This morning, I ate a chinese dish called 粽子 or 糭子.  It's a traditional dish made of glutinous rice with various fillings.  Tied with a string, they are wrapped typically in bamboo leaves.  Very similar, in a way, to tamales.  Starch plus protein rich fillings make for a yummy snack or meal.

What I like most about both is that the wrapping is biodegradable.  It's really interesting how so much money is spent on packaging -- and how much of that packaging makes up for large volumes of landfill.  You can literally throw away the wrapper on the street, and the wrapper will degrade the leaves along with whatever other debris is around.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could make all our wrappers this way, instead of near permanent plastics?

Loneliness as a disease - From the Economist
Girls on Top - From the Economist
Before Preaching, Remember the Opium Wars - From TimesOnline UK

To lose one decade is misfortune... - From the Economist 
Two Lost Decades - From the Economist
Chinese Exports - From the Economist
Simple Languages - From the Economist

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More to follow

She fiddles

Whimsical
  Flimsical
     Magickally
Marvelous

Her expressions are changing
  Like summer sun through windstruck leaves
Upon my naked skin

I spy a grin,
And warmth bursts in my breast
Gives forth laughter

And she laughs in turn,
(But not before a wicked little wink)
My conspirator is amused.

My conspirator is my muse...

12/6/09

Daigo Umehara - Article from Eurogamer

K1- World GP 12/5/2009

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Watching this last World GP was a real lesson in the realities of striking.  K-1 was built to test the intersection of Karate and Kickboxing.  Founded in 1993, it has gradually allowed a whole host of different strike based martial arts forms to test their various methodologies against one another.  What's rather clear to me is that the fighters make the matches, and their styles and training seem to take a second seat to the primacy of their physical gifts and mental acuity.

This last WGP was very indicative of this.  With Sammy Schilt (2.12 m (6 ft 11+¹⁄₂ in)), Badr Hari (1.97 m (6 ft 5+¹⁄₂ in), Alistair Overeem (6 ft 5 in), Remy Bonjasky (6 ft 4 in), Jerome Le Banner (6 ft 3 in), Ruslan Karaev (6 ft 2 in), Ewerton Teixeira (6 ft 2 in), Errol Zimmerman (6 ft 3 in) in contention for the WGP title, it was interesting to watch each fight progress.  Now, each man's weight was probably roughly proportional to his height, with a couple exceptions.  Overeem is significantly bulkier than anyone else.  What was striking to me was that in this tournament, the winners were essentially the one with the longest reach in each fight.

Eight to four, four to two, and the final; each was won by the tallest opponent.  What was also striking to me (no pun intended), was the look in the eye of the eventual loser at the start of each bout.  Most of the time, they seemed less confident even at the time of the stare-down. 

Because of these reasons, it's impossible to know what is the critical factor in martial arts supremacy.  There are certainly many, many factors.  Watching Badr Hari's unbelievably aggressive attack patterns, his accurate punching and raging expression was almost unnerving.  He tore through a much bulkier Alistair Overeem.  What made the Overeem fight most amusing to me was watching how powerful Overeem had become.  His push/throw launched Badr Hari all the way across the ring and into the ropes.  Unfortunately, Overeem never really started striking.  Badr's swarming punches eventually got the better of Overeem, and decisively.

The first round wins (except for Bonjasky's) were all KO or TKO.  They were early, and they were final.

Schilt is a machine.  His additional reach and weight make him unbelievable.  Dodging his blows is nearly impossible, and each block takes so much energy.  You could almost see his opponents wilting beneath blow after blow until they couldn't continue.  Badr Hari's final, desperate swarm was woefully inadequate to defeat Schilt.

Last comment.  They give a standing count to Schilt during his fight with Bonjasky.  I think he slipped.  It's going to be a long time before we see someone beat Schilt at this game.

If one is ever in a fight with a trained opponent significantly taller, one must grapple.  I don't think there's any choice whatsoever.

Now Overeem needs to go back to MMA, and probably get beaten by Fedor. 

I love freshly paved roads.  Recently, through a stretch of relatively undesirable real estate, judging by the boarded-up windows and houses in ill-repair, the city has repaved the roads.

With a light-absorbing black surface, the road grips one's tires with new found vigour, allowing a quiet and satisfying ride through once pot-hole laden stretches. 

Somehow, it transforms the area from decrepit to a place with some modicum of hope.

I smile to myself, enjoying the change.  Renewal for this city would come with no mean cost.  It's been in such a protracted spiral into an everpresent gloom.

My car wheels onto the highway, and I find myself obeying the speed limit, staring off into dove-gray winter-ish skies.  Age has that effect on you. 

To my left, I notice a blur of black bobbing across the short concrete wall separating the flow of high speed traffic.  My eye is drawn to it, as I accelerate to 70 mph.  At the angle it makes with my vision, it looks like a rectangle of black rubber.  But the bounce suggests something I find preposterous.  It's a tire, spinning and bouncing in the opposite direction as my car.

As it passes my car, and into my rear view mirror, I find myself wondering what it might have been like had the tire, complete with metal hub, collided with my windshield.  It looked as if it had flown free from a car traveling on the opposite side, with a velocity of around 30-40 mph.  A collision with my windshield might well have been fatal.

What a morning.

More to follow:

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I have Fedor winning by submission in the first.

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http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/were-all-human-fedor-critiques-rogers-fight-20867

Okay, so I was wrong.  Fedor, TKO 2nd round.

The above interview was short and sweet.  I love his humility...  I hope that however I practice medicine, or achieve in the future, I will always have this kind of humility.

Machida vs. Shogun - Previous Entry

I finally got to watch this match yesterday, having forbidden myself from reading any news on the match until I got back from Asia.  After watching it, I must admit that I was both a tiny bit disappointed, for I personally thought Shogun had taken the victory and thus disagreed with the judges' decision.  On the other hand, it was a brilliant fight; probably one of the most technically impressive striking matches I've seen in the UFC, ever.  Both fighters performed to their potential, and it was pyrotechnic.  They both displayed excellent intelligence, and executed the strategies well.

While I, and it appears most sites, seem to give the nod to Shogun, looking at the match from UFC judging criteria, I could see it going to Machida.  That said, in an extended fight, Shogun's strategy should have eventually resulted in defeat for Machida, as in rounds 6-10.  The beating that Machida's legs were taking is nothing to sneeze at.

Honestly, Shogun performed far better than I had expected.  I had not expected him to return to the form we remember from the Pride middleweight GP fight form.  That is, his conditioning and physical prowess.  The intelligence and strategy that he now employs is superior to what he had before.  Both Machida and Shogun are impressively formidable.  Neither destroyed the other, and neither embarrassed themselves.

I can't wait to see either of their next fights.  A rematch would be nice, but I think that it was brilliantly fought, and near even, with the advantage to Shogun.

This was TMA at its best.

(Pro's Picks from Sherdog prior to the fight...)

Food Glorious Food - From the Economist

Regulating Health Food - From the Economist

Omega 6 and Omega 3's - From the Economist

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A lot of money is made from convincing wealthy patrons that they might live a little longer by spending quite a bit of money on foods and supplements.  This is a long established pattern of behaviour that one can see even in legendary Chinese Emperors dispatching armies to search for immortality -- Even French adventurers such as Ponce de Leon.  Though some might scoff at such gallantry, smaller forays are often done at health food stores and pseudo-medical interventions.

Much may do no harm, and some might do some good, but almost all share one trait: no strong evidence for doing good.  The Placebo effect grants that a person perceives benefit 20% of the time, despite no actual drug (established using drug and sugar pills).  If this effect is present in health foods (which it no doubt is), then one might surmise that many people are paying a lot for a psychological effect.  Small benefits are hard to prove; and harder still to disprove to an undiscerning public.

If any of you are loyal consumers of high priced health foods, recall that many such fads have come and gone, and some gone only after vast sums of money have been exchanged.

Of course, the worst fads do harm.

Ciao.

"Without enterprise and aspiration”, he said, “compassion comes with an empty wallet”:

George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor, UK

Dave and whose Army - From the Economist

From the Economist
As one of my friends put it, they've changed the Nobel prize to an "Anti Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld" prize.  Alternatively, it's become the Nobel Potential for achieving Peace prize.

Either way, it strikes me as rather odd, for there must be some other individuals who have already achieved more in tangible contributions to achieving peace...