Mathematics for Dummies

Paul Phillips quotes an interview with poker player Mike Matusow who says:

Mike Matusow: So, if it's fifty-fifty, would you want to go in holding a made hand or needing to make a hand?

Wow and this guy plays a game of odds (among other things) for a living?

Mathematics for Dummies

Paul Phillips quotes an interview with poker player Mike Matusow who says:

Mike Matusow: So, if it's fifty-fifty, would you want to go in holding a made hand or needing to make a hand?

Wow and this guy plays a game of odds (among other things) for a living?

Google Purge

This Onion story on Google Purge is pretty damn funny and it is quite interesting the level of backlash Google seems to be taking. I personally remain very pro-Google but it is hard for any company to maintain as glowing a reputation as they have held for a long while so the backlash isn't too surprising really.

"Of course, some people might not want their DNA indexed. Hence, the robot army. It's crazy, it's brilliant—typical Google."

Serendipity?

I was looking over the archives of the Flickr Blog and found this amazing shot (titled "Where Balloons Come From") which I have to assume was totally serendipitous and not posed, but maybe not. Either way, hillarious.

Harbin Ice and Snow World 2005

Another very cool ice festival in China.

WBC 2005

Quick entry that I should have written a while back. Played lots of games, particularly Titan and did great in the early rounds of almost every game I played, making the Semis in I think every game I played except for Atlantic Storm (well and didn't really make it in Euphrat & Tigris but qualified anyway as an alternate) but then had terrible luck in the semis, losing every single one of them except for the 2-Player Titan one where I lost in the finals. Since this was my team game and my best result, that part was nice.

I thus won no overall events despite there being a full two days of Wednesday and Thursday where I won every single game I played (including 4 games of 2P Titan and 2 of 4P Titan and several initial rounds of things). David desJardins ended up winning both Titan events, the first time anyone has done that in the same year, although his getting into and then winning in the multiplayer event was quite strange (won a random rolloff after a mutual in the semi and then was adjudicated the best position in the final and won a roll based on that adjudication - there were still 3 players in the final but in a major first they requested that we adjudicate the result as it was 1:30 AM and people needed to catch flights, not to mention that 2 of the 3 people had been playing Titan for more than 16 hours straight).

In our 2player game final game, we ended up in a major battle early that somewhat favored me (we think) but was very difficult as it was my Titan and his Angel and had a number of tricky points to it. The first engagement round went poorly for me as I rolled low and, even more significantly, David rolled a bit high killing a piece I really hoped would survive the round. He then went on to kill my Unicorn with just rangestrikes (was 2 wounded from 1st round - 2/3 of a hit high) in a devastating 1 in 16 shot, forcing me to engage in a really risky fashion with my Titan. I did this but made a mistake that might have been costly (hard to tell) and rolled well now but still got killed.

Oh, I have also decided that the Mistress of Ceremonies in St Petersburg _needs_ to be fixed or at least not availble on the 1st turn. I have for a long time contended that a good player who gets a 1st turn Mistress would have an incredibly hard time losing and this tournament confirmed this. In one opening game, I got a T1 Mistress and ran away with the game, including beating a strong player who won her other two heats. In the semifinal, Tom (the GM) got a T1 Mistress and we kept it close but just too much of an advantage and then Arthur won the tournament with a T1 Mistress in the final. I think either the cost must be changed or, if one comes up on turn 1, it should just be put back in the deck and reshuffled.

I didn't like the new hotel very much but it is a bit closer, has some more space, and food options are improved. May stay at a neighboring hotel next year depending on things.

It was really nice to see everyone, particularly Bruno, Alan, David and David, Michael, Rich, Marty and others and very sad that Dave couldn't make it due to a medical issue at the last minute.