The Chess World has a New King! Congrats to 19 year old Norwegian Magnus Carlson.
Chess is the ultimate meritocracy - which is probably why American presidential candidates avoid it like the plague. Every time I hear how "Brilliant" Barak Obama or Bill Clinton is, or how "brainy" Bill Bradley was (I know I am dating myself here), I want to sit them down at a chess tournament. Ah, but lawyers are the only folks bright enough to do in the American political and economic system...
12 comments:
First of all, meritocracy isn't even a word (I looked it up -- meritorious is a word, however :)). Second, what is so meritorious about kings, queens and pawns, both rich and poor and powerful and weak, typically thru no effort of their own, fighting it out on a board? :)
meritocracy is not a word? WHo says? Funk & Wagnols? I SAY its a word, and it means rule by the merits.
Chess is an excellent vehicle for teaching people involved in long term planning how to think ahead. People without the talent for doing so... well, they are going to point to their resume... "See here? It says I am smart!" Rather than having to actually prove it...
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/meritocracy
Politicians need to be facile with words, competitive, ambitious and have a rugged constitution, the lawyer profession fits well with that. Unfortunately, we also get the bad aspects of a lawyer - the ability to lie convincingly and to work any side.
The ability to plan long term is not a politician core skill, that fits a bureaucrat much better. Politicians have handlers for that sort of thing.
I thought the top player was a computer?
I want to see him play against a computer... :P
B,
Your losing credibilty ( also a word) more and more every day...
Meritocracy- a system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement. Merriam Webster 10th ED.1993
Though word games will entertain us while we wait.
peace
No "meritocracy" listed in the American College Dictionary (so old that the cover has been torn off, so I don't know the year of it, and there are forms of merit- listed, but not that word.)
Anyway, for anyone interested in ENERGY issues, a blurb from the Agora 5-minute report on Venezuela ...
“Unfortunately, you don’t get 10% of the news of all that goes on in Venezuela,” a Venezuelan reader writes, referring to Hugo Chavez’s threat to nationalize the country’s auto industry. “The 5 hits it right on with the Exxon, labor and exchange control comments but there’s more.
“Oil production, despite government claims, continues to decline on a daily basis. Depending on whom you ask in the private oil services sector, total production is no more than 1.3-1.8 MMBPD [million barrels per day]. One (of many) compounding factors: The government took over the boat companies that transported equipment and personnel around Lake Maracaibo. Since doing so (for, ahem, ‘strategic’ reasons), only 18% of the boats are working now. In the meantime, most of the submarine cables are being stolen for copper, leaving highly productive oil wells without power. Now there are no boats to go check on them (let alone transport repair crews) and don’t even ask about remote monitoring...
“But wait, even if they DID have the boats and the personnel, suppliers stopped supplying because PDVSA [Venezuela’s state-owned oil corporation] simply can’t or won’t pay overdue invoices. When they say they will, they try to force companies to accept local currency (the official rate is 2.15 to the dollar and the free rate is hovering at around 6). Even then, they demand an extra discount on an already signed contract price. Did I forget to mention having to pay a percentage to the PDVSA manager in an offshore account to actually get all that done?"
By the way, peace, you mean "you're" not "your." :)
B,
HA!HA!
I left that one for you to find.
peace
True to form; Bureaucrat dots the I, crosses the T, plays the grammarian scold with chronic happy to glad syndrome- and completely misses the point! LMAO
Hey Bur,
Good article!
Venezuela is a prime example of what happens when the Left gets it finger into everything. Lots of change but no hope. We never get to hear that stuff here because the Democrats and the Press basically love Hugo's politics. Pretty depressing.
Regards,
Coal Guy
Nobody loves Hugo's politics except Hugo. :)
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