Monthly Archives: February 2021

Teacher salary: the 35% utopia and the picture of discord – Explica

Posted: February 21, 2021 at 12:08 am

The five teaching unions of the Nation met with the Minister of Education, Nicols Trotta, and agreed on the wage claim: floor is 29%. The number jumps from the projection of the Minister of Economy, Martn Guzmn, on the inflation of the year despite the jump to 4% in January. With optimism, the teachers predict to close even higher in number.

In a joint scheme, all sectors are listened to. It is a negotiation process, Summarized Nicols Trotta, who led the virtual meeting from Palacio Sarmiento. On the other side of the screen they sat CTERA, UDA, CEA, SADOP and AMET.

The meeting had as a backdrop a meeting alone between Alberto Fernndez, Sonia Alesso (leader of Ctera), Roberto Baradel (Suteba) and the national deputy Hugo Yasky. It was at the Rosada and it lasted half an hour. We have a direct arrival with the President, was the Chicana from the national union. The photo did not like in the corridors of Education.

A simple statement from Ctera detailed that they spoke about lthe serious situation that the teachers of Chubut are going through; the National Vaccination Plan for education workers; the Law of Educational Financing; and the formation of the Economic and Social Council . On one side was the joint negotiation.

Where they did talk about numbers was at the platform meeting between Trotta and the union leaders. The number is closer to 35% than 29%, they pointed to Chronicle from the union halls. At another union table they were more cautious: We want it to be at least 2 or 3 points above 29%. Next week a new meeting will begin to put an end to the joint novel.

Our objective is to strengthen the instance of the parity that not only understands the salary aspect but also allows us to rethink the direction of the school in Argentina, said Trotta.

After the meeting, the head of Pizzurno shot that there is not only the starting salary of the teachers in Argentina, which for us is very important, but also strengthen the teaching incentive, which is the other component and whose amount in 2020 was doubled .

Last year the parties met four times. It was in February when the initial minimum teacher salary was set at 23,000 pesos, with a second tranche amounting to 25,000 pesos as of July 1 of the same year , detailed Education.

The agreement reached the payment of a extraordinary lump sum of $ 4,840. In July, the continuation of the payment of an exceptional amount FONID extraordinary sum COVID 19 was agreed and the working conditions were agreed with a view to returning to classrooms in person.

Finally, the last joint meeting of 2020 was in November, where the national minimum teacher salary was raised to 27,500 pesos as of December 1, 2020.

The City of Buenos Aires will have the first joint meeting of the year on Monday. The teachers closely follow the negotiation of the Nation since it is what marks us, said Alejandra Bonato -UTE union secretary- before Phase 5 by FM Milenium.

We are going to return to the classroom without even a hint of salary recomposition, added the leader, who summarized: We lost around 40 salary points. We want it to be above inflation .

From Ademys a Buenos Aires union that carries out a 72-hour strike it also demands a larger budget for infrastructure. On Monday, February 22, the debate between the 17 Buenos Aires teaching unions and the Minister of Education, Soledad Acua, will begin.

window.fbAsyncInit = function() {FB.init({appId: 1166957030070873,status: true,cookie: true,oauth: true,xfbml: true,version: v2.0});};(function(d, s, id){var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;js.src = https://connect.facebook.net/es_LA/sdk.js;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, script, facebook-jssdk));

Larticle Teacher salary: the 35% utopia and the picture of discord est apparu en premier sur Agence SEO.

See original here:

Teacher salary: the 35% utopia and the picture of discord - Explica

Posted in New Utopia | Comments Off on Teacher salary: the 35% utopia and the picture of discord – Explica

Democracies must modernise their laws to protect freedoms in the era of technological transformation – The Indian Express

Posted: at 12:08 am

Indias recent skirmish with Twitter is not an isolated case where a government has locked horns with US tech giants that have acquired a larger-than-life presence across the world. Nowhere have the arguments on big tech been more intense than in the US, where the last two general elections in 2016 and 2020 have seen strong charges of political manipulation by social media companies.

The story is not just about the oversized role of social media companies in elections. It envelops a range of domestic and international issues including the concentration of economic power, individual rights against the state as well as the corporation, disinformation, the rise of digital geopolitics, and global digital governance.

While China has come up with clear answers, for good or bad, to the new digital questions, liberal societies around the world are struggling to address the challenges to democratic forms of governance that emerged with the modern industrial society.

No one country or corporation in the free world can credibly preach to others on the right path to digital salvation. Democratic forces need to consult each other and collaborate in developing new norms for managing the digital world.

In the US, both the left and right are demanding that digital behemoths like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Twitter are brought under greater control if not broken up. The US has had a long political tradition of breaking monopolies going back to the progressive politics at the turn of the 20th century that targeted the concentration of power in the oil, rail road, and steel industries. In December, the US government filed a lawsuit against Facebook for anti-competitive practices in more than 40 states. Google and Amazon are also under legal scrutiny.

The current digital giants, however, are not easily amenable to political attack. They are bigger than the biggest we have known. They donate massively to political campaigns in the US and have an enormous influence on the legislative process in Washington. That makes the domestic battles against big tech in the US that much more interesting.

As the US takes a close look at the anti-competitive practices of the tech giants, Europe is not far behind. Last December, the European Commission proposed new rules to promote competition and fairness in digital markets. The EU is likely to approve a Digital Markets Act next year.

The war is playing out in multiple other theatres. In Australia, the government is staring down a threat from Google to shut a developed nation of 25 million people out of its popular search engine. The provocation? Canberra has decreed that Google must work out an arrangement with Australian newspapers to pay for the use of their content.

Google worries, rightly, that this will set a precedent for other governments and will undermine its revenues. Many governments in the developed world are cheering for Canberra. So is Microsoft, which is offering its Bing search engine as a more sensible alternative to Australia.

For more than two decades, governments across the world were happy to buy into the claim that the tech companies will lead us to a world of innovation and plenty. Legal and financial concessions from governments at various levels allowed tech companies to rapidly gain ground and commercial muscle and dominate peoples lives. But governments are now questioning the sharp business practices of the tech giants.

Let us highlight three issues here labour rights, taxes and politics. While the tech giants have created a lot of new wealth, some of them have sharply squeezed the labour. Amazon is the most notorious. There are new efforts to unionise Amazon employees, but the company has been good at crushing these challenges in the past. In California, trade unions are battling against the success of Uber and Lyft to turn employees into contract workers to deny them multiple benefits.

Digital giants have been aggressive tax evaders. But Caesar is demanding his due now. Joe Biden, who has outlined a progressive platform, has promised to get big tech to pay their share of taxes in the US. His Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is under pressure from Americas G-7 partners to work out the rules for taxes on US digital giants operating in other geographies.

On the political front, when Twitter and Facebook shut down President Donald Trumps accounts, there was celebration among liberals. But social media companies are unlikely to always find themselves on the winning side in other democracies. The context and issues are inevitably different and applying the same tactics against political targets will backfire, as Twitter discovered in Delhi.

If India raised Twitters differential treatment of the riots in Washington and Delhi, European leaders raised important questions about social medias actions against Trump. German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke for many Europeans when she called it problematic.

The European Commissioner for internal markets, Thierry Breton, expanded on the issues involved. The fact that a CEO can pull the plug on an elected President of the worlds most powerful nation without any checks and balances displays deep weaknesses in the way our society is organised in the digital space, he warned.

The answer, Breton insists, lies in laying down a clear set of obligations and responsibilities for the digital giants; he promises that the EUs proposed Digital Services Act will do that. The moves in Brussels are in part about restoring the primacy of elected governments. They are also about building digital sovereignty that will let Europe make its own choices based on its own values.

Even as it claims digital sovereignty, Europe has offered to open talks with the Biden administration on the full range of digital issues that have emerged. The idea that the worlds democracies must get together to discuss global digital governance is gaining ground. Delhi is likely to be part of some of the initial conversations.

The promised utopia of a digital domain free from states and borders was always a chimaera. The digital holiday is over and the state is back. States, at least the strong ones, whether authoritarian or democratic, were not simply going to cede their right to govern to technology companies.

Reports that Twitter, after some initial defiance, has complied with much of the Indian governments demands, points to an easily forgotten reality. Twitter, like all other big tech companies, is a commercial beast and will live or die by its bottom line. Large states have the power to change that calculus.

As governments push back against big tech, a new challenge presents itself reining in the growing power of the state in the digital age. The answer lies in democracies modernising their laws to protect freedoms in the era of technological transformation. Twitter is of little help in this urgent but demanding domestic political battle.

This article first appeared in the print edition on February 16, 2021 under the title New digital question and answers. The writer is director, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore and contributing editor on international affairs for The Indian Express

See the original post here:

Democracies must modernise their laws to protect freedoms in the era of technological transformation - The Indian Express

Posted in New Utopia | Comments Off on Democracies must modernise their laws to protect freedoms in the era of technological transformation – The Indian Express

How Can We Revive Herd Immunity to Fascism? – The Nation

Posted: at 12:08 am

Ronald Reagan celebrating his birthday together with his wife Nancy and Margaret Thatcher in February 1993. (Frank Trapper / Corbis via Getty Images)

The concept of herd immunity, that is, the immunization of a whole population as a result of a high percentage acquiring resistance to a disease, has gained a lot of currency since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has long been a tradition of social sciences to borrow terms and concepts from the medical sciences, and the current global situation induces more of that. Thus, there are reasonable grounds to describe metaphorically as a pandemic the worldwide spread of far-right movements in recent years, including governments run or co-run by political forces that reproduce some of the key ideological tenets of fascism in countries as varied as Brazil, Hungary, India, Italy, the Philippines, Russia, and the United States.

The onset of this far-right pandemic goes back to the 1980s and was powerfully boosted in the following decade, as the editors of a collective book,Fascism and Neofascism, acknowledged in 2004: While a revival of extremist activity in Western Europe began during the 1980s, the collapse of Communism resulted in a surge of the extreme right all across the continent. During the 1990s, fascism, or something like it, was suddenly and unexpectedly resurgent. Like the classical fascism of the three decades that followed the First World War, this neofascismarguably the best designation, as it refers to both historical affinities and the renewal of forms in tune with our timestakes different shapes according to the countries in which it develops.

Karl Polanyi dedicated several pages of his 1944 classic, The Great Transformation, to underlining the great variety of fascisms and fascist ideologies. In fact, he commented, there was no type of backgroundof religious, cultural, or national traditionthat made a country immune to fascism, once the conditions for its emergence were given. He even affirmed that the existence of a fascist movement proper was not necessarily part of the symptoms of what he called a fascist situation. At least as important were signs such as the spread of irrational ideas, racist views, and hatred of the democratic setup.

Read in the light of the ongoing events in the United States, Polanyis following comment sounds chilling: Though usually aiming at a mass following, fascisms potential strength was reckoned not by the numbers of its adherents but by the influence of the persons in high position whose good will the fascist leaders possessed, and whose influence in the community could be counted upon to shelter them from the consequences of an abortive revolt. For the Hungarian-American thinker, fascism was above all a solution of the impasse reached by liberal capitalism aiming at a reform of market economy achieved at the price of the extirpation of all democratic institutions. In this light, the herd immunity to fascism achieved in most Western countries after 1945 was not only the result of the defeat of the Axis powers, but also and above all a result of an alternative solution to the impasse of liberal capitalism: the Keynesian democratic solution that discarded the idea of the self-regulating market, which Polanyi called a stark utopia.More on the Fascism Debate

In another and much older classic of the social sciences, the founder of sociology, mile Durkheim, was already lamenting, in his 1897 book Suicide, the fact that for a whole century, economic progress has mainly consisted in freeing industrial relations from all regulation. Government, instead of regulating economic life, has become its tool and servant. For the French sociologist, this economic deregulation was the main source of what he called anomie, i.e., a state of exasperation and irritated weariness resulting from the loss of economic security and the disruption of social patterns. Anomie leads individuals to seek refuge in some type of identity group andunless it is inward-oriented (suicide)deploy their exasperation against other identities held responsible for the increasing precarity of their social condition, primarily by way of racist and/or xenophobic logic. Thus, the rise of fascist-like ideologies and movements starting from the 1980s went along with the rise of other types of exclusive identity groups, of which religious fundamentalism is the most obvious.

This fully coincides with the observation made by Eric Weitz and Angelica Fenner, the editors of the abovementioned book about the resurgence of fascism: The right-wing revivals were very much a response to the political and social dislocations of the 1990s, including substantial unemployment, the erosion of the security net that the welfare states of both Eastern and Western Europe had provided, and the deterioration of urban neighborhoods. They were also a response to the wide-scale population migrations that have taken place across the North/South and East/West axes of Europe since 1945.

There is indeed a clear and undeniable correlation between the neoliberal onslaught that started in the 1980s, led by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reaganan onslaught that made deregulation one of its main goals, along with privatization, reduction of social spending, and tax cuts for the richand the rise of phenomena such as neofascism and religious fundamentalism after decades of marginalization. Likewise, the Great Recession, triggered in 2007, gave a major boost to neofascist forces, as did the major wave of mostly Syrian refugees pouring into Europe in 2015. The facts resulting from both crises are still very much affecting our world, and the huge economic crisis that is presently gestating as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic can only severely aggravate the anomic conditions globally (the far-right exploitation of anti-lockdown movements is an indication), unless it is countered by economic policies similar to those adopted after 1945.

Add to this the fact that, however significant Donald Trumps defeat in the latest US presidential election was, it was certainly not of a scope comparable to the defeat of fascist powers in the Second World War. His loss occurred not because of the disaffection of his supporters but despite a huge increase in their numbers (11 million more voters) at a time when, unlike 2016, there was no possible illusion about what Trump represents and, therefore, hardly any ambiguity in the sense of voting for him. At the global level likewise, there are presently no signs of neofascism waning: The continuing popularity of figures such as Jair Bolsonaro (until very recently, at least), Narendra Modi, or Viktor Orbn does not portend any withering away of the far-right pandemic in the foreseeable future.

Achieving a new state of herd immunity to fascism, like that of the postwar years, requires not only a political defeat of the most prominent neofascist movements and an uncompromising fight against their ideologies. It also requires, most crucially, a global shift away from the neoliberal paradigm that has been dominant over the past four decades.

Visit link:

How Can We Revive Herd Immunity to Fascism? - The Nation

Posted in New Utopia | Comments Off on How Can We Revive Herd Immunity to Fascism? – The Nation

Blackjack Rules – Learn How to Play 21 – [Tips & Best …

Posted: at 12:05 am

Blackjack Basic Table Rules

When you play the house, you play against the casino, which is represented by the dealer. The dealer deals one card face up to each player, from left to right, with the last card going to the houses hand, which is face down. The dealer will then deal one card facing up to each player and then the house.

After the initial deal, the blackjack rules indicate that the dealer will ask each player, in succession, if he/she needs one or more cards. As the player, you can ask for one or more cards(called a hit)until you either go over 21 (bust), or you think you have the best possible hand.

Once you have all the cards you need, you stay or stand; meaning you signal to the dealer that you dont want any more cards. Each subsequent player then decides whether to hit or stand.

After all the players have completed their hands or gone bust, the dealer reveals his or her down card. Depending on the cards in the dealers hand, the blackjack rules at the table will dictate whether the dealer will hit or stand.

Once the dealers final hand is established, all players who did not go bust compare their scores to the dealers hand. Those who beat the dealer win, while the rest loseunless they tied, which is called a push.

A push is considered no action, and refunds the players bet. Some casinos, though, might declare a push to be either a loss or a win for the player. The casinos 21 rules should say exactly how they handle such ties with players.

To understand how to beat the house, you need to know how the dealer is affected by the casinos 21 rules for dealers.

The dealer essentially plays by the same strict set of casino rules at all times. Those blackjack rules are designed to protect the house advantage over the long term by ensuring the dealer plays a simple, mistake-free game every time.

Over the long run, that means the house will earn a profitno matter how many card players try to beat it over time.

In fact, the more people try to beat the house, the more the house will win from those who are gambling without abiding by a similarly strict set of blackjack rules. When its the dealers turn to reveal the hole card (which is the card dealt face-down), the dealer will use the same rules every time to determine his or her next move.

If the card total is 16 points or lower, the dealer will always draw another card from the deck. The dealer will continue drawing cards from the deck until the house hand has at least 17 points, or until it goes bust by going over 21. If the dealer has 17 points off the deal without an Ace, most blackjack rules say the dealer will stand, even if a 21 player has a higher total.

The dealer also might have a soft 17 hand, which is one that includes an Ace and any other cards whose combined value totals six points. Both land-based casinos and online blackjack casinos that support live dealer blackjack require dealers to take at least one more card with the dealer has a soft 17 showing. The dealer will continue taking more cardsuntil the houses hand either becomes a hard 17 or higher, or the hand goes over 21 and goes bust.

While playing blackjack, as soon as a player is dealt a winning hand, the house pays out immediately. The only time the player will not receive an immediate payout on a blackjack 21 hand is when the dealers face-up card is an Ace, or any card worth 10 points.

The reason for this is that if the dealer also holds a blackjack hand, then the round is considered to be a draw or a push.

In the case of a push, the player gets his or her bet back, and the game is declared no action. Some casinos, though, will boost their advantage by giving the house an automatic win whenever it has a blackjack 21 score, even if the player does, too.

These games are the most unfavorable to the player and should be avoided. That makes it very important to ensure you know the house blackjack rules before you begin gambling.

The table limits in blackjack vary from one casino to the nextboth in land-based and online gambling casinos. The table limits usually start at a minimum of $5, while online casinos even offer hands of only $1.

Each casino might also have a maximum betting amount, which can range anywhere from $50 to $50,000. Those casino tables are high-limit tables that typically have just one or two players going against the house. Most 21 gaming tables accommodate up to six players, but the cost of high-limit tables generally limits the number of players.

Insurance essentially is a bet on whether or not the dealer has 21 right off of the deal, and requires players to lay half their initial wagers. If the dealer has 21, the house will pay the insurance bets at 2:1. That payoff will wipe out the loss from the initial wager.

If the dealer does have 21, the player will lose the initial bet but will receive a 1:1 payout on their insurance amount, and so they will receive that same amount back. If both have 21, most blackjack rules say that is a push.

Some casino 21 rules, though, give ties to the dealer when it comes to a blackjack. In most cases, though, a push results in the player getting back his or her wager. Its as if the hand never happened. If the dealer does not have blackjack, anyone who bought insurance will lose that amount, regardless how the rest of the hand plays out.

Players also can decline any additional cards with a stand.

It is important to note that players have a variety of options to choose from after their first two cards are dealt. The decisions they make should take into account the cards held by other players at the table, as well as the dealer. In most cases, a player normally stands when the point value of their cards is between 16 and 21.

If a dealer has less than 17, they must continue drawing cards until they reach 17 or above, without going over 21. Once the dealer reaches a score of 17 or more, he/she will then stand.

The dealers score is then compared to the score of each player. If the scores of the player and the dealer are equal, the player receives their original bet back, and this is a push.

Should the dealer bust or go over 21 at any point, all the players at the table will win and receive a 1:1 payout. Any player who had blackjack would have already been paid out at least 3:2 during the round and as much as 2:1.

Depending on the casino, some will let players cut their losses by surrendering half their bets after the initial deal. An early surrender allows the player to surrender when a 10 or face card is drawn without checking the hole card for blackjack.

That could be preferable if the dealer is showing a particularly strong hand, like an Ace. A late surrender allows the player to surrender after checking the hole card, but before the dealer reveals his or her hand. Many players view the early surrender as more favorable, especially if the dealer is showing an Ace.

If the dealer deals you two cards with the same blackjack card value, the rules of blackjack say you may split them into two separate hands by placing another bet equal to your initial wager. For example, virtually all players of 21 will split a pair of Aces by placing an additional bet to create two potentially winning hands. After receiving two more cards, the player determines whether to hit or stand with each of the two hands he or she now has.

Sometimes, after splitting the cards on an initial deal, some casinos will allow a re-split if the player winds up with another hand with two cards of the same numerical or face value. Depending on the cards dealt, splitting your cards can double your chances of hitting a blackjack.

Splitting cards can also at least double your potential winnings from the same initial hand dealt. Highly skilled players will assess their card values versus the card showing in the dealers hand to determine when splitting cards is the wise play. Most will not split a pair of cards worth 20 points, for example, while all will split a pair of Aces.

Blackjack rules say that when your first two cards are identical, you may split them to create two different hands.Knowing when to split your dealt hand is an important element of taking the edge away from the casino and back in your favor. For example, the two hands you ALWAYS split are a pair of aces or a pair of 8s.

Having two 8s in your hand leaves you with the worst position you could be in blackjack: 16, it never has much of a chance to win. But if you do split, you increase your chances of getting two hands of 18.

Many experienced blackjack players are hesitant to split 8s when dealer is showing an 8 or higher. The thought is that if they get two hands of 18, theyre still probably going to lose, so splitting would cause them to lose twice as much.

This makes sense, but, when looking into the analytics over time, it doesnt hold up mathematically. The math shows that splitting 8s, although it puts twice the wager, will lose less over time.

No matter what, a pair of 8s against a dealers 9 or 10 is a bad situation. Youll lose more than you will win. But the goal in blackjack is to keep your losses to a minimum by choosing the strategy that will lose less than other options.

Here are the numbers

16 against a dealer 10: on average youll win only 23 times out of 100, so basically 23% of the time. But when you have a pair of 8s, you have a chance to increase your odds: you can split your 8s and play each 8 against the 10. Why do this? Because when you play an 8 against a 10, youll win this hand more times. 38 times out of 100, which is a 15% higher probability than option one.

Another popular play that could double your potential winningsand losseson a particular hand is the double down. The double down allows you to double your wager after the initial bet, but you only get one more card. If that one additional card is enough to beat the dealers eventual hand, you win double the amount of cash. If it does not beat the dealers hand, you could wind up losing double your initial bet.

Many skilled players use a strict system based on statistical probability to determine the ideal times to double down. As with splitting cards, that assessment includes what the dealer is showing off the deal, plus other cards that might already have gone into play. The number of decks used also affects the ideal strategy for playing 21 and considering when to double down on your bet.

Many casinos play by the traditional 21 rules that were once popular on the Las Vegas Strip, which is traditionally called American 21 Or Vegas Rules. This is considered one of the more liberal blackjack games.

Dont expect casinos on the Vegas Strip to offer these rules any longer, however, unless youre playing at high-limit tables. These games are more common online and at small casinos that focus on locals. Yet, the game has many other versions with their own subtle rules changes.

An examplethe Reno rule only allows doubling down on a hard 9, 10 or 11.

That is similar to the European variation ofonly being able to double down on a hard 10 or 11. This rule is not favorable to the player because doubling down with a soft 12-18 is favorable in a lot of situations when playing 21.

Most countries outside the U.S.and a few U.S. statesalso play no-hole-card blackjack 21, where the dealer initially only gets one card dealt up. That leaves an extra card in the deck for the players to get, and it could be an Ace at just the right time.

A side bet in blackjack is an optional bet made in addition to the standard play. They are not offered at all tables and are more common online than offline. The only side bet that is standard at just about all tables is insurance.

There are a very wide variety of blackjack side bets. Most of them involve theplayer being dealt certain initial cards (like a specific pair), the total of the initial deal reaching a certain number, or the dealer busting on their first drawn card.

Side wagers almost universally have a much higher house edge than the game of blackjack itself and are usually not regarded as a good bet for the average player. They can be put to use by skilled card counters in certain situations, however.

No matter which blackjack rules your favorite land-based and online casinos use, you can adapt your game to the rules and stand a better chance of winning more often.

At a live casino, the table limits are usually posted prominently on a sign at the table. The rules may be printed on the table, or you may have to ask the dealer about them. The casino may advertise the number of decks that they use, but they are generally not obligated to do so; youll have to either look at the shoe and estimate or ask the dealer.

At an online casino, reputable online blackjack casinosshould make the rules available before you enter a table, and there is usually a button you can press to get a refresher if need be (if anything is not constantly visible on the screen). Do not deposit real money into your players account until you can verify that the casinos rules are visible at all times and fair to players.

At brick and mortar, policy varies from property to property, but it is very common for casinos to allow players to use strategy cards. Some evensell them in their gift shops! Some properties may not want it placed on the table, however (as part of a general policy of not allowing anything on the table). Some may also ask players to put it away if other players feel it is slowing down the game too much.

If you arent sure of the house policy, simply ask the dealer before sitting down.

21 games and exotic blackjack variants usually have all sorts of unusual rules, some of which are much more favorable to the player. However, they also tend to make up for this with very poor payout rates for natural blackjacks, and also may give the dealer the win with certain types of pushes.

If you sit down and do the math, 21 variants and oddball blackjack games usually end up having a more unfavorable house edge than standard blackjack, even though the rules might seem more liberal at first.

The common blackjack rules that actually tilt the game in the players favor (assuming perfect strategy is used) are as follows:

If all these rules were included, collectively they would provide the player with about a 1% advantage on the dealer. Of course, when casinos include these rules, theyll also include less favorable rules in the mix to offset them and preserve their house edge.

The most favorable possible table youll be able to find in reality is a single deck game that pays 3:2 on blackjacks and early surrender allowed, but expect high table limits in return for the lowered house edge.

Yes, they make a huge difference. Changing the blackjack payout to 6:5 alone provides the casino with a 1.39% boost to their house edge. Thats why it is used to offset the players advantage at so-called liberal games. No rule change at blackjack gives the house more of an advantage other than allowing the dealer to win pushes.

To the average blackjack player who is not counting cards, it makes very little difference in terms of expected return and house edge. Card counters want as few decks as possible to simplify their counts, however.

Some blackjack tables have a practice of discarding the first card from each new shoe before beginning play. Rules about seeing this card vary from place to place, sometimes even from dealer to dealer.

Some show it to the table automatically, some have to be asked, and (rarely) some casinos have a policy of never showing it to the player.

Card counters would, of course, prefer to see the burn card, but generally dont regard it as a big deal if they cant, as there are usually some quantity of cards behind the cut card that they will never get to see anyway.

This practice actually wasnt designed to deter card counting. It was actually designed to prevent an unethical trick called card steering.

It prevents players (or shady dealers) from marking the top card, or from accidental exposure to players prior to the deal. If the casino wants to burn cards to deter card counting, they would periodically burn several cards in the middle of the shoe to more effectively mess with player counts.

Now that you know the basics of 21 card game rules, you can have fun playing online and casino table games for real cash or just for fun. The more you study particular games and learn to apply basic blackjack 21 strategy, the more you just might find yourself beating the house and winning more cash.

All it takes is some skilled play, combined with a bit of timely luck on your side after you master the blackjack basics.

If you love the social aspect of playing blackjack at a land-based casino but dont want to spend the extra money required to visit one, playing blackjack at a live casino with real dealers is the perfect solution. Live dealers give players the authentic casino feel while maintaining the privacy and convenience of playing in your own home, or even on a mobile device. You will gain access to a live dealer table through high-quality video streams, and all the cards that are dealt are actual physical cards that you will see on the table in the video.

Most live dealer online platforms even have a chatbox. This creates the social environment that you may be craving by allowing you to communicate with the dealer and other players seated at your table. If you have a question, you can ask the dealer and he will promptly address your question and identify you by your username. These live dealers are professionals they are blackjack experts and can assist you as if you were playing in a brick-and-mortar casino.

There is a perfect live dealer for every type of gambler out there. If the first dealer you play with does not match up to the vibe you are looking for, it is easy to find another table at which you can be seated. This is the best part you can grow to form friendly gaming relationships with your favorite dealer, and even the other players.

Like a typical blackjack table, live dealer tables have seven seats. Betting usually starts at $5 per hand, but if you are more of a high-roller, you can easily find tables with stakes of $1,000 and more. The rules at live dealer blackjack tables are typically the rules you are used to playing with, but it doesnt hurt to check the rules of each specific table before placing your bets.

Visit link:

Blackjack Rules - Learn How to Play 21 - [Tips & Best ...

Posted in Blackjack | Comments Off on Blackjack Rules – Learn How to Play 21 – [Tips & Best …

Gaming commission seeking to file brief in blackjack case – Fall River Herald News

Posted: at 12:05 am

Colin A. Young| State House News Service

BOSTON The Mass. Gaming Commission decided Wednesday to work towards filing an amicus brief in a lawsuit that alleges Encore Boston Harbor has been duping customers by paying out at less favorable odds for blackjack wins after commissioners previously agreed amongst themselves that weighing in could give the perception that the regulators were siding with the casino they are meant to oversee.

At issue is aclass action complaintfiled in U.S. District Court in 2019 alleging that the Everett casino "brazenly" stoleand will continue to stealfrom customers by ignoring "established rules of the game of Blackjack to increase its statistical advantage and lower the lawful payouts owed to its customers." The complaint takes specific issue with the Wynn Resorts casino paying out a blackjack -- when a player is dealt an ace and any card having a point value of 10 -- at 6-to-5 odds rather than at 3-to-2 odds.

"While this may not sound significant, an analysis using conservative estimates and assumptions suggests that the aggregate loss to Massachusetts consumers is astounding. Assuming an average wager of $50.00 per hand and 80 hands of Blackjack per hour, Encore's customers can expect to lose $35.60 per hour more than the losses they are already expected to incur in a fair Blackjack game that complies with Massachusetts law," the suit alleges. "This means Encore is stealing $85,440.00 from its customers each day, or well in excess of $30 million each year."

Encore Boston Harbor has said the lawsuit is without merit and an initial 2019 Gaming Commission investigation into the allegation found that the casino was not violating any Gaming Commission rules or regulations and the commission has not taken any enforcement action.

Because a similar case against MGM Springfield that was dismissed by the Mass. Superior Court is now before the Supreme Judicial Court on appeal, the parties in the U.S. District Court case "requested and the judge agreed to provide the question bearing on the central issue in the case to the SJC for review to help ensure that the matters are resolved on uniform legal grounds," Gaming Commission General Counsel Todd Grossman said Wednesday.

The justices of the SJC have since issueda requestfor amicus briefs on the question: "Did the February 11, 2019 version of the Rules of Blackjack that were published by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and posted on its website ... permit a Massachusetts casino to pay 6:5 odds to a player who was dealt a winning Blackjack hand, while not otherwise playing by the '6 to 5 Blackjack Variation' rules that were articulated in Rule 6a of the February 11, 2019 version of the Rules of Blackjack?"

The SJC is scheduled to hear arguments in the case against Encore Boston Harbor on April 7.

Grossman said he was approached weeks ago by lawyers representing the defendants in both cases who inquired about the commission's willingness to file a brief in either case and the four gaming commissioners discussed the matter in two January executive sessions.

At the time, commissioners agreed that they would not file a brief on their own, but would reconsider if a court made a formal request. Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein suggested commissioners were hesitant in January to get involved in the matter out of concern that it could be seen as forfeiting the commission's neutrality.

Now that the SJC has issued a general request for amicus briefs, the commission voted 4-0 Wednesday to begin the process of filing a brief. That process involves making a request to the attorney general's office, which makes the ultimate determination as to whether the brief will be filed. Grossman said briefs will be due around March 17.

The commissioners did not discuss Wednesday what the brief would say, but the commission's previous decisions and actions suggest that the regulators will tell the court that the 6-to-5 payout was in keeping with the rules as they stood at the time the suit was lodged.

"We were very confident in our earlier briefings that the licensee had complied with the rules of the game," Judd-Stein said Wednesday.

After the complaint attracted media attention in July 2019, the commission discussed the matter at a public meeting attended by casino officials and the attorney representing the plaintiff. Atthat meeting, Bruce Band, assistant director of the commission's Investigations and Enforcement Bureau, said that his team of investigators "reviewed the claims and have preliminarily found Encore to be in compliance with the commission's rules and regulations for paying out blackjack."

Band said the commission's rules for blackjack used "6-to-5" in two different ways: one to refer to a variation of blackjack that uses different dealing procedures than the standard game. That variation is authorized in Massachusetts but had never been dealt, he said. The other reference to "6-to-5" in the rules relates to standard blackjack and "includes options for the gaming licensee to pay out those wins at 3-to-2 or 6-to-5."

Band said the payout for a blackjack must be displayed on each table at the casino and that the IEB's preliminary investigation found that the payouts for blackjacks were properly displayed on Encore Boston Harbor's tables.

Executive Director Karen Wells, who led the IEB at the time the lawsuit was filed, said Wednesday that there were two things that "are important in establishing that there is information out there publicly demonstrating the integrity of the game at the Massachusetts casinos." She pointed out to commissioners Wednesday that "the IEB purposefully did not take enforcement action against either casino at the time these lawsuits were filed or since then."

Wells also reminded commissioners that theyapproved blackjack rules changesin October that Grossman said were "designed to ensure clarity."

All references to the "6 to 5 variation" of blackjack were removed from the commission's rules, which the commission said at the time would "remove the confusion between the game of blackjack using the option to pay blackjack at odds of 6 to 5."

"The changes ... address these concerns and clarify the meaning of 6-to-5 by eliminating the 6-to-5 variation from the game of blackjack and we think that that addresses the issues," Carrie Torrisi, the Gaming Commission's associate general counsel, said in October as she updated the commission on the two blackjack-related lawsuits and detailed the rules changes.

Read more:

Gaming commission seeking to file brief in blackjack case - Fall River Herald News

Posted in Blackjack | Comments Off on Gaming commission seeking to file brief in blackjack case – Fall River Herald News

The Use of Casino Games as Extra Content within Video Games – Gameindustry.com – GameIndustry.com

Posted: at 12:05 am

Games within games are a common feature within many titles, and players can often get caught up spending more time playing the extrasinstead of the actual main story! From Snake to eight ball pool, there are all kinds of mini-games that have appeared in past titles however, one reoccurring type of extra content is that of casino games.

There are certain aspects of different kinds of gaming that tend to be universally popular amongst gamers. Live streaming has become a major area of interest for a lot of gamers, and casino games such as live roulette and live blackjack have utilised streaming technology and have been able to attract new players through this format. In addition to this, casino gameplayhas often been combined with video games, with online titlesmany a time utilising mainstream titlesas inspiration for roulette and slot themes. Similarly, casino games such as roulette and blackjack have been included as playable features in some video games. Lets take a look at some popular titles that have included fully playable casino mini-games

The Fallout series is renowned for the vast variety of adventuresavailable in the post-apocalyptic world that the games are set in. With the exploration comes a bunch of different extras and mini-games, and the fitting selection for Fallout: New Vegas includes the option to play table games in the casinos. To gamble in the Fallout casinos, you have to exchange your precious bottle caps (the in-game currency) for chips. There is then a selection of casino games to choose from including roulette, blackjack, and slots. Of course, due to the recent apocalypse, the casinos are unusually quiet for Vegas, however, there is still plenty of fun to be had by taking part in theVegas classics.

Throughout the world of Far Cry 3 there are various Texas Hold Em poker games set up that you can attend to! Poker plays a fairly significant part during some of the cutscenes of the game; however, you cant actually control the hands during these scenes. Not to worry, as you are able to play poker in eight different locations in the North and South Islands. The games are typically located in the back of bars or other secluded areas, and you play against three opponents;each with slightly different playing styles. The poker mini-game within Far Cry 3 is a realistic and entertaining simulation, whilst also being an opportunity for new players to learn the basics of poker. You can play the games at different difficulty levels, which means that the AI you are playing against will play in more complex and challenging ways.

Mini-games are usually a welcome addition by gamers, as it gives them something extra to do if they are bored of following the main storyline. Casino games have evidently resonated with a lot of casual gamers, as they continue to appear as optional extras in different titles.

Read more here:

The Use of Casino Games as Extra Content within Video Games - Gameindustry.com - GameIndustry.com

Posted in Blackjack | Comments Off on The Use of Casino Games as Extra Content within Video Games – Gameindustry.com – GameIndustry.com

Daniel Gothals leaves Neuchtel in Switzerland and chooses … – Aviation Analysis Wing

Posted: at 12:05 am

Daniel Big Dan left Goethals Union Neuchtel, fourth in Switzerland, to become a shark trainer and coach for Antibes, No. 14/18 in the French Pro B Championship.

In the 1990s, Daniel Gothals championed the Sunair Ostend and Spirou Charleroi colors. As a coach, he was active for the first time in womens basketball, including in Waregem which he celebrated with the national title in 2011, in Namur and with the national team. He next coached Kangoeroes Willebroek (2014-2017) and van Bergen (2017-2019) in mens basketball. A year and a half ago, Goethals moved to Neuchtel, Switzerland, and last season, Neuchtel became vice-champion and reached the cup final. As a result, Gothals was named Switzerlands Best Coach of the Year. He had signed a two-year contract with Neuchtel, which he extended for another two years.

With the sharks in Antibes, Goethals signed a two-and-a-half-year agreement, so until June 2023. In life you sometimes get opportunities that you cannot refuse, Goethals responds to his move to traditional club Antibes.

Pascal Angelis started working for Canadian Ottawa Blackjack Club

Pascal Angeles, 48, became the International Scout Manager for the Ottawa Blackjack Team of the Canadian Elite Basketball League. Resident of Ostend, who has moved to Limburg, has been a head coach of several Belgian first-division teams for fifteen years. In the fall of 2019, Sam Rozsert succeeded him in Spiro Charleroi when Angelus stepped aside to focus entirely on his sick son Sir.

Now sir has recovered and Pascal Angelis can professionally regain his passion for basketball. Angeles has just been appointed director of international reconnaissance for Ottawa Blackjack.

In this Canadian club position, Pascal Angelis will work closely with General Manager Givuhn Shepherd a Spiro Charleroi player four seasons ago and his assistant Andy Rawin to explore and recruit international talent. He will also provide Ottawa Blackjack with updates on team developments and players from the major European leagues where the Canadians are active.

Derover moves to Brussels

The Belgian basketball club announced today, Saturday, that there is news of transfers in the Belgian basketball competition, because the games distributor Terry Derover will leave Michelin in the first division basketball team to join his teammate in the series Phoenix Brussels next season. In addition to being a player, he will also be the coach of the youth academy. The 29-year-old from Brussels has this season in Mechelen well with an average of ten points per game.

Read this article:

Daniel Gothals leaves Neuchtel in Switzerland and chooses ... - Aviation Analysis Wing

Posted in Blackjack | Comments Off on Daniel Gothals leaves Neuchtel in Switzerland and chooses … – Aviation Analysis Wing

Atlantic Citys New Kids On The Block Dominate January Revenue Figures – NJ Online Gambling

Posted: at 12:05 am

When Hard Rock Atlantic City and Ocean Resort Casino (its name at the time) opened on the same day in mid-2018, the citys casino industry jumped from seven properties to nine.

And as it turned out, the new kids are alright.

Take Januarys revenue figures released Wednesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

In spite of COVID-19 capacity restrictions, there was a healthy increase in revenue at both properties compared to unrestricted January 2020.

Hard Rock jumped 23.9% to $26.6 million in brick-and-mortar revenue last month, while Ocean (now known as Ocean Casino Resort) similarly climbed 21.3% to $20.5 million.

The boosts moved Hard Rock third in January 2020 revenue in this category up to second place behind perennial leader Borgata, which easily led at $38.3 million in spite of a 30.6% year-over-year decline vs the previous January.

Worth noting is that Borgatas $33.2 million edge a year ago on Hard Rock declined to a mere $11.6 million last month.

Ocean, meanwhile, jumped from sixth to third place in January revenue, while Harrahs tumbled all the way from third to seventh at $14.7 million, a city-worst 37.7% decline.

In an ideal world, the gains for Hard Rock, which opened at the former Trump Taj Mahal site, and Ocean, the successor to ill-fated Revel, would come from an expanding pie of gamblers. But that wasnt the case, as brick-and-mortar industry revenue declined year-over-year by 16.6% and six of the other seven casinos were saddled with double-digit declines.

Tropicana ($15.6 million) and Caesars ($15.5 million) maintained their spots in fourth and fifth place, with Caesars 8.8% decline the most palatable figure among the losers.

Resorts ($10.4 million) and Golden Nugget ($10 million) swapped the seventh and eight spots, while Ballys again claimed the basement ($8.6 million) even while under new management.

The online casino gaming and sports betting revenues more than 90% of the latter coming from mobile apps left the DGE listing the industrys overall January 2021 revenue as up 15.3% to $346.4 million.

But as Hard Rocks Joe Lupo and other Atlantic City casino executives have pointed out, the latter two revenue sources are shared extensively with the casinos partners, while the brick-and-mortar revenue is theirs to keep.

Last month, the land-based revenue accounted for less than half the overall amount earned.

There is so much help that we really need with these properties, Lupo said in a radio interview last month. We need to see the city revitalized, and its not going to happen when the media is reporting increases when they add in online revenue that is going to third-party companies that dont have any stake in the game.

Online poker a natural beneficiary of most Atlantic City casinos having closed their on-site poker rooms during the pandemic was up 50% last month to $2.7 million.

Poker was the lobbying focus a decade ago when operators advocated for online casino gaming legalization, and those efforts bore fruit with the public launch of such entertainment options in November 2013.

But other online games such as slots, blackjack, and roulette immediately overtook online poker, and the gap has grown exponentially the past few years.

Last month, a record $103.7 million in online revenue was raked in by Atlantic Citys casinos and their online partners, leaving the contribution of online poker as little more than a rounding error.

Contrast that with January 2018, when pokers $2 million was coupled with the industrys $20 million from all other online casino games.

In January 2015, poker was at $2.3 million vs. just $9.3 million from other online casino gaming. Poker has danced above and below that $2 million figure almost from the start, while non-peer-to-peer gaming revenue from slots, blackjack, and the rest has soared beyond even the most optimistic expectations.

Get NJ Online Casino And Sports Betting Updates

Subscribe to get the latest NJ online casino and sports betting news to your inbox.

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.

Read more:

Atlantic Citys New Kids On The Block Dominate January Revenue Figures - NJ Online Gambling

Posted in Blackjack | Comments Off on Atlantic Citys New Kids On The Block Dominate January Revenue Figures – NJ Online Gambling

The U.S. Needs a Federal Department of Science and Technology – Scientific American

Posted: at 12:04 am

The failure of the CDC to produce reliable COVID testing kits in a timely fashion, the slow and ineffective rollout of the COVID vaccine, and the Russian cyberattack on government agencies (in spite of multiple GAO reports warning of the risks of just such an attack). All of these seemingly unrelated events reflect the central failure of federal, science-focused agencies to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Just as the attacks of 9/11 revealed the organizational weakness of scattering multiple intelligence agencies across the federal government (and resulted in the creation of the Department of Homeland Security), so too must recent events, indicative of lagging U.S. scientific policy implementation capabilities, generate a discussion about better organization for U.S. scientific policy efforts.

The federal government is structured in various organizational tiers. These include large cabinet-level departments with broad scope such as the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Department of Commerce (DOC). Within these departments are bureaus and agencies, which have more specialized roles, such as the FAA within the Department of Transportation and the FDA within DHHS. Agencies have their authority outlined in law, while bureaus are parts of departments and derive their mandates from the statutory authority of the larger department. Some agencies, such as NASA and the EPA are independent agencies, meaning they are not part of larger Cabinet-level departments.

This complex (and arguably bewildering) structure leads to a fundamental organizational contradiction in the implementation of science policy in the federal government. The broad dispersion of science-focused bureaus and agencies across the government demonstrates their essential contribution to a wide variety of government functions and initiatives. But their distribution across multiple organizational tiers often makes their functions peripheral to the core interests of the larger organizations in which they exist, and therefore less effective.

President Biden has taken the first steps in elevating the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to Cabinet level and creating the position of chief science officer in many federal agencies. The next step should be elevating OSTP into a new Department of Science and Technology (DST) that would bring together bureaus and agencies with a scientific mission from across the government into a single Cabinet-level department, laser-focused on making U.S. scientific efforts more effective. Just as existing dedicated Cabinet departments reflect the focus and priorities of the federal government, with new departments reflecting new priorities (e.g., Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, Department of Education), so too would the creation of a DST reflect the federal governments awareness of the fundamental importance of science and technology to the physical and economic security of our nation.

The new DST would foster a department-wide culture of respect for scientific inquiry and honest, unfettered discussion. A new Life Sciences Bureau within DST would include highly respected bureaus and agencies such as the NIH, CDC and FDA, but also smaller agencies such as the Agricultural Research (Department of Agriculture) and Fish and Wildlife Services (Department of Interior, or DOI), adding to its broad life sciences mission. A Climate and Environmental Sciences bureau within DST would incorporate the EPA, the U.S. Geological Survey (DOI) and NOAA (DOC). An engineering and physical sciences bureau would include NASA (independent agency), DARPA (Department of Defense), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (DOC), National Transportation Safety Board (independent agency), FAA and the multiple national laboratories (Department of Energy). The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (DOC), with its broad scientific and engineering mission would, perhaps, sit in the Office of the DST Secretary, collaborating across all of the bureaus as its work required. Space limitations do not allow an extensive listing but, to cite just one example, the advantages of putting NASA in closer organizational proximity to the NIH as it seeks to develop crewed moon bases and a human mission to Mars seems readily apparent.

Form must follow function is a truism in architecture. Homes and workplaces must be designed to improve the ability of their occupants to efficiently complete their tasks at the highest levels. Human organizations such as governments adhere to similar rules. Although nothing currently prevents science-focused bureaus and agencies in different departments from communicating and collaborating, the placement of a government organization in the larger structure affects its mission and vision, resources and effectiveness. Just as the placement of agencies such as NOAA and NIST in the DOC reflected the 19th-century priorities of weather and measurement on trade and commerce, so too the priorities of the 21st century must reflect the overarching role of science and technology in our daily lives, the speed at which this new knowledge is driving change (and risk) and its importance to our health, wealth and national security.

Beyond the organizational synergies involved, scientific research and policy must be free of the political interference that has plagued them for years. We have witnessedduring the COVID pandemic, the denial of climate change and multiple previous examplesthe deleterious effect of politics on science. Although our elected representatives must have a strong voice in setting the broad priorities and boundaries of federal departments and agencies, for science-focused government organizations to be trusted and effective requires that they continually seek the truth wherever it leads, with downstream policy makers tasked with the political and policy implications of their conclusions. A respected DST, bringing multiple science-focused government organizations under its protective wing, and funded with multiyear appropriations to limit political interference, may be the solution that our country needs to once again achieve scientific preeminence in both research and policy implementation.

There would be both organizational challenges and political and bureaucratic considerations involved in creating the new DST. On the organizational side, large bureaus and agencies with broad missions such as the FDA may not all neatly fit into the DST box because of their broad mandates in research, policy and regulation. For these agencies, there would be three options: (1) leave them in their current department; (2) move them to the new DST, acknowledging the important science regulatory and policy role that the new department will have; or (3) divide the agencies into policy, regulatory and research roles, leaving the policy and regulatory components in the legacy departments. These decisions would have to be made on a case-by-case basis. And surely, in addition to the long-term benefits, any governmental reorganization of this scope would bring short-term confusion, as do all reorganizations.

On the political and bureaucratic fronts, powerful departments like DHHS would undoubtedly seek to keep prestigious organizations like the NIH, CDC and FDA within their domain, and Senate and House committees of jurisdiction would be expected to battle to preserve their turf. Congress as a whole might push back against any infringement on its ability to micromanage science through its annual departmental and agency-level budgeting process. But the fight would be well worth having to create a powerful Cabinet department that brings focus and resources to the pursuit of scientific excellence. Such a science-focused department would also be a more powerful voice in advocating for the importance of science funding in the government budgeting process.

In government, such major changes begin with small steps, and it would be wise to commission the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine to carry out a study of the merits and mechanics of creating the DST. Rearranging the existing science-focused bureaus and agencies into a DST would not bring immediate results, but would produce lasting benefits over time. It would constitute the federal governments acknowledgement of the fundamental role of scientific excellence in both research and policy implementation, unfettered by political interference and threats of politically motivated budget cuts. A new DST is a goal worthy of an American 21st century.

This is an opinion and analysis article.

Read more:

The U.S. Needs a Federal Department of Science and Technology - Scientific American

Posted in Technology | Comments Off on The U.S. Needs a Federal Department of Science and Technology – Scientific American

Treasure hunting with technology add geocaching to your outdoor activities during COVID-19 – ABC27

Posted: at 12:04 am

LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) Many have turned to the outdoors for safe activity during COVID-19. With spring around the corner, individuals may want to add geocaching to their repertoire of outdoor diversions.

Geocaching is treasure hunting with technology, says Lancaster County Department of Parks and Recreation park naturalist Mary Ann Schlegel.

There are millions of geocaches objects placed outdoors and identified with GPS coordinates located around the world. Geocaching is the activity of finding those geocaches, which can be done with a special GPS device or with just a smartphone.

Some geocaches are small or hidden, while others can be large and easy to spot. Sometimes they contain trinkets to take or a logbook to fill out showing who has found them.

Geocaching.com explains that the activity began in 2000 when GPS technology became significantly more accurate for all people. Schlegel says that before this point, GPS was used pretty much exclusively by the military.

After this technology improved for civilians, a GPS enthusiast in Oregon wanted to test its accuracy. He hid a bucket, a logbook, and some prizes in the woods and shared their coordinates online so others could find them. The activity caught on, and what would become a worldwide enterprise was born.

There are hundreds of geocaches around Lancaster, as the Geocaching website shows. Some simply require putting coordinates into a GPS and taking a walk to the geocache, while others entail special instructions or challenges to find.

The Lancaster County Department of Parks and Recreation puts its own spin on geocaching with GPS Tic-tac-toe.

GPS Tic-tac-toe participants receive a tic-tac-toe grid filled out with different coordinates. They must locate three out of nine geocaches around the Lancaster County Environmental Center to check off three spaces in a row on their boards.

Schlegel has been leading this activity for about five years now, and she says she usually offers it a couple times a year. Other members of the Lancaster County Department of Parks and Recreation also offer GPS events. For example, there is a GPS Scavenger Hunt scheduled for March.

For those interested in geocaching on their own, Schlegel offers some advice:

When to go: Geocaching works best in spring or fall when there is less foliage on the trees to interfere with GPS signalsWhat you need: A GPS device or smartphone with GPS capabilitiesOptional items to bring: A writing utensil to fill out geocache logbooks; objects to leave behind if you take something from a geocacheHelpful resource: The Geocaching website and app show geocache locations and other information

In addition, proper geocaching etiquette should be maintained while engaging in the activity. Geocaching ethics include:

More information about geocaching is available at geocaching.com/guide. To see upcoming events from the Lancaster County Department of Parks and Recreation, visit this website.

See the original post here:

Treasure hunting with technology add geocaching to your outdoor activities during COVID-19 - ABC27

Posted in Technology | Comments Off on Treasure hunting with technology add geocaching to your outdoor activities during COVID-19 – ABC27