UFC is nothing new.....

Pankration is a martial arts sport introduced to the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC as a blend of wrestling and boxing. The term comes from the Ancient Greek literally meaning "all powers" (from pan = all, and kratos = strength or power). It is also used to describe the sport's contemporary variations. Some consider it as the first all-encompassing fighting system in human history. It is also arguable that Pankration competitions in antiquity were the closest an athletic event has come to outright, no-rules, empty hand combat.

In an odd turn of events, a Pankration fighter named Arrhichion of Phigalia won the event despite being dead. His opponent had locked him in a choke-hold and Arrhichion, desperate to loosen it, broke his opponent's toe (some records say his ankle). The opponent nearly passed out from pain and submitted. As the referee raised Arrhichion's hand, it was discovered that he had died from the choke-hold. His body was crowned with the olive wreath and taken back to Phigaleia as a hero.

That's some sexy, sexy fighting.

Now, 2657 years after the introduction in the Olympics (with help from cable television deals and expansion into Canada, Europe and the United States), the UFC as of 2009 has experienced a remarkable surge in popularity.

I remember back in 1993-1995 when UFC started, a few friends of mine were really into it. These were the guys with low self-esteem, scared kids who never were to enter a fight themselves. but as soon as a new tape (this was before DVD) came out, they sat on the couch with a semi-hard dick, watching Royce Gracie and the boys.

This human cock fighting will never be as hard or cruel as it was in the Olympics 648 BC and hopefully it will never be a Olympic sport again. Have you ever tried to watch Olympic Boxing?

Never, ever try to fight me.

I wonder who will be the first to win a match posthumously? And how many thousands of men and women will be in the arena in complete ecstasy when it happens, laughing, giving high fives and loving the carnage of the moment?

When in Rome, do as the Romans...did?

PEter

Straight, No Chaser with PEter the Swede:

A regular feature intended to cut through the front page bullshit and add a little flava' to the DoF's white northerner stew… ummm, courtesy of a translucent Scandinavian dude whose house practically kisses the Arctic Circle. Yeah, I know. We're working on it.

"Isaias Afwerki VS. Dawit Isaak"

Dawit Isaak is a journalist, a writer and a playwright. He was born October 27th 1964. Twenty nine years later, his country would be declared the state of Eritrea after a long and bloody war for liberation. He came to Sweden as a refugee from the war in 1987. He lived in Lerum, worked as a cleaner and became a Swedish citizen in 1992.

When Eritrea gained independence, Dawit returned to his native country. He got married and had children. Eventually he became a part-owner of the country's first independent newspaper, Setit, where he came to work as a reporter. But the country's independence proved fragile: in 1998, the conflict with Ethiopia unexpectedly flared up again, leading to a devastating border war. Dawit returned to Sweden, preparing to bring his family to safety. His wife and three children followed in April 2000. They settled down in Gothenburg. One year later, Dawit again travelled to Eritrea.

That spring, Asmara was boiling with political activity. The border war had caused an intense political debate. A group of fifteen cabinet members demanded, among other things, democratic reforms and a thorough, objective evalutation of the events leading to the war. In May, when the demands of the fifteen dissidents had not gained a hearing, they put their critique on the internet in an open letter to the PFDJ (People's Front for Democracy and Justice) which is the only legal political entity in Eritrea. The letter was published by the free press, along with analyses, comments and interviews with several of the fifteen politicians. Then, while the international community turned its gaze toward the ruins of World Trade Centre, the government stroke back against the reformists. Within a few days, eleven of the fifteen politicians were arrested, as were ten of the leading journalists from the free press. Including Dawit Isaak, who was taken into custody an early Sunday morning, on 23 september 2001.

Today 2802 days later none of them has been either charged formally or given a fair trial. The journalists, as well as the politicians, have been branded as traitors; the journalists have also been accused of receiving financial aid from abroad - a crime according to the Eritrean press laws.

So far, neither his family nor Swedish authorities nor international human rights organizations have been allowed to visit him. The Eritrean authorities claim that Dawit is an Eritrean citizen only - not a Swedish citizen - and his case thus an internal affair.

The Swedish journalist Donald Boström got an exclusive interview with Isaias Afwerki, the leader of the PFDJ party and the president of Eritrea. see his coments about a journalist that chose to write freely and encouraged others to do the same...

PEter

Our great, great, great Aunt is found....

It's funny, today I was supposed to be in Berlin, Germany with two of my closest friends. Instead I had to be at home with my crutches and my aching knee. Tomorrow is a Swedish national day, we call it a " red day" because we don't have to go to work and we still gets payed for it.

The name of this day, translated into English would be "Christ Flyer Day". As many of you know we are all atheist in Sweden. Maybe not all, but most of us... still we have a lot of days where we celebrate Christ, even though we like to believe in the big bang and the evolution, and how we are all sprung from animals and higher primates. Sure, that doesn't give us much to pray to when we have tough times. And we have no one to thank but ourselves and maybe people around us when something good happens.

So where am I going with this? Well, in 1980s- Germany a fossil- nicknamed Ida- was found and claimed to be a "missing link" between today's higher primates - monkeys, apes and humans. The preserved remains of a 47-million - year-old, lemur like creature have just been unveiled in the US.

The investigation of the fossil's significance was led by Jorn Hurum of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway.

He said the fossil creature was "the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor" and described it as a dream come true. Ida bears a close resemblance to ourselves, with nails instead of claws , a grasping hand and an opposable thumb. Even though some aspects of the teeth indicate she is not a direct ancestor - more of an "aunt" than a "grandmother".

So there you have it. Your great, great, great, great, great (etc.) Aunt is a lemur-like fossil dated 47 million years back. This doesn't explain why we have a day of from work tomorrow in Sweden.

Or why it took 30 years for information to go from Germany to the US.

PEter

Introducing myself....

Good morning and good afternoon,

Hello. During the last 20 out of my 30 years on this planet I've been traveling and meeting people from all over. I've been called many things, loved and hated, so on this blog I'll just go under my birthname, PEter.

-To publish my thoughts and opinions on current events in Sweden and Europe?
That was the answer.

I never really got the question, though.

This has made me motivated, has got me driven.
I have so much to say and so much spare time.

I know my grammar isn't there but I hope I'll make my self understood.

The leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, Velupillai Prabhakaran, is dead.
The war has ended after 26 years and more than 70,000 people killed.

"What?" is probably the first question popping up.

Veluipi who? What war? 70,000?

A few years from now when someone like Steven Soderbergh makes a movie about Sri Lanka and the Tigers, you'll know what happened. I can see the Hoff as a overweight Sri Lankan Tiger screaming "fuck the world," holding an AK and shooting at the army (it will be his most glorious comeback)...

Where would we be without television?

What would we discuss if it weren't for the media?

Stupid is that stupid says...he says.

Stupid is that stupidity follows.......

PEter