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In Sunday's New York Times there was an article on Hurling on the front page of the sports section and continued inside (title in the print edition "An Irish Sport, All Its Own" the title of the online article is "A Passion for Hurling, the All-Ireland Game"). The main focus is an Inverin vs Kinvara match in Galway but it touches a few other areas and there is slide show of photos online as well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/sports/a-passion-for-hurling-the-all-ireland-game.html

There's a star missing from that flag. Must be an old photo. We won it 5 times.

In Istanbul

I will be away this weekend with no computer access

The Payton Conference is in decent shape too. Just looking for Big Apple Orchards to renew and we're good to go....

I'm in.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2015/0729/717890-dublin-and-clare-boycott-camogie-coin-toss/

The future of this season's All-Ireland senior camogie championship is in question after Dublin and Clare both pulled out of today's drawing of lots for a place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Both sides finished their group games with equal points, while they played out a 1-08 to 1-08 draw earlier in the campaign, however, points' difference or a play-off were not a consideration to decide the rankings and instead the drawing of lots was due to decide who would progress.

The executives of the Dublin and Clare camogie board held a conference call last night, at which it was decided that both counties would withdraw their names from the drawing of lots, which was scheduled to take place at 9:30 this morning.

Both counties had lodged appeals, but in a lengthy statement yesterday the Camogie Association ruled that those appeals could not be heard as any decision taken by the the association's Ard Comhlaire cannot be appealed.

It said that under ''pre-determined procedures'' lots would be drawn this morning to decide who'll play Wexford in Saturday's quarter-final in Thurles.

A harshly worded statement from the Executive of the Clare County Board was scathing in its criticism of the Camogie Association.

"The Camogie Association has demonstrated their utter contempt and disdain for every player and member of the Association. How can a governing sporting body justify by any logic the Drawing of Lots(coin toss) to determine progression in Championship?," it read.

"Clare Camogie demands more respect for its players and administrators than what is being levelled at them by the Camogie Association officials.

"The decision by Ard Chomhairle not to adjudicate on the merit of Appeals lodged, shows the contempt with which the lower units of the Association are held.

"The upset and mental anguish that has been forced upon players by the Association, will have deep and long lasting repercussions. Players are inconsolable and feel betrayed."

"This is a regressive step for the Association and will be of detriment, not only to Clare and Dublin but to Camogie on whole. The Association have passed up an opportunity to address this fiasco with the appeals of both Clare and Dublin. Thus, in choosing not to do so have left it to Clare and Dublin to up-hold the sporting integrity of the Association," the statement concluded.

It's unclear how the Camogie Assocation will respond to this latest development.

What's the story with healthcare in the US?

we've all heard the horror stories of poor unfortunates getting hurt on holidays and ending up owing $500k.

But when you live there (legally) how much is your Bupa/VHI or equivalent?

Here in Australia we pay just under $500Aus per month for private healthcare and its not too bad.

For instance few weeks ago I had a bad back, in & out of casualty in 2 hours ( it happened on a Sat evening so GP not open) prescription issued, booked in for an MRI the following week and in the process of getting it sorted.

Dental work no problem, not too much to pay along with your healthcare plan, I paid $125 for two fillings.

Physio/chiropractor etc is approx $55/hour with your healthcare plan.

I always wondered how much this kind of thing was stateside.

Health insurance is through your employer in a lot of cases. For most white collar/professional jobs your employer will cover most of the cost which can be above $10,000/year if you have a family (I pay about $5K out of $20K for family coverage in NYC). If you are self employed/contractor or in a lower paid job you will have to pay most of the cost yourself if it is available. I don't have enough knowledge about the plans available through the Obamacare exchanges to give you any information.

In related news a radical Palestinian Muslim kills 4 marines in Chatanooga, TN.

I am sure it is America's fault in a lot of your minds!

To throw that question back to you Stew,  45 people are violently murdered in the USA every day.  Were the other 41 killed that day America's fault or not?

So a non answer then!

A f**king Palestinian Muslim killed 4 human beings in the name of Allah! How do you expect the USA to react???

And many liberal assholes over here dont want to close the borders! The mind boggles.

Should they have closed the border before they let you in?

"I have my hotel room booked"

T Fearon

How do you end replays?

Endless periods of extra time? or Penalties?

Crazy money for a 19 year old. Great business by Liverpool.
Now the pressure is on to spend wisely.

It is only great business if the money is spent well. If 35 million of it goes on another Andy Carroll then it is not such great business.

Armagh GAA ‏@Armagh_GAA 2m2 minutes ago

Decky McKenna replaces Sean Connell, Tony Kernan replaces Ethan Rafferty and Mark Shields replaces Miceal McKenna

Twitter has reasonably frequent updates

https://twitter.com/search?q=armagh&src=typd&vertical=default&f=tweets

Armagh 0-8 v Galway 1-10
Galway number 14 Damien Comer fists a high ball into the square to the net! 42 min

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/homeopathy/pages/introduction.aspx

"Does it work?

There has been extensive investigation of the effectiveness of homeopathy. There is no good-quality evidence that homeopathy is effective as a treatment for any health condition (see What can we conclude from the evidence?)."

They could have just said No.

Calling a hurley a 'hurl'.

A hurl. Is that what you play hurley with?

I could care less.