On the rebound: Answering blogmail

A couple of days ago, I received the following comment from "Vman" in response to my blog about Dr. West , the co-inventor of the electret microphone used in almost 90% of all microphones built today:

"Kareem,
A question from my 10-year-old...
So, Dr. West, 'inventor of the microphone,' invented it in 1962?
How were we able to hear Count Basie?"

First, let me say how impressed I am that a 10-year-old was so intelligent to ask that question.  Of course, it’s true that microphones existed long before Dr. West.  In fact, in 1827, English physicist and telegraph inventor Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875) first coined the word “microphone.”  In 1876, German immigrant Emile Berliner (1851-1929), working in Washington , D.C. , invented a microphone used in telephones to transmit speech.  (He was also the first to invent the gramophone that recorded on disks, later called records.  His company’s symbol was a dog listening to the gramophone.)  Then in 1878, David Edward Hughes (1831-1900) invented the carbon microphone that is the model for the modern microphone. Which brings us to African-American Dr. James E. West and his co-inventor Gerhard Sessler, who received a patent for the electroacoustic transducer, and electret microphone.  The electret microphone is more reliable, acoustically accurate, smaller, and cheaper than conventional microphones.  So, while Dr. West didn’t invent the microphone, he invented a type of microphone that was small and so reliable that it could be used in everything from hearing aids to cell phones.  It’s also used on the space shuttles.

Here are some more answers to your questions:

How has martial arts influenced your workout? Do you continue to study? If so, how has your regimen changed?
-- Jon K

Jon K -- Martial arts has affected my training regimen by making me conscious of how I need to anticipate the various circumstances I will encounter in contests. Training for basketball means that the fundamental basketball skills -- shooting, passing and defense -- must be worked on with an emphasis on endurance. A basketball game is 48 minutes long, so the aspect of performing the fundamental skills while being tired must be addressed. So cardiovascular endurance is an absolute necessity in your training regimen. These days I don't work so much on my basketball skills, since I'm retired, but the fundamentals of strength, flexibility and cardio are always part of what I do. I try to include other activities that are fun but keep the fundamental skills sharp. So I'll jump rope, swim, run some cross country, play squash or ride my bike.


Do you have any thoughts on why yoga studios are so full of women and so few men practice?
-- Jaime

Answer after the jump...

Slice 'em

I watched a mixed martial arts event this weekend featuring street fighting legend Kimbo Slice. It was a featured live event on cable and drew a huge live audience in Miami.  This form of combat has eclipsed boxing at the box office and in the hearts of fight fans, and when I watch these events I fondly remember the time I spent with the late Bruce Lee, who participated in these types of fights on rooftops in Hong Kong as a young man.

I feel that this style of combat is based on a concept that Bruce was instrumental in developing. The traditional fight contest would have people from one discipline only fighting each other according to the rules of that discipline. That created, for example, a situation where judo contestants would fight each other strictly according to judo rules. Bruce envisioned a contest where any style was allowed to go against any other style, with no restrictions as to how techniques were used. Bruce used tactics from any and all of the martial arts disciplines without regard to their origin. He considered people who would use only the techniques taught by their particular discipline as tradition-bound. Innovation and experimentation were frowned upon and thus severely limited an individual's ability to use what worked for him.

The Gracie jiu-jitsu clan from Brazil also started to train outside of the boundaries of traditional jiu-jitsu, and in doing so offended the tradition-bound superiors in the jiu-jitsu world. The Gracies and Bruce couldn't have cared less. The new approach made for effective self-defense, and anyone using the new concept became an unpredictable and formidable opponent, like Bruce or the Gracies. This new concept has led to new "mixed martial arts" contests that have captured the fight fans' attention big- time. It has also led to a realistic reappraisal of the effectiveness of the various styles. 

Students from all styles now train with the realistic idea of what does and does not work when it hits the fan. I know Bruce would be happy to see the evolution of martial arts training that he pioneered become the standard throughout the discipline.

Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Why Black History Month?

A white friend of mine told me his 9-year-old son asked him, “If February is Black History Month, then when is White History Month?”  My friend replied, “The other 11 months.”  That’s why I take this opportunity to use my blog to promote some of the most notable and influential African-Americans in American history.  As much as I support and encourage the idea of Black History Month as a way of bringing to attention some otherwise overlooked and neglected historical figures, we need to make sure that Black History Month isn’t merely a closet that’s opened once a year to display these people as oddities, like a Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum.  Instead, we should use Black History Month as a launching point to continually educate all Americans about the diversity of their history—and how because of that diversity we are the great nation we are today.  February is when the bookstores and libraries and educational stations remind the world that history is multicultural, but it’s up to the rest of us to keep that spirit alive the rest of the year.  After all, our ultimate goal should be to one day make Black History Month unnecessary.

Charlotte E. Ray: Beyond the law

Sometimes there’s a heavy price to be paid for being an innovator. The greater the innovation, the greater the price to be paid. This is especially true for African-American women innovators, who not only braved the cruelty of racism, but also the harshness of sexism. How hard it must have been to come home after a long day facing racists, only to find the same hostile intolerance on the faces of men of your own race, even your own family. That’s how it was for Charlotte E. Ray (1850-1911), the first African-American female lawyer in the United States.

Ray was born in New York City to a father who was a minister and journalist, and a mother who partnered with her husband as conductors on the Underground Railroad. Getting a good education was important to Ray, so she attended one of the few schools that allowed women, the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth in Washington, D.C. Knowing that women had an even more difficult time being admitted to law school, she applied to Howard University as “C.E. Ray." She graduated in 1872 as a Phi Beta Kappa and passed her bar exam the same year. However, despite her ambition, discipline, courage, and intelligence, the first black female lawyer was unable to maintain a law practice.

She returned to New York City in 1879, and she became a teacher in the public schools as well as an activist with the National Women’s Suffrage Association and the National Women’s Suffrage Association. Eventually she married, moved to Long Island, and died at the age of 60 from bronchitis.

Maybe what makes Charlotte Ray especially admirable isn’t her historic milestone of being the first black female lawyer, but that in face of failure as a lawyer, she didn’t turn her back on the community that failed to support her dream, but renewed her commitment to making others' lives better. That is the definition of heroic.

for more info, check out Charlotte's wikipedia entry

A fine mess ...

After watching part of the congressional hearings on drug and steroid use by professional athletes, I can only think of Oliver Hardy's complaint to Stan Laurel  in so many of their comedies -- "It's a fine mess you've gotten us into" -- but this mess is neither fine nor funny.

I have been a baseball fan ever since I was a toddler, and the recent disclosures made by so many players, coupled with the evasive maneuvering by others, leaves me with so my questions and a very bad smell in the air.

The most recent spectacle of Roger Clemens and his accuser is like an ugly cherry on a rotten cake.

Given the totally contradictory testimony of those questioned, we are left with one clear conclusion: Someone is lying big-time. But whom do we accuse? It would be impossible for even the most accomplished detective to sort through all of the various assertions of those who are accused or suspected. 

I've also seen the effect that the steroid craze has had on young athletes. I have been questioned a few times by aspiring athletes who want to bulk up as to how to do it and not get caught.  The message they are absorbing from all this is to cheat, lie and disregard the long-term consequences.

I spoke to former All-Pro lineman Lyle Alzado before he died. He weighed about 160 pounds and had no hair and not many teeth left. He knew that he was dying and asked me to tell any kid who would listen not to follow his path. I shed more than a few tears that evening. Lyle was a good dude who made some poor choices. 

I hope all the professional leagues make a concerted effort to get their franchises to provide role models who shun performance-enhancing drugs, something that I always avoided. 

The youth of our nation deserve no less.

photo credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

Care & maintenance of the over-50 athlete: Core fitness

When I was a kid, most of the fathers over 50 would settle into their sofas at night with a beer and watch TV. Until the remote was invented (the first was in 1950, from Zenith, and it was appropriately named “Lazy Bones”), the most exercise a lot of dads got was getting up to change the channel during the week. On weekends, maybe they mowed the lawns or played catch with their kids. My dad was an exception. He regularly played handball, especially in the summer months.

Today, over-50 athletes are not only common, but they are often in better shape than some of the people they’re playing with who are half their ages. The main difference between them and their younger competitors is the recovery time after playing. The younger players may ache for a few hours, maybe even into the next day, but the older players never stop aching. They have chronic pains in the shoulders, knees, elbows, hips and places they didn’t even know were part of their bodies until they felt pain there. You see them arriving at the basketball court or softball field with wraps and braces and Costco-size jars of Advil rattling in their sports bags. But they show up. They play hard. And many times they’re still standing when the younger players are huffing on the sidelines gulping Gatorade.

If you’re one of those graying warriors — or you just want to compete like one — stay tuned to my blog for a series of entries directed specifically at the over-50 athlete. Today I want to talk about the best way to stay fit and reduce injuries that we are more prone to. The answer: core fitness. The core of your body is located in the 29 muscles around your midsection and hips.  This area is the body’s center of gravity, the source of all your movement.  So the more fit this area is, the better you’ll be able to control your movements, reduce injuries and build power. In fact, core fitness is one of the keystones to the Lakers’ training philosophy.

There are plenty of books and websites that can instruct you on a variety of exercises designed to work these muscles. Or you can work with a personal trainer at a fitness club. There are many core exercises that can be done with a fitness ball. The advantage of using the ball is it teaches you balance and focus. In the meantime, here are some basic core exercises to get you started...

Bebop and beyond

Herbie Hancock has just been awarded the 2008 Grammy award for Album of the Year -- a collaborative effort with Joni Mitchell. I've known Herbie since I was in high school. The night of my high school graduation, I went to the Village Vanguard and had the pleasure of seeing him perform with Miles Davis' band, without Miles. I got to know the whole band because of my friendship with bassist Ron Carter. We have maintained our friendship since this time. It has been a real treat to see Herbie's reach expand constantly.  He has never forgotten Duke Ellington's edict to swing.

"River: The Joni Letters" represents Herbie's expansion beyond the race- based straitjackets of nomenclature imposed on American musicians.  American music has such a rich and varied foundation it is really grotesque to try to define it as R & B or rock or pop or metal or Latin or Reggae or country or blues. For example, the blues and country evolved in exactly the same environment--  i.e. the Mississippi Delta, West Texas, Nashville, Tenn., and New Orleans, to name a few.  But for some reason, the music of Elvis must be regarded as different from Chuck Berry even when both artists embrace the same regional and artistic roots.

Maybe Herbie's success will make a few a more people think about the absurdity of these genre designations. After all, it is the clash of America's various cultural heritage that give us such a rich and varied musical landscape.

Herbie certainly inherited the mantle of Art Tatum and Bud Powell, but his world is so much bigger than that. My hope is that as Americans our ability to appreciate our enormous musical choices will continue to expand. Don't forget, Satchmo, Johnny Cash, the Duke and Frank Sinatra are watching ... and listening!

p.s.: Herbie collaborated with me on a song for my audio book "On the Shoulders of Giants." We took an old song from the 1930s, entitled "Stompin' at the Savoy," and Herbie remade it into a modern jazz song. will.i.am from the blackeyed peas sang vocals with Nikki Yanofksy.

Click here to listen to the song: "Stompin' at the Savoy"

Bessie Coleman helped black women soar

The “friendly skies” of aviation have not always been that friendly to women pilots.  Currently there are about 4,000 women airline pilots out of the nearly 80,000 male airline pilots.  The first female airline pilot was Helen Richey, who was hired by Central Airlines in 1934.  After only 10 months on the job, she resigned because the all-male pilots union would not allow her to join.  Broke and jobless, she committed suicide in 1947.  (By the way, United Airlines currently has the most female pilots.)

Although history’s flight toward more women pilots has been turbulent, there is one woman who shares a lot of responsibility for launching women into the air in the first place.  Bessie Coleman (pictured), 1892-1926 — also known as “Queen Bess” — was the first African American woman airline pilot, as well as the first American woman to receive an international pilot’s license. Too often, Amelia Earhart is seen as the pioneer woman aviator. Hopefully that will change.  Too poor to stay in college, Bessie took a job as a manicurist at the White Sox Barber Shop in Chicago, where she heard about the adventures of pilots returning from World War I.  It was there that she also met two powerful black businessmen, Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, one of the country’s most influential black newspapers, and real estate developer Jesse Binga. 

These two men encouraged Bessie to take up aviation, even though they knew she had to move to France to learn because no American flight schools would accept her as both black and a woman.  After earning her pilot’s license and international pilot's license, she returned to the U.S.

Photo of Bessie Coleman, public domain

Dr. James West — inventor of the electret microphone

In 1996, I published a book titled "Black Profiles in Courage." It was my take on American history that included the contributions of black Americans. In so many of our history books, the efforts of black Americans go unrecognized. Since publishing that book, I’ve come across much more information that fits this profile. So, I’d like to give some acknowledgment to Dr. James E. West, whom I did not know of back in ’96. In 1962, Dr. West and his partner Gerhard Sessler invented the electret microphone used in almost 90% of all microphones built today — over 1 billion a year.

Dr. West was raised in Virginia and almost was discouraged from pursuing physics due to the Jim Crow system in place when he was going to school. At that time, the only professional jobs that blacks could hold in Virginia were teacher, preacher, doctor or lawyer. Dr. West recalls that his father introduced him to three men who had earned doctorates in chemistry and physics. The best jobs available to those men were working at the post office. Dr. West’s father did not want him to take a long, arduous road and end up working at a post office.

But Dr. West was not to be denied. He speaks of discovery as being “… the best high I ever had …” He has gone on to acquire over 200 U.S. patents and now teaches at Johns Hopkins University where he is trying to recruit more minority and women faculty.

Photo of Dr. James West, public domain

Star wars, NBA-style

As we approach the NBA All-Star break, we are witnessing the cumulative effect of much maneuvering on the part of the more dominant franchises.

The Spurs -- the  defending champs -- are the only team that has played a pat hand. 

Summer ’07 saw the Lakers trying to make a deal to acquire K.G., which would ultimately fail.  But that effort would not be the last we heard from the Lakers. 

Frustration and impatience on the part of the Lakers faithful had reached a fever pitch.  For those Laker fans, watching K.G. go to Boston was vexing to the nth degree.  The only development that calmed that angst was the emergence of Andrew Bynum as a legit force in the paint.  Laker fans were now envisioning having something to do in May or June after years of absence from the significant playoff games. 

Then came an injury to Bynum that again pushed back the aspirations of Laker fans.  But then came the ultimate in deals from the blue. The Lakers got to acquire Pau Gasol, an All-Star center, from the Memphis Grizzlies for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton and two first-round draft picks.  Presto-chango, and Laker fans are in heaven again.  Gasol is a solid performer who has the same aspirations and hopes as the loyal Laker fans. 

Not to be outdone, the Phoenix Suns have gotten in on the act.  They have acquired Shaquille O’Neal to give them the sizable frontcourt presence that many thought was keeping them out of the championship round.  If the 2007 playoff season was any indication, there is something credible in that view.  Shaq has been quoted as saying that he will be able to adjust his talents to the Suns' up-tempo, run-and-gun style.  The naysayers point to his conditioning issues and injury-plagued recent history. 

In any event, this season has become very interesting for fans worldwide.  Will the Laker-Celtic duel of the '80s be revived?  Will the Suns break through this year?  Will Detroit or San Antonio do their usual methodical march to the finals?  Whatever the outcome, the stage is set for a very interesting and competitive playoff season.  In all probability … the best in the last 20 years.