Archive for the ‘9th dan’ Category

Dancing Lessons from the Godfather

James Brown… not to be confused with Jim Brown. For further clarification, see video below.

Flair Hair

A little bit of "Just For Men" in your mustache, and you’re all set, partner.

.::$19.99 via Kotula’s

Secret of levitation in India

Secret chamber may solve Mexican pyramid mystery

With its soaring stone pyramids and geometric temples, Teotihuacan was once the biggest city in the Americas and possibly the world.

However, experts have never been able to say with certainty who built it and why it was suddenly abandoned.

An international team of experts believes the answer may lie under the Pyramid of the Sun, the centre point of the vast ruined city 25 miles outside Mexico City.

.::continue reading -> telegraph.co.uk

Phaoroah Sanders - Lazy Bird

For you more sophisticated ninjas… a tribute by the god-emperor.

"Ninja Warriors" Arrested In N.J.

Clifton police say they arrested two men dressed liked ninjas and armed with Asian martial arts weapons who said they were sending a warning to drug users.

Calling themselves "Shinobi warriors," the men wore black SWAT-type vests and carried knives, throwing stars, swords, nunchucks and a bow and arrows.

Twenty-year-old Tadeusz Tertkiewicz and 19-year-old Jesse Trojaniak are charged with weapons possession. Tertkiewicz is also charged with harassment for a letter left for an ex-girlfriend.

After being arrested early Wednesday in a car on Route 46, the men said they were delivering warning letters to drug dealers and drug users urging them to stop their "impure" activities.

Their weapons, Detective Capt. Robert Rowan told The Bergen County Record, were to be a precaution in case they were confronted by the drug dealers.
The officers who arrested the men found the letters in five envelopes decorated with red Chinese designs, The Record reports.

Reports show the two men had already delivered one such letter to Tertkiewicza€™ 16-year-old ex-girlfriend in Clifton. Police contacted the teen and her mother and alerted them to the situation.

The letters warned drug users and drug dealers that the a€oeShinobi will stop your cruel and sadistic intentions with justified yet, merciful force.a€A

In the letter, the two men accused drug dealers and users of having a€oecommitted sin of passing impuritya€A to others and that the a€oewind guides us to those of impure heart and intent.a€A

a€oeTheir intentions may have been good, but we tell everyone that they shouldna€™t take the law into their own hands because it will cause more problems for everyone in the longrun,a€A Rowan said.

Trojaniak’s father tells The Associated Press his son is "not a maniac" and was only trying to help a friend.

.::Originally from a€"> cbsnews.com

I, too, would have found them to be pretty ninjarish, what with their bent toward vigilante justice, if not for one glaring inconsistency:AA Ninjas don’t get arrested, my dude.

Western Style Philanthropy

Michele Fugiel poses some great questions about the private quality of "western" style philanthropy.

Why do we separate how money is injected to non-profits and profits from a role that quite often elsewhere is closely associated with the priorities of the government?

Foundation resources are money that would otherwise be added to federal and state treasuries, money otherwise taxed and used for public benefit. For this reason alone, the public should know more about how foundations are managed. (mitpress looks into "deep diversity")

Is there room for change? Big ups to Pierre and Pam Omidyar for "unleashing human potential" (among the other most generous 49 philanthropists) and Jeff Skoll for initiating Social Edge.

Could an Amazon share algorithms with a Pandora? An Amazon branched with a Pandora couldn’t happen because Amazon is Amazon, however to think that there couldn’t be an Panazon is ridiculous. How can market data be shared to promote social entrepreneurialism?

Knowing how the art business revolves one could go out on another limb and wonder why types of "museums" are the beginning and end recipients of "arts benefaction"… who’s in the middle you ask? Thousands if not millions of well-trained artists who do not know that they are artists…..

When given a theoretical $100 billion and asked how hea€™d spend it, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales offers the profound a€" and controversial a€" idea of distributing funds widely and letting people decide what they need on their own, even if ita€™s another Jack Daniels. via

Wherefore Art Thou, Manny?

We here in Boston love and miss him.

"When you don’t feel good and you still get hits… that’s when you know you a bad man."

[ Ed. Since we don’t have a sports section - we make do. ]

Ninja Homes: Tattoo House

[Image: Night few of the Tattoo House - a kitchen+living space addition]

I should start by saying that Andrew Maynard - with the lofty goal of ‘complete tyrannical world domination‘ [sounds familiar…] - has already reached 9th dan ninja status, and I’m pretty sure he’s not even thirty [so in architecture terms, he’s basically a child]. The Aussie architect has a unique and thoughtful approach to design, and should be watched closely by all those interested in quality, green, and seemingly low-cost buildings.

Here we have the Tattoo House - an addition to an existing 3 bedroom home in Fitzroy North [a suburb of Melbourne] providing the current residents with new living and kitchen space, opening onto a new deck.

[Image: Close-up of the house’s ‘tattoo’ and the shadows it creates]

Many of the design decisions behind the Tattoo House were based on the budget, along with local building requirements - truly using the project’s restrictions to drive the design. The addition is therefore simple square - where each element serves multiple functions for ‘maximum return’. More design for your buck.

[Image: View of the kitchen - in particular the counter in the back as it becomes the landing for the stairs to the second level]

The new kitchen, located on the ground floor, is an open plan with large sliding glass panels that allow the space to be opened to the outside - merging with the deck to form an even larger interior/exterior room, which is accentuated by the double-height area created along the exterior wall.

[Image: View of kitchen/dining area’s double height space, which opens onto the deck]

Above, on the second level, a new family room overlooks the kitchen’s double height space and is given a nice level of privacy by the house’s ‘tattoo’ - UV stable stickers in the form of tree supergraphics, based on images of trees from a local park. More than a simple decoration, the tree graphic is a response to the local building council requiring that the second storey spaces be at 75% opacity. The solution screens the inside - eliminating the need for curtains, reflects heat and glare away from the expansive windows - controlling solar heat gain, and [last but definitely not least] creates an incredible play of light + shadow on the additions interior surface. Pretty siiick.

[Image: View showing kitchen opening onto exterior deck, forming a new, large open space]

Head on over to Andre Maynard Architects’ website for more images [pages 1, 2, 3, 4, sketches + info on the ‘tattoo’] and an array of noteworthy projects.

::Images courtesy of Andrew Maynard Architects - photography by Peter Bennetts - originally posted on AMNP::