The Language of Chess May Be Visualization

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I was browsing the blogs at chess.com and found a few by an author who says he believes we need to learn the fundamentals of chess, but that those fundamentals are a bit different than most of us imagine. The following links go to several of his blog articles on this subject.

http://iplayoochess.com/2012/10/14/flaws-of-early-chess-cognition/

http://iplayoochess.com/2011/08/16/how-to-speed-up-learning-curve-in-chess/

http://iplayoochess.com/2011/08/18/how-to-build-a-better-chess-teacher/

http://iplayoochess.com/2012/09/13/superiority-of-visual-thinking-look-dont-think/

http://www.chess.com/blog/MomirRadovic/the-oldest-and-worst-chess-misconception-of-all-time

http://iplayoochess.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Expert-Chess-Memory-Revisiting-the-Chunking-Hypothesis-Gobet-and-Simon.pdf

Then, I was browsing another site and came across a video of Mikhail Tal giving a blindfold simultaneous exhibition for Soviet television.

There will not be a quiz later.


Enjoy!

Low Wages For The Poor, Low Taxes For The Rich

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The government has cut "food stamps" SNAP benefits with the sequester plan, so the poor are indeed getting poorer.

Welfare isn't too high. Wages are too low.

Walmart employees mostly make less than $ 25,000 / year.

McOutrage: poverty wages for-workers, but corporate jet for execs

10 percent of America's largest companies pay ZERO percent tax rate

Jon Stewart says to media, don't cry for JP Morgan

Isn't GDP about the highest it's ever been in America? So, why are the working poor having such a hard time. Maybe they should just fly to the capitol in their private jets and their zero tax rate and tell their lobbyists to complain to their congressman.

A Local Car Dealership, A Dead Battery, A Volt and Strategy

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I've had trouble with my car not starting for years. It's been entirely irregular. One time I had driven it to the Sears auto garage and parked it, but when the mechanics went to move it they couldn't start it. I got in, turned the key and it started. They thought I had some kind of trick.

Well, yesterday it wouldn't start (yet again). I waited and tried over & over, but no go. So, I relented, called AAA and had it towed to the local Chevy dealership. If they couldn't fix a Chevy then who could.

While I was there I looked at a Volt and talked to one of their salesmen about various vehicles. I found they sold a giant truck for about $68,000, but had only sold ONE Volt for about $42,000 (with $15,000 gov't rebate). Why I wondered?

So, on to the garage I went and got my car. They had to change the battery (oh the irony of the Volt full of batteries going unused and my batter being the one that died). I wonder if replacing the battery will really solve all the problems. But, naturally the first thing I noticed was the gigantic bill. Why should it cost so much to change a battery?

The next day I had an epiphany: the cost of maintenance is a profit center for the dealerships and if they sell you a car that doesn't break down (an electric car), then there's no profit by fixing it. This explains a lot about why they had only sold one Volt, and that to an electric company executive!

In other words, car companies in America don't get paid for selling you a great quality car that won't break down, but for selling stuff scheduled to fall apart so you have to get it fixed -- an electric car doesn't fit that mold.

The car companies which have invested billions in building internal combustion engine cars and in garages to fix them can't afford to change to electric cars (at least not quickly). This means the best way forward is for foreign makers or new companies to do it. Of course, they would receive tremendous competition from existing companies who don't want to lose business. Then, of course, they will have brought it on themselves by making the repair business a profit center instead of a dead cost.

Strategy comes into the picture when you want to devise something new which can succeed. Where are your profits and costs and how can a customer base afford it. The existing car companies spread it out by charging less up front and repair payments along the way. What can electric car companies do to spread the costs or just make them so low the existing companies get blown away?

It's easy to make small changes here and there and never quite get anywhere. What is the big picture which will succeed and how can you get to it without falling apart? You can't have a  end product, but no way to get there and hope it will all work out. This is one reason I believe hybrids are the way to go. An existing company can build a hybrid with the internal combustion engine and transition to the all-electric (or perhaps bio-diesel with battery hybrid) without changing every single thing about their company and without having to compete against existing companies which have already sunk costs in infrastructure.

A new American car company which doesn't profit from repairs would be an amazing thing.

Science Stories I find fascinating

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Why do we sleep? Scientists now know.

Scientists discover DNA body clock

New super-waterproof material makes water drops bounce-off

Why are there giant mirrors installed on Norway mountainside?

Map shows global denial-of-service attacks
   Here's the map alone: Denial-of-service map (it updates instantly)

Wendy Money Bomb and National Geographic Pictures

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Give money to the campaign of Wendy Davis (D-Texas), running for governor!

DailyKos.com spreads the word about a National Money Bomb for Wendy Davis for Texas Governor -- Click here to give!


National Geographic asked its readers to send in pics from their vacations. They're fantastic.

Energy, Science and Government Policy

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Kevin Drum (at MotherJones.com) asks, can methanol save us all?

Arizona solar-power plant could revolutionize renewable energy

Study: renewable energy patents surge

A turning point in the treatment of Alzheimer's? (from the BBC)

Gun injuries - 630 million (from ThinkProgress.com)

The real reason we need to sleep (from BusinessInsider.com)

Killing Government -- by the TEA party & Co.

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The story begins long ago, not just a month or two. A cabal of organization leaders got together and decided enough was enough and they had to stop this government in its tracks.

Billionaires for Default

FreedomWorks joint letter on sequester savings (aka memo of agreement to shut down gov't)

Bill Moyers tells us who is behind it: ten hardline conservatives pulling the strings of the GOP shutdown

(from the Bill Moyer's article) Who's pulling the strings

When they tell you it's Pres. Obama and the Democrats who shut down government you can point to these articles as evidence the Republicans planned it long ago.

Daily Kos tells us about Mrs Ted Cruz, VP Goldman Sachs and Policy Advisor to Bush-Cheney

Is the shutdown going to end soon? The Atlantic tells us one answer.

How crazy are these anti-government people? CrooksandLiars.com explains.

BuzzFeed.com tells us FreedomWorks may be strapped for cash!

Robert Reich (Sec. of Labor in Clinton administration) tells us we shouldn't be magnanimous (yet).

I think the Right has to pay a price, but they're quickly arriving at the point where a deal may be made to move the country forward. There are a lot of things Congress needs to do which have been put on hold and once this episode is passed there may be new possibilities for progress.

Reports of Scientific Achievements and Poverty

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Researchers find a way to transform all those waste plastic bags into something useful!
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/02/researchers-transform-plastic-bags-into-high-tech-nanomaterial/


Scientists think they've found the issue in brains that cause schizophrenia!
http://www.businessinsider.com/brain-white-matter-and-schizophrenia-2013-10


Flu bug be gone!
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/07/rutgers-scientists-find-molecules-that-could-knock-out-flu/

http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/good-news-on-the-anti-bug-front/


Let there be (super-cheap) light, said the Canadian teen!

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/03/canadian-teens-battery-free-hollow-flashlight-could-bring-light-to-developing-world/


And there there's this...about the American corporation
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/mcdonalds-worker-arrested-after-telling-comp


There has to be a better way.

Presidential Leadership wrt The Shutdown

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The Republicans passed the Budget Control Act, so that in the event of a shutdown there would be a steady flow of money to pay interest on the debt. That lets them keep the gov't shut down as long as they like (despite whomever it may hurt) and yet claim they're not destroying "the good faith and credit" of the U.S. gov't.

The Republicans demanded Democrats negotiate with them on a budget. So, Senate Democrats DID, and conceded to accepting the Republican budget numbers. The bill was passed. That was a Dem concession.

The House had passed a budget, but then the House refused to appoint conferees, so the two budgets could be taken to conference and differences resolved. That was about SIX months ago. Republicans continue to refuse to negotiate.

The Senate passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) to continue spending at the present levels for a short time, so the House & Senate could negotiate a final budget bill. That's a second whack at the concession. It remains untouched by the House Republicans.

The House Republicans passed a resolution which suspends a normal House rule, so that no clean continuing resolution (CR) could be brought up by the Democrats to get a vote on spending which would keep the government going...in full. They refuse to allow progress in the House.

Now Republicans claim the president isn't supplying leadership. At the same time they say the federal government "purse" is in their hands. They are required to initiate spending and yet they say clearly they intend to NOT fund Obamacare. By defunding the ACA it would essentially negate the law. That's deciding a policy issue via funding. It's not what the founders wanted Congress to do and if the president, or the Democratically-controlled Senate goes along with that there will be no end to this kind of blackmailing in the future. The founders gave the House responsibility to raise taxes (or lower them) and to plan and authorize spending, but not to be able to override the Senate and Executive (the president). These Republicans think they control all of government when it comes to spending. They are WRONG.

Since the president can rise above partisanship this one has said he do just that and will stand for traditional lines of authority and resist the blackmail. The House is to initiate, but not to dictate spending levels to everyone else.

Further, anyone who doesn't think the president and Democrats haven't negotiated on the deficit and how to reduce it haven't been paying attention. The size of the deficit is shrinking. That's what the sequester was about and the Democrats passed a CR with that level of spending.

Republicans have focused primarily on ending the ACA (Obamacare) while saying they want to negotiate on the ACA, the deficit, the budget, and anything that comes to their mind. It's time to fund government and send conferees to settle the budget, as the Congress is supposed to do. The president isn't part of that process.