Message board topic:

We got our first big snow of the year last night.  Started coming down pretty hard about 9:00 last night and was still coming down about 3:30 this morning.  Just a couple of inches and the roads were still warm enough to keep it from sticking there.  Was a beautiful sight when I turned on the porch light and looked outside.

Incidentally, the eight billionth human was born today.  There was a popular meme going around that half the people who have ever lived are alive today, but that's not really close to true.  8,000,000,000 is a sizeable chunk but over human history, it's estimated that 117,000,000,000 have been born, meaning that about 109,000,000,000 have already come and gone.  It used to be projected that we'd just keep multiplying until we ran out of resources but that doesn't seem to be the case.  The most recent projection is that we'll reach about 9,000,000,000, then level off, and begin a decline.  John

So you are getting into winter now too? ;)

I hear that on the news today. But how do they know the 8 billionth was not born last week, or Thursday? I am going to believe it happens on THanksgiving. ;)

 

David and the CoolCyberCats

Forever in my heart





Cats Nap. Only Humans Put Them "To Sleep": Sterilize, Don't Euthanize!

 

I wondered of course, just how accurate that population estimate might be.  I can't imagine it's very precise.  With people being born just slightly faster than people dying, people are born and die every second and we can't know about all of them.  Of course, we have estimates for pretty much everything, the number of grains of sand on beaches, the number of planets in the universe, even the number of particles of matter in the universe.  How accurate can any of those estimates be, especially when the numbers change constantly?

I'm still playing chess on Lichess.  I always have the computer analyze my games.  Most of them are pretty pathetic.  It'll show me good moves I missed or terrible moves I made, and it's usually a "Doh!" moment.  But on I think November 11, I played what the computer thinks was my first perfect game ever.  Zero inaccuracies, zero mistakes and zero blunders, with an accuracy of 100%.  That just never happens.  I had no idea when I was playing it that I was doing that well.  It certainly didn't feel like it.  I know my mouth dropped wide open when I saw the numbers.  John

I do not care what a computer will think of my game. I like to think of chess as part logig, part risk taking and part reading the other player. If you think they won't see a stupid attempt that can be blocked, I'll take the risk. Take the computer claim of a perfect game with a grain or 2 of salt. ;) If you win, it was a perfect game. :)

Perhaps my attitude will cause me to lose more too, but I rather think as I think. :)

 

David and the CoolCyberCats

Forever in my heart





Cats Nap. Only Humans Put Them "To Sleep": Sterilize, Don't Euthanize!

 

LOL I think that way too while I'm playing.  It's when I'm done I look at the computer analysis to see if I could have done something better and a lot of times I'll have that "Doh!" moment where I made a stupid move, (or sometimes a brilliant one).  Last night I thought I did great but the numbers didn't show it, so I looked it over.  That's when I saw how lucky I was not to have been checkmated, and several moves where I had checkmate in one and missed it!  Of course you're right that a win is "perfect enough" and when I lose, I don't usually need the computer to tell me why.  I'll know.  When I played the "perfect" game, I had no idea how well I was doing.  I was genuinely shocked as the computer is never easily impressed.

For Thanksgiving, I've been invited to my brother's to play him and a friend of ours.  I've only seen the few games you played on Lichess but I know from that, you would definitely beat our friend and almost certainly my brother.  I know you'll be going to Washington over that weekend.  It would be a lot more fun if you could be there.  Myself, I think I'll try to make excuses not to play.  I always feel strangely reluctant to play friends but I have almost as much fun watching, and of course, I'm always careful not to give opinions or suggestions.  Last July I watched the grandson play Cheri's brother-in-law.  The grandson, (whom I've never played) was clearly winning but made a serious blunder, and after quite a few moves it ended in a stalemate.  Such is life.    John

When you play on LIChess, are you playing the computer or another user?

 

David and the CoolCyberCats

Forever in my heart





Cats Nap. Only Humans Put Them "To Sleep": Sterilize, Don't Euthanize!