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Two hikers on a trail came around the bend to find an enormous brown bear about 75 yards up the trail. The bear spies them and begins running toward them at a full gallop. One hiker drops his backpack, sits down, throws off his boots, and starts lacing up a pair of running shoes. The other hiker says: "What are you doing? You will never outrun that bear!". The first hiker replies: "I don't have to outrun the bear. I only have to outrun you."

Well maybe they already landed on some kind of watch-list of some anti-terror-pro-homeland-security-agency and will be harassed for instance when the try to take an aeroplane in future. Living in germany I am highly sceptical of this Ehre und Vaterland über alles stuff. ciao stefan

Hello, first a big thank you to all the people that helped. - 1. How was the internet connectivity from Shanghai? Excellent - didn't notice any problems - 2. How was the quality of the operators? Excellent - I do not mind an occasional mishap ( I have been operator myslef and know that itis not that simple). - 3. How was the presentation from the venue regarding internet broadcast? Average - But I must admit that my only source was the bridge bulletin, didn't look about internet broadcast on the official homepage. - 4. How was the co-ordination away from the venue? Excellent - Of course speaking about BBO. - 5. 6 tables per session we had. Was that satisfactory? Excellent - I must admit that I am a little bit biased, being half italian and half german I find often enough one of "my" teams. I think that there is a limit to what BBO can and should do as long as they want to put up commentators. - 6. How did you like the commentary? Excellent - Allow me to mention one name as example to explain why I choosed excellent: Kit Woolsey. And he was not the only one. I do not expect a world class commentator. If I get him great, if not well in the end I am there to watch bridge. - 7. Should we continue with multiple languages? Unconditionally, yes.

Helene... (snip) I will rephrase.....do you owe your country of birth/adoption a duty/debt greater than your very life? Assume...yes.........then what would you do? (snip) My sympathy goes to the Helen camp and since south africa did so well in the Bermuda Bowl ... Ek eet my brood en drink my wyn, en hou my harten van goede rein. (N.P. Van Wyk Louw) ciao stefan

I think you made yourself clear, you are up to word games. If a sentence as "So the energy goes from electric to kinetic and eventually back." doesen't suffice you I give up. ciao stefan

There are already scenarios for the day that we have many vehicles powered by electric energy. The electrical companies would not only recharge your batteries but also pull energy out of them to a certain degree in peak times. Another topic regarding atomic energy that I find interesting, is the role of de facto electrical monoplies intersted in huge centralized facilities opposed to decentralized combined heat and power plants. ciao stefan i have no idea what this post means. 1) de facto monopolies? what is a de facto monoply compared to a facto or other monopopy.... in other words...you just seem to run random words together with no real meaning 2) how do they pull electricity....no in other words how do they store electicity and then pull it? 3) what is centralized electricity compared to noncenralized electricity....in other words how are you storing it? Sorry, if my post wasn't clear. I was adding my two cents to the topic that the amount of electricity needed by a nation is not costant at every hour of the day. About 2) To cover peak times demand, the electrical companies store electricity that they have produced in "no-peak" times. A way to to this is for instance to build a big water bassin on the top of a moutnain. If you have a surplus of electrical energy (you can't switch a big electriity plant on and off as you do with your radio) you pump water up to this bassin. Then if you are suddenly in need of electricity (peak-time). You invert the process. Basically to a hydroelectric power plant. So the energy goes from electric to kinetic and eventually back. Another way to store energy is to use accumulator batteries. There you transform the electrical energy into a reversible chemical reaction and eventually back. The downside of this second method is that the costs for an accumultor battery is very high and so you would not use this method if your only aim is to store energy without having the need to carry it around. Now back to the scenario in my original post. Here the electrical companies get a huge amount of accumulator batteries for free, the batteries being located in our cars and the cars being connected to the national electrical grid while recharging. In "no-peak -times" the accumulators in your car are charged to a maximum and you pay this electrical energy. In "peak-times" they will take electrical energy out of your car till a certain degree and of course you get a bonus for that. About 1) Several energy companies here in europe had a monopoly in their countries in the past. Now we are trying to make a shift to a free market but in this shift. amongst other problems, the electrical grid stayed in the hand of the former monopolist. So on paper a free market but de facto if you try to set up an alternative you will have a hard time. One alternative I mentioned could be "combined heat and power plants" (CHP) that have a ver high degree of efficiency. I hope this helped, best regards stefan

There are already scenarios for the day that we have many vehicles powered by electric energy. The electrical companies would not only recharge your batteries but also pull energy out of them to a certain degree in peak times. Another topic regarding atomic energy that I find interesting, is the role of de facto electrical monoplies intersted in huge centralized facilities opposed to decentralized combined heat and power plants. ciao stefan

Hello, indeed congratulations to the winning teams! I found it remarkable that so many matches were so close till the end. And I wonder if the performance of many teams as South Africa is boosted by the possibilities given by internet bridge. ciao stefan PS Could we move the VC stuff into a own thread, for instance in the watercooler?

and we all experience several times a year that the operators of nuclear plants will lie with no end to us regarding security accidents. One thing will never change amongst us "Money First". Do I want to put my security in their hands? You bet not. Let's have a look direction France. Hey there coworkers of atomic plants commit suicide due of pressure regarding cost cuts even in security matters. Do I want to put my security in their hands? You bet not. To not talk about such blessings as having nuclear threats as a good excuse to make war. What a blessing the cutting of our civil rights due of a possible dirty bomb. I turely belive that we would be better off if we would leave Uranium & Co under the earth. ciao stefan

Ok, obviously I was wrong/misinformed when I said this, I stand corrected. We have good news. In germany prostitution is defintitly legal, you can even search for such a working place at the employment centre. And you can have a beer at 16. So welcome the the WC 2008 ;-) (If the ACBL will send players to such a Gomorrah) As so often I do not know if I should laugh or cry when I hear such stories from the USA, ciao stefan germany

Hello, in many countries sport is highly subsidised with taxpayer's money. Do we want a state support for drug abuse? If not we have to cancel all the money coming from the state to sports and I can't imagine that this would be good for a nation. (or just for me, our city would surely not longer have an open air bath) ciao stefan :)

Maybe one day we will have short range RFIDs in the playing and bidding box cards. Every player has an area in front of him where the RFID signal can be read. So we get a complete record of the play and the time taken. The TD will have a software that will visualise time usage and breaks of correct procedure. (Including automatical recalculation of time consumption due of stop or alert cards) Since final contract and play are a known factor results can be computed immediatly. The TD just needs a palm where he can make the needed changes. The bidding cards can be used to accomodate claims. One player of each side has to use either the clubs (down 1, 2 etc) or the hearts (plus 1, 2 etc.) simultaneously. Since every card in every different board has a different RFID an automatical alarm can be started if players are playing the wrong board. Furthermore we can mark every player with a RFID-Tag ... etc etc Analysis geeks will get a record of every single table and so more records than they can dream of. Ok now I go back to my science fiction book ;-) ciao stefan germany

May I ask why it applies to dummy too? I think it is good manners to leave the seat free as dummy if I intend to leave after the hand so that the other three players will not suffer a delay waiting for the next player to pop in. I have the impression that a lot of this discussions revolving about ratings of different kind is due of the fact that it is not uncommon to have 3 different opp in one hand to your left or right. My suggestion would be to make a second try about a different room. The choice "Masters Bridge Club" did not work and was psychologically maybe not the best. How about a rom for established partnerships of any level. Of yourse you would not get casual players thrown in from the lobby. ciao stefan

Hello, I am not a computer expert, but her my experience: a) While in the past I saw the suit symbols, I do not longer see them and see the coulored lines too. b) I would guess that something has been changed about the font of the suit symbol. c) My browser (Opera) gives me the option in which "mode" I want to see a web page. With a keystroke I change from "as the programmer wants me to see it" to "customer modus". So I get all the symbols again visible (in black) since a font is used that is on my computer. Again, just a guess. ciao stefan

Well this point seems not really enforced. Yesterday I was at a table with 4 Star Player and only one clearly stated his name. ciao stefan

Hello, having a look at the table in the main bridge club I noticed that out of 216 tables 2 were playing MP and the other 214 IMP. (10am GMT) Just out of curiosity, what could be the reason for this "oddity" compared to other bridge sites. Just laziness since IMP is the automatical choice when opening a table? Other kind of players at BBO? ciao stefan

Salve, > Premesso che non è nè un'offesa nè un demerito essere principianti > (anche Garozzo, Belladonna, Versace, Zia.... lo sono stati), non è > meglio che ci si dichiari per quello che si è? > Allievo, agli inizi, e poi principiante (vuol dire che gioco solo da qualche anno), > intermedio (ho fatto qualche campionato nazionale), e così via. Come si vede oltre la difficoltà intrinseca di autoestimarsi vi è anche il problema che allo stesso livello vengono associate arbitrariamente diverse facoltà. Sulla homepage die BBO come guida ufficiale si puo leggere: http://www.bridgebase.com/help/5/skilllevel.html Allievo: ho imparato a giocare da poco tempo Principiante: Gioco da meno di un'anno Intermedio: simile alla maggioranza dei giocatori su BBO Avanzato: vince di solito nel suo club o in piccoli tornei Esperto: vincitore in qualche torneo nazionale Campione: ha rappresentato il proprio pase in qualche campionato mondiale ciao, stefan

Hello, logging in at BBO you get this news at the moment: ----- Our server has started to keep track of players who leave before completing the play of a tournament. Members who do this repeatedly will not be allowed to play in future tournaments. Signing up for a new user ID will not help ----- As much I understand the problem about players leaving a tourney as much worries me the sentence about the fact that you will be able to track such a player. I would like to know if spyware is used to reach this target (having a dynamic IP) ciao stefan germany