Monday Coffee…
Good morning, Monday! For those of you who like numbers, there are 34 days before Xmas, 41 days before the first of January 2017, and exactly 60 days before Obama leaves the White House, ushering in the Trump-era. Curiously, there are numerous websites with apps dedicated to counting the hours, minutes and seconds until Obama is gone: HERE is just one.
As I am not American, my opinion on Obama’s presidency is not coloured by the intimacy that is the birthright of all Americans. But I will say this: when I look back at the Obama years, my overwhelming feeling will be a sense of disappointment. Especially for not following up on one of his most important electoral promises: closing down Guantanamo. I mean…if the most powerful man in the world does not have the ability to close down the world’s most hated institution… Something is wrong here. Or maybe it is just Obama not trying hard enough.
Fun with Coffee studies
Is it just me, or have you noticed that there haven’t been so many ‘Coffee is bad for you because…’ -studies published recently? Not that I took any of them seriously in the first place, but that gnawing feeling of guilt in the back of my mind was always a bit annoying.
The good news is that there are still plenty of studies out there on our favourite drink! Only more often I chuckle when I see them appear in print. I especially like this one:
“There have been lots of studies into the likely impacts of climate change on gourmet coffee, and the millions of smallholders that produce it. But a recent study is a bit different.
As well as predicting the impacts on arabica coffee in Nicaragua, it looks at what climate change will do to the one thing that matters most to buyers and consumers: flavor…” Read more HERE.
Yes, this deserved a big chuckle when I read it! Not happy with merely trying to seduce me with one of the biggest frauds in modern science (climate change), but then trying to TELL ME that I won’t like the flavour of my coffee…Hell, I have drank some pretty horrible coffee in my time (camel dung extract !?) and NEVER complained!
And here is another study I got a kick out of:
LINK
Well, I would hope so! Good taste should be genetically encoded…
And while we are on the topic of diarrhea…
Chess.com’s player profile for journalist Mike Klein begins :“If there is such a thing as a chess traveler or chess nomad, then FIDE Master Mike Klein is one of them.” Me thinks that perhaps Mike has been spending too much time on Kirsan’s spaceship…
If there is an annual award for journalistic diarrhea, then Mike would be right up there as a prime candidate. His latest journalistic discharge was on the 7th game of the Carlsen vs Karjakin match yesterday in NYC, published in Chess.com, which you can read HERE, and reads like a non-stop sneer at Carlsen’s challenger, Sergey Karjakin.
The article starts off like a bat out of hell, as though it is open season on anyone who ever sits down to play against Carlsen.
“In 2013, GM Viswanathan Anand couldn’t break through with his king-pawn against GMMagnus Carlsen and switched to 1.d4 late in the world championship match. It didn’t work.
Today, in round seven of 2016 World Championship, GM Sergey Karjakin tried the same idea. After getting nothing, or even less than nothing, in the trio of Ruy Lopez games in rounds two, four, and six, the challenger switched to his queen’s pawn.
Although he didn’t lose like Anand did, Karjakin lost yet another chance with White. Carlsen was once again the winner of the opening battle.”
Even some readers wrote comments objecting to Klein’s total lack of objectivity.
Klein soon goes on; “Carlsen’s rare move 10…Nc6 (once played in Colle-Tartokower, 1925!) caused the Russian to think for 18 minutes before playing a toothless response…”
I recommend readers to take a look at the entire article. It is shameful that this kind of crap gets tolerated online, especially from a relatively weak player (compared to either Carlsen or Karjakin, or even me for that matter) who would not know a good move from a bad move if it stared him in the face.
