The 411 on Comber Tenders

Source: Ha’aretz ()

The daily diet of first division coaches these days consists of watching endless scouting films without mercy. The transfer window of January 1-30 is the last chance for the coach and his owners to rescue their team from a sorrowful season. It’s no simple problem considering that somewhere out there awaits an agent primed with the knowledge that his client is that club’s potential El Dorado.

The idea that potential players could shore up one team sounds too optimistic when taking into account the small supply side this time of year. Great steals are hard to find. In most cases, it’s more of a shot in the dark. More than once, a coach has discovered afterward that he ended up shooting himself in the leg. The tremendous pressure of perhaps missing one thing or placing too much importance on something trivial makes them second guess whether they should have been more discriminating in the summer and could have avoided the current mess.

Murphy’s Law

“It’s clear the team that brings the best foreign players will remain in the Premier League,” says Bnei Yehuda coach Eli Cohen. “This month is critical, so I’m working around the clock looking for suitable players with a fine tooth comb.” He says everyone is looking for that player who will save them from relegation, “but it’s very hard to find these types during the transfer window.”

According to Cohen, “Murphy’s Law works here too - the moment I have a pool of players in the $300,000-$400,000 range, I happen to find myself with a team which allocates much less for foreign players, or those very players are unable to secure releases.” He concludes it’s a hard fact that most of the time is also quite depressing.

To concretize a coach’s difficulty in landing a quality foreigner for his mediocre to fair team, it’s enough to recall the three Brazilian busts who with Yossi Mizrahi’s Beitar Jerusalem last season. The abject failure in importing Cleber Schwenck, Tuto Ruschel …

Source: Xinhua ()

    JAKARTA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) — The Jakarta police began to comb churches
Monday ahead of the mass prayers on the Christmas Eve to ensure security and
anticipate militant attacks.
    Churches were targeted in a series of bombings on Christmas Eve2000 when at
least 15 people died as the result.
    Police said six major churches in the capital city would get extra security
profile, including the country’s largest Cathedral Church, which is located near
the famous Istiqlal Mosque.
    ”Although the six churches get our priority, basically all churches in
Central Jakarta will be guarded. We have readied our personnel already,” Central
Jakarta Police deputy chief Heri Wibowo was quoted by leading news website
Detikcom as saying.
    He said police would sterilize all churches in the capital prior to the
Christmas prayers.
    Separately, presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered National police Chief Sutanto to beef up security
during the Christmas to allow Christians across country to observe the
festival without any disturbance.
    ”The police chief has taken appropriate actions in response,” Andi
said.

Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune ()

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IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE

Tikal National Park (www.visitguatemala.com) is usually visited as part of larger trips to Guatemala and Belize. It is accessible as a day trip from the lake-island city of Flores for those who want to stay in greater comfort, or as an overnight destination for those who wish to see sunrise and sunset in the jungle. Daily admission is 150 quetzales (about $19.50 at 7.7 quetzales to the dollar, which is widely accepted).

An online search for nonstop round-trip flights from New York to Guatemala City for a week’s stay in early January ran from $313 to $583 on a number of airlines, including Delta, Continental, United and TACA International. TACA (www.taca.com) runs several flights daily from Guatemala City to Flores, starting at about $200 round-trip. More information about connections is available at www.tikalinformation.com/theretik.html.

WHEN TO GO

The climate at Tikal is hot and humid year-round, but the driest, most comfortable weather is usually from December through February.

WHERE TO STAY

Unless you stay in the park, you will not be able to see sunrise and sunset in Tikal, but if you stay in the jungle, the prices are high and the amenities are minimal.

The Hotel Villa Maya (502-2334-1818; www.villasdeguatemala.com; rates start at $85) is something of a reasonable compromise. A popular eco-lodge a few miles east of Flores, it allows you to experience the jungle as you would at Tikal with all of the creature comforts, but you still will not have full access to the park.

Of the three in the park, Jungle Lodge (502-2476-8775; www.junglelodgetikal.com; starting at $102, including breakfast) is probably the best, …

Source: One Year After - AllAfrica.com ()

Tomorrow, it will be exactly one year since one of my reporters, Olawale Olaleye, delivered that shattering news to me in my office. The young man ran to my office and opened the door without knocking and shouted in Yoruba language that there was the news that Mr. Godwin Agbroko had been shot dead. I rushed downstairs to confirm the information. And since that Friday night I have lived with the sad reality that one of the most brilliant journalist I have ever worked with at close quarters is dead.

This definitely is not a time to be writing on the qualities of the man of great intellect, a humble fellow and a man who though could easily get irritated, particularly when the idea being canvassed appear unintelligent, but a harmless fellow, always willing to help with ideas. I and my other colleagues, in and outside THISDAY, as well as political and business leaders who read his various articles have written about his virtues. It is time we simply thanked all the people who have supported his immediate family and the THISDAY family in the past one year. I pray that we do not have a repeat of this sad incident.

But then, it is surprising that one year after the criminal act that led to the death of Agbroko, the police are not even pretending to be investigating the incident. No attempt was made to comb the scene of crime. Nobody has been arrested. In fact, the general belief is that the police are not interested in the case. The attitude of the police has led to the suggestion that the incident could not have been a case of ordinary armed robbery but assassination with sanction from some highly placed persons. As much as I will like to believe that there is no clue to suggest the nature of the crime and the quarters from where it came, I blame the police for strengthening the thoughts of the conspiracy theorists.

I wonder why the police do not think owe the family, friends and colleagues of Agbroko an explanation on why his life was terminated …

Source: CNET News.com ()

Ever wanted to know what it’s like to get laughed at for a whole day? Try finding a Wii this week.

That was my task Tuesday: to comb the San Francisco Bay Area for one of Nintendo’s elusive video game consoles. And let me tell you, the results were not pretty.

All told, during a long day of driving through Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties, I hit 10 different retailers in person and called 2 others, all in hopes that I might be one of the lucky few who stumbled onto the opportunity to fork over $250. And how many Wiis did I find? Read on.

I began my morning driving through a raging downpour to the Best Buy in Marin City, a few miles north of San Francisco. I actually remember thinking that getting to the store early and in the middle of a near flood might mean I’d be alone in my quest.

But this is the week before Christmas, and the Wii is the hottest could-be gift around. So when I walked over to the video game department, a woman was already asking a salesman if the store was out of Wiis.

“Oh, yeah,” he said.

As she left, I wandered over to make sure I’d heard properly, and indeed, the salesman confirmed that the store had sold out its most recent shipment of 40 Wiis in 30 minutes on Sunday.

“I don’t think we’re getting any more before the holiday,” he said.

With that, I hopped back into my car and headed out to Lake 101–I mean Highway 101–and drove north, to San Rafael, where I knew there was another Best Buy and a Toys “R” Us.

At the Best Buy, I passed a stack of several dozen Sony PlayStation 3s for sale, a $399 bundle that included a Blu-ray copy of Spider Man 3.

Still hopeful about Wiis, I nonetheless asked a salesman if they were out of the Nintendo devices.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “We had a shipment on Sunday, but that’s the last one we’re getting.”

Fine, I thought. But he must have some idea how to get one, right?

“The …

Source: MLive.com ()

BY PETER KROUSE AND ROBERT SCHOENBERGER

Gazette News Service

Buy American doesn’t mean what it once did. Not in the
auto industry.

Honda’s best sellers come from plants in Ohio, while
Ford imports cars from Mexico. Toyota opened a plant in
Texas this year while Chrysler brought in cars from Europe.

And vehicles assembled in the United States are made with a
growing number of foreign parts.

“Ten years ago, it was a much more regional
business,'’ said Dave Cole, chairman of the Center
for Automotive Research, in Ann Arbor.

Parts suppliers once clustered around U.S. plants making
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler vehicles. Now,
Detroit’s Big Three comb the globe for high-quality
parts at the cheapest price.

For buyers, these changes have blurred the emotional,
decades-old conflict between domestic and foreign cars.

Which is which these days? How can a Honda made in America,
by Americans, be foreign? How can a Chevrolet with a large
share of foreign parts be American? The questions will only
grow more difficult as automakers grow more global. And as
more young people, the us-versus-them allegiance,
become car buyers.

The trend seems unlikely to retreat.

CONTINUED   1 | 2
 Next

Source: Bizjournals.com ()

A Massachusetts company has achieved significant breakthroughs by using new technology to look inside cancer cells to understand how they operate and drive malignancies.

Cell Signaling Technology of Danvers, Mass., said on Monday that its advances would be highlighted in two new papers in the December and January 2007 issues of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The papers explain how the technology can potentially help discover new causes of cancer and the mechanism of how drugs work.

A third article, in the December 2007 edition of Cell, focused on how the technology can be used to identify new sub-types of lung cancer as well as find new therapies to save lives.

The hope is that the findings will help advance how scientists understand cellular defects do to make a cell become cancerous.

Cell Signaling Technology Inc. develops test and drug discovery technologies.

Source: Charlotte Observer ()

For the first time in 13 years, I was sitting in a barber’s chair. The barber, Mike — mid-50s, short, with a head of thinning, perfectly groomed hair — turned me to face the mirror and asked, “So, what are we going to do today?”

I was so out of practice that I hadn’t even anticipated this question. I hemmed and hawed.

Finally he said, “Just clean it up a bit?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

He picked up a comb and started in.

“I haven’t been to a barber in a long time,” I said. “My wife always cuts my hair. But after 13 years, she’s left me. So I figure I need to find a different haircutter.”

This, I know, was quite a bombshell to drop on Mike the barber after 10 seconds in his chair. But he just nodded. A minute later, he asked, “So does your wife cut hair for a living?”

“Oh, no,” I said. “Just mine.”

I considered telling him everything, unburdening myself to the barber as though he were a priest and the chair a confessional. I thought I could give him the CliffsNotes version of our relationship: how we met in high school biology, went off to separate colleges, married at 20, had our first daughter by 21 and two more by 27. How, before marrying, I converted to her conservative religion. And how, unable to quell my longstanding misgivings, I made the wrenching decision a decade later to leave the church.

I knew my move might threaten our marriage, and ultimately I was right — it did, but not the way I had expected. Instead of dividing us, it briefly sent us down the same path, as my wife soon walked away from the church, too. But in her case it was a faith that had defined her for 30 years.

Frightening freedom

At first, our church-free life seemed full of possibility. Things got tougher, though, as we tried to find our way without the religious dictates that had guided us for so long: the of marriage to family, its sacrifices and requirements, the role of children, the idea that God …

Source: Honolulu Advertiser ()

One day after the Hawai’i Superferry resumed service to Maui, members of an oversight task force questioned whether inspections of vehicles and baggage entering the ship will be effective.

The 13-member task force met yesterday for the first time. The oversight group was born out of legislation that permitted the Superferry to resume service while the state conducts an environmental review of the project, which could take one to two years.

Some task force members questioned the ability of inspectors to find objects the ferry is not allowed to carry, such as iwi, or human bones.

Colette Machado, a Moloka’i resident and Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee who was appointed to the task force, said, the inspectors “have to be trained, or at least have some scientific background. We’re looking for cultural, scientific people … or they may be kama’aina archaeologists.”

Task force member William Aila Jr. said that inspectors may be able to detect obviously prohibited items such as ‘opihi, but would they be able to stop the importation of culturally significant items such as ka’ai, or burial caskets.

The task force discussed the possibility of reviewing the qualifications of sub-contractors who will be hired by environmental consulting firm Belt Collins to oversee the ferry inspectors.

Michael Formby, deputy director of harbors for the state Department of Transportation, said he would investigate whether the task force has the ability to “affect the scope” of Belt Collins’ operations and the resumes of potential sub-contractors. Belt Collins officials have directed to forward requests for interviews to the state Department of Transportation.

Following yesterday’s meeting …

Source: Market Wire (press release) ()

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire - December 14, 2007) - KOCH Records is proud to announce the release
of “Silverback Gorilla,” the brand new album by D-Block member Sheek Louch.
“Silverback Gorilla” will hit stores everywhere in February 2008. The album
features a who’s-who list of guest appearances including Jadakiss, Styles
P, Jim Jones, Bun B, The Game and Fat Joe.

The first single, “Keep Pushin’,” will be impacting Radio shortly.

Sheek Louch, along with Styles P and Jadakiss, is a founding member of The
LOX, the Yonkers-based group who was a backbone of Sean “Puffy” Combs’ Bad
Boy label during its heyday, the mid ’90s. Hired as writers, the trio
wrote and performed on Comb’s “I Got The Power,” and “It’s All About the
Benjamins,” Mase’s “24 Hrs. to Live,” the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Last Day,”
Mary J. Blige’s “Can’t Get You Off My Mind,” and many others.

The LOX released their debut album, “Money, Power & Respect,” in 1998 — it
reached #3 on the Billboard Top 200 Charts. To date, The LOX has sold 1.7
million albums.

Sheek’s new album comes under his current marketing services deal between
KOCH Records, the (#1 Independent label in the U.S.) and the mighty D-Block
Records (created by Sheek with lifelong friends, Styles P and Jadakiss).
The first release on D-Block was Sheek Louch’s 2003 debut album, “Walk Witt
Me” followed by “After Taxes” which debuted at #23 on Billboard’s Top 200
upon release. Sheek has sold a combined 400,000 units as a solo artist.

Alan Grunblatt, General Manager and Executive Vice President of KOCH
Records, says, “Sheek Louch is a successful core KOCH artist and he defines
gangsta rap in New York.”

About KOCH Entertainment

KOCH Entertainment, founded in 1987 and now in its twentieth year, is the
leading and fastest-growing independent music company in the U.S. KOCH’s
operations encompass record and video labels well as distribution
companies in the U.S. and Canada. KOCH Entertainment is the market leader
among …