pilowsky

If you think this is chaos go to .

Were you thinking of standing?

[hv=pc=n&e=sk542haqtda97ct86&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=1cp1dp]133|200[/hv] The full deal

This is much less of a problem than you imagine. If you play chess you see that when there is a dispute the clock is stopped and the arbiter/director is called. If a player has made an illegal move then the director can penalise the clock of the offending side - watch how quickly players will start to adhere to the rules if this happens. Full disclosure is part of the rules. Failure to fully disclose (as determined by the Director) would earn a temporal breach. If the Director is satisfied that an explanation is reasonable then the clock is restarted. In the circumstance of a Bridge clock the 'call TD' button would automatically stop the clock which can only be restarted by the Director. The big advantage over the current system is that now the Director has an additional simple penalty - time - at their disposal. In the current arrangement players can stop a game with no fear of penalty - hardly fair at all.

I disagree with the 'very' part. While it is true that they are different games, there are many similarities. In some ways Bridge can be characterised as a chess puzzle in that players are given a particular situation with a known set of solutions and they have to solve it. A key similarity is that they are turn-taking games where each participant makes one legal move at a time with the objective of defeating the other player (/pair of players). The requirement to to do this in an allotted time makes chess (and many other sports) more exciting. Timing is particularly valuable in online games to reduce cheating and smurfing. There is no reason that is intrinsic to the game of bridge that means you cannot have a clock and BBO, recognising this, has actually implemented one in its Directorless pairs games. Given that someone who writes code on BBO has already implemented a form of timing already - and dispensed with directors - why not go the whole hog and implement an optional (in the sense that the person setting up the tournament can include one and set the parameters) clock with a visible countdown timer so that players can try it out. Discussions on stack exchange suggest that it's pretty straightforward. The additional tension generated by a timed element will make the game much more appealing to younger players - something BBO and Bridge in general badly needs.

Well, if it's legal, will Trump be interested?

Whenever the US political system appears to have descended into utter chaos and hopelessness, a new level of anarchy and disorder is revealed.

Pope Emeritus Benedict

I've had a string of hands where I made the wrong choice - not completely unusual - but was wondering if the odds were really that bad. With South playing the ♥7, and West ducking, what are the chances that East has the King, West has the Jack, and putting up the Ten, is the right play? [hv=pc=n&s=skq6h765daqtckj76&n=s543haqt8d976c985&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1nppp]266|200[/hv]

It's surprising that it appears to be difficult to implement a turn timer on Bridge sites when they are ubiquitous on chess (and presumably other) sites.

Well, when the time does come it might look something like .

Yes - using Opera and changing to 'Americas' it doesn't appear - which I suppose means...

There's a new Republican competing for attention - he's jew(ish), has been to college and served coffee to someone who might have worked for a bank. There's a vague truthiness to his claims.

or "etc" in English :) I guess the point was that it doesn't seem to be trained in any non-English languages.

usw in Italy? PP: What is u.s.w. in Italian? ChatGPT: It is not clear what "u.s.w." stands for or represents in Italian. It is possible that "u.s.w." is an abbreviation or acronym in another language, but without more context it is not possible to accurately translate it or provide a meaning. etc...

Use the link in the post to access it (for free) and test your idea - several minutes of mindless entertainment.

Bridge bidding is a difficult to learn so I asked ChatGPT from openAI.com. (https://chat.openai.com/chat). It was really helpful: Me: How does bidding work in Bridge? ChatGPT: In the game of bridge, bidding is a process through which the four players communicate information about their hands to their partners. The goal of bidding is to determine which pair of players will play together as partners and which suit or no-trump will be the trump suit for the current hand. Each player, starting with the player to the left of the dealer and continuing clockwise, has the opportunity to make a bid or pass. A bid consists of a number and a suit, with the number indicating the number of tricks that the player's team intends to take and the suit indicating the suit that will be the trump for the hand. For example, a bid of "2 clubs" means that the player intends to take at least two tricks with clubs as the trump suit. If a player passes, they are indicating that they do not wish to make a bid and do not have a strong enough hand to commit to taking a certain number of tricks. If all four players pass, the hand is said to be "passed out" and the deal is over. The bidding continues until three consecutive players pass, at which point the final bid becomes the contract for the hand. The player who made the final bid becomes the declarer, and their partner becomes the dummy. The declarer's team must then try to take at least the number of tricks that they bid in order to fulfill the contract and score points. If they fail to fulfill the contract, they lose points. Bidding is an important part of bridge as it allows players to communicate information about their hands and coordinate their strategies with their partners. It requires careful consideration of one's own hand and a good understanding of the bidding conventions being used by the other players. Me: Does that mean if I open the bidding "2 clubs" I think I can make a 2 club contract? ChatGPT: Yes, when you open the bidding with "2 clubs," you are indicating that you believe you have a strong enough hand to take at least two tricks with clubs as the trump suit. You are also giving your partner the opportunity to support your bid by bidding a higher number or a different suit, or to pass if they do not have a strong enough hand to support your bid. In bridge, the player to the left of the dealer is the first to bid, and the bidding continues clockwise around the table until three consecutive players pass. If you open the bidding with "2 clubs," the other players will have the opportunity to bid higher or pass. If one of the other players bids a higher number or a different suit, you and your partner will have the opportunity to bid again, either by bidding higher or by supporting your partner's bid. It's important to keep in mind that when you make a bid, you are not only indicating the strength of your hand, but also providing information to your partner about the distribution of your cards. For example, if you open the bidding with "2 clubs" and your partner bids "3 diamonds," they are indicating that they have a strong hand in diamonds and are supporting your club bid. This can be helpful in determining your strategy for the hand.

A recent Fiona Hill conversation.

Bird and Anthias (Winning suit contract leads) show - double-dummy at least - that leading a singleton including kings is best against any major suit game contract. Which is probably why the robots (and people like me who learned Bridge from robots) lead them.

[hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|~~v3fakebot,~~v3fakebot,pilowsky,~~v3fakebot|md|2SK5HKJDJ8764CQ832,SAJ4H87DKT95CJ765,ST976HAQ642DQ3CA4,SQ832HT953DA2CKT9|sv|b|rh||ah|Board%204|mb|P|mb|1H|an|Major%20suit%20opening%20--%205+%20!H;%2011-21%20HCP;%2012-22%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|1N|an|Forcing%20one%20notrump%20--%203-%20!H;%203-%20!S;%206+%20HCP;%2012-%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|2C|an|New%20suit%20--%203+%20!C;%205+%20!H;%2011+%20HCP;%2012-18%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|HT|pc|HK|pc|H8|pc|H2|pc|HJ|pc|H7|pc|H4|pc|H9|pc|C2|pc|C5|pc|CA|pc|C9|pc|HA|pc|H5|pc|D4|pc|C6|pc|D5|pc|DQ|pc|DA|pc|D6|pc|S8|pc|SK|pc|SA|pc|S6|pc|S4|pc|S9|pc|SQ|pc|S5|pc|H3|pc|D7|pc|C7|pc|H6|pc|CJ|pc|C4|pc|CK|pc|C3|pc|D2|pc|DJ|pc|DK|pc|D3|pc|D9|pc|S7|pc|S3|pc|D8|pc|DT|pc|HQ|pc|S2|pc|C8|pc|CQ|pc|SJ|pc|ST|pc|CT|]400|300| I don't want seem needy or overly argumentative, but is ♣A4 really enough to be described as a 'new suit'? Or is it 'new' in the sense that it isn't the original suit? I thought 2♥ was the default rebid here. Basic robots. [/hv]

One of the many problems with this type of research is the control group. Suppose you take 20 mathematicians from Minnesota and do some kind of imaging (positron emission tomography, functional MRI, feeling their skulls for lumps etc) and then compare the results with some random group in the population (matched of course for age, sex and weight). You find a difference in the right frontal cortex. Does this means you've discovered the Minnesota mathematics nucleus? When EInstein died he left his brain to science (very kind) and when Marian Diamond examined it she discovered that Einstein had a higher proportion of glial cells compared to neurons when compared to a 'control' group in one area of his brain. Here's the paper from 1985. Fascinating but what does it prove?

It sure does.

It's a great series and very impressive. Here's a link to his channel with the back catalogue.

Not that weird. (disclaimer - not a psychiatrist). If a person is in distress (which is shorthand for "has a physical disease for which there is no known treatment"), the doctor aims to determine whether or not there is anything that the medical model can do to alleviate their suffering, sometimes there isn't. That's why we still have medical research. BTW, 'treat' includes any form of medical intervention that relieves suffering. But first, there has to be suffering. There are definitely many illness that manifest themselves with psychiatric symptoms that can be hard to diagnose but a person can only be detained for treatment if in addition to the presence of the signs and symptoms of a mental disorder it makes them a danger to themselves or others. The last bit is the key. In the case of some with psychopathic traits - eg they're narcissistic - they might be functioning perfectly well and be pretty satisfied with themselves. The way that they behave towards others might cause others to be unhappy with them - and there's the problem. If the unhappiness that they create doesn't break any laws what would you want the medical profession to do? Sit on them and tell them they aren't as wonderful as they think they are? There are no drugs or any amount of 're-education' that will de-narcify anyone. Narcissists never wake up one morning and think "hmmm, maybe they were right, maybe I am less amazing than I thought I was." Returning to this thread, Mr T doesn't appear to have a "treatable mental illness" in the sense that although he believes a bunch of stuff that some other people don't, there is no drug or treatment that will shift his beliefs. His ideas are mostly of the form. "I think Trump will be elected President and if he isn't the election was rigged". Lots of people believe this, it (arguably) isn't impairing his ability to eat, sleep, play golf and rotate under UV lamps, so it isn't impairing his choice of a normal life. Trumpy beliefs are a legal and political problem, not a medical problem. Suppose 75%+ of Americans suddenly decided that the world was created in 6 days by an omniscient being that no-one has ever seen but you have to believe it exists because... It's only a problem if they start shooting people that disagree with them. A psychiatrist would say that the shooter isn't suffering from a 'treatable mental illness' because of their apparently unusual and unfalsifiable belief system, so the unacceptable behaviour has to be managed by the legal system.