan, co-founder of Provide Security, said he used a few photos to portray the fictional Sage on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as an attractive, somewhat flirty cybergeek, with degrees from MIT and a prestigious prep school in New Hampshire. 

Then he established connections with some 300 men and women from the U.S. military, intelligence agencies, information security companies and government contractors.

The goal, said Ryan, was to determine how effective social networking sites can be in conducting covert intelligence-gathering activities. 

Despite some patently obvious red flags -- such as noting that the 25-year-old Sage had worked professionally for 10 years -- the scheme worked. The connections to Sage, who was depicted as a real-life Abby Scuito, a fictional character in CBS's NCIS television series, were established in less than a month.

Many friends freely shared personal information and photos, invited the fictional threat analyst to conferences and asked her to review documents. Some "friends" at major companies, including Google and Lockheed Martin, even expressed interest in hiring her, he noted.

Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method

Shang Lee, over at The Journey Within has begun translating a Chinese text on the Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method. An excerpt is below. The first part of the translation may be read by clicking here. I am sure it will be a series that you want to follow. Enjoy.
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This is a translation and my interpretation of the text written by Sun Zhonghua. He is the 19^th generation standard bearer of Chen Style Taijiquan and a 2^nd generation standard bearer of Hunyuan Tai Ji Academy. I hope I did it justice with my translation, and didn’t lose the spirit he is trying to convey. I have to split it in parts as this is a long article and it’ll probably take me some time to translate. Also, I’m savouring the text. It’s great reading it the second time round. Hope you enjoy it. You can find the full text here if you can read Chinese.

Foreword:

People train in martial arts for a variety of reasons, but if there is someone who is in love with martial arts to the point of addiction, this must be caused by a rare gene in his DNA. The evolution of this gene would most likely come from hunting and the battles that the previous generations have to fight, where those instincts are then secretly passed on to these “martial art addicts”. History has shown that even with the ban on martial arts or the downplay of martial arts to give way to a more “civilized” way of learning, all did not manage to suppress this rare gene from being passed down through the generations.

The Joy of Joint Locks

Below is an excerpt from an insightful article at Aikido Arts of Shin BudoKai blog on utility of joint locks. The whole article may be read here. Please pay a visit.

As a young man I trained very hard in Yoshinkan Aikido, and for a while worked in security on the midnight shift at a Detroit area hotel. Months of boredom would sometimes be punctuated by .. you name it: fights in the bar, parties getting way out of control, fights in the parking lot and so on. It was our job to hold down the fort until the police arrived. Sometimes the hands on the clock can move very slowly; like that New Years Eve one of my co workers (the biggest and toughest one of the bunch no less) almost got throw off of a balcony... but I digress.


I always emphasize that joint-lock techniques cannot be viewed as a means to lock a particular joint.  This narrow focus causes many problems.  One, a person is attacking you, not a joint.  If you simply focus on one joint, the rest of the person is typically more than happy to tee off on you as a reward for not paying proper attention to him/her.  Two, a conscious intent on your part is easy “read” by the other person, which then results in that person moving in a manner to counter the joint-lock.  I emphasize that a joint-lock should result in a cascade of locking joints so that the attacker’s frame (spine and hips) is negatively impacted so that effective movement becomes almost impossible.  This can only occur if one’s intention is directed at the person’s center and not directed towards the initial joint that you seek to lock.  Before this can happen, you must do something to off-balance the attacker.

The act of off-balancing the attacker serves to effectively neutralize the effective strength of the attacker.  It is very important to understand that the human body has a primary directive to maintain dynamic equilibrium (maintaining balance).  When a person’s body is off-balance, the body automatically and pre-consciously re-directs all available body resources towards re-establishing dynamic equilibrium.  I always demonstrate this phenomenon by having a person stand with excellent posture and hold an arm out straight as strong as possible.  You push down on that arm to gauge the strength.  Then have that person do something that negatively impacts that posture ( eg. tilt head in any direction) and push on the arm again.  The difference is always striking!  When the person’s functional strength has been significantly curtailed, it is easy to begin to execute a joint lock technique.  As long as you increasingly impacting the stability of your attacker through the execution of a joint-lock technique, the person should not be able to effectively counter the technique and that person should not be able to re-establish a stable posture or base to work from.

Japanese Martial Arts Video

I found about a half dozen videos from a martial arts exhibition that took place in Japan on the 4th of July. Here is the link to YouTube. I've embedded them individually below.

Enshin Ryu Satto Ryu Taijutsu

 

Shorinji Kempo



Shoden Nagao Ryu Taijutsu



Seibukan Fusan Ryu Jujutsu



Kokusai Ryuki Ho Karate Do



Kama Tameshigiri



Shingetsu Enshin Ryu Sai

Yoshokai Aikido Video: Kushida Sensei

Kushida Sensei named his offshoot of Yoshinkan Aikido Yoshokai. I trained directly under Kushida Sensei in the late 70's and early 80's. I finally found a video of him. Unfortunately, it's very short. The very brief scene from the 1980 is how I remember him.

Some Lessons From A Book of Five Rings

Below is an excerpt from an article published at The Martialist, entitled Seven Lessons from Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings. Here's a link to an online version of The Book of Five Rings.


Gabe Suarez, whose work in the field of self-defense I quite admire, wrote an article for the May 2004 issue of Black Belt magazine in which he analyzed the five scrolls of Musashi’s Book of Five Spheres and discussed their relevance in modern times. My Wing Chun Kung Fu instructor thought so highly of Gabe’s article that he discussed it in class. This prompted me to go back to my well-worn copy of the text to reread it. In the course of that I thought I might try to distill some of the lessons I’ve taken from it. These aren’t necessarily the most important thoughts Musashi relates in the text, but they’re the ones I’ve taken most to heart in the context of my martial development and the ongoing task of self-defense.

1. Be a Pragmatist.

According to translator Thomas Cleary, Musashi wrote deliberately in a clear, almost crude style lacking the flowery subtext of his contemporaries. His prose carries the tone, at least when rendered in English, of someone tremendously confident in the remarkably simple principles he is relating – principles that can be applied to different spheres of human activity. He saw only four walks of life and he saw martial skill as essential to life. He did not believe in overcomplicating things. “When you attain a certain discernment of the principles of mastering swordsmanship,” he wrote, “then, when you can defeat one opponent at will, this is tantamount to being able to defeat everyone in the world.”

2. Be a Skeptic.

Musashi, writing hundreds of years ago, decried empty commercialization and poor teaching in words just as relevant then as to today’s martial arts community. “The field of martial arts,” he said, “is particularly rife with flamboyant showmanship, with commercial popularization and profiteering on the part of both those who teach the science and those who study it.” The self-defense industry today is rife with McDojos, strip mall money pits, fly-by-night “fear no man” schemes, and desperate but ridiculous attempts to be different in a market flooded with just-invented combat systems claiming fictional historical roots. It seems the 17th century was not terribly different than the 21st – for good reason. Human nature has not changed in the intervening years. We’d all do well to remember Musashi’s warnings as we seek qualified and effective instruction.

3. Nothing Worth Doing is Easy.

“The long sword seems heavy and unwieldy to everyone at first,” Musashi wrote, “but everything is like that when you first take it up.” That’s the lesson I remember most often in my daily life. Musashi understood, hundreds of years ago, something that too few of us remember today. When you start something new, it’s difficult at first. You have to stay with it or you will never accomplish anything worthwhile. I spent the first three months of my Wing Chun Kung Fu training wondering if I should quit, but I remembered Musashi – and I resolved to stick with it. When I finally started to “get it,” I was glad I had not given up.

The Beauty of Karate

At Mokuren Dojo, there is a truly beautiful video on Japanese Karate. Please pay a visit.

Karate Video

A Collection of Masters

Below is an excerpt from a post a Master's of IMA blog, about the history of The Central Guoshu Institute.The doors were opened in 1928, and some of the most famous masters in China taught there.

The CGI opened its doors in March 1928 as the Central Guoshu Research Institute [zhongyang guoshu yanjiu hui], with the name officially changing to the Central Guoshu Institute [zhongyang guoshu guan] in June of that year. It was initially situated in Han Jia Xiang [Han family lane] in Nanjing, and had to ‘borrow’ some rooms from the Chinese Christian Association. Li Jinglin [3], the vice-dean of the institute, as well as Ma Yingtu, Liu Yinhu and others, moved over to Han Jia Xiang as well. Amongst the ‘founding fathers’ of the CGI were the famous educator Cai Yuanpei, Kong Xiangxi [4], Yu Youren [5], Niu Yongjian, Zhang Zhijiang and Zhang Shusheng. The CGI was administered by a board of governors, with warlord Feng Yuxiang as head governor. An advisory committee was also set up, composed of famous people of the time. Every semester, these famous names would hold advisory meetings and make recommendations to the board.

...

In its original incarnation, the faculty at CGI was divided into two schools, the Shaolin School headed by Wang Ziping and the Wudang school headed by Gao Zhendong. [6] Whilst the Wudang School taught the familiar neijia arts of xingyi, bagua and taiji, the Shaolin School actually included many arts not directly related to Shaolin gongfu, such as bajiquan, piguazhang, zha quan, etc. Soon after the CGI was founded, this structure led to challenges between the two factions, eventually resulting in clashes between the subject heads of the respective schools, which led to both the vice-dean Li Jinglin and Wang Ziping resigning from their posts in late 1928 and the restructuring of the CGI. Post-restructuring, all individual subject heads reported to the vice-dean, a role first occupied by Zhang Xiangwu [7] and then after 1939, Chen Panling [8].

...

In its original incarnation, the faculty at CGI was divided into two schools, the Shaolin School headed by Wang Ziping and the Wudang school headed by Gao Zhendong. [6] Whilst the Wudang School taught the familiar neijia arts of xingyi, bagua and taiji, the Shaolin School actually included many arts not directly related to Shaolin gongfu, such as bajiquan, piguazhang, zha quan, etc. Soon after the CGI was founded, this structure led to challenges between the two factions, eventually resulting in clashes between the subject heads of the respective schools, which led to both the vice-dean Li Jinglin and Wang Ziping resigning from their posts in late 1928 and the restructuring of the CGI. Post-restructuring, all individual subject heads reported to the vice-dean, a role first occupied by Zhang Xiangwu [7] and then after 1939, Chen Panling [8].

The Pugilist at Rest

The subject of the sculpture, The Pugilist at Rest, is thought to be Theogenes, a famous boxer in ancient times. Thom Jones, in his short story, The Pugilist at Rest (named for the statue) explains the history of this great boxer:

"Theogenes was the greatest of gladiators. He was a boxer who served under the patronage of a cruel nobleman, a prince who took great delight in bloody spectacles. Although this was several hundred years before the time of those most enlightened of men Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and well after the Minoans of Crete, it still remains a high point in the history of Western civilization and culture. It was the approximate time of Homer, the greatest poet who ever lived. Then, as now, violence, suffering, and the cheapness of life were the rule."

"The sort of boxing Theogenes practiced was not like modern-day boxing with those kindergarten Queensberry Rules. The two contestants were not permitted the freedom of a ring. Instead, they were strapped to flat stones, facing each other nose-to-nose. When the signal was given, they would begin hammering each other with fists encased in heavy leather thongs. It was a fight to the death. Fourteen hundred and twenty-five times Theogenes was strapped to the stone and fourteen hundred and twenty-five times he emerged the victor."

Perhaps it is Theogenes who is depicted n the famous Roman statue (based on the earlier Greek original) of "The Pugilist at Rest." I keep a grainy black-and-white photograph of it in my room. The statue depicts a muscular athlete approaching his middle age. He has a thick bear and a full head of curly hair. In addition to the telltale broken nose and cauliflower ears of a boxer, the pugilist has the slanted, drooping brows that bespeak torn nerves. Also, the forehead is piled with scar tissue. As may be expected, the pugilist has the musculature of a fighter. His neck and trapezius muscles are well developed. His shoulders are enormous; his chest is thick and flat, without the bulging pectorals of a bodybuilder. His back, oblique, and abdominal muscles are highly pronounced, and he has the greatest asset of the modern boxer - sturdy legs. The arms are large, particularly the forearms, which are reinforced with the leather wrappings of the cestus. It is the body of a small heavyweight - lithe rather than bulky, but by no means lacking in power; a Jack Johnson or a Dempsey, say. If you see the authentic statue at the Terme Museum, in Rome, you will see that the seated boxer is really not much more than a light-heavyweight. People were small in those days. The important thing was that he was perfectly proportioned."

"The pugilist is sitting on a rock with his forearms balanced on his thighs. That he is seated and not pacing implies that he has been through all of this many times before. It appears that he is conserving his strength. His head is turned as if he were looking over his shoulder - as if someone had just whispered something to him. It is in this that the "art" of the sculpture is conveyed to the viewer. Could it be that someone has just summoned him to the arena? There is a slight look of befuddlement on his face, but there is no trace of fear. There is an air about him that suggests that he is eager to proceed and does not wish to cause anyone any trouble or create a delay, even though his life will soon be on the line. Besides the deformities on his noble face, there is also a suggestion of weariness and philosophical resignation. All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. Exactly! He knew this more than two thousand years before Shakespeare penned the line. How did he come to be at this place in space and time? Would he rather be safely removed to the countryside - an obscure, stinking peasant shoving a plow behind a mule? Would he be better? Or does he revel in his role? Perhaps he once did, but surely not now. In this the great Theogenes or merely a journeyman fighter, a former slave or criminal bought by one of the many contractors who for months trained the condemned for their brief moment in the arena? I wonder if Marcus Aurelius loved the "Pugilist" as I do, and came to study it and to meditate before it."