Thursday, December 30, 2010

fun facts about go

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Go is the oldest game in the world still played in its original form. Some estimates are as high as 4000 years, but certainly 2500-3000.


Go is the second most played game in the world, behind Xiangqi (Chinese Chess).

Go is called Igo in Japan, Baduk in Korea, and Wei-qi in China.

Top go players can earn nearly one million US dollars a year. 2004 tops was Cho U, 9p from Japan who won $1.04 million US.

Go is simple enough for a 4 year old to learn, but too complex for a computer to beat a human who is a strong beginner.

It is believed there are more possible game variations than atoms in the visible universe.[4]

Just like the Golf channel in the US; Japan, China, and Korea all have cable TV channels devoted entirely to Go.

Go players take their game seriously. You can purchase what is basically a 42cm x 45cm x 18cm (17"x17"x7") square block of wood for $127,000 US.

The world's largest Go game is played in Oita, Japan on a 40 x 40 meter large field. One round stone is 1,8 meters wide and its weight is about 1 kilogram.

Go is considered one of the premiere challenges for programmers of artificial intelligence

It is telling of the immortality and constant veneration that Go has had for millennia that the two greatest players ever are often considered Huang Longshi (1651? – 1691?) of China, or Honinbo Dosaku (1645 – 1702) of Japan.

There is a historical story that in the 17th century, the rule of Tibet was once decided over three games of Go.

Go is strongly believed to stop or reverse common senile dementia in the elderly. Additional information is coming that it may reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's.

Go has an immense impact on the mental development of children, particularly in the area of reasoning.

Chess is primarily a left brain game. Go actively stimulates both the right and left sides of the brain.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Getting better at the game of GO

Strategy for Raw Beginners (30 kyu - 21 kyu)
Just relax; it's only a game and you're only a beginner. Don't worry about winning or if you're not improving fast enough. Your game is an extension of your personality and emotion at the time of each move. Tensing up will only cause you to lose even when you don't have to.

If you aren't having fun then there is no point in playing. The more you let yourself enjoy the game the better you will become.

Rule Number 0: Play LOTS of games. Play during every waking moment that you can. Try to play people stronger than you. They will defeat you, but they should teach you, and show you how to become better as well. Play computer programs. They will defeat you, but they are always ready to play (you can find them by just looking online). Books do exist for the absolute beginner (Such as Learn to Play Go by Janice Kim), though their use is rudimentary. Get a better feel for the game, then go after the theory.

Rule Number 1: The best thing that you can do at this stage is play and lose the first 50 games as fast as possible. Play a move within 5-10 secs and see what happens. Should you stop and try to think about every move, stronger opponents will become frustrated and decline to play with you in the future. Think of it from their perspective: they wait and wait for you to play, and then they see a flaw in your play very quickly and play, only to wait some more. As you play more games in this manner, your intuition, ability to read ahead quickly, and ability to recognize threats will all improve very quickly. As an added bonus, stronger players will agree to play you more often and will show you new shortcuts and situations, helping you to improve even faster.

Rule Number 2: Territory comes first. If one of your stones is in atari, the best move might be to ignore it and aim for that tasty side dish. This is not always the case as individual stones can be important, but your intuition on this will improve as you play more games. It might be the case that you're trading the 1 point of territory and 1 prisoner for a 20-40 point side.

Rule Number 3: Do not be afraid to take risks. You don't understand the game enough at this point to say, "that is overextending myself". Just drop a stone in there and see how it fares. Do try to avoid doing so when you know that one of your bigger groups is in mortal peril.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

how to play go

History of Go

Ancient History

Go was invented more than 3000 years ago in China, though some think it was nearer 4000 years. In the beginning, the game had a close connection with the laws of nature, politics and economics, strategy and intelligence, and it was also a theocratic tool for the ancient emperors to rule society. The game is mentioned in the Analects of Confucius, the greatest ancient work of Chinese philosophy and ethics, written in the 6th century BC. It came to Japan about 1,500 years ago via the Korean peninsula, and became popular at the Japanese court among the Imperial family, the aristocracy and court ladies. It makes several appearances in the 11th century masterpiece "The Tale of Genji", often described as the world's first novel. Later, it spread to the warrior classes and the Buddhist priesthood and eventually flourished throughout the country.
Japan 1600-1868The game of Go made its most significant development during the Edo period (1603-1868). The central figure was the first head of the Honinbo school, Sansa (1559-1623), who taught the three warlords who ruled Japan during his lifetime, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu. Sansa became the head of the state Go Academy (Godokoro) and established the system of hereditary Go schools. The head of the four Go schools (Honinbo, Yasui, Inoue, Hayashi) would compete for the honor of their schools in games played at Edo Castle in the presence of the Shogun. Many great players, such as Dosaku, Jowa and Shusaku, appeared during the Edo period. State support of Go, in the form of stipends for professional players, made possible great advances in the level of Go skills and theory during the Edo period, and this laid the basis for the modern prosperity of the game.

Japan: the Modern Era
After modernization and westernization began in the Meiji period (1868-1912), various new Go organizations appeared. Stimulated by the advances in Go technique in Japan, the game started to enjoy a revival in China, its original homeland. Also, during the Meiji period, Westerners visiting Japan learnt the game and began to teach it in Europe and America.In 1924, the different Go organizations in Japan combined to form the Nihon Ki-in or the Japan Go Association. This is still the main Go body in Japan; it promotes the playing of professional and amateur Go among people of all ages in Japan and around the world. The game first became strongly established in the 1920s and 1930s in the U.S. and in Europe. One result was the founding of the European Go Championship in 1938, a tournament which remains today the most important European tournament. Today numerous tournaments are held throughout the year in many countries throughout the world, including those held by the Iberoamerican Go Federation, in Canada, Australia or elsewhere. Most prominent are the European Go Congress (held in a different European country each year) and the American Go Congress.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

A note from Will Allen -Farmer, Founder and CEO

Dear Friends,
Over the last two years, we have experienced one of the worst economic periods of our lifetimes. We have seen people lose their homes, deplete their savings, and struggle to afford basic necessities.
Who is to blame? It is easy to take shots at people, but I don’t think that will help. I choose instead to think about how we are going to lift ourselves up.I think ahead to a new economy that is good for all the people. And I feel this process of renewal is going to begin with the most important thing in our lives: food.
It’s something that we all share as human beings—black or white, young or old, rich or poor.
We all must eat to sustain ourselves. Our industrial food system has led us down the wrong road. It has brought us fewer jobs, unhealthier diets, and a centralized system that makes people feel powerless over their food choices. I think we all feel this. There are more food-related illnesses in this country and in the world than ever before.We can’t rely alone on governments or large corporations to fix our bad food system. We can’t rely on others to improve access to healthy food in communities of need. We all have a responsibility to work together.As I travel this country, I am filled with hope. I have seen young, middle-aged and elderly people taking control of the food systems in their communities. I see people growing food on balconies, side yards, back yards, and community plots. I see new gardens and farms in urban, suburban and rural communities. I see people raising fish and plants inside buildings, and people who have employed creative techniques to grow food year-round in even the harshest climates, as we do at Growing Power in Milwaukee.
We need everyone at what I like to call the Good Food Revolution table. We need corporations. We need medical folks. Universities. Politicos. Planners. Educators. Dieticians. We need architects to design our new small farms and community food centers, and we need planners to design sustainable communities to transform food deserts into healthy neighborhoods for all the people. We need people with expertise in the areas of public policy. We need technical experts. Contractors. Composters.
And most importantly, we need our wonderful farmers.
What encourages and inspires me in the progress of this good food movement is that more young people have embraced farming. More people of color have also been willing to enter agriculture once again. However, to truly change our food system, we must have 50 million new people growing food in their local communities. This will take time and patience is one of the keys, but we must commit to action now.

Let’s set some goals together: In the next year:
• We will build over 100 hoop houses to grow food without chemicals in the city of Milwaukee.• We will train over 1,000 new farmers in 2011—and over 5,000 in the next five years.• We now have 52 employees at Growing Power. We will hire over 50 in the next year.• We will host over 20,000 people at our training center on Silver Spring Drive in 2011—helping to spread our knowledge of intensive growing both nationally and internationally.• We will take the lead in developing a new local food system industry.

Monday, December 6, 2010

To day at Manabu farms it is Guided fictional meditation.

To day at Manabu farms it is Guided fictional meditation. I have said that on face book and to friends many of times but not explained so lets start with the words its self.
Guided
1. show somebody the way: to lead somebody in the right direction
2. advise or influence somebody: to advise or counsel somebody, or influence the way somebody behaves or acts
Be guided by your conscience.
3. help somebody learn something: to teach somebody, or oversee training in something
A tutor guided me through the intricacies of calculus.
4. run organization: to control the affairs of an organization or body
5. steer something: to steer a vehicle or animal
 
 
 
Fictional
make something into fiction: to make something into fiction, or make a fictional version of something
Root word fiction
1. literary works of imagination: novels and stories that describe imaginary people and events
2. work of fiction: a novel, story, or other work of fiction
3. untrue statement: something that is untrue and has been made up to deceive people The account she gave was pure fiction.
4. pretense: the act of pretending or inventing something the fiction that their marriage had become
5. law something assumed to be true: something that is assumed in law to be true regardless of whether or not it is true
 
 
Meditation
1. emptying or concentration of mind: the emptying of the mind of thoughts, or the concentration of the mind on one thing, in order to aid mental or spiritual development, contemplation, or relaxation
2. pondering of something: the act of thinking about something carefully, calmly, seriously, and for some time, or an instance of such thinking
3. serious study of topic: an extended and serious study of a topic
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 
So when I say to day at Manabu farms we are GFM I am saying I am showing somebody the way to think fictional about something carefully, calmly, seriously, and for some time
Now on to why ?
The works of Manabu have in them a code of remembrance which I will now list pay close attention to number 9
The Manabu Code of Remembrance
1.We are all one.
2. The Divines are within
3. Weapons are enemies, even onto their owners
4. Give more - take less
5. community first - self last
6. Look, listen, do and learn
7. Be peaceful, loving, and happy
8. Sing every day
9. Exercise your imagination
As you see by The Manabu Code of Remembrance we must Exercise your imagination one of the best ways I have found to do this is GFM. Where one person in this case Me tells a story in a made up world of fiction and each participant says the actions for one people in the story and to add a bit of randomness we use chaos generators to determine weather or not actions are successful or not and to determine other important story outcomes.

hope this helps you know what im talkng about when i say GFM today at my place

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Rabbit meat best meat for you just take a look

The office of home economics, state relations of the U S Department of Agriculture has made extensive test and have stated that domestic rabbit meat is the most nutritious meat known to man ! Rabbit meat is grown and eaten on all continents except Antarctica !Resion

Rabbit
% Protein 20.8
% Fat 4.5
Calories per lb 795

Veal
% Protein 19.1
% Fat 12.0
Calories per lb 840

Chicken
% Protein 20.0
% Fat 17.9
Calories per lb 810

Turkey
% Protein 20.1
% Fat 20.0
Calories per lb 1,190

Lamb
% Protein 15.7
% Fat 27.7
Calories per lb 1,420

Beef
% Protein 16.3
% Fat 28.0
Calories per lb 1,440

Duck
% Protein 16.0
% Fat 28.6
Calories per lb 1,015

Pork
% Protein 11.9
% Fat 45.0
Calories per lb 2,050