Friday tidbits
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
KASPAROV SUPPORTS KARPOV’S BID FOR FIDE PRESIDENCY
Europe-Echecs (http://www.europe-echecs.com/) , definitely one of the hottest websites in the chess world, reports that Gary Kasparov is firmly behind the Karpov bid for the FIDE presidency. Following this week’s developments in the sleaze department of the Russian Chess Federation, when Dvorkovich blatantly tried to sink the Karpov campaign with underhanded and premature public declarations, Kasparov had this to say:
”I think that Karpov is the ideal candidate for pushing thru the necessary changes…the Russian Chess Federation and Arkadi Dvorkovitch are not the same thing, I believe. And as far as I know, the question of which candidate the Russian Chess Federation will support (Karpov or Ilyumzhinov) has not yet even been discussed. Dvorkovitch’s recent declaration is only his personal opinion, and quite scandalous at that.
The results of Ilyumzhinov’s 15 years as head of FIDE are well known. Chess today is in a very difficult situation, to put it politely. Furthermore, Ilyumzhinov does not know how to improve things. Today I travel a great deal and what I see is that chess players everywhere–as well as most of the federations–hope that there will be changes in FIDE.”
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Chess Players Leave For Everest Fundraising Climb
Bandar Seri Begawan – Eight senior members of the Brunei Chess Federation http://www.bruneichess.org.bn/ will climb Mt Everest as a unique opportunity to raise money to build houses for the less fortunate.
They left for Bangkok yesterday and from there they will take their connecting flight to Kathmandu.
Although the team’s main objective is to raise funds, the members are also looking for ward to playing a game of chess at the world’s highest summit.
To be led by its federation president Hj Zainal Abidin Hj Md Ali, the Mt Everest trek is a joint effort of the Brunei Chess Federation and the Community Development Department (Japem) of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.
Present as the guest of honour for the ceremony was Hj Mohammad Hj Abdul Rahman, Acting Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.
“The project will begin in Nepal, at the foot of Mount Everest where we will gather at our base camp called Everest Base Camp, 5,400 metres above sea level,” Hj Zainal Abidin said.
“This is actually a charity trekking called Amal, whereby we collect and raise funds to support and build new houses for poor people in Brunei. None of the raised funds will be used for our expedition but will instead fully go to the collection of funds.
“There are four main objectives that we want to accomplish as a team: The first one is to support and help out the poor in Brunei. We want to climb Everest so people can understand how hard it is, not only for us but for the people who struggle without a home or any money so we’ll raise the money just to show that”
The group’s second mission is to become the first team from Brunei to reach the top of Mt Everest. “Maybe there are individuals out there who have made it to Everest but we want to be the first team there to represent Brunei.”
“And for our third objective, we want to play and hold the first chess tournament on the top of Everest.We want to be able to be the first to hold a chess tournament at the highest altitude possible and show to the whole world that Brunei did it.”
The team is also out to show that age is just a number.
“As you can see, we are not very young and range between 35 to 60 years old but if we arc able to do it then obviously the younger people in Brunei can do it as well.”
Hj Zainal Abidin said the expedition would be for 20 days beginning with yesterday’s flight to Bangkok which is connected to Kathmandu and then finally reaching a small town called “Looplah” located 2,800 metres above sea level and then from there a12-day trek to base camp would begin.
“The reason why it takes so long is because we need to acclimatise which adjusts and adapts your body temperature with your surroundings,” he said.
“We need to walk slowly and with every 300 metres vertically, which would take about five hours of trekking, we would need to camp and rest for a day or two to get our bodies not only acclimatised with the weather but with the altitude as well.”
The president also said that they will be guided by two assistant guides during their expedition. The main fears and risks that Hj Zainal Abidin and his team will be facing are the cold weather and altitude sickness which make them prone to headaches, nausea and lower rate of blood flow.
Prior to the expedition, the federation have trained at various hills and other trekking sites in the region.
“We’ve been up Gunung Kinabalu as well as place in the country such as Bukit Shahbandar where we would go every week as part of our training:
“Within the region, we are considered okay at hiking and trekking but it’s nowhere as tough as what we’re about to face soon.”
He said that for those who want to contribute a donation to the charity fund may do so online through www.trekkingamal.com.bn and may also follow their progress updates through Rampai Pagi on RTB.
Courtesy of The Brunei Times
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DO YOU WATCH PORN AT THE OFFICE?
(now, Eric, tell the truth!)
Friday, April 23, 2010; 7:14 AM
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) — never one to pass up an opportunity to weigh in — said it was “nothing short of disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at pornography than taking action to help stave off the events that brought our nation’s economy to the brink of collapse.”
SEC employees su rfed porn as economy fell
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36725550/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/
DO YOU WATCH PORN AT THE OFFICE?
(now, Eric, tell the truth!)
Eye Opener: Porn and federal workers
Ed O’Keefe
Washington Post Staff WriterFriday, April 23, 2010; 7:14 AM
A new investigation by Securities and Exchange Commission watchdogs finds that dozens of agency employees used government computers to look at explicit images in the last five years, the AP scoops.
The SEC inspector general conducted 33 probes of employees looking at the images and said 31 of those occurred in the 2 1/2 years since the financial meltdown began.
Porn or your investments: just keep smiling and no one will know the difference
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) — never one to pass up an opportunity to weigh in — said it was “nothing short of disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at pornography than taking action to help stave off the events that brought our nation’s economy to the brink of collapse.”
“This stunning report should make everyone question the wisdom of moving forward with plans to give regulators like the SEC even more widespread authority,” Issa said — subtly jabbing ongoing financial reform efforts.
Rule no.1 about avoiding getting caught looking at porn: look natural and bored
The behavior violates government ethics rules (duh) — but porn and feds is nothing new. Let’s review a few other instances:
— One senior executive at the National Science Foundation spent at least 331 days looking at pornography on his government computer and chatting online with nude or partially clad women without being detected. The problems reportedly were so pervasive they diverted the agency’s watchdog from its main mission.
— Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, established a Web site that featured sexually explicit photos and video. He later acknowledged posting images, defended the content as “funny” (no, really) and said he thought the site was for his private storage. All of this while he was presiding over an obscenity trial. He later took the site down.
Folks, don’t do it. __________________________________________________________________________
Other interesting news items along the same theme are:
SEC Officials Surfing Porn During Financial Crisis, Report Finds
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/sec-pornography-employees-spent-hours-surfing-porn-sites/story?id=10452544SEC employees su rfed porn as economy fell
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36725550/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS