|
03:18 pm
[Link] |
Twitter
I'm occasionally tweeting: http://twitter.com/SteveBrecher
|
|
11:33 am
[Link] |
The standardization of baby talk
Continuing the theme of the recent post by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) whipartist... The need for a conjunction of pronouns to reverse use of nominative and objective cases was obviated by Antonio Esfandiari on a recent "Poker After Dark." Speaking humorously about the female need for romantic commitment he remarked, "Me, as a man, cannot."
|
|
09:23 am
[Link] |
Prediction: Watches, hourglasses to be banned
"New Restrictions Quickly Added for Air Passengers"—from the New York TImes (free registration possibly required):Airline officials also said the carriers were told to turn off the maps on in-flight entertainment systems that show a plane’s location. The rule apparently was intended to prevent travelers from knowing when a plane had reached the United States. However, industry officials pointed out there are route maps in the backs of airline magazines, and that a traveler could simply time the journey using a watch. Also coming soon: On days when the coastline is not obscured by a cloud layer, window shades will have to be lowered for the entire flight.
|
|
04:42 pm
[Link] |
Radley Balko against hope
Radley Balko in an Economist interview:...[I]t's at least possible that once the Obama administration proves just as inept, corrupt, and hopeless as the Bush administration, the younger people who flocked to Obama will start to understand that the problem isn't who's running government, it's that government power itself corrupts--and that we're better off keeping as much of our lives as possible off limits to the whims of politicians instead of this repeating cycle of putting all of our hope into the idea that someday, the right politicians will finally get elected.
|
|
06:40 pm
[Link] |
Foxwoods Result
I finished 8th, grossing $99,641. Thanks to all for the good wishes!
For the record: on my final hand I moved in for 472,000, not 572,000 as reported on the WPT site.
Edit: removed the "$" from the chip amounts.
|
07:10 am
[Link] |
Foxwoods final 10
1. Adam "Roothlus" Levy - 892,000
2. Lee Markholt - 480,000
3. Curt Kohlberg - 1,127,000
4. Kenna James - 1,217,000
5. Tom Dobrilovic - 565,000
6. Eric Froehlich - 714,000
7. Steve Brecher - 660,000
8. Cornel Andrew Cimpan - 1,554,000
9. Soheil Shamseddin - 1,233,000
10. Matt Stout - 2,101,000
Play will end today after four players are eliminated; the WPT "TV table" of six will play tomorrow.
|
|
05:19 pm
[Link] |
Blag
As of today, I'm certificated by the FAA as an Airline Transport Pilot with an Airplane Multi-Engine Land rating and a Cessna 510 (Citation Mustang) single-pilot type rating.
|
|
05:14 pm
[Link] |
Soul Storage
A small ad in the New Yorker piqued my curiosity enough to send me to the site of The Soul Storage Company. I think it's a brilliant idea.
Edit: If you're so inclined, you might want to visit and explore the site before looking at the comments here.
|
|
04:24 pm
[Link] |
I in the sky
For those too young to recall, I had a small plane in the 1990s that I sold on Nov. 1, 1999 because it wasn't sufficiently weather-capable to provide reliable transportation. Since then I've been more-or-less following developments in the so-called Very Light Jet (VLJ) market, in which there have been several false starts. Now I've decided to buy a Cessna Citation Mustang. I don't know exactly when a broker whom I have engaged will find one, but it should be deliverable within the next six months. I'll need a lot of (re)training, which I'll start next Tuesday morning at Reid Hillview airport in San Jose. That's the nearest flight school I found that has a nice-and-slow plane, a Cessna 172, with the avionics (flight and navigation instruments) that'll be in my plane—Garmin G1000 and GFC-700 autopilot.
There aren't enough major poker tournaments around the country to keep my piloting skills sharp, so I expect to fly a lot of missions for Angel Flight West or similar.
This will be a challenging endeavor, which is a primary motivation.
|
|
07:15 am
[Link] |
Your Future Sixth Sense
Video of Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry at the TED Conference: Unveiling the "Sixth Sense," game-changing wearable tech.
By "game-changing" I think she means "life-changing."
(Thanks to Boyd.)
|
|
09:28 am
[Link] |
More Taleb
The always interesting Nassim Taleb lists Ten principles for a Black Swan-proof world, which he calls "Capitalism 2.0".
|
|
12:25 pm
[Link] |
Yes We Can!
Glenn Greenwald has a Slate column, "New and worse [than Bush's] secrecy and immunity claims from the Obama DOJ." Excerpt: It is hard to overstate how extremist is the "soverign immunity" argument which the Obama DOJ invented here in order to get rid of this lawsuit. I confirmed with both ACLU and EFF lawyers involved in numerous prior surveillance cases with the Bush administration that the Bush DOJ had never previously argued in any context that the Patriot Act bars all causes of action for any illegal surveillance in the absence of "willful disclosure." This is a brand new, extraordinarily broad claim of government immunity made for the first time ever by the Obama DOJ -- all in service of blocking EFF's lawsuit against Bush officials for illegal spying.
|
|
03:58 pm
[Link] |
Diet Pepsi Art
|
|
05:36 pm
[Link] |
Man on Wire
A few hours ago in Mystic, CT, I saw this winner of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. It's a cleverly- and beautifully-told enthralling story of an endearingly crazy young Frenchman who walked—performed on—a wire between the World Trade Center towers in 1974. This is my favorite film of this year and last.
|
|
11:56 am
[Link] |
The New Yorker
Despite its odious editorial slant on political issues, The New Yorker continues to be my favorite magazine. A lot of the cartoons are funny, and some issues hit soaring heights such as the March 30 one which contains these three consecutive articles: an hilarious piece by David Sedaris which has the polish of a jewel; a New York fantasy by Woody Allen, and the article, which I mentioned previously, about Chris Ferguson and game-theoretic poker. Also, the film reviews by Anthony Lane and David Denby are usually reliable for me, and almost always delightfully written.
|
09:48 am
[Link] |
Sometimes one doesn't want the details
Headline on an A.P. story in the Reno newspaper:Toilet chef's try at hot sausage evacuates prison
|
|
11:31 am
[Link] |
Insomnia?
I was on The [Gary] Wise Hand radio show. Huck Seed's interview is first; then mine starts at 48:40.
|
09:04 am
[Link] |
What would Jesus bet?
The March 30 New Yorker has a nice article on Chris Ferguson and his approach to poker, plus some discussion of the UIGEA. (Free registration required to go beyond the abstract.)
|
|
05:38 pm
[Link] |
Blameworthiness
From a Reuters story:An "insatiable" appetite in the United States for illegal drugs is to blame for much of the violence ripping through Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday. Likewise, an insatiable appetite for monetary security is to blame for many of the bank robberies around the world.
|
|
10:38 am
[Link] |
Bay 101 Heads-Up Stats
Kathy Liebert and I played 54 heads-up hands at Bay 101. We each had the button (small blind) 27 times.
On my button, I folded 10 and raised 17 (63%).
On Kathy's button, she folded 4, called 15, and raised 8.
|
