The computers finally win. More here:
What do you call a game with 500,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible play positions? Checkers, of course. That’s according to computer scientists who have succeeded in "solving" the well-known game for every possible smart move.
They found that in a perfectly played game, checkers is a draw.
The feat was accomplished by running checkers games on dozens of computers for 18 years, using cutting-edge artificial intelligence.
Baghdad, Iraq, 11.30 am.
For another military reader’s Baghdad window view from the ground, click here.
Hilzoy lists them. These two strike very close to home in my case:
(4) When the rest of the world thinks you’re crazy, it’s worth entertaining the possibility that they might be right. We should not defer to their judgment mindlessly, but we should have what Jefferson called "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind."
(5) Beware of movements built on contempt. Many of the people who pushed for war had spent decades expressing their contempt for what you might call standard foreign policy — the kind in which diplomacy is taken to be a useful instrument, not a snare for the weak-minded, and force is a last resort, not an all-purpose tool. Their own views had never been seriously tested (and no, Reagan doesn’t count), and many of their spokesmen lacked any serious experience conducting foreign policy. Sometimes, groups of people who spend years muttering about how different things would be if they were in charge are right. Often, however, they are not. Absent a real track record on which to evaluate them, they should be approached with caution.
"Get away from her, you bitch." Aliens.
A reader writes:
I don’t want Ron Paul to place second in Ames, per Ruffini’s prediction. I want Paul to WIN Ames. I want him to take the whole thing. This would accomplish two worthy objectives. First, it would end the campaign of that despicable charlatan, Mitt Romney, who is stuck in single-digits everywhere except for Iowa and New Hampshire, the two states into which he has poured his entire warchest. Beating Romney in Ames would eviscerate the paper tiger that is Mitt Romney.
Secondly, a Ron Paul victory at Ames would give Paul instant credibility as the small-government conservative in the race, as well as the only Republican candidate for a sane foreign policy. Rudy’s preaching small government on domestic issues, but is ready to double down on neoconservatism, complete with torture, a disregard for the Constitution, and nation building. Thompson is about to become the candidate of the Religious Right; a very credible source informs me that a Faustian bargain is about to be cut that will seal the deal. And of course, McCain is done. A Paul victory at Ames would make him a serious candidate, one who could win the votes of old-school conservatives and Republicans who remember the party that existed before Bush.
I take back all my fears about the piece. It’s a fair, superb account of Ron Paul’s history, ideology, character and significance, including completely relevant material about some of the kooks his campaign has indeed attracted. Here’s the explanation for the congressman’s strange political success:
The Victoria Advocate, an influential newspaper in the district, has generally opposed Paul for re-election, on the grounds that a “lone wolf” cannot get the highway and homeland-security financing the district needs. So how does he get re-elected? Tim Delaney, the paper’s editorial-page editor, says: “Ron Paul is a very charismatic person. He has charm. He does not alter his position ever. His ideals are high. If a little old man calls up from the farm and says, ‘I need a wheelchair,’ he’ll get the damn wheelchair for him.”
And here’s Caldwell’s shrewd analysis of Paul’s salience:
Whatever the campaign purports to be about, the main thing it has done thus far is to serve as a clearinghouse for voters who feel unrepresented by mainstream Republicans and Democrats. The antigovernment activists of the right and the antiwar activists of the left have many differences, maybe irreconcilable ones. But they have a lot of common beliefs too, and their numbers — and anger — are of a considerable magnitude. Ron Paul will not be the next president of the United States. But his candidacy gives us a good hint about the country the next president is going to have to knit back together.
Glenn Greenwald discovers a beaut: the Bush administration’s detailed criticism of Russia’s treatment of prisoners and detainees. Here’s part of what they oppose:
Government technical regulations that require Internet service providers and telecommunications companies to invest in equipment that enables the [Foreign Security Service] to monitor Internet traffic, telephone calls, and pagers without judicial approval caused serious concern… Lengthy pretrial detention remained a serious problem… According to Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) report on torture in Russia released in November 1999, torture by police officers usually occurs within the first few hours or days of arrest and usually takes one of four forms: beatings with fists, batons, or other objects; asphyxiation using gas masks or bags (sometimes filled with mace); electric shocks; or suspension of body parts (e.g. suspending a victim from the wrists, which are tied together behind the back). Allegations of torture are difficult to substantiate because of lack of access by medical professionals and because the techniques used often leave few or no permanent physical traces.
If you examine the Decider’s executive order issued yesterday, you will find considerable lee-way for the CIA to use beatings with fists, and suspension of body parts, i.e. stress positions. The administration refuses to call these things torture when the US does it, but has no problem with plain English in talking about the Russians. And, of course, the ability to wiretap Americans without a court warrant was a critical goal of the Cheney executive branch coup after 9/11.
So repeat after me: Putin doesn’t torture anyone. And neither does Bush.
Marty Lederman explains:
The only truly important section of the E.O. is section 3(b)(i)(C), which defines the category of violence that will be deemed to violate Common Article 3 for purposes of determining whether a CIA interrogation program comports with CA3. In addition to torture as defined by the federal criminal statute, and the forms of violence that remain prohibited under the new WCA, that subsection of the E.O. prohibits only "other acts of violence serious enough to be considered comparable to murder, torture, mutilation, and cruel or inhuman treatment, as defined in [the War Crimes Act]."
In other words, if a form of violence is not already prohibited by federal criminal law, and is not "comparable" to the forms of violence prohibited by the WCA, the CIA is not prohibited from using it.
Does this prohibit the CIA "enhanced" techniques? Who knows? Are they "comparable" to what the WCA prohibits? You tell me.
Whatever else these new rules are, they are anything but clear. You can read the full text here.
Meet the iLimb:
The newly released iLimb is the first prosthetic hand to have fully functional motorized digits that move and bend independently, its makers say. Electrodes taped to the skin transmit signals to tiny motors that power the fingers.
Previous artificial hands had only a thumb and forefinger that worked in a clawlike grasping action. But the new device allows amputees to carry out more delicate movements such as peeling a banana, typing on a computer, or eating with a knife and fork.
The iLimb is also covered by a semitransparent "cosmesis" that is computer modeled to look like human skin.
They have a larger carbon footprint than the average Hollywood poseur:
"Worms produce a significant amount of greenhouse gases. Recent research done by German scientists has found that worms produced a third of nitrous oxide gases when used for composting," an expert was quoted as saying.
In an interview with a leading renewable resources journal, Jim Frederickson, senior research fellow at Britain`s Open Universities faculty of technology, said the German research showed that worm composting has deleterious effects on the environment that should be considered more seriously.
