onoway

The idea is to get the most blocks to disappear at the same time..there are no bonuses for getting all of the blocks gone. I have had about 20 blocks left over and got over 5000 points, and made them all disappear and been well below 2000 points. Click on a section of adjacent blocks to make them disappear. http://www.kozisgreat.com/games/recursive.html

This came from a blog associated with one of Canada's political parties. It's a bit long but brings up some issues not so far mentioned in the forum. http://www.greenparty.ca/en/blogs/14081/20...proud-be-pirate (the title may come back to haunt them in the next election :D )

Found this site today and was wondering about it. Since this was a link from a site which is somewhat disenchanted with the government it may be more than a little biased. Also, it is old, (dated '95) and so presumably based on info even older, so much of it may have changed even if at one time this was all true. I am lazy enough I don't want to check all the references, thinking someone here might be up to date on this. However, "just because I am paranoid, doesn't mean there's NOT someone out to get me" may still apply, and this is scary stuff. http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/gvcon6.html

It was interesting to gain some sort of idea of what might have led to the pirates taking up that line of "work" . It is difficult to imagine the sort of life people are dealing with there if even half of this is true. I suppose if you just keep shooting them all eventually Somalia will run out of young men.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8001183.stm

I find odd and quite sad that millions and millions of dollars were spent on pursuit of the question of whether or not Clinton was guilty of inappropriate sexual behaviour (between two consenting adults yet ), but there seems to be little curiousity about or appetite for finding some reasonable explanations of the anomalies surrounding 9-11. It would not be the first time that the people in power had considered any number of their citizens to be expendable in pursuit of their goals, IF indeed that was the case. ( What else are most wars, after all?) If not, why don't they unmuzzle the group which was set to investigate the event and lay to rest the questions which are still rattling around? If so, surely it's best if the people know? It isn't just in religious issues that an open mind might be a good thing, however unpalatable the alternatives might be. These sorts of questions are going to continue to have a life of their own if they are not met with more than a sniff of disdain.

Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits has actually had a dinosaur named after him : masiakasaurus knopfleri. should be musiakasaurus knopfleri? :)

I remember reading a study years ago ( so no possible way to cite the exact one now) of small children being put into rooms with lots of toys to wait for the "official" study to start. One room had general sorts of tv programs playing in the background and the other had violent programs playing in the background. There was a strong measurable difference in terms of the amount of "antisocial" behaviour (yelling, kicking, hitting etc.) in the room with the violent TV programs as opposed to the other room. Considering that so many Northamerican kids grow up spending massive amounts of time both watching violence on tv and committing mayhem in video games, it doesn't surprise me at all that the level of violence has gone up, it is just mildly surprising it hasn't gone up more. Better education is a wonderful concept- but that is an entirely different thread as I don't think that is going to happen without a major overhaul in most education systems. I believe most schools are more like factories now, way too big and impersonal.I think the environment contributes to antisocial behaviour in that too many kids are competing for the attention/approval of too few adults.Also, there are too few adults to cope appropriately with problems when they do arise. Most kids would do as well/better out of there if there was anyone around to structure bits of their day around learning things like how to read and manipulate numbers and getting a sense of the wonders that are out there to know about. Read something the other day: "Parents are too involved with trying to give their kids the things they didn't have when they grew up and not involved enough with giving them what they DID have that enabled them to succeed." OTOH isn't it sort of the duty of every generation to think that the next generation is sending the world to hell in a handbasket?

random leap: people talk about the 100 mile radius and and Real Food.. but is THIS really what the future holds? :ph34r: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/fo...e-calories.html

This has likely come up somewhere on the forums before but not sure how to find it if so, so here goes again: in a tourney the other day ( a BIL tourney as it happened) we ran up against a multi opener. Neither my pard nor I had much idea ( ok, any) of how to bid around it, so we got into difficulty. Is there some sort of standard way of dealing with this?

ah but terrorists are obviously 'different". Most of these guys are just being blamed for what many people would themselves do if they 1) were in a position to do so 2) were smart enough to figure out how and 3) figured they could get away with it. I suspect for many people there is mixed in with the anger and dismay a kernel of admiration and perhaps respect for the degree of success these guys have had on a personal level. Sorta like the phenomenon of kidnap victims getting attached to their kidnappers...remember Patty Hearst? It isn't the same as blowing yourself up..hard for most people to relate to that. Or am I just cynical?

This last one is fantastic! :blink: Thanks for posting these things, they're fun.

I found this funny.. the nature of the thread and all.. " the yolk that restricts our freedom " in some cases also sustains and nourishes, true? The yoke only restricts... a Freudian slip? I suppose you could maintain it was infertile. :blink: I know you know english better than I do so couldn't resist :lol:

I am an innocent in calculating odds so happilly believed that in some arcane way ( don't you work in Vegas?) you had divined something approximating the odds. It sounded plausible, so my thanks were quite sincere :)

thanks :)

On the radio this afternoon it was reported that the person who is running AIG now ( I don't remember the name) has asked the people who got the bonuses to return at least part of the money. He was quoted as saying some had offered to return 100% of theirs. Can it be true? If so, how refreshing!

The last IAC team matches we had 8 teams playing in a round robin series with 12 boards per match. At the end of the series, we had two teams tied, not only with VP's but also in imps. It seems that this has to be highly unlikely. Anyone have an idea? I have no clue how to go about calculating the odds.

Canada brought in gun registry laws a number of years ago and by and large, imo, they have been a hugely expensive waste of time. We still have drive-by shootings in gang wars with the occassional unlucky bystander getting in the way; we still have people trying to kill policemen... we still have all the problems we had before. Fewer of them, it's hard to say, it doesn't seem so but I have no knowlege of the statistics. The police don't want ANYONE to have guns. A couple of years ago a woman was cleaning her legally owned handgun after returning from the firing range when she heard unexpectd noises from the garage. She reassembled her gun and went to investigate. A man had broken into the garage with a crowbar. She did a "citizen's arrest" and the police came and got the guy but also were trying to charge HER. There was enough of a shout about it they backed off, but they stuck to the view that she should just have called the cops and hoped that he didn't come after her with the crowbar until they got there. There was also another story about a wife with an abusive husband who answered the door one day and had his knees shot. Officially, it was a case of mistaken identity; but a mutual acquaintance told me that the wife's brothers had warned him..and told him the next time would be higher. Not saying this is a good thing..but the wife is not going to be a statistic of women beaten to death by her husband. Nor will she be put in hospital (again) for health care dollars to look after, as a result of his abuse. The problem imo is a practical one..criminals ARE going to have guns. Perhaps it would be better to have people trained to be responsible about them than to try to ban them entirely. Bans won't work anyway; they never do. As far as mandatory registration goes, I know several people who have guns and either register one ( which allows them to buy ammo) or get a friend to buy ammo for them. And the worst mass murder we have had (til now at least) was done by someone who could quite legally have acquired guns as at the time he had no record of instability. One thing that everyone seems to agree on..that IF you have a gun, and you get in a situation where you feel you need to show it in defense; you have to be prepared to use it. That alone prompts many people to avoid getting one (including me). I am not at all sure that untrained people are safe from themselves with one. All that said, I see no reason whatsoever that anyone needs any sort of automatic weapon. I suspect the police, with some reason perhaps, fear the growth of vigilante justice, such as the kneecap story above. . However, the answer might lie in finding a solution for the percieved need for this rather than just taking all weapons and hoping for the best. Perhaps the problem is exacerbated by the glorification of guns and violence in general in the video games and movies on which most kids (in north America at least) are growing up. I watched an old Roy Rogers TV episode the other night (don't ask) and the Wild West it might have been but it was lightyears away from the Terminator in philosophy as well as in technical adeptness.

I believe BIL (Beginner/Intermediate Lounge) has had people busilly translating bridge terms, bidding and so forth, for a number of different languages. If you are not a member you might see if you could make some arrangements with Maureen to access these.

Three women: one engaged, one married and one a mistress are chatting about their relationships and decided to amaze their men. That night all three will wear black leather bras, stiletto heels and a mask over their eyes. After a few days they meet up for lunch. The engaged woman: The other night when my boyfriend came over he found me with a black Leather bodice, tall stilettos and a mask. He saw me and said, ‘You are the woman of my life. I love you.’ Then we made love all night long. The mistress: Me too! The other night I met my lover at his office and I was wearing the Leather bodice, heels, mask over my eyes and a raincoat. When I opened the raincoat he didn’t say a word, but we had wild sex all night. The married woman: I sent the kids to my mother’s house for the night. When my husband came home I was wearing the leather bodice, black stockings, stilettos and a mask over my eyes. As soon as he came in the door and saw me he said, ‘Hey Batman what’s for dinner?"

Nobody vulnerable. Bidding goes pass pass pass 1 ♠ pass 4♠ pass pass pass. Pard leads the 4 ♦ the board has the KQJ2 of ♦ I hold the 10 9 6 ♦ Declarer takes the trick with the Ace. 3rd trick in I get the lead. I thought that since pard obviously didn't have any honors, she must be short in ♦ so led another to which she played the 3. Ok now I think she had a doubleton so next time I get the lead I try again and give declarer a sluff when pard plays the 7. It turned out that she led from ♦ 87543. She also had a singleton J♣. I wondered if perhaps the singleton might have been a better lead and was told I should have known to switch suits because of the ♦s on the board. Opinions, please? If I am wrong would love to understand the reasoning...thanks

I think it would be unfortunate if BBO restricted teaching tables to people who were "accredited" teachers. Many of us use them to puzzle out just how the opps did what they did on that hand and what we could have done about it, for example, no teachers involved at all. Also, as someone who has taken paid online lessons with teachers on BBO, I think that anyone who "buys" a teacher's services without checking them out first deserves to get stung. There are ways to evaluate teachers as it is...people who are regular commentators on vugraph are clearly respected by BBO for example. If they don't teach or only at a level beyond what would be reasonable for you, then see who they play/hang out with/ appear to hold in some regard. Kib free lessons (at your level!) and see what makes sense to you, and if what a teacher is saying is in sync with other teachers or the system notes on BBO for the system you are learning. What have they accomplished, if anything, as players? Kib them at the table (do they only ever play with weak players? What do other kibbers have to say about their play?) Ask if you can sit in on a class, or if you can talk to some of their students ( and then DO it). Talk to others in your skill level to see what they have to say. Those are a few of the ways people already have to evaluate if a teacher will suit their needs. But..just as people say things here they never would say f2f, the validity of ratings/comments would be in some cases highly questionable. Some teacher / student combinations click and the students are enthusiastic well beyond what would usually be expected for their rate of improvement. Others ...don't...and it may have nothing whatever to do with competence but a personality mismatch. Some people don't make allowances for that and highly uncomplimentary comments might well be made about a very competent and qualified teacher. It has been known to happen already, from a (nonpaying yet!) student who was disgruntled at being corrected for a mistake!!! and is grossly unfair. Someone with a perceived "axe to grind" could log in with multiple ID's to mangle a teacher's reputation. People love to talk about negatives, and things often get swollen a bit with retelling to justify and/or make a better story. Also, people tend to weight ( and remember) negatives more strongly than positives for some reason, so this might well have a totally unmerited negative impact on a teacher's ability to gain students both here AND outside. A college situation is one thing..this is too wide an audience base and there are too many possibilities for online misunderstandngs to happen.. Also, often this turns into a sort of popularity contest and imo that would be a very negative thing. In other words, I think a forum for people to rate and discuss teachers is a VERY BAD idea. I think the idea of rating according to some sort of test is not the answer; we all have had experience with teachers in the school system who have passed all the exams handilly but shouldn't be within ten miles of a student. Many excellent teachers volunteer here and some of them don't take paying students. What are you going to do about them? I suspect that you won't ever be able to prevent the charlatans from having their niche, and in the process of trolling for them you may snag teachers who are doing a solid job. On the other hand, it is reasonable for BBO to gain some benefit from the teachers who pick up paying students here that they otherwise would not have had. Perhaps one way of doing it is as magazines do..anyone who wants to advertise for paying students may do so but you reserve the right to refuse to accept their ad. As already suggested, payment could be in terms of a percentage of earnings generated through BBO. Then just have somewhere all these people can be listed....sort of like the classified section ..and just as in magazines, BBO would not be responsible for the resulting interaction. You could keep some sort of Better Business Bureau file with comments and complaints ( which I would assume you would check out) available. Perhaps if a certain number or type of complaint was made, justifiably as far as you can tell, then you simply delete them from your list of advertisers.

I had forgotton about Segovia so was delighted to be reacquainted with his music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaaXr1AjQb8 thanks!

I wonder how many pages there would be without the pages and pages of quotes on some of these threads. Some of them have pages with only about two lines of original comment on the page it seems, the rest is all earlier comment being quoted ad infinitum, which then is quoted again by the next person to reply...and so it goes.

An old video but the first time I had seen it, thought it worth passing on for a smile or two http://www.latare.com/vod082108.htm

The IAC club welcomes new teams. Fresh blood is wonderful!The schedule is set up so that hopefully all time zones can manage one or the other of the time slots. We don't set up the teams, but there is a partnership desk and a pair desk on the website for people who are interested either to register on or to look for other team members. It's likely better to be proactive and form a team. We set a series of games, for which teams are expected to play. After a series is over, teams can continue as is for the next series, regroup, drop out for a time, change or whatever. Each series was running for a month but this series we are experimenting with cycling all the teams so it is lasting about 7 weeks. What we do in future will depend on feedback from the teams. Also, after this series we are having a one shot interclub team match IAC vs Acol club. Players on the teams vary from intermediate to starred (we are privileged to have Rich Reisig as a regular player on Saturday nights). Most teams have a mix. The focus is trying to provide a fun but competitive bridge environment, so it tends to be a bit more relaxed than, say the ACBL, but we believe not unreasonably so. (There will sometimes be some chat for example, but obviously never discussion about an ongoing hand). Anyone who thinks this sounds appealing is more than welcome to join us. The present series will be over the middle of March, the following weekend is the interclub game, so the next series will be starting the end of March. To join us, you need to join IAC (link in previous post), put together a team and sign it up on the website there. At the moment we have 16 teams, (8 teams playing each session). We would be delighted to have some new teams for the next series.