May 06 2011
Really, Pakistan?
This post is meant to mimic the style of “Really?!? With Seth & Amy” from Saturday Night Live.
Really, Pakistan, REALLY?
Your response to the US finding and killing the most wanted terrorist in the WORLD is to sit back and criticize the US for violating your sovereignty. REALLY.
So you told the US government that Osama bin Laden was NOT in your country. Really? And your country is, shall we say, a little suspect when it comes to reliability regarding harboring terrorists. And then the US government finds information that bin Laden IS in fact in your country. Yes, really.
The US takes action to go after bin Laden, without telling you (gee i wonder why). And now that Osama bin Gotten your reaction is “Violation of Sovereignty”?? REALLY?
How about “we are so embarrassed that bin Laden was here and we didn’t know it.” Yes, REALLY, that should be your response.
Instead, your citizens are protesting in the street, holding signs saying “Long Live Osama bin Laden” and “Death to US.” REALLY?
Come on, Pakistan. REALLY.
Apr 16 2011
And Now for the Latest Poker News
“This domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant.” — www.pokerstars.com
Lance has been a full-time professional poker player for six years. This has included some live play at local home games and a few casino trips, but 99% of his time has been spent playing poker online at PokerStars.com. PokerStars is currently the largest online poker site, and Lance plays there because they have an excellent interface and top-notch customer service.
Yesterday around 2 pm, real-money games were suspended for U.S. players after news of an indictment from the Department of Justice of the top three online poker sites (PokerStars, FullTilt, UltimateBet). The charges are bank fraud and money laundering.
The online poker community is rocked. No one was expecting this. The true legality of online poker has always been a little bit gray, but there has been pending legislation for the official legalization of online poker in last fall’s session of Congress (it was never voted on). In recent weeks, the brick-and-mortar casinos began talks of lining up with the online poker sites. All signs looked quite positive. Until yesterday.
We’re a pro-poker household, obviously. Poker is a game of skill, and that is how Lance is able to consistently make enough money to live on. He has up days and down days but the long term provides a profit. Much like investing in the stock market, the gains occur over the long-term. Poker is a game of math and probabilistic edges.
We also have strongly libertarian leanings when it comes to personal freedoms. Why would the government interfere in any activity where consenting adults willingly engage with each other? Millions of people in the U.S. currently use online poker services. Online poker is legal and regulated in many other countries.
What would regulation do for the industry? Not to mention for the country. Think of the tax revenues – one estimate said the online poker industry had revenues of $2.4 billion in 2005, and it has only grown in popularity since then. Don’t we have a war to pay for?
Sometimes people ask “what about the moral issue of poker and gambling?” To that i will reply, if it’s really a moral issue, then i expect to see the state lotteries and the horse race betting shut down. I checked the lottery website, and it has not been seized by the government. And that will never happen. Despite the fact that the lottery and horse betting have no skill whatsoever, and poker is actually a skill game. So i don’t really want to hear about the moral issue of gambling.
While some may applaud the government for taking action here, i wonder why the government was not more proactive with Wall Street during the financial meltdown. Where was the hard line then, when the financial security of the entire nation was at risk? Was that industry penalized at all for their elaborate heist of the American people’s money? Was there even an investigation, or a single indictment handed down? No.
The accusations of bank fraud and money laundering for the online poker sites are pretty bogus. All the poker sites were trying as best they could to cooperate with existing laws.
PokerStars, FullTilt and UltimateBet are the three sites that have been indicted. The inclusion of UltimateBet in the company of the other two is rather questionable and perhaps even sleazy. UltimateBet is not popular, nor ever was particularly so, and is in fact avoided due to a cheating scandal that happened a few years ago. An employee was feeding information about opponents’ hole cards to a 3rd party, and a lot of fraud was committed in this way before someone caught on. Any online player who has been around for any length of time at all avoids UltimateBet. However, the inclusion of UltimateBet will allow prosecutors to say “this group of sites is responsible for numerous cheating scandals and fraud” that will taint the image of the other two sites. FullTilt and PokerStars both have excellent reputations within the poker community.
It is unclear whether legislation to officially legalize and regulate online poker will be able to be brought to the attention of Congress. Certainly many in the poker community hope so, but there is also speculation that support will fly away from the movement in light of the indictments.
And so, it is a dark day here. Imagine you had just been told your job did not exist. Some people reading know exactly what the feels like. Lance and i are trying to figure out what’s next.
Sep 16 2010
Wondering about Climate Change
This week i’m attending a conference that is being held at my work. People who use our software have come from all over the place, and i think this conference a pretty big deal for us. There are lots of interesting speeches and workshops happening this week.
One morning, the keynote speaker discussed climate change. He talked about it in the context of an experiment he is doing to measure how plants respond (specifically how their carbon cycle changes) when they are subjected to consistently warmer temperatures. Over the course of his talk he touched on the major points that indicate that climate change is indeed happening. All these points basically confirmed what i thought everyone already knew: that climate change was a fact of life and a problem our generation and the next generation will actively need to address.
When his talk was over, there was a Q&A session. I was rather surprised when most of the questions were not directed towards his research, but towards climate change in general. Some questions implied that the person asking did not truly accept this whole climate change thing. For example: “The Earth has been here for billions of years and you only have data for a very small fraction of that time. How do you answer skeptics who claim the changing temperature is part of overall trends?”
The thing is, that sounds like a good question to me. And though i know i watched Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth that helped answer this question, and though i had just listened to someone talk for an hour, i don’t really know how to answer this question. Honestly, i don’t know very much at all about this topic at all. Basically i know what i’m told, though i try to do due diligence on my sources when it comes to who i choose to believe.
I’m certain that most of science confirms that climate change is real (the presenter i referenced above said 97% of climatologists concur). What i want to know is, what are the usual points raised in objection to climate change, and how does science rebut them? Are there any good scientific reasons to be a skeptic about climate change?
Nov 25 2009
Why a 10-Year Old Boy is My Hero
Will Phillips, a 10-year old boy from Arkansas, has been in the news lately. If you haven’t heard about it yet, Will has chosen not to recite or stand during the Pledge of Allegiance at his school. Why? “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all,” specifically for gays and lesbians.
Will is my hero. In the face of teachers being cross with him, and other students calling him a “gaywad,” he continues not to stand. He’s getting a lot of media attention, too. (The Jon Stewart clip is particularly humorous.) He was interviewed on CNN, and he handles himself so much better than you might expect from someone who is only 10 years old.
His parents are to be commended, for supporting this kid while he takes a controversial stance at school, for standing next to him in the face of national publicity, and for teaching him these values in the first place.
Aug 28 2009
Health Care On a Napkin
I don’t know about everyone else, but the health care debate has slightly overwhelmed me. I haven’t been paying attention and i don’t know the details. I do hear weird things about “death panels” and then people say it’s ridiculous that anyone would come up with that. I hear that the government gave up on what they really wanted and are already compromising. I hear that we have to do something because our current system is unsustainable. I hear the right saying nothing needs to change.
Understanding the health care debate became a lot simpler when i found The Back of A Napkin. He describes the whole thing in four simple posts, complete with pictures of napkins. I’m sure it’s oversimplified, but it definitely gave me what i was looking for – a better grasp of what the debate is about in our country.
Napkin 1: The health care equation
Napkin 2: It’s not about health care
Napkin 3: The plans on the table
Napkin 4: What’s it mean to me?
I have a fondness for napkins. We are constantly using them to write down bridge hands or illustrate points. And now i’ve learned about health care from them.
Jan 27 2009
Images From Behind the Scenes
Below are some images of our new President, in normal situations that all of us can identify with. I loved these. Enjoy.
Jan 20 2009
Snow Day!!!
I’ve always thought to myself that i will really be an adult when i no longer look forward to snow days. If i hear about a possible storm coming and think i hope it misses us.
I must still be a kid, because when i heard there was a surprise formation of clouds that was going to dump snow on our area, all i could think was, YAY! I was hoping all day yesterday, trying at the same time not to get those hopes up too high, that it would snow enough to get us out of work. I had a dream about waking up in the morning, and seeing only a light dusting and having to go to work, but i slid into a ditch on the way there. I had another dream that i woke up and looked out the window and there was no snow at all.
Then i actually woke up, and the bedroom had that luminous quality that can only come from light reflecting off of lots and lots of snow. YAY!
The coolest part about being at home today, is that we can watch the inauguration of Barack Obama. Echoing many sentiments i’ve heard and seen in other blogs, it is just extremely awesome the progress this country had made. I’m proud to be an American today.
What does it say about me that i think it would be cool to be the person who organized the inauguration event and all the behind-the-scenes stuff that had to happen?
Nov 20 2008
Could You Give Up Email?
President-Elect Obama will probably have to give up email entirely, according to this article from the NY Times.
Apparently, the President’s communications are supposed to all be public, so there can be no private emails. There is the concern about security, too. My thoughts on this:
- Staying in touch with friends is important. The President of the United States is still a human being, and needs friends and social contacts. I wonder how it evolved that he became this isolated and untouchable person. I can’t imagine not being able to drop an email to a friend, or send a text message about a sports victory.
- Electronic communication is necessary to be effective. I think all fast-paced higher-ups in modern companies know this. That’s why Blackberries are mandatory at a lot companies. Imagine how much could get done if our government officials were encouraged to take advantage of technology.
- Too much news exists electronically to be ignored. Newspapers contain day-old news. News programs can only give highlights, and stories are often sensationalized. The electronic world is where more and more people are going for their real news. And the sources of information are endless. Can a president really know enough about what is going on in the world by getting brief summaries each morning?
I have Facebook and MySpace pages, which i only visit a few times a month. I don’t have a profile on any dating sites. I don’t Twitter. I’m not a super-blogger who influences the masses. But, even with these electronic deficiencies, my electronic identity is important to me. There are lost of people at work that i only know through electronic communications. Approximately 15-20% of my relationship with my boyfriend is electronic, through emails and IM. One of my closest friends and i probably have 60% or more of our relationship in IM. I wouldn’t want to give that up if i had a choice. So i guess i won’t run for President.
It sounds like being plugged-in is somewhat important to Obama, though. It will be interesting to see how he handles these issues during his presidency. Will he be able to modernize the office?
What about you – could you give up email?
Oct 19 2008
Robocalls
I watched the 3rd Presidental debate Wednesday night. It was a good debate, i thought, and i was glad it was focused entirely on domestic issues.
In the debate, I heard McCain denouncing Obama for his negative ads “attacked (McCain’s) health care policy.” I thought it was a strange comment, since that is the sort of thing i think political ads should be addressing. You know, the issues.
And then McCain turned right around and started talking about Bill Ayers. And i just read that McCain has authorized thousands and thousands of robocalls - automated voice calls – that do the same thing. Calling voters and warning them of Obama’s supposed association with a terrorist. It’s even more despicable since McCain has loudly criticized robocalls in the past. Isn’t this the worst of negative campaigning? How can he accuse Obama of it with a straight face?
I guess i understand where he is: he has no other choice. He is losing, from what i’ve seen of the polls. And McCain will do anything not to lose. Which is one of the big reasons i do not want him as President. An unscrupulous man, who will intentionally mislead the American people and try to scare them about the character of a very responsible and honest man, just to get elected.
It scares me.
If Obama responds in kind i will lose faith. Maybe move to Canada.
Next Page »