| Mirtle: The injury factor
Dealing with injuries is certainly part of life in the NHL these days, but Pierre LeBrun's piece on the level of parity in the league reminded me of just how much of an effect one absent body can have on a team's fortunes.
Looking at the standings, three teams jump out as feeling the loss of key personnel so far:
Nashville (7-7-0)
There's been an awful lot of talk about the Predators missing Tomas Vokoun, Paul Kariya and Kimmo Timonen, but the absence that's hurting the this team the most could be that of defenceman Shea Weber. Weber was second on the team in even-strength ice time last season, and generally paired with Dan Hamhuis against the toughest opposition forwards.
He turned 22 over the summer and was poised to join the ranks of the elite blueliners in the Western Conference before dislocating his knee cap in the season opener.
The Breakdown of Wall Street Alchemy
The trend is striking because it shows that the credit crunch is starting to affect the financing plans of companies, not just in the highly leveraged sector but in the investment grade arena as well. It also casts fresh doubt on the ability of the European corporate bond market to challenge the US." February 13 - Bloomberg (John Glover): "Half of the loans backing leveraged buyouts in Europe risk breaching investor safeguards or defaulting as company earnings and debt projections miss targets, Standard & Poor's said... 'There is a heightened potential for defaults,' S&P analysts led by Taron Wade... wrote. Fifty-three percent of the companies owned by buyout firms in S&P's study have more debt than forecast, making them vulnerable to default... In LBOs, firms borrow about two-thirds of the acquisition price, piling the debt onto the takeover target." February 13 - Bloomberg (Stephanie Bodoni): "Luxembourg Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker is 'worried' European economies will endure for 'some more time' the consequences of the financial-market turmoil...
Damascus, Arab Cultural Capital, Oldest Inhabited City
The Paradise Gate (Bab Al-Faradees ) One of the northern gates. It symbolizes the planet Mercury. It bears name of the village Al-Faradees. Al-Jabieh gate symbolizes Jupiter. It is situated in the west of the city. The Small gate (Bab Al-Sgheer) symbolizes the planet Mars. It is the smallest gates of the fence and situated in the southern side. As there are other gates to Damascus such as Bab Jiron which is the Eastern door for Damascene Jupiter temple. It is in al-Nawfara neighborhood and al-Barid gate. In old Damascus you see the citadel which was built during the Seljuk rule in 1076 AD. It occupies an area estimated by 33176 square meters. It has 12 towers and four gates. As for Umayyad Mosque, it is a jewel of old Damascus. It has been a Roman temple of the god Jupiter then became a church and then the Mosque.
Warriors know who they are, and they dig it
But his appendix took a powder after Wednesday's win over the Boston Celtics, and he is expected to miss anywhere from two weeks to a month, somewhere between eight and 15 games at a time when the Warriors don't need any absenteeism. Yet here the Warriors stand - lacking an impact big man when the chips go into the middle of the table. This looks, frankly, like a job for Don Nelson's pointy wizard's hat. And no, Patrick O'Bryant isn't the answer, and Brandan Wright isn't either, at least not yet. Biedrins' injury leaves the Warriors vulnerable at a time when the Western Conference has begun to separate into a nine-team upper division, and the Warriors are ninth. The Houston Rockets, Golden State's closest rivals and winners of 18 of their previous 21 games, felt good enough about their place in the universe to ship Bonzi Wells to divisional rival New Orleans.
Nowhere else to go
He'll look at us and say, 'You're my parents, surely you can do something about this.' How do you answer that?" his father, Gil, said yesterday. David Murray is one of at least a dozen people with what is referred to as "dual diagnosis" -- who are taking up Ottawa-area hospital beds because they have nowhere else to go, said Brian Tardif, the executive director of Citizens Advocacy Ottawa. .
Hoover no stranger to water
Hoover's love of water can be traced even further back to childhood vacations at Cape Cod. Those days created a penchant for seafood, which lead to the occasional trip east for fried clams. The new chamber director is not naive enough to think Kent could spawn the type of economic activity downtown Peninsula enjoys during summer months. But, as bike trails come together in Kent, it's obvious both communities share some amenities. And Kent has the promise of canoe and kayak activity, whereas Peninsula relies heavily on bicycle traffic. "I think it's a piece," Hoover said of the proposed white water park. "It's not going to be the one thing. The challenge with something like that is it's very seasonal." The chamber board of directors voted Thursday to appoint Hoover to take over for former director Dan Smith.
Australian market shows encouraging resilience
WE are caught between the US slashing interest rates and our Reserve Bank putting them up. And it's against the backdrop of an Australian broker failing to settle trades for the first time since the Australian Stock Exchange switched to computers almost 20 years ago. For almost five hours last Tuesday, hundreds of millions of dollars of share trades were frozen in limbo. Video: Terry McCrann's business wrap Throw in that $8 billion forex loss by giant French bank Societe Generale, another multi-billion dollar sub-prime write-off by Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS, and it all adds up to disturbing confusion and complexity. Certainly, we are living in "interesting times". Are they about to turn interestingly nasty? For investors? For jobs? For your standard of living? In fact, the local outcome from all of this is encouraging resilience.
Radio & TV Talk
But her tribe Zhan Hu wasn't strong enough and they tended to lose despite her efforts. She chose not to play mind games, and her A-type personality clashed with some other tribe members, especially Dave Cruser. So when rival tribe Fei Long kidnapped her two episodes ago, she became vulnerable. ("I got screwed in the switch," she said.) What's worse: Frosti, another kidnapped Zhan Hu member, accidentally spied the immunity Idol this past Thursday, protecting his survival for now. Lloyd could have survived if Zhan Hu had thrown the immunity challenge a second time this past Thursday, but they weren't sure if she was trustworthy once the two tribes merged. She hurt herself when she chose not to talk to Zhan Hu member Peih-Gee Law during the reward challenge. But overall, Lloyd told Buzz she had a good time despite the lack of food and sleep.
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