Flying Ninjas Hidden Dumplings

A new day

2009-06-30T23:16:00.001-07:00

A new look.. a new name.. hmm..
go tessa

Father's day

2009-06-21T03:12:00.000-07:00

My father is one of the people who have influenced me the most. Maybe it is rather conceited of me to say this, but I am truly grateful for having such a great father (for lack of better words). I have a much better father than too many other people do, and that of course is a sad thing too (for the other people anyway). Had it not been for my father's influence, who knows what hell-hole I would be in today.

He and my mom of course- were my first teachers. He was my first and only sifu for the first 17 years of my life (minus my uncle - his brother, who is equally a father to me). It was he who instilled in me the love for martial arts and other sports like tennis, swimming, triathlons, and what not. And it's also always been him to be there to give me that kick in the butt when I needed it.

When I was 14 or 15 he got gravely ill and for about a period of 6 months after that I would wake up every morning wondering if he was still around. For four years after that his health was still quite bad and he just wasn't quite the same in a sense that he wasn't all over the place- running, teaching martial arts, managing our business, doing all these community projects, etc. But despite his not being able to reach the same physical capacity, he was and still is as sharp and witty as he ever was. Even in those times when we were all feeling in the lowest of low, he would crack jokes in the oddest times to bring a little ray of sunshine into our house.

Today he still isn't quite as physically active as he was, but being the warrior and commander that he is, he has mobilized armies of people- his old students, to help him continue teaching many people. There is so much more to say about him. His patience, perseverance, determination, wisdom, and kindness are constant inspirations for me. I can only hope to one day somehow become what he has wanted me to be all these years as a way of ever-thanks to him.

Left behind.. again

2009-06-15T04:50:00.000-07:00

This dog of mine, Dama, just died this afternoon. He was not feeling well yesterday, he was restless and his back was very painful and was rather shaky suddenly so I brought him to the vet. The vets said that it was probably canine distemper. I never really saw a dog with it before or what- all I know is that my dog's vaccines were updated.. but I guess vaccines just don't work sometimes. So anyway they gave me all these medicines and told me to come back in a week's time. I brought him home and gave him some dog food and his favorite- fresh milk. He lapped the milk up but didn't touch the dog food, then slept. At around 10 pm I heard him crying so I came out and checked on him and gave him more blankets and the like, he wasn't looking too good. I talked to him for a while and told him it was ok to go if he needed to. He couldn't get up anymore this morning, so I kept coming out and seeing if he was still around and talking to him a bit and telling him not to worry so much. Then this afternoon around 4 pm I was studying in my room and wondering how he was and just kinda thinking about him in this way. I went to see him and he was gone. I had his body buried in our property already and have disinfected the whole place. Another friend, come and gone. He never was much of a dog in a sense that he was so gentle all the time, and even if he was a german shepherd, he was the calmest guy you'd ever meet. He hardly ever barked and welcomed everyone in. The only thing scary about him (to our neighbors/strangers) were his looks and size. Otherwise, this guy was a big puppy who loved milk and papayas- no joke.

You'll be missed Dama, but I know you're better off where you are now, and am happy you did not have to go through so much pain.

Karma Kula Chapter 4: Bogi Yogi

2009-06-09T01:44:00.000-07:00

Karma Kula Mystic Warrior: Chapter 4: Bogi yogi
Hilarious chapter. I've got an inkling the next chapter will be great action. I just wish it weren't a month away!!

I've been good, busy, happy.

David Carradine

2009-06-05T04:51:00.000-07:00

Rest in peace man.. I'm sorry you had to go this way.

Up!

2009-06-03T03:38:00.000-07:00

I think the whole concept of this UP movie is pretty good. At least well.. the "hero" is not one of those half naked macho young guys or ..something else somehow. Hopefully this will remind some people that old people are just like any of us in bodies that just don't work the same way anymore.

Here's a funny little article on it.

5 more days to Karma Kula's 3rd chapter! :)

Facebook, Boyle, & Ohas

2009-05-31T04:16:00.001-07:00

I had a pretty good day. My internet crashed for a few hours this afternoon, but it gave me about enough time to clean up. I have lots more cleaning to do tomorrow I'd say.

So I'm on Facebook now. If you happen to use Facebook and are interested, my name on there is Satchi Morioka. I'd be happy to add you as a friend.

So Susan Boyle didn't win. Good enough tho, right?

And finally, I just stumbled upon Sir Arthur's Den today, and this guy is just brilliant!

Have a look at this:

KarmaKula chapter 3: “Harvesting the Ohas” (Click to see pictures)
May 10, 2009 · Filed Under Multimedia, News

News - A succession of fresh, quality news, from inside and outside of the WebKarmaKula, the new episodic series from the Ninjai Gang expressly developed for the web goes on as scheduled. On the last Friday the Gang has released the third chapter, Harvesting the Ohas, with which the series has shown yet another trait after the splatter ninjitsu of The Ninjas and the spaghetti western The Frog in the Well. The new episode features horror elements and Eastern mysticism, acting more like an introduction for the events to come than like a self-finishing tale as the two previous chapters.

At the center of the story lie the worship of a demoniac being and her followers, which exploit occult knowledge to indefinitely extend their own life to the detriment of endless monk’s one. The ritual depicted in Harvesting the Ohas needs the forced extraction of monk’s semen and its infusion, through unknown “mystical means”, within the body of the aforementioned followers. KarmaKula’s target is to find the cultists and give to his “old friend” his “precious gift“, namely “her karma“.

KarmaKula ep.3 - screenshot 1KarmaKula ep.3 - screenshot 2KarmaKula ep.3 - screenshot 3

There is no room for action here, and even if the background told in HtO reveals KarmaKula’s indie origins (collecting the semen of sacred monks?!? A b-movie wouldn’t go that far!) I would say that however one can’t complain for the production, which among a photography with excessively saturated colors, good digital effects and a careful direction perfectly synchronized with the (always wonderful) soundtrack decently entertains for the almost 10 minutes the episode lasts and builds the right bases for the sword-slaughtering that will be definitely shown on the next month.

KarmaKula ep.3 - screenshot 4KarmaKula ep.3 - screenshot 5KarmaKula ep.3 - screenshot 6

HtO features a new female character after the pretty-but-deadly Satya Bellord of The Frog in the Well, and listening to her voice one can easily identify her as the actress that dubbed Ninjai, the little ninja protagonist of the series with the same name that will be featured in the movie theaters after the first 12 episodes released on the web. The fourth chapter of KarmaKula will be on-line the next 8th of June, while the current episode is also available in streaming on the Ninjai Gang’s YouTube channel.

KarmaKula ep.3 - screenshot 7KarmaKula ep.3 - screenshot 8KarmaKula ep.3 - screenshot 9

Waiting to see the KarmaKula at work, the series’official site has been updated with new contents including some downloads, a Spread The Word section and a press release. This last one is extremely interesting for those who want to know more about who hides behind the Ninjai Gang and the production of the series, the protagonists, the artists and their multiethnic background made of martial arts, a mix of Eastern tradition and Western pop culture and so on.

According to the information provided by the Gang, KarmaKula’s main actors are siblings, Subhadra, Siddha and the already mentioned Satya Bellord, children of a Chinese mother and an English father grown up between the Far East and California, rigorous students of martial arts for their entire life with a particular focus on taekwondo and both modern and traditional wushu. If this is coupled with the fact that the master of the three performers is Liang Chang Xing, former captain of the 10 times winning Chinese wushu team (to which actor Jet Li belonged too) and heavily involved with the production of KarmaKula one can understand why the series choreographies are so outstanding.

Nuclear war and kung fu flicks

2009-05-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

So... not that kung fu flicks bring about a nuclear war, but first, here's a nice little blog with several really nice videos about martial arts in China:
Martial Arts Movies Blog.

Second, so, is a nuclear war imminent due to North Korea's pushing the limits? :/

Anyway.. I'll just leave you with that to think about and this to watch:

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Liang Chang Xing

2009-05-27T04:26:00.000-07:00

Since Master Liang Chang Xing is the Sifu of these guys in the Karma Kula flick thing, I thought it'd be interesting to have a look at his stuff, and sure enough, I found something on him on Youtube! Sorry I don't know how to imbed(sp) videos into my blog, but here's the link: Master Liang Chang Xing. As you can see, this guy obviously is a legend! It's no wonder his students are also awesome.

Anyhow, I'm feeling better today. I'm glad I've been practicing martial arts and etc for a long time now, so that when I do get sick I am able to recover quite quickly

Of facial hair ..

2009-05-23T17:57:00.000-07:00

Hey.. just a couple weeks to go to the next Karma kula thing! FUnny thing is I dreampt about it last night.
Gotta love this whole moustache festival thing:

Yahoo News Galleries

Sick..

2009-05-23T02:13:00.000-07:00

I am sick of taking antibiotics. My tongue is tasting weird, I feel kinda nauseous and it's just.. bleh. At least it's not swine flu
It's beautiful and windy now but it's been real hot all day. Yesterday we had a huge thunderstorm and rain after one of our hottest days this summer. The thunder and lightning crashed down heavily with the rain- and it was a huge welcome. I wanted to lie out on the beach and get rained on.
I've been thinking about harvesting ohas all day...

On a side note, the huge trees out in our front yard are growing back some leaves now. They've got all these beautiful green leaves sprouting out of their branches. It's really refreshing to look at them.

American Idol- Kris

2009-05-21T05:28:00.000-07:00

Congratulations! That seemed to be a pretty long season aye?
I'm sick. I've been sick for the past three days, I've had a high fever, cough, and a little mucus. I went to the doctor yesterday to make sure it's not swine flu- she said it's just an upper respiratory track infection, so all seems to be well. I'm feeling a lot better today with all the different drugs (legal of course) I'm taking. Paracetamol rocks! I'm going to go swimming tomorrow for sure. The ocean has been so calm and has been calling all day but I never got to go, and I'm still feeling a bit weak. I'm looking forward to getting well tho. It should be good.

Anyway.. that's about it for today. I'm going to sleep now.

You tell me if you don't find these to be cool..

Pet Heroes

2009-05-15T03:14:00.000-07:00

If this story won't melt your heart, I don't know what will:

Amazing Hero Dogs -- More Than Just Pets
Move over Lassie -- there's a whole new pack of hero dogs and they aren't just waiting for Timmy to fall down a well.

A new video that shows a German shepherd trying valiantly -- and successfully -- to keep authorities from its injured friend on one of the busiest highways in New York City is just the latest example of dogs who go above and beyond to protect their loved ones.

"It's possible ... there was a social bond," said Dr. E'Lise Christensen, a veterinarian and board certified animal behaviorist.

The apparent German shepherd mix in New York City kept officials at bay on the Major Deegan Expressway by running frantic circles around the injured dog, which lay motionless and bleeding in the middle of the road. If officers tried to approach the injured animal, the shepherd would lunge, warning them to stay away.

Christensen, who works for Manhattan-based New York City Veterinary Specialists, said after watching video of the dogs, the shepherd's protection of his injured companion was "really serious."

"All we know is he's using these barking and lunging behaviors to get people to go away," she said.

In the end, officers were able to grab the injured dog which was treated by veterinarians. ABC's New York affiliate WABC reported that both dogs, which live together in the Bronx, were claimed by their owner and that the shepherd is the injured dog's offspring.

The video bore similarities to another canine highway hero from Chile. In December, cameras captured a dog's bold move to drag another dog to the side of the road after it had been struck on a busy highway.
The video shows the heroic dog dodging fast-moving traffic to reach its friend and then back again, this time dragging the dead pooch.

Dogs aren't always loyal only to their own kind.

Last summer, a mixed breed dog named China was hailed as a life saver in Argentina when she saved a newborn child from what doctors said would have been certain death.

China found the infant in a field where it had been abandoned by its 14-year-old mother. China, according to local reports, brought the baby back to her litter of six puppies and kept it warm until her owner found the expanded family and called authorities.

Of course, don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter!

Harvesting the Ohas

2009-05-13T03:05:00.000-07:00

Such a belated update! Karma Kula chapter 3, "Harvesting the Ohas" is out! I love it. It's so different from what I expected. Pretty creepy actually.

Awesome stuff. I can't believe Rena Owens is it in!

I'm back home again. I've been traveling a lot so I haven't been online that much.

Rain, rain rain..

2009-05-06T19:43:00.000-07:00

It's been raining all night and all morning so far. We have a storm coming our way again. The ocean is raging, but I'm happy to hear the sound of the crashing waves. It's been rather cold so I've been lazy to go out for a swim. The surfer kids I usually swim with aren't around either, so it's kinda sad to go out swimming.

Now's not the time to get sick, that's for sure. There's H1N1 almost everywhere, including here. I found it rather amusing that almost everyone at the airport wears masks now, whereas before when my friends would fly wearing masks, everyone would snicker at them or give them really dirty looks.

I'm just watching the Ninjai Chapters while I'm waiting for Karma Kula's 3rd chapter. One more day! :)

Sue Son, Got talent? YES!

2009-05-04T00:16:00.000-07:00

I play the violin, and so .. well, I was pretty stoked to see Sue Son's rendition of one of the pieces from Red Violin: Awesome! I hope she gets much further too.

Anyhow, not much else happening for me. My internet has been quite slow all day which is rather irritating. It is better now though.

Hey.. just um.. 5 more days? 4 more days to the next Karma Kula Chapter!

And of course, don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai chapter.

KO

2009-05-03T02:37:00.000-07:00

I watched boxing with my brother today, Pacquiao and Hatton. I'm a fan of them both, and while I was pretty thrilled with Pacquiao's win, I also feel sorry for Hatton. He's a pretty decent guy and what's great is he's not exactly one of those over-your-head arrogant athletes. The best will win though!

Hey, just a 5 more days til Karma Kula comes chapter 3 comes out! woohoo!

A to Z of malaria

2009-04-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

A to Z of malaria

LONDON, England -- Malaria is one of the world's worst health problems and one of its biggest killers, with half a billion people affected every year, according to the Roll Back Malaria partnership.
The WHO wrote that there were 247 million cases of malaria in 2006, and 880,000 deaths.

Around half a billion people are infected with malaria every year. Ninety percent of those cases are in Africa.
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Saturday marks World Malaria Day, when the world commemorates global efforts to eradicate the disease.

Below CNN's Vital Signs has produced a complete A - Z guide to how malaria spreads, the symptoms to look out for and how to protect yourself.

A is for Anti-malarial drugs
The history of anti-malarial medicine has been marked by a constant struggle between evolving drug-resistant parasites and the search for new drugs. Currently, anti-malaria experts are focusing on therapies that combine several drugs for better effects.

B is for Blood stream
Once a mosquito has bitten and the malaria parasites reach the liver, the parasites divide and create thousands of mature parasites. These are released into the blood and infect red blood cells. At that point, typical malaria symptoms such as fever and anemia develop.

C is for Chloroquine
Until recently, Chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, was the first option for many people because of its relatively low price and effectiveness. However, resistance to Chloroquine in many parts of the world has rendered the drug ineffective.

D is for Diagnosis
After noting your symptoms and travel history, your doctor will likely obtain a sample of your blood for observation. Two blood samples, taken at six- and 12-hour intervals, can usually confirm the presence of the malaria parasite and its type. It is possible to be infected by more than one parasite at the same time.

E is for Epidemic
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), large and devastating epidemics can occur when the mosquito-borne parasite is introduced into areas where people have had little prior contact with the infecting parasite. These epidemics can be triggered by wet weather conditions and further aggravated by floods or mass population movements driven by conflict.
Vital Signs
Each month CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta brings viewers health stories from around the world.
See more from the show »

F is for Fever
The most common symptom of all types of malarias is high fever, which is why doctors often misdiagnose malaria for flu. The fever is a reaction to toxins in the blood. It is therefore advised to tell your doctor you have been to a malaria affected zone, even if symptoms arise months after the trip.

G is for Genome
In 2002, -- hundred years after it was discovered that mosquitoes transmit the malaria parasite -- the complete genetic codes of both the human malaria parasite and the mosquito that spreads it was cracked. This development brought scientists a step closer to developing drugs and vaccines to fight the disease, Nature magazine reported.

H is for Hotspots
Most cases and deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa, many of them occurring among children. However, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Europe are also affected. In 2006, malaria was present in 109 countries and territories.
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I is for Immunity
Travelers from malaria-free regions such as Europe and the United States, with little or no immunity, who go to areas with high disease rates, are particularly vulnerable. It is essential to take precautions by taking anti-malarial drugs prescribed by your doctor.

J is for Julius Wagner-Jauregg
Julius Wagner-Jauregg, a Viennese doctor, was the first to intentionally infect syphilis patients with malaria parasites. By controlling the subsequent malaria-related fever with an anti-malaria drug, the effects of both syphilis and malaria could be minimized. Jauregg received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1927.

K is for Killer
Malaria is a life-threatening disease but it is preventable and curable if the right steps are taken. Education in recognizing the symptoms has reduced the number of cases in some areas by 20 percent. Recognizing the disease in the early stages can stop the disease from becoming a killer.

L is for Laser gun
U.S. scientists say they are developing a laser gun that could kill millions of mosquitoes in minutes. The laser fires at mosquitoes once it detects the audio frequency created by the beating of wings, the lead scientist on the project told CNN. The project is being funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

M is for Mosquitoes
Malaria is caused by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquitoes. The mosquitoes bite between sunset and sunrise and parasites from the mosquito are then injected into the person's skin and transported to the liver. About 170 species of such parasites exist, but only four cause malaria in humans.

N is for Nets
The distribution of mosquito nets with insecticide is a very effective method of malaria prevention, and it is also one of the most cost-effective methods. These nets can often be obtained for around $3. Earlier this month, actor Ashton Kutcher won a Twitter race against CNN to reach 1 million followers. Kutcher had pledged 10,000 mosquito nets to charity if he beat CNN, and 1,000 if he lost. CNN agreed to do the same.

O is for Obstacles
In many endemic areas, access to health facilities, as well as drug costs, still present major obstacles. Humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres estimates that the cost of treating a malaria-infected person in an endemic country was between $0.25 and $2.40 per dose in 2002.

P is for Pandemic
For malaria to become a pandemic (plague) in an area, several factors have to be present: high human population density; high mosquito population density; high rates of transmission from humans to mosquitoes and from mosquitoes to humans.

Q is for Quinine
Quinine was the first effective treatment for malaria in the 17th century. Since the 1940's, many other anti-malarial drugs have appeared on the market and have taken precedent over quinine. But quinine is still being used to treat malaria in some cases.

R is for Repellent
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says inspect repellents with DEET (most common active ingredient in strong insecticides) in them should be used on exposed skin and flying-insect spray can be used to kill mosquitoes in the sleeping area. DEET may be toxic, however and should be used with care.

S is for Symptoms
Fever is not the only symptom of malaria. Other symptoms can include shivers, headaches and nausea. Sweating and exhaustion is also common and in some cases, it can affect the brain or kidneys.

T is for Tablets
Malarone is a common anti-malaria drug among many travelers. It is said to have a 97 percent efficacy with relatively few side-effects. It can be given just one day before arrival in a malaria endemic country and only needs to be taken for another week after leaving.

U is for Unborn child
According to the WHO, pregnant women are at high risk of contracting malaria. The illness can result in high rates of miscarriages and cause more than 10 percent of maternal deaths annually. This figure can rise to 50 percent in cases of severe disease.

V is for Vaccine
Despite intensive research, no effective malaria vaccine has been developed to date. But according to a report in April's New Scientist journal, a unique vaccine taken from the saliva of infected mosquitoes has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be tested in people.

W is for World Malaria Day
April 25 has become World Malaria Day to provide a global effort to control malaria around the world. The international malaria community only has two years left to meet the 2010 targets of delivering effective protection and treatment to all people at risk of malaria, as called for by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon.

X is for X-ray
X-ray microscopes are used to find the presence of malaria in red blood cells and see how they interact with healthy cells. One of the advantages of this type of microscope is that it produces very-high-resolution images of the cell structure.

Y is for Yellow fever
Yellow fever is another disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Some countries, such as Peru, require a certificate showing yellow-fever vaccination before you can travel there.

Z is for Zanzibar
Zanzibar, part of the African republic of Tanzania, has had relative successes in combating malaria; Africa's biggest killer according to the New Scientist journal. The achievements are due to the widespread use of treated bed nets, along with the switch to new anti-malarial drugs instead of Chloroquine in 2004.

7 more days for Karma Kula's 3rd chapter!

The Ninjai Gang, Karma Kula

2009-04-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

Media & Press

April 2009
Kung Fu Siblings Band Together in an All-New Martial Arts Action Series, Karma Kula: Mystic Warrior
Synopsis
Siblings and lifelong martial artists Satya (Kill Bill), Subhadra, and Siddha Bellord unveil their mastery in the new series Karma Kula: Mystic Warrior, a live-action martial arts adventure created independently by the Ninjai Gang.

Three young master martial artists have banded together to produce a highly praised new martial arts series called Karma Kula: Mystic Warrior, now showing on the entertainment site IGN.com, the Web's leading video game and entertainment information destination. What's unique about these three young master martial artists, all members of the Ninjai Gang, is that they are siblings.

Satya, Subhadra, and Siddha Bellord were born and raised in Hong Kong, their distinctive Eurasian good looks springing from their Chinese mother and British father. The siblings spent their teen years in the Far East, the Philippines, India, Australasia, Hawaii, and California. The trio have been serious students of martial arts their entire lives, focusing primarily on the arts of taekwondo and both modern, and traditional wushu.

With a deep appreciation for the spiritual aspects of martial arts and the ancient Eastern teachings of yoga, Hinduism, and Buddhism, the trio are lifelong vegetarians and have been practicing yoga and meditation since childhood. They continue to hone their skills daily with a vigorous training schedule under the guidance of their long-time friend and wushu instructor, one of the most well known and respected wushu instructors in the world. Master Liang Chang Xing, former captain of the ten-time winning Beijing wushu team, one of whose members was Jet Li. Chang Xing also plays an important role in the choreography, cinematography, and direction of the Karma Kula series.

Having heard about the trio's extraordinary talents from their mutual friend, action director Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Fearless), Quentin Tarantino sought out the trio for his movie Kill Bill. Because the trio wanted to stay focused on their Karma Kula production, only Satya was able to take the time to be involved with the film (she was Uma Thurman's martial arts double).

The trio will be making their first on-screen appearance together in the martial arts series "Karma Kula", where they co-direct, choreograph and star.

In addition to the trio, the Karma Kula cast includes Rena Owen. One of Australasia's most heralded actresses, Rena is best known for playing the courageous battered wife in the Kiwi blockbuster Once Were Warriors, where she starred alongside Temuera Morrison.

Karma Kula: Mystic Warrior, a ten-part episodic series, is a mystical journey through the ancient East with a unique highly entertaining blend of dynamic, blood-splattering martial arts, wry humor, and a peaceful sense of spirituality.

In this unique combination of East meets West, Karma Kula crosses 300 and the dry humor of a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western with truly explosive, kick-ass martial arts that rival Jet Li's Once Upon a Time in China, but more realistic. Add in the stunning locations, ninjas, Mongolian witch-nuns, ganja, and rock music, and the Ninjai Gang weaves a spiritual and mystical tale, simultaneously epic yet episodic, in an attempt to "bring the cinematic dramatic action of the big screen to the Web."

While appreciating Karma Kula's world-class martial arts action, the audience will also be captivated by the series' deep spiritual aspect as it touches upon timeless philosophical ideas such as karma and ancient yogic teachings both profound and insightful.

Completely independent and creatively driven, Karma Kula's first-class quality and its high production value belie its shoestring budget. Karma Kula combines the talent of directors and Ninjai Gang members Harsha Brennan, Siddha, and Chang Xing. Karma Kula is the first high-quality martial arts series specifically produced for the Web.

The Ninjai Gang's first Web series, Ninjai: The Little Ninja, has been an immediate success. From humble beginnings, Ninjai exploded on a grassroots level and has touched the hearts of millions across the world. Co-director Harsha Brennan is confident Karma Kula will be just as popular: "In its own way, Karma Kula is just as big an achievement as Ninjai. Although they're quite different, they both contain the elements of great martial arts action, humor, strong heroes, and an epic cinematic feel."

The Karma Kula series is now available in high quality on karmakula.ign.com, a channel of IGN.com, and on other top online video destinations. A new episode will be released in the beginning of every month.
About The Ninjai Gang

The Ninjai Gang, whose members originate from around the globe, is a group of young stuntmen by day and animators, musicians, and artists by night. Ninjai Gang members don't like to spotlight themselves and prefer to let their work speak for them. When not producing their shows, the Gang spend most of their time in physical training, martial arts stuntwork, yoga, meditation, playing video games, surfing (on real waves with surfboards, not on the Internet), and The Gang's original productions are inspired by the Gang's unique situation of having been raised in a multicultural environment where ancient Eastern philosophical influences such as Hinduism and Buddhism meet modern-day rock music, movies, computer games, etc.
About IGN Entertainment

IGN Entertainment, a unit of Fox Interactive Media, Inc., is a leading Internet media and services provider focused on the video game and entertainment enthusiast markets. Collectively, IGN's properties reached more than 32 million unique users worldwide in the month of December 2008. IGN's network of videogame-related properties (IGN.com, GameSpy, GreenPixels, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, Direct2Drive and others), is one of the Web's number one video game information destination and attracts one of the largest concentrated audiences of young males on the Internet. IGN also owns and operates the popular movie-related website, Rotten Tomatoes, and one of the leading male lifestyle websites, AskMen.com. In addition, IGN provides technology for online game play in video games. IGN is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices throughout the U.S. and in Montreal.
Contact

Ph 310-691-2896
Email press (at) karmakula.com

Traveling, Ski tips, and more

2009-04-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

So.. it's been rainy and pretty cold here. I'm just kinda dreaming of places I'd like to travel to right now.

Here are some nice pictures and cool tips and such for traveling.

Not to mention, the pictures of the food in India is just making me hungrier!

Expert advice: Top 9 ski tips

By Heather Eng
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Budget Travel

(Budget Travel) -- The pros weigh in on every aspect of your skiing holiday--including your socks. Even you black-diamond types might learn a thing or two.
Sometimes a ski vacation can be painful. Follow this expert advice to avoid any unpleasant turns.

Sometimes a ski vacation can be painful. Follow this expert advice to avoid any unpleasant turns.

1. Getting in shape
"Take yoga classes before you go: Yoga works the whole body, stretches muscles, and gets you used to balancing. You don't want to wake up after your first day and be too sore to ski." Troy Hawks, editor, National Ski Areas Association Journal

2. Packing
"Most airlines let you travel with a ski bag as one of your checked bags. Just be aware of the weight allowance." Mike Douglas, Salomon International Ski Team

3. Car rentals
"If you're renting a car, call ahead to reserve a four-wheel drive or snow tires. Don't settle for chains. There's no worse nightmare than dealing with chains." Phil McNichol, head men's coach, U.S. Ski Team

4. Acclimating
"I never ski the first day. Your body is tired, so you're at greater risk of injury. Go for a walk or run instead. It'll help you adjust to the climate and altitude." Olympic gold medalist Julia Mancuso (giant slalom, 2006)

5. Selecting skis
"Call a ski shop near the resort and reserve demos. They're high-end skis that won't make you look like a gaper, the way most rentals do." Jonny Moseley, Olympic gold medalist (moguls, 1998) and Ski Channel advisor
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6. Socks
"Ski socks are way better than standard cotton socks. They allow more blood flow, have cushioning where boots can accommodate it, and are warmer. And before you put them on, spray your feet with antiperspirant. Your feet will be drier and warmer." Dee Byrne, director, Vail Snowsports School

7. Helmets
"For the sport of alpine ski racing, helmets are required at every level of competition, and that's trickling down. Skiers without helmets are in the minority." Andy LeRoy, head alpine coach, University of Denver

8. Scoping out the mountain
"Most resorts offer tours at the beginning of the day. Take one that's geared to your level. It'll help you pick out the runs you'll really enjoy. Besides, tours are a great way to meet people." Tom West, president and CEO, U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum

9. Safety
"Don't end the day with a difficult run. Not only will you have already peaked, but the conditions change. In late afternoon, the light gets flat, the temperatures go down, and everyone else is tired. Statistics show that most accidents occur late in the day." Tim White, executive director, National Ski Patrol

So.. 15 days to go to Karma Kula's chapter 3

Kiss a Cleft Lip

2009-04-26T01:11:00.000-07:00

Adnan's story is a touching one. I wish that a lot more children could get this type of opportunity to smile too.

Kissing a cleft lip goodbye- Adnan’s Journey, Part I
By Nicole Lapin

CNN.com Live anchor

In the middle of a crowded hospital hallway in Alexandria, Egypt, Adnan’s blue eyes pop. He is sitting on the lap of his father, Mohammed Saleh. Saleh looks at me and then at his pregnant wife next to him. “I hope the new one doesn’t have this condition,” he says in his broken English.

“This condition” refers to his son’s cleft lip. The Salehs are one of the more than 200 families who showed up at Shark Al Madina Hospital to try to receive free treatment for their child’s cleft lip and/or palate. It is Operation Smile’s first mission in this city and the turnout is higher than expected.

“I don’t know why he has it,” Saleh mutters as he kisses his 7-month-old son’s forehead. I wish I had an answer for him. I try telling him in my broken Arabic that the organization says it’s a combination of genetic, environmental and nutritional factors. It means little to a father just trying to fix whatever caused his son’s deformity.

The global rate of cleft lip and/or palate is about 1 in every 750 births. Unlike in the United States, the corrective surgery is costly and hard to come by in countries like Egypt. I am here with an Operation Smile volunteer group- a mix of accomplished plastic surgeons, nurses and pediatricians from all over the world- aiming to change that for kids like Adnan.

Running on adrenaline and Turkish coffee, the volunteers transformed one corner of the hospital into an eight-step screening process on the first day of the mission. Benches turned into registration centers. Markers and recycled paper became locator signs: “Vitals,” “Dental,” “Anesthesiologist.” A bed sheet, beach ball and coloring book looked like an indoor playground in no time.

Women dressed in full hijab wait hours for their children to have a chance at getting the surgery. An older woman walks up to me so fast she nearly stumbles over her long skirt. “My grandson, my grandson, look, look,” she yells, holding the advertisement that appeared in a local paper in one hand and a wallet full of his pictures in the other.

The team will do approximately 175 surgeries during this mission. Not everyone from two days of screening receives an operation. The organization prioritizes the kids getting screened based on their chances for a successful recovery.

The Salehs are Number 27 in this process. I start following them when they got their number at 7 a.m. They finish around noon and before they leave I ask Adnan’s father what he wants his son to be when he grows up. Saleh answers quickly, “Whatever will make him happy.” I say, “So, a doctor, lawyer, policeman…?” He nods, “I just want my son to have the chance.”

A child whose cleft lip goes untreated will carry a social stigma in much of the world. Some cultures believe it is “a curse” or “God’s will.” A child whose cleft palate, an actual split on the roof of his or her mouth, goes untreated can have difficulty eating and speaking. In some pockets of the globe where malnutrition is prevalent, some of those youngsters won’t survive.

I hear the last prayer call of the day echo outside the seaside hospital – that means it is 8 in the evening. I just found out that Adnan has been accepted to surgery. It’s scheduled for Saturday morning. I can’t wait to see what he looks like when he smiles with more than just his eyes.

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

Don't forget, Karma Kula's 3rd chapter will be out soon!

Horse boy

2009-04-24T23:34:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Conn Iggulden's "Wolf on the Plains", so this story makes me pretty stoked:

'Horse Boy,' family find respite from autism in Mongolia

When 3-year-old Rowan Isaacson darted away from his father and dived into a herd of grazing horses, it easily could have been the end of the small autistic boy. He was babbling under the hooves of a boss mare.
Rupert and Rowan Isaacson take in the beautiful scenery.

Rupert and Rowan Isaacson take in the beautiful scenery.
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"I thought he was going to get trampled," recalled Rupert Isaacson, Rowan's father.

But the horse, Betsy, dipped her head and chewed with her mouth in submission. Isaacson, who had trained horses for a living, had never seen it happen so spontaneously. Rowan had seemingly made a connection.

The Austin, Texas, family had been struggling with Rowan.

His wild tantrums were nearly driving Isaacson and his wife, Kristin Neff, to divorce. All the while, little Rowan was becoming unreachable.

"He would just stare off into space," Isaacson said. "I was worried it was going to get progressively worse and that eventually, he might float away from us entirely. Luckily, right about that time is when he met Betsy."

Isaacson began riding Betsy, a neighbor's horse, with Rowan. He says he noticed immediate improvement in his son's language skills. Video Watch Rowan and Betsy »

"He would start to answer. He would start to talk. We would do song games up there on the saddle. I would take books up there in the saddle," Isaacson said.

Autism specialists say that horse riding can be effective in gaining access to autistic children.

Experts make a distinction between the kind of recreational therapeutic riding Isaacson was using with Rowan and hippotherapy, which is a medical treatment that uses horses and is supervised by a licensed speech-language pathologist.

"People perceive it's the interaction with the horse that's making the change. However, the movement of the horse is extremely powerful, and it's that movement that's having neurological impact on the autistic child," said Ruth Dismuke-Blakely, a speech-language pathologist and hippotherapy clinical specialist in Edgewood, New Mexico.
'House Call'
Watch more on Rowan's amazing journey this weekend on "House Call."
7:30 a.m. ET Saturday and Sunday
House Call »

According to preliminary analysis of an ongoing study by Dismuke-Blakely, hippotherapy has been shown to increase verbal communication skills in some autistic children in as little as 18 to 25 minutes of riding once a week for eight weeks.

"We see their arousal and affect change. They become more responsive to cues. If they are at a point where they are using verbal cues, you get more words," Dismuke-Blakely said. "It's almost like it opens them up. It gives us access."

She cautions that a horse's movements can be powerful. For some autistic children, riding too long can overstimulate their nervous system, leading to more erratic behavior.

On Betsy, Rowan was at ease. After about three weeks, Isaacson says, Rowan's improved behavior was translating into the home and outside world as well.

But not consistently.

In late 2004, Isaacson, a human rights activist, brought a delegation of African bushmen from Botswana to the United Nations. Among the men were traditional healers, who offered to work with Rowan.

Isaacson says he was skeptical, but he had experience with the bushmen and allowed the healers to lay their hands on his son.

"I was kind of flabbergasted at Rowan's response. For about four days while they were with him, he started to lose some of his symptoms. He started to point, which was a milestone he hadn't achieved," Isaacson said.

When the tribal healers left, Rowan regressed.

Isaacson says he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he were to give Rowan a longer exposure to the two things that he seemed to have responded well to: horses and shamans.

"I know it sounds completely crazy," he said. "I just had a gut feeling."

Isaacson took his wife and son to Mongolia.
Don't Miss

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"It's the oldest horse culture on the planet. Everyone still gets around on a horse there -- so a nomadic culture. The word 'shaman' comes from there," Isaacson said, explaining his decision. "I just thought, 'Well, what if we went there and rode across the steppe and visited traditional healers? You know, what might happen for Rowan? Might there be some positive outcomes?' "

Trekking across the Mongolian prairie on horseback, Isaacson says, Rowan's behavior was changed dramatically.

"Rowan was not cured of autism out there," Isaacson stressed. "The word 'cure' is not in my vocabulary for this. Rowan came back without three key dysfunctions that he had. He went out to Mongolia incontinent and still suffering from these neurological firestorms -- so tantruming all the time and cut off from his peers, unable to make friends -- and he came back with those three dysfunctions having gone."

Isaacson credits Rowan's improvement to horses and time in nature -- and to shamanic healing, which he says he simply can't explain rationally.

Isaacson has written a book, "The Horse Boy," about Rowan's autism.

Rowan, now 7, rides Betsy by himself. His parents never abandoned more orthodox treatments for his autism, and Rowan's applied behavioral analysis therapist has him studying math and English at the third-grade level -- a full year ahead of some of his peers.

"He's just becoming a very functional autistic person," Isaacson said.
Health Library

* MayoClinic.com: Autism

As far as the Isaacson family's journey took them, it is the same hard slog facing millions of families gripped by autism.

"A lot of the parents go to the ends of the Earth in their own living rooms every day," Isaacson said. "I mean, we had more stressful car rides to the grocery store than any of the stresses and challenges of the trip to Mongolia."
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You don't have to get on a horse -- or plane to Siberia -- for relief. For autism families, Isaacson encourages parents to simply follow their instincts and listen to what their child shows them.

"In our case, it was horses in Mongolia and these shamans," Isaacson said. "It could just as easily have been bicycles and, you know, steam trains. And if it had been, we'd have done a steam train journey. We'd have done whatever Rowan seemed to be showing us he wanted to do, because that was where he was intrinsically motivated."

Don't forget to watch your daily ninjai chapter

Thunderbolts

2009-04-24T04:14:00.000-07:00

I was horribly irritable this morning. Anyway, my day picked up. I finished a few things that I was meant to and I've got another ton of things to finish now.

Late this afternoon the rainclouds started coming in from the ocean, and in with it, a huge thunderstorm. I had been waiting for a chance to swim all afternoon, and it was already 5 past when I finally had a chance. My friend and I were standing on the beach, watching the silver bolts of lightning smashing down from the sky- some near, some far. Some of them were getting real near, so we were asking each other, "Is this bravery or stupidity?" Right when we ran out of the shelter of the umbrella trees this massive lightning bolt came crashing down - again, closer to us. We ran screaming back under, it was really funny. Then a few minutes after we ran like mad to the ocean, jumped in, then jumped back on the beach and ran towards the trees. Our beach here is basically flat and there aren't very many trees around. It's not at all like a Waikiki or something of the sort, so more often than not, we would be the tallest things standing on the beach during a thunderstorm.
The rain started pouring down heavily after, and now the huge orchestra of frogs has begun their singing for the night. I went for a short walk over to my friend's house and nearly stepped on at least 3 baby frogs. :P Frog in a well..
Obama mania?

Family prisons

2009-04-23T04:45:00.000-07:00

In Bolivia, Keeping Kids and Mothers Together — in Prison
By Jean Friedman-Rudovsky / La Paz Wednesday, Apr. 22, 2009

At first glance it feels like any Latin American barrio filled with kids. It's a Saturday afternoon, and a dozen young children are sprawled out on a yard, painting a large canvass. Others run free through the one-square-block area that resembles a cramped town, with its food stands and kiosks. The tykes rattle off for me what they like best about their community: the mess hall, their friends, the food, the paint — and, for many, just "living with mom."

They're living with mom, however, inside the Women's Correctional Facility in La Paz, Bolivia. There are about 250 prisoners here — and also 100 kids. In fact, the country's lock-ups house more than 1,400 children behind electrified, fence-topped walls and below shotgun-guarded towers. Among the prisoner-mothers at the Women's Correctional Facility is Andrea Virginia Tapia, who has been behind bars for four years and is expected to be released next year. (She won't discuss her crime.) "Above all in this life, I am a mother," says Tapia, who is in her 30s and is the mother of seven kids, four of whom live in the prison with her. (The others live with her mother.) "They are best with me," she adds, as her three-year-old snuggles into her lap, "regardless of where that is." (See pictures from a women's prison in Iraq.)

That sentiment seems to be taking hold in many parts of Latin America, where thousands of children are growing up behind bars alongside their incarcerated mothers and fathers. That might sound like Dickensian tragedy; but in Bolivia it's a legal — and fiercely defended — practice. "We've seen that this is best for mother, or father, and child," says Jorge Lopez, Director of Bolivia's Penitentiary System. "It's important not to rip those bonds between parent and child." What's more, sadly, it may be the best alternative for the children themselves. In Bolivia, South America's poorest country, it's often financially impossible for family members on the outside to take on more mouths to feed. Orphanages aren't feasible, either: "Children live in worse conditions there than in the prisons — and without their moms and dads," says Rene Estensorro, a psychologist at Semilla de Vida (Seed of Life), a non-governmental organization that works with imprisoned mothers and their children. Lopez agrees. Releasing the kids from the prisons, he says, "means [their] direct entryway onto the street."

Advocates argue that keeping the children inside prison may also have positive effects on their convict parents. "Having a child near helps the parent reform his or her actions and be more eager to rehabilitate and readapt to society," Lopez adds, noting that Bolivian legislation on this issue was based on studies reflecting that trend. (See pictures of how boxing helps prisoners in Thailand.)

The equally important question, of course, is what prison time does to the children. Estensorro acknowledges that "we see a lot of repression in the children." Kids inside the Women's Correctional Facility are punished for normal behavior like waking up in the middle of the night — because they end up waking up everyone else inside the cramped sleeping quarters. School age kids leave the prison each day to attend regular schools but nonetheless suffer isolation from their peers. Another problem: the lack of 24-hour medical care inside the prison. Worse, kids must sometimes share mom's punishment for bad behavior, like solitary confinement. As a result, not every prisoner mom is happy about having her children with her. "I am paying my debt to society but that doesn't mean that my children should be paying the consequences of my actions too," says Casilda Calle, another prisoner in La Paz.

Still, housing children with incarcerated parents is becoming a more accepted practice across a region that shares many of Bolivia's social shortcomings. According to Lopez, Ecuador, Peru and Guatemala have systems similar to Bolivia's, which allows kids to live inside until the age of six (though even Lopez admits that kids sometimes stay years longer). Some women's prisons in Mexico hold toddlers; and in Argentina, there is a special facility for pregnant inmates and those with kids under the age of four.

So instead of attempting to remove the children, most efforts in Latin America today focus on improving in-prison services that benefit both parent and child, like constructing day care centers in or near the facilities and providing inmates with good-parenting workshops. The plight of these children, however, doesn't seem to be high on any relief organizations' list. Save the Children runs programs for the 200 children inside Bolivia's San Pedro men's prison, but that's the extent of its work in Latin America. CARE does not deal directly with this population, and various United Nations agencies did not respond to TIME's requests for comment. Nevertheless, after tear gas was used to put down a recent riot at a men's prison where 200 kids live, UNICEF issued this statement: "The precariousness of the infrastructure, health and welfare conditions of these penitentiary centers constitute a transgression of children's and adolescents' most fundamental rights."

Either way, even if the world outside Latin America might view the practice as a 21st-century version of a 19th-century evil, making children part of a prison's population has become an integral part of the region's corrections culture. "Kids learn to adapt," says Estensorro. "I believe they really are better off here."

Time

I guess it's a good idea all around.

Drop by the Mystic Warriors.

Days gone by

2009-04-21T01:28:00.000-07:00

I've been watching a few documentaries from msn and stuff.

We went snake hunting with my friend again but to no avail..:'( It's raining now. So perhaps tomorrow will be a good day to look for them.

Don't forget to watch the Ninjas

Abuse, Britain's Got Talent, and more..

2009-04-20T04:59:00.000-07:00

This kid: Shaheen Jafargholi is pretty awesome. Gratz there.

I took the boys out to the trails today and bought them some ice cream. I've been thinking a lot about abuse and its horrible "step sisters" so to speak. From what I have seen, physical abuse never comes alone. It is always coupled with psychological and verbal abuse. This boy is young. I am quite fond of him, obviously- as a younger brother for that. I know I would try to do what I could to help any person or living being in such a situation. That's one thing I hated about the dog training classes I used to bring my dog to. We had to hit our dogs and punish them and do all kinds of stuff that would make them yelp and scream and dig their heels in the ground. Luckily my dog was smart and he learned quickly so that I never had to push him as hard as some dogs had to be pushed. This reminds me of an incident years ago, when my aunt gave me a little puppy. We stopped at one of our friends' house on our way up and had lunch there. My new pet, G.I., as we called him later on, was left outside the house tied next to a tree. Someone came and parked their motorcycle right beside him while we were having lunch, and there were two girls sitting just a few feet from him, also having their lunch. Sometime during lunch he started crying. His cries turned to gurgling sounds muffled in his throat, and I ran outside to find him choking to death. He had somehow entwined himself around the motorcycle and his leash and each time he struggled to get away it only just made it worse. Perhaps I was being a selfish ass back then and now, thinking that those two girls sitting a couple feet away from him would've helped him out of his predicament, as he was obviously crying for help and needing help. It wasn't like he was a huge dog with scary teeth and what not. He was a month and a half- that was it. Luckily I got there on time and he recovered quite well from the shock.

Seeing animals going through so much pain is in itself heart breaking. What more, seeing human beings going through it. The very sound of it would break any basically normal person's heart. I don't really get it.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai tidbit

Life, golf, and etc

2009-04-19T04:50:00.000-07:00

I've been staying in a compound right by the beach for the past month or so. Aside from the really good surfer kids I've posted about before, there are also some other kids who I watch over every now and then. I like them. They can be really bratty sometimes, but otherwise they are good, fun kids to be around.

This afternoon, after a very minor incident, I saw the mom of one of the kids drag her son up and start beating him with a stick. I'm not talking about a little stick, it was a big one. I know how much those sticks hurt because they're for martial arts and I've taken those classes on how to use them, etcetera. Anyhow, the poor boy ended up stripped naked, standing naked outside on the road. I went out and put a towel on him and brought him inside. Iced his welts from the stick and put some cream on them so they won't hurt too much, hopefully. I brought him out on the beach with me afterwards. He's all right now and was in good spirits.

I don't know why but I've seen at least a couple other such cases and have had to interfere and try to get things okay with everyone before. It's a heart breaking situation to see another person beating someone else, and what more- hearing and seeing the person being beaten. Both ways it is completely heart breaking.

On the lighter side:

Todd aces same hole on 2 straight days
h
ATHENS, Ga. (AP)—Brendon Todd made Nationwide Tour history by making a hole-in-one at the same hole for the second straight day at the Athens Regional Foundation Classic.

The former Georgia All-American aced the 147-yard 17th hole on Friday, using an 8-iron during the second round at the Jennings Mill Country Club course.

“It’s still hard to believe,” Todd said after posting a 1-under 71. “It’s a bit surreal, even now.”

During Thursday’s opening round, Todd used a 7-iron when the hole played 157 yards and he finished with a 4-under 68. He is 5-under for the $550,000 event.

Todd is the first player in the 20-year history of the tour to ace the same hole twice in the same tournament.

“I had just come off a bogey and so I wasn’t in a great mood when I stepped on the tee. I wasn’t even thinking about making it,” he said. “It was a perfect yardage and I flagged it. It looked pretty good in the air and then landed about 4 feet short and left of the hole and rolled in the back of the cup. I guess I played the break perfectly.”

The last player to ace the same hole twice in the same tournament was Graham Marsh in the first and third rounds of the 2004 Senior British Open.

Yusaku Miyazato (2006), Bob Tway (1994), Glen Day (1994), Jack Rule (1964) and Bill Whedon (1955) are the only players in modern PGA Tour history to record two aces in a single event. Miyazato and Whedon are the only ones to do it in the same round.
Yahoo Sports News

Don't forget to watch some hot martial arts action!

We stand alone together

2009-04-17T02:17:00.000-07:00

I just LOVE stuff like this.
It just blows my mind away. I swear I'm sure I was one of these war veterans before. Or .. maybe I was just a stupid cat always making trouble.

It's been raining cats and dogs here since about 11 pm last night. The first glimmers of sunshine are peaking out at me just now, and it's already nearly sunset. It's beautiful tho. The ocean's sparkling like silver now in the sunlight. I didn't go for a swim. It was cool enough to not feel the need for it just yet.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

2009-04-16T05:14:00.000-07:00

So.. not much happening here. I've just been thoroughly enjoying swimming. There aren't any waves, but the water has been crystal, I mean like, CRYSTAL clear. So absolutely breathtakingly clear. Minus the jellyfish, it's perfect. I just paddle out and swim in the deep. The water's so clear that if you have goggles on, you can see all around as clear you almost as clearly as you can see when you're out of land. I swear, it just makes me drool. When the water is like that, my wishing for a water proof laptop with wifi internet only just gets stronger. :)

Anyhow, so.. we've got some pretty interesting headlines this week:

1. So trees can grow inside your... belly? Nope. Lungs.
2. Susan Boyle, still. I love her voice tho. I'm a big fan of Les Miserables.
3. Mystics? Warriors? It's not too new but it's still good. :)

Bravery

2009-04-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

There's something about wars and soldiers that just makes me melt. and Bruce lee and his boy? I've just been sitting here on my ass all day watching war movies and such.

Don't forget to take a look at Frog in a well

Satya Bellord

2009-04-12T02:22:00.000-07:00

Here's some interesting stuff on Satya Bellord, the star of Karma Kula's 2nd chapter, "Frog in the Well" :

Think "stunt double" and "martial arts double" are the same thing?

Not always. Satya Bellord (pictured above in a blond wig on the left, and with Quentin Tarantino on the right) got called on last minute to be a Martial Arts Double for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Vol. 2.

What's the difference?

Satya explains: "The martial arts double specializes in martial arts, especially moves that require a higher skill and energy level. A trained martial artist develops an inner strength that isn't there in an actor or stunt person whose martial arts training is limited."

She is also credited as "Utility Stunts" in some sources. She was interviewed in Black Belt Magazine for her work on the film.

-Martial Arts Talents

Frog in the Well

2009-04-11T03:41:00.000-07:00

Frog in the Well , Karma kula's 2nd chapter, is out!

I must say, I loved this chapter. It's got action, wit, suspense, and humor. What more to ask for?

I've been traveling heaps for the past few days. I'm just exhausted tonight, and glad to be parked somewhere even just for a few days. I'm just wanting to get some sleep more than anything else.

I visited some relatives and such over the holidays and drove my mom and aunts around. They had a great time I'd think, so all seems to be quite well. It was nice to spend some time with my cousins again.

Stranger saves baby from car bomb

2009-04-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

I'd say what an adorable baby!

Iraqi salesman saves baby after bomb kills mother

BAGHDAD – A salesman rescued a baby from a blaze ignited by a car bombing in a Shiite neighborhood Tuesday, reaching through the shattered window and grabbing the boy after the blast killed his mother and eight other people.

The rescue, which witnesses described to an Associated Press reporter at the scene, highlighted the often overlooked role of Iraqi civilians in the aftermath of such bombings. Although violence has tapered off greatly over the past year, deadly attacks still plague the capital.

Iraqis tend to try to help one another after bombings and often drive victims to hospitals because ambulances can be slow in getting to the scene. But salesman Asad Raad's act was particularly notable because a burning car can explode if the fuel tanks are on fire, and bombings are often quickly followed by other attacks intended to kill rescuers.

Raad rushed out of his motorcycle shop after the explosion shook the Kazimiyah area of northwest Baghdad. He plucked the infant from the back seat, where he lay next to his dead mother.

Rescuers pulled a badly burned man, presumed to be the baby's father, from the car and rushed him to the hospital. In the confusion, no one at the scene determined the couple's names.

"The baby suffered light burns in the face," Raad told the AP. "I took the baby to my house and called the police. They told me to keep him for the time being."

Throughout the afternoon, relatives brought Raad milk and diapers for the baby, who was sleeping hours later.

"If nobody comes forward to claim him, my family is thinking of adopting him. To save and care for the baby is the only thing a human being can do in such circumstances," said Raad, a newlywed. "I cannot stand still and watch. I will do everything possible to protect the baby who lost his mother."

Tuesday's blast, nine hours before President Barack Obama touched down in Baghdad for a brief visit, came a day after bombings killed 37 people in Shiite areas of the capital and raised fears of new sectarian fighting.

The Interior Ministry warned of more car bombings in Baghdad and said security was being tightened to prevent them. The announcement followed public criticism of the police and army for failing to prevent Monday's attacks.

"We hold the security forces responsible for what happened," said Mustafa Radhi as he buried his relatives — a young husband and wife killed along with their newborn son Monday. "Innocent people and children died because of their negligence."

No group claimed responsibility for the recent blasts, but the U.S. military said the attacks bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq, a Sunni extremist group that has targeted Shiite civilians in the past.

The government blamed supporters of Saddam Hussein in league with al-Qaida and suggested the blasts were timed for Tuesday's anniversary of the founding of his disbanded Baath party. Thursday is also the sixth anniversary of the U.S. capture of Baghdad, which ended Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime.

Also Tuesday, a suicide car bomber killed three policemen and wounded seven people at a police checkpoint in Fallujah, a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

The bullet-riddled body of a member of a U.S.-allied Sunni paramilitary ground was found Tuesday in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the capital, police said. The victim had been kidnapped the day before.

Source

And of course.. Karma kula's 2nd chapter will be out in a day or so. :)

Old friends and lol cats

2009-04-05T22:36:00.000-07:00

Got to love these pictures. :)

This one is particularly hilarious. I went for a swim this morning with some old friends. It was pretty nice. I haven't seen them for ages. I'm pretty happy to be with them again, although I'm not sure they're as happy to see me.
Either way it's good. I caught some jellyfish when we went out for a swim.

Don't forget to watch your Ninjai Chapter

Handheld nitendo games

2009-04-05T04:34:00.000-07:00

The handheld Nitendo DSi is almost out. Should be pretty interesting. I can bet my brother will be walking around with one soon.

Revamped Nintendo Handheld To Hit Domestic Shores This Week
But should you buy one?

By Gordon Cameron and Mike Smith

In the handheld gaming market, Nintendo reigns supreme -- thanks to the spectacular success of its 100-million-selling flagship, the DS. With the system still going strong, you might think, "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" – but then, you’re not Nintendo. They’ve been tinkering with their favorite toy, and after a preliminary run in Japan, the newly-souped-up DS -- now called the "DSi" -- is poised to hit store shelves in Europe and America.

In-Depth Video: The DSi

The design changes in the new device are subtle but significant. The DSi features a slightly larger viewing screen than its predecessor, with superior speakers to round out the experience. The case is slimmer, thanks to the removal of the largely obsolete Game Boy Advance cartridge slot. Particularly noteworthy is the addition of internal and external cameras, allowing the DSi to double as a versatile camera – not unlike that other handheld device that has a lower-case "i" in its name.

On the software side, the DSi's been given a slick new browsing interface that’s reminiscent of its big brother, the Wii. Accessible via any wi-fi connection (find out how), the DSi shop will give you access to numerous applications and low-cost games. Some of the apps – including a suite of photo-manipulation tools that will let you tweak your pictures in humorous and creative ways – are ready to use out of the box.

10 Things You Didn't Know About The DSi

All of this adds up to a lighter, leaner package that blurs the line between games console and general-purpose handheld tool. Whether Nintendo explicitly designed the DSi as an answer to Apple’s iPhone – itself making a surprisingly effective stealth entry into the handheld gaming arena – is questionable. But the vibe we’re getting from the device is that it’s a little more versatile, a little more grown-up, and a little more pitched to the same non-hardcore audience that has made the Wii such a smash.

So it's an even more mainstream design -- but is it a good deal for consumers? If you're one of the hundred-odd million existing DS owners, it's unlikely you'll see too much benefit from upgrading. Sure, the ergonomics are improved, but it remains to be seen whether the camera and DSi shop will give rise to genuinely better games, or just be remembered as gimmicks. You might well want to watch and wait before taking the plunge. On the other hand, if you're pondering your first DS purchase, the DSi is definitely a better bet than its older cousin, even though it'll be selling at a $40 premium.

How is the DSi expected to sell in a sluggish economy? Bob McKenzie, Senior Vice President of Merchandising at game-retailing behemoth GameStop, isn’t worried. "In the U.S., we've got reservations that are more than double where the prior DS launch was," McKenzie told us. McKenzie also foresees a continuing market for the DS Lite alongside the DSi. "The DSi will outsell the DS Lite in the first two weeks, but… we anticipate the DS Lite will continue selling well because of the economy, and the value that it has." GameStop is preparing midnight DSi launches on Sunday night at some 2400 stores around the country, including the main event at the Universal Citywalk Store in Burbank, which will feature music, live entertainment, and attendance by top Nintendo execs.

Want to know more? Check out IGN's DSi Starter Guide.

I found a baby bird that was learning to fly and who lost gas in the bushes the other day. He died after a day. I'm so gutted about it. Had I closed the toilet lid I would still have the little fellow with me now. augh.

Don't forget to watch and vote Karma Kula Mystic Warrior

Birds falling out of trees

2009-04-03T04:51:00.000-07:00

So I had a pretty ordinary day today. Just swam in the morning, went to town to pick up some school stuff and went to the grocery... did heaps of math in the afternoon, then I babysat. I went to get some snacks for the kids and there was this little bird just learning to fly, sitting on one of the plants. It went to our kitchen a few times. It can't really fly much more than a few inches off the ground, so I figure it fell out of its nest in an unsuccessful attempt to fly. Its parents were really freaking out just right about my head, and when I scooped it up in my hands it just came right on. Right then one of the huge fat cats that like to hang out around here scampered off. Had I come a few minutes later this little bird would've been dinner. He or she is a stubborn little thing tho- it still won't open its mouth. I've taken care of quite a few birds already and this one is just so not wanting to open its mouth - at least not yet. I've crushed berries and just fed it juice from those berries. It's sleeping now tho, real cute little fellow. It's the nicest specie of wild birds that I've gotten so far. Usually I just find the most ordinary sparrows around and nothing more.

I hope it lives. I've yet to name it.

Break

2009-04-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

It was another beautiful day out at the beach. I swam with my neighbors again. It was wonderful. The water is so perfectly clean, the waves were great and we all had a fun time swimming- and the others, surfing. Paddle boards are pretty cool. I haven't tried it with the waves yet but it looks like good fun.

I've been doing a lot of updating with the computers to prevent the April 1st worm from getting us. Hopefully it works. So far so good tho, right?

I had a pretty good night. I've just been dreaming of math. I only just have a math subject left and I'll be done with my 1st college course. I've failed this subject thrice before, and I'm not willing to fail it again for the world.

In the meantime, here I am, nibbling on some dried, sugary bananas and boiled corn. Life is good. Don't forget to watch a
Ninjai Chapter, and the Mystic Warrior.

Waves, waves a-pounding

2009-04-01T04:40:00.000-07:00

The waves are crashing loudly in the ocean tonight. The ground is cool, and the wind blows softly, as if to ease the memory of day-time summer heat. The pink flowering creepers by my window shiver in the drizzle, perfuming the breeze. Awaken not, thou shallow tears, I bid you away.
The waves are pounding on the beach, as angry. So different from the calm, clear, cool water of the morn. Years have gone flit-flying by. Surrounded by change I remain the same.

Brother kills his sisters

2009-03-31T18:54:00.000-07:00

Man decapitates 5-year-old sister in front of officer

(CNN) -- By the time the police officer kicked the door in, it was too late. Kerby Revelus was holding his 5-year-old sister, Bianca, and while the officer watched, he dragged a kitchen knife across her throat with such fury that he decapitated her.
Samantha Revelus, 17, had called 911 for help after her brother attacked his sisters with a knife.

Samantha Revelus, 17, had called 911 for help after her brother attacked his sisters with a knife.
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"It's hard to imagine that kind of horror," said Milton, Massachusetts, Police Chief Richard G. Wells Jr.

Mere seconds passed before other officers arrived and rushed into the home in the tony Boston suburb of 25,000.

Police had received a 911 call from another Revelus sibling, 17-year-old Samantha. Suffering from several deep cuts in her upper body, she was losing strength.

"It was clear that she knew she was mortally wounded," Wells said. Video Watch police chief discuss decapitation »

Samantha managed to explain that her 23-year-old brother had attacked his sisters with a knife, police said. When she was no longer able to keep talking, the injured teen handed her 9-year-old sister, Sarafina Revelus, the phone.

All the while, the kids' grandmother was doing laundry in the basement, apparently unaware of the savagery upstairs, police said. Mother Regina Revelus was at work, and father Vronze Revelus was not at home.

As officers surrounded the home and rushed into every room, Kerby ran into a bedroom where Samantha was on the floor, dead. Sarafina was on the floor near her sister's body, according to Wells.

Kerby Revelus then began attacking Sarafina with the knife, Wells said, prompting police open fire and kill him.

On Tuesday, the two slain siblings and their attacker were buried together. Sarafina Revelus returned home Tuesday after undergoing surgery Monday morning for wounds.

It was not the first time police have visited the home answering a domestic violence call, Wells said.

In September 2004, Kerby Revelus was arrested for punching one of his sisters in the face as they fought about money, the chief said. The Boston Herald identified the sibling as Jessica Revelus, who was not in the home during Saturday's attack.
Don't Miss

* WCVB: Girl who survived knife attack returns home

Jessica Revelus told officers at the time that "she was not in fear of her brother," according to a police report from the incident, the Boston Herald reported. A charge of domestic assault and battery was dismissed because she refused to cooperate, Wells said.

Kerby was then in his last year at Milton High School.

But Kerby was in trouble a year later, in 2005, when he was charged with carrying a firearm without a license after he attempted to purchase alcohol at a Randolph, Massachusetts, liquor store. He was given a six-month sentence and was released in September 2008.

CNN reached Jessica Revelus by phone Tuesday. She seemed distraught and said she had not been able to sleep. Her brother's rampage came, she said, "out of the blue."

When asked whether he had a temper or had given any indication that he might want to hurt his sisters, she said, "I don't know. I am not good right now. I am not good."

On Monday, Jessica Revelus told the Boston Herald that "I was never afraid of him. I called the police because he thought he was so big and bad."

Jessica Revelus told the newspaper that her sister Samantha "would get into arguments" with Kerby over "little stuff" and that Kerby and her father were not speaking.

Police are unclear about what set the brother off Saturday, and Wells said he's being careful not to speculate.

Vronze and Regina Revelus said through a family spokesman that they had "no explanation" for their son's savagery, according to the Boston Herald.

"How much can you put on the shoulders of one family?" Wells asked.

Wells praised the first officer on the scene Saturday.

"I don't have words to articulate how this officer maintained his ability to do his job, " he said. "To go in and witness that first thing, just as he opens the door and stay on his radio through the whole thing ..."
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He added that the horror of the day rippled through the force. "You can bet that our officers went home after this, and they hugged their wives and their children that much tighter. I hope that for this family and for my officers, that there can be a way to get through.

"We are going to try to make them whole as soon as possible, even though the events of this past weekend will stay with them forever."

Source

My god. That is horrifying.

Pigs

2009-03-31T00:56:00.000-07:00

1. Price is around the same amount as a pedigree dog or cat
2. Non-allergenic in most cases
3. Clean and odor-free
4. No fleas
5. They are about the size of a medium sized dog
6. Long life span (12-20 years)
7. Non-destructive, unlike a puppy
8. Quickly trained: litterbox, tricks, walking harness, etc.
9. Low maintenance: annual vet visit, generally stronger immune system than a dog or cat
10. Intelligent, Social, and Communicative

I've always wanted a pet pig like that.. but of course I've never had one.. and probably never will. Oh well. I've always wanted a pet tiger too. But a horse would do, actually. I just have to get myself a huge track of land and some nice horses.

Don't forget to check out Mystic Warrior. The 2nd chapter is bound to come out in a few days.

Impatience, Fitness tips, and more

2009-03-30T04:09:00.000-07:00

This morning I tutored the two kids I tutored all summer last year. They're real smart like, especially the boy- who's also older, but they can get on my nerves sometimes. Today I had them studying for 2-3 hours straight and by the time the boy just had 3 more questions left, my patience was running very thin. I was really losing it fast. Anyway, I just told them it was recess and stopped there. PMS, hunger, and smart kids who refuse to think are not a good combination!

The waves are back! My neighbors kids, (12-14) year olds, and their cousins who are all about the same age- were having heaps of fun surfing out there this afternoon. I could see them riding the waves from way out where they break all the way to the shore. I usually go and swim with them, as I did this morning, but I had stuff to do this afternoon.

Oh and look, fitness tips!

Get Fit In As Little As Two Hours a Week

Like most time-pressed women who juggle their career, errands, family and friends — and much more — many firefighters scramble to find the time to exercise on a regular basis. But there is a difference between them and us. Firefighters have to stay fit to do their jobs. So Discovery Health Online asked Michael Stefano, author of The Firefighters Workout Book: The 30-Minute-a-Day, Train-for-Life Program for Men and Women, for his recommendation on the most efficient way for busy women to get in shape and stay there. We asked him to keep three goals in mind:

* Losing or controlling weight
* Building muscle strength
* Boosting overall health (with our society's emphasis on looking good, we sometimes forget that a key benefit of regular exercise is that it protects us against the progression of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, type II diabetes and some forms of cancer.)

Alternate Cardiovascular and Strength Training
According to Stefano, you can accomplish all three goals by doing a 30- to 45-minute cardiovascular workout on Monday, for example, and strength training the following day. The strength training should consist of eight or 10 short bursts of intense effort (sets) performed in a series or circuit at least twice each week. This alternating workout program "will give you a two-for-one bonus of both fat burning and toning," he says. The end result is four or five workouts weekly (including cardio) "that can be as little as two hours of total exercise each week."

Insist on Intensity
Getting results is more a matter of how intensely you exercise than which exercise you choose to do. Stefano explains: The benefits of cardiovascular or aerobic exercise depend strictly on the heart and breathing rate achieved during the activity.

Ideally, you need to elevate your heart rate to between 60 or 70 percent of your maximum heart rate for about 20 or 30 minutes at least three days a week. (The simplest way to do this calculation is to subtract your age from 220. The result is the maximum number of times your heart can beat in one minute; take 60 or 70 percent of this number to obtain your target heart rate.)

The more intensely you train (without working above 85 percent of your maximum heart rate), the less time you'll need to exercise to get the same results. Walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling are all good fat-burning exercises when done at your target heart rate.

Similarly, the point of strength or resistance training "isn't necessarily how many sets you do, or how often you lift," says Stefano, "but how intensely you train while adhering to perfect form. This intensity level is relative, varies with each individual, and depends on many factors, including age, sex, and current level of fitness."

Stefano says the top resistance exercises for improving muscle tone are the captain's chair for abdominals, squats for the buttocks and push-ups for the arms, shoulders and chest.

The "Interval" Workout
Greg Florez, spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise and chief executive of FitAdvisor.com, agrees with Stefano that you can accomplish a total body-conditioning workout in 30-45 minutes. "The key issues are working large body parts in a strength program and getting the correct intensity in both the cardiovascular and strength training portions," he says.

To do this, add a strength exercise approximately every two to three minutes to your cardiovascular workout. In other words, stop jogging, stair climbing or doing the elliptical trainer and hit the mat to perform 12-15 push-ups. Then immediately resume your cardiovascular exercise without rest. Continue doing intervals throughout the cardio routine to work your way through the major muscle groups in your body — shoulders, back, chest, arms, hips/buttocks and legs.

Intervals Increase Caloric Burn and Fitness
Interval training can help break up the monotony of jogging on a treadmill for 30 minutes, but more importantly, it can help you maintain a relatively high level of intensity, which increases the number of calories burned and helps to build your overall fitness level. "That is why interval training is so valuable," says Florez, who suggests doing one such workout each week as well as varying your normal cardio routine to add a bit of speed, incline or distance. Perform your cardio workout three to five times a week at a minimum of 20 minutes per session.

Quality is the goal when doing the strength portion of the workout. The 12-15 repetitions should be hard enough that you could not complete any more without compromising form and correct posture. When you pass that level, you should increase the weight/resistance.
Source

And of course, don't forget to drop by IGN to watch some Mystic Warrior stuff!

nothing doing

2009-03-29T04:01:00.000-07:00

I had an okay day. Kinda boring. The waves seem like they're picking up, which is sweet. I baby sat all afternoon. twas all right.

As always, don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai chapter... on side note, on the Ninjai Gang's Karma kula website they've got this section "Meet the crew"- which I'm insanely happy about right now. It's not up yet but it probably will be in a few days.

Severe weather wreak havoc from Plains to Gulf Coast

-- Mother Nature provided a little bit of everything throughout parts of the country on Saturday.
Vehicles jam a buckled road in Mobile, Alabama, Saturday after heavy rains.

Vehicles jam a buckled road in Mobile, Alabama, Saturday after heavy rains.
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Heavy winds wreaked havoc on a shopping center in central Tennessee, blowing out windows and damaging the roof of a shopping center, Murfreesboro police spokesman Kyle Evans told CNN Radio.

Glass storefronts at the Jackson Heights Shopping Center were blown out 100 to 150 yards into the parking lot, Evans said.

Evans said three people were treated for minor injuries from flying glass and metal.

Residents in northwest Murfreesboro lost power Saturday night and police are warning residents to stay indoors until traffic caused by the incident clears up.

Elsewhere, a blizzard dumped more than 2 feet of snow in parts of the Plains on Saturday. The blizzard cut power, stranding drivers and prompting governors in Kansas and Oklahoma to issue disaster declarations.

The heaviest snow and ice accumulated in south central and southwest Kansas. In Pratt County, 28 inches of snow fell, with snow drifts reported up to 6 feet. At least nine other counties reported 2 feet of snow, the Kansas Adjutant General's office said.

About 17,000 customers in Kansas lost electricity, more than half of those in Sedgwick County.

The storm left some travelers stranded and in need of last-minute hotel accomodations, the front desk manager at the Econolodge in McPherson said.

"We have two honeymoon suites open, but other than that we're fully booked. We normally have 84 rooms," iReporter Sally Kelley said.
Don't Miss

* Milder Atlantic hurricane season predicted this year
* Menacing Red River seems to level off

The housekeepers who made it to work were all outside shoveling, but they struggled to keep up with the snow as it continued falling Saturday afternoon.

"We haven't had people getting mad at us. The people have been great but I think they're really frustrated."

The Adjutant General's office said whiteout conditions and blowing snow made driving hazardous. The Kansas Department of Transportation shut down several roads in the western and south central part of the state. National Guard Humvees were used to move medical personal and patients to a hospital in Seward County.

In Oklahoma, where more than a foot of snow fell, Gov. Brad Henry declared a state of emergency in 50 counties.

The State Department of Transportation had several roads blocked in the state and others remained impassible.

"The only people who can get out of their driveways have 4-wheel drive," said iReporter Mark Rennie of Alva, Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, rain along the Gulf Coast battered areas around Mobile, Alabama, and Biloxi, Mississippi. Video Watch how the rain is blocking roads in Mobile, Alabama »

Mobile County Emergency Management Director Walter Dickerson said 4 to 6 inches of rain fell on already saturated ground.

Fifteen to 20 roads around Mobile were closed, and several people had to be rescued after flash flooding trapped their cars.

In Mobile, heavy rains caused a section of roadway to collapse. Three cars ended up in a large sinkhole, including one vehicle that landed on top of another. No serious injuries were reported.

Dickerson said a temporary shelter may be opened for residents displaced by the high waters.

In nearby Baldwin County, Alabama, an apartment complex was evacuated and some main roads were closed.
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The main roadway leading into Biloxi, the Interstate 10 loop, was closed for several hours early Saturday before waters receded and allowed traffic to resume. But more than a dozen other roads around Harrison County remain blocked.

Roads were also impassable in some parts of the Florida Panhandle. Officials in the Atlanta, Georgia, metro area, which is under flood watches and warnings, were keeping an eye on surging rivers and creeks.

Source

A little discovery

2009-03-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to learn more about my mom's country and culture and this panty-hose-tug-of-war was one of the things I stumbled on. It's bound to give you a good laugh the first time, then make you cry after. My God what are these people thinking!!?

We had a huge downpour here today. I just ended up leaving the house later. I'm down at the coast now. We just watched the amazing race while waiting out the storm so we could leave. :D

My, isn't that beautiful?

And do check this out, Karma kula's on the front page of video.ign.com!

The Ninjas have come

2009-03-26T01:25:00.000-07:00

The Karma Kula sneak peek is now entitled it's 1st chapter: "The Ninjas"

The Proper 'Hugging' of a Baby

Instructions for properly hugging a baby:

1. First, find a baby

2. Second, be sure that the object you found was

Indeed a baby by employing classic sniffing techniques.

3. Next you will need to flatten the baby before actually beginning the

Hugging process.

4. The 'paw slide'

Simply slide paws around baby and prepare for possible close-up.

5. Finally, if a camera is present, you will need to execute
The difficult and patented 'hug, smile, and lean' so as to

Achieve the best photo quality.

If you don't pass this along, a dog
will pee on your computer!

Animal Heroes

2009-03-24T19:15:00.000-07:00

There have been so many stories of animal heroes, and again- here's a parrot who saved a baby by yelling, "Mama, baby" and flapping its wings. Then there are those stories of dolphins and porpoises, turtles, etc who took care of people who were shipwrecked or lost in sea.
Sometimes I think animals can be way better than human beings who aren't responsible enough to act like human beings. Generally speaking- animals care for their young. They'll die for their young, and well hey- they do what they can for each other and for other species if needed. They don't ruin the environment or whatever it is... not that I'm advocating people to just become humans or what. I just think people should act as human beings and not animals-gone-wrong so that the world doesn't get so screwed up all the time.

Anyway.. that's my two cents for the day.

Don't forget to watch your Daily Ninjai Chapter

Beautiful night

2009-03-24T03:47:00.000-07:00

The electricity is finally back on. I've been out for the past 11 hours or so. I'm glad to be back home and to be able to sit down in front of my computer. It's a relief.

I sent out a package today, went all over the city, had to walk all over the place. It was pretty hot... I was real tempted to stop over at some stores and just get myself some really cold soda. But anyway, it was good enough. I taught baking all afternoon, it was fun. Tomorrow afternoon I'll probably go over and teach them again.

Well, that's it for now folks. If you like action, adventure, and martial arts kinda stuff, be sure to watch Karma Kula Mystic Warrior's 1st release.

अनोठेर डे

2009-03-22T01:51:00.000-07:00

It's pretty crazy that March is nearly over!
So what's gone on this month?

Well, incest father is convicted (thank God!), actress dies from ski accident (RIP!), the Obama's have an organic garden, three officers killed in Oklahoma... man, maybe I'll stop there. This gets kinda depressing. :'( Anyhow this definitely confirms that there is danger at every step of life.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Karma Kula Mystic Warrior Preview

2009-03-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

I've been away for ages. Haven't had internet access for a while, but school's nearly done and I'm just thrilled about that.

I've been island hopping all morning and am exhausted. I've got my internet connection back, so I'm going to be online more often now and will be updating.

Some really interesting stuff has been happening these days, and tell you what, the Ninjai Gang's got their Karma Kula Mystic Warrior thing going!!

As for my puppy.. well, she died of parvo a few days ago. I'm crushed. I made sure she got all her vaccines but still somehow she got sick. The vet I brought her to says I didn't bring her to the right vet, i.e her- in the first place, and that's why she died. My usual vet was hospitalized because of heart failure when my puppy got sick so I couldn't bring her to him, but anyway.. :( such is life.

cya tomorrow.

Sam the Koala

2009-02-17T01:00:00.001-08:00

Gotta love this girl all right..

Koala love story wins hearts after deadly fires
By Belinda Goldsmith

CANBERRA (Reuters) - A love story between two badly burned koalas rescued from Australia's deadliest bushfires has provided some heart-warming relief after days of devastation and the loss of over 180 lives.

The story of Sam and her new boyfriend Bob emerged after volunteer firefighter Dave Tree used a mobile phone to film the rescue of the bewildered female found cowering in a burned out forest at Mirboo North, 150 km (90 miles) southeast of Melbourne.

Photos and a video of Tree, 44, approaching Sam while talking gently to her, and feeding her water from a plastic bottle as she put her burned claw in his cold, wet hand quickly hit video sharing website YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XSPx7S4jr4), making her an Internet sensation.

But it was after reaching a wildlife shelter that Sam met and befriended Bob, who was saved by wildlife workers on Friday, two days before Sam, in Boolarra, about 180 km from Melbourne.

Tree, who has been a volunteer firefighter for 26 years, said it was extremely rare to get so close to a koala so he asked his colleague Brayden Groen, 20, to film him.

"You can how she stops and moves forward and looks at me. It was like a look saying "I can't run, I'm weak and sore, put me out of my misery,"" Tree told Reuters.

"I yelled out for some water and I sat down with her and tipped the water up. It was in my hand and she reached for the bottle then put her right claw into my left hand which was cold so it must have given her some pain relief and she just left it there. It was just amazing."

INSPIRING LOVE STORY

Sam was taken to the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter in Rawson. Her story was reminiscent of a koala named Lucky who survived the 2003 bushfires that destroyed about 500 homes and killed four people in the capital of Canberra. Lucky became a symbol of hope.

Colleen Wood from the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter that is caring for Sam and Bob said both koalas were doing well while other animals like possums, kangaroos, and wallabies were also starting to emerge from the debris.

She said Sam had suffered second degree burns to her paws and would take seven to eight months to recover while Bob had three burned paws with third degree burns and should be well enough to return to the bush in about four months.

"They keep putting their arms around each other and giving each other hugs. They really have made friends and it is quite beautiful to see after all this. It's been horrific," said Wood.

"Sam is probably aged between two to four going by her teeth and Bob is about four so they have a muchness with each other."

Wood said about 20 koalas had been brought into her shelter in recent days, several of whom had bonded as koalas are known to clump together, but none had garnered the same attention as the new Internet star Sam.

Tree, a volunteer with the Country Fire Authority Victoria, has visited Sam since her rescue and was delighted to see she had found a boyfriend in Bob.
Continued

Don't forget to watch Karma Kula Mystic Warrior!

AAAS: Living near trees 'makes people live longer and feel happier'

2009-02-16T00:52:00.000-08:00

AAAS: Living near trees 'makes people live longer and feel happier'
Leafy streets also encourage a lower crime rate and a more "civilised" atmosphere, even in poor areas, researchers found.

They believe that living close to parks and other green spaces is "essential to our physical, psychological and social well-being".

"Nature calms people and it also helps them psychologically rejuvenate. They are better able to handle challenges which come their way," said Prof Frances Kuo, from the University of Illinois, who led a review of studies into the effects of trees and parklands.

The research also shows that people have happier relationships and perform better in tests when they live in tree-filled neighbourhoods.

Other studies showed that health levels could be "predicted by the amount of green space within a one-mile radius".

Research in Japan also found that older people lived for longer when their homes were within walking distance of a park or other green space.

Prof Kuo said: "In our studies, people with less access to nature show relatively poor attention or cognitive function, poor management of major life issues, and poor impulse control."

She added: "The relationship between crime and vegetation is very clear: the more trees, the fewer crimes.

"It actually encourages people to use the spaces outside their homes which provides a natural form of surveillance.

"In fact, the data seem to indicate that if you have a landscape where you introduce well-maintained trees and grass, people will find that a safer environment."

One study showed that the presence of trees could cut crime by as much as seven per cent, according to the research presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference (AAAS) in Chicago.

Children with attention deficit disorders also behaved better after a walk in a park compared to those who exercised indoors or in treeless areas, the review found.
Source

Sure thing. These guys should read Richard Louv's "Last Child In the Woods" and they'll understand better.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Boy fathers, mystic warriors, etc

2009-02-15T03:19:00.000-08:00

Oh and happy valentines! It's never been a special day for me or anything but.. what the heck.

My god what is the world coming to? I'm referring to the 13 year old "father". This is what happens when nobody wants to discipline anybody and they're wondering why there's all these teenage problems and what not. It's depressing!

Then here's Karma Kula Mystic Warrior. they've got some new trailers up it seems.

Don't forget to watch the little ninja

Another trailer.. Karma Kula Mystic Warrior

2009-02-08T04:04:00.000-08:00

So here's another trailer from karma kula mystic warrior.

Haven't been online for a few days. I've been partying a lot. Tonight I'm just dead tired. I don't think I could take another party even if I wanted to.. zzz
Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai chapter

Mystic Warrior, Mystic events

2009-02-03T02:50:00.000-08:00

Check out the karma kula trailer! And damn this is freaky:

- Daniel Pharr says he was in the middle of his first-ever skydive, thousands of feet over South Carolina, when the instructor strapped to his back stopped talking to him Saturday.

The instructor, George "Chip" Steele of Skydive Carolina, was later pronounced dead. But as they were falling, Pharr -- an Army soldier taking a private skydiving lesson -- knew only that Steele wasn't responding.

Pharr said he "went into survival mode," using his military training to calm himself as he tried to get to ground safely.

"We're just taught to deal with adversity, whether it be on the battlefront or at home or ... up in the air, and you just do what you have to do -- assess the situation and keep a calm head about you because it doesn't do anybody any good to panic," said Pharr, a private in the Army.

Pharr, able to steer himself only in right circles because he could use only the parachute's right steering mechanism, managed to maneuver away from some obstructions and landed safely in Chester, South Carolina.

When they landed, Pharr attempted CPR, but it was too late.

Steele, 49, appeared to have died of a heart attack, Chester County Coroner Terry Tinker told the Rock Hill (South Carolina) Herald. An autopsy was being conducted Monday.

Everything seemed to be normal at the beginning of the jump, Pharr said. He asked a question and Steele responded. They chatted for a moment in the air, but when Pharr asked another question about 5,500 feet above ground, Steele did not respond.

Pharr asked the question again. When he still got no response, he didn't panic -- he realized to get down safely he had to remain calm, he said.

"The likelihood of you surviving, you know, decreases absolutely amazingly by factors exponentially if you panic," he said.

The skydive was a Christmas gift from Pharr's girlfriend, who he said is now having regrets about it. But Pharr assured her there was no reason for regret.

"It's a lifelong experience now, not to be turned around into a bad thing," he said. "I just hate it for the family."

Pharr -- based at Georgia's Fort Gordon, according to CNN affiliate WJBF -- said his focus was just to get down to the ground and help Steele.

Pharr said his family won't let him go near skydiving again, and he isn't arguing with them.

Source

Karma Kula Mystic Warrior & More

2009-01-31T00:05:00.000-08:00

I was thrilled to see the new Karma Kula Mystic Warrior trailers! Absolutely awesome stuff. :) I can't wait till the show really begins.

So much for all that huh!

Beijing’s Bird’s Nest to anchor shopping complex
BEIJING (AP)—The area around Beijing’s massive Bird’s Nest stadium will be turned into a shopping and entertainment complex in three to five years, a state news agency said Friday.

Officially known as Beijing National Stadium, the showpiece of the Beijing Olympics has fallen into disuse since the end of the games. Paint is already peeling in some areas, and the only visitors these days are tourists who pay about $7 to walk on the stadium floor and browse a pricey souvenir shop.

Plans call for the $450 million stadium to anchor a complex of shops and entertainment outlets in three to five years, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing operator Citic Group. The company will continue to develop tourism as a major draw for the Bird’s Nest, while seeking sports and entertainment events.

The only confirmed event at the 91,000-seat stadium this year is Puccini’s opera “Turandot,” set for Aug. 8—the one-year anniversary of the Olympics’ opening ceremony. The stadium has no permanent tenant after Beijing’s top soccer club, Guo’an, backed out of a deal to play there.

Details about the development plans were not available. A person who answered the phone at Citic Group on Friday said offices were closed for the Chinese New Year holiday.

A symbol of China’s rising power and confidence, the stadium, whose nickname described its lattice of exterior steel beams, may never recoup its hefty construction cost, particularly amid a global economic slump. Maintenance of the structure alone costs about $8.8 million annually, making it difficult to turn a profit, Xinhua said.

Yahoo News

I've got a headache from dehydration. We played some really intense tennis games today. I was beat 8-1 the first game, then my team mate won 8-0, then we played doubles 8-4. We won! We won! We'll be playing in another competition soon. I don't know I'll make it. I hope so.

As always, don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai show

Traffic stop leads to man believed dead since '89

2009-01-29T23:48:00.000-08:00

Traffic stop leads to man believed dead since '89

A man who faked his drowning death nearly 20 years ago off a Florida beach was found out by North Carolina police who stopped him for a traffic violation, authorities said Thursday.
Bennie Wint told police he faked his drowning death in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1989.

Bennie Wint told police he faked his drowning death in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1989.
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Bennie Wint left behind a grieving fiancee and a daughter from a previous marriage. Over the past two decades, he acquired a common-law wife and another child in Marshall, North Carolina.

Wint told police he faked his death in Daytona Beach, Florida, because he was "paranoid" about his narcotics-related activity at the time, Weaverville, North Carolina, police Sgt. Stacy Wyatt told CNN.

When pulled over in Weaverville on Saturday because of malfunctioning lights on his license plate, the man said his name was James Sweet, Wyatt said. But when Wyatt ran the name through official databases, he was unable to find any information.

"I found it suspicious and believed it to be a false name," Wyatt said. He arrested the man on suspicion of driving without a license and giving false information, both misdemeanor offenses, and booked him under the name "John Doe."

But "John Doe" finally opened up to Wyatt, admitting he was really Bennie Wint and had been on the run since 1989. Video Watch how reports of his death were premature »

Wint returned a call Thursday from CNN and asked what an interview with him would be "worth to you." Told that CNN does not pay for interviews, he responded, "Unless you want to pay for it, don't come up here. You are wasting your time. There are 'no trespassing' signs on my property." He then hung up.

According to police reports, Wint was on a trip to Daytona Beach with his then-fiancee, Patricia Hollingsworth. She told police they were engaged and had discussed getting married while on the trip.

But it was not to be. On September 25, 1989, Hollingsworth told beach patrol officials that Wint disappeared while swimming.

"We spent a bunch of time looking for him," said Volusia County Beach Patrol Capt. Scott Petersohn, who was on the beach patrol at the time, although he did not respond to the call. "We used helicopters, boats and boatloads of lifeguards."

Hollingsworth, then 37, told officials Wint entered the ocean about 4 p.m. and swam past the breakers before she lost sight of him, according to the incident report. The report notes Hollingsworth was "very upset" and that after contacting officials, she "began to run north and south in the area," looking for Wint.

Members of the beach patrol, however, thought the supposed drowning was suspicious.

"It is very rare to drown offshore and not wash back in onto the shore," Petersohn said. In addition, he said, the lifeguard on the beach told officials he did not see anyone swimming in the area.

Wyatt submitted Wint's fingerprints to the FBI for identification and, while waiting for the results, searched the Internet for information on a Bennie Wint.

"I found a daughter that was looking for him," Wyatt said. The woman posted information about her father in 2007, saying he went missing under suspicious circumstances.

Wyatt contacted the now-23-year-old woman, who said she was 4 when her father disappeared.

Wint has been released from jail and has not been charged in relation to the 1989 incident. It was not known whether he contacted his daughter.

Wyatt said Wint now has a common-law wife, a child and a business selling NASCAR items. The night he was arrested, Wyatt said, his wife was "distraught" upon learning his true identity.

Wyatt said Wint told him he was involved in narcotics in the 1970s and '80s, and "he ran out of paranoia, thinking people were out to get him." He said he went from Daytona Beach to Ozark, Alabama.

CNN's attempts to contact Hollingsworth were unsuccessful, and it was unclear whether she knows Wint is alive.

Petersohn said he is attempting to find the lifeguard on duty at Daytona Beach the day Wint disappeared to tell him the truth about the supposed drowning.
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"For 20 years, that man that works for us thinks he might have missed something in the ocean," Petersohn said.

"I'm glad the guy's alive. I really am. ... It's unfortunate the way it went down at the time, people looking for a body that wasn't out there."

Source

You'll be found some day. Can't keep hiding.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

aches and pains

2009-01-28T04:32:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling really old and tired right now. My back's aching like hell, my neck, my eyes seem to be blurring and all I can think of is sleeping already.

Don't forget to watch your NInjai chapters

Opportunities

2009-01-26T01:22:00.000-08:00

Gotta love this ninja panda dudey
Some cool pics of Ninja :

I've got some interesting opportunities being offered to me now. I don't know if they'll push through and what not, but I think it'd be pretty good if they did. It will not be easy work, but it will be good enough.

I'm just downright tired right now.

zzz..

don't forget to watch your daily ninjai animation

Oohh.. human soup

2009-01-24T20:48:00.000-08:00

Cartel 'stewmaker' says he dissolved 300 bodies
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A suspect in police custody calls himself a "stewmaker" for a Mexican drug lord, saying he disposed of about 300 bodies by dissolving them in acid.
Santiago Meza Lopez has asked for forgiveness from the families of those he says he targeted.

Santiago Meza Lopez has asked for forgiveness from the families of those he says he targeted.

Santiago Meza Lopez was arrested Thursday in Ensenada, Baja California, but it took police 24 hours to identify him. He says he works for drug lord Teodoro Garcia Simental, also known as "el Teo," a powerful drug trafficker.

Meza, who is shown handcuffed and flanked by guards in video released by the government, calls himself "Teo's stewmaker" and says he was paid $600 a week for his macabre duties. The victims, he said, were men who owed Garcia something or had betrayed him.

A native of Guamuchil, Sinaloa, Meza was arrested along with three other people, including a minor female who said she was contracted for a social event. Other people sought by police were in the area at the time but were able to escape, officials said.

Now, Meza is asking for forgiveness.

"To the families, please forgive me," he said in the video.
Don't Miss

* Latin America to hold summit on fighting crime
* Mexico arrests drug leader

Mexican police have not specifically said whether they believe that all elements of Meza's story are credible.

He has told police where he buried some of the bodies.

Now authorities, along with citizens groups and the families of the disappeared, are searching for them.

They hope Meza could have information about the location of their friends and relatives.

Authorities say Garcia formed part of the Arellano Felix cartel but is currently said by intelligence sources to be operating with the Sinaloa cartel.

Officials say seven brothers and four sisters of the Arellano-Felix family inherited the Tijuana, Mexico-based drug cartel from Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo in 1989, after his arrest for drug trafficking.

Today, the notorious cartel is split into two factions that have engaged in brutal fighting that has accounted for nearly all the violence in Tijuana, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. More than 400 people were killed last year in drug-related violence.

Eduardo Arellano-Felix, who police said was the last remaining brother to have an active role in the cartel, was arrested in October.
Source

Don't forget to go watch your daily Ninjai Movie

Trust

2009-01-24T03:35:00.000-08:00

It's hard to trust people... I heard a funny proverb today which is so true- "A new born calf has no fear". Indeed. Once you've gotten burned once you kinda get hard.

oh and.. happy new year! Chinese new year is just around the corner.

Cheers to another year closer to death.

Don't forget to watch your daily ninjai chapter!

Been a while

2009-01-23T05:29:00.000-08:00

So... I've been out of commission for a while. Been busy. But I'm glad I'm finally sitting here in front of the computer.

Thought this was an interesting little article:

Scientists have long puzzled over the reasons sleep is so important. Brian Preston from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and an international team of researchers just published research that backs up their theory sleep improves the function of the immune system --and it may specifically protect animals from being overrun by parasite infections.

According to a study just published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, species of animals that get substantial sleep not only have a greater concentration of immune cells in their blood, they also are able to stave off more parasite infections than other creatures. "We suggest that sleep fuels the immune system. While awake, animals must be ready to meet multiple demands on a limited energy supply, including the need to search for food, acquire mates, and provide parental care. When asleep, animals largely avoid these costly activities, and can thus allocate resources to the body`s natural defenses," Dr. Preston said in a media statement.

The scientists studied sleep in mammals, analyzed the animals` immune system measurements, and looked at numbers of infections with parasites. They found mammals that have evolved to have longer sleep cycles have more circulating immune cells and fewer infections with parasites like intestinal worms.

So what do these findings have to do with human health? Possibly, a lot. The researchers conclude: "Given the declines in human sleep durations that have occurred over the past few decades, there is a clear need for studies that further clarify the immunological significance of sleep."

Bottom line: add getting enough sleep to a healthy lifestyle in order to keep your immune system strong and able to fight parasites, which are now throughout the world -- not only in developing countries. For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 14 percent of the U.S. population is infected with Toxocara, or internal roundworms, and some 60million people in the United States are likely infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite associated with raw meat and contact with cat feces. In addition, a report on food borne parasites prepared for the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin in 2003 found about two and a half million cases of food and waterborne Giardia lamblia and three million cases of Cryptosporidium parvum in the U.S. annually. Both these parasites are transmitted through drinking water contaminated with the fecal material of infected persons. The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks parasites as among the six most dangerous diseases that infect humans.

Parasites in humans can cause intestinal discomfort, bloating gas and chronic constipation or diarrhea. Although drugs can be prescribed to kill parasites, many herbs and foods have traditionally been used to treat parasite infections . According to the University of Maryland Medical School web site, these include: raw garlic, pumpkin seeds, pomegranates, beets, and carrots, all of which have antiworm properties.

CDC

Of course, don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

No More peanut butter?

2009-01-18T01:09:00.000-08:00

I LOVE peanut butter. Especially the sweet ones. I can't really appreciate the non-sweetened peanut butter.

Consumers urged to use caution eating peanut butter
Federal officials are urging consumers to put off eating foods that contain peanut butter until they can be they are sure they do not contain products manufactured by the Peanut Corp. of America, some of which were found to contain salmonella.
A salmonella outbreak has sickened almost 500 people and killed at least six.

A salmonella outbreak has sickened almost 500 people and killed at least six.

Food and Drug Administration officials said Saturday that peanut butter and peanut paste made from ground roasted peanuts, manufactured in Peanut Corp.'s Blakely, Georgia, plant were found to contain the bacteria, although a direct link to the strain that has now sickened 474 people in 43 states has not been found.

Six deaths may have been connected to this salmonella outbreak.

Peanut Corp. announced an expanded recall of peanut butter and peanut paste produced from its Georgia plant Friday night. Peanut Corp. doesn't directly supply to supermarkets, so brand-name peanut butters are not expected to be affected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Instead, Peanut Corp. sells produce in bulk. The peanut butter is sold by in containers from 5 to 1,700 pounds. Peanut paste is sold in sizes from 35-pound containers to tankers.

The peanut paste is used in the manufacturing of cakes, candies, crackers, cookies and ice cream, FDA officials say.
Don't Miss

* FDA: See a list of recalled products
* Kellogg to recall products amid salmonella concern

Minnesota and Connecticut health officials have confirmed salmonella Typhimurium linked to this outbreak in bulk containers found in institutions such as prisons, schools and nursing homes.

The FDA is urging companies that make these foods to check whether they use peanut butter or paste produced by the company. The recalled peanut butter was manufactured on or after August 8, 2008; the peanut paste was produced on or after September 26, 2008.

The administration is urging companies to notify consumers if the products they manufacture may contain peanut products from Peanut Corp. It is also urging companies whose products do not contain Peanut Corp. peanut butter or paste to make that information available to the public.

The Kellogg Co. announced a voluntary recall of 16 products, including Keebler and Famous Amos peanut butter cookies, because they contain peanut butter that could be connected to Peanut Corp.
Health Library

* Salmonella infection

The FDA does not have the authority to order a recall of products. It has to rely on companies doing so voluntarily. Congress would have to pass a law to give the FDA such power

Peanut Corp. products are also distributed by King Nut Co., which voluntarily recalled its products a week ago.

"The majority of products [like cookies, crackers, ice cream] are manufactured with products that don't come from PCA," said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

However, until people can be sure that the peanut cookies or crackers they have do not contain product from Peanut Corp., the FDA is asking consumers to hold off on eating them.

Sundlof said a previous outbreak linked to salmonella-contaminated peanut butter showed that the bacteria are not necessarily killed if the product is heat-treated or baked.

"It took temperatures up to 250 degrees [Fahrenheit] to kill salmonella," Sundlof said.

Even if a cookie is cooked at 350 degrees, it doesn't guarantee that the center of the food gets that hot, making it possible for some some salmonella bacteria to survive.

CNN

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Officials: 2 million to show up to see Obama being sworn in

2009-01-17T03:44:00.000-08:00

Officials: 2 million to show up to see Obama being sworn in

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Based on their latest estimates, congressional officials organizing next week's presidential inaugural expect 2 million people to brave extra-long security lines in the bitter cold to witness Barack Obama being sworn in as the first African-American U.S. president.
The inaugural committee will set up 28,000 chairs for ticket holders to watch Barack Obama's swearing-in.

The inaugural committee will set up 28,000 chairs for ticket holders to watch Barack Obama's swearing-in.

"Hopefully, people will be of good temper and willing to go through the lines it will take," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, who chairs the congressional committee organizing inaugural events on Capitol Hill. "Because they are going to have to go through magnetometers and they are going to be wanded. Unfortunately, that's the nature of the time."

Forecasts show the high temperature on Inauguration Day will be 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 Celsius).

Speaking with other officials at a news conference Friday previewing the inaugural festivities, Feinstein warned that people will have to walk long distances to get to the event and should plan to arrive early. Video Watch where to go if you don't have a ticket »

"Most people will be standing for a substantial period of time, and be sure you can do it," she said. "People have to be prepared to handle very cold weather, especially if the wind comes up."

She suggested people not bring infants or children unless they are of an "age and durability" to withstand the cold over a long period of time.

"Be very careful if you're planning to bring your children, cause it's not going to be easy," she said, speaking as a mother and grandmother.
Don't Miss

* Interactive: Inaugural events schedule
* How to watch Obama's inauguration online
* Stars converge for inaugural celebrations
* Q&A: Presidential inauguration 2009

Contingency plans exist to move the swearing-in inside the Capitol if the cold becomes "life-endangering," according to Howard Gantman, who works for Feinstein. "But in view of the large number of people, there's a strong intent to do this outside," he said.

Crowd estimates are down from an original prediction from District of Columbia officials that as many as 4 million people would crowd the Capitol grounds and the National Mall to see the event. The new figures, based on fresh surveys of charter bus companies, show far fewer are coming than initially thought.

Feinstein ticked through other facts and figures about the event:

# More than two dozen construction workers hammered together 22,000 sheets of plywood to build the dramatic inaugural platform on the West Front of the Capitol where Obama will take the oath of office.

# While 2 million people will attend the event, many will see it best on one of two dozen jumbo televisions placed along the Mall. Only 240,000 people will get official inaugural tickets, and most of them will have to stand. A mere 28,000 seats are available on the Capitol grounds. Video Watch the frenzy for inaugural tickets »

# Five thousand portable bathrooms will be set up for ticketed guests on the Capitol grounds. Feinstein didn't know how many toilets would be available along the Mall for people without tickets.

# It cost $3.5 million to build the inaugural platform and rent the chairs and fencing on the Capitol grounds, according to Stephan Ayers, the acting architect of the Capitol.

# Almost 2 million people have visited the inaugural.senate.gov Web site, with most of the attention going to the page featuring the menu for the inaugural luncheon that will immediately follow the swearing-in in the Capitol's Statuary Hall.

The elite few who are invited to that lunch will enjoy a three-course meal featuring wines from Feinstein's home state of California, she said.

The first course will be "seafood stew served with Duckhorn Vineyards, 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley." That will be followed by "a brace of American birds (pheasant and duck), served with sour cherry chutney and molasses sweet potatoes; served with Goldeneye, 2005 Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley."

And finally, "apple cinnamon sponge cake and sweet cream glace served with Korbel Natural 'Special Inaugural Cuvee,' California Champagne."

Feinstein said she and a small group of senators' wives, and Nancy Erickson, the secretary of the Senate, chose the menu after a competition of the "very best that the Washington catering establishment has to offer."

Over the head table at the lunch will hang an 1865 painting, "View of the Yosemite Valley," by American artist Thomas Hill. The picture is on loan from the New York Historical Society.

The swearing-in ceremony itself won't change from previous inaugurals, Feinstein said. She and her staff studied DVDs of past ceremonies "so everything is according to historical procedure."

She said the ceremony is "scripted, and it is concise and it moves quickly."

Feinstein's Senate office received more than 60,000 requests for inaugural tickets. But, as a senator, she was allotted just under 300 to give out. House members get just under 200.

She said everyone she is giving a ticket to must pledge not to sell the ticket for a profit.

As chairman of the inaugural committee, Feinstein will make "very formal and very brief" introductions for all the speakers at the inauguration.

Asked if she would have trouble introducing Pastor Rick Warren -- who will deliver the invocation -- with whom she disagrees politically on some issues such as gay rights, she said no.

"This is not a political event," she said.
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Feinstein was also asked to sum up her feelings about the first African-American being sworn in as president.

"For me, that's going to be the most amazing part," she said. "I'm going to look out at the Lincoln Memorial as Barack Obama takes the oath of office. I'm going to think back into our history 200 years and what America was like at that time, especially for African-Americans. And then to realize that we've gone from the monument to the White House in that 200 years. And the doors are open. And we have a bright, young, energetic president who happens to be African-American, and the American people are rejoicing."

Source
Good luck. I wonder what people will be saying about him once he's been in office for a while.
Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Accidents

2009-01-16T04:28:00.000-08:00

I was at the doctor's today, just brought some cookies I baked for our doctor friend really- not because I got into an accident or something. I don't like hospitals, they're creepy. There was a huge emergency this morning. I don't know what happened, but I could hear the poor kid screaming 2 floors down from the emergency room.

Those people in the plane that landed in the Hudson River should be real thankful to God I'd say.

As much as I love Ninjas,

Got to love em pirates too.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Brr

2009-01-13T18:20:00.000-08:00

It's been so cold up here, I'm just dreaming of the beach.

I played tennis for 3 hours this morning. It was pretty good, kinda short, but good enough. I didn't quite get the high of it all. I'm going to play early tomorrow again.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Crazy day..

2009-01-13T02:48:00.000-08:00

Lol.. Check out these kids.. I thought that my nephew was a michellin man, but he's like, hardly anything compared to this kid.

Would-be bride, 107, seeks first husband
BEIJING (Reuters) – A 107-year-old Chinese woman who was afraid to marry when she was young has decided to look for her first husband and hopes to find a fellow centenarian so they will have something to talk about, a Chinese paper reported.

Wang Guiying is worried she is becoming a burden to her aging nieces and nephews since breaking her leg when she was 102 and had to stop doing chores like washing her clothes.

"I'm already 107 and I still haven't got married," the Chongqing Commercial Times quoted her saying. "What will happen if I don't hurry up and find a husband?"

Born in southern Guizhou province the child of a salt merchant, Wang grew up watching her uncles and other men scold and beat their wives and often found her aunt crying in the woodshed after an attack, the paper said.

"All the married people around there lived like that. Getting married was too frightening," she said of an era when Chinese women had few rights and low social standing.

Many also had their feet bound in an excruciating process aimed at making them look more dainty and marriageable.

After Wang's father, mother and older sister died, she still shied away from marriage. Instead she moved to the countryside and survived as a farmer until she was 74 years old and no longer strong enough to work in the fields, the report said.

Yahoo News

Of course, don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Update

2009-01-11T23:03:00.000-08:00

COOl Dogs!! Caucausian Mountain Dog- never seen this one before.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Happiness is helping other people

2009-01-10T04:36:00.000-08:00

"God loves others through us"

I've been okay. I volunteered for a lot of civic work. It's all great fun.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

A witch? Burn Her to Death!

2009-01-08T00:41:00.000-08:00

Right.. we sure are evolving.

Woman suspected of witchcraft burned alive

A woman in rural Papua New Guinea was bound and gagged, tied to a log and set ablaze on a pile of tires this week, possibly because villagers suspected her of being a witch, police said Thursday.

Her death adds to a growing list of men and women who have been accused of sorcery and then tortured or killed in the South Pacific island nation, where traditional beliefs hold sway in many regions.

The victims are often scapegoats for someone else's unexplained death -- and bands of tribesmen collude to mete out justice to them for their supposed magical powers, police said.

"We have had quite difficulties in a number of previous incidents convincing people to come forward with information," said Simon Kauba, assistant commissioner of police and commander of the Highlands region, where the killing occurred.

"We are trying to persuade them to help. Somebody lost their mother or daughter or sister Tuesday morning."

Early Tuesday morning, a group of people dragged the woman, believed to be in her late teens to early 20s, to a dumping ground outside the city of Mount Hagen. They stripped her naked, bound her hands and legs, stuffed a cloth in her mouth, tied her to a log and set her on fire, Mauba said.

"When the people living nearby went to the dump site to investigate what caused the fire, they found a human being burning in the flames," he said. "It was ugly."

The country's Post-Courier newspaper reported Thursday that more than 50 people were killed in two Highlands provinces last year for allegedly practicing sorcery.

In a well-publicized case last year, a pregnant woman gave birth to a baby girl while struggling to free herself from a tree. Villagers had dragged the woman from her house and hung her from the tree, accusing her of sorcery after her neighbor suddenly died.

She and the baby survived, according to media reports.

Killings of witches, or sangumas, is not a new phenomenon in rural areas of the country.

Emory University anthropology Professor Bruce Knauft, who lived in a village in the western province of Papua New Guinea in the early 1980s, traced family histories for 42 years and found that 1 in 3 adult deaths were homicides -- "the bulk of these being collective killings of suspected sorcerers," he wrote in his book, From Primitive to Postcolonial in Melanesia and Anthropology.

In recent years, as AIDS has taken a toll in the the nation of 6.7 million people, villagers have blamed suspected witches -- and not the virus -- for the deaths.

According to the United Nations, Papua New Guinea accounts for 90 percent of the Pacific region's HIV cases and is one of four Asia-Pacific countries with an epidemic.

"We've had a number of cases where people were killed because they were accused of spreading HIV or AIDS," Mauba said.

While there is plenty of speculation why Tuesday's victim was killed, police said they are focused more on who committed the crime.

"If it is phobias about alleged HIV/AIDS or claims of a sexual affair, we must urge the police and judiciary to throw the book at the offenders," the Post-Courier wrote in an editorial.

"There are remedies far, far better than to torture and immolate a young woman before she can be judged by a lawful system."

CNN World News

and of course.. don't forget to watch your dailyNinjai chapter

Can't remember...

2009-01-06T01:18:00.000-08:00

I'm back home now. I'm just exhausted. zzz..

My puppy's grown heaps tho! Glad to see her as she was glad to see me. :)

I could use this..

Forgetting things? Mnemonics can make them stick

Arriving at your uncle's holiday party in suitable dress and good cheer, you are greeted at the door by an old friend from school whose name, you suddenly realize, you cannot recall.
There are effective word connections you can make to help you remember things.

There are effective word connections you can make to help you remember things.

You've known him for 20 years. You played baseball with him, went on family trips together. You were at his wedding, for goodness' sake.

It's too embarrassing to ask his name, so as he waits awkwardly for an introduction to your significant other, you just stand there dully, waiting for the roof to cave in.

Well the roof did just that at a party in Greece in the fifth century B.C., killing all in attendance except for Simonides of Ceos, who had serendipitously stepped outside at just the right moment.

Simonides, however, had no such problem with names.

He was able to identify the bodies, which had been damaged beyond recognition, simply by recalling where each one sat.

And thus, says Judy Parkinson in a book titled "i before e (except after c)," Simonides begat a system for memorizing and recalling facts, called mnemonics.
Don't Miss

* Boom times for brain training games

Parkinson's book is a gathering of tricks, rhymes and riddles for remembering anything from names to rules of grammar and spelling, to science, math and music.

Can't remember when to use "affect" as opposed to "effect"? Simple says Parkinson: Just remember RAVEN: Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun (This only helps, of course, if you remember how to spell "raven").

After dinner, will you be having dessert or desert? To avoid after-dinner sand, says Parkinson, remember the double s stands for "sweet stuff."

But there's more to mnemonics than tricks and acronyms.

The best kind of mnemonic, says Robert Bjork, distinguished professor of cognitive psychology at UCLA, is one you make up yourself using interactive images.

A common method is to associate locations along a well-traveled path, like a school or work route, with items on a list. The Greeks called this the Method of Loci.

It's not enough, however, to associate a flagpole on your route with a giraffe on your list. To be truly effective, says Bjork, the giraffe must DO something with the flagpole.

"It should be interactive with the location as much as possible. If you imagine a giraffe, you imagine the giraffe climbing the pole rather than just standing there."

Another interactive device, a "peg-word" system, uses a rhyme as a kind of template to associate with items on a list. To use Bjork's example:

"One is a bun

Two is a shoe

Three is a tree ..."

And so on.

An apple on your list goes in the bun, a quart of milk goes in the shoe, a honey-baked ham hangs on the tree. You can reuse the same rhyme for different lists.

Interactive mnemonic devices like these can be very effective, says Bjork.

"In fact it is remarkably long-lived. If I have my students remember 20 items around UCLA campus, they'll remember 19 of them a week later."

The more you use the mnemonic, the better it will work. In fact, says Bjork, recall is one of the best ways to reinforce any kind of memory -- repeated recall leads to easier recall.

Still, with or without mnemonics, we simply forget things more easily as we get older, says Dr. James Lah, associate professor of neurology at Emory University.

It's perfectly natural, says Lah, to start forgetting things that were easy to remember at a younger age -- "senior moments."

But what if you keep forgetting things -- where you put your keys, the name of the person you just met at a party, the names of your co-worker's children -- should this be cause for concern?

"Not necessarily," says Lah.

"What people talk about when they talk about senior moments is really just a commonplace experience that does not necessarily imply something else going on as far as disease."

So how do you know when a memory lapse is a serious problem as opposed to just a nuisance?

"If you meet the new pastor's wife and you immediately forget her name -- [or] you see her the next day and you can't recall her name, that's not necessarily a reflection of a problem," says Lah. "It's a commonplace annoyance that increases with age."

"If you meet the pastor's wife and the next day can't recall having met her, that may be an indication of a more serious problem."

Besides mnemonics, which Lah recommends, there are other things you can do to keep those senior moments to a minimum.

There is evidence to suggest that if you take care of your cardiovascular health by eating right and exercising, your neurological health will also benefit.

"There is a direct correlation between cardiovascular health and neurological health and especially cognitive aging," says Lah.

The reasons are complex, says Lah, but when you have bad cardiovascular health, "the efficiency of communication between brain cells is eroded."

"So that's one of the reasons people in their 30s, 40s and 50s should be paying attention to [cardiovascular] diseases."

How, you may ask, does all this help you at your uncle's party with your old and seemingly nameless friend?

Find out his name from someone else and start working on a mnemonic. For example, if his name is Charlie, remember you deserve a "charlie-horse" for forgetting his name.

Imagine giving the charlie-horse to your significant other for an even more effective, "interactive" memory.

And remember, recall reinforces recall, so the more often you give your significant other a charlie-horse -- real or imagined -- the more likely you are to remember Charlie's name in the future.

CNN Offbeat News

As always, don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Of losing weight and sleep

2009-01-04T15:31:00.000-08:00

I've been so damn tired these past few days.

I read this article about lack of sleep and weight loss. It's all the things you eat for gosh sakes. It's easy to understand for the most part.

We have this guest- a scholar- here with us now who's been telling us different stories of the world and etc and today he told us the story of Buddha, aka Siddhartha.

I find this picture of him to be a very nice one to describe his leaving everything behind:

Siddhartha grew up in a palace where he was completely shielded from any misery and suffering that is so prevalent in our world today. The compound in which he lived was a very vast one, and it was only when he was already a young man with a child of his own that he saw the wall that was keeping him within that "fake world" that his parents created for him in hopes of keeping him from becoming what a priest has predicted he would be before his birth- a great sage. His father figured if he didn't see the suffering of the world he wouldn't look for the solution to the suffering. Of course that didn't stop him.

He was great friends with his chariot driver and one day when he saw the wall, he asked his chariot driver to take him outside that wall. His chariot driver refused of course, but upon Siddhartha's nagging him- he finally gave in, and said, "All right all right- tomorrow night, we'll go." They sneaked out of a small hole in the wall ... and that's where Siddhartha's "awakening" to the miseries of the world came about.

We'll zip right through the little details and... here, so this picture- is probably just when he was about to leave everything. The night after he went out and saw all the miseries, he had his chariot driver his beautiful white horse who he had grown up with bring him deep into the forests. He took of all his jewelry and beautiful clothes and exchanged it with his chariot driver's clothes. He cut off his beautiful long black hair and told his chariot driver to leave. His horse was standing there, head hanging, tears streaming down his face. The chariot driver said, "No, no, I can't leave you. You are my Lord, You are my life. How can I leave You here?" But Siddhartha was firm, "No, you must go. I must find the solution to the miseries of life." Even his horse didn't want to go, and so Siddhartha went and whispered some words into the horse' ear, so then both the horse and the chariot driver had to go. :'(

Anyway... I loved it.

Anyway.. don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

War again!

2009-01-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

The War in Gaza's raging... our world seems to be ripped apart by wars one after another. It's pretty crazy. It's sad. :(

Of course don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

I've always been fascinated by soldiers

Chinese Philosphers

2009-01-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

I've been reading a bit about some Chinese philosophers like Confucius and Lao Tzu. It's all pretty awesome stuff.

China's such a beautiful place. I like the sounds and looks of it much better than Japan's. I used to tell people I was half Chinese rather than Japanese. But the language has always been a problem anyway. darn.

Don't forget to watch your Daily Ninjai Chapter.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T00:33:00.000-08:00

Haven't seen me around here since last year!

I didn't really celebrate the New Year's thing... as I usually don't anyway.

Pretty crazy weight loss story:

Today is the first day of a year that Ernesto Suncar and his doctors feared he might never see.

Weighing 640 pounds, wearing 10X shirts and with a 70-inch waist, the 33-year-old New Yorker was told by doctors he would likely be dead within 12 months.

Realizing it was a choice between losing weight and dying, the proud father of three, who had tried every diet imaginable, underwent gastric bypass surgery - and has shed more than two-thirds of his former self.

"I want people to feel inspired when they look at me," says the Hell's Kitchen resident, who's down to 210 pounds. "Hopefully, if they have a weight issue, they will finally do something about it, starting right now.

"Losing this weight saved my life. Without the operation, I doubt I would be here to celebrate New Year's.

"It's scary to think what might have happened."

The business management student says his body ballooned after he came to the U.S. from his native Dominican Republic at the age 7.

"I was a normal, active kid who used to run and play outdoors in the tropical climate," he recalls. "When we moved into a small apartment where it was cold, I stayed inside and didn't get any exercise.

"The only games I played were video games."

His love of chow didn't help. He would gorge himself on Spanish-style fried pork chops, rice and plantains, McDonald's, pizza and pasta.

"My mom would tell the guys at the corner deli not to serve me, so I'd just walk to another block," Suncar admits.

He once lost 64 pounds on a 1,800-calorie-a-day diet, but then gained 120 pounds. At his heaviest, the 6-foot-2 food junkie tipped the scales at 640 pounds.

"My little son had to tie my shoelaces," he says. "I poked fun at myself, but inside I was hurting."

The turning point came when chronic breathing difficulties and the immense strain on his heart threatened to kill him.

"The doctor said, if I carried on as I was, I would be dead in a year," Suncar says.

Dr. Elliot Goodman, chief of bariatric surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center, performed the gastric bypass.

There were minor complications, but this winter, after following a nutritious eating plan and increasing his fitness at the gym, Suncar has reached - and maintained - a healthy weight.

His waistline has shrunk to 34 inches and, instead of having to buy expensive outsize clothes on the Internet, he shops for stylish gear at The Gap.

"I feel reborn," he says. "These days I can cycle along the Hudson River, play with my kids and this summer, I'm planning on taking a flight. Before, I couldn't have fit in an airline seat.

"I keep some of my old things in my closet to remind me of how I used to look. But there's no going back."

Source

Damn. That's pretty crazy all right. Got to respect him for the will power to do that tho. I'm sure he and his family are much better off now. It's always hard to have to carry extra weight around.

So on to a 2009! Best wishes to everyone.

And that... don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Get going

2008-12-29T03:54:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty happy these past few days. :)

Army to honor soldiers enslaved by Nazis

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The U.S. Army says it will honor the "heroism and sacrifice" of 350 U.S. soldiers who were held as slaves by Nazi Germany during World War II.
Bernard "Jack" Vogel died in a Nazi slave camp in the arms of fellow U.S. soldier, Anthony Acevedo, in 1945.

Bernard "Jack" Vogel died in a Nazi slave camp in the arms of fellow U.S. soldier, Anthony Acevedo, in 1945.
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The decision by the Army effectively reverses decades of silence about what the soldiers endured in the final months of the war in 1945 at Berga an der Elster, a subcamp of Buchenwald where soldiers were beaten, starved, killed and forced to work in tunnels to hide German equipment.

More than 100 U.S. soldiers died in the camp or on a forced death march. Before they were sent back to the United States, survivors signed a secrecy document with the U.S. government to never speak about their captivity.

"The interests of American prisoners of war in the event of future wars, moreover, demand that the secrets of this war be vigorously safeguarded," the document says.

CNN last month reported the story of Anthony Acevedo, who was a 20-year-old medic when he was sent to Berga with the other soldiers. Acevedo kept a diary that details the day-to-day events inside the camp and lists names and prisoner numbers of men as they died or were executed. See inside Acevedo's diary »

That story prompted a chain of events, including hundreds of CNN.com users urging their congressional leaders to honor the soldiers of Berga. Two congressmen, Reps. Joe Baca, D-California, and Spencer Bachus, R-Alabama, wrote U.S. Army Secretary Peter Geren and asked him to recognize the 350 soldiers.
Don't Miss

* Lawmakers seek honors for soldiers held by Nazis
* After 63 years, man learns of brother's death
* Vet breaks silence on Nazi slave camp

The Army recently responded to the two congressmen, saying it is working "to determine an appropriate way to honor the heroism and sacrifice of these soldiers. We expect this review to be complete by March 6, 2009."

After learning of the Army's decision, Baca said in a press release, "The courage and perseverance they demonstrated in enduring such inhumane conditions is awe inspiring, and I am pleased the Army has opened a more extensive investigation into honoring these men."

For the dozen of Berga survivors who are still living, the news came as a shock. Many had long ago given up hope that their country would ever recognize them for what they endured.

"It's amazing," said Morty Brooks, now 83, when informed of the Army plans. "It's a recognition that's many years past due. No particular notice was ever given to us by the government, and it should be part of the military's annals."

Acevedo, now 84, noted the ages of the remaining survivors -- all of whom are in their 80s. Some are in failing health. He said he hopes the Army can reach its decision before March, because of the possibility some could die before then.

"If they can do it a lot sooner, we would appreciate it much," he said. "I thank God I'm still able to communicate and express myself with dignity, and I'm hoping the other fellas are able to communicate also.

"I've always been proud to be a U.S. soldier. It did me some good, with God's help and faith. I'll pray for everybody, all my other fellas."

He said the 350 soldiers are heroes who "exposed our lives for our country, for democracy and freedom of speech." The soldiers, all of them survivors of the Battle of the Bulge, had originally been sent to a POW camp known as Stalag IX-B in Bad Orb, Germany. From there, the Nazis separated the 350 soldiers based on being Jewish or "looking like Jews" and sent them to the slave camp around February 8, 1945.Video Watch Acevedo describe treatment in the camp »

In Boston, Martin Vogel sits quietly in his home. His brother, Bernard "Jack" Vogel, died in Acevedo's arms at the age of 19 in April 1945. Bernard Vogel had tried to escape from Berga with another soldier named Izzy Cohen. Both were captured and forced to stand in their underwear outside the barracks for at least two days until they collapsed.

The last words Bernard Vogel ever uttered were "I want to die, I want to die." Listen as Acevedo tells brother of victim: "I held him in my arms" »

Martin Vogel, 82, said that "since learning of my brother's death in 1945, a week has not passed that I don't think of his untimely death. Many questions had gone unanswered during this time."

After talking with CNN.com and the few remaining survivors, he said, "My thoughts have come into a clearer focus. I have learned of the last few days of [Bernard's] life and what horrendous event took place prior to death. This has at least crystallized the uncertainty of his death and brought a close to this chapter."

Vogel still gets emotional talking about his brother's death. He wrote his thoughts so he wouldn't cry talking about it.

He continued, writing that questions remain on many issues, including the fate of his brother's captors and "the unwillingness of the Army to publicly document the capture and imprisonment of these soldiers. ... The least is I now know Jack died with friends near him, giving him comfort in his last moments."

The two Berga commanders -- Erwin Metz and his superior, Hauptmann Ludwig Merz -- were tried for war crimes and initially sentenced to die by hanging. But the U.S. government commuted their death sentences in 1948, and both men were eventually set free in the 1950s.

Charles Vogel, the uncle of Bernard and Martin, was outraged at the decision. At the time a powerful Manhattan attorney, he petitioned President Harry Truman, Secretary of State George Marshall and Defense Secretary James Forrestal to overturn the commutation.

Charles Vogel also helped form a group called "Berga Survivors" after the war in which some of the slave camp soldiers would meet to discuss the best way to pressure the government to honor them and allow them to testify against Metz and Merz.

In a bulletin from one of their meetings in early 1949, the "Berga Survivors" appeared optimistic the government would act. "Your cooperation now is doubly important, for things are beginning to break our way," the bulletin says. "A little enthusiasm, a little more cooperation, a little more action will accomplish a great, great deal now."

It adds, "You can aid in the campaign to get Washington to procure full justice for us."

More than six decades later, it appears the work of the original "Berga Survivors" group was not in vain. Most have since died, but the few who remain alive say they will never let their fellow soldiers be forgotten.
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"It's finally gotten to a point where the Army is coming to their senses after they had ignored us in the past," Acevedo said. "Why the silence all these years? It's time to recognize all these soldiers who sacrificed their lives."

CNN.com has located 14 Berga soldiers who are alive and will keep working to find if any others are still living.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Updates

2008-12-26T22:12:00.000-08:00

So Christmas is finished. I'm feeling much better. I've been trying to surf for the past couple days.

Not much interesting happening.

Just don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter. :)

Merry Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

:) so it's finally Christmas. It's a beautiful day at the beach here. I'm in charge of making the cake today. I'm just waiting for it to finish baking. It's like 5 inches thick and 2 feet long, so it's taking quite a while to finish baking.

If only people were still as kind today:

He rode the 'Orphan Train' across the country

PUEBLO, Colorado (CNN) -- Orphan Train rider Stanley Cornell's oldest memory is of his mother's death in 1925.
Stanley Cornell, right, and his younger brother, Victor, were adopted from an "Orphan Train."

Stanley Cornell, right, and his younger brother, Victor, were adopted from an "Orphan Train."
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"My first feeling was standing by my mom's bedside when she was dying. She died of tuberculosis," recalls Cornell. "I remember her crying, holding my hand, saying to 'be good to Daddy.' "

"That was the last I saw of her. I was probably four," Cornell says of his mother, Lottie Cornell, who passed away in Elmira, New York.

His father, Floyd Cornell, was still suffering the effects of nerve gas and shell shock after serving as a soldier in combat during WWI. That made it difficult for him to keep steady work or care for his two boys.

"Daddy Floyd," as Stanley Cornell calls his birth father, eventually contacted the Children's Aid Society. The society workers showed up in a big car with candy and whisked away Stanley and his brother, Victor, who was 16 months younger. Photo See the Cornell family album »

Stanley Cornell remembers his father was crying and hanging on to a post. The little boy had a feeling he would not see his father again.

The two youngsters were taken to an orphanage, the Children's Aid Society of New York, founded by social reformer Charles Loring Brace
Don't Miss

* Children's Aid Society
* The New York Foundling
* National Orphan Train Complex
* In Depth: Focus on Giving
Impact Your World
o See how you can make a difference

"It was kind of rough in the orphans' home," Cornell remembers, adding that the older children preyed on the younger kids -- even though officials tried to keep them separated by chicken wire fences. He says he remembers being beaten with whips like those used on horses.

New York City in 1926 was teeming with tens of thousands of homeless and orphaned children. These so-called "street urchins" resorted to begging, stealing or forming gangs to commit violence to survive. Some children worked in factories and slept in doorways or flophouses.

The Orphan Train movement took Stanley Cornell and his brother out of the city during the last part of a mass relocation movement for children called "placing out."Watch Cornell share ups and downs of his family story

Brace's agency took destitute children, in small groups, by train to small towns and farms across the country, with many traveling to the West and Midwest. From 1854 to 1929, more than 200,000 children were placed with families across 47 states. It was the beginning of documented foster care in America.

"It's an exodus, I guess. They called it Orphan Train riders that rode the trains looking for mom and dad like my brother and I."

"We'd pull into a train station, stand outside the coaches dressed in our best clothes. People would inspect us like cattle farmers. And if they didn't choose you, you'd get back on the train and do it all over again at the next stop."

Cornell and his brother were "placed out" twice with their aunts in Pennsylvania and Coffeyville, Kansas. But their placements didn't last and they were returned to the Children's Aid Society.

"Then they made up another train. Sent us out West. A hundred-fifty kids on a train to Wellington, Texas," Cornell recalls. "That's where Dad happened to be in town that day."

Each time an Orphan Train was sent out, adoption ads were placed in local papers before the arrival of the children.

J.L. Deger, a 45-year-old farmer, knew he wanted a boy even though he already had two daughters ages 10 and 13.

"He'd just bought a Model T. Mr. Deger looked those boys over. We were the last boys holding hands in a blizzard, December 10, 1926," Cornell remembers. He says that day he and his brother stood in a hotel lobby.

"He asked us if we wanted to move out to farm with chickens, pigs and a room all to your own. He only wanted to take one of us, decided to take both of us."

Life on the farm was hard work.

"I did have to work and I expected it, because they fed me, clothed me, loved me. We had a good home. I'm very grateful. Always have been, always will be."

Taking care of a family wasn't always easy.

"In 1931, the Dust Bowl days started. The wind never quit. Sixty, 70 miles an hour, all that dust. It was a mess. Sometimes, Dad wouldn't raise a crop in two years."

A good crop came in 1940. With his profit in hand, "first thing Dad did was he took that money and said, 'we're going to repay the banker for trusting us,' " Cornell says.

When World War II began, Cornell joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He shipped out to Africa and landed near Casablanca, Morocco, where he laid telephone and teletype lines. Later he served in Egypt and northern Sicily. While in Italy, he witnessed Mount Vesuvius erupting.

It was on a telephone line-laying mission between Naples and Rome that Cornell suffered his first of three wounds.

"Our jeep was hit by a bomb. I thought I was in the middle of the ocean. It was the middle of January and I was in a sea of mud."

With their jeep destroyed and Cornell bleeding from a head wound, his driver asked a French soldier to use his vehicle to transport them. The Frenchman refused to drive Cornell the five miles to the medical unit.

"So, the driver pulled out his pistol, put the gun to the French soldier's head and yelled, 'tout suite!' or 'move it!' " Cornell recalls.

Once he was treated, Cornell remembers the doctor saying, "You've got 30 stitches in your scalp. An eighth of an inch deeper and you'd be dead."

Cornell always refused to accept his commendations for a Purple Heart even though he'd been wounded three times, twice severely enough to be hospitalized for weeks. He felt the medals were handed out too often to troops who suffered the equivalent of a scratch.

His younger brother served during the war in the Air Force at a base in Nebraska, where he ran a film projector at the officers' club.

As WWII was drawing to a close, Stanley Cornell headed up the teletype section at Allied headquarters in Reims, France. "I saw [Gen. Dwight] Eisenhower every day," he recalls.

On May 7, 1945, the Nazis surrendered. "I sent the first teletype message from Eisenhower saying the war was over with Germany," Cornell says.

In 1946, the 25-year-old Stanley Cornell met with his 53-year-old birth father, Daddy Floyd. It was the last time they would see each other.

Cornell eventually got married and he and his wife, Earleen, adopted two boys, Dana and Dennis, when each was just four weeks old.

"I knew what it was like to grow up without parents," Cornell says. "We were married seven years and couldn't have kids, so I asked my wife, 'how about adoption?' She'd heard my story before and said, 'OK.' "

After they adopted their two boys, Earleen gave birth to a girl, Denyse.

Dana Cornell understands what his father and uncle went through.

"I don't think [Uncle] Vic and Stan could have been better parents. I can relate, you know, because Dad adopted Dennis and me. He has taught me an awful lot over the years," Dana Cornell says.

Dana Cornell says his adoptive parents have always said that if the boys wanted to find their birth parents, they would help. But he decided not to because of how he feels about the couple who adopted him. "They are my parents and that's the way it's gonna be."
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Stanley and Earleen Cornell have been married 61 years. She is a minister at a church in Pueblo, Colorado, and is the cook at her son's restaurant, Dana's Lil' Kitchen.

Stanley Cornell believes he is one of only 15 surviving Orphan Train children. His brother, Victor Cornell, a retired movie theater chain owner, is also alive and living in Moscow, Idaho.

CNN News

Year in pictures

2008-12-23T00:50:00.000-08:00

Yay! Ninjai Update!

Dear Ninjai Fans,

We’re happy to announce we have continued and are continuing to move forward as quickly as possible with Ninjai. The reason it’s taking so long is because we have upped the quality and we only have a small animation crew. The great news is that our present work is of such high quality that it compares to some of the best big budget animation films. In fact, we did some tests of our new footage at a local theater comparing it to some big budget Hollywood production and it looked just as good. Not only does the quality of the animation look awesome on the big screen, the action sequences are mind-blowing.

We have therefore decided to up the quality of the entire story and release it as a feature length movie in as many theaters as possible.

We want to assure you that our gang working on a live-action production, Karma Kula, has not in any way slowed down or interfered with the Ninjai animation. Our animation art crew is separate from the live-action crew and both teams are working hard on parallel productions. Of course with the live action guys helping us with the martial arts sequences.

We will keep you posted as we progress in this exciting development, so please watch for further announcements.

- The Ninjai Gang

I never fail to check out the year in pictures of MSN. I really like the way they do it.

Don't forget to check out this year's:

I'm feeling a bit more normal today. Went for a run, lifted weights, then swam.

Driving to meet up with the rest of the family tomorrow.

Of course, don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter.

tired

2008-12-21T23:39:00.000-08:00

I'm much better today, but still tired.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapters

Beautiful day

2008-12-21T00:35:00.000-08:00

Beautiful day today.. perfectly sunny and windy, just how I love it. I'm feeling a bit better now. Over my fever. Nothing worse than being all fuzzy headed and mucousy.

I've been keeping myself smiling with these otter pictures:

Of course, don't forget to drop by and watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

dreams

2008-12-19T19:38:00.000-08:00

Dreaming.. dreaming of another world
far, far away from this boiled down croiler.

szzz.. I've had fever. been sick. Trying to get some rest tho.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Brain soggy

2008-12-18T22:54:00.000-08:00

I feel like complete shit right now. My brain's all soggy, I've got a cold, cough, and asthma. I'm just really out of it. Like, CRAP. wah.

But hey.. The Ninjai Gang's updated their Karma Kula website.
Of course, don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter.

Word from the Ninjai Gang!

2008-12-17T05:27:00.000-08:00

OMG OMG!! I knew there was hope!!

Hey Guys,

We've been really busy working hard on the new Ninjai animation. But we will be putting a new homepage up before Christmas updating you guys on what's going on...

Thanks,
The Gang

Ninjai Forums

Dreaming.. dreaming

2008-12-15T00:11:00.000-08:00

I've been depressive again. I don't know why.

Gotta love em foals.

Don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

emergency in icy Massachusetts * Story Highlights * Declaration frees federal aid to help in storm recovery * 180,000 Massachusetts custo

2008-12-14T03:41:00.000-08:00

emergency in icy Massachusetts

* Story Highlights
* Declaration frees federal aid to help in storm recovery
* 180,000 Massachusetts customers were without power Saturday
* 1,300 expected to spend the night in shelters
* Much of ice melted Saturday but refroze during the night
A severe ice storm prompted President Bush to declare Saturday that a state of emergency exists in northern Massachusetts, a move that authorizes the use of federal aid to help the recovery effort.
This week's ice storm felled many trees in Boston and elsewhere across Massachusetts.

This week's ice storm felled many trees in Boston and elsewhere across Massachusetts.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are to coordinate relief efforts in the counties of Berkshire, Bristol, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Suffolk and Worcester.

By Saturday night, there were 180,000 customers without power, said James Mannion, deputy public information officer for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

The declaration "frees up resources from other states around us," he said, adding that state officials have asked FEMA for cots to be used in 70 shelters, where 1,300 people were expected to spend Saturday night.

In addition, 750 National Guard troops were deployed in the affected area, he said.

Though much of the ice melted Saturday, it refroze Saturday night.
Don't Miss

* Storm leaves 1 million without power in Northeast

"The big problems here are, obviously, the power outages," he said.

Some towns, like Westford, a town of 16,000 residents in northeastern Massachusetts, had no power, he said.

Officials were working to clear roads so that power crews could get in.

Gov. Deval Patrick declared a statewide state of emergency on Friday in response to the storm, which struck Thursday and continued into Saturday.

Milder weather was forecast for Sunday.

Ninjai's still famous!

2008-12-12T23:49:00.000-08:00

The Essentials: Ninjai

Welcome to The Essentials, a weekly column at ANImosity spotlighting cutting edge animation that paved the way, started a movement, or is just plain too awesome to miss.

Face it. Ninjas are played out. We've been bombarded with ninja movies, tv shows, video games, ninja advice columns, ninja Facebook applications and countless ninja t-shirts so much that they're no longer a badass icon, but rather a washed out pop culture joke.

But not all is lost, some seek to restore the ninja to it's former fabled glory. Ninjai is a series that tells the story of a young ninja who has lost his memory and sets out to find his purpose. Along the way he runs into a few friends and a few enemies. Well, mostly enemies.

ninjai_moon.jpgThis brings us to hallmark number one of the Ninjai series: the violence. Yes, thecharacter of Ninjai may only be 8 or 9 years old, but nearly every episode has him decapitating at least one foe in full digital glory. The actionis fast and extremely stylized, to the point where you might wonder which big Hollywood director had a hand in the action scenes. Even the orchestral music is original and sounds like something off the big screen and has a distinctly oriental flavor. There's also a great mix of humor and quiet moments that really add some depth to each episode and remind you that, even though he just killed a horde of enemy ninjas, Ninjai is still just a child.

takabath.jpgAs the series goes on, you'll gain a little (and I stress a little) more of the backstory, but what really drives the plot is the fight for survival that goes on in nearly every episode. Most episodes (or chapters, as they call them) leave the door open for the next episode while completing the subplot from the last one. Sadly the series is incomplete and currently ends on a cliffhanger after the 12th episode. Even after enjoying some airtime on cable TV's G4, the creators still haven't finished off the series, however they still claim to be interested in doing so.

Ninjai really sets the watermark high for all action cartoons, online
or otherwise. There's lots of ninja cartoons out there, but Ninjai
really sets itself apart with it's fantastic art, fast action,
professional caliber music and it's charming characters. If you're into action, if you're into ninja's, if you're into anime, if you're into animation at all, this is one of the defining works of animation, NOT done by big studios, but a group of people who just wanted to make something cool.

Animosity Online

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Feed them Cheese, A Modern Day Queen of Scots

2008-12-12T04:17:00.000-08:00

Some logic going. :)

An Italian solution: Parmesan for the needy

MILAN, Italy – Let them eat cheese. With data showing a growing underclass and food lines now in most major cities, the Italian government has come up with a way to help the needy while propping up one of its iconic industries.

Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia has committed to buying 100,000 66-pound (30-kilogram) wheels each of Parmigiano Reggiano and the very similar Grana Padano cheese to donate to the needy.

Producers sought government help in the face of prices that have fallen some 25 percent over the past five years, said Giorgio Apostoli, who represents dairy farmers for the Coldiretti agriculture lobby. The producers faced pressure from distributors who offer sharp discounts on the grateable cheeses to lure shoppers into supermarkets,

The government said it will buy 3 percent of the annual production at market prices. The Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano consortia put the value at euro50 million ($66 million).

"It's a help. It doesn't resolve the problem, but it is a help," Apostoli said Thursday. "This is a crisis of pricing, not of consumption," Apostoli said, noting that while consumption of the more expensive Parmigiano Padano has fallen slightly in the last year that of Grana Padano has risen slightly.

Apostoli said the measure doubles the usual government acquisition of Parmigiano and Gran Padano under an EU program to provide food for the poor. Italy was allocated euro66.4 million in 2008, which will nearly double to euro129 million next year, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

The government also plans to convene a round table with distributors to negotiate sales promotions that will be fairer to producers, as well as launch campaigns to promote Italian Parmesan abroad, where it can command higher prices.

An overwhelming 85 percent of the Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano produced is consumed in Italy; Coldiretti estimates that some 60 percent of that is sold at discounted prices.

Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano cheeses are produced according to very strict traditions tied to their geographic origins — primarily the Po River Valley of northern Italy — specifying everything from the aging process to the origin of the milk used. Italy is jealous even of the name Parmesan, having gone to the EU seeking to ban its use by copycats cashing in on the culinary tradition.

Yahoo! News

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Of vets and christmas

2008-12-10T17:33:00.000-08:00

I would be so stoked if someone gave me a nativity for Christmas. Of course it's the last thing anyone would think of getting me tho. :'(

Vietnam vet with PTSD goes to Iraq: 'It made me worse'

DAVENPORT, Iowa (CNN) -- Bob Konrardy carried the guilt with him for more than 40 years. A platoon commander in Vietnam, Konrardy was wounded when shrapnel tore through his body. Four comrades carried him to safety in a poncho for more than an hour while the firefight raged.
While in Iraq, the Humvee Konrardy was riding in came under attack. "I could've been killed," he says.

While in Iraq, the Humvee Konrardy was riding in came under attack. "I could've been killed," he says.
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"These four guys went back to help the platoon because they were still fighting, and all four of those guys got killed," Konrardy says. "I felt guilty for 40-something years."

Two years ago, Konrardy got to thinking: He'd be a Santa of sorts for soldiers in Iraq as a way to help him deal with his conscience.

He would collect autographed college and pro footballs, letters from local kids and other mementoes from home to help inspire the troops in Iraq. Then, he would have the goods delivered to his old platoon serving in Iraq, the First Cavalry Division.

He initially thought he'd have the material shipped. But his plan changed when the military signed off for Konrardy to deliver the goods in person and work as an embedded journalist for a local paper.

The 65-year-old grandpa was about to head to one of the world's most dangerous places. Video Watch "I could have been killed" »

"I wanted to maybe bury some Vietnam demons and just make a difference with this platoon and maybe make up for what I didn't do with my old platoon," he says. "I thought it was going to go one way. It went the other. It made me worse."

He adds, "I couldn't sleep before, but now it's worse. I hate to see it get dark. I get extremely nervous. I get uptight. I just don't like to see it get dark. And once it is dark, I'm on edge until it gets dawn."

Konrardy's story is one of patriotism, heroism and torment -- a war veteran unable to escape what happened in 1965, when he was just 23.

"Here's a guy who is a true American hero in his own right. He was wounded in action in the Iadrang Valley, and he comes into a combat zone 40 years later," says Maj. Chris Rogers, the operations officer of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, when Konrardy embedded with them.

"In my opinion, he's a guy who has done it all -- bled for his own country -- and he's more interested in telling the story of today's generation of young heroes than trumpeting his own horn."

Konrardy was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder shortly after he retired from John Deere in 2002, when he says his disorder really kicked in. He once sleep-drove to a Wal-Mart about 20 minutes from his home at 3 a.m. He doesn't recall how he got there or how he got home. He only remembers a guy mopping the floor asking if he could be helped.

Other times, he'd patrol the neighborhood in the wee hours of the night with his loaded 9-mm pistol on his hip. His counselor with the Department of Veterans Affairs once asked what he would do if the police ever stopped him.
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"I said, 'I'll just shoot out his windows and escape and evade back to the house. I think it'd be fun.' She didn't like that answer," he says with a laugh. "So I'm lucky because that's probably what I would've tried to do."

Konrardy checked himself into a VA facility in Des Moines, Iowa, to get help for his PTSD. He chuckles more when he recounts trying to escape from the place and police approached him. "I rolled down a hill and started running so they couldn't catch me. They said that was the wrong thing to do." Learn about PTSD and how to get help »

He says he was then put in an isolation ward for 11 days and nights, and eventually released. It was August 2005.

Fast forward to the fall of 2006. That's when Konrardy spoke to his grandson's eighth-grade class about his war experience. They thanked him for serving his country. "Nobody had ever done that before, for serving in Vietnam," he says.

He started e-mailing members of the Army's First Cavalry Division as part of his grandson's "adopt a platoon" project. He got autographed footballs from the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts, as well as from the University of Tennessee and University of Georgia.

Even the players at local St. Ambrose University chipped in with a football of their own: the game ball from their championship game. "I just wanted to do something and make up for what I didn't do for my guys," Konrardy says.

His family gathered for Christmas that year and he told of his plans to travel to Iraq. "Everybody cried," he says. "I said, 'Hey, this is a chance of a lifetime. I have to go.' "

Quizzed about why a man who was held in a VA facility a couple years earlier was cleared to travel to Iraq, Konrardy laughs. He says CNN is the first to ask that question.

But he adds the original plan was for him to not go into combat. "On the way over, I didn't think I'd be going out."

By March 2007, the old warrior's boots were on the ground in Baghdad. His plan was to hand out the 95 pounds of goods and kick back with the soldiers at base camp, collecting their stories and gathering video to give to their families back home. Konrardy handed the St. Ambrose football to a soldier named David W. Behrle, a 20-year-old from Tipton, Iowa. He scooped it up and cherished it.

Konrardy was officially in Iraq as an embedded journalist to file blog posts for "The Quad-City Times." He had not intended to go into combat, but that quickly changed. He says the commander said if he wanted to get to know the troops "you've gotta be proactive."

Konrardy says he hopped into a Humvee and began patrolling the tight streets of Baghdad with the unit. He was assigned the back right seat for four days.

His Humvee once struck a dud of a roadside bomb that blew the tire out underneath where he was sitting. Gunfire erupted. "Looking back, I'm thinking, 'Wow, I could have been killed,' " he says.

He's still haunted by another time in Iraq -- not because of what happened, but because of what he didn't do.

"I'm going to the bathroom and I hear somebody crying. My first instinct was to be a grandpa: I'm going to go in and I'm going to hold this young kid whoever it is and just say, 'I know where you're coming from. I've been there. Let's just talk.' "

He adds, "But I chickened out. I didn't do that. Now, I wish I would have."

A few weeks after he left Iraq, soldiers he befriended were riding in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle on patrol around Baghdad. He says the soldiers had recently saved a young Iraqi girl who had been shot in the head from insurgent crossfire. But on this day, May 19, 2007, a roadside bomb went off, killing all six soldiers inside.

One of those killed was Spc. David Behrle, the soldier who loved the football hand-delivered by Konrardy.

"I took that hard. It still bothers me," Konrardy says.

Outside his Iowa home, a flagpole stands on Konrardy's lawn. A fallen soldier monument sits at its base with a pair of boots, rifle facing down and helmet with the name "Behrle" on it.

Behrle's family was so moved by Konrardy they had it built for him. Kneeling next to the monument, Konrardy says, "It reminds me of Dave. But it also reminds me of the Behrle family and how close we've gotten with them and how great they've been in my grieving for Dave and helping me ... try to readjust to the things I went through in Iraq."

"They say I helped them; I say they helped me."

The lifelong Republican recently did something he thought he'd never do: He says he voted for a Democrat for the president of the United States. Thousands of American troops will soon be returning home in need of help just like him.
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Konrardy, who is still getting PTSD treatment, wishes the rest of the nation could better understand what that's like.

"I just want them to realize the life of a soldier is not what you think," he says. "It changes you for the rest of your life."

Source

poor dude.. he needs to pray or something.

Awesome musicians

2008-12-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

Here's some other vids: all around pretty awesome stuff.

Christmas is just around the corner... unlike my parents, I have some kind of innate love for nativity scenes. I like it much better than anything else about Christmas.
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Dogs are smarter

2008-12-08T23:51:00.000-08:00

Scientists are so dumb. I knew this already. I see it with my dogs all the time.

Why dogs can sense fair play

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Dogs appear to experience a range of complex, unpleasant emotions such as jealousy and pride, scientists have discovered.
Dogs hate their owner showing affection to other dogs.

Dogs hate their owner showing affection to other dogs.

Until now, this type of behavior had only been shown in humans or chimpanzees, but researchers suspected that other species that live together could be sensitive to fair play -- or a lack of one.

"We are learning that dogs, horses, and perhaps many other species are far more emotionally complex than we ever realized," Paul Morris, a psychologist at the University of Portsmouth who studies animal emotions, told The Sunday Times.

"They can suffer simple forms of many emotions we once thought only primates could experience."

Scientists noted that dogs hate to see their owners being affectionate to other dogs and can suffer if a new baby or partner arrives on the scene.

To test the theory, Friederike Range and colleagues at the University of Vienna in Austria asked 33 trained dogs to extend a paw to a human.

The animals performed the trick virtually all of the time whether they were given a reward or not -- when alone or with another dog.

But the dogs' enthusiasm waned when they saw other dogs being rewarded but received nothing themselves.

Dogs that were ignored extended their paws much less often, doing so in only 13 out of 30 trials. They also showed more stress, such as licking or scratching themselves.

"They are clearly unhappy with the unfair situation", Range told New Scientist magazine. She also suspects that this sensitivity might stretch beyond food to more abstract things like praise and attention.

"It might explain why some dogs react with 'new baby envy' when their owners have a child," she said.

Source

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This is something we've probably never had: happy family.. mixed.. haha check out these ligers.

Boredom

2008-12-07T22:31:00.000-08:00

Defines my day...

Defines my dreams...

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Pacquiao dominates, stops De La Hoya in 8th round

2008-12-06T23:16:00.000-08:00

Pacquiao dominates, stops De La Hoya in 8th round

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Manny Pacquiao fought a lot bigger than he looked. Oscar De La Hoya simply looked old. Pacquiao dominated his bigger and more famous opponent from the opening bell Saturday night, giving De La Hoya a beating and closing his left eye before De La Hoya declined to come out of his corner after the eighth round.

The fight was so lopsided and De La Hoya looked so inept that it could spell the end for boxing's richest and most marketable star.

It was only the second time in De La Hoya's 16-year pro career that he was stopped in a fight, and it was made even more shocking because it came at the hands of a fighter who fought at just 129 pounds months earlier. At the age of 35 he seemed not only well beyond his prime, but unable to offer any answer to the punches that Pacquiao was landing almost at will.

De La Hoya's left eye was closed shut as he sat on his stool after the eighth round and the ring doctor, referee and his cornermen discussed his condition. De La Hoya offered no complaints when his corner decided he had enough, getting up from his stool and walking to the center of the ring to congratulate the victor.

"You're still my idol," Pacquiao told him.

"No, you're my idol," De La Hoya said.

Two of the three ringside judges scored all eight rounds for Pacquiao, while a third gave De La Hoya only the first round. The Associated Press scored every round for the winner.

De La Hoya was taken to a hospital for precautionary reasons after the fight.

It was lopsided from the beginning, with Pacquiao landing punch after punch while De La Hoya chased after him, trying to catch him with a big punch. Pacquiao was winning big even before the seventh round, when he was pounding De La Hoya against the ropes in his corner and catching him with huge shots that knocked him across the ring.

De La Hoya remained upright, but with one eye closed and his reflexes seemingly gone there was no chance he was going to land the big punches he would have needed to turn the fight around. Ringside statistics showed Pacquiao landed 45 power punches in the seventh round to just four for De La Hoya.

"He's just a great fighter," De La Hoya said. "I have nothing bad to say about him. He prepared like a true champion."

Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 knockouts) came up two weight classes to fight for his biggest purse ever, while De La Hoya dropped down to meet him at 147 pounds. Though De La Hoya (39-6) towered over Pacquiao and had a big reach advantage over him, Pacquiao had no trouble getting inside what few jabs De La Hoya threw to land his shots.

Pacquiao was credited with landing 224 of 585 punches to just 83 of 402 for De La Hoya.

"We knew we had him after the first round," Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach said. "He had no legs, he was hesitant and he was shot."

Roach trained De La Hoya in his last big fight a year ago and said De La Hoya simply couldn't throw punches when he needed in that fight. That was magnified even more against Pacquiao, who not only was as elusive as Floyd Mayweather Jr. but threw punches back that kept De La Hoya off pace.

"Freddie, you're right," De La Hoya told the trainer after the fight. "I just don't have it anymore."

If De La Hoya's career is over, it will be the end of a remarkable story that began when he won the Olympic gold medal in Barcelona in 1992 and went on to become the biggest box office attraction in the sport. But while he sold tickets, De La Hoya hadn't won a big fight in six years, and there were whispers long before the fight that he had nothing left.

"My heart still wants to fight, that's for sure," De La Hoya said. "But when your physical doesn't respond, what can you do? I have to be smart and make sure I think about my future plans."

De La Hoya not only dropped down to fight for the first time at 147 pounds in seven years, but actually came into the ring unofficially weighing less than Pacquiao. Both fighters got on scales in their dressing rooms and De La Hoya was 147 while Pacquiao was 148 and a half.

Pacquiao earned his biggest purse ever, a guaranteed $11 million, while De La Hoya was expected to make at least twice that in a fight by the time all the pay-per-view revenues are totaled up.

Source

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Fun

2008-12-05T15:58:00.001-08:00

hm..I'm kinda sore today. Slept in... so I was in bed til like.. 6 am today.

I'm usually up by 4 am.

zz.

more animals

more animals
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more animals

mm

2008-12-04T23:07:00.001-08:00

God I am just so starving today!

what I'd give to eat these things. mmm

As always, don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter

Why Do the Mentally Ill Die Younger?

2008-12-04T04:08:00.000-08:00

I saw this article on CNN today.. does that mean I'm going to die younger? :D

Why Do the Mentally Ill Die Younger?

Cynthia Scott is your average health-conscious 56-year-old. She watches what she eats, drinks lots of water and takes a multivitamin every morning. She goes for frequent walks and visits her doctor regularly for checkups, including cholesterol and diabetes screenings.
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Scott also has schizoaffective bipolar disorder, a mental illness she keeps in check with a low dose of Zyprexa. If you were to ask Scott, she would say she is a healthy person overall. So she was shocked when the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) published a study two years ago called Morbidity and Mortality in People with Serious Mental Illness. The report analyzed data from 16 states and found that, on average, people with severe mental illness die 25 years earlier than the general population. "Hearing that made me so sad," says Scott. (See the Year in Health, from A to Z.)

The findings were a bombshell for the rest of the mental-health community. "The study jarred the field," says Dr. Bob Glover, the executive director of NASMHPD. After the 2006 report came out, many mental-health agencies in the U.S. made it an immediate priority to figure out why their patients die sooner and how to improve their longevity. Says Glover: "Mental health has been late to the dance in terms of looking at the connections between mental health and physical health. It may be moot what you're doing for mental-health needs if people are dying so early from physical causes."

Indeed, the causes of physical illness and death among psychiatric patients are much the same as those in other groups — cigarette smoking, obesity, diabetes — and are treatable. The problem is that people with serious mental illness tend to be low on the socioeconomic totem pole and often don't get the best available health care. Frequently, their own doctors pay little heed to their patients' physical health. "Medical doctors think, 'Well, they're crazy,' so they don't take their concerns seriously," says Wendy Brennan, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in New York City. "Their very real physical symptoms are often dismissed."

One of the most common contributors to early death among mentally ill patients, for instance, is smoking. While about 22% of the general population smokes, more than 75% of people with severe mental illness are tobacco-dependent. According to Glover, a study conducted by NASMHPD after the publication of its mortality study found that 44% of all cigarettes in the United States are consumed by people with psychiatric histories. "I used to run state hospitals, and we'd use cigarettes as reinforcement — 'You did good; you get a cigarette,'" he says. "When people didn't do well, we took away their tobacco privileges. We were part of the problem." The agency is now working to make state mental hospitals smoke-free by 2011.

Obesity is another big risk factor. People with depression or bipolar disorder are about twice as likely to be obese as the general population; in people with schizophrenia, that likelihood is three times greater. This is in part because so many psychotropic medications cause weight gain. At many state hospitals, says Glover, "you'd see a woman be admitted at 120 lb. Three to six months later, she'd weigh 200."

Obesity-related illnesses, like diabetes, are so prevalent among the mentally ill that health officials call them an epidemic within an epidemic. For example, about 13% of schizophrenic adults in their 50s have received a diabetes diagnosis, compared with 8% of the general population of the same age. In October, the NASMHPD released another report, with recommendations for treating the particular problem of obesity, including giving those with severe mental illness better access to dietary consultations and promoting the prescription of low-weight-gain antipsychotics. The agency is currently working on creating a tool kit for federal health-care providers to better inform them on the issue.

At NAMI–New York City, after reading the 2006 mortality report, health workers held focus groups to assess their patients' health concerns. There were many — foremost among them, the simple desire to feel deserving of good health. "The most shocking thing was that people really wanted to be healthy but there was a disconnect," says program associate Katie Linn, who ran the focus groups. "A lot of it came down to self-worth — they didn't feel like they were worthy of taking care of themselves."

Based on the participants' responses, NAMI created a program called Six Weeks to Wellness, a weekly class that teaches everything from proper nutrition to controlling anxiety through yoga and meditation. "It's been wildly popular," says Linn. "It helps to say, 'Your health is important to us.' They've never heard that before."

For the NASMHPD, the next logical step is to educate the doctors who care for the mentally ill. This month, the agency will release guidelines for standardizing the medical tests, assessments and care given to mental-health patients in the public system. The recommendations include taking regular measurements of patients' height and weight, checking their glucose levels and carefully evaluating their medication history. Psychiatrists, likewise, are not exempt. According to Mental Heath America, based in Virginia, a recent survey of people with schizophrenia revealed that they rarely discussed physical health with their psychiatrists. So the organization is working on an initiative with the American Psychological Association to better educate mental-health specialists about the physical concerns facing patients with serious mental illness.

As for Cynthia Scott, over the past two years she has taken her health consciousness to a whole new level, regularly attending NAMI's yoga workshops in New York City. "I'm big on taking care of myself," she says.

Source

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Dream dreaming... oohh baby

2008-12-02T01:37:00.000-08:00

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beautiful beautiful... hmmm mmm...

Don't forget to watch Ninjai.

Hair colors

2008-12-01T04:57:00.000-08:00

Stupidity Comes in all hair colors

That's a good one, isn't it? Haha!

Don't forget to check out Ninjai today

Feetish

2008-11-29T17:48:00.000-08:00

My uncles have unbelievably nice feet. Seems like a lot of Asians have much nicer looking hands and feet. Not ALL of them of course, but a lot of them do. Japanese, Chinese.. real nice! My dad's feet? God they're butt ugly.

Look at this poor kid's feet, so young yet so ugly already. Usually babies feet are cute.

But the kid's face makes up for his ugly feet.

Get a Ninjai desktop or something today..

half and half

2008-11-29T04:25:00.000-08:00

Haha check out this silly Japanese film

Silly silly people. :)

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Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T04:33:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! This is the first time I've spent thanksgiving on my own. It was all right. Just watched movies all day.

hmm.. what cuties Sampras' got

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Ninja music

2008-11-27T03:42:00.000-08:00

aweeee.. just check out these week-old puppies!!

Check out some Ninja Music