A comment in Russian from a bleary-eyed blogger is the latest gift to the discussion on Blackburn Rovers' & Derby County's pre-season endeavours. It starts "действие, служба, предпринимательство, экономическая деятельность, нап равленная на достижение определенных результатов (получение прибыли)." which translates as "operation, service, enterprise, economic activity, for example governance to achieve certain results (profit)."
Accountants, Blackburn supporters, Comedians, Derby supporters, Everyone's welcome (A-E). Footyfreaks, Greeks, Hotmailers, Intellectuals, Johnny-come-latelys Join in please (F-J).
I spoke to Nigel Clough, who's taken the lads to Cornwall for some white-water bonding prior to tonight's game at Torquay, a place made famous not just by its own efforts to be the Riviera of England, but also by the owner of the Gleneagles Hotel, inspiration for Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers. John Cleese stayed there in 1971 and was fascinated with the eccentric behaviour of owner Donald Sinclair. Cleese later described Mr Sinclair - who died in 1981 - as "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met." The Monty Python team stayed in the hotel while they were filming in Torquay. Mr Sinclair is said to have thrown Eric Idle's suitcase out of the window thinking it was a bomb. He is also said to have told off Terry Gilliam for not straightening his cutlery on the plate after he had eaten. However, Mr Sinclair's widow, Beatrice, has said her husband was totally misrepresented in the comedy. Beatrice, your view is welcome too.
Nigel, are you trying to re-capture your happy childhood trips to the seaside with this bonding lark? "I don't use the term bonding, it's just a get-together for the lads." OK, C U 2nite Nige.
Other news: A massive earthquake last week has brought New Zealand closer to Australia, scientists say. The 7.8 magnitude quake in the Tasman Sea has expanded New Zealand's South Island westwards by about 30cm (12in). Seismologist Ken Gledhill, of GNS Science, said the shift demonstrated the huge force of the tremor. But correspondents say that with more than 2,250km (1,400 miles) separating the countries, the narrowing will not exactly be visible. Nor, as the New Zealand media have observed, is it likely to bring cheaper air fares.
Sven-Goran Eriksson insists he can take Notts County from League Two to the Premier League after signing a five-year deal as director of football. For 24-hour party people a visit to the land of the midnight sun is a must. For one thing, the Swedes are serious when it comes to having fun - and at this time of year the sun never sets. And so it is that I find myself at the Peace and Love festival in Borlänge long after bedtime, negotiating a sea of tents which stretches far into the blood-red glow of a night-long dusk. I am here to try to find out what it is about Swedes that has put them at the heart of a raging debate about internet freedom. It is estimated - but nobody really knows - that at least one in 10 Swedes swap music illegally via BitTorrent file-sharing websites like Sweden's notorious Pirate Bay, and it is thought that in 2008, some 15m films were illegally downloaded here. 'Sharing is caring' Sitting in the shelter of a waist-high pile of beer crates I find my target demographic - a group of music-loving festival-goers. Out of the five of them, three voted for the Pirate Party in this year's European elections, helping to put a representative, Christian Engström, into the European Parliament. Falkvinge's Pirate Party won seven percent of the vote in the EU elections.Twenty-year-old Erik Lennermo explains why he voted for the Pirate Party. "Civil rights. Everybody has a right of privacy for their own e-mails, SMS messages and phone calls. File-sharing is just a small bit of the whole cake." Three former directors of Derby County have been jailed for their involvement in a fraudulent takeover of the football club. Ex-finance director Andrew MacKenzie, 55, from Derby, and former director of football Murdo Mackay, 53, from Fife, both got three-year terms for fraud. Northampton Crown Court had heard how they and ex-chief executive Jeremy Keith, 41, claimed "secret commission". Keith received 18 months for falsifying documents during the 2003 takeover. The 41-year-old, from Abingdon in Oxfordshire, bought the club with MacKenzie and Mackay for £3. The court heard that the trio claimed "secret commission" of £440,625 after arranging a £15m loan for the cash-strapped Championship club from a Panama-based corporation. Jurors had been told that the men used the loan as a "carrot" for the club, nicknamed the Rams, convincing administrators to sanction the takeover. Derby County were struggling in 2003 following their relegation from the Premier League the previous year. The Pride Park club owed more than £35m and was put into receivership by the Co-op Bank, the court had heard. The men were all found guilty at previous hearings. David Lowe, their legal adviser during the takeover, was convicted of helping to launder £81,895 of the £440,625 the trio tried to claim as a brokerage fee. He was jailed for two years. Around 5,000 new words have been officially added to the German language - many of them from the English-speaking world. The newcomers appear in the latest edition of the respected German dictionary, Duden. Germans can now go to "eine After-Show-Party", as long as it is not "eine No-Go Area", and meet "das It Girl" - if she does not have "der Babyblues". Fans of social networking can also "twittern", which means to Twitter. The financial crisis has inspired many of the new entries in the 135,000-word dictionary. Appearing for the first time are "Kreditklemme" (credit crunch), "Konjunkturpaket" (stimulus package) & "Abwrackpraemie" (car scrappage bonus). The word "Ehrenmord" (honour killing) also makes it into the dictionary, which was published on Wednesday. The German language is known for its extremely long compound nouns. The new edition includes a 23-letter example: "Vorratsdatenspeicherung", which means telecommunications data retention. The first Duden dictionary was produced in 1880 and consisted of just 27,000 words. A witness of the latest UFO sighting in Cornwall said "We saw seven amber lights hovering South East of St Agnes. They were stationery and after a few minutes faded away. I could not make out any shape but got the impression that the light appeared to be flames. I would be very interested to know if anyone else saw them!" [Stationery = office paper, hard copies n stuff; not moving = stationary Ed] Something seems to have slammed into Jupiter in the last few days, creating a dark bruise about the size of the Pacific Ocean, astronomers say. The bruise was noticed by an amateur astronomer on July 19, and professional astronomers followed suit. University of California at Berkeley researcher Paul Kalas used the Keck II telescope in Hawaii to image the blemish in the early morning the next day. The image in near-infrared light showed a bright spot in the southern hemisphere, a sign of reflective particles floating high in Jupiter’s sky, scientists said. In visible light, the bruise looks dark against the bright surface of Jupiter. “This was most likely the result of a single asteroid,” said astronomer Frank Marchis at Berkeley. The Keck observation marks only the second time astronomers have seen the results of an impact on the planet. The first occurred 15 years ago, between July 16 and 22, 1994, when more than 20 fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter. "Эта дискуссия не является игрой, сказал он. "Это не обо мне - я с большим медицинского страхования, а так же каждый член конгресса." Я бросился, потому что я получаю письма ежедневно с семьями, которые в настоящее время clobbered по здравоохранению расходы Президент США Барак Обама Скорее, он сказал, он был об обычных американцев, которые были вынуждены "нести бремя проблема, что Вашингтон не удалось решить в течение десятилетий". "Мы будет проходить реформа, которая снижает затраты, способствует выбору и обеспечивает охват, что каждый американец может рассчитывать на", сказал он. "И мы сделаем это в этом году." "Я бросился, потому что я получаю письма ежедневно с семьями, которые в настоящее время на clobbered затраты на здравоохранение, и они спрашивают меня, вы можете помочь", сказал г-н Обама.
Kings, Lesbians, Man City supporters, Nigerians, Obama Osama all welcome to join in (K-O)
Pacifists, Queens, Rams, Rovers, Supporters, Troops please, have your say (P-T)
U Volunteers Wearyanarchistswankersforshort Xmasshoppers Y&Ynots Zoos HI! (U-Z)
& now for something completely different
Sam, you're going to be slaughtered without a couple of top strikers. No goals against Hadjuk Split, CD National to name but a few, get your finger out seems to be the message?
"The all important subject is finding that frontman to score goals, the more goalscorers we have, the better we are going to be. Irrespective of how good or how well we play up to the final third, if we haven't got anybody to put the ball in the net, we will struggle."
So that's a yes to the finger out question. Why are you spending all this time in bed with Vieri?
"Obviously, he is way behind the rest of the players and we will be very patient and supportive with him. We'll see how long he wants to give it to see if he can get to the level he needs to play in the Premier League. If he manages that, what a player. We will decide together, me and him. We will take as long as it needs, hopefully to get there in the end."
Christian Vieri, 36 on Sunday, July 12th, joined up with the rest of the squad for pre-season training in Austria. At this stage it is not known if Vieri will earn a playing contract under Sam Allardyce. Much to the anger of all concerned, Vieri left the Rovers' training camp before a match he was due to take part in, and effectively terminated his trial with the club deciding instead to go for a second summer holiday in Sardinia. On 19 July 2009 Rovers officials were about to sign the Italian striker after a positive trial period, but he has changed his mind now and rejected their offer. Vieri remains a free agent and could decide to retire.
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