sceptic

I would like to point out that certain virus sellers etc, use statistics, possibly to frighten all of us, I have heard stories that they are the ones designing the spam and viruses to make billions out of us, should I post this comment on conspiricay theories I would like to know where the $40 billion came from and how accurate the figure is, I have never actually met anyone that has lost money through phising, or even identity theft, well, that has not had the loss covered by credit card insurance or the banks have compensated for and this amounts to 1 person for each loss is the $40 billion a grossly inflated guestimate that is being used to scam more money out of punters for their products

Hi everyone, We have just had our first structured Bridge meeting for BBO people to meet face to face, by the end of the week we will know how many people turned up over the weekend in its entirety and I will be setting up a dedicated web site, on this I will give you details of numbers, what happens going forward, suggestion boxes and alsorts of things. The response we all received for the weekend was fantastic and made me smile a lot, I can assure you of that, I think we all feel very happy with the end result and the organisers, can do nothing else but to thank the attendees for coming, we all feel that it was very worthwhile doing it. I would like to thank Michelle Brunner and John Holland for coming and playing with us and for the Saturday morning seminar which was attended by over 50 of us, the feed back was great and their input to the weekend was greatly appreciated by all I would like to thank two unsung heros of the weekend that probably got nowhere near the appreciation they deserved and that is Joyspa (geofspas wife Joy) and Superior being (Shinataros better half) Shintaro, Our TD who made the whole weekend a lot easier t organise than I ever could have imagined and Geofspa, Janee and Lawrence for their tireless efforts in making this happen a few snippets of info, we had over 85 people trun up for the event we never had less than 17 tables in play we consumed 8,000,000 cups of coffee (or it seemed like that), we met some lovely people from , Australia, Denmark, Germany, Holland and 5 from Ireland and a few Polish We have a surplus of cash, this was never run for profit, but we will be reinvesting the money in future meeting. at the end of January we will be sitting down and reflecting where we are and where we want to go with these mettings, we have some ideas about what we want to do and what we want to offer, but if any of you have suggestions please email me wayne.mayer@btinternet.com When we start setting up the web site, we will get some generic emails for everyone to use and one small apology form myself, I could not get around to speak to everyone individually for a variety of reasons, maybe next time, I can put that right :) THANKS to everyone for making this a great event

SYDNEY - A seven year old boy was at the centre of a Parramatta, NSW >courtroom drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who >should have custody of him. > >The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge >initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with child custody >law and regulations requiring that family unity be maintained to the >degree possible. > >The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat >him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. > When the judge then suggested that he live with his grandparents, >the boy cried out that they also beat him. > >After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning >that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the >judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who >should have custody of him. > >After two recesses to check legal references and confer with child >welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the >English Cricket Team, whom the boy firmly believes are not capable >of beating anyone.

how does this equate to online bridge where hesitations are (imho) meaningless

You only have a singleton and you are defending a contratct RHO plays a card (I think it does not matter where in the play you are) Why is hesitation in this position unethical and not just deception or gamesmanship or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

I would like to ask a specific question My pard seemed to be reasonably advanced and seemed to know what he was doing (he may not have felt the same ) LOL I think 4 diamonds should offer two places to play and that is how I like it, but with a pick up pard of IMHO reasonable quality, with no real agreements after his double, (I have 3 places to play)(I play with pickups and I am not lucky enough to spend hours discussing stuff with a p) my thoughts were that giving pard had an option of places to play, it was better him chosing than me bidding a 3 or 4 level heart bid, as I had no idea what his x was based on other than diamond shortage and as he probably had 3 places to play, why should my hearts be better than his spade or clubs (if that makes sense)

[hv=d=e&v=e&n=sqj7hk432dtcajt42&w=s9432hjt7d9652c87&e=s65hq6dkqj874c963&s=sakt8ha985da3ckq5]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - - 3♦ Dbl Pass 4♦ Pass 4♥ Pass Pass Pass playing with a pick up p sayc std carding no real agreements, p seemed pleasant and a reasonable player how would you bid this, I bid 4 diamonds btw

I play low and let Q clubs win and try keep east on lead

Ron. I have always admired your judgement of people

I am beginning to think Double is just trouble ;)

I never joke, I don't have a sense of humour :) in fact reading what I have written, I am inclined to agree with myself

though not related to the CIA, I actually think that press censorship is something to be proud of, in england the main story of the day in certain popular press was that surrounding a typo made by the police, (this enable one of the usual junky sensationalist headlines that sells papers to the masses) it is sad that an australian newpaper media maganate can get a whole counttry reading drivel and junk 24 / 7, I think the press freedoms (and televison) are possibly the main instigator in the moral and social decline in our country (apart from the Labour party) Dictatorships are looking more promising, at least you know where you stand with them, as you say Winstonm, do you really know who rules your country and what they are like?

to make 13 trx you need good things to happen in spades and diamonds and you need to play hearts correctly I assume as beg int we are not looking for squeezes or fancy discovery plays? they have 7 hcp where are they so I think you need to win QD and then play to AK D we now know D split 1 / 6 and 1 hcp is with east (6 to go) now we can test Spades KQS shows W/E have 2/2 so we dont know about 5 of easts card s in the dist also we need to count the west discard if it was a spade we have 4 spade trx we do not have 4 Diamond tricks play K the AC east has a D control we cant do anything about yet and we know he is 2C6D2S unknown H and not sure how many C he has then play from hand to AS and that should give you the picture you need to finsese the hearts the right way at least I hope that is how to do it I think they started to play the spade suit badly to start with

so does that mean my partner and myself can no longer play transfer hesitations? i.e. if I hesitate over RHO's hesitation it means x and if I bid quickly then it means y

the Euro and the leveling of prices across europe is going to hurt us all a few things will happen, the ones with money now or property will have all (the new elite classes) The ones with nothing will still have nothing, the gap will get bigger The Rich europeans are already buying large amounts of property and will make a killing, already this is having a detrimental effect on the poorer countrys joining us where there locals (mainly young people) cant afford to buy a house in their own country (may be they cant now but that does not mean that it should be like this each of these new countries are being stripped of the fit people who are migrating to the wealthier countries for economic advancement and who can blame them. MY own biggest concern is with europe africa etc etc and migration and I do not care what country they head for, is the ones that are leaving, the clever the fit etc etc, are these not the people that should actually be encouraged to stay to build up the own homeland first, rather than be encouraged to keep labour costs cheap (ok use Great Britain as an example) we have over a few years stabalised our labour costs with imigrant labour Nostradamus said beware the yellow from the east, his prophecy is coming true but as usual it takes some understanding of what he means asia is the yellow from the east As usual men and women of great intelect and debating skills are going to reduce more civilizations to dust, they did it with the Roman empire, the Ottoman empire, China etc etc etc , lazy rich europeans are losing control, greed and avarice and nepotisum are the rulers of Europe and they will be its downfall The comodity of power is going to swing against us all, look at how Russia screwed one of the biggest companies in the world, the people with the gas and oil are going to do what they please, America is no longer the Superpower, all it is is a shell of itself and it is on the decline. America will keep Arabic countries destabilised for ever as if they ever actually got their act together they would become a super power in their own right do not believe that we do things for the good of man, the eternal struggle is still active and that is the struggle of power, The European union whlst a great idea, is run by crooks and swindlers and the ones that are not, are to weak to do anything about it, we will be ruled by incompetants as the people that could rule well, do not want to get involved with politics as politics iis what ruins empires

They say it effects your eyesight read all the post :)

We pay loads of VAT and the future does not look good for our tax burden, in the UK lots and lots of items are zero rated for VAT, all this means is oneday they will change the rating to 5% or 10% or whatever they want, it is a back door for bringing in a higher tax burden on the individual

I have brought one of these books from BBO and they really are good value

HI all, If there is anyone thinking about coming, I have updated the web pages and we are now 71 confirmed, with more telling me they are going to book this week Please join us you will be most welcomed http://www.geocities.com/incognito_uk_2000/faq.htm

Capital Punishment is not about hating people you sentence to death, I did not hate Saddam Hussain, but I consider that he deserved to die Life sentence without parole is this not as bad as a slow death, you have taken away all hope and that is as bad as killing someone Hope is one of the things that makes the world go round, take away peoples hope and you kill that person and slowly kill that society

In Thailand a few years back they had a shoot to kill policy for car theft (apparently and I have no proof this is true, but having been to thailand and knowing quite a few thais as friends I see no reason to believe this never happened) They had to stop it because a woamn phoned the police up and reported her car had been stolen, just after she had a row with her husband NOW would she deserve the death penalty ?

too much to fast sorry claus, I do not share your joy

I would be happy to live in an uncivilised country, I do not believe we should not play god on occasions

my new year resolution will be to eat more, have less sex and lose lots of money as I have never managed to keep a resolution for more than 3 days this will be a quite interesting year for me

yes, I am now going to be more worried about the morons in charge of our countries, They do not have a clue, they are bloody idiots and they would be dangerous if they had half a brain