| Sports goes for a six !
Or, will club identities come to replace national loyalties? After all, whoever pays the bucks gets the loyalty. Has cricket in India entered the age of sponsored gambling where its stake-holders are abdicating their responsibility and letting the 'free-market' forces take control of the sport? Will it only create a super-elite category of overpaid, arrogant superstars at the cost of domestic cricket? Will the new cricket corporate czars have any emotional attachment to the sport? Importantly, will substance become the first casualty of the hoopla and hype of the auctioning? Will it widen the gap between cricket and other sports? True, the BCCI and IPL promoters dismiss these fears as much ado about nothing. Why is everyone raving and ranting about the cricketers earnings? What about other sports like Golf, tennis and car racing.
Do UFOs really exist?
A lot of the serious UFO investigation was aimed at trying to ascertain things such as the aerodynamics of some of the UFOs, the avionics and the propulsion systems. "We wanted to know if there was anything that we might learn from, regardless of what the source of these UFOs is."Have you seen UFOs flying above Scotland or do you think the whole idea of little green men is pie in the sky? Tell us what you think and discuss extra-terrestrial matters with other readers. .
Conman Foster jailed in Australia
AUSTRALIAN conman Peter Foster, who escaped from military custody in Fiji at the height of the December 5 takeover, has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail yesterday after pleading guilty to a money laundering charge in a Brisbane court. Peter Clarence Foster, 45, of the Gold Coast, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Brisbane to a charge relating to fraudulently obtaining just over $300,000 from the Bank of the Federated States of Micronesia, an AAP report stated. Justice James Sholto Douglas heard the matter in the Brisbane Supreme Court yesterday, Court officials revealed from Brisbane. He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years jail but will be eligible for parole after two years and three months. Foster, who has described himself as a human headline, was arrested by Australian Federal Police officers in February this year after he arrived at the Brisbane Airport on a flight from Vanuatu.
Without Fear of Contradiction - - -
Suppose I tell you that the government will design a product and make you buy it. If you say no thanks, that's too bad. The government will decide what you need and what you will buy. If you say you can't afford it, we'll send in government investigators to check, and if they conclude indeed you can't afford it, we'll tax your neighbors and make them subsidize you so you can pay for it. We'll set up a government bureaucracy to monitor and make sure you're cooperating. If they discover you haven't made the purchase, they'll go to your employer and have your wages garnisheed. Let's assume further that total spending for this government-designed and -mandated product accounts for about a fifth of the nation's total economy. The former Soviet Union? Communist China? No, this is the new Hillarycare.
ON STYLE
Miyake deserves credit for hiring several models of color, but he seemed nonplussed when I asked him about weight. He chose models who are "just suitable for our clothes," he repeated several times. Bodies Formed to Fit Clothes So we have bodies being formed to fit clothes, rather than clothes designed to fit bodies. .
Oyster Bar gets speedy for lunch
If you're always pressed for time at lunch, the Oyster Bar north feels your pain. That's why the eatery at 1509 W. Dupont Road is serving "OB Express" lunch specials for $8.25, including beverage. The specials are: Monday, salmon cakes; Tuesday, steak burger (for the bargain price of $2 plus beverage); Wednesday, meatloaf; Thursday, pork piccata; and Friday, all-you-can-eat fried perch. The Oyster Bar also updated its regular lunch menu with dishes including prime rib panini, Thai crab cakes, chicken pomodoro, roasted chipotle salmon, Thai seafood fettuccini, Ocala salad (peppered beef tips, spinach, strawberries, mandarin oranges, almonds, onions, bleu cheese and vinaigrette), a chipotle burger and a barbecue burger. Prices range from $6.25 to $11.95. Other menu mainstays include fried oysters, seafood au gratin, pecan chicken, pork tenderloin and Cobb salad.
Equities seen flat-to-lower on weak global cues
MUMBAI: Equities are seen opening flat-to-lower Tuesday, with losses on Wall Street and Asian indices weighing on sentiment.
US stocks ended lower overnight after brokerages downgraded banks and credit card companies on signs consumers are falling behind on debt payments, hinting at the shaky state of the economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 109.17 points, or 0.86 per cent, at 12,634.02, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 14.54 points, or 1.04 per cent, at 1,380.88 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 30.51 points, or 1.26 per cent, at 2,382.85.
Asian stocks also declined as a lower profit forecast from Olympus Corp, Japan's third-largest maker of digital cameras, and downgrades of Posco and South Korean shipbuilders by Goldman Sachs projected a weak outlook for regional earnings.
Alleged Kiwi botnet mastermind in court
An 18-year-old suspected of masterminding a botnet-fueled international cybercrime network has appeared in a New Zealand court. Owen Thorn Walker, of Whitianga in New Zealand's North Island, was charged with a variety of computer hacking offences including two counts of accessing a computer for dishonest purposes, two counts of accessing a computer system without permission, and a single count of damaging a computer system as well as possessing hacking software, Radio New Zealand reports. If convicted, Walker faces up to 10 years imprisonment. .
The armchair revolutionary
The book about Jesus is a new reading of the Gospels, out in time for Christmas, in which Eagleton asks the question, 'Was Christ a revolutionary?' and answers it mostly in the affirmative. It is a typical Eagleton stocking-filler: short, iconoclastic, fiercely clever; it places Jesus on the fringe of Palestinian insurgents against Rome, in the political wing of the anti-imperialist Zealots. The essay takes Eagleton back to his earliest intellectual outings at Cambridge in the Sixties, where he made a name for himself contributing to a curious Marxist Christian magazine called Slant. It is also the latest offensive in his argument with what he likes to call 'smug, liberal, rationalist' opinion, of which his ongoing war of words with Amis is the most visible engagement. .
Tropicana bondholders sue Yung for default
Tropicana's New Jersey gaming license was revoked after two-week hearing in which former employees and customers complained about the elimination of hundreds of casino jobs, causing customer-service problems and dirty hotel rooms. Derek Haught, vice president of finance for Tropicana Entertainment, said the company is working on a statement about the lawsuit that will be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission later Wednesday. "We don't think there's any merit to the lawsuit," Haught, said. Columbia Sussex, based in Fort Mitchell, is a hotel and casino investor. .
Crush your Credit Card Debt
It is not an exaggeration of fact that the recent decade has been witnessing an explosion in levels and numbers of credit card debt among the Britons. The relative ease of obtaining plastic money coupled with the anemic growth of wages has inspired more and more Britons to spend more than they make. Many of them are in a regular practice of living on borrowed money. It is easy to collapse under the pressure of crushing credit card debt. But smart people take some sensible steps to protect themselves and their credit worthiness. It is a myth that getting into debt is easy and getting out of debt is difficult. The loan that took only days or weeks to accumulate can take years or even decades to get rid of. You may be aware of the statistics of the BoE that a small credit card balance can take 30 years to pay off if only the minimum payment is made each month.
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