I've got a question for people who know something about gambling. I'm looking at the rules for how to play craps. Is there anything in the game that requires more than just memorizing the odds? Like, is there any time when, based on how the game is going, a particular bet is a better or worse move, or is it just the same odds every time? (All of the sets of rules I can find make it seem like it's just knowing the odds, but these rules are pretty confusingly written.)
Come on out, River. The nice man wants to kidnap you.
Simon ,'Objects In Space'
What Happens in Natter 35 Stays in Natter 35
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Hil R. - Jun 04, 2005 2:59:06 pm PDT #9303 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
Jessica - Jun 04, 2005 3:07:34 pm PDT #9304 of 10001
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?
Yay Stephanie and Ellie!
ION, it really is the world's oldest profession:
The essential idea was to give a monkey a dollar and see what it did with it. The currency Chen settled on was a silver disc, one inch in diameter, with a hole in the middle -- ''kind of like Chinese money,'' he says. It took several months of rudimentary repetition to teach the monkeys that these tokens were valuable as a means of exchange for a treat and would be similarly valuable the next day. Having gained that understanding, a capuchin would then be presented with 12 tokens on a tray and have to decide how many to surrender for, say, Jell-O cubes versus grapes. This first step allowed each capuchin to reveal its preferences and to grasp the concept of budgeting.
...
Santos has observed that the monkeys never deliberately save any money, but they do sometimes purloin a token or two during an experiment. All seven monkeys live in a communal main chamber of about 750 cubic feet. For experiments, one capuchin at a time is let into a smaller testing chamber next door. Once, a capuchin in the testing chamber picked up an entire tray of tokens, flung them into the main chamber and then scurried in after them -- a combination jailbreak and bank heist -- which led to a chaotic scene in which the human researchers had to rush into the main chamber and offer food bribes for the tokens, a reinforcement that in effect encouraged more stealing.
Something else happened during that chaotic scene, something that convinced Chen of the monkeys' true grasp of money. Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of money, after all, is its fungibility, the fact that it can be used to buy not just food but anything. During the chaos in the monkey cage, Chen saw something out of the corner of his eye that he would later try to play down but in his heart of hearts he knew to be true. What he witnessed was probably the first observed exchange of money for sex in the history of monkeykind. (Further proof that the monkeys truly understood money: the monkey who was paid for sex immediately traded the token in for a grape.)
Cass - Jun 04, 2005 4:03:28 pm PDT #9305 of 10001
Bob's learned to live with tragedy, but he knows that this tragedy is one that won't ever leave him or get better.
Further proof that the monkeys truly understood money: the monkey who was paid for sex immediately traded the token in for a grape.Monkey grape whoring is amusing me.
I yayed for Ellie and Stephanie and Joe in another thread but babies should be celebrated everywhere. So YAY!
Lee - Jun 04, 2005 4:16:58 pm PDT #9306 of 10001
The feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants.
Who doesn't love Monkey Whoring?
I am eating fancy cheeses (not the skeesy kinds) and crackers and drinking a glass of decent white wine. It's not quite having a life, but it's not too bad.
Cass - Jun 04, 2005 4:35:13 pm PDT #9307 of 10001
Bob's learned to live with tragedy, but he knows that this tragedy is one that won't ever leave him or get better.
I am eating fancy cheeses (not the skeesy kinds) and crackers and drinking a glass of decent white wine. It's not quite having a life, but it's not too bad.Sounds like a good thing to me. If I only had fancy cheeses. And crackers. And wine. I gotta go grocery shopping. At least the monkeys had grapes...
sumi - Jun 04, 2005 5:08:11 pm PDT #9308 of 10001
Art Crawl!!!
Happy Birthday Dana and Ellie!
Congratulations Stephanie and DH!!
JenP - Jun 04, 2005 5:13:35 pm PDT #9309 of 10001
the first observed exchange of money for sex in the history of monkeykind
I'd say priceless, but clearly, it's not.
Um. OK, lost the rest of my post there. So, I'll say again:
Congratulations Stephanie and DH!!! Welcome Ellie! (Speedy little wee one that you are)
Sheryl - Jun 04, 2005 6:21:23 pm PDT #9310 of 10001
Fandom means never having to say "But where would I wear that?"
Timelies all!
Happy Birthday Dana!
Welcome Ellie! Congrats Stephanie and DH!
§ ita § - Jun 04, 2005 6:26:00 pm PDT #9311 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Just about the only criticism of me teaching blue belt stuff today was that I don't smile, even when I'm joking. Obviously gaping chest wounds are funny. I don't need to sell them. I'm my own straight man -- a twofer.
Hmmph. I bristle at the suggestion.
This week's TV Guide has the cover story of hot guys -- Jamie Denton, Josh Holloway, Hugh Laurie, Patrick Dempsey, Goran Vijsnic, Gary Dourdan -- they've got good eyes.
beth b - Jun 04, 2005 6:35:19 pm PDT #9312 of 10001
oh joy! Oh Rapture ! I have a brain!
Welcome Ellie!