The number of tourists visiting Angkor Wat each year is drastically increasing. This phenomenon is quite recent, as are its destructive impacts. Our behavior can make a difference to the preservation of Cambodia’s heritage, so please: Accept the restrictions placed on the temple complex (i.e do not touch, do not …
The number of tourists visiting Angkor Wat each year is drastically increasing. This phenomenon is quite recent, as are its destructive impacts. Our behavior can make a difference to the preservation of Cambodia’s heritage, so please:
Accept the restrictions placed on the temple complex (i.e do not touch, do not enter).
Avoid touching. Every small touch becomes harmful when repeated by 1,000 people every day.
Avoid climbing unnecessarily on the statues and monuments. If you must take a photo on top of a temple, be selective and choose to climb only one.
Wear appropriate clothing. Angkor Watt is a modern day living temple, so we dress as we would when visiting any other Buddhist Temples (i.e no tank tops, short shorts, etc.). Shoulders and knees must be covered.
Wear appropriate shoes. Avoid high heels and studded soles that can damage the stones.
Mind your backpack. Be careful not to brush up against the walls and damage the stones and bas-reliefs with your backpack.
Stop graffiti. Resist the temptation to scribble your name or draw on the monuments.
Admire from afar. If every visitor to Angkor Wat took home a piece of the temple as a souvenir, the temples would quickly disappear forever.
Shop responsibly. Beware of buying objects on unknown origin. The looting of archaeological sites result in the loss of significant social and cultural treasures and robs the Cambodian people of their history.
Don’t litter. We take our rubbish with us.
Respect silence and other people. The temple complex brings different experiences to different people. Allow other visitors to experience the peace and beauty.
We often forget that our holidays are spent in other people’s homes and sometimes give little thought to the impact we will have on our holiday destination, its people, culture, economy and environment. Here are some ways to ensure the destination, as a whole, benefits from your visit. Create an …
We often forget that our holidays are spent in other people’s homes and sometimes give little thought to the impact we will have on our holiday destination, its people, culture, economy and environment. Here are some ways to ensure the destination, as a whole, benefits from your visit.
Create an instant smile – Chat with the local people and try to speak their language. You’re sure to get an instant smile and a laugh to seal those memories.
It’s not an exam – If you read up on the places you intend to visit, your experience will be enhanced, but your guidebook is just a guide. To truly experience a place, go off the beaten path. You”ll be glad you did
Slow Down – Our hurried concept of time is not the same in other cultures and local people’s thought patterns differ from your own. Challenge yourself and do like the local people do, just for a day
Create win/win situations – Bargaining is expected in many cultures and we all enjoy the haggling with a smile and a laugh, but it’s easy to carried away trying to find the best deal. Keep it in perspective and remind yourself that small amounts of money to us could equal the cost of an entire family’s meal that night
How big is your ecological footprint? – How heavily to you ‘tread’ on your holiday? Natural resources are precious and the size of your ecological footprint will have an impact. Re-use water bottles, don’t buy wildlife products, turn off lights and air conditioners and think about your waste disposal.
Go local – Buy from local markets and roadside vendors. This keeps money in the local economy and helps local people keep their jobs.
Giving back – Giving gifts and money unfortunately encourages begging. Instead, find a project to support or volunteer your time. This will have a more positive and long lasting impact on both you and them
Although rapidly approaching , UFC on Fuel TV 4 hasn’t gotten much attention from the media due to the highly anticipated UFC 148. However, just four days after Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen square off.
Although rapidly approaching , UFC on Fuel TV 4 hasn’t gotten much attention from the media due to the highly anticipated UFC 148. However, just four days after Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen square off for the second time, two other top middleweights will face off in an attempt to continue their run at the middleweight title.
Top contenders, Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman, will be headlining UFC on Fuel TV 4, which will take place July 11th. The betting odds for the main event have come out, and surprisingly, it is Weidman who is the favorite over Munoz. Now while casual MMA fans may not question this, it does raise a few eyebrows from the more enthusiastic fans. Both fighters have demonstrated their skills over talented opponents, which places both fighters among the top of the division, arguably in the top ten. However, nobody can argue with the repertoire of Munoz being more impressive.
Mark Munoz has won seven of his last eight fights, losing only a split decision to Yushin Okami, who at the time, was ranked in the top five. He has since beaten four high-level opponents, with only two of those fights seeing judges score cards. Chris Weidman hasn’t faced the number of high-level opponents that Munoz has. Although Weidman was able to finish UFC veteran, Tom Lawlor, with a guillotine choke in just over two minutes, it was his decision win over jiu-jitsu specialist, Demian Maia, that labeled him as a top middleweight contender. Coincidently, Munoz and Weidman share Demian Maia as a common opponent, and it’s the comparison of their bouts with Maia that reveal just how baffling these betting odds truly are.
Mark Munoz fought a confident, energetic Demian Maia, who came out aggressive, throwing a plethora of solid, accurate strikes. It was the first time Maia demonstrated his newly achieved striking skills and completely caught Munoz off guard with them. However, Munoz was able to come back in the last two rounds, using powerful strikes and elite wrestling to stifle the jiu-jitsu attempts of Maia, and win a unanimous decision. In Chris Weidman’s bout with Maia, eight months later, Maia’s performance was sluggish and mundane. His strikes were hesitant and predictable, while his take down attempts were feeble. Even commentators, Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg, made the comment that the performance of Maia and Weidman wasn’t installing any fear to the rest of the division, and that they both looked physically exhausted. While this was understandable for Weidman, seeing he agreed to the fight with Maia on only eleven days notice, there was no explanation for Maia’s poor performance. Bottom line, Mark Munoz defeated an elite contender at the top of his game, and Chris Weidman didn’t.
By no means should anyone count Chris Weidman out of this fight. He may very well remain undefeated when it’s all over. However, there is a reason that every MMA website has Munoz ranked above Weidman. When looking at the skills, past performances, and overall resumes that both of these fighters poses, Mark Munoz has simply accomplished more. Clearly somebody was misinformed when making these betting odds, and if not, then favoring Weidman is just plain ignorant and bias.
As I sit here day dreaming I can’t help but feel a little sad as I recall the fun of Memorial day weekend and how at this point it’s already ancient history…Friday night was spent.
As I sit here day dreaming I can’t help but feel a little sad as I recall the fun of Memorial day weekend and how at this point it’s already ancient history…Friday night was spent sparring in the gym in preparation for my second amateur fight on June 30th. Saturday, I was fortunate enough to attend a Brazilian jiu-jitsu seminar featuring multiple time world champion grappler Pablo Popovitch. On Sunday, my brothers and I made the trip to the Monster training facility in Miami for a FREE grappling tournament hosted by our generous friends at FXG. Monday I enjoyed a healthy dose of ice, ibuprofen, and household cleaning. Tuesday, my first day back on the job, I seem to have blacked out completely. Now Wednesday, my selective awareness has acknowledged my surroundings and I somehow find myself back on the grind.
Before the suffocating tediousness of the rat race sucks away the joy of life for the next few days—I’m writing this at my real job instead of doing what I’m supposed to be doing—I thought I would share some thoughts (maybe too strong of a word) I had during my kickass holiday weekend.
First, let’s spend a few moments considering what makes a good MMA fighter: decent jiu-jitsu, and kickboxing are definitely the utmost barestestEST of essentials. Add three spoonfuls of wrestling, throw in a heaping helping of strength & conditioning, a shake of mental toughness and four hundred pounds of solid technique and you might even have the ingredients for a champion.
Now let’s consider what makes a SUCCESSFUL MMA fighter……….anyone?? Besides all of the above you could probably make pretty good use of outstanding genetics, in the reach and chin departments a la Jon Jones and Dan Henderson. Having rich parents would probably help as well, as BJ Penn, Carlos Condit and Donald Cerrone can all attest. Maybe you just have to be really really good friends with Steven Seagal…look I don’t know that’s why I’m asking. I just want to point out that skill and success don’t necessarily go hand in hand.
To better illustrate my point—or more likely my lack of one—let’s talk about the Popovitch seminar. For those of you who don’t know, Pablo Popovitch is one of the most badass submission grapplers on the planet. He is an Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling Champion as well as a multiple time no-gi world champion. People call this guy “Weapon X,” yeah as in THE “Weapon X”, as in this guy would b*tchslap Wolverine in his mouth and make him say thank you. It’s true….google it.
All that jive aside, the guy was NICE. I mean REALLY nice. After the seminar, I bothered him for a picture while he was eating and then had to go back twice because my technologically challenged friend Moses took terrible pictures. He just smiled and said ‘no problem buddy’. He could quite possibly be the coolest badass on the planet not named Morgan Freeman. Ok back to my original train of thought: what makes a SUCESSFUL MMA fighter?
Popovitch had his MMA debut in 2010 against Jeff Savoy and beat the living hell out of him, scoring a fantastic 2nd round submission due to strikes. Right about now you may be thinking, “yeah dude, he’s a world champion grappler big surprise he won, he probably fought some scrub.” While this might be true, it does offer some interesting insight into our question. Let’s look at a similar case with a totally different result.
Marcelo Garcia is widely considered one of the best grapplers alive. Arguably the pound for pound best, he has personally beat Popovitch twice in competition (although I believe Popovitch eventually beat Garcia to win ADCC). For his MMA debut, Marcelo squared off with CMA Korea’s Kim Dae-Won—a guy with four first round submission losses. Several sloppy takedown attempts later and Garcia is smothering his opponent with constant pressure from the top. Fast forward to the end result and we have a 2nd round TKO doctor’s stoppage when Marcelo’s face explodes after winding up on the wrong side of Kim’s fists. What the f*ck happened? Maybe he had a bad night? Maybe he ran into some bad luck? He was winning the fight handily right up until fate said, “No, not today Marcelo…today you bleed.”
At the end of the day who or what, if anything, is responsible for an individual’s success in the cage? Is it the men themselves, boldly snatching victory from the hands of destiny? Is it the team rallying behind an individual, carrying a fighter to greatness? The training then perhaps, forging hardened monsters through blood and sweat? Could it be some all-inclusive mix of socio-economic and physiological factors? Shit maybe nothing can ensure success in the cage and everything that occurs within is at the mercy of total random chance. After all, it’s MMA, anything can happen, right? Maybe that’s the whole reason we love it.
Maybe the very nature of MMA is defined by this idea: An endless number of variables offering an equally infinite number of potential paths to both victory and defeat, in a way that it then becomes possible for a great fighter to be overcome by a lesser one. So I leave you all with this: one world champion prevails while the other falls…why? Is MMA the great equalizer? All theories/other examples welcome, comment section, go!
At UFC 143, on February 4, 2012, Nick Diaz faced a unanimous decision loss to Carlos Condit for the welterweight interim title. While he did suffer perhaps the most important loss of his career, it.
At UFC 143, on February 4, 2012, Nick Diaz faced a unanimous decision loss to Carlos Condit for the welterweight interim title. While he did suffer perhaps the most important loss of his career, it wasn’t all bad; many fans deemed the outcome of the fight an unfair decision call by the judges, creating sympathy for Diaz and anger towards Condit. The controversy alludes to the fact that Condit was practically running away from Diaz the entire fight. Personally being a huge Nick Diaz fan, I was extremely angered as well. But my initial anger wasn’t due to the fact that Carlos Condit pulled out the decision; it was the realization that Diaz didn’t deserve to win. A fighter is already treading in deep water when he lets it go to the hands of the judges. Anything could happen. And while Condit had a questionable game plan in the eyes of many MMA fans by dodging in and out of the fight, Diaz didn’t do anything to counter Condit. Even if Condit was dipping in and out, there is no room to say that he didn’t have complete control of the octagon the entire fight. Although thought to be a boring display, he was in control the entire time, whether he implemented a traditional plan or not. Diaz claimed he was going to retire following the loss, but the events that follow show that Nick Diaz has a lot of fight left in him.
With my evident disgruntlement being said, the real blow to the stomach came several days after the fight. Due to the controversial decision and obvious interest in an immediate rematch between the two, UFC president Dana White and the UFC made it happen. Nick Diaz was given another chance to develop a winning game plan, and truly show off what he was capable of. I, along with many other avid mma fans, was anticipating the fight, until Diaz was submitted to a post fight drug test and the results came in with startling news: Diaz had tested positive for marijuana metabolites. The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) suspended Diaz immediately. While Diaz was still allowed to appeal the results, many were doubtful he would succeed. Dana White himself doubted a pleasant outcome for Diaz stating, “I get the whole thing they’re going for – the metabolites or whatever it is… Nick can’t smoke marijuana leading up to a fight. You just can’t do it.” After his hearing was delayed, due to failure to produce a medical marijuana card, and Diaz missing the initial hearing, Diaz’s attorney was suing the NSAC for failure of due process. They also argued that the marijuana metabolites aren’t listed specifically as a banned substance under the NSAC. With an ongoing case against the commission, viewers waited in apprehension whether or not they would see a rematch between Diaz and Condit or the much desired Diaz- St. Pierre fight.
Whether fans or critics thought he would win or lose this battle, everything came to a head on May 21, 2012. The NSAC was going to vote on the future of Nick Diaz, and whether or not he would be suspended. After a three hour hearing, the commission officially suspended Diaz. He would be suspended an entire 12 months from the date of the fight, as well as being charged a $30,000 fine. Nick Diaz will also have to produce a clean drug test before he can be licensed to fight in Nevada again. Diaz’s case had some holes in it, and he wasn’t able to produce enough counterevidence. Nick Diaz won’t be able to apply for a new license until February 4, 2013.
Not only did Diaz give up a shot at an immediate rematch for the interim belt, but he gave up going head to head with St. Pierre as soon as he recovers, assuming he could pull out a victory this time around against Condit. Future opportunities aside, he can’t even think about a match up for another year, not to mention being required to fork over 30% of his winnings from UFC 143. Things just went from bad to worse for Diaz.
As stated, this is Diaz’s second strike, not only with the same offense, but with the same commission. Diaz was suspended on nearly identical terms in 2007, after his win over Takanori Gomi, which eventually turned into a draw following his suspension. One can only hope that Diaz has learned his lesson, and won’t add another strike to his career, whether he chooses to continue with mixed martial arts or retire as previously mentioned. It would be a shame to see a legend fade so soon.
Ok MMA fans, I have been looking at this card for over a week. Several interesting matchups tonight, especially from the mindset of the degenerate gambler. First of all, this looks like a CHALK nite.
Ok MMA fans, I have been looking at this card for over a week. Several interesting matchups tonight, especially from the mindset of the degenerate gambler. First of all, this looks like a CHALK nite to me. For all you non-bettors, that means the favorites look to roll tonight. I usually like to pick 1 “Dog of the Night” and my 3 FAVORITE FAVORITES.
I see value in the following favorites tonight…..Let’s make some money!!
TJ Grant – Ok, not a lot of value here, but he is far superior to Prater in this one. At -460, its time to GRAB YOUR NUTS and pray Grant doesn’t get caught with a flying knee or something weird. This is an early one, so get to the window (or your offshore spot online) asap. Grant wins to put us up 1 unit on the day (unless the gambling gods aren’t with us on this night).
Donald Cerrone (-250) – Never bet against a Cowboy…seriously he keeps this on his feet, he is the better striker, and he wins a unanimous decision. Cowboy is 3 inches taller with a huge reach advantage. His only danger becomes if Stephens gets inside and can operate. Go with the Cowboy to be up 2 units.
MAIN EVENT – Poirier, Poirier, Poirier. Korean Zombie is a scary cool marketing name….and that’s about it. Poirier’s camp knows how to control this one, and he will win a Unanimous Decison for a 3 UNIT NIGHT!
DOG OF THE DAY
Jorge Lopez (+110) – Not really sure why he is the “Dog” in this fight. He is more powerful and explosive, and very dangerous to Amir Sadollah. Lots of value here so put a half a unit on Jorge and watch him go…
