Coffee, US-visas,potpourri and other nonsense!
Coffee, US-visas, potpourri and nonsense!
Good morning, Thursday! What a pleasure it is too see the sun shining and the flowers in the garden blossoming…spring must truly be around the corner! The chess world seems to be taking a bit of a breather, well-deserved considering how much activity there was recently (Women’s World Championship, FIDE Grand Prix, etc). However, things are going to heat up in a week or so, and the best players will be in action once more..
$18 Coffee ?!
Next time you are in New York (Brooklyn, to be precise) and have more money than sense cents, you have to visit the ‘Extraction Lab‘ for their $18 coffee. They guarantee you a ‘new and unparalleled experience‘…(!)
David Llada has a visa problem…
Internationally respected Spanish photo-journalist David Llada was recently invited by FIDE to attend the Women’s World Championship in Tehran,Iran in the capacity of official photographer. Now David would like to visit the USA, and even though Spanish nationals do NOT need a visa for such a routine visit to the USA, the American embassy has informed him that he must apply for a visa because of his visit to Iran! David is, understandably, not very happy right now…
Since the November 2015 Paris terrorist attack, the American government has tightened homeland security and now any non-American who visits Iran forfeits any freeby visa exemption. For 5 years. However, this does not mean that David can still not successfully apply for a visa, but the red-tape involved is not just expensive and time consuming , but he might have also have to wait several months before being given an answer…
David has argued that since he is a journalist, he should fall under one of the exceptions to the American visa regulations, but apparently few exceptions are made for journalists. In any case, regardless of how this turns out, I am certain that my readers join me in sending moral support to David. Live long and prosper…
Trump-ology
What Trump wants to replace Obama-care with
Evidence? In America today ”un-named sources” is good enough!
The biggest difference between Obama and Trump
Blame everything on Trump:
Hard to believe, but true! Read more HERE.