shyams

In my (uncharitable) opinion, the definition of a crime depends on who is committing it --- i.e. different standards for Republicans and Democrats. Quite similar to how MeToo works --- different standards for Kavanaugh and Biden.

Some stats from the UK Govt. Office of National Statistics Deaths in Avg. deaths 2020 higher 2020 prev 5 yrs or lower Weekly avg. 11,943 12,410 - 467 weeks 1-8 Week # 9 10,816 11,183 - 367 Week #10 10,895 11,498 - 603 Week #11 11,019 11,205 - 186 Week #12 10,645 10,573 + 72 and then the numbers start getting impacted by Covid Week #13 11,141 10,310 + 1,011 Week #14 16,387 10,305 + 6,082 Week #15 18,516 10,520 + 7,996 Week #16 22,351 10,497 +11,854 Week #17 21,997 10,458 +11,539 Week #18 17,953 9,941 + 8,012 Note: Numbers exclude Scotland and Northern Ireland. So our Govt. said that Covid deaths as of 01 May 2020 across the UK were 27,510. The excess deaths {in England and Wales only, excludes Scotland and N. Ireland} as per the ONS report were 46,500 a massive difference. And if one were to extrapolate, we might have had excess 55k-60k deaths in the UK since the Covid outbreak took hold. I think this is terrible mismanagement by the UK Govt.

What I say might sound insane but I would neg dbl as North instead of passing. In this particular instance, it allows me to bid 3♥ after West's 3♦ and partner would know that my hand is not strong enough to force with a 2♥ response. As North, I would then have no qualms passing the 5♦ bid and allowing partner to decide.

I think the situation posted by McBruce in another thread (link) is interesting. I wonder whether #1.3 in the Skyblue book addresses this situation adequately.

I agree that the comparison was based on different numbers. My remark was not about numbers in the article; my focus was on how NYT uses language to caveat the praise showered on Greece in the previous paragraph. Interestingly, if one re-reads the quoted paragraph, the logical callisthenics by NYT editors are self-evident. "Germany's low mortality rate" (which I presume means # of deaths as % of # of Germans identified as infected) has been compared to "Greece’s numbers" (which appears to be # of Greeks identified as infected). LOL!! In contrast, I quoted a metric from Worldometers website which is simple. How many people died of Covid? (and, to normalise for size/population, I used a deaths/million pop). Greece is doing a good job because their deaths are much lower(*), compared to Germany. I agree with Indi Samarajiva who writes "By any objective standard, Germany has failed. Merkel presided over more deaths two days ago (287) than South Korea has had total." Note:(*) I know that other factors --- e.g. population density, pollution levels, accuracy of reporting --- will influence the deaths/million population metric. However, I find it hard to believe that these factors can make a 6x difference across the two countries

Thank you for sharing, hrothgar. My slight disagreement with the article is that the author ascribes too many actions to racism when (at least in my view) some are the outcome of large-scale stupidity. Much of the "free world" lives in an Idiocracy, and Donald Trump as the leader of this world is the undisputed Idiot. The author's criticism of NY Times is much deserved; that Op-Ed she refers to is a mishmash of platitudes. I found this line from the NYT article particularly interesting: ... the subtext being a country that is so stupid as to bankrupt itself shouldn't logically be allowed to succeed. And then, in order to backtrack from the praise of Greece, the Op-Ed adds: In reality, Greece has 14 Covid deaths per million population compared to Germany at 90 per million. But then why should that statistic stop the NYT from taking a swipe at Greece while making a virtue of Germany's testing records? :huh:

These loosely worded "policy" statements by our dear leader(!) and Brexit saviour(!!) Boris are creating other problems. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52618005

My final attempt at bumping this thread.

No it does not.

I believe the only way to become visible is to log off and log back in after unticking the "invisible" option.

Thank you RMB1 and gordonTD

1. What is so proprietary about the so-called "charitable" activities of BBO? 2. On May 4 you wrote "Sorry, the CEO says he's not going to make financial details public". A day later, following some criticism from BBFers, you wrote "More information should be coming soon". Wasn't Management aware of why the information was being asked in the first place? 3. Am I supposed to back off now that BBO management is aware of this thread? I must say I am now fully aligned with cherdano's previously expressed view. Personally, I too have decided to stop spending money on BBO.

Actually the tournament referred to in the OP and in the title of this post is "Support your game". It wasn't "save your club" --- whatever that means.

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Dark clouds on the horizon for Biden? Why Won’t TV News Book Tara Reade? NY Times article by Ben Smith (link here)

Pass -- both at MPs and IMPs.

Currently at 13.0%. Approx £300k traded in the last four days. Here is something that made me wonder/chuckle. So Biden is naturally the most likely Dem nominee for President (87.0% implied probability). Who is the next most likely? As per the betting odds, it is not Andrew Cuomo (2.6%) or Bernie Sanders (0.9%). Instead, the second highest implied probability goes to Hillary Clinton (4.3%). And her % probability increased (slightly) after she did her video conference to endorse Biden. :lol: :lol: :lol: Maybe the betting markets are flawed, but these are money-making opportunities. And (full disclosure) I am currently trading this market, hoping to make some money! Edit: Some eight hours later, Hillary's odds have improved to a new probability of 5.5%

I stand corrected: The Libertarian candidate in the 2016 Presidential elections won 3 times the votes won by the Green Party. So perhaps Justin Amash is relevant; I don't know enough to even guess who he will hurt more.

There are some reports in US media that Jesse Ventura is hoping to be the official Green party candidate (Link). Usually (I believe) a strong Green Party candidate hurts the chances of the Democrat side. However, this time around the whole situation has turned topsy turvy due to Trump's mad antics and it is possible that older Republican voters may choose to switch to a candidate like Jesse. I don't know anything about Justin Amash. He sounds like one of those candidates who will be largely invisible in the election dynamics.

I am sure that the tournament cherdano refers to is not ACBL support your club. It is an entirely new one not affiliated to ACBL or any other NBO. For example, I believe the chosen organization for the first week was Le Bridgeur.

FelicityR, I suggest you relook at your decision above and continue to comment whenever you so desire. * What you wrote is reported in the press/media, howsoever unpalatable that press/media outlet was to some others. You merely stated things here which you thought were interesting and noteworthy. * Nothing of what you wrote is likely to cause people to take unreasonable or rash actions in their own life. You are not the President of the USA(*) * If I recall, when you made suggestions on this post, you used to caveat such suggestions saying something like "not formal medical advice". Why bother responding to random rants or taking it to heart? This is The Water Cooler; you are allowed to comment to your heart's desire regardless of what others say. PS: My apologies for including the Clown President and you in the same sentence :)

Today's ONS publication on weekly deaths makes for shocking reading and casts the UK bureaucracy & govt. in a very bad light. As I previously said, the daily deaths in hospitals are understated and consequently the UK Govt. still insists that total Covid deaths so far as ~21,000. However, the ONS provisional figures on weekly deaths suggests a different picture (Link here) As per the ONS, there were 22,300 deaths in the week ended 17 Apr compared to a previous 5-year average of 10,500 deaths. The 5-year average has a steady trend of 10,500-11,000 per week whereas the 2020 numbers have been steadily climbing. The number for week 13 (week ended 27-Mar) was 11,100 (800 higher vs. 5-year trend), for week 14 was 16,400 (6,000 higher), week 15 was 18,500 (8,000 higher) and week 16 was 22,350 (11,850 higher). Truly a tragic mismanagement by the Govt.

Spot on! :D :D There is ample evidence in bridge literature that South is declarer far more frequently than any other direction.

When I checked this morning, it had widened to 12.3%. Now, this is a British/European betting website but the market is deep (£22.7 million has been traded on this specific outcome -- of which approx. £1.5m of trades occurred in the last 10 days).

After the transfer, a bid of 3-Other major is artificial and indicates slam interest.