Notes from underground
Losingest thoroughbred ends 90-race skid. Really, was this necessary?The horse has lost 90 races in a row, is there any need to rub it in?
This might be a fairer test of man versus, umm, non-man. Back in 1997, world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost a six-game match against IBM's Big Blue computer. Many people regard that moment as a sad moment in human history, having finally been outclassed by a machine in a game of strategy it had always dominated. Well, new world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik is going back to the board to defend human honor against a computer. Kramnik will get a chance to rest between matches and to study earlier games played by the computer, something Kasparov didn't have in his match against Big Blue. I don't play chess, but I find these human versus computer matches fascinating. I plan on following along with a chess board this October. Maybe I should pick up chess. It has a certain sexiness to it, like counting cards in blackjack, or craps.
I bought a few shirts online from Banana Republic and as thanks they sent me a link to download a Banana Republic.com screensaver. A screensaver? What marketing genius thought of that? I hope they didn't spend much money on that. I'll take a pair of free socks instead, thank you very much.
You may have heard--the new Star Wars Episode II film title will be Attack of the Clones, which prompted much mockery from fans everywhere. Why not The Clone Wars? I agree with the public, Attack of the Clones sounds ridiculous. As the announcement on the site notes, the new title "harkens back to the sense of pure fun, imagination and excitement that characterized the classic movie serials and pulp space fantasy adventures that inspired the Star Wars saga." But fans want to take the films seriously, and titles like this and characters like Jar Jar Binks don't help.
The plot synposis: "Ten years after the events of The Phantom Menace, not only has the galaxy undergone significant change, but so have our familiar heroes Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), Padm
This might be a fairer test of man versus, umm, non-man. Back in 1997, world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost a six-game match against IBM's Big Blue computer. Many people regard that moment as a sad moment in human history, having finally been outclassed by a machine in a game of strategy it had always dominated. Well, new world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik is going back to the board to defend human honor against a computer. Kramnik will get a chance to rest between matches and to study earlier games played by the computer, something Kasparov didn't have in his match against Big Blue. I don't play chess, but I find these human versus computer matches fascinating. I plan on following along with a chess board this October. Maybe I should pick up chess. It has a certain sexiness to it, like counting cards in blackjack, or craps.
I bought a few shirts online from Banana Republic and as thanks they sent me a link to download a Banana Republic.com screensaver. A screensaver? What marketing genius thought of that? I hope they didn't spend much money on that. I'll take a pair of free socks instead, thank you very much.
You may have heard--the new Star Wars Episode II film title will be Attack of the Clones, which prompted much mockery from fans everywhere. Why not The Clone Wars? I agree with the public, Attack of the Clones sounds ridiculous. As the announcement on the site notes, the new title "harkens back to the sense of pure fun, imagination and excitement that characterized the classic movie serials and pulp space fantasy adventures that inspired the Star Wars saga." But fans want to take the films seriously, and titles like this and characters like Jar Jar Binks don't help.
The plot synposis: "Ten years after the events of The Phantom Menace, not only has the galaxy undergone significant change, but so have our familiar heroes Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), Padm