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and that Earth is not gay like the bible says.

If computers can beat chess grandmasters and similar feats, how is this anything special?

Last time I saw a post about this on Slashdot Vision was boasting they would be able to win the World Cup in 2050... I felt the need to call bullshit on that boast, but for the wrong reason.

The reason I called bullshit originally is because I remember seeing an amazing achievement in robot dexterity in 1998. The Honda prototype, Asimo, slowly, precisely and precariously walk up a few steps without toppling. After seeing that robot hobble up some stairs, my response to a humanoid robot with soccer player dexterity within 45 years was a predictable... Bullshit.

If you were thinking the same thing... Take a look at these pics and vids. They are impressive. They just might have soccer player dexterity by 2050. Without having to worry about getting tired or even slowing down they could pose a major threat (in soccer, put your tinfoil hat back on).

However, I'm still going to call bullshit. Mainly because soccer, unlike chess, deals with full freedom of motion in a 3D field. Computers only recently were able to master chess on a world competition level with intense processing. Chess is played on an 8x8 field, with significant, but limited, branching. The 3D nature of soccer (or even the 2D nature of novice soccer) presents branching that could be arguably higher than that of Go. Combine that with the fact that soccer players aren't going to wait a turn for the computer to "think". This is my new reason for calling bullshit on a Robot 2050 World Cup Champion.

But, damn if those robot control systems aren't impressive. I wouldn't mind eating these words. Robots are cool.

--David

http://www.ishipress.com/circuit4.htm

http://www.independentjudiciary.com/courts/courtlo ng.cfm?CourtID=8

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43571-20 04Apr1?language=printer

I dug up some information:

On September 1, 1992, Bobby Fischer came out of his 20 year retirement and gave a press conference in Yugoslavia. He pulled out an order from the U.S. Treasury Department warning him that he would be violating U.N sanctions if he played Chess in Yugoslavia. He spit on the order and now faces ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he returns to the U.S. In addition, he must forfeit his $3.65 million to the U.S. Treasury and forfeit 10% of any match royalties earned. On September 30, Bobby Fischer began his rematch with Boris Spassky in Sveti Stefan, Yugoslavia. The match was organized by banker Jedzimir Vasiljevic. On November 11, Fischer won the match with 10 wins, 5 losses, and 15 draws. He received $3.65 million for his winnings and Spassky received $1.5 million.

And I found the letter from the Senate that explains the basis for the sanction:

Department of the Treasury
Washington
Aug 21, 1992
Order to Provide Information and Cease and Desist Activities

FAC No. 129405

Dear Mr Fischer:

It has come to our attention that you are planning to play a chess match for a cash prize in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) (hereinafter "Yugoslavia") against Boris Spassky on or about September 1, 1992. As a U.S. citizen, you are subject to the prohibitions under Executive Order 12810, dated June 5, 1992, imposing sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro. The United States Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control ("FAC"), is charged with enforcement of the Executive Order.

The Executive Order prohibits U.S. persons from performing any contract in support of a commercial project in Yugoslavia, as well as from exporting services to Yugoslavia. The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the performance of your agreement with a corporate sponsor in Yugoslavia to play chess is deemed to be in support of that sponsor's commercial activity. Any transactions engaged in for this purpose are outside the scope of General License No. 6, which authorizes only transactions to travel, not to business or commercial activities. In addition, we consider your presence in Yugoslavia for this purpose to be an exportation of services to Yugoslavia in the sense that the Yugoslav sponsor is benefitting from the use of your name and reputation.

Violations of the Executive Order are punishable by civil penalties not to exceed $10,000 per violation, and by criminal penalties not to exceed $250,000 per individual, 10 years in prison, or both. You are hereby directed to refrain from engaging in any of the activities described above. You are further requested to file a report with this office with 10 business days of your receipt of this letter, outlining the facts and circumstances surrounding any and all transactions relating to your scheduled chess match in Yugoslavia against Boris Spassky. The report should be addressed to: The U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Enforcement Division, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Annex - 2nd floor, Washington D.C. 20220. If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact Merete M. Evans at (202) 622-2430.

Sincerely, (signed)
R. Richard Newcomb
Director
Office of Foreign Assets Control

- David Stein

On a related note, Sam Sloan is crazy too.

Bobby Fischer's Statements have been Misrepresented

BTW how did you find the URL of the mp3?

Easily - if there's a lobbyist in the middle, or perhaps Fanne Fox (for those old enough to remember Wilbur Mills...)

That the same Disney as this or this?

"The 9th is by far the most reversed court in the country"

I did a little digging, trying to find actual counts of reviewed cases and cases overturned. and found facts such as "The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was overturned 75% percent of the time in 2002. The 4th, 5th, 8th, and 10th Circuit Courts were overturned 100% of the time." You don't see the Republicans complaining about the Appeals Court That Always Veers to the Right.

But it's (IMO) if different courts lean one way or another -- people in different regions have different ideas, and it's hardly shocking that the people in California would be more progressive than the people in Virginia.

AIDS is believed to have come from cross-species contamination (probably unsanitary butchering and eating) from chimpanzees in central Africa sometime in the early part of the century. There is a simian version of HIV called SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus), that shares sequence similarity with HIV. HIV is not caused by genetic manipulation.

The first confirmed case of HIV infection was from a patient who gave a blood sample in 1959. The infection wasn't discovered until the 80s, however, when they finally knew what to look for.

First AIDS case

I'm not sure what you mean by "generally exploiting nature in unnatural ways". The spread of HIV/AIDS may have been exacerbated by vaccination programs in central Africa during the 60s, where syringes were used repetedly. Does a vaccination program count as unnatural exploitation?

Hey, Saddam called some of later missile strikes "Operation Monica", not me. Though now that you mention it, I don't know why the news article called it Desert Fox, which it couldn't have been. My point is its hypocritical to say Bush is doing this as a PR campaign, or to deflect attention, when basically the same thing happened with Clinton and his many cruise missiles. I personally tend to give them both the benefit of the doubt. But this is Slashdot, so we should only give one the benefit of the doubt and the earlier one must have been good because we only have 2 year memories. I'm sorry you lost your buddy in Iraq; My family has lost relatives in every war from WW1 to Vietnam; We've been lucky since then.

Who launched a half-assed attack against Al Qaeda? Can you find a reference to "Al Qaeda" that exists before 9/11/01? Not likely. This is all made up bullshit.

Here you go, that took about 10 seconds. I guess you're technically right since it was only called "bin Laden's network of terrorist groups", not "Al Qaeda" then. Of course, 1998 was such a long time ago, and those cruise missiles were just a friendly gesture. Here's an interview where OBL himself mentions the attack. Half-assed is demonstrated in these two articles, however the latter one is written after 9/11 and it isn't fully fair, since hindsight is 20/20. But we could have done better, that's for sure. Here's another referenencing the attack. Calling it all "made up bullshit" sure sounds good, but its hard to rebut the facts of history. Do I think Clinton's scandal caused the 75 cruise missile attack? No, but the timing sure seems bad. Now tell me again why Bush is doing this all as a big PR campaign? Seems like "No War" would have been a hell of a lot more popular with the voters around here.

as a result of the previous Bush's actions

We made a mistake in 1991, but again hindsight is perfect. We're finishing it now; the sanctions and cruise missiles were just putting it off. Responsibility for OBL and Al Qaeda rest soley with Clinton and later GWB. Sure, the original Gulf War fanned the flames a lot, but that was a UN war, and our options were limited since the UN only knows limited/partial war, and all the limited/partial results that brings (see Korea). So who's your favorite leader? More likely than not they either (1) fought a war in which Americans died, or (2) ignored a security threat so that his successor had to fight the war instead. Don't even say JFK was your favorite... you'll have a lot more bodies to count.

Hmm, from what I hear bonobos have a very interesting social hierarchy, female based, and a lot of social norms and actions are sexual. A typical greeting is masturbation. Conflict resolution - an orgy.

They'd be too busy checking out porn on the net to write. "ooog oog ooh, Bubbles, where zoo pr0n site? oog goo goo..."

This article gives an introduction to the problems involved in getting computers to play Go:

http://www.ishipress.com/times-go.htm

You mindless retard

If you know how chess works, when two people both go exactly by the book, it produces a draw.

Gary Kasparov had no chance in hell at playing against deep junior in a game of REAL chess without using scripted or planned moves because then he'd lose, the computer has superior logic.

On the highest level all the games are fake, the players all follow script, they use computers to figure out the best moves then they play for show, move by move going based on the script.

If you think I'm joking or I'm lying, Bobby Fischer the Chess Legend who Abandoned chess explains this.

I'm not a grandmaster but he is, I can understand what hes talking about.

http://home.att.ne.jp/moon/fischer/
http://www.ishipress.com/bobby.htm

Check out his latest interview.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I did a little digging and found that Sam Sloan does report on this. Although Sam Sloan is a strong player (Master I think) Sloan's view on some issues differs from the mainstream, so it would be nice to have additional resources. However, given the amount of tuning that was being done, I could see how the moves might not appear algorithmically generated, even to a smart guy like Kasparov.

"It's not just Playboy soft-porn nudity. A lot of it's torture. A lot of it's bestiality. And a lot of it is teen hard-core sex," said Donna Rice Hughes

Search on google for: libel law "per se"

You'll find some examples listed there. One of the more entertaining, though, is this one, where a ostensibly eloquent lawyer-type writes "...it would be impossible for me to win that case in court [in San Francisco], because everybody is queer out there" halfway through his analysis of the law!

Another example that, in contrast to the previous one, even vaguely resembles professional writing can be found here, at a site that details a New York Supreme Court ruling in the case of Anthony Nacinovich v. Tullett & Tokoyo Forex, Inc, where it was ruled that calling someone gay is defamatory, even though it may be true.

I couldn't find the actual wording of the law, but the person who advised me of this (who is himself a lawyer) told me that the suit had merit. Ergo, the removal of the story.

- adam

I was searching for sites (don't ask) and this article came up.

www.ishipress.com/osamaint.htm

coincidence? stenography? idiocy? you decide

Transcript of Osama Bin Ladin interview by Peter Arnett The first-ever television interview with Osama Bin Ladin was conducted by Peter Arnett in eastern Afghanistan in late March 1997. Questions were submitted in advance. Bin Ladin responded to almost all of the questions. CNN was not allowed to ask follow up questions. The interview lasted just over an hour. ARNETT: Mr. Bin Ladin, could you give us your main criticism of the Saudi royal Family that is ruling Saudi Arabia today?

Osama bin Ladin

MR. BIN LADIN: Regarding the criticisms of the ruling regime in Saudi Arabia and the Arabian peninsula, the first one is their subordination to the US. So, our main problem is the US government while the Saudi regime is but a branch or an agent of the US. By being loyal to the US regime, the Saudi regime has committed an act against Islam. And this, based on the ruling of Shari'a (Islamic jurisprudence), casts the regime outside the religious community. Subsequently, the regime has stopped ruling people according to what God revealed, praise and glory be to Him, not to mention many other contradictory acts. When this main foundation was violated, other corrupt acts followed in every aspect of the country, the economic, the social, government services and so on.

REPORTER: Mr. Bin Ladin, if the Islamic movement takes over Arabia, what kind of society will be created and will Saudi Arabia, for example, return to the laws of the Qur'an at the time of the Prophet?

BIN LADIN: We are confident, with the permission of God, Praise and Glory be to Him, that Muslims will be victorious in the Arabian peninsula and that God's religion, praise and glory be to Him, will prevail in this peninsula. It is a great pride and a big hope that the revelation unto Muhammad, Peace be upon him, will be resorted to for ruling. When we used to follow Muhammad's revelation, Peace be upon him, we were in great happiness and in great dignity, to God belong credit and praise.

REPORTER: Mr. Bin Ladin, if the Islamic movement takes over Saudi Arabia, what would your attitude to the West be and will the price of oil be higher?

BIN LADIN: We are a nation and have a long history, with the grace of God, Praise and Glory be to Him. We are now in the 15th century of this great religion, the complete and comprehensive methodology, has clarified the dealing between an individual and another, the duties of the believer towards God, Praise and Glory be to Him, and the relationship between the Muslim country and other countries in time of peace and in time of war. If we look back at our history, we will find there were many types of dealings between the Muslim nation and the other nations in time of peace and in time of war, including treaties and matters to do with commerce. So it is not a new thing that we need to come up with. Rather, it already, by the grace of God, exists. As for oil, it is a commodity that will be subject to the price of the market according to supply and demand. We believe that the current prices are not realistic due to the Saudi regime playing the role of a US agent and the pressures exercised by the US on the Saudi regime to increase production and flooding the market that caused a sharp decrease in oil prices.

Those of you who, like me, don't know why he's a fugitive, here' s the story in brief. (Warning: bad midi background music). To make short story really really short, he played a Yugoslavian dude for money during the cold war and the US government put out an arrest warrant.

What about Shashi of Sind? It's inexcusable to miss one of the true Godfathers of gaming. I agree, the list is stuffed with people from this millineum at the expense of the true pioneers.

A bit of satire there - not everyone knows who the people are that you are mentioning, including myself. Could you give a short bio?

BTW, Shashi of Sind, according to a Indian legend, invented Chess. King Rai Bhalit in North West India wanted to reward him, and Shashi asked for one grain of wheat on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, etc. The king agreed. This is (2^65)-1, or 3.69x10^19 grains, much more than the total amount of grain availible.

This is probably the basis of the legend that Chess comes from India, but Sam Sloan thinks it came from China.

What about Shashi of Sind? It's inexcusable to miss one of the true Godfathers of gaming. I agree, the list is stuffed with people from this millineum at the expense of the true pioneers.

A bit of satire there - not everyone knows who the people are that you are mentioning, including myself. Could you give a short bio?

BTW, Shashi of Sind, according to a Indian legend, invented Chess. King Rai Bhalit in North West India wanted to reward him, and Shashi asked for one grain of wheat on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, etc. The king agreed. This is (2^65)-1, or 3.69x10^19 grains, much more than the total amount of grain availible.

This is probably the basis of the legend that Chess comes from India, but Sam Sloan thinks it came from China.

Kasparov hasn't been the official FIDE world chess federation champion since 1993, when he broke with FIDE to play against the legitimate challenger Nigel Short.

Karpov regained the FIDE title in a 1993 match and lost it by not playing in the 1999 FIDE world championship. This matter is currently under legal dispute.

Kasparov did not play his legitimate challenger, Alexei Shirov, and attempted to set up a "championship" match with another leading player, Viswanathan Anand of India before hand-picking Kramnik as his challenger here.

However Kramnik is number 3 on the FIDE rating list and so was a worthy challenger, just not the man who deserved the match, Shirov.