Karpov Defeated by 1. ... a6

From Wikipedia:  "In 1980 at the European Team Championship in Skara, Tony Miles beat reigning World Champion Anatoly Karpov with Black, using the extremely unorthodox opening 1. e4 a6!?, the St. George Defence."

What a curious game!  Here it is, the year 2015 and I still remember the astonishment when the English Grandmaster Tony Miles defeated the World Champion of chess, Anatoly Karpov with such an offbeat chess opening.

Most chess coaches would tell a young player not to play the opening used by Tony Miles, saying it is a mistake.  This is where we have to be careful as parents and teachers.  A superior craftsman can take a step that would be a mistake for a beginner, but use it effectively because of their skill.

We teach our children to write short, simple sentences in English class.  We do not tell them, however, that once they have mastered the simple sentence that writing long sentences is fine, maybe even preferable.

I remember reviewing an essay by my daughter in middle school.  The teacher marked her down for having a repetitive phrase.  But repetition for emphasis is an acceptable practice.  I promptly found a repetitive passage in literature and showed my daughter that her use of repetition was correct and was used by established writers.

We must be careful when coaching and teaching children to avoid being unduly negative.

You can see the game moves on the internet here:  http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068157

If you hover your cursor over a move, the move will highlight in red.  Click on the move and the chess board at the top will display the game board after that move.

Chess is a fabulous game, full of surprises.  Children as well are fabulous and full of surprises!

Robert

What is NS-ESD-22.0.2.17-EN.exe or NSDownloader.exe ?

When Norton Live Update broke my installation of Norton I looked at the installation files and I found a couple of files I was curious about.  But when I looked on the internet, asking "What is NS-ESD-22.0.2.17-EN.exe?" and "What is NSDownloader.exe ?"  I found nothing.

Now that I've taken these out for a spin I can tell you about them.  NS-ESD-22.0.2.17-EN.exe uninstalls Norton Security.  NSDownloader.exe installs Norton Security.  Run NS-ESD-22.0.2.17-EN.exe first and then run NSDownloader.exe.  Both take time, but this will resurrect your broken Norton Security.

Here's what broke my Norton:  when I ran Live Update before going to bed, Live Update said I needed to restart my computer.  I said, "I am ready for bed, I'll shut it down and the software update will finish installing when I next start my computer."  Surely stopping and then starting the computer is a restart, right?  Well, that did not work.  No matter how many times I restarted the computer the next day, the same message box would appear:  "Restart your computer to finish the Norton Update."  Yikes!  Norton was broken!

I had to uninstall and reinstall Norton.  "Start Menu > All Programs > Norton > Norton Installation Files" will take you to a folder with NS-ESD-22.0.2.17-EN.exe and NSDownloader.exe and now you know how to use them.

Remember not to run Live Update unless you have time to restart your computer!

Robert

Most Amazing College Football Play

On November 30, 2013, the Auburn Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide were tied 28-28 with one second left on the clock.  What happened next was the most unforgettable moment in college football. Alabama attempted a long field goal and Auburn ran the missed kick back 109 yards to win the game.

There is a back-story to the game that makes the unfolding of this brief particularly amazing.  There were events going back years to set up the circumstances for this unique play.  You can enjoy this background information in this article.  Google "Behind College Football's Most Amazing Play" by Ben Cohen and Rachel Bachman and you can read this article, written on January 3, 2014 in the Wall Street Journal.  This is a great story, which is why I am writing about it now:  I have just re-read the story and want to share it with you.

When I watched the game live on TV, I remember jumping to my feet and whooping and hollering.  Thanks to YouTube we can see it again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqIBNX0CXDc

You can go to YouTube and search with this text: Auburn Alabama kickoff return.  You will have a number of videos to watch.

Here is another article, which has a video embedded.  http://www.ibtimes.com/video-auburns-109-yard-missed-field-goal-return-remembering-chris-daviss-kick-six-1730788

Enjoy!

Robert

Tomorrowland is a Fun Movie

Movie review of Tomorrowland

I enjoyed the movie Tomorrowland and I recommend it.  The advertisements feature George Clooney, but the star of the film, in my opinion, is Raffey Cassidy who plays a child named Athena.  Britt Robertson is supposed to be the star child actor, but I think Raffey Cassidy upstaged her.

Hugh Laurie (Dr. House) was not in the advertisements, so his appearance was a delightful surprise.

The movie has good special effects and promotes optimism, a welcome relief from dystopian movies like Hunger Games.  The movie is rated PG, a welcome change.

Robert

Vanderbilt University Persecutes Christians

The following article tells us how Vanderbilt University kicked the Christian student organizations off campus.  The article was published in the magazine Christianity Today.

"The Wrong Kind of Christian" by Tish Harrison Warren (August 27, 2014)

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/september/wrong-kind-of-christian-vanderbilt-university.html

Here is a quote from the article: "I thought a winsome faith would win Christians a place at Vanderbilt's table. I was wrong."

It is my opinion, after reading the article, that Vanderbilt University persecutes Christians.  What do you think?

Robert

An Article About Hemingway

Here's a link to a nice article about Ernest Hemingway's style:
http://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2013/11/prose-rhythm-2-sentences-by-hemingway.html
The title of the article is "Prose Rhythm, 2 Sentences by Hemingway."  The author is Bill Benzon, writing in his New Savanna blog.  The article does a nice job examining two sentences from Hemingway's work, "Death in the Afternoon."

Here is a trick to reading the blog page:  Mr. Benzon used images to illustrate the sentences with one phrase per line in order to emphasize the phrases, but his images are too small to read.  The trick is to copy the images (right-click and copy) and then paste them into a Word document.  Then you can zoom the Word document so the images are legible.  I think it is worth the effort to read these two sentences in this fashion.

The first sentence is 131 words long and the second is 170 words long.  Francis Christensen presented studies of Hemingway's sentences in "Notes Toward a New Rhetoric, 6 Essays for Teachers."  Christensen promoted a style of sentence he called "generative:"  adding phrases to a base sentence to generate more details.  Sheridan Baker in his book, The Practical Stylist, calls this style of writing "loose."  Others call this style "generative."  See, e.g., Generative Rhetoric by Richard Nordquist.  Still others call this the "cumulative style:" How to Write Better Sentences: Christensen’s Cumulative Sentence by Daniel Wallace.

After Strunk and White pushed for concise sentences, there has been a counter movement emphasizing longer sentences.  Adios, Strunk and White by Gary and Glynis Hoffman is one such book, and Building Great Sentences by Brooks Landon is another.

The best advice for students on writing good sentences is chapter 7, "Writing Good Sentences," in Sheridan Baker's book, The Practical Stylist.  You have some exposure to the Christensen style, but just enough to know it without being made to believe that it is the best way to style a sentence.

Hemingway is actually as famous for terse sentences as for long sentences:  Ernest Hemingway’s Top 5 Tips for Writing Well by Brian Clark says "use short sentences."

It is because Hemingway is famous for terse writing that his longer sentences get special attention.  If you have not yet read the two sentences high lighted in the article, "Prose Rhythm, 2 Sentences by Hemingway."  by Bill Benzon, you should do so now.

Robert

Poetry in MI-5 and Mr Nelson from Brother Martin

At the end of an episode of the TV series "MI-5", the Harry Pearce character reads these lines (Season 3, Episode 4):
“Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence"

The contribution to the plot is that Pearce's daughter used to hate him, but had a heart-to-heart chat with dad and forgave him.

Smart use of good poetry is a nice touch in a show.  A fuller quote from the poem "A Prayer for my Daughter" by William Butler Yeats is

"Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is heaven's will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still."

This is the 9th of 10 stanzas, so if you look up the poem, do not expect the poem to start with these lines.

What really made this line stand out for me was the phrase "radical innocence."  My high school English teacher Mr. Guy Nelson would hand out mimeograph sheets in our class that would have quotes from a book entitled, "Radical Innocence."  That is a catchy phrase.  It stuck with me over the years.  The book he was quoting was Radical Innocence: Studies in the Contemporary American Novel (1961) by Ihab Hassan.  The Brother Martin High School English department did a fine job and I am grateful for the education I received from them.  Mr. Guy Nelson was with Brother Martin for 43 years before retiring.

The greatness of poetry is that it strikes a chord, resonating within us, making us pause, think, and feel.

Robert

PS
The Numb3rs season 3 finale, episode 24, The Janus List,  ended with Judd Hirsch quoting these lines of poetry:
Light many lamps and gather round his bed.
Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live.
[...snip...]
And there was silence in the summer night;
Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep.
Then, far away, the thudding of the guns.

The writers picked some lines from the end of Siegfried Sassoon's poem, "The Death Bed"