geller

What if Donetsk pulled off a ManYoo and scored 2 in injury time? :P Theoretically they could have, so everyone on the Celtic bench was a little bit on edge till the very end, but it didn't happen. I guess in order to pull a ManU you have to be ManU (or Porto, which scored a stoppage time goal against ManU the year they won the Cup).

Since both Celtic and AC Milan knew at the half that Benfica was winning 2-1 at the half in the other game, it rather took the pressure off both teams playing at the San Siro.

If a fine and highly ethical player thought it likely they were cheating, why was he playing on their team? Actually Edgar Kaplan asked exactly this (semi-rhetorical) question (more than once IIRC) in editorials in The Bridge World. The obvious implication was that as long as the team-mates of the allegedly ethically challenged pair knew they had a good shot at winning the event they made a point of seeing no evil, hearing no evil, .....

From the BBC Home page, here are the standings in qualifying group D of the UEFA Champions League, with one round (Dec 5) to go. As explained by the BBC, if Celtic and AC Milan draw, both qualify (this is worth about $20MUS to each team). I'm predicting a 0-0 draw. Any takers?

I don't know the law in Utah, but in almost every state the citation form has the words "not an admission of guilt" somewhere near the signature line. Signing is merely an acknowledgment that you received the citation and agree to appear in court to defend yourself (or pay a fine by mail). Not signing is an arrestable offense. Looking at the video it appeared to me that the cop overreacted. But I just heard a TV news report from the US (they broadcast excerpts from foreign news shows in Japan) saying that so far this year 175 cops have died in the line of duty (almost all shot), up from 140 last year (and there's still a month to go in 2007). So generally speaking, you can't blame cops for being a bit jumpy. The obvious solution seems to get handguns out of the hands of the public, but this doesn't seem possible in the present poltical climate.... Too bad.

You can find the English text of the 2007 laws of bridge here.-Bob

Yes, for example in the 2002 World Cup Japan (the co-host, with South Korea) were seeded top in a group with Russia, Belgium and Tunisia, where they advanced to the round of 16 (losing to Turkey). This obviously was good for national pride as well as TV and ticket sales.

I have a different proposal: (1) The USBF BOD and VCW each pick one person who is fully authorized to represent them. (2) These people meet face to face without any lawyers (or other people) present. (3) The representatives of the two sides agree not to leave the meeting room until a deal has been reached.

Since they were already subject to disciplinary action, and since an apology is a public announcement of a guilty plea, it would be unreasonable for them not to plea bargain.

The video is up. Click on the following and scroll down to "Backlash for bashing Bush" and click on that (have to sit through a commercial first). Actually I thought they did quite well.

It has to obey laws, its own bylaws, and all the regulations of the US Olympic Committee (and thus all the rules of the Intl Olympic Committee). Within this framework the USBF has considerable discretion, but they can't just do "whatever they damn well want." Well, yes and no. That's what it says, but I think everyone understands that this wording was chosen so that they can bar cheaters without being subject to litigation, and that it should otherwise be used exceedingly sparingly, if at all. Not sure I agree with you. They have to take some disciplinary action to fulfill their obligations to the WBF. The question is how severe these actions should be. I think they've been unwisely harsh here. Sorry, you've lost me here. If you replace "legitimacy" by "reasonableness" I would agree with you.

One of the questions throughout this thread has been whether the USBF is entitled to undertake disciplinary procedures without a specific notification in advance to the players that prohibited the conduct in question. The answer would appear to be yes. Among the offenses subject to discipline is the following: (from page 5 of the USBF Grievance, Appeals, and Disciplinary Procedures). That being the case, holding up a political sign (albeit one that many would agree with) at the closing ceremony seems clearly subject to disciplinary action. However the relatively innocuous nature of the offense suggests that the punishment ought to similarly be relatively light (a reprimand and/or probation). By seeking to impose a harsh penalty the USBF has unwisely subjected itself to needless negative publicity. (The USBF has also failed to get across to the public that the offense subject to discipline was not expressing anti-Bush sentiments, but rather making a political statement of any sort at the closing ceremony.)

See page 7 of an old (1998) Daily Bulletin for the US Nationals (NABC). The winners (Lew and Joanna Stansby) thanked Jill Levin (formerly Jill Blanchard) as follows. As suggested by the quote, the ACBL used to run parallel mens pairs/teams and womens pairs/teams events, but these were changed to open pairs/teams run simultaneously with womens pairs/teams as a result of the lawsuit filed by (among other plaintiffs) Jill Levin (then Jill Blanchard).

If anyone from the USBF is reading this, please get Mr. Falk to denounce this as a hoax in the event he didn't send the email in question.

Here's another thread from the satire site Jon Swift. At the end of the thread they have an update It's hard to believe that an attorney representing the USBF would really say this.....

There are now threads on the VC controversy at Wonkette and FireDogLake, two sites that don't normally cover bridge. Some of the nuances appear to have been lost.....

FWIW, at this instant the VC brouhaha is the #2 (upper top left) headline on the (liberal) news referral site BuzzFlash, with the headline: . They change the headlines often so this may not still be be there in a few hours.

The money quote from the USBF statement. Reading between the lines, the VCW (or at least some of them) have offended USBF officials (who may initially have been somewhat sympathetic) by not affecting contrition. If they had initially said they were sorry and wouldn't do it again they probably would have gotten off with a slap on the wrist....

What it was in the beginning was the ARPANET, sponsored by ARPA (the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Department of Defense), and things just sort of grew from there.

Bill Shankly, a famous football (soccer) manager, said the following about the offside law:

Think of it as being like the world club championship of football (soccer), the Toyota Cup, rather than the FIFA World Cup (national teams competition). All the top clubs are (at the moment) in the US major leagues, which pay big enough salaries that they buy up all the top players from Japan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Vemezuela, etc. (all but Cuba, and even some Cubans are in the US major leagues). If the foreign leagues (Japan for example) get stronger, rest assured that some promoter (probably MLB itself) will cheerfully stage a real world club championship if they can get enough income from TV rights to make it worthwhile.

Excerpts from Wikipedia on the "World Series" regarding the naming In short, if the name "World Series" were adopted today, anew, it would be ridiculous chauvanism, but it wasn't nearly as unreasonable in 1880 or 1905 and by now it has a long historical tradition.... Incidentally, no serious baseball fan can dispute that US Major League Baseball (MLB) is the strongest League in the world (the Japanese Leagues are pretty strong, but not quite up to the major league level). One reason for this is that MLB (like the English premier League in football (soccer)) features the best players from all over the world. For example the 2007 World Series champions (Boston Red Sox) have two players (out of 25) from Japan (the starting pitcher Matsuzaka, who was the winning pitcher in game 3, and the relief pitcher Okajima). There was also a Japanese player (the second baseman, Matsui), on the losing team in the Series(Colorado). There also are many other foreign players (and managers and coaches) in MLB. If you want a bridge analogy it's like the Vanderbilt or Spingold, which are held in North America but feature many (most?) of the world's top players.

The above reflects several misunderstandings. (I am not an insider at all, but this is obvious from a moderately careful reading of the orginal documents.) The body in question was not a "panel," but rather the duly elected (by the membership in their annual vote) Board of Directors of the USBF. Obviously the members of the Board of Directors were not chosen with a view of solely adjudicating the holding up of a sign by six players at the Venice Cup Victory Banquet, so the occurrence of conflicts of interest is unavoidable. However, snce this is the duly elected Board, it's not like the President can just arbitrarily resign her office..... So recusual is the only practical step. The Board of USBF will refer the matter to a panel for appropriate action. Presumably the panel members will be pre-screened to ensure an absence of conflicts of interest. As for consulting attorneys, especially in a litigious country like the US, that's a prudent thing for the Board to do.

In order to close the books with regard to the USBF's relations with the WBF and CCBA some disciplinary action is needed. This is unavoidable. A token fine, a letter of reprimand, or some kind of probation is the best possible outcome for the players. They'd better hope there aren't too many Republicans on the disciplinary panel. :-)

If a member of the board has a conflict of interest he/she is essentially forced to abstain ("recuse himslf/herself"). If the abstainers have this as their reason we shouldn't criticize them.