Am not that good at chess, but I wish to be better and hope one day be a GM.
Lagos
Nigeria
UPDATE:
My next opponent lives in Algeria. I was able to win an interesting game.
TAOUFIK TAZEBINTE
GHARDAIA
Algeria
Algeria
Showing posts with label Algeria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Algeria. Show all posts
Monday, February 1, 2021
My opponent who killed me wrote in his profile "I'm not that good at chess."
Oladimeji Afeez Bello
Thursday, October 15, 2020
"The report on the jump in emissions comes shortly after the Trump administration’s easing of U.S. methane restrictions in August." Drop dead Trump, you stupid fucking asshole.
 |
| Flames from a flaring pit near a natural gas well. |
Climate and Environment
The number of global methane hot spots has soared this year despite the economic slowdown
European Union announces plans to clamp down on releases of the greenhouse gas.
By Steven Mufson
October 14, 2020
The worldwide number of methane hot spots has soared 32 percent so far this year despite the economic slowdown, according to satellite imagery analyzed by a private data firm.
Comparing the first eight months of 2019 to the same period in 2020, the Paris-based firm Kayrros said methane leaks from oil and gas industry hot spots climbed even higher in Algeria, Russia and Turkmenistan, growing by more than 40 percent. The largest contributors to rising methane releases were the United States, Russia, Algeria, Turkmenistan, Iran and Iraq, Kayrros said.
Methane, the main ingredient of natural gas, is a greenhouse gas more than 80 times as potent as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
Antoine Rostand, president of Kayrros, said the largest leak the firm was able to detect was in Iraq, releasing 400 tons an hour. He said the plume stretched 200 miles from northern Iraq to Saudi Arabia. In the United States, the largest leak was from a pipeline emitting 150 tons of methane an hour, the greenhouse gas equivalent of more than 10 coal-fired power plants “at full steam,” Rostand said in an interview.
The report on the jump in emissions comes shortly after the Trump administration’s easing of U.S. methane restrictions in August.
Rostand said some of the leaks were the result of pipeline maintenance, which shuts down pipelines temporarily and forces natural gas flaring. But some leaks are the result of long-term faulty maintenance, such as one in Algeria that has been releasing methane since 2017.
The increases in methane emissions also come despite promises by world and industry leaders in the 2015 Paris climate agreement to lower releases of methane.
“Such increases in methane emissions are concerning and in stark contradiction to the direction set in the Paris agreement,” Rostand said. “Despite much talk of climate action by energy industry stakeholders, global methane emissions continue to increase steeply.”
Kayrros said that while the coronavirus pandemic led to lower demand and production of natural gas, some companies allowed lax operating standards to cut costs.
The European Union on Wednesday said it would aim to clamp down on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry with legislation across the bloc. It is considering a ban on all routine venting and flaring of methane by 2025. And it is preparing to tax oil and gas imports based on their methane footprints, a challenge for big importers such as Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine and Poland.
Methane accounts for a quarter of global warming emissions from human activities, and the oil and gas sector offers the fastest, cheapest option for reducing methane leaks, according to the Environmental Defense Fund and the International Energy Agency.
The IEA said the oil and gas industry can reduce methane emissions by 75 percent using technology available today. The agency said more than half of this is achievable at no net cost to the industry.
The Clean Air Task Force estimates that by 2030, strong E.U. methane standards for domestic and imported gas could reduce emissions by more than 5 million tons a year, comparable to shutting down about 120 coal-fired power plants.
Experts have argued that methane leaks put operators at a competitive disadvantage.
“Producers whose operating practices and regulatory regimes yield the lowest emission rates will come out on top,” Antoine Halff, chief analyst at Kayrros, and Andrew Gould, former chief executive of oil field services giant Schlumberger, have written.
“It is clearly time to reduce these emissions,” Rostand said Wednesday. “They are easy to fix. We have the technology to fix them.” Otherwise, he said, “gas that leaks methane is as bad as coal.”
Monday, September 21, 2020
Nobody cares.
My opponent lives in Algeria, a beautiful and interesting country.
I was winning then I had a lost game. Then he missed a mate in 2 moves. Then there was an interesting end to this game. I won.
I had the White pieces.
I was winning then I had a lost game. Then he missed a mate in 2 moves. Then there was an interesting end to this game. I won.
I had the White pieces.
This blog has 4 posts about Algeria at Algeria.
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Chechar, Algeria
ششار
Algeria
Chechar, Algeria
Chechar is a town and commune in Khenchela Province, Algeria. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 27,428.
This chess opponent was not a quitter. He was getting killed but he kept playing, hoping for stalemate which would be a draw. I had to be careful but I won the game.
AlgeriaChechar, Algeria
Chechar is a town and commune in Khenchela Province, Algeria. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 27,428.
This chess opponent was not a quitter. He was getting killed but he kept playing, hoping for stalemate which would be a draw. I had to be careful but I won the game.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
"The bloc will allow visitors from 15 countries, but the United States, Brazil and Russia were among the notable absences from the safe list."
New York Times
E.U. Formalizes Reopening, Barring Travelers From U.S.
The bloc will allow visitors from 15 countries, but the United States, Brazil and Russia were among the notable absences from the safe list.
By Matina Stevis-Gridneff
June 30, 2020
BRUSSELS — The European Union will open its borders to visitors from 15 countries as of Wednesday, but not to travelers from the United States, Brazil or Russia, putting into effect a complex policy that has sought to balance health concerns with politics, diplomacy and the desperate need for tourism revenue.
The list of nations that European Union countries have approved includes Australia, Canada and New Zealand, while travelers from China will be permitted if China reciprocates.
The plan was drawn up based on health criteria, and European Union officials went to great lengths to appear apolitical in their choices, but the decision to leave the United States off the list — lumping travelers from there in with those from Brazil and Russia — was a high-profile rebuke of the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Travelers’ country of residence, not their nationality, will be the determining factor for their ability to travel to countries in the European Union, officials said, and while the policy will not be legally binding, all 27 member nations will be under pressure to comply. If not, they risk having their European peers close borders within the bloc, which would set back efforts to restart the free travel-and-trade zone that is fundamental to the club’s economic survival.
Still, some European countries, especially those in the south that see millions of visitors from all over the world throng to beaches and cultural sites during the summer, have been eager to permit more travelers in a bid to salvage their ravaged, and vital, tourism industries.
The United States was the first country to bar visitors from the European Union in March as the pandemic devastated Italy and other European nations.
The bloc implemented its own travel ban in mid-March and has been gradually extending it as the pandemic spreads to other parts of the world. It had set July 1 as the date to begin allowing non-European Union travelers to return, even as Portugal and Sweden, both members, and Britain, which is treated as a member until the end of the year, still grapple with serious outbreaks. Others, such as Germany, are seeing new localized outbreaks drive up their national caseloads.
Britain was exempt from consideration for the list because of its current E.U. status, and countries like Spain and France are considering allowing direct flights from Britain to bring in crucial tourism revenue.
The list of safe countries will be reviewed every two weeks to reflect the changing realities of the coronavirus outbreaks in individual nations, officials said, and countries could be added or removed from the list. Experts say the approach is a sensible way navigate the continent’s reopening as the spread of the virus shifts and ebbs. But it is also bound to create logistical problems for airlines trying to plan routes, and could reap uncertainty for would-be travelers.
The full list of the first 15 countries that the European Union will open up to includes Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay and China, provided that China also opens up to travelers from the bloc. It also includes four European microstates, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican.
Exceptions are also being made for travelers from countries outside the safe list, including health care workers, diplomats, humanitarian workers, transit passengers, asylum seekers and students, as well as “passengers traveling for imperative family reasons” and foreign workers whose employment in Europe is deemed essential.
Although travel between the United States and Europe has been severely limited by the earlier lockdown restrictions, exceptions have been made. A regular flight between Newark and Amsterdam, for example, has shuttled essential travelers such as diplomats and health care professionals and repatriated Europeans from the United States.
The prolonged severance of travel ties between the bloc and the United States has disrupted a critical economic, cultural and diplomatic relationship. Business travelers on both sides of the Atlantic are desperate to resume their visits, couples and families have been split up for months, and the differences between the European and American approaches to combating the pandemic have brought to the fore divergent views on science and policy.
While most European nations went into strict lockdowns early in their outbreaks and have promoting the wearing of masks and other measures to try and control the resurgence of the illness, the United States has seen a patchwork response and the number of new cases has continued to balloon.
The different policy approaches and their subsequent results became obvious to officials tasked with drafting the safe list. The benchmark scientific metric used was new cases over the past two weeks per 100,000 people. The average among the 27 European Union countries was 16 in mid-June; in the United States, it was 107.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week said that the United States and the European Union were working together to reopen travel between the two areas.
“We’re working with our European counterparts to get that right,” he told a German Marshall Fund conference last week. “There’s enormous destruction of wealth.”
Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Brussels correspondent for The New York Times, covering the European Union. She joined The Times after covering East Africa for The Wall Street Journal for five years. @MatinaStevis
E.U. Formalizes Reopening, Barring Travelers From U.S.
The bloc will allow visitors from 15 countries, but the United States, Brazil and Russia were among the notable absences from the safe list.
By Matina Stevis-Gridneff
June 30, 2020
BRUSSELS — The European Union will open its borders to visitors from 15 countries as of Wednesday, but not to travelers from the United States, Brazil or Russia, putting into effect a complex policy that has sought to balance health concerns with politics, diplomacy and the desperate need for tourism revenue.
The list of nations that European Union countries have approved includes Australia, Canada and New Zealand, while travelers from China will be permitted if China reciprocates.
The plan was drawn up based on health criteria, and European Union officials went to great lengths to appear apolitical in their choices, but the decision to leave the United States off the list — lumping travelers from there in with those from Brazil and Russia — was a high-profile rebuke of the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Travelers’ country of residence, not their nationality, will be the determining factor for their ability to travel to countries in the European Union, officials said, and while the policy will not be legally binding, all 27 member nations will be under pressure to comply. If not, they risk having their European peers close borders within the bloc, which would set back efforts to restart the free travel-and-trade zone that is fundamental to the club’s economic survival.
Still, some European countries, especially those in the south that see millions of visitors from all over the world throng to beaches and cultural sites during the summer, have been eager to permit more travelers in a bid to salvage their ravaged, and vital, tourism industries.
The United States was the first country to bar visitors from the European Union in March as the pandemic devastated Italy and other European nations.
The bloc implemented its own travel ban in mid-March and has been gradually extending it as the pandemic spreads to other parts of the world. It had set July 1 as the date to begin allowing non-European Union travelers to return, even as Portugal and Sweden, both members, and Britain, which is treated as a member until the end of the year, still grapple with serious outbreaks. Others, such as Germany, are seeing new localized outbreaks drive up their national caseloads.
Britain was exempt from consideration for the list because of its current E.U. status, and countries like Spain and France are considering allowing direct flights from Britain to bring in crucial tourism revenue.
The list of safe countries will be reviewed every two weeks to reflect the changing realities of the coronavirus outbreaks in individual nations, officials said, and countries could be added or removed from the list. Experts say the approach is a sensible way navigate the continent’s reopening as the spread of the virus shifts and ebbs. But it is also bound to create logistical problems for airlines trying to plan routes, and could reap uncertainty for would-be travelers.
The full list of the first 15 countries that the European Union will open up to includes Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay and China, provided that China also opens up to travelers from the bloc. It also includes four European microstates, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican.
Exceptions are also being made for travelers from countries outside the safe list, including health care workers, diplomats, humanitarian workers, transit passengers, asylum seekers and students, as well as “passengers traveling for imperative family reasons” and foreign workers whose employment in Europe is deemed essential.
Although travel between the United States and Europe has been severely limited by the earlier lockdown restrictions, exceptions have been made. A regular flight between Newark and Amsterdam, for example, has shuttled essential travelers such as diplomats and health care professionals and repatriated Europeans from the United States.
The prolonged severance of travel ties between the bloc and the United States has disrupted a critical economic, cultural and diplomatic relationship. Business travelers on both sides of the Atlantic are desperate to resume their visits, couples and families have been split up for months, and the differences between the European and American approaches to combating the pandemic have brought to the fore divergent views on science and policy.
While most European nations went into strict lockdowns early in their outbreaks and have promoting the wearing of masks and other measures to try and control the resurgence of the illness, the United States has seen a patchwork response and the number of new cases has continued to balloon.
The different policy approaches and their subsequent results became obvious to officials tasked with drafting the safe list. The benchmark scientific metric used was new cases over the past two weeks per 100,000 people. The average among the 27 European Union countries was 16 in mid-June; in the United States, it was 107.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week said that the United States and the European Union were working together to reopen travel between the two areas.
“We’re working with our European counterparts to get that right,” he told a German Marshall Fund conference last week. “There’s enormous destruction of wealth.”
Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Brussels correspondent for The New York Times, covering the European Union. She joined The Times after covering East Africa for The Wall Street Journal for five years. @MatinaStevis
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Algeria
I just played a chess game against somebody in Algeria. I made two mistakes which should have cost me the game but he didn't take advantage of those errors. Then he got in time trouble and lost.
After a chess game I like to learn a few things about the countries my opponents live in. I use Wikipedia, Google Images, and Google Maps.
They speak Arabic. Islam is 97.9% of the population, mostly Sunnis. From what I saw it looks like the women don't cover their hair. That's a good thing.
380,000 Muslims in Algeria converted to Christianity. In other words they replaced their idiotic death cult with another idiotic death cult. Why don't people grow up and throw religious stupidity in the garbage?
For some Algerians there is poor sanitation and unclean water which causes health problems.
Except for the coast the country is mostly desert.
After a chess game I like to learn a few things about the countries my opponents live in. I use Wikipedia, Google Images, and Google Maps.
They speak Arabic. Islam is 97.9% of the population, mostly Sunnis. From what I saw it looks like the women don't cover their hair. That's a good thing.
380,000 Muslims in Algeria converted to Christianity. In other words they replaced their idiotic death cult with another idiotic death cult. Why don't people grow up and throw religious stupidity in the garbage?
For some Algerians there is poor sanitation and unclean water which causes health problems.
Except for the coast the country is mostly desert.
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