Not surviving Day 2 with an average stack, though that was way up there on the scale of things.

But I spotted Nate Silver (fivethirtyeight.com) on the last break, and we chatted for a few minutes. I introduced myself as 'Mr. M' and he knew what that meant. And I got his phone number. He was
interested in meeting Jerrod and Bill as the authors of 'The Mathematics of Poker' but they've busted
out and are presumably heading home.

But that was way cool.

Without using any kind of lookup, identify the following references
that come from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.

• Across the 8th Dimension
• "Drop Dead"
• "...a horse, of course..."
• Dolly

Poll #1424866
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

How did you do?

Links to previous quizes

his latest blog entry about his Vegas trip

Keep your eyes peeled and invite him to BARGE!

"One group that does not value perceived losses differently than gains are individuals with autism, a disorder characterized by problems with social interaction. When tested, autistics often demonstrate strict logic when balancing gains and losses, but this seeming rationality may itself denote abnormal behavior. “Adhering to logical, rational principles of ideal economic choice may be biologically unnatural,” says Colin F. Camerer, a professor of behavioral economics at Caltech.

-- Scientific American via Andrew Sullivan

You can get reports and real videos (including gruesome ones) on Andrew Sullivan's blog

"We're equal. Equal isn't nothing - it's everything." -- Boston Globe

-- New Hampshire-ite celebrating the passage of marriage equality in New Hampshire today, the
seventh state to allow same-sex marriage (with, of course, one revocation).

there is no greater way to reject the Creator than to reject your gender and his design for it.

-- Ron Hamman, pastor, Baptist Church, Wasilla, Alaska

And he argues that the AntiChrist is probably a homosexual, which is also a relief --
at least unless Barack Obama has an awfully big closet.

"You know that God must be in charge, overall, because when you look around nothing makes sense."

-- Heard on a random radio station (definitely religious, given the subsequent statements) somewhere between Berkeley and Las Vegas.

(and no, I'm not making this up).

"Not on my watch. As far as I'm concerned it's off the table and I'll do what I can ... I've got to tell you, as I read the constitution and as I read that decision, it was a long decision that had a lot of -- I'd encourage people to go read the decision -- but as I read that and as I look at our state constitution I'm hard pressed to find a place in our constitution that denies people rights. Our constitutions were built to guarantee people rights, not to deny them rights and I'm not going to go along with putting discrimination into the constitution."

-- Iowa State Senate Majority Leader Gronstal, responding to a question about whether a Constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Iowa would gain any traction in the
Iowa Senate next session.

As for other good lines, if you're not already familiar with him or his now-famous speech, go here and listen.

Those who are (justifiably) disappointed, outraged, and/or infuriated by the California
Supreme Court's Proposition 8 decision may be interested in this:

Read page 36. They just cut Prop 8 to the bone.

wherein the author (a California lawyer) argues that the CSC did everything
it could conceivably do to make Proposition 8 into a shell of what its authors
intended, that it is a hollow victory for them.

I don't agree completely; the symbolism is critical. But I had much the same
reaction reading the decision as this person did -- the CSC did what it could
to suck the life out of Prop 8.

On June 21st, Greenland will become an independent country. (Currently it is administered by Denmark).

With a population of around 57,000 people, Greenland is far from being the smallest country population-wise. Vactican City (821), Monaco (33,000) and Lichtenstein (24,000), for example,
have fewer people.

Surely Greenland will become the least densely populated country, with about 1/40th of a
person per square kilometer. Until such time as Antarctica joins the ranks of sovereign
nations, or global warming and liberal immigration laws attract teeming masses yearning to
be Green, it will surely keep this distinction.

There is little flu surveillance of pigs in much of the world...
Canadian pig farmers are required to report flu; Americans are not.

-- New York Times

Pigs probably get free medical care in Canada, too.

I'm trying to figure out the name and author of a science fiction short story.

The story revolves around The Devil and someone he has either made a pact with
or trapped somehow. The Devil has given the man a puzzle to solve.

The puzzle is that the man is trapped in a cube. The man has the ability to
move freely in 'all dimensions' but not through the cube's surface. The
Devil is convinced the man will not figure out how to escape but of course
he does by moving through the fourth dimension (time).

I may be misremembering because Google is not being much help.
And no, I'm almost positive it's not And He Built a Crooked House by Heinlein.

Anyone?

All it took was a few seconds.



(unfortunately there's an ad at the beginning)

Update: Here's a link to Hitchens being waterboarded

the valuation of Tesla Motors (based on Daimler's recent investment in it)
is half that of General Motors (based on it's current stock price).

It's unlikely that Tesla has sold more than a few hundred cars, while in
2008 GM sold 8.35 million of them.

"If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex," says Bristol, sitting at her parents' lakeside patio table. "Trust me. Nobody."

-- Bristol Palin

The Obama administration is preparing to send General Motors into
bankruptcy as early as the end of next week under a plan that would
give the automaker tens of billions of dollars more in public
financing as the company seeks to shrink and reemerge as a global
competitor, sources familiar with the discussions said.
-- Washington Post

The U.S. Treasury Department has no plans to push General Motors Corp
into a bankruptcy filing next week and the outcome of the automaker's
restructuring efforts may not be known until a June 1 deadline, a
source familiar with the situation said early on Friday.
-- Reuters

"A U.S. Treasury spokeswoman declined to comment."

There are, on average, just below 21 cheerleaders per high school.

-- Overheard on KCBS and then Google News located

Today is the day voters decide whether they will make California a third-world state or a third-world state.

You can vote to have a $15 billion dollar deficit, or a $20 billion dollar deficit.
You can vote to have a $5 billion rainy day fund, or a $12 billion rainy day fund
(assuming there is ever money to go into such a fund).
You can vote on whether to freeze elected officials salaries in economic downturns.

But you can't vote on anything that will make a serious fiscal difference long-term:

-- the 2/3rd requirement for tax increases
-- revising Proposition 13
-- gasoline taxes
-- income tax rates
-- salaries, benefits and pensions of state workers
-- education policy (some 40% of the state budget is education)
-- social services policy (the plurality of the rest of the state budget goes here)
-- prison policy (10% of the state budget goes here)
-- drug policy