pilowsky

I'm not sure what you mean by "either passes or doubles". On the bidding table (basic GIB?) it only doubles - I only tried 3-4 times. Also there's no detectable pausing - I suspect that the interface adds some pausing to make humans feel better. If I put 4 (advanced or basic) robots alone at a table they'll bang out dozens of hands - bid and play - in the blink of an eye (milliseconds). [hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|pilowsky,~~M2194vuc,~~M55849af,~~M1872qko|md|1ST97H7DQT7542CJ92,SAK8432HT43DJ3C53,SHAKQ9865DCAKQ764,SQJ65HJ2DAK986CT8|sv|o|rh||ah|Board%2011|mb|2D|an|Weak%20two%20diamond%20--%201-4%20!C;%206+%20!D;%201-3%20!H;%201-3%20!S;%2010-%20HCP;%207+%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|4H|an|6+%20!H;%2017+%20HCP;%2018+%20total%20points%20|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|]300|300| It doesn't seem to cope with aggressive bidding either:[/hv] [hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|~~M2194ghj,~~M2194vuc,~~M55849af,~~M1872qko|md|1ST97H7DQT7542CJ92,SAK8432HT43DJ3C53,SHAKQ9865DCAKQ764,SQJ65HJ2DAK986CT8|sv|o|rh||ah|Board%2011|mb|P|mb|2S|an|Weak%20two%20bid%20--%201-4%20!C;%201-3%20!D;%201-3%20!H;%206+%20!S;%2010-%20HCP;%207+%20total%20points%20|mb|3S|an|Two%20suited%20-%20other%20major%20and%20minor%20--%205+%20!H;%2018+%20total%20points;%20forcing%20|mb|4S|an|The%20Law:%2010%20trump%20-%3E%20game%20support%20--%202+%20!S%20|mb|P|mb|P|mb|D|an|5+%20!H;%2024+%20HCP;%2025+%20total%20points%20|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|]300|300| On a regular bidding table this happened. With a K-R score of 29.4[/hv] [hv=https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|~~M6869npv,~~M2194vuc,~~M55849af,~~M1872qko|md|1ST97HDQT7542CJ942,SAK8432HT43DJ3C53,SHAKQ98765DCAKQ76,SQJ65HJ2DAK986CT8|sv|o|rh||ah|Board%2011|mb|P|mb|2S|an|Weak%20two%20bid%20--%201-4%20!C;%201-3%20!D;%201-3%20!H;%206+%20!S;%2010-%20HCP;%207+%20total%20points%20|mb|3S|an|Two%20suited%20-%20other%20major%20and%20minor%20--%205+%20!H;%2018+%20total%20points;%20forcing%20|mb|4S|an|The%20Law:%2010%20trump%20-%3E%20game%20support%20--%202+%20!S%20|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|]300|300| But never doubles this. With a K-R score of 29.5[/hv] K-R from http://www.rpbridge....cgi-bin/xhe1.pl

Turn on autoplay singletons in your settings.

The 65% refers to "effectiveness against symptomatic disease." This is quite different from disease that causes hospitalisation|ventilation|death. A symptom is something that the patient reports. "I feel unwell" "I can't smell" are symptoms. A sign is something that can be observed - "Ken has a fever/red eyes etc." This means that a person who has extremely mild|vague symptoms and possibly no signs might feel "not quite right" and get a test that comes back positive for sars-cov-2. The authors of the NEJM article conclude that (inter alia): "Our findings indicate that two doses of vaccination with BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 are insufficient to give adequate levels of protection against infection with the omicron variant and mild disease. Boosting with BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 provided a substantial increase in protection against mild disease". Suggesting that a booster is a good idea. Four doses is even better. The "mild disease" rider is critical. The survey doesn't discuss the effectiveness vs serious disease (needing hospitalisation/ventilation etc). We still don't know what "mild disease" means in terms of long-term sequelae. My recollection of the heart disease data after quitting smoking is that the average population risk of heart attack returns to baseline after 3-4 years (old data - not sure about recent work). Similarly, there may be long-term sequelae of a mild case of COVID-19 - we don't know what this will be. Long term consequences of viral infections are very common e.g von Economo's disease (as discussed by Oliver Sacks), depression following infectious mononucleosis and many others. The relationship between initial disease severity and sequelae is also unclear. In NSW we have had around 1M positive cases (popn ~8.5M) in the past 2 months alone. This is likely a gross underestimate since antigen tests give false negative results ~50% of the time. It may be that pretty much everyone has now been exposed if 1 in 8 people were positive in the last 6-8 weeks. This is probably the reason why many jurisdictions have 'given up' as evidenced by the almost total lack of mask wearing. In the end, survey results only tell us about the whole population. The survey results published in the NEJM seem to confirm the information that is out there: best protection comes from having 4 doses at appropriate intervals. In Australia at the moment, despite having a superb double-dose vaccination rate (but not quadruple) there is a surge in positive cases and our deaths per million cases is the same as the USA. Looking at the Johns Hopkins dashboard the figures today are: Australia vs USA Deaths last 28 days: ____867_______________11776 Population: _____ _____ 25687000_____ 329484000 Deaths/million: _____ ____34_____ __________36

I wish my thoughts moved in trains.

There's so much left to the imagination in that sentence I don't know where to begin. What colour was your second wife? Were you eating dinner on the bicycle?

No wonder you can afford new shoes. You just saved $44 billion by not buying Twitter. If you don't buy BBO you might be able to afford ________?

Sounds like you need to talk it over with yourself a bit more...

Believing self-rated attributions sounds like pholly.

I like reports about scientific research in the media as much as the next person who likes reports about scientific research in the media. They are of course rarely related to the actual findings. Here's a recent report that claims: "SCIENTISTS FIND LINK BETWEEN CAT OWNERSHIP AND SCHIZOPHRENIA" The Independent reports. A quick database search (cat+owner*+psychosis) reveals five papers. The most recent one suggests: I particularly like the use of the Psychic experiences screening tool. Clearly something the TD's will find valuable in detecting psychotic cat-owning bridge players.

we (are) arguing... ...or were?

German "aid" for Ukraine. And that's the kind version from Deutsche Welle.

When you first set up a card to use with your partner you can type in their BBO name at the top where it says "partner". Now when you play together this card is loaded for ops to look at (if they want). It also means that the card is available in your partners account to look at, change and save.

[hv=pc=n&s=s9763hq7642d76cj2&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1d1np2d(Jacoby%20transfer%20--%205%2B%20H)dpp]133|200| I've been playing some 'not best hand' challenges vs GIB to get some practice with GIB's behaviour in not best hand situations. The results are typically bizarre. My question is: In normal bridge is it correct to pass the transfer here? And what does South bid after North passes? I bid 2H which was doubled and made 2HSX-3 for 800. [/hv] Here's what happened at the other table.

From the conclusions about leading against (a one suit auction) to 4S

Bird and Anthias do not recommend leading Aces in 1S-...-4S auctions. It comes last on their list of possibilities where it is described as "not such a bad lead as people think". Hardly a ringing endorsement. In order: Singletons Top of doubletons Passive leads from xxx or xxxx Then comes trump leads if desperate and only then do we see the unsupported Ace from Axx or Axxx. Where it seems to succeed is if the A is a singleton or (the often derided) Ax. The same is true for leading into a part score.

There is one important difference between Ukraine and Finland. Although Finland is nominally neutral it leans very heavily towards Europe and unlike the UK and the USA, is a member of the European Union. Ukraine is neither a NATO nor an EU member. There is a mutual defence clause in the EU charter which is called (unsurprisingly) the mutual defence clause and is part of the Treaty of Lisbon: This obligation of mutual defence is binding on all EU countries. However, it does not affect the neutrality of certain EU countries and is consistent with the commitments of EU countries which are NATO members. This provision is supplemented by the solidarity clause (Article 222 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) which provides that EU countries are obliged to act jointly where an EU country is the victim of a terrorist attack or a natural or man-made disaster.

"imminent legal dilemma"? Tell us more...

True. We use the space lasers that we brought with us from the lab to shoot the viruses on our way to the polling booth.

Where do you think the space lasers are kept?

If you are over 18 and don't vote you get a $20.00 fine (roughly 4-5 coffees in Australia). This applies to all local, state and federal government. Of course, there is no compulsion to actually vote, but you do have to turn up - collect your ballot and put it in the box. At every election about 6% of votes are informal (filled out incorrectly and therefore not countable) - you can read the exhaustive analysis here. Australians love voting. It's a national sport. You can vote early, you can vote on the day, you can post your vote from the outer Hebrides or Mawson base but if you don't, its 20 big ones. Australia has been polluted by many americanisms but fortunately not 'folks'. Unfortunately we now have influencers, tiktokers and shops that tell you to have a nice day. Things can be monetised and be impactful and there's definitely too much lycra about.

You don't need a new book. You just need to look at Australia. Compulsory voting with an exhaustive preferential system is the best way to run a democracy hands down. It won't work in the USA because of the very long tradition of trying to block large sections of the population from voting. The USA needs to get rid of systemic racism as step 1. Then it can consider moving towards being a democracy. I won't hold my breath.

I wasn't that impressed either, but that was the source. Things look very scary in that part of the world. 100 years ago there was a war between Russia and Poland in the same region. My grandfather was there and wrote this in his (handwritten) memoirs. Later he escaped from Europe - the rest of the family were not so fortunate. Your confidence that the current conflagration will be contained to Ukraine is appealing. I don't share it; people forget very quickly.

Mr Google - widely reported today - this from the independent. I note that the Independent, whilst having (wikipedia) a leftish stance is owned by the son of an ex-KGB oligarch fwiw. Baron Lebedev - thanks Boris.

[hv=lin=st||pn|pilowsky,~Mwest,~Mnorth,~Meast|md|4SKJ9632H986DATCKJ,SAT7HAJ3DKQ92C643,SQH72D87643CQT982,S854HKQT54DJ5CA75|sv|e|rh||ah|Board%206|mb|P|mb|1S|an|Major%20suit%20opening%20--%205+%20!S;%2011-21%20HCP;%2012-22%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|DK|pc|D3|pc|D5|pc|DA|pc|CK|pc|C3|pc|C2|pc|C5|pc|CJ|pc|C6|pc|CQ|pc|CA|pc|DJ|pc|DT|pc|D2|pc|D4|pc|HK|pc|H6|pc|H3|pc|H2|pc|HQ|pc|H8|pc|HJ|pc|H7|pc|S4|pc|S2|pc|SA|pc|SQ|pc|HA|pc|C8|pc|H4|pc|H9|pc|DQ|pc|D6|pc|S8|pc|S9|pc|SK|pc|ST|pc|D7|pc|S5|pc|SJ|pc|S7|pc|D8|pc|C7|mc|7|]300|300| How about from ATx?[/hv]