A rare draw in International go

GoGameWorldand the AGA eJournal report on a rare professional go match that ended in a draw by mutual agreement. However, it turns out that it did not need to be a tie! Here is the AGA story.

"A very unusual result was achieved in a game between Lee Changho 9P and Chang Hao 9P in the Southern Great Wall Cup special match between China and Korea on September 11th. The game concluded with a quadruple ko that was mutually accepted as a tie. Lee and Chang split the combined first and second prize money, but pros later determined that Lee had really won the game. Playing Black, Lee could simply connect one ko and give two others to Chang. Then he would win by 3.5 points. The agreement on the tie was probably prompted by the fact that both players had only one minute of time left at that point and Lee couldn't be sure of his calculation."

You can view or download the game record here.

Live giant squid caught on film

The New York Times reports that a pair of Japanese researchers have made the first recorded observations of a giant squid in the wild. Having been fond of these elusive giants for years, my first comment is, I want to see the footage! I hope they post it online soon.

"Working some 600 miles south of Tokyo off the Bonin Islands, known in Japan as the Ogasawara Islands, they managed to photograph the creature with a robotic camera at a depth of 3,000 feet. During a struggle lasting more than four hours, the 26-foot-long animal took the proffered bait and eventually broke free, leaving behind an 18-foot length of tentacle.">First Giant Squid Captured in Wild (on Film, That Is) - New York Times: "Working some 600 miles south of Tokyo off the Bonin Islands, known in Japan as the Ogasawara Islands, they managed to photograph the creature with a robotic camera at a depth of 3,000 feet. During a struggle lasting more than four hours, the 26-foot-long animal took the proffered bait and eventually broke free, leaving behind an 18-foot length of tentacle."

Fair use put to the test

In what will be one of the most important copyright cases to hit US courts - if it goes to trial at all - The Author's Guild is calling the Google Print initiative on its apparently liberal interpretation of fair use. It is important to note when asking the question, "has Google gone to far?", that both Google Print and Google News, both of which search, aggregate, and excerpt from intellectual property not owned by Google, lack any Google adds and thus do not directly generate any revenue for Google. Maybe that does constitute fair use?

From el reg:

"Google operates two programs intended to incorporate print material into its search index, one of which, the Google Print for Libraries program, is targeted by the suit. Google has been scanning the collections at five libraries, bypassing the authors - who of course hold the copyright on their works - and including selections in search results. 'This is a plain and brazen violation of copyright law. It's not up to Google or anyone other than the authors, the rightful owners of these copyrights, to decide whether and how their works will be copied,' Authors Guild president Nick Taylor said in a statement."

UPDATE: The EFF has a quick review of the legalities of the case and sides with Google. There is also a detailed review of the legalities of Google Print here.

The best sports team name in the English speaking world

The New Zealand Herald reports the national badminton team is considering changing its unofficial name to something other than the "Black Cocks" - although I doubt that their fan base will ever let them.

"At the recent New Zealand Open, crowds were yelling out 'c'mon the Black Cocks'. "

The Register used this news story to create its entry for the "news headline with the most Neanderthal metaphor of the year," NZ finds Black Cocks hard to swallow.

SETI@home milestone

Today, after having two computers devoting all of their spare cycles for few months, I have reached 10,000 workunit credits. Now these credits are not redeemable for alien technology, they are merely a measure of the amount of SETI@home data analysis that my hardware has completed. This is not a particularly impressive volume. The top producers on the project contribute well over 1000 workunits daily, and the total number of workunits processed over the life of the SETI@home project is now over 2.5 billion. However, I ask myself, why am I doing this? Have I made the world a better place? I certainly have not found any space bugs yet, but neither has anyone else. Would I be better off donating my spare cycles to another grid computing project? (By the way, check out this great BIONC stats page.)

Ontario's Premier pledges to eliminate religious arbitration in the province

Following up on my previous post regarding Sharia tribunals in Ontario, a Globe and Mail article quotes Premier Dalton McGuinty as follows,

'Mr. McGuinty told The Canadian Press yesterday that "I've come to the conclusion that the debate has gone on long enough. There will be no sharia law in Ontario." "There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario," he said. "There will be one law for all Ontarians. Legislation will be introduced "as soon as possible," he said.'

This is another classic collision between cultural pluralism and liberal democracy - McGuinty's comments threaten to reverse the 1991 Arbitration Act which allowed for Roman Catholic and Jewish arbitration tribunals to be used voluntarily in family law disputes. Is there a solution that allows voluntary religious arbitration while still providing one law for all Ontarians?

Sharia tribunals for Ontario

The announcement (here and here) that the Province of Ontario is considering a recommendation to introduce Sharia tribunals to resolve disputes such as divorce within Muslim families is alarming women's rights groups and dissident groups from hard-line Muslim countries. The Sharia tribunals, if instituted, would operate in a regulated environment along side the provinces existing Roman Catholic and Jewish tribunals. A Toronto Star editorial carries the following quote,

"The Muslim women who are leading today's protests have nothing to fear themselves because they would never agree to submit disputes to a religious tribunal. Still, they are demonstrating on behalf of other Muslim women who may not understand their rights under our laws. They argue such women may be coerced by their families and communities into agreeing to a process that may treat them unfairly."

Go player disses Sudoku

Outrage and furor abound at Rob van Zeijst's recent Daily Yumiuri Online "Magic of Go" column which denigrates the popular Sudoku game that now litters many English language daily newspapers.

"Su Doku, a game with a Japanese-sounding name but invented in New York, has become very popular. The idea of the game is to fill in nine 3x3 grids with numbers 1 through 9 so that each horizontal and vertical row, each individual 3x3 grid, contains the digits 1 to 9. Some numbers have already been provided, and the player must use logic and the process of elimination to solve the puzzle. It is interesting, but its major drawback is that there is always a solution. You may think this strange, but it is limiting in that it does not draw on the imagination."

Come on Rob, many go players love Sudoku!

The state of Go at UC Berkeley

The Daily Californian Online has a nice column on the growing popularity of go in Berkeley.

"The club, which today has members ranging from age nine to age 80, originated at UC Berkeley in 1960 through students who played Go in their free time. As the club attracted experienced players —and as an increasing amount of Go literature was published in English —the club moved off campus in the 70s, changing locations several times before settling at the BART station in 1999."