SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Obama Details Actions in Response to Russian Malicious Cyber Activity
U.S. President Obama writes:
I have issued an executive order that provides additional authority for responding to certain cyber activity that seeks to interfere with or undermine our election processes and institutions, or those of our allies or partners. Using this new authority, I have sanctioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services; four individual officers of the GRU; and three companies that provided material support to the GRU's cyber operations. In addition, the Secretary of the Treasury is designating two Russian individuals for using cyber-enabled means to cause misappropriation of funds and personal identifying information. The State Department is also shutting down two Russian compounds, in Maryland and New York, used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes, and is declaring "persona non grata" 35 Russian intelligence operatives. Finally, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are releasing declassified technical information on Russian civilian and military intelligence service cyber activity, to help network defenders in the United States and abroad identify, detect, and disrupt Russia's global campaign of malicious cyber activities. [...] [The Obama] Administration will be providing a report to Congress in the coming days about Russia's efforts to interfere in our election, as well as malicious cyber activity related to our election cycle in previous elections.
Press release. Text of Executive Order. Annex to Executive Order.
Russia Calls for Expulsion of U.S. Diplomats
Although Russia's foreign minister has asked President Vladimir Putin to expel 35 U.S. diplomats from the country in response to President Obama's actions, President Putin has so far declined to do so.
Dispute on Russia's Involvement with DNC Hacking
A WikiLeaks associate has disputed the Russian hacking narrative, saying that he was handed the documents in Washington, D.C.:
On 15 December 2016, the British tabloid Daily Mail quoted Craig Murray, a former U.K. ambassador to Uzbekistan and "close associate" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as saying that the Democratic National Committee's e-mails were not obtained by WikiLeaks due to the efforts of Russian hackers but were instead leaked by a disgruntled DNC operative who had legal access to them [...]
Murray said he retrieved the package from a source during a clandestine meeting in a wooded area near American University, in northwest D.C. He said the individual he met with was not the original person who obtained the information, but an intermediary.
Of course, it could be completely untrue. At the moment we have only his account to work with.
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3 Original Submission #4
(Score: 5, Funny) by JNCF on Sunday January 01 2017, @07:46PM
I'm not usually a fan of political cartoons, but this [imgur.com] seems quite appropriate.
That cartoon is absurd -- it very rarely makes sense to promote a pawn to a bishop.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Sunday January 01 2017, @11:30PM
Vade retro, traditionalist!
In the Novus Ordo 7x6 chessboard, both bishops rest on the same color. It helps promoting ecumenism since they cannot attack the opponent's bishops. The fact that God likes so much ecumenism that it demolished the "let's all pray together" church in Assisi (while a TV crew was filming, no less) with an earthquake, seems not to have affected Novus Ordo games.
Yet.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02 2017, @02:28AM
...since they cannot attack the opponent's bishops
A small flaw in that explanation:
A bishop must always remain on the same color as his starting square, so, to have bishops never clash, yes, both of one side's bishops would have to be on the same color, BUT those would have to be the -opposite- color of the opponent's. [archive.li]
...which breaks the "sameness" analogy a bit.
It helps promoting ecumenism
Yeah. The us-against-the-world thing sounds liked the clerics/church/any organization with a dogma that I know.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday January 02 2017, @02:44PM
look at the 6x7 board, white bishops are on white squares. Dogmatism is never the problem (look at science, axioms are dogmas and ecumenism would be for example embracing ID). Problem is interfering with one's freedom about which ones to pick and to be taken responsible for.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02 2017, @12:29AM
It's pretty rare, but it's possible. You can be in a situation where promoting to queen or rook results in a stalemate. Usually by that time your opponent is down to few pieces - typically a blocked pawn or two - and if the new queen blocked the king without actually checking it then you have given your opponent a draw.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Monday January 02 2017, @12:48AM
I never said never! :) Another situation where it could come up is if you were confident that you could move your newly promoted bishop into a position where it would set up a discovered attack using a queen or rook. I actually had that situation come up in a game with a buddy of mine once, and I was super excited that it made logical sense to not promote to a queen (or at least seemed to at the time).