Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Talking of disasters in America, I watched "The Men who Built America" on "History Channel" last night.  It was a (over) dramatised thing, bit dumbed-down, but with good production values, most entertaining & educational. Last night they majored on Andrew Carnegie.

As a pre-curser to the Carnegie story, (there was a connection) they re-enacted & described what is, I now gather, usually described as the (then) largest single loss of American lives in one disaster - the so-called Johnstown Flood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood

Over 2,000 lives were lost in what was a monumental flood.

I had never heard of it. The older I get, the more I realise I know so little. When I was in adolescence, & my twenties, I knew everything. No, I did.

For some reason, & the only negative to the Show, they kept cutting to current-day people to comment on Carnegie. Of all the people to choose, up pops Donald Trump, who seems to be the USA version of Wooly Jumper Branson.

I know a lot about steel because that is what I do - I do buildings.

There you go. Donald Trump is a steel expert. He does buildings. He did not mention that it was very rarely with his own money, & that sometimes, if the mood catches him right, he even pays his bills.

Odd one out anyone, HIGNFY style?

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[Simon Galloway]

So where did we get to with Vegas and sticky buns?

[pokerfan]

The worlds deadliest floods.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadliest_floods

[RED-DOG]

Talking of disasters in America, I watched "The Men who Built America" on "History Channel" last night.  It was a (over) dramatised thing, bit dumbed-down, but with good production values, most entertaining & educational. Last night they majored on Andrew Carnegie.

As a pre-curser to the Carnegie story, (there was a connection) they re-enacted & described what is, I now gather, usually sescribed as the largest single loss of American lives in one disaster - the so-called Johnstown Flood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood

Over 2,000 lives were lost in what was a monumental flood.

I had never heard of it. The older I get, the more I realise I know so little. When I was in adolescence, & my twenties, I knew everything. No, I did.

For some reason, & the only negative to the Show, they kept cutting to current-day people to comment on Carnegie. Of all the people to choose, up pops Donald Trump, who seems to be the USA version of Wooly Jumper Branson.

I know a lot about steel because that is what I do - I do buildings.

There you go. Donald Trump is a steel expert. He does buildings. He did not mention that it was very rarely with his own money, & that sometimes, if the mood catches him right, he even pays his bills.

Odd one out anyone, HIGNFY style?

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

See. Another excellent 'Think piece'. Refreshingly brief, but written with great depth and panache.

This is why I have to resort to smut, innuendo & flirting.

 

[tikay]

So where did we get to with Vegas and sticky buns?

Ah-ha!

Well there were 239 obstacles in my path to Vegas, & one by one, I am clearing the way.

Today.........I got my new Passport. Happy days!

Thewy has been on my case all week, rung me 913 times, even offered to book my flights & hotel for me. He thinks I am no good at those sort of things. Huh!

He even said he might ask you to help, I believe you helped him.

Thewy & a few of my lads - including Fat Dylan - are all staying at The Mirage I think. I'm still dithering. Be nice to be with the lads, but I'll mostly be playing the 4 card stuff Downtown (assuming obstacle-clearing is successful), & The Rio Cheapo WSOP PLO8 jobbies, + any 4 card stuff on the Strip at Venetian, Caesars etc. I'm not so keen to stay Downtown, & the taxi rides back & forth don't trouble me.

I can get a special rate at The Rio via my Media Accreditation, $70 per night weekdays, $100 at weekends, & that way, I get my Media Centre office, too. Or as Thewy said "why stay at that shithole?". Nicest man in poker, my arse.

Nel highly recommended The Gold Coast, "only a brisk 20 minute walk from The Rio". I did a 20 minute walk in February, & I've not recovered yet.

Thewy & Co are going, I think, 12th or 13th of June, but if I go, I'd prefer to go on the 9th (June) & play the $1,500 PLO8 WSOP on the 10th.

So there is where I am.

Don't know. Dithering urgently.

Oh, Sticky Buns? 12st 2lbs now, slightly under in fact, & into my smallest size clothes. I'm ready to eat as many Sticky Buns, Pizzas & Burgers as my belly can hold. I'll soon be plump again, yay.

[tikay]

Ooh, thanks Tom, praise indeed from the author of blonde's 2nd best Diary, & Best Blatheing Bollox Diary.

[tikay]

The worlds deadliest floods.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadliest_floods

Bloody hell. Johnstown Flood, for all it's monumentelness, only gets in the Charts at #51? INCREDIBLE.

There are floods there, mainly in China, where several hundred thousand perished, some even estimate 2 or 3 MILLION.

I've read a dozen books, watched 20 TV Shows, & read more acres of newsprint than enough about the dreadful 9/11 atrocity, where around 3,000 died. You can get down to around 48 in that Chart all of which had more than that, one had 100 THOUSAND times more, & I dont I know a single thing about any of them.

THAT is perspective.

My ignorance clearly known no bounds. How can I never have heard of all these things? Jeez, I must really have wasted my life.

Good spot Mr Pokerfan bloke, thank you. Tonight I will mostly be googling floody things.

[Laxie]

Carnegie actually swerved most of the trouble (blame) for the Johnstown flood.  There was a large group involved and they mainly all swerved trouble over the floods.  

That said, despite being on holiday in Scotland at the time, he wasn't so lucky swerving when it came to the Homestead Strike.  

He did a lot for New York though and his name is all over the city.

[tikay]

Carnegie actually swerved most of the trouble (blame) for the Johnstown flood.  There was a large group involved and they mainly all swerved trouble over the floods.  

That said, despite being on holiday in Scotland at the time, he wasn't so lucky swerving when it came to the Homestead Strike.  

He did a lot for New York though and his name is all over the city.

Yes, he sweved the Johnstown flood blame, but only because him & his posh mates had the money to engage top notch legal peeps, & they had ring-fenced their ownership of the Lake & Dam which caused the flood.

The Homestead Strike was fascinating.

Workers occupied Carnegie's biggest factory, they called in Pinkertons, bang-bang, shoot-shoot, but eventually it got sorted. Indudstrial conflict had well & truly arrived.

Henry Frick, the Big Cheese at the factory & Carnegie's manager-bloke, paid the price though, & got shotted through the head & proper killed. Well he did in the TV Programme last night, in real-life he probably died of enlarged varicose veins. 

It was interesting to hear about Pinkertons, too, a sort of USA souped-up version of Group 4 Security.

BIG company.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_National_Detective_Agency

Pinkertons are owned by Securitas these days, a Swedish outfit, who also own Chubb Security I think, & used to own Loomis, who handle supermarket cash in transit & all that sort of stuff.

Amazing the variety of stuff you can learn from a single hour of TV if you follow-up with a bit of googling.

There is no excuse for modern people to be ignorant, the internet gives us all the learning tools we could ever need. We just gotta click dem buttons, but sadly, most of us just do that whilst playing Online poker.

[tikay]

[Simon Galloway]

Well done on the weight loss, I'm on my annual cycle of weight loss too in anticipation of fitting into the aircraft seat, only perhaps less extreme than previously as somehow, I forgot to eat as much in winter as I usually do, so not as much damage to correct this spring.

I am also partly stopping in the Mirage, there were/are some very good deals c$70/night which makes it a decent option imo.  On the back of some fairly minimal play, they also decided to "invite" me back on their coin too, which made the decision even easier.

From all your previous comments, I fancy you will find a way to make it out there, once due ditherage has been completed.  I think I posted a while back that given the remit, Rio made most sense for you, based on games played, media duties, aversion to walks, price insensitivity, etc etc.  But if being on site with the others is a consideration, then I certainly wouldn't put you off the Mirage (over and above telling you I will be there)  I think it is well located, Venetian BigO is a simple stroll, solid casual dining options on site (or close at hand) bit weak on higher end restaurants imo, nice pool area, refurb'd rooms. 

My pet peeve in hotels is having to stand in a bath tub to shower, but that can be swerved by getting a Tower room (or better) which a charismatic man (or an uncharismatic man holding a $20) can often negotiate at check in.

Last time I offered you bone china and linen napkins for breakfast which you sensibly swerved.  This year we can do it and pin Thewy with the tab. 

[Acidmouse]

Click to see full-size image.

Watched a few documentries recently about 1906 Earthquake in San Fran, photo is one on my blog from last year, you want complete devastation? most of which was done by the fires after. amazing photos.

[Machka]

One of the points Simon Singh was making in "FLT" was that nature, & science, are linked, much more so than most of us ever realised.

To which end, he told the story of the Cicada, which, as Red rightly deduced, & AndrewT explained perfectly, avoids predators breeding patterns by breeding every 17 years. How Nature managed to figure that, or evolve to it, is some astonishing miracle.

Mr Singh went on to make another jaw-dropping observation.

Rivers - or the length of them.

He speculated/reasoned this - which it took me years to figure out, & I'm still a bit wobbly about it.

On average, the length of any River is able to be calculated simply. Take the distance in a straight line from beginning, inland, to where it meets the sea. Multiply it by pye. (3.147 etc....?). And that gives you the actual river length.

Which is, of course, nonsense. Or is it?

He reasoned that the banks & "menderings" of a river are formed as a factor of how fast the river flows. (Think river estuaries - fast-flowing & straight, whereas upstream, slow-moving & meandery).

The speed of the river dictates it's bendyness. The "inner bank" cuts faster, as the water flows faster on the inner side, & eventually, if it flows fast enough, it becomes straight, via bank-erosion.

How is that even remotely connected to maths, or pye?

Search me, I can't grasp it. But he says if you measured all the world's major rivers by that method, the + or - % would be less than 5%.

Go figure.

I've mused over that for years. I know, I'm a sad soul.

17-Year Cicadas, that'll be anytime now then - http://www.livescience.com/28790-17-year-cicadas-emerge.html

[Tal]

Not these blinking cicadas again

There are loads of different cicadas and only a few follow this (albeit positively orgasmic) prime number dance - some do 13 years; some just wake up naturally, chirp and get eaten*



*Yes, yes, my poker style in a nutshell...

[Tal]

Pretty much just the magicicada that gets all prime-numbery. Incredible that it does, though. Just bewildering.

Again, one of those things that scientists point to as survival of the fittest and religious folk point to as evidence of a beauty beyond mortal comprehension.