text:
With the 50th anniversary of the longest running science-fiction television series in the world less than a week away, now is the perfect time to reflect on some of those moments when the international cult phenomenon we all know and love might have gone off in an entirely different direction.
Somewhere out there in the multiverse, there's a version of the Doctor who's Welsh, never encountered the Daleks, never regenerated, lost his memory (and his clothes), was ordered to go to a disco by Margaret Thatcher, got involved in a love triangle with himself, and wears a toothbrush in his left breast pocket. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to take a step sideways in time, as we bust through the regeneration limit and take a look back at 14 strange moments of Doctor Who might-have-been.
1) That time the First Doctor was portrayed by a hunky 37 year-old Welshman
Let's begin at the beginning. Actually, a bit before the beginning, during the early pre-pre production stages of Doctor Who, when series creator Sydney Newman appointed a man named Rex Tucker from the Children's Drama department to the role of in-situ producer, where he would oversee the basic day-to-day needs of the project prior to the hiring of a full-time production staff. Had events played out differently, Tucker would have likely stayed on to direct the first block of filming, and would have been the man tasked with bringing the very first episode of Doctor Who to life instead of relative newcomer, Waris Hussein.
At any rate, it was common enough practice at this time for producer-director's to have creative control of the series they were overseeing, so unbeknownst to Sydney (who was off on vacation), Rex Tucker had begun to do just that; working on several design aspects of the show, which including at least tentatively offered the titular role to his friend Hugh David, a 37-year-old Welshman best known for his portrayal of suave crime-fighter Stephen Drummond in the popular Granada drama series Knight Errant Limited.
Nobody quite knows why Tucker offered the part to David, as he was about as far away from Newman's description of a "frail old scientist" as you could get. It's also hard to imagine Newman ever allowing such a casting choice to go through, but it ended up being a moot point anyways, as David turned down the role, having grown uncomfortable with the amount of public attention he was receiving from Knight Errant Limited, and not wanting to play another leading man. Still, had he accepted (and been accepted), he would have been the youngest actor to portray the Doctor until Peter Davison took over in 1981. Interestingly enough, David's association with Doctor Who didn't end there. He moved away from acting a short time later to pursue a career as a director— a career which would see him step behind the camera for two of Patrick Troughton's most memorable stories, The Highlanders and Fury From the Deep.
2) That time Derivatron-mania swept the UK
By all rights, the Doctor's most memorable adversaries never should have existed, and we owe nearly as much to Verity Lambert and David Whitaker for sneaking them onto our screens as we do Terry Nation and Ray Cusick for designing them.
The Mutants (aka The Daleks) was a late game substitute for another story, The Masters of Luxor, which was fully scripted and ready to go, when the production order changed. Script editor David Whitaker had been impressed with Terry Nation's work on the sci-fi anthology series Out of This World, and asked him to submit scripts for a 7-part serial involving the mutated survivors of a nuclear war for later in the season. Terry turned in his scripts so quickly and ahead of schedule, they were literally the only ones ready to fit into that now vacant second production slot, which was just as well, as BBC head of serials Donald Wilson reportedly hated them enough that he called Verity Lambert into his office and demanded to know if she had anything else that could be put on in their place. Luckily, Verity wasn't about to be dissuaded, and Wilson was unable to voice his dissatisfaction to his direct supervisor, Sydney Newman, who just happened to to be off on holiday again. Sydney had given the production team a standing order of "no bug-eyed monsters," but due to this fluke of timing, completely missed out on seeing any scripts or production designs for this serial, only encountering the Daleks when they finally appeared on his television screen at home. (At which point he was livid... at least until the ratings came in, that is.)
As for The Masters of Luxor; the story has subsequently been released as a Big Finish audio adventure, but sufficed to say, it's not even remotely in the same class as Terry Nation's television masterpiece. The plot, such as it stands, is a fairly uninspired adventure involving the TARDIS crew investigating a seemingly abandoned planet full of robots called Derivatrons, who decide to build themselves an android version of Rocky from The Rocky Horror Picture Show called "The Perfect One" because they need somebody with free will and gloriously shiny pecs to order them about... or something. The Perfect One is physically perfect, but he's not "alive"; a fault he tries to remedy by strapping scientists to tables and disintegrating them to isolate their "life essence." Oh, and for some reason, he has an atomic bomb wired up to his brain, so if he falls and hits his head on a coffee table, the entire planet blows up. (Alas, I'm not kidding about this bit. It's the cliffhanger to episode 4) You can read a full plot synopsis here, but trust me, it's six episodes of mind-numbing tedium, and would have made a poor followup to Anthony Coburn's other contribution to Doctor Who, the script for An Unearthly Child. (Plus it's hard to imagine any child getting excited about finding a vinyl Derivatron playsuit under their Christmas tree)
3) That time the Daleks ended up even more phallic-looking
There's no question that the Daleks are pivotal to the success of Doctor Who, and one of the factors contributing to their lasting fame is their distinctly non-humanoid shape, as designed by Ray Cusick. However, Ray was not the original designer attached to the first Dalek serial. The job was originally assigned to another young man working in the BBC design department by the name of Ridley Scott. Yes, that Ridley Scott. It was only due to a last minute scheduling conflict that Ridley was forced to back out, and Ray was given the unenviable task of designing an iconic new alien menace on a meager BBC production budget. In desperation, he turned to Terry Nation for advice, who mentioned seeing a performance by a Russian ballet troupe who wore extremely long dresses which gave the impression of gliding smoothly along the floor. Had that conversation not taken place, the Daleks would have certainly looked quite different from how they do now, though with Ridley Scott an their creator, one wonders if the poor pepperpots would have ever made it past the BBC censors.
4) That time the First Doctor never regenerated
Once Verity Lambert left her role as producer following the second season, her replacement, John Wiles, wanted to take the series in a darker direction, which irked the already upset William Hartnell, and led to several conflicts both on and off the set. It didn't help that Hartnell was still reeling from the loss of his co-stars, and the passing of the aunt that raised him (who's funeral he wasn't even able to attend because the shooting schedule on The Myth Makers was so tight) not to mention suffering from arteriosclerosis, which was beginning to impact both his mobility and speech. Wiles became so frustrated with Hartnell's behavior that he reportedly sought to have his contract terminated and replaced by another actor during the pre-production stages of The Celestial Toymaker, presumably during the protracted sequence where the 1st Doctor is rendered invisible and forced to play the Trilogic game by the Celestial Toymaker.
Fortunately, the idea was shot down by BBC head of serials, Gerald Savory, who ultimately chose to have John Wiles replaced instead. Had Wile's proposal gone through as planned, then the impact on the series would have been huge... No regeneration, and presumably the replacement Doctor would have been a Richard Hurdall style imitator, doing his best to play the same old man as Hartnell for another season or two until the series got cancelled and become just another forgotten sci-fi classic of the 60's.
5) That time the Brigadier was played by a stuffy old cabinet minister
While we could spend all day talking about how the show would have been different, had one of the other actors considered for the part of the Doctor been given the job instead, I cant help but mention an actor named David Langton, who was originally chosen by director Douglas Camfield to play a one-off supporting character in one of Troughton's 5th season stories, but backed out prior to production so he could perform in a television play instead.
Luckily for us, that meant that the part had to go to another actor, and Nicholas Courtney found himself receiving a hasty promotion from Captain Knight to Colonel Letherbridge-Stewart, (narrowly avoiding his second on-screen death in Doctor Who) and a recurring role which would last the next 43 years. If Langton had not declined the part, we would have undoubtedly seen a very different take on the Brigadier. Langton was 17 years older than Courtney, had served in the British Army as a major, and was best known for playing very dry and formal cabinet ministers and members of the British peerage (most notably the character of Richard Bellamy on the series Upstairs, Downstairs.) At the time, he was also a far more recognizable actor, so it's questionable whether he would have been willing to commit to coming back for The Invasion or as a series regular during the Pertwee era.
6) That time The Doctor challenged the devil to a game of pinball
Charlie Jane mentions this one on her list of 10 Biggest Dodged Bullets in Doctor Who, but if you've never heard of the project, this was a proposed film co-written by Tom Baker and Ian Marter, which would have fit into the continuity of the ongoing series, starring Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan as companions, and Vincent Price as the intergalactic embodiment of evil known as Harry Scratch. (Admittedly, with a name like Harry Scratch, your only real job options are maniacal villain or mustachioed porn star.) It featured killer scarecrows, moth guns, the god Pan, a chase through the TARDIS involving 50 yard jigsaw puzzles and a grandfather clock bigger than Big Ben, business executives with light-up spheres for heads, and a final confrontation between The Doctor and the Devil on a giant pinball table, playing for the fate of the universe. You can read a full synopsis of the plot here, and I highly recommend you do, if only so you feel a little bit of sympathy for all those Doctor Who directors who had to put up with Tom's frequent suggestions for how their shooting scripts might be "improved."
7) That time Doctor Who crossed over with Z-Cars, EastEnders, and Blake's 7
Modern fans might be forgiven for thinking that the very first Doctor Who Christmas special occurred in 2005 with David Tennant in The Christmas Invasion, but it actually happened in 1965, slap-dab in the middle of the 12-part epic The Dalek Master Plan, with a lighthearted pantomime romp called The Feast of Steven. (The one where the first Doctor may or may not have been hitting the sherry a bit to hard and infamously breaks the fourth wall to offer up a Christmas toast to the viewers at home) This special Christmas outing was also supposed to be the series' first cross-over with another BBC franchise, the popular police drama Z-Cars, however, the producer of that series withheld his permission, and the TARDIS crew were forced to obtain their own police station for the story.
Another potential crossover nearly occurred in 1979, when Blake's 7 and Doctor Who were both hitting their stride. Both Tom Baker and Gareth Thomas had voiced an interest in seeing it happen, and Terry Nation's original proposal for the Blake's 7 second season finale, Star One, was to reveal that the mysterious alien force lurking just outside the Federation's border ready to attack Earth was none other than his own famous creations, the Daleks. Alas, the idea was shot down by Blake's 7's producer (who probably shuddered at the thought of mailing Terry Nation yet another royalty check), so instead we got a slightly less threatening invasion of the small bathtub wind-up toys and fake plastic vomit.
The one crossover event that did end up happening, occurred in 1993, as part of the annual Children In Need charity fundraiser event. It was called Dimensions in Time, and it's pretty much the litmus test by which all terrible Who is judged. Go ahead and watch it for yourself.... I'll wait.
Yeah. Sorry about that. But shared suffering brings us closer together.
Filmed on the set of the long running soap opera EastEnders, and featuring several of the series' regular, it was a confusing mess starring all five of the remaining living Doctors (and floating bug-eyed wax heads of the first two), multiple companions (including The Brigadier's only meeting with the 6th Doctor), every available monster suit they could dredge up, and The Rani, who for reasons best known to herself, decides to capture all of the Doctor's incarnations and "lock us away in a dreary backwater of London's East End, trapped in a time-loop in perpetuity." While it's doubtful it would have made a shred of difference, the original script apparently would have featured either Anthony Ainley as The Master or Michael Gough reprising his role as The Celestial Toymaker, and a sequence where the 5th Doctor squared off against The Daleks in a dockside warehouse (which was never filmed due to a dispute with Terry Nation over whether they had to pay royalties for using the Daleks during a charity event.) The role of the Rani's companion was also first offered to Sir Ian McKellen, who rather unsurprisingly, discovered that he has something much more important to do with his time.
8) That time The Doctor hung out with the Care Bears and still got a better outfit than Colin Baker
At some undisclosed point in the 80's, the Canadian animation company Nelvana (best known for producing Care Bears, Eek The Cat and Beetlejuice) proposed an animated series based off of Doctor Who, which judging by these early concept sketches would have involved a bizarre amalgamation of the first four Doctors, with Real Ghostbusters hair and John Nathan-Turner's penchant for slapping question marks on everything. He also would have been joined by a redesigned K-9 who possibly morphs into a doctor's bag (remember, it was the 80's) and his most fearsome foes, the Daleks, would have been transformed into bulbous pear-shaped things with tank treads, vacuum cleaner arms, and Madonna breast cones.
In short, an abomination and affront to all mankind; but possibly one that could have had a significant effect on the main series, had it been allowed to continue. Considering that around this time BBC higher-ups like Michael Grade were looking for any excuse to cancel Doctor Who, it isn't too difficult to picture them latching on to a cheap Canadian import (especially one that they didn't have to pay for) as a way of mollifying fans when the axe came down on the live action version. A Doctor Who cartoon might very well have spelled no Seventh Doctor at all, and a vastly different future for the series that lived on in books and comic strips during the long seven year gap between Survival and the 1996 TV Movie.
9) That time the Daleks and Cybermen teamed up to overthrow the Earth by invading a discotheque
Oh man. This one brings back painful memories. I once mailed $20 to a guy on Prodigy who said he could hook me up with a bootleg audio cassette recording of this 1989 stage play. Several weeks later, the cassette arrived, and I was heartbroken to find that the garbled dialogue was nearly unintelligible over the sound of audience members shushing small children and shifting uncomfortably in their seats. I now know this was a blessing in disguise, having since experienced both the Big Finish audio version and some of the personal video recordings that have made it onto YouTube.
The Ultimate Adventure was an ambitious attempt to bring Doctor Who directly to the fans, via a live stage show that utilized the greatest technology the late 80's had to offer— mainly lasers, enormous glittery shoulder pads, and awful rock-opera power ballads. Unlike previous stage plays, this one boasted the full backing of John Nathan-Turner, a script penned by Terrance Dicks, and John Pertwee and Colin Baker both taking their turn at playing their respective Doctors. It also featured a somewhat one-sided alliance between the Daleks and Cybermen (if you've seen Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, you can probably guess who the bitch was in this relationship), the reappearance of the Emperor Dalek last seen in Evil of the Daleks, a faaaabulously dressed mercenary-for-hire with the sinister name of Karl, plus several other miscellaneous monsters from the television show including a Kraal, a Draconian, and a Vervoid, all of whom apparently enjoy knocking back a pint or two at the Bar Galactica.
Did I mention it had musical numbers? Well it did. Two of them. (Three, if you count the Doctor singing his Venusian lullaby to unhypnotize a brainwashed civil servant) And the plot was mainly a rehash of elements cribbed from previous stories, most notably Day of the Daleks, where the Daleks' cunning plan involves planting a bomb at a peace conference, framing the British envoy for the crime, and then waiting around to mop up the survivors after the ensuing thermonuclear war. If you want the full story, the play has its own fan site, or if you're a real glutton for punishment, you can watch the entire thing on YouTube.
Ultimately, it was one of many attempts to carry on the spirit of Doctor Who while the BBC's interest in it was waning. I have no idea whether it was a financial success or not, but many people seem to have fond memories of seeing the Daleks and Cybermen duke it out on stage, and who knows... maybe in a parallel universe these things are now as popular as Disney on Ice, and Colin Baker is still bringing in the punters with his companions Jason, Crystal, and their furry friend Zog.
10) That time the 6th Doctor forgot who he was or where he parked the TARDIS and fought an evil magic clown at a cocktail party
Look, I'm not proud of it, but the long lonely stretch between 1989 and 1996 was rough on us die-hard Whovians, and after several years without any fresh material to watch, some of us had to get a little.... ahem... "creative" when it came to fulfilling our needs. Enter BBV, a home-grown video production company which scraped up just enough money to cobble together a few extremely low budget direct to video titles starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as "The Stranger and Miss Brown." They were more or less exactly what you'd expect... thinly scripted Doctor Who fan films, minus the TARDIS or anything else the BBC held licenses to, but featuring the original cast, hoping to god that their agents rang up with something better next month so they wouldn't have to appear in any more of these turkeys.
The first couple of Stranger videos tried very hard to pretend they were Doctor Who, and the TARDIS "transport" was just over the next hill. However, by the time the third one rolled around (written by Nicholas Briggs; now better known for voicing the Daleks and his work on the Big Finish line of Doctor Who audio adventures) they had pretty much given up on that pretext, revealing Colin's amnesiac character's had his own name and backstory.
BBV subsequently went on to produce a number of more direct Doctor Who tie-in films, with larger budgets and characters licensed from the estate of Robert Holmes, though as with the Stranger videos, no mention of The Doctor or events from actual televised episodes are ever made. The P.R.O.B.E. series (written by Mark Gatiss) featured Liz Shaw investigating demonic activity as part of the "Preternatural Research Bureau," while Auton and it's two sequels (written by Nick Briggs) involved U.N.I.T. personnel battling a reactivated Nestene Consciousness. Another of Holmes creations, the Sontarans, would also appear in their own spin-off, Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans, (starring Carol Ann Ford, Sophie Aldred, and a bunch of Blakes 7 regulars) but for legal reasons, they had to be painted bright yellow and given horrible grandma wrinkles, as the BBC still maintained the rights to their physical appearance.
The BBV (and related company Reeltime Pictures) releases started to slowly peter out around the early 2000's, right about the time that Big Finish obtained the rights to release officially licensed audio adventures starring classic Doctors. Only one BBV story, Zygon, was released following Doctor Who's ressurrection in 2005, though had Big Finish not received the blessing of the BBC, and had Russell T. Davies not been on the scene to give the Time Lord a new lease on life, you might still be watching badly CGIed Krynoids or Wirrn stalking an aging Sgt. Benton and members of the UN Task Force around the local gravel quarry right now.
11) That time the 4th Doctor and Ace battled a Cyberman with Wolverine claws and Rick from The Young Ones
The Dark Dimension was the first of many well-intentioned attempts by the BBC to resurrect the franchise, and was slated for a direct to video release in conjunction with the series' 30th Anniversary. It would have been directed by Graeme Harper, featured all the surviving Doctors (well, until 5 & 6 got in a huff at only being given bit parts, while Tom Baker got to hog the majority of the screen time), as well as the Brigadier and Ace, and several "darker" version of monsters from the show's past, including Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, and Yeti, all manipulated by an evil villain named Hawkspur portrayed by Rik Mayall. The Cybermen in particular, were redesigned to be more skeletal and Geigeresque, and there was even a special animatronic one built by the Henson Creature Workshop which "had holes in its knuckles and there was a point where it held up its hand, made a fist, and six-inch blades shot out of its knuckles!"
Plagued with problems from day one, you can read more about the whole sorry mess and how it fell to pieces here, but sufficed to say, no matter how awful or convoluted The Dark Dimension might have been, it still would have been a better 30th Anniversary present than Dimensions in Time.
12) That time the 7th Doctor and the Brigadier spent 5 minutes fighting Cybermen and setting fire to a vicarage... for charity.
There's not much to go on with this one, but somewhere between The Dark Dimension and Dimensions in Time, John Nathan-Turner approached a writer named David Roden about creating a 5-minute sketch for Children in Need with the cheery title Destination: Holocaust, which would have featured The Seventh Doctor meeting up with his old pal The Brigadier in order to head off to a U.N.I.T. reunion. Along the way, they witness a green fireball crashing into local vicarage, and stop to investigate. Outside, they find the local vicar, frantic to get his wife out of the burning building, however, The Doctor spots a line of silver figures emerging from the flames, and he and the Brigadier make for the cover of the nearby church as the poor vicar gets blasted by a beam of blue light. Inside the church, they find the remains of a badly damaged Cyberman splayed across the altar, and The Doctor concludes that it must have been their ship that crashed. The sketch ends with the Doctor and Brigadier being captured by the Cyber Leader (presumably played by David Banks) who announces that the Doctor shall soon witness the destruction of Earth and "when dawn comes, we shall be the new masters." Fade to black. End scene. Cut to audience reaction shot of small children crying.
While still more coherent than any of the other proposed 30th anniversary projects, JNT vetoed the script as being too expensive, as it would have entailed night filming, snow machines, blowing up a car, and crashing a space ship into a church. Rogan quickly came back with another proposal called Endgame, but that was also abandoned when it became apparent that the BBC wanted to do a light-hearted crossover with EastEnders instead.
13) That time The Doctor got involved in a love triangle... with himself.
I occasionally have to dust off my copy of The Nth Doctor whenever I'm feeling let down by the quality of script writing on NuWho, just to remind myself that yes, Doctor Who can sink much, much lower than Love and Monsters or Journey's End. The book is a virtual treasure trove of all the bad ideas that got tossed around during that period prior to the 1996 TV movie, when several production groups showed an interest in bringing back Doctor Who— provided of course, that the finished product didn't bear any resemblance at all to that stupid old TV show, Doctor Who.
One of the worst script treatments mentioned in the book began with an evil Time Lord meddling with the Doctor's time stream, "shunting the Doctor's life span into a temporal dead-alley. One that will cause his body and mind to self destruct in a very short period of time" (ie: meaning that they now have a completely different actor playing the character), while simultaneously framing him for the crime of... erm... attempting to murder himself. This older "eccentric" Doctor is convicted of "meddling with the sensitive mechanisms of time" and gets sent to Time Lord prison, but of course he manages to escape, and flees Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS, landing in present day New York, where he sets about attempting to repair the damage to his time stream, only to accidentally end up conjuring a separate younger headstrong version of himself.
Back on Gallifrey, the evil Time Lord dispatched a skilled assassin to finish the job, and because of all the temporal timey-wimey plot convenience stuff going on, the older Doctor will cease to exist if his younger version is killed, and the younger Doctor will die if the older version is killed. (Because we say so, dammit. And yes, we did just turn Doctor Who into a Freaky Friday odd-couple fugitive comedy.) Enter new companion and love-interest Mallie Jordan, who finds her life turned upside down by the two bickering versions of the Doctor. In a brilliant bit of characterization we soon discover that she "may have a weakness for Young Doctor's body, but time and again finds herself bowled over by the sheer vaulting brilliance of Old Doctor's mind" and "her big problem is to reconcile how she feels about loving two men, one old, one young, both in reality the same man, but only one of whom she wants to make love to."
Luckily for our heroine, the two Doctors defeat the evil assassin, fix the TARDIS, return to Gallifrey together to unmask the baddie, and get their time streams recombined to form a new Doctor who is "neither young, nor old" who returns to Earth to sweep Mallie off her feet and embark on all new adventures together, presumably when they're finished wearing out the bed springs in the TARDIS.
14) That time Nick Briggs was the 9th Doctor (who wore a Prisoner-style jacket and a toothbrush)
Well, for a while in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip during the late 1990's at any rate.
It's possibly the most brilliant bait-and-switch in Doctor Who history, and they got tons of letters from pissed off fans who were outraged when the 8th Doctor appeared to regenerate into a balding man with a penchant for dental equipment formal wear. And bless their hearts, the DWM editors stuck to their guns and played everything completely serious for four whole months, even showing off a few publicity photos of Nick in costume as the new "face of Doctor Who," before the comic finally revealing that the 8th Doctor had punked us all, and it was only his buddy Shayde pretending to be a newly regenerated version of The Doctor, so the real Doctor could move around unobserved behind the scenes!
Okay, so maybe it's not true alt-history, but part of me wonders what would have happened if they'd just let it ride, and allowed Nick Briggs to carry on. It certainly would have made things easy over at Big Finish... he could have played everybody! And who knows... maybe 15 years later it would have been him making a surprise guest appearance in Night of the Doctor instead of Paul McGann.
(Art by PaulHanley)
That said, I would personally like to walk up and shake the hand of anybody brave enough to cosplay this version of the Doctor at their next Doctor Who convention.


text:
"Pineapple Express" director David Gordon Green is plotting the much talked about remake of the Dario Argento wunderkind "Suspiria" as his next birthing. Green is excited to hop on the project but sees his retelling leaving behind the ballet theme for a girl's boarding school setting. And I am seeing this as more of a hardcore porn flick but truth be told if I was allowed to remake movies 99% of them would turn out that way.
Khalid Laith and Razane Jammal have both signed on to play roles in the upcoming Tobe Hooper flick "Djinn" which focuses on a couple who finds their luxury apartment is inhabited by some sort of demon type thing that plays tricks or something. I have no idea who either of these guys are but I would never admit that though because I'd be too afraid that it sounds racist. Oh boy, I've said too much. Really need to get that backspace key fixed.
Along with 37 other movies it sounds like mancrush Neil Marshall is also working on an alien invasion movie set during World War 2. That's about all the details that have been discussed on this one but I've always wanted to post something about Hitler getting some sort of anal probing so let's hope something along those lines makes it into the movie.
On the heels of the release date for "Piranha 3DD" being pushed to a November 23rd Joel Soisson has been brought in to produce the flick along with fixing the script. I have no idea how you could screw up a script that probably goes something like "girl takes off top, fish eats girl, repeat" but what the hell do I know. Maybe throw in a "nude girl swims with other nude girl to weird music". Wait that's been done? I'll never make it in this town.
I could have sworn this already happened but apparently "Screen Gems" has acquired the rights to the big screen adaptation to the much loved video game "Devil May Cry". For those of your not familiar with the games there's a guy named Dante, a giant sword and some demons. That about covers it I think. Wait, no! There's a gun too.
Chris Sparling wrote "Buried", the best Ryan Reynolds trapped in a box movie of 2010, and now he's stepping behind the camera with a little ditty titled "Falling Slow". The film will focus on a couple, played by Mandy Moore and Rodrigo Santoro, who move into a haunted apartment. If I was a betting man I'd say any movie with someone named Rodrigo in a starring roll is going to be 100% caliente.
Tobe Hooper, who I believe created a low budget rip off of that chainsaw flick that came out a few years back, has been confirmed to direct a new supernatural thriller titled "Djinn". Djinn is apparently some sort of Arabian demon and I guess in this movie that demon does some nasty crap to a couple's apartment after they return from their trip to the US. I'm not positive but it sounds like this movie might not be patriotic.
What's more prestigious than making a crappy Syfy flick? Making the 200th crappiest Syfy flick of all time! Well the new After Dark opus "Scream of the Banshee" will have the honor on March 26th. That's all really need to know but if you're looking for plot just think banshee scream, then you die. That about covers it.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
As a reminder, this month's UFC 157, which features the first women's bout in UFC history, gets a "UFC Primetime" special.
The three-part "UFC Primetime: Rousey vs. Carmouche" series debuts at 6 p.m. ET on FOX Sports Network. It previews the upcoming title fight between new UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey (6-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and challenger Liz Carmouche (7-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC).
Other airings of the show throughout the FOX family of networks air on FUEL TV, SPEED and FX. Check your local listings for exact times for your cable or satellite provider. The final two episodes of the three-part series will debut next week and the week of the fight.
UFC 157 takes place Feb. 23 at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook.
The UFC most recently featured a "Primetime" special for November's UFC 154 event, which saw UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre top challenger Carlos Condit in his long-awaited return from injury.
For more on UFC 157, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
(Pictured: Ronda Rousey)


text:
Last Updated: May 24, 2019 by Webmaster FSC
What's Happening NOVEMBER '13
Category: Fitchburg Serenity Club, FSC Newsletter Tags: November 2013 Newsletter
In this season of "social distancing" people have been asking how to help support the continued mission of the Fitchburg Serenity Club. Please use the button below to donate. You can use this button to create a recurring donation as well.
Thank you.
Enter your email to receive updates.
Email Address
Sign Me Up
Copyright © 2020 · All Rights Reserved · Fitchburg Serenity Club


text:
I got an email as a Paypal user to alert me of changes on policy agreements, here is the link .
And Singapore has been adversely mentioned that there was a case leading to this new change. I'm off to find whether I'll find anything. See below the excerpts.
These changes are made to the User Agreement, including the Buyer Protection Policy and the Seller Protection Policy:
Change to the Buyer Protection Policy
A new entry in the list of what items are not considered to be "significantly not as described" in clause 7.1 as follows:
The item was listed as used condition and you picked it up in person after examining the item.
In 7.3 Ineligible Items, we added "Send money transactions where the sender pays the PayPal transaction fee" as item that would be ineligible for PayPal Buyer Protection.
Changes to Seller Protection
A new entry in the list of what items are not covered under Seller Protection in clause 9.3 to exclude for coverage items paid for partial payments and/or split payments.
Changes to Section 11.3
The following sub clause has been added to the Clause 11.3 and numbered Clause 11.3©
We may hold, apply or transfer the funds in your Account as required by judgments and orders which affect you or your Account, including judgments and orders issued by courts in Singapore or elsewhere and directed to PayPal or its Affiliates;
Change in Privacy Policy
In the bullet 'How We Share Personal Information with Other Third Parties' bullet point 6 will read.
Law enforcement, regulators, government officials, or other third parties (in Singapore or elsewhere) pursuant in relation to a subpoena, court order, or other legal process or requirement under Singapore law or regulation, or the laws and regulations of other jurisdictions that are applicable to PayPal or one of its Affiliates; when we need to do so to comply with such law or credit card rules; or when we believe, in our sole discretion, that the disclosure of personal information is necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss; to report suspected illegal activity or investigate violations of our User Agreement


text:
Equity Bank Limited - Rwanda is one of the commercial banks licensed by the National Bank of Rwanda, the country's banking regulator.
- Kigali Branch
- Nyarugenge
- Remera
- Nyabugogo
- Muhanga
- Musanze
- Rubavu
- Rwamagana
- Gisozi
- Giporoso
- Kicukiro
- Huye
- Kacyru
- Rusizi
Equity Bank Limited - Rwanda is a member of the Equity Bank Group, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya which maintains financial services subsidiaries in Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Rwanda.
Some of the recent accolades and recognitions that Equity Bank Limited has received include;
November 2013: Equity Bank Group Chairman Peter Munga was named Chairman of the Year during the 4th edition of the annual Capital Markets Awards. Munga was celebrated for laying the vision that became Equity Bank and promoting inclusivity in the financial sector.
November 2013: Equity Bank was recognized amongst Kenya's Top Tax Payers 2013 by Kenya Revenue Authority: 2013 Distinguished Tax Payer, Top Ten Category. The Bank is committed to continue upholding the highest standards of corporate governance and to make a contribution in building the nation
October 2013: Dr. James Mwangi was awarded the African Business Leader of the Year by Africa Investor. Dr. Mwangi has joined a Pan African initiative that promotes private sector participation in infrastructure and intra-African investment. The Pan African initiative brings together over 150 of the continent's most influential business and government leaders. The award is given to the business leader whose organization is well-run with financial results increasing year on year, and embracing innovation, and model corporate citizen
April 2013: Equity Bank was voted Best Bank in Kenya at the Think Business Banking Awards 2013. The Bank emerged tops ahead of 42 other banks for the second year running. The top award came on the strength of regional reach, strong brand pull and innovation.
April 2013: Equity Bank was named Best Bank in Kenya Tier 1 (banks with an asset base exceeding Ksh 150 billion) at the annual Banking Awards 2013. The Bank currently has a sturdy asset base of over Ksh 252 billion.
April 2013: Equity Bank's focus on affordability and inclusivity was recognized with the Bank with Lowest Charges award at the Banking Awards 2013.
April 2013: Equity Bank was voted the best bank in Kenya in terms of customer deposits amongst banks with a deposit base of over Ksh 75 billion in a recent survey on the performance of Kenyan banks released by accounting and consulting firm RSM Ashvir.
- June, 2012: Equity Bank CEO and Managing Director Dr. James Mwangi was named 2012 Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year at a ceremony held in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Dr Mwangi was picked from among the 59 country finalists shortlisted for the title across 51 countries, becoming the first business leader from Sub Saharan Africa to win this prestigious award.
- June 2012: Equity Bank was awarded Best Managed Company in Africa award by EuroMoney magazine. The Bank won the award on a strong brand pull, regional footprint and corporate governance, based on a survey of market analysts at leading banks and research institutes in Africa.
- June 2012: Equity Bank was awarded the Most Innovative Bank in Africa Award at the African Bankers Awards held in Arusha, Tanzania. The annual awards reward outstanding talent and achievement in Africa's financial sector.
- May 2012: Equity Bank was named Best Bank in Kenya at the Banking Awards 2012, while also receiving the Best Bank (Tier 1) and the Best Bank in Microfinance awards at the same event.
- September 2011: Equity Bank Group was listed as one of the 16 global emerging Markets New Sustainability Champions by a World Economic Forum Report in 2011. Equity Bank Group was recognized as the only financial service provider in the Emerging markets which meets the threshold of sustainability based on a criteria covering, innovation, growth and corporate sustainability.
- Sept 2011: Africa Investor named Equity CEO Dr. James Mwangi as the African Banker of the year for the second year in a row.
- Sept 2011: Africa Investor named Equity Bank as the Best Initiative in Support of SMEs and the Millennium Development Goals.
- 2010: Africa investor named Equity Bank as the Ai 40 Company of the Year.
- 2010: The Financial Times named Equity CEO Dr. James Mwangi among the 50 emerging market business leaders in BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - and other emerging market economies - who have shaped the economic performance of their respective regions. The Financial Times recognized Dr Mwangi for transforming the lives of many people in Kenya including house helps and low income earners who have been able to borrow as little as Kshs 500 from the Bank.
- In June 2009 Equity Bank was named the Emerging Markets Most Sustainable Bank of the Year in Africa and the Middle East.
- Equity Bank is the holder of the 2007 Global Vision Award in Microfinance "for initiating a concept of the future that will shape the Global Economy".
Equity offers financial services through its wide network of branches in Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Tanzania (clickable links to branches in all the countries) supported by Alternate Delivery Channels which include:
- Visa Branded ATMs
- Points of Sale (POS) where customers shop; pay and withdraw cash in leading retail outlets.
- Internet and mobile banking channels The Bank runs on a Global Robust State of the Art Information Technology Computer System supported by Infosys, HP, Oracle and Microsoft.
- Agency Outlets
As a Bank, we are guided by the following Core Values which we uphold in all the activities we undertake. These are:
- Professionalism
- Integrity
- Creativity and Innovation
- Teamwork
- Unity of purpose
- Respect and dedication to customer care
- Effective Corporate Governance


text:
Barnes & Noble has a mysterious new product listed on its site: the Nook Audio OE250. There's nothing on the page to give away what it might be—so what the hell is it?
A speaker dock? An e-reader with some new audio capability? A dictation product? Or, errr, an MP3 player? (Do people still buy MP3 players?) We're not sure. Over to you to speculate. [Barnes & Noble via The Digital Reader]


text:
Export 4 results:Author Title [ Type] Year
Filters: Author is Law, Beverly E. [Clear All Filters]
Journal Article
Integration of MODIS land and atmosphere products with a coupled-process model to estimate gross primary productivity and evapotranspiration from 1 km to global scales. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. 25(4):1-24.. 2011.
FLUXNET: a new tool to study the temporal and spatial variability of ecosystem-scale carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy flux densities. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 82(11):2415-2434.. 2001.
Belowground carbon allocation in forests estimated from litterfall and IRGA-based soil respiration measurements. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 113:39-51.. 2002.
An analysis of soil respiration across northern hemisphere temperate ecosystems. Biogeochemistry. 73:29-70.. 2005.


text:
We Mean Business is a global coalition of nonprofit organizations working with the world's most influential businesses to take action on climate change.
Our collective mission is to ensure that the world economy is on track to avoid dangerous climate change by 2020, while delivering sustainable growth and prosperity for all.
The coalition brings together seven organizations:
- Ceres
- The B Team
- The Climate Group
- The Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group
- World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Together we catalyze business action to drive policy ambition and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Brought to you by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP, RE100 is one of the We Mean Business coalition's commitments.
EP100 is brought to you by The Climate Group in partnership with the Alliance to Save Energy. One of the We Mean Business coalition's commitments.
EV100 is a global initiative bringing together forward looking companies committed to accelerating the transition to electric vehicles and making electric transport the new normal by 2030.
Useful links
- Find out more at wemeanbusinesscoaltion.org
- Explore how the Paris Agreement is impacting your business using ClimatePolicyTracker.com


text: Ruger American Rimfire Wood Stock .22LR For Sale from Cliffs Guns Safes Reloading | Positive feedback: 88% View | Verified Seller | 3155 Completed Sales View Sellers Items /UserImages/193/943804225 14050211.jpg https://www.gunsamerica.com/UserImages/193/943804225/wm_14050211.jpg https://www.gunsamerica.com/UserImages/193/943804225/wm_sm_14050211.jpg https://www.gunsamerica.com/UserImages/193/943804225/wm_14050211.jpg https://www.gunsamerica.com/UserImages/193/943804225/wm_14050211.jpg Description: Ruger American Rimfire Wood Stock, 22 inch barrel 22LR, Features: Attractive wood stock features front and rear sling swivel studs, checkering on the grip and forend, and a rubber buttpad to make for a comfortable length of pull, detachable 10-round rotary magazine,( Accepts all 10/22® magazines), Patent-pending Power Bedding® integral bedding block system, Ruger Marksman Adjustable™ trigger offers a crisp user adjustable 3-5 pounds, tang safety, 3/8" rimfire scope base is machined into the receiver, which is also drilled and tapped for Weaver® #12 bases (not included). Williams™ fiber optic front sight and 10/22®-style adjustable, "V" slot, folding-leaf rear sight. If you have any further questions, or wish to purchase the item please call between 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM Mountain Time, Mon-Sat. When you call, please have our stock number for the item you're interested in. #17378 WE DO NOT USE THE "Buy It" feature, you must call us to actually secure/purchase an item. Please keep in mind, due to high volume of internet sales, we may not be able to answer your e-mails as quickly as you need. All prices reflect a discount for cash or money order payment, if you pay with a credit card , prices will be 3% higher than the price shown. Warranty: Previously owned (used) firearms has a 3 Day Inspection at Your Dealer Location, there is a 25% restocking fee on all returned used guns, if you fill out the 4473 form and take the firearm home the firearm is yours. All NEW firearms are warranted by the factory. We reserve the right to correct Pricing, Typographical, and Photographic and/or Descriptive errors. Cliffs Guns, Safes & Reloading Read More Condition: New In Box Brand: RUGER & COMPANY INC Caliber: .22 Long Rifle Location: ID Trades Accepted: Call for trades (208) Read More 3% will be added to all credit card sales. Shipping Notes: 40.00 Shipping & insuranceHI, AK Higher Shipping Rates Read More Share Item Item #: 943804225 SKU: 8329 Stock No.: 17379 Cliffs Guns Safes Reloading Seller Since: Mar. 2000 Identity Verified ( boise, ID ) Trusted Seller This seller is an FFL City: Boise State: ID Phone: 208-375-8694 Price: $379.00 Buy It Now Add To Cart Please Login/Register to Order Login or Register to buy Shipping: $40.00 (or Arrange local transfer) Accepted Payment Methods: Returns: See Description Send Message to Cliffs Guns Safes Reloading You must login or register to send a message to this seller. Contact Seller as Guest Message To Seller Email * That Email Address is already in use. If you typed your email correctly, you are already registered and you should login or click here for the password recovery system. First Name * Last Name * Phone * Address 1 * Address 2 City * State * -State- AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA GU HI IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC ND NE NH NJ NM NV NY OH OK OR PA PR RI SC SD TN TX UT VA VI VT WA WI WV WY Zip * Already have an account? Login Your Recently Viewed Items


text:
- Heavy Duty Torch Kits
- Weed Dragon® Torch Kits
- Mini Dragon Torch
- The Ultimate Fire Starter
- Backpack Torch Kits
- Light Duty Torch Kits
- Liquid Torch Kits
- Jet Torches
- Outdoor Patio Lights
- Roofing Equipment
- Construction Heaters
- Propane Flares
- Agricultural Flamers
- Agricultural Hitches
- Cylinder Dollies
#PT311-6C Cone Style Portable Patio Light
Portable Patio Lights assemble in just minutes. Simply attach a 20 lb. propane cylinder (not included) and enjoy hours of natural, open flame, outdoor lighting. Light includes a sturdy, two wheel cart which holds the tank and makes relocating a snap. Propane tank not included.
Cone Style Portable Patio Light Model PT311-6C Specifications:
|@49,000 BTU (max)
|.5 gal./hr.
|@18,000 BTU (min)
|.2 gal./hr.
For all Red Dragon® Patio Lights (101 K)
English Download
*While some components of the patio lights are UL Listed the entire assembly does not carry any certification. (CSA,UL or EU)
Patio lights do not have a third-party certification. (CSA,UL or EU)
Related Products
#PT300-6C Gas Light Style Portable Patio Light
Price: $396.00View Details
#PT301-6C Curled Finger Portable Patio Light
Price: $396.00View Details


text:
MMT starts to make a little more sense when thinking of it as comparable to money systems used under the USSR and the old Soviet Bloc.
History of the Austrian School of EconomicsPhilosophy and Methodology
Economics today poses as a predictive discipline which fails to correctly predict anything; a prescriptive discipline which prescribes the wrong policies; and an empirical discipline which collects data but misses the point.
Taxes and Spending
If the government were a sitcom family, they would be called the Spendthrifts, and no one would dream of trusting them with credit.
Protectionism and Free Trade
Government injection of funds into trade finance prevents interest rates to rise, deepening malinvestments and precluding the readjustment of international trade after a crisis.
Financial MarketsMoney and Banking
A important factor in wealth redistribution has been the increased participation of both financial and non-financial firms in financial markets.
Protectionism and Free TradeMoney and Banking
Mises's insight into the importance of Cantillon effects can be further extended to explain not only income and wealth inequalities among individuals but also some rather curious developments in global industrial organization over the last few decades.
What the international trade and monetary system needs in order to grow healthy are free markets, sound money, and entrepreneurs to maintain, accumulate, and employ capital for best satisfaction of consumers around the world.
The effects of inflationary currency are not limited by government borders.


text:
FRAC DADDY -- Trainer Ken McPeek has run four horses in the Belmont Stakes: Pineaff (ninth in 1999), 70-1 winner Sarava in 2002 and Atigun (third) and Unstoppable U (sixth) last year. This year, McPeek will saddle Frac Daddy, who finished 16th in the Kentucky Derby, but was second at nearly 24-1 in the Arkansas Derby.
McPeek said yesterday that he has developed a routine for this race he calls the "Belmont Gallop" for preparing runners for the Belmont Stakes.
"We back up to the quarter-pole, we jog to the wire – of course, that's where they start the Belmont," McPeek explained. "We gallop a full turn and pick it up the last three-eighths. I think horses thrive on repetition. We've done that, and it's been successful, so we're keeping it.
"This isn't rocket science. You try to get them in the habit of knowing where to get started. This colt has a lot to learn, but I think he's got talent."
McPeek had high hopes for his first Belmont Stakes runner, Pineaff, but was badly beaten by Lemon Drop Kid, trained by the late Scotty Schulhofer.
"I took notes from Scotty Schulhofer," McPeek said. "I ran a horse I thought had a legitimate chance, who didn't handle any of it. I think I learned a real big lesson that day. I think I overtrained that horse. I think they've got to handle this race track.
"They have to have had some experience here, whether physical or mental. You look back at all the Triple Crown winners; they trained here a portion of their careers. Schulhofer, I remember a quote by him. He said, 'They can either do the distance or they can't.' But he always half-miled his horses into the race. He never worked them a mile or a mile and an eighth, or even three-quarters. He just half-miled them. I took notes from that. When we went with Sarava, we half-miled him into the race. It was similar."
Frac Daddy's three published workouts since the Kentucky Derby all have been at a half-mile, or four furlongs.
FREEDOM CHILD -- In 2006, trainer Tom Albertrani entered a Triple Crown race with a fresh, talented horse and came away with an upset victory.
Seven years after Bernardini's triumph in the Preakness, Albertrani is taking aim at the Belmont Stakes with Freedom Child, who has been gaining plenty of attention leading up to the race.
"Everyone's been talking about this horse quite a bit all week," Albertrani said Thursday, after Freedom Child galloped 1 1/4 mile on the main track. "Hopefully, it gives you a little more confidence. I like what I'm seeing. I'm getting all the good signs. He couldn't be doing any better."
Albertrani had similar feelings going into the Preakness with Bernardini, whose victory was overshadowed by the breakdown of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro. Bernardini would go on to prove himself with wins in the Grade I Travers and Grade I Jockey Club Gold Cup and be named Champion 3-Year-Old Male.
"I just felt with the way Bernardini was training going into the Preakness, I had about the same level of confidence as I do going into this race with this horse," Albertrani said. "Not knowing what the outcome's going to be, I'm just saying my level of confidence in both cases would be about the same. As it turned out, Bernardini did win, but when you know your horse is training well and they're doing good, you've got that confidence that they should perform well."
Terry Finley, the founder and president of Freedom Child's co-owner West Point Thoroughbreds, is also feeling good about the colt's chances.
"This is the first time we've ever had a buzz horse like this in a real big race," Finley said. "I'm very confident. I've kind of learned over the years, why not be confident, even if you're 15 or 20-1? People get to fretting, but it's just great what's happening. What if we're not disappointed? It'd be a pretty cool day."
GIANT FINISH -- Giant Finish, at 30-1 one of the long shots in the Belmont field, had an easy day on the track two days after his final Belmont breeze, but continued to please Chip Dutrow, who is assisting trainer Tony Dutrow in preparing the Frost Giant colt for Saturday's race.
"He looks good out there," said Chip Dutrow. "He's getting over the track well, and everything is fine."
Bred in New York by Andrew Cohen, Giant Finish began his career facing state-breds at Aqueduct Racetrack, then finished second in the John Battaglia Memorial and third in the Grade III Spiral, both over the artificial surface at Turfway Park. Sent off at 38-1, he beat almost half the field in the Kentucky Derby when 10th over a sloppy, sealed track.
"I think he's the kind of horse who can run on anything," said Dutrow.
GOLDEN SOUL -- With exercise rider Emerson Chavez up, Kentucky Derby runner-up Golden Soul galloped 1 1/4 mile on Belmont Park's main track Thursday morning.
"He was fresh, strong, into it," trainer Dallas Stewart said. "His energy was good. He came back good, and grazed really good for about an hour. He's all set."
The Charles Fipke homebred has just a maiden victory to his credit but has been competitive in graded stakes. He was sixth, beaten only 2 3/4 lengths, in the Grade ii Risen Star and fourth by 4 3/4 lengths in the Louisiana Derby.
At Churchill Downs on May 4, he got an inside trip under Robby Albarado and sailed over the sloppy, sealed surface to finish just 2 1/2 lengths behind winner Orb at odds of 34-1. There is the prospect of another wet track for Saturday's Belmont.
"He'll handle it fine," Stewart said. "He handles everything that's thrown at him; traffic, weather. He's on his game."
INCOGNITO -- All signs continue to be positive for Incognito, per trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.
The son of 1992 Belmont winner A.P. Indy and grandson of 1977 Triple Crown champion Seattle Slew galloped 1 1/2 mile over Belmont Park's training track on Thursday.
"He trained great," said McLaughlin, who won the 2006 Belmont with Jazil. "He went real happy and smooth. He looked great. We're very happy with him."
The prospect of wet weather for Saturday is less of a concern for McLaughlin than where Incognito and new rider Irad Ortiz Jr. find themselves during the race.
"The track might be wet, we don't know," McLaughlin said, "but we just have to work it out. He handles it wet; he just doesn't like it in his face. At a mile and a half, Irad can work a spot out to get a clean face at some point in the race. It won't be a big deal."
McLaughlin joined Dallas Stewart, retired Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr. and D. Wayne Lukas for dinner at Todd Pletcher's home in Garden City, N.Y. Wednesday night. McLaughlin, Pletcher and Stewart all worked under Lukas before going out on their own.
"It was fun. It was great to get-together, because Wayne's in Kentucky most of the time," McLaughlin said. "We're all good friends. It's nice, because Wayne was a teacher and a coach before he was a trainer, and he's still a teacher and a coach. That's why he's helped us so much in life."
MIDNIGHT TABOO / OVERANALYZE / PALACE MALICE / REVOLUTIONARY / UNLIMITED BUDGET -- Todd Pletcher's five Belmont Stakes contenders took to the main track on Thursday, with all five galloping various distances.
Overanalyze and Revolutionary galloped one mile, Palace Malice and Unlimited Budget traveled 1 1/4 mile, and Midnight Taboo went 1 1/2 mile.
"It's just a feel for what they need," said Pletcher of how he selects the gallop distances. "It's one of the things we do every morning; we decide based on how much they put into it, how much weight they carry and how much they are eating."
Pletcher, who will become the first trainer in the modern era to send out five horses in a single running of the Belmont Stakes, said he considers many factors when determining whether a horse is worthy of competing in the 1 1/2-mile race.
"First and foremost, you need a horse of enough quality to go long, and they need to have the pedigree and running style that suggest they'll get the distance," said Pletcher, who trains Overanalyze, Unlimited Budget, and Midnight Taboo for Mike Repole, Revolutionary for WinStar Farm, and Palace Malice for Dogwood Stable.
With more than a third of the Belmont Stakes entrants in his barn, Pletcher appears to be well hedged for any possible pace scenario on Saturday.
"Palace Malice will be laying close, Revolutionary will be laying back, and we have three who will be laying somewhere in the middle," said Pletcher. "From that standpoint, they all complement each others' running styles. You always worry when you have more than one horse in the race that you have two front-running, headstrong horses, but in this case I think everyone works well together."
ORB -- Kentucky Derby winner Orb had a strong 1 3/8-mile gallop Thursday morning at Belmont Park, and trainer Shug McGaughey said he sees "no negatives" as the colt heads into Saturday's 145th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes as the 3-1 favorite to rebound from his fourth-place finish in the Preakness.
"He's traveling really well over the track," McGaughey said of Orb. "I haven't lost confidence in him at all."
McGaughey, who was "quietly confident" heading into the Derby and "more uptight" as the Preakness approached, said he's been enjoying the buildup to the rubber match with Preakness winner Oxbow, trained by fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas.
"You get a guy like Wayne, he makes it fun," said McGaughey. "He's complimentary as well as competitive. I'm the same way; I'm competitive, I want to beat him. Wayne's a remarkable guy. To still be at the top of the profession as long as he's been there, all the changes he's brought to the thoroughbred industry … he's got a real admirer in me."
In addition to the Preakness winner, Orb must also contend with 12 others, including a quintet of horses from trainer Todd Pletcher that comprises over a third of the field.
"I look at his individually," said McGaughey. "I think Overanalyze and Revolutionary are both horses we're going to be worried about. Overanalyze ran a really good race in the Arkansas Derby, and Revolutionary has had a very good spring and ran well in the Derby. I'm going to look at them a little harder than the others. What I will look at all of them for is where they're going to fit in for the pace scenario. I've got a pretty good idea, but we'll see what happens."
OXBOW / WILL TAKE CHARGE -- After sending out Preakness winner Oxbow and Grade II Rebel winner Will Take Charge out for routine gallops on Wednesday, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas talked about his two Belmont horses. While Oxbow has a win of the second jewel of the Triple Crown on his resume, it was Will Take Charge, eighth in the Derby and seventh in the Preakness, whom Lukas talked up.
"I look at the circumstances and read what I've got in front of me," said Lukas. "If I see any brilliance in the horse at any point in time, and it's been dormant for a race or two, or the surface doesn't suit the horse, or something, as long as I know it's there and I'm not living in a fantasy land, I'm there. He won the Rebel. He's a dangerous horse in this race, too. The configuration of the track ought to help him, with those long, sweeping turns. He's a long-striding colt."
By contract, Oxbow is a compact runner who when comfortable develops and maintains a high cruising speed.
"It probably doesn't complement his style," Lukas said of the huge Belmont oval, but he's such a tough horse and a fighter; he keeps coming back."
Lukas' reputation for winning with horses that seem improbable is well-known; his previous Triple Crown victory prior to the Preakness was with 18-1 Commendable in the 2000 Belmont Stakes.
"I think Wayne Lukas, who a lot of people have to look up to, is a guy that has no fear whatsoever," said Ken McPeek, who will saddle longshot Frac Daddy in the Belmont. "(Oxbow) has two bad races on his page, and then he comes back and wins the Preakness because he's tenacious and he keeps coming back and he doesn't have any fear. It's not about high percentages, or me; it's about taking a chance and rolling the dice."
VYJACK -- Multiple graded stakes winner Vyjack returned to the track Thursday morning for the first time following his final pre-Belmont Stakes breeze in 59.04 on Tuesday.
Trainer Rudy Rodriguez had Vyjack out shortly after the main track opened at 5:30 a.m., as has been his custom this week.
"The horse jogged very good this morning," Rodriguez said. "He was happy; he was bouncing around. It looks like he bounced good out of the work."
Vyjack will break from post 11 under new rider Julien Leparoux in the Belmont, his first race since finishing 18th of 19 in the Kentucky Derby on May 4.
"So far, so good," Rodriguez said. "He's been eating very good, he's very strong, and he's healthy. He's walking like he's very proud of himself."


text:
Baked Potatoes with Ham and Eggs
Perfect for morning or evening, this hearty and complete meal will satisfy most appetites.
|Baked potatoes
|Olive oil
|1 to taste
|Salt & freshly ground pepper
|25 g
|⅓ cup
|200 g
|Shaved ham
|2 Tbsp
|Parmesan cheese
- Heat oven to 200 degC. Rub potatoes with oil and season with salt and pepper. Prick each potato all over four or five times with the tip of a sharp knife. Place the potatoes in an oven pan and bake for 1 hour or until cooked.
- Remove potatoes from the oven, allow to cool and slice in half. Using a spoon, scoop out the potato flesh from each half, leaving a 1cm-thick shell. Place potato halves on a baking tray.
- Mash the removed potato flesh, beat in the butter and milk and season well with salt and pepper. Pack the ham filling into the centre four of the potato halves and top with a spoonful of mash. Sprinkle with parmesan.
- Spread remaining mash into the remaining potato halves to form a nest for the eggs. Break one egg into the centre of each and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes to cook the eggs and turn the potato mash golden brown.
SarahJonesadded 2597 days ago
This was a hit here with the adults and children. I served this with a dish of salad vegetables. The leftover mash will be used next time to stuff some Sausages for the next nights meal or school lunches - perfect!


text:
X-FAB's approach in meeting the automotive quality goals is based on more than 15 years of experience in wafer manufacturing for the automotive industry. Automotive ICs work in harsh environments and have to fulfil rigorous automotive quality standards. X-FAB provides dedicated process technologies for automotive usage.
The environment is mainly characterized by special voltage and junction temperature ranges. Typical operating voltages for the IC are mostly higher than the usual car battery voltage of approximately 14V because of allowed overvoltage conditions and conditions that can happen in special cases, like jump start, generator load dump, pre-defined high-voltage and high-energy pulses. Although some of these board voltage effects are filtered by separate outside protection circuitry, the IC has to withstand higher voltages or operate during these conditions. For this purpose various automotive process technologies with different maximum voltage levels are offered.
The typical automotive IC needs to operate under extreme temperature conditions. The normal temperature range for automotive processes is -40°C to +125°C, but for under-the-hood applications X-FAB's high temperature technologies are available which provide junction temperature capabilities up to 175°C. To support the designers to create robust automotive designs, SPICE models are carefully characterized over the extended temperature range, are provided with statistical data and with 6σ corners.
Automotive wafers are manufactured with a 0 ppm mindset, are fulfilling rigorous automotive quality standards, and are TS 16949 certified.


text:
FR Doc E8-21116[Federal Register: September 11, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 177)]
[Page 52833-52834]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records
AGENCY: Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
ACTION: Proposed routine use; request for public comment.
SUMMARY: The CFTC proposes to adopt a new routine use that would permit
disclosure of CFTC records governed by the Privacy Act when reasonably
necessary to respond and prevent, minimize, or remedy harm that may
result from an agency data breach or compromise.
DATES: The deadline for public comments is October 14, 2008. Comments
received after that date will be considered at the CFTC's discretion.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties are invited to submit written comments.
Reference should be made to ``Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records.''
Comments should be mailed or delivered to: Commodity Futures Trading
Commission, 1155 21st Street, NW., Washington, DC 20581, Attention:
Office of the Secretariat. Comments may be sent by facsimile to
202.418.5521, or by e-mail to [email protected]
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gail Scott, Attorney, CFTC, Office of
General Counsel, 1155 21st Street, NW., Washington, DC 20581, 202-418-
5139, [email protected]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974,
5 U.S.C. 552a, and as recommended in the Office of Management and
Budget Memorandum M-07-16 (Attachment 2), this document provides public
notice that the CFTC is proposing to adopt a new ``routine use'' that
will apply to all CFTC records systems covered by the Privacy Act of
1974. The Act applies to agency systems of records about individuals
that the agency maintains and retrieves by name or other personal
identifier, such as its personnel and payroll systems and certain other
CFTC records systems. A list of the agency's current Privacy Act
systems of records can be viewed on the CFTC's Web site at: http://
index.htm. The new routine use would be added to the section General
Statement of Routine Uses, which describes routine uses that apply
globally to all CFTC Privacy Act records systems.
This new routine use is needed in order to allow for disclosure of
records to appropriate persons and entities for purposes of response
and remedial efforts in the event of a breach of data contained in the
protected systems. This routine use will facilitate an effective
response to a confirmed or suspected breach by allowing for disclosure
to individuals affected by the breach, in cases, if any, where such
disclosure is not otherwise authorized under the Act. This routine use
will also authorize disclosures to others who are in a position to
assist in response efforts, either by assisting in notification to
affected individuals or otherwise playing a role in preventing,
minimizing, or remedying harms from the breach.
The Privacy Act authorizes the agency to adopt routine uses that
are consistent with the purpose for which information is collected and
subject to that Act. 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(3); see also 5 U.S.C. 552a(a)(7).
The CFTC believes that it is consistent with the collection of
information pertaining to such individuals to disclose Privacy Act
records when, in doing so, it will help prevent, minimize or remedy a
data breach or compromise that may affect such individuals. By
contrast, the CFTC believes that failure to take reasonable
[[Page 52834]]
steps to help prevent, minimize the harm that may result from such a
breach or compromise would jeopardize, rather than promote, the privacy
of such individuals. Accordingly, the Commission concludes that it is
authorized under the Privacy Act to adopt a routine use permitting
disclosure of Privacy Act records for such purposes.
In accordance with the Privacy Act, see 5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(4) and
(11), the CFTC is publishing notice of this routine use and giving the
public a 30-day period to comment before adopting it as final. The CFTC
is also providing at least 40 days advance notice of this proposed
system notice amendment to OMB and the Congress, as required by the
Act, 5 U.S.C. 552a(r), and OMB Circular A-130, Revised, Appendix I. We
note that the text of this routine use is taken from the routine use
that has already been published in final form by the Department of
Justice after public comment. See 72 FR 3410 (Jan. 25, 2007).
Similarly, after taking into account comments, if any, received by the
CFTC, the CFTC intends to publish its proposed routine use as final
after the period for OMB and Congressional review is complete,
including whatever revisions may be deemed appropriate or necessary, if
Accordingly, the CFTC hereby proposes to amend the section General
Statement of Routine Uses of its Privacy Act system notices, as
published at 66 FR 41842, by adding the following new routine use at
the end of the existing routine uses set forth in that Appendix:
* * * * *
To appropriate agencies, entities, and persons when (1) the CFTC
suspects or has confirmed that the security or confidentiality of
information in the system of records has been compromised; (2) the CFTC
has determined that as a result of the suspected or confirmed
compromise there is a risk of harm to economic or property interests,
identity theft or fraud, or harm to the security or integrity of this
system or other systems or programs (whether maintained by the CFTC or
another agency or entity) that rely upon the compromised information;
and (3) the disclosure made to such agencies, entities, and persons is
reasonably necessary to assist in connection with the CFTC's efforts to
respond to the suspected or confirmed compromise and prevent, minimize,
or remedy such harm.
By direction of the Commission on September 8, 2008.
David A. Stawick,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. E8-21116 Filed 9-10-08; 8:45 am]
Last Updated: September 11, 2008


text:
Hunky Actor Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis's beautiful daughter Lily-Rose, 11, reccently met Justin Bieber. Johnny recently appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and revealed his daughter Lily-Rose is a big fan of Bieber. Asked if Lily-Rose likes Justin Bieber, he said: 'Oh yes she does, but I'm not sure anyone's daughter doesn't.' Letterman then went on to ask Johnny if being in showbiz has meant they've ever met. To this, Depp relied: 'There is that weird connection, I've met the young man and... [he's] a very sweet kid... He was playing a concert and my daughter Lily-Rose was desperate to go to the show and we got tickets and passes and things like that.'[We] brought her to the show and introduced them and it was quite... astonishing to see your child in this kind of frozen...'
Johnny Depp's daughter Lily-Rose "froze" when meeting Justin Bieber
Posted by Alisa on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 / Labels: Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis / Comments: (0)
Pregnant Actress Hilary Duff going to Pilates workout in Los Angeles, CA on yesterday (November 1). Hilary and her husband Mike Cormie are expecting their first child in 2012.
Linda's Lovely Lad
Posted by Alisa / Labels: Model Moms / Comments: (0)
Model Linda Evangelista and her beautiful son Augustin, 5, walking in New York City yesterday (November 1). Augustin's father is Linda's ex-boyfreind French Businessman Francois-Henri Pinault.
Show your support by clicking on the Ads!
L.A. Ladies
Is Justin Bieber a father?
Singer Justin Bieber, 17, has been accused of fathering a child with Maria Yeater, 20. Yeater claims she meet Bieger backstage at one of his concerts. Mariah Yeater was 19 at the time and he was 16, which could mean the woman could be charged with statutory rape of a a minor in California. Yeater has filed a lawsuit against Bieber and wants a paternity test. Maria's baby is three months old.
Expectant Beyonce's night out on the town!
Mom to be and pop star Beyonce was spotted on today (November st) around NYC. Hubby Jay Z wasn't along for the outing.
Gavin's and Gwen's little preschooler1
Singer and front-man of the band 'Bush' Gavin Rossdale, was seen taking son Zuma,3, Gavin was seen taking Zuma to preschool in Los Angelos, California.


text:
Surgical residents perform better in OR if they receive structured training in simulated environment
New research has shown that surgical residents who received structured training in a simulated environment perform significantly better when they start operating on patients.
The results of the study by researchers at St. Michael's Hospital were so convincing that the University of Toronto implemented the training program they developed even before their research was published in the July issue of the Annals of Surgery.
"Often surgical residents came to the OR and we didn't know whether they had the skills or the knowledge to perform safe surgery. Their education took place in the OR under the guidance of an experienced surgeon," said Dr. Teodor Grantcharov, a surgeon at St. Michael's and one of the researchers.
"Now we are moving that learning curve from the OR to a virtual environment. Only people who demonstrate proficiency are allowed to come to the OR."
Dr. Grantcharov and Dr. Vanessa Palter, a U of T surgical resident at St. Michael's, said that even though preventable medical errors contribute to between 9,000 and 24,000 deaths in Canada each year, there was no effective mechanism to ensure that residents have the skills and knowledge to perform safe surgery.
They devised a study in which surgical residents were divided into two groups. One group received the conventional training for laparoscopic colorectal surgeryremoving a tumour from the colon. The other group trained on a virtual reality simulator, received cognitive training (when and how to operate, how to work as a team) and practiced surgery on cadavers.
After five months of training, each resident performed a laparoscopic right hemicolectomy (removed a tumour from the right side of the colon) that was videotaped and analyzed by outside experts.
Those who went through the simulated training performed the procedure significantly better and did better on a multiple choice test.
They scored an average of 16 out of 20 on technical performance, double the 8 out of 20 score for those who underwent the conventional training. On the multiple choice test of their knowledge of the procedure they scored 10 out of 18, compared to 7.5 out of 18 for those in the conventional program.
"We are very proud to bring this groundbreaking research into the U of T general surgery curriculum," said Dr. Andy Smith, the Bernard and Ryna Langer Chair of the division of general surgery at U of T. "It is a fine example of knowledge translation: education research implemented into the 'real world' of surgical education."
Dr. Grantcharov said he has received inquiries from medical schools around the world regarding the curriculum he and Dr. Palter developed. This curriculum currently applies to colorectal procedures but they are designing similar approaches for a number of other high-risk procedures.
"We're excited that it actually makes a difference," he said.
Explore further


text:
HistoryPoints News
Sep 5, 2017
Cathedral resurrected from ashes
Take a look inside the Metropolitan Cathedral of St David, in Cardiff city centre, and you may find it hard to believe that the interior fittings and roof didn't exist 70 years ago. The Luftwaffe ...
Category: General
Posted by: RhodriC
had dropped an incendiary bomb on the building in 1941, destroying the oak rood screen and other fittings. Restoration was completed in 1959. For more about the building's history as a Catholic parish church and later as a cathedral, use your mobile to scan the HistoryPoints QR codes on the gatepost to the left of the entrance on Charles Street. Or click here


text:
This past Saturday, Matt and I hosted our second annual friendsgiving. We tried to source as much of our food/drinks from local sources as we possibly could, so our veggies, turkey, wine, beer, meats, cheeses, and candies were all from neighboring farms.
My two sous chefs were, as usual, more than eager to help with prepping the dressing and the sweet potatoes!
The kids table was not set with plates, rather we made them each a little coloring packet and crayon bundle. The craft paper was also up for coloring!
We picked up a HUGE turkey from a farm near the gym we go to. Matt brined and roasted it and it was AMAZING.


text:
Editor's note: Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter" and "Governing America." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Labor Day used to be a big deal for the Democratic Party. For much of the 20th century, organized labor was at the heart of Democratic politics. Unions were a driving force that gave the party its heart and its muscle.
Unfortunately for Democrats, the importance of organized labor has diminished dramatically since the 1970s. Union membership has declined from nearly 30% of the workforce in the 1960s, according to the Congressional Research Service, to what the Bureau of Labor Statistics pegs at about 11% today. Politically, unions have become more controversial among Democrats: Once the status quo among Democrats, now they are often seen as outliers.
Many Democrats since the 1960s, including some environmentalists and civil rights advocates, concluded that unions were too often in opposition to their goals. Even though he came from a progressive background, President Obama has repeatedly disappointed union leaders with his failure to support key proposals that would make it easier for unions to grow.
The loss of organized labor's clout within the workforce and among the Democrats has been a devastating loss for the party. As the party turned away from this constituency and hesitated to support policies that would reverse the damaging trends that have hindered union membership, they have lost an animating force that could help sustain them in their struggles against a rightward bound Republican Party.
The relationship has a long, important history. The union movement was pivotal to the success of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s. FDR and northern Democrats pursued policies greatly benefiting the organization of industrial workers in Northern states like Michigan and Wisconsin.
In 1935, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (also known as the Wagner Act), which formally gave workers the right to join a union and created the National Labor Relations Board, ensuring that employers allowed legitimate elections to take place. In 1936, Roosevelt said: "The Fourth of July commemorates our political freedom. Labor Day symbolizes our determination to achieve an economic freedom for the average man which will give his political freedom reality."
While FDR's policies benefited workers, including the new Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, labor came out in droves for the Democrats. They rallied workers on Election Day, encouraged their members to show support for the party that had helped them, raised money to help Democrats succeed, and their lobbyists on Capitol Hill constantly helped round up votes for a liberal agenda that ranged from bills that directly benefited workers to other measures with even greater constituencies. At the height of its power, the civil rights movement relied heavily on union leaders like Walter Reuther to win support for legislation in Congress.
Unions were not simply useful allies; their core mission embodied the basic goals of the Democratic Party after FDR. The entire point of collective bargaining was to create an economic system that would ensure a base of financial security for a large number of workers. Unions could fight for the kinds of jobs that would create a ladder for hardworking Americans to enter into the middle class.
Without unions and the kinds of policies they helped Democrats find support for, leaders like Reuther realized, there would be very little to prevent the middle class from gradually withering away. From a very early moment in the century—long before economist Thomas Piketty was publishing his controversial book on inequality, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" —unions insisted that the organizational basis of economic opportunity depended on workers acting in unison.
The situation for organized labor took a terrible turn starting in the 1970s. Many of the industries that were most heavily unionized in Northern states weakened. Owners moved factories and their jobs to Southern states, which had tough right-to-work laws that made it illegal to force workers in an organized workplace to join the union and pay dues, or transported business overseas.
Many of the most vibrant parts of the economy, such as the service and high-tech sector, did not offer unionized jobs. Federal policies were no longer hospitable to unions. Conservatives turned to legislation like the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) to squeeze union power. Some workers from unions turned to the Republican Party as part of the backlash to liberalism that unfolded after the 1960s.
As labor became less important, a large number of Democrats became cool to unions. President Carter angered union leaders in the late 1970s when he pushed for fiscal austerity and didn't back legislation that would have protected boycotts. President Clinton clashed with unions over issues, including the NAFTA free trade treaty, while President Obama disappointed many when he didn't push for the Employee Free Choice Act in 2009 and 2010.
This tension is one that Democrats need to ease. Not only would the party benefit from healthier, more harmonious ties to the union movement, but also benefit from making the expansion of union membership and protection of labor rights a more central part of its national agenda.
In an era when so many Americans worry about growing economic inequality and are desperate for answers to how the federal government and the private marketplace can stop the damage to the middle class, stronger support for unions would be a powerful step for Democrats to take.
"As unions shrank," wrote Harold Meyerson, "inequality grew." Democrats could offer a real alternative. It would offer a stark contrast to a Republican Party that has been extremely aggressive, at the national and state level, in its attacks on unions and the organization of the workforce.
Only if Democrats take this step will they be able to nurture the part of their political coalition that was once so strong but is now so frail. Only then will Democrats once again start to celebrate and appreciate the importance of Labor Day to their party.
Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine.
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.


text:
AACUL is a voluntary membership association for credit union leagues which are members of the Credit Union National Association.
The Purpose of AACUL is to assist in the development of its member organizations and to advise and recommend to management and policy makers within the credit union movement regarding the formulation and implementation of policy by:
- Providing a forum for sharing ideas, discussing issues and encouraging timely two-way communications between its membership and the entire Credit Union System.
- Providing opportunities for evaluation and strengthening of member organizations through advocacy, professional development and other activities.
- Encouraging and enabling member organizations to use best practices in the delivery of products and services to credit unions.
- Encouraging representatives from member organizations to serve on policy-making bodies of the Credit Union System and other appropriate organizations.


text:
There are still small indicators of cultural difference between Australia and Britain, even in this homogenised world.
The Australian penchant for chancing, maybe even for gambling, is exemplified thousands of times a day at ATMs. People form lines in front of each machine, trying to guess which will move more quickly. An older person or someone with lots of shopping at the front? Get out of that queue!
Here in England, almost without exception, people form one orderly line and split to whichever ATM ("cashpoint", to most of them) becomes available first.
In recent weeks, I have seen another phenomenon in England that I don't think would ever occur in Australia: the masses having sympathy for the taxman.
When news broke that multi-nationals such as Google, Amazon and Starbucks were avoiding tax by funnelling profits through their overseas affiliates, people were outraged to the extent of setting up Facebook action pages and organising boycotts.
"That's schools and roads that weren't being built" was the reasoning.
I know this might be a cliched way of looking at national stereotypes, but my former AAP sports editor Bill Allan used to say cliches are there for a reason – there is inherent truth in them. And I find it hard to imagine too many Australians siding with the tax man in any circumstances.
Which is why the NSW government's new policy on suburban grounds is interesting.
In the UK, the European Union's plan to give money to wealthy professional soccer clubs was panned in the press this week. But Australians tend to pan governments for not giving professional sporting clubs money for ground upgrades.
I am not prepared to come out and say that Leichhardt, Campbelltown, Brookvale, Penrith and Kogarah do not deserve more funding. In the short-to-medium term, they probably do. But in the end, clubs have the discretion to take their bigger games to bigger stadia. Do you, the tax and rate-payer, want five or six Sydney Football Stadium's to pop up around the city, one for each NRL club?
That is, if it comes out of your tax and rates. If it came from the NRL's $1.025 billion worth of TV rights, then perhaps your answer would be different. It's easy parochial mileage to bleat about the death of suburban grounds, but the move away from them – just like the retreat from shoulder charges and playing concussed – is progress. Complain all you like; it's going to happen.
Eventually, we need to let the government fund grassroots sport and let big-time professional sport fund itself. John Grant keeps talking about the "business" of rugby league; relying less on taxpayer's cash is one of the consequences of this change in focus.
I will say this: if rugby league cannot survive without poker-machine income, it doesn't deserve to survive at all.
What about Festivus?
NEXT Monday is officially Sir Kevin Sinfield Day, in honour of England's current captain.
The day has been declared by Leeds Rhinos so we know it will be observed worldwide. We all know that on Christmas Day we give presents. At Easter we give Easter eggs.
What should we do to mark Sinfield Day?
Perhaps, kick a goal – literally or figuratively. Either boot a Steeden between the posts at your local park or ask for a raise or get engaged.
Perhaps you could watch Seinfeld, since that's how Kevin's name was spelt in a match program during an early representative appearance.
Or shave your hair so you look like you're balding, since BBC commentator Claire Balding said Sinfield was "the most impressive sportsman I've seen".
Write in and tell Discord how you spent Kevin Sinfield Day.
Let's go to the comments
FEEDBACK now: thanks for all the comments, on various platforms including leaguehq.com.au and stevemascord.com.
Pangkag Rao said sometimes the ball carrier was responsible for a shoulder charge. When the attacker drops his shoulder, the defender has to use his shoulder too. He also pointed out that when an offensive player was over the line and upright, the fullback often had little alternative but to shoulder charge and attempt to jolt the ball loose. Both good points – particularly the second one. It will be interesting to see if we have any penalties for in-goal shoulder charges.
Luke McMahon highlights the fact that we used to see the replacement rule as a "safety" issue and we went to unlimited replacements at one stage. Then we reined it in – and it was miraculously not a safety issue any more. He wants to severely limit replacements, to the point where only injured players can be interchanged. I think that might be a bit overboard – we have reintroduced fatigue by reducing interchanges already. But the big question is: should we ask medicos for their input on this, or should we wait for them to speak up if they see fit?
Zeeman made the point that other sports are becoming more dangerous. He has a good argument, but I don't see athletes continuing on with terrible injuries like they used to suffer in rugby league. Sure, formula one is dangerous, but we are not trying to convince hundreds of thousands of kids to participate in formula one every Saturday morning.
AO said tackling itself was probably more dangerous than shoulder charges. But you can have rugby league without shoulder charges, you can't have it without tackling. So that's why they targeted something expendable, I guess.
John of Brisbane, I bow to your superior historical knowledge on mediaeval executions. I wanted to read up on it in response, but the whole thing makes me queasy. However, Guy Fawkes did manage to die before he was drawn and quartered, by jumping from the hangman's block. But yes, I relied too much on the plaque in York. The aim was not to kill with the noose. Gulp.
Ausgronk, who is going to be throwing rugby league to the wolves? The ARL Commission?
I asked readers if next season was really going to be the longest ever. Bilko of Wigan said the longest was 295 days, in 1946-1947. David Brown writes on Twitter: "In 1962/63 season Hull KR first game was 18/8/62 last game 1/6/63 with no play off."
Put your comments below, but if you don't want to wait a week for a response, you can go here.


text:
Shop our greige textiles masks | In Stock Now!
check out our new arrivals!
check out our new arrivals
February 17, 2014
October 16, 2020
Continue Reading
September 26, 2020
September 19, 2020
Sign up for our emails and save!
Subscribe to keep up with the latest edits + sales
Save 10% off of your first order!


text:
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas' shortfall in its Medicaid program in 2013 will be even higher than officials expected and could hit $400 million, the state's Department of Human Services (DHS) said Thursday.
Medicaid serves elderly people who need nursing home care as well as poor people of all ages.
DHS spokeswoman Amy Webb said officials now estimate the Medicaid program will face between a $350 million and $400 million shortfall in the budget year that begins July 1, 2013. Officials had originally estimated the program would need at least $250 million in additional money that year.
Webb said officials revised their estimates on the expected deficit over the past few weeks, and said the estimate was changed after budget hearings began in January.
"We knew it was going to be higher, but we were focused on the upcoming year's budget in the budget hearings and getting ready for those," Webb said.
Webb said the increase stems from a $60 million shortfall the program had expected for the coming year not materializing and because of a drop in the federal matching rate for the program.
Gov. Mike Beebe's budget for the coming fiscal year proposes a $114 million increase for Medicaid. Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the figure doesn't change the governor's proposal for the coming year and said Beebe wants to study the reasons for DHS revising the estimate.
"He's not fully convinced of that number yet," he said.
Beebe, a Democrat, had rejected a spending cut proposal from House Republicans that would have paid for $14 million of his proposed Medicaid increase from the state's surplus and would have set aside another $25 million from the surplus to help with the shortfall in 2013.
Beebe had said using the one-time money for the budget that begins on July 1 would only exacerbate the problem because it would still face the ongoing need the following year. DeCample said using the money for the shortfall in 2013 is still a possibility when the Legislature convenes that year.
"The governor's feeling is that money is not going to go anywhere, so let's wait until January until we have 10 more months of an overall picture of where we are as a state," DeCample said.
Earlier Thursday, Burris pointed to the larger shortfall as one of the reasons had pushed for more spending cuts in Beebe's budget.
"If nothing else, I hope we highlighted the crisis with Medicaid," said Burris, R-Harrison. "It's not just coming. It's here."
The federal government last year gave Arkansas permission to explore changing the way it pays medical providers for services, and Webb said DHS plans to begin rolling out those reforms in July in a handful of Medicaid programs.
Webb said officials hope the changes will help curb the costs of Medicaid, but it won't eliminate the shortfall the program faces.
"In the long term, we think it will help us make Medicaid sustainable but we know it's not going to fix the short term problem," Webb said.


text:
The 3 of May is a national holiday in Poland. It is a celebration of the anniversary of the proclamation of the constitution in 1791. It was the first constitution in Europe, the second one in the world – after the American. The idea of the constitution was to reconstruct and strength the state by introducing democratical way of governing the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and give more rights to the citizens, and develop special program to protect peasants.
Unfortunately the reformates' could enjoy the victim of the constitution over the conservative groups only for 14 months. Under the pretext of defense the previous system and support the conservative opposition, Poland was attacked by a Russian Army in 1792. A desperate struggle to defend the constitution has failed. Poland fell under the rule of three neighboring countries (Prussia, Austria and Russia) despite of the Kościuszko insurrection (1794). Eventually Poland lost independents for over 100 years. However the spirit of the ideas of the constitution , the memory of the insurrection, a strong desire for freedom has never disappeared and after several uprisings and military activities during the First World War Poland regain its independence in 1918.
The May 3 was celebrated officially on 1972. Later on it was banned by the occupants, but unofficial celebration has been continued to keep alive Polish aspirations for freedom. It was again made an official Polish holiday in April 1919 under the Second Polish Republic. During the communist time it was removed from the list of national holidays and in 1990, after the fail of the regime, the 3 May was restored again and became the most important civil holiday. For Poles the celebration of the May 3 Constitution is considered as a symbol of the best tradition of the history of the state and Polish culture.