World's second richest man to give richest man almost $40 Billion!

This is quite a story. Warren Buffett, the world's second richest man (worth approximately $40 Billion), has decided to donate most of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates is the world's richest man, worth approximately $50 Billion.

Read More: Article | Interview with Warren Buffett

A lot of people in my field (technology) think Bill Gates is the devil, because of the monopolistic practices of Microsoft. And I do agree that Microsoft has done a lot of unethical things over the years. But nonetheless I have a great respect for the way both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are attempting to do some good in the world with the wealth that they have acquired. All reports that I've heard about the Gates Foundation have been positive -- it sounds like their efforts are mostly focused on fighting disease in third world countries.

Hopefully the efforts of Gates and Buffett will motivate other wealthy people to follow suit and try to improve the lives of the many underprivileged people in our world.

Chessboxing

I can't believe this is actually real, but apparently there's a new sport called chessboxing.

From the article:

"Two competitors face each other in 11 alternating rounds, six of chess, five of boxing. A bout begins with chess, which is played on a board placed directly in the middle of the ring. Each round of chess lasts four minutes. After each chess round, the bell sounds, and workmen remove the chessboard for a two-minute round of boxing, the gloves go back on, the punching recommences. Participants win by way of knockout, checkmate, referee's decision, or if his opponent exceeds the allotted total of 12 minutes for an entire match on the chessboard. Those are the basics, but they do little to answer the overriding question: Why?"

If you're really interested you can read the rest of the article here...

Score more GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLS!

I've caught a little bit of world cup action lately, and I've come to the following conclusion: Soccer, the most popular sport in the world, is a little silly. Sure, it's a fun game, but some of the rules are really bugging me. I think it could use a few upgrades to make the game more interesting and bring it up to date.

Here are a few of my suggestions for improving the game:

3) Three words: SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME!
Two 15 minute overtime halves? Are you kidding? Why don't you just start the game over from the beginning and play another 90 minutes?

2) Off sides has got to go.
"Off Sides" is a silly rule. There's a way to teach people not to cherry pick -- utilize your numbers advantage and score a goal! Getting rid of off sides would open up the game and make it more exciting. And anything to increase scoring would be great!

1) And my number one suggestion for soccer nation... STOP THE CLOCK!
Every other timed sport in the world stops the clock when play stops. In soccer, the clock that everyone sees keeps running, but the the clock in the ref's hands is stopped. So no one except the ref knows how much time is left in the game. What can possibly be the advantage to this? It makes no sense. It's annoying. Stop doing it!

Thank you for listening, and now that the U.S. is out of competition, may I just say: VIVA A SELEÇÃO BRASILEIRA!

Gotta be part of the experiment...

OK. Here's my link: Linkie Winkie. Please explain.

You cannot do that here! I do not understand that!

I ran across a link yesterday that took me back a few years: A free remake of King's Quest III, an early computer game that I used to play about 15 or 20 years ago.

I downloaded and installed it... unfortunately I don't have much time to play it right now, but it definitely brought back memories.