Start a Hapkido Online Club!

A great way to lean Hapkido is to start a club. It's impossible to learn Hapkido alone, you may as well make it a group event. The neat thing about this is you have a willing group of uke's to work with. When a member makes it to black belt they can transition the club to a fully fledged Hapkido School and begin teaching their own students.

The rules to your individual club are entirely up to you, it's your club.

1. Your club members do not necessarily have to be members of Hapkido Online or THA to practice Hapkido with you, however you can't test them for (Hapkido) Gup rank till you are at least a 1st Dan in Hapkido.

2. If you have club members that want to gain rank in Hapkido they will be have to be reviewed and tested by me or another one of the teachers at Hapkido Online such as Master Feathers (in the Digital Dojang). Of course any THA instructor can promote your club members as well (if your club members are members of THA).

3. In other words in order to be promoted, people have to join. Once they join they are exactly like any Hapkido Online member in that they are members and can train and test through Hapkido Online. In a club environment you can all work together to learn the content, it's a heck of a lot of fun and creates a pool of uke's.

4. You can charge your own club fees outside of Hapkido Online to your club members if you desire, that is none of my business.

5. Once you attain first dan your Hapkido Club can then transition to a fully fledged Hapkido School. Then you are your own school entity and will interface directly with GM Rodemaker regarding your THA affiliate school status. At that point you won't be working through Hapkido Online much anymore, though we can always use member schools.

6. These rules only apply to Hapkido Online and not necessarily to the Tactical Hapkido Alliance. Your membership and member school status to THA is above me and resides with GM Rodemaker.

Learn more at www.hapkido-online.com .

Aerospace: Curiosity on Mars

Well it looks like NASA has managed another modern technological feat.  They've landed a new unmanned rover dubbed 'Curiosity' on Mars.  As a rule I feel a little dispassionate about unmanned vehicles, I still long for the days of manned space exploration.  But I have to admit this latest mission was quite daring.

Earlier rovers arrived via combination of retro rockets, parachutes, and encased in a series of rubbery bubbles.  They bounced along the Martian surface like a beach ball.

Curiosity would arrive in a much more science-fictionally pleasing manner.

Curiosity rode in at high velocity.  She entered the Martian atmosphere with small puffs of guidance thrusters carefully keeping the heat shield facing the fury of friction induced burning.  When it had lost sufficient velocity the heat shield was set free.  The photo above was actually one of the first taken by the rover as it watched its own heat shield fall away.

Now the daring part the rover was lowered carefully to the surface tethered to a rocket pack.  The rockets were controlled enough to allow  'Curiosity' to gently kiss the Martian soil with its own six diminutive wheels.  Once the rover was safely on Martia Firma it cut the tether loose and the rocket pack roared away like a child's balloon set free.

Congratulations to the people of NASA for your successful landing and I hope Curiosity meets and exceeds it's two year mission parameters.

Source: www.nasa.gov