***OFFICIAL 2012 FTP REGS THREAD***

[shpanko]

Originally Posted by Keyser.

Unrelated, but I've recently become obsessed with astronomy. It's like the most interesting/cool/awesome thing ever to me. You were an astrophysics major, what does that even mean? Like what did you do? Did you want to be an astronomer? I'm clueless.

Thanks for the thoughts Devin and others.

Hah. Yeah astrophysics is an amazing field. If the life of an astrophysicist wasn't as isolating as it is I might be doing a PhD in astro instead of med school. To answer your question, being an astrophysics major meant taking advanced courses in physics, quantum mechanics, and cosmology. You could focus your studies more on observational or theoretical astrophysics. My undergrad research was kind of a mix of the two but my thesis was on the distribution of dark matter vs baryonic matter in the universe as a function of scale. It's pretty crazy **** to learn about how enormous the universe is and humbling to contemplate how miniscule we are in comparison.

I haven't kept up with the field much since graduating and I regret that as right now is a pretty exciting time in astrophysics with the recent studies of the cosmic background radiation shedding light on the curvature and mass density of the universe (and thus the ultimate fate of the universe i.e. infinite expansion versus eventual collapse). Hmm, I kinda just went on a rambling rant there. What in particular did you want to know about astrophysics?

[Keyser.]

Originally Posted by shpanko

What in particular did you want to know about astrophysics?

We maybe should take it to PM? I guess it doesn't matter, other people might be interested too.

I've been listening to the AstronomyCast podcast a lot. Have probably listened to ~50 of them. Any other good shows/documentaries/whatever? I watched Sagan's "Cosmos," Brian Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos," and I tried to watch "Stephen Hawking's Universe" but I kept getting distracted and imagining him like the South Park character (lol, sadly not joking) so I didn't really like it. Any other recs?

I also want to get started in amateur astronomy (in addition to my current title of amateur pharmacist) but I'm not sure what to buy. I imagine there's some sick places I could go in the desert to get really good views. I hear that I should first buy binoculars and that newbs shouldn't start with telescopes. True? If you were just getting into astronomy what would you do?




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One more thought: I think none of us really care to admit just how linear the relationship between natural intelligence and poker acumen really is. Like, do you think the guy (robot?) who wrote this post, the astrophysics major from Princeton, ^^ just has better poker fundamentals and has studied poker more than the people who breakeven?

I mean, every decision in poker is just like a logic problem. If you're really f'ing smart then you can figure out the correct answer more often and faster than other people assuming some familiarity with the types of lines of thoughts you should be thinking about.

I guess this theory breaks down because it's not like everyone who is super smart is inherently good at poker, but I think if 100 people all have a similar capacity for risk-tolerance and emotional control and also have similar levels of experience, I think the dude who is just the smartest is going to be the biggest winner.

Okay I'm not sure why I'm philosophizing about everything.

[curve]

@Clowntable. We can still advance if we lose tonight with say 1 goal difference. If we win from Portugal and you guys win from Denmark it's

Germany: 9
Rest: 3

IF Holland wins with 2 goals difference from Portugal we advance on goals

[The-fryke]

One more thought: I think none of us really care to admit just how linear the relationship between natural intelligence and poker acumen really is. Like, do you think the guy (robot?) who wrote this post, the astrophysics major from Princeton, ^^ just has better poker fundamentals and has studied poker more than the people who breakeven?

I think this is relatively accurate, though obviously doesnt take into account things like tilt and all of the important peripheral skills required to be successful (Jared Tendler's book + Leatherass' Book). I think it normalizes faster as well, because variance would even out faster than in other careers, as you are making thousands of decisions per day, whereas less intelligent people can survive a lot longer when decisions are made as part of a team and are less frequently made.

I'm starting to realize that I may just not be smart enough to crush. I mean, put simply, I'm a lot smarter than most people but a lot dumber than smart people. Should find something which smart people avoid and crush.

[curve]

ok **** this holland team. This is just embarrasing.

[Keyser.]

Originally Posted by The-fryke

Should find something which smart people avoid and crush.

tournament poker

[saymond]

Keyser if you need to come over and hang out that's cool, you're really tldr'ing up this thread

[Keyser.]

I quit drinking caffeine a few months ago but I fell off the wagon last week. My brain feels like it's in overdrive lately which is good for poker but not good for ADD and okay I'm going to quit typing now

[saymond]

I am now drinking ~ 132 oz of diet coke a day and I'm starting to think that's not healthy.

But my brain doesn't have overdrive, it has passing disinterest in consciousness altogether

[Keyser.]

yeah, after I've been drinking caffeine for a while I end up entering a period of perpetual tiredness. Quitting sucks pretty bad but after I get over that I always do have a lot more energy. Also lol at this: "my brain doesn't have overdrive, it has passing disinterest in consciousness altogether"

[amurophil]

I too have bouts with caffeine, although it sounds like I have less of a problem than you guys XD

I probably drink 40oz of coke zero or a can or two of redbull a day. I'm such a crackhead for it... I feel like there's a string drawing, just slightly, over to 7/11 to grab a bad of chips and a coke, at all times. I did once give up caffeine and didn't drink it for a few months: I replaced it with orange juice. Every time I wanted to grab a dr pepper or whatever, I would just drink like 2 huge glasses of orange juice instead. Def helped with the caffeine problem, but then i was getting sugar OD'd every day :P

[amurophil]

anyone ever play civ2? http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comme...vilization_ii/

[Keyser.]

weird, I have a 7-11 string too. but mine goes to:



and



(I had to dig this out of my trash because I couldn't find a pic online lol. While looking I learned that these apparently have caused salmonella or something but they're sooo worth it.)

[Fifty1Fifty]

Originally Posted by amurophil

anyone ever play civ2? http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comme...vilization_ii/

I used to skip school so I could continue an all nighter. Civ ii was he nuts.

[Fifty1Fifty]

Zip fizz