Daniele Bolelli Vs. Joe Rogan: Round 2
Daniele Bolelli, martial artist, philosopher, professor of comparative religion, and author of 50 Things You’re Not Supposed To Know: Religion, returns to the Joe Rogan Podcast:
Iran’s Female Ninja Army (Video)
Via the Telegraph:
Scores of black-clad female “ninja” fighters whose ages range from 5 to 56 are just a handful of 3,000 women in Iran who are being trained as lethal warriors at a school in Tehran. “We train women to have strength and ability. We have to do everything in our power to protect our homeland,” said Akbar Faraji, who runs the school. One of the fighters who has been training for over 13 years said, “Our aim is for Iranian women to be strengthened and if a problem arises, we will definitely declare our readiness to defend our Islamic homeland.”
11-Year-Old Martial Arts Student Thwarts Carjacking
ZHU ZHITSU! Via KITV News:
HONOLULU — Jay Yano didn’t have the day after Thanksgiving off, so he planned to take his two young children to work with him. As his kids loaded into his truck, parked right outside their McCully home, Yano left the vehicle running as he quickly walked to the truck’s rear.
“That’s when I noticed the guy walking from across the street, coming over,” said Jay Yano.
Yano said within a split second, his truck began to pull forward, with his 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son inside. He ran to the driver’s side door.
“(When) I opened the car (door), I saw my son holding the guy down with his left hand,” said Yano. “I just grabbed his shoulder and started punching his face, telling him to get out of the truck,” said Jonah Yano.
Jonah Yano said he wasn’t scared — his younger sister was in trouble and he needed…
The 250-Year-Old Bagua Master
The other day I quite randomly came upon the story of Li Ching-Yuen, the bagua master that reportedly lived around 250 years. This from Wikipedia, or the NY Times Obituary:
He began gathering herbs in the mountain ranges at the age of ten, and also began learning of longevity methods, surviving on a diet of herbs and rice wine. He lived this way for the first 100 years of his life. In 1749, when he was 71 years old, he moved to Kai Xian to join the Chinese army as a teacher of the martial arts and as a tactical advisor.
One of his disciples, the Taiji Quan Master Da Liu told of Master Li’s story: at 130 years old Master Li encountered an older hermit, over 500 years old, in the mountains who taught him Baguazhang and a set of Qigong with breathing instructions, movements training coordinated with specific sounds, and dietary recommendations. Da Liu reports that his master said that his…
The New Religion of Shaolin
Photo: Robin Chen (CC)
Chinese capitalism has something uniquely in common with historical Maoism: atheism. Vast economic growth met with a huge demand for traditional culture has meant Chinese cultural institutions are increasingly trading in their social values for growth-based business plans. Via the Independent:
Young men spring through the air, performing elegant punches and kicks; others bound across the dirt, swords flashing through the misty air. An ancient tree has dozens of small dents, made by “finger punches” of warrior monks over the centuries.
This is the Shaolin temple complex, in the mountains of central China, where kung fu was born 1,500 years ago. Now a place of pilgrimage for martial arts enthusiasts and Zen Buddhists, thousands of young people come to study kung fu, or wushu as it is known in China, in schools around the temple.
The commercial success of the temple is obvious, even if some of the sights are…
The Werewolf Kung Fu Master
From Human Marvels:
Sometimes a story comes along that contains so many fanciful elements one must assume that it is the work of fiction. Such is the story of Su Kong Tai Djin.
Tai Djin was born in China in 1849. He was born unique, afflicted with hypertrichosis. Unlike Jo-Jo, who would be born a few decades later, Tai Djin was born into a highly superstitious family. As A result they saw his affliction as the work of demons and he was left in the forest to die.
A Shaolin monk traveling through the forest discovered the child and took him back to the Fukien Shaolin Temple. There Tai Djin was raised by the monks.
He was trained in martial arts and it quickly became apparent that he was exceptional in both appearance and ability.
Perhaps the most amazing part of that much the story is true. Su Kong Tai Djin was a real man, he…
Western Scientists Finally Tell Patients Why Tai Chi Is Good For Them
Photo: Craig Nagy (CC)
The Chinese have known this for thousands of years. Better late than never, I suppose! From WebMD:
Just 12 weeks of tai chi — the slow-motion Chinese martial art — relieved longstanding fibromyalgia symptoms and improved quality of life in a clinical trial.
Compared with patients who received wellness education and stretching exercises, those who practiced tai chi saw their fibromyalgia become much less severe. They also slept better, felt better, had less pain, had more energy, and had better physical and mental health, says study researcher Chenchen Wang, MD, of Tufts University School of Medicine.
“We definitely saw better results than reported in trials of drug treatments for fibromyalgia,” Wang tells WebMD. “One patient with previous arthritis pain kept saying, ‘No pain! No pain!’”
It wasn’t for everyone. Wang says 10% to 20% of patients randomly assigned to tai chi did not feel it helped them. But he says 50%…
