pilowsky

Seriously? That's what you took away from that book?

It's a very unusual politician that would allow anything to stand in the way of being (re-)elected. The debate about abortion is a good example. In Australia rabid anti-abortionists number about 10% of the population most lower house elections are decided by a much smaller margin. But this particular group will vote en bloc on this single issue. It seems that in the USA [guns|abortion|money] will galvanise millions. And yet, in the USA the largest number of voters don't. Even in 2020, "I didn't vote" scored higher than any individual presidential candidate. Why is this? This apathy about elections and a general sense that their vote is meaningless suggests a bred in the bone sense of hopelessness and a lack of social cohesion. The fervent opposition to supporting a meaningful standard of living for all is present on both sides of the aisle in the USA. Reading this forum I get a sense that Bridge is all about money in the USA (true for all sports) and has little to do with leisure and meeting friends. Michael Lewis' book 'Moneyball' captures this attitude perfectly: when leisure is solely about making money a society loses its soul.

Food insecurity is an important problem and it is likely that the COVID19 pandemic, food insecurity, population growth and climate change are mechanistically related. What is not clear is what you mean by 'failure'. The failure of communities to seize the opportunity to become fully vaccinated despite the availability to them of effective vaccines is an obvious failure. The failure of wealthy communities to make the fruits of their research and development of vaccines is another failure. SARS is like influenza - it mutates and requires new vaccines to the new protein. In that way it is similar to food insecurity - one meal doesn't fix the problem - hunger always comes back.

The pandemic is far from over. SARS viruses continue to mutate in the wild and hospitals are still full of cases. In Australia today 3899 people are in hospital. To give some idea of the strain this puts on the health system the average major hospital in Australia is 800 to 1000. If SARS is occupying 4-5 of our major hospitals - to say nothing of the strain on staff - there is additional suffering because of the displaced activity. On a positive note, work is continuing on the development of new and better vaccines. On Wednesday a group in the Netherlands reported the development of a highly effective (in hamsters) formulation that can be given intranasally. The method uses a live attenuated virus (somewhat like the Sabin vaccine for Polio - the pink liquid on a teaspoon I had as a child). You can read the article here. According to the authors: "Naturally occurring lentogenic (low-virulent) NDV strains, such as LaSota, are used worldwide as live-attenuated vaccines to control Newcastle disease in poultry."

[hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|~~v3fakebot,~~v3fakebot,wbartley,~~v3fakebot|md|4S872HK9DAK754CKQ5,SKQTHJ632DQ986C93,SAJ95HAQ85DJ32C64,S643HT74DTCAJT872|sv|e|rh||ah|Board%206|mb|P|mb|1N|an|notrump%20opener.%20Could%20have%205M.%20--%202-5%20!C;%202-5%20!D;%202-5%20!H;%202-5%20!S;%2015-17%20HCP;%2018-%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|2C|an|Stayman%20--%20%20|mb|D|an|11-%20HCP;%20rebiddable%20!C;%2012-%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|S3|pc|S2|pc|SQ|pc|SA|pc|D2|pc|DT|pc|DA|pc|D9|pc|DK|pc|D6|pc|D3|pc|C8|pc|CA|pc|C5|pc|C9|pc|C4|pc|C2|pc|CQ|pc|C3|pc|C6|pc|S7|pc|SK|pc|S5|pc|S6|pc|DQ|pc|DJ|pc|S4|pc|D4|pc|ST|pc|SJ|pc|CT|pc|S8|pc|H7|pc|HK|pc|H6|pc|H5|pc|CK|pc|H3|pc|H8|pc|CJ|pc|H9|pc|H2|pc|HA|pc|HT|pc|HQ|pc|H4|pc|D5|pc|HJ|pc|S9|pc|C7|pc|D7|pc|D8|]400|300| Brilliant - who was South during the bidding?[/hv]

The advantage of using the Imgur method is that you can choose the size you like best. You can also copy images you load onto facebook but the size may be a problem. This came from the BBO Facebook page. I right-clicked, "copy image" and pasted it here. This image is one that I loaded onto facebook from my phone and copied and pasted the same way.

Did you google it and try the suggested fixes?

[hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|pilowsky,~~v3fakebot,~~v3fakebot,~~v3fakebot|md|2SJ8532H74DAQJ8CK4,SA97HAKJ83DT752CQ,S4HQT965D9CAJT865,SKQT6H2DK643C9732|sv|b|rh||ah|Board%204|mb|1H|an|Major%20suit%20opening%20--%205+%20!H;%2011-21%20HCP;%2012-22%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|1S|an|One%20over%20one%20--%204+%20!S;%206+%20total%20points|mb|2D|an|Two-level%20overcall%20--%205+%20!D;%2010+%20HCP;%2018-%20total%20points|mb|D!|an|Support%20double%20-%203%20S%20--%205+%20!H;%203%20!S;%2011-21%20HCP;%2012-22%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|2S|an|4+%20!S;%206-10%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|H7|pc|HA|pc|H6|pc|H2|pc|CQ|pc|CA|pc|C9|pc|C4|pc|D9|pc|D6|pc|DJ|pc|D7|pc|H4|pc|HK|pc|H5|pc|D4|pc|H8|pc|H9|pc|ST|pc|SJ|pc|DA|pc|D2|pc|S4|pc|D3|pc|HT|pc|SQ|pc|D8|pc|HJ|pc|S6|pc|S2|pc|S9|pc|C5|pc|DT|pc|C6|pc|DK|pc|DQ|pc|C7|pc|CK|pc|S7|pc|CJ|pc|H3|pc|HQ|pc|SK|pc|S3|pc|C3|pc|S5|pc|D5|pc|CT|pc|S8|pc|SA|pc|C8|pc|C2|]400|300| When is it a good idea to ruff partners trick?[/hv] [hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?bbo=y&lin=pn%7CRobot%2CRobot%2CRobot%2CRobot%7Cst%7C%7Cmd%7C2sj8532h74daqj8ck4%2Csa97hakj83dt752cq%2Cs4hqt965d9cajt865%2Cskqt6h2dk643c9732%7Crh%7C%7Cah%7Cboard%204%7Csv%7Cb%7Cmb%7C1h%7Can%7Cmajor%20suit%20opening%20--%205%2B%20%21h%3B%2011-21%20hcp%3B%2012-22%20total%20points%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7C1s%7Can%7Cone%20over%20one%20--%204%2B%20%21s%3B%206%2B%20total%20points%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7C2s%7Can%7Csimple%20raise%20--%205%2B%20%21h%3B%204%20%21s%3B%2011%2B%20hcp%3B%2012-15%20total%20points%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cmb%7Cp%7Cpc%7Cs3%7Cpc%7Cs7%7Cpc%7Cs4%7Cpc%7Cst%7Cpc%7Ch2%7Cpc%7Ch4%7Cpc%7Cha%7Cpc%7Ch5%7Cpc%7Cd5%7Cpc%7Cd9%7Cpc%7Cd6%7Cpc%7Cdj%7Cpc%7Cs5%7Cpc%7Cs9%7Cpc%7Cc6%7Cpc%7Cs6%7Cpc%7Cd2%7Cpc%7Cc8%7Cpc%7Cd3%7Cpc%7Cd8%7Cpc%7Csj%7Cpc%7Csa%7Cpc%7Ch6%7Cpc%7Csq%7Cpc%7Chk%7Cpc%7Cht%7Cpc%7Cc3%7Cpc%7Ch7%7Cpc%7Ch8%7Cpc%7Ch9%7Cpc%7Cc9%7Cpc%7Cc4%7Cpc%7Cca%7Cpc%7Cc7%7Cpc%7Cck%7Cpc%7Ccq%7Cpc%7Chq%7Cpc%7Cd4%7Cpc%7Cs8%7Cpc%7Chj%7Cpc%7Cda%7Cpc%7Cdt%7Cpc%7Ccj%7Cpc%7Cdk%7Cpc%7Cdq%7Cpc%7Cd7%7Cpc%7Cct%7Cpc%7Cc2%7Cpc%7Cs2%7Cpc%7Ch3%7Cpc%7Cc5%7Cpc%7Csk%7C|]400|300| Left to their own devices at the other table GIB won its own winner at trick one and then gave up all hope.[/hv]

Ah, that explains it. I was putting the emFARsis on the wrong syllARble.

When you say "there are a lot" I think this understates it dramatically. There is a tendency in even the most rational of us to believe that success is possible in the absence of knowledge or skill. Everyone that enters a Bridge tournament believes somewhere in a dark recess of their mind that they can win. This is codified in the American psyche: "you can do anything if you try hard enough". Well, you can't. Pew Research writes that Since when does 56% count as slim? Particularly when 56% 'say'? Ask Americans if they think it is possible that ... [insert mad idea here]. The number will be larger.

I heard that Irish guy on CNN interview a couple of people at a rally and when he said "But that's just a conspiracy theory" one of them replied (with a completely straight face) "What's wrong with a conspiracy theory?". You are talking about a population where the majority are happy to waste half a day a week with a bunch of other people chatting about the existence of life after death. Actual life. After death. It doesn't matter what words you choose unless they wake up one morning and realise they've been duped you have no chance.

We just had the results of the 2021 census reported - you can download any of it at www.abs.gov.au. Hours of fun. Interest in religion in Australia is sinking fast. I suspect the numbers are over-inflated since many people will 'affiliate' without having any 'bearded-man-in-a-white-robe' type religious belief.

Sometimes true. 1 of 5♦X= for 100% 1 of 5♦+2 for 93.75% 1 of 5♦ __for 87.5% 4 of 3♦+4 for 62.5% 3 of 4♦+3 for 62.5% 6 of 3♦+3 for 18.75% 1 of 4♦+2 for 18.75%

The US is a theocracy. With an preventing meaningful reform.

I've been to SD many times. I'm not surprised he tried to invade it.

Then you have to wonder what they were thinking when they let Dubya land an aircraft on an aircraft carrier in a war zone.

Is this an approach that can be carried over into actual Bridge?

Now we know where the inspiration for the zombie genre comes from.

[hv=pc=n&s=sj97643h732dk73cj&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1c1s(One-level%20overcall%20--%205%2B!S%3B%208-17%20etc)d]133|200|This comes from 'not best hand' match. What does North have? What should South bid?[/hv] The full deal

There seem to be quite a few ships at sea.

Good to see you've taken my point on board in a considered way.

It's exactly the same as arguing about an icecream with a 2-year-old.

You're going to need a truth and reconciliation commision. You can't redraw the Mason-Dixon line and call the bottom half jail. More than 20% of the US population appear to think that Trump is the second coming of Robert E Lee.

Is it time to take a vote on who the candidates will be in 2024 and who will win?

I haven't watched movies or TV in years (I gave it up when a show called gogglebox appeared where I was supposed to watch people watching other people on television). The fact the Trump was born on the day that John Logie Baird died was the nail in the coffin. Something I recall distinctly is that in the shoot-em-up genre the villain in US productions is commonly a foreigner. German, South African, Russian, English whatever. Productions where a typical WASP defeats a typical WASP were rare. Think of Die Hard, Lethal Weapon etc., Who are the villains? In one of them they scored a twofer with Jeremy Irons playing a German.