onoway

a thought about moving water..ram pumps can be used to move water uphill and use virtually NO outside energy except to build the pump. All it requires is a degree of water pressure from the movement of the water it is trying to move. Although these pumps are commonly used with a river, surely waves or tides could provide that? The corrosion issue is another story, but there might well be some sort of liner which might be applied so as to avoid the problem of UV degradation of plastics. I'm not sure exactly how much water such a pump could be designed to move, it might be that it could be used to refill an aquifer more efficiently than provide water for a city, as it is constant if unspectacular in its efforts. Also, I'm not sure how high such a pump can lift water...it might be that there would have to be a series of locks with a sort of waterfall at one end of each to provide a source of water energy for the next pump... I have seen wooden irrigation channels from about 100 years ago which managed to climb what would appear to be about 100 feet or so, powered by a river. The cost of building the pump is small, it seems basically to be a set of one way valves. Also, the question of noise might an issue which needed to be addressed.. As far as what the water moves IN..aren't some of the viaducts built by the Romans to move water still in use today? Is salt water corrosive to all types of concrete, including those concretes not using portland cement?

It's distressing at how the GIBS do not honor the description that their bids offer either for their own bids or mine. I have been unable to find a bid that GIB honors as forcing..not a jump to a new suit at 3 level not new minor forcing, not a X that the GIB description defines as being a forcing takeout D, all are happilly passed. The last two hands I have played had 1)a bid described as forcing to 2nt passed and 2)a X described as a takeout double passed. It's frustrating to try to play with them and find them so capricious. I have had numerous auctions which start out identical and then the GIB goes off on a tangent completely at odds from other tables also with 3 GIBS and a human, for absolutely no apparent reason. The idea of playing with GIBS is to try to upgrade my own very moderate skills in bidding and play, but it's beginning to seem as this is no more possible with GIBs than with random partners. At least GIBS dont walk off in the middle of a hand or snarl, but that's not a lot of comfort. GIB has passed what it describes as forcing bids having up to 10 points as responder and once so far even having opened the bidding and then refusing to continue in spite of my bids being what they themselves describe as forcing. I have begun playing TP with them so as to try different bids so see if it's my bidding mistakes but how to correct when they define the bids but dont react appropriately within that definition? it's very frustrating. :blink:

I thought that when a person claimed on BBO, they were supposed to state their line of play. This makes it a whole lot easier to see if the claim is valid or not when there could be a question. Is this not right? Some shysters on BBO claim when they know they dont have all the rest of the tricks, and are hoping to slip one over (sometimes even happens, lots of unconfident players will accept rather than challenging, esp in a tourney.) Others sometimes have made mistakes, forgetting a trump or a spot card still out, or thinking their spot card was higher or some such. Having the line of play delineated makes things a lot easier and quicker. That can as someone above said, apply to the defenders making a claim as well.

One man's very practical (and working) vision of how to renew devastated tropical areas and provide for energy production, with a little bit of climate modification along the way. This is not to suggest Ecuador ought to allow the oil companies in; I have seen another video about people trying with mycoremediation to rescue an area left in an absolutely horrendous state by western oil companies operating in south America. Also, not everyone has this man's careful consideration of what might appear to be to extraneous details which is likely an essential ingredient for success.

The last time I went to the web client it seemed a little less cluttered and thus slightly easier to get to where I wanted to go. However, I still prefer the Win version..I don't see any improvement in the Flash chat area which to me is still highly unsatisfactory. The idea of having two chat windows (both of them miniscule) adds to clutter and doesn't make it easier to keep chat going where it is meant to go; the other day I was constantly getting messages clearly not meant for me from someone with whom I had exchanged greetings earlier. The flash version tends to make me dizzy..I'm not sure why, but playing on it I feel disoriented. I only lasted 4 hands the other day before I had to log off the webversion and back in on the download version with a sigh of relief. I understand that it's possible to change the cards but that's a pain to try to figure out what/how to do, esp if it isn't clear if that would help. So much easier to retreat to the version which already works. I don't like not knowing who else is kibbing at the table with me. I don't like not being able to just GO to a club without being challenged as to what I want to do there, so simply waiting in the club for a teaching session to start for example appears to be impossible. I don't see the point of having yellows when they don't SHOW as yellows on your friend's list. Other things have already been mentioned. The web client is definitely getting much better and does have some features which are enticing, but although I will try it from time to time from curiosity I still can't see ever leaving my beloved downloaded version.

A few years ago the papers reported some guy in California was charged for riding a horse while drunk. They apparently weren't on the road but beside it.. It sounded as though he was fighting it by saying he wasn't in control of the horse, he was just a passenger. (Possibly true, horses never need help knowing how to get home). Never heard how it came out.

Two quick questions: 1) I sometimes with a group where we rotate in and out, the dummy (usually, sometimes the declarer) leaves before the last card is played so the next person can sit and the next hand isn't lost..are these sessions counting toward our possibly being chastised by BBO for abandoning tables in mid hand? 2) What about leaving a hand when playing with 3 GIBS?

It has been mentioned from time to time that intermediate takes in such a huge range that it is largely a meaningless category. Aside from that, to refuse to play with someone on the basis of their self rating is imo silly..I know of a number of really fine players who frequently sport even novice on their profile. You can get a better idea from looking at their profile..not much on it can mean anything (many "real" experts dont have anything at all about bridge there) but anyone advertising stayman and transfers to majors only says something entirely different than someone who claims Leb etc. This doesn't mean the people actually know how to play the conventions on their profile but at least it's a start.

I think the specs can always see what is happening, no barometer simply applies to the players at the table. We quit having it on for IAC team matches as some matches have unfortunately been lopsided and it tends to have an effect on the game..1) it stops being fun for anyone, winners or losers 2) the losing players "give up" - even if they stick it out to the bitter end you can see they are just trying to tread water until it is blessedly over or 3) the losing players start doing weird things to try to recover and that turns the game into something unrecognizable even remotely as bridge. The most important thing was that it clearly stops being fun for anyone..without the barometer the players have the faint hope that their teammates are doing the same to their opps at the other table as is being done to them, so their spirit/interest isn't entirely squashed. If you could guarrantee the scores would be close then the barometer would add to the match I think but unfortunately this isn't always the case even with comparable players. I have seen some sadly lopsided scores in the JEC matches from time to time, and if the players are aware of the score, that has to be very difficult for the losers, esp knowing hundreds of kibs are watching and critiquing their bidding and play.

There was a news item today that an oil eating bacteria has unexpectedly shown up in the Gulf and presumably is happilly chomping away on the 23 miles or whatever of drifting semidispersed oil that is left of the BP blowout. This seems to be mixed good and bad news..good for obvious reasons and bad in that now oil companies will feel more relaxed about having another blowout or spill ...it is interesting (depressing) to wonder just how bad such a thing would have to be before governments (including the Canadian govt) decided that drilling in vulnerable areas should be disallowed.

no wonder newbies give up on playing bridge, saying it's just too complicated to bother with

I have tried the Flash version from time to time and each time found it very frustrating. It seems counterintuitive and so much more challenging (using the word advisedly) to get around and has ambiguous labels tucked away in weird corners..I had to get help to find out how to find a yellow, for example. It seems the the Flash version is much more popular with people who are perhaps more comfortable with computers and like the bells and whistles. Perhaps also people who never used the download version to start with so never had the pleasure of a very user friendly clearly laid out and straightforward site. It seems that people who like to play/work with computers somehow often lose the concept of simple. (not just referring to BBO here, I have run into a couple of other programs which have been "improved" to the point they are sometimes virtually unusable for the computer naive. ) Much to my astonishment, I find that I am not even the least computer competent person on BBO. If there were two versions of Flash.. one could have all the bells and whistles but other be as easy to navigate and had the same emphasis on the options that I prefer (such as the way the chat area is organized in the download version, including going automatically to c/drive, and being able to go directly to a club without being challenged as to what table and why) then I would be happy to change but right now not a chance. To tell me that if I keep using it I will eventually like it is like telling me if I keep hitting my head with a hammer I will eventually enjoy being a masochist. Sorry.

The problem of trying to find a serious but friendly game was the basis for the forming of the private IAC club. Unfortunately it's seldom that anyone plays there. It takes some jumping through hoops to get to us (we consistently get plaintive messages in response to announcements "how do I get there? " or "how do I find you?" and it is understandably discouraging to get there and find no other players. If someone had a group of friends to bring to the club to play with and they played fairly regularly, perhaps more people might start to play there as well and it would grow to be used as it was meant to be used. To be sure, not everyone is the level of advanced or expert, we have a lot of intermediates..most of our members are fairly honest as to their abilities. That said, most who do play there or join our tourneys/team matches are trying to play as well as they can, many are working to improve their game, and many of our members are good players, some even (dare I say it?) real experts. Also, there is virtually NO problem with people disappearing in the middle of hands or other rude behaviour as we will not stand for it. We have a bit more freedom to act as a private club within BBO than perhaps BBO itself does in terms of sorting out how much latitude we allow. Membership is free (register at http://iac.pigpen.org.uk/ ) and we really would love to see people use the club, especially better players.

Thank you! I will try that.

I seem to remember that there was once a mention of a program to generate types of hands for teaching tables/practise but I have been unable to find it. I believe that Stephen Pickett (sfbp)'s program could do it but not sure if that is still even available. Specifically, what I am looking for is some way to generate various Lebensohl type hands. Anyone know of anything? I am not very computer adept so it also has to be quite user friendly. Is there anything out there that fits this criteria?

figured it out today...the pair is given an "identity" as a pair and given a place in the sequence of hand, whoever happens to be playing in the pair is just put into that sequence in the movie. The scores that transferred to "my hands" were correct (I think..that's what happened today in another tourney I subbbed for). This makes sense as otherwise it would really be impossible to score a pair. I should have been able to figure that out , but then I asked a "yellow" and he didnt know either so there you go..

I subbed for a tourney tonight and only played the last two hands, which were scored as 51.6% and 50% respectively. However, then my AVERAGE was said to 49.73%?! Can anyone tell me how this can be?

I don't think that dogs come off second best if comparing how useful they are to people compared to cats, as a previous poster suggested. Cats may (not all will) hunt rats and mice but so do dogs..Jack russell terriers were originally bred to hunt vermin for example. (Besides, dogs don't play with their victims...the main thing I have against cats. I loathe mice but watching a cat torture one is a horrifying experience, the ultimate bully.) Some of the other roles dogs have had include: they have worked in wars to sniff out landmines and run messages among other things, they are being used to help people with medical problems to live independent lives -warning of imminent epileptic attacks so the person can get somewhere safe or warning deaf owners of the phone or doorbell or boiling kettle or anything else needing attention. There are care dgos for autistic kids so parents don't have to watch them every second. The guide dogs for the blind are well established as enhancing the quality of life and allowing a much greater independance than otherwise would be possible. Some dogs have been trained to establish the presence of termites and where they are, to act as lifeguards for drowning swimmers, help track and find lost people, herd cattle sheep, horses, ducks and whatever else. They have been used to rescue people from avalanches and snowstorms, and haul people and products where they needed to go. Some dogs are being used to help determine the occurrance of cancer. They have been used in police work both in active roles such as tracking. attack and other such things but also in rehabilitation programs for prison inmates who take abandoned dogs and train them into roles as therapy animals in nursing homes and so forth. The dog's role can sometimes encompass a whole lot more beyond having the protector confidant and buddy role that is all most dogs are asked to do.

If you are a very fast player who is always done in a jiffy, slow down for a hand or two and let some of the other tables catch up. It's a bit more difficult if you are a slow player or at a table with very slow players to try to speed up bidding or play to catch up to the other tables. My understanding is that in an unclocked tourney the players move when there are other players also ready to move. If some are consistently faster (or slower) than the rest of the group, especially if the tourney is small or moderate in size, they will end up playing each other again. Not having to wait for the slow players is the appeal of unclocked tourneys for many, trying to wobble this would defeat the whole point. If you really are bothered with it then clocked tourneys are likely to be a happier match for you.

An oil rig manager once told me he dreams of the olden days when the new guys he got coming out to work knew what he meant when he told them to go get a screwdriver...and he didn't mean from the bar.

A TED talk given in 2006..it would be interesting to learn the state of things now. Re the comments about tummy tucks being a rich source of stem cells..people are urged now to give blood, maybe tummy tucks will some day be considered as the socially responsible thing to do? ;) http://www.ted.com/talks/alan_russell_on_r...our_bodies.html

Hi In Total Points tonight twice a table was very slow to finish and when I went to the table to see what the score was so as to have an idea who would be going on, the score showed as 0-0. Someone said that now this was the way the score would show to kibbers. Is this right, and if so, only for Total Points? I have never run across this before..hopefully it is a glitch and not a new policy.

Recently I have had problems with BBO telling me that people were not online when they clearly WERE online, not invisible, not at a teaching table, just sitting at a table waiting for the team invitations with their teammates. Last night I had to erase braden's name three times and retype it before BBO acknowleged that he was indeed online..and I had not misspelled the name. Actually, although he was sitting there with his name in lower case letters, I got so frustrated I typed his name the third time in capital letters and then BBO let him in! Also..this only happened once, but the other day I was trying to review hands from a team match and the first six boards showed up as MPs and the last six as imps (the whole match was played in imps). Others with the same hands had them all show up as imps hands. Should I be taking my computer to someone to get exorcised?

speaking of unusual deaths... this one gave me the shivers

My son trained his cat to fetch, roll over, etc on command. I don't know why..I think it started when the cat was insisting on being places he was not supposed to be and it turned into a battle of wills..