onoway

Don't underestimate the impact of the importation to Europe of tobacco and chocolate (potatoes already mentioned).Where would we be without chocolate!! Still doesn't make my short list though. The concept/beginning of written language was one that seems as though it ought to be up there.

32519. There are other threads more in keeping with your last posts, and it would be nice if you put such posts there, or start your own, rather than trying to hijack this thread. Thanks

Maybe the owners had seen Sweeney Todd and thought it was a pretty good business model.

Perhaps the development of science has not been so much how to find our place in it as how to make it do what we want. There is little evidence of cooperation by choice between man and the natural world through the ages and the sense that we have no need to cooperate has gained momentum over the last couple of hundred years. It seems as though cooperation with natural systems is now mostly promoted as a primitive and unscientific way of looking at things by people who are "afraid of science." One thing nobody has mentioned that is most decidedly on my list is the allowing of patents on living GMOs. It's an insidious thing which is already having a profound (and unfortunately in the short term apparently positive but in the long run highly detrimental) impact on agriculture, both the quality of the food we eat and the environment. It's leading into a future for which we are not only absolutely unprepared but which may be impossible to repair. The unrestricted development and use of GMOs was once designated - justifiably - at a TED talk as one of 10 things which might bring about the end of human existence, certainly of civilisation as we know it.

It's pretty much established that the Norse were in what is now eastern Canada long long before Columbus. According to Wiki

The question came up as a result of insomia but still...What events for which humans were responsible has had (is having, will have) the most profound effect on world history? It started out as one event but that seemed to be impossible to decide so allowed for a couple more. I was wondering if anyone else would come up with the same events as I did.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/aol-time-warner-to-merge/ What a strange thing to say..there'll be pretty much nobody left to compete with, from what I understand.

In time for Valentine's Day :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFFo1pu4q7Q

Not the same thing at all imo as almost all the news we get now from mainstream media is already biased and selectively presented. So the more clutter the better as then by sorting through it becomes possible to figure out what's probably actually going on. It becomes an unproductive way to spend time if you have to do that for everything, though.

I was thinking about the comment someone had earlier about never understanding that the format should make any difference, as it was the content that mattered. Perhaps an analogy for me would be having a wonderful meal in nice surroundings with good friends or the exact same meal in a busy truck stop. Even if the food was precisely the same, the experience would be quite different. Another thought is that there is a whole lot of trash paraded on the internet under the guise of accurate information and some of that is oozing into e-books.. for at least two years now people have been selling information on how to get your books on kindle by having someone else write them...one suggestion is to hire stay at home moms. So you can put out a book a week if you get organized, about anything at all, and you can use different names to do it under. A big selling point is that you don't have to know anything about what the book is about because you've hired people for pennies to research and write it. Then you can buy membership in groups who will support each others' books ...e-books are frequently free for a brief period of time so everyon in that group gets it for nothing and so bounces it up the popularity ladder on Amazon. It's precisely the same idea as hiring a firm to post a whole bunch of "likes" on your website so as to get/keep it at the head of the pack. Since e-books are basically almost free to publish the success of a book may be more the result of marketting than any intrinsic value. That's not to say that paper book publishers don't make mistakes and publish garbage and/or miss good stuff, but they were at least a filter of sorts. Presumably someone had to think that it would be worth the expense of publishing. One man has made an extremely lucrative career out of teaching people not only how to market their books, but that they all have almost a duty to sell their life experiences as ebooks as a sort of social responsibility. I can forsee a time when it will be difficult to get through the clutter to find the gold when ebooks have pretty much shut down the publishing houses, just as it's getting more difficult to get through the commercial and egotistical clutter on the internet in general. Now there's virtually no barrier to anyone publishing almost anything and that is definitely a mixed blessing.

Only paper as well but for me that includes printing out articles. I usually read just enough of them to know if they are a one shot deal or if I want to keep them as reference for more thought. It's more convenient for me than arguing with the computer telling me that it can't find the page or the link is invalid or that there is a problem and it has to close the program.. I don't own a kindle either but since I don't like reading even long articles on the computer then that is a strong indication that kindles are likely not going to suit. OTOH Hrothgar's points about not having to carry around 30 pounds of books...or getting them back to the library on time.. or finding places to put the damn things... I've a hard time getting rid of books I connected with - are all very valid points indeed. But computers and I do not have an easy relationship. Every one I've owned has developed some sort of weirdness. AFAIK none of them have been viruses as such but such things as turning themselves on in the middle of the night -that sort of thing. Aside from anything else - just think if your kindle blew up and you lost all your (favorite) books! Yikes!

Pete Seegar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger I remember seeing him perform years and years ago and how he came across as having a wonderful gentle sense of humor and strong sense of humanity as well as putting on a great concert. As for so many in this thread, when comes such another.

Well,of course, but when elected people are making laws it should be possible to expect them to have some sense. It would seem that it's perfectly legal to buy whatever sort of weapon you can afford intending to (illegally) shoot however many Americans you can manage to hit as long as you do it in the U.S. If you take the exact same money and use it to buy weapons to blow away Americans in some other country, then that's a crime. I imagine most Americans would prefer it to be the other way around.

Sorry. Declaring GIB speedilly drew all my 4 small trump and was succcessfully setting up a lovely outside suit, while I was getting more and more frustrated and annoyed so I left. (I don't do that at tables with humans, but sometimes GIBS drive me crazy, to think I paid to get so frustrated). Not being anywhere near expert, I have never quite figured out why defending GIBS are so fond of leading trumps against suit contracts. This isn't the first time by any means, and so far I don't remember it ever working out well. It's generally a singleton trump finessing anything I might have for declarer. This time I had no honors to finesse, but indeed it was a singleton trump lead. I had passed throughout the bidding including over p's opening bid, so most humans would realize I had a very weak hand and would be unlikely to be able to contribute any winning high cards to the effort. To give declarer the chance to strip my hand of trump takes away any possibility of contributing at all. Obviously I should have stayed and brought the whole hand but I was feeling so extremely frustrated this was more just needing to vent than anything.

So. Mass murder is just one of those things (if regrettable) that nothing can be done about, but allowing people to move their own money around without Fed approval/permission and bank fees must by definition be associated with terrorism or nefarious activities and must be stopped. What an odd world we live in.

Got GIBS again after swearing I wouldn't and just had this happen. Opposing GIBS in 2♠contract. My partner GIB leads the K♣ on which I discard a ♦ showing a void, and its ♣K takes the trick. After about 5 seconds of analysis, it then leads a TRUMP. Enough stress in my life I don't need this sort of idiocy.

Ok now you HAVE opened up a can of worms. If the CEO of bitcoins is responsible for money laundering that his clients engage in, why are the people who make assault rifles not being charged with murder for the people killed in events such as the mass murders in the theatre or the school children in Sandy Hook? And don't bring hunting into it; the ONLY purpose of assault rifles is to shoot people with. Or is it just that money is really of more interest to the banks and politicians than people?

Two hands both involving 1nt openings. Partners have played together on occassion, but not frequently and have no agreements. Hand 1: bidding is 1nt Pass 2♣, X, pass pass ? Responder holds: ♠KQ43 ♥Q62♦T953 ♣J2 ~..~ ~..~ ~..~ Hand 2: Bidding goes: P 1nt P 2♦(transfer) Pass 2♥ pass 3♣ pass 4♣ pass ? Responder holds: ♠J82♥J9752♦J♣AK62 The 3♣ bid was intended to pattern out the hand, not to indicate interest in slam. The first hand, responder bid 2nt which opener raised to 3nt - 2 The second hand, responder bid 5♣ which opener raised to 6 - 1 (it was makeable if you saw all 4 hands and/or chose the right gambles).

Well, the Feds have decided to take bitcoins seriously and try to make them out to be some sort of underworld conspiracy to undermine the banks, it would seem, as they have just charged the CEO of the company who started them (? is that the right term?) with money laundering for the undersirables..which on the face of it is like charging the CEO of General Motors because a bank robber used a GM vehicle to escape in. In the meantime, a couple in Kelowna BC have put their 3400 sq foot luxury home up for sale for 1650 bitcoins or if cash, $1.45 million. http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/front-page-news/digital-currency-believers-offer-house-for-sale-for-1650-bitcoins-or-$145m-12514.html So all you computer wizards... here's a chance to get a pretty nice house for doing some "mining"..

One thing that comes to mind is that in Canada at least, the desirability of immigrants seems to be linked to the amount of money they have to make the move. If they have lots of money, then they are fast tracked. If otoh they are refugees on the run from reprisals for political activity trying to redress problems in their country, they are frequently treated as undesirables that we maybe, reluctantly, have to do something for. It appears as though many of these are now being refused. The last couple of years have seen people, usually women, legally in the country - in one case a couple of students- booted out of the country because they were working too hard and that's not allowed. It's difficult to imagine that there are so many Canadians anxious to be housekeepers and babysitters for working families that they were depriving any Canadians of work. I have to wonder if fast tracking extremely wealthy folk who come from countries where the average daily wage, as they say, is $1 or $2 is really getting us the best and brightest, or people who may possibly be just the least scrupulous about how they make money.

This TED Talk has some interesting data on poverty and population

dunno about anyone else but when I first sit with a random p, even when subbing in a tourney I always say something like "2/1 standard carding ok p?" or "I'll try to play your card p, but I don't know a bunch of stuff on your profile." Usually it's "profile ok but not (Y)" or "I'll play your profile" or simply "ok" and we're off. They can see from my profile most of what I play and bid accordingly. If profiles disagree about RKC then I change mine to match theirs to avoid unnecessary confusion. It all takes about 5 seconds and establishes contact with partner. Not sure I know anyone who doesn't do this at "normal" tables, although maybe not as a tourney sub. If I get invited to play a tourney and p won't talk to me even briefly about system/carding before the tourney I cancel as that tells me that p apparently doesn't consider bridge a partnership game. Half the players at the intermediate and below group (maybe a lot at higher levels too) don't really know conventions that they claim to play anyway, so it's always use at your own risk even if they have them on their profile. I bet everyone playing Sayc or 2/1 has at one time or another been left staring at a combined 4 card trump suit contract they won after pard passed their splinter bid ...which p's profile claims he plays.

What an absolutely wonderful thought it is, too! (please don't make them all available only to the web client people though..those of us who dislike it intensely in spite of trying it several times are already discriminated against quite substantially).

In terms of something actually being done, I was mightilly impressed by a book ..well not so much by the book but by the guy the book was about. This is an American who is accomplishing great things, and to me a shining example of how things ought to be approached. The guys' name in Greg Mortenson, the name of the book is Three Cups of Tea, and the book was written as a collaboration between him and Oliver David Relin. It was on the NT Times best seller list but I hadn't run across it until recently. a common quote is something like 1 in a 100 actually follow through on long term projects they set up to do, likely the percentage is infinitesmal when the project involves non profit work in uncomfortable and dangerous places. Supporting people like Morteson and like Geoff Lawton with the permaculture projects around the world, will imo do infinitely more to prevent wars and bloodshed and accomplish more in terms of immigration than barriers and guns ever did. They make it infinitely easier ( or actually possible ) for people to make lives for themselves at home, so they are not so desperately driven to immigrate.

I would really really dislike almost all of this, and think it's an example of the overuse of information just because it can be collected. You get into personality contests and mob rule and people refusing to play with weaker players because it brings down their stats. It seems to me that BBO is becoming less friendly for random players all the time and if all this started to happen I think it would be really unfortunate. All of those things are designed to make sure that people mix only with their own and would further ghetto-ize beginners and weaker players who already are having problems finding people to play with them. That leads to the idiocy of novices putting advanced on their profiles and making things even worse. It's almost already got to the point that no-one wants to play with anyone not an "expert". Someone told me the other day quite seriously that she was a better player than a certain teacher because she has better stats..the fact that the teacher is playing highly skilled and competitive players while she is frequently playing with an advanced p vs beginners apparently doesn't figure in her assessment. For a while, I was compensating for playing with weak players by playing with GIBS to bring my stats back up, I've mostly stopped doing that because I can only get the GIBS past their best before date as I prefer the download version of BBO..which is likely enough to make anything I have to say disregarded entirely in any case, but there it is. OTOH maybe that's why my scores with GIBS were generally good, perhaps I should rethink that. :) Also, mob mentality is alive and well on BBO as much as anywhere else, as evidenced by the adventures when G was alive and playing. Suppose someone decided to have a dozen IDs, which apparently some people already do, and have them all mark each other as friend..or.. mark someone as enemy and each of those ID's convinced one or two friends to do the same? It could turn into a business opportunity, like the outfits you can hire to give your website "likes" and links and competing websites "dislikes". Hopefully BBO will never get to the point of acting on the belief that good scores are the only point and purpose of bridge. It is after all, supposed to be a game, and although the purpose of a game is generally to win, there is generally a social and fun aspect assumed as well, at least below the pro level. The posters who won't sit for even one hand at a table because it might not be good for their results are imo missing a very large part of what bridge should and can be about. OTOH it might be useful for people who feel strongly about what system they play to be able to filter the available tables for that system.