pilowsky

I know nothing about you. You are always careful to keep your identity under wraps. I'm the opposite. If you do not wish to discuss the matter: don't. Nobody is compelling you to.

I understand what you mean. If a person comes up to you and says that a man with a long white beard created the entire world in 6 days then took a break while a few of his friends wrote a book about it, it might sound a little crazy. Until you discover that a whole lot of other people believe the same thing as well. And there is a coherence to the story. Personally I don't agree. This is different. Trump created this story. Also, he has started retelling it and changed the facts. When you listen to the interview he rambles. This is a sign of incoherence. Regarding your other points: yes psychiatric disease like cardiovascular disease is incredibly complex. You need to study very hard for a long time to understand the nuances of it. Even in non-psychiatric disease, there are different fashions of treatment for different disorders.

Just got back to my computer at 1230 pm EST Sydney Australia 2nd September. Noticed that a Server upgrade had taken place. I am now unable to see the names of entrants to tournaments prior to the start of a tournament. Is this one of the 'tweaks'? If so, what is the purpose of it?

You are reading the synthesised opinion of 40 years of knowledge. I have no intention of providing more than I already have. Others will do that. In fact, they already have. Far too many people are trying to frame Trump's extremely crazy talk into the narrative of a normal person when in fact it is obvious when you listen carefully to what he says that it is completely 'mad'. I use the term 'mad' in the technical sense. It means making no rational sense. If you listen carefully to the Ingraham interview - and other interviews as I have, it is clear that something is not right.

It does not matter what the others did. They did not invent penicillin as a cure for disease. Neither did the other people that Florey and Chain employed. You don't know anything about Science or Medicine or much of else by the sound of it. If you pay me I will give you lessons. Your 'personal opinion' is not worth anything because it is completely ill-informed. I was wrong, you don't really know what is going on. It's like having a discussion with a Trump supporter. Black is not White.

Here's some music to listen to while you ponder it. It's the Kinks: Lola. Normally when I play robot tournaments I check the bidding carefully. What do you make of this? [hv=pc=n&s=st3haj932dak5cj54&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=pp1hp2np4hppp]133|200[/hv] OH ***** I just figured it out *&%(^%&^$ anyway, here's what happened - all my fault I guess . Enjoy -

Pilowsky is a very unusual surname. There are not many of us about. Strangely enough, the modal occupation for Pilowsky's is "Professor of Psychiatry". I'm not one of them. But I have studied enough to know a bit about it. My Father told me that people suffering from schizophrenia commonly understand that their thoughts are disordered. They know that something is wrong and that radios are not really putting ideas into their head. It's just that's the only way they can make sense of the world. My equally famous sister explained to me that when not taking their medications most British schizophrenics suffered from a delusion that they were romantically involved with a member of the British royal family. In retrospect... Why do I bring this up now? I just listened to Trump being interviewed by Ingraham. This looks like a folie a deux. Both of them might be in a bit of bother if they ran into a competent psychiatrist. The conversation appears to have hallmarks of paranoid schizophrenia. At the end of the conversation, Trump's words start to become quite jumbled (word salad). Ingraham starts to engage in the delusion. Here is the link. I have transcribed the conversation as best I could. Mark Vonnegut's Eden Express for further reading. Sarah Cooper mocks. Scarborough commentates. I think something else may be going on. Ingraham: How will a Trump re-election calm things down in the United States? Trump: He's a weak person he's controlled like a puppet so it's not going to be calm things down it's going to be they will have won they will have taken over your cities. It's a revolution you understand that. It's a revolution. The people in this country are not going to stand for that then I can stand for that the vast majority of people feel like me they feel like every time I put law and order up on social media it gets such an incredible positive response the people of this country will not stand for it. If you say calm things down, yeah, it's because they will have taken over. Ingraham: Who do you think is pulling Biden's strings? Is it former Obama people? Trump: I don't even like to talk about Biden. understand if you say calm things down now because they will have taken over take a look at what's going on and Biden is I don't even like to mention Biden because he's not controlling anything. People that you've never heard of. People that are in the dark shadows. Ingraham: What does that mean that sounds like conspiracy theories? Trump: People that you haven't heard of They're people that are on the streets. People that are controlling the streets. We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend Ingraham: Where was this? Trump: And in the plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs. Wearing these dark uniforms black uniforms with gear and this and that. Ingraham: Where is this? Trump: I'll tell you some time but it's under investigation right now but they came from a certain city and these people were coming to the Republican national Convention and like seven people on the plane like this person and then a lot of people are on the plane to do big damage. Ingraham: But the money must be coming from somewhere. Trump: The money is coming from some very stupid rich people. They will be thrown to the wolves like you've never seen before.

It always amazes how people that know the full story can mangle the truth. Fleming came back from holidays and picked up a Petri dish and complained to his staff "What's all this then" - not a scientist - not a discovery. Tyndall was a physicist. He discovered an effect. Part of which included Penicillium Nostatum particles floating in light beams. Also does not count. It only counts when you do what Florey and Chain did. But then you aren't a Medical Scientist, are you? That's why they got the prize. Of course, if you are sure that the Nobel award committee made a mistake, and it sounds like you think that you have a good case, write to the Karolinska in Stockholm with your concerns. You do understand the terms of Alfred Nobel's will about how many people can get the award etc don't you? When they write back (if) PLEASE publish the response here I really would love to see it . Interestingly, when the people at Adelaide University met up with Florey many years later and asked him why he never came back to Australia he replied that they had never asked him. Oh said the vice-chancellor - 'but we put an advertisement in the newspaper - you didn't apply'. How's it going in the Old Country by the way?

I don't want to quibble Barry. I think we are on the same side here. When I say that the problem is that the USA is stuffing it up, I mean that Jared Kushner (who is about six years old in terms of being a medical scientist)/Peter Navarro/Fox and friends and their colleagues in crime are propping up a demented mob Boss whose sole concern is stealing all the wealth in the world. People say that I should butt out because it's none of my business because I am not an American. Unfortunately, America is a herd of angry elephants in a very small tent. They are pissing me off. They are destroying my world. That's why I am annoyed. When Howard Florey invented Penicillin in Oxford he gave it to the world: no charge. An American drug company promptly patented it and reaped massive profits. One of the phase 1 trial subjects at Oxford became the Dean of Medicine at my University. Florey was so annoyed at this that when he subsequently invented methicillin he got Oxford to patent it so the University would retain some profit. Now, Oxford has reached a licensing agreement with Astra-Zeneca and everyone is up in arms. Amazing! America is a failed state. Europe was doing quite well so they dumped their children into the 'new world'. The result: 'The Lord of the Flies' - That's what the USA is. Endless re-runs of the Lord of the Flies. It permeates US literature and film. Battle Royale in Japan by Beat Takeshi sent it up. this was riffed on in that stupid film with the girl who used a bow and arrow. Now we have a failed real estate agent in the white house pretending he's gods gift to temptation island. I shouldn't have turned down the offer to go on the Bachelor - it probably would have paid better than Bridge. It would have made as much sense as Trump being President. Tom Lehrer gave up political satire when Henry Kissinger got the Nobel peace prize - we need him back.

Perhaps they are. Unfortunately, there is one thing GIB can't fix: people that post auctions without the complete hand or information - twice. I went back to the teaching table and ran Stephens hand through it in a couple of different ways. This is what happened. Every way I looked at it the robots get to and make 6♠=. It made no difference whether or not 3♦ or 3♥ is bid. This is the Prime Area with advanced robots so I'm not sure if that makes a difference. There is a tendency on this forum to characterise any failure on the part of GIB to achieve a desired result as a 'bug'. This is because any error by a human is characterised as a 'mistake'. Clearly, the ability of the human to achieve the desired result is relative to their current ability. So is the ability of GIB. GIB can have 'a bad day' as well. You might have a non-advanced robot. You might get GIB when it has no time to simulate or when there is a power outage or all sorts of other things. ***** does happen to machines as well as humans. That's why it took so long for computers to beat people at Chess and Go.

Having been assured that my bidding needed a bit of work I created a few hands for practice. Number three absolutely stumped me. The robots guided me gently up to 7♦. I was feeling pretty smug. Hours later I was feeling a bit less smug. Here's the deal: make 13 tricks on any lead! But West leads the ♣Q. After getting nowhere for several hours despite double-dummy and bridge-solver saying it was makeable, I left the seat and gave it to GIB who also failed to make it. It took me another hour to figure it out. Enjoy. [hv=pc=n&s=sahj532daq742ca53&w=st6hk764dj6cqjt87&n=sq9843haq9dkt3ck6&e=skj752ht8d985c942&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=1dp1sp2hp3dp3np4np5cp5hp7dppp]399|300[/hv]

Is it possible that the robot was unhappy with your bidding Stephen? I just gave your hand to the robots and this is how they bid and played it . PS, I think there is a hyphen in long-standing.

Hi again Just so you know, I don't work for BBO, or the ACBL . Regarding timing for masterpoint credits, this can take time. Depending on when it gets reported. A few minutes ago I played in an ACBL Tourney online and placed. This means I get ACBL and BBO points. The points have not yet been added to my tally at the link I pointed you to. Even after that happens it will be a while before they are reported to the ACBL and then longer before they are included in their database. In Australia Clubs send masterpoint updates monthly. If the club masterpoint secretary is late by a few minutes: disaster. For people used to electronic banking, all this seems rather odd. I don't get it either. Bridgeworld could do better in my humble opinion but it won't be the last time that nobody cares what I think . In the old days there used to a thing called the CCH when you cashed a check (cheque) the shop would take it to the bank. The bank would give it to a cyclist the cyclist would cycle to a central clearing house CCH. The check would 'clear' The whole process would take a few days. IF IT WAS RAINING. All the cyclists in London would stop and have a cup of tea at Mrs Smiggin's tea shop. That's why the cheque clearing time is so long. I don't know why it still takes so long to get my money today. I would have thought that masterpoints could also 'clear' a bit faster, but maybe I'm a little naive.

Hi Miss Trudy Interesting question Have you checked this site? https://www.bridgeba...oints/index.php You can see all of your masterpoints that you accrue for games played on the BBO site here. And anyone else's for that matter - broken down by event and date they were won. Anything that you play elsewhere does not appear here. I am an Australian player. If I play in an Australian tournament on BBO I get BBO points and ABF points separately. The 'exchange rate' works out at 3.5:1 This means I have to divide my BBO points by 3.5 to see what they are worth in Australian money. The same is true for ACBL points (I am also an ACBL member). What I do not know is if offline ACBL points can be ported into BBO. Certainly, offline ABF points cannot be ported into BBO. In many ways, it is a shame that there is not a single international 'masterpoint bureau de change. A very famous Champion who came to Australia for a while became the number one 'rookie' in 2019 because this system does not exist. Seems like something BBO could offer as a service to the community n'est pas?

There is nothing surprising or exciting about getting a viral infection twice. There is no need to breathlessly report it on the forum as though the world was about to come to a grinding halt. In February when nobody was taking it seriously and I was trying to get Bridge clubs to close - and being ignored by the Trump supporters that run them - I came down with an URTI. (upper respiratory tract infection).. As an ex-smoker prone to developing bacterial superinfection I went to my local GP who sent me for a viral panel. It came back positive for rhinovirus. But negative for sars-cov2. I started antibiotics for the super-infection and got better. About two weeks later it recurred. Another test came back with the same result: rhinovirus had struck again. Don't worry about it. It's going to be with us for a long time - just like the flu virus. My guess is that now that it's here it will start mutating and we'll have to keep ahead of it with polyvalent vaccines in the same way that we do with influenza. Think of computing as a metaphor. In 1971 we had log-books. In 1974 slide rules. In 1975 HP 125 calculators - this was the computing power that enabled the moon landing. When I learned Fortran at University in 1975 personal computers did not exist. The story of vaccine development has followed a similar arc. The problem we are facing at the moment is that the largest most powerful best-resourced country in the world is handling the largest environmental health and economic crisis history has ever seen with all the dexterity of a five-year-old child performing neurosurgery with a teaspoon.

Where's vampyr?

Thanks for all of that. Immediately after looking at these three hands, I began rereading Bill Root's book. It was the first Bridge book I bought - from Elizabeth's second-hand shop on King St Newtown fwiw. Could not agree with you more.

Oh, come on Richard. just when I've arrived and made it safe for you..

What's the word for that space in between success and failure? That instant just before you discover that you played the wrong card and the contract will fail. I guess Stephen would call it a comma; my partner said "mediocrity". I often think of Mr Verloc in Conrad's "Secret Agent" "...watching the carving knife fall in a manner leisurely enough for him to form an elaborate defence." Unfortunately, back in the real world, I once again found the right spot and teetered off the wrong side of the cliff. These three hands - all makeable on the lead seemed makeable to me at the time but on reflection look pretty hard. One thing that would interest me from the panel: how would you rate these hands compared to the classifications on BBO? 1. The first one nobody made at the time. So, I gave it to the robots to play. Here's the hand with my bidding. The ♦K is led. [hv=pc=n&s=sqj764hdkq8754c53&w=s932hkt2djt93cak2&n=s5hqj976d62cqt864&e=sakt8ha8543dacj97&d=e&v=0&b=14&a=1h1s3hp4hppdrppp]399|300[/hv] The first time I gave this to the robots they also went down 1. The second time I let them bid it on their own and they made it with a ♦K lead. But they did not choose an optimal line. Any good thoughts? 2. 'Snatching defeat from the doors of perception'. My next brutal lesson in card play arrived as usual, on Board 12 just when things were looking promising in a 12 board IMPs tournament. I managed to find myself in 6♥. Half the field found the winning line - I was not one of them. Placing me in the intermediate group again. Here's how the winners played it. Here's how I played it. Here is a side by side comparison of the moment when things go wrong. You can guess what I did next 3. Last but not at least. Another Heart contract where the advanced players find the winning line and the other half of the field don't. After the same bidding sequence, we find ourselves in 4♥]N. East leads the ♠10. I draw trumps drastically narrowing my options until my hopes hang by a thread. I lead the ♣J hoping for the finesse and I'm doomed. The advanced players, on the other hand, don't try the finesse. They ditch the ♣J on the Ace to create two extra ♣ winners. winners. me. The deal ♠10 led. [hv=pc=n&s=sj96haqtd42caqt72&w=skq872h9dk653ck63&n=sa53hkj8643dqjtcj&e=st4h752da987c9854&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=p1c1s2hp3hp4hppp]399|300[/hv]

In order to see who is kibbitzing, you first have to switch to the 'people' tab. If you are at a table where kibbitzing is allowed then there will be a 'kibbitzers' tab at the top right. You may have to open the window a little to see it. On other Bridge playing programs, the programmers use some of the empty space available on the interface to display the names of the Kibitzers/Spectators. I think that this would be a great idea for BBO to implement. At present, it is impossible for a player to be playing and to simultaneously see their score and see if anyone is kibbing.

Thank you - you are right. I was completely unaware. Professor Dunning and Mr Kruger win that round. I tanked it because I thought there was an error - oh well - learn something new every day. IMHO that is not a test of skill.

I just finished playing an ACBL IMPs tournament 5452 On Board 1 North was Declarer in 2D - I flexed my mouse finger. The robot started playing!!! Can this be fixed please is this a single tournament problem?

Sure, no problem. After you have bid and played the hand it will appear in the history. Click on the three white lines in the corner (some people call them a "hamburger") now you will see a menu: send to membersend abuse reportsave deal asHandviewer linkupload deal to tableHand Editor Save deal as lets you save the deal locally into a folder in BBO for later use. Handviewer link generates a unique link that you can copy and save elsewhere on your computer to play with elsewhere. Upload deal to teaching table is what you are looking for. This option is only available on teaching tables. I'm looking at a hand that I passed out. If I had played it there would be a double-dummy option as well. Hope that helps. Don't send an abuse report, the robots won't care.

Rä whänau ki a koe! And be careful not to discuss philosophy with strange men.