Combining Cribbage with Sorry or Chutes and Ladders

[This post won't mean much if you don't know the rules of Cribbage and Sorry.]

We enjoy Cribbage in my family, but a while back, Lola and I were without a cribbage board.  We did have her multi-game travel set which included a version of  "Chutes and Ladders", so we just combined the games, using the Cribbage scores to move our pawns along the "Chutes and Ladders" field.  Of course, it's much more fun than the pure-luck Chutes and Ladders, but it also added richness to Cribbage because you weren't always playing for the highest score.

Inspired by that, we tried combining Cribbage with Sorry to even better effect.  We kept the special meaning of numbers, so you need to score 1 or 2 to get out of Start, 7 can be split between pawns, 11 can be used to exchange pawns, 4 always goes back four spaces, and 10 can be used to go back one space.  Since there is no 6 in regular Sorry, we decided that 6 would correspond to a Sorry.

This is much more fun, especially for two people, than plain Sorry, but also more rich than Cribbage, again because you have to think about more than just getting the highest score.  Do you want to keep a hand scoring 4 with good potential for more points on the cut, or leave yourself with 2 in the hand, risking cutting 2 more?  When only small counts will help you (at the end, to get your pawns to Home), it's sometimes a challenge to cut down a good starting hand.

For complete rules, it's important to decide what constitutes a discrete scoring event.  Obviously, counting a hand is one event.  We play that counting the crib and the dealer's hand are separate events.  In pegging, you get all the points scored for playing one card in one event (e.g. if you play a card that makes a run of 3 and 15, then that's 5, not 2 and 3).  What's less clear is what happens when one player plays several cards in a row (at the end, or after a "go").  We've been playing that multiple cards played without any opponent's card being played count as the same event, e.g. if I play an ace on my opponent's ace to make 30 (and a pair), and I get a "go" and play another ace, that's one event for a total of 2 + 6 + 2 = 10 points.  It's also reasonable to make each card played be a separate event, or even to separate out the points for "go" or "31" from the points for combinations.

Why I am enthusiastically supporting Obama's reelection

There are several issues which make me a strong Obama supporter.

1. The national Republican leadership's decision to avoid cooperating on anything that might look good in Obama's record was despicable, and for moral reasons shouldn't be rewarded, but more importantly for practical reasons.  What if Romney's elected and the national Democrats take the same position because it worked so well for the 'Pubs?  Do you want four more years of spiteful gridlock?
2. Romney's position on global warming (that there is some warming, but it's not clear that it's human caused) shows either a willingness to say anything to win (it is much more comfortable to hear good news), or an inability to evaluate scientific consensus.  Four years of losing progress against global warming would be disastrous, and Romney's lack of ability to evaluate consensus would hurt his decisions in many other areas, too.  Does he go with what he wants to hear (like Bush II did in Iraq) instead of the sensible conclusion?
3. On the deficit, Republicans have historically been much worse, and the specifics show Obama much more likely to make some progress.  It's impossible to reduce the deficit significantly without raising taxes and reducing military spending.  The non-military discretionary spending is in total much smaller than the deficit.  Romney won't raise taxes, and wants to increase military spending, despite our already spending more than the next ten countries combined (and many of them our close allies!).  If Obama is elected, there will be a grand deal which reduces domestic spending (including several programs I will be sorry to see go, like scientific research and education support) and military spending, and which increases taxes.  If Romney is elected, there will be gridlock or a deal which helps much less.
4. On both gay marriage and abortion, Obama is for keeping out of our bedrooms; Romney is for more government control over our private lives.
5. Romney's jingoistic approach to foreign policy scares me.  I think we are in fact much safer and stronger playing nice with other countries instead of trying to be a bully, besides that being the morally correct position.  And I really don't get this "Israel right or wrong" position of the Republicans -- why are they willing to give up US discretion there?
6. On taxes, there is absolutely no evidence for the "voodoo economics" of reducing taxes on the rich leading to more government revenue.  I'd much prefer to have fair taxes which give everybody equal opportunity, instead of the current leaning entirely to the rich.  A simpler tax system would be nice, but Romney's plan is actually more complex, with various deductions phasing out at higher income.

Some non-issues for me:

1. The economy will get better under Obama or Romney.  It goes in cycles.  The down was triggered by stupid policies of Republicans, but it was going to happen anyhow.  The bottom was softened somewhat by the big deficit spending led by Obama and the industry bail outs, but it would have bottomed out anyhow.
2. Obama's not a secret Muslim, and if  he were an open Muslim that wouldn't bother me in the least.  Romney's being a Mormon is similarly a non-issue.
3. I dislike Obama's continued push for government power vs individual freedom from surveillance, nor do I like his non-judicial slaying of our enemies with drones.  However, I have no reason to believe Romney will be any better.

My Take on the Higgs Boson Announcement 2012-7-4

Since I was fielding a lot of questions about the recent discovery of the Higgs Boson, I did some research, and here are the answers to the questions about it that I found interesting. Most should be understandable if you remember your high school physics; there are no equations.  At the end, I have some links to explanations that helped me.

Pay-to-Play Tic-Tac-Toe

This is my favorite casual game for two with little equipment. It adds a lot of richness to the tic tac toe game, and eliminates the first-mover advantage.
The rules start with tic-tac-toe, but you have an account of play points. The first player gets one point; every subsequent turn a player gets two points. It costs two points to play on an edge square, three to play on a corner, and four to play in the center (i.e. it costs one point per tic-tac-toe that could be made through that square). You can make a play that makes your account go negative, but you need a positive account to play. Even if you have the points to play, you may pass on your turn and keep the points.
Here's an example game:

1. Alice goes first, gets one point, and plays in the center. That costs four points, so her balance is negative three.
   

   	X

   	Bob's points:	0
   	Alice's points:	-3

   
   
2. Bob gets two points and plays on the left side. That costs two points, so his balance goes back to zero.
   

   O	X

   	Bob's points:	0
   	Alice's points:	-3

   
   
3. Alice gets two points, bringing her balance to negative one; that's not above zero, so she can't play.
   

   O	X

   	Bob's points:	0
   	Alice's points:	-1

   
   
4. Bob plays in the corner, which costs three points, bringing his balance to negative one.
   

   O	X
   O

   	Bob's points:	-1
   	Alice's points:	-1

   
   
5. Alice gets two points, bringing her balance to one, so she can play on the corner (cost three) to block Bob.
   

   X
   O	X
   O

   	Bob's points:	-1
   	Alice's points:	-2

   
   
6. Bob plays in the corner, which costs three points, bringing his balance to negative two.
   

   X
   O	X
   O		O

   	Bob's points:	-2
   	Alice's points:	-2

   
   
7. Alice's balance goes to zero, which isn't positive, so she can't play to block Bob.
   

   X
   O	X
   O		O

   	Bob's points:	-2
   	Alice's points:	0

   
   
8. Lucky for her, Bob also can't play: on his turn, his balance goes to zero.
   

   X
   O	X
   O		O

   	Bob's points:	0
   	Alice's points:	0

   
   
9. Now Alice gets two and plays on the bottom to block Bob, returning her balance to zero.
   

   X
   O	X
   O	X	O

   	Bob's points:	0
   	Alice's points:	0

   
   
10. Bob plays on the top.
    

    X	O
    O	X
    O	X	O

    	Bob's points:	0
    	Alice's points:	0

    
    
11. Alice sees she can't win, so she passes, keeping her two points.
    

    X	O
    O	X
    O	X	O

    	Bob's points:	0
    	Alice's points:	2

    
    
12. Bob plays on the right.
    

    X	O
    O	X	O
    O	X	O

    	Bob's points:	0
    	Alice's points:	2

    
    
13. Alice is forced to play at the top.
    

    X	O	X
    O	X	O
    O	X	O

    	Bob's points:	0
    	Alice's points:	1

    
    
14. That's a cat's game, but with a small differentiator: Alice has a remaining balance of one and Bob has a balance of zero, so Alice wins.

Why gay marriage strengthens traditional marriage.

I was asked to sign a petition recently for the repeal of gay marriage in Washington.  I've always been a supporter of gay marriage just based on equal treatment of the good folks I know personally who are gay, but in the ensuing discussion with my coworker, I realized there's a strong reason for supporting gay marriage if you want to strengthen traditional marriage.

First a question: what is the main threat to traditional marriage?  I'd say the biggest threat is the impression that marriage is not necessarily the normal thing to do when you grow up.  If you want marriage to become more the normal thing, then you need to push examples we see around us from the "not-married" column to the "married" column.  To do that, you need to extend marriage to the approximately 10% of the population who can't have a fulfilling heterosexual marriage.  It's as simple as that!

Hits for "Ethan Bradford" on the web which are or aren't me.

You can find out a lot about somebody who's involved in the web, or just life, by Googling them, but nowadays, with "Ethan" suddenly becoming a popular name among the young, not all the hits are actually me. If you want to Google me and filter the results, here are some of the hits that are me:

• Anything from ethanb@*.phys.washington.edu or *.astro.washington.edu or u.washington.edu.
• Lists of Physics and Astronomy students at U. Washington.
• http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9604075 -- my PhD work, published in the Astrophyscal Journal
• http://www.wgbh.org/radio/saysyou/fame/hall.html -- I made a submission to "Says You". They used my list of "false compounds" (like "band-aging", "surf-ace") twice, but with a bit of abuse each time!
• All Emacs contributions (as far as I know).
• http://web.presby.edu/~nnqadmin/nnq/admin.html -- and other stuff about reorganizing and them moderating (for a while) news.newusers.questions.
• http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/hamilton/Parents/pa_ptsa.htm -- on the PTSA (aka PTA) board for Hamilton middle school.
• Aspell Arabic and Turkish.  Mostly on SorceForge.net.
• Anything associated with curling.

Here are some hits which aren't me:

• http://www.ltd.org/sws/week3win.htm -- One of the next generation of Ethan Bradford's
• A character in the book "Murder at a Vineyard Mansion : A Martha's Vineyard Mystery", by Philip R. Craig. I read it out of curiosity. "Ethan Bradford" is a kind of wacky recluse.
• http://www.savethehumans.com/culturebashing/outbursts/funeral_parties/index.shtml -- A fictional (I hope) dead guy in Jason Roth's random musings.
• A very nice fellow (my age) in Anchorage, AK.  We have an amusing story of being confused once.

Tic Tac Toe with no starting grid

In our family, we've invented two ways to make Tic Tac Toe a bit more rich. The first one we invented more recently: Tic Tac Toe with no starting grid.

The first player puts an x somewhere on the page with lots of space around it. The second player has the first real decision: she can play an o anywhere within two squares of the x. In general, you can play anywhere that would leave all the marks within a three-by-three grid, i.e. that would leave a legal tic tac toe board. Three in a row wins, as usual.

There are more real choices than basic Tic Tac Toe, which makes this more fun, esp. if (as most of us have) you've already got Tic Tac Toe figured out.

Coming up next, Pay to Play Tic Tac Toe.

Covering the alphabet with states.

Lola and I were listing states by initial letter (turns out "M" wins at 8), and I was disappointed at how poor our coverage of the alphabet was. I thought we could maybe annex Canada to add a Q and a B state, but turns out Mexico is much more helpful. It not only gives us a Q (Querétaro and Quintana Roo) and B (Baja California and Baja California Sur), it also covers J (Jalisco), Y (Yucatán), and Z (Zacatecas).

The only holes left are E and X. We could admit El Salvador as a state, but we couldn't find any states or provinces in the Americas starting with X. Well, it turns out that that the Yucatan has lots of X locations, including one of its "municipalities".

So here's the simple plan for complete alphabetic coverage: we annex Mexico and keep all the states the same except Yucatan, which we divide up into three states: Espita, Xocchel, and Yaxcabá. Lola even prepared a map of the three new states!

Interesting trivia: Mexico is the only country besides the US of A which currently calls itself "United States of X".