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China UFO sightings have led to the shutdown of the airport in Baotou.

A spokesperson for the airport said three flights from Beijing and Shanghai were diverted "to guarantee safety." The spokesperson said they were worried the commercial aircraft might collide with the UFO.

Baotou, with a population of 1.7 million, is the largest city in Inner Mongolia, the People's Republic of China.

There has been no known confirmation of the sighting, though a video uploaded to YouTube puports to show the craft that caused the disruption.

All told, the airport was shut down for an hour.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdzLM9cIsWk

So, what do you all think, will we have a V or Independenece Day scenario where over the next few weeks huge mother ships will be hovering above our capital cities - the big question is will Dublin merit one?

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0908/armagh.html

British Army experts have made safe a 600lb bomb found beside the border in the Forkhill area of south Armagh.

Around 20 people were evacuated from their homes while the device, which contained homemade explosives, was made safe.


The security alert began last Tuesday when a newspaper received a warning of a bomb having been planted.

AdvertisementThe command wire leading across the border was discovered over the weekend.

The PSNI says it was connected to a firing point across the border in Co Louth and the Defence Forces and gardaí have carried out a similar security operation on that side.

Dissident republicans are being blamed for planting the bomb and police have branded those responsible 'reckless'.

The remnants of the device have been taken away for forensic examination and the PSNI has urged anyone with information to come forward.

SDLP Newry and Armagh MLA Dominic Bradley said the bomb could have caused widespread civilian casualty or death.
'This is the most serious threat yet from dissident republicans to the people of south Armagh. Without doubt, there could have been civilian casualties and deaths caused by a bomb of this size.'


Newry and Mourne PSNI commander Sam Cordner said there could have been a devastating outcome to the incident.

He said the actions of what he called terrorist criminals in planting this device had put local people and police officers at significant risk.

The device is the largest found in Northern Ireland in a considerable time.

In January a 300lb device was defused in Castlewellan, Co Down, and in May the components for a another bomb containing around 100lb of home-made explosives were found near Rosslea, Co Fermanagh.

What was the logic behind this?  Had the boys just been to see Hurt Locker and wanted to test out the skills of the biritish army bomb disposal experts?  What could they have been expecting to achieve here? 

What can we do with the NFL to make it remotely important?

This year has been the worst I can remember in terms of apathy regarding who actually wins the trophy.
Take Division 1:
Wholesale experimentation by every side, Derry reach the final in spite of themselves and Galway requiring 1 point from their last 2 games fail to do so, prior to that their manager says that he doesn't particularly want to make the final anyway.  For most sides, the aim was to avoid relegation, why, since Div 2 is probably of a higher level of intensity as teams don't experiment as much when to striving to attain promotion to Div 1.  
Even in Div 2, McGeeney stated prior to the Meath game that he wasn't particularly concerned if they got promotion or not (of course it's hard to know how much can be taken from such statements), Meath never tried a leg and Armagh were fairly experimental too.

Then we have the pointless divisional finals, is there any need for any of them, division one is justified to an extent as we've always had a national league final, but the rest - why??

We have an NFL final that we can't decide where to play because we're scared the attendance will be less than 5,000 (at last years final, if there were 300 Kerry fans that was the height of it).

To my mind if we want to make the league relevant, we have to link it to championship (I know I railed against Div 4 teams not getting a second chance, but that was discriminatory), but to do that effectively we have to get rid of the unfair provincial system.

Any thoughts?

Can we update this thread weekly with the latest results from around the country, it's pretty hard keeping up to date with what's going on club wise at this time of year.  Football and Hurling results welcome.

Derry:
SFC Semi-finals:  Ballinderry  1.8    Dungiven 1.7
                       Ballinascreen   1.10  Slaughtneil 1.10 (replay Wednesday night)

Derry hurling:  Lavey 2.12 Swatragh 1.15
                    Kevin Lynches 0.14 Slaughtneil 0.9
                   

LONDON (Reuters) - A Briton has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out a series of sex attacks on sheep, London police said on Friday.

The 27-year-old man was held at his home in Dulwich, south London, on suspicion of bestiality with sheep. He was also wanted in connection of the possession of drugs with intent to supply.

Detectives said the arrest followed allegations made to them in May and June.

"Two male joggers said they had observed a man molesting the sheep in a field at Botany Bay Lane, Chislehurst," police said in a statement.

"A similar incident was reported to police by a stables employee in the area."

Media reports said the man had been barred from visiting farmland while officers carried out their investigation.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKL1890732720080718

I'm interested to find out just how prevalent the taking of illegal drugs is in our society.  I'll start the ball rolling, I have smoked some weed, I know many people who've dabbled in the likes of E and acid etc, I know of several people who've taken coke (and enjoyed it), but not on a regular basis.  I also know of people who've taken heroin with serious consequences.
On the whole I think the 'war on drugs' is as futile as the 'war on terror' and we need a total rethink of our drugs policy, I favour some sort of legalisation, simply because the side-effects of keeping these substances illegal outweigh (imo) the possible outcome of legalising them.
We have a whole criminal sub-culture who thrive on the profits of keeping these illegal, we don't really have any idea of the scale of usage throughout society, we keep users ill-informed (see the lads in waterford eating damp cocaine), we allow criminals to distribute the drugs thus the product quality itself can lead to fatalities.  We already allow the sale of dangerous substances such as alcohol and nicotine.
I appreciate there are as many arguments against the legalisation, but I'll leave it up to you all to put them forward.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/euro75m-bonanza-1246496.html

By Martin Breheny
Friday December 14 2007


The GAA is close to signing off on a Christmas bonanza which is likely to earn €75m from TV and sponsorship deals over the next three years.


It is very close to concluding the new €9.7m per year deal for a six-way sponsorship of the All-Ireland hurling and football championships while negotiations are at an advanced stage on the new TV arrangements which will see TV3 and Setanta sharing coverage with RTE for the first time.

The TV and the sponsorship deals are linked, with broadcasters required to use the various company names as part of their match day presentations, similar to what prevails for major international events.

Financial details of the various arrangements have not been made available publicly but according to a confidential promotional pack, seen by the Irish Independent, the GAA priced the All-Ireland football championship sponsorship at €5.1m per company for three years and hurling at €4.6m.

Six companies -- three for either code -- were being sought, bringing the total take for the 2008-2009-2010 seasons to €29.1m, more than three times the return from Guinness and Bank of Ireland who have sponsored the championships since the mid-90s.

The new TV deal, which ends RTE's monopoly of All-Ireland senior championship coverage, is expected to be worth at least €15m a year.

Figures for this year's media coverage are not available but the GAA's annual accounts for 2006 show that it yielded €6.9m. However, it's certain to be considerably higher under the new arrangements and may actually reach €15m. The new TV deal has been broken into a whole series of packages, including TV and radio rights at national and local level.

The top of the range package features TV rights for the All-Ireland finals, semi-finals and quarter-finals. Packages two and three feature various break-ups of 10 provincial and All-Ireland qualifier games, followed by packages four and five which are comprised of 10 picks from further down the line.

The National League and All-Ireland club championship feature on further packages while there are multi-packages involving lesser TV coverage such as news and on-the-spot reports and radio at national and local level.

Pay-per-view

TV3 has already secured the rights for a package which features seven provincial and three qualifier ties. The rest are still being negotiated although it's certain that RTE will retain its hold on the glamour games at the concluding stages of the championships.

Setanta's involvement has raised the spectre of pay-per-view although this has been vehemently denied by the company.

However, others insist that while it's not on the agenda at present, it could raise its controversial head if Setanta establish a firm foothold on GAA coverage over the next few years.

The break-up of RTE's monopoly is good news for the GAA who now stand to earn up to twice as much from TV coverage while radio at all levels is being targeted in a specific way for the first time. Local radio has provided an excellent service for the GAA over the past decade but since many of the stations are now hugely profitable and being sold for large amounts, their days of enjoying free access to Gaelic Games are almost certainly over.

Meanwhile, the new sponsorship proposals, which will see no overall titled backer for either hurling and football, has met with an enthusiastic response from the corporate world according to the GAA's Director of Marketing, Dermot Power.

He said that the football championships had been over-subscribed while there was plenty of interest in hurling too.

"It shows just how highly Gaelic Games are regarded right now," said Power, who has headed the sponsorship negotiations.

The GAA hopes to be able to announce details of the new sponsorship, possibly as early as next week.

The new TV/sponsorship deals will boost the GAA's coffers to unprecedented levels as, if all goes to plan, they can look forward to banking €25m a year over the next three years from those sources alone.

- Martin Breheny

So what are they going to do with the cash bonanza I hear you all say, well, apparently, they're going to have free admission to all games from now on, I want to be the first to commend the guys at the top on a great and visionary idea.  What better promotion for our games could there be, using tv money to subsidise the attending supporter is a novel idea and not only promotes the game, but better atmosphere in packed grounds leads to a better product for tv purposes.

UEFA have postponed Tuesday night's Champions League qualifier between AEK Athens and Sevilla after the death on Tuesday of the Spanish club's defender Antonio Puerta.

The 22-year-old Spain international collapsed on the pitch during the weekend game against Getafe and, though he was able to walk off, suffered a relapse in the dressing room and required cardiac resuscitation.

It is believed the first-team squad is currently flying back to Spain from Greece.

Puerta has been a member of the Sevilla first team for three seasons and spent 14 years in total with the Andalusian club he joined as a boy.

Earlier in the day, doctors confirmed Puerta's condition had deteriorated. Dr Francisco Murillo, head of the intensive care unit at the hospital, said: "The condition of patient Antonio Puerta is not favourable due to the progression of the postanoxic brain injury and the multiple organic dysfunction caused by the prolonged cardiac arrest that led to his admission to hospital."

UEFA have postponed Tuesday night's Champions League qualifier between AEK Athens and Juande Ramos' side.

The Sevilla squad is currently flying back to Spain from Greece.

Puerta, whose girlfriend is pregnant, had been a member of the Sevilla first team for three seasons and spent 14 years in total with the Andalusian club he joined as a boy.

A later statement from Dr Murillo confirmed the death. It read: "We regret to announce that the patient Antonio Puerta died at 14.30 (local time) as a consequence of postpanoxic encephalopathy and multiorganic dysfunction provoked by the cardiac arrest."

ANTONIO PUERTA FACTFILE


1984: November 26 - Born Seville, Spain.

2002: Joins Sevilla 'B' team.

2004: September 19 - Makes his Primera Liga debut as a substitute in 3-0 win over Levante.

November - Starts his first match for Sevilla senior side and scores opening goal in 2-1 defeat to Numancia.

2006: Became a regular in Sevilla side, playing over 25 games in all competitions.

April - Scores extra-time winning goal in UEFA Cup semi-final victory over Schalke.

May - Picks up UEFA Cup winner's medal despite missing out on 4-0 final win over Middlesbrough.

2007: May - Plays full 120 minutes as club clinch second consecutive UEFA Cup with win on penalties in final against Espanyol.

June - Helps Sevilla finish third in La Liga, making 46 appearances during season.

August 25 - Collapses on pitch 35 minutes into first match of 2007/08 campaign against Getafe. Though able to walk off, he suffers a relapse in the dressing room and requires cardiac resuscitation after being rushed to hospital.

August 28 - After three days in intensive care, passes away aged 22.

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=international_feed/07/08/28/SOCCER_Spa-Puerta_Lead.html

THE bloke in the changing room was a little puzzled by the question.

One of the lads at the Saturday morning five-aside had asked him how he thought the following afternoon's replay would go. He quietly ran through some of the mental gymnastics he found necessary to answer to what should be a fairly routine question and his face lit up when he finally worked it all out. He was being set up.

"Replay? Yeah, right. The Community Shield is played as a once-off, and we'll hammer Chelski anyway. Even if it is a draw there'll be penalties to decide the winner on the day."

His teammate, a Waterford man, clarified the intent of the question. "I wasn't talking about the United and Chelsea game. I was talking about the hurling replay between Cork and Waterford tomorrow.

How do you think it'll go?" The United fan didn't even try to work this one out. "Is that on tomorrow? I didn't know that.

Someone told me that the hurling can be good sometimes."

By three o'clock the following afternoon, Waterford Man was sitting in the Hogan stand watching Kilkenny knock another seven bells out of Wexford and he was anxious on three fronts. The rain was coming in sideways and he was freezing. The way Kilkenny were hurling scared the life out of him and there was still a whole hour to go before it was Ken McGrath time. The family sitting next to him had travelled from Dungarvan for the second week running and it looked like the expense was beginning to tell. There wasn't a hot dog in sight, and lunch this week was a flask of milky tea, some sandwiches and a packet of jam tarts. They didn't seem to mind too much.

'Kenny Boy' was coming and they were exactly where they should be.

At precisely the same time, United Man was bone-dry and warm in the large warehouse that doubled as a pub in his part of Dublin. Sky Sports was yelling at the customers from all the television screens and despite an abundance of red-shirted viewers, there were no reported cries of 'Up the Rebels'. Twenty minutes later the Community Shield served up its first piece of excitement when a close range effort by Ryan Giggs was saved by the Chelsea keeper, Peter Cech, whose head was carefully secured in a protective helmet. United man and his friends groaned with disappointment before collectively agreeing that 'we' were taking them apart and that it was only a matter of time.

They were right. In the game's second piece of excitement, 15 minutes later Giggs skilfully guided one in. The warehouse erupted ecstatically and the boys got another round in to celebrate. There wasn't a cup of milky tea to be seen.

By the time United took the lead, Kilkenny had surgically dispatched Wexford, the rain was easing and Waterford Man was watching the controlled confusion that precedes big games at Croke Park. The Artane Boys' Band fought for pitch space with 50 galloping Munster men in red, white and blue while at the same time dodging a hail shower of sliotars. His boys were moving well and his anxiety was easing. During the week while the soccer professionals had been "taking each game as it comes", Dan Shanahan had offered a more evocative hurling analysis by publicly reflecting on the role of "O'Sullivan's fat arse" on the outcome of the drawn game. Diarmuid's backside didn't look any smaller since last week but Paul Flynn looked even fitter. As the second half kicked off at Wembley the ref threw the ball in at Croker and within minutes Ken McGrath had inserted an open fist into a swirl of slashing ash plant and charged clear with the captured ball in a passage that has defined the last few summers. The ground roared with blue and white pride and passion. His protective helmet was nowhere to be seen.

Back at the warehouse, United man and his friends had overcome the crushing disappointment of a Chelsea equaliser on the stroke of half time and settled in for the second half. Wayne Rooney's agitation before the break had raised the intensity of the game to the level of a Sean Og warm-up and there was real hope of a lively 45 minutes ahead. It wasn't to be. Ten minutes into the second half the text commentary on the BBC website remarked that "just as at the start of the match, it is slow and stately out there again. The pre-interval bite has gone." A few minutes later Joe Cole lightly brushed off the United defender Nemanja Vidic as he attempted a clearance but after a few moments of apparent agony the Serb found the courage to get back on his feet and continue the game. The next notable event for him, and the match itself, was when he fell over again in the Chelsea penalty area. He didn't get the penalty and the game limped on to an inevitable draw.

In Jones' Road each single moment brought a new frenetic incident. Dan Shanahan had solved the fat arse problem and had followed a firsthalf goal of powerful athleticism with one of surgical precision in the second.

Ben O'Connor was knocking over points with ridiculous accuracy and Stephen Molumphy was proving again that his growing talent was as unusual as his surname.

Not long after Vidic's bravery had thwarted the butchery of Joe Cole, Eoin Kelly came to the sideline for some quick treatment on a hand injury. It wasn't too bad. He would only need 10 stitches to repair the wound and right now his county needed him . . .

he would worry about the day job in the morning. He returned swiftly and eagerly to the fray.

John Terry's club needed him too, but he had hurt his leg in training the day before and was watching the penalty shoot out from the bench in the kind of suit that you can easily afford on a multi-million quid a year contract. None of his team mates managed to score from the spot but Ashley Cole still managed to smile brightly as he collected his loser's medal. United Man and his friends were singing proudly back in the warehouse, their favourite English soccer team had won and all was well in their world. Star midfielder, Michael Carrick, summed things up. "It wasn't the best game in the world but we won and a win's a win.

But today doesn't mean an awful lot."

None of the Cork players were smiling. They had lost by three points and despite all their success over the last few years it still meant an awful lot. Waterford Man embraced Dungarvan Family and together they anticipated the real possibility of their first final in 34 years. Only Limerick stood in the way now and as Jose Mourinho explained to interviewers that his team "didn't lose the game itself, we are not at a lower level than the opposition, " Gerald McCarthy was congratulating Waterford on their victory and telling RTE that the best team had clearly won.

It's unclear if this afternoon's games were discussed after the five-a-side yesterday morning. United Man would no doubt have been optimistic that 'we' could make a good start at home to Reading, while his buddy from Waterford would have been anxious on two fronts. We are better than Limerick, but would we be tired and complacent? He also knew there were only two more magic Sundays to go before Sheff and Kenny Boy would be fully replaced by Ronaldo and Drogba, before Jamie Rednapp and Andy Gray came in for Finnerty and Farrell. As Marlon Brando's character in the film Apocalypse Nowmuttered with his dying breath.

"The Horror! The Horror!"

http://www.tribune.ie/article.tvt?_scope=Tribune/Sport/GAA&id=75136&SUBCAT=Tribune/Sport

[Overachievers:]

Why can some teams handle the qualifiers and others just don't seem to get it?
We seem to have the same teams coming through the qualifiers year after year, and the same big names underachieving:
Overachievers:
Derry
Donegal
Westmeath
Fermanagh
Louth
Sligo

Underachievers:
Kildare
Down
Mayo
Cavan


I know that Galway won an All Ireland via the back door, but they haven't really been there often enough to say they've mastered the mindset needed (if indeed that is the problem).
Feel free to add to either list as you see fit.

Okay lads,
I have 50 numbers, I need to know how to calculate every possible combination of these 50 numbers - obviously there are quite a few combinations, so I'm presuming that there must be some software out there that can do this for me - anyone got any suggestions?

As anyone who opened this thread will probably know, I am not exactly the biggest fan of our present and possibly next taoiseach.  Now, I have outlined my reasons many times in the various election threads, these reasons range from his deceit through to his incompetence (worst of all may be that he probably makes the Americans think that they could have done worse when they see him with Bush).
Now, it's obvious that I'm totally out of touch with what a large portion of the country feels, imo he swung the election for FF, for some reason people like him - why?  Who knows, if you can give me some reasons, well, i might even start to see the light!!

This truly must be the worst attempt at a sports programme ever - today, the most action packed day of gaelic games thus far, and possibly one of the busiest of the year, and they served us up, two 5 min excerpts from football games and a 5 min slot on todays hurling - absolutely disgraceful.  Guess what, I don't really want to 'meet the club', if I wanted to see a bunch of lads sitting in a club reminiscing I'd go and meet my mates
Seriously, it was terrible, what I want is an hour showing all the goals and the best pieces of action from all the div 1 games - it shouldn't be too hard to sort out - all the gaa have to do is make it part of their next deal requirements.
I mean a few cameras at each ground would suffice, we don't need the Sky treatment, but anything would be better than that shite.

http://www.rte.ie/aertel/p245.htm

The GAA have announced the dates, times
and venues for the quarter-finals and 
semi-finals of the AIB Club Hurling and
Football Championships.               
                                       
Munster football champions Dr Crokes   
must travel to Ruislip for their last 
eight tie with St Brendan's on January
28. Throw-in is at 1.30pm and the     
winner will then play Leinster kingpins
Moorefield of Kildare in the last four.
                                       
The other semi-final between St       
Brigid's of Roscommon and Armagh       
champions Crossmaglen has been set for
Pearse Park, Mullingar, on 18 February.
                                       
This match has a 2.30pm start time.   
           www.rte.ie/sport             



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


                                        2/2
                 CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP     
                 SCHEDULES ANNOUNCED   
-------------                         
Both hurling semi-finals have been     
fixed for Sunday, 11 February.         
                                       
Loughrea of Galway will play Cushendall
of Antrim in Mullingar at 2.30pm, while
Kilkenny side Ballyhale Shamrocks meet
neighbours Toomevara of Tipperary at   
Portlaoise at 1.00pm.                 
                             

Lads and ladies,

a quick question, have they changed that bollox system whereby the provincial finalists and finalists from each province are kept in the same half of the draw ala Cork v Kerry AI Semi last year?  I think i remember it being changed?  If so, what are next years pairings - is it Munster v Leinster and Connaught v Ulster again?