Links With Your Coffee - Friday
- Almost-live report: Daniel Dennett at the Cambridge Darwin-and-faith bash « Why Evolution Is True
- DIRECT Ezine for Democrats #606
A weekly must read. This has all the great links I missed.
- Dyer: Nuclear weapons: Putting the cart before the horse - Salt Lake Tribune
Speaking in Moscow on Tuesday, President Barack Obama was the very soul of reasonableness. The United States and Russia must cooperate to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons, he said, while keeping the goal of a world without nuclear weapons always in sight: "America is committed to stopping nuclear proliferation, and ultimately seeking a world without nuclear weapons."
Unfortunately, that is the wrong way round. The deal that underpinned the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, signed way back in 1968, was that the five great powers who already had nuclear weapons would gradually get rid of them. In return, the rest of the world's countries would not make them at all. But more than 40 years later, none of those five countries (the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China) has kept its side of the deal. - ChessBase.com - Chess News - When knowing is losing – gender factors in chess
Women are surprisingly underrepresented in the chess world, representing less that 5% of registered tournament players worldwide and only 1% of the world's grandmasters. In this paper it is argued that gender stereotypes are mainly responsible for the underperformance of women in chess. Forty-two male-female pairs, matched for ability, played two chess games via the Internet. When players were unaware of the sex of opponent (control condition), females played approximately as well as males. When the gender stereotype was activated (experimental condition), women showed a drastic performance drop, but only when they were aware that they were playing against a male opponent. When they (falsely) believed to be playing against a woman, they performed as well as their male opponents. In addition, our findings suggest that women show lower chess-specific self-esteem and a weaker promotion focus, which are predictive of poorer chess performance.
The entire pdf is worth a read.
- THE DAILY BANTER.COM: Republicans Can Have Their Private Health Insurance
- Bottled Water Under ScrutinyIt's a terrible waste of money and there is no assurance that it's pure. Oh except corporate, bottom line, assholes say it is.
- Rupert Murdoch reporters in the UK illegally hacked thousands of peoples' data - Boing BoingI have to say there certainly are a lot of dumbasses that leave the default password on their phone.
- Dirty jokes, hot witches and a chess game with Death - Beyond the Multiplex - Salon.com
- Dozens of US Military personnel spotted on Nazi networking site - Boing Boing
Comments
When I was a young lass I met a guy who was a very good chess player and I lost to him over and over and over again until I finally got better. He gave me a book of opening moves and that helped tremendously. Thanks to him, I am fairly good at chess these days, meaining that I'm better than the average bear, but not good enough to beat really serious chess players.
Anyway, males are always surprised, impressed, and I might add, even pleased, when I beat them at chess.
Maybe you can schedule an online competition with Norm.
Oh, Norm would kick my ass. I'm not that good. Like I said, I'm just better than the average bear.
I hate to play women and children. I believe it is the fear of losing a game that I don't think I should lose, but that's silly. I know that kids and women are perfectly capable of playing great chess and that my fear is irrational. But it does cause me more anxiety than playing another male. I'd like to get over it, but it is easier said than done.
I remember a U.S. Open a number of years ago there was a promising young women playing in the tournament. She was already better than I was and I knew I wouldn't get paired with her, but I felt sorry for the men who had to play her, because not only did they have to play an attractive young women (17 or 18 I believe), but she placed her good luck teddy bear on the table next to the board.
:)
Teddy bear by the board.. LOL!
If she were truly wise, she would wear a conservative but low cut blouse to distract the silly men-folk another 10-20%.
*8)
i think they have dietary supplements for that now. i should be taking them too. i hear if your chess-specific self-esteem levels get too low you die like a dog, on your knees, howling.
i'm sure the whiff of irrational superstition and teddy bear woo was much more offputting than the the poor brainwashed girls alleged "attractiveness".
hmph.
Phone hacking: I have to say there certainly are a lot of dumbasses ...... that's it, really!
Poker faces a similar issue with women. Last year, of the 6,844 entrants in the World Series of Poker Main Event, there were only 209 women (about 3%). The women who do play tend to do about as well as the men. In that event, for example, Tiffany Michelle finished 17th, winning $334,534, and Lisa Parsons finished 76th, winning $77,200.
I've wondered why more women don't compete in poker, and this article gives a possible reason. Successful tournament poker requires aggression, primarily against men, and as the article discusses, women don't tend to do that well.
Thanks for the link, Norm.
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