pilowsky

Oddly no, the file was only altered to change the names. East passed as I said originally. Afterwards, I wondered if the pass - if it really was forcing (unlikely given the colours) was a psych, but decided it was simply an error. If they had opened 1♣ and I overcalled 1♥ we might have found the (slightly) profitable 6♥ sac. - even doubled - it's still -1100.

It's a cleverly worded headline. It works as click-bait because the reader thinks that a group of Republicans that ARE elected officials are on the verge of forming a new political party. Sadly (from my perspective), the story referees to a motley assortment of old-timers - and some "young fogeys" that are cross with the current party. The calculus (as journalists pompously term arithmetic) makes no sense. 74 million people voted for Trump. 100 are 'threatening' to split from the party. This means that you are more likely to get a cavernous sinus thrombosis than you are likely to find one of these charming non-misogynistic, anti-racist, pro-LGBTQI republicans. I'm sure Senator Slime is laughing all the way to Cancun over this report.

[hv=lin=st||pn|pilowsky,Exculpatory,Bedlam,Preparatory|md|4S9653HAK943DQ965C,SK4H7DAT72CKQT763,SJ72HQJ82D843C942,SAQT8HT65DKJCAJ85|sv|e|rh||ah|Board%206|mb|P|mb|P|mb|1D|mb|P|mb|2N|mb|P|mb|3C|mb|P|mb|4N|mb|P|mb|5C|mb|P|mb|6C|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|HQ|pc|H5|pc|HA|pc|H7|pc|HK|pc|CT|pc|H2|pc|H6|pc|CK|pc|C2|pc|C5|pc|H3|pc|CQ|pc|C4|pc|C8|]300|300| Be Prepared! - so says Tom Lehrer - http://bit.ly/Preparatory I've been playing in tournaments recently where players will sometimes alert their opening bid as "preparatory". I've never heard of this term, but it seems to be fairly popular. It seems to mean "an artificial bid with ~16+ HCP any shape". Yesterday with this hand, East passed, and when asked about it later, they said it was "prep". I suspect it was actually: "forgot" or "misclick". Responder and prep finally got their act together and reached 6♣. Possibly the 4NT bid was a clue that East had a bit more than they were originally letting on. So, my question is: How common is the term "preparatory"? And, can NS find 6H, which is optimal - when East passes - making a weak overcall by South impossible? [/hv]

I just noticed that when I prevent the Mac from entering Sleep mode, it seems to run a bit faster. There does seem to be a specific problem with connecting to the BBO server from where I am. Next to the spot where my name is on the HTML app, 4 bars indicate the strength of the connection. ATM, I only have 1 bar, and the program is very sluggish. I just ran a speed test (Ookla) which gives me ping=6 Down=60.81 and Up=18.68. Other things are working fine, so I suspect it is some intermittent problem at the BBO end. Turning off the Sleep mode - see above - does seem to help. Of course, the trouble with intermittent problems is that they're - intermittent. Closing the Browser (Chrome for me) and running CleanMyMac also helps.

Big Sur has pretty much destroyed my iMac. The history of computing seems to represent a battle between software engineers and hardware engineers. Whenever computers become a bit faster or have more storage, Parkinson's law calls for software engineers to fill the space available. The most well-known example is when the Apollo astronauts landed on the moon using a custom-designed computer operating at the outer edge of its capacity. https://bit.ly/HowToLandOnTheMoon Everything worked fine until they were getting close to landing. Aldrin then made an extra command that intermittently overloaded the operating system, causing a soft reset. He did this a couple of times and then realised it might be safer to wait until they were parked and the seat belt signs were off. Of course, Bridge is slightly less dangerous but still almost as annoying. My next computer will be a custom made desktop with Windows and petabytes of RAM.

I think I've heard it called 'split-range' where the 1♣ is a lower range. More importantly, though, can I have a list of tournaments that nullve doesn't play? I need to improve my average.

I know what you mean, it's a very common experience. Just remember - they are the ones with the disease.

You seem to have (at least) two usernames "Cleogrem" and "cleogrem3". Cleogrem only has 1 login - maybe your friends are looking up this name? Another possibility is that you are logging in as 'invisible' - your name would appear with a white background. Also, there are two servers - one for competition and the Prime Club and a separate server for casual play. If you are playing on one server people on the other one can't see you.

'warning: this post contains mild satire and a little bit of sarcasm.' Unsolicited advice is one of the fun things about Bridge. It comes in many wonderful forms. Mostly from real World Experts that know every convention and system but are kind enough to play with you. Often, their profile will say "I'LL PLAY YOUR CARD" - which sounds a bit like an internet scam. After playing a couple of hands they will start to explain where you went wrong - super helpful. A few hands later they will explain why "your system card is all wrong". This advice is so helpful that I immediately offer to work with them to make a system card that is "all right". Subsequent advice generally starts to come in the form of "Your leads are wrong". and "why didn't you double?". Or "my double of 4 Spades obviously meant diamonds and clubs with a 3244 distribution. Why didn't you bid?" These people are terrific partners in all forms of the game - especially IMPs where the downside possibilities are almost endless. I just make a note about their kindness on their profile and go back to simpler tasks - like teaching camels needlework.

While you are not having the time to reply to what you think are the key points, please address what I believe are the points that are critical: 1. You are far more likely to get the CVT if you have COVID19 than if you don't. 2. You correctly point out that the background incidence estimate is a problem. What I am asking (of the statisticians) is are you more likely to get CVT if you have had COVID19 - but didn't know it - and then had the vaccine. Also, provide the specific reference from "Sciencemag" so we can review it.

There are two types blood clot. Both are potentially lethal. The commonest type is "deep vein thrombosis" where a clot forms in the vain in your leg. If this clot grows in size it can break off and lodge in the lungs. In the worst case, after breaking off and blocking the blood flow to the lungs no blood can return to heart and death occurs immediately. This type of clot is the one that is more common if you are lying in a hospital bed for too long without moving your legs. It is also associated with air travel - the so-called "economy class syndrome". (As an aside, when the surgeons tried to save Lady Diana after the car crash, it was found that she had a torn vena cava. It was impossible to prevent a fatal haemorrhage from this massive vein which is the largest in the body.) The rarer type is "cerebral venous thrombosis" (CVT). Veins in the brain are very thin walled and blood moves rather slowly. If they are cut during surgery it is very hard to stop them bleeding. According to a 2017 review in Nature Reviews Neurology (Cerebral venous thrombosis; Suzanne M. Silvis, Diana Aguiar de Sousa, José M. Ferro & Jonathan M Coutinho; Nature Reviews Neurology volume 13, pages555–565), CVT is rare but not unheard of. Much of this paper is directly rewritten from a previous review by the last author JM Coutinho in 2015 in J Thrombosis and Haemostasis. A review of Norwegian data was published in September 2020 covering a 7 year period up to 2017 (Incidence and Mortality of Cerebral Venous Thrombosis in a Norwegian Population; Espen Saxhaug Kristoffersen, Charlotte Elena Harper, Kjersti Grøtta Vetvik, Svetozar Zarnovicky, Jakob Møller Hansen, Kashif Waqar Faiz; Stroke. 2020;51:3023–3029) - you can download this one from the internet. I am not sure why these data are now being reported as ten times smaller in current health advice. If this is correct then it seems that an incidence of 4-5 per million in vaccine recipients is equivalent to the average pre-COVID19. So far as I can tell, the data suggest that the vaccine does not have a particular effect on this unusual clotting disorder. On the other hand getting COVID19 dramatically increases your chances of getting it. Other things to remember are that when people get vaccines (new ones especially) or novel diseases, doctors are particularly alert to spotting problems. This means that the diagnosis of anything rare will increase (they start looking for it). One thing is certain. your chances of getting this rare disorder are increased if you get COVID19 - so are your chances of getting deep vein thrombosis if you become bed-ridden with it. I don't know what the increased risk of getting CVT is in those people that get infected (mildly or asymptomatically) is AND then get the vaccine. This problem will likely confound the data. Another thing we do know is that pandemics are a common phenomenon ('Flu, polio, TB, malaria and more), but they don't fit into the election cycle so politicians persist in eviscerating the systems that are there to prevent them. And then when you get Jim (freedom to do anything I want anytime I want to) Jordan teling (actually telling!) Dr Fauci that he shouldn't have to do things to prevent the spread of disease because blather blather blather. It feels exactly the same as explaining to a toddler why they can't have the candy at a checkout.

As Woody Allen said: "An investment advisor invests your money until it's all gone".

Just a little perspective here: Covid19 is a disease that affects organs with a high concentration of protein that is related to the Renin-Angiotensin System. One of the biggest organs is the Blood vessels. And the heart, lungs, brain and kidney. The observant amongst you will have noticed that people that get COVID19 often have problems related to the virus attacking these target organs. The graph in the link below says it all. incidence of this type of clotting = 0.4 per million. with the pfizer/moderna or AZ vaccine it's ~4 per million. If you get COVID19 it's 39/million. https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/blood-clots-up-to-10-times-more-common-with-covid

Profile picture has been unavailable for a while. No explanation, AFIK. Still able to see BCR and TCR on my profile. Also, for some reason, I am 5-star compatible with myself but never have any compatibility with anyone else. Yes, I thought of the obvious gag.

Thanks - now I get it! Another cryptic clue!

Is it time for the times to be changin' ? Is I

[hv=lin=st||pn|pilowsky,~Mwest,~Mnorth,~Meast|md|1S8HAKT85DAKT5CAJ2,SKQT3H4D987642C98,S65HQJ9632DCKQ765,SAJ9742H7DQJ3CT43|sv|e|rh||ah|Board%203|mb|1H|an|Major%20suit%20opening%20--%205+%20!H;%2011-21%20HCP;%2012-22%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|4D!|an|Splinter%20--%201-%20!D;%204+%20!H;%2013-16%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|4N|an|Blackwood%20(H)%20--%205+%20!H;%2021-%20HCP;%2019-22%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|5N|an|Even%20number%20of%20keycards%20and%20some%20void%20--%201-%20!D;%204+%20!H;%2013-16%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|6C|an|Cue%20bid%20--%205+%20!H;%2021-%20HCP;%20!CA;%2022%20total%20points;%20forcing|mb|P|mb|6H|an|1-%20!D;%204+%20!H;%2013-16%20total%20points|mb|P|mb|P|mb|P|pc|SK|pc|S5|pc|S9|pc|S8|pc|S3|pc|S6|pc|SA|pc|H5|mc|12|]300|300|Turns out that North is telling me that it has an even number of keycards and a void. 2 is an integer, 4 is an integer and so is 0. [/hv]

[hv=pc=n&s=s8hakt85dakt5caj2&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=1hp4d(splinter)p4np5n(Even%20number%20of%20keycards%20and%20some%20void)p]133|200| Before you get too excited, this is a "Best Hand" tourney. What does GIB North have for the 5NT call and what are reasonable bids by South? Here's a couple of cryptic clues. AND http://bit.ly/BoudleauxBryant. [/hv]

It seems that Hey Joe Biden (http://bit.ly/HeyJoeHend) has come around - far too late - to the idea that it might be a good idea to suspend vaccine patents for a while. At least according to an NBC news flash, I just saw. No doubt he was reading the thread on this forum. At the same time, Sydney just entered a sort of conservative government equivalent of lockdown. In this form of lockdown, people can still wander about and meet in large groups. It is impossible to find a place that will vaccinate you - except on Thursday or Friday mornings in two weeks time. Meanwhile, the Morrison government is resorting to sabre-rattling with China to distract peoples attention from their incompetence. Meanwhile, in other news, a famous footballer is being jailed for a crime that sounds like sexual assault; and a previously well-known cricketer "shocked" newsreaders by revealing that he had been kidnapped, beaten and threatened with a gun. Australian priorities.

Elsewhere, there was a discussion about maths training and Bayes theorem. I referenced a site that ranked countries according to success in a standardised maths test. Here is a graph that compares rank in maths (Y-axis) against the number of Bridge players per 1,000,000 of population. Turns out there is quite a decent relationship! http://bit.ly/MathEdBridge For added fun, here is a Geo Heat map of where Bridge is most popular/1,000,000 of population. The data was taken from the WBF. https://bit.ly/BridgePopularity Obviously, the data from the WBF could underestimate some countries that do not pay subs for their full WBF membership - I note that Russia has exactly 1000 members - which suggests that the numbers are not completely reliable.

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

And your evidence for that unusual assertion is - what?

Could not agree more. The Trump organisation is a great example. I'm in no rush to invest in it - even if it wasn't a private company.

There are plenty of people around with "lots of Bridge" experience. I'll take your word for it that they are two of them. As you say, running a software company is a completely different matter. Look at the problems that companies that have been running for decades have on a daily basis. BBO has been around for much longer and still has major problems with its site - judging from the constant kvetching on this site alone. Would you choose to go and see a 1st-year medical student with your health problem or see someone who has been in practice for a couple of years? Most businesses fail within 5 years of opening their doors. UK data. What is hard to understand is why the national Bridge organisation of any country would choose to hand over their operations to someone that has just put up their shingle.

The company only has two Directors! not "Directors of games". I'm saying it's a small start-up with a commensurate amount of experience.