The ice is melting

   In the last post there is a record of the Highest break of The  King of the Crucible that he made  in 2009, when he was 40 years old. But in the following years, the quality of his game did not fall, as evidenced by the Highest  breaks he  made in 2011 and 2012. However, 2012 was the last in the Main Tour of The Ice Man. In the 1/16- th World Chempionship,   2012, Hendry defeated Bingham (ranking 17 in the beginning of the season, and 16 at the end) - 10:4 (match when he made his last 11th Highest break). In 1/8, he did not leave a chance for defending  title  World Champion, and countryman Higgins (started the season 2nd, finished 5th) - 13:3. In the quarterfinals, two Stevens, two Scots met: 31-year-old  Maguire  from Glasgow (ranking in the season 8-4) and 43-year-old  Hendry who was born in Edinburgh, who dropped in ranking from 16th to 21st place.
   Let's go back to the background of this historic match. The irony of fate is that with his brilliant games in the 90s, his 7 titles and his prize money, the King of the Crucible attracted tens of thousands of boys to snooker, who could see the smallest nuances of the game on TV, hear intelligent comments and analysis of experts. These boys trained hard, went through the toughest selection sieve, and by the 2000-s were audacious contenders for a place in the sun. I think that if snooker in the 90-s and 2000-s did not become a television sport, Hendry could have remained The King for many years and most likely broke the record of 15-time  (1927-1940, 1946 ) World Champion Joe Davis. TV and the great game of Hendry  as a player contributed to the arrival of a new generation of talented players in snooker. They raised the level of competition so much that The Ice Man in the 2000-s began to thaw, which was reflected in a gradual decline in his rating. But back to the game.
   When a young, cheeky player met with a 7-times World Champion, he had a huge advantage - if he lost, no one would blame him, but The King of Crucible was increasingly irritated by the self-confidence of the talented youngsters and the pressure from previous failures increased. As a result, The Ice Man did not demonstrate his best performance and deepened the psychological hole. In the 1/4 World Championship of 2012, Hendry lost to Maguire 2:13 and immediately announced that he was retiring and that he had made the decision 3 months ago.

Curiously, this was the season when Trump from the 9th place soared to the 2nd, but in the 1/8 of World Championship lost to Carter 12:13. And Carter (in the season dropped from 6 to 17) in the semifinal beat 17:12  Maguire, who made to retire The  King of the Crucible. The World Champion in 2012  (as in 2001, 2004, 2008 and 2013) become O'Sullivan (places in the season 11-9), who beat Carter 18:11 and earned £250,000.

Hendry must have been particularly emotional about losing to Maguire. After all, The King of  the Crucible made his 10th maximum in the 1/8 Welsh Open in 2011. But this achievement was overshadowed by the same Maguire, winning the math 4: 2.

   I think that Stephen still regretted the decision to leave the Tour in 2012. By that time, a remarkable shift had grown up in Scotland: McManus, Dott, Higgins, Maguire, McGill, Donaldson - but even in the pack of these superprofi, Hendry could remain an  ace until today. Hendry's World Snooker profile states that he is "generally considered the greatest snooker player ever", and it is difficult to disagree with this.

The King of the Crucible

Since 1977, the World Snooker Championship has been held in the city of Sheffield (England) in the building of the theater with the telling name Crucible  Theatre . On April 28, 2009, the Crucible crowd cheered their King Stephen Hendry (10) and The Magician  Shaun Murphy(3), who played a quarterfinal match to 13 wins.

During his life as snooker player , Hendry had  several nicknames: The  Golden Boy ( 1985-1990), The King of the Crucible (1991-2006), and The Ice Man ( 2007-2012). In the seventh frame, after 16 hits, The King scored 64 points, playing only  through the black . After the 8th black cue ball rolled an extra 10 cm, and you Stephen had to choose: a safety shot or a crooked triple plant. In this position, great pragmatists like Selby or Robertson would probably have chosen safety shot , because there were still 83 points on the table

But the great Scot, who is 40 years old, chose the attack and carried out this blow as if in training, without long rounds of the table and manipulations with the cue in search of a target point . In this game Hendry made his 9 out of 11 maximum break (15*8+27=147 points) and led the match 5-2. 

He showed again that he was still King of the Crucible. After the frame, Murphy warmly congratulated his  famous opponent.

Stephen nevertheless  lost the entire match with a score of 11: 13. In the semifinals, Murphy beat Roberson 17: 14, but in the final lost to Higgins (The Title holder of  1998, 2007, 2009, 2011 years) 9: 18.

For his fantastic series, Hendry received a modest increase to his upcoming pension - £140,000 (this is how much the maximum cost in 2009!) plus £10,000, - for the best break.

Snooker is a small life

Snooker is like a dangerous virus. Just watch one or two games, and you get it forever. I am sure that in 5-10 years this game will be the highest rated TV game a spectacle, leaving behind tennis, football and baseball. In 1967, snooker took 14 minutes in the grid of the BBC. In 2007 this figure increased to 400 hours, i.e. more than one hour per day!

   The highest level of modern snooker achieved, in many ways, thanks to TV broadcasts when the boys of the 90's you could see the game of a living legend - Stephen Hendry.
   Stephen was born in Edinburgh on 13 January 1969 and first time picked up a cue at the age of 12, when his father ave him a smaller snooker table for Christmas (and his birthday). At age of 16, Hendry turned professional, and in 21 years old, in 1990, won the title of the World Champion. In 1992-1996 and 1999 the undefeated Scot takes another 6 world titles.

   For comparison, in 2019, brilliant English player Judd Trump only at the age of 29 became the Champion of the World first time. Hendry,  when he was 30,  had  won 7 (!) titles of the World Champion. 

   Hendry was not only the best in break-building, he was the inventor of techniques, which became classics after him. Prior to Hendry, players would usually attempt to break the pack of reds by cutting the black in the corner. However there was always a great risk of burying the cue ball and losing an attack.  Hendry invented, now common technique,  of potting the blue with pace and bottom spin on the white ball to cannon into the pink, with the object being to hit the pink ball to open the pack of reds and develop them for break-building. 

   During his professional career (1986-2012)  Stephen earned £8.97 million  in prize money, made 775 centuries, and 11 highest breaks.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
ALBERT EINSTEIN

Family Realizes Pet Dog Might Be a Bear After Animal Starts to Walk Around on Hind Legs

http://people.com/pets/pet-dog-is-bear-not-tibetan-mastiff/

https://pagesix.com/2018/03/25/this-blonde-may-be-putins-new-pet/

Kill all white people

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article170340652.html

2018

Let a fool be made serviceable according to his folly.

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

Don't promise when you're happy, Don't reply when you're angry, and don't decide when you're sad.
Avicenna

Michael the best

I want to share feelings about my adorable dog Michael

2016-2017

Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing.

Sophocles (496 BC-406 BC)

I never reasoned on what I should do, but what I had done; as if my Reason had her eyes behind, and could only see backwards.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754)

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

Here is true immorality: ignorance and stupidity; the devil is nothing but this.

Gustave Flaubert(1821-1880)

Buy an annuity cheap, and make your life interesting to yourself and everybody else that watches the speculation.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

1-12 2015

Honest people don't hide their deeds. 
Emily Bronte (1818-1848) 
The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for.
Homer (900 BC-800 BC)
 I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
 Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
 And come he slow, or come he fast, It is but death who comes at last.
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

If the market is going your way, you'll never have enough on. If the market's going against you, you'll always have too many!

Richard H. Hoagland, 40 year floor trader.
If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan
People who dream of starting their own business should realize that success will not depend upon the size of the business or the size of the bankroll, says Leonard M. Greene, author of Inventorship: The Art of Innovation (John Wiley & Sons): “Not having a lot of money at the beginning can even be an advantage. Beginners with much capital often don't know how to use it properly.”
Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

The prayers of cowards fortune spurns. 
Ovid

From Work Like Your Dog Fifty Ways to Work Less, Play More, and Earn More by Matt Weinstein and Luke Barber (Villard) "A new motto for the 21st century employee might well be: Be funny, make money. There is a direct correlation between having fun on the job and being more productive. Successful companies are learning to hire, reward and promote individuals who bring a sense of play to their work.”

In fact, now I come to think of it, do we decide questions, at all? We decide answers, no doubt: but surely the questions decide us? It is the dog, you know, that wags the tail—not the tail that wags the dog.
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.

Eleanor Roosevelt
Words are but wind; and learning is nothing but words; ergo, learning is nothing but wind.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Objectivity and justice have nothing to do with one another.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.

Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)
There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.
George Eliot (1819-1880)
Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish. Ovid
How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice when they will not so much as take warning.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.
John F. Kennedy(1917-1963)

The offhand decision of some commonplace mind high in office at a critical moment influences the course of events for a hundred years.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Patriotic meeting in one of Kiev 's school. Moscovites shood be stabbed.  "Men, who are not jumping  (not moving)  - are moscovites (Russians)!"


The head of the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) has been beaten by members of the nationalist Svoboda party and forced to write a letter of resignation over allegations that his channel aired anti-Ukrainian content. The office of the acting CEO of the National Television Company of Ukraine, Aleksandr Panteleymonov, was stormed by people who claimed to be members of the freedom of speech and information committee. What began as a loud conversation quickly turned into a fight.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2013/1007/Rabbi-Ovadia-Yosef-in-his-own-words 

Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet: "All the evidence shows that people who were killed by snipers from both sides, policemen and people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides. ... Some photos that showed it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it is really disturbing that now the new coalition they don't want to investigate what exactly happened. So there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition."

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton: "I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh."

Paet: "It already discreditates (sic) this new coalition."

“The Russians are not going to permit the loss of their naval base in Crimea, or their military-industrial complex in the eastern Ukraine.  These are military-industrial cities.  This is all now threatened by this change in Kiev that the Americans engineered.

This situation is now more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis.  If the  Americans have to save face, and they can’t admit that this was something they caused, and they continue demonizing Putin and Russia, the danger to the world is immense.

Everyone in the U.S. mainstream media is calling for war.  One retired general was saying, ‘We can whip the Russians easy.  They can’t shoot straight.  We should attack and send troops to Poland and send the U.S. Navy to take the Black Sea base from the Russians.’  This is crazy stuff -- absolutely crazy and insane talk.

Well, the Russians aren’t going to back down -- they can’t.  It would be a strategic disaster for them to lose their Black Sea base or to lose the military industrial-complex in eastern Ukraine. So lines are being drawn here.  What happens in Ukraine has serious consequences for Russia.  So they have a huge stake in Ukraine.  But the administration in Washington is not sufficiently intelligent enough to be aware of that, and they feel they’ve got to save face.

You see, Eric, when Kennedy and Khrushchev came eyeball-to-eyeball during the Cuban Missile Crisis, both were intelligent and sensible people.  They realized it wasn’t worth a war, especially between two nuclear powers.

But what have we got in the White House?  Some kind of sock puppet. What’s in the State Department?  Some kind of fool who goes around issuing threats to Russia.  Kennedy never talked that way, and when the generals tried to, he slapped them down.  So this is a totally different situation, and I think it’s a long way from being over.

Regardless, this has permanently poisoned Washington’s relationship with the Russian government.  The Russians now see that Washington is a reckless, irresponsible entity that tried to subvert an area of great strategic importance to Russia.

The American government it too full of hubris and arrogance to accept such a defeat.  So I think they will push further.  But there is extraordinary danger in taking such an aggressive stance, and people in Washington should understand that this push on Russia involves an incredibly high risk to the entire world.  That’s the great danger the world faces -- Washington’s arrogance.” link

Ukraine nationalist leader calls on 'most wanted' terrorist Umarov 'to act against Russia'
A leader of the Ukrainian radical group Pravy Sektor (Right Sector), Dmitry Yarosh, has called on Russia’s most wanted terrorist Doku Umarov to act against Russia in an address posted on Right Sector’s page in VKontakte social network.
The statement points out that “many Ukrainians with arms in the hands” supported Chechen militants in their fight against Russians and “it is time to support Ukraine now.”
The message, signed “leader of Right Sector Dmitry Yarosh” then calls on Umarov “to activate his fight” and “take a unique chance to win” over Russia.
Yarosh, who is a self-proclaimed deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, leads the far-right militant Right Sector group. He used to be a leader of radical nationalist group Trident, which became the core of Right Sector.
The radical leader has been consistently anti-Russian in his statements, calling for the destruction and division of the “Moscow Empire” and openly supporting Chechen militants and Georgian aggression. Yarosh believes Russia is Ukraine’s “eternal foe” and has said that war between the two countries is “inevitable.”
At the same time, the Right Sector leader said Ukraine should be “careful” with its future EU membership, as the “bureaucratic monster of Brussels” is “doing everything to bring to naught the national identity” of EU member countries.
Putin cited the actions of radical activists in Ukraine, including the chaining of a governor to a stage as public humiliation.  During siege of the Party of Regions HQ members of Maidan shootied at head a service engineer and burned another  technician in a basement using Molotov coctails.  

You’ve got to remember that in 1954 the Russians gave the Crimea to the Ukraine, which at that time was a vassal state of Russia.  It was their property.  So with all of the chaos erupting in Ukraine, they think they are entitled to take it back, and I don’t know that I would start a world war over it if I were the Western leaders.” (John Embry)

1-12, 2014

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)

Evil companions bring more hurt than profit.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Silence is the virtue of fools.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
  
The greatness of a society and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
Gandhi

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)

Children have a natural antipathy to books--handicraft should be the basis of education. Boys and girls should be taught to use their hands to make something, and they would be less apt to destroy and be mischievous.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Don't tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Einstein’s  last interview

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.  
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930 

There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) 

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
George Eliot (1819-1880)

Men often bear little grievances with less courage than they do large misfortunes.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well.
Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)

The ultimate in disposing one's troops is to be without ascertainable shape. Then the most penetrating spies cannot pry in nor can the wise lay plans against you.
Sun Tzu (544 BC-496 BC)

Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

Distrust interested advice.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

Thought is the labor of the intellect, reverie is its pleasure.
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Borrow trouble for yourself, if that's your nature, but don't lend it to your neighbors.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

Wit has always an answer ready.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.
Sun Tzu (544 BC-496 BC)

The uglier a man's legs are, the better he plays golf—it's almost a law.
H.G. Wells (1866-1946)

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Abstain and enjoy.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

What is most truly valuable is often underrated.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

You see, but you do not observe.
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)

Only cowards insult dying majesty.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936)

Everyone is more or less master of his own fate.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

Insanity: repeating the same behavior and expecting different results.
Einstein

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world--and never will.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)

It is essential to seek out enemy agents who have come to conduct espionage against you and to bribe them to serve you. Give them instructions and care for them. Thus doubled agents are recruited and used.
Sun Tzu (544 BC-496 BC)

In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
Sun Tzu (544 BC-496 BC)

Fine feathers don't make fine birds.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.
Sun Tzu (544 BC-496 BC)

Self-help is the best help.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

Better no rule than cruel rule.
Aesop (620 BC-560 BC)

Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

Si vis pacem, para bellum. (хочешь мира — готовься к войне)

Always do what you are afraid to do.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.
Sophocles (496 BC-406 BC)

Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Sentence first, verdict afterwards.

Lewis Carroll(1832-1898)

Brain, n.: An apparatus with which we think we think.

Ambrose Bierce(1842-1914)

I fear the day that technology will surpass our human intereaction The world will have a generation of idiots.
A. Einstein

FIVB World Grand Champions Cup Media Guide 2013
The solstice isn't for more than a week, but the earliest sunset of the year is already upon us. How's that possible? 
An obscure mathematical principle called Zipf's law has predicted the size of mega-cities all over the world
Newly analysed Nasa satellite data from east Antarctica shows Earth has set a new record for coldest temperature ever recorded: -94.7C  

In the midst of five months of darkness this coming winter, the Norwegian town of Rjukan will have one bright spot: a town square illuminated by sunlight bounced off giant mirrors placed atop the town's neighboring mountains.

Read more: Giant Mirrors to Light Up One Dark Norwegian Town - Popular Mechanics

Economic modelling shows that the methane emissions caused by shrinking sea ice from just one area of the Arctic could come with a global price tag of 60 trillion dollars -- the size of the world economy in 2012.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-12/7-more-years-low-rates-and-then-war

50 most influential Jews in the world:

1-10 in-depth list
1. Yair Lapid
2. Jack Lew
3. Binyamin Netanyahu
4. Shimon Peres
5. Anat Hoffman
6. Sergey Brin
7. Jon Stewart
8. Sheryl Sandberg
9. Moshe Ya’alon
10. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
11-20 in-depth list
11. Eric Cantor
12. Elena Kagan
13. Steven Spielberg
14. Jill Abramson
15. Naftali Bennett
16. Mark Zuckerberg
17. Michael Bloomberg
18. Lena Dunham
19. Moshe Kantor
20. Ed Miliband
21-30 in-depth list
21. Sumner Redstone
22. Scooter Braun 
23. Elie Wiesel
24. Howard Kohr
25. Natan Sharansky
26. David Saperstein
27. Aharon Lichtenstein
28. Ben Smith
29. Michael Chabon
30. Sara Netanyahu
31-40 in-depth list
31. Diane von Fürstenberg
32. Matthew Bronfman
33. Ester Levanon
34. Shari Arison
35. Rakefet Russak-Aminoach
36. David Grossman
37. Ronald S. Lauder
38. Bar Refaeli
39. Yityish Aynaw
40. Dror Moreh
41-50 in-depth list
41. Ruth Westheimer
42. Michael D. Siegal
43. Nir Barkat
44. Yosef Abramowitz
45. Yotam Ottolenghi
46. Eve Ensler
47. Idan Raichel
48. Ephrat Levy-Lahad
49. Efi Stenzler
50. The commissioners of the NHL, NBA and MLB

There are no Bernanke,  Soros, Rothshild, Bloomberg, ... sense.

top 50 American Jews
the same rubbish.

I guess that 1st prize in architecture boldness goes to China. The building that will house the new Beijing offices of the People's Daily, the official paper of the China Communist Party.

Russia’s nouveau riche's keep riches from putin

link