Sorry I've not posted much lately. A writer on the Hendon Mob forum seems to know why -

http://www.thehendonmob.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12052

Quote: "Ah yeah, the good old days when David Young used to procrastinate on every subject from A to Z."

And I'll get around to procrastinating again some time. Tomorrow definitely.

Meanwhile, here's my award for the category of 'You'll be all right'. It's from the Skills Exchange board on the Gum Tree:

http://www.gumtree.com/london/51/6490151.html

Quote: "I am a photographer looking for a female life model for a nudist video and photo shoot to carry out at weekends. In exchange I can offer English lessons or my culinary skills."

Or loosely translated: "You take your clothes off while I take pictures and in return, I'll cook you a meal or explain the subjunctive."

_ DY at 3:00 AM GMT

Updated: Wednesday, 29 November 2006 3:03 AM GMT

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I can't make up my mind whether to see the film 'Borat'. I've seen clips on TV and some of it seems funny. But other bits seem to drag on too long. I've had the same feeling watching Ali G before - wishing he'd just conclude the interview after he's got a few gags in (a la Dennis Pennis) instead of dragging it out. Fry and Laurie got it right with their 'vox pop' gags: no painful pauses.

But that's not my only problem with 'Borat'. I'm also frankly sick of British comics making fun of Americans. I can't help thinking that it reveals an inferiority complex that we have - that sense of faded imperial glory that comes from no longer being a major world power. We get our revenge by having Daisy Donovan, Louis Theroux or Sacha Baron Cohen crossing the Atlantic and showing us that while the yanks may have a bigger economy, higher incomes, a bigger military and a major film industry, they can't spot when some crafty English comic is pulling a fast one on them. Perhaps that's fun for you, but for me it just emphasises the fact that we have a chip on our shoulder about them. At least Clive James varied the schtick a bit when he mocked the Japanese game show 'Endurance' all those years ago. Then again, he did it at a time when many British industries were being decimated by competition from Japan. Revenge tasted sweet.

But the chief problem I have with Borat is that it mocks the fact that Americans try hard to see the best in outsiders, rather than immediately assuming the worst. Of course that can be naive. But I think it's a rather charming feature. In general I find most Americans to be far more pleasant and friendly than Europeans. It applies less to the people in New York and California, who can be a bit brash, and to the natives of Las Vegas, for whom meeting foreigners is no big deal. But get into the heartland of America, to places like Oklahoma, and prepare to be amazed at how polite most people are.

I could go on, but Christopher Hitchens has seen it and says it so much better:

http://www.slate.com/id/2153578/

_ DY at 2:29 PM GMT

Updated: Monday, 20 November 2006 12:31 AM GMT

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Give us a K, give us an E, give us an N

by Dominic Bourke

I think this is great:

My main issue is a safety one. The types of 4x4 that are driven round my area are way bigger than the average car, considerably heavier and have a far higher point of impact in any collision. If I get hit by a Ford Focus at 25 mph, I fancy my chances of walking (ok then hobbling) away from it. I would make myself a decent favourite not to suffer injuries that would diminish my quality of life on a permanent basis. If I get hit by one of the tanks that are the vehicle of choice round here, then you are pretty much attending my funeral. The fact that I keep reading studies that show these cars are in disproportionately more accidents than regular family saloons does not fill me with joy. The main theory behind it is that because the car is so big they drive in a more aggressive/reckless manner, as they feel so safe and confident. I have another theory....

I live in 4x4 central, and in this case, the C in C-Charge very much stands for ****. I would guess that about 70% of the cars that park in the bus stop outside of Raoul's and then want a shout-up with the Parking Warden would be subject to this charge (it irritates me so much because there is no lack of parking within a 5 minute walk, and it's a bloody bus stop so there is no doubt about the legality of parking there!) It just demonstrates their view that rules don't apply to them, and are merely there to tell other people what to do. They are driven by the same upper middle class couples that Dave always says aren't breeding enough and on any given day when I go to Tesco's and back I will see far more of these being driven by idiots with a mobile phone clutched to their ear than I will see being driven by a parent with a kid in the back seat.

The truth of the matter is that this car is the middle class version of the tattoo. It lets the world know they are a twat without anyone needing to speak to them.

_ DY at 3:21 AM GMT

Updated: Friday, 17 November 2006 5:50 AM GMT

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SPOILER WARNING! Casino Royale discussed below.

http://entertainment.aol.co.uk/film/casino-royale 

click on 'clip three' to see a disgusting slow-roll. I hope the villain dies in a really nasty way.

_ DY at 3:44 PM GMT

Updated: Thursday, 9 November 2006 3:50 PM GMT

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What would we do without blonde presenters?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXbv0Rl7fh0&mode=related&search=

_ DY at 4:14 PM GMT

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And now for something completely different....

After you've got used to seeing people dressed up as mascots for theme parks or sporting occasions, it can get rather hard to look at some real animals without thinking that they are really just people in costume.

In particular, I find this applies to pandas.

_ DY at 6:18 PM BST

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Not long ago I outlined my concerns about super-satellites and in a later posting, considered the circumstances in which it could be correct to play them. One situation was where there was a freeroll or added money. I also considered the possibility that the standard of play in them could be very bad indeed.

Today both factors came into play. I have just completed an FPP super-sat online that gave 10 per cent of the field a chance to play in a $100,000 freeroll tomorrow. Obviously this is far too good to miss. Play got down to 24 players, with 23 qualifying. I was the lowest in chips, with only about 4000, while the blinds were 600/1200 with a running ante of 75. I opened up one of the other tables to see what was happening there, when I saw this:

Seat 1: robert7777 (33195 in chips)

Seat 2: affirmed317 (12498 in chips)

Seat 3: BruceLi (4355 in chips)

Seat 4: harryspeed (13735 in chips)

Seat 5: balerno (16269 in chips)

Seat 6: RainerW70 (23870 in chips)

Seat 7: keshi1 (11557 in chips)

Seat 9: Dorf42 (11000 in chips)

They all post a 75 running ante. 

keshi1: posts small blind 600

Dorf42: posts big blind 1200

*** HOLE CARDS ***

robert7777: calls 1200

affirmed317: folds

BruceLi: folds

harryspeed: folds

balerno: raises 1200 to 2400

RainerW70: folds

keshi1: raises 9082 to 11482 and is all-in

Dorf42: folds

robert7777: folds

balerno: calls 9082

*** FLOP *** [3s Jd 4s]

*** TURN *** [3s Jd 4s] [8h]

*** RIVER *** [3s Jd 4s 8h] [4h]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

keshi1: shows [Ah Jc] (two pair, Jacks and Fours)

balerno: shows [Kh Ks] (two pair, Kings and Fours)

balerno collected 25964 from pot

Woohoo! I’m through.

Incredible stuff. The AJ has no reason to get involved at all. There is no upside whatsoever. There were plenty of other players who had smaller stacks. There is a player on the same table with less than 5,000!

Is this sort of blunder widespread, I wonder? Have I been missing something? I still think super-sats are wrong in principle, but in practice if this sort of lunacy is commonplace, I may have to try some one day!

_ DY at 5:05 PM BST

Updated: Friday, 27 October 2006 5:17 PM BST

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I bumped into an old friend on Friday last week, someone I knew before I started playing poker. I shall call him ‘the consultant’. Like most of my pre-poker friends, I’ve not kept in touch with him properly, so we had a lot of catching up to do.  I was surprised to learn that he’d got engaged. He’s always had a pathological need to chase women so it was a shock. In this regard he’s the opposite of me. I’ve never been one of those men who’s in love with the thrill of the chase. I hate small talk. I'm far too lazy for it. 

As I’m not getting any younger, I took the opportunity to learn about how he’d got together with his fiancé when we all went out for a meal. Listening to her side of the story was illuminating. Actually, it was hilarious.  Everything she said a man should do was the total opposite of what he’d done.

"We went out twice. After the second date, he dumped me because I wouldn’t sleep with him."

This was a slight shock. The old consultant wouldn’t have waited until day two. He had clearly mellowed a bit.

"Then I thought that we’d got on rather well. So I texted him back."

Hmm.

"And he texted me back at work, telling me what he had wanted to do to me".

I asked whether this was a good idea.

"Not usually, no. But [grinning]…. Anyway, we got back together and soon after that he cheated on me with my worst enemy – a girl I can’t stand. She’s now stalking us. I know he thinks that he’s treating me mean to keep me keen, but that doesn’t work. Really".

And so on, and so on, with her explaining at every twist and turn that this was how not to treat a woman. It was touching that she really believed what she was saying. It really didn’t occur to her that her estimate of his worth as a partner was enhanced by the fact that she had evidence that he was desirable to other women and that this made her more competitive.

I’d love to be able to learn from him, but it’s just not in me. Those of you who fear that I may one day reproduce can draw comfort from the fact that I don’t have what it takes to behave the way the consultant does. In the few relationships I’ve had, I've  stayed considerate and faithful. After a few weeks or months, they can’t take it any more and it’s over. Without evidence that I’m desirable to other women, their estimate of my worth falls to the point where it’s not worth bothering any more.

It's my fault of course. I don't care enough.

_ DY at 5:02 PM BST

Updated: Tuesday, 24 October 2006 5:05 PM BST

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SPOILER WARNING. If you've taped last night's Prime Suspect and haven't yet watched it, stop reading now.

I was delighted to see Peter Birks proved wrong last night. Not because I've got some desire to see him look bad, but because if he'd been right about what he wrote earlier this week then it would have meant that he'd spoiled the second half of Prime Suspect for me. Essentially Peter stated that if you're watching a whodunnit mystery and one actor is more famous than the others, then it's him. That didn't bode well for Prime Suspect, as one of the suspects was played by a famous actor, while the others were total unknowns. Mercifully the producers managed to avoid that trap and my two hours weren't totally wasted.

_ DY at 11:22 PM BST

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Mark Steyn is doing a live question and answer session to promote his new book, America Alone. Despite being a Steyn junkie I've not read it yet, but I know that demographics play a key part and asked a question about family formation. He responded within half an hourL

The whole Q and A is here:

http://www.steynonline.com/index2.cfm?edit_id=64 

But in case that link is broken before you read it, I'll quote our correspondence:

_ DY at 4:04 PM BST

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A few weeks ago, I used the word 'fungible' to describe money. In case some of you don't know what it means, I quote a definition -

(esp. of goods) being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind.

When I used it before, I was making the point that money received from one source has the same value as money received from another source, even though people often treat them differently.Today I'm reminded of it because I've stumbled on what I consider to be some well-meaning idiocy - a campaign designed to persuade Americans to purchase oil from countries that don't finance terror. I realise how seductive this notion is (though Canada is actually America's largest foreign supplier) because it's painful to think that you're funding jihad when you fill your tank.

But the idea is utterly flawed. Oil is fungible. If the US were to somehow buy all its foreign oil from sources like Nigeria and Brunei, that would merely remove from the market oil that other nations, like China for instance, could buy from them. And since the US would not be buying from terror-sponsors, China and others would switch to buying oil from terror sponsoring states. And everything's back to square one.

_ DY at 3:57 AM BST

Updated: Sunday, 8 October 2006 4:03 AM BST

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However bad you think things have gone for the coalition in Iraq, its setbacks and mistakes are as nothing to the catastrophic failure facing Al Qaeda's mission in the country. That well known right-wing Neo-Con cheerleading rag The Guardian reports:

'Iraqi tribes launch battle to drive al-Qaida out of troubled province.'

The province in question is Al Anbar, Iraq's largest, and a major part of the so-called Sunni Triangle where opposition to the American occupation was at its most fierce in the aftermath of the war. Its long and pourous borders with Saudi Arabia and Syria made it the entry point for jihadi from both countries. Now it seems they have worn out their welcome. Iraqis have seen up close what they have to offer and are overwhelmingly rejecting it. A recent opinion poll in Iraq shows that 94 per cent of Iraqis reject Al Qaeda, with majorities against it shown in all the ethnic groups: Shia, Sunni and Kurds.

I'm not suggesting that this is the end for them, merely the beginning of the end. Its hard to see their popularity or influence being restored. The government's task now is to stop the disgusting sectarian slaughter in Baghdad, where rival militia groups seek to expel those of the opposite side in order to increase their influence.

_ DY at 7:31 PM BST

Updated: Tuesday, 3 October 2006 8:42 PM BST

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What has happened to the Victor Poker Cup? The website merely refers to 2005. I can find no reference to this year.

What about the World Sports Exchange London Open? Last year's event at Billingsgate was described as 'inaugural'. There is no mention of 2006 on the website.

While I'm at it, has anyone seen the Walsall Quartermillion kicking around anywhere?

They all seem to be suffering from a chronic case of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome!

_ DY at 1:44 AM BST

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The Egyptians, Assyrians, Hittites, Ottomans, Persians, Babylonians, Greeks, Jews, Romans, Byzantines, Caliphs, Crusaders, Saladin, the Mongols and the Europeans have all at some point controlled some or all of the area we call the Middle East.

This 90 second video shows the history of the Middle East from 3000 BC to the present day.

Fascinating viewing.

_ DY at 11:40 PM BST

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