Bombers hit Jordan, targeting U.S. ships, Nick W3rth also under fire

Someone attacked Aqaba recently. Reminds me of a tale from Lawrence of Arabia.

In a second confrontation with Sherif Ali (Ali represented by a dark profiled image on the right of the frame, Lawrence by a blonder, paler, blue-eyed image on the left of the frame), Lawrence is accused of being stark-raving mad, or at the least, arrogant for proposing a painful, arduous trek across the beautiful but waterless, sun-drenched Nefud Desert:

Sherif: You are mad. To come to Aqaba by land, you should have to cross the Nefud Desert.
Lawrence: That's right.
Sherif: The Nefud cannot be crossed.
Lawrence: I'll cross it if you will.
Sherif: You! It takes more than a compass Englishman. The Nefud is the worst place God created.
Lawrence: I can't answer for the place, only for myself. Fifty men?
Sherif: Fifty? Against Aqaba?
Lawrence: If fifty men came out of the Nefud, there would be fifty men other men might join. The Howeitat are there I hear.
Sherif: The Howeitat are brigands. They will sell themselves to anyone.
Lawrence: Good fighters, though.
Sherif: Good...yes. There are guns at Aqaba.
Lawrence: They face the sea, Sherif Ali, and cannot be turned round. From the landward side, there are no guns at Aqaba.
Sherif: With good reason. It cannot be approached from the landward side.
Lawrence: Certainly the Turks don't dream of it. (He points in the direction of Aqaba.) Aqaba is over there. It's only a matter of going.
Sherif: You are mad.

Riding "in the name of Feisal and Mecca" and without Brighton's knowledge, Lawrence is allowed to take a small force of fifty of Feisal's men to set out for Aqaba "to work your miracle." For pragmatic reasons (and as a counterpoint to the strong-willed Lawrence), Sherif Ali joins the "Englishman" to cross the blazing Nefud Desert.

So they are doubling down on Aqaba. On a closely related subject, Nick W3rth is under fire at aarongleeman.com:

W3rth: aaron youre far better off losing to quad threes at "call down to the river" canterbury than you are dumping your complete bankroll online to some nyu freshman sitting there 5 hours a day on party poker. that shit plays like it is rigged, i kid you not. i play live every day, and never see more instances of 99 v KK, or TT v AA on a six handed table than i do on party. it has made me start thinking.

go play the fall poker classic if you want some action against some good players, online play is for those who are either very lucky or very smart, and due to your excellent writing skills, i am prone to guess you aren't quick to learn the percentages of every hand post-flop, like the best online players/math geniuses have. 90% of players lose online, i know of one player who has consistently won long-term on party, and he knows of only one other. maybe other sites are different, but i cant afford to find out. 

float me into a game next week, i stopped trying to make money and found myself coming out ahead more often than i did when i thought i could play

and then it gets ugly:

wow, Nick, way to insult Aaron's intelligence by saying he's not mathematically inclined.

And in fact it is possible to win money at an online poker site, but if you play too many garbage hands and play them too strongly you will get your ass kicked.

Admittedly it sucks when you're playing against idiots and your KK loses to a guy who called a large bet before the flop with an unsuited 3-4 and made 4's full on you, but you just have to continue to play smartly, and take advantage of those times that you have the best hand.

W3rth: i didnt say pp was fixed, i said it plays as if it were. when i lose to a runner runner bad beat in a tournament, i stand up and say nice hand. online it just pisses me off when the cards go away real fast after some idiot puts you all in pre-flop for $450, you think about it, then call with QQ and the button. the cards come down ridiculously fast and he wins with a set of threes (he had 38off).

many single table tournaments, however, are most certainly hubs for collusion. why wouldnt you set up multiple computers with different IP addresses and play $30 sitngos all day?

ouch:

Nick, I'm sure you're much better at this poker thing than I am, but if the dude had 3-8 offsuit, wouldn't he have ended up with "trips," not a "set?"
USAFChief | 08.19.05 - 5:11 pm | #

W3rth responds to this charge for me via AIM:

three of a kind is a set
its the ones before that
now this blog just needs to start talking about tennis and it is my dream site

Indeed Nick, Indeed. I would like to play poker on a balcony in Aqaba.
PS I wish W3rth hadn't taken his blog down, it was just getting good...