hotShot

What else but the motivation makes the difference between killing a human being to get his property and killing a human being to defend your country? Why does the law treat these separately: intentional killing unintentional killing accidental killing I think that is about motivation too. So i guess the purpose of the "hate crime" definition to make clear how this kind of motivations should be evaluated.

I learned here in the forum, that citizens of the USA pretended to be from Canada when they were in e.g. Europe. There was another thread about citizens from the USA who felt the need to state publicly that they did not vote GWB. Could it be that they sensed a hostile atmosphere? Does that hostile atmosphere still exist? And if it is less now, isn't this an achievement? Willy Brandt got his Nobel Peace Prize for starting a dialog with the eastern European countries in 1971, but it took till 1989 the results of this process lead to a significant step to peace. Politics is about ideas and ideals and the Nobel Peace Prize is a political prize, so it awards ideas and ideals.

It's my impression that those banks have become insolvent. I think there is a procedure how to handle that case. The value of the bank would drop to 0. The manager bonuses are just a late number if the list of debts of the former bank. If there is not enough to pay all debts, the bonuses won't have to be payed. And the shareholder would have to take full responsibility and damage for the management the installed and approved.

I think the governments were wrong to rescue the banks. They saved the big predator dinosaurs because they feared the impact their fall might cause, but let the small ones die. Fed from the carrion of the smaller ones and bred by the state those dinosaurs grew even bigger. If they were to big to fail, what are they now after they grew further? Freed from a lot of competition, how will they improve? Yes I know not saving the banks would have been expensive, but looking at the rescue figures, can you say we got of cheap? And I bet that those bigger banks, learned the lesson off invulnerability an will continue the way they did before.

I'll try the modest one, expecting that because they obviously spend less money for marketing they could invest into better ingredients.

Physicians tend to "over diagnose" and to gain additional data mostly to back up their diagnosis in case they get sued. Similar extra costs are produced by therapy and medication. Of cause patients want to have the feeling that everything that is possible is done to help them, so they accept or even ask for extras. A nation wide system can establish standards on what is necessary.

What is the worst holding your partner could have to bid GF+ over a 15-17NT? If it could be something like this: ♠xxxx ♥x ♦KQJx ♣Kxxx then 3NT from your side is the only option. But if the agreed minimum is that low, partners hand (shown above) is worth a move over 3NT because he's some good 5 HCP stronger than an expected minimum. If the agreed minimum is a tiny bit stronger: ♠xxxx ♥x ♦KQJx ♣Axxx ♠xxxx ♥x ♦Kxxx ♣AKxx ♠xxxx ♥x ♦AQJx ♣Kxxx 5♣ already has at least a 50:50 chance to make. With partners holding 5♣ (or 4NT) should be save and 6♣ worth an investigation.

45,000 excess deaths annually linked to lack of health insurance: Harvard study

How many people die because they can't afford the medical treatment necessary to help them? How many people suffer pain, because they can't afford the pain killers they would need? If the state should not protect you from a premature death and unnecessary pain caused by illness or age, why should he protect you from murder or assault. In the first case you could get yourself some health insurance, for the second case you could hire private security or get a martial arts expert yourself. I wonder if it is your constitutional duty to suffer from your inability to earn enough money to pay for a volunteered heath care or being to stupid to do it on time.

I prefer stainless steel in the kitchen. Granite is a mixture of (manily) 3 minerals that were melted together. It can include colored minerals that can be removed with chemical e.g. acids. Get some citric acid to descale coffee machines and ask for a fragment sample of the granite. Put that sample in a glass with the citric acid and check it its color has changed. Some granite has FeS_2 (black I suppose) or other minerals in it that can discolor.

Are you sure you are talking about granite and not about marble? Soapstone is very soft you will have to be extra careful not to scratch it. Marble is acid-soluble. Granite is hard and therefore a good choice. Soapstone is used in sculpture beginner classes because its easy to cut.

With the given start you have a clear pass. Since it's my style not to offer a minor over a minor, I would have considered bidding 1♥ over 1♦ intending to pass 1NT and 2♦ rebids and bidding 1NT over 1♠. But this is definitely not standard.

It's always the same. If you don't start with a poll in the BI-Section asking what to bid, only presenting the bidding and one hand, you will never get an unbiased poll.

How can you make 1-suited overcalls? What suit length do you require? 5-5 ... 4-4 What strength do you promise? Without these informations an answer has no foundation.

It is easy to run a simulation using the available software, what is not easy is to understand what the simulation is actually telling you. Lets assume that you open Hands with 5332 or 5422 shape with: 1NT if they are 15-17 1m => 2NT if they are 18-20 2NT if they are 21-22 and lets assume that 100 simulations show that you will make 3NT more often than 4M. What does that tell you? I can tell you what it does not prove. It does not prove that it is a superior treatment, because to you will have to analyze what happens to your 1M openings. They used to be 12-21 HCP with 5+M cards with a reasonable frequency. Since you took away a lot of hands the frequency dropped and they are now 12-14 or (seldom) 12-21 unbalanced. The average strength of you 1M bid drops and you will miss a lot of partscores and games just because you did not expect your partner that strong. You also need to investigate what happens to those hands where a 4-4 fit in the majors leads to a 4M contract that is better than 3NT. Since the NT opener has a 5 card major quite often you need to play some kind of Puppet-Stayman. This will make it harder for your side to find those 4-4 fits esp. if opps interfere. You will need to memorize some complex followups over 1NT esp. after opps interference. Remember that opps could play Cappelletti, DONT, Lionel,... The computer is unable to simulate how often you will forget or misapply your complex system. If I took more time I would come up with more side effects you will have to analyze. Now to answer the question what a simulation like the one you suggested tells you: Basically the answer you get is, that with a given strength it's easier to make 9 tricks than 10 tricks. With a more detailed look you might even find, that suit quality is a factor. I bet you knew that without a simulation.

First of all we do need to recognize that this is a matter of agreement. If it's a partnership agreement that a direct bid over 2NT (limit raise) shows a stronger hand than the one West held, than North 3♥ bid showing a hand to weak to bid game, creates a new opportunity to decide. If you were forced to make a maximum pass last round, passing is no longer a LA. If it's within the partnership agreements to bid this hand over 2NT, than bidding over 3♥ is redoing a decision already made last round. If pass was an alternative last round it surely is this round. The TD does not need to poll other player. So the TD has to investigate the partnership agreement and in the first case his poll has to be: If you were forced to pass over 2NT would you bid now? From the OP we know: Unfortunately most player don't know, which magical word they have to say to the TD. In this case he should have said: Since West did not state this, the TD should in doubt decide in favor of the NOS, leaving it to a committee to investigate further.

Edit: Andy's suggestion is better! The TCL programming language that deal uses is extremely sensitive to correct blanks and TCL is case sensitive. Expressions are some what unusual. So you better split that condition to: if { [spades north] <= 4 } { if { [balanced north] && [hearts north] == 4 } { Do your thing here! } }

Perhaps this is about twitter? http://twitter.com/donnjosh

Right now BBO shows me 19439 Player (an the number is growing). This is fantastic congratulations to the whole BBO team.

I think originally a Michaels Cue-Bid is defined as 5-5. I won't discuss full disclosure, if someone has 5-4 because that has gotten quite common. But if it could be 4-4 i think disclosing Heart and a minor is not enough. East is much more likely to have no ♦ left than holding 3 in the first place. So i would consider playing for 3-3 to be irrational for intermediates or better. And I apologize to the majority of beginners who would have know that too.

I don't bid out of turn, so i guess I have to wait until partner and RHO have made their bids. :) Assuming you mean RHO, those who play Raptor firmly believe that bidding 5-4 hands is worth while. http://www.bridgeguys.com/Conventions/Raptor.html

The TD's ruling is correct. (Although the TD should not base his ruling on GIB.) Easts 2♥ bid showed ♥ and a minor and since West only had a single ♣ (as declarer saw in trick 6) the minor has to be ♣. In trick 6 East has already shown 2♠ to his 5+♥ and 4+♣ and cannot have more than 2♦. So declarer already has located the ♦T in Wests hand, and the finesse is obvious.

Happy Birthday Helene!

If you want to psyche you should be sure that your side has the minority of points. You might end up playing in a suit you don't have or a NT contract with uncomfortable strength. So your likely to go down and this only pays off if opps could do something better on their own. This is why psyching in 3rd seat is easier, because you have knowledge about your partners strength. Standard psyches are e.g. - Opening or overcalling 1NT when in fact you have a 3m opening. - Psyching a major (usually ♠) over a 2nd seat dbl. - Psyching a Cue-bid/ stopper to discourage opps to lead that suit against you impossible slam or NT contract. ... If you psyche in 1st seat, remember that partner might raise your opening to the sky, because he is strong and believes in a fit

IIRC they are doing a chromosome test. A woman must be XX, not xxy or xy.