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Follow the signs for Shek O. You will see the beach.
DistanceTake a car
WalkInstant access (< 5min)
Easy to find?Easy to find
Public access?Public access
Special accessDon't know
Wave qualityRegional Classic
ExperienceExperienced surfers
FrequencyDon't know
DirectionRight and left
PowerHollow, Ordinary
Normal lengthShort (< 50m)
Good day lengthShort (< 50m)
Good swell directionSouth, SouthEast, East
Good wind directionNorth, NorthWest, West
Swell sizeStarts working at Less than 1m / 3ft and holds up to 2.5m+ / 8ft+
Best tide positionAll tides
Best tide movementRising and falling tides
Week crowdEmpty
Week-end crowdFew surfers
- Rips / undertow
- Pollution
Go here when Big Wave Bay is big and not working. It is a sponger only spot, since it is a shorebreak, but when it is big a shortboarder can ride it. Watch out for the rips, which are quite visible. Not many people know about this spot, until it was in the news, showing some spongers in a typhoon. You need a big winter swell or a typhoon swell for it to go off.
Nice little town, tranquil compared to the rest of Hong Kong. Don't even go there when it is small, unless you want to chill on the beach.
Good, cuz no kooks go there, since there is no places to rent boards from. Usually not many people.
Author: Anonymous Contributors (1) They surfed this spot ! (12)
No video available
|No surf session
|No surf trip
By dyin' to get stoked , 12-06-2007
I wanna surf!!!! - yes, i wanna surf. but i wonder if someone would tell me how the hell do i bring my board onto a bus or a mini van...I have a 6'2, decent size, but wonder if the bus driver's nice enough...
By Anonymous , 02-01-2007
How to check when it works? - I am moving back to HK in Jan and like to keep on surfing there (actually body board). How can I check that Check O is working before I take a ride from central? Any reliable web site where I can check the swell? It the spot really sensitive to the wind? Thanks for your advise
By shek o local lahhhh , 05-12-2006
shek o surf - yeahh theres surf this time of year mann, easy enough to get to, catch the mtr (railway) to shau kei wan, get off at the exit saying bus terminus, go to the end of the terminus and catch the number 9. the number 9 ends in shek o so youll know when your there. easy enough to find, bring your own board though, no rentals in shek o. if you need to rent, better of visiting dai long wan hong kong side.
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Healthcare Reform: An Overview of Key Concepts
This article describes the overriding goals and concepts discussed in the healthcare reform plans currently under consideration by the Congress. Specifically, the article discusses the concept of a public option as part of healthcare reform, the concept of providing universal coverage and the issue of how to pay for healthcare reform. The article also touches on several other key issues.
1. Overriding goal. Three of the core concepts related to healthcare reform are cost containment, universal access and high quality. There is a common belief that two of the three goals can be readily achieved. For example, one can provide full access and lower cost but not achieve high quality. In contrast, a system can provide high quality and cost containment but not provide full access. However, it is difficult to achieve all three elements. Pres. Obama has stated that his two basic requirements for a healthcare bill are that the bill expand insurance coverage and make medical care more affordable. In essence, access and cost containment as opposed to quality are his two key goals.
Three core healthcare reform plans are currently being debated in Congress. A House of Representatives plan, a Senate Finance Committee plan and a Senate Health Education, Labor and Pension plan.
The means of paying for healthcare reform include certain easily achievable savings from efforts such as attacking fraud and abuse, reducing waste and adding information technology. These concepts tend to be politically appealing but do not cover the costs of significant healthcare reform.
Other ways to achieve savings that could help fund healthcare reform include rationing care, lowering reimbursement to providers and/or increasing taxes. Each of these approaches is, politically, much more challenging.
2. A public plan. There are three core models for a public plan. First, there is the type of public plan included in the healthcare reform proposal currently under consideration by the House of Representatives. This uses Medicare infrastructure and pays providers Medicare plus 5 percent to providers.
A second core plan is a weaker public program that acts like an insurer but cannot access Medicare rates. In essence, it uses some of the existing Medicare infrastructure but must negotiate provider rates independently.
A third public plan, called a "trigger plan," only commences if certain criteria are met.
The view of providers and payors toward introducing a public plan is generally very negative. Payors tend to view the public plan as providing significant competition for enrollees. The typical premiums that would be part of the public plan are estimated to be $100-$200 a month less for a family or individual than comparable commercial plan premiums.
For example, the Lewin Group estimates that a family on a public plan would pay $738 a month versus $917 a month on average. This lower cost option means that when a public plan is fully integrated into the system, one would see a significant number of beneficiaries migrate away from commercial plans and into the new public plan. The Lewin Group estimates that 122 million Americans would, in year three of the public option, migrate to a pubic plan from commercial plans. This type of migration, coupled with lower rates paid to providers, would lead to substantial drops in income for hospitals, physicians and other providers. The Lewin Group estimates that this type of migration together with the "Medicare plus 5 percent" fee schedule will lead to a drop in hospital income of approximately $31 billion by the third year of the public plan and a drop in physician income of approximately $16,200 per physician, totaling approximately $11.5 billion for all physicians collectively. In light of these predictions, it comes as no surprise that physicians and hospitals overall have great concern regarding the adoption of a significant public plan.
The House Plan and the Senate HELP Plan each include very substantial public options. The Senate Finance Committee, led by Sen. Max Baucus (D), has resisted calls by many Democrats to include in its reform proposal a government-run insurance plan that would compete with private payors.
Four perspectives on a public plan are as follows. These provide some insight into the differing views toward the introduction of a public plan.
a. Karl Rove (Against) reports that "[t]he Lewin Group estimates 70% of people with private insurance — 120 million Americans — will quickly lose what they now get from private companies and be forced onto the government-run tools as businesses decide it is more cost-effective for them to drop coverage." (Karl Rove, How to Stop Socialized Health Care, Wall Street Journal, (June 11, 2009) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124467554761003963.html
b. Robert Reich (For) "…The public option has become such a lightening rod. The American Medical Association is dead-set against it, Big Pharma rejects it out of hand, and the biggest insurance companies won't consider it. No other issue in the current health-care debate is as fiercely opposed by the medical establishment and their lobbies now swarming over Capital Hill.
"Of course, they don't want it. A public option would squeeze their profits and force them to undertake major reforms. That's the whole point. Critics say the public option is really a Trojan horse for a government takeover of all health insurance. But nothing could be further from the truth. It's an option. No one has to choose it. Individuals and families will merely be invited to compare costs and outcomes. Presumably they will choose the public plan only if it offers them and their families the best deal — more and better health care for less. Private insurers say a public option would have an unfair advantage in achieving this goal. Being the one public plan, it will have large economies of scale that will enable it to negotiate more favorable terms with the pharmaceutical companies and other providers. But why, exactly, is this unfair? Isn't the whole point of cost containment to provide the public with health care on more favorable terms? If the public plan negotiates better terms – thereby demonstrating that drug companies and other providers can meet them — private plans could seek similar deals.
"But, say the critics, the public plan starts off with an unfair advantage because it's likely to have lower administrative costs. That may be true – Medicare's administrative costs per enrollee are a small fraction of typical private insurance costs – but here again, why exactly is this unfair? Isn't one of the goals of healthcare costs containment to lower administrative costs? If the public option pushes private plans to trim their bureaucracies and become more efficient, that's fine." (Why We Need a Public Health-Care Plan, Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2009)
c. The Commonwealth Fund (For) recently published a study in which it compared estimated impacts of a public plan with (1) reimbursement at Medicare levels, (2) a public plan with reimbursement between Medicare and private levels and (3) a purely private system.
Estimates indicate that premiums for the public plan choice in the Public Plan with Medicare Payment Rates path would initially be 25 percent below those currently available for a comparable benefit package in the private individual/small firm market and 16 percent lower under the Public Plan with Intermediate Payment Rates scenario.
Private plan premiums would initially be 3 percent lower within the exchange as it facilitates the process of choosing plans and reduces administrative costs, especially for individuals and small businesses. (Karen David, Cathy Schoen, and Stuart Guterman, Fork in the Road: Alternative Paths to a High Performance U.S. Health System, The Commonwealth Fund, June 2009)
d. David Burda, editor of Modern Healthcare (Against) commented as follows:
i. With Medicare and Medicaid patients representing more than half all hospital business, how did hospitals do it? [Record profits in 2007] We'll let MedPAC explain. In its March report, MedPAC said that starting in 2000, hospitals had "regained the upper hand in price negotiations (with private insurers) because of hospital consolidations and consumer backlash against managed care." Consequently, the rates paid by private insurers to hospitals rose so much that by 2007, private payers were reimbursing hospitals on average more than $1.32 on the dollar, according to MedPAC. Or, hospitals' profit margin on patients covered by private insurance was 32%.
ii. If you're still not convinced it would be a financial disaster, consider this: The new public insurance program would compete with private insurer plans by charging less for health benefits. If the public plan is taking in less revenue per enrollee, it certainly is not going to pay out more per enrollee for care. The new plan would be an even worse payer than Medicare or Medicaid. Then, where would providers turn to charge more to cover the shortfalls? To the fewer private plans whose ranks were thinned by competition from the new public health insurance program? Good luck with that, as they would be far less generous as they fight for survival against the new government program. (Public Enemy Number 1 –– A New Public Insurance Program Likely Will Shortchange Providers, June 29, 2009)
3. Covering the uninsured. Most people generally agree with the concept of covering the uninsured as a goal. In fact, this was the core goal of the Massachusetts plan which assures coverage to essentially all people in Massachusetts.
There are generally considered to be three large groups of the uninsured. These include people that are Medicaid eligible but not properly enrolled in Medicaid, people that are the working poor (in essence, people who if they bought healthcare insurance would use up such a substantial percentage of their income that they would be not able to afford other necessities) and, third, people that choose not to buy coverage but aren't Medicaid eligible or working poor. This last group includes people who are eligible but for whom insurance may be very expensive or they cannot obtain insurance (for example, they may have pre-existing conditions that preclude them from obtaining insurance) and people who choose not to buy insurance.
The Massachusetts plan provided individual and employer mandates. For individuals, it required people to buy health insurance. The Massachusetts plan also included efforts to help sign up the Medicaid eligible and provided significant subsidies for the working poor to buy insurance. The great problem with the Massachusetts plan to date is that it is far more expensive than previously anticipated.
A federal plan for covering the uninsured is likely to include certain types of mandates for individuals to buy insurance and for businesses to offer insurance. The mandates for individuals would include subsidies to the working poor (i.e., for people with low incomes up to approximately 300-400 percent of the federal poverty level), as well as a standardizing of Medicaid eligibility (e.g., 115 percent of the federal poverty level) so nationally there is one level of eligibility for Medicaid coverage. There will also be rules that prevent payors from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
The federal plan will also include employer mandates. These may require employers above a certain size to provide coverage to their employees (i.e., at least at a low level of basic benefits, and pay for at least half of those costs for full-time employees).
The general business community's thoughts on mandatory coverage for employers is quite negative. That stated, Wal-Mart has come out in favor of a mandatory coverage concept:
Wal-Mart breaks with business and fosters mandate
"Wal-Mart Backs Drive to Make Companies Pay for Health Coverage" (Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2009, Janet Adamy and Ann Zimmerman). "We are for an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage," said the letter, signed by Wal-Mart Chief Executive Mike Duke. Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, also signed the letter, along with John Podesta, who led Pres. Obama's transition team and is chief executive of the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning think tank.
The National Retail Federation, the industry's main lobby, said it was "flabbergasted" by Wal-Mart's move. "We have been one of the foremost opponents to employer mandate," said Neil Trautwein, vice president with the Washington-based trade group. "We are surprised and disappointed by Wal-Mart's choice to embrace an employer mandate in exchange for a promise of cost savings."
"Mr. Trautwein said an employer mandate is 'the single most destructive thing you could do to the health-care system shy of a single-payor system,' under which the government handles healthcare administration … The group believes forcing companies to provide insurance will raise costs for its members.
"Under the plans being discussed in Congress, small businesses would either be exempt from the mandate or face a less-onerous requirement. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said most of its members oppose an employer mandate, and it doesn't think Wal-Mart's stance will change that. "The kind that the groups in this letter support is the worst incarnation, the most dangerous policy," said James Gelfand, senior manager of health policy for the group, which represents three million businesses."
4. Paying for healthcare reform. There are several different possible ways of paying for healthcare reform. These include reductions in reimbursement (e.g., the pharmacy industry has pledged $55 billion in reductions, the hospital industry has pledged $155 billion in reductions and certain other reductions have also been discussed). The other substantial methods that are being looked at to pay for healthcare reform include taxing healthcare benefits (these are not currently taxed) or taxing healthcare benefits above a certain amount. The Democrats generally oppose taxing healthcare benefits. Sen. Baucus of the Senate Finance Committee has indicated an interest in taxing healthcare benefits above a certain amount. In essence, if someone receives more than $17,000 a year or $25,000 a year in healthcare benefits, they would be taxed on benefits in excess of such amount.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D), in contrast, has opposed the concept of taxing healthcare benefits.
"Working people in many cases have given up raises in pay and instead have gotten health benefits," said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, who is up for re-election next year. "So it seems unfair to now tax their benefits. I think that would be changing the rules in the middle of the game in a way that is so harmful and would set them back, so I have a real problem with that." (Democrats Divide Over a Proposal to Tax Health Benefits, New York Times, July 8, 2009)
The other core method for paying for healthcare benefits is an increased tax rate for high earners. This is an integral part of the House and Senate HELP Plan for paying for healthcare reform.
5. Other key issues. Certain of the other key issues that are part of healthcare reform include 1) the concept that an insurer cannot bar people with pre-existing conditions from coverage, and limiting insurers' ability to rate individuals and charge premiums based on differences in health conditions; (2) small group market reform essentially making it much easier for small business groups to obtain coverage; (3) a Web site portal that would provide a uniform place where individuals and businesses can compare benefits and costs of coverage from insurance companies (and exchange); (4) benefit rules and concepts providing minimum benefits and standardizing packages to be broken down into categories by lowest level, low, medium and high (in essence, standardizing benefits packages such that it is easier for people to shop for insurance); (5) subsidies to buy insurance or provide coverage for businesses or individuals; (6) standardizing Medicaid eligibility rules nationwide based on percentage of income; (7) creating a Medicare coverage option for people that are less than 65 years but older than 55 years; (8) possible incentives for preventative and healthy lifestyle; and (9) employee and employer mandates for full-time employees that require employers to buy at least the low option of coverage and cover at least 50 percent of the cost.
This provides a summary of some of key issues being debated as part of healthcare reform. Should you have additional questions or wish to discuss this further, please contact Scott Becker at (312) 750-6016 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
Mr. Becker and Ms. Mikula are attorneys with McGuireWoods.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Before asking a question, please let me write down settings.
Let $C$ be a category with fiber products and $B$ be a closed subcategory of $C$ (i.e. $B$ contains any isomorphism of $C$, and any base change of any morphism in $B$ is also a morphism in $B$).
Let $T$ be the topology on $C$ associated to $B$ (i.e. $Cov T$ consists of universal effective epimorphic families {$f_{i}:U_{i}\to U$} in $C$ such that each $f_{i}$ is a morphism in $B$).
Moreover, assume that the topology $T$ satisfies the following two conditions:
Condition I
Let $f,g,h$ be arbitrary morphisms in $C$, and assume that $h=gf$ and $h$ is in $B$.
If $g \in B$, then $f \in B$.
If ${f} \in CovT$, then $g \in B$.
Condition II
For any family of maps {$f_{i}:U_{i}\to X$} in $C$ for which there exists "disjoint union" $\coprod_{i} U_{i}$, then the induced map $\coprod_{i}U_{i}\to X$ is in $B$ if and only if $f_{i} \in B$ for all $i$.
Under the situation above,
Let $R$ be a categorical equivalence relation on an object $U \in C$ such that the two canonical projections $\pi_{i}: R\to U$ ($i=1,2$) are both covering maps of $U$ in the topology $T$.
And assume that this categorical equivalence has $T$-quotient $X$. This means that there exists a categorical quotient $p:U\to X$ of $\pi_{i}:R\to U$ such that the induced morphism of associated sheaves (on $T$) $p_{\ast}:h_{U} \to h_{X}$ is a categorical quotient of $\pi_{i \ast}:h_{R}\to h_{U}$ in the category of sheaves of sets on $T$.
(Then, one can prove that $R \cong U\times_{X}U$.)
Now, this is my QUESTION:
Is the map $p:U\to X$ a covering map in $T$ ?
In other words, is $p$ a universal effective epimorphism and satisfying $p\in B$ ?
I could prove a "converse" statement i.e. if $p:U\to X$ is a covering map of the topology $T$, then $\pi_{i}: U\times_{X}U \to U$ ($i=1,2$) is a categorical equivalence relation such that each $\pi_{i} \in CovT$ and has $p$ as a $T$-quotient.
But I could not prove the statement in my question.
Please give me any advice.


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Examining the operations of top RIA firms can help advisors understand critical elements of success, learn effective management strategies and emulate the best practices that are applicable to their own firms. Here is a closer look at the best practices of some of the most successful RIA firms in the marketplace.
We studied this group by separating top firms from the 300-plus RIA firms that participated in our most recent AdvisorBenchmaking survey, then compared the practices of that group with those of the entire survey population. We applied a multi-criteria score model to capture these top firms by examining three variables, and top firms needed: an AUM growth rate higher than 35% or profits per principal in the top decile; net profit margin in excess of 45%; and an offering of at least four services, including both investment management and financial planning.
This process identified 45 "top firms." As a group, they enjoyed a higher level of assets and showed they could build the size of their firms and improve the health of their businesses–which led to higher growth rates for top firms compared to average firms. While there is no magic formula to making an advisory practice an industry best, we spotted several trends worth noting among this year's top firms:
Higher growth targets. Over the next year, 56% of the top firms target a significant level of growth (from 11%-20%), compared with only 43% for the average firm.
A broad view of market threats. Top firms are also more aggressive in identifying and managing market threats, the most frequently cited being finding new clients and coping with increased compliance demands and with poor investment performance. About 46% of average firms saw finding new clients as a threat, compared with 62% of top firms. Increased compliance was a threat by 42% of average firms, but 51% of top firms. Poor investment performance was a threat by 22% of average firms, but 30% of top firms.
A focus on referrals. Top firms put a heavier emphasis on using existing clients as a referral source–58% versus 47% for the average firm, when evaluating key drivers of growth over the next five years. They are also less likely than the average firm to expect organic growth of the existing client base.
A comprehensive marketing mix. When we reviewed the marketing mix of top firms, we noted some interesting areas of divergence, but the most striking result was that top firms plan to make more use of a variety of marketing methods. Possibly due to their higher growth targets, top firms are taking a much more aggressive and comprehensive approach to developing a marketing program. Overall, the likelihood of having a written marketing plan was the same for the two groups, but top firms were including many more components in their plans. Of note was their much higher usage of events marketing and direct mail. Also interesting was their web savvy and in using webinars as a complement to their events programs.
Investment discipline. We did not poll firms specifically on their investment philosophy, but several points from the top-performer analysis came together to suggest that these firms take a more nuanced and strategic approach to how and when they use specific kinds of assets. Overall, they are much more concerned about poor investment performance, and this was the first indication of a difference in investment discipline. In addition, we saw some significant differences in the way they use both ETFs and alternative investments.
Top firms are more likely to select ETFs for factor or asset exposure or trading and transparency. They are more likely to use alts for "a select few clients" and only half as likely to say they don't use them at all. To us, these combined results speak to a strong, well-informed investment process, in that top firms choose to deploy different types of vehicles, for different clients, for different reasons and objectives. And they are very deliberate and disciplined about doing so.
Not every firm can be top tier. But to thrive in today's investment advisory marketplace, it helps to emulate the practices of the firms that stay ahead of the risks that threaten their business and make the most of marketing plans and referrals. Aiming for consistently high growth, profitability and performance won't automatically make your firm the best, but it's almost guaranteed to make your firm better.
AdvisorBenchmarking is a research and analysis center focused on the registered investment advisor (RIA) marketplace. Study results quoted in this article are based on the 300-plus RIA firms that took the online survey in March-May 2011. The service is aimed at helping advisors grow and enhance their firms by comparing how their businesses fare against other advisors. Advisors also learn best practices of the most successful advisors in the business.
AdvisorBenchmarking is an affiliate of Guggenheim Investments. The analysis on AdvisorBenchmarking.com is based on the number of completed surveys and reflects only information from those surveys. This information is intended to be general in nature, and these overviews are no substitute for professional, legal or consulting advice. This information should not be construed as advice from Guggenheim Investments or any of its affiliates.


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Anti-tamper Techniques to Thwart Attacks on Smart Meters— Detecting magnetic tampering using hall-effect sensors: Magnetic Tamper Detection Testing
Anti-tamper Techniques to Thwart Attacks on Smart Meters— Detecting magnetic tampering using hall-effect sensors: TIDA-00839 Magnetic Tamper Detection Reference Design Features
Anti-tamper Techniques to Thwart Attacks on Smart Meters— Summary
Applications for Hall Effect Switches
Automotive Hall sensor rotary encoder reference design
Detecting magnetic tampering using hall-effect sensors
For anti-tampering, it is common to try to detect the presence of a strong magnet. In this section, we will cover the use of hall sensors for low-power detection of strong magnetic fields in three dimensions. Details on our magnetic tamper detection reference design, TIDA-00839, will be provided as well as some of the design considerations that were kept in mind when creating this reference design.
Hall Position Sensor Applications Overview
Hardening a meter against magnetic tamper attacks
In this section, we will cover how to harden a meter against these magnetic tamper attacks by using shunts for current sensors. For poly-phase implementations, I will go over how to use isolated delta sigma modulators to add the necessary isolation to use shunt current sensors and create magnetically immune poly-phase energy measurement systems. The TIDA-00601 and TIDA-01094 reference designs, which show how to implement a poly-phase isolated shunt measurement system, will be discussed as well as the associated AMC1304 high-side power supplies used in these designs.
Innovations in Current and Magnetic Sensing
Introduction to Rotary Position Sensors
Precision Magnetics – Solving the Stability Challenge in Isolated Current Sensing
Rapid prototyping function based on analog EVMs & BoosterPacks
Rapid prototyping fundamental functions
These videos provide understanding of the fundamental functions used for rapid prototyping on TI solutions with minimal or no programming, including the following:
- Implementing necessary prototyping functions such clocks/GPIO, Read A/D, I2C/SMBus, etc.
- Seamless interface of various analog EVMs for customer "proof of concept"
- Standalone UI – Button, (GP Input - GPIO), LCD Display ("Hello"), Music, Serial Interface (Putty, Echo)
Rapid prototyping: Getting started with TI solutions
How many times have you said, "I would like to prototype an idea with TI silicon but I can not get software resources" or "I don't know how to prototype/program."
This training shows you how to get started prototyping on TI solutions with minimal or no programming, including the following tasks:
Small Hall Effect Latch in Industrial Applications
TI Precision Labs - Magnetic Sensors
TI Precision Labs is the electronics industry's most comprehensive online classroom for analog engineers. The on-demand courses and tutorials include introductory ideas about device architecture in addition to advanced, application-specific problem-solving, using both theory and practical knowledge. Use these hands-on courses to predict circuit performance and move seamlessly from abstract concepts to specific formula in an easy-to-follow format. Industry experts present each topic in order to help reduce design time and move quickly from proof-of-concept to productization.
TI Precision Labs - Magnetic Sensors: Applications
There are a variety of applications for Hall Effect sensors, each with its own unique system requirement. The series of videos in this section will walk through some of the top Hall applications such as rotary encoding and proximity sensing.
TI Precision Labs - Magnetic Sensors: Bandwidth vs. Power Tradeoffs in Hall Effect Position Sensors
TI Precision Labs - Magnetic Sensors: Calculating Magnetic Fields
When designing Hall applications, understanding the behavior of magnetic fields is crucial. The series of videos in this section will discuss how magnetic fields vary with temperature and axis of rotation.
TI Precision Labs - Magnetic Sensors: Designing an Analog Proximity Sensor


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Corvette ZR1 -- ready to rock
Centuries from now when archeologists unearth the remains of this civilization, we hope among the countless Prius statues they will find at least one 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.
The ZR1 will serve to signify a time when a limited number of folks dared be politically incorrect by driving a V-8 coupe with the power of a rocket.
The ZR1 Corvette -- lovingly dubbed King of the Hill in 1990 when it bowed, because of the exhaust its rivals had to eat -- has returned for 2009 after a four-year absence.
In an age when mileage is sacred and speed is a sin, the ZR1 is an absolute blast. Sorry, Big Guy.
The ZR1 is propelled by a 6.2-liter, supercharged V-8. Its 638 horsepower are the most ever squeezed into a Chevy.
Stand on the pedal, the power generated as you slip the lever from second to third sucks the air out of every fiber of your body. First guy to travel this fast was named Armstrong, and he had to pause on the moon to catch his breath. At age 18, Twin No. 2 once came close on Interstate 94.
If the original was King of the Hill, this is Potentate of the Planet, with a top speed of 205 mph.
When the supercharger kicks in, it lets out a wail. While gas/electric hybrids have merits, none come to mind when turning three digits in a ZR1, and the V-8 still has power in reserve.
A 5-Series BMW tried catching up as if to pass. It eventually did, a minute or so after we stopped to jot down a few notes. Don't think that was a thumb the Bimmer driver raised.
The ZR1 combines amazing handling with its blistering speed.
It has holders for coffee cups or pop cans and a navigation system to find the nearest restaurant for a leisurely meal, amenities we found after three days on secluded country roads.
No time for such trivialities during playtime, and no USB port; there's a power plug under the armrest instead.
But, as colleague Jim Jackson noted, no use for iPod, much less radio, when piloting a 638-hp ship. "Radio should be a delete option," he noted.
Agreed. The sounds coming from the engine and the exhaust are music to the ears of the performance enthusiasts who have lined up to get one of the high-priced, limited-edition works of engineering art. When the supercharger goes to work and the exhaust starts to rumble, AM, FM and XM give way to rpm.
A couple of problems with a vehicle this potent, however, like finding an off-track place to enjoy it. We found a desolate spot in the country, though after about 30 minutes, a patrol car did, too. When joined by a second patrol car, it seemed more than coincidence, so we moved on -- a couple of times.
The ZR1 is sure-footed with its sports-tuned suspension and 20-inch performance radials. It holds flat in corners and turns, traction control preventing slippage at takeoff and stability control guarding against lateral wandering. Twist the console button and you move from a smooth "touring" setting to a firmer "sport" mode for the track. With a chin spoiler a couple of inches off the road, avoid steep driveways and any snow.
The cockpit is designed for room (as much as possible in a two-seater) and comfort (as much as possible sitting about 4 inches off the pavement) and to hold occupants in place. But, as we found, the safety belts tighten against the body automatically in power takeoffs. So we had to pull over every so often to loosen the straps and exhale.
The ZR1 is meant for aggressive motoring, but at recess don't expect to blend in with the scenery in an atomic-orange coupe, especially one sporting a supercharger under a Plexiglas shield in the hood and ZR1 supercharged badges on the fenders.
The 2009 ZR1 tested starts at $103,970, highest price ever commanded by a Chevrolet. A 3ZR package with custom leather interior trim, perforated leather sport bucket seats, navi system and Bose sound system runs $10,000; the atomic orange, $300; and freight, $960. And don't forget sales tax, no small change on a $103,000 machine.


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Sparks Fly at Pius XII London Debate
Scholars speaking in favour of Venerable Pope Pius XII and his wartime record managed to convince a significant number of people that the Pontiff did the best he could to save Jewish lives from the Holocaust, even if they failed to win over the majority of the audience at a recent lively debate in London.
The Intelligence Squared debate, held last Wednesday in front of a large audience of participants, heard four scholars debate the motion: "'Hitler's Pope': Pius XII did too little to save the Jews from the Holocaust".
Speaking for the motion were the British historian Viscount John Julius Norwich and UN jurist Geoffrey Robertson. Speaking against were William Doino, a leading expert on Pius XII and his wartime record, and Professor Ronald Rychlak, a law professor at the University of Mississippi and also a leading scholar on Pius.
The "Oxford Style" debate in which scholars debate the motion and the audience votes at the beginning and at the end, predictably provoked some heated discussions (see above).
Doino and Rychlak spent much of the evening presenting fact after fact in defense of Pius XII and in an attempt to counter the so-called "Black Legend," but their opponents were master performers who managed to convince many in the audience through sheer force of rhetoric and style.
"Those in favor of the motion made an eloquent argument and gave a superb performance," conceded Gary Krupp, founder of the Pave the Way Foundation which has been at the forefront of clearing Pius's name. But he added: "Unfortunately, it was totally based on erroneous mistranslated rhetoric, which has been repeated over and over again. The documentation we have posted online discredit each of the statements made by Robertson and Norwich."
"I also find it outrageous," Krupp continued, "when the revisionists make such eloquent conclusions about what Pius XII should have or could have done. They seem to be oblivious to the reality that the Pope acted in the middle of ground zero, under a constant threat against his Church and his life. I wonder, what did the Archbishop of Canterbury do to save Jews from the safety of London?"
Professor Rychlak and William Doino share their reflections on the debate with the Register below:
Professor Rychlak:
"Of course I was disappointed that the vote did not come out our way, but the room began about 3-1 against us and it ended about 2-1 against us, so there was some positive movement.
I had spent the two days prior to the debate at an international conference on Pius XII at the Sorbonne. At that conference, even the "critics" agreed that the term "Hitler's Pope" was indefensible. Similarly, it was agreed that no one can seriously argue that he was anti-Semitic, and the facts show that he was in contact with and advanced the cause of the anti-Hitler resistance in Germany.
To move from that group of well-informed scholars who were discussing the latest archival findings to a debate over evidence that has long-since been disproven was somewhat problematic. Our opponents hit us with a slew of false charges that we felt obliged to rebut, but that put us on the defensive and made it hard to set forth the strong affirmative case that we have. I wish that I had been able to present our affirmative case, but that's the way it goes when debating a pre-set resolution at a formal debate.
A few days after the debate, I spoke at the chancery at University College London. Several people there were aware of the debate and were actually quite happy that the vote came out as well as it did."
William Doino:
"I think the debate went better than expected, considering the challenges Professor Rychlak and I faced. It was clear, given the pre-debate vote, that we began very heavily outnumbered, with a large amount of skeptics - if not very active critics - of the wartime papacy in the audience.
But by the end of the night, we were able to more than double the number of our original supporters (which, percentage-wise, at least, was more than the opposition gained), and win over a healthy number of "don't knows," even as there still remained, as was inevitable, those with opposing viewpoints.
Our opponents basically repackaged and recycled the now thoroughly-disproven claims of John Cornwell's Hitler's Pope. Because of the strict time limitations, and the structure of the debate, we were not able to answer every outdated error--though we answered many-- or present all the evidence we have, so much of which is new and compelling. But I do believe we effectively conveyed our main points:
--that Pius XII, well before he became pope, and well before the Second World War and the Nazi Holocaust broke out, was issuing major warnings about the madness of Hitler, and the evils of racism and anti-Semitism;
---that in the critical six months between his election as pope (March, 1939) and the outbreak of World War II (September 1939), Pius XII issued impassioned appeals to try to prevent the War (and therefore the Holocaust, which the War made possible) from ever happening-
--that Pius XII was emphatically not "silent," and did in fact condemn the Nazis horrific crimes--through Vatican Radio, his first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus, his major addresses (especially his Christmas allocutions), and the L'Osservatore Romano
--that Pius XII intervened, time and time again, for persecuted Jews, particularly during the German occupation of Rome, and was cited and hailed by the Catholic rescuers themselves as their leader and director.
--that he instructed the bishops and nuncios in all the Nazi-occupied lands to take a strong stand against the racial persecutions
--that he inspired the Catholic faithful everywhere
-- that he was profusely praised by the Jewish community itself, both during and after the War, and especially at the time of his death, and that these testimonies stand, despite efforts to minimize or explain them away.
We also documented--though not nearly at the length we wanted, again because of time constraints--the Soviet Communist campaign to defame Pius XII, which began in order to turn people away from the Church.
Anything we were not able to cover is more than addressed in our respective books, Hitler, the War, and the Pope by Professor Rychlak, and The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII (the anthology in which my 80,000 word annotated defense of Pius XII appears) - copies of both which were fortunately made available to the crowd at the end of the debate.
There were three other things I found revealing about the debate:
First, although our opponents repeatedly accused Pius XII of being "silent" during the Holocaust, this is what the Times of London--where our debate took place--declared in an editorial on October 1, 1942, in the very midst of the War: "A study of the words which Pope Pius XII has addressed since his accession in encyclicals and allocutions to the Catholics of various nations leaves no room for doubt. He condemns the worship of force and its concrete manifestation in the suppression of national liberties and in the persecution of the Jewish race…"
Commenting on the wartime Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, the Times continued: "Its generous and honorable citation of 'forbidden' Italian authors and its maintenance of the standard of Italian humanism against those of neo-paganism; its plain warnings as to the significance of Nazi-race-worship--all these tend to show where sympathy lies at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church. The millions of believers, lay and clerical, who maintain a stout front against the oppressions of Nazism and fascism in their own or in other countries themselves testify that the sympathies found at the heart of the vast system permeate the whole."
Second, our opponents mentioned the Nuremberg War Crimes trials, but made no mention of the fact that Pius XII was a strong supporter of them, and in fact met with the lead prosecutor, Robert Jackson, providing the tribunal with evidence to help prosecute the Nazi war criminals. One of Jackson's deputies, Robert M.W. Kempner-himself a victim of Nazi persecution-- became one of Pius XII's strongest supporters, and answered the charge that Pius supposedly "never made an energetic protest" against the Holocaust. In fact, said Kempner, "the archives of the Vatican, of the diocesan authorities and of Ribbentrop's Foreign Ministry contain a whole series of protests--direct and indirect, diplomatic and public, secret and open." (From the forward to Jeno Levai's book, Hungarian Jewry and the Papacy: Pius XII Did Not Remain Silent (London Sands, 1968), pp. IX-X)
Third, in the question and answer period, someone asked what St. Peter must have thought of Pius XII when he met him at the Gates of Heaven. There wasn't any time left to address the gentlemen's query, but had there been, I would have said:
"I am sure St. Peter was well aware of Pius XII's high character and conduct, particularly during the War; but if he needed any further proof, he wouldn't have to cite any Catholic sources, but simply listen to the wartime Jewish community itself. The 1943-1944 American Jewish Yearbook affirmed that Pius XII 'took an unequivocal stand against the oppression of Jews throughout Europe.' On February 18, 1944, Rabbi Maurice Perlzweig, the political director of the World Jewish Congress, wrote in a letter to the apostolic delegate in Washington: 'The repeated interventions of the Holy Father on behalf of Jewish Communities in Europe has evoked the profoundest sentiments of appreciation and gratitude from Jews throughout the world. These acts of courage and consecrated statesmanship on the part of His Holiness will always remain a precious memory in the life of the Jewish people.' And on February 28, 1944, Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog, of Palestine, sent this message to Pius XII and the Church: 'The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion which form the very foundations of true civilization, are doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in this most tragic hour of history, which is living proof of divine Providence in this world."
I do think history is moving gradually in favor of a much more responsible and sympathetic view of Pius XII, as more and more evidence appears. Of course, this is occurring in the context of the complex history of the Church, with all its light and shadows, particularly regarding interfaith relations. Fortunately, the Catholic-Jewish relationship has developed over the years and is now very strong-- and I pray it remains so, as I said at the end of the debate, hoping to end on an encouraging note."
William Doino also pointed out this article he wrote shortly after Pope Benedict XVI declared Pius XII Venerable in 2009. An abridged version appeared in the Times of London Jan. 4, 2010 under the title "Pius XII Did Help the Jews".


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School Reunion was the third episode of series 2 of Doctor Who.
It continued from the prelude established in Tardisode 3, and saw the start of Mickey Smith's travels in the TARDIS. This episode was most notable for marking the return of original series companions Sarah Jane Smith and K9, both having last appeared on-screen in 1983's The Five Doctors. With Sarah Jane's inclusion in this story, it was established the current series was not a reboot, but rather a continuation of the Original Series. K9 Mark III was destroyed and replaced by a newer model at the end of the episode. Months after this episode aired, rumours of a spin-off series with Sarah were confirmed by the BBC and The Sarah Jane Adventures premiered on BBC One on 1 January 2007.
This story is the first to bring up the impact travelling with the Doctor as a companion has on one's life, even providing insight on the Doctor's perspective, notably why he never usually came back for a companion.
Synopsis Edit
Deffry Vale High School is haunted by strange, bat-like creatures at night. When the Tenth Doctor investigates, he finds an old friend, Sarah Jane Smith, already working undercover.
Plot Edit
At Deffry Vale High School, the headmaster, Mr Finch, notices a student waiting outside his office. She has a headache, and cannot simply go home because she lives in an orphanage. Mr Finch offers his sympathies that there is no-one to miss her and invites her into his office; it is nearly time for lunch. The door closes, then there is a flap of wings, and the girl screams.
"John Smith" and Rose have gone undercover in the school. He teaches a physics class. He asks a few simple questions. Only an intelligent student called Milo can answer. The Doctor advances to higher levels of knowledge, finally asking how to travel faster than light. Milo answers every question without missing a beat.
Meanwhile, Rose is working undercover in the cafeteria. At lunch, she complains to the Doctor about the last two days. He mentions that it was Mickey who alerted them to something odd going on and rightly so. Everyone at the school is well-behaved and there is something odd about the chips. Rose eats a few, saying she enjoys them. The school menu has been designed by Mr Finch himself to improve concentration and performance. Another teacher, Mr Wagner, approaches Melissa, one of the students. He tells her Milo has failed him, so she is being moved to the top class. He also summons another student, Luke, but not Kenny, who is not allowed to eat the chips. The Doctor observes all this. He looks up and sees Mr Finch gazing down on the cafeteria floor, watching everything.
In the kitchen, Rose watches the other kitchen staff, all wearing gloves and face masks, bringing in a large barrel. One of the dinner ladies warns them not to spill a drop. Mickey calls Rose on her mobile phone, telling her about the massive UFO activity he has discovered around the area. However, his investigations are being blocked by something called Torchwood. Rose, in turn, tells him the kitchen staff were all replaced three months ago with new personnel. As they speak, the barrel slips, spilling something on one of the staff, who starts to burn. The rest usher her into a side room. Rose starts to phone for an ambulance, but is told not to worry, she is all right, even as Rose hears screams and lots of smoke billows out of the side room. Rose glances down at the barrel, which is leaking a golden, oily substance.
In the maths classroom, Mr Wagner tells the children at their computers to put on their headphones. The screens flicker on. The monitors display a green, rotating cube with rapidly scrolling, alien-looking symbols and seemingly random text on the right. The children type on their keyboards with incredible speed. Clearly, something is very wrong.
Mr Finch escorts a journalist, Sarah Jane Smith, around the school. Sarah has been assigned to write a profile on him. Finch explains that one of the policy changes he has made is free — but compulsory — school dinners. In the staff room, the Doctor is speaking to Mr Parsons, head of History, who tells him of the extraordinary knowledge of his students since Finch became Headmaster. One of his students has given him the exact height of the walls of Troy in cubits. Also, the day after Finch arrived, seven teachers came down with flu, and were replaced by strange new ones. The one the Doctor replaced hadn't had the flu. She had resigned when she won the lottery, despite the fact that she never played, claiming the ticket was posted through her door at midnight. Mr Finch brings Sarah into the staff room. When the Doctor sees her, he smiles delightedly at unexpectedly seeing his old friend, but introduces himself as John Smith. Sarah remarks that she once knew a man who went by that name. When she learns "Smith" is a new teacher, she asks if he has noticed anything odd. She has lost none of her inquisitive nature, and the Doctor is elated, although he does not reveal his real identity to her.
As the Doctor wanders the halls in a slight nostalgic haze, Kenny goes into the Maths room. He is shocked to glimpse a bat-like creature under one of the desks. It transforms rapidly into Mr Wagner. Wagner tells Kenny to leave and the boy beats a hasty retreat.
That night, Sarah Jane Smith breaks into the school to explore, even as the Doctor, Rose and Mickey do the same. The Doctor sends Mickey to the maths room and Rose to get a sample of the oil, while he checks the headmaster's office. There are sounds of flapping and the occasional shriek. Winged shadows flit across walls.
Sarah, trying to break into Mr Finch's office, notices she is being watched. She enters a storeroom — where she finds the TARDIS. Stunned at seeing the ship again, she backs out of the room into the gym, where "John Smith", now wearing his long coat, is waiting and says, "Hello, Sarah Jane." Sarah manages to say, "It's you...Doctor! Oh, my God, it's you, isn't it? You've regenerated..."
The Doctor replies that he has done so "half a dozen times since we last met." She says he looks "incredible", and he says she does too, but she dismisses it as being true for herself and says she has grown old. She then reveals she had waited for him and thought he had died, and in response, the Doctor speaks to her of the Time War for the first time: "I lived. Everybody else died." Sarah Jane is still in disbelief until they hear a piercing scream and run towards the sound; now she knows this is the Doctor.
They meet Rose along the way. The Doctor introduces the two and Sarah comments on Rose's youth. The scream turns out to be Mickey, who opened a cupboard, only to be covered in shrink-wrapped rats. Sarah suggests the rats are for dissection, suggesting cattily that maybe Rose isn't old enough to have gotten to that point in school, but Rose retorts that rat dissection hasn't been performed in schools for years, making a snide dig at Sarah's age. As they head for Finch's office, and Sarah and Rose begin to bicker, Mickey laughs and tells the Doctor, "The missus and the ex — welcome to every man's worst nightmare!"
The Doctor suggests that the rats may be food for something. When they enter Finch's office, they find what that "something" is; large, bat-like creatures hanging from the ceiling, asleep. They back out hurriedly, but as the door shuts, one of the creatures wakes and shrieks. Outside, the Doctor tells the others that when Finch arrived at the school he brought twelve staff members with him, so they've got thirteen giant bats to deal with. He is then about to head back in despite the danger so he can use the TARDIS to analyse the oil sample Rose procured. Sarah tells the Doctor she may have something that can help him. To the Doctor's excitement, in her car boot is an inactive and rusty K9 Mark III, with one of his side panels missing. Sarah explains that one day it had just stopped working and she could not repair its advanced technology.
Not knowing that they are being trailed by Mr Finch and another bat-creature, they go in Sarah's car to a nearby café, where the Doctor repairs K9. Mickey teases Rose about her jealousy, while Sarah asks the Doctor if she did something wrong since he never came back for her after his visit home. In an intense moment, the Doctor tries to brush it off, saying that she was getting on with her life. Sarah replies that he was her life. The hardest thing was adjusting back to mundane life after all she had seen. She asks him why he could not have come back. The Doctor looks dour and does not reply.
K9 comes to life and recognises the Doctor, who smears some of the oil sample on its eye sensor. K9 determines it is Krillitane oil. The creatures are Krillitanes, a composite species who take the best physical parts of other species they conquer. The Doctor did not recognise them because they had looked different when he had last seen them; basically humans with Giraffe necks. He realises that they are doing something to the children.
As they leave the café, Rose is struggling to come to terms with the realisation that she's not the first person the Doctor travelled with. She tells the Doctor how troubled she is that he's never mentioned Sarah despite the two once being as close as they are now, and that she feels like she's seeing her own future and will end up just being left behind like all his other companions. The Doctor promises he will not just leave her, explaining that he did not go back for Sarah because it would have been too hard: "I don't age. I regenerate. But humans decay, you wither and you die. You can spend the rest of your life with me. But I can't spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on, alone. That's the curse of the Time Lords."
Mr Finch hears the phrase "Time Lords" and sends the other Krillitanes to swoop over and scare them.
The next day they all return to the school. The Doctor sends Rose and Sarah to discover what is inside the computers, and Mickey to stay in the car with K9 as surveillance — a task Mickey compares to being "sent to the back of the class with the safety scissors and glitter". The Doctor himself is going to have a word with Mr Finch. They confront each other at the swimming pool. Finch confirms he is a Krillitane named Brother Lassar and the wings are a recent addition to their form. What the Doctor sees as human is just a morphic illusion. Surprised to see a Time Lord, Lassar calls them a race of pompous, dusty senators, afraid of change and chaos and now all but extinct. He can sense that the Doctor is different but still refuses to reveal his plans, challenging him to work it out. Lassar says that they are not enemies. The Doctor quietly replies that he had much more mercy when he was younger. This is their only warning. Lassar smugly promises that the next time they meet, the Doctor will join with him.
Working on the computers, Sarah and Rose argue about who has had more experience time travelling, yelling the names of the different monsters they have met. Sarah settles it when she mentions she met the Loch Ness Monster, but they soon realise the argument is pointless and bond by comparing notes on the Doctor (Sarah is very amused to hear from Rose that the Doctor still strokes parts of the TARDIS), bursting into laughter when he enters and confusing him.
Lassar tells the other Krillitanes that they are moving to the final phase. The school will be sealed and they will become gods. Even though it is break time, the intercom calls all pupils to class and the staff to the staff room. All the pupils appear strangely happy that the break has ended early, except Kenny, who hesitates, but eventually follows the others inside. The Krillitanes begin by devouring the rest of the staff.
In the maths room, the Doctor finds the computers fixed with a deadlock seal which the sonic screwdriver cannot breach. Lassar seals all of the school's exits while Mr Wagner activates the computer program which the children begin working on again. Kenny cannot get out of the school, but he attracts Mickey's attention. Mickey reactivates K9, asking it if it has some way to get through the locked doors in the school. K9 reminds him they are in a car.
Rose, Sarah and the Doctor watch the symbols flash on a large screen. The Doctor works out that the Krillitanes are trying to solve the Skasis Paradigm. He explains that the Paradigm is the God-Maker, the Universal Theory; whoever solves it can control the building blocks of the universe — all of time and space. The Krillitanes are boosting the children's intelligence with the oil, using them and their imaginations as a giant processing device. Lassar appears at this point, asking the Doctor to join them, tempting the Doctor with the ability to change the universe, to save everyone, even restore the Time Lords. He offers Sarah and Rose the chance to travel with the Doctor forever, never growing old. The Doctor appears tempted, but Sarah tells him that pain and loss define them as much as happiness or love. Everything has its time and everything ends, whether a world or a relationship. The Doctor picks up a chair and hurls it at the screen, smashing it. He tells Rose and Sarah to get out.
After Mickey voices his frustration at being reminded they are in a car, he suddenly understands what K9 is saying and crashes the car through the front doors of the school. He and Kenny rush to the pupils. Lassar shrieks, summoning the other Krillitanes, who transform into their bat-forms. Mickey and Kenny meet up with the others and run into the cafeteria, pursued by the bat creatures. Lassar tells them he wants the Doctor alive, but to eat the others.
As the Krillitanes attack, a laser shoots one of them down. K9 appears in the doorway, blaster at the ready. The Doctor tells K9 to hold them off while they retreat. However, K9's battery is failing and Lassar tells the Krillitanes to ignore "the shooty dog thing" and get the others. In the physics lab, the Doctor realises the solution is the oil. The Krillitanes have changed their physiology so often that even their own oil is toxic to them now. The Krillitanes start bashing down the door. The Doctor tells Mickey to get the children unplugged and evacuated. Kenny triggers the fire alarm, the high-pitched sound hurting the bat-like ears of the Krillitanes and stunning them long enough to get past to the kitchens. However, this doesn't work for long. Lassar simply punches through the wall and rips out the power lead to the alarm.
Mickey unplugs the computers and gets the children out of the school. In the kitchens, the Doctor finds the barrels of oil are deadlock sealed. He gets the others out. He and K9 stay behind. K9 tells the Doctor that the barrels will not withstand a direct hit from his laser, but as his batteries are weak, he has to remain. The Doctor protests, knowing that K9 will be caught in the explosion, but the dog replies there is no alternative. Sadly, the Doctor bids his old friend goodbye, calls him a good dog and exits the building. The Doctor takes Sarah's hand and while she asks about K9, drags her away from the school.
Brother Lassar and his brethren enter the kitchen in human form, searching for the Doctor. Lassar mocks K9 when he sees him, but K9 shoots a barrel, spilling the toxic oil over the aliens. Lassar snarls to K9, "You bad dog"; the dog replies, "Affirmative." The explosion takes out a large chunk of the school. The pupils cheer the school's destruction and hail Kenny as the hero who did it. Sarah weeps over K9's sacrifice as the Doctor comforts her.
Later, Sarah enters the TARDIS in a park. The Doctor suggests that Sarah join them, but Sarah declines, saying it is time she found a life of her own. Mickey asks if he may join them in the TARDIS; he wants more than just to be their 'tin dog' and is ready to see the universe. Sarah says they need a Smith aboard the TARDIS, and the Doctor agrees, although Rose does not look pleased.
Before she goes, Sarah admits that she wants to stay. When Rose asks her what to do, she reassures her that some things are worth getting your heart broken for. She adds that if someday, Rose needs to, she should find her. Outside, Sarah thanks the Doctor for her time with him. The Doctor asks if there has been anyone special. Sarah tells him that there was one man whom she travelled with for a while, but he was a tough act to follow. She asks him to say goodbye this time — and he complies, saying, "Goodbye...my Sarah Jane!" He smiles at her and they hug tightly, with Sarah looking to be on the verge of tears. Sarah then watches the TARDIS disappear, but as it does so, a brand new K9 is revealed. K9 explains that the Doctor rebuilt and improved him. Happily, Sarah orders K9 home. They have work to do...
Cast Edit
- The Doctor - David Tennant
- Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
- Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke
- Mr Finch - Anthony Head
- Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
- Mr Parsons - Rod Arthur
- Mr Wagner - Eugene Washington
- Nina - Heather Cameron
- Kenny - Joe Pickley
- Luke - Benjamin Smith
- Milo - Clem Tibber
- Melissa - Lucinda Dryzek
- Dinner Lady - Caroline Berry
- Voice of K9 - John Leeson[1]
Crew Edit
|Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner
|Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.
Though not credited in any way, Mat Irvine did help considerably with the operation of K9 for this episode. In the DVD commentary, Phil Collinson acknowledges Irvine as the "operator of the original K9 prop", as seen in the very last scene of the episode, and admitting that the original prop had been stored in Irvine's garage and was found especially for this scene.
References Edit
British locations Edit
- Nina is from the children's home, Ambrose Hill.
- Sarah Jane tells the Doctor that he left her behind in Aberdeen, Scotland, not South Croydon.
Science Edit
- Non-coding DNA is DNA that doesn't code for a protein.
- Sarah Jane suggests the vacuum-packed rats are used in biology lessons. Rose indicates that the practice of dissecting rats has been out of date for a long time.
- Finch says the Krillitanes appearing as a human is a simple morphic illusion.
- The Skasis Paradigm is a supremely complex algorithmic sequence that if cracked, would allow one the key to manipulate time, space, and universal matter.
Technology Edit
- The Doctor's sonic screwdriver cannot open deadlock seals.
Diseases and illnesses Edit
- Nina was suffering from a headache.
- After Mr Finch arrived at the school, half the staff seemingly got flu.
Mathematics Edit
- Mr Parsons tells the Doctor that he had a student who told him the height of the walls of Troy in cubits.
Newspapers Edit
- Sarah Jane claims to be writing an article on Mr Finch for The Sunday Times.
Individuals Edit
- The Doctor thought the students would be happy-slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ringtones.
- The teacher the Doctor replaced "apparently" won the lottery.
- As a derogatory comment on her age, Rose suggests Sarah Jane is from the Dark Ages.
- Rose talks about her friend Shareen.
- Rose considers K9's appearance to be "so disco", implying she thinks K9 is a dated relic from the seventies. The Doctor bristles at the remark and tells her "In the year 5000 this was cutting edge".
Vehicles Edit
- Rose phones for an ambulance.
- Mickey drives a car through the school doors (after K9 repeatedly tells him, "We are in a car").
- Sarah Jane says getting parts to fix K9 isn't like getting parts for a Mini Metro.
Planets Edit
- The Krillitanes invaded Bessan.
Civilisations Edit
- Mr Finch mentions Perganon, Ascinta and the Time Lords as civilisations the Doctor could save if the Skasis Paradigm were to be cracked.
Story notes Edit
- This episode notably confirms the fact that the revival series was a direct continuation of the series's original 1963-1989 run and not a reboot, a topic which was then under minimal debate in fandom.
- This is the first appearance of a classic series companion in the revival series.
- This episode marks the first time the revived series clearly recognised on screen that incarnations prior to the Ninth Doctor existed. There had earlier been hints, such as the Ninth Doctor's comment in Rose about his ears, his reference to kissing complete strangers in The Long Game and his reference to the Cyberman head in Dalek as "an old enemy". This episode stops short of explicitly calling the current Doctor the Tenth, hinting only that "half a dozen" regenerations had occurred since he and Sarah Jane last met, in keeping with the fact that it was the Fourth Doctor who left Sarah Jane on Earth. However, The Five Doctors indicates the last Doctor that saw Sarah Jane was actually the Fifth Doctor, though the later inclusion of the War Doctor amends this error.
- This does not take into account Sarah's meetings with the Seventh and Eighth Doctors in the BBC novels (Bullet Time and Interference- Book One and Book Two respectively), but these can be reconciled on the assumption that later events erased these meetings from history from Sarah's perspective.
- Mickey Smith joins the Doctor on his travels at the end of the episode.
- According to an interview with the writer Toby Whithouse in Doctor Who Magazine #367, this episode had the working title Black Ops. The original storyline submission for the episode involved the Doctor meeting Sarah Jane while investigating events at an army base near an isolated village. The change of location to a school was suggested by Russell T Davies. Whithouse later clarified in the DVD commentary that the original specification for the script, given to an unnamed writer, had been for a school; the writer had instead submitted an episode set in an army base and admitted that writing for Doctor Who was possibly; "not for him", so Whithouse had to write a script set in the school in a hurry.
- The K9 prop used at the end of the episode is one of the original props from the 1970s.
- Finch's unusual turn-of-phrase "Forget the shooty dog thing" (referring to K9) strongly echoes the dialogue patterns used extensively on Joss Whedon's television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is perhaps an intentional nod, as the actor who plays Finch, Anthony Head, played Rupert Giles on that series.
- In one scene Rose and Sarah break up with laughter when the Doctor enters the room, after spending several minutes comparing notes on the Doctor. To get a realistic reaction, David Tennant wore a fake moustache (unbeknownst to the actresses) as he entered the scene. This is why Billie Piper points at him in the episode. Their reaction was caught in one take. (DCOM: School Reunion)
- During the scene in the fish and chip shop when the Doctor and Sarah talk about her leaving him, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division is played in the background.
- Although this episode marked the return of Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith to Doctor Who proper, Sladen had been reprising the role for some time in other media. Earlier in the same month School Reunion was first broadcast, the final episode of Big Finish Productions' Sarah Jane Smith audio drama series was released, which had been going off-and-on since 2002. Sladen also reprised the role in the 1995 independent film HOMEVID: Downtime, in two early-90s BBC Radio dramas with Jon Pertwee and had also appeared in the 1993 pastiche, Dimensions in Time.
- Sarah Jane has a Volkswagen car in this episode. By The Sarah Jane Adventures, she has switched to a Nissan Figaro.
- Phil Collinson got to voice K9 as some scenes were recorded, including the one set in the chip shop. Only John Leeson's voice was heard in the finished production, however. According to Julie Gardner, it was a moment of supreme joy for the producer.
- Phil Collinson also took a week's vacation during the filming of this episode, forcing Gardner to take over his duties for a week, something she claimed to have adored. (DCOM: School Reunion) She would later become the effective producer on The End of Time, when credited producer Tracie Simpson had to break away from the Russell T Davies production unit to work with Matt Smith and the Steven Moffat unit. (PCOM: The End of Time, Part Two)
- Rose complains that the Doctor leaves his companions behind after a while, but in fact, out of thirty-two companions up to this point, only four have been left behind: one (Adam Mitchell) got kicked out for bad behaviour, another one the Doctor was terrified of (Jack Harkness), his own granddaughter, whom he believed to deserve a better life and Sarah Jane Smith. All the rest died (Katarina, Sara Kingdom, Adric and Kamelion), were separated from him due to circumstances beyond his control, had their memories erased or decided to leave on their own. Still other individuals (such as Grace Holloway) were acquainted with the Doctor only for the course of a single adventure but never travelled with him as companions.
- In Amy's Choice, the Dream Lord mocks the Doctor about how his companions never see him again after they "grow up" and that he never keeps in touch with them.
- Although not indicated on-screen in this episode nor any episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, the novelisation of the SJA pilot episode Invasion of the Bane revealed that the Doctor left Sarah Jane a sonic lipstick and other items in a secret compartment within K9. On-screen, the sonic lipstick debuts in the Invasion of the Bane episode, but no explanation is offered as to where it came from. It appeared for the first time on Doctor Who during Journey's End.
- A slow instrumental of Song for Ten can be heard playing throughout the episode, most notably when the Doctor says goodbye to Sarah Jane.
- The Doctor tells Sarah Jane he's regenerated six times since they last met. Going by televised stories, this would go back to The Five Doctors. However, as the Tenth Doctor keeps the War Doctor buried in his memories, it is purposely misleading to the viewers that he means The Hand of Fear.
- Originally the story was entitled "Black Ops" and involved alien activity in a rural village and a nearby army base.[2]
Ratings Edit
- 8.31 million viewers (39.8% of television share; UK final)[3]
Filming locations Edit
- The primary location for the school filming was Duffryn High School in Newport.
- Fitzalan High School, Leckwith, Cardiff
- Belle Vue car park and DaVinci's coffee shop, Newport
- Studio: Unit Q2, Newport
Production errors Edit
- When Mickey takes the plug out, the children's headphones come off by themselves.
- At the start of the episode, the door of the headmaster's office is blue and has a window in it. However, when the Doctor and the others return to the school at night, and investigate the headmaster's office, the door is larger and has no window.
Continuity Edit
- When Sarah and Rose argue they refer to a lot of encounters with aliens. Sarah refers to meeting mummies, (TV: Pyramids of Mars) "lots of robots", (TV: The Time Warrior, Robot, The Sontaran Experiment, Revenge of the Cybermen, The Android Invasion, The Five Doctors) Daleks, (TV: Death to the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks) anti-matter monsters, (TV: Planet of Evil) dinosaurs (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs) and the Loch Ness Monster. (TV: Terror of the Zygons)
- Rose refers to meeting ghosts, (TV: The Unquiet Dead) Slitheen in Downing Street, (TV: Aliens of London/ World War Three) the Dalek Emperor, (TV: The Parting of the Ways) gas mask zombies (TV: The Empty Child) and a werewolf. (TV: Tooth and Claw)
- Sarah Jane would later recall Rose's words when faced with the Slitheen at Park Vale Comprehensive School. (TV: Revenge of the Slitheen)
- The Fourth Doctor left Sarah on Earth, thinking he had dropped her home in South Croydon in London. Sarah quickly realised at the time that the Doctor had "goofed". (TV: The Hand of Fear) She tells him now that he had dropped off in Aberdeen.
- Sarah Jane discusses her departure from the Fourth Doctor in TV: The Hand of Fear, and how she was only left behind because of his summons to Gallifrey, back when humans were prohibited from entering the planet.
- Strangely, the discussion seems to ignore the events of The Five Doctors, which marked the latest meeting between Sarah and the Fifth Doctor, though this could be attributed to the large number of overlapping points in the Doctor's timeline.
- This discussion ignores Sarah's meetings with the Seventh and Eighth Doctors in the novels Bullet Time and Interference- Book One and Book Two, but from a continuity perspective this can be explained as it is suggested in later novels The Ancestor Cell and Sometime Never... that certain parties involved in these events are erased from history.
- The Doctor tells Sarah that he has regenerated "half a dozen times since we last met"; this statement also seems to exclude these meetings
- Considering the later revelation of the existence of the War Doctor, the idea that it has been half a dozen regenerations since the Doctor and Sarah met could be a reference to her meeting with the Fifth Doctor, with the Doctor not referencing his encounters in his seventh and eighth incarnations as they were essentially erased from history.
- At some point after their parting, the Doctor left K9 Mark III for Sarah. (TV: A Girl's Best Friend, The Five Doctors)
- The Doctor says, "Correct-a-mundo", adding, "A phrase I have never used before, and will hopefully never use again." He once used the phrase, "Ace-a-mundo", and makes an almost identical comment on it. (PROSE: The Feast of the Drowned) Similarly, the newly-regenerated Eleventh Doctor proclaimed "Who 'da man!?" and was met with blank stares, which made him resolve to never use that phrase again. (TV: The Eleventh Hour)
- Sarah remembered that "Christmas just gone" there was a spaceship "overhead" and she thought of the Doctor that day. The Doctor mentions that he and Rose were "right on top of it". (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
- The Ninth Doctor had previously mentioned to Rose that he had "travelled with a lot of people". (TV: The Doctor Dances)
- K9 has been called a tin dog twice before, by the Time Lord Drax (TV: The Armageddon Factor) and Lady Adrasta (TV: The Creature from the Pit)
- The Doctor tells Sarah that humans previously weren't allowed on Gallifrey. (TV: The War Games, The Invasion of Time)
- Sarah Jane says that repairing K9 is "not like getting parts for a Mini Metro", a car she previously had. (TV: A Girl's Best Friend)
- Rose recalls going to the year 5000000000. (TV: The End of the World)
- Sarah Jane says 'Home' and 'We've got work to do', mirroring the Seventh Doctor and Ace's conversation. (TV: Survival) However, it may have simply been a coincidence, as Sarah is referring to 13 Bannerman Road, whereas Ace was referring to the TARDIS.
- The Eighth Doctor previously revealed the existence of a K9 Mark IV to Sarah Jane in 1996. (PROSE: Interference - Book Two)
- Rani Chandra heard about the events in Deffry Vale High School in the press. (WC: Alien File: The Doctor)
- The Doctor has previously been offered another great power under the guise that it could be used for good, only to turn it down, believing he should not have it. (TV: Colony in Space)
Home video releases Edit
- This episode was released as a "vanilla" DVD along with Tooth and Claw and The Girl in the Fireplace.
- It was also released as part of the Series 2 DVD boxed set.
- On a single disk by itself, it was given away with the purchase of a newspaper, as part of a promotion by The Sun.
- This was also released with issue 9 of the Doctor Who DVD Files.
Footnotes Edit
- ↑ Leeson plays two different versions of K9 in School Reunion: Mark III and, briefly, Mark IV.
- ↑ http://www.shannonsullivan.com/doctorwho/serials/2006c.html
- ↑ Doctor Who - consolidated ratings
External links Edit
- School Reunion at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: School Reunion at The Whoniverse


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Supplying reliable and sustainable energy to the state's economy requires planning and policies underpinned by a commitment to utilization of the best available science. To this end, California's energy infrastructure must be designed to cope with the state's highly variable conditions and frequent disruptions from wildfires, storms, and floods, which will be exacerbated by more frequent and intense natural disasters brought by a changing climate. The impacts of climate change have potential to be drastic for the energy sector. For instance, changes in temperatures, precipitation patterns, extreme events, and sea-level rise have the potential to decrease the efficiency of thermal power plants and substations, decrease the capacity of transmission lines, render hydropower less reliable, spur an increase in electricity demand, and put energy infrastructure at risk of flooding.[1]
To address resilience of the energy sector, local jurisdictions must work with utilities and regulators. At the state level, the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) are working to address the effects of climate disruption on the energy sector. Priorities for the energy sector include actionable research, working with vulnerable communities, and continuing to invest in renewable energy, renewable distributed generation, energy efficiency, and building retrofits. All of these efforts can bolster and incorporate climate adaptation, limiting climate impacts while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A priority should be on improving energy sector resilience for vulnerable communities, as these communities will suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate change.[2] Another important piece is for investor-owned utilities and other energy infrastructure owners to develop robust vulnerability assessments and resilience plans, incorporating the risks from a standardized set of climate scenarios.[3] Local governments can partner with utilities in these areas, to provide energy security, reduce energy demand, and improve system reliability.
Featured State Resources
CA Energy CommissionCal-Adapt serves as the State's primary data access and visualization tool to view and plan for the impacts of climate ...
Integrated Energy Policy Report
CA Energy CommissionThe Integrated Energy Policy Report (IEPR) is a biennial report prepared by the California Energy Commission that assesses and forecasts ...


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The estate of Harvey Norman co-founder Ian Norman says it intends to remain a long-term shareholder in the company, after his death at age 75.
Mr Norman, who launched the electrical, furniture and bedding company with Gerry Harvey in 1982, held a 16.5 per cent stake in the company, which will now be controlled by his estate and estate controlled entities.
In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, the company listed fellow director Christopher Brown as the executor and trustee of Mr Norman's will. The stake represents 175 million shares, worth around $560 million.
"The executor and trustee has advised the company that the estate of Mr Norman and estate controlled entities intend to remain a long term shareholder in the company," the statement said.
An intensely private person, Mr Norman preferred to stay out the spotlight and let his high-profile business partner Mr Harvey do most of the talking. The pair first met selling vacuum cleaners in Sydney in the '60s.
Adman John Singleton, a friend, once said Mr Norman's partnership with Mr Harvey made him the luckiest bloke since the Beatles' Ringo Starr. (Starr replaced the Beatles original drummer, Pete Best, on the eve of the group's meteoric rise to fame).
"Some people choose their parents well," Singleton said. "Ian just joined the best business partner in the world."
A member of the BRW Rich List, Mr Norman was a non-executive director of Harvey Norman, who was known to stay out of business operations. Mr Harvey once quipped his partner's involvement extended to coming in to "pick up his mail once a week".
Mr Brown, a partner at Brown Wright Stein Lawyers, has been a director of Harvey Norman since 1987, when it listed on the ASX.
According to the company's most recent annual report, Mr Brown holds 103,467 shares in the company.
Ian Norman co-founded the Harvey Norman chain and remained a non-executive director. Ben Rushton


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Titans Playing Hard In Contests
The Titan boys of Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire earned a split in a pair of games last week. On Thursday, the Titans were edged 83-80 by Pocahontas Area, but on Friday, the Titans downed Corwith-Wesley-LuVerne by a 79-28 tally.
Against Pocahontas Area, the game was back and forth for all four quarters, but a couple of late buckets would give the Indians the advantage in the 83-80 final tally.
For the Titans, Austin Dyer had a career night with 28 points, while Connor Sturgill added 21 points and eight rebounds. Lane Reiman scored 12 points, while Michael Girres added seven points. Marcus Girres and Mason McGrauth both scored five points and Trevor Hagedorn chipped in two points,
"This was a great high school basketball game,"?noted GT/RA?Head Coach Randy Hough. "Both teams played well. I thought our boys played very hard."
The next evening, the Titans manhandled the Panthers of CWL in 79-28 margin.
Connor Stugill earned the double-double with 28 points and 11 rebounds. Austin Dyer tallied 15 points, while Marcus Girres scored nine points.
Lane Reiman and Noah Stukey both scored seven points each, while Trevor Hagedorn tallied six points. Ryan Jacks, Mason McGrauth and Jared Sikora all scored two points each to round out the effort.
"We got off to a great start both offensively and defensively," Coach Hough said. "It was a good game to get all the players playing in different combinations and to get everybody playing time."
The Titan girls would fall to Pocahontas Area by a 66-41 score on Thursday night.
After trailing 9-2 at the end of the first quarter, the Titan girls came back to trail 36-25 at the intermission. At the end of the third frame, the Indians led 53-36 and went on to earn the 66-41 victory over GT/RA.
Lauren Flaharty would lead the Titans with 16 points, while Brooke Hoffman added nine tallies. Emily Moran scored seven points and Cassy Hampson , Katie Olesen, Grace Skattebo and Morgan McGrauth all added two points each. Alex Olesen rounded out the Titans scoring with a free throw.


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New Features Available in LakerApps
If you've been away for the summer (or even if you haven't), you may not know about some of the new features that Google has introduced to our LakerApps suite of products. We thought we'd mention some of the cool ones here for the Gmail, Calendar and Docs apps. But don't think this is the end of the new and/or improved feature list! You can expect more to come in the future as Google continuously works on improving their products.
- More Space: If you were getting close to your 7GB space limit for your email, no worries. Google recently increased all Google Apps for Education users mail space from 7GB to 25GB. Thank you, Google!
- Nested Labels: If you organize your email, then you probably have used labels. Labels are similar to folders and allow you to take email out of your inbox and store them into categories you specify for later access. Previously, you could not group your labels together to create sub-labels. Now you can. When you create a new label you will have the option of grouping it under an existing label. If you'd like to nest existing labels, go to your Mail Settings->Labels and then edit the Label you want to nest. You will see an option to nest it. Learn More
- Inbox Styles: You can now choose what mail messages you want to see at the top of your inbox each time you login. Perhaps you want to see your Starred messages first or your Important messages. Simply click on the option you would like to improve your mail reading efficiency! Learn More
- The People Widget: This new widget shows up on the right hand side of any mail message you are viewing. What you will see in this column is more information about the people involved in the conversation. As you click on a person's name you will see recent email communications with the person and if you have any shared documents or upcoming events with them. You can also easily chat with them and send them email. Learn More
- Call Phone: In the chat area of Gmail, under your name will be a "Call phone" listing. This new feature within Gmail allows you to make phone calls over the Internet. Domestic calls are free through 2011 as well as calls to Canada. Learn More
- Appointment Slots: This is one of the biggest new features Google introduced over the summer for Calendar, but won't actually work in our SUNY Oswego domain until late September. Everyone will have the ability to create a block of time on their calendar where people can sign-up to meet with you. Does Office Hours ring a bell? Appointment slots is perfect for that. Learn More
- Color-Code Events: Ever wanted to categorize events by color or just wanted that really important one to stand out? You can now color code your events. Learn More
- Default Meeting Length: If you often have to adjust the default event length of meetings when you create them, you can now make your most common event length your default through the Calendar Settings. Learn More
- Google Cloud Connect: This is a very cool feature now available for use with Microsoft Office. Ever wanted to share a MS Word document in Docs, but still continue to work on it in Word without having to upload a new version to Docs each time you made changes? If you install Google Cloud Connect, you can continue to make those changes in Word and with a click of a button have them automatically synced to Google Docs. Oh, and it works with Excel and PowerPoint too! Learn More


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Standing pat, Blue Jays assuming a lot
While rivals add, Toronto banking on returnees getting healthy, rebounding in 2014
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The Blue Jays physically have room for Ervin Santana. I can confirm this after standing in their clubhouse Saturday morning and seeing the empty locker -- with a variation of the word "Dummy" in the name slot -- currently employed as a lost and found for guys who misplace their jock strap or workout shirt or belt.
So if Toronto did decide to upgrade a rotation that had the second-highest ERA (4.81) in baseball last season and had 30 games started by guys with ERAs over 6.00, well, the Spring Training clubhouse wouldn't have to be renovated or rearranged, that's for sure.
And yet, a long-anticipated upgrade does not appear to be on the horizon here, even as a rival adds Ubaldo Jimenez and Nelson Cruz in the span of a few days and the deepest division in baseball gets deeper.
"We'd like to [add a starter], but we're not going to do it at all costs," general manager Alex Anthopoulos told reporters earlier this week, setting off a firestorm of Twitter negativity (as if Twitter is ever really a bastion of positivity). "As we sit here today, I think it's unlikely at this point. We're getting so late into Spring Training."
Anthopoulos is mere months removed from a public proclamation that he'd like to improve this area, hence the frustration from fans.
"I think everything is going to be geared towards, 'How can we be better in the rotation?'" Anthopoulos had said on the last day of the 2013 season. "We'll start at the rotation and work our way down."
It can be difficult to dutifully hold a GM to his word when you factor in market fluctuations and unforeseen circumstances and budget realities. Still, the indigestion among the fans is understandable. In the wake of a last-place finish, the Blue Jays' lone move of significance this winter was an admitted overpay for a starting catcher -- Dioner Navarro -- who has profiled primarily as a backup in recent seasons. And that signing was necessitated by the lack of organizational depth at the position brought on by last winter's trades of Yan Gomes and Travis d'Arnaud that, to this point, have not reaped the expected results from key acquisitions Esmil Rogers and R.A. Dickey, respectively.
Oh, sure, other deals were sought this winter, namely for Ian Kinsler and for Brett Anderson. But those talks went nowhere, and now, unless Anthopoulos is publicly posturing as he continues to try to hammer out a team-friendly deal with Santana, what you see is what you get.
What do the Blue Jays have?
"A good group of quality players," Jose Bautista said. "Most of the times when teams do an overhaul, it's because guys are unproven or there's no belief by the front office in the group of guys. I just choose to believe that's not the case here."
The Blue Jays base their belief on a simple understanding that this was, a year ago, a team roundly expected to contend in the AL East, and this is, on measure, pretty much the same team heading into 2014.
If the law of averages functions in their factor, the Blue Jays ought to have better luck with health. Last season, between Bautista's hip and Jose Reyes' ankle and Brett Lawrie's oblique and Melky Cabrera's tumor in his back, Toronto used its projected lineup a not-so-whopping total of three times. Combine that with the injury absences of Josh Johnson, Brandon Morrow and J.A. Happ, and you have a litany of excuses that explain away the 74-88 finish.
"Sometimes you get snake-bit," said manager John Gibbons, "or there's something in the water."
Of course, the other reality here is that it was fair to have concerns about the Blue Jays' rotation outlook a year ago, even before the injuries hit. Johnson was a well-established injury risk, Dickey was making the tough transition to the AL East at age 38, Mark Buehrle had already accumulated more than 2,600 innings and was 34, Ricky Romero was a mess, etc.
Are the Blue Jays actually any better off in the rotation now, with Johnson gone and Dickey and Buehrle another year older?
Well, possibly.
Brandon Morrow arrived to camp healthy and with a built upper body, as positive a development as any in Toronto's camp thus far. He had a ghastly 5.63 ERA last May, when his season was shut down because of a forearm injury, and injuries have been known to hound his career. But starters with a history of striking out 10 batters per nine innings tend to captivate the imagination.
"That's going to be huge for us," Reyes said. "We just need him to be healthy. When he's healthy, he's one of the best in the game."
And there is depth here. Drew Hutchison and Kyle Drabek are returning from surgery, Dustin McGowan is getting stretched out and Rogers and Todd Redmond are out of options and competing for a back-end job. Most importantly, prospects Marcus Stroman and Sean Nolin are in the pipeline, and Stroman is a particularly attractive option if he makes a seamless transition to Triple-A.
"Last year, we were digging down in Triple-A and really didn't have the guys to fall back on," Gibbons said. "Now the quality of what we have is the big part of it. Even regardless of injuries, if somebody's not pitching particularly well, we have guys down there that we like. And if they're ready, they'll give us a chance to win."
Hey, you never rule out a ballclub's ability to piece something positive together, and the Blue Jays do have the pieces to do that. And while adding an impactful arm via trade is extremely doubtful in this Spring Training environment, there is always the possibility they could address a rotation need in-season, of course.
But man, you'd feel quite a bit better about their outlook in the AL East, where slow starts cannot be tolerated, if they added somebody with experience in providing quality innings, wouldn't you?
Not that Santana is any great bargain. Far from it. Teams that have kicked the tires on him have expressed some concerns not only about the inconsistencies in his stat lines but about the long-term durability of his elbow.
But at least Santana is capable of commanding the strike zone, and his groundball rate would fare favorably in what ought to be an improved infield defense, assuming Reyes is healthy and second baseman Ryan Goins' defense remains as remarkable as it was upon his arrival late last year.
For the Blue Jays to stand pat here is puzzling, amazing really. They've already essentially wasted the elite offensive outputs of Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion in recent seasons, and a club with several over-30 stars doesn't have the luxury of "wait and see."
All along this winter, the thought was that the Blue Jays, whose two protected first-round Draft picks put them in a solid spot to add a guy attached to compensation, were waiting in the wings, ready to pounce when the price is right. But as you might have noticed in today's game, the price is rarely right, in the old-fashioned sense. Jimenez's four-year, $50 million guarantee earlier in the week from the Orioles is yet another provider of proof that so-called "discount" prices ain't what they used to be.
You either adjust to that reality or address your needs another way, or in the Blue Jays' case, stand still.
It looks like the Blue Jays are standing still, venturing into the exhibition stage of camp this coming week with a roster largely reliant on the theory that if everything goes wrong one year, it can't possibly go wrong the next.
That's a bold assumption, particularly in the East.


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