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Patrick Stewart passed away today, at age 86.
His character, Charles Xavier, played chess against Magneto in the final scene of “X-Men” (2000). Neither actor knew how to play, as Patrick Stewart explained in an interview:
“Bryan Singer [Director] set up a scene where Ian and I were playing chess. He said, “Ok, why don’t you all just make some moves.” I said, “Well, I don’t know how to play.” He said, “Ian?” Sir Ian said he didn’t know how to play either. Brian rolled his eyes and said, “Get someone on the set. We just need to believe that they are making the right moves.” The next day we arrive on the set and yep, there’s someone there who knows chess. A Canadian Grandmaster. I told him, you are so overqualified for this job. He said,(whispering) “I’ve never been on a set before.” And he stayed all day.”
I wonder who he was. 🙂
youtube.com/watch?v=m6nJzm8F…
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In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to:
Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund
alzresearch.org/giving/
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources
alzfdn.org/donate/
Photo Credit: Tommy Garcia
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Congratulations to Wesley So for winning his fourth U.S. Chess Championship title after winning rapid tiebreaks against Fabiano Caruana!
He earns the $55,000 first prize (before any bonuses)!
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When I travel outside of Ukraine, I get daily intelligence updates online. This morning, I was briefed that U.S. military facilities in the Middle East and the Gulf region were photographed by Russian satellites in the interests of Iran.
On March 24th, they imaged the U.S.–UK joint military facility on Diego Garcia located in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. They also captured pictures of Kuwait International Airport and parts of the infrastructure of the Greater Burgan oil field. On March 25th, they took pictures of the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The Shaybah oil and gas field in Saudi Arabia, İncirlik Air Base in Türkiye, and Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar were all imaged on March 26th.
There are no Ukrainian facilities on this list. But who is helping whom when sanctions are lifted from an aggressor that earns daily revenue and provides intelligence for strikes against American, Middle Eastern, UK, and U.S.–UK bases and so on?
When surveillance is carried out over facilities in Ukraine, we always understand that they must be protected, since plans are in motion to destroy them – energy and water infrastructure, military facilities, and so on. Everyone knows that repeated reconnaissance indicates preparations for strikes. How can sanctions be eased if this is what the Russians are doing?
There must be pressure on the aggressor. And lifting sanctions is certainly not pressure. It looks strange. Sanctions are being lifted, while the aggressor is providing intelligence to strike facilities, including those of the countries that are discussing or have already lifted sanctions.
From my conversation with journalists (3/3).
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Stop pretending that you do not understand the difference between voter ID and a proof of citizenship document, Elon.
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I don’t think people realize how much healthcare costs are driving big companies to fire and not hire.
It costs them $30k per family, per year for premiums and care. Most of that goes to the massive, vertically integrated insurance companies that send weekly bills that no one reviews in details. And it doesn’t include the company overhead to deal with it all. It’s usually the 2nd largest expense after payroll. Which is insane
It’s far easier to blame AI than it is to blame Healthcare costs.
Want to increase jobs, wages and improve affordability for every American ?
Break up the biggest insurance companies. Make divest non insurance companies. They don’t need thousands of subsidiaries. That’s how they game and abuse the system and increase costs for all of us.
Call your senator and tell them to support the BreakUp Big Medicine Bill by @HawleyMO and @SenWarren.
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I started studying chess seriously in college and I could literally see the difference in how fast I was able to study & retain information
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Senator Murphy, as someone with first-hand experience in authoritarianism and media consolidation, I can tell you that this kind of power is being accumulated rapidly under one political roof precisely to guarantee that political control will never be lost.
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I am old enough to remember when we used to mock people for recording videos vertically. They were misunderstood, true pioneers of content creation.
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Congrats to Bodhana Sivanandan on joining Judit Polgar as the only two girls ever in chess history to cross 2300 at age 10! 🏴
Like Judit, I believe Bodhana has also crossed 2350 at age 10 too!
echecs.asso.fr/Resultats.asp…
📷: Mark Livshitz
































