[Withnail]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2 ... VKKTdf8N9g

The summer Olympics may be a distant memory, but the World Mind Games are something altogether different, seeing international memory athletes flock to China to compete with brain instead of brawn.

This extravaganza of mental muscle finished in Beijing, China on 17 December, with Russia emerging as the big winner. The event saw 150 athletes from 27 countries competing in 14 variations of five sports, including chess, go, draughts, bridge and xiangqi – a Chinese game that resembles chess.

Russia topped the medal table with six golds, five silvers and one bronze, with the Chinese team coming in a close second. England improved upon last year's tenth place, moving up to seventh with two golds and one bronze medal. The US fell from sixth in 2013 to 13th position this year.

[radon1]

After this year's Winter Olympics, a few foreign athletes have adopted Russian citizenship to continue doing sports In Russia. One of them, a guy from South Korea, won a short-track championship yesterday. He was awarded a prize of 25000 roubles, which is less than 500 hundred dollars.

Another, an American snowboarder, has not yet been given his cash prize for his Winter Olympics win. So far, he has managed to obtain less than a third of the money that are due to him.

Laughable.

[dissident]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26735-russia-boasts-best-mental-agility-at-world-mind-games.html#.VKKTdf8N9g

The summer Olympics may be a distant memory, but the World Mind Games are something altogether different, seeing international memory athletes flock to China to compete with brain instead of brawn.

This extravaganza of mental muscle finished in Beijing, China on 17 December, with Russia emerging as the big winner. The event saw 150 athletes from 27 countries competing in 14 variations of five sports, including chess, go, draughts, bridge and xiangqi – a Chinese game that resembles chess.

Russia topped the medal table with six golds, five silvers and one bronze, with the Chinese team coming in a close second. England improved upon last year's tenth place, moving up to seventh with two golds and one bronze medal. The US fell from sixth in 2013 to 13th position this year.

The American diet is severely deficient in fish-derived Omega-3 fatty acids that are vital for proper brain development and function:

http://advances.nutrition.org/content/3/1/1.full

Too much canned soda pop and chips and no salted herring.

[dissident]

After this year's Winter Olympics, a few foreign athletes have adopted Russian citizenship to continue doing sports In Russia. One of them, a guy from South Korea, won a short-track championship yesterday. He was awarded a prize of 25000 roubles, which is less than 500 hundred dollars.

Another, an American snowboarder, has not yet been given his cash prize for his Winter Olympics win. So far, he has managed to obtain less than a third of the money that are due to him.

Laughable.

What is laughable is your parroting of every liberast talking point.

Is this Korean athlete dying of starvation? What did this Korean athlete expect to get? A million dollars? Give the Korean athlete some intellectual credit you cretin. If he was looking for pots of gold he would have moved to the USA.

[radon1]

If he was looking for pots of gold he would have moved to the USA.

Really? Capello, the former Russia's soccer team coach, is owed dozens if not hundreds millions of roubles of his remuneration - for what? - for doing nothing. The guy is sitting and doing nothing and the arrears are growing and growing each day. And they further multiply with the rouble falling as his contract amounts are fixed in euros. Can you imagine this kind of dream-come-true in the US? Right, win championships for nuts, or do nothing and get everything, what's your choice? Clearly, a manifestation of Russia's mental superiority.

[Withnail]

The American diet is severely deficient in fish-derived Omega-3 fatty acids that are vital for proper brain development and function:

http://advances.nutrition.org/content/3/1/1.full

Too much canned soda pop and chips and no salted herring.

It's no wonder that the stupidity level of Americans has increased, given their diet of genetically modified maize, soya, and saturated fats.

[Withnail]

Really? Capello, the former Russia's soccer team coach, is owed dozens if not hundreds millions of roubles of his remuneration - for what? - for doing nothing. The guy is sitting and doing nothing and the arrears are growing and growing each day. And they further multiply with the rouble falling as his contract amounts are fixed in euros. Can you imagine this kind of dream-come-true in the US? Right, win championships for nuts, or do nothing and get everything, what's your choice? Clearly, a manifestation of Russia's mental superiority.

Sounds like every manager the England team has ever had.

[KaiserJeep]

There is only one game for Americans:

[SteveO]

Too much canned soda pop and chips and no salted herring.

More like too much reality TV, Xbox, and mindless chatter on Facebook.

[dorlomin]

It's no wonder that the stupidity level of Americans has increased, given their diet of genetically modified maize, soya, and saturated fats.

Wow. The irony.

[dorlomin]

Sounds like every manager the England team has ever had.

England have never failed to pay a manager that I am aware off.

[Sixstrings]

Americans do need to eat more fish.

A little problem over the decades is that a lot of the fish are gone. I remember stories about my dad and mom, broke newlyweds in the 60s, just fishing all day and catching big stuff.

Now you really can't do that. What fish there are, are smaller. Restaurants serve grouper from Vietnam. And "chilean seabass" from Antarctica (that one is expensive).

I'm just sitting here thinking, and you know, I remember years ago eating more fish. Just going out to restaurants and such. Seems like people used to eat more fish. I don't know if it went out of style, or if the fish really are all gone, or what.

You just don't see it on the menu so much anymore. And seafood restaurants are often expensive, I dropped $80 for two at Red Lobster over the holidays. A slightly fancier chain we have around here is more than that, that would be a hundred bucks for two.

Farm-raised tillapia has replaced all the other fish, on many menus. I'd never even tried the stuff before, I was always dubious about it, what the hell is this tillapia.

So anyhow, I was in Walmart recently and noticed a big huge bag of frozen tillapia for cheap, like $11. So now we're talkin' my budget.

So I've been baking that, with butter and italian herbs and parmesan and lemon pepper. It's pretty good! Not my favorite fish in the world, but pretty good I think I'm hooked on it.

Yes, we do need to eat more fish over here. I suppose one can also get omega-3's from fish oil capsules.

[Sixstrings]

It's no wonder that the stupidity level of Americans has increased, given their diet of genetically modified maize, soya, and saturated fats.

Do you realize that corn (maize) is not a natural plant in nature, to start with? Native Americans *created* corn through breeding, over millenia. It start out as just a tiny little grass that was nothing like corn.

Same with potatoes, the inca created a multitude of varieties and that's what they lived on. Which later became a foodstuff for all of Europe.

What's the real story on "GMO," is it really unhealthy?

Rationally, I don't see how a modified gene, if done cautiously, is somehow dangerous. Proteins are proteins, starch is starch, ones stomach does not care.

Anyhow, on topic to the OP.. I don't know, what's your point, that Russia has more chess masters? Yet Gary Kasparov had to defect here, and now he's an American.

China has more high IQ individuals, graduates more engineers, yet they have to pirate American tech. The Chinese are not so good at *innovation*. All the big new things, pretty much come out of America. Some of it from Europe.

Or if you make a place into an America, like Estonia is, then you start getting interesting innovation like skype.

The US benefits by being a magnet, drawing the smartest in from the world to study at our universities. Some go home, some stay here. Elon Musk is an immigrant -- he made an elaborate plan to get to the US, first Canada, but California was his goal.

Without FREEDOM and people feeling RELAXED and not oppressed and like they can say what they want to and government won't be all over them -- combined with rule of law and good government and honest accounting and regulation -- then I don't see how a China or Russia can ever compete. For innovation you've got to have the freedom, and you can't have corruption games, you've got to have good business practices, rule of law, all of it.

It's hard for people to innovate if they feel oppressed, if government has a personal heavy hand in their lives telling them what they can and can't say, what they can and can't think.

America has fewer chess players, but more entrepreneurs and innovation.

[Withnail]

Do you realize that corn (maize) is not a natural plant in nature, to start with?

Sure, it was bred through millenia like all food crops.

What's the real story on "GMO," is it really unhealthy?

Unhealthy isn't really the issue.

Here in Europe we have food traditions going back thousands of years.

Nobody wants them replaced with pap from America with Arctic Char fish genes spliced into it.

That shouldn't be too difficult to comprehend.

Let's face it, you'd have to be suicidal to eat an American diet, unless you have a lot of spare money for heart surgery.

[dorlomin]

Unhealthy isn't really the issue.

So nothing to do with chess skills then.

[Withnail]

Unhealthy isn't really the issue.

So nothing to do with chess skills then.

My comment in response to Six Strings had nothing to do with chess skills, no.

Well spotted.

It was actually about why Europeans don't want to eat American GMO shit.

[Sixstrings]

Tilapia is on sale more in the UK and I find is great cooked in a sweet & sour sauce with rice and a salad.

That sounds interesting, I may try that. Do you know how your wife makes it, does she marinate it then fry it or broil or bake?

Here in the UK we still have lots of fish & chip shops, cod & haddock is freely available but expensive, red snapper is just as good in my opinion.

I don't think I've ever even had haddock or snapper. Most of my seafood is: flounder, grouper, snow crab legs (my favorite), shrimp, scallops. Thing is though, I cannot afford to eat this stuff as a staple, it's a once in a while thing, so if something like a bag of frozen tilappia is so cheap then that can be a staple and keep it in the freezer.

Our local fish market has quite a selection of local UK caught fish along with fish from Viet Nam (Basa, Catfish) and New Zealand etc. Scottish farmed Salmon is fairly cheap though.

Not all of "America" is the same, it's a regional thing, you can find robust fish markets in various places. Let's just be honest though, I don't know about the UK, but a lot of people are on BUDGETS these days and cannot afford this stuff.

If Americans don't eat well, a lot of it is the dirty little secret that they can't afford to and / or everyone is so busy that nobody has time to cook anything elaborate. And, they just don't know how to cook.

I've got food on the brain lately. I just got into finally working with dried beans. I never realized how simple that is. Just put in the crockpot, 5 hours later you've got bean soup.

I like most fish, but don't like squid (bicycle inner tubes !!), octopus or some shellfish.

I agree, it's like eating rubber.

[dorlomin]

My comment in response to Six Strings had nothing to do with chess skills, no.

Well spotted.

Your original claim about "genetically modified maize" was not to Sixstrings.

Do try to keep up old bean.

[Withnail]

I've got food on the brain lately. I just got into finally working with dried beans. I never realized how simple that is. Just put in the crockpot, 5 hours later you've got bean soup.

you may need to soak your beans overnight, depending on the beans.

you will definitely need to soak them overnight to make the American classic, Boston Baked Beans.