A Fair Championship Chess Match

The reduction in the number of games in a world chess championship match from 24 or so to 12 is a terrible idea. As this match illustrated, the ultimate victor now need only win one or two games and then play for draws.

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Comic Books

When did comic books become "graphic novels"?
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Word Inflation

Another example of appalling word inflation:
1. weather prediction 2. weather forecasting 3. weather prognostication
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The New Calculus: 320,000,000 Invasions of Privacy for 300 Leads

"'The NSA allegedly collected the phone records of 320 million people in order to identify roughly 300 people who might be a risk. It's just bad public policy…and perhaps illegal,' [Eric Schmidt of Google] said. 

...

""There clearly are cases where evil people exist, but you don't have to violate the privacy of every single citizen of America to find them,' he said."

Wall Street Journal Online (Nov. 4, 2013)

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Martin Luther's 95 Theses

Wikipedia: "On 31 October 1517, Luther posted the ninety-five theses, which he had composed in Latin, on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, according to university custom."
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U.S. to Overtake Russia in Oil and Gas Production

Gold & Gilbert, U.S. Is Overtaking Russia as Largest Oil-and-Gas Producer Wall Street Journal (October 2, 2013):

The U.S. is overtaking Russia as the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas, a startling shift that is reshaping markets and eroding the clout of traditional energy-rich nations.

[snip, snip]

"This is a remarkable turn of events," said Adam Sieminski, head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration. "This is a new era of thinking about market conditions, and opportunities created by these conditions, that you wouldn't in a million years have dreamed about."
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How to Swear

Colin Burrow, Rabelais, Thomas Urquhart, and Melissa Mohr teach us how to really swear. See Colin Burrow, Frog's Knickers London Review of Books (September 26, 2013) (review of Melissa Mohr, Holy Shit: A Brief History of Swearing (Oxford University Press, 2013)):

Roll up, roll up all you ‘mangie rascals, shiteabed scoundrels, drunken roysters, slie knaves, drowsie loiterers, slapsauce fellows, slabberdegullion druggels, lubbardly lowts … fondling fops, base lowns, saucie coxcombs, idle lusks, scoffing Braggards, noddie meacocks, blockish grutnols, doddi-poljolt-heads, jobbernol goosecaps, foolish loggerheads, slutch calf-lollies, grouthead gnat-snappers, lob-dotterels, gaping changelings, codshead loobies, woodcock slangams, ninnie-hammer flycatchers, noddiepeak simpletons, turdie gut, shitten shepherds, and other suchlike defamatory epithets’.

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Our Talkative President: Of War and Peace

David Bromwich, Diary London Review of Books (September 26 [sic], 2013):

The anti-government insurgency in Syria was given an intoxicating vision of triumph by the words President Obama spoke in August 2011 that were translated, correctly, into the headline ‘Assad must go.’ ... Obama has a fondness for debonair or solemnly spoken asides that come back to worry him. ...

After 56 months of the Obama presidency, there can be no doubt that Barack Obama likes to talk. He thinks Americans and others are eager to hear what he has to say, on many subjects; and in keeping with that perception, he said in August 2012 about the civil war in Syria: ‘A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised. That would change my calculus.’ He gave another version, in March, of the same asseveration: the use of chemical weapons by Assad would be ‘a game changer’. These, too, were undiplomatic comments. A clearer invitation could scarcely be imagined by anyone who had an interest in drawing the US into the war. ...

[snip, snip]

Nobody doubts that an attack took place. Nobody yet knows with reasonable certainty who ordered it. Assad had the ability but, since he was winning the war and such a move was plainly suicidal, his arrival at such a decision is hard to make sense of. The rebels are said to lack the ability to use poison gas, though there are reports that they have come into possession of some chemical weapons; but a false-flag operation would have required a degree of successful dissimulation and wickedness that is equally hard to make sense of. ...

[snip, snip]

... Kerry gave 1429 as a sure figure for the number of deaths in the August attack, but the figure is unexplained and at variance with first-hand reports: French intelligence estimated 281 deaths and Médecins Sans Frontières 355. The Kerry document was effectively discredited in less than a week, but only below the radar of the mainstream press and policy establishment. On the basis of a tissue of far-fetched inferences and assumptions, in which the most solid datum is a single radio intercept – a recording of a disturbed commander of Syrian forces given to the US by Israeli intelligence – Obama declared his intention to order an attack, and then asked Congress to authorise the use of force under wide discretion: he would be empowered to act in any way he deemed necessary to ‘respond to’, ‘deter’ and ‘degrade’ the military and defensive capabilities of the Syrian government. These are all words without a settled meaning, and they were chosen for that reason. To an amazing degree Obama’s request for authorisation of September 2013 resembles Bush’s request of October 2002.

[snip, snip]

At the end of August, with or without Britain, the US was poised for war. But public opinion was shifting towards a comfortless scepticism – the ratio of three to two against an attack had risen, by the second week of September, to more than two to one against. ... The president and his secretary of state, and with them a large section of the policy elite, had approved an effort to overthrow by military intervention a fourth government in the Middle East, after Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. With an unmistakable voice the American people were saying no.

Even so, in the first week of September, Obama and Kerry appeared to stand behind both the ambitious and the minimal versions of their meditated attack. ...

[snip, snip]

On 10 September the president addressed the nation. He used more of his time to justify the attack he was shelving than to explain the new course to which he is now committed, and it was a baffling speech in other ways too: pleading and denouncing by turns, imparting the lesson that love of peace must sometimes involve us in war, reiterating the imperative of building up the United States at home yet taking care to invoke the Holocaust. ...

Another switch by Obama appears unlikely for the time being. But mere passive attendance on the Russian proposals, saying yes to some, no to some and to others ‘We’ll think about it’, will expose his administration to the charge of ‘leading from behind’ (as he boasted of doing in Libya). Diplomacy is relatively new to this president, but now he has no other choice. Nor can he afford to give away the delicate work to the persons who clamoured loudest for an attack. ... [T]his would be an excellent moment [for Obama] to reform: a time for personal commitment in the making of policy, accompanied by fewer speeches, unscripted remarks and interviews; an occasion for energetic activity with partners besides France, Britain and Israel. ...

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Fluctuating Arctic & Antarctic Sea Ice

Seth Borensteinh, Arctic sea ice 6th lowest, but rebounds from 2012 Bloomberg Businessweek News (September 20, 2013):

"The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., said Friday that Arctic ice was at 1.97 million square miles when it stopped melting late last week.

"That level is about 24 percent below the 20th Century average, but 50 percent above last year when a dramatic melt shattered records that go back to 1979."

Hannah Hickey, Stronger winds explain puzzling growth of sea ice in Antarctica University of Washington News (September 17, 2013):

"Much attention is paid to melting sea ice in the Arctic. But less clear is the situation on the other side of the planet. Despite warmer air and oceans, there’s more sea ice in Antarctica now than in the 1970s – a fact often pounced on by global warming skeptics. The latest numbers suggest the Antarctic sea ice may be heading toward a record high this year.

"While changes in weather may play a big role in short-term changes in sea ice seen in the past couple of months, changes in winds have apparently led to the more general upward sea ice trend during the past few decades, according to University of Washington research. A new modeling study to be published in the Journal of Climate shows that stronger polar winds lead to an increase in Antarctic sea ice, even in a warming climate."

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Syria, Israel & Chemical Weapons

Edmund Sanders, Israel also facing questions about chemical weapons, Washington Post ("September 12, 2013):

JERUSALEM -- Israel has cheered the Syrians' promise to hand over their chemical weapons and sign the Chemical Weapons Convention, but it is increasingly worried that the international pressure building may soon focus on Israel, which has refused to ratify the treaty and is believed to possess chemical weapons.

Israel signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993, but it never ratified the agreement.

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Democracy and Culture

Walter C. Clemens, Jr., Democracy as Chimera New York Times (September 10, 2013). In this interesting essay Clemens says, among other things, 

"If the political culture is missing, a Weimar-type constitution will not guarantee real self-rule or stability. Cultivating a truly democratic culture takes time. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan left us this axiom: “The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

"But this liberal dream has met more defeats than victories. Russia seemed to opt for democracy in the 1990s, but when Vladimir Putin altered the rules, most voters went along. Even in the United States, democracy remains a work-in-progress. To make it a major policy goal in countries with vastly different cultures is a chimera."

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Official Indifference to Christians in Syria

John Kass, Syrian Christians largely ignored in debate over U.S. intervention Chicago Tribune (September 11, 2013).

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John Kerry's Gulf of Tonkin

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Real War?

O my gosh, is he really going to drag us into a real (big, long) war? 

Sanger & Schmitt, Pentagon Is Ordered to Expand Potential Targets in Syria With a Focus on Forces NYTimes (Sept. 5, 2013).

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Aging Together: A New Way to Avoid Late-Life Loneliness

Barbara Hardinghaus, Aging Together: A New Way to Avoid Late-Life Loneliness Spiegel Online (August 29, 2013)

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The Rockets' Red Glare

Will (American) rockets glare (red) on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington?

• ...while Pres. Obama addresses the 50th anniversary celebrants?

What would MLK, Jr., think?
The drums of war.
In any event, I hope at least that this time there has not been another "intelligence failure."
N.B. Do you think Pres. Obama should try to get Congress to declare war on Syria? (I can't think of another recent situation in which a U.S. President is better situated to try to get such a declaration from Congress: Pres. Obama can hardly object that he needs the advantage of surprise; the whole world knows an attack is coming. [What's that? Oh, you say this attack falls short of being "war"? Mmm. I'll have to think about that. {What if Syria retaliates? Mmm.}])  
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Chapel Hill

I have been here in Chapel Hill for two weeks. Two-thirds of my books are unpacked. My computers are up and running. My massive new printer is up and running. My speech recognition software is working, more or less. I have food in the kitchen. A guy comes in to clean my apartment once a week. Everything is almost OK with the world.
Chapel Hill is pretty. It is very green. The people are friendly. The traffic is not bad. My townhouse is very pleasant. I can soon start working again – that is, I can soon start writing again.

This fall I will work on an evidence casebook. I will also resume work on a legal treatise. Wish me luck.
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Sun in Ultraviolet

Image Credit: NASA/SDO & the AIA, EVE, and HMI teams; Digital Composition: Peter L. Dove

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Liberty Park September 2011

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Liberty Park September 2011

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Speech recognition software

I am experimenting with Dragon speech recognition software (legal version).
I can speak more quickly than I can write.
Can I also speak more intelligently?
You be the judge.
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The Strange World of U.S. "Nonprofit" Organizations

"[E]fforts to insulate the [Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation] from potential conflicts have highlighted just how difficult it can be to disentangle the Clintons’ charity work from Mr. Clinton’s moneymaking ventures and Mrs. Clinton’s political future, according to interviews with more than two dozen former and current foundation employees, donors and advisers to the family. Nearly all of them declined to speak for attribution, citing their unwillingness to alienate the Clinton family." Nicholas Confessore & Amy Chozick, Unease at Clinton Foundation over Finances and Ambitions, NYTimes (August 13, 2013).

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The Trauma of Ordinary Life

"Trauma is not just the result of major disasters. It does not happen to only some people. An undercurrent of trauma runs through ordinary life, shot through as it is with the poignancy of impermanence. I like to say that if we are not suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, we are suffering from pre-traumatic stress disorder. There is no way to be alive without being conscious of the potential for disaster. One way or another, death (and its cousins: old age, illness, accidents, separation and loss) hangs over all of us. Nobody is immune. Our world is unstable and unpredictable, and operates, to a great degree and despite incredible scientific advancement, outside our ability to control it." Mark Epstein, The Trauma of Being Alive NYTimes (August 3, 2013).
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Pope (largely) Missing in the New York Times

It seems that Pope Francis has drawn massive and rapturous crowds during his trip Brazil. But (so far in any case) you apparently wouldn't know that if you were a reader only of the front page of the New York Times.

• The back pages of today's New York Times do have an article entitled Missteps by Brazil Mar Visit by Pope. I suppose bad or indifferent press attention is better than no press attention at all.

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Labor & the Duchess of Cambridge

Headline: "Duchess of Cambridge Goes Into Labor"
... but not, I gather, "into Labour"
How do the British media write the headline?

• Does Cambridge, Massachusetts, have a Duchess?

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Frank Gehry, Fitting Eisenhower Memorial Architect?

Frank Gehry may have many virtues as an architect. But it's hard to fathom how anyone could think he would be a fine designer of a public memorial to a five-star general and President.

Zongker, Redesigning Eisenhower Memorial Could Cost $17M ABC News (July 12, 2013)


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Christians in Egypt

Hubbard, Christians Targeted for Retribution in Egypt NYTimes (July 11, 2013):

CAIRO — The military’s ouster of President Mohamed Morsi has unleashed a new wave of violence by extremist Muslims against Christians whom they blame for having supported the calls to overthrow Mr. Morsi, Egypt’s first Islamist elected leader, according to rights activists.

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My Comment on Lotfi Zadeh's Message about Russia and the Collapse of the Russian Empire

Professor Lotfi Zadeh recently posted the following message to his (vast) discussion list, BISC:

Dear members of the BISC Group:

I should like to share with you a concern of mine -- a concern about the evolving economic and political situation in Russia. My feeling is that a serious crisis -- with wide-ranging repercussions -- may be around the corner. But first, a bit about my background.

I was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, at the time when Azerbaijan was a part of the Soviet Union. My parents were Iranian citizens. My first language was Russian. I am still fluent in Russian. When I was ten years old, my parents returned to Iran and placed me in an American (Presbyterian) Missionary School, later renamed as Alborz. My teachers were mostly from the Midwest. For me, they were role models. It was at that point in my life that I fell in love with the United States. After receiving my BSEE degree from the University of Tehran, I came to the United States in 1944 and entered MIT as a graduate student. 

I have always been and continue to be interested in what goes on in Russia. I watch TV news from Moscow every day, and watch a Russian-language news program from New York. I watch Russian TV News Channel 24 because it is serious and objective, with little or no propaganda. It is a 24 hour-a-day news program, with news on the hour. The information which I get includes both what is positive and what is negative about what goes on in Russia. The New York news channel focuses on what is negative. 

For many people, the collapse of the Soviet Union was a cause for celebration. I felt differently because, in my view, the Soviet Union was not prepared for an abrupt transition from authoritarianism to a democracy led by Yeltsin--an incompetent party official who was fond of alcohol. Clearly, there was a need for structural reforms when Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985. He proved to be an inept leader. What did not help was that the price of oil was around $10 a barrel. He made many serious mistakes. His fatal mistake was the abandonment of the one-party rule. In large measure, it is this mistake that led to his own demise and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia was not ready for democracy in 1991, and is not ready for democracy today, twenty-two years later. In the post-collapse years, wholesale privatization transferred national wealth into the pockets of corrupt oligarchs -- oligarchs whose enormous wealth is now hidden abroad. Freedom was abused. While institutes were closing, casinos were opening --at one time 68 in Moscow alone. Eventually, casinos were banished, but right now a top official in prosecutor's office in Moscow is in court charged with accepting multi-million bribes from the operators of underground casinos. 

One of the principal problems in today's Russia is pervasive corruption, from top to bottom. Almost every day there is a disclosure of a major scandal involving high-level officials. Former Mayor of Moscow, Luzhkov, bought a residence in London costing over 100 million dollars. The same pattern of acquisition of choice properties by Russian officials and rich businessmen is observable in France, Spain and many other countries. The government talks loudly about fighting corruption. Incredibly, a recently adopted law grants amnesty to perpetrators of so-called economic crimes--about 15,000 in number. Is granting of amnesty to perpetrators of economic crimes a new way of fighting corruption, or is it a matter of protection of high-level officials? Currently, there are over 80,000 Russian tourists in Egypt and over 30,000 in Thailand, while millions of Russians live in poverty. Infrastructure inherited from the Soviet Union is deteriorating, but there is not enough funding for replacement and upgrading. 

Recently, Russia was admitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO), after knocking on the door for over 18 years. In my view, this is a serious blunder. WTO is an invention of exporting countries. In large measure, Russia is an importing country, except for oil, gas and minerals. Entry into WTO is likely to result in a decline in domestic production. The Space Program is in trouble. On July 2, a Proton rocket carrying three Granat satellites exploded shortly after launch. This was the seventh failure in two-and-a-half years. The latestfailure calls into question the sustainability of Russia's Space Program. Right now, an incredible event took place. On July 3, the government introduced a bill calling for a drastic reorganization of the Russian Academy of Sciences -- a vast enterprise and a sacred institution in the Soviet era-- with the expectation of approval by July 5. After a storm of protest, the final approval was deferred till autumn.

The stock market is steadily declining. Capital is fleeing the country at the rate of about 70 billion dollars a year. There is a shortage of skilled labor. Many of the best graduates are moving abroad. The rate of growth is declining, while the deficit, though very small, is increasing. A new wave of privatizations is taking place, depriving the government of major assets and enriching corrupt officials. In coming years, the income from oil and gas is expected to decline. Inflation stands at close to 7%. The mounting economic problems which lie ahead may stir unrest. Fears of unrest may well play an important role in strategic decisions by the leadership of Russia, both internally and externally. A gradual return to authoritarianism may well be viewed as a necessity for survival. What is the prognosis? A great deal depends on the price of oil and gas in coming years. If the prices stay high, as they are today, Russia may gradually overcome its problems by tightening the screws and moving away from democratic reforms. If not, the dark clouds may be a harbinger of unrest and discord. Note. I am a pessimist by nature. Comments are welcome.

Regards,

   Lotfi

-- Lotfi A. Zadeh

Professor Emeritus 

Director, Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing (BISC) 

 Address: 729 Soda Hall #1776

Computer Science Division Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-1776 

zadeh@eecs.berkeley.edu Tel.(office): (510) 642-4959 Fax (office): (510) 642-1712 Tel.(home): (510) 526-2569 Fax (home): (510) 526-2433 URL: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~zadeh/ 

BISC Homepage URLs URL: http://zadeh.cs.berkeley.edu/

I submitted the following comment about Professor Zadeh's post:

I was born in Riga, Latvia. As my mother grew up, she leaned, first, Polish; second, Russian; and, third, Latvian. Her favorite poet was Pushkin (in Russian, of course). Though I did not speak Russian or know much about Russian literature, I had warm feelings toward Russian culture. (I particularly admired Russian chess and Russian prowess in many sciences.) But I did not have warm feelings toward the Soviet Union or Russian imperialism. (The New Soviet Man spoke principally Russian). This was and is understandable: Stalinists deported my maternal grandparents in June 1941 to Siberia in cattle cars for the crime of being bourgeois (I do not exaggerate; I have copies of the NKVD arrest warrants) and in 1944 my mother fled Latvia with her two children to escape arrest for the crime of having bourgeois parents. So to the extent that the collapse of the Soviet Union led to the independence of the Baltic Republics, I do not regret the collapse of the Soviet Empire. However, I do agree with Lotfi that there were grand elements in the old Soviet Union. For example, it is true that chess, theoretical physics, and mathematics flourished in the Soviet Union as almost nowhere else. It is also true, the perversions of Stalinism notwithstanding, that there was something noble about the Soviet Union's aspirations toward universality, toward the general brotherhood of the common man, or the proletariat. But the mass killings and deportations and so on of the Soviet era were so vast and horrendous that it is understandable that Latvians could not easily forgive and forget, and that post-Soviet Russia had to pay the price of its past by granting the Baltic Republics (and other nations) their independence.

I arrived in the U.S. when I was six years old. I became almost completely (but not completely) Americanized. Although America has faults - in the post-2001 era it has some very serious faults - America has been good to me; and, despite the hardships my family experienced in the U.S. when I was young, I am glad I grew up here .

See http://tillers.net/personalhistory/history.html (visual personal history)

Peter Tillers

http://tillers.net

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Inta Ruka, Latvian Photographer

On aljazeera.com:

Inta Ruka is one of Europe's most noteworthy photographers. For 30 years she has taken hauntingly beautiful portraits of the faces of Latvia.

In this documentary, filmmaker Maud Nycander portrays her friend and colleague who, despite her renown, still works as a cleaner at the Swedish embassy in Riga.

The story of Inta Ruka also documents the radical transformation of Latvia over the past 20 years. We meet her mother and teenage son - two people not only from different generations, but from different worlds, from Siberian labour camps to designer clothes and computer games. And in between them stands Ruka herself - who does not want to let go of the security of her cleaner's job despite her brilliant career as a photographer.

The Photographer from Riga can be seen from be seen from Wednesday, July 3, at the following GMT: Wednesday: 2200; Thursday: 1200; Friday: 0100; Saturday: 0600; Sunday: 2000; Monday: 1200;Tuesday: 0100

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Nice work, if you can get it

"In one of the most notable revelations, the disclosure filing of the [New York State] Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, showed that he earned $350,000 to $450,000 last year in his part-time job at a Manhattan personal injury law firm,Weitz & Luxenberg." Kaplan & Hakim, Legislators Reap Benefits of Part-Time Jobs at Law Firms, Filings Show, NYTimes (July 3, 2013).

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