Category: facebook

Watched the first three episodes of Queen’s Gambit. Pretty good, but there’s one thing that seemed very wrong to me about this series — and it won’t be corrected in the further episodes. In a sports drama, you cannot show that success is achieved solely by talent. And in this film — it’s also on a mix of talent with tranquilizers. This sends a very bad message both for athletes who have their whole future ahead and for those for whom things do not go so smoothly.

Some journalists suggest that the portrayal of the main character echoes the early career of Bobby Fischer, who was also somewhat of a prodigy. Let’s see how it goes, don’t tell me yet 🙂

P.S. The chess games are beautiful. And wonderfully shot. Today I watched several video analyses on YouTube. Very beautiful games and very seamlessly integrated into the plot. I once took Kasparov’s course on masterclass.com, and he analyzed beautiful games there too, giving me that same feeling — how incredibly beautiful the game of chess is.

https://www.kinopoisk.ru/series/1253633/

I decided to briefly review the documents of Russia’s national project “Digital Economy” (https://digital.gov.ru/uploaded/files/natsionalnaya-programma-tsifrovaya-ekonomika-rossijskoj-federatsii_NcN2nOO.pdf). I was looking for the “roadmap” for the development of the high-tech field “Quantum Computing,” but apparently, it isn’t available in the public domain (crossed out. It is. – see comments).

So, according to the DE:

– By this August, the government was supposed to “For the sake of national security, provide regulatory support for the pre-installation of domestic antivirus programs on all personal computers imported and manufactured within the territory of the Russian Federation.”

Did I forget something? Are there more than one antivirus program produced in Russia? Or has “Laboratory” already transitioned to the state or does it still remain a commercial company? If I’m not mistaken in my assumptions, then the guy who pulled off the installation of their paid software with an annual subscription on all (all!) computers, should have a monument erected in his honor at the company. Not to mention how useful it is to have a network of agents operating on all systems.

– By the end of this year, 4650 Russian school teachers were supposed to “abroad undergo training in foreign countries in skills that are a priority for the digital economy”

Interesting, very interesting. Does anyone know at least one person? Just curious, it could make for an excellent report, “the teacher who was sent abroad on government expense for training.”

An endlessly lengthy sheet of very interesting descriptions of rare historical photographs (with the photos themselves) – extremely captivating, be cautious

https://explore.simpli.com/these-are-some-of-the-greatest-historical-pictures-of-all-time-copy/81

The title “czar” in the USA is informally used for top officials responsible for problematic areas of the country. You probably haven’t heard about this.

For example, when the HIV epidemic emerged, there was a “AIDS czar,” there have been auto czars, finance czars, etc. Now, Biden has announced a new nominee for climate czar, John Kerry, who officially holds the title “presidential envoy.” Well, envoy or not, the funniest czar titles to me are the cleanup czar, Iran czar, and drug czar. There was even an ecommerce czar in the 2000s, specifically Elizabeth Echols. Presumably, this was right after the dot-com bubble, when online businesses were going bankrupt by the droves due to inflated investor expectations.

Under Barack Obama, there were 38 czars, whereas Trump had only one (he is the Fact-Finding Officer for the Federal Maritime Commission, Louis Sola). By the way, Fact Finding here does not refer to Trump’s beloved fake news, but rather to the impact of COVID-19 on the cruise ship industry (https://www.fmc.gov/fact-finding-30/)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._executive_branch_czars

I wonder, if the efficacy of a single vaccine dose is 70%, what is the efficacy of three consecutive doses administered a month apart?

Google plotted a bike route to the capitol. It’s just straight down the road, 10 minutes. Google thinks that’s too boring. Better by the river!

I wonder, what prevents diverse bloggers, who are testing the vaccine against COVID (where 30% is a placebo), from testing right after vaccination to check if it’s the real vaccine or a placebo that has entered the body? Is this technically feasible?

Came across an interesting fact: Down syndrome was called “mongolism” for a hundred years, until the Mongolian People’s Republic wrote to the WHO that it was not nice to do so. Then, gradually, the term fell out of use. The U.S. National Institutes of Health even recommended removing “Down” from the syndrome’s name, because Down did not have the disease, and it seemed as though he did. But they were ignored.

“You like to-may-toes and I like to-mah-toes …”

An accent spills the beans about where a person spent their early years. Some New Zealanders claim that Australians pronounce “fish and chips” as “feesh and cheeps,” while some Australians assert that New Zealanders pronounce it as “fush and chups.” Apparently, this phrase can be used as a short, but reliable test.

Today I stumbled upon an interesting video from 1958, explaining how speech is linked to the place in the USA where a person grew up. The lecturer demonstrates phrases that can quite accurately determine where the speaker is from. Quite interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8ZNnlYvXw0

Today I had a conversation with mom. She says she’s into music therapy, listening to Chopin and Tchaikovsky. Wow, I say, tell me what you’re listening to. And she puts something on. “Rain Waltz” by Chopin. I listen and realize, Chopin could not have composed this in the mid-19th century, no way. Turns out, with a bit of Googling, that the so-called “Rain Waltz” attributed to Chopin was actually written by the contemporary composer Yaroslav Nikitin, and arranged by Sergey Kuznetsov, the one who created almost all hits of the “Laskoviy May” band. Google “Chopin autumn waltz”—you’ll be surprised.

Moving on. She puts on “Spring Waltz.” Says it’s by Chopin. Beautiful, isn’t it! But I hear it, and it’s definitely not Chopin, but who is it? Hard to tell, I’m no Shazam. I ask Siri – it identifies “Marriage d’amour” by Paul de Senneville and Olivier Toussaint. What classic? Written the year I was born.

Then Vivaldi, she says, listen to this. And she puts on – surprise, “Song from a Secret Garden.” I say, that’s not Vivaldi, and play this piece by Rolf Løvland for my mom right there on the piano (it’s a simple one). Seems she called it “Soul”?

“So, wait, does this mean I’m being duped? And Tchaikovsky—isn’t Tchaikovsky?” But Tchaikovsky turned out to be the real Tchaikovsky.

Overall, fake news has long been around in music. And the main thing is, it’s unclear what to do about it. For the sake of likes, ignorant reposters add whatever they can.