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Russian Police Seize Kasparov
An anonymous reader writes "Russian police seized Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess champion, for staging a political rally against Vladimir Putin. IBM's Deep Blue computer was the first to beat a world champion when it defeated Kasparov, who is one of the strongest players in history." He's also been a giant critic of the Russian administration which is increasingly restricting free speech.
Checkmate!
Seriously, this sucks.
Don't worry. George Bush has looked at Putin's soul and pronounced it excellent.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
You know, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger... Big Blue might make you stronger, but the Russian Federation isn't big on the making-people-stronger part of the equation.
First beaten by Blue, then by Red. For someone who spent the vast majority of their life pondering black and white, this has to be shocking splash of color.
In Soviet Russia, they sieze dissidents. What, you were expecting a joke? 'Cuz this isn't funny.
Quiz: True or False -- On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your middle name?
Surely a story about the greatest chessplayer of all time, and a key campaigner for civil liberties in Soviet Russia counts as "news for nerds" without some Deep Blue window-dressing. Do we really need to fake-tag this story as being about supercomputers to get it here?
Who tagged this "Stern but fair"? Please explain how this is "fair" and not just more of Putin's power grab?
'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
Russia never was a democracy, and never wanted to be. At least seems to me.
Yeah, I know, it sucks, because no one wants another Cold War. But seemingly US and West pays now for their lack of involvement of helping Russia to scurb corruption, investigating old crimes and anything else.
Now we all pay the price.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
If the transition had been a little milder than it was then the crime bosses in Russia would not have been able to grab as much as they did. The last thing the new 'vlasti' want is to have their playground taken away from them. This is going to be an extremely tense time for Russia.
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stomach. He wouldn't have to worry about Putin arresting him at all. Kissing on the other hand.....
Monstar L
...he's not the same as the old boss. He IS the old boss.
At least with Russia, the citizens can blame Putin for their woes. In the USA, we've got nobody to blame for Bush but ourselves.
According to a report recently issued by Reuters, the leading political candidate representing the liberal anti-Kremlin Yabloko party has been shot by an unknown assailant. The candidate is now in serious condition in a hospital. This attempted assassination caps a year-long effort, by the Kremlin, to rig the parliamentary election on December 2. Under orders from the Kremlin, banks have refused to accept donations from supporters for deposit in the accounts of opposition parties. Owners of assembly halls have canceled contracts allowing opposition politicians to stage rallies. The police have seized the newspapers of opposition parties in a draconian attempt to prevent them from spreading their message.
In early November, the election-monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) declined to send election observers to Russia to monitor the 2007 parliamentary election. This OSCE decision resulted from (1) the Kremlin's refusing to allow more than 70 OSCE observers to enter Russia and (2) the Kremlin's delaying the granting of visas to them. In 2003, the Kremlin had accepted 400 OSCE observers, but after the OSCE condemned the 2003 election for being unfair, many folks in the Kremlin vowed to stymie OSCE's efforts in future elections.
The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
I hope that you are right, but if the world hasn't been able to do anything about Russia's horrible crimes against the people of Chechnya, how big are the chances that Kasparov can make a difference? Also, don't forget that Putin's approval ratings are pretty high even if you disbelieve the official statistics from the Kremlin, i.e. the Russians themselves might not even care about this and that is what's really required here. You can't force changes like this from the outside (are you going to sanction Russia? Use military force? Hardly), it has to come from the people of Russia.
As Bill Clinton would say: "It's the economy, stupid". From the article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Civil_Front
Which is part of a larger organization:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Russia
This more a case of politics makes strange bed fellows. All those groups have one thing in common: opposition to the current government and the direction Russia is heading. Take that common cause away, and I doubt many of these groups would have much to do with each other.
So saying Kasperov is guilty by association in this context isn't exactly fair.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
Move to Saudi Arabia then you too-scared-to-live-in-a-democracy little pussy. I can't stand Clinton either, but I'm not so pussyfied that I'd wanter her arrested for scaring me.
If you can't handle freedom, go somewhere where you can have big-daddy-authority-figure hold your hand and change your diaper. Scared little bitch.
Do YOU have a problem with THAT, you anonymous little shitstain?
This is a personal tragedy for Kasparov, but dangerous for the rest of the world too.
Stick Men
> This is akin to arresting Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
This is also akin Hillary organizing illegal political rally against George Bush.
3.243F6A8885A308D313
how big are the chances that Kasparov can make a difference
Even less while imprisoned.
Free speech doesn't apply to private property like Slashdot.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
He's got a massive ego, so people dismiss him as a bad loser. But his accusations of cheating aren't without merit.
My respect for him has gone up quite a bit because of this incident. I wonder if I would have the courage to stand up to police and arbitrary imprisonment, knowing what Russian jails must be like these days.
I hear lots of griping about the state of the world on /. and elsewhere, but I wonder if any of us would have the courage to put our beliefs into action like he has.
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
Yeah, damn slashdot for being so against freedom of speech that they removed your post. I'm outraged! I REALLY wanted to reply and tell you how right you are, but now I just CAN'T because slashdot has gone and censored you. ...
Show me the censorship. That's all I ask. Back that childish whining up with some bruises from the abuse you've taken. Oh, that's right, slashdot doesn't censor.... ever. That's right, I said it, EVER, as in being an absolute (I'm the kind of guy that likes to tack qualifiers and quantifiers on everything). That's why it's one of the few places I actually post instead of lurk. (I know, it looks like I'm saying I troll alot, I don't, I troll alittle, (and almost exclusively non-anon) I'm just principled about free speech like that)
As far as your list of topics goes, you're not being censored, you're RIGHTLY being pushed to the back of the room by the CROWD (not the site) for being a... well... what IS the right-wing equivalent of a tin foil hat wearer? Oh yes, a Kool-Aid drinker. Very few of the little factoids you present have any basis in real-life at ALL, and those that do have a tenuous connection to reality at best.
To sum up: You're not being censored for being 'edgy', you're being ignored for being ridiculous. You don't get to be a martyr for that.
Followed your link, actually read further than the summary, and it turns out GP was right!
From the Wikipedia page that you linked:
One swallow does not a fellatrix make
Now that the US has become transparently hypocritical to it's own citizens and the rest of the world in regard to "democracy" and civil liberties, there is no country to serve as the example/beacon/leader of "democracy."
Obviously it isn't quite that simple; I don't for a minute think that the current administration (or many before) even cares about the rights of it's own citizens tpo petition for redress, let alone the citizens of Russia - but now they can't even pretend to pressure these other countries to allow freedom of speech and respect the rights of the individual.
Unfortunately it seems like things are trending toward the corporations and governments getting all of the rights, basically becoming untouchable - while the individual is is losing rights, control and even "having a say" by the day.
I spent a couple of years living in Russia back in the Yeltsin years of the mid 90's. Overall Russians are extremely friendly and hospitable, but they have a long sad history of instituting governments that are in effect a legitimized mafia. From the 10th through the 19th centuries the rule of the Tsars were essentially a gang of thugs with pretensions of royalty. The better part of the 20th century they switched to a government that was another gang of thugs with pretense of communism. And now they have switched to a new band of thugs with pretensions of democracy. (Actually this is still the same band of thugs as the communist ones, they just switched pretensions). It seems that Putin is slowly dropping any pretense of democracy.
"I'm making perfect sense, you're just not keeping up."
When an AI can mimic *this* aspect of human intelligence and decide to risk a change from "well-off and greatly respected", to being shut in a concrete box, all for the greater good of its fellows, THEN I'll be impressed with AI.
Until then, its just a glorified calculator brute-forcing its way through a mechanical computation, as impressive as a newspaper press making 500,000 copies of todays celebrity news faster than 50,000 human scribes.
Why is there so little reporting on what this Kasparov actually stands for? Check wikipedia, about the only thing I can find is that he is far-left (communist?) and that the Other Russia party is a coalition of parties including communists and nationalists. Well, that is a load of my mind. That is Stalin and Hitler in one party, why choose when you can have two!
It is kinda like the US people who keep saying vote Ron Paul, then you read up on the guy and learn that, yes there people who would make even worse presidents then Bush.
Just what does Kasparov stand for, just because he is against Putin who clearly ain't all that nice does NOT make kasparov himself any better. The problem with the media is that they like the idea of heroes, Putin clearly no longer is one so they need someone else. The world doesn't work like that.
No comments so far seem to explain anything about Kasparov except one commenter who points out that his dad was jewish. Oh well that eases my mind. I think another person rallying against a troubled goverment promising better things had a jewish father (step-father).
Godwin or not, just what does the Unitied Civil Front (his real party, Other Russia is a coalition of multiple parties) stand for? I do not know and don't speak russian and the western media seems almost reluctant (or kasparov just ain't as intresting as britney spears) to report on it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Thank you I'll be here all week!
The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
There's a difference between being "against free speech" by imprisoning the speaker and being "against free speech" by posting things which contradict a speaker's arguments. I'm sorry if you've been emotionally scarred by the latter experience, but my advice is to try sucking it up, accepting that some of your opinions are unsubstantiated and unpopular, and moving on.
Claiming that it's cowardly to protest Bush and get stuffed into the Pier 57 cages just makes it seem more pathetic that you're simultaneously whining about Slashdot users modding you down. Somehow I'm guessing you're not battling the evil Modstapo from an airport wifi connection on your way to Darfur.
We wish -- no, must -- make our disgust at this abuse perfectly clear.
Even less while imprisoned.
They said the same about Nelson Mandela...
I would add that Iran is clearly far more democratic than Russia is today. Russia is more like Iraq under Saddam, where elections occur but nobody has any possibility of being elected except Putin. Despite meddling in the elections by the Council of Guardians, there are actual and real political dynamics which exist in Iran today. No such real dynamics occur under Russia today.
The big difference is that, unlike Saddam, Putin actually does have weapons of mass destruction.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Look at the Litvenenko case. The assassination was designed to be clearly traceable to Russia (since you can fingerprint artificial isotopes to show what reactors they come from), and could not have been done without state help. Russia denies this, and this represents an assassination of a dissident emigrant specifically to warn other emigrants not to speak out against Putin. This is violence for the sole purpose of invoking terror, and it is arguably a greater threat to our way of life than Al Qaeda ever has been.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
:S
Is this guy from the KGB? Or how they call it now... FSB?
1's and 0's should be free.
But they do not tell you the details - like those that the Burmese monks indeed broke Burmese law and were treated exactly according to it.
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
"This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"
I suggest curious people look into the chess match. I did at the time and I had a little A.I. experience and gained a little more since then. Chess is an interesting test because the problem is so vast that brute force attacks are unrealistic; although, still used by computers since it helps and they can out calculate humans. In terms of actually learning to play chess well, computers have a long way to go.
;-)
I'll consider computers as better at chess when they can honestly beat someone at Kasparov's peak WITHOUT unfair advantages such as a whole team of engineers tweaking the system DURING AND IN BETWEEN MATCHES!
The purpose of the chess exercise is to develop Applied Intelligence so it can be approximately as good as a human and hopefully learn enough to apply the discovered concepts to other areas. Any advancement in Applied Intelligence is a win since that is the true purpose for the game. Actually, 'winning' is actually a loss for Applied Intelligence as well as A.I. and sadly IBM was only thinking of themselves when they got lucky. They dare not risk losing again-- after all, they LOST ALL THE TIME until they finally beat a top human once.
Life is a non-linear approximation
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
....In Soviet Russia Government protests you!
Similar to the upcoming US election results
- In October 2005, at least eighty-five people were killed in street fighting in the southern Russian city of Nalchik after Chechen rebels assaulted government buildings, telecommunications facilities, and the airport.
- A three-day attack on Ingushetia in June 2004, which killed almost a hundred people and injured another 120.
- A December 2002 dual suicide bombing attack on the headquarters of Chechnya's Russian-backed government in the Chechen capital, Grozny. Russian officials claim that international terrorists helped local Chechens mount the assault, which killed eighty-three people.
- A bomb blast that killed at least forty-one people, including seventeen children, during a military parade in the southwestern town of Kaspiisk in May 2002; Russia blamed the attack on Chechen terrorists.
- In Moscow, an August 1999 bombing of a shopping arcade and a September 1999 bombing of an apartment building that killed sixty-four people, and two more terrorist bombings in September 1999 in the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan and southern Russian city Volgodonsk. Controversy still surrounds questions about whether these attacks were conclusively linked to Chechens.
- In 2004, when Basayev, ordered an attack on a school Beslan, a town in North Ossetia. More than 300 people died in the three-day siege, most of them children. There were thirty-two militants, all but three or four were non-Chechens, and all but one were reportedly killed during the siege.
Why should the people of Russia demand change in the policy against Chechens when the image they portray is not that of the righteous freedom fighter, but that of the ruthless, child killing terrorist? If my child was held hostage and then slaughtered, I wouldn't have much sympathy for their cause, either.Slow Down, Cowboy! It's been 60 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment.
Well first of all I meant the guy from the dumb pro-Putin posts above, not Putin himself.
But you raise a good point. No, it's not as dumb, it's much worse. You can't compare CIA to KGB. As much as CIA is disliked in the US (and people really love to hate CIA, it's so "in"...), they really don't deserve this treatment. The CIA's job, and this should be really trivial when you think about it, is to PROTECT american citizens, and this is what they do every day. Often while endangering their own lives. I really don't understand just how ungrateful people can be (btw, I'm not an american citizen, so I consider myself to have an unbiased view on this). I truely believe that most of the CIA staff are really good people who do they best to protect the citizens of US. How they keep doing this in such an ungrateful environment is a mistery to me.
The KGB's job, on the other hand, was to spy on and torture Soviet citizens. So no comparison here. To elect a president from KGB is really a kind of masochism.
1's and 0's should be free.