Don't worry, they lasted a little over thirty years, although some similar blocks remain nearby.

To Hell with domesticity, I want the 1960s.

Curb your misanthropy, Lastcard. That's my department.

The 1960s (In America) started with Kennedy and ended with Nixon. A decade of stupidity and silliness that was, more or less, just as idiotic as any other decade in Human History.

Stop trying to change the world - it only makes you look silly. Like UK housing structures.

all those buildings all look like a prison to me being that close together. i had an apartment once in my life and shared a common wall. that was enough to never repeat.
and if i am going to be sent to an old folks home where that is the normal i will be passing on at that point.

if i could go back i would freeze myself in the 60's with charlie

Last night, an old Top Gear came on. It was the episode where Hammond tried to determine the best cab in the world.

Pretty funny, everything from the London cab (Hammond's) to NYC Crown Vics and Ambassadors from India, don't remember them all. Everything else was driven by rally drivers; hilarity and mayhem ensued.

Anyway, in the setup, he mentioned The Knowledge that London cabbies are required to pass. Is that still a thing in these days of google maps giving you real-time directions? If so, care to talk about it (if it's interesting)?

I completed the Knowledge a couple of years ago. It was one singular experience. It is to take a mental snapshot of London at a certain period in time. But all of it. Everyone knows their own pathways in the city, better than I do, but I have some knowledge of all of it, and that is the defining aspect of it. Nobody knows London like a Black Cab driver. It took me three and a half years and involved 19 exams, each of which I remember vividly. It’s surprising how random crap the brain can process. You get good at remembering stuff, at finding techniques for doing so. I can’t even believe I did it. I need something to do, some goal, and I don’t know what the next one is.

Blowing up parliament would be fun. I would even come over to help you! Gunpower Plot Part II.

I took a few black cabs in London all those seemly short years ago. Those cabbies knew much and I was very impressed.

Also, I love Top Gear. I checked out from the library and viewed some episodes recently. Loads of fun.

You go out and do the 320 Blue Book runs on a moped, memorize those, and then take a written exam on them. If you pass that, you progress to the oral exams, which are called Appearances. There are three stages of these, involving, respectively, exams every 56, 28 and 21 days. The exams are graded, but are essentially pass or fail, and passing is called Scoring. Scoring is the best feeling in the entire world. Each stage is best of seven. Each exam comprises four questions, and for each question you have to say where two locations, called Points, are, and then call the roads in the shortest route between them. The points can be anywhere. Marks deducted for hesitation. After the exam, you go outside and tell the questions you were asked (which, oddly, you often struggle to remember) to a collector from a Knowledge school. These are compiled and, for a subscription, they email you all the questions everyone was asked, and studying them is how you revise. There is no other way. Some examiners are more difficult to pass than others. Which one you get on the day seems to be luck of the draw. Some have the same questions, called Bankers, that they ask a lot. Some ask most singular questions. One asks almost exclusively about the back streets of Rotherhithe and Bermondsey. One is near impossible to pass. I passed 12 out of 17, but failed him 2 out of 2. I passed 2 out of 2 with statistically the second most difficult examiner. He'd fail like 10 out 10 in a week, and once got suspended for unknown reasons. My final exam, called your Req, was with statistically the easiest examiner, whom I had not met before. That was a nice appearance.

This is in direct contrast to New York, in which I got in a cab some years ago at JFK and asked to be taken to 53d and Lexington. The cabbie, not joking, said "where's that?"

The final question I was asked was Anson Road, NW2, to Anson Road, N7.

“Anson Rd, N7? That’s by Ospringe Road.”

“Yeah, and also by Brecknock Road, isn’t it?”

“Brecknock Road. There’s a clue there, isn’t there, Sir. Leave by right Shoot Up Hill, left Mill Lane, right Fortune Green Road, forward West End Lane, left Lymington Road, forward Arkwright Road, right Fitzjohn’s Avenue, left Lyndhurst Road, forward Pond Street, forward South End Green, forward Constantine Road, forward Agincourt Road, left Mansfield Road, forward Gordon House Road, forward Chetwynd Road, right Dartmouth Park Hill, forward Brecknock Road, left Anson Road.”

“That’s right. Ospringe Road shows that you’re a genius, but Brecknock Road will do.”

Boom. The Knowledge is hardcore.

my cell phone knows all that. and it even talks to me nicely.
and i dont even need the address just verbally tell it where i want to go like what restaurant or building.

PioSOLVER can play unexploitable poker.

But leaving McCarran, it will tunnel you every time

I don't know what point I'm trying to make, but I do have a question. I am considering taking up online poker again as my next goal. Do GTO solvers render this as doomed as the Knowledge?

it will be very hard as you have too much tech working against you unless you play the very smallish limits. even then.
find private games with recreational players

individual poker players are basically doomed in the future from tech.
same as a cabbie. with auto driving cars. i wouldnt want to own a cab company unless it was going to go that route and had the resources to do it.
in the not so far future people wont own cars in the city. you will just get in one near you and tell it where to go and get billed for it. might be illegal to even own one as they would just get in the way.

Thanks, Ray Zee.

Upper Edmonton is wide, flat and sandwiched by Lower Edmonton and Tottenham, with the North Circular as one of the fillings, and Fore Street (built by the Romans as Ermine Street) and the A10 as picks. It has been well observed that London is a collection of villages, but here is an exception. Pebbledashed, terraced houses. The neighbours have an ice cream van, and a caravan in Canvey Island.

Pymmes Park is Edwardian, hallowed ground. Long gone are the summer theatre with the happy sad faces, the cedar tree and the boats for hire, but it is past its nadir. I obtain a feeling of serenity and not nostalgia.

Blue Plaque of the week?

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits.

im at the age where its all about nostalgia.
i dont want new or change. im comfortable with the way it is. preferably was.

That's the wrong poetry.

Meaning that bots will be one step ahead of detection, or that skill levels in the human pool will be too high?

Roulette is solved. It doesn't stop millions being gambled on it each year. As you know.

both will be true.

and no one legitimately wins at roulette.

I'm saying that if people continue to plough money into roulette, or a myriad other -EV examples, then why not also with poker. If that still won't be enough to feed the bots, skilled humans and rake, then so be it.

online poker will be dead. live poker will not.

It will be enough to feed the bots.

Bots are incredibly cheap to produce and run.