Get Smarter Everyday
Imagine the chaotic and tense environment of Los Angeles in 1992, during the infamous riots. As a Korean shop owner perched on the roof of your business, clutching a rifle, you’re engulfed in a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts. The atmosphere is thick with smoke, and the sounds of sirens, shouting, and breaking glass fill the air.
You’re a part of a community that has worked tirelessly to build a life in this city, often facing prejudice and discrimination. Now, your hard-earned livelihood is under direct threat. The sight of looters approaching, the anger and desperation in their eyes, stirs a mix of fear and determination within you.
“Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night.
Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else.
Imagine a scene in 1910: a weather-beaten steamship cuts through the choppy waters of the Atlantic, its decks crowded with immigrants from far-flung corners of the globe. These travelers, from Europe, Russia, and beyond, have endured weeks at sea, crammed into steerage, surviving on sparse rations and holding tight to their dreams of a new life in America. The air is thick with a mix of exhaustion, anticipation, and a touch of fear—the fear of the unknown.
“I stopped in the middle of that building and I saw — the sky. I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and time time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and said to myself, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am! Why can’t I say that, Willy?
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm
This quote comes from the final chapter of George Orwell’s novella “Animal Farm,” which was published in 1945. The story is an allegory for the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Soviet Union under Stalin’s rule. In the novella, a group of farm animals overthrow their human owner and establish a society based on the principles of animalism, which promotes equality among all animals.
Jean-Claude Van Damme’s high-flying kicks and steely gaze weren’t the only things that captivated audiences in the 1988 martial arts film “Bloodsport.” The movie, which catapulted Van Damme to action star fame, ends with a series of staggering claims about the real-life fighter Frank Dux, on whom the film is based.
Among these is the jaw-dropping assertion that Dux holds the record for the “Most Consecutive Knockouts in a Single Tournament – 56.” But is this feat even remotely feasible, or is it a cinematic punchline to an already over-the-top film? Let’s break down the math and examine the dubious nature of Frank Dux’s martial arts legacy.
