GeniusProphecy.com

Natural satellites that are striking a cord

2011-02-16T23:00:00.009+11:00

There are some fairly interesting happenings in our universe these days. For now, I'm going to take a look at our own solar system, but I definitely will return to talk about other aspects of the universe.

Just in our solar system, there are purportedly several moons with liquid water oceans. This is surprising given we normally assume any object closer than Earth to the sun does not have water and any object further away has ice but not liquid water.

Europa is a moon of Jupiter's which has the highest likelihood of having a liquid ocean underneath its surface. Most planetary scientists believe that a layer of liquid water exists beneath Europa's surface, kept warm by tidally generated heat due to gravitational/magnetic influences from Jupiter itself. Unusual features on Europa's surface also hint at a hidden ocean.

Europa has emerged as one of the top locations in the Solar System in terms of potential habitability and possibly, hosting extraterrestrial life. Life could exist in its under-ice ocean, perhaps subsisting in an environment similar to Earth's deep-ocean hydrothermal vents or the Antarctic Lake Vostok. If life were to exist on Europa, it would not only prove that life exists beyond Earth but that life is likely to be common throughout the Universe.

Other moons of Jupiter, namely Callisto and Ganymede, as well as Neptune's largest moon, Triton, are also hypothesised to have liquid oceans for similar reasons to Europa, although there is less certainty about them.

Titan is Saturn's largest moon and the only moon in the solar system known to have clouds and a dense atmosphere. On the surface, water behaves like rock and hydrocarbons behave like liquids such as water. It has a dense atmosphere and the surface is rocky, similar to rocky planes on Earth. Titan has rivers and lakes populated by hydrocarbons. It is also thought to likely have a subterranean water ocean under the mix of ice and hydrocarbons that forms its outer crust.

Scientists believe that the atmosphere of early Earth was similar in composition to the current atmosphere on Titan, with the important exception of the lack of water vapor on Titan. Many hypotheses have developed that attempt to bridge the step from chemical to biological evolution.

Enceladus is one of the hottest places in the Solar System to look for life due to pure accessibility. This tiny moon has geyser-like jets of water bursting from the surface. There are a number of potential explanations, such as the source of the water being supplied from a liquid ocean underneath the crust, heated by Saturn's gravitional/magnetic influence. The presence of liquid water under the crust means there has to be an internal heat source. Scientists now believe it is a combination of radioactive decay and tidal heating, as tidal heating alone is not enough to explain the heat.

Sources:

Articles on "Europa, Callisto, Ganymede, Titan and Enceladus." Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Web. 17 Feb. 2011.

Briggs, Helen. "Saturn Moon May Have Hidden Ocean." BBC News - Home. 20 Mar. 2008. Web. 18 Feb. 2011. .

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_liquid_water
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(moon)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus_(moon)

What Life is Really About

2010-11-18T21:54:00.004+11:00

Trying to weigh my priorities recently has left me pondering what life is truly about. On a daily basis, we are bombarded with a distorted view of what a good life should be - flashy cars, large mansions and madly following anything else that is trending. While these things are not inherently bad, the image that they represent is a materially-obsessed, shallow, artificial and, above all, selfish life.

The respected entrepreneur and speaker Richard Koch once quoted a study exploring the correlation between money and happiness. At the start of the graph, as money goes up, happiness also moves up. This is logical because we need a certain amount of money to stay out of poverty. However, Koch notes that at a "surprisingly low level" of income, as the the scale of money goes up, happiness will tend to level off. What this study shows is that more money does not equate to more happiness, unless you are living in poverty. This is readily seen in the world's wealthiest celebrities, many of whom are not happy.

Tim Soutphommasane, a philosophy writer for The Age Melbourne, asserts that when all our material needs and obsessions are met, “life is bound to be disenchanting”. There are certain aspects of the ‘human condition’ that are directly at odds with the ‘pursuit of happiness’. My personal opinion is that a person can live happily if they recognise the clash between happiness and money, and accept that “there is a certain point beyond which material wealth stops adding to happiness”.

Clearly, life is not about the mindless pursuit of money or judging someone solely from their outward appearance, as the media would like to lead us to believe. So what should we aim for in life? The following points are pretty obvious, but I thought I should remind myself.

What life is about:

Integrity
Honesty
Generosity
Friendship
Family
Love
Harmony
Morality
Compassion
Health
Happiness
Good humour
Doing what you enjoy and having fun

In my opinion, these things are what make life special. They are meant to reflect the 'measures of success', which I discussed in an earlier blog post. These are the aspects of our lives we should develop and carefully look after.

The Balance of Conformity

2010-10-23T10:15:00.000+11:00

The classic argument against conformity is that it constricts individuality and uniqueness. What would be the point of living if someone else could take our place and do just as good a job? However, we all must conform to some extent, so it is rash to condemn conformity from the outset. After all, wearing clothes, drinking water and even breathing are forms of conformity. Of course, those are bare essentials, but even something like going to school is a concept that today's first-world society cannot live without.

On the other side of the spectrum, people conform heavily because they are afraid of standing out. If they stand out, others will readily notice that they are 'different' and may judge them negatively. In order to enjoy life to the fullest, we need to strike a balance between conformity and non-conformity. It is smart to conform in areas that will ensure our safety. For example, a person wears non-offensive clothing to avoid provoking other people into attacking him or her. However, in my opinion, we conform way too much in areas not related to safety and health. In my previous post, I have already noted some areas which I consider 'misconceptions of measures of success'.

Conforming without a strong scientific basis can lead to major problems. In the early 1900s, a stock market craze evolved. It seemed like easy money; but the investors' enthusiasm drove the stock prices up too high. The prices no longer represented to true value of the stocks. This lead to the Great Depression of 1929 in which a large proportion of average investors got owned. If you were a typical person back then and you had followed your enthusiastic friends into the stock market game, you would have lost a large chunk of your life savings.

We follow the crowd because it is easy. If everyone else does it, surely it must be a good thing, right? However, by mindlessly following others, we are failing to use our greatest asset - our brain. Every human being is born with endless potential, but if we do not exercise and develop our brain, we cannot harness the potential. The classic book by Napoleon Hill was called Think and Grow Rich; it is the 'thinking' part that is the most important.

In conclusion, conformity is a tricky issue to tackle. It is intelligent to conform in areas of safety and health. However, other areas give people much more leeway. We must strike our own unique balance between conformity and non-conformity. Conformity is essential, but there are areas where it is better to make our own independent decisions. As the celebrated poet Robert Frost said in his poem The Road Not Taken, "I took the [road] less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

Measuring Success

2010-10-17T16:00:00.005+11:00

I have recently pondered how a person measures success. Assessing my own priorities, I have narrowed my personal definition of success down to a collection of dot points.

Measures of success

Ability to help and inspire others less fortunate than you.
Ability to contribute to society.
Ability to help and inspire those around you, especially in long-term ways.
Number of very high quality friendships

Misconceptions of measures of success

Net worth
Salary, or how much money one makes
Material possessions
Academic test scores (e.g. VCE scores)

If you believe I have missed anything critically important, please leave a comment. I have not conferred with many people about my views, so I have no idea if they would be considered 'radical' or not.

Of course, there are some basic things I have not listed because I felt that they were too obvious, such as keeping healthy and being able to survive financially. I contemplated listing 'level of academic education' somewhere, but I decided that it would vary from person to person according to their chosen career, e.g. a medical researcher would obviously need a high level of specialised academic education compared to a professional chess player.

I feel that I am being rather hypocritical because I find myself mindlessly working towards some of the dot points in the latter list. This is frightening because I can recognise that they are only superficially important. I feel this is because such pursuits have been drummed into me through media, and sometimes even friends and family. I have no direct solution to such a problem, except to keep an open mind and to keep my options open where possible.

There is one quality I am undecided about. It is the 'ability to immortalise oneself in a positive way – i.e. to establish one’s name in history'. When I asked this of a friend, he also agreed that this point is difficult to categorise. I think the reason I am reluctant to place this in the former list is because all the points there are relatively selfless, but there are clear selfish motivations in trying to put your own name in the history books.

Overall, priorities differ from person to person. There are many people I know who would have 'net worth' listed in the initial list. Nevertheless, I believe the vast majority of people would agree with the selfless qualities listed at the top.

Longest-Living Organisms Part I

2010-09-23T18:16:00.006+10:00

This edition of the Longest-living Organisms concerns the longest-living conifer, the bristlecone pine. Bristlecone pines are a small group of pine trees, one species of which, the Great Basin bristlecone pine, lives longer than any other type of tree. They occur only in high altitudes in the Western United States. The trees grow very slowly due to cold temperatures, dry soils, high winds and short growing seasons. The areas they grow in rarely harbour diseases that harm them. Their wood is very dense and resinous, and thus resistant to invasion by insects, fungi and other potential pests. They range from approximately 5 to 18.5 metres tall. By measuring the rings in wood from the older bristlecone pines, scientists can determine what the climate was like thousands of years ago.

The oldest documented living tree is a Great Basin bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of eastern California. It is more than 4,700 years old. A collection of bristlecone pines on Wheeler Peak in eastern Nevada is known to contain several trees over 3,000 years old, with one thought to be about 5,000 years old.

Sources:

"bristlecone pine." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 23 Sept. 2010 <http://school.eb.com.au/eb/article-9016487>.

Sprugel, Douglas G. "Bristlecone pine." World Book Student. World Book, 2010. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristlecone_pine

Funny Kitty on TAYG

2010-09-22T22:12:00.001+10:00

Here is a scene of a Funny Kitty on Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation. Please watch the full scene.

Saturn's Two Amazing Moons

2010-08-08T18:13:00.004+10:00

Saturn has at least two stand-out moons as I have recently been informed about.

Titan - on this moon, which is Saturn's largest, water behaves like rock and hydrocarbons behave like water or liquid; it has a dense atmosphere and the surface is rocky (similar to rocky places on earth); Titan has hydrocarbon rivers and lakes

Enceladus - this is the hottest place in the Solar System to look for life due to pure accessibility; it beats Mars and the supposed liquid ocean underneath Europa's icy crust; this tiny moon has geyser-like jets of water bursting from the surface; there are a number of potential explanations, such as the source of the water being supplied from a liquid ocean underneath the crust, heated by Saturn's magnetic/gravitional influence

For more information, search the NASA website.

Giant Lizard

2010-01-20T17:05:00.001+11:00

Check out this awesome picture that I took of a lizard in the Sydney Blue Mountains. The resemblance to a crocodile is quite interesting. Click the picture to enlarge.

A Look into Animal Gigantism

2010-01-15T22:56:00.009+11:00

The Komodo dragon is the largest living species of lizard. They grow to more than 3 metres long and can weigh up to 165 kilograms. The dragon has a forked tongue that is 40 centimetres long.

These flightless "dragons" are effective predators and have enough speed and strength to take down deer, wild pigs and water buffaloes. They don't need to capture live prey directly, since they have a venomous bite that severely decreases blood clotting. Their saliva contains bacteria that can kill wounded victims in a few days.

Komodo Dragons can live for 50 years. They display relatively tame behaviour within a short period of time in captivity and are also capable of recognising individual humans.

Their unusual size is attributed to "island gigantism", where the size of animals isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to their mainland relatives. The explanation for this is that large mammalian carnivores are often absent on islands, due to their large range requirements and/or difficulties in over-water dispersal.

In their absence, the ecological niches for large predators may be occupied by birds, or reptiles in this case, which can then grow to larger-than-normal size.

As such, these giant animals are closely related to their smaller counterparts. With the arrival of humans, many giant island endemics have become extinct.

Some other examples of island gigantism include giant rats, giant ducks, giant rabbits, dodos (closely related to pigeons and doves), giant tortoises, Haast's Eagle (largest known eagle which attacks at speeds of 80 km/h), elephant birds (largest known bird, growing up to 2.7 metres tall and weighing about 450 kg) and King Kong. (Okay, you got me, the last one was fictional.)

The cousin of island gigantism is the better known "island dwarfism". But who likes things that are tiny?

Another natural phenomenon is "deep sea gigantism", where deep-sea-dwelling animals to display a larger size than their shallow-water counterparts. This is probably due to better nutrients in the deeper water.

Examples include Japanese spider crabs (up to 3.7 metres across from the tip of one outstretched claw to another and weighing 18 kg), the seven-arm octopus (largest octopus, 4 metres long and 75 kg), giant oarfish (world's longest bony fish, reaching up to 12 metres long and weighing 270 kg), the colossal squid (larger than the giant squid, largest known invertebrate, 12-14m in length, weighs up to 495 kg).

Bibliography

Huey, Raymond B. "Komodo dragon." World Book Student. World Book, 2010. Web. 16 Jan. 2010.

Clarke, Simon James. "Elephant bird." World Book Student. World Book, 2010. Web. 16 Jan. 2010.

"Komodo dragon." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica,
2010. Web. 16 Jan. 2010.

"Aepyornis (Elephant Bird)." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica,
2010. Web. 16 Jan. 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_dragon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_gigantism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-sea_gigantism

Take that advertisements!

2009-12-23T20:57:00.005+11:00

Do you hate websites that have animated advertisements? They are highly distracting and are often irrelevant to the actual content of the website. One example of a website I have recently gone to is CliffsNotes (free English notes about literature books), which is jam-packed with both animated and non-animated image advertisements.

I have found a neat (and free) add-on to Mozilla Firefox that blocks off the majority of animated advertisements. If you don't use Firefox already, I highly recommend you give it a try. Although it used to be much better than Internet Explorer, Microsoft have improved IE a lot recently. But there are still some very small things that you will find more convenient when you compare Firefox to IE.

Anyway, the add-on to Firefox I was talking about is called Flashblock. As its name suggests, it blocks parts of websites that use flash. Where the flash object used to be, an 'F' symbol appears, which you can click on to run the Flash program if you feel like it.

Click here to download Flashblock.

This wonderful add-on, coupled with unchecking Tools --> Options --> Content --> Load Images Automatically, easily took care of all the image advertisements on CliffsNotes. Of course, you will want to turn the latter option on again when you visit other websites, otherwise images won't load.

You'll be surprised at the number of advertisements that Flashblock will block during normal browsing (e.g. YouTube, Hotmail, etc.).

Top 5 Free Software Picks for 2010

2009-11-14T09:46:00.003+11:00

See my new article on the top software picks.

In short, the suggestions are:

1. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

2. Vuze

3. TeamViewer

4. RoboForm

5. TuneUp Utilities 2010

Click here to see the full article "Top 5 Free Software Picks for 2010".

The Feeling of Immortality

2009-11-07T22:25:00.004+11:00

In my rather random research, I have found two animals that are "biologically immortal". They technically just keep regenerating and never actually "die".

According to Wikipedia: "The Hydrozoan species Turritopsis nutricula is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again. This means that there may be no natural limit to its life span. However, no single specimen has been observed for any extended period, and it is impossible to estimate the age of a specimen. Theoretically, this cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it biologically immortal until its nerve center is removed from the rest of the body."

However, Wikipedia is often inaccurate (not wrong, just inaccurate). I could find no information on this animal in the paid subscription websites Britannica Online Encyclopedia or World Book Student.

The Wikipedia article on Turritopsis nutricula also mentions the predatory species Hydra, another kind of cnidarian that is claimed to be immortal.

Now, I found an article on this creature on both Britannica Online Encyclopedia and World Book Student!

Britannica Online Encyclopedia mentions that Hydra is "a genus of invertebrate freshwater animals of the class Hydrozoa (phylum Cnidaria)." It is an "organism [that] consists of a thin, usually translucent tube that measures up to about 30 millimetres (1.2 inches) long but is capable of great contraction... All Hydra species feed on other small invertebrate animals such as crustaceans." However, it makes no mention of the species being supposedly "biologically immortal".

Nevertheless, I found positive evidence on the World Book Student website. L. Muscatine, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Biology, University of California, Los Angeles states: "Hydras can regenerate (regrow) parts of their bodies. It is estimated that in a period of several weeks a hydra replaces all the cells in its body. The hydra, therefore, never grows old."

I think this constitutes sufficient evidence to prove that this Hydra animal is biologically (but not physically if it gets eaten) immortal.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long-living_organisms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula

"Hydra." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 7 Nov. 2009 .

Muscatine, L. "Hydra." World Book Student. World Book, 2009. Web. 7 Nov. 2009.

Interesting Facts About Chicken

2009-09-18T16:39:00.007+10:00

Despite the picture, I haven't had KFC chicken in a year or two. Nevertheless, I have discovered some interesting facts about the animal that our favourite food comes from.

Did you know?

Chickens can live from five to eleven years, depending on the breed. The oldest chicken lived 16 years. However, chickens that are raised for their meat are typically slaughtered in 6 to 14 weeks.

In the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects and even larger animals such as lizards or young mice.

Lighter chickens are generally capable of flying for short distances, such as over fences or into trees (where they would naturally roost). Chickens will sometimes fly to explore their surroundings, but usually do so only to flee perceived danger.

The meat of chicken is also called "chicken". (I bet you didn't know that one!)

Chickens can make good companion animals and can be tamed by hand feeding. Chickens are generally low-maintenance. The major challenge is protecting the birds from predators such as dogs, raccoons and foxes.

Chickens have been known to live after beheading. Mike the Headless Chicken or Miracle Mike was an extraordinary case in which a chicken lived 18 months after its beheading. It's authenticity was established by the University of Utah.

Some groups which advocate for more humane treatment of chickens claim that they are intelligent. Dr. Chris Evans of Macquarie University claims that their range of 20 calls, problem solving skills, use of representational signaling, and the ability to recognize each other by facial features demonstrate the intelligence of chickens.

Hens lay eggs without the need for fertilization by a rooster. However, these eggs do not contain offspring.

Sources: Wikipedia, Guinness Book of World Records

See below for a morally-correct article.

Wrestling - The misunderstood sport

2009-09-18T12:54:00.003+10:00

It's well known that wrestling is fixed - results of matches and storylines are predetermined. But wrestling is seen in a negative light and is misunderstood. Professional wrestling is the performance, management, and marketing of a form of entertainment based on elements of Greco-Roman wrestling, mixed martial arts, and theatre. Just to make a couple of points clear:

1. Wrestling is an entertainment sport done by professionally-trained performers. Why I enjoy wrestling: watching people fight and unleash moves on each other for entertainment is fun to watch. Wrestling moves look and sound cool: Twist of Fate, Swanton Bomb, Go to Sleep, Starship Pain, etc.

2. There's very little blood in wrestling (unless it's by accident).

3. Wrestlers are professionally trained so that their moves won't injure other wrestlers.

How come wrestling is often non-competitive or "fixed"? It is because of the huge physical strain on wrestlers that it cannot be a normal competitive sport such as tennis. I'm sure a normal human being can't wrestle four days a week, it's simply too tiring. In addition, Rey Mysterio notes that "injuries can happen at any time".

See above for an article about chickens.

Ryan's Philosophisationing

2009-09-01T20:49:00.000+10:00

Ryan Shelton's Philosophisationing of Karma on Rove.

Mass–energy equivalence

2009-08-30T15:17:00.004+10:00

[Note: Do not read this article if you have learned physics or are talented in science.] Maybe you know it better as E = mc². The only reason I called it "mass–energy equivalence" was because Wikipedia calls it that, and also I couldn't write that "squared" thing in the title.

We've all heard of Einstein's formula for relativity, E = mc². Einstein proposed his formula in his 1905 paper, "Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy-content?" But what does it really mean? Well, in the formula, E is energy, m is relativistic mass, and c is the speed of light in a vacuum (which is 299,792,458 meters per second).

So basically, expressing the formula in words: energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. Described using units, E (in joules) = m (in kilograms) multiplied by (299,792,458 m/s)². Thanks Einstein!

Kristy's First Week

2009-08-29T18:09:00.002+10:00

Kristy, the new newsreader, has some pranks played on her on Rove.

Carl Baron Standup

2009-08-27T22:20:00.002+10:00

Carl Baron's Standup from Rove two weeks ago.

New McDonald's Video Game

2009-08-02T09:33:00.003+10:00

Have you heard of the McDonald's Video Game? Basically, you control what happens at McDonalds, from the storefront, the pastures where you raise your cows and the slaughterhouse. Keep your eye on your money figure and make sure it doesn't run out!

This game was featured in a CNET article.

Click here to play the game.

Tennis Grand Slam Dates

2009-06-06T09:06:00.004+10:00

The four Grand Slam tournaments are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of public attention, world ranking points, tradition and prize-money awarded. Here are their dates:

Tournament	Surface	Date
Australian Open	Hard Courts	January
French Open	Clay	Mid-May and early June
Wimbledon	Grass	Late June and early July
US Open	Acrylic hard courts	August and September

Just to keep you up-to-date, here are some current rankings:

1	Rafael Nadal	14960.0
2	Roger Federer	10470.0
3	Andy Murray	9020.0
4	Novak Djokovic	8830.0
5	Juan Martin Del Potro	4830.0

Where do domestic dogs originate from?

2009-05-08T20:44:00.003+10:00

What is the origin of man's best friend and when did the friendship begin? The common domesticated dog is a subspecies of the gray wolf. The gray wolf is an ice age survivor originating during the Late Pleistocene around 300,000 years ago. The gray wolf can be linked back even further to a small weasel-like mammal called Miacis about 60 million years ago, which is the ancestor of all canids (i.e. dogs, coyotes, jackals, wolves and foxes), however Miacis is irrelevant to what we're talking about today. To sum up, DNA sequencing and genetic drift studies reaffirm that the gray wolf shares a common ancestry with the domestic dog.

This raises another question: how did humans, who haven't been around for that long, manage to influence the creation of so many breeds of domestic dogs? According to an uncited source from Wikipedia, the domestication of the gray wolf took place in a handful of events roughly 15,000 years ago in central Asia. Also according to Wikipedia, archaeology has placed the earliest possible domestication at about 30,000 BC and, can confirm that they were already domesticated by 7,000 BC.

However, according to About.com, dog history has been studied recently using mitochondrial DNA, which suggests that wolves and dogs split into different species around 100,000 years ago. Nevertheless, the author notes that "another recent study" suggests that the entire population of dogs today are descended from three females near China about 15,000 years ago. A burial site in Germany called Bonn-Oberkassel has joint human and dog interments dated to 14,000 years ago. K. Kris Hirst states that 13,000 year BC date is the probable date of domestication.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, fossil remains suggest that five distinct types of dogs existed by the beginning of the Bronze Age (around 4500 BC). They were the mastiffs, wolf-type dogs, pointing dogs, sight hounds (such as the Saluki or greyhound) and herding dogs. Illustrations of dogs dating from the Bronze Age have also been found on walls, tombs, and scrolls throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

Dogs were interbred to enhance their powerful attributes. Fleet-footed sight hounds were revered by noblemen in the Middle East, while in Europe powerful dogs such as the mastiff were developed to protect home and traveler from harm. Many breeds are extremely ancient, while others have been developed as recently as the 1800s.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/dogs.htm

"Dog." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 8 May 2009 <http://school.eb.com.au/eb/article-15458>.

McGinnis, Terri. "Dog." World Book Online Reference Center. 2009. 8 May 2009.

Army Rankings

2009-03-28T22:49:00.005+11:00

What are the army rankings? The following are regular army rankings. I have mixed some Australian rankings with American rankings and vice versa.

Private/Cadet
Lance Corporal
Corporal
Sergeant
Staff Sergeant
Lieutenant/Leftenant
Captain
Major
Lieutenant Colonel
Colonel
Brigadier/Brigadier General (must be addressed as "General")
Major General
Lieutenant General (note Lt. Gen. higher than Maj. Gen. even though Maj. is higher than Lt.)
General
General of the Army/Field Marshal

My favourite war book is Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose.

10 Useful Programs for Your PC 2008

2008-12-30T12:39:00.003+11:00

I have just published an article titled '10 Useful Programs for Your PC 2008'. Due to the success of my previous article, which I have renamed '10 Useful Programs for Your PC 2007' on EzineArticles.com, I have decided to write a new one this year.

The new list includes some programs from last year, which are still essential to me, like Mozilla Firefox and LimeWire. New programs which make it onto the list include Google Chrome, YouTube Downloader, Smart Defrag (a 'smart', i.e. self-learning, defragmentation tool), TuneUp Utilities 2009 (utilities for optimising your PC), Filezilla (FTP program) and PrimoPDF (Word-to-PDF conversion). All the programs which are suggested are still freeware or I suggest using the 'free version' of a paid program. There is one exception, which is the trial of TuneUp Utilities, but I felt that it was so good that even the trial deserves to be downloaded.

Click here to access '10 Useful Programs for Your PC 2008'.

Retiring from Cadets

2008-12-09T10:38:00.001+11:00

This year, I have retired from cadets. I finished my "career" as a Corporal in 3 Platoon of Alpha Company. I have decided that I wanted to do something different and we have a large percentage of cadets continuing on this year. I have switched to a service known as "chess club", as part of administration for social services.

Scotch College Annual Tattoo 2008

2008-11-07T22:43:00.004+11:00

The 2008 Scotch College Annual Tattoo was held on the 7th of November, 2008. The parade started at approximately 8:30pm and lasting about 1.5 hours. During this parade, the cadets, military band and, pipes and drums crew salute a General of the Australian Army. This year, the parade was done in the rain, showing that the cadet unit won't even let downpour stop them. It is a tradition to "freeball" during the parade.

The RSM leading this parade was Regimental Sergeant Major Ricky Hanson and the CUO of the Unit was Cadet Under Officer Nathan Su. The General saluted was General Peter Gration AC OBE (1987).

Transition to HostGator

2008-09-24T20:25:00.002+10:00

I have recently purchased a HostGator plan, and the website is currently being transferred to their servers. This explains some of the strange phenomena (strange template, and missing links and images) occurring on the website.

I moved from Yahoo! GeoCities Pro to HostGator because HostGator's plans were cheaper (Yahoo! had recently increased their price for additional benefits) and they were very generous with their disk space, transfer limit and other aspects.

Firefox 3 is now out!

2008-09-18T17:56:00.007+10:00

Mozilla Firefox 3 was released on June 17, 2008. Updates include a sleek new design and lightning-fast web-paged loading. Firefox 3 uses version 1.9 of the Gecko layout engine for displaying web pages. The new version fixes many bugs, improves standard compliance, and implements new web APIs.

Click here to see the Mozilla Firefox 3 Wikipedia page.
Click here to see Mozilla's release notes for Mozilla Firefox 3.
Click here to download Mozilla Firefox 3 from Download.com.

2008 SCACU Annual Camp

2008-09-18T17:56:00.002+10:00

The 2008 Scotch College Army Cadet Unit Annual Camp went underway from the 12-17th of September (the Advance Party went to Puckapunyal on the 10th). It was an enjoyable camp where there were lots of interesting activities. I arrived on the evening of the 13th as I had state chess finals that morning-afternoon.

The days were split up like this (for Alpha company):
12th - Arrival and setting up camp
13th - Abseiling
14th - Boating
15th - Ranged shooting
16th - NavEx and Confidence course
17th - Packup, renaturalisation and departure

GeniusProphecy.com Website Changes

2008-05-30T17:12:00.007+10:00

Under advice from the owner of 2CreateAWebsite.com, there could be some subdomain changes to GeniusProphecy.com.

I asked whether it would "negatively affect my website's ranking in the search engines if it covers a broad range of subjects", and the reply was that "I think it does affect it negatively. And not so much because you have a variety of topics but because engines now focus so much on quality of inbound links... I think having multiple topics devalues your site and makes it look like you're trying to do too much."

"And as far as rankings I do believe Google would rank you lower for chess related keywords compared to someone who's site is entirely devoted to chess.

If you think about it, popular sites are all focused around one niche. And the ones that aren't (Yahoo, MSN, CNN, etc.) are all heavily popular, branded sites that we all know we couldn't compete with because we don't have the brand awareness.

Niche sites are always best."

But instead of deleting all my content about different topics, I figured that I should put my individual niches into subdomains (which Google treats as a completely different website), each focusing on their own topic, to avoid this "negativity" when a website covers a broad range of topics, as well as to avoid deleting the content I tried so hard to make on this "range of topics".

Some examples of subdomains
http://chess.geniusprophecy.com/
http://runescape.geniusprophecy.com/
http://rubikscube.geniusprophecy.com/

Easy Internet Security - Keep your computer secure

2008-03-24T21:20:00.002+11:00

I have created a new guide on how to keep your computer secure on the internet. It's a basic guide to help get beginners around the common terms and the protection issues. Click here to go to Easy Internet Security - Keep your computer secure.

Australian Chess News Launched!

2008-02-10T19:13:00.000+11:00

The Australian Chess section of this blog has branched to become its own blog. At Australian Chess News, you will find updates on Australian chess, specifically regarding results.

Labels corrected

2008-02-01T18:24:00.000+11:00

The labels on this blog have been corrected. I have labeled every post on this blog with one of these labels:

personal
cadets
chess (includes international chess)
Australian chess
websites

Previously, I did not know how labels worked. But now I have read about them, and I have made a few corrections. The vast majority of labels on this blog are useless and only lead to one or two posts, but it would take too long to remove them all. The labels above are the ones to use in order to distinguish posts about different subjects.

2008 Australian Junior Lightning Championship U18

2008-01-24T11:57:00.000+11:00

I recently went to Sydney to see my dad. While there, I also competed in the 2008 Australian Junior Lightning Championship. I came 2nd overall and claimed the under 16 title.

Here are the results:

2008 Australian Junior Lightning Championship U18 - Round 11

Standings

Place Name                    Feder Loc  Score Progr. Buch.

1   Ikeda, Junta            ACT   2065 11      66.0  78.5
2   Lin, Zhigen Wilson      VIC   1635 9       51.0  75.0
3-5  Harris, Benjamin        NSW   1949 8       51.0  80.0
   Illingworth, Max        NSW   2247 8       49.0  82.0
   Schon, Eugene           VIC   1626 8       48.0  72.0
6   Cohn, Jason             NSW   1443 7.5     43.5  65.0
7-14  Antolis, Cedric         VIC   1491 7       50.0  77.5
   Yu, Derek               VIC   1718 7       48.0  77.0
   Dyer, Alastair          TAS   1661 7       46.5  73.0
   Wu, Edwin               NSW   1589 7       45.0  74.5
   Wallis, Christopher     VIC   1885 7       43.0  72.0
   Kong, Adrian            NSW   1554 7       43.0  65.5
   Yu, Sally               VIC   1422 7       41.0  66.5
   Guo, Emma               ACT   1510 7       38.0  63.0
15-19 Nakauchi, Gene          QLD   1506 6.5     48.5  78.5
   Choong, Yita            WA    1972 6.5     42.0  71.0
   Yuan, Yi                ACT   1697 6.5     39.0  66.5
   Ng, Deborah             NSW   1480 6.5     38.0  61.0
   Papantoniou, John       NSW   1535 6.5     38.0  60.0
20-29 Jule, Sebastian         QLD   997  6       41.5  68.0
   Yuen, Jonathan          NSW   1830 6       41.0  68.0
   Brown, Andrew           ACT   1690 6       39.0  61.0
   Gearing, Michael        QLD   1458 6       38.0  71.0
   Cameron, Alistair       SA    1145 6       36.0  68.5
   Wei, Robin              QLD        6       35.0  62.0
   Tan, Justin             VIC   1006 6       33.0  60.0
   Encel, Benjamin         NSW   1147 6       32.0  57.0
   Chibnall, Alana         ACT   1173 6       30.0  61.5
   Beilby, Kieton          QLD   941  6       30.0  53.0
30-36 Grigg, Sam              QLD   1435 5.5     40.0  70.0
   Shi, Dawen              NSW   1275 5.5     37.0  65.5
   Morris, Gill            NSW   1205 5.5     36.0  66.0
   Diemer, Tim             NSW   749  5.5     33.5  63.5
   Muller, Jonas           QLD   1422 5.5     32.5  61.0
   Briant, James           TAS   1169 5.5     31.5  60.0
   Coy, Rupert             NSW   799  5.5     25.5  50.0
37-45 Chau, Adrian            NSW   1379 5       35.5  64.0
   Gray, Daniel            NSW   1421 5       34.0  57.0
   Bonch-Osmolovskiy, Ilya NSW   982  5       29.0  59.0
   Searle, Zachary         SA    1368 5       29.0  57.0
   Deen-Cowell, Nicholas   NSW   1074 5       28.0  58.0
   Setiabudi, Allen        ACT   983  5       27.5  60.5
   Anderson, Kaidon        QLD   816  5       26.0  51.5
   Boni, Christopher       WA    1378 5       25.0  46.0
   Saroha, Chirag          WA    1081 5       22.0  48.0
46-51 Van Rys, Hayden         NSW        4.5     33.5  66.0
   Jack, Curtis            QLD   868  4.5     31.0  61.0
   Tan, Kevin              NSW   1073 4.5     29.0  58.5
   O'Flynn, Alexander      QLD   1178 4.5     27.5  57.0
   Hoey, Penelope          NSW   1062 4.5     27.0  51.5
   Hendrey, Kevin          TAS   1192 4.5     24.0  52.0
52-57 Tsang, Matthew          NSW   761  4       24.0  54.5
   McCrow, Callum          ACT   474  4       24.0  50.0
   Peck, Robbie            QLD   769  4       22.0  50.5
   Ang, Stephanie          VIC   762  4       22.0  50.5
   Leung, Stephanie        NSW   848  4       22.0  49.0
   Lakshman, Vinay         VIC   381  4       16.0  40.0
58-59 Webb-Liddle, Miranda    VIC   705  3.5     19.0  46.5
   Knapp, Katrina          SA    1005 3.5     19.0  41.0
60-61 Gilchrist, Marc         NSW   417  3       16.0  46.5
   Thornley, Max           VIC   138  3       15.0  43.0
62   Yum, Winnie             QLD   286  2       10.0  44.0
63   Atherton, John          QLD   712  1.5     11.0  42.5
64   Davis, Kieran           TAS   968  1        4.0  42.5

You can see a crosstable of the event by going to the NSWJCL website.
The main event is currently underway. You can see the pairings on the Draw and Results page of the official Australian Juniors website.

Novotel Melbourne City Trip

2007-12-27T20:30:00.000+11:00

I have just come back from a 5-day stay in Melbourne's Central Business District. We stayed at a Novotel hotel on Collins St. Click here to see TripAdvisor's article on "Novotel Melbourne on Collins". The service, facilities and location of the hotel were very good. We took a lot of pictures and visited famous places like Crown Casino and Dymocks Booksellers.

I completed two things I really wanted to do. I ate Peking Duck (or Peking Roast Duck) and I took a black and white picture of myself using Portrait Studio.

Peking Duck, or Peking Roast Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the Yuan Dynasty, now considered one of China's national foods.

Chessmaster XI: Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition (PC) and Chessmaster: The Art of Learning (DS) have been released!

2007-12-26T17:41:00.000+11:00

Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition for PC and Chessmaster: The Art of Learning for Nintendo DS have been released! This new Chessmaster game was released by Ubisoft in October. Users can play chess against the chess engine called The King, do chess drill, listen to chess lectures and more.

- The old Chessmaster 10th Edition

To go to the Chessmaster homepage, visit http://chessmaster.uk.ubi.com/xi/index.php.

To see what's new in the 11th edition of Chessmaster, go to http://chessmaster.uk.ubi.com/xi/whatsNew.php.

GeniusProphecy.com Holiday Plans

2007-12-19T20:30:00.000+11:00

GeniusProphecy.com has undergone some major changes in the last few weeks and we have big plans to come.

Here are some of the things recently completed:
1. A new sitemap has been created
2. The article on why should people play chess
3. The real estate page has had a makeover
4. The RuneScape tips page has been updated with the latest information
5. The 10 Useful Programs for Your PC page has been introduced
6. An introduction on the most recent Star Wars games specifically light-saber wielding and with excellent effects

Junior Leaders Course (Cadet Promotions Course)

2007-12-12T09:02:00.000+11:00

I have just attended the Junior Leaders Course (or Cadet Promotions Course) during 07/12/07-11/12/07. The Junior Leaders Course is for first-year cadets who want to become junior leaders, attain rank and take on their second year of cadets. There was also the Senior Leaders Course and the CUO/WO Course. All the courses were held at Scotch College's "Boarding House".

The course was designed to provide cadets, skills knowledge and attitudes required to perform the role of a Junior Leader within the Australian Army Cadets. We learned about treating burns, actions on getting lost, setting up a hootchie, etc. We also had to give a "drill lesson", which was especially difficult because it was our first time.

At the end of the course, cadets are deemed either competent or incompetent. If deemed competent, cadets will receive the rank of "Corporal" next year and they also receive a certificate for completing the course. I received "competency".

Update on Dell XPS M1330 Notebook

2007-12-03T22:49:00.000+11:00

I've had my new Dell XPS M1330 Notebook for almost a month now. It has been working excellently and Windows Vista seems to have many significant improvements. The clock is not running off time and the navigation is a bit easier now. The notebook is extremely fast and agile, being able to easily run many programs at a time. A lot of programs from Windows XP still work on Windows Vista, which was a big relief (although be forewarned, some programs cannot run on Windows Vista).

The laptop I have is one of the thinnest and lightest notebooks in its class. Click here to read more information on the Dell XPS M1330 notebook.

Search Engine Optimization - GeniusProphecy.com changes

2007-12-01T20:17:00.000+11:00

I'm currently going through the book Search Engine Optimization for Dummies (2nd ed. 2006) by Peter Kent. If you don't really know what SEO is, it is basically designing your website specifically for search engine indexing, searches and traffic.

I'm reading through the book and making changes as I go, so you can expect some changes at GeniusProphecy.com.

How to Solve a Rubik's Cube

2007-11-17T16:46:00.000+11:00

I've just created a guide on How to Solve a Rubik's Cube the Easy Way. The Rubik's Cube (or rubix, rubick's or rubics cube) is a mechanical square colour puzzle. It was invented by a Hungarian professor of architecture and a sculptor, Ernő Rubik. Since its invention in 1974 and worldwide release in 1980, the Rubik's Cube has baffled millions of people. Using my guide, you can solve a Rubik's Cube in a simple and clear-cut manner.

To access the Rubik's Cube guide, go to http://www.geniusprophecy.com/rubiks-cube.html.

New Dell Laptop

2007-11-14T21:44:00.000+11:00

Today, I received a new Dell XPS M1330 Notebook. It has been running very smoothly so far. The laptop runs on Windows Vista Home Premium, and has killer memory and hard disk space. It is one of the thinnest of all Dell laptops and has a sleek silver design.

For more information on Dell Notebooks, go to http://www.dell.com/.

2007 Scotch Cadet Tattoo

2007-11-11T22:05:00.000+11:00

The Scotch 2007 Cadet Tattoo took place on Friday. We had spent several weeks rehearsing the Tattoo every Thursday with Major Bain. We gathered near the Q-Store at 7:00PM that night. We received our rifles and started marching onto the Main Oval at about 8:30PM. There was a large crowd ready to watch us and the principal, Dr Gordon Donaldson AM, was there too. This was a very special tattoo as it is Dr Donaldson's last year this year before he retires after being principal of Scotch for 25 years. This year's reviewing officer was Lieutenant General Ian Teague. His speech was very though-provoking and impressive. The Tattoo ended at around 10:15PM. We were told that there was a possibility of someone fainting for standing with a rifle that long, but thankfully I don't think anyone fainted. We were dismissed shortly afterwards and celebrated our last Cadets session of the year.

5th Elwood Bendigo Bank Chess Championship

2007-11-06T22:47:00.000+11:00

The Elwood Bendigo Bank Chess Championship was held at the Council Chambers of City of Port Phillip (St Kilda town hall at the junction of Brighton Road and Carlisle Street) during the 3rd, 4th and 6th of November. I won this event last year with a rather impressive performance. You can see the results of last year's tournament at http://www.global1t.com/chess/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=44.

This year's event was won by GM Darryl Johansen with 6/7. GM Dejan Antic, IM Stephen Solomon, IM Leonid Sandler, FM Igor Bjelobrk and FM Jesse Sales were all =2nd with 5.5/7. The overall standings will soon be available at http://www.global1t.com/chess/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=55.

2007 Canterbury/Box Hill Open

2007-11-03T10:41:00.000+11:00

The 2007 Canterbury/Box Hill Open was held between 21/09/07-02/11/07. The top seeds included Sam Chow (2327), IM Leonid Sandler (2319) and Chris Wallis (2202). The tournament ended in a 6-way tie for 1st place. I came =1st and became Canterbury/Box Hill Open Champion on countback (in all countback systems). Michael Chan {803(!)} won the B Division with an amazing 7/7 (B Division players are mixed with A Division players, which made it an even more important feat).

Here are the final standings of the tournament.

Division A

Place Name Div Rtg Score

1-6 Lin, Zhigen A 2095 5.5
Sandler, Leonid A 2319 5.5
Wallis, Chris A 2202 5.5
Chow, Samuel A 2327 5.5
Bourmistrov, Denis A 2089 5.5
Kempen, Leon A 2051 5.5
7 Chmiel, Rad A 1667 5
8-11 Cheng, Bobby A 2019 4.5
Voon, Richard A 1852 4.5
Cook, Geoff L A 1794 4.5
Liston, Howard A 1771 4.5
12-16 Raine, Marcus A 1932 4
Mijatovic, Bosko A 1866 4
Lawson, Shane A 1689 4
Schulzer, Peter A 1672 4
Croft, Roger A 1645 4
17-21 Chung, Francisco A 1762 3.5
Vijayakumar, Rengan A 1689 3.5
Schneider, David A 1582 3.5
Matheson, Laurence A 1488 3.5
Tan, Justin A 1193 3.5
22-33 Schön, Eugene A 1888 3
Brooks, Chris A 1803 3
Sharman, Scot A 1762 3
Podvorac, Zeljko A 1721 3
Lin, Hong A 1701 3
Escribano, Jose A 1700 3
Flude, David A 1679 3
Tionko, Efrain A 1675 3
Hinton, Guy A 1601 3
Omeragic, Jusuf A 1486 3
Glenton, Alan A 1452 3
Neymanis, Eric A 1282 3
34-37 Elbrish, Sam A 1393 2.5
Dalton, Laurie A 1300 2.5
Ng, Isaac A 1206 2.5
Sannidhanam, Anurag A 1201 2.5
38-42 Tang, Jason A 1679 2
Umber, George A 1610 2
Renzies, Elliott A 1452 2
Fielder, Shaun A 1260 2
Feng, Thomas A 1250 2
43 Lundgren, Leif A 1651 0

Division B

Place Name Div Rtg Score

1 Chan, Michael B 803 7
2 Feng, Tim B 1185 5
3-4 Toper, David B 1030 4
Ang, Stephanie B 793 4
5 Lemmel, Oliver B 908 3.5
6-11 Cuxson, Stuart B 1149 3
Lyons, Linden B 1127 3
Kiripitige, Punala B 1084 3
Muthusamy, Jayan B 838 3
Yuan, Daniel B 686 3
Guo, Murphy B 525 3
12 Ng, Joshua B 788 2.5
13-15 Gurevich, Andrew B 1095 2
Chan, Raymond B 857 2
Gibson, Kyle B 539 2
16-19 Alfons, Bishoy B 815 1
Lim, Neilson B 801 1
Brown, Chris B 601 1
Yuan, David B 512 1
20-23 Tsai-Luong, Eric B 851 0
Kwok, Nigel B 601 0
Thiel, Anton B 501 0
Ju, William B 401 0

Shredder 11

2007-10-30T20:27:00.000+11:00

Shredder 11 is almost out! No other program in the past few years has been able to win as many world championship titles as Shredder. The programmer of Shredder, Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, has been hard at work, so that this record run is in no danger of being broken. Shredder 11, is stronger than any previous version, improving over its predecessor by about 100 FIDE rating points. The new version implements a new evaluation function which delivers more realistic assessments and more efficient search techniques. The reason behind Shredder's massive improvement in performance is the massive reprogramming of its evaluation function, which helps it deliver even more precise judgments. Shredder's evaluation of passed pawns has also been greatly improved. A new feature is the 'Opening Advisor', which allows Shredder to handle opening lines much better without the need to rely on an openings book. All of these improvements lead to more realistic and reliable results during your chess analysis. Shredder 11 is also completely Windows Vista-compatible thanks to the latest Fritz interface.

Shredder 11 is available from October 31. The full details from ChessBase can be found at http://www.chessbase.com/shop/product.asp?pid=347.

Deep Shredder 11 in now listed on the CEGT rating list (http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/40_40%20Rating%20List/40_40%20All%20Versions/rangliste.html), which is currently being leaded by Rybka 2.3.2a x64 4CPU with a whopping 3094 rating.

Cracking your knuckles

2007-10-21T20:27:00.001+10:00

I've wondered about this for a long time and I've finally found the answer. I crack my knuckles and my neck all the time and I had no idea if there were any long-term repercussions. Everybody's heard the story that cracking your knuckles will cause you to have arthritis later in life and I've heard it countless times from my friends. The truth is if your mum tells you you're going to get arthritis, she's just passing on something someone made up a long time ago. There is absolutely no scientific evidence that cracking your knuckles leads to arthritis.

What's with the sound? The most widely accepted theory is cavitation within the joint—small cavities of partial vacuum form in the fluid and then rapidly collapse, producing a sharp sound. This explains the popping that can occur in any joint, such as during spinal manipulation. Synovial fluid cavitation is the most likely theory and substantial evidence exists in support of it. Cracking your knuckles releases gases from the joints.

The long-term consequences of this practice have not been studied thoroughly, and the scientific evidence is inconclusive. The common parental advice "cracking your knuckles gives you arthritis" is not supported by any evidence. Joint cracking relieves excess pressure in joints. The "non-evidence" proves that it is not worth giving up such a productive habit.

Source: Kidzworld, Wikipedia

History Excursion

2007-10-20T13:38:00.000+10:00

We have just went on a History excursion in the city.

Our first destination was the City Museum at the Old Treasury building. This is where they used to store gold, and it's also the Governer of Victoria's office.

We then went to McDonalds, where many people didn't realize it was 'morning tea' and bought meals. My friend Jeff bought a double quarter pounder meal. I ate the 'daily essentials', an apple and banana.

Our next destination was the Eureka Tower Observation Deck, also known as 'Skydeck'. This is one of the tallest buildings in Victoria and from the top, we could see thousands of cars, houses and structures. There is also a section called 'The Edge', where you are suspended in a see-through cube 300 metres above the ground.

We then went into the centre of the city to buy lunch. Most of my friends went to Subway, one of my friends went to KFC and I went into McDonalds. I bought my favourite Filet-O-Fish burgers. McDonalds has improved this burger considerably, and it has extremely low saturated fat.

We travelled to Kino Cinema to see the movie 'Rabbit-Proof Fence' (2002), which is an emotional story depicting the 'Stolen Generation' involving several young mixed-race Aboriginal girls walking several thousands kilometres to escape from a mission (Moore River) back to their family in Jigalong.

We were dismissed from the cinema and I was able to make to the train station after a tough journey.

Computer Safety - Antivirus, Firewall and Antispyware Information

2007-10-13T22:18:00.000+10:00

These days, people are always worrying if their computer's private data is secure. I have provided a guide to what people should have on their computer. I believe that adequate protection should be completely free. The access this guide, go to http://www.geniusprophecy.com/computer-safety.html.

New Reviews Section and Other Changes

2007-10-03T19:40:00.000+10:00

I've added a new reviews section at http://www.geniusprophecy.com/reviews.html, where I have already reviewed the recent movie Rush Hour 3 starring Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan as well as The Survival Guide to Competitive Chess by GM John Emms and paper. There has also been major changes with a range of other pages including the Star Wars page (http://www.geniusprophecy.com/starwars.html) and Ben's page (http://www.geniusprophecy.com/ben.html).

Vishy Anand is new chess world champion!

2007-09-30T08:33:00.000+10:00

An effortless 20-move draw against Peter Leko (2751) in an Anti-Marshall (Ruy Lopez) clinched it - Viswanathan Anand (2792) of India won the 2007 World Championship in Mexico City to become the undisputed World Chess Champion.

New Car

2007-09-29T22:11:00.000+10:00

Our car recently broke down and had to be towed home. It turned out there was something wrong with the recharger to the battery, which could not be fixed with replacing the battery.

We bought a black Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport. The Toyota Corolla is a compact car produced by the Japanese automaker Toyota, which has become very popular throughout the world since the nameplate was first introduced in 1966. In 1997, the Corolla became the bestselling car in the world, with over 30 million sold as of 2007.

Our original car was a dark green Daewoo Espero. The Espero sold well in the UK, but its competitive asking price, impressive equipment levels and the comprehensive aftersales package were about the only strengths the car had in comparison with other rivals.

Jokes on Cadet Camp

2007-09-20T17:12:00.000+10:00

As is expected, some funny stuff always appear on camps. Here is some of the funny stuff that happened...

Someone gets bitten by a snake and you turkey slap them.

"Turn up this absolute gangsta music." (on the bus to Puckapunyal)

Lachy Webster tried to make coffee in a kidney cup on the fire.

"Demeris is going to have a 5-minute chat and then you can go to bed and have some fun."

"If anyone gets in my way, I'll cut them down." (after talking about teamwork)

I slipped down while trying to kick my friend.

"I got some fat guy in my year level to make the sign." (talking about the big 3 sign for the platoon)

Scotch Annual Cadet Camp Finished

2007-09-19T22:41:00.000+10:00

I have just returned from a Puckapunyal military base. Overall, it has been a pretty good experience and I especially liked the live firing.

I woke up with the urge to vomit and feeling dizzy on the final day. I had to take some Panadol tablets and fell asleep a couple more times. The teachers and the platoon were very helpful while I was sick.

On the trip back we watched Scooby-Doo, a 2002 live-action film. The film concerns Mystery Inc. (Shaggy, Fred, Scooby-Doo, Velma and Daphne) investigating an island, owned by the eccentric Emile Mondavarious, where teenagers are turning into mindless zombies. They end up unravelling a rather bewildering plan. The film includes Matthew Lillard, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Linda Cardellini, Rowan Atkinson and Neil Fanning.

Here is what we did on the days...

Day 1

Arrival in bush
Abseiling (25 metres)

Day 2

Navigational exercise
Shelter building (using wood)
Night navigational exercise
Lantern Stalk

Day 3

Arrival in barracks
Drill using rifles

Day 4

Live firing (using, as I recall, the 5.56mm F88 Austeyr rifle)
Personal training (just a whole lot of exercise, and I found it particularly difficult)
Drill with rifles
Lantern stalk

Day 5

Drill with rifles
Concert night (with the whole unit)
Skit night (with Alpha company)

Day 6
Drill with rifles
Parade

Scotch Annual Cadet Camp

2007-09-13T16:36:00.000+10:00

I will be off in the Scotch ACU Annual Camp from the 14th-19th of September. This will be two nights in the bush and three nights at a military base. The first activity my company is doing will be abseiling.

Labor leader Kevin Rudd speaks to Chinese President Hu Jintao in Chinese Mandarin

2007-09-08T11:09:00.001+10:00

Here is a translation of Kevin Rudd's speech in Chinese Mandarin to Hu Jintao during a lunch dedicated to the Chinese president.

- Translation from Google Translate (BETA). This page has been translated directly from Chinese and therefore may be a bit strange in English.

"President Hu, I speak for my wife and I express to you our personal Welcome, welcome you to our visit to Australia. You and the Chinese friends here in Australia have many, many friends, many real friends, they are very welcome. President Hu, your in our country is our most distinguished guests, and I hope you can rest, we see beautiful places, we see pretty scenery, and our beautiful city.

In the 1980s, I took his wife and daughter and began working in China. My wife and I are right Beijing has a special love. We love Beijing's feelings, we love the people of Beijing, of course, its culture. After 20 years, we in April this year with our youngest daughter to Beijing, and one from Chinese Community married man.

My son was studying in Shanghai's Fudan University. I have a little boy, our youngest child, he was attending high school. He is really very, very naughty, do not like to do his own homework. But he has started learning the Chinese language."

A video of part of the speech can be found at http://media.theage.com.au/?rid=31424.

Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2007

2007-09-02T14:56:00.000+10:00

Just like in the 2005, the 4th IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open again saw the triumph of an untitled player, Li Chao (2529).

The website includes a game where Australian junior Max Illingworth (2137) draws with the winner of the tournament in the first round.

You can catch the ChessBase report at http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4087.

Coming Events

2007-09-02T14:50:00.000+10:00

Coming events:

Event	Place	Class	Start	Finish	Contact
Bundaberg Weekender	Bundaberg, QLD	2	25/8/07	26/8/07	atomic@isisol.com.au
1^st Blayney Open	Blayney, NSW	1	8/9/07	9/9/07	philwillb@bigpond.com
Hobart Weekender	Hobart, TAS	1	15/9/07	16/9/07	k_bonham@tassie.net.au
Nell van de Graaf Classic	Gold Coast, QLD	4	22/9/07	23/9/07	outreachchess@bigpond.com
Ryde-Eastwood Open	Sydney, NSW	4	29/9/07	1/10/07	tournaments@nswca.org.au
Labour Day Weekender	Adelaide, SA	1	29/9/07	1/10/07	alang@chariot.net.au

The two major events appear to be the Ryde-Eastwood Open in Sydney and the Nell van de Graaf Classic in the Gold Coast. These are both category 4 events.

New ACF ratings out

2007-09-01T21:59:00.000+10:00

The new ACF ratings are out. To work out ACF compared to FIDE ratings, in general, FIDE rating = ACF rating + several hundred points. The difference gets a lot smaller when you become 2300+ ACF. I am ranked in the top under 20. Here are some samples.

Top players

  2605!!  21  NSW  Rogers, Ian [GM]
  2560!!   7  NSW  Zhao, Zong-Yuan [IM]
  2471!!  20  VIC  Smerdon, David C [IM]
  2447!!  26  QLD  Solomon, Stephen J [IM]
  2424!!   7  VIC  Johansen, Darryl K [GM]
  2423!!  23  NSW  Bjelobrk, Igor [FM]
  2406!!   7  NSW  Xie, George [IM]
  2405!!   7  NSW  Lane, Gary W [IM]
  2391!!  12  VIC  Goldenberg, Igor [FM]
  2375!    7   SA  Tao, Trevor
  2365!!  13  QLD  Froehlich, Peter [IM]
  2359!   13   SA  Chapman, Mark [IM]
  2328!!  20  VIC  West, Guy [IM]
  2327!!   7  VIC  Chow, Samuel
  2322!    0  NSW  Canfell, Gregory J [FM]
  2319!!  12  VIC  Sandler, Leonid [IM]
  2309!    0  VIC  Baron, Michael [FM]
  2288!    0  NSW  Feldman, Vladimir [IM]
  2281!    3  NSW  Tan, Justin
  2280!   13  QLD  Ly, Moulthun
  2279!!  14  NSW  Rej, Tomek
  2260!!   5  NSW  Smirnov, Vladimir
  2248!    9  VIC  Jordan, Bill [FM]
  2242!    0  VIC  Depasquale, Chris J [FM]
  2239!    8  NSW  Scott, Ronald
  2237!!   7  NSW  Ayvazyan, Armen
  2236!    4  QLD  Humphrey, Jonathan [FM]
  2235!    7   SA  Obst, James
  2232!    5  QLD  Sarfati, Jonathan [FM]
  2223!!   9   WA  Boyd, Tristan
  2216!!  16  VIC  Rujevic, Mirko [IM]
  2212!!  10  NSW  Yu, Ronald
  2202!!  35  VIC  Wallis, Christopher
  2199!!  23  NSW  Wright, Neil S
  2196!!  15   WA  Horstmann, Michael
  2183!    0  NSW  O'Chee, Kevin
  2181!    0  NSW  Bouchaaya, Tony
  2179!!   8  NSW  Flatow, A (Fred) [FM]
  2176!   17  NSW  Dilla, Edsil
  2176!!  14  ACT  Ikeda, Junta
  2172!    5  VIC  Sorokina, Anastasia [WIM]
  2172!    1  NSW  Suttor, Vincent
  2166!    0  NSW  Vojvodic, Branislev
  2163!    7   SA  Nguyen, Giang
  2158!!   7  ACT  Oliver, Gareth
  2158!    0  NSW  Halpin, Patrick
  2157!    7  QLD  Caoili, Arianne B [WFM]
  2156!!   9  VIC  Levi, Eddy L [FM]
  2154!!  20  VIC  Hamilton, Douglas G [FM]
  2154!    0  NSW  Berezina - Feldman, Irina [IM]
  2152!!   9  NSW  Morris, Michael
  2147!!  13  VIC  Jager, Jesse
  2147!!   5  NSW  Bird, Andrew
  2144!   13   WA  Kurniawan, Stephanus
  2142!!  40  VIC  Stojic, Dusan
  2139!!  42  VIC  Dragicevic, Domagoj
  2128!    3  QLD  Mastilovic, Rajko
  2124!    0  NSW  Malik, Hani
  2122!!   0  NSW  Broekhuyse, Paul
  2122!    0   WA  Barber, Haydn J [FM]

Top Under 20:

Top Under 20
  2327!!  19  VIC  Chow, Samuel
  2280!   15  QLD  Ly, Moulthun
  2235!   16   SA  Obst, James
  2212!!  18  NSW  Yu, Ronald
  2202!!  16  VIC  Wallis, Christopher
  2183!   19  NSW  O'Chee, Kevin
  2176!!  15  ACT  Ikeda, Junta
  2172!   18  NSW  Suttor, Vincent
  2158!!  18  ACT  Oliver, Gareth
  2152!!  18  NSW  Morris, Michael
  2147!!  18  VIC  Jager, Jesse
  2142!!  17  VIC  Stojic, Dusan
  2118!!  19  NSW  Hu, Jason
  2106!   17  ACT  Wei, Michael
  2097!!  14  NSW  Illingworth, Max
  2095!!  13  VIC  Lin, Zhigen Wilson
  2088!!  12  VIC  Morris, James
  2077!   19  NSW  Xie, Ken
  2058!   16  QLD  Lazarus, Benjamin
  2013!!  16   WA  Donaldson, Thomas

China vs Russia Teams Match: China Wins!

2007-09-01T13:00:00.000+10:00

The Russian men team were in the lead in the beginning of the match, but in the last three rounds China took over. China won in the end by a narrow margin 25.5-24.5. The Chinese women's team defeated the Russian women's team 27-23.

Games from the tournament can be downloaded at http://www.chessbase.com/news/2007/games/ruschn07.pgn.

GeniusProphecy.com Template Problems and Chess Changes

2007-09-01T12:52:00.000+10:00

I have changed the chess page considerably at http://www.geniusprophecy.com/chess/.

Currently the template is being annoying and some borders and lines are getting messed up (you can find the template at http://www.thetemplatestore.com/). It's so much easier with Blogger because everything is done for you.

Currently, I only plan to put the template on my frontpage (i.e. index.htm) and on my other pages, I plan to just put a logo on the top left and a link back home, e.g. http://www.geniusprophecy.com/main/recent-news.html.

Order from the ICC Store (www.classicalgames.com)

2007-08-27T20:35:00.000+10:00

I recently ordered four items from the ICC Store and I would like the applaud their speed in delivery. I received my items from the United States in a week, which is extraordinary because I normally receive things in 4 weeks.

On another note, I've found that the ICC Store and the jeremysilman.com shop are surprisingly similar. I'm not sure what's going on there. And somehow, http://www.classicalgames.com/ can reach both shops depending on which one you visited last.

Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2007 Final Standings

2007-08-26T22:55:00.000+10:00

Li Chao (2529) drew his last game against GM Ziaur Rahman (2522) to take out 1st place by ½ a point.

A crosstable of the tournament is available at http://gilachess.com/ext/datmo2007.html.

Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts	BH.
1	6		Li Chao	2529	CHN	9	72
2	22		Wan, Yunguo	2386	CHN	8½	73
3	7	GM	Ziaur Rahman	2522	BAN	8	75
4	9	IM	Wang, Rui	2482	CHN	8	74
5	5	GM	Nguyen, Anh Dung	2537	VIE	8	71½
6	18	IM	Barlo A Nadera	2402	PHI	7½	72½
7	4	GM	Dao, Thien Hai	2537	VIE	7½	72½
8	25	IM	Mas, Hafizulhelmi	2372	MAS	7½	70
9	14	IM	Julio Catalinco C. Sadorra	2421	PHI	7½	64½
10	16	WGM	Li, Ruofan	2417	SIN	7	78
11	1	GM	Zhang, Zhong	2634	SIN	7	75
12	11	IM	Irwanto Sadikin	2456	INA	7	72½
13	24	IM	Bancod, Ronald	2373	PHI	7	72
14	12	IM	Girinath, P.D.S.	2440	IND	7	70½
15	8	IM	Oliver Dimakiling	2500	PHI	7	69½
16	29		Wang, Li	2337	CHN	7	69½
17	21	IM	Ginting, Nasib	2393	INA	7	67½
18	2	GM	Adianto, Utut	2583	INA	7	65½
19	10		Zhou, Weiqi	2469	CHN	6½	76
20	23		Senador, Emmanuel	2380	PHI	6½	71½
21	30	FM	Lim, Yee-Weng	2336	MAS	6½	70½
22	3	GM	Chandler, Murray	2540	ENG	6½	68½
23	27	WGM	Zhang, Jilin	2338	CHN	6½	64
24	26	FM	Mok, Tze-Meng	2346	MAS	6½	63½
25	64		Crowdy, Stephen C	2030	ENG	6½	61½
26	13		Hamed G Nouri	2426	PHI	6	75
27	17	IM	Lane, Gary W.	2412	AUS	6	71
28	31		Khairul, Aman	2316	INA	6	68
29	20		Rolando, Nolte	2396	PHI	6	68
30	19	IM	Richard B Bitoon	2399	PHI	6	68
31	35	FM	Sebastian Simanjuntak	2271	INA	6	64
32	39	FM	Anas Nazreen Bakri	2230	MAS	6	63½
33	45		Kojima, Shinya	2156	JPN	6	61½
34	83		Junaid Pamungkas	0	INA	6	61
35	56		Ramnath Bhuvanesh.R	2080	IND	6	60
36	47		Tan, Khai Boon	2138	MAS	6	56½
37	36	FM	Tindall, Brett	2258	AUS	6	54
38	82		Hakiki, Kaiser Jenius	0	INA	5½	69½
39	32		Rhobel Legaspi	2316	PHI	5½	67½
40	33	IM	Liew, Chee-Meng-Jimmy	2309	MAS	5½	66½
41	37	FM	Ton That Nhu Tung	2247	VIE	5½	64
42	38		Wallis, Christopher	2238	AUS	5½	63½
43	15	IM	Tirto	2418	INA	5½	62½
44	40		Zakaria, Fairin	2225	MAS	5½	62
45	49		Illingworth, Max	2137	AUS	5½	62
46	28		Shen, Siyuan	2337	CHN	5½	58½
47	43		Haessler, Carl	2167	USA	5½	58
48	44		Nanjo, Ryosuke	2165	JPN	5½	57½
49	50		Abang, Mohd Reduan	2136	MAS	5½	56
50	55	FM	Jones, Brian	2084	AUS	5½	55½
51	54	WIM	Moylan, Laura	2100	AUS	5	66½
52	48		Yeap, Eng Cheam	2138	MAS	5	62½
53	57		Chong, Chor Yuen	2067	HKG	5	61½
54	34		Mehdi Hasan Parag	2280	BAN	5	61
55	42		Sherrie Joy Lomibao	2174	PHI	5	60½
56	87		Zhang Jing	0	CHN	5	58
57	46		Ismail, Ahmad	2149	MAS	5	57½
58	67		Viswanath, Sandilya B.	1967	IND	5	51
59	62	WFM	Milligan, Helen	2034	SCO	5	48½
60	70		Evan Timothy Capel	1871	MAS	4½	58
61	51		Bennett, Hilton	2132	NZL	4½	56
62	61		Spiller, Paul	2037	NZL	4½	54
63	68		Schon, Eugene	1963	AUS	4½	53
64	65		Mohan, Raj	1986	MAS	4½	53
65	60		Edward Lee Kim Han	2046	MAS	4½	52½
66	71		Lee, T H Bryan	1867	HKG	4½	52
67	66		Thong Yung Chen	1977	MAS	4½	51½
68	73		Roland Brockman	1793	AUS	4½	51½
69	59		Low, Jun Jian	2057	MAS	4½	51
70	75		Ahmad, Morsin	1742	MAS	4½	50½
71	58		Lim, Kian Hwa	2062	MAS	4½	47½
72	52		Dotsenko, Viacheslav	2132	RUS	4	57
73	63		Inoue, Sho	2031	JPN	4	55
74	72		Japeri, Reduan	1831	MAS	4	54
75	76		Fong Wei Chern, Gavin	1632	MAS	4	52
76	53		Ruston, Mark R	2116	ENG	4	50½
77	78		Abang Azman Draup	1436	MAS	4	47½
78	74		Taminsyah Aston	1743	INA	3½	47½
79	84		Justin Tan	0	AUS	3½	47
80	81		Chris Marshall	0	ENG	3½	43
81	79		Christopher Masters	1434	HKG	3½	42
82	41		Constance, James	2205	ENG	3	52
83	69		S., Balendran	1951	MAS	3	51½
84	77		Elgin Lee Kah Meng	1469	MAS	3	44½
85	85		Mark Law	0	HKG	2½	42½
86	80		Abang Draup	1213	MAS	2	46
87	86		Tan Kok Han	0	SIN	1	23

Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2007 Round 10 Results and Round 11 Pairings

2007-08-26T08:26:00.000+10:00

Chinese Li Chao (2529) is currently leading the tournament by a full point. Since this is the last round, a draw or a win guarantees 1st place.

Round 11 Pairings
Bo.	SNo.		Name	Pts	Res.	Pts		Name	SNo.
1	6		Li Chao	8½		7½	GM	Ziaur Rahman	7
2	11	IM	Irwanto Sadikin	7		7½		Wan, Yunguo	22
3	18	IM	Barlo A Nadera	7		7	GM	Dao, Thien Hai	4
4	5	GM	Nguyen, Anh Dung	7		7	WGM	Li, Ruofan	16
5	9	IM	Wang, Rui	7		6½	GM	Chandler, Murray	3
6	1	GM	Zhang, Zhong	6½		6½		Wang, Li	29
7	12	IM	Girinath, P.D.S.	6½		6½	GM	Adianto, Utut	2
8	10		Zhou, Weiqi	6½		6½	IM	Julio Catalinco C. Sadorra	14
9	25	IM	Mas, Hafizulhelmi	6½		6		Hamed G Nouri	13
10	20		Rolando, Nolte	6		6	IM	Oliver Dimakiling	8
11	21	IM	Ginting, Nasib	6		6	IM	Richard B Bitoon	19
12	15	IM	Tirto	5½		6	IM	Bancod, Ronald	24
13	17	IM	Lane, Gary W.	5½		5½	FM	Sebastian Simanjuntak	35
14	23		Senador, Emmanuel	5½		5½		Nanjo, Ryosuke	44
15	82		Hakiki, Kaiser Jenius	5½		5½	FM	Mok, Tze-Meng	26
16	40		Zakaria, Fairin	5½		5½	WGM	Zhang, Jilin	27
17	30	FM	Lim, Yee-Weng	5½		5½		Wallis, Christopher	38
18	83		Junaid Pamungkas	5½		5½		Khairul, Aman	31
19	33	IM	Liew, Chee-Meng-Jimmy	5½		5½		Crowdy, Stephen C	64
20	37	FM	Ton That Nhu Tung	5		5½		Tan, Khai Boon	47
21	49		Illingworth, Max	5		5		Rhobel Legaspi	32
22	34		Mehdi Hasan Parag	5		5		Kojima, Shinya	45
23	36	FM	Tindall, Brett	5		5		Yeap, Eng Cheam	48
24	39	FM	Anas Nazreen Bakri	5		5	WIM	Moylan, Laura	54
25	56		Ramnath Bhuvanesh.R	5		5		Sherrie Joy Lomibao	42
26	59		Low, Jun Jian	4½		4½		Shen, Siyuan	28
27	43		Haessler, Carl	4½		4½		Lim, Kian Hwa	58
28	62	WFM	Milligan, Helen	4½		4½		Ismail, Ahmad	46
29	71		Lee, T H Bryan	4½		4½		Abang, Mohd Reduan	50
30	55	FM	Jones, Brian	4½		4½		Mohan, Raj	65
31	57		Chong, Chor Yuen	4½		4½		Zhang Jing	87
32	68		Schon, Eugene	4½		4		Viswanath, Sandilya B.	67
33	61		Spiller, Paul	4		4		Bennett, Hilton	51
34	66		Thong Yung Chen	4		4		Roland Brockman	73
35	60		Edward Lee Kim Han	4		3½		Dotsenko, Viacheslav	52
36	76		Fong Wei Chern, Gavin	3½		3½		Inoue, Sho	63
37	70		Evan Timothy Capel	3½		3½		Taminsyah Aston	74
38	78		Abang Azman Draup	3½		3½		Japeri, Reduan	72
39	77		Elgin Lee Kah Meng	3		3½		Ahmad, Morsin	75
40	84		Justin Tan	2½		3½		Chris Marshall	81
41	85		Mark Law	2		2½		S., Balendran	69
42	79		Christopher Masters	2½		2		Abang Draup	80

Round 10 Results
Bo.	SNo.		Name	Pts	Res.	Pts		Name	SNo.
1	6		Li Chao	7½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Zhang, Zhong	1
2	4	GM	Dao, Thien Hai	6½	½ - ½	6½	IM	Wang, Rui	9
3	7	GM	Ziaur Rahman	6½	1 - 0	6½	IM	Girinath, P.D.S.	12
4	22		Wan, Yunguo	6½	1 - 0	6½		Zhou, Weiqi	10
5	16	WGM	Li, Ruofan	6½	½ - ½	6½	IM	Irwanto Sadikin	11
6	13		Hamed G Nouri	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Nguyen, Anh Dung	5
7	24	IM	Bancod, Ronald	6	0 - 1	6	IM	Barlo A Nadera	18
8	2	GM	Adianto, Utut	5½	1 - 0	6	IM	Ginting, Nasib	21
9	31		Khairul, Aman	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Chandler, Murray	3
10	14	IM	Julio Catalinco C. Sadorra	5½	1 - 0	5½	FM	Lim, Yee-Weng	30
11	29		Wang, Li	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Tirto	15
12	64		Crowdy, Stephen C	5½	0 - 1	5½	IM	Mas, Hafizulhelmi	25
13	8	IM	Oliver Dimakiling	5	1 - 0	5½		Hakiki, Kaiser Jenius	82
14	27	WGM	Zhang, Jilin	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Lane, Gary W.	17
15	19	IM	Richard B Bitoon	5	1 - 0	5	FM	Ton That Nhu Tung	37
16	20		Rolando, Nolte	5	1 - 0	5	FM	Anas Nazreen Bakri	39
17	38		Wallis, Christopher	5	½ - ½	5		Senador, Emmanuel	23
18	26	FM	Mok, Tze-Meng	5	½ - ½	5		Zakaria, Fairin	40
19	35	FM	Sebastian Simanjuntak	4½	1 - 0	5		Kojima, Shinya	45
20	32		Rhobel Legaspi	4½	½ - ½	4½		Yeap, Eng Cheam	48
21	50		Abang, Mohd Reduan	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Liew, Chee-Meng-Jimmy	33
22	54	WIM	Moylan, Laura	4½	½ - ½	4½	FM	Tindall, Brett	36
23	42		Sherrie Joy Lomibao	4½	½ - ½	4½		Illingworth, Max	49
24	44		Nanjo, Ryosuke	4½	1 - 0	4½	FM	Jones, Brian	55
25	47		Tan, Khai Boon	4½	1 - 0	4½		Chong, Chor Yuen	57
26	51		Bennett, Hilton	4	0 - 1	4½		Junaid Pamungkas	83
27	67		Viswanath, Sandilya B.	4	0 - 1	4		Mehdi Hasan Parag	34
28	87		Zhang Jing	4	½ - ½	4		Ismail, Ahmad	46
29	53		Ruston, Mark R	4	0 - 1	4		Ramnath Bhuvanesh.R	56
30	28		Shen, Siyuan	3½	1 - 0	4		Thong Yung Chen	66
31	63		Inoue, Sho	3½	0 - 1	3½		Haessler, Carl	43
32	52		Dotsenko, Viacheslav	3½	0 - 1	3½		Schon, Eugene	68
33	58		Lim, Kian Hwa	3½	1 - 0	3½		Fong Wei Chern, Gavin	76
34	72		Japeri, Reduan	3½	0 - 1	3½		Low, Jun Jian	59
35	60		Edward Lee Kim Han	3½	½ - ½	3½		Spiller, Paul	61
36	81		Chris Marshall	3½	0 - 1	3½	WFM	Milligan, Helen	62
37	65		Mohan, Raj	3½	1 - 0	3½		Evan Timothy Capel	70
38	71		Lee, T H Bryan	3½	+ -	3		Constance, James	41
39	74		Taminsyah Aston	3	½ - ½	3		Abang Azman Draup	78
40	73		Roland Brockman	3	1 - 0	2½		S., Balendran	69
41	75		Ahmad, Morsin	2½	1 - 0	2		Mark Law	85
42	80		Abang Draup	2	0 - 1	2		Elgin Lee Kah Meng	77
43	84		Justin Tan	2	½ - ½	2		Christopher Masters	79

Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2007 Round 8 Results

2007-08-25T20:18:00.000+10:00

Li Chao (2529) defeated GM Zhang Zhong (2634) on board 1 in round 10 to become sole leader in the Malaysian Open. Tomorrow will be the final round.

Currently, the most recent results are the round 8 results. You can follow the pairings, results and some games at http://www.malaysiaopen.net/.

Round 8 Results
Bo.	SNo.		Name	Pts	Res.	Pts		Name	SNo.
1	10		Zhou, Weiqi	6½	0 - 1	6½		Li Chao	6
2	1	GM	Zhang, Zhong	6	½ - ½	6		Wan, Yunguo	22
3	12	IM	Girinath, P.D.S.	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Dao, Thien Hai	4
4	7	GM	Ziaur Rahman	6	½ - ½	6	WGM	Li, Ruofan	16
5	5	GM	Nguyen, Anh Dung	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Bancod, Ronald	24
6	9	IM	Wang, Rui	5½	1 - 0	5½		Wang, Li	29
7	30	FM	Lim, Yee-Weng	5½	0 - 1	5½	IM	Irwanto Sadikin	11
8	21	IM	Ginting, Nasib	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Oliver Dimakiling	8
9	19	IM	Richard B Bitoon	5	0 - 1	5		Hamed G Nouri	13
10	15	IM	Tirto	5	½ - ½	5		Khairul, Aman	31
11	18	IM	Barlo A Nadera	5	1 - 0	5	WGM	Zhang, Jilin	27
12	23		Senador, Emmanuel	5	0 - 1	4½	IM	Julio Catalino Sadorra	14
13	33	IM	Liew, Chee-Meng-Jimmy	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Adianto, Utut	2
14	3	GM	Chandler, Murray	4½	1 - 0	4½	FM	Sebastian Simanjuntak	35
15	17	IM	Lane, Gary W.	4½	½ - ½	4½	FM	Anas Nazreen Bakri	39
16	37	FM	Ton That Nhu Tung	4½	½ - ½	4½		Rolando, Nolte	20
17	25	IM	Mas, Hafizulhelmi	4½	1 - 0	4½	WIM	Moylan, Laura	54
18	45		Kojima, Shinya	4½	½ - ½	4½	FM	Mok, Tze-Meng	26
19	82		Hakiki, Kaiser Jenius	4½	1 - 0	4½		Rhobel Legaspi	32
20	34		Mehdi Hasan Parag	4	0 - 1	4½		Crowdy, Stephen C	64
21	46		Ismail, Ahmad	4	0 - 1	4		Wallis, Christopher	38
22	40		Zakaria, Fairin	4	1 - 0	4		Zhang Jing	87
23	83		Junaid Pamungkas	4	½ - ½	4		Nanjo, Ryosuke	44
24	36	FM	Tindall, Brett	3½	1 - 0	4		Ruston, Mark R	53
25	57		Chong, Chor Yuen	3½	1 - 0	3½		Shen, Siyuan	28
26	52		Dotsenko, Viacheslav	3½	0 - 1	3½		Sherrie Joy Lomibao	42
27	43		Haessler, Carl	3½	0 - 1	3½	FM	Jones, Brian	55
28	61		Spiller, Paul	3½	0 - 1	3½		Tan, Khai Boon	47
29	48		Yeap, Eng Cheam	3½	1 - 0	3½		Inoue, Sho	63
30	49		Illingworth, Max	3½	1 - 0	3½		Japeri, Reduan	72
31	50		Abang, Mohd Reduan	3½	1 - 0	3½		Mohan, Raj	65
32	66		Thong Yung Chen	3½	½ - ½	3½		Bennett, Hilton	51
33	41		Constance, James	3	0 - 1	3		Viswanath, Sandilya B.	67
34	56		Ramnath Bhuvanesh.R	3	1 - 0	3		Taminsyah Aston	74
35	70		Evan Timothy Capel	3	½ - ½	3		Lim, Kian Hwa	58
36	59		Low, Jun Jian	3	½ - ½	3		Lee, T H Bryan	71
37	62	WFM	Milligan, Helen	3	½ - ½	3		Edward Lee Kim Han	60
38	68		Schon, Eugene	2½	1 - 0	2½		Ahmad, Morsin	75
39	69		S., Balendran	2½	0 - 1	2½		Chris Marshall	81
40	78		Abang Azman Draup	2½	½ - ½	2½		Roland Brockman	73
41	76		Fong Wei Chern, Gavin	2½	1 - 0	2		Justin Tan	84
42	79		Christopher Masters	1½	½ - ½	1½		Elgin Lee Kah Meng	77
43	85		Mark Law	1½	½ - ½	1½		Abang Draup	80

Noble Park Chess Club Allegro

2007-08-18T19:52:00.000+10:00

I justed played in the Noble Park Chess Club Allegro. 24 players ended up playing in the event. Considering, few of the regular players weren't able to play today, it's a good turnout.

Here is a crosstable of the event. I came =1st.

Standings

Place Name                    Feder Rtg Loc  Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.

1-2  Dragicevic, Domagoj               2087 5.5      21.0  30.0   23.0
   Lin, Zhigen                       2097 5.5      21.0  29.5   21.5
3   Rashid, Abdulwahab                1918 5        22.5  31.5   21.0
4-9  Hacche, David                     2035 4.5      21.5  29.0   19.5
   Gorka, Carl                       2071 4.5      20.0  26.0   22.5
   Pecak, Mariusz                    2055 4.5      19.5  27.0   18.5
   Cheng, Bobby                      1562 4.5      18.0  25.0   15.0
   Morris, James                     2035 4.5      17.0  25.0   19.0
   Highem, Luke                           4.5      16.5  23.5   14.5
10-11 Voon, Richard                     1903 4        22.0  29.0   16.5
   Rujevic, Mirko                    2254 4        18.0  24.5   15.0
12-13 Pyke, Malcolm                     2137 3.5      23.0  31.5   20.0
   Dizdarevic, Mehmedalija           1956 3.5      18.5  24.5   16.0
14-18 Lee, Kam                          1635 3        19.0  26.5   11.0
   Mijatovic, Bosko                  1866 3        17.0  23.5   12.0
   Jago, Stephen                     1670 3        16.5  24.0   11.0
   Premaka, Sujendra                 1866 3        16.5  23.0   13.0
   Ghayoori, Pezhman                 1396 3        15.0  21.5   10.0
19   Toro, Eduardo                     1506 2.5      11.5  16.5    6.5
20-22 Ivanov, Nikola                    1538 2        16.0  21.0    7.0
   Anton, Sarah                      1228 2        14.5  19.5    8.0
   Spiric, Bob                       1500 2        14.5  19.5    6.0
23   Huynh, Phong                           1.5      12.5  17.5    2.5
24   Krysiak, Jerzy                         1        13.5  19.5    7.0
25-26 Sucevic, Milic                    1695 0         0.5   0.5    0.0
   Sabolcki, Daniel                  1421 0         0.5   0.5    0.0

I had a shaky start to the tournament - in game 1, I castled queenside, moved my king back to e1, and forgot I did that at all and castled kingside. In the end, I still managed to win. In game 2, I was simply outplayed in the opening and middlegame, losing two pawns. I managed to return with 4 wins in a row. In game 5, I defeated Domagoj for the first time ever in a game with any sort of seriousness (I have only ever defeated him on one other occasion, but that was a simul by him). In game 6, my opponent snatched a pawn early in the opening. I got some compensation, but I misplayed the position. I was about to lose when my opponent blundered into a position where it was mate quite quickly. In game 7, I was a solid pawn up in the endgame, but I lost my queen. Fortunately, I managed to hold the 'queen vs. rook + a few pawns' endgame and draw.

An Interesting Puzzle

2007-08-17T19:33:00.000+10:00

I came across an interesting puzzle today. I was arguing with my friend Andy about this problem after school (where we also came up with it).

Here's my side of the problem. 'Earlier' also means 'before', right? Say my watch said the time was 7:35PM, and the actual time of the world is 7:45PM. Is my watch not earlier? If you think about it some more, there's another side to this problem.

Singapore World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad

2007-08-13T17:47:00.000+10:00

I have just returned from a 6.5-hour flight from Singapore. We were there to play in the Singapore World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad, a teams event.

Australia did reasonably well and came 5th, which we got medals for. Our 2nd board, Junta Ikeda, won a silver medal on 'percentage' for board 2.

The results of the tournament as available at http://www.chess-results.com/tnr7443.aspx?lan=1.

Welcome to the GeniusProphecy.com

2007-08-13T17:42:00.000+10:00

Welcome to the official blog of GeniusProphecy.com, which has just been launched today (seconds ago, in fact).

An older and much less high-tech blog of GeniusProphecy.com is at http://www.geniusprophecy.com/main/recent-news.html. I currently have no plans of updating the old blog.