andrei

Pau Gasol is very very good. Top 10 PF? I'd put him in top 3. Better than 6RPG, lazy defense Stoudemire (and I am a Suns fan), better than Bosh, better than an aging Duncan. Let's not forget that since he joined the Lakers they have played 2 finals in a row, and they are on their way to the 3rd one. Or was it because Derek Fisher returned ? :) Marc played very well this year for Memphis, he seems to be a good player also. Calderon played half a season very good some 2 years ago, now he is not that good. And you forgot about Rudy Fernandez, too inconsistent at this point. Isn't Sergio Rodriguez spanish also?

:( I can't wait to see every team playing this new, revolutionary type of soccer. oh wait, sry, actually Barca was guilty of passive play.

LOL LOL

interesting comment ... If you play soccer, next time put one entire team in and around the box and ask the other team to play beautiful soccer while trying to score. Maybe all away teams should start playing like that.

I am wondering what is your opinion about yesterday's game. I am asking this because I see lots of people praising the "masterful defensive game" played by the Italians. Not being a fan of neither of those teams, I consider the match a disgrace for the game of soccer. I stopped watching after 80 minutes, I couldn't take it anymore. The "better" team, which qualified for the final, completed a staggering 59 passes in 75 minutes of play, compared with 455 for the opposing team. I don't have a statistic for the whole match but the last 15 minutes were played in the same fashion. Sure, they were playing one man short after 30 minutes, but the only diference was that they were defending with 10 men instead of 11. After all, they started the match playing 7 defenders or defensive midfielders. Are matches like these the reason why soccer isn`t and will probably never be popular in North America? Before anybody asks I am from Europe, and I play soccer at least once a week.

I thought for a moment that my skill level improved dramatically overnight :unsure:

1. win A♣ 2. play A♠ with ♣ discard 3. ruff a ♠. 4. play ♣ I think I can make it now whatever W is returning (playing W for Q♥), planing to ruff one more spade if diamonds are 4-1 for a trump coup.

only remember to cash the clubs first ... otherwise W might win the diamond and play a heart back so you cannot reach your ending anymore. Isn't DQ an entry to dummy then? sure it is, wtf was I thinking? :)

only remember to cash the clubs first ... otherwise W might win the diamond and play a heart back so you cannot reach your ending anymore. edit: but if you do that, E might rise with A♦ and play spade back, not good :(

I am not saying that women are going to beat men at tennis. All I am saying is that Serena has more fight in her than almost all men players out there. She recovered from 6-4 4-0 down, but it wasn't handed to her. In the third set, which she won 6-2, she had 18 winners to 4 unforced errors of her opponent. Are you wondering about Federer - Davydenko 3rd set? 2 winners Federer to 14 unforced for Davydenko.

I watched it, but it was so predictable. As soon as Davydenko had 1 double-fault and 3 unforced to lose his service for 3-3 it was clear it will be all downhill for him. How can you dominate for 12 games and lose 13 straight after? How about the new #2, Djokovic? Gifted only third-string players for the first 4 rounds, barely breaking a sweat, and in the first tough match to play he is tired after 2.5 hours, complaining of mysterious injuries and such. I guess it is nice for Federer fans but man, very frustrating for all others who want to see some good men tennis. You can see more fight in Serena or Henin than in any of the men players, other than Federer and Nadal (which might not play at the same high level again) Murray was playing very good against Nadal, but it would be unsurprising if he would stink it up against Cilic, which he already did in September at US Open.

bump :rolleyes: Have anybody seen last night AusOpen qtf match Federer - Davydenko? So Davydenko is on a 13 match winning streak, also winning his last 2 matches against Federer. He is playing very well early, 6-2 3-1 and he has 3 more chances for 4-1 and a double-break. He lost them. One was a mis-hit from Federer landing 2 meters from the net, a very easy shot for Davydenko, but he put it in the net. Next thing you know? Federer's winning 13 games in a row, 2-6 6-3 6-0 2-0. I guess Fed stepped up his game, lol

agreed ... Christopher Nolan is very good ...

if on the 3rd ♦ declarer pitches: - ♥, play ♥ after winning A♠ - ♣, play 4th ♦ after winning A♠

I found this very interesting: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/...tle-bother?bn=1 it seems something similar is implemented at Boston airport: http://securitysolutions.com/news/security...hostile_intent/

is it twice more "a little bit" ? ok, maybe twice more is as exaggeration, but "a little bit more" it is too. edit again: it seems that twice more might be quite accurate: a 75000 euros/year will pay 33% income tax a 75000 US/year will pay 20% income tax if you factor in the sales tax, 19% versus 4%-8% you are getting there ... Lol, maybe you should start by comparing similar incomes, instead of comparing a 75k $ salary with a 105k $ salary. I am wondering if you try to be sarcastic, but whatever ... 75,000 Eur != $75,000 US. 75,000 Eur. = $108,000 US (approx. based on exchange rate of 1.438) This is what is meant by.....comparing similar incomes, imo. really? you are earning your money in US and spending them in Germany? anyway, you can multiply the Euros with 1,43 to get the american equivalent, but then everything will cost you almost double in germany. just 2 examples: same VW Jetta TDI : Germany starts at 23000, in US 23000 same VW Tiguan (2.0 TSI) : Germany starts at 28000, US starts at 23000 do the same exercise with clothes, food, gas. Income tax rates increase as a function of income in the US. It has nothing to do with the exchange rate. If you want to compare someone making 75,000 Euros with an American, you have to compare him with an American making over $100,000 a year, and that person is paying a higher percentage of his income to the federal government than an American making $75,000 a year. my last post on this subject, waste of time .... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Income_T..._By_Country.svg

is it twice more "a little bit" ? ok, maybe twice more is as exaggeration, but "a little bit more" it is too. edit again: it seems that twice more might be quite accurate: a 75000 euros/year will pay 33% income tax a 75000 US/year will pay 20% income tax if you factor in the sales tax, 19% versus 4%-8% you are getting there ... Lol, maybe you should start by comparing similar incomes, instead of comparing a 75k $ salary with a 105k $ salary. I am wondering if you try to be sarcastic, but whatever ... 75,000 Eur != $75,000 US. 75,000 Eur. = $108,000 US (approx. based on exchange rate of 1.438) This is what is meant by.....comparing similar incomes, imo. really? you are earning your money in US and spending them in Germany? anyway, you can multiply the Euros with 1,43 to get the american equivalent, but then everything will cost you almost double in germany. just 2 examples: same VW Jetta TDI : Germany starts at 23000, in US 23000 same VW Tiguan (2.0 TSI) : Germany starts at 28000, US starts at 23000 do the same exercise with clothes, food, gas.

the store collects sales tax from shoppers and pass it to the government, so a sale tax is basically an indirect way to tax the consumer. why is almost everything cheaper in US than Germany? gas - food - clothes - cars? it's the amount of taxes included in the price. when the sale tax is 4-8% compared with 19%, when the income tax is quite sensibly higher, how is the german not paying at least double the amount of taxes an american is paying? sure germans might get better EI and social programs, it is cheaper when you get your car impounded, but it has a cost, and a very high cost at that. EDIT: and to answer your question, when you pay 20 euros to buy something at a store, the store is keeping 16.8 euros. if sales tax would be 0, why would the store sell for 20 euros and not for 16.8? The "incidence" of a tax describes what portion of a tax gets paid by the consumer as opposed to the seller. Tax incidence is a very basic concept in economics. (First semester, Econ 101 type stuff). You might want to read up on it. As a preview of coming attractions, the incidence of a tax varies dramatically between different types of goods. (This division is related to the price elasticity) you might not believe me, so I am quoting from wikipedia: "The theory of tax incidence has a number of practical results. For example, United States Social Security payroll taxes are paid half by the employee and half by the employer. However, economists think that the worker is bearing almost the entire burden of the tax because the employer passes the tax on in the form of lower wages" No matter of the incidence, more taxes in any economy means higher prices for the consumer, who eventually ends up paying all of them.

the store collects sales tax from shoppers and pass it to the government, so a sale tax is basically an indirect way to tax the consumer. why is almost everything cheaper in US than Germany? gas - food - clothes - cars? it's the amount of taxes included in the price. when the sale tax is 4-8% compared with 19%, when the income tax is quite sensibly higher, how is the german not paying at least double the amount of taxes an american is paying? sure germans might get better EI and social programs, it is cheaper when you get your car impounded, but it has a cost, and a very high cost at that. EDIT: and to answer your question, when you pay 20 euros to buy something at a store, the store is keeping 16.8 euros. if sales tax would be 0, why would the store sell for 20 euros and not for 16.8?

is it twice more "a little bit" ? ok, maybe twice more is as exaggeration, but "a little bit more" it is too. edit again: it seems that twice more might be quite accurate: a 75000 euros/year will pay 33% income tax a 75000 US/year will pay 20% income tax if you factor in the sales tax, 19% versus 4%-8% you are getting there ... Lol, maybe you should start by comparing similar incomes, instead of comparing a 75k $ salary with a 105k $ salary. I am wondering if you try to be sarcastic, but whatever ... what exactly is the connection between corporate taxes and personal taxes? I am only trying to compare how much Fritz is paying versus Jim. and "twice more" was wrong, I meant to say "double the amount".

is it twice more "a little bit" ? ok, maybe twice more is as exaggeration, but "a little bit more" it is too. edit again: it seems that twice more might be quite accurate: a 75000 euros/year will pay 33% income tax a 75000 US/year will pay 20% income tax if you factor in the sales tax, 19% versus 4%-8% you are getting there ...

all red, IMP, you hold: ♠Q9 ♥9872 ♦AT3 ♣8643 biding goes: p - 1♦ - p - 1♥ p - 2N - p - ??

nevermind, can this be deleted ?

IMP, all vul, you deal and see: ♠A2 ♥J5 ♦JT53 ♣K8753 bidding goes: P - 2♠* - X - 3♠ ?? * - weak, 5+♠ - 4+ minor

OMG!!! I can't believe any non-beginer bridge player would say something like this, let alone a world class player.