Thanks. I have to reconsider this. I was assuming people are more likely to let things ride until their bankroll's out, at which point they're unable to recover, even if it's EV+. The premise is that gamblers have already written off what they gamble, and should they be up, they'll continue gambling, but if they're down, they'll also continue gambling. Compared to the average user, the casino has an unlimited bank roll. They can wait out the user until luck turns against them for a while and wipes their relatively tiny bankroll out (assuming it eventually does, which is almost guaranteed, especially with high stakes where it takes far fewer bets to wipe the player out). JD doesn't do pre-funding (AFAIK), but that figure's enough to make me assume I'm wrong.

Someone have a simulator to help me fully realize I'm wrong? I dunno how to create the formula for doing this quickly. 1,000 users have a $1,000 bankroll and must make 1,000 $25 bets with a 51% chance of 2x return, 49% chance of 0x return. The casino has an unlimited bankroll. The casino only loses if someone cashes out their winnings, which in this simulator, requires someone to make 1,000 $25 bets without their bankroll ever hitting $0. They get to keep whatever's left at the end of that.

Weird. That directly contradicts earlier reports from comrades that he left no indication he was leaving, a non-communication which allegedly led to several deaths as US military personnel searched under the assumption that he was kidnapped. Later, it was suggested he was feeding the Taliban information on weaknesses in US positions which led to further deaths. All this time, he was supposedly playing badminton with the Taliban but ill and apparently without proper healthcare to see him well, so the Obama admin. decided to bring him home in exchange for five enemy combatants in Gitmo instead of letting him die a natural death....... so he's in the excellent hands of the VA, I guess? Glad I followed media reporting on this and now have the facts.

Got it. Thanks! This place is superior to Wikipedia any day. 

Almost definitely. Heater probably doesn't draw more than 8-10A at full load. Assuming on the high end, that brings you down to 22A. *240V=5280W. With a 70% reduction "to be safe," you're left with ~3,700W to split between the miners and whatever else you have up there - hopefully no window A/C units or dehumidifiers.

ETA: Lights could be significant. 10 incandescents would put you at ~450-800W consumption... 10 LEDs would be ~30-100W, CFL ~130-260W. Probably time to upgrade if still using incans.

Hold on, before you jump on me for asking something ridiculously idiotic...

I was specifically thinking of the tendency for people to continue gamble until they're no longer able, especially on sites where you have to pre-fund accounts (you need to deal with the bother and, with BTC, confirmation wait times of withdrawal and possibly a withdrawal fee). I don't know of any figures which'd be relevant, but I'd be surprised if a very simple coinflip site, where there's always a 49% chance of the player winning, did not actually haul a 5% averaged profit or more due to gambling fallacies (letting it ride, then believing you can recover a loss by betting more, eventually losing their entire roll with a bad series of gambles).

-So, then, why not offer a casino where the player has an edge per play (maybe even significant), but still has the cards stacked against them simply by gambling psychology? The only concern, then, is with bots, but perhaps you could just raise the stakes high enough where bot-users would be hesitant or maybe even demand some kind of flat fee to play the game. Alternately, perhaps you could have it where players need to "unlock" that "EV+" game, perhaps through a large number of losses/bets with EV- games in the casino.

I can get that, but why does the EU/US care about trying to force them to stay together in a relationship they don't seem interested in? Ukrainian coal is mostly consumed domestically (having a coal deposit is more-or-less worthless at current market prices, and they don't extract a particularly significant amount, anyway), and it looks like they're trying to legislate domestic consumption of as much coal as possible so they don't rely on foreign energy as much (and maybe just to subsidize the mining sector). It doesn't look seem like there could be any significant interest in their resources, and there's clearly no humanitarian goal for the EU/US, so what are they looking for in opposing Russia (and/or Ukranian federalists/separatists/rebels/whatever) on this?

Oh, jeez. Well, the defense fund has already raised over $50. Mr. Seibert will at least be able to afford a few coffees for the case. His enthusiasm in writing is fascinating... kind of has that "Better Call Saul" edge.

Thanks, Nemo.

What are the strategic reasons for the US/EU not wanting Russia to take back areas not fully assimilating to what the Ukraine government seems to be considering its culture while the current Ukrainian government seems Hell-bent on maintaining unity with people they appear hostile toward and who reciprocate those feelings? That question is, of course, assuming that reconciliation and moving toward federalism is no longer a viable option (though an alternate could just be allowing East Ukraine to form an independent nation). Is the US/EU willing to maintain civil conflict and political instability in Ukraine just to maintain a buffer between Russia and "the West," or are there other reasons the US/EU is intervening?

I'm also curious what Lenin's intent was in pushing "New Russia" into Ukraine.

That box is totally foreign to me. The number after nsb appears to always indicate the number of amps permitted. NSB16 would be 16A, and 16A*240V=3840W allowance. That'd be enough, but it looks like it's marked as going to the water heater, which I'm guessing must be electric if it has such a high-rated breaker. It may be a dedicated line which only services the water heater, too (as in, there're no other outlets connected to it).

I can't tell what the nsb32 breaker goes to. What's written under it?

Reserved episodes not submitted by 6/12/14 will be purged from the reservation list if the reservation is not re-confirmed by that time. Confirming the reservation will extend the reservation by 7 days. Confirming a reservation made before the decaying payment mechanism went into effect will not apply that penalty against the transcription job or start the doomsday countdown.

BTC.025 bonus bounty ends in 29 hours, 52 minutes from this post. Transcript has to be submitted prior to that time to receive the bonus once proofread.

ETA: I'm going to be out from Friday to probably late Sunday, fwiw. Family stuff.

*shrug* What do I care what Khan pays to have reported to himself? Don't misinterpret it as a proper news agency -- we don't have one.

High-magazine clips illegal.

"Penis spreader" legal.


Oooooooooookay!

Gosh.... what a bizarre court case it'd be if Gox accidentally destroyed all the coins instead of "losing" them, recently.

"We're declaring bankruptcy after accidentally setting fire to $1,600,000." "How did this happen?" "Wrong opcode. Our giant USD warehouse thought I wanted it to set fire to itself."

Since you have one Paradox game on the list.... the rest of them (Victoria II and Crusader Kings II, esp.). They also have a Mount & Blade line which uses a very dated-looking engine, but is interesting, kind of a first-person-slasher mixed with RTS battles and a difficult-to-describe-but-very-RPG, semi-RTS meta-game (if you grab M&B, definitely get the Floris mod!)... I believe they've licensed the engine out to another company actually using it to create some kind of ship-focused game soon (maybe already out), and while the idea's super-cool, I'm pretty skeptical. EU4 is good and very polished (relatively), but honestly, I'm not particularly fond of it. CK2 is more arcade-like and a good bit goofy (esp. with DLC, though they made an awesome step toward tangential learning with boat-loads of Wikipedia links), while Vic2 is unbelievably clunky and complicated, which I kind of like. EU4 has a very tedious voting system for Catholics (it's not terribly powerful... really, you could completely ignore it, but it "feels too wrong" to ignore it), but if you're not Catholic, you either need to select a late start date (so you can go Protestant) or choose a non-West nation, which has pretty severe disadvantages. Switching from Catholic to Protestant early on can be devastating, too, especially if you're a large empire by then. Outside that, though, it's a very well-made game.

AoE3, I didn't particularly like, either (I was expecting to!). You may want to consider something more like Eador, which is a TBS with the AoE combat style and a fascinating part-RPG meta-game (the earlier Eador:Genesis is superior for user-experience [new one has very slow animations you'll want to use Cheat Engine to speedhack] while MotBW has a better graphics engine) -- Eador has more flavor, too, IMO. There's also the Armored Princess series (fun fact: she's not really armored at all and almost naked), though this is much less Civ-like -- you don't build any kind of empire. AP can be quite difficult, fwiw. Heroes of Might and Magic is another decent one if you're shopping for something AoE-like.

Definitely go ahead and grab Skyrim. Morrowind was my favorite, but it's pretty dated, and even though I'm nostalgic, it's clear the systems they implemented in Skyrim and Oblivion are superior. Aesthetically, I hated Oblivion (blood and fire, blood and fire, blood and fire -- okay, a magic painting -- blood and fire, blood and fire, blood and fire), but it's a solid game otherwise.

Dragon Age is interesting. I'm not sure I'd recommend it. I had fun playing Origins. It's kind of simple compared to others on the list, but it's still fun. I'm not sure what I'd call it for the sake of suggesting... it's really not casual, but it's definitely not hardcore, either. It focuses on character development and does it fairly well, but the story itself, I don't even remember. I only played it once through, and mods out weren't well-developed at the time... maybe there's some cool stuff, these days.

If you're into story and character development, though, it may be worth having a look at the Walking Dead series for "something different." I've edited and added to this about four times, now, though, so I'll shut up, now.

If you don't like the Trust system, it's very easy to ignore. I did so many months ago after deciding it was 80% drama and 20% legit. Everyone's 0/0 to me except people I explicitly trust. If you're mixing drama and business, you're doing it wrong.

I think the trouble with "50 Cent" and consumers is that the 50 Cent persona isn't widely realized as a completely satirical figure. Go ahead and find the 50 Cent videogames, particularly Blood on the Sand. It's the most absurd interpretation of Gangsta Rap and American patriotism/exceptionalism out there. It's beautiful art, really. In summary, it's about the rapper (with ridiculous co-playable rapper compatriots, obviously called his "G-Unit") going to the middle east for a concert they're promised $10m for putting on. The fellow's unable to pay, so 50 Cent takes some blinged-out human skull instead. This skull is stolen, and 50 Cent goes on a hilarious rampage, killing thousands of "sand niggers" just to extract payment, and because America. Thoughout this, 50 Cent makes hilarious off-the-cuff quips... there's a particular section where there's a massive cement cylinder suspended and a bit askew in the background, and out of the blue, 50 Cent decided that'd be a good place to shout, straight-faced, "I BET THAT'S NOT OSHA-APPROVED!" I don't often burst out in laughter, and that line delivery sticks in my mind because of it.

Rap in general has been completely misunderstood, I hope (and if not, it's just another arrogant Jewish creation, which is just as fine by me). Body Count, for example, is one of my favorites for a good chuckle. A picturesque environment is painted from the Cosby Show, keeping in mind Bill Cosby is known for growing up in a troubled neighborhood and overcoming it to provide a very "sterile" sitcom to give role models and a kind of stability to the downtrodden... and anyway, he follows the painting with "SHIT AIN'T LIKE THAT!!! IT'S REAL FUCKED UP!!!" The fellow then goes in to talking about his case of hand grenades and whatnot and how - and this is my favorite part - if you should want to know what to do about it, "FUCK YOU!!" (this is an audience-led answer-and-response section in the piece)... It's almost kind of cute and innocent fun compared to typical music and does actually make some decent points, all with this delightfully aggressive melody to back-drop it. I'd just love to see something like a Rap Bible... Moses said unto Jesus, "tell us what to do." FUCK YOU!! World's greatest Mass right there, I think.

Thank you. What did these possibly-anti-Ukrainian-gov't discontented and alienated malefactors (... for lack of a better generalization) do to the Ukrainian government to evoke this response?

-And which ethnicities are we talking about? Talk to me like I'm an American, please.

Are there any significant players in this space outside "Big John"? (asked in earnest -- I have no idea)

Would someone following this (and Ukraine situation in general) mind giving me a (non-video) brief? The death toll looks pretty severe from RT, but it's extraordinary compared to other reported numbers.

My hazy understanding so far: pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine want to break away and have -ed the Ukrainian government. Ukraine responded to by killing hundreds of their own citizens in a bombing run which was primarily targeting . US says separatists are neo-Nazi terrorists backed by Russia. Russia says Ukraine is US pawn backed solely to financially and militarily harm and threaten Russian ambitions to .