Yet another reason not to mix it up with Iran, this time purely military: Our aircraft carriers may not be as invincible as they once were.
FYI: There are two, soon to be three, carrier groups in the Persian Gulf. The USS Nimitz is scheduled to replace the Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier group in May, ostensibly with “no overlap”, but there will nevertheless be three carrier groups in the area during this transition.
March 23 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Navy, after nearly six years of warnings from Pentagon testers, still lacks a plan for defending aircraft carriers against a supersonic Russian-built missile, according to current and former officials and Defense Department documents.
The missile, known in the West as the “Sizzler,” has been deployed by China and may be purchased by Iran. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England has given the Navy until April 29 to explain how it will counter the missile, according to a Pentagon budget document.
The fully story from Bloomberg…
An exciting shocker of a final day for the Internet Chess Club’s annual Dos Hermanas blitz tournament. Cinderella-story Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (nee Zamora) (ICC: NECF-InSchools) defeated three grandmasters in the final three knockout rounds, to win the ‚Ǩ1,800 EUR first prize and blitz bragging rights for a while. One of the few untitled players to qualify, he entered Dos Hermanas unsure if he could even reach the final knockout event!
Sammour-Hasbun’s quarterfinal victory over 2661 rated GM Kiril Georgiev (ICC: K-Georgiev) was particularly sweet as Jorge has fond memories of playing ultra long blitz sessions with the Bulgarian grandmaster way back in the late nineties before Sammour-Hasbun’s ten year hiatus from the game. He has an ambitious over-the-board comeback planned now that he’s back, but is also just happy to be enjoying the game again.
More in my 
27 minute audio interview with Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (requires ICC membership) recorded LIVE, just minutes after his harrowing 227 move (not a typo!) draw to guarantee the match win against runner-up Tigran L Petrosian (ICC: Anyuta).
Author Benjamin Barber says the American economy has taken a wrong turn toward encouraging consumption ‚Äî and that’s not what capitalism was supposed to be about.
The problem is, today we have not a productivist economy but a consumer economy. And the emphasis today is not on production, but on consuming. And you’ve got a capitalism which is producing an awful lot of goods which are chasing very few needs, while real needs are going unmet around the world.
Listen to Audio from Marketplace.
From former Labor Secretary and Marketplace commentator, Robert Reich on Wednesday:
The New York Times calculates that Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, would have to spend $183,000 an hour just to avoid increasing his wealth. And the Senate still can’t decide whether to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour?
Not since the era of the robber barons of the late 19th has income and wealth been so concentrated as it is in 21st century America.
Talk is rising of a ‚Äòclash of civilizations‚Äô. But the problem isn‚Äôt culture, it‚Äôs politics ‚Äì from 9/11 to Guantanamo, Iraq to Iran. This clash is not inevitable, and we don’t want it.
Watch the Stop the Clash video…
Last June, Ze Frank challenged his fans, the Fabulosos, to a game of chess. He lost, resigning two months later, and now he has finally paid up!
Chess players should be rock stars…
I cut this together late Friday night. Enjoy!
Click To Play
GMs/IMs, in order of appearance: Topalov, Leko, Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Aronian, Anand, Svidler, Danailov, Motylev, Kasimdzhanov.
Live In Linares, March 2, 2007
More in SCREEN….
So far so good!
[NB: Back-dated posts to March 1, 2006, in the Archive...]
