tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58481572024-03-07T01:23:27.808-08:00Lion TalesRichard Brodie, author of Virus of the Mind and Getting Past OK, shares his thoughts and stories with you.Richard Brodiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04764195858517372568noreply@blogger.comBlogger245125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848157.post-64533252416251343692017-11-01T09:06:00.003-07:002017-11-01T09:08:30.066-07:00The Facebook Matrix Cometh<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="1pkvn" data-offset-key="aj32b-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="aj32b-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I have disabled Adblock Plus on Facebook.</span></div>
</div>
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<span data-offset-key="b0dff-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I think this is significant. Adblock Plus recently figured out how to block "sponsored posts" on Facebook (but not perfectly). As I scrolled through, I would see them flash for the briefest moment as they came into view before disappearing.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="1pkvn" data-offset-key="a7uhq-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="a7uhq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I didn't like it.</span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="a7uhq-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="a7uhq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Facebook does such a good job targeting me with ads that I actually want to see some of them. So I turned it off.</span></div>
</div>
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<span data-offset-key="bcj83-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Now I've voluntarily subscribed to advertising newsletters such as travel and electronics deals, but I think this is the first time I've voluntarily subjected myself to ads embedded in unrelated content. For instance, I've turned off TV commercials at every chance, dating back to the days of ReplayTV with its commercial-skip feature that was destroyed by political pressure. I buy commercial-free content from Amazon rather than subscribe to cable.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="1pkvn" data-offset-key="52r2a-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="52r2a-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">But the ads on Facebook have become so relevant to me that I want to see them. They have rewired my brain to get me to choose to see advertising. And, with a nod to Buck Henry, loving it.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="1pkvn" data-offset-key="9gmhc-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="9gmhc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">As I predicted in my 1995 book <i>Virus of the Mind</i>, mind viruses (and I include Facebook in that) become better and better at gaining a share of our mental resources. But it's a mistake to think we will notice and resist the invasion. It feels like entertainment. TV shows have become so good that I spend much more time watching them (without commercials) than I used to. It seems laughable to look back on the day when <i>All in the Family</i> was the best thing on TV.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9gmhc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">When The Matrix comes, it will not look like being dragged into a plastic feeding tube and hooked up to wires. It will look like fabulous entertainment, 24/7.</span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9gmhc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="9gmhc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Is that such a bad thing?</span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9gmhc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="9gmhc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Only if you have something more important to do.</span></div>
</div>
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<br />
I loved <i>La La Land</i> because to me the whole thing was high comedy, from the opening number to casting stars who can't sing to Ryan Gosling's knowing wink at the ending.<br />
<br />
To me <i>La La Land</i> was a kindly, sad grandpa speaking wistfully of the impossibility of recreating the past while at the same time harboring an ineffable love for it. The movie illustrated this conceit in the three arenas of marriage, jazz, and musical theater, in all of which I have not a little experience.<br />
<br />
For a long time I've been unsatisfied with everything new in musical theater since early Andrew Lloyd Webber. New shows seemed unable to simultaneously provide an engaging story and a fresh, upbeat, non-derivative score. Lin-Manuel Miranda almost got it right in <i>In the Heights</i> and then he hit the home run with his next work. I was struck in <i>Hamilton</i> by the broad range of musical genres Miranda pulled off from ballads to hip-hop. The magic ingredient of a resonant political message pushed it over the top.<br />
<br />
Jazz, similarly, seemed to dribble to a standstill in the early '60s. How do you keep creating music in a genre that by its very nature deconstructs the past? It eats its own tail. Jazz clubs in Seattle, like Gosling's in <i>La La Land</i>, play music that might have come from 50 years ago to an audience of white-hairs. There's no money in it.<br />
<br />
It remains to be seen what will happen to the institution of marriage in the West but for the last 50 years it's been on a similar path of deconstruction. One man and one woman for a lifetime seems quaint, antiquated, and even hateful. Did families like the Cleavers ever really exist? It seems hard to remember.<br />
<br />
From the awkwardly derivative opening number to the embarrassingly inept allusions to Astaire and Rogers, <i>La La Land</i> showed us that no matter how much we might want to preserve the past, time marches on. The choice isn't between a sad attachment to nostalgia or a successful modern life, because how can there be success if you give up everything you love? Ultimately you do what you do and you live with the sadness.<br />
<br />
That is, until you get the joke.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
1. Click on the gear in the upper right corner<br />
2. Choose Account Settings<br />
3. On the left side of the screen, click on Notifications<br />
4. In How You Get Notifications/On Facebook, click View on the right<br />
5. Click to remove the check mark in "Play a sound when each new notification is received."<br />
6. Click Save Changes<br />
<br />
Presto! No more beeps!<br />
<br />
Read my book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401924697/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1401924697&linkCode=as2&tag=memecentral">Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme</a>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/v_8aVDGOLOw/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/v_8aVDGOLOw&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/v_8aVDGOLOw&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
<br />
Not many people realize how much we loved Steve at Microsoft back in 1983, when we were secretly working on Microsoft applications for Macintosh. I was invited to the Mac launch party in Cupertino and remember Steve Jobs as the most captivating speaker I had ever seen. But we were so much older then.<br />
<br />
Few men leave a shadow as long as his. Goodbye Steve.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITTKwEpjgwGuugVhRs4jl92084mkEupFAiv9qG0olJ1skLqUur0witTn4RAlddygkQmZ_aiy1XlJB2UqdRjHQ99PtPcRnGqmyPZiQsOoVZxs8pm_jiOW_0Tr2y9cznfRgJb9u/s1600/windows-7-anniversary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITTKwEpjgwGuugVhRs4jl92084mkEupFAiv9qG0olJ1skLqUur0witTn4RAlddygkQmZ_aiy1XlJB2UqdRjHQ99PtPcRnGqmyPZiQsOoVZxs8pm_jiOW_0Tr2y9cznfRgJb9u/s200/windows-7-anniversary.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>I still have a lot of friends at Microsoft and every now and then I mention it to them. I've even demonstrated it with my snazzy Samsung Focus, now running the kick-ass Mango 7.5 OS, and they usually do a double take, blink, and say they can't believe it's never been fixed.<br />
<br />
It doesn't cause any data to be lost. It doesn't cause crashes. It's simply aesthetic. Perhaps for that reason it has remained on the low-priority bug list for 25 years. But I know exactly how to fix it, and the fix involves a <i>one-character</i> change to Windows.<br />
<br />
I'll explain.<br />
<br />
Around the time Windows was released, Microsoft was building its international business by localizing all of its products. This involved taking out all of the hardwired English messages and replacing them with the appropriate text in the local language. We did this by taking all the text out of the program itself and putting it in a small database. The program would say "display message number 17" and the appropriate text would be fetched from the database in the local language.<br />
<br />
It wasn't that simple, though. There were other local conventions such as currency unit and date format. In America we put the month first (9/1/2011) but in Europe they put the day first (1/9/2011). That is known as the "short date" format and it can be customized, both by Microsoft so that when you install Windows it uses the format customary for your location, and by the user, if for some reason you want to use a non-standard format. You just go to the control panel for "Region and Language," click on "Additional Settings," go to the Date tab, and you can create your own format. For instance, if you only want a two-digit year (as was customary before Y2K), you would modify the short date from "m/d/yyyy" to "m/d/yy". Or if you wanted leading zeroes for one-digit days and months so that all the dates would line up neatly in a column, you would say "mm/dd/yy".<br />
<br />
There's also a "long date." In America, we say "Thursday, September 1, 2011." In England they say "1 September 2011." And of course in other places they use different languages for "September." It all works beautifully.<br />
<br />
Except that in the very first release, some unknown Microsoft employee inadvertently put "dd" instead of "d" in the US English long-date format.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTl1kn_OMf47MJCyjJ0jaCOsAv4d8CApaxFq-uAbjUTRVD0PgSJ1Xypp3Cgg7qPig08rR5YeCYvwSmOdB4-gA_t84VBBXL4O3GERFGGccRFIwJJ5-HapaXdKmN84ZGp-wq81A/s1600/WP_000370.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTl1kn_OMf47MJCyjJ0jaCOsAv4d8CApaxFq-uAbjUTRVD0PgSJ1Xypp3Cgg7qPig08rR5YeCYvwSmOdB4-gA_t84VBBXL4O3GERFGGccRFIwJJ5-HapaXdKmN84ZGp-wq81A/s320/WP_000370.jpg" width="240" /></a>Go look. Put your mouse down over the time in the lower right corner of your Windows screen and see what it says. Nine days a month you'll see something like "Thursday, September 01, 2011."<br />
<br />
(If you're like me and now, knowing this, it will bug you forever, just go to the control panel mentioned above and delete one of the two d's in the long date format so it looks like "dddd, MMMM d, yyyy".)<br />
<br />
Honestly I thought someone would have fixed this by now because it drives me crazy knowing that hundreds of millions of people are seeing that extra zero nine days a month. And now with Windows Phone 7, they've copied the meme and there's not even a way to edit the format string (although they graciously give you a choice of four long-date formats, all with the bug).<br />
<br />
I'm currently lobbying with two of my highly placed friends at Microsoft to finally get this fixed, at least for the phone where the date stares you in the face every time you look at it. But until then, I grit my teeth nine days a month.<br />
<br />
Happy September 01, everyone.<br />
<br />
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<br />
If you have an ebook reader (and I think it's available for just about all of them) you can buy it for only $1.99 until Sept 1 from my awesome new publisher Hay House. <a href="http://promos.hayhouse.com/ebooks/">Click here</a>.<br />
<br />
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<br />
6/11 #19 $2500 LHE<br />
6/13 #23 $2500 8-game mix<br />
6/15 #27 $10k LHE championship<br />
6/16 #29 $2500 10-game mix (maybe)<br />
6/24 #41 $1500 LHE shootout6/30 #52 $2500 mixed hold 'em<br />
<br />
I don't plan to play the main event but I might change my mind. Follow me on twitter @quietlion.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
I thought about sounding the horn. In Boston we would have sounded the horn after about half a second, but in Seattle sounding the horn is considered rude for any occasion short of a nuclear attack.<br />
<br />
So I waited patiently for about 30 seconds for the driver to notice I was behind him waiting to pull in. He remained motionless in his car so I pulled up beside him and made the universal hand signal for "would you please move your car one way or the other?" He rolled his window down, puzzled, and I asked if it would be possible for me to use one of the parking spaces. He looked around at where he was parked (squarely in the center of the two-spot loading zone) and then said, "I guess I could move up a little." I thanked him, maneuvered into the space behind him, and then watched as he tried to get into the bank.<br />
<br />
I say "tried" because the obvious door to the bank on the main street, Kirkland Ave., has no handle. To its left is an unmarked elevator door, and to the left of that is an ATM vestibule that actually connects to the bank but it's not obvious. Around the corner to the right, hidden from view, is an actual door that works. That's the one the man, now wet, ended up using. I went in through the ATM vestibule and made my deposit while the wet man was dripping and filling out his deposit slip.<br />
<br />
"Why can't you enter through that door?" I asked the branch manager, who was standing behind the tellers.<br />
<br />
"That's an exit only door," she said.<br />
<br />
"Yes," I offered, "but you haven't really answered my question. Why don't you make it an 'enter and exit' door?"<br />
<br />
"Oh," she said, "It has no handle."<br />
<br />
"Very true," I said. "But why doesn't Bank of America put a handle on it?"<br />
<br />
"Because it's an exit door."<br />
<br />
I looked at the wet man, next in line to visit the tellers. "Surely," I said, "Bank of America has enough money despite the financial crisis to install a handle."<br />
<br />
She looked like she was thinking hard. Finally she said, "It's a temporary location."<br />
<br />
I smiled and nodded, then turned and walked out the exit door, steps from my car in the conveniently located loading zone.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
Second to God is the foreign enemy. This one's trickier because they really exist. But to put things in perspective:<br />
<br />
Residents of USA who in the last 10 years:<br />
Died of heart disease, cancer, and stroke: 12 million<br />
Died in accidents: 1.2 million<br />
Died of the flu or pneumonia: 560,000<br />
Died at the hands of terrorists: 3000<br />
Died because imaginary sky daddy decided to kill them and torture them for eternity: 0 <br />
<br />
So may I humbly suggest that there are a lot of people afraid of the wrong things?<br />
<br />
Get your flu shot, put your phone in your pocket when you drive, and don't get fooled again.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<ul><li>It gives a $4800 tax break to self-employed professionals making $200,000 a year while not lowering taxes significantly for most working people.</li>
<li>It claims to reduce the "state portion of property tax" by 20%. Since most of the property tax is local, that translates into a reduction of only 4.2%!</li>
<li>It unfairly targets people with income that varies widely from year to year. An author who works for 10 years on a book and then makes more than $200,000 would get socked with the tax even though he only made 10% of that per year.</li>
<li>Likewise, if you retire and sell your home or liquidate your life savings from the stock market, you will have to pay 5-9% of any profit over $200,000. </li>
<li>It allows no deductions for home mortgage interest, medical expenses, or charitable contributions. </li>
<li>Worst of all, the legislature is free to change the rules two years after this would pass. They could add another bracket or extend the tax all the way down to your first dollar earned.</li>
</ul><br />
Washington is currently in the top ten states both for per-capita income and median income. We have a business tax based on the revenue of the business -- we don't subsidize unprofitable companies like many states. Time and time again our cities are listed as among the most desirable places to live -- and no state income tax is part of the reason.<br />
<br />
Some people say that Washington's tax system is unfair and regressive. But the lion's share of taxes come from Federal Income Tax, and of course most of that money comes back to the state (one elected official I talked to estimated 75%). Make no mistake, the purpose of a state income tax is to make it easier for government to make itself bigger.<br />
<br />
Vote no on 1098. Keep Washington government small and taxes low.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<blockquote>Let's get one thing straight: Agnosticism is not some kind of weak-tea atheism. Agnosticism is not atheism <em>or</em> theism. It is radical skepticism, doubt in the possibility of certainty, opposition to the unwarranted certainties that atheism and theism offer.</blockquote>Well, no. That's not what those words mean. And no radical skeptic would consider for a moment the possibility that unseen, all-powerful being(s) are influencing our day-to-day lives despite the absence of a shred of evidence of it over the entire course of history. And it's not like nobody was looking.<br />
<br />
The reason the "new atheists" as so shrill and strident about the fact that there are no gods (yes, we call conclusions reached after thorough study of overwhelming evidence "facts") is not that we hate religious people. It's not that we, as the author of this article believes, "display a credulous and childlike faith, worship a certainty as yet unsupported by evidence." In fact, every available bit of evidence points to no gods.<br />
<br />
Before memetics, it was puzzling to see that so many people believed in something that wasn't real. But now we understand the dynamics of mind viruses and how certain ideas catch on regardless of how true they are. The god meme grew from below, out of people's desire to have a simple explanation of things they didn't understand, and from above, as priests and politicians found they could use it to control people. Which they still do. There's a reason churches are tax exempt.<br />
<br />
No, the reason we are shouting so loud that there is no god is that we believe everything will work better if people think and act based on reality rather than on fantasy. It makes me nauseous when I see the President of the United States talk about his imaginary friend. What other ridiculous things does he believe and how do they factor into his decision making? How much did fairy stories influence Bush to get us into two wars? And we won't even talk about the beliefs of the kids who crashed five planes on Sept. 11.<br />
<br />
The "new atheists" see the tipping point coming and we want to kill the god meme before it kills us. We have important decisions to make and I'd rather not have my elected officials making them based on chicken entrails.<br />
<br />
As for the "new agnostic," let me offer Ron Rosenbaum a better definition: An atheist who's afraid to tell his mother. Ron, grow a pair.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
The event starts at 5 p.m. and I will be tweeting my progress as quietlion.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
100/200 blinds, 25 ante. Not particularly active player, actually I guy I know from gambling in the casino and who isn't a professional poker player, raises to 600 in the hijack (two to the right of the button). I call with A9h on the button and the blinds fold. The flop comes 952 with two clubs. He bets 1000 and I move in for 4900 more. He has me covered by a few hundred. He makes the call with A4 offsuit. Turn 4, river 4 and I Go Home Now.<br />
<br />
Next event tonight at 5pm: 2-7 triple draw lowball.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
I can't see any reasonable way to believe that. All kinds of commerce takes place over the Internet and regulations are working fine. As Justice Johnson pointed out, his daughter could just as easily squander money buying shoes from Nordstrom.com as playing online poker. Washington could easily require gambling sites to require age and identity verification that would work better than brick-and-mortar casinos.<br />
<br />
When I took a seat in the third row for the hearing, I accidentally took the seat of Attorney General Rob McKenna, not realizing his notebook was leaning up against the armrest. He graciously sat next to me. After the hearing I said, "Pretty interesting case." He mulled it over. I said, "I am so sick of hearing 'crack cocaine of gambling.' " He smiled. His job is just to represent the law, but I can't think there's much political will behind keeping people from playing online poker.<br />
<br />
If you'd like to follow the case, go here : http://templeofjustice.org/2010/rousso-v-state/<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">While not absolutely necessary, it is greatly helpful if you contact the PPA via email at <a href="mailto:WashRally2010@theppa.org">WashRally2010@theppa.org</a> to register your attendance. Please include your full name and a telephone number where you can be reached. Your information will be kept confidential and it will only be used to provide you with more details about the rally as the date approaches.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">We look forward to seeing you as we join together to say that <b>Poker Is Not A Crime!</b> Thank you for your support.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Details:</b></div><style>
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<ul><li>If you want to view the Supreme Court arguments you need to be at the Court House in Olympia by 9:00 AM on Thursday, May 27th to get a seat in the courtroom.</li>
<li>The post-hearing rally will begin immediately following the Supreme Court arguments on the courthouse steps. Estimated time for the rally is 10:00 AM.<o:p> </o:p></li>
<li>PPA will supply custom made "Poker is NOT a Crime" T-Shirts to the first 100 members at the courthouse.</li>
<li>Snacks and beverages will also be provided. </li>
</ul><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p> </o:p><b>Location: </b></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: inherit;">Washington State Supreme Court Complex </div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: inherit;">415 13th Ave SE </div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="font-family: inherit;">Olympia, WA 98501 </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> 4 May 30 $1500 Limit Omaha Hi/Low </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> 7 June 1 $2500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">18 June 9 $2000 Limit Hold 'Em</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">23 June 11 $2500 Limit Hold 'Em Six-handed </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">27 June 14 $1500 Stud Hi/Low</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">29 June 15 $10000 Limit Hold 'Em Championship </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">31 June 16 $1500 HORSE</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">37 June 19 $3000 HORSE</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">42 June 23 $10000 HORSE Championship</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">44 June 24 $2500 Mixed Hold 'Em</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">48 June 26 $2500 Mixed Event</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">53 June 30 $1500 Limit Hold 'Em shootout</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">57 July 8 $10000 Main Event </span><br />
<div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;">This list is subject to change but it should be pretty close. If you see me in Vegas come and say hi!</div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
<a href="http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/04/fun_with_secret.html">Create your own security question and answer</a><br />
<br />
Q: Can you ever forgive this presumptuous intrusion into your personal affairs?<br />
A: Oh, I suppose so, but don't let it happen again.<br />
<br />
Make your own!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div>Richard Brodiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04764195858517372568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848157.post-41295425890388018952010-04-11T13:41:00.000-07:002010-04-11T13:42:47.914-07:00Poker peevesAlthough I don't play many tournaments any more, these reenactments of pet peeves at the poker table had me lolling. There's even a surprise appearance by Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, perhaps the greatest natural comic in the poker world.<br />
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Hat tip to <a href="http://pokergrump.blogspot.com/">Rakewell</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzQLIuXwgomcW2sqqWqNy6kLW9ec1uV-LFBaN5p5V9rCSXxwI261gvhVDZHh09MdjDmquxFvPG8nVTg5BbY3cvj4WnieL9JOtqZSF0O19w1OddGpBPeXnm2xFJB_QApguOWZS-/s320/AtheistBarbie.jpg" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLgarlkAHNnlSKX32pL3LCKmnFgomiu4uryFSGmGqHSa-UiJCjLrzjDKtZqXosoMfenIHEMkOMo6ZVef751gVUkZgj1qYSdIFn5tpPvOOmZ8e5aMUxWfCQC_9cdNraR-fkz7Dg/s1600/tsa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLgarlkAHNnlSKX32pL3LCKmnFgomiu4uryFSGmGqHSa-UiJCjLrzjDKtZqXosoMfenIHEMkOMo6ZVef751gVUkZgj1qYSdIFn5tpPvOOmZ8e5aMUxWfCQC_9cdNraR-fkz7Dg/s200/tsa.jpg" width="200" /></a>The word "proof" comes from the 18th Century, when liquor was tested to see if it had been watered down by mixing it with gunpowder and seeing if it would ignite. That only works if the booze is at least 57% alcohol. The fact that the gunpowder ignites when the liquor is 100 proof or more is the proof. In the US this was simplified to 50-50, probably by the same government officials who legislated pi equal to 3.<br />
<br />
My friend argued with as many as five TSA officers but to no avail. Rather than miss his flight, he abandoned the minibar plunder to the innumerates.<br />
<br />
A few years before, I was checking a heavy bag at the Alaska Airlines counter in Las Vegas. A young ticket agent I hadn't seen before asked me what was in the bag to make it so heavy. I said there were a few bottles of wine. She asked how many. I asked if there was some kind of restriction, as I had never heard of such a thing.<br />
<br />
She said, "You can't check anything with 70% alcohol, so if you have five or more bottles of wine that adds up to more than 70%."<br />
<br />
"I'm not sure math works that way," I said. "You don't add the percentages in different bottles to get a higher percentage. It's all still the same percentage."<br />
<br />
"Over 70% isn't allowed," She said.<br />
<br />
I assured her there were fewer than five bottles of wine.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
Enter <a href="http://www.ruelala.com/invite/rbrodie02">Rue La La</a>.<br />
<br />
Since discovering Filene's Basement in my youth in Boston, I've loved finding bargains on high-end stuff. Rue La La, an invitation-only (<a href="http://www.ruelala.com/invite/rbrodie02">your invitation is here</a> and earns me $10, thank you viral marketing) boutique liquidator, uses an interesting version of the <i>window of opportunity</i> meme. Every day they open a few collections for deep bargains, but the opportunity only lasts three days. They even have a clock ticking in front of each virtual storefront to underscore the urgency.<br />
<br />
Today there are several high-end clothiers I've never heard of, a sports equipment company, Mario Batali cookware, a spa, and even a Napa Valley winery. Mmm...just picked up a trio of 2006 Rubicon Captain's Reserve for $59.<br />
<br />
It's definitely a buyer's market right now, and soon many of these retailers will shut their doors or reinvent themselves more in line with Wal-Mart. But for the time being, I'm getting in on the bargains.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqFpBa0U1T8w3xoU_MGcK6qjC-jG9Ouy9iiGfKKS_B_r3UW4D0lRmum1rZCOKWXOMVvNUlMGFwbIDex64GvnIG2vgVL3eMe4PIbLBVR8p2FXEllkZESdp32cTg_Z44mmB8tluX/s1600/how-to-train-your-dragon-20100312115803805_640w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqFpBa0U1T8w3xoU_MGcK6qjC-jG9Ouy9iiGfKKS_B_r3UW4D0lRmum1rZCOKWXOMVvNUlMGFwbIDex64GvnIG2vgVL3eMe4PIbLBVR8p2FXEllkZESdp32cTg_Z44mmB8tluX/s320/how-to-train-your-dragon-20100312115803805_640w.jpg" /></a></div><i>How To Train Your Dragon</i>, seen in 3D at <a href="http://www.goldclasscinemas.com/">Gold Class Cinema</a>, gets pretty damn close. A coming-of-age story about a scrawny freckled intellectual boy in a land of burly Vikings (who for some reason speak with Scottish accents), its 3D effects seem natural and lifelike and enhance, rather than distract, from the movie's charming message: instead of making war against those we don't understand, we can live together in harmony and enslave them.<br />
<br />
With dragons flying out of the screen and pieces of ash dropping down seemingly in arm's reach, 3D has moved from gimmick to genuine technological advance. Home 3DTVs are already here, waiting for the content to drive their sales. The studios are churning out children's movies at a pretty impressive rate, but traditionally it's the porn industry that drives home-entertainment technology, and potential 3D offerings may bring a whole new meaning to the term "train your dragon."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br />
Who will be on these death panels? What criteria will they use? Will some people be considered more worthy than others? These are really tough questions. We decided it's much more civilized to have the <i>patient </i>decide. And we have the perfect model for the decision-making process on TV every week: Deal or No Deal.<br />
<br />
The insurance company has actuarial tables that will tell them, on average, how much it will cost to do everything medically possible to prolong the patient's life. So all they have to do is offer a fraction of that to the patient, to pass on to the family, in exchange for pulling the plug. $275,000: Deal or no deal?<br />
<br />
What would you decide?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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