| Religion of Peace Atrocity of the Week  Indonesia: Salvation Army Family SlaughteredOther Recent "Misunderstandings of Islam" |
| 2020.11.30 (Yemen) Two children are flattened by an Ansar Allah rocket.2020.11.29 (Yemen) Four childen and four women are eliminated by an Ansar Allah rocket2020.11.28 (Afghanistan) A Fedayeen suicide bomber slaughters thirty-one at a security base.2020.11.28 (Nigeria) Over one-hundred farm workers are tied up and then murdered by having their throats slit.2020.11.27 (Iraq) Supporters of a radical cleric fire into an opposition rally, killing five.2020.11.27 (Somalia) A Shahid suicide bomber takes down seven patrons at a busy restaurant. |
Monday, November 30, 2020
These atrocities for Allah are boring because it never ends, and it never will end until every Muslim moron drops dead.
Someone asked a question about throwing out Christianity.
"What was the worst thing about being a Christian?"
The stupidity.
"What is something you miss about it?"
How could I miss the stupidity?
The stupidity.
"What is something you miss about it?"
How could I miss the stupidity?
My two cents
It is now Monday night, November 30, 2020. Just one more month and then 2020 is over with.
It was a difficult year. Lots of people suffered and/or dropped dead thanks to a free gift from China. The coronavirus is going to get much worse before we wipe it out.
But if there was no coronavirus the American economy would have continued to be fantastic with everyone able to get a job. Trump would have won the election and that would have been a disaster.
I thank China for fucking up. They saved this planet from something much worse, Fucktard Trump.
Wear a mask. Don't go anywhere. Stay away from people. And there should be no problem.
It was a difficult year. Lots of people suffered and/or dropped dead thanks to a free gift from China. The coronavirus is going to get much worse before we wipe it out.
But if there was no coronavirus the American economy would have continued to be fantastic with everyone able to get a job. Trump would have won the election and that would have been a disaster.
I thank China for fucking up. They saved this planet from something much worse, Fucktard Trump.
Wear a mask. Don't go anywhere. Stay away from people. And there should be no problem.
I wrote this somewhere else for some Christian fucktards.
What Anonymous wrote: "Finally, we have to stand up and honestly declare that our world is billions of years old like the scientists all say, and not 6500 years old as some creationists declare. They make the Church look ignorant and they make Christians look stupid."
Also, Christians should honestly declare that we evolved from ancient apes and God had nothing to do with it. Christians should admit God was never required for anything.
Also, Christians should honestly declare that we evolved from ancient apes and God had nothing to do with it. Christians should admit God was never required for anything.
One of the most interesting facts of science: Birds are dinosaurs.
Why were birds the only dinosaurs to survive the mass extinction?
The asteroid that caused the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period struck Earth with 60,000 times the energy of the world’s entire nuclear arsenal. The atmosphere would have glowed red hot for several hours and all the large dinosaurs that couldn’t burrow underground or hide underwater were immediately roasted.
When the smaller species came out of hiding they found a charred landscape and the air so thick with soot and sulphur dioxide clouds that sunlight was almost completely blocked out for the next year. It was too dark for photosynthesis, so the herbivores died, then the carnivores.
Birds are descended from the maniraptoran dinosaurs but they had two important adaptations that helped them survive. First, they had beaks instead of teeth, which allowed them to crack open seeds and nuts buried in the topsoil.
Second, their relatively large skull capacity suggests that they were more intelligent than the other reptiles. They may have lived in more complex social groups that could cooperate and adapt to find new food sources in the radically different post-apocalyptic landscape. This allowed them to eventually outcompete any other species of small dinosaur that might have survived the initial impact.
I'm adding this to my list of favorite quotes.
Stanley Banda
"I love playing chess so that one I am going to become a Grand Master in chess. Right now I do not have a title. I surely believe that I will be a GM one day. No matter how long it takes as long as I am alive."
Lusaka
Zambia
"I love playing chess so that one I am going to become a Grand Master in chess. Right now I do not have a title. I surely believe that I will be a GM one day. No matter how long it takes as long as I am alive."
Lusaka
ZambiaThe 1st chess game I played today, I was defeated by someone who lives in Lusaka, Zambia. I like to look things up. I found this.
IN FRONT OF THE GOVERNMENT offices in downtown Lusaka stands the Zambian Freedom Statue. The artwork depicts a man breaking free from chains, representing the struggles Zambians faced while overthrowing the chains of colonialism. It’s now such a potent symbol of Zambia that it’s depicted on all denominations of the country’s currency, the Kwatcha.
The statue was erected in 1974 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Zambia’s independence. Although the country had a relatively peaceful transition, winning independence without a civil war or armed revolution, the struggle toward freedom was still long. It also, unfortunately, involved occasional violent suppression from the colonial government.
This symbolic monument honoring the freedom fighters who died during the conflicts was inspired by a real event. The man immortalized in the artwork is Zanco Mpundu Mutembo, a native to the Zambian town of Mbala. After a trial following his arrest for protesting, Mutembo was sent to Livingstone Prison, where he was held in chains. With 18 armed soldiers facing him, he was ordered to break free from his constraints or be shot instantly. Summoning great strength, he managed to break the chains.
Today, the Freedom Statue is a popular gathering place on Africa Day (May 25). On Zambian Independence Day (October 24), a wreath is laid to honor the freedom fighters that lost their lives.
I answered a question about religions.
"What makes a religion bad?"
The brainwashing of children. Every religion requires this child abuse.
The brainwashing of children. Every religion requires this child abuse.
Sunday, November 29, 2020
An interesting fact: President-elect Joe Biden is 78 years old. He will be the oldest president in United States history. Already he is having problems.
Wall Street Journal
POLITICS
Biden Injures Ankle Over Thanksgiving Weekend
Hairline fractures will require the president-elect to wear a walking boot for several weeks.
By Tarini Parti
November 29, 2020
President-elect Joe Biden twisted his ankle over the weekend while playing with his dog Major, his aides said Sunday. The injury caused a hairline fracture, requiring the 78-year-old to wear a walking boot “for several weeks,” according to his physician.
“Initial x-rays did not show any obvious fracture, but his clinical exam warranted more detailed imaging,” Mr. Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, director of Executive Medicine at GW Medical Faculty Associates, said in a statement Sunday.
“Follow-up CT scan confirmed hairline (small) fractures of President-elect Biden’s lateral and intermediate cuneiform bones, which are in the mid-foot,“ Dr. O’Connor added. ”It is anticipated that he will likely require a walking boot for several weeks.”
Mr. Biden returned to Wilmington, Del., on Sunday after spending the holiday weekend in Rehoboth Beach.
Despite the injury, aides said Mr. Biden would continue working on his transition to set up his administration. He is scheduled to receive his first official security briefing Monday and expected to announce his economic team on Tuesday.
Responding to Mr. Biden’s injury, President Trump tweeted Sunday: “Get well soon!”
POLITICS
Biden Injures Ankle Over Thanksgiving Weekend
Hairline fractures will require the president-elect to wear a walking boot for several weeks.
By Tarini Parti
November 29, 2020
President-elect Joe Biden twisted his ankle over the weekend while playing with his dog Major, his aides said Sunday. The injury caused a hairline fracture, requiring the 78-year-old to wear a walking boot “for several weeks,” according to his physician.
“Initial x-rays did not show any obvious fracture, but his clinical exam warranted more detailed imaging,” Mr. Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, director of Executive Medicine at GW Medical Faculty Associates, said in a statement Sunday.
“Follow-up CT scan confirmed hairline (small) fractures of President-elect Biden’s lateral and intermediate cuneiform bones, which are in the mid-foot,“ Dr. O’Connor added. ”It is anticipated that he will likely require a walking boot for several weeks.”
Mr. Biden returned to Wilmington, Del., on Sunday after spending the holiday weekend in Rehoboth Beach.
Despite the injury, aides said Mr. Biden would continue working on his transition to set up his administration. He is scheduled to receive his first official security briefing Monday and expected to announce his economic team on Tuesday.
Responding to Mr. Biden’s injury, President Trump tweeted Sunday: “Get well soon!”
I wrote this 5 years ago. It was about one of my favorite cousins.
The other ape species are very intelligent creatures.
Several years ago I was at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo standing next to a huge gorilla who was sitting on a stool. I turned my head to talk to my friends. When I was about to look at the gorilla he threw his entire weight at me. Completely forgetting the thick glass between us I was terrified. Then he smashed into the glass. He planned the whole thing. Best practical joke ever. Perfect timing. It was obvious he was laughing at me. Because of the glass I did not know if this was silent laughing but he was definitely laughing. I learned that day gorillas are very intelligent creatures which makes sense because we share an ancestor with them.
Several years ago I was at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo standing next to a huge gorilla who was sitting on a stool. I turned my head to talk to my friends. When I was about to look at the gorilla he threw his entire weight at me. Completely forgetting the thick glass between us I was terrified. Then he smashed into the glass. He planned the whole thing. Best practical joke ever. Perfect timing. It was obvious he was laughing at me. Because of the glass I did not know if this was silent laughing but he was definitely laughing. I learned that day gorillas are very intelligent creatures which makes sense because we share an ancestor with them.
This Wall Street Journal article is very interesting. "Eastern Europe in Dire Need of Doctors."
Wall Street Journal
‘It’s Like the Second World War.’ Covid-19 Is Tearing Into the Parts of Europe That Lack Doctors
Europe’s crisis is moving into poorer states that have exported doctors for decades. Now the bill from that exodus is coming due.
By Drew Hinshaw and Natalia Ojewska
November 27, 2020
MIĘDZYCHÓD, Poland—So many new doctors left Poland for better-paying jobs in Europe’s west that when Łukasz Rotnicki decided to stay behind he often found himself working 36-hour shifts, sleeping on the brown pullout sofa of a small-town hospital with too few staff.
That was before Covid-19.
On a recent Monday, the 36-year-old surgeon was on his 74th consecutive hour of treating coronavirus patients, broken by only a few short naps.
At the same hospital, a local nurse had recently been hospitalized, feverish and short of breath. Yet the staffing crunch was so dire that she kept working in the very Covid-19 ward where she was meant to recover, feeding the sick and turning them onto their stomachs before returning to her own bed in the same room.
Europe’s Covid-19 crisis is moving eastward, from the wealthiest and best-prepared countries on the continent into the poorer states that have exported doctors for decades. Now, as Covid-19 cases soar, the bill from that long exodus is coming due.
With 238 physicians per 100,000 people, Poland has the lowest such ratio in the European Union, nearly half the level of Germany, whose relative success in handling the virus owes much to its foreign staff. The average age of Polish nurses is 53, just seven years short of retirement.
Largely spared during the spring surge, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Romania braced for autumn by stocking up on ventilators. But they lack people to operate the equipment. As cases pile up, shifts that often spanned two full days before the pandemic are now stretching the limits of human endurance.
“It’s hard times, I think, it’s like the Second World War,” said Dr. Rotnicki, who arrived on a recent Friday morning at the Independent State Healthcare Hospital in Międzychód in western Poland and didn’t clock out until the following Monday. Hours later, three of his patients died. “I had to go home because I thought, I will maybe kill somebody,” he said.
The shortages, which have prompted strict stay-at-home orders through Christmas in Poland, are the consequence of a borderless Europe that has seen prosperous countries—particularly in Western Europe—soak up talent from regions that offer lower pay.
As a result, Italian and British hospitals are coping with Covid-19 with help from Polish, Romanian and Hungarian staff.
Back home, doctors and nurses who stayed behind are working dayslong shifts.
Katarzyn Koch-Brzozowska, head nurse at the Międzychód hospital, said that her nurses threaten daily to quit, but she has successfully fought to keep them. “I call them a million times a day, and I bake them cookies with every day off,” she said.
In Hungary, physiotherapists can earn five times their $600-a-month entry salary pulling shorter shifts in Germany, and in Estonia doctors can quintuple their pay by crossing over to Finland. In western Poland, headhunters drive in from Germany, blanketing windshields with pamphlets that promise five times more pay, two years of free language classes and housing.
As incomes have risen in the region, nursing has become a less attractive profession. Schools that were once selective are now struggling to recruit enough students. In Slovakia, a third of all graduates immediately leave the country, said Jana Bendova, a board member of the Slovak Society of General Practice.
The staff who remain in the region tend to be older and were educated under communism, when schools taught less English, or have returned after years abroad
At western Poland’s Healthcare Center in Bolesławiec, three-fourths of nurses have fallen ill. Nearly half of nurses have contracted the virus at the nearby Drezdenko hospital, where one recent morning, a visibly sick receptionist greeting guests complained of a fever. Nationwide, about a 10th of Polish nurses were quarantined as suspected Covid-19 cases last month.
Officially, the Drezdenko hospital has 126 beds, but only enough staff to handle about 80 patients, a number they have already breached. Shortly before the pandemic, the hospital had managed to convince two daughters of its own nurses, both medical-school graduates, to join the staff. But within a few weeks, both left for the U.K.
Authorities have drafted troops, nuns and lifeguards to help. At Polish hospitals, soldiers take temperatures of visitors and input data into computers.
At one hospital in eastern Poland, staff recruited nine lifeguards from neighboring Ukraine. But they were unable to do anything more than basic CPR; most of them soon tested positive for Covid-19.
Hospitals have sent maternity-ward doctors, pediatricians and even physiotherapists into Covid-19 wards where many patients die. In Dr. Rotnicki’s hospital one recent morning, a pediatric nurse, used to caring for young children, sobbed during her break after a patient had died alone, the staff stretched too thin to sit with him.
“They’re not used to working with death,” said a nearby nurse, getting ready to don head-to-toe protective equipment.
For years, regional governments have tried to entice medical-school graduates to stay behind, sometimes with pay increases. Many doctors survived on cash given to them by patients. Just before the pandemic struck, those pay hikes had begun to help, and emigration started to slow.
But problems remain. To staff public hospitals, Hungary’s government is pressuring doctors to give up private practice and their right to choose which hospital they serve, a move widely opposed by doctors. A survey from June by the Hungarian Medical Chamber found six out of 10 medical-school graduates intend to leave Hungary.
“We’d rather be cashiers at Aldi or Tesco,” said one doctor, who is barred from government rules from speaking out. “We’d earn more and at least have our weekends free.”
When Dr. Rotnicki graduated in 2010, a stream of classmates crossed the border to take work in Germany, in hospitals where he estimates as much as half the staff is Polish.
In October, the regional government called to negotiate how many beds the hospital would be able to take at once, settling on 40. Within weeks of the arrival of the first patient, 15 medical staff were out sick.
Dr. Rotnicki began working marathon hours. On a recent day, ambulances had brought 10 seriously ill patients by the afternoon. Two needed intubation and another, a diabetic, was already unconscious. Many required oxygen and had to be carefully rolled onto their stomachs repeatedly to assist their breathing.
Meanwhile, 100 miles south, construction workers were racing to finish a new 65-bed hospital exclusively for Covid-19 patients overflowing regional hospitals. In about a month, the builders expected to finish an infectious-disease clinic on a muddy lot, complete with oxygen lines and CCTV cameras in every room.
The problem, medical staff said, is who will work there.
“If I have one new nurse,” said Ms. Koch-Brzozowska, the nursing director, “it means another hospital has one nurse less.”
Appeared in the November 28, 2020, print edition as 'Eastern Europe in Dire Need of Doctors.'
‘It’s Like the Second World War.’ Covid-19 Is Tearing Into the Parts of Europe That Lack Doctors
Europe’s crisis is moving into poorer states that have exported doctors for decades. Now the bill from that exodus is coming due.
By Drew Hinshaw and Natalia Ojewska
November 27, 2020
MIĘDZYCHÓD, Poland—So many new doctors left Poland for better-paying jobs in Europe’s west that when Łukasz Rotnicki decided to stay behind he often found himself working 36-hour shifts, sleeping on the brown pullout sofa of a small-town hospital with too few staff.
That was before Covid-19.
On a recent Monday, the 36-year-old surgeon was on his 74th consecutive hour of treating coronavirus patients, broken by only a few short naps.
At the same hospital, a local nurse had recently been hospitalized, feverish and short of breath. Yet the staffing crunch was so dire that she kept working in the very Covid-19 ward where she was meant to recover, feeding the sick and turning them onto their stomachs before returning to her own bed in the same room.
Europe’s Covid-19 crisis is moving eastward, from the wealthiest and best-prepared countries on the continent into the poorer states that have exported doctors for decades. Now, as Covid-19 cases soar, the bill from that long exodus is coming due.
With 238 physicians per 100,000 people, Poland has the lowest such ratio in the European Union, nearly half the level of Germany, whose relative success in handling the virus owes much to its foreign staff. The average age of Polish nurses is 53, just seven years short of retirement.
Largely spared during the spring surge, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Romania braced for autumn by stocking up on ventilators. But they lack people to operate the equipment. As cases pile up, shifts that often spanned two full days before the pandemic are now stretching the limits of human endurance.
“It’s hard times, I think, it’s like the Second World War,” said Dr. Rotnicki, who arrived on a recent Friday morning at the Independent State Healthcare Hospital in Międzychód in western Poland and didn’t clock out until the following Monday. Hours later, three of his patients died. “I had to go home because I thought, I will maybe kill somebody,” he said.
The shortages, which have prompted strict stay-at-home orders through Christmas in Poland, are the consequence of a borderless Europe that has seen prosperous countries—particularly in Western Europe—soak up talent from regions that offer lower pay.
As a result, Italian and British hospitals are coping with Covid-19 with help from Polish, Romanian and Hungarian staff.
Back home, doctors and nurses who stayed behind are working dayslong shifts.
Katarzyn Koch-Brzozowska, head nurse at the Międzychód hospital, said that her nurses threaten daily to quit, but she has successfully fought to keep them. “I call them a million times a day, and I bake them cookies with every day off,” she said.
In Hungary, physiotherapists can earn five times their $600-a-month entry salary pulling shorter shifts in Germany, and in Estonia doctors can quintuple their pay by crossing over to Finland. In western Poland, headhunters drive in from Germany, blanketing windshields with pamphlets that promise five times more pay, two years of free language classes and housing.
As incomes have risen in the region, nursing has become a less attractive profession. Schools that were once selective are now struggling to recruit enough students. In Slovakia, a third of all graduates immediately leave the country, said Jana Bendova, a board member of the Slovak Society of General Practice.
The staff who remain in the region tend to be older and were educated under communism, when schools taught less English, or have returned after years abroad
At western Poland’s Healthcare Center in Bolesławiec, three-fourths of nurses have fallen ill. Nearly half of nurses have contracted the virus at the nearby Drezdenko hospital, where one recent morning, a visibly sick receptionist greeting guests complained of a fever. Nationwide, about a 10th of Polish nurses were quarantined as suspected Covid-19 cases last month.
Officially, the Drezdenko hospital has 126 beds, but only enough staff to handle about 80 patients, a number they have already breached. Shortly before the pandemic, the hospital had managed to convince two daughters of its own nurses, both medical-school graduates, to join the staff. But within a few weeks, both left for the U.K.
Authorities have drafted troops, nuns and lifeguards to help. At Polish hospitals, soldiers take temperatures of visitors and input data into computers.
At one hospital in eastern Poland, staff recruited nine lifeguards from neighboring Ukraine. But they were unable to do anything more than basic CPR; most of them soon tested positive for Covid-19.
Hospitals have sent maternity-ward doctors, pediatricians and even physiotherapists into Covid-19 wards where many patients die. In Dr. Rotnicki’s hospital one recent morning, a pediatric nurse, used to caring for young children, sobbed during her break after a patient had died alone, the staff stretched too thin to sit with him.
“They’re not used to working with death,” said a nearby nurse, getting ready to don head-to-toe protective equipment.
For years, regional governments have tried to entice medical-school graduates to stay behind, sometimes with pay increases. Many doctors survived on cash given to them by patients. Just before the pandemic struck, those pay hikes had begun to help, and emigration started to slow.
But problems remain. To staff public hospitals, Hungary’s government is pressuring doctors to give up private practice and their right to choose which hospital they serve, a move widely opposed by doctors. A survey from June by the Hungarian Medical Chamber found six out of 10 medical-school graduates intend to leave Hungary.
“We’d rather be cashiers at Aldi or Tesco,” said one doctor, who is barred from government rules from speaking out. “We’d earn more and at least have our weekends free.”
When Dr. Rotnicki graduated in 2010, a stream of classmates crossed the border to take work in Germany, in hospitals where he estimates as much as half the staff is Polish.
In October, the regional government called to negotiate how many beds the hospital would be able to take at once, settling on 40. Within weeks of the arrival of the first patient, 15 medical staff were out sick.
Dr. Rotnicki began working marathon hours. On a recent day, ambulances had brought 10 seriously ill patients by the afternoon. Two needed intubation and another, a diabetic, was already unconscious. Many required oxygen and had to be carefully rolled onto their stomachs repeatedly to assist their breathing.
Meanwhile, 100 miles south, construction workers were racing to finish a new 65-bed hospital exclusively for Covid-19 patients overflowing regional hospitals. In about a month, the builders expected to finish an infectious-disease clinic on a muddy lot, complete with oxygen lines and CCTV cameras in every room.
The problem, medical staff said, is who will work there.
“If I have one new nurse,” said Ms. Koch-Brzozowska, the nursing director, “it means another hospital has one nurse less.”
Appeared in the November 28, 2020, print edition as 'Eastern Europe in Dire Need of Doctors.'
I answered a question about the Magic Man and Christianity.
"Does God need the label of Christianity?"
Does the magic god fairy need any religion? I doubt it. The fairy already has enough problems, for example it isn't real.
Does the magic god fairy need any religion? I doubt it. The fairy already has enough problems, for example it isn't real.
I wrote this for a Christian asshole.
The problem with you people is you think you can throw out reality but reality is not going anywhere.
Your loving god fairy can't torture dead people because they are dead.
Your loving god fairy can't torture dead people because they are dead.
I just played chess with someone who lives in Frederiksberg, Denmark. It's a bit different from the northwestern Illinois farm town I live in.
About Frederiksberg
Frederiksberg is sort of a city within a city—though completely surrounded by Copenhagen, it’s technically its own municipality. It’s teeming with gourmet specialty shops, upscale shopping and charming cafés. But it’s also steeped in history and culture. An enormous park features romantic gardens, a Chinese pavilion, Greek-style temple and labyrinth. Take tour of the masterful baroque Frederiksberg Palace and enjoy the delicate exhibits of the Museum of Modern Glass Art.
Saturday, November 28, 2020
The Iranian people need to kill their asshole dictators.
"The Biden administration will be dealing with a weak regime and should negotiate from a position of strength to avoid the mistakes of the Obama nuclear deal."
Biden should do what Trump has been doing. Trump has been trying to wipe out Iran's theocratic assholes by destroying their economy. When that happens, the United States and Iran can be best friends, which is the way it should be.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Wall Street Journal
OPINION
COMMENTARY
Home Is No Haven for Iran’s Regime
The killing of a top nuclear scientist dramatizes the ayatollahs’ domestic vulnerability.
By Kamran Bokhari
November 27, 2020
The killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh should be a message to Joe Biden and his nascent administration. Even as Iranian intelligence has pushed aggressively to expand its external influence via regional proxies, its domestic counterintelligence capabilities have significantly weakened. This is only the latest in a series of attacks that underscore the extent to which foreign intelligence services have been able to penetrate the country. Such attacks undermine the regime and could encourage domestic unrest. Mr. Biden should factor in this weakness as he prepares to negotiate with Tehran.
State media in Iran reported that Fakhrizadeh, 59, had been assassinated in the town of Absard. According to the reports, gunmen opened fire on the vehicle carrying Fakhrizadeh, who was also an officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Tehran’s elite military force. Iranian officials and unnamed U.S. officials say Israel was behind the attack.
This comes two weeks after intelligence leaks showed a top al Qaeda leader, who had been enjoying sanctuary in Tehran since the destruction of al Qaeda’s headquarters in Afghanistan nearly two decades ago, had been killed by Israeli operatives in an operation that was outsourced by U.S. intelligence. Earlier in the summer, Iran was rocked by a wave of unexplained explosions around the country, hitting at least one nuclear site. All these attacks point to an elaborate campaign designed to counter Iranian efforts to develop nuclear technology, especially for military purposes.
Israeli efforts to prevent Iran from crossing the nuclear Rubicon go back to the late 2000s. But the bigger story is the sheer scale of Israeli or U.S. intelligence capabilities in Iran. Tehran’s security forces are obsessed with spying to the point that they have targeted many Iranians with Western citizenship. And Iran’s security establishment is known for effective tradecraft when it comes to intelligence and military operations involving proxies on its borders.
It’s ironic that such a country would become so vulnerable internally. This state of affairs suggests that external operations have been made possible at the expense of domestic security. It highlights a significant weakening of Iranian domestic security infrastructure, which is a maze of multiple entities: Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ministry of Intelligence and Security, IRGC, Basij, etc.
For Iran’s adversaries to pull off so many operations so quickly means there is a significant scale of local recruitment and management of cutouts. In many ways growing public anger against the regime in the last decade or so—including last year’s protests and brutal crackdown—has provided a recruitment-rich environment for foreign intelligence services.
The clerical regime is running into a credibility problem—with its proxies in the region, but more important among its own citizens. An Iran with internal security weakness is less likely to advance its radical regional agenda. More significant is that it faces the potential for sustained unrest from its own people, who suffer from economic pain and the chokehold of an autocratic state.
Tehran’s response will be tied to its need to try to extract a new agreement from the U.S. that can relieve a harsh sanctions regime. The Biden administration will be dealing with a weak regime and should negotiate from a position of strength to avoid the mistakes of the Obama nuclear deal.
Mr. Bokhari is director of analytical development at the Center for Global Policy.
Biden should do what Trump has been doing. Trump has been trying to wipe out Iran's theocratic assholes by destroying their economy. When that happens, the United States and Iran can be best friends, which is the way it should be.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Wall Street Journal
OPINION
COMMENTARY
Home Is No Haven for Iran’s Regime
The killing of a top nuclear scientist dramatizes the ayatollahs’ domestic vulnerability.
By Kamran Bokhari
November 27, 2020
The killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh should be a message to Joe Biden and his nascent administration. Even as Iranian intelligence has pushed aggressively to expand its external influence via regional proxies, its domestic counterintelligence capabilities have significantly weakened. This is only the latest in a series of attacks that underscore the extent to which foreign intelligence services have been able to penetrate the country. Such attacks undermine the regime and could encourage domestic unrest. Mr. Biden should factor in this weakness as he prepares to negotiate with Tehran.
State media in Iran reported that Fakhrizadeh, 59, had been assassinated in the town of Absard. According to the reports, gunmen opened fire on the vehicle carrying Fakhrizadeh, who was also an officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Tehran’s elite military force. Iranian officials and unnamed U.S. officials say Israel was behind the attack.
This comes two weeks after intelligence leaks showed a top al Qaeda leader, who had been enjoying sanctuary in Tehran since the destruction of al Qaeda’s headquarters in Afghanistan nearly two decades ago, had been killed by Israeli operatives in an operation that was outsourced by U.S. intelligence. Earlier in the summer, Iran was rocked by a wave of unexplained explosions around the country, hitting at least one nuclear site. All these attacks point to an elaborate campaign designed to counter Iranian efforts to develop nuclear technology, especially for military purposes.
Israeli efforts to prevent Iran from crossing the nuclear Rubicon go back to the late 2000s. But the bigger story is the sheer scale of Israeli or U.S. intelligence capabilities in Iran. Tehran’s security forces are obsessed with spying to the point that they have targeted many Iranians with Western citizenship. And Iran’s security establishment is known for effective tradecraft when it comes to intelligence and military operations involving proxies on its borders.
It’s ironic that such a country would become so vulnerable internally. This state of affairs suggests that external operations have been made possible at the expense of domestic security. It highlights a significant weakening of Iranian domestic security infrastructure, which is a maze of multiple entities: Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ministry of Intelligence and Security, IRGC, Basij, etc.
For Iran’s adversaries to pull off so many operations so quickly means there is a significant scale of local recruitment and management of cutouts. In many ways growing public anger against the regime in the last decade or so—including last year’s protests and brutal crackdown—has provided a recruitment-rich environment for foreign intelligence services.
The clerical regime is running into a credibility problem—with its proxies in the region, but more important among its own citizens. An Iran with internal security weakness is less likely to advance its radical regional agenda. More significant is that it faces the potential for sustained unrest from its own people, who suffer from economic pain and the chokehold of an autocratic state.
Tehran’s response will be tied to its need to try to extract a new agreement from the U.S. that can relieve a harsh sanctions regime. The Biden administration will be dealing with a weak regime and should negotiate from a position of strength to avoid the mistakes of the Obama nuclear deal.
Mr. Bokhari is director of analytical development at the Center for Global Policy.
A fucktard asked a stupid question.
"Can atheists prove their positive claim of no God?"
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
One more time to help dense people understand.
Magic god fairies and magic Easter Bunnies are impossible. There is no magic in the universe. This is a basic fact of reality.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
One more time to help dense people understand.
Magic god fairies and magic Easter Bunnies are impossible. There is no magic in the universe. This is a basic fact of reality.
Everything you always wanted to know about ALPHA chimpanzees.
What does it mean to be an ALPHA?
Chimpanzee social groups establish a hierarchy amongst themselves. Typically in wild chimpanzee communities, there is an alpha male who is the most dominant member of the group. The males have a clear dominance hierarchy amongst themselves, and generally all males are dominant to all females within the community. Females also have a hierarchy, and there is usually an alpha female who is the most powerful of all the females.
In captivity, dominance hierarchies among chimpanzees may not always resemble hierarchies seen in the wild. Many captive chimpanzees grew up in isolation or had very limited social interactions. They did not learn the “rules” of society as free-living chimpanzees do. When they are finally given the opportunity to live in a family group, and establish their own social order, it can take them awhile to figure things out. The resulting social structure may be somewhat different than what is observed in the wild. Females may be more dominant than some males. There may not be a clear-cut alpha male or alpha female, or some chimps may share leadership duties. The hierarchy may not be linear, but rather more like a matrix.
However, in both wild and captive chimpanzee groups, one thing is clear—a good alpha is worth his or her weight in gold. The most successful chimpanzee leaders rule with a firm but kind hand, are fair, welcoming, and seek to resolve disputes quickly. This results in group cohesion and relatively few arguments amongst the members of the community.
This blog has 142 posts about chimpanzee apes at chimpanzee apes.
Chimpanzee social groups establish a hierarchy amongst themselves. Typically in wild chimpanzee communities, there is an alpha male who is the most dominant member of the group. The males have a clear dominance hierarchy amongst themselves, and generally all males are dominant to all females within the community. Females also have a hierarchy, and there is usually an alpha female who is the most powerful of all the females.
In captivity, dominance hierarchies among chimpanzees may not always resemble hierarchies seen in the wild. Many captive chimpanzees grew up in isolation or had very limited social interactions. They did not learn the “rules” of society as free-living chimpanzees do. When they are finally given the opportunity to live in a family group, and establish their own social order, it can take them awhile to figure things out. The resulting social structure may be somewhat different than what is observed in the wild. Females may be more dominant than some males. There may not be a clear-cut alpha male or alpha female, or some chimps may share leadership duties. The hierarchy may not be linear, but rather more like a matrix.
However, in both wild and captive chimpanzee groups, one thing is clear—a good alpha is worth his or her weight in gold. The most successful chimpanzee leaders rule with a firm but kind hand, are fair, welcoming, and seek to resolve disputes quickly. This results in group cohesion and relatively few arguments amongst the members of the community.
This blog has 142 posts about chimpanzee apes at chimpanzee apes.
I wrote this for some morons for Jeebus.
"Why do some Christians think atheism and communism are the same thing?"
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I'm a hardcore atheist and a capitalist.
Atheism says nothing about economic systems.
Atheism means just one thing: 100% certain magic god fairies are a ridiculous childish fantasy.
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I'm a hardcore atheist and a capitalist.
Atheism says nothing about economic systems.
Atheism means just one thing: 100% certain magic god fairies are a ridiculous childish fantasy.
The New York Times asked a question: "Why did so many Americans vote for Fucktard Trump?"
New York Times
Why Did So Many Americans Vote for Trump?
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A comment I wrote:
When Biden refused to answer a simple question, "would you pack the Supreme Court," that told me what kind of person he was.
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A comment someone else wrote:
This opinion utterly misses the mark, and continues the patronizing assumption that anyone who voted for Trump or Republicans did so out of racism or ignorance. As seen by the down-ballot success of the Republicans, many voters simply do not agree with Democratic policies. Your approach allows no possibility that one can disagree with you, which clearly you cannot accept, and this is the arrogance that alienates voters. Democratic leaders demonstrably called for an end ICE, defunding the police, and defending looting - and the attempts to walk that back failed. Couple that with the patronizing accusations of racism and ignorance leveled against anyone not a progressive, and it is easy to understand why a vote for Trump was simply a response to the ongoing onslaught of progressive contempt, which BTW, is nicely illustrated in the comments.
-- George Foyle
Why Did So Many Americans Vote for Trump?
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A comment I wrote:
When Biden refused to answer a simple question, "would you pack the Supreme Court," that told me what kind of person he was.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
A comment someone else wrote:
This opinion utterly misses the mark, and continues the patronizing assumption that anyone who voted for Trump or Republicans did so out of racism or ignorance. As seen by the down-ballot success of the Republicans, many voters simply do not agree with Democratic policies. Your approach allows no possibility that one can disagree with you, which clearly you cannot accept, and this is the arrogance that alienates voters. Democratic leaders demonstrably called for an end ICE, defunding the police, and defending looting - and the attempts to walk that back failed. Couple that with the patronizing accusations of racism and ignorance leveled against anyone not a progressive, and it is easy to understand why a vote for Trump was simply a response to the ongoing onslaught of progressive contempt, which BTW, is nicely illustrated in the comments.
-- George Foyle
What someone else wrote about evolution.
Read about the fossil of the 43 MILLION YEAR OLD, FOUR LEGGED whale that was just discovered in Peru. Modern whales just have vestigial remnants of their legs.
Evolution, baby!
Evolution, baby!
I wrote this for a fucktard.
The religious implications of evolution are obvious. If evolution is true then the Genesis story in the Bible is completely wrong. And if Genesis is wrong then probably the entire Bible is wrong.
Is evolution true? Ask the biologists. They are 100% certain evolution is how the world works and God had nothing to do with it.
Is evolution true? Ask the biologists. They are 100% certain evolution is how the world works and God had nothing to do with it.
Most people think the year 2020 has been a disaster but I like to look at the upside. The herd is being thinned this year and that's a good thing. 2020 is almost over with but why not have another ridiculous war to thin the herd some more?
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Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis
The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Friday, November 27, 2020
Honeycrisp apples and Granny Smith apples.
My northwestern Illinois farm town grocery store recently stopped selling Granny Smith apples which are excellent, but they started selling very large Michigan Honeycrisp apples which are even more excellent.
Honeycrisp and Granny Smith Available
I answered a question about the Jeebus zombie.
"Why do some people call Jesus a zombie?"
Jeebus rose from the dead. Zombies rose from the dead.
Both fantasies are equally ridiculous.
Jeebus rose from the dead. Zombies rose from the dead.
Both fantasies are equally ridiculous.
Someone asked how to improve his chess skills.
"I would like to learn chess at a more in depth level. I'm 26 and I started to play on a free chess app. I know how to move the pieces and also know how to play a game at an elementary level. But being a complete beginner at 26 yo I'm afraid that it might be a waste of time to take chess a little more seriously. I've heard it's best to start learning chess at a young age because the brain is more pliable. With that, would it even be worth my time and energy to learn chess theory; opening, middle and end game strategy, etc. considering I'm starting later than usual? Thank you in advance. I've really enjoyed playing chess so far. It's a lot of fun!"
-- Daniel
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It's never too late to play chess.
I found out this is the easiest way to improve your skills.
You want to use the best chess website and that would be https://lichess.org/ which is totally free with zero ads.
Play a rated chess game then find out what you did right and what you did wrong. The easiest way to do this is to get a free https://lichess.org/ computer analysis of your games, which takes only one minute. Study every move while looking at what the computer analysis recommends.
The idea is to have fun instead of trying to memorize stuff.
By having a rating you can watch how much your rating goes up to see what progress you have made.
Also, you can watch chess games at https://lichess.org/ to understand how the masters win their games.
My Lichess.org profile: My lichess profile
-- Daniel
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
It's never too late to play chess.
I found out this is the easiest way to improve your skills.
You want to use the best chess website and that would be https://lichess.org/ which is totally free with zero ads.
Play a rated chess game then find out what you did right and what you did wrong. The easiest way to do this is to get a free https://lichess.org/ computer analysis of your games, which takes only one minute. Study every move while looking at what the computer analysis recommends.
The idea is to have fun instead of trying to memorize stuff.
By having a rating you can watch how much your rating goes up to see what progress you have made.
Also, you can watch chess games at https://lichess.org/ to understand how the masters win their games.
My Lichess.org profile: My lichess profile
A comment someone wrote at the New York Times: "Assassinating someone who is masterminding a probable nuclear attack, or even making it infinitely more possible, on a civilian population, is an act of moral necessity. I applaud whoever did this."
New York Times
Iran’s top nuclear scientist was shot and killed in an ambush as he was traveling in a vehicle in northern Iran, state media reported. Iranian officials called it an act of terror and vowed to take revenge.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, 59, was a shadowy figure. According to U.S. intelligence assessments and Iranian nuclear documents stolen by Israel, he was the force behind Iran’s nuclear weapons program and continued to work after the main part of the effort was quietly disbanded in the early 2000s.
Three intelligence officials said that Israel was behind the attack on Mr. Fakhrizadeh, who had long been the No. 1 target of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. The White House and the C.I.A. declined to comment. Here’s the latest.
The killing could complicate President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran’s top nuclear scientist was shot and killed in an ambush as he was traveling in a vehicle in northern Iran, state media reported. Iranian officials called it an act of terror and vowed to take revenge.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, 59, was a shadowy figure. According to U.S. intelligence assessments and Iranian nuclear documents stolen by Israel, he was the force behind Iran’s nuclear weapons program and continued to work after the main part of the effort was quietly disbanded in the early 2000s.
Three intelligence officials said that Israel was behind the attack on Mr. Fakhrizadeh, who had long been the No. 1 target of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. The White House and the C.I.A. declined to comment. Here’s the latest.
The killing could complicate President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
"Iranian officials" Drop dead you fucking assholes.
New York Times
Iran’s top nuclear scientist was shot and killed in an ambush as he was traveling in a vehicle in northern Iran, state media reported. Iranian officials called it an act of terror and vowed to take revenge.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, 59, was a shadowy figure. According to U.S. intelligence assessments and Iranian nuclear documents stolen by Israel, he was the force behind Iran’s nuclear weapons program and continued to work after the main part of the effort was quietly disbanded in the early 2000s.
Three intelligence officials said that Israel was behind the attack on Mr. Fakhrizadeh, who had long been the No. 1 target of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. The White House and the C.I.A. declined to comment. Here’s the latest.
The killing could complicate President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran’s top nuclear scientist was shot and killed in an ambush as he was traveling in a vehicle in northern Iran, state media reported. Iranian officials called it an act of terror and vowed to take revenge.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, 59, was a shadowy figure. According to U.S. intelligence assessments and Iranian nuclear documents stolen by Israel, he was the force behind Iran’s nuclear weapons program and continued to work after the main part of the effort was quietly disbanded in the early 2000s.
Three intelligence officials said that Israel was behind the attack on Mr. Fakhrizadeh, who had long been the No. 1 target of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. The White House and the C.I.A. declined to comment. Here’s the latest.
The killing could complicate President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran's theocracy - the fucktards are crying like babies.
The Washington Post
Middle East
Prominent Iranian nuclear scientist killed in attack outside Tehran
By Kareem Fahim and Miriam Berger
November 27, 2020 at 9:50 a.m. CST
ISTANBUL — A prominent Iranian nuclear scientist who was seen as a driving force behind Tehran's disbanded effort to build a nuclear weapon was killed Friday during an attack east of Tehran, according to Iran's foreign minister.
The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was gravely wounded during a “clash” between his security detail and unidentified “armed terrorists” in the city of Damavand, the semiofficial ISNA news agency said. Fakhrizadeh later died at the hospital, the agency said.
“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today,” Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, wrote on Twitter.
There was no claim of responsibility for the apparent targeted killing, but Iran has accused Israel and the United States of carrying out similar deadly attacks on nuclear experts in Iran in the past.
“This cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role — shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators,” Zarif tweeted. “Iran calls on int'l community — and especially E.U. — to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror.”
Fakhrizadeh was among the pioneers of Iran’s nuclear program, which includes an energy-producing reactor and uranium enrichment sites.
Western intelligence agencies and Israel had described Fakhrizadeh as the mastermind behind Iran’s covert program aimed at building a nuclear weapon, which was halted in 2003.
Iran has increased its stockpile of enriched uranium since the Trump administration pulled out of a nuclear deal aimed at limiting Tehran’s nuclear capacity. Iran has insisted the enriched uranium is only for its reactors, but Iran’s foes note that it puts the nation closer to producing warhead-grade material.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the office would not comment on reports of Fakhrizadeh’s death.
Berger reported from Beirut.
Middle East
Prominent Iranian nuclear scientist killed in attack outside Tehran
By Kareem Fahim and Miriam Berger
November 27, 2020 at 9:50 a.m. CST
ISTANBUL — A prominent Iranian nuclear scientist who was seen as a driving force behind Tehran's disbanded effort to build a nuclear weapon was killed Friday during an attack east of Tehran, according to Iran's foreign minister.
The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was gravely wounded during a “clash” between his security detail and unidentified “armed terrorists” in the city of Damavand, the semiofficial ISNA news agency said. Fakhrizadeh later died at the hospital, the agency said.
“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today,” Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, wrote on Twitter.
There was no claim of responsibility for the apparent targeted killing, but Iran has accused Israel and the United States of carrying out similar deadly attacks on nuclear experts in Iran in the past.
“This cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role — shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators,” Zarif tweeted. “Iran calls on int'l community — and especially E.U. — to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror.”
Fakhrizadeh was among the pioneers of Iran’s nuclear program, which includes an energy-producing reactor and uranium enrichment sites.
Western intelligence agencies and Israel had described Fakhrizadeh as the mastermind behind Iran’s covert program aimed at building a nuclear weapon, which was halted in 2003.
Iran has increased its stockpile of enriched uranium since the Trump administration pulled out of a nuclear deal aimed at limiting Tehran’s nuclear capacity. Iran has insisted the enriched uranium is only for its reactors, but Iran’s foes note that it puts the nation closer to producing warhead-grade material.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the office would not comment on reports of Fakhrizadeh’s death.
Berger reported from Beirut.
The Washington Post - "Israel kills asshole."
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This is very good news. Only Israel could have done this and get away with it.
New York Times
BREAKING
Iran’s Top Nuclear Scientist Killed in Attack, State Media Say
The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was seen as the force behind Iran’s nuclear weapons program. News reports in Iran say he died in a hospital after being attacked in a vehicle.
By Farnaz Fassihi and Ronen Bergman
November 27, 2020, 10:02 a.m. ET
Iran’s top nuclear scientist was shot and killed on Friday as he was traveling in a vehicle in northern Iran, Iranian state media reported.
The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was considered the driving force behind Iran’s nuclear weapons program before it was quietly disbanded in the early 2000s, according to American intelligence assessments.
Iran’s state television said Mr. Fakhrizadeh had been gravely wounded in the attack and that doctors tried to save him in the hospital but could not.
Farnaz Fassihi is a freelance reporter with the International Desk based in New York. Before contracting with the Times, she was a senior writer and war correspondent for the Wall Street Journal for 17 years based in the Middle East. @farnazfassihi
Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv. His latest book is “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,” published by Random House.
BREAKING
Iran’s Top Nuclear Scientist Killed in Attack, State Media Say
The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was seen as the force behind Iran’s nuclear weapons program. News reports in Iran say he died in a hospital after being attacked in a vehicle.
By Farnaz Fassihi and Ronen Bergman
November 27, 2020, 10:02 a.m. ET
Iran’s top nuclear scientist was shot and killed on Friday as he was traveling in a vehicle in northern Iran, Iranian state media reported.
The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was considered the driving force behind Iran’s nuclear weapons program before it was quietly disbanded in the early 2000s, according to American intelligence assessments.
Iran’s state television said Mr. Fakhrizadeh had been gravely wounded in the attack and that doctors tried to save him in the hospital but could not.
Farnaz Fassihi is a freelance reporter with the International Desk based in New York. Before contracting with the Times, she was a senior writer and war correspondent for the Wall Street Journal for 17 years based in the Middle East. @farnazfassihi
Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv. His latest book is “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,” published by Random House.
I think Israel did this. Well done Israel.
New York Times
BREAKING NEWS |
Iran's top nuclear scientist was fatally shot in northern Iran, state media reported. He was seen as the force behind its nuclear weapons program. |
Friday, November 27, 2020 10:10 AM EST |
Iran’s state television said the scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, had been gravely wounded in the attack and that doctors tried to save him in the hospital but could not. |
This is one of my favorite evidences for evolution. Whales with legs.
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News
Science
Ancient four-legged whale that looked like an otter discovered in Peru
Creature also had small 'hooves', a remnant of its land-based ancestors
Josh Gabbatiss
Science Correspondent@josh_gabbatiss
Thursday 04 April 2019
A four-legged creature that had a tail and webbed feet similar to those found on otters, has been identified as an ancestor of the whale.
Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planet’s oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago.
These small small “hooves” at the tips of its fingers and toes suggest it was able to walk on land as well as swim.
An international research team came across the 4 metre-long specimen while digging for bones in the coastal desert of the South American country.
They named it Peregocetus pacificus, meaning “the travelling whale that reached the Pacific.”
Central Park, New York City
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| A woman in a red dress walks across a field under trees turning color in Central Park on November 9, 2020, in New York City. |
Today is Friday, November 27, 2020. 53 days from now, Wednesday, January 20, 2021, Trump will be thrown out the window. Good riddance. What a fucking retard.
REUTERS
U.S. NEWS
NOVEMBER 26, 2020
Inching toward exit, Trump says he'll leave if Biden wins Electoral College vote
By Jeff Mason, Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON/REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden, the closest he has come to conceding the Nov. 3 election, even as he repeated unfounded claims of massive voter fraud.
Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Republican Trump said if Democrat Biden - who is due to be sworn in on Jan. 20 - is formally declared the winner by the Electoral College, he will depart the White House.
Asked if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for Biden, Trump said: “Certainly I will. Certainly I will. And you know that.”
But Trump said it would be hard for him to concede because “we know there was massive fraud.”
“It was a rigged election ... at the highest level,” Trump insisted in a sometimes rambling discourse at the White House, while continuing to offer no concrete evidence of widespread voting irregularities.
It was the first time Trump has taken questions from reporters since Election Day, and at times he turned combative.
In the United States, a candidate becomes president by securing the most “electoral” votes rather than by winning a majority of the national popular vote. Electors, allotted to the 50 states and the District of Columbia largely based on their population, are party loyalists who pledge to support the candidate who won the popular vote in their state.
Biden won the election with 306 Electoral College votes - many more than the 270 required - to Trump’s 232, and the electors are scheduled to meet on Dec. 14 to formalize the outcome. Biden also leads Trump by more than 6 million in the popular vote tally.
Trump has so far refused to fully acknowledge his defeat, though earlier this week - with mounting pressure from his own Republican ranks - he agreed to let Biden’s transition process officially proceed.
Frenzied efforts by Trump and his aides to overturn results in key states, either by lawsuits or by pressuring state legislators, have failed, and he is running out of options.
“President-elect Biden won 306 electoral votes. States continue to certify those results, the Electoral College will soon meet to ratify that outcome,” Michael Gwin, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said when asked about Trump’s comments. “Biden will be sworn in as President on Jan. 20, 2021.”
Showing that he intends to stay in the political fray until the end of his term, Trump said on Thursday he would travel on Dec. 5 to Georgia, a once solidly Republican state he lost narrowly to Biden, to campaign for two Republican U.S. Senate candidates.
The two runoff elections in Georgia on Jan. 5 will determine whether the Republicans keep their majority in the Senate.
“I just want to tell my people: don’t be disappointed yet because this race is far from over,” Trump said.
U.S. NEWS
NOVEMBER 26, 2020
Inching toward exit, Trump says he'll leave if Biden wins Electoral College vote
By Jeff Mason, Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON/REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden, the closest he has come to conceding the Nov. 3 election, even as he repeated unfounded claims of massive voter fraud.
Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Republican Trump said if Democrat Biden - who is due to be sworn in on Jan. 20 - is formally declared the winner by the Electoral College, he will depart the White House.
Asked if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for Biden, Trump said: “Certainly I will. Certainly I will. And you know that.”
But Trump said it would be hard for him to concede because “we know there was massive fraud.”
“It was a rigged election ... at the highest level,” Trump insisted in a sometimes rambling discourse at the White House, while continuing to offer no concrete evidence of widespread voting irregularities.
It was the first time Trump has taken questions from reporters since Election Day, and at times he turned combative.
In the United States, a candidate becomes president by securing the most “electoral” votes rather than by winning a majority of the national popular vote. Electors, allotted to the 50 states and the District of Columbia largely based on their population, are party loyalists who pledge to support the candidate who won the popular vote in their state.
Biden won the election with 306 Electoral College votes - many more than the 270 required - to Trump’s 232, and the electors are scheduled to meet on Dec. 14 to formalize the outcome. Biden also leads Trump by more than 6 million in the popular vote tally.
Trump has so far refused to fully acknowledge his defeat, though earlier this week - with mounting pressure from his own Republican ranks - he agreed to let Biden’s transition process officially proceed.
Frenzied efforts by Trump and his aides to overturn results in key states, either by lawsuits or by pressuring state legislators, have failed, and he is running out of options.
“President-elect Biden won 306 electoral votes. States continue to certify those results, the Electoral College will soon meet to ratify that outcome,” Michael Gwin, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said when asked about Trump’s comments. “Biden will be sworn in as President on Jan. 20, 2021.”
Showing that he intends to stay in the political fray until the end of his term, Trump said on Thursday he would travel on Dec. 5 to Georgia, a once solidly Republican state he lost narrowly to Biden, to campaign for two Republican U.S. Senate candidates.
The two runoff elections in Georgia on Jan. 5 will determine whether the Republicans keep their majority in the Senate.
“I just want to tell my people: don’t be disappointed yet because this race is far from over,” Trump said.
Thursday, November 26, 2020
"The attorney general’s office said investigations into the other seven Catholic dioceses in the state remain ongoing." The Catholic Church is the world's largest child abuse organization. The Catholics who feed these child abusers belong in prison.
Wall Street Journal
U.S.
Buffalo Catholic Diocese Sued by New York Attorney General
Suit claims two bishops shielded priests who abused children, seeks new oversight of diocese.
By Ian Lovett and Deanna Paul
November 23, 2020
New York’s attorney general on Monday sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, accusing church officials of covering up decades of sexual abuse of children.
The lawsuit also names as defendants Bishop Emeritus Richard J. Malone and former Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz, who it accuses of using procedural maneuvers for years to shield priests accused of abusing minors from repercussions. Instead of reporting the allegations to law enforcement or church officials, the suit says the bishops classified dozens of accused priests as “unassignable,” permitting them to retire or take medical leave while staying on the diocese’s payroll.
Such steps would violate the Dallas Charter, a document signed in 2002 by Catholic bishops, including Bishops Malone and Grosz. The protocols were designed to prevent coverups of sexual abuse in the church.
“The Diocese of Buffalo and its leadership failed to protect children from sexual abuse,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a recorded statement. “Instead, they chose to protect the very priests who were credibly accused of these atrocious acts.”
Bishop Malone resigned last year, following a church investigation into his handling of sexual abuse claims. Bishop Grosz retired earlier this year.
Greg Tucker, a spokesman for the Diocese of Buffalo, said in a statement on Monday that the diocese was reviewing the lawsuit and has cooperated with civil authorities. “The Diocese has put in place rigorous policies and protocols governing required behavior as well as a code of conduct which all clergy are expected to abide by,” he said.
The lawsuit follows a two-year investigation by the attorney general’s office into the diocese and is New York’s latest attempt to crack down on sexual abuse within the Catholic church.
Last year, following a report that detailed decades of abuse in the church in Pennsylvania, New York passed the Child Victims Act, opening a one-year window during which people who say they were abused as children could sue their abusers. The law also increased the maximum age to file civil suits alleging childhood abuse to 55 from 23. In August, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended the window for another year, giving accusers until August 2021 to file lawsuits.
In its first year, more than 4,000 lawsuits were filed under the Act, including hundreds against the Roman Catholic Church. Three Catholic dioceses in the state, including Buffalo, have filed for bankruptcy because of the cost of settling the claims.
The civil complaint filed Monday employs a novel use of civil law to address the alleged systemic failures, creating an independent review of the diocese’s responses to allegations of sexual abuse and a five-year period during which it must report to the attorney general’s office. It also would bar Bishops Malone and Grosz from future management roles at any New York charitable organization.
The attorney general’s office said investigations into the other seven Catholic dioceses in the state remain ongoing.
Appeared in the November 24, 2020, print edition as 'Buffalo Diocese Is Accused Of Coverup.'
U.S.
Buffalo Catholic Diocese Sued by New York Attorney General
Suit claims two bishops shielded priests who abused children, seeks new oversight of diocese.
By Ian Lovett and Deanna Paul
November 23, 2020
New York’s attorney general on Monday sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, accusing church officials of covering up decades of sexual abuse of children.
The lawsuit also names as defendants Bishop Emeritus Richard J. Malone and former Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz, who it accuses of using procedural maneuvers for years to shield priests accused of abusing minors from repercussions. Instead of reporting the allegations to law enforcement or church officials, the suit says the bishops classified dozens of accused priests as “unassignable,” permitting them to retire or take medical leave while staying on the diocese’s payroll.
Such steps would violate the Dallas Charter, a document signed in 2002 by Catholic bishops, including Bishops Malone and Grosz. The protocols were designed to prevent coverups of sexual abuse in the church.
“The Diocese of Buffalo and its leadership failed to protect children from sexual abuse,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a recorded statement. “Instead, they chose to protect the very priests who were credibly accused of these atrocious acts.”
Bishop Malone resigned last year, following a church investigation into his handling of sexual abuse claims. Bishop Grosz retired earlier this year.
Greg Tucker, a spokesman for the Diocese of Buffalo, said in a statement on Monday that the diocese was reviewing the lawsuit and has cooperated with civil authorities. “The Diocese has put in place rigorous policies and protocols governing required behavior as well as a code of conduct which all clergy are expected to abide by,” he said.
The lawsuit follows a two-year investigation by the attorney general’s office into the diocese and is New York’s latest attempt to crack down on sexual abuse within the Catholic church.
Last year, following a report that detailed decades of abuse in the church in Pennsylvania, New York passed the Child Victims Act, opening a one-year window during which people who say they were abused as children could sue their abusers. The law also increased the maximum age to file civil suits alleging childhood abuse to 55 from 23. In August, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended the window for another year, giving accusers until August 2021 to file lawsuits.
In its first year, more than 4,000 lawsuits were filed under the Act, including hundreds against the Roman Catholic Church. Three Catholic dioceses in the state, including Buffalo, have filed for bankruptcy because of the cost of settling the claims.
The civil complaint filed Monday employs a novel use of civil law to address the alleged systemic failures, creating an independent review of the diocese’s responses to allegations of sexual abuse and a five-year period during which it must report to the attorney general’s office. It also would bar Bishops Malone and Grosz from future management roles at any New York charitable organization.
The attorney general’s office said investigations into the other seven Catholic dioceses in the state remain ongoing.
Appeared in the November 24, 2020, print edition as 'Buffalo Diocese Is Accused Of Coverup.'
I wrote something for an Idiot America fucktard.
"How to stop fearing hell? The concern of going to hell is making me overthink & worry so much it’s making me scared & depressed."
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
That's easy. Just learn how to figure out what is reality and what is ridiculous impossible bullshit.
The heaven/hell stuff is obviously bullshit. It requires throwing out reality but reality is not going anywhere.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
That's easy. Just learn how to figure out what is reality and what is ridiculous impossible bullshit.
The heaven/hell stuff is obviously bullshit. It requires throwing out reality but reality is not going anywhere.
Chess has a coronavirus problem.
Wall Street Journal
LIFE & ARTS
SPORTS
Chess Players Still Can’t Stop Touching Their Faces
From twice-daily medical checks to banning handshakes, the last major sporting event in the world is taking precautions—with one major hurdle.
By Joshua Robinson
March 22, 2020
While the entire world of sports was shutting down, eight of the deepest thinkers on the planet were heading to a chess tournament on the edge of Siberia.
Organizers had assured the players it was safe—the coronavirus pandemic had yet to reach the Sverdlovsk region of Russia. So they socially distanced themselves, one by one, in the city of Yekaterinburg for the three-week Candidates Tournament, all for the right to face Magnus Carlsen in the world championship match later this year.
Chess authorities are taking every possible measure to keep competitors healthy, from lavishly dispensed hand sanitizer to twice-daily medical checkups. But as they sit for hours, locked in fierce concentration, the players are still struggling with one crucial antivirus recommendation.
In the last major sporting event in the time of coronavirus, they can’t stop touching their faces.
“Of course we touch our faces. That much is clear,” Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the No. 6-ranked classical chess player, said in French. “We have habits while playing that are impossible to break. Thinking with a hand on your chin or on your forehead is a reflex.”
Every day of the tournament, which began Tuesday and runs until April 5, all eight players have compulsively touched their faces within the first hour of play. They hear constantly that they’re not supposed to. They are geniuses. And still, they can’t help themselves. Something in the wiring of a human brain firing on all cylinders decides it’s imperative to also connect your hand to your chin or mouth or nose or temple. No one really knows why.
“Sometimes I remember for a moment,” Vachier-Lagrave added, “but then human nature takes over.”
One study conducted by University of Leipzig neurologists drew the connection between “spontaneous facial self-touches” and moments of heavy cognitive or emotional stress. They even noticed that it intensified when those moments also involved memory. All of which neatly describes what it’s like to play high-level chess: intense focus paired with remembering thousands of complex scenarios.
Ding Liren is more sensitive to coronavirus protocols than most. When he set out for Russia, his hometown in China was still under lockdown. And once he landed in Yekaterinburg, Russian authorities insisted he spend two weeks in isolation before competing.
During Wednesday’s second round, Ding played the correct opening of coughing into his elbow. But his coronavirus prevention tactics went to pieces in the middle game when he grabbed his entire face with both hands during a long period of thought.
Not even the greatest chess player of his generation is able to stop himself. Carlsen, who isn’t in Russia, is brilliant enough to sweep the floor with multiple opponents at the same time while blindfolded. But he has a harder time keeping his hands away from his nose and mouth. Last Sunday, while taking on all-comers online with a camera turned on himself, viewers noticed his less-than-perfect coronavirus protocol.
“I should quit touching my face,” he said after being chided in the comments. “That’s what everybody says. Don’t touch your face these days. It’s just hard to change your—what’s the word—habits.”
Chess’s international governing body, FIDE, is doing its best to make sure that all that face-touching at the Candidates at least occurs in a sanitary way.
It administered coronavirus tests to every player upon arrival, with a second test scheduled 10 days later.
Twice a day, they have their temperature checked and their throats examined by a doctor. There is ample hand sanitizer and masks are available. Human contact is limited: there are no spectators and most meals are served in the players’ hotel rooms.
“We’re in a tough situation here, because if everything goes well, it will look good,” the director general of FIDE, Emil Sutovsky said. “But if one of the players gets it, our tournament is ruined. We will be under attack.”
Sutovsky was especially pained by having to ban handshakes before and after every game. They are such an integral part of chess tradition, he said, that their absence is conspicuous now. Bumping elbows just isn’t the same.
“I think it would be much more elegant to do a bow as the Japanese do. I think they do that in shogi and it would make a lot of sense,” said classical chess’s world No. 5 Anish Giri, referring to the Japanese board game. “This ‘elbow-shake’ is very creepy. From all the possible ways to show respect to each other, this is the creepiest.”
The great irony is that the only world-class event in sports right now is in a game so easily played online. Chess.com alone hosted more than 7 million games a day for the past two weeks. The site has also added more than 400,000 new members in that time, coinciding with the increase in lockdowns world-wide and the Candidates tournaments.
But chess purists would consider that heresy. Dispatching referees to every player to prevent computer-assisted cheating would be a logistical nightmare. It would also break with centuries of tradition. The tension in the room, the sidelong glances, the body language across the board, all of that would be lost.
“When you talk about classical chess, it’s like classical music,” Sutovsky said. “Of course, you can listen to recordings. But for the musicians, for the atmosphere, you still have to go to the symphony.”
One of the few times a remote solution was attempted for high-level classical competition came in 1965, when American Bobby Fischer agreed to participate in a tournament in Cuba but was blocked by the State Department. He played his matches from a chess club in Manhattan, communicating his moves by teletype.
FIDE never gave serious consideration to a remote setup. For the Candidates, it was Yekaterinburg or bust. Everyone would simply have to trust that a room of eight stewing chess players—all handling the same pieces, tapping the same clocks, breathing the same air—wasn’t going to turn into a petri dish.
“We’ll see if it was the right decision to have it or not at the end of the tournament,” said American Fabiano Caruana, the top seed and bookmakers’ favorite to win.
Through the opening four days of play, no one has tested positive—although the Sverdlovsk region now has its first confirmed cases. But just because the players don’t have coronavirus doesn’t necessarily mean all is well. The bizarre conditions are beginning to get to them.
“The doctor just tells you that you have no fever and your throat is alright,” Giri said. “But the doctor doesn’t tell you that you play like a total idiot and that there’s something really wrong with your brain…She tells me I’m fine, but I know I’m not fine.”
“I see how I play,” he added. “This is not fine.”
—Matthew Dalton contributed to this article.
LIFE & ARTS
SPORTS
Chess Players Still Can’t Stop Touching Their Faces
From twice-daily medical checks to banning handshakes, the last major sporting event in the world is taking precautions—with one major hurdle.
By Joshua Robinson
March 22, 2020
While the entire world of sports was shutting down, eight of the deepest thinkers on the planet were heading to a chess tournament on the edge of Siberia.
Organizers had assured the players it was safe—the coronavirus pandemic had yet to reach the Sverdlovsk region of Russia. So they socially distanced themselves, one by one, in the city of Yekaterinburg for the three-week Candidates Tournament, all for the right to face Magnus Carlsen in the world championship match later this year.
Chess authorities are taking every possible measure to keep competitors healthy, from lavishly dispensed hand sanitizer to twice-daily medical checkups. But as they sit for hours, locked in fierce concentration, the players are still struggling with one crucial antivirus recommendation.
In the last major sporting event in the time of coronavirus, they can’t stop touching their faces.
“Of course we touch our faces. That much is clear,” Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the No. 6-ranked classical chess player, said in French. “We have habits while playing that are impossible to break. Thinking with a hand on your chin or on your forehead is a reflex.”
Every day of the tournament, which began Tuesday and runs until April 5, all eight players have compulsively touched their faces within the first hour of play. They hear constantly that they’re not supposed to. They are geniuses. And still, they can’t help themselves. Something in the wiring of a human brain firing on all cylinders decides it’s imperative to also connect your hand to your chin or mouth or nose or temple. No one really knows why.
“Sometimes I remember for a moment,” Vachier-Lagrave added, “but then human nature takes over.”
One study conducted by University of Leipzig neurologists drew the connection between “spontaneous facial self-touches” and moments of heavy cognitive or emotional stress. They even noticed that it intensified when those moments also involved memory. All of which neatly describes what it’s like to play high-level chess: intense focus paired with remembering thousands of complex scenarios.
Ding Liren is more sensitive to coronavirus protocols than most. When he set out for Russia, his hometown in China was still under lockdown. And once he landed in Yekaterinburg, Russian authorities insisted he spend two weeks in isolation before competing.
During Wednesday’s second round, Ding played the correct opening of coughing into his elbow. But his coronavirus prevention tactics went to pieces in the middle game when he grabbed his entire face with both hands during a long period of thought.
Not even the greatest chess player of his generation is able to stop himself. Carlsen, who isn’t in Russia, is brilliant enough to sweep the floor with multiple opponents at the same time while blindfolded. But he has a harder time keeping his hands away from his nose and mouth. Last Sunday, while taking on all-comers online with a camera turned on himself, viewers noticed his less-than-perfect coronavirus protocol.
“I should quit touching my face,” he said after being chided in the comments. “That’s what everybody says. Don’t touch your face these days. It’s just hard to change your—what’s the word—habits.”
Chess’s international governing body, FIDE, is doing its best to make sure that all that face-touching at the Candidates at least occurs in a sanitary way.
It administered coronavirus tests to every player upon arrival, with a second test scheduled 10 days later.
Twice a day, they have their temperature checked and their throats examined by a doctor. There is ample hand sanitizer and masks are available. Human contact is limited: there are no spectators and most meals are served in the players’ hotel rooms.
“We’re in a tough situation here, because if everything goes well, it will look good,” the director general of FIDE, Emil Sutovsky said. “But if one of the players gets it, our tournament is ruined. We will be under attack.”
Sutovsky was especially pained by having to ban handshakes before and after every game. They are such an integral part of chess tradition, he said, that their absence is conspicuous now. Bumping elbows just isn’t the same.
“I think it would be much more elegant to do a bow as the Japanese do. I think they do that in shogi and it would make a lot of sense,” said classical chess’s world No. 5 Anish Giri, referring to the Japanese board game. “This ‘elbow-shake’ is very creepy. From all the possible ways to show respect to each other, this is the creepiest.”
The great irony is that the only world-class event in sports right now is in a game so easily played online. Chess.com alone hosted more than 7 million games a day for the past two weeks. The site has also added more than 400,000 new members in that time, coinciding with the increase in lockdowns world-wide and the Candidates tournaments.
But chess purists would consider that heresy. Dispatching referees to every player to prevent computer-assisted cheating would be a logistical nightmare. It would also break with centuries of tradition. The tension in the room, the sidelong glances, the body language across the board, all of that would be lost.
“When you talk about classical chess, it’s like classical music,” Sutovsky said. “Of course, you can listen to recordings. But for the musicians, for the atmosphere, you still have to go to the symphony.”
One of the few times a remote solution was attempted for high-level classical competition came in 1965, when American Bobby Fischer agreed to participate in a tournament in Cuba but was blocked by the State Department. He played his matches from a chess club in Manhattan, communicating his moves by teletype.
FIDE never gave serious consideration to a remote setup. For the Candidates, it was Yekaterinburg or bust. Everyone would simply have to trust that a room of eight stewing chess players—all handling the same pieces, tapping the same clocks, breathing the same air—wasn’t going to turn into a petri dish.
“We’ll see if it was the right decision to have it or not at the end of the tournament,” said American Fabiano Caruana, the top seed and bookmakers’ favorite to win.
Through the opening four days of play, no one has tested positive—although the Sverdlovsk region now has its first confirmed cases. But just because the players don’t have coronavirus doesn’t necessarily mean all is well. The bizarre conditions are beginning to get to them.
“The doctor just tells you that you have no fever and your throat is alright,” Giri said. “But the doctor doesn’t tell you that you play like a total idiot and that there’s something really wrong with your brain…She tells me I’m fine, but I know I’m not fine.”
“I see how I play,” he added. “This is not fine.”
—Matthew Dalton contributed to this article.
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
A Wall Street Journal article about chess.
They wrote about my favorite chess website:
Wall Street Journal
Netflix’s ‘Queen’s Gambit’ Sparks a Chess Boom—Here’s How to Get In on It
A drama about a fictional prodigy has newcomers signing up to play online and in real life.
“The Queen’s Gambit,” Netflix’s fictional drama about a female chess prodigy, has pulled off an unlikely gambit of its own: It’s prompted one of the biggest surges in the popularity of chess among Americans since the days of Bobby Fischer’s dominance in the 1970s.
The show has become Netflix’s most widely viewed scripted limited series, with 62 million households tuning in during the first 28 days after its Oct. 23 debut, the streaming company said. (Netflix now counts two minutes of watching as a view.) The impact is clear: Google search queries for chess doubled from October to November. Participation in online chess sites is soaring and it is getting harder to buy some chess sets.
“We’re setting a new record, for most new members in a single day, almost every day of November,” said Nick Barton, director of business development at Chess.com, a site for chess education and online play. That influx of more than 100,000 members daily is mostly beginners, Mr. Barton said. The newcomers have been mostly in the 18-to-24 demographic (as high as 60%), and slightly more female than usual, at 25% of new members compared with 22% among the site’s base of 46 million members. During the spring, pandemic lockdowns gave a bump to chess sites, he said. “The Queen’s Gambit” built on that to create a pop-culture sensation.
Jeff Myers, owner of online retailer thechessstore.com, said his sales this month are triple November’s last year. Demand is running up against a Covid-related supply slowdown, he said, and his inventory is dwindling. “We source our best quality Staunton wood chess pieces from India, and India has really been locked down. They haven’t been able to harvest trees for the sets, and carving factories for the pieces have been closed,” Mr. Myers said. His domestic supply of chess boards also has been disrupted: “The boards I have coming from New York won’t last until Christmas at the rate we are selling.”
Netflix’s seven-episode series is based on a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis. Beth Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, is a red-headed Kentucky orphan in the 1960s who sees chessboard patterns in her head at age 8. The world opens to Beth as she advances from local curiosity to world champion, all while struggling with substance abuse.
The show feels like a cousin of Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” sharing its swanky mid-century set designs and fashions, international travel and a strong-willed protagonist in a male-dominated field. Its impact, though, has been more like that of “Stranger Things,” another Netflix series that is credited with spurring a revival of the game Dungeons & Dragons.
What is the secret for injecting chess into the mainstream?
“We had a running joke when we were making it, that we were putting the sexy back in chess,” said Bill Horberg, the executive producer of the series. “We even had T-shirts printed up for the crew that said, ‘Sex, drugs and rook and roll.’ ”
The chess prodigy “is the perfect character for our time,” said Bruce Pandolfini, a chess expert who consulted on the novel and the Netflix series. “Beth is a tremendous survivor.”
Imad Khachan, owner of the Chess Forum in New York City’s Greenwich Village, realized early this month that the show had become a phenomenon. Working in the store after midnight, “I heard the voice of a young woman as she walked by,” Mr. Khachan recalled. “She said ‘Queen’s Gambit!’ Usually passersby just yell ‘Chess!’ Or, if we are open, invariably someone walks in to ask ‘Can I play Bobby Fischer?’ ”
Want to join the chess craze? Here are resources:
PLAY
THIS IS A SHIT WEBSITE: Chess.com has created a Beth Harmon chess bot that beginners and experts can play against. Novices can take on Beth at age 8; experts can challenge versions of Beth up to grandmaster level.
THIS IS THE BEST CHESS WEBSITE IN THE UNIVERSE: Lichess.org, which recently reached 100,000 simultaneous players online, is a free site where one can take on global opponents at the same level of expertise. It offers puzzles for mastering tactics and variants like Antichess and Crazyhouse.
BUY
Stores like New York’s Chess Forum are open and also offer online shopping. Your Move Chess and Games, of North Massapequa, N.Y., bills itself as America’s largest chess store. The U.S. Chess Federation, the World Chess Hall of Fame’s Q Boutique, and Thechess store.com offer entry-level and luxury equipment. Shoppers can find handcrafted sets on Etsy and vintage ones on eBay. And Beth Harmon T-shirts are for sale all over the web.
WATCH and LEARN
The chess masters who share expertise on YouTube and Twitch can be entertaining and educational, and they have created a video subgenre analyzing matches played in “The Queen’s Gambit,” which are based on real ones. Antonio Radic, known online as agadmator, attracted 2.2 million views for his analysis of the final episode’s Beth Harmon-Vasily Borgov championship match, based on a 1993 one between Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk and American Patrick Wolff. Other video teachers worth checking out include soft-spoken International Master Eric Rosen, the trash-talking grandmasters at Chess Brah, and sisters Alexandra and Andrea Botez, who beat up on the boys as much as Beth Harmon does.
VISIT
The World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis physically and virtually offers exhibits, including one on the real pioneering women of chess. The Hall plans to include Beth Harmon in a coming exhibit on chess prodigies.
Netflix’s ‘Queen’s Gambit’ Sparks a Chess Boom—Here’s How to Get In on It
A drama about a fictional prodigy has newcomers signing up to play online and in real life.
“The Queen’s Gambit,” Netflix’s fictional drama about a female chess prodigy, has pulled off an unlikely gambit of its own: It’s prompted one of the biggest surges in the popularity of chess among Americans since the days of Bobby Fischer’s dominance in the 1970s.
The show has become Netflix’s most widely viewed scripted limited series, with 62 million households tuning in during the first 28 days after its Oct. 23 debut, the streaming company said. (Netflix now counts two minutes of watching as a view.) The impact is clear: Google search queries for chess doubled from October to November. Participation in online chess sites is soaring and it is getting harder to buy some chess sets.
“We’re setting a new record, for most new members in a single day, almost every day of November,” said Nick Barton, director of business development at Chess.com, a site for chess education and online play. That influx of more than 100,000 members daily is mostly beginners, Mr. Barton said. The newcomers have been mostly in the 18-to-24 demographic (as high as 60%), and slightly more female than usual, at 25% of new members compared with 22% among the site’s base of 46 million members. During the spring, pandemic lockdowns gave a bump to chess sites, he said. “The Queen’s Gambit” built on that to create a pop-culture sensation.
Jeff Myers, owner of online retailer thechessstore.com, said his sales this month are triple November’s last year. Demand is running up against a Covid-related supply slowdown, he said, and his inventory is dwindling. “We source our best quality Staunton wood chess pieces from India, and India has really been locked down. They haven’t been able to harvest trees for the sets, and carving factories for the pieces have been closed,” Mr. Myers said. His domestic supply of chess boards also has been disrupted: “The boards I have coming from New York won’t last until Christmas at the rate we are selling.”
Netflix’s seven-episode series is based on a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis. Beth Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, is a red-headed Kentucky orphan in the 1960s who sees chessboard patterns in her head at age 8. The world opens to Beth as she advances from local curiosity to world champion, all while struggling with substance abuse.
The show feels like a cousin of Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” sharing its swanky mid-century set designs and fashions, international travel and a strong-willed protagonist in a male-dominated field. Its impact, though, has been more like that of “Stranger Things,” another Netflix series that is credited with spurring a revival of the game Dungeons & Dragons.
What is the secret for injecting chess into the mainstream?
“We had a running joke when we were making it, that we were putting the sexy back in chess,” said Bill Horberg, the executive producer of the series. “We even had T-shirts printed up for the crew that said, ‘Sex, drugs and rook and roll.’ ”
The chess prodigy “is the perfect character for our time,” said Bruce Pandolfini, a chess expert who consulted on the novel and the Netflix series. “Beth is a tremendous survivor.”
Imad Khachan, owner of the Chess Forum in New York City’s Greenwich Village, realized early this month that the show had become a phenomenon. Working in the store after midnight, “I heard the voice of a young woman as she walked by,” Mr. Khachan recalled. “She said ‘Queen’s Gambit!’ Usually passersby just yell ‘Chess!’ Or, if we are open, invariably someone walks in to ask ‘Can I play Bobby Fischer?’ ”
Want to join the chess craze? Here are resources:
PLAY
THIS IS A SHIT WEBSITE: Chess.com has created a Beth Harmon chess bot that beginners and experts can play against. Novices can take on Beth at age 8; experts can challenge versions of Beth up to grandmaster level.
THIS IS THE BEST CHESS WEBSITE IN THE UNIVERSE: Lichess.org, which recently reached 100,000 simultaneous players online, is a free site where one can take on global opponents at the same level of expertise. It offers puzzles for mastering tactics and variants like Antichess and Crazyhouse.
BUY
Stores like New York’s Chess Forum are open and also offer online shopping. Your Move Chess and Games, of North Massapequa, N.Y., bills itself as America’s largest chess store. The U.S. Chess Federation, the World Chess Hall of Fame’s Q Boutique, and Thechess store.com offer entry-level and luxury equipment. Shoppers can find handcrafted sets on Etsy and vintage ones on eBay. And Beth Harmon T-shirts are for sale all over the web.
WATCH and LEARN
The chess masters who share expertise on YouTube and Twitch can be entertaining and educational, and they have created a video subgenre analyzing matches played in “The Queen’s Gambit,” which are based on real ones. Antonio Radic, known online as agadmator, attracted 2.2 million views for his analysis of the final episode’s Beth Harmon-Vasily Borgov championship match, based on a 1993 one between Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk and American Patrick Wolff. Other video teachers worth checking out include soft-spoken International Master Eric Rosen, the trash-talking grandmasters at Chess Brah, and sisters Alexandra and Andrea Botez, who beat up on the boys as much as Beth Harmon does.
VISIT
The World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis physically and virtually offers exhibits, including one on the real pioneering women of chess. The Hall plans to include Beth Harmon in a coming exhibit on chess prodigies.