Blog posts in Culture

Immense database containing 250,000 service records of medieval soldiers (1369-1453), has been published.
This information offers a unique glimpse of military history from the viewpoint of the private soldier.
The medeival soldier database.

Wikipedia will soon provide its editors and users with video editing capabilities. Users will be able to import, edit and review videos inside Wikipedia. This is a true revolution – the ability to use the immense Wikipedia community to tag and append content to video media will contribute new insights and add knowledge.
The huge Wikipedia community and its dedicated editor section that are supported directly by contributions and indirectly by Google's algorithm are in a good position to enter this almost virgin field of scholarly tagging of media.

Earlier this month I wrote here about the reasons we had for building an independent wiki here in Akban. I wrote about the problems that still exist for Wikipedia: "Wikipedia has an unsolved problem with the copyright of non textual media types, a hurdle we solved by videoing and editing all the Akban-wiki techniques." Concisely, mediocre content will always be relatively free of copyrights while top content, content that takes time, effort and money to produce, will always be copyrighted for lack of other decent revenue generating models.
We met with Kaltura team back in the beginning of 2008 and were happy with the solutions they generated in the Akban wiki. These same great innovators are now implementing the Kaltura video system into Wikipedia.

Is the time ripe then for a merge of Akban-wiki's content into Wikipedia? I don't think it is. The Wikipedia will evolve around documenting existing content while this part of our project, as phrased in the last paragraph of our ethical code, will evolve around creating and disseminating new research material.
Link to Technology review article
Beginning of Kaltura in Akban wiki cooperation

When looking at the academical part of the Akban project there is always the question: Why did we, Akban veterans, invest so much time and effort in building and maintaining a martial art wiki when there is an alternative, namely Wikipedia?

A recent Hebrew article in Akban's journal delves deeper into the reasons. Wikipedia deals with existing fields and articles. You can write a Wikipedia article only when the knowledge and facts about this article are already known. An author wishing to publish original academic work has to publish it in a scientific journal, not in the Wikipedia.

Apart from the Wikipedia focus on publishing existing textual and numerical data, Wikipedia has an unsolved problem with the copyright of non textual media types, a hurdle we solved by videoing and editing all the Akban-wiki techniques.

Martial arts research is either adjacent to physiology , psychology and anthropology or deals with comparative backgrounds in the emerging field of Hoplology. There is almost no Martial arts research that is endogenous and deals with the techniques as an investigated entities.

We are still in the beginning of this comparative research and so far we have little more then 1000 techniques from different disciplines in the Akban-wiki. A growing part of these techniques have textual and semantic data attached and more information is added in English and Hebrew weekly.

After several years of being online we are somewhat disappointed that no one has started a similar effort. That, for us, means the independent scientific investigation of martial arts is a niche subject. It also means that we will have to continue with this effort on the current pace. At this pace we will have 5000 videos of techniques that are articles, not how-to clips, only 6-7 years from now.

We are committed to lifelong training, committed to our community and committed in this endeavour.

Most of the discussion is going on on the Hebrew part of our site, but if you have insights or feedback we would love to hear from you, send us an e-mail.

We have a new Martial Arts wiki today.
Gone are the cumbersome wikipedia skins, css and boxes. Gone is the mutual navigation with the akban.org site.

On the helm was Keith Harris from Bifugi who did it with help from Vadim Gilead and me.

Since we are a small crew we overlooked many bugs in the new design. Any remarks, corrections and suggestions mailed to us would be warmly appreciated.

mail Akban, thanks

Four members of the PKF will be dispatched to Turkey to train there in Karate for the First Asian Martial Arts, in Bangkok from April 25 to May 3.
The Pakistani Judo team is practicing in Tehran for the same event.
Link for article in \"International Pakistani news\"

After a recent, post competition check, California State Athletic Commission officials found Shemrok positive with three forms of steroids.
Shemrok, who is now 44, will have to pay a fine of 2500 US$.

This 8-week course is an introduction to the basics and principles of the Aikido art. You will learn the techniques and principles of centre, balance, non-resistance, and harmony of movement in the Aikido relationship. It is open to men and women adults of all ages and abilities. The course will be taught by Miles Kessler, 5th dan instructor who has been training and teaching in Aikido for 25 years. Miles lived in Japan for 8 years studying full time under the guidance of Master Morihiro Saito Sensei, 9th dan. Miles moved to Tel Aviv in 2005 where lives and teaches full time. He regularly teaches Aikido seminars and workshops in Israel, Europe and the U.S.

* Course Duration : 8 weeks
* Schedule : Thursday, 19.00 ~ 20.15
* Location : Gretz School Gymnasium, 5 Adam Hacohen (near Ben Gurion blv) - Tel-Aviv
* Cost: 450 nis

For information about registration contact: info@integralaikido.org - Tel. 052-652-4004
Miles Kessler Hebrew Biography

With the help of Sensei Miles Kessler, a 5th Dan Aikido Aikiai instructor we documented in video most of the basic Aikido weapon techniques.
More to come...
links:
Miles Kessler website
Aikido in the Akban wiki

YouTube opened a new Israeli video site today and featured another BJJ clip we videoed for the Akban-wiki, our martial arts encyclopedia.

The guy doing the techniques is Gidon, an Akban veteran and also a brown belt with De La Riva in Brazil.
Well done Gidon!

One would think that injury treatment in most sports was a vital part of maintaining the athlete's ability to participate. Lately, a new trend taking hold of aspiring MMA youngsters seems to be defying this rule.

Like the dreaded knuckles that come from years of Karate training on Makiwara, Cauliflower ears - a name given to a deformity of the outer ear - is the latest widespread ailment in the world of contact martial arts.

The condition most commonly appears in practitioners who receive repetitive blows or chaffs to the ear and fail to receive professional medical treatment. Rather than trying to avoid the condition, many youngsters think of having permanently damaged ears as a sign of being tough, and try to attain the deformity by avoiding all medical treatment:


Those who choose to treat the injury often attempt to do so themselves, without professional consultation:


Whatever the reasons behind this urge, it is obvious that a do-it-yourself approach when it comes to treating injuries is extremely dangerous. Here's a youtube clip that shows how to "drain your cauliflower ear".



I do not recommend it; anyone with a cauliflower ear should seek medical drainage as soon as possible. The hardened tissue in the ear is highly susceptible to infection, and instead of a "badge of honor", an acute infection of the outer part of the ear could lead to getting a "no ear at all".

We here in Akban started MMA-ing in the begining of the 1990's and soon discovered that the best way to deal with it is using an ear protector.
This is why so many of our veterans look like they are communicating with aliens. Well, who could tell what goes on in the mind of someone finishing 24 hours of sparring - maybe these contraptions are alien gear after all.

link to the IHT article

See also:
Head injuries in martial arts
Better to rest after a head injury