In the Heart of the Heart Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Jensen
Explanation: What excites the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission nebula dubbed IC 1805 looks, in whole, like a human heart. Its shape perhaps fitting of the Valentine’s Day, this heart glows brightly in red light emitted by its most prominent element: excitedhydrogen. The red glow and the larger shape are all created by a small group of stars near the nebula’s center. In the heart of the Heart Nebula are young stars from the open star cluster Melotte 15 that are eroding away several picturesque dust pillars with their energetic light and winds. The open cluster of stars contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, many dim stars only a fraction of the mass of our Sun, and an absent microquasar that was expelled millions of years ago. The Heart Nebula is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation of the mythological Queen of Aethiopia (Cassiopeia).
Began reading Game Changer: AlphaZero’s Groundbreaking Strategy and the Promise of AI,
by GM Matthew Sadler and WIM Natasha Regan
recently. I have only read a couple of chapters and have no intention of writing a review because the book has been reviewed by almost everyone but this writer.
For those of you who wish to read a review before purchasing the book I heartily recommend the one by GM Jacob Aagaard
in the best Chess magazine in the world,New In Chess, issue 2019/3. Kudos to the people at NIC who make the decision as to what goes into the magazine, and what stays out. Aagard was nice about ripping the authors new ones, writing, “Game Changer is an interesting but often also frustrating read.” In addition he writes, “However, the structural problems the book suffers from are certainly to do with the two authors, two voices and at least two different directions.” There is more but I will not dwell on it other than to say reading the review caused me to purchase the book after reading, “The book gets into a better flow over the next hundred pages, before becoming coherent over the last 250+ pages that look seriously at AlphaZero’s games,” which is the basic reason for buying the tome.
Major League Baseball, like NASCAR, has made rapid and dramatic changes recently, to their detriment, proven by the lack of ‘fannies in the seats’ and spectators viewing by other means. MLB has gone to a replay system for close calls. The results show the umpire calls about half of them correctly. Many of the calls made by the Wizard of Oz behind a curtain somewhere have been laughingly ridiculed later, making the new system a joke, which is on MLB. It takes an inordinate and interminable amount of time to make the final call, which breaks the flow of the game, such as it is…Many people have written, and continue to write, about the issue. One of the best pieces on the subject, from the New York Times, can be found below.
To compensate for the time taken while the players stand around “scratching their butts” during yet another boring umpire review a ridiculous new rule states a pitcher no longer has to throw the four balls it takes to make an intentional walk. Now the manager informs the umpire, and the batter strolls to first base.
In the Minor leagues a new rule states that if a game is tied after regulation play, the next team to bat begins with a runner on second base. I kid you not…Seeing is believing, so watch this:
One of the other newer rules concerns a play at the plate. MLB took action after Buster Posey, the great, future Hall of Fame, catcher for the San Francisco Giants suffered a horrible injury at the plate. It has become known as the “Buster Posey” rule. Watch this to learn why it is called the “Buster Posey” rule:
Many fans did not care for the new rule. An example would be the comment left on the above page by Brian Cicio:
“Thanks to Buster PUSSY we don’t see these plays anymore. He was IN THE BASE PATH WITHOUT THE BALL. His fault 100% . Injuries are part of ANY sport. Maybe he should have stuck to Ballet.”
Evidently some fans prefer their Baseball straight with no chaser.
This is how MLB was played for about a century and half. The most famous collision at home plate is probably Pete Rose barreling over Ray Fosse:
This brings us to the, WORST CALL IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL HISTORY:
The great thing about watching the video is being able to once again see a MLB manager argue with the umpires, yet another aspect taken away with the new rules. We fans miss the long ago time of watching Billy Martin get up in the face of an umpire:
We miss managers going crazy:
We end with the Best Baseball Manager Ejection in History:
Armchair Warrior 
