What I’ve been reading

After I had read The Robots of Dawn earlier this fall, I decided that Traveller would have to wait a bit. For some time now, I’ve had Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, as well as Prelude to Foundation, just standing there waiting on my bookshelf, unread. Two weeks ago I decided to do something about that, and now I have completed all of them: Prelude to Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation.

They are great!

As it is, I hope to complete the last part of my ‘payment‘ to Jan this weekend.

I’m offended too…

The other side of the coin. From Flemming Rose’s latest post:

Flemming Rose: You defended the publication of the Mohammed cartoons by Jyllands-Posten. But don’t you think that the critics have a point when they say that one has to avoid offending religious feelings, and therefore the newspaper should have refrained from publishing the cartoons?

Ibn Warraq: No. What kind of right not to be offended are they talking about? No one cares about my rights when the words of the Koran are being spread all around. I see the Koran as an extremely offensive book.

Flemming Rose: How come?

Ibn Warraq: It’s an extremely violent book. It’s filled with hate against non-Muslims. It calls for the killing of infidels and calls on Muslims not to have Jews and Christians among their friends. It gives men the right to beat women, and it proscribes the most cruel punishment for theft. It’s a barbaric document, that is deeply insulting.

Kramnik in the lead

The very strong hosted (category XX) Tal Memorial Tournament is now almost complete, they are finishing round 8 right now.

Unless something weird happens Kramnik will win the tournament, he’s 6/8 and playing very well. A nice end game from round 5, Kramnik vs. Shirov:

Position after black’s 46…Ne7-g6. White wins after
47.h5 … Ne7,
48.g6! … hxg6,
49.h6 … g5
50.h7 … Ng6
51. Kd3!

Game over! Black can’t stop the h-pawn from queening with the king’s aid, and it takes much too much time for the b-pawn to get anywhere. The knight has full control over both the g- and e-pawns. Great play by Kramnik.

Games ect. available at the official site here.

Hæhæ…

Så behøver jeg ikke at skrive det selv, Ulla Nørtoft har gjort arbejdet for mig:

Og hør så her: din blanke stemme er overhovedet ikke interessant for andre end dig selv. Det er fuldstændigt ligemeget, om du bliver liggende på sofaen eller om du besværer dig hen i en stemmeboks for at stemme blank. Det ene er ikke spor bedre end det andet. Forskellen mellem de to handlinger eksisterer ikke andre steder end i dit hoved.

…

Men stemme blank… Åhr pjat. Hvem taler om sidste valgs blanke stemmer? Nej vel. Hvem aner, hvad sidste valgs blanke stemmer skulle betyde? At man ønsker Khalifatet indført? At blyanten skrev for utydeligt? Who knows? Who cares? En blank stemme skal signalere, at man er utilfreds. Nå. MEN MED HVAD? Det kan ingen vide. Derfor kan ingen interessere sig for din blanke stemme ud over dig selv. Ingen kan forstå den, udover dig selv. Den er, hvad den er: en ugyldig stemme, der ikke tæller med.

Kun en tilføjelse: En blank stemmeseddel koster 100 kroner. Er den det værd?

Jeg stemmer på sofaen!

Nu har jeg det på skrift…

Valgkompasset siger følgende:

Parentesen ud for hvert parti viser, hvor meget dine holdninger afviger fra partiet. Jo lavere værdi, jo mere enig er du med partiet.

…

Du har meget til fælles med:

…

Du har en del til fælles med:

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Du har lidt til fælles med:

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Du har intet til fælles med:

Disse partier har angivet standpunkter, som ikke stemmer overens med dine holdninger.

Det Konservative Folkeparti (117)
Dansk Folkeparti (120)
Venstre (131)
Ny Alliance (131)
Det Radikale Venstre (173)
Socialdemokratiet (191)
Kristendemokraterne (191)
Enhedslisten (208)
Socialistisk Folkeparti (210)

…

UPDATE:

Hahaha!

Prøvede lige en test hvor samtlige svar i første kolonne var sat i “hverken/eller”, mens anden kolonne alle havde “spørgsmålet er ikke vigtigt” som svar. Resultatet:

Du har meget til fælles med:

Disse partier har angivet standpunkter, som i høj grad er sammenfaldende med dine.

Ny Alliance (33)
Venstre (34)
Socialdemokratiet (36)
Det Radikale Venstre (36)
Det Konservative Folkeparti (37)
Kristendemokraterne (39)
Socialistisk Folkeparti (40)
Dansk Folkeparti (42)
Enhedslisten (43)

For nu at bruge en politikers egne ord her for nyligt: “Just som vælgerne måske troede ideologierne var døde i (dansk) politik…”

Isaac Asimov on 1984

I have just read this lengthy review of 1984 by Isaac Asimov.

HT to teageegeepea for linking to it.

If you don’t know the opening theory…

…play something else.

A really weird game I played just now:

“US” – Ralph Diehlmann, Russian game, blitz (4+0):

1.e4…e5,
2.Sf3…Sf6,
3.d4…Sxe4,
4.dxe5…d5,
5.Nbd2…Bc5?
6.Nxe4…dxe4,
7.Qxd8+…Kxd8,
8.Ng5…Ke7,
9.Nxe4…Bb6,
10.Bg5+…Ke6,
11.f4…h6,
12.Bc4+…Kf5,
13.Ng3+…Kg4??,
14.Be2++

Two funny things about this game: 1) My opponent had a rating more than 100 above my own. He wasn’t exactly a beginner. 2) In the analysis after the game I realized that every single one of my moves were either Fritz’ first or second choice of moves.

The end position: