Wednesday Coffee
Wednesday Coffee
Good morning! This photo of James Franco really cracks me up because it is so unabashedly funky! I mean, haven’t we all been there? Waking up in the morning, in a rush, trying to do 3 or 4 things at the same time. Mornings can do that to you…
Another coffee study !
Worth reading. Not that there is anything new in this study, but like most other news items in the media about coffee, more smoke and mirrors than real. Nothing was proven in the original study. Expressions such as ‘appears to reduce‘ or ‘can cut‘ or ‘favourable influence‘ are hardly scientific jargon. Not un-surprisingly, this news item above was promoted by ISIC. ISIC is a not for profit organisation devoted to the study and disclosure of science related to coffee and health.
Happy birthday, Magnus !?
Today is the 26th birthday of the reigning World Champion. It might also be the last day of his reign…today is the make it or break it day for both champion and challenger. Tie-break day. Four games at 25 minutes each (plus 10′ per move).
After the gutless effort in Game 12, many observers returned to the old argument about the inadequacy of the current rules to decided the Title. How many games is optimal? What to do in case of a tie? ETC. Yasser Seirawan ventured that a highly reasonable solution to decide the ‘classical’ title is to keep it classical (avoid rapid-chess tie breaks) and play an all or nothing 13th game at the usual time control.
No doubt such arguments have their fan base, and I don’t want to criticize them, but isn’t the World Championship match supposed to determine who is the best player in the world? Why can’t we have rules that do just that? I mean, the rules that FIDE has been using since Kirsan took over the organization are just arbitrary rules. Kirsan’s rules…in fact!
Perhaps it was a mistake for FIDE to try to take control of the World Champion title in the first place. Readers might remember that the ownership of the title of World Champion was legally his property, but after the death of Alekhine in 1946 (who was the then World Champion) FIDE took control of the Title and has kept it that way ever since.
My point is this: do you think that Alekhine would risk his title (ie. his livelihood) in a match with the same rules and regulations as Carlsen and Karjakin? No, I don’t think so…FIDE is not doing a very good job protecting the World Champion-title. Perhaps it is time to go back to the way things operated in the times of Capablanca and Alekhine!? Let free market forces determine how the World Championship is organized: the Champ makes the rules regarding how many games, etc, and any challenger (for instance, FIDE’s challenger) must come up with the bucks….and none of this tie-break nonsense!
