There are times when we must arm ourselves with dignity, deliberate action or thought. When the weapon of choice to fight, possibly to the death, is the beyonet of the mind.

Book Skewer

Hey, I started another blog. Check it out: Book Skewer I tend to read 2-4 books a month on average so a book review blog is a natural occurrence. If your an avid reader have a look. Its in the midst of the early construction stages but someday it will be even more grand than Knight Skewer. Can you imagine? And its another outlet for my opinionated rants. What could be better?

What Is Toronto?????

In the eyes of IBM they recently won a huge victory by creating a ones and zeros monster named Watson. This video shows them elated in teary eyed celebration over their creepy contraption's Jeopardy win: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI-M7O_bRNg



In reality they either "Deep Blued" Trebek like they did Kasparov or they've blindly pushed the envelope of artificial intelligence closer to the end of humanity as we know it. Witness two thirds of the science fiction genre.

My concern is that IBM reaches an artificial intelligence escape velocity while only paying token attention to the consequences. No one is publicly asking "Is this the right thing to do?" Probably because IBM people don't care. Their agenda is more, faster, business domination, fortune and glory. But not everything needs to be explored. Not everything needs to be created. Until we start having serious democratic discussions on what needs to be and what doesn't, we will continue blindly into an irreversible anything goes society while stumbling deeper into Plato's cave, deeper than whence we came.

Also, whats with the Orwellian name? "Watson" is supposed to be the side kick and side kicks are never smarter than the superhero. I just cant trust that face.

Watson is not a step forward, its a step backward by its lack of ethical consideration. We know from past experience how IBM will react to any such criticism.

Here is Kasparov's take on the situation via The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/exclusive-garry-kasparov-on-ibms-watson/71584/#

Chess Baron

I added a link to the Chess Baron on my sidebar. http://www.chessbaron.co.uk/ Check it out. He has good deals on chess supplies and a huge selection. You know Im all about good deals. Mostly because Im broke and smart... and broke.

Atlas Shrugged Part 1

I havent been this exited for a movie in long time. Call me a huge nerd. I have a chessblog after all.

http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/

The Death Of A Chess Loser

It appears that the infamous Chess Loser has deleted his blog. Maybe I'm way late on this funeral of subtle irony but he will be missed. May he be self deprecating where ever he finds himself.

Where's Your Head At?

Endgameclothing.com released a couple new shirts a while ago. This one asks "Wheres your head at?"

Middle school: In the toilet getting a swirly.

High school: Staring at the girl who only eats lunch with other girls. Wondering how she is able to sustain herself on one yogurt per day alone.

20s: In the coffee house window looking like a hep cat pretending that drinking from a nasty mug that homeless people use doesnt bother you.

30s: Rockin out to the Smiths



The rest would just be speculation at this point.

A Word On The Protests In Madison WI

What we are not hearing from the Rs the Ds or the protesters are the ideas everyone should be talking about: How does this effect the children? How will this effect Wisconsin education?

Instead we are arguing over what teachers deserve. This particular silence is much louder and more telling than words.

Hello Dear Readers,

Its pretty obvious I haven't been around in a long time. Chess has faded almost completely from my life and that's not a bad thing. Along with it, Knightskewer has gone idle. I tried to pass it off temporarily to my brother but his life is full of learning new things about the world. Although he still plays the short game, his life is more focused on fortune and glory. The only other person I trust to pull the reigns stopped playing long before I did and is currently stopping bad guys from killing us all for religious and political reasons. Hopefully google doesn't shut me down for that last comment. Speaking of comments, Knightskewers comments have been disabled due to the abundance of Chinese spammers. Its unclear exactly what the Chinese will bring to the world, but whatever it is it will certainly be in large quantity. So if you'd like to comment (if you don't want to your racist) then feel free to shoot me an email at the addy on the sidebar.

Knightskewer taught me a lot about chess and the world of blogging. Someday, maybe in a year, maybe in twenty, I will return to it for recollection and recourse. Perhaps when I'm an old man and google has either returned from stardom or been taken over by the government, Knightskewer will become my third eye again. Until then I hope it serves somewhat useful for the beginning, intermediate and perhaps briefly advanced chess player.

(Edit: I attempted to start a new blog but Google has made things ridiculously complicated in an attempt to simplify things. Aside from being annoying it causes my laptop to freeze consistently in the template design screen.)

I'm starting a new blog about training and athletics. These were once part of my life before this blog and are returning at full speed. It wont be as in depth or creative as Knightskewer but will act more as a scratch pad for notes. If your into that kind of thing check it out. I will link to it once it is up and running.