The Only Way to Win and the Unclimbable Mountain

KayPea you sound like we could be new BFF's. I have news group downloading in lieu of cable. I can watch any TV show or movie that has aired in the last 5 years, but I have to know about it to set my server to get it.

Can you recommend any "can't miss it" science shows that might have slipped through my radar recently?

Can you remember the name of an English science survival show that came out about 5 years, where they stuck 6 scientists from different disciplines in remote locations and tasked them with doing experiments and projects with only what they could find on-hand? It was a really good show, but I can't remember the name of the show to download it.

~FK

P.S. Tatiana? Someone I met recently.

The Experiment was called "Random Reinforcement" and it works well in love and gambling.

Sheldon in BBT is much more lovable

Thanks for looking that up I had forgotten the experiments name.

Made up characters on TV are usually more lovable than REAL people. My favorites were our last few presidents. They could have cast it better.

There are no specific shows that I watch. When my DVR gets low on shows I just scan through the on screen guide and hit record for anything that looks interesting to queue up a bunch more shows. You can probably find an online guide for the Sci channel to get an idea for shows. "Through the Wormhole" is one good series that comes to mind. It could be Discover or History rather than Sci.

Just got the whole series thanks. I'll be watching it.

I was going over old threads to see if there had been any comments and this stood out.

BobOrme said, "I know how to maximize my chances of getting lucky."

By definition "luck" is a chance event over which we have NO control. How then is it possible to maximize any aspect of it?

This is obviously some different definition of the word. If you have any control over an outcome then it isn't luck. If you can change, influence or in any way alter an outcome then luck is not to blame.

It might interest you all to know I did an informal survey a few years ago when I was writing my book and asked random people what their definition of "luck" was, and after asking 30 people I got about 9 distinct definitions, none of which matched the dictionary. It is perhaps ironic that "luck" has therefore lost its meaning in a morass of "ambiguity" (a word which has only one clearly agreed upon meaning).

~FK

I agree; we must not allow "ambiguous" to become ambiguous.

Mice are not conscious beings, and therefore experiments with mice are useful predictors only when humans are not acting consciously. I.e. if someone is "gambling" consciously, the experiment with mice loses relevance.

My impression from this thread is that people assign various meanings to the word "gambling," just as with the word "luck." Mice almost certainly do not "gamble." One might consider the study and exploration of outer space to be a game of chance.

Frank seems to be frustrated by the fact that most people are most interested in those things that affect their pocketbooks. Hence the disinterest in moons of far off planets and cures for diseases they do not have. I can only recommend, "If it hurts when you do that, stop doing that."

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
___Lucius Annaeus Seneca (ca. 4 BC – 65 AD)

What has been frustrating me lately is that I'm failing to communicate with fellow Americans using common English words, because they neither understand me, nor do I understand them due to a complete departure on their part from dictionary definitions.

I grew up jaunting across the pond and had to differentiate between American English, Australian English, South African English, and British English, where if someone told you, you had to keep your pecker up to get a good screw, they were advising you to keep a cheerful demeanor if you wished to do well in your chosen profession. Pecker = Mood / Screw = Salary

In all my years in the States I have not seen such wild and loose use of English until I started posting on VP forums where the only consensus on some words is that there is no consensus.

So does anyone have an idea as to why this seems so common in the gambling community?

Possibly those "in the gambling community" thrive on (or possibly require) uncertainty, and therefore have a disdain for precision.