Archive for the ‘people’ Category

Steven Seagal – Aikido Master

Steven Seagal

Steven Frederic Seagal (/sɨˈɡɑːl/; born April 10, 1952) is an American action film star, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist and a reserve deputy sheriff. A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan. He became the first foreigner to operate an Aikido Dojo in Japan.

He later moved to the Los Angeles, California, area where he made his film debut in 1988 in Above the Law. By 1991, he had starred in three successful films, and would go on to achieve greater fame in Under Siege (1992), where he played Navy SEALs counter-terrorist expert Casey Ryback. However, his image became tarnished when both On Deadly Ground (1994, which he directed) and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) did poorly in theaters. During the later half of the 90s, he starred in three more theatrical films and a direct-to-video The Patriot. Aside from Exit Wounds (2001) and Half Past Dead (2002), his career shifted almost entirely to direct-to-video films (often low budget productions and shot in Europe or Asia). Between 1998 to 2009, he appeared in a total of 22 of these. At the age of 59, he finally returned to the big screen as Torrez in the 2010 film Machete. As of 2011, he’s currently busy with the third season of his reality show Steven Seagal: Lawman.

Seagal is also a recording artist and guitarist and the founder of Steven Seagal Enterprises. In addition to his professional achievements, he is also known as an environmentalist, an animal rights activist and a supporter of the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, and the Tibetan independence movement.

[source]

Es war schon längst Zeit Steven Seagal in diesem Blog zu erwähnen. Was mich aber letztlich dazu gebracht hat, war folgendes Robert Rodriguez Interview geführt von Jimmy Kimmel. Das Wesentliche kommt zirka ab 2:56.

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  • My last name is Lee, Bruce Lee

    Anlässlich zum 38-jährigen Todestag ehre ich dem “King of Kung-Fu” mit seinem legendären  one inch punch mit diesem kleinen, bescheidenen Beitrag. He was the fastest!

    Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Hong Kong American and Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement. He is widely considered by many commentators, critics, media and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist, and a cultural icon.

    Lee was born in San Francisco to parents of Hong Kong heritage but was raised in Hong Kong until his late teens. Lee emigrated to the United States at the age of 18 to claim his U.S. citizenship and receive his higher education. It was during this time that he began teaching martial arts, which soon led to film and television roles.

    His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked a major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world, as well. He is noted for his roles in five feature-length films: Lo Wei’s The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; Warner Brothers’ Enter the Dragon (1973), directed by Robert Clouse; and The Game of Death (1978), directed by Robert Clouse.

    Lee became an iconic figure known throughout the world, particularly among the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese nationalism in his films. He initially trained in Wing Chun, but he later rejected well-defined martial art styles, favouring instead to utilise useful techniques from various sources in the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy, which he dubbed Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist).

    [source]

    and as an extra, movie history: Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris
    in “The Way of the Dragon” (of course, Chuck let him win…)

    more info:
    http://www.brucelee.com/

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  • Bob Dylan

    Ein kleiner Post zu seinem 70igsten Geburtstag! – Happy Birthday!

    Solltet ihr mal gefragt werden von wem wohl das Original von einem sehr guten Lied ist, sagt “Bob Dylan“. Zu 70% liegt ihr damit goldrichtig – ja so gut ist der Mann aka the world’s greatest singer-songwriter!

    Bob Dylan

    Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and painter. He has been a major figure in music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler, and an apparently reluctant figurehead, of social unrest. Though he is well-known for revolutionizing perceptions of the limits of popular music in 1965 with the six-minute single “Like a Rolling Stone,” a number of his earlier songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin'” became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements.

    His early lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social and philosophical, as well as literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, and the performance styles of Buddy Holly and Little Richard, Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres, exploring numerous distinct traditions in American song—from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly, to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.

    Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his greatest contribution is generally considered to be his songwriting.

    Since 1994, Dylan has published three books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. As a songwriter and musician, Dylan has received numerous awards over the years including Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Awards; he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2008, a road called the Bob Dylan Pathway was opened in the singer’s honor in his birthplace of Duluth, Minnesota. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.”

    [source]

    more info:
    http://www.bobdylan.com/
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_dylan

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  • Lonnie Johnson – Super Soaker Inventor

    The Super Soaker ® was invented in 1988 under the original name of the “Power Drencher” and a whole new era of power water squirters began. Invented by Lonnie Johnson, an Aerospace Engineer from Los Angeles, California, the Power Drencher was the first water blaster to incorporate air pressure into its design. Three years later in 1991 when Johnson received his patent, the Power Drencher was renamed “Super Soaker” and a nation-wide advertising campaign was launched.

    NASA stuff baby! 😉

    more info:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Johnson_%28inventor%29
    http://www.hasbro.com/nerf/en_US/supersoaker/

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  • Filed under: people
  • Khan Academy

    kahn_academy

    “It is our mission to accelerate learning
    for students of all ages.”

    The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit educational organization created by Salman Khan. With the stated mission of “providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere”, the website supplies a free online collection of over 2,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and economics.

    Salman Khan was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father is from Barisal, Bangladesh and his mother was born in Kolkata, India. Khan holds three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: a BS in mathematics, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and an MS in electrical engineering and computer science. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. In late 2004, Khan began tutoring his cousin Nadia in mathematics using Yahoo!’s Doodle notepad. When other relatives and friends sought his tutorial, he decided it would be more practical to distribute the tutorials on YouTube. Their popularity there and the testimonials of appreciative students prompted Khan to quit his job in finance in 2009 and focus on the Academy full-time. Bill Gates once said that “I’d say we’ve moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-many-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day his wife let him quit his job.”

    As of December 2009, Khan’s YouTube-hosted tutorials receive a total of more than 35,000 views per day. Each video runs for approximately ten minutes. Drawings are made with SmoothDraw, which are recorded and produced using video capture from Camtasia Studio. Khan eschewed a format that would involve a person standing by a whiteboard, desiring instead to present the content in a way akin to sitting next to someone and working out a problem on a sheet of paper: “If you’re watching a guy do a problem [while] thinking out loud, I think people find that more valuable and not as daunting.” Offline versions of the videos have been distributed by not-for-profit groups to rural areas in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. While the Khan Academy’s current content is mainly concerned with pre-college mathematics and physics, Khan states that his long-term goal is to provide “tens of thousands of videos in pretty much every subject” and to create “the world’s first free, world-class virtual school”.

    The Khan Academy also provides a web-based exercise system that generates problems for students based on skill level and performance. Khan believes his academy points to an opportunity to overhaul the traditional classroom by using software to create tests, grade assignments, highlight the challenges of certain students, and encourage those doing well to help struggling classmates.

    His low-tech, conversational tutorials — Khan’s face never appears, and viewers see only his unadorned step-by-step doodles and diagrams on an electronic blackboard — are more than merely another example of viral media distributed at negligible cost to the world. Khan Academy holds the promise of a virtual school: an educational transformation that de-emphasizes classrooms, campus and administrative infrastructure, and even brand-name instructors.

    Several people have made $10,000 contributions; Ann and John Doerr gave $100,000; total revenue is about $150,000 in donations, and $2,000 a month from ads on the Web site. As of September 2010, Google announced they would be providing the Khan Academy with $2 million to support the creation of more courses and to enable the Khan Academy to translate their core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages, as part of their Project 10^100. Salman is aiming at making nothing less than “tens of thousands” of tutorials offering the “first free, world-class virtual school where anyone can learn anything.”

    [source]

    >> http://www.khanacademy.org/

    Charlie Sheen – Tigerblood

    Charlie Sheen (aka Carlos Irwin Estevez) is seriously losing it…
    >> 20/20 Charlie Sheen Interview on ABC News

    “I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart, I got tigerblood, man.”

    Seit kurzem tweetet er auch:
    http://twitter.com/charliesheen

    charlie_tigerblood_winning

    more info:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Sheen
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000221/

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  • Filed under: movies, people
  • Felix Gottwald – Nordic God

    Felix Gottwald

    Mit dem heutigen Tag ist Felix Gottwald (Österreichs erfolgreichster Olympiasportler) auch der erfolgreichste nordische Kombinierer EVER! Und mit was? – Mit Recht! Unglaublich wie dieses “Viech” immer wieder reinbeißt, seine Verfolger hinter sich lässt und wertvolle Sekunden in den Teambewerben rausläuft. Mit dem – gerade eben gewonnen – zweiten Gold in der WM in Oslo 2011 beendet er seine aktive Karriere und wir sagen Danke für die vielen Jahre AWESOMENESS!

    Im gleichen Atemzug sei Mario Stecher erwähnt, die zweite tragende Säule des Kombinierer Teams und weltbester Sprinter im Langlaufsport (ich denke, dass darf man mit dem heutigen Ergebnis behaupten). Zum zweiten Mal ließ er Tino Edelmann, wie schon vor vier Tagen beim Normalschanzen- Bewerb, heute bei der Großschanze in einem nervenzerreißenden Zielsprint hinter sich und verwies das deutsche Team auf Platz 2. Gratulation an das gesamte Team: Bernhard Gruber, David Kreiner, Felix Gottwald, Mario Stecher!

    Mit der Sonne um die Wette gestrahlt

    Gottwald war überwältigt: „Die Sonne scheint mit uns um die Wette. Es ist ein Auf und Ab der Gefühle, das ist der Spitzensport. Es ist genial. Jetzt haben wir die Karriere doch noch ein bisschen mehr vollendet. Aber es geht einfach um die Emotionen, die man hier miterlebt: vor, während und nach dem Wettkampf“, sagte der scheidende ÖSV-Star.

    „Es ist einfach genial, in so einem Team mitwirken zu können. Das Finish war ein Revival vom Montag. Es ist wieder alles bis auf die letzten Meter zusammengekommen – aber der Mario ist eine harte Nuss. Und heute können wir endlich feiern.“

    Auch Stecher freute sich: „Das ist ein sehr schöner Tag heute. Das Duell mit Tino Edelmann ist auf alle Fälle ein Duell, das Spannung birgt. Es war heute total schön zu laufen vor den vielen Zuschauern – ein schönes Gefühl. Die zweite Runde war echt ein Kampf auf Biegen und Brechen. Und Edelmann wurde zugerufen: ‚Heute bist du an der Reihe.‘ Da habe ich mir gedacht: Schauen wir mal, wo der Bartl den Most herholt. Und Gott sei Dank habe ich es geschafft.“

    [source]

    more info:
    http://www.felixgottwald.at
    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Gottwald

    http://www.mario-stecher.at
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Stecher

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  • Filed under: people, sports
  • Leonid Rogozov – Auto-appendectomy in the Antarctic

    The Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozov’s self operation, undertaken without any other medical professional around, was a testament to determination and the will to life.

    auto_appendectomy_by_vladislav_rogozov

    • the man: Leonid Rogozov
    • the place: the Antarctic
    • the procedure: Auto-appendectomy
      für nicht Mediziner: Appendektomie = operative Entfernung des Wurmfortsatzes (Appendix vermiformis) Im allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch fälschlicherweise als “Blinddarmentfernung” bezeichnet.

    Einfach unfassbar! Man sollte sich außerdem vor Augen führen, dass dies im Jahre 1961 passierte, aber lest selbst:

    The operation

    The operation began at 2 am local time. Rogozov first infiltrated the layers of abdominal wall with 20 ml of 0.5% procaine, using several injections. After 15 minutes he made a 10-12 cm incision. The visibility in the depth of the wound was not ideal; sometimes he had to raise his head to obtain a better view or to use the mirror, but for the most part he worked by feel. After 30-40 minutes Rogozov started to take short breaks because of general weakness and vertigo. Finally he removed the severely affected appendix. He applied antibiotics in the peritoneal cavity and closed the wound. The operation itself lasted an hour and 45 minutes.1 2 Partway through, Gerbovich called in Yuri Vereshchagin to take photographs of the operation.

    “When Rogozov had made the incision and was manipulating his own innards as he removed the appendix, his intestine gurgled, which was highly unpleasant for us; it made one want to turn away, flee, not look—but I kept my head and stayed. Artemev and Teplinsky also held their places, although it later turned out they had both gone quite dizzy and were close to fainting . . . Rogozov himself was calm and focused on his work, but sweat was running down his face and he frequently asked Teplinsky to wipe his forehead . . . The operation ended at 4 am local time. By the end, Rogozov was very pale and obviously tired, but he finished everything off.”
    Previous SectionNext Section

    After the operation

    Afterwards Rogozov showed his assistants how to wash and put away the instruments and other materials. Once everything was complete, he took sleeping tablets and lay down for a rest. The next day his temperature was 38.1°C; he described his condition as “moderately poor” but overall he felt better. He continued taking antibiotics. After four days his excretory function came back to normal and signs of localised peritonitis disappeared. After five days his temperature was normal; after a week he removed the stitches.1 2 Within two weeks he was able to return to his normal duties and to his diary.

    [source]

    read the full article at
    http://www.bmj.com/content/339/bmj.b4965.full

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  • Filed under: medicine, people
  • Joachim Puchner auf Rang 4 in Chamonix

    Joachim Puchner

    Puchner auf Rang vier

    Für eine Überraschung aus heimischer Sicht sorgte Joachim Puchner. Der 23-jährige Salzburger fuhr mit der hohen Nummer 32 auf den vierten Platz und verpasste seinen ersten Podestplatz nur um drei Hundertstelsekunden.

    [source]

    Wir gratulieren herzlichst!!! Go for Gold!

    more info:
    http://www.joachim-puchner.at/
    http://www.fis-ski.com/

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  • Filed under: people, sports
  • A tribute to Roger Federer

    Roger_Federer

    Dieser Post ist dem besten Tennisspieler der Gegenwart gewidmet. Lässig, locker, souverän am Platz und dabei immer bescheiden = Roger Federer, ein wahrer Gentleman

    Roger Federer (* 8. August 1981 in Basel) ist ein Schweizer Tennisspieler.

    In seiner bisherigen Karriere konnte er die Rekordanzahl von 16 Grand-Slam-Turnieren im Einzel gewinnen und beendete die Jahre 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 und 2009 an der Spitze der Tennis-Weltrangliste. Insgesamt gewann Federer bisher 66 Titel im Einzel sowie acht im Doppel.

    Federer ist der einzige Spieler, der dreimal in seiner Karriere drei Grand-Slam-Titel in einer Saison gewinnen konnte. Dies gelang ihm 2004, 2006 und 2007. Er ist einer von sieben Spielern, die im Laufe ihrer Karriere bei allen vier Grand-Slam-Turnieren erfolgreich waren. Als zweitem Spieler (seit 1922) neben Björn Borg gelang es dem Schweizer, fünf Mal in Folge das Tennisturnier von Wimbledon für sich zu entscheiden. Zudem ist er der einzige Spieler der Open Era, der fünf Mal in Folge die US Open gewinnen konnte. Federer wurde in den Jahren 2005, 2006, 2007 und 2008 jeweils zum Weltsportler des Jahres gewählt.

    Bereits zu aktiven Zeiten wird Federer von nahezu allen Experten zu den besten Tennisspielern in der Geschichte dieses Sports gezählt und oftmals auch als bester Spieler aller Zeiten bezeichnet.

    [source]

    more infos:
    http://www.rogerfederer.com
    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Federer

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  • Filed under: people, sports
  • dancing doctor