sailorbeavis

Just curious, since many people ask this forum about how much it will take them to get drunk.

Do you arbitrarily limit yourself to two glasses of wine, or can you "feel" when you're getting tipsy and that means it's time to stop?

I drink one glass of whiskey, one glass of wine, or two beers. Any more than that and I'm liable to start waxing philosophic.

A Florida man bought a Tesla Model S car from a dealership in California, using bitcoins. The parties agreed on a third-party intermediary who converted the bitcoins into US Federal Reserve Notes.

Got me thinking: The originators of Bitcoin have said there's a cap on the maximum number of bitcoins that can be created. But if a holder of bitcoins chooses to trade them for another currency, do those bitcoins "go away" forever once they are converted into dollars, kroner, baht, what have you?

Anyone know?

My uncle is 70 and is best described as a "hobbyist photographer." About 10 years ago I bought him a Kodak DX4530 camera, which at the time was a mid-range "bridge" model. He likes the camera but its USB port is a bit flaky and so is the battery and so the fam has started looking for a new camera for him for Christmas.

He has either carpal tunnel or arthritis (his words, not mine), and he has big chunky "man hands" to boot. He likes the feel of the Kodak because it has a reasonably large grip, but it's light so it doesn't weigh on his wrists. He used to use Nikon and Canon film SLRs, so he misses the manual features from those, and it MUST have a TRUE optical viewfinder, even if it isn't through the lens (TTL). I know that image stabilization actually makes the rear LCD the better option for composition, but he's 70 and I'm not gonna argue.

Our budget is about $400 and since his existing camera has lasted this long, I'm not above buying a holdover online. Models I've been looking at include the Powershot G12, the Nikon P7100, the Fuji X10 (god, that thing's pretty)... but I have not used any of these personally. Yes, I've read the reviews on DPReview and Amazon for all of them. Just looking for additional suggestions.

I was in a casino last week that was hosting a WSOP tour event and a lot of the players there were wearing hoodies. I've watched some WPT televised events and hoodies seem to be prevalent there too.

I know that gambling is a recreational activity and in the casinos I visit, nobody dresses like James Bond - if they do, it's pretty obvious they are security (or an easy mark) - but why all the hoodies and sweatshirts? It wasn't that hot in the casino I was in. Are poker players THAT superstitious?

I watch a lot of baseball, and it seems to me that umpires tend to make calls that favor the home team, regardless of what stadium they are calling a game in. An umpire is supposed to be impartial, and while I accept that they're human and make mistakes, I rarely see them make a call that would result in a home team fan's smashing their car window.

I'm trying to gauge exactly how impartial they really are, considering they are paid to call a fair game (although everyone makes mistakes). Logically, it would make sense if the umpires didn't care one whit who won or lost the game. So who pays their paycheck - MLB, Incorporated, or do they get paid by the teams they call games for?