Blog Reflections

The Ethics of Defense:
This blog (http://aikido.blogeasy.com/article.view.run?articleID=136899) is written by a relatively accomplished aikido practitioner. (Aikido is a Japanese martial art somewhat similar to Jiu Jitsu, but different in a few ways.) This particular entry discusses the ethics of defense. The ethics of defense can basically be summed up as a person's right to defend him/herself and injure an attacker in the process.

The blog discusses three types of martial situations: An attacker attacks unprovoked and the defendant injures the attacker, a person provokes an attack on themselves and injures the attacker in defense, and an attacker attacks unprovoked and the defendant subdues but does not injure the attacker. In his opinion, aikido is all about the third situation.

From my experience in aikido, I have to agree with this blogger. Aikido is the most peaceful martial art I have ever seen. Every technique has the potential to be lethal or at least very painful, but is taught in a way such that a skilled practitioner can just as easily subdue an opponent with no injury as they could break a bone. I think that this is what makes aikido unique and personally it is what draws me to the art.



Guitar Hero: A Research Blog...
This blog (http://guitarheroresearch.blogspot.com/) is written by someone who is conducting research on the recently popular games Rock Band and Guitar Hero. This particular entry discusses the results of his survey completed by slightly more than 400 people (most likely gamers). The results are not very surprising. They show that the majority of the players are males under the age of 21, and the games opened the ears of many players to new types of music. One result that was surprising, however, was the fact that 73% reported having experience with an actual musical instrument. This comes as a shock to me since most of the people that I know that play these games have no musical experience whatsoever. If this statistic proves itself to be true, then that could suggest that games like rock band and guitar hero have a much narrower fan base than previously expected.