Go in Cuba: Chinese board game GO experiences wide popularity in Cuba: The Chinese board-game GO has been played 
since ancient times, but it remains popular around the world even today. One country with a large GO following is Cuba. CGTN’s Luis Chirino took a look at the rise of the game in Havana.
Mecha Samurai Empire: “Found a short reference to go in Mecha Samurai Empire by Peter Tieryas,” reports Michael Goerss. “Protagonist is a mecha pilot in a world where Japan and Germany won World War 2 a la The Man In The High Castle. Page 304, ‘I’ve become all too aware of how we are just numbers to those in charge, go pieces on the field that help them on their march to glory. We’re young and disposable.’”
The New Yorker (1): How the Artificial-intelligence Program Alphazero Mastered its Games; “What may be most surprising is that we humans have done as well as we have in games that seem, now, to have been made for machines,” James Somers reports in the 12/30/18 New Yorker.
The New Yorker (2): “It may be that references to go are becoming common enough to make go-spotting too easy,” writes Fred D. Baldwin. “But I liked this passage from The New Yorker (December 24 & 31), ‘China’s Bizarre Program to Keep Activists in Check.'” The focus is on government surveillance of Zha Jianguo, “a veteran democracy activist.” The article’s author includes this quote from an interview with Jianguo: Jianguo views these developments soberly. He has long since shed any illusions of fast social change or enduring media attention. “If I’m sentenced for another nine years, or twelve or thirteen years,” he told me calmly, “I’ll just forget about the outside world and focus on my life inside prison. Family and loved ones—well, those thoughts will be there for a while. It will take time. I’ll read some books, play some Go, get on with my cellmates. I’ll try to make the best out of each day. I’ll think about nothing else, nobody else.”
“Pine Gap”: In Netflix’s episode 6 of the new 6-part sh
ow ‘Pine Gap,’ a show about US/ Australian/ Chinese military/political/economic relationships, there is a brief monologue by a Chinese character talking to an American about how Chess v.s. Go thinking affects how each country responds to the other, reports David Doshay. “And to drive home the point, a few scenes later the same Chinese guy compliments another person on how well they played ‘the long game.’”
Georg Jellinek: “In a recent Amazon search for the works of German political theorist Georg Jellinek, I discovered that the cover design for the Spanish translation of his Allgemeine Staatslehre (General theory of the state) features go,” writes Colin Grant. “I am not familiar with the text, so I can’t vouch for the felicity of the match.”
Sandra and Woo; Blindspot: “Saw and heard about two different go sightings today, reports Steve Colburn. “One is from a webcomic I read about a young girl and her talking raccoon, Sandra and Woo. The other is from the season premiere of Blindspot (left) which was told to me by my boss. I’ve included a screenshot from the show from Hulu.”
