Tidying-up

After having been inactive for almost four months, my blog feels like an abandoned cabin that needs a lot of cleaning-up. Just bear with me while I get everything back in order.

Yukari Umezawa's Videos: Parts 3 and 4

ShadowBakura has continued posting more episodes from the Go! Go! Igo! teaching segments of Hikaru No Go. Below are the next two installments. These videos are targeted towards complete beginners. Parts 1 and 2 were posted back on August 15th.

Part 3


Part 4


Fuseki Quiz 18/20

Miyamoto warns that this answer to this problem may not
follow common-sense Go. White to play.

Scoring the last Fuseki Quiz 17/20
(Jump to the last quiz!)

• A = 4
• B = 6
• C = 10, White's keima to K5 is a good example of how to attack with a knight's move. White immediately takes the lead. If Black tries to run with H5, White will chase with J7.
  
• D = 8
  
• E = 2
  

Tragedy: The Baiji becomes "functionaly extinct"

China's shy freshwater dolphin. The baiji of the Yangtze River.

There's terrible news in the conservation world. We have, in effect, lost one specie of dolphin; the baiji of China. This white dolphin became a victim of overfishing, sea traffic congestion, and sonar use.

A six-week expedition, organized by the baiji.org Foundation, failed to find even one of these in the Yangtze. Only seven were spotted back in 1998.

Less than a century ago, the baiji's habitat was a healthy, living,
freshwater paradise. Its clean, nutrient-rich waters supported
millions of fish and thousands of river dolphins.

"It is possible we may have missed one or two animals", said August Pfluger, head of Swiss-based baiji.org Foundation and co-organizer of the expedition. "Regardless, these animals would have no chance of survival in the river. We have to accept the fact, that the Baiji is functionally extinct. It is a tragedy, a loss not only for China, but for the entire world."

Many more species remain on the World Conservation Union's Red List. The baiji's loss should be a wake-up call to step-up our conservation efforts by donations and even armchair activism. Don't expect governments and special organizations to take care of the environment; we are these governments and special organizations.


In Other News: Don't Sweat the Christmas Holidays


Just in time for the season, Richard Carlson, author of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...And It's All Small Stuff, has written another little guide to maintaining a reasonable perspective on life's many little annoyances. His new book is: Don't Get Scrooged: How to Thrive in a World Full of Obnoxious, Incompetent, Arrogant, and Downright Mean-Spirited People.

I recall several years ago of having heard or read a report that folks tend to be crabbier during the Christmas holidays. The gist of its cause is that our expectations of being merry are raised and, therefore, we get even more upset that the universe doesn't seem to be completely aligning to our wish for merriment (as it usually doesn't).

Much of Carlson's advice is very much the usual "chill-out" guidance, but it's still worth reading; if only to remind yourself that life's little troubles don't take a vacation and that a reasonable, measured response to these can be cultivated within oneself.