Peter Heine Nielsen@PHChess·The sad thing is that Western unity that Chess-activities by the Russian Chess Federation on Crimea is unacceptable, has come to an end. Not under Kirsan, but by the new FIDE leadership, at @nigelshortchess watch.Quote Tweet
Nigel Short@nigelshortchess · Apr 9, 2014I’m surprised we haven’t had a bid for the 2018 Olympiad from the Crimea yet.
In the first half, occult historian Mitch Horowitz
(https://mitchhorowitz.com/) discussed how to remain focused, positive, and effective during the world crisis and pandemic. As we face the coronavirus situation, we have to be careful not to give in to panic, he cautioned, as this is something that can create a “psychological pandemic” of its own. By hoarding or overbuying groceries and supplies, we may be taking away items from people in need, and sending the wrong lessons to our kids, he remarked. We should be practicing solidarity with our neighbors, and grace under pressure, he continued, as well as showing gratitude for those who are assisting others and keeping things running. https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2020/03/12
Shopper wheeled out on stretcher after fight at metro Atlanta Sam’s Club
A fight at a metro Atlanta Sam’s Club on Thursday evening that triggered a multiagency police response is also the subject of a viral video circulating on social media.
According to Paulding County authorities, sheriff’s deputies and Hiram police officers responded to a fight call at the warehouse store on Jimmy Lee Smith Parkway about 7:30 p.m. after at least one customer was injured.
A cellphone video taken inside the store appears to show several people tussling on the floor of the wine aisle as an employee in a green vest tries to break them apart. Some kind of liquid is spilled on the floor.
BREAKING: A man was stabbed with a wine bottle over a pack of water at a Sam’s Club in Hiram. 😳😳😳😳pic.twitter.com/KV5X7MiKpO
— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) March 13, 2020
Onlookers gather as the scene grows chaotic, and many can be heard screaming and voicing their disbelief.
In another video, a man is shown being wheeled out of the store on a stretcher while a deputy asks shoppers to move out of the way.
The videos have since been shared on Twitter via Everything Georgia, an aggregated news and original video sharing account with more than 1.5 million followers.
Investigators believe the fight started when two customers bumped shopping carts, Hiram police spokesman Sgt. Edwin Ivey told AJC.com. It “eventually escalated into them hitting one another with wine bottles,” he said in an email.
An article has appeared on the New York Times website, Putin, Said to Be ‘Perfectly Healthy,’ Is Also Nowhere to Be Seen, By NEIL MacFARQUHAR, MARCH 13, 2015, which asks the question, “Where’s Putin?” It begins, “It was the question preoccupying Moscow and much of Russia on Friday, as speculation mounted about why President Vladimir V. Putin had not been seen in public since last week.”
“He canceled a trip to Kazakhstan; postponed a treaty signing with representatives from South Ossetia who were reportedly told not to bother to come to Moscow; and, unusually, was absent from a meeting of top officials from the F.S.B., Russia’s domestic intelligence service.
The last confirmed public sighting was at a meeting with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy on March 5 — although the Kremlin would have citizens think otherwise.
Given that the Kremlin borrows all manner of items from the Soviet playbook these days, there appeared to be an attempt to doctor the president’s timetable to show that all was well.”
Putin is not the only Russian who “…borrows all manner of items from the Soviet playbook these days.” Just as in the days of Soviet Communism, Mikhail Botvinnik and Paul Keres, every game between Russian chess players is suspect.
The NY Times reporter continues, “Early in his presidency, Mr. Putin dropped out of sight when the submarine Kursk sank in 2000 and again two years later when terrorists seized a Moscow theater and took hundreds of hostages.”
Putin obviously has a tendency to “nut-up” when the going gets tough. Or is it something else? The article also contains this, “Andrei Illarionov, a former presidential adviser, wrote a blog post suggesting that Mr. Putin had been overthrown by hard-liners in a palace coup and that Russians could anticipate an announcement soon saying that he was taking a well-deserved rest. Conspiracy theorists bombarded Facebook, Twitter and the rest of social media along similar veins.”
(http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/world/europe/russia-putin-seen-in-public.html?_r=0)
Armchair Warrior 