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Luccombe Manor Country House Hotel in Shanklin on the beautiful Isle of Wight is a stunningly located dog friendly hotel. As well as offering numerous and varied walks for you and your best friend, the Isle of Wight offers you a warm welcome at many attractions. Plese note that the information below is taken off each attraction's website and may be subject to change at anytime.
An English Heritage Site and one of the main tourist attractions on the Island -most famous for being the castle where King Charles I was imprisoned. Steeped in history and surrounded by fantastic walks and views. Dog friendly- dogs allowed if kept on a lead.
Set in 88 acres on woodland this is a great spot for seeing Red Squirrels! Great attraction for the older children and families -with rides and falconry displays amongst the things to do. Dog Friendly- dogs allowed if kept on a lead, must clear up after your pet. (they do provide you with a free poop scoop!) Advised to bring own water.
Clifftop fantasy gardens split into sections including nursery land and cowboy town this is a firm favourite especially for younger children.
Same dog rules as for Robin Hill
Award winning secret garden with models of little houses, towns and trains.
Dog Friendly- Dogs allowed if kept on a lead and cleaned up after.
Historic gorge (chine) running from the upper part of Shanklin Old Village down onto the beach. Filled with flora and fauna as well as a natural waterfall. Illumitaed at night in the summer months. Dog Friendly- Dogs allowed if kept on a lead.
Dogs 1st or 3rd Class is £3 - Dogs are conveyed subject to the safety and comfort of other passengers and at the Railway's discretion. They must be kept on a short lead at ALL times whilst on Railway property.
Dogs Allowed but you must clean up after them.
See the famous needles set out to sea and the coloured sand at Alum Bay. Try the chairlift down to the beach, or some of the rides in the park. Dogs are permitted onto all external areas of the park and onto the beach. They are not permitted in any internal building with the exception of hearing assistance and guide dogs. Dogs must be kept on a lead at all times.
There are several nearby walks including the coastal walk from the Hotel to Bonchurch and on the Ventnor, or the sea front walk from the hotel along to the nearby town of Sandown.
A Better Stay Begins By Booking Direct
√ Best Prices for Car Ferry Travel on Island (or even free!)
√ The Lowest Prices for Bed & Full English Breakfast
√ Free Access to Leisure Facilities
√ Access to Special Offer Packages Not Available on Other Sites
or Call Reservations
01983 869 000


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So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, We've Moved
February 10, 2012
That's right. Gunpowder and Lead has gone on to greener, more awesome pastures. You can find us at our new home at gunpowderandlead.org. It is shiny.
On an admin note, please update your RSS feeds, your blogrolls, and your email subscriptions. We'll keep our archives up over here, but all new material will be on the new site. Obviously.
We hope you'll come with us. We'd miss you if you didn't.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Jimmy Wales hangs out with China's top censor
Jimmy Wales, cofounder of the world's most comprehensive history of C-Pop, recently sat for propaganda pictures with China's top censor Cai Mingzhao. The pair also spoke a little bit, but not about "the fact that a few politically sensitive pages are blocked," according to an interview Wales gave to Rebecca MacKinnon, an advisory board member at Wikipedia's nonprofit parent, the Wikimedia Foundation. "Since I wasn't sure of the exact details, and just due to the way the conversation went (more high level than about specific details), I didn't raise this question," Wales said. "But, I am not cool with any censorship of Wikipedia." Maybe he'll tell Mingzhao the next time they meet for pictures.


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Despite dismal wintry weather, 40 people of all ages turned out recently to watch the Columbia Orchestra rehearse.
The event — one of three open rehearsals offered each season — occurred midway through preparations for the all-volunteer orchestra's Jan. 31 concert, "Cinematic Inspirations."
Conductor Jason Love noted that audience members had the opportunity to observe how the music comes together, then interact with the musicians on a break.
Love, who became the group's fourth conductor and music director in 1999, likes to let the audience in on the group's inner workings as a way to demystify the classical music world.
The North Carolina native said...


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The lane of the southbound M1 that was closed for overnight roadworks will now remain closed until 4pm this afternoon.
The closure is affecting the stretch between J29, A617 (Chesterfield) and J28, A38 (Alfreton) but traffic is reportedly 'flowing well'.
The Highways Agency say that lanes 2, 3 and 4 are open and advise drivers to 'get in lane early'.
The lane was initially due to reopen at 8am this morning but this was subsequently delayed two hours until 10am and has now been put back again to 4pm.


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In the postmortem of Republican's surrender from their extremist hostage taking and ransom demands, people everywhere are analyzing what they think happened. One article contained glaring ideological framing. I agree with the foundational analysis of "Short-term debt deal won't mask big barriers ahead" by Charles Babington of the Associated Press: yesterday's deal didn't address the underlying problems in D.C. But I do disagree with important parts that Charles uses as supporting evidence for his argument.
Republicans still adamantly oppose tax increases. Powerful interest groups and many Democrats still fiercely oppose cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits.
The first sentence is mostly true. Republicans oppose tax increases on the rich (witness the 2011 deal to lock in lower tax rates for people making $400,000 or more per year), but are more than happy to shift taxation onto the lower and middle class. But the second sentence is even more painful to read for its vapidity. What the heck are "powerful interest groups"? Does Charles know who opposes Social Security and Medicare benefit cuts the most? People that receive them! Want to "fix" Social Security? Lift the taxable income cap and Social Security is solvent for centuries. But that means "raising taxes" to pay for a social good. Does Charles seriously believe there are no "powerful interest groups" that oppose tax increases? No, but he and the AP sure expects readers to. And Republican supporters demonstrate that effort works. It's hip to trash Social Security and Medicare in the D.C. cocktail circuit, but remains wickedly unpopular in the rest of the country.
In fact, most of the "powerful interest groups" on the right – the same ones that pushed for the partial government shutdown and threatened the US's role as the safest investment on earth –
Also, as usual, there is no mention of the national deficit's growth under Republican President George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, or Ronald Reagan. But this fact is an obvious part of the Teabagger's outrage at establishment Republicans. It also serves another purpose: if Republicans can generate enough outrage over national debt (that they themselves accumulated), they can demand Social Security and Medicare cuts while the obscenely wealthy get their taxes cut, even though Social Security doesn't contribute one penny to the national debt they're supposedly so concerned about.
The Simpson-Bowles plan remains widely praised nationwide, and largely ignored in Congress.
What?! Most of the nation doesn't even know what the S-B plan is or what it would do. S-B remains widely praised in the same D.C. circles where it's cool to want to take insurance programs away from the disadvantaged, and that's it. Does Charles write that it's Congress' job to plan for and pass a budget every year? Because they haven't done that on time since 1996 – a time when Republicans dominated the legislature. Instead, folks in D.C. turned to gangs as the answer – gangs of legislators trying to do the work the rest of their colleagues can't be bothered to do.
Left out of this article, as usual, are the long list of concessions Democrats yielded all to willingly to Republicans in previous "negotiations" without acquiring Republican concessions. This latest "reset" is no different: sequestration cuts to the budget (which nobody likes but too many voted and signed for) remain in place. Those cuts reduce our national economic activity: reduced GDP of about 1%. At a time of historically low interest rates, the government could rebuild our decaying infrastructure for nearly at-cost, while putting millions of people back to work who want to work. We are squandering an immense opportunity that will not repeat itself. That infrastructure will be rebuilt, but today's politicians want to make sure we pay more than we have to.
Charles and the AP mention none of this. Instead, it is "powerful interest groups" and crackpot plans. The framing by the D.C. crowd belittles the American people. It's no wonder the media and Congress aren't liked or trusted by a majority of Americans.


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The Jets ultimately could be replacing Mike Tannenbaum with another Mike Tannenbaum.
The recently-fired G.M. rose through the ranks as a cap-and-contracts specialist. Now that the Jets are having trouble replacing Tannenbaum with a traditional "football guy," they're turning their attention to another cap-and-contracts specialist.
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that the Jets will interview Omar Khan for the G.M. position on Thursday. Khan currently serves as the director of football and business administration in Pittsburgh.
As the search expands, there's a chance that the eventual hire will have less power than previously envisioned, with coach Rex Ryan in turn having greater authority over player personnel.
If, alternatively, Khan would have final say over the draft and free agency, he would need to rely on someone like Terry Bradway to help set the table, like Bradway did for Tannenbaum.


text: Aside from futuristic imagination of nanotechnology and ridiculously awesome environmental damage models, Crysis is pretty much a standard first-person shooter. What's really cool is the map development capabilities available to the average gamer. We get a pyrotechnically charged demonstration of that dev system here, with the fun combination of skydiving and blowing up huge stacks of cars. Delightful! [WeGame]


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Bales Perfect Fit as New Goalie Coachby Michelle Crechiolo / Pittsburgh Penguins
Penguins general manager Ray Shero and head coach Dan Bylsma had been searching for a goaltending coach ever since Gilles Meloche stepped down from the position after the end of last season to spend more time with his family.
They talked to current NHL goalie coaches about the important aspects of the job before getting underway, going through the interview process with a number of viable candidates about the position.
But after doing their due diligence, as Shero and Bylsma had suspected, it turns out the perfect candidate was already in the organization.
On Monday the team announced that they had promoted Mike Bales, who had spent the past two years as the Penguins' goaltender development coach, to goaltending coach.
"Interviewing Mike for this position (along with others), obviously knowing Mike but then coming full circle at the end, it was pretty apparent to myself and Dan and a few others in this organization that having seen Mike since we hired him and knowing his background, his passion for this job, his ability and his upside, it made a lot of sense that Mike Bales was the best candidate for this job," Shero said. "I really like what he has brought to the organization; I like how he's done with our goaltenders and the work ethic he has."
When Shero first hired Bales as the goalie development coach two years ago, they both hoped it would lead to something more with the organization. And just a relatively short time later, it did.
"When I first came on to Pittsburgh two years ago, that was a very exciting time for me," Bales said. "I hoped that one day that job would eventually lead to the NHL for me. I didn't know when or how, but it's been a quick two years here and I'm just really happy that I get to be a coach now in Pittsburgh."
Bales was brought in just about a year after his playing career ended. So while he has 18 seasons of professional experience that spans a number of leagues, including 23 NHL games with the Bruins and Senators, he's still young at just 42 years old and has a promising coaching career ahead of him. Shero is excited about that upside Bales will bring to his new position, along with everything else.
"Mike is a student of the game, technically with the styles around the league and what's important and what makes a good goaltender in the National Hockey League. Mike has got excellent communication skills, he's got a great personality and played pro 15 years, so he understands the position," Shero said. "He understands the goalies. He's worked with some great goaltending coaches in his career. He understands what it takes and what goalies expect.
"So coming back full circle to this thing and talking about Mike and what he's brought to the organization, what we see and the upside that he brings to this job, I think it's a really good hire for us and the right person at the right time. I'm very happy that we hired him a couple years ago to get him to this point, because you can see what he's done for our organization and what he has brought. So I think it's a good hire for us and a real good opportunity for Mike."
Bill Guerin was hired as the Penguins' player development coach at the same time Bales was hired as goalie development coach.
"Mike and I worked real closely together the last couple years," Guerin said. "We spent a lot of time together. Not necessarily on the road watching prospects because he was always watching the goalies, but we spent a ton of time in Wilkes-Barre together – especially during training camps and playoff time."
|Mike Bales working with Eric Hartzell last season
What Guerin saw from his colleague impressed him.
As goalie development coach, Bales was responsible for working with and assisting in the development of goalie prospects and players throughout the Penguins organization – as well as assisting in the evaluation and scouting of amateur goaltenders.
In his first season, Bales had more time to spend in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton since the Penguins were lacking goalie prospects for him to work with and develop. But Bales made sure that changed during his second season, as he was instrumental in helping the Penguins restock their depth at that position throughout the organization.
Pittsburgh has since drafted three goaltenders – 2013 second-round selection (44th overall) Tristan Jarry, 2012 third-round pick (83rd overall) Matt Murray and 2012 fourth-round pick (113th overall) Sean Maguire – along with signing 2013 Hobey Baker Award finalist and USA Hockey College Player of the Year Eric Hartzell as an undrafted free agent.
And though Bales' role changed and his duties expanded with the acquisition of these four goalie prospects, he still got to WBS as much as possible during the regular season (spending virtually every day there during the playoffs) – and under his tutelage during the 2012-13 campaign, WBS goaltenders Jeff Zatkoff and Brad Thiessen combined to allow the fewest goals (178) in the American Hockey League (AHL). Zatkoff's 1.93 goals-against average was the lowest in the AHL.
What Guerin believes helped Bales do all of that and what will make him a fantastic goalie coach in the NHL is what he called the "basics" – hard work, detail, dedication and commitment.
"He's there early, he's watching video, he's not afraid to put the effort in," Guerin explained. "He knows the position. He was a pro goalie for 15 years. No matter where you go in the world, the position is the same. He's a student of the position. He's got a great work ethic and you know what, he's a real easy guy to get along with, too. He's got a great personality that will always allow for top prospects to feel comfortable with him."
Elaborating on the traits Guerin mentioned, starting with work ethic …
"(Being an NHL goalie coach) is much more than working with two guys an hour and a half a day."
That's what Mitch Korn, who is in his 22nd season as an NHL goalie coach and one of the most respected and accomplished goalie coaches in the league, said in a phone interview on Monday. Korn, who is currently overseeing back-to-back Vezina Trophy finalist Pekka Rinne with the Nashville Predators, has been with the organization since the very beginning – when they took now-Penguins goalie Tomas Vokoun in the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft. Before that, Korn worked with two-time Hart Trophy winner and four-time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek and Hall of Famer Grant Fuhr during seven seasons in the Buffalo Sabres organization.
"As a goalie coach, (your responsibilities include) not only your NHL goalies, it is preparation on the goalies that you're playing against," Korn explained. "It is watching video on drafted players you may possess, American (Hockey) League guys that you guys own that are under contract. It's being aware of your prospects, being aware of the prospective draftees – all those things are part of the job. And when you're in your office or on your iPad or on your computer or on the network or doing all your work, most players will never see that."
Korn said that being a successful goalie coach in this league requires a high work ethic to handle all of that – along with high character and an unassuming personality. And Korn, who has known Bales since working with him as a player for the first time in 1997 and has been a both a mentor and a friend to him, says that Bales possesses all of those qualities – which is why he'll thrive in his new position.
"I think (being a high-character guy) is really important in any business, at any position," Korn said. "But the reality is, especially in goal when you're a specialty coach, the guys that you work with have absolutely have to believe in you. That they believe you have their best interests in mind. That you don't have or display a selfishbone in your body. And Mike is exactly that way. High character, doesn't have a selfish bone in his body, he's a 100 percent team guy. So that's really important."
Korn also said that Bales has the certain kind of personality that a goalie coach needs.
"He is extremely (unassuming)," Korn said. "He is not an emotional guy. He doesn't have any panic in him. He is a voice of reason. I think especially as a goalie coach, when coaches around you tend to become very emotional – especially about a goal that went in and they may not think was a good goal – I think that being the voice of reason and being able to communicate in a manner that's not threatening, that's not emotional, that it's logical and rational, is really a good trait. And he possesses all of that."
Until now, Bales' responsibilities had been working with every goalie in the organization not in Pittsburgh. Now he will spend the majority of, if not all of, his time in Pittsburgh, overseeing returning netminders Marc-Andre Fleury and Tomas Vokoun.
Bales has of course met both Fleury and Vokoun, and has spoken to them on the phone since his hiring was announced. But Bales does not have an extensive relationship with either, and knows building that rapport and that trust is his top priority heading into the season.
"I think part of being a good goalie coach is to establish that relationship with the goalies so that you can move forward and work together," he said. "That's sort of the early stages of any type of relationship as a goalie coach with the guys you want to work with. That's the first priority.
While Bales is going to work with both Fleury and Vokoun on things he feels are important, he also wants there to be an open dialogue between them.
"Obviously as I move forward here and we get out on the ice together and stuff, we'll start working on things I feel are important and we'll do that together," Bales explained. "I don't take it all towards just me dictating to the goaltenders do this, do that. I'm more of the open-minded type where there's more than one way to skin a cat as a coach. We'll work together to figure out what works best for each guy and most goalies have some similarities, but they also have a lot of differences. You have to work with each guy individually and help build their strengths and improve their weaknesses."
Though Bales does not know Fleury or Vokoun very well yet, Guerin is absolutely confident that his colleague will have just as much success working with them as he did in WBS and with the prospects.
"Mike's been a pro," Guerin said. "Mike's played in the NHL, Mike's played in the American (Hockey) League, he's played in Europe, he's got great experience. He's been around. He has been an elite goalie in his lifetime and he has been around the very elite in the NHL. So he's going to have no problems. I don't think he'll have any problems relating to Flower and Tomas."
While Bales points out that there are many successful goalie coaches in the NHL who never played a game in the league, he does concede that in his personal situation, his experience has helped shape him as a coach.
"I don't think it's necessarily a requirement or a prerequisite to do the job, but I know from my standpoint, I definitely draw on my experiences and everything that I did over the years to help shape how I approach things and how I work with the guys," said Bales, who appeared in 23 NHL games between 1992-97 after being drafted by Boston in the fifth round (105th overall) of the 1990 NHL Draft.
"I think that obviously having played goal and that I did play in the NHL – I didn't play a lot, but I did play in the NHL – I do have an understanding of the position and the demands and that sort of stuff. I think that helps build a relationship with a guy too, when they know you've also experienced a lot of the same types of situations over the years."
Shero said that the Penguins will begin interviewing for the open position of goalie development coach. There is no rush on hiring Bales' replacement, as Shero stressed they must find the right person for the job.
"We have some good candidates for that as well, some candidates we had talked to about for this job," Shero said. "No rush on that either, but making sure (we hire the right person is crucial), because it has been an important position. Mike's done a fantastic job in terms of not only working with our goalies in Wilkes-Barre, but also in terms of scouting and helping develop – whether it's the number of goalies we've drafted the last couple years (or) of course (Eric) Hartzell, the free-agent goaltender. He was a big part in signing and recruiting.
"So we have to make sure we get the right guy for that job because it's an important position for us since Mike took it over and of course where it is now. Making sure we get the right guy with the same type of work ethic and hopefully the upside as well (is a priority). You want to hire good people (so) that if they do well, you hope when you hire good people they have an aptitude for their job, that they progress, which Mike certainly has done and we want to try to find that as well. So we're looking to fill that."


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Julie Patel, Sun Sentinel
Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Robin Westcott told Florida Cabinet members today that the first thing required to address automobile insurance fraud is to get more information from the insurance industry on where money its spends on claims is going, what medical treatments are being provided and how much attorneys' fees for disputed claims cost.
"They have the data," Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said, noting he gives insurers a "failing grade" for not providing the information after it was requested by Westcott and the Office of Insurance Regulation.
Still, Atwater and Westcott said legislators should address insurers' pleas for the state to fight personal injury protection insurance fraud because higher costs for insurers are typically passed to consumers. Atwater said he'd want insurers to "rapidly" reduce automobile insurance rates if legislation is approved.
State law requires drivers to have up to $10,000 in PIP coverage, which pays medical bills for people injured in auto accidents regardless of who is at fault. The requirement was intended to avoid lawsuits.
But Westcott said state data shows there were about 36,000 lawsuits over PIP in 2010 and more than 47,000 suits so far this year.
She said insurers' direct claims costs for PIP rose from $1.5 billion in 2008 to $2.3 billion 2010 even as the number of licensed drivers and recorded automobile accidents stayed flat or dropped. If you include administrative and other costs for insurers, the costs rose to $2.7 billion. Meanwhile, insurers only collected $2.3 billion in premium.
Gov. Rick Scott said it amounts to a $900 million tax on all Floridians.
Westcott is expected to release a report with her findings, based on meetings she had with insurers, health care providers, attorneys and others, in the next few days. An insurance industry trade group released its recommendations last week.
"Our [PIP] laws need bold and significant change," Atwater said. "Fraud has found its way so deeply into the system that the industry questions" whether to sell policies in Florida.
Atwater said the state should give insurers more time and more tools to investigate suspicious claims. For instance, they should allow insurers to conduct interviews under oath of policyholders and health care providers and examine clinics in person to verify what treatments were provided.
Attorneys want to be able to videotape such interviews but some insurers are against the idea. Critics said legislation proposed earlier this year to give insurers the right to grill health care providers under oath even if there isn't a lawsuit could make it hard for policyholders to find good doctors.
Critics have also questioned how rampant PIP fraud is and have said insurers should have to prove the problem with data.
Regardless of what the data ends up showing, Westcott said about half of the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud's resources and time are spent working on PIP fraud. "We have a $10,000 benefit that we are putting" so much time and effort into, she said.
Scott asked how many people are uninsured in Florida.
Westcott said 21 percent don't have health insurance. She said estimates for uninsured drivers varies. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle estimates around 2 percent of drivers are uninsured and the Insurance Research Council estimates 24 percent. She said traffic stops around the state targeted at uninsured motorists indicate that as many as 30 percent of people stopped don't have proof of insurance.
The Personal Insurance Federation of Florida, whose members include Allstate, Progressive and State Farm, called for "a comprehensive solution." "We cannot continue to timidly chip away around the edges," said Michael Carlson, the group's executive director.
Photo: Allstate Insurance and Miami-Dade police demonstrate signs of a staged car crash in Doral in September to raise awareness about personal injury protection insurance fraud. (Cristobal Herrera, Sun Sentinel)


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Ok, so we know that digital ad spend is set to grow by 114% in Argentina between 2015 and 2018. Digital ad spend will spike by 73% in Mexico between now and 2018 and go up by 49% in Brazil by 2018.
In fact, 75% of the ad spend growth in Latin America between 2015 and 2017 will come from digital advertising on desktop and mobile.
We also know that B2C e-commerce sales in Latin America went up by 22% in 2014 and will grow by nearly 14% in 2015.
So digital marketers and agencies should be well attuned to what Latin Americans are buying online. Of course, data that covers the whole region is tricky to compile since e-commerce development varies greatly from country to country in Latam. But we were able to discover which products are flying off e-commerce shelves in most of the larger Latin American markets.
The Cámara Argentina de Comercio Electrónico (Argentine Chamber of E-Commerce) indicates that e-commerce sales in Argentina reached a total of 40.1 billion Argentine pesos (US$4.5 billion) in 2014.
What Argentines bought the most online in 2014 were travel products like tickets and hotel reservations: they spent more than US$1 billion on these and travel products made up more than 27% of total e-commerce sales.
Other top e-commerce products purchased in Argentina in 2014 include:
- Electronic equipment and accessories (12.5% of total sales)
- Food, drink and cleaning supplies (6.9%)
- Appliances (5.3%)
- Clothes (4.2%)
- Tickets to shows and events (3.7%)
- Home furnishings (3%)
- Office supplies (2.3%)
- Sporting goods (2.2%)
- Auto and motorcycle accessories (2.1%)
- Toys and games (1.6%)
- Clothes and accessories for babies (1.5%)
- Other (includes properties and vehicles) 27%
The 2015 Webshoppers report from ebit indicates that Brazil posted R$35.8 billion (US$11.4 billion) in e-commerce sales in 2014. As such, e-commerce sales in Brazil went up 24% in 2014. More than 51 Brazilians made an online purchase in 2014 and generated a total of more than 103 million orders. Nearly 10% of e-commerce sales in 2014 in Brazil were made with mobile devices, mostly through smartphones. In 2014 6 of every 10 m-commerce shoppers in Brazil were classes A or B.
Top products sold via e-commerce in Brazil in 2014 include:
- Fashion and accessories (17% of total sales)
- Cosmetics, perfume and personal care (15%)
- Appliances (12%)
- Mobile phones and phone products (8%)
- Books and magazine subscriptions (8%)
- Computer products (7%)
- Home furnishings (7%)
- Electronics (6%)
- Sporting goods (4%)
- Toys and Games (3%)
The Cámara de Comercio de Santiago (Santiago Chamber of Commerce) estimates that e-commerce sales in Chile would exceed US$2 billion in 2014, an increase of around 20% compared to 2013, in which total e-commerce sales in Chile were nearly US$1.6 billion. The most recent data we could find about the products that Chileans buy most online comes from a GfK study that covered e-commerce purchases in Chile during the first half of 2014. According to GfK's results, the top products purchased by Chileans via e-commerce were:
- Cell phones
- Television sets
- Tablets
- Washing machines
- Notebooks
- Refrigerators
- Stoves
- Netbooks
A report from the firm PayU indicates that e-commerce grew by more than 41% in Colombia in 2014 to reach total sales of more than US$3.5 billion. It's important to note that these are estimates from a private firm that reportedly reaches more than 80% of the market, as opposed to an independent study such as the one by e-bit or the CACE in Argentina. That said, PayU's results are in line with projections from the Cámara Colombiana de Comercio Electrónico (Colombian Chamber of E-Commerce), which has yet to issue a report for 2014 e-commerce activity for the country. According to PayU's results, the products that Colombians bought the most via e-commerce in 2014 were:
- Airline tickets and hotel reservations
- Coupons
- Electronic products
- Clothes and shoes
A 2013 study from The Cocktail Analysis identified differences in products between 3 groups they designated: sophisticated shoppers, advanced shoppers and entry point shoppers. However, when The Cocktail Analysis aggregated the results to show which products registered the most purchases relative to the total of all online shoppers in Colombia, the following products stood out:
- Electronics and computer products
- Travel products
- Clothes
- Telecommunications
- Leisure
As can be observed, these are similar results to those from PayU.
According to the Asociación Mexicana de Internet (The Mexican Internet Association or AMIPCI) e-commerce sales in Mexico totaled more than 150 billion pesos ($US9.6 billion) and increased by 24% compared to 2013. AMIPCI has not yet released its 2014 Mexico e-commerce report, so the list of hot e-commerce products for Mexico comes from the 2013 report:
- Plane or bus tickets
- Music and movies
- Computers
- Clothes
- Tickets to shows
- Hotel reservations
- Software
These results are fairly consistent with previous AMIPCI results on e-commerce in Mexico, suggesting that the hot e-commerce products in 2014 should not be that different.
While data for e-commerce sales in Uruguay doesn't seem to be readily available, a small 2014 study by Agencia de Gobierno Electrónico y Sociedad de la Information (Electronic Government Agency and Information Society or AGESIC) surveyed more than 1,000 e-commerce shoppers in Uruguay to find out what they most bought online:
- Clothes
- Electronics
- Hotel/restaurant reservations
- Cell phones and accessories
- Home furnishing
- Appliances
- Service payments
- PC accessories
- Tools
- Books
Contact us if you need help reaching Latin Americans in general or in specific markets with an online display campaign or a programmatic buying campaign.


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Free forum : Dedicated to the reproduction of detail in any scale
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text:
Everything You Need To Know About Time Management (Part 2)
Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We're not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.
This is the original version of a piece that has since been updated. See Stacey's latest series on GMAT time management.
In the first part of this series, we discussed time positions (positive, negative, and neutral) and addressed our first three major considerations for timing:
(1) understanding the scoring (and what implications that has for timing)
(2) per-question timing and tracking your work
(3) reflecting on your results so that you can improve
If you haven't already read the first part, do so now before you continue with this article. Today, we're going to talk about our final three major timing strategies.
(4) Develop Your 1-Minute Sense
While keeping a single-problem time log will help you become aware of your pacing on all question types, you can't check the clock after every problem on the real test. You'll drive yourself crazy before the test is over! What to do, then?
What we're going to do is develop a time sense so that we can make appropriate, timely decisions as we move through the test. Let's talk first about why and how we use this time sense; then, we'll talk about what we need to do in order to develop it.
Note: Most people find it takes three to four weeks of regular practice with this in order to develop a time sense that is reasonably accurate most of the time.
WHY are we developing a 1-minute sense?
One of the key timeframes on this test is the 1-minute mark on a question. For Quant, Critical Reasoning, and some Reading Comp questions, this represents the halfway point, and there are particular things that we need to have accomplished by that time in order to have a reasonable shot at finishing the question correctly in 2 minutes. For SC and some RC questions, the 1-minute mark represents the wrapping-up point—we should be close to done with the problem.
For two-minute questions (Quant, CR, and Except or Roman Numeral RC), we spend the first minute actively trying to get to the right answer. By the 1-minute mark, we need to be on track. This means that we need to know what we're doing, have a very good idea of what else needs to happen in the second minute, and have confidence that we're capable of doing that work. If we're not on track at the 1-minute mark, then we need to move from our best strategy (trying to find the right answer) to our second-best strategy (trying to find wrong answers). We spend up to 1 more minute eliminating wrong answers, then we guess and move on.
Note: when you're on track, there's no question in your mind. If I were to interrupt you on such a question and ask whether you were on track, you'd tell me, shhh, don't interrupt me! I know exactly what I'm doing! If, instead, you are thinking, Well, I know this part over here…I'm not totally sure where that's going, but with a little more time, I'm sure… or But I studied this! I should be able to do it! No. Stop. You are not on track.
For most other questions (SC and general or main idea RC questions), the 1-minute mark is almost the time's up mark. If you're getting that 1-minute feeling and you're not on track, guess from among the remaining answers and move on. (Do not spend time trying to figure out how to guess at this point—time's already up.)
Finally, for normal specific detail and inference RC questions (not Except or Roman Numeral), our expected timeframe is about 1.5 minutes. When you get that 1-minute feeling and aren't on track, start to eliminate more aggressively. You have a little time to decide what to eliminate, but you can't spend up to another minute on these.
HOW do we develop a 1-minute sense?
You need access to a stop watch (physical or electronic) that has lap timing capability. (Most electronic stopwatches will do this; only some physical stopwatches will.) When using lap timing, pushing the lap button will not stop the stopwatch; rather, it will mark the time at which you pushed the button, but the stopwatch itself will keep running. You can push the lap button multiple times, and the timer will record all of the times at which you pushed the button while continuing to run.
First, start with something non-GMAT-related that still engages your brain fully. Have to write up a report or memo for work, do some research, read a paper? Set up the stopwatch/program and cover the part that shows the timer so that you can't see what it says. Start working, but push the button every time you think one minute has passed until you've pushed it ten times. Then check your data.
Anything between 45 seconds and 1 minute 15 seconds is great. Anything faster than 30 seconds or slower than 1 minute 30 seconds is too fast or too slow. Note your tendencies and, later on this afternoon, adjust accordingly when you do this again.
Now, try this out with actual GMAT problems. Set yourself up with a set of 5 Quant or CR practice problems. (It's best to practice this with 2-minute questions to start.) Start your timer and cover it up again. Dive into the first problem; when you think it's been about a minute since you began, push that lap button. When you're done with the problem, push the lap button again. Start your second problem; when you think it's been about a minute since you began, push that lap button. When you're done, push the button again. Keep repeating this process until you're done with your set. (Note: if you're done with the question before you think the first minute has passed, check your work. If you were really that fast, you have the time to check, right? Make sure you didn't make a careless mistake simply due to speed. While checking your work, remember to push that button when you think it has been a minute since you started in the first place.)
As you progress in your studies, you can start to set up longer sets of questions, 8, 10, 12, 15.
Early on, you can also download what's called an interval training program—this is a stopwatch that beeps at you when a certain interval has passed. You can set the interval to 1 minute, for example, and it will beep at you every minute. You've just set up your own Pavlov's Dogs experiment with you as the dog (though we'll skip the salivating, thanks). ? If you find yourself really struggling with the previous exercises, during which you have to decide when to push the button, try this interval training exercise so that you get used to being prompted when it has been one minute. (Just don't get dependent on this, since you can't do this during the real test. After a couple of weeks, you've got to wean yourself off of the interval timer.)
Once your time sense is relatively reliable, you'll be effective in implementing your am I on track? and if not, I'm moving on, or I'm moving to guessing strategy. This also requires you to know how to make good educated guesses, of course. Check out these two articles for help: Educated Guessing on Quant and Educated Guessing on Verbal.
(5) Transition to Benchmarks
You probably noted that our timing is still a bit loose above; we might finish one 2-minute question in only 1.5 minutes, and another in 2.5 minutes. That's fine, as long as we are generally spending long enough (at least 1 minute) to minimize careless mistakes and yet not too long (more than 2.5 minutes), which could cost us other questions in the section
On a full test or test section, it's best to monitor time using Benchmarks. There are several ways to do this; try these out and use the one that works best for you.
Method 1: Checking the clock at certain times to see whether you're on the right question (all question ranges assume +/- 1 question; that is, you're on track if you're within 1 question of the expected range):
|Time Left
|Math"Near Question
|Verbal"Near Question
|75 minutes
|60 minutes
|45 minutes
|30 minutes
|15 minutes
Method 2: Checking the question number at certain points to see whether you've used the right amount of time (all times assume +/- 2 minutes; that is, you're on track if you're within 2 minutes on either side); Note: check after finishing the listed question:
|Q Number (after finishing)
|Math"Time Left
|Verbal"Time Left
|55 minutes
|56 minutes
|35 minutes
|37 minutes
|15 minutes
|19 minutes
Method 3 (Quant only): Doing a little math to calculate your position. Here's how it works: Glance at the question number. Multiply that number by 2. Subtract the resulting number from 75. Now look at the clock. Are you within 2 minutes of that number?
For example, I'm on question 11. Multiplying by 2 gives me 22. 75 – 22 = 53. If the timer says 51 to 55 minutes left, I'm okay; if the timer is outside of that range, I'm going too quickly or too slowly.
For Integrated Reasoning, we're going to use the first two methods in general as shown above, but the details are different enough that this section gets its own pair of tables.
Integrated Reasoning Method #1: Check based on time. You can check either once or twice, your choice. If you're within 1 question of the question number listed, you're on track.
|Time left
|You've finished Q#
|Check Once
|15 minutes
|Check Twice
|20 minutes10 minutes
Integrated Reasoning Method #2: Check based on question #. Again, you can check either once or twice, your choice. If you're within a couple of minutes of the timeframe listed, you're on track.
|You've finished Q#
|Time left
|Check Once
|15 minutes
|Check Twice
|20 minutes10 minutes
(6) Know How to Recover from Bad Timing
Okay, everything we've talked about so far has focused on what we do want to do. What do we do if things get off track? There are two levels to this: what to do immediately during an actual testing/timed situation, and what to do during your study afterward, before you take another test.
During a test
As soon as you notice a timing problem, you need to deal with it. Don't ignore it and assume it will get better later; most likely, it will only get worse.
If you discover that you are behind on time (you are moving too slowly), you are going to need to sacrifice something in order to get back on track; you don't have a choice about that. You do have a choice about what you sacrifice—and there are better and worse choices you can make. Do NOT sacrifice things you know how to do. Don't tell yourself that you'll do this question 30 seconds faster because you already know how to do it, so you can just speed up. You're risking a careless mistake on a question that you know how to get right, plus you're going to have to do that on several questions to make up the 3+ minutes that you're behind, so you're really giving yourself a chance to miss multiple questions that you know how to do.
Instead, the very next time you see a question that you know is a weakness of yours, skip it. Make an immediate, random guess and move on. There—you've only sacrificed one question, and it was a weakness anyway. Depending upon the question type and how quickly you moved on, you saved anywhere from a little under 1 minute to a little under 2.5 minutes. If that's enough to catch back up, great. If not, repeat this behavior until you are caught back up. Don't worry if you see two big weakness questions in a row. Maybe you got lucky and got that first one right. Maybe one is an experimental. Even if they both count, getting two wrong in a row won't kill your score—you can recover because you still have more questions to come—and you're not sure that you could've gotten them right anyway, because they were weaknesses.
What about going too quickly? In this case, you do need to slow down a bit, because you might be making careless mistakes simply due to speed. Make sure you're writing everything down. Check your work on the questions that you know you know how to do. (On the ones you absolutely don't know how to do, though, just go ahead and move on—you don't need to spend more time on those.) Use your 1-minute sense! If you're ready to move on before it's been about a minute (and you think you got it right), now would be a great time to check your work.
After the test
Okay, the test is over, and you realize that you messed up the timing. Now what? Now you go all the way back to the beginning of this article and start practicing all of the things we discussed until you're better able to balance your timing throughout a test section (and note that this can take weeks and even months, depending upon how severe your timing problems are and whether they are also related to holes in your content knowledge and skills).
That was a lot of information. Here's a summary of our major tasks:
(1) Understand how the scoring works
(2) Know your per-question time constraints and track your work
(3) Reflect on your results
(4) Develop your 1 minute sense
(5) Transition to Benchmarks
(6) Know how to recover from bad timing
Now go get started! ?
Can't get enough of Stacey's GMAT expertise? Attend the first session of one of her upcoming GMAT courses absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.
Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. Check out Stacey's upcoming GMAT courses here.
GREAT JOB, STACEY! I love your articles so much that I shared it with my GMAT friends and highly recommended them to read all these articles.
Hi, Rahul.
Our GMAT Forum is a better place to have your question answered. Please feel free to inquire there!
Manhattan Prep
Dear Stacey,
I wrote GMAT today and score 510, in Manhattan CAT series I used to get in 630+range. The entire verbal was messed up. When I compare with Manhattan CAT series Verbal, I found actual GMAT question far tougher than i used to come across in CAT series. I used to score around 30-32 in verbal in actual GMAT I scored way to low like 19. I am not able to evaluate what went wrong, may be time management or strategy issue. I took Manhattan CAT series in actual time conditions.
Thanks for your help
You can definitely post on our forums to get more personalized help (I answer all of the questons in the General Strategy folder). Just note that I won't look at your tests for you – you've got to learn how to read the data and analyze it for yourself. Use this article to help:
Then you can post your analysis (not just the raw data – what you think the data MEANS) and what you think you need to do about it and I'll tell you whether I agree with you. 🙂
Note that tutors will analyze tests for you during a tutoring session… but that's expensive (and we don't offer this kind of analysis for free because it takes about 45 minutes to analyze a test!).
By the way, first piece of advice: you already know you have time management issues. You've read the time management article. Start doing what it says! Good luck!
Hello Stacey, I read your articles whenever I can and I find them very insightful and practical. I've had issues with timing on the gmat quant from the very beginning and I've been unable to beat it thus far. It's my biggest hindrance to reaching my target score at this point. I want to achieve a minimum of 49 on the quant but seem to be stuck at 46 primarily because of timing issues. I've been using MGMAT CAT's to practice and although i've been stuck at a 45/46 I've actually been improving (on my last attempt I was at 98% percentile at #30 of 37 but guessed the last 7 and got them all wrong) in tackling the 700+ questions but my time management errors always erase any gains I make.
I don't know if you will be able to help, but I was hoping you could take a look at my MGMAT tests or so to pinpoint exactly what I need to do strategy wise to achieve my goal. It may be that last piece of advice I need to turn things around for me with this issue.
Thank you for the articles you share. I look forward to your next post. 🙂
Username: daniel ibeto
Nice job on the pic
hotels in Philadelphia
OK, thank you very much. Luckily, I have time to prepare a different strategy then.
This is a myth – the earlier questions are NOT worth more and the later questions do not have less impact on your score! So, yes that is a bad strategy. 🙂
Hi Stacey, I love your series of articles, they really helped me a lot.
I am a little bit more than two weeks away from G-Day, I am starting to plan my timing strategy for the test. Is it a bad strategy in the Quant section to use more time in the first 10/20 questions that are the ones that really defined the score and leave the skipping and educated guessing for the last questions when the damage or impact in the score is less hurtful?
Thank you very much
Yes, whichever strategy works best for you. You may need to try them out before you figure out which is easiest / most natural for you.
If you are 2 to 3+ minutes behind, your strategy is to guess immediately and randomly (in 10-15 seconds) on the next question you see that you know is a harder category for you. Of course, you might get unlucky and skip something that you could have done if you'd had time… but the point is that you don't have time. You're sacrificing something. 🙂
Ideally, you don't put yourself in this position at all. But if you do get into this position, then you need to try to "save" yourself, and that means making a sacrifice (possibly multiple). Note that it's okay to be a couple of minutes behind – you don't need to be exactly on time.
Also, as soon as you notice a problem, take action. If you do that, hopefully that will also mean that you don't need to guess on more than 1 or 2 questions.
It's further up on this same page. 🙂 You can only do it in the quant section. Look in Section 5 above (Transition), Method 3 (for quant only).
Great article Stacey!!
So do I follow the same strategy to be on time all the time. I am fine with following method 2 as indicated by you.
So suppose I am 2 questions behind (eg Q 25) in verbal and I have to come back on track. Will my strategy be to skip one question after attempting 2 questions till I am back on track.
The problem I have in this approach is aggravated in RC because I have to read the passage (max time) and skip a question which might turn out to be easier than thought sometimes.
If I skip all 3 question of a single passage then my score tanks down in the mocks due to adaptive marking.
Dear Stacey,
I totally love your series of articles on the Manhattan blog,you do a wonderful job of breaking down and explaining concepts.
Actually I happened to read a post from you on the timing strategy for the quant section wherein you suggested a process which went something like one could subtract the number 11 or 22 and arrive at the estimated time left on the section.
I seem to have missed bookmarking that page and now I can't find it.Could you please help me out?
For CR, first read this:
That article sets up the general process for ANY reading comp question. Then, you need to learn (a) how to recognize a specific problem type, (b) what to expect from that type, (c) what kinds of characteristcs are found in the right answer, and (d) what kinds of characteristics are found in trap answers.
Here are articles on the four main CR types:
You can find more on both of these topics by searching our blog!
The first thing is to figure out what's slowing you down. Are you taking too much time on the initial read-through of the passage or argument? Are you struggling to figure out what the question stem is asking or, in the case of RC, which paragraph to use in order to answer the question? Are you spending a lot of time going back and forth among the answer choices?
For the RC read-through, you need to train yourself on what to read and what NOT to read.
For the specific questions, you need to know how to recognize them and what you're supposed to be doing for each one, in terms of both finding the info in the passage and assessing the answers:
Beautiful. Awesome article Stacey.Any specific suggestion you might have on improving timing on RC and CR would immensely help.
Thanks again!


text:
Does not include players previously on practice squad, the "physically unable to perform" list or injured reserve:
Arizona Cardinals:
87 Jeff King, TE, Virginia Tech (Pulaski High): Started; targeted 6 times; 3 catches for 10 yards.
82 Mike Leach, LS, William and Mary: Reserve; did long snapping.
51 Paris Lenon, LB, Richmond: Started; 4 tackles; 1 QB hit.
28 Greg Toler, DB, St. Paul's College: Reserve; no stats.
Atlanta Falcons:
90 Lawrence Sidbury, DL, Richmond: Reserve; no stats.
44 Jason Snelling, RB, U.Va. (L.C. Bird High): Reserve; 3 carries for 8 yards; targeted twice; 2 catches for 25 yards.
Baltimore Ravens:6 Tyrod Taylor, QB, Va. Tech (Hampton High): Reserve; 9 carries for 65 yards, including 1-yard touchdown; sacked 3 times for 30 yards in losses; 15-of-25 for 149 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT (returned for TD); 60.2 passer rating.
D.J. Bryant, LB, James Madison: Added to practice squad Dec. 24.
Buffalo Bills:
42 Justin Rogers, DB, Richmond: Reserve; 1 kickoff return for 27 yards; 1 fair catch of a punt.
Carolina Panthers:
50 James Anderson, LB, Va. Tech (Deep Creek High): Not active.
Chicago Bears:
93 Nate Collins, DT, U.Va.: Not active.
Cincinnati Bengals:
30 Cedric Peerman, RB, U.Va. (William Campbell High): Started; 5 carries for 14 yards; 1 tackle (on kickoff).
33 Chris Crocker, DB, Marshall (Deep Creek High): Started at SS; 1 tackle; left with injury late in first quarter.
Dallas Cowboys:95 Sean Lissemore, DL, William and Mary: Started at NT; 5 tackles.
85 Kevin Ogletree, WR, U.Va.: Reserve; targeted 4 times; 2 catches for 25 yards, including 10-yard TD; 1 tackle (after INT).
89 John Phillips, TE, U.Va.: Started; 1 kickoff return for 20 yards; 2 tackles (1 on kickoff, 1 on punt).
Detroit Lions:
32 Don Carey, S, Norfolk State (Booker T. Washington High): Started; 7 tackles (2 on kickoffs); penalized 3 yards for pass interference.
52 Justin Durant, LB, Hampton U.: Started; 6 tackles (1 for loss).
Green Bay Packers:
11 Jarrett Boykin, WR, Va. Tech: Reserve; targeted once; 1 catch for 7 yards.
Houston Texans:
76 Duane Brown, OT, Va. Tech (Hermitage High): Started; no stats.
20 Rashad "Roc" Carmichael, DB, Va. Tech: Reserve; 1 tackle (on opening kickoff).
17 Shayne Graham, K, Va. Tech (Pulaski High): Reserve; made 1 PAT and field goals of 51, 37 and 37 yards; missed wide right from 52; kickoffs of 68, 73, 55, 66 and 66 yards.
8 Matt Schaub, QB, U.Va.: Started; 2 carries for minus-1 yard; 24-for-36 for 275 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs, 66.3 passer rating; sacked 4 times for 25 yards in losses.
Indianapolis Colts:
41 Antoine Bethea, FS, Howard (Denbigh High): Started; 6 tackles.
53 Kavell Conner, LB, Clemson (Manchester High): Did not play.
Jacksonville Jaguars:
12 Mike Brown, WR, Liberty U. (Monticello High): Started; targeted once; no catches.
21 Derek Cox, DB, William and Mary: Started; 5 tackles; penalized 5 yards for illegal contact.
23 Rashad Jennings, RB, Liberty U.: Placed on injured reserve Dec. 24.
75 Eugene Monroe, OT, U.Va.: Started; no stats.
67 Austin Pasztor, OL, U.Va.: Started at LG; penalized 5 yards for false start.43 Jonathan Grimes, RB, William and Mary: Did not play.
Kansas City Chiefs:
76 Branden Albert, OT, U.Va.: Not active.
24 Brandon Flowers, DB, Va. Tech: Started; 3 tackles; defended 2 passes; recovered 1 fumble and returned it 64 yards.
New England Patriots:
48 Danny Aiken, LS, U.Va.: Reserve; did long snapping.
51 Jerod Mayo, LB, Tennessee (Kecoughtan High): Started; 5 tackles; defended 1 pass.
New Orleans Saints:
74 Jermon Bushrod, OT, Towson (King George High): Started; no stats.
New York Giants:
44 Ahmad Bradshaw, RB, Marshall (Graham High): Reserve; 16 carries for 107 yards, including 1-yard TD; targeted twice; 1 catch for 41 yards.
99 Chris Canty, DE/DT, U.Va.: Not active.
98 Adrian Tracy, DE, William and Mary (Potomac Falls High): Reserve; no stats.
34 David Wilson, RB, Va. Tech (George Washington High of Danville): Started; 15 carries for 75 yards; targeted once; 1 catch for 15-yard TD; 1 kickoff return for 29 yards.
New York Jets:
93 Kenrick Ellis, DT, Hampton U.: Reserve; 3 tackles.
60 D'Brickashaw Ferguson, OT, U.Va.: Started; committed holding penalty that was declined.
Philadelphia Eagles:56 Akeem Jordan, LB, James Madison (Harrisonburg High): Started; 6 tackles (1 for loss).
55 Darryl Tapp, DE, Va. Tech (Deep Creek High): Did not play.
7 Michael Vick, QB, Va. Tech (Ferguson, then Warwick High): Started; 5 carries for 25 yards; 19-for-35 for 197 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 68.4 passer rating; sacked once for 4-yard loss; fumbled once but recovered; 1 tackle (after being intercepted).
Pittsburgh Steelers:
80 Plaxico Burress, WR, Michigan State (Green Run High): Started; targeted 3 times; 2 catches for 24 yards, including 12-yard TD.
83 Heath Miller, TE, U.Va. (Honaker High): Placed on injured reserve.
93 Jason Worilds, LB, Va. Tech: Reserve; no stats.
San Diego Chargers:
11 Eddie Royal, WR/PR, Va. Tech (Westfield High): Started; targeted 6 times; 4 catches for 61 yards.
9 Nick Novak, PK, Maryland (Albemarle High): Reserve; made 3 PATs and a 30-yard field goal without a miss; kickoffs of 66, 68, 65, 69 and 67 yards (2 touchbacks).
San Francisco 49ers:
55 Ahmad Brooks, LB, U.Va. (Hylton High): Started; 3 tackles, 2 for losses (including 1 sack for a 9-yard loss); 2 QB hits.
Seattle Seahawks:
31 Kam Chancellor, DB, Va. Tech (Maury High): Started at SS; 8 tackles (1 on kickoff); illegally touched an onside kick.
26 Michael Robinson, RB, Penn State (Varina High): Reserve; targeted 3 times; 3 catches for 33 yards, including a 10-yard TD.
3 Russell Wilson, QB, Wisconsin, N.C. State (Collegiate School of Richmond): Started; 10 carries for 58 yards, including a 1-yard TD; 15-of-19 for 250 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs, 136.3 passer rating; sacked 6 times for 41 yards in losses; fumbled once but recovered.
St. Louis Rams:
71 Matt Conrath, DT, U.Va.: Not active.
98 Kendall Langford, DL, Hampton U. (Petersburg High): Started at DT; 2 tackles; committed offside penalty on touchdown (declined).
91 Chris Long, DE, U.Va. (St. Anne's-Belfield): Started; 5 tackles, including 3 sacks for 26 yards in losses; 3 QB hits; penalized 15 yards for unnecessary roughness.
38 Rodney McLeod, S, U.Va.: Reserve; no stats.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers:
20 Ronde Barber, DB, U.Va. (Cave Spring High): Started at FS; 4 tackles; penalized 5 yards for holding.
Tennessee Titans:
58 Xavier Adibi, LB, Va. Tech (Phoebus High): Reserve; 2 tackles (both on kickoffs).
Washington Redskins:
92 Chris Baker, DL, Hampton U.: Reserve; 1 tackle.
23 DeAngelo Hall, DB, Va. Tech (Deep Creek High): Started; 3 tackles; defended 3 passes; 1 punt return for 0 yards (muffed ball but recovered).
63 Will Montgomery, C, Va. Tech (Centreville High): Started; no stats.
15 Josh Morgan, WR, Va. Tech: Started; targeted 4 times; no catches.
22 Evan Royster, RB, Penn State (Westfield High): Reserve; 2 carries for 9 yards; 1 kickoff return for 17 yards.


text:
|Sokaku Takeda
Now, I have been keep making useless rants so I will get back to my initial intention and write something serious.
Now, our renowned Daito-ryu aikijujitu has seven unresolved enigma. So let me name this "Seven Wonders of Daitoryu. It is even better than Seven Wonders of the World!!
Wonder 1 - Who is the real founder?
Wonder 2 - How Aiki was created?
Wonder 3 - What was the entire system like?
Wonder 4 - Why the content of Transmision book do not match the actual transmission/demonstration?
Wonder 5 - Where has the vast instruction fees has disappeared to?
Wonder 6 - How good was Soukaku, really?
Wonder 7 - Who was the real successor?
Wonder 1 - Who is the real founder?
As everyone know, any Daitoryu related writing would grandly state that "Daitoryu was founded by Shinra Saburou Minamoto Yoshimitu, Transimitted by Takeda Family of Kai to Aizu Han (Clan), preserved as secret palace arts (Oshikiuchi) by high ranking samurai, and revealed to the world by Takeda Sokaku". However, as a definite historical fact, evidence of Oshikiuchi being practiced in Aizu feudal province is nonexistence. As far as historical investigation goes, To deny something which has existed is difficult but, in reverse, to state the existence of something which didn't exist can be done infinitely. There are even some people who fabricate entire Transmission Scroll. Aren't these people really desparate for credibility, are they? I can't understand this kind of thinking.
Firstly, the issue of whether Daitoryu had existed before Takeda Sokaku, at this present point, the possibility of existence is close to zero. Styles which had been practiced in Aizu Feudal Province at the time of Bakumatu (The End of Shogunate) has been made public by detailed research of Mr Ken Takahash and name of Daitoryu or Oshikiuchi is nowhere to be seen. But it is probable that style which became the basis of Daitoryu has existed. Shihan Kinbei Satou of Daiwodo, while he was alive, has proposed hypothesis that Asayama Ichiden ryu became the basis of Daitoryu, and certainly, gyaku-waza have parts which is similar, so this hypothesis has some validity.
Those Takeda Sokaku studied under, if one list in order of learning, are Soukichi Takeda the father (Staff, Sumo), Souemon Takeda, the grandfather (Jujitu), Dengoro Kurokouch (experts in various styles), Touma Shibutani (Onoha Itto Ryu), Kenkichi Sakakibara (Jiki Shinkage ryu), Shyunzou Momoi (Kagami Shinmeich Ryu), Gonemon Sakai (Honshin Kyouchi ryu Kensou Jutu ), and Tanomo Saigou (Rename himself to Chikatoku Hoshina after restoration, Mizoguchi ha Itto ryu, others unknown). Now, the jujitu taught by grandfather is not known. After quite while, when Sokaku started to live in Hokkaido, Rinzou Itabashi, a old fried from the same province came to visit, saw Soukaku's aiki techniques and said, "It's different from Yawara you have been doing previously", Sokaku is said to have replied "this I learned from Hoshina-san (Chikatoku Hoshina)". Presumably, "Yawara you have been doing" my refer to the Jujitu taught by his grandfather. And, it may be possible that he has learned some sort of jujitu from Dengoro Kurokouchi. If that is the case, to think it simply, it follows that these jujitu style ought to be regarded as separate from current Daitoryu and "Techniques/Skills taught by Hoshina" is what is regarded as Daitoryu. Unfortunately, it is actually far more subtle matter.
First, the time previously mentioned person of Rinzou Itabashi visited was 1915 and at this year people like Koutarou Yoshida or Morihei Ueshiba entered the gate of the school. And in previous year, Munenori Kougi Sakawa (at the time 12 years old) entered the gate, and to judge from the techniques of these people, it seems that Sokaku has stopped teaching the techniques in accordance with the Transmission Scroll. If techniques seen by Mr Sakabashi are such, It cannot be the case that said "Technique taught by Hoshina" = Daitoryu. If techniques written in Transmission Scroll is not the one taught by Chikatoku Hoshina, Daitoryu cannot be discussed with chikatoku Hoshina alone.
On the side note, Munenori Sakawa proposed rather more appropriate theory by saying "I think, in actuarity, Takeda Sensei made it (Daitoryu). If you see the photograph of Tanomo Saigou, one can't possible think he done aiki. Those who trained and those who didn't show difference even in the way they sit. May be learned few kata but still I think Takeda Sensei invented it. Something this difficult cannot possibly be transmitted from the past." . The reason why this theory is the most appropriate, to explain it in order, firstly, it seems that Daitoryu had not been established as a style at the time of Soukaku. Now to explain what does it meant to be established as a style, as far as Japan is concerned, at first, this means that kata containing the tactics and strategy of battlefield skills had to be complied as teaching method. On the other hand, in case of Sokaku, he only taught the sequence of techniques. Kata in Koryu start from Reihou (sequence of paying respect), approach each other from a far, apply a technique as they enter maai (distance), and end with Zanshin so initial Reihou to final Zanshi complise the complete kata set. In fact, in kata, the movement before the application of technique is more important because with this one train the feeling of maai and/or metuke (eyeing) and such, but the content Soukaku taught lack this part for some reason. (At least, Daitoryu not having Reihou or Shitugyou {Translator, or Shitukou} is definite due to the testimony of Munenori Sakawa). Current mode of demonstration kata are created later.
Plus, jujitu which has been transmitted to Meiji Era though Edo period, always transmit teaching of Ogusoku (or Kogaisoku, Translator). This is reminant of Armoured grappling but Daitoryu completely lack the idea of Ogusoku. Even those style which was created during Meiji Era, such as Shin Kage ryu Jujitu still kept kata containing the transmission of battlefield skills and is quite obvious that it has succeded the Ogusoku teaching of Tenshin Shinyou ryu. However, not only Daitoryu completely lack this, it even has technique such as Shinou Nage which goes against the technical logic of Ogusoku. Now, you are not going to tell me that Shomenuchi (Frontal chop) presuppose frontal katana strike and atemi (strike) to side rib means strike between the crevice of amour so it is Ogusoku, are you? The basis of Ogusoku and Armoured grappling is Wakizashi (short sword/Long knife) combat. (This is common sence of Kobudou). To add side note, "Te toki", a technique to free the hand which has been gripped come from the Ogusoku concept (as originally it was technique to free the gripped Wakizashi hand/wrist then cut). But in technique of Ryote tori (Both hand being gripped) in Daitoryu is completely different concept and it somehow more natural to consider it as to transferring the skill of central breakthrough when you have sword. (I will explain this further in latter part).
To add one more, at the time Sokaku was teaching, technique had no name. Sokaku was illiterate so he had great difficulty reading and writing and all the Transmission Scroll was done by an amanuensis. Then what did this person(s) who wrote it for Sokaku copied from? If Soukaku received Daitoryu from Kintoku Hoshina, then as a matter of course, writing mode and content of the Transmission Book had to be based on the Transmission book given by Kintoku Hoshina but it is difficult to think this way. Rather it is more natural to think that it was oral dictation of Sokaku. To say further, it is said that Sokaku wrote Daitoryu in kanji then made it to be read as "Yamato-ryu" but at about 1915, following the advice of Kotaro Yoshida, he made it to be read as Daitoryu, and this is another evidece of not being established as a style.
Another matter which is mysterious in Daitoryu's Transmission scroll is its line of lineage. Line of lineage listed at the end of the Transmission scroll shows, Emperor Seiwa - Prince Sadasumi - Minamot Tunemoto - Mitunaka - Yorinobu - Yoriyoshi - Yoshimitu (Shinra Saburou) - Takeda Yoshikiyo - Nobuyoshi - (10 generations) Nobumitu - Nobuyoshi - Kunitugu - (10th generation decendants) - Takeda Souuemon - Takeda Sokaku but then where the number 36th line of succession claimed by previous Soke Tokimune come from? For example, in "Encycropedia of Bugei ryu" , from Takeda Nobumitu to Nobutuna, seven generations are abbreviated, and from Takeda Nobushige, three generations are abbreviated, from there, the name Takeda Nobutora - Ohigashi (read as Daitou) Hisanosuke are added to reach Kunitugu, from Kunitugu to Gonzaemon, then abbreviation of 12 generation to connect to Takeda Souumemon. If you add all of this, it is actually 36th generations so it's all makes sence, does it? Hey hey, wait a minute. If that is the case, it doesn't match the previously listed line of lineage in the transmission scroll. Plus, the name Ohigashi Hisanosuke appeared after Showa era (1925-1989) and the validity as to whether this person really existed is greatly suspect. It is quite obvious that line of lineage in the transmission scroll has been borrowed by Soukaku from his own family line of lineage, i.e. from Seiwa Genji through Takeda clan of Kai to his generation. The reason for the absence of Saigou Tanomo's or Hoshina Kintoku's names seem to be this.
In turn, theory was proposed that Daitoryu was actually transmitted from Sokaku's grandfather Souuemon, then adding Oshikiuchi which was taught by Hoshina Kintoku, Soukaku newly changed Daitoryu Jujitu to Daitoryu Aiki Jiujitu. But this theory is not right either. Because if this is true, why the lineage list left by Sokaku lack any writing of his grandfather? For the record, I was allowed to check the lineage list, all preserved in the house of current Soke, Takeda Masanobu Shihan, but in start, it say monjin (inside gate student) of Onoha Itto ryu Shibuya Touma, Takeda Sokaku and there is nothing written about anything before that. As far as it can be seen from this, it only show that Sokaku received Transmission Licence (Menkyo) of Onoha Itto ryu from Shibuya Touma, another licence from Hoshina Kintoku. Then, it turn out that only lincence (menkyo) Soukaku obtained is from two of Shibuya Touma and Hoshina Kintoku. In such case, this will completely contradict the previously listed lineage line in the transmission scroll.
Then, what did Sokaku learned from Hoshina Kintoku? The note left by previous Soke Tokimune contains writing of Kumitachi (Translator, Kumi-Cross Tachi-Sword, don't know what that mean) but this is definitely taught by Hoshina Kintoku. And it may be possible that he learnt jujutu technique which became the basis of inspiration for Daitoryu. On the other hand, techniques such as Shihou Nage or Yonkajyou cannot be seen in other styles. Then big question is how these thing came about. For this, I will write in other article. Anyway, it is quite safe to consider the actual founder to be Takeda Sokaku.
Wonder 2. How Aiki was born?
In other article, I have written that Aiki is Kenjutu concept which was applied to Taijutu. But this conclusion comes from analysing aiki itself afterward. So the question is how Sokaku created Aiki as a technique. How did he manage to transfer the concept of sword work into art of unarmed combat?
The key to this secret is in the structure of aiki, especially in the most basic aiki-age-ryote tori in zaho. I have explained that this technique is to attack neck while both of your hand being restrained. In this technique in fact the same principle as the principle of Sankakuku (or Tenshin seiden) in sword style such as Mutoryu are at work. Sankakuku (Triangle) point to you eyes, your opponent's throat and your tanden which form triangle lines. In Mutoryu, you must draw the line from tanden to throat by your sword. That is when you take stance of seigan, the bottom of sword is at the height of tanden, the tip of the sword is at the height of throat and you charge at your enemy by lining your eyes, tanden and the tip of the sword together. So if you switch the body of sword to opponent arm (i.e. the direction of attack), the tip of sword as the opponent throat, then technique get transformed to aikiage. In zaho, restrained hand is at the height of tanden, so you collapse the structure from tanden through arm to the throat, and metuke (eyeing) is basically at opponent's throat. That is basically same as thrusting the tip of the sword into the throat from the bottom, and the principle of stance is exactly same as Sankakuku of Muto-ryu. So the question is where did Sokaku learned the concept of Sankakuku? If Sankakuku was in Mutouryu, then it is probably safe to assume that the same concept existed in Ittoryu. For that matter, even in Hokushin Ittoryu, there is concept which correspond with Sankaku. In this style, in seigan stance, by placing the bottom of sword in front of tanden, it emphasise placing one's mind to tanden. In such case, one could speculate that Sokaku might have learned this from Shibuya Toma. Moreover, the basic stance of forward stance are probably obtained from Ittoryu as well.
At that period, Onoha ittoryu was spread around entire country and shinai (bamboo sword) had started to become large part of training. Even in Sokaku's sword exploit, there are many challenge match using shinai. So if Sokaku obtained Sankakuku and forward stance from Shibuya Toma in Youkikan dojo, within dojo, they probably maintained style much closer to older one.
On the other hand, teaching of Sankakuku does not exist in Onoha ittoryu of tugaru line. Seigan in Tugaru line of Onoha ittoryu, elbow is stretched forward without locked out and have deep hip stance and the tip of the sword are height of the eyes and the bottom of the sword is at the height of Suigetu. So it is very aggressive Seigan. So which of this seigan comes first? I personally was greatly troubled by this. And I haven't reached conclusion on this matter. But previously mentioned teaching of Sankakuku has common thread with Nenryu's teaching of Taichuken, plus if you slide the sword forward in the line of sword, it will naturally become seigan of Tugaru line of Onoha Ittoryu so I'm supposing that there was some form of transmission relating to Sankakku in the past.
So if the basic principle of aikiage is based on Sankakuku of Mutouryu, where that special body movement when you apply Aiki come from. To say the conclusion first, I think it come from staff training of Choku shinkage ryu. The reason for this is that the way one move body in aikiage is exactly same as the way you swing the staff, plus to apply aiki to anyone accurately require strength of hip and the purpose of staff training was to train not arm but to train hip and back. (If so, it is easy to see why Sakawa Souhan has swing iron bar every day). The staff exercise of Choku shinkage ryu was invented by Sakakibara Kenkichi and everyone who entered the school are forced to do this practice. At the time of Sakakibara Kenkichi's dojo, the core of training was staff exercise and jigeiko and the current training routine such as Houtei or Tou no Kata was not being practiced then. Sokaku was uchideshi (inside student) of Sakakibara Kenkichi for two years so he no doubt has practice staff every day. Even at old age, Sokaku had the strength of hip to lift big man, and this strength probably come from staff exercise.
Wonder 3. What was the entire content of Daitoryu system like?
Densho left by Sokaku are, Hiden Mokuroku, Aiki no Jutu, Hi Ogi, Kaishyaku Souden, Kaiden. But it is not like all of these densho was there from the beginning. When Sokaku first permitted Kyoju Dairi, there were only Hiden Mokuroku and Hiden Ogi. From there different densho has been added in time and eventually reach the current collection. As I stated previously, this is one of evidence that Daitoryu wasn't completely established as one whole system.
At current point, it is know that only Ueshiba Morihei Okina received Aiki-no-Jutsu. Only Hisa Takuma Shihan and Toneyakata Masao Shihan received Kaiden. If you take this at face value, since only these two has received kaiden, these two must know the entire content of Daitoryu system. (but this is also subtle matter. Hisa Shihan received Kaiden and Hiden Ogi without receiving Hiden Mokuroku). The reason that only Morihei Okina received Aiki no Jutsu is unknown but you could think it as sign that Morihei Okina was considered as really important prospective member. So would it be reading too much if I suppose that Hisa Shihan who had studied under Morihei Okina was taught something which wasn't even give to Morihei Okina, i.e. Kaiden techniques (or more like creating entire new technical collections). When Morihei Okina claimed his own style, it is said that Sokaku has gone berserk so this might explain why.
But anyway, more important fact is that, currently there is no one who has studied entire transmission of Daitoryu. Both Hisa Shinan and Toneyakata shinan who received Kaiden has not awarded Kaiden to anyone. Techniques are written in densho so if you learned all technique in Kaiden does it mean you have received Kaiden as in the sense that you have learned the entire content of the system? But this is not necessarily the case. Those 88 kajyo technique in Kaiden is the highest among densho but in actual transmission (Jituden) are these technique the highest or is there any other technique higher than these technique in actual transmission? Therefore, at current state, the content of Daitoryu's entire system are lost. It is possible to recover it partially from Densho but it is impossible to eliminate the personal interpretation of interpreter in such case so cannot be regarded as true authentic transmission.
At current point, all Daitoryu styles do not reveal the entire teaching curriculum. Actually, even among shihans, there are more people who do not know the entire content of their own system than people who do. Because the entire content of the system is lost, there are number of cases where all sort of personal interpretation and distortion get added to the system. (Opps)
Wonder 4. Why the contents of transmission writing (densho) do not match the actual transmission?
This is another difficult question. It is related to wonder three. Currently, there is no school which teach technique exactly according to actual densho given by Sokaku. This is another aspect of Daitory which is decisively different from other Kobudou. Strictly speaking, Okami Kaneyoshi sensei practice techniques in Soden 11 series exactly the same. But other than that, there are no one who practice technique according to the content of Hiden Mokuroku or Hiden Ogi.
To begin with, Soden 11 series is said to be compilation Morihei Ueshiba Okina's Akatukiryu jujutu and Sokaku's Daitoryu's technique being immediately photographed after the lesson. But there is a theory that majority of technique are in fact from Sokaku. As of myself, when I first time visited Okami Sensei, I was allowed to look into Soden 11 series and it included many rather complex and mysterious technique and these technique tend to concentrate in earlier part than later part, so it can be inferred that majority of technique come from Sokaku. Anyway, Soden 11 series is the only exact record of Sokaku's technique so it is reasonably to assume that Daitoryu's techniques was changing all the time and Sokaku's perspective has shifted through time. Therefore, it is likely that teaching was done according to densho in earlier period but later, the arts moved away slowly from the entire idea of kata/form and, on the other hand, perfection of technique through Aiki has been added. Sakawa Sohan testified that when he was learning, "Takeda sensei never taught through kata" so exact teaching was different from densho and the main teaching core was in aiki technique. Kaisyaku Soden was created after Showa. But because the technique and entire focus of arts has shifted while at the same time passing of Densho was according to the manner of previous writing, so this seems to have cause the difference between the content of densho and actual transmission in practice.
Moreover, if one read Hiden Mokuroku, contents of technique are usually not as different as other koryu jujitu. Plus, in Mokuroku, it is written not as Aiki Jujutu but as Daitoryu Jujitu so one could interpret this as the sign that Sokaku taught Aiki and Jujitu separately. In fact, Sato kanji Shihan who entered the school in Meiji 35 was told by Sokaku "I won't teach you Aiki but I will teach you Jujutu". What Sokaku really mean by that. Did he really consider jujutsu and aiki separate entity? I do not think so. It is rather difficult to think that fundamental principle differ from Sho Den to O den. Rather it is more reasonable to see it as technical change through period. That is Sokaku introduced limit to the teaching content of Shoden only AFTER he perfected and established Aiki as seprate skill.
Furthermore, technique commonly known as ikkajyo or nikajyo is not in densho. So this type of categorising technique probably was introduced relatively in later period. According to Yamamoto Ittosai sensei, Sokaku was calling the technique equivelant to ikkajyo as Itoretu, nikajyo as nitoretu. Anyway, since these things do not appear in Densho, it seems to be categorization invented for convenience. Currently, each shiden and shihan do not have the same categorization of ikkajyo and nikajyo. Some of it seems to even have influence from aikido or hakko ryu. To make the matter more interesting, the number of technique under this categorisation has gone up after the death of Sokaku and so I find it rather comical to think that you are at higher level of daitoryu if you know the technique with higher number. The reason such funny situation arise is primary because no one really know entire system of Daitoryu. (Opps, I shouldn't have said that.)
Wonder 5. Where that massive lesson fees has disappeared to?
This is really unsolvable. There are 20 plus people to receive Kyoju dairi. To receive Kyoju Dairi, initially you needed up to Hiden Ogi, then later you needed Hi Ogi as well. The lesson fee for Hi Ogi was several hundred yen. In current term, it is about several million yen (about several 10 thousand dollar). He futher demanded each student Kyoju dairi teach 3 yen (about 300 dollar) membership fee. So Sokaku must have received amount of money where he can play around for all he want. Moreover, for those two who received Kaiden, Sokaku took six thousand yen (600 thousand dollar) each for lesson fees. To begin with, why did Sokaku needed to take that kind of massive amount of money in the first place.
As of money, he asked massive amount of donation from Horikawa Suemichi Shihan. According to the story, Sokaku said "I'm going to built my own bronze statute so I need the building cost. If you do, I will give you Menkyo Kaiden" so Horikawa apparently paid it. So far, there is no story of Sokaku's bronze statue being built and the promises of Horikawa receiving Menkno Kaiden has just went nowhere. So what did Sokaku use money for which he collected by doing all these things? Some people joked that he spend it on drinking and whoring but at that period, it is impossible to spend several 10 million yen of money into such activities. In that case, did he invest money somewhere. In such case, there is possibility of massive secret treasure of Sokaku hidden somewhere in Japan.
Wonder 6. What is the real skill level of Sokaku?
How good Takeda Sokaku really was as budoka?. The art Sokaku was best at was sword so there are many story related to his sword exploit. One of it is Nihonmatu, incident. In earlier part of Meiji Era at the place called Nihonmatu in Fukushima Province, he fought against 30 builders with sword. He was injured but he managed to cut 8 to 9 people and escaped. So as far as sword goes, if he really managed to pull off something like that, he must have been rather exceptional swordman. Other than that, he competed in many challenge match and he seems to have near flawless record. When he fought against Shimoe Shyutaro know as japan's number one master of thrust (tsuki), sokaku quickly manage to hit grobe. After that the match was said to go into stalemate. So even in Shinai match (bamboo sword match, i.e. kendo), he was one of the best in Japan.
Then, how good was he in jujutu, i.e. unarmed combat. Unfortunately, record of Sokaku having challenge match with other budoka in unarmed combat is very little. As far as known, one story of him winning against Okinawan karateka in Kyushu and another one at frail age of 80 where he fought against middle aged judo shihan who Sokaku threw away flying. Within Lineage list, there are name of Judo and jujitsu shihan so Sokaku may have fought against these judoka and defeated them before them entering Daitoryu. But compare to his sword exploit, there are very little. Even about the match with karateka, authencity of the story is quite suspect and even if the story is true, we don't know the skill level of this karateka so you can't judge Sokaku's skill in unarmed combat from this. Plus, Sokaku was active from Meiji to early Showa period and at that time, Karate wasn't that common so it is unlikely to think that Sokaku prepared himself for striking tactic of karate. At that time, general strategy of unarmed fight involved throwing after grappling or punching after grappling so that is the situtation jujutu technique were aiming at.
Moreover, there is a theory of Sokaku travelling Okinawa according to "Sokaku ryurou" by Imano so in that case, it is not far off to assume some connection to karate. But if such is the case, there should be some influence of karate if not in the attack technique but at least in defence against karate type strategy such as frontal kick. But, after his supposed trip to Okinawa, Daitoryu's presumed defence strategy only added ushiro ryote tori, Kata tori and yokomenuchi to toguchi of koryu. So even though there are change/addition to technique, there is no indication of karate influence. (As of yokomenuchi, it is quite obvious that it took inspiration from sword work. This can be seen from how the response to yokomenuchi works.) That is why I said match with karateka in Kyushu is rather dubious.
In conclusion, there is no doubt that Sokaku was exceptional swordman but his skill in unarmed combat is unknow.
Just to add to this, the previously mentioned book, "Sokaku ryurou", it state that some judoka choked Sokaku, but in the said book there are too much unrealistic martial arts myth/bravado stories so this story too is dubious.
Wonder 7. Who was the true successor?
The Last wonder. Who was the person Sokaku wished to be the successor?
Before discussing anything, there is issue about whether Sokaku really was thinking about passing his arts to be properly passed on as style (ryuha). Was he thinking in term of sole successor which is not uncommon in Koryu Budo. Personally, I don't think Sokaku was thinking in that term. This is because Daitory never really been established as style and sort of developed and perfected by Sokaku way up to his later part of his life.
As previously stated, Sokaku produced 20 plus Kyoju Dairi, two Kaiden and he gave Yamamoto Ittosai sensei (Kyouju Dairi) the title "Soushu" and a sword and a Purple Emblem. It seems that just like his technique has changed, he didn't really maintain consistent idea about successor.
Probably, Sokaku's idea was not sole-successor-system but more like licencing system. That is those who received Kyouju dairy are responsible for instructing those follow aiki path and he probably didn't have intention to pass on his arts to only one person.
So the debate about who is the true sucessor or who got the true transmission is rather pointless. As long as one can trace his or her learning to Sokaku, everyone is true sucessor whose aiki expression differ with their personal interpretation. That is my view.
Here it's end. I stressed that it's my *personal* opinion. I'm not claiming I'm 100% right da most correct man in the whole universe. Just think it as someone raising interesting topics for the future discussion.


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Archive for December 1st, 2010
Carnival of Genealogy – The J. H. Stocking Bible
by Sherry Stocking Kline
December 1, 2010
It was really hard to decide what to write about, one of our one-of-a-kind family 'characters' or a one-of-a-kind family heirloom. But sorting through the ever increasing number of digital photographs and scanned pictures on my hard drive, I saw the snapshot that I took of "THE" family Bible.
On the front, it says "Holy Bible" and then inscribed below that "Mr. & Mrs. J. H. Stocking".
Was it a Wedding Gift?
And until I wrote the words above, I hadn't stopped to wonder at the circumstances that led to the purchase of the Bible. Was it a wedding gift from one of their parents? Did they purchase it themselves? Which Mrs. J. H. Stocking does the inscription pertain to?
Whatever the circumstances were, the Bible was thumbed through, and the births, marriages, and deaths were added, one by one, in different colors ink, in different hands, down through time.
John Hurlburt Stocking was born in Sullivan Twp, Madison Co., N.Y., on 15, July 1821. He married Betsy Jane Ames, who was born on 10 Jun 1820, in West Chenanco, Chenango Park, N.Y..
Betsy died on 15 Oct 1856 at the age of 36, just ten days after giving birth to her second son, Bishop Ames. Bishop died not long after his mother, leaving John a young widower with a three-year-old son, my great-grandfather, Roderick Remine Stocking.
J. H. married Caroline Gates in 1860. J. H. died on 14 Oct 1894, in Illinois, and I was fortunate to locate a small town history that stated that he was visiting friends in Illinois when he fell down the stairs and died so I hope to be able to verify that with a newspaper article or obituary at some future date.
The J. H. Stocking Family Bible was handed down from John Hurlburt to his son, Roderick Remine, and Roderick gave it to his son, John Lester and his wife Velma. Velma was very interested in family history. John and Velma had no children, so after John's death, Great-Aunt Velma gave the Bible to my uncle, a son of Elmer L. and Maud (McGinnis) Stocking, and he was kind enough to loan me the Bible so that I might look through it and snap a few photographs, for which I am very grateful. (The Bible was too frail to put on a photocopy machine, or my scanner.)
Adding One More Thing to My Bucket List…
Looking at the pages in this treasured family heirloom reminds me that I have not filled out the family tree pages in my own Bibles, so that is one more thing I need to add to my "Family History Bucket List," and I am well equipped with the acid-free pens that would be safest to use, and that would (should) last the longest with the least fading.