I confess to a weakness for the mesiannic types. Especially the misguided ones. Maybe they start out as charlatan's but when people start believing them, I think they start believing too. "Hey, maybe I wasn't lying after all...god is one tricky devil writing on my bones all the time so I thought I was making it up."

I had a kind of fascination for Crowley back in the 70s. Mainly owing to the costumes and the women. But he did climb part way up Kanchenjunga and Chogo Ri. First rate raconteur and he did play chess. For this reason I miss madlydeeply's old beast avatar. I agree, however, that the new guy he wears is more forceful.

I'm interested in the way that new religions often adopt current scientific beliefs and technology, but then freeze them as dogma while science marches on. Christian Science is 19th century pre-Darwin vitalism with Christ bolted on. Scientology, for many years, used 'sacred devices' called E-meters to 'process' their members. In fact they were crude 1940s lie detectors which measured galvanic skin resistance.

"Have you ever held negative thoughts about Ron?"

- Uh, no, of course not.

"I got a read on that. Repeat. Have you ever held negative thoughts about Ron?"

[after 150 'reads' subject confesses he was planning an assassination. The auditor unplugs the E-meter. "Fair game", he says.]

.... Fascinating things, religions. I've sometimes thought of inventing one myself, but I think I lack the hubris. I could easily concoct a theology, but I could never take either me or it seriously.

Then again, power corrupts. Hubbard's Sea Org was run and staffed by a core group of young women. Apart from their, well, *decorative* qualities, Ron maintained they made the best fanatics.

A Faith called Frogspawn? Maybe it could be based on *fear* of frogs ... hmm, let me see.

It's about a man who saw, felt and tasted sounds, as well as having an amazing memory - he could use the synaesthetic links as a mental memory map, though the sheer volume threatened to overwhelm him.

"What a crumbly yellow voice you have", he says - missing the sense of what is being said. Luria, the great Russian psychologist, worked with him, studied him, talked with him for years, and wrote this unique, insightful book.

My old 1968 paperback - its 'voice' is growing crumbly and yellow too - starts by saying "Alexandr Romanovich Luria is one of the few Soviet psychologists who enjoys the esteem of psychologists outside the Marxist sphere of influence".

*Cold Wars in a Stout Cortex* ...?

<Russian topic #2> You know, I'm sure the idea of an opening <tabia> (or tabiya). A 'start position', agreed by both players, maybe around move 10 or 15. The basic idea is that those first 10 moves (apart from major variations with their own tabia) are agreed to be best - the tabia is where players get down to business.

The word and concept figured prominently in Russian chess literature. Russian writers still use it -- but I've rarely seen it on this site, and it seems to be losing whatever currency it had outside Russian.

Is that just a linguistic thing? Or does it reflect a newer way of thinking about openings, perhaps driven by engine research? A tendency to evaluate moves singly, rather than 'chunking' them?

In my own games, I know some 15-move-plus tabia lines, especially in the French after 3.Nc3 Bb4 -- Winawer, SWARM -- and 3.Nd2 c5 -- Tarrasch. But I find they only tend to happen against players rated over 2200: the others deviate earlier, either to get out of the book or because they don't know it.

Maybe the tabia is just another mnemonic device after all. Like a repertoire, as I was saying.

I know it's "in there" -- but how to dig it up without a peek at the score? My musical memory is stupendous, though; I have easier access to those 'files'.

<The Mind of a Mnemonist> I'm dying to read the book following your introduction. Why don't I throw my TV set out the window and start reading some books for a change, eh? The bloody sports I "need" to keep up with... I'm ready for CHANGE!

satch boogie chessforum

Good practice for the new religion too.

Did you know I can speak fluent Numismatic? I was being flexible with the truth when I told Woody that, like Karpov, I was into Marxism and stamp collecting, aged eleven. It was Marxism and coin collecting.

That's not 'English' you're teaching, is it? It's a human computer language. You're wiring your pupils with a neurolinguistic virus. And one day you'll boot them up ...

Since I'm in the same business, narrative logic says we either join forces or fight to the death. I vote for joining up -- but we'll need a new antagonist to struggle against.

America!! heh-- Dewey Bunnel wrote that song.

I USE THEM EVERY DAY BUT THEY ARE VERY IRRITATING!! >

Heh. How about "Computers are like women - they need regular updating" ...?

I don't joke about Proselytizing, as I regard it to be the most obnoxious form of behavior possible.

Here in Korea it is especially obnoxious with regard to the Baptist and Mormon strains of the Christian Church.

It reminds me of the movie <Idiocracy> where the great unwashed have tons of kids and educated people have only a few, till the world devolves to the point that society no longer knows how to work anything.

Here, the Buddhists, who don't proselytize, are losing out to the aggressive public relations efforts of <The Christian Church Incorporated>.

The Catholics here aren't so pushy-

Of course they used to be, back in the day.

180 years of the worst endemic warfare in European history.

Catholics v. Protestants.

It disgusts me to the point of puking.

I will join <Deffi> in quoting some appropriate pop music lyrics--

<Crosby Stills Nash Young>, "Cathedral"

"so many people have died in the name of Christ, I can't believe it all..."

The grotesque irony, of course, is that Christianity, by and large, as practiced by humans, has little or nothing to do with the supposed teachings of "Christ."

Love your enemy, most saliently.

Ok that's another thing.

I don't want any more "updates" on my stinking software.

The very second I actually figure out how to use the software I have they force me to update it and then I don't know what's going on again.

What about "downdates" instead?

I dated a guy who suffered from depression once. We had lots of "downdates."

I don't recommend it.

Mrs. I'm a Nun now

What page do I go to see your game against <Exodus starring Paul Newman>?

How do you know that the opponent isn't choosing the moves his computer gives him?

Hmm. May have to change that to 'Frog' ...