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Friday, July 4th, 2008
patrissimo
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12:41p
I knew Fox News was bad, but...
To me, there is a clear line between honest and dishonest journalism. Using the worst picture you can find of someone you don't like is honest (if biased). Modifying photos with photoshop to make people you don't like look uglier and shadier is dishonest. I didn't think even Fox News would stoop so low. Awful.
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dmorr has the pictures.
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patrissimo
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12:31p
Rooting shares
List updated again. I think there are 32 shares so far, for 8%. I'm going to cap it at 40 shares / 10%.
Why did I get $10 from "docGonzo" on stars?
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evwhore
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8:30a
The Reno Death Curse strikes again!
After a long dry spell, the Reno Death Curse has struck again! Link via adb_jaeger.
Natural causes, according to the MSNBC article, so more prosaic compared to previous instances. (Natural causes ordinarily doesn't qualify for the curse, but it's been a while, and for Helms we can make an exception.)
Maybe this is a harbinger that my royal-less streak will end this trip too.
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rcfox
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7:58a
Main Event Number
Let's take a look at the main event from 2007 vs. 2008:
Day 1: 1,287 (2007) vs. 1,294 (2008)
Day 2: 1,541 (2007) vs. ? (2008)
Day 3: 1,743 (2007) vs. ? (2008)
Day 4: 1,787 (2007) vs. ? (2008)
In 2007 the WSOP was only planning on having three day 1s, but they added a fourth. This year four day 1s were scheduled. My suspicion is that attendance in the main event will not change much from 2007, with final attendance in the range of 6000 - 6700.
I'll update this daily.
current mood: awake
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(4 comments | comment on this) Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
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terrencechan
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4:44p
WSOP in-the-money props
I got (what I think is) a ton of value on Pinnacle, of the bet type: "Will [name player] Finish in the Money?" I bet the "No" on all of the following at these prices:
Phil Hellmuth -480, -372
Phil Ivey -411, -373, -364
Daniel Negreanu -411, -366, -362
Patrik Antonius -363
Doyle Brunson -410
Todd Brunson -400
Johnny Chan -398
Allen Cunningham -368
Ted Forrest -363
Barry Greenstein -369
Tony Guoga -390
Gus Hansen -378
Phil Laak -398
Erick Lindgren -369
Marcel Luske -393
Mike Matusow -368
Dario Minieri -374
Men Nguyen -388
Max Pescatori -379
Greg Raymer -375
Erik Seidel -371
JC Tran -384
Devilfish Ulliot -388
Dustin Woolf -384
Scotty Nguyen -374
Huck Seed -372
All to win $250 each. I might have missed a few since I did this by hand, but basically I bet on almost everyone with a few exceptions that looked like they weren't of that much value (e.g. David Sklansky -500ish seemed kinda odd).
Bill actually doesn't think these are fantastic value for some of the better players, but I seriously doubt anyone is really much better than 4:1 to cash.
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evwhore
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3:50p
Sharks sign Rob Blake
One year, $5MM. Yeah, he's old*, but I like it (and a lot more than Campbell at $57MM for 8 years).
* I finally got around to listening to the Pratt & Taylor farewell interview with Trevor Linden (MP3 link) and there was a great comment about how on the day he resigned he went from being an old hockey player to being a young man.
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evwhore
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3:47p
Wis. law makes Calif. marriage a crime
PlanetOut:
Same-sex couples from Wisconsin who go to California to marry could face criminal charges when they return, though a Wisconsin rights group hopes no one will challenge the law.
Wisconsin law makes it a criminal offense to enter into a marriage outside the state if that marriage were illegal in Wisconsin. The law was passed decades ago to prevent underage couples from crossing state lines to marry, but it could be used against same-sex couples, Glenn Carlson of Fair Wisconsin told The Capital Times newspaper in Madison.
Although I obviously would prefer equal status, I can at least see how states might legitimately argue that they are not obligated to provide the benefits of marriage to those whom it would not deem to be legally married under its own laws.
However I utterly fail to see how a state can criminalize actions which take place in a completely separate jurisdiction. Lawyers, please tell me this is a no-brainer to get overturned...
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rcfox
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2:52p
I Agree With Dave Orr / Privacy / Day 1A
The times when dmorr and I agree on political issues are few and far between. However, there are two such issues I suspect we completely agree on.
Dave has a post where he accuses FoxNews of photoshopping two pictures. I'm in general agreement with dmorr on this. The second picture (Steven Reddicliffe) is much more convincing than the first (that is, of being photoshopped).
One thing to note is that when a picture is moved from digital to tv, and then captured from tv, hues will change. You can see this in Radcliffe's shirt (which went from a very light blue to a light blue). Thus, changes in hues of teeth should be discounted. Also, because the size of the picture may change some facial features will change (between the original and the screen capture). However, hairlines shouldn't be one of these and Reddicliffe's hairline certainly looks different. I do think it's the same picture--there's the same dark spot on Reddicliffe's shirt.
The first pictue (Jacques Steinberg) might not be photoshopped. It looks to me as if Steinberg's face is (in the tv screen capture) facing more downward than in the original. Perhaps several pictures were taken of Steinberg and the actual photo and the FoxNews photo are part of the same set, but are different. Again, discount the hue changes--this is normal when going from digital to a screen capture of a tv image.
Still, it sure looks suspicious at a minimum, and FoxNews owes an explanation.
Meanwhile, Viacom sued YouTube (now owned by Google) for copyright infringement. As part of the discovery process, Viacom yesterday won a court ruling that said that YouTube must hand over logs showing the ip addresses of every video played on YouTube (along with how often each video gets played). The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a page up on this, and they note that the Video Privacy Prevention Act prohibits this. Orrin Kerr on Volokh thinks that EFF & Google are right and the Court got this one wrong. In any case, it's a blow to privacy and I don't like the ruling one bit.
Meanwhile, they haven't announced the count for Day 1A at the main event of the WSOP but the rumor is 1400. If that's correct then the number for 2008 figures to be similar to 2007--about 6400.
current mood:  blah
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dmorr
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1:41p
ah, fox news
The NYTimes published an article about Fox News' declining market share. Fox News' Fox and Friends got irked about it, and complained about the "hit piece" in the NYTimes.
During their segment, they altered the photos of the journalist and editor behind the story to make them uglier. Media Matters showed the actual images next to the edited images. Here they are.Below is a screenshot of Fox & Friends featuring the photo it used of Steinberg, with the original photo on its left. Comparing the two photos, it appears that the following changes have been made: Steinberg's teeth have been yellowed, his nose and chin widened, and his ears made to protrude further.
Similarly, a comparison of the photo of Reddicliffe used by Fox News and the original photo suggests that Reddicliffe's teeth have been yellowed, dark circles have been added under his eyes, and his hairline has been moved back.
 Now, my opinion of Fox News is not very high. But even I didn't think they'd stoop to the photoshop equivalent of drawing little mustaches on their perceived enemies. Is it a coincidence, as jgische pointed out to me, that they exaggerated the nose and ears of the guy with the Jewish name?
Oh, and they didn't even do it well. Check out the modified hairline on Reddicliffe, with the blurry top of his forehead, as if the top of his head just isn't in focus. C'mon, guys, I suck at photoshop and even I could do better than that.
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patrissimo
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1:34p
Uh...use vs. mention?
when I read the NYT on my iphone this morning, one headline was:
DealBook Blog: $utils.quoteXML($blog_item.title)
current music: Woods - George Winston
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