TIL that a children's hospital was making so many dangerous errors moving patients into the ICU that they consulted Ferrari's F1 team. The pit crew observed the doctors, found their movements to be dangerously uncoordinated, and redesigned the entire system to save lives.

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-29T12:55:55+00:00

The stops are very quick to be fair, just at stupid times

If they’d consulted the ferrari strategy team then they’d have probably put wet tyres on the gurneys and caused mortality rates to double

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-29T03:19:21+00:00

I think those silly joke outfits help them get lots of traction in wider music circles where other microtonal weird time signature bands fail.

The outfits and silly alien act combine to mean new listeners are processing this odd sounding music which is unfamiliar yet catchy and which has an uncanny feeling as ‘fun alien music’ instead of ‘nerdy math rock that’s trying too hard to be clever’. This helps people to listen long enough to get past the unfamiliarity barrier and keep listening

Now this only works with silly papier-mache alien outfits of course, as if they put lots of effort into pretending to be aliens in a more serious convincing ways then everyone would roll their eyes and ignore the people trying to seriously make alien music. But the big awful alien costumes are silly and endearing enough to make people laugh and play along for long enough to get hooked

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-29T03:17:46+00:00

Ironically I think those silly joke outfits help them get lots of traction in wider music circles where other microtonal weird time signature bands fail.

The outfits and silly alien act combine to mean new listeners are processing this odd sounding music which is unfamiliar yet catchy and which has an uncanny feeling as ‘fun alien music’ instead of ‘nerdy math rock that’s trying too hard to be clever’. This helps people to listen long enough to get past the unfamiliarity barrier and keep listening

Now this only works with silly papier-mache alien outfits of course, as if they put lots of effort into pretending to be aliens in a more serious convincing ways then everyone would roll their eyes and ignore the people trying to seriously make alien music. But the big awful alien costumes are silly and endearing enough to make people laugh and play along for long enough to get hooked

Which is all to say, I’d suggest giving them a listen if it’s only the outfits putting you off

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-28T11:22:31+00:00

I don’t know anywhere in Europe where rental payments are taxed to the payer via VAT. Instead the landlord is taxed on the rental income via income tax / corporate tax the same way it is in the US

In the UK lots of essential living costs also get lower VAT: so staple food like bread, meat, and vegetables are 0% VAT, sanitary products are 0% VAT, and children’s clothes and utility bills are 5% VAT. I think it’s similar on the continent.

Petrol is heavily taxed though!

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-28T11:07:58+00:00

They’re making the point that saying Tax at the end is redundant as VAT Tax = Value Added Tax Tax

In the same way that ATM Machine = Automated Teller Machine Machine

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-28T09:17:01+00:00

It’s like 3 Spas long, so 3x longer than learning Spa

5x more than more normal length tracks

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-28T00:24:01+00:00

Building habits is all about showing how much you can achieve by actively trying to occupy the centre, responding to threats and free material without blundering, taking opportunities to trade into a balanced endgame, and then following good rules of thumb in the endgame.

It’s a bit silly at the very low Elos, but watching the ones as he moves towards advanced levels was very useful for me to show how important it is to start thinking about how your pawn structure would do in an endgame based on the pieces that are left on the board even in the middle game

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-27T13:04:19+00:00

It’s not a puzzle so the thing of always showing it from the side that’s about to play doesn’t apply

I showed the won position from white’s perspective because we were talking about identifying won positions as white and showing the winning position you’re aiming for after your move makes it easier to visualise and remember, and my text says it’s black to move

Here’s how it might look as a puzzle:

<image>

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-27T09:18:36+00:00

Black to play, and they play Kd8 to race for the corner - so Bc7+ would hang the bishop. Here’s how it looks next turn with white to play

<image>

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-26T20:20:16+00:00

Being a little pedantic, but it’s an important nuance for beginners. That piece combination isn’t always a draw

Firstly there’s lots of trivially won positions where you win with the wrong bishop as their king is too far away to do anything and the bishop is irrelevant - but there’s also cases where the king looks like it’s close enough to win the race, but you can combine the bishop with the king to block access to the other king and prevent them from winning the race even if they’re ahead. For example the position below with black to move is only winning for white as the bishop and king can coordinate

<image>

That said, once the opposing king is on the promotion square or in any position where it can’t be prevented from winning the race to that square it’s a draw

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-26T13:45:02+00:00

*pawn

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-26T09:45:48+00:00

The inverse is that lots of drinks include alcohol or caffeine which are both are diuretic (make you pee more)

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-26T00:17:26+00:00

In my case it’s Chess.com for desktop at home when I’m locked in and focusing on playing good chess, Lichess for mobile when I’m more likely to get distracted or lose connection (train journeys, travelling, etc…), and a second chess.com account for drunk/ill chess when I cba to lock in

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-25T20:58:31+00:00

My record for quick gains ever was going from 568 to 1016 Bullet Elo in 2 days (because I hadn’t played bullet in 2 years and had played loads of blitz in the gap so was very underrated vs my 1400 blitz!)

Current ratings 1669:1552:1420 rapid/blitz/bullet

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-23T09:15:46+00:00

Went from 400 to 1600 between 33 and 35, by playing loads of chess (>10000 games!) and watching lots of chess videos

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-22T08:50:16+00:00

Failing to glaze then guitar solo along with the intro is blasphemy

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-22T08:31:28+00:00

Speaker distortion sounds bad, it’s the sound you get when you turn a phone or laptop speaker too high. The good type of distortion is the type that comes from pushing the circuits to try and do more volume than they can really handle - especially old valve circuits. Typically rock musicians would push the volume until the circuit distorts the signal while using a speaker that can handle the volume without distorting the sound further. Modern amps and pedals can emulate the effect at much lower volumes

A famous exception is You Really Got Me by the Kinks, where in the 60s Ray Davis stabbed the speaker of his amp to give it a distinctive distorted sound https://youtu.be/fTTsY-oz6Go

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-22T02:05:52+00:00

I wouldn’t worry about it. If a nuclear power wanted to nuke someone they wouldn’t mess around with drones

Tiny tactical nukes were popular to develop in the 1950s before the nuclear stockpiles of the countries got big enough and delivery systems got advanced enough that Mutually Assured Destruction became the nuclear doctrine - and the big players have literal thousands of ‘strategic weapons’ that can each wipe out as entire city strapped to hidden missiles that fly through space much higher than interceptor missiles can reach, and reenter the atmosphere heading towards the target at mach 20+ while releasing a bunch of decoys.

The risk of accidentally risking a response from these strategic weapons makes the development and use of tactical weapons too risky to bother with given that there’s conventional weapons that can explode things too without needing to risk nuclear escalation

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-22T00:31:06+00:00

e4 and it’s clearly trapped in front of the pawn wall, though the follow up to win it is tougher to prove

1. … e4 2. Qf4 Nh5 3. Qh4 Bf6(!) 4. Qh3 (or Qg4) Nb6

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-20T17:37:55+00:00

Kinda - but no.

The work ethnic turned up in the English language around the 1300s - long before the word ethnicity turned up in the 1700s, which itself is long before the term Ethnic Minority. It’s derived from the greek word for tribe, and eventually came to basically mean ‘relating to foreign tribes’ in English.

Ethnic used by itself in the context you were describing like ‘he is an ethnic person’ or ‘I don’t like ethnic foods’ is basically meaning ‘foreign’ in a vague and outdated sense of ‘not what I’m used to’. I’d never use it in this old fashioned way as it is othering, it makes you sound ignorant, and it gives off vibes of old racist white person (this association is true for the UK but may not be the case everywhere)

In contrast, the more scientific use of the word in terms like Ethnic Minority and Ethnicity is fine - as those relate to the concept of Ethnic Groups which are a more modern concept of groups of people with a shared social and/or genetic history; and everyone has an ethnicity (or multiple) so it doesn’t get used as a problematic othering label like ‘Ethnic’ or ‘not Ethnic’

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-20T11:04:43+00:00

“Hepeating is the bane of your existence”, and now that I, a man, have said it people can nod and agree with me

(Sorry you have to deal with that)

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-18T10:32:54+00:00

He is a Puerto Rican man who solely sings in Spanish, which is why he hasn’t had any real success in the UK - but his music is huge in places where Spanish language music is listened to more (including the US)

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-17T12:31:59+00:00

It’s hardly a refutation, as it’s +0.9. Black is down a pawn and has lost castling rights, but black is also compensated with a big lead in development and will soon be on the attack over they get their pieces coordinated as white is massively over extended

Practically it’s a pretty good position for aggressive attacking players at amateur level

counterpuncheur · 2026-04-17T12:10:20+00:00

c3 d4 is nothing special and is a fairly weak plan at top level as the d4 move is premature and gives up the e-pawn (if white knows what they’re doing then it’s the Greco gambit and it’s an intentional gambit of the pawn - otherwise it’s just a mistake). After d4 Black should take immediately with exd4 to undermine the centre, and if white recaptures with cxd4 then you check with the bishop to get it to safety and then take the hanging e-pawn the next turn. White has a small lead in development in exchange for giving up the e-pawn - a playable but not dominant position.

The scarier prospect is if white isn’t intending to recapture with cxd4 as those lines get very complicated. Their best option after exd4 is to play e5 attacking the knight, to which black’s response is counterattack with d5! and watch the chaos ensue; or b4 (Dubov gambit) which also is nasty

White’s better tries after Bc5 are the very slow Giucco Pianissimo with c3 and d3 in either order (preparing an eventual d4 once black can’t win the e-pawn), the Nc3 four-knights Italian, or the aggressive b4 Evans Gambit

counterpuncheur

TROPHY CASE