It must be annoying to have devoted a big part of your life to playing chess, only to have someone say "Well, we built this robot who can kick your ass in five minutes." I think when robots are better at my job than I could be, I would start to question the meaning of my life. Its worthy of an Ishiguro novel, or I guess, under the circumstances, a Dostoevsky.

Its really easy to make judgements about the "average person." I'm genuinely annoyed by this sentiment that the general public are a bunch of uneducated slobs. A lot of scientists act like they're almost burdened with their vast superiority. Keeping in mind, of course, that I am a scientist and these judgements I making are primarily about the people I work with. Also, I openly admit that my statements have not been rigorously tested or confirmed.

I know! Its such a burden to be so much smarter than lay-people. I'm pretty sure that, for the most part, the members of the general public have a reasonably good idea of how science works.

No, they did mean Pope Benedict XV. He was a very progressive pope. He was one of the earliest advocates of blogging - the early 20th century in fact.

Tom Baker was the best Doctor Who ever. That long scarf is awesome. Isn't it amazing as well, that Doctor Who has stayed young throughout the whole series? This year they switched actors and somehow explained it. Maybe he got stuck in a face transplant machine.