Friday, May 30, 2008

Canadian Youth Chess Tournament

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Youth, Chess, and YouTube!

I enjoy a number of YouTube chess pursuits, and I always enjoy it when younger people share their chess knowledge and studies through vlogging. The game of chess appeals to all ages and walks of life and it's great when people put themselves out there to share with the community.



Chess and vlogging is still a very young medium for the game we all are passionate about but it's growing rapidly and I think it is a fantastic step forward for the promotion of the game as a whole, and definitely helps bring it to a whole new audience.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

WuChess Close to Launch



There has been a lot of buzz about WuChess, which is planning on giving some proceeds to help the Hip-Hop Chess Federation scholorship program.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Bio-Fuels: Don't Be Trendy at the cost of Life and Environment


A large study in Europe concluded that it takes more gas and oil to produce a bottle of bio-fuel than it does to produce a bottle of gas. What does this mean? It means that Bio-Fuel is more damaging to the environment in the long run, and on top of that it is driving up the cost of basic food supplies. Millions and millions around the world in a number of countries are unable to afford the rising food costs for basic staples like Corn, and for what?

If Bio-Fuel is not better for the environment, why are politicians and environmentalists getting behind this growing industry? I think it's because it seems to be the "trendy" thing to do, and we all know what happens when the media promotes a new trend. We get tons of media coverage telling us why it's a good thing, and hardly any coverage of the negative impacts. Already people from the Bio-Fuel industry are getting on television shouting out that there are many factors contributing to rising food prices, trying to deflect the fact that their destruction of food to fuel vehicles is the main culprit.

It makes no sense whatsoever to create Bio-Fuel when there are much better options on the table - for instance Hydrogen vehicles. When was the last time you heard someone on the news talk about Hydrogen initiatives?

With gas-powered vehicles, the environment was at stake. With Bio-Fuel, the stakes are the environment and in the immediate short-term a whole bunch of people's lives around the world. Bio-Fuel companies are buying up the basic staples required for life, and in the process, people are dying. Experts are even saying that the first world countries will only be insulated for a short-time before the rising food costs have devastating effects on the working poor in their own countries.

Food riots are raging in many places now - with countries like Haiti on the brink of internal collapse, and I have to ask again ... why? Bio-Fuels are not the answer to our environmental problems. Burning food to power vehicles is illogical, and it has hardly any benefits other than getting more money into the pockets of food producers and the corporate giants backing the initiatives.

I urge everyone to speak out about the problems of the Bio-Fuel industry, and how it is not the answer to our environmental problems. Our politicians and media need to start pointing out the glaring flaws with this approach, and people need to get back to the drawing board to get other potential solutions back on the front-burners, like vehicles powered by Hydrogen technology.

I don't generally speak about other things than Chess here on the blog, but this Bio-Fuel fiasco is getting out of hand, and it needs to stop. The world is on the verge of the worst food crisis in history, and it is very much avoidable if we get on the right page as soon as we can.