LAKE FOREST drivers have probably noticed that the government mandates a lot of equipment on cars: emission devices and control computers, safety equipment like airbags and crash worthiness requirements. All of this is great for the motoring public in the LAKE FOREST area, but it does add quite a bit to the price of a new car.
Because new cars are more expensive, LAKE FOREST residents are driving their old cars longer. The average car is now over nine years old. 68% of vehicles on the road have more than 75,000 miles/120,000 kilometers. As cars age, their performance drops, they have difficulty idling for long periods and are more sensitive to weather extremes. Fortunately today's cars are up to the challenge - but they need a little help to keep on going.
Some owner's manuals don't outline service requirements and schedules at higher mileage. Of course, that doesn't mean it doesn't have to be done. In fact, it's more important than ever for LAKE FOREST drivers to stay on top of routine auto maintenance for cars with more than 120,000 miles/190,000 kilometers. Just extend regular service intervals out: for instance a service that's recommended every 24,000 miles/38,000 kilometers should be performed at 24,000 mi/38,000 km; 48,000 mi/77,000 km; 72,000 mi/116,000 km, 96,000 mi/154,000 km; and on and on.
Because of the additional stress older engines experience, the severe service maintenance schedule may be more appropriate than the regular schedule. Watch for leaks - seals and gaskets dry out over time and do not hold the fluids as well as they used to. If you don't already have one, it is more important than ever to get a good technician, like any one of the automotive professionals on our team at West Coast Rovers. There are some services and replacements that are scheduled after you put some clicks on the odometer, like timing belts, valve train adjustments, suspension, anti-lock brake service, air bags, etc. And unexpected repairs down the road are just par for the course.
Check for unusual sounds, smells or the way your car feels. These could be hints for LAKE FOREST vehicle owners that trouble is brewing. Better to catch it early before it turns into repair. Regular wash and wax will help maintain your car's appearance. One of the things LAKE FOREST drivers can do to really help a high mileage vehicle is to begin using high mileage formulation fluids. There are special engine oils, coolants, transmission fluids and power steering fluids that are formulated for cars that have higher mileage.
High mileage oil is designed to condition seals and gaskets, reduce wear and avoid premature burn off. Older vehicle engines are dirtier inside - and dirty engines contaminate their oil faster. High mileage oil has special additives that clean the engine, removing sludge deposits over time. The result is less stress on the engine, better fuel economy and excellent wear protection. Come into West Coast Rovers in LAKE FOREST for a checkup.
Studies have even shown that using high mileage fluids early will actually prevent some of the problems of high mileage vehicles. So once you hit around 50,000 mi/80,000 km, consider stepping up to high mileage formulations. The fluids cost a bit more than standard fluids in LAKE FOREST because of the additional additives, but they can be worth their weight in gold in terms of preventing repair costs down the road.
It does cost more for vehicle owner's to properly maintain a higher mileage vehicle in LAKE FOREST - but it's much cheaper than a new car payment!


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Intermolecular dissociation energies of dispersively bound complexes of aromatics with noble gases and nitrogen
Richard Knochenmuss, Rajeev K. Sinha, Samuel Leutwyler
Department of Atomic and Molecular Physics, Manipal
We measured accurate intermolecular dissociation energies D0 of the supersonic jet-cooled complexes of 1-naphthol (1NpOH) with the noble gases Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe and with N2, using the stimulated-emission pumping resonant two-photon ionization method. The ground-state values D0(S0) for the 1NpOH·S complexes with S= Ar, Kr, Xe, and N2 were bracketed to be within ±3.5%; they are 5.67 ± 0.05 kJ/mol for S = Ar, 7.34 ± 0.07 kJ/mol for S = Kr, 10.8 ± 0.28 kJ/mol for S = Xe, 6.67 ± 0.08 kJ/mol for isomer 1 of the 1NpOH·N2 complex, and 6.62 ± 0.22 kJ/mol for the corresponding isomer 2. For S = Ne, the upper limit is D0 < 3.36 kJ/mol. The dissociation energies increase by 1%-5% upon S0 → S1 excitation of the complexes. Three dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D) methods (B97-D3, B3LYP-D3, and ωB97X-D) predict that the most stable form of these complexes involves dispersive binding to the naphthalene "face." A more weakly bound edge isomer is predicted in which the S moiety is H-bonded to the OH group of 1NpOH; however, no edge isomers were observed experimentally. The B97-D3 calculated dissociation energies D0(S0) of the face complexes with Ar, Kr, and N2 agree with the experimental values within <5%, but the D0(S0) for Xe is 12% too low. The B3LYP-D3 and ωB97X-D calculated D0(S0) values exhibit larger deviations to both larger and smaller dissociation energies. For comparison to 1-naphthol, we calculated the D0(S0) of the carbazole complexes with S = Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, and N2 using the same DFT-D methods. The respective experimental values have been previously determined to be within <2%. Again, the B97-D3 results are in the best overall agreement with experiment.
Journal of Chemical Physics
Noble Gases
rare gases
Discrete Fourier transforms
Pumping (laser)
carbazoles
Ground state
Density functional theory
Knochenmuss, R., Sinha, R. K., & Leutwyler, S. (2018). Intermolecular dissociation energies of dispersively bound complexes of aromatics with noble gases and nitrogen. Journal of Chemical Physics, 148(13), [134302]. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5019432
Knochenmuss, Richard ; Sinha, Rajeev K. ; Leutwyler, Samuel. / Intermolecular dissociation energies of dispersively bound complexes of aromatics with noble gases and nitrogen. In: Journal of Chemical Physics. 2018 ; Vol. 148, No. 13.
@article{81c43205bd8442a2ae37271247959c41,
title = "Intermolecular dissociation energies of dispersively bound complexes of aromatics with noble gases and nitrogen",
abstract = "We measured accurate intermolecular dissociation energies D0 of the supersonic jet-cooled complexes of 1-naphthol (1NpOH) with the noble gases Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe and with N2, using the stimulated-emission pumping resonant two-photon ionization method. The ground-state values D0(S0) for the 1NpOH·S complexes with S= Ar, Kr, Xe, and N2 were bracketed to be within ±3.5{\%}; they are 5.67 ± 0.05 kJ/mol for S = Ar, 7.34 ± 0.07 kJ/mol for S = Kr, 10.8 ± 0.28 kJ/mol for S = Xe, 6.67 ± 0.08 kJ/mol for isomer 1 of the 1NpOH·N2 complex, and 6.62 ± 0.22 kJ/mol for the corresponding isomer 2. For S = Ne, the upper limit is D0 < 3.36 kJ/mol. The dissociation energies increase by 1{\%}-5{\%} upon S0 → S1 excitation of the complexes. Three dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D) methods (B97-D3, B3LYP-D3, and ωB97X-D) predict that the most stable form of these complexes involves dispersive binding to the naphthalene {"}face.{"} A more weakly bound edge isomer is predicted in which the S moiety is H-bonded to the OH group of 1NpOH; however, no edge isomers were observed experimentally. The B97-D3 calculated dissociation energies D0(S0) of the face complexes with Ar, Kr, and N2 agree with the experimental values within <5{\%}, but the D0(S0) for Xe is 12{\%} too low. The B3LYP-D3 and ωB97X-D calculated D0(S0) values exhibit larger deviations to both larger and smaller dissociation energies. For comparison to 1-naphthol, we calculated the D0(S0) of the carbazole complexes with S = Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, and N2 using the same DFT-D methods. The respective experimental values have been previously determined to be within <2{\%}. Again, the B97-D3 results are in the best overall agreement with experiment.",
author = "Richard Knochenmuss and Sinha, {Rajeev K.} and Samuel Leutwyler",
journal = "Journal of Chemical Physics",
publisher = "American Institute of Physics Publising LLC",
Knochenmuss, R, Sinha, RK & Leutwyler, S 2018, 'Intermolecular dissociation energies of dispersively bound complexes of aromatics with noble gases and nitrogen', Journal of Chemical Physics, vol. 148, no. 13, 134302. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5019432
Intermolecular dissociation energies of dispersively bound complexes of aromatics with noble gases and nitrogen. / Knochenmuss, Richard; Sinha, Rajeev K.; Leutwyler, Samuel.
In: Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 148, No. 13, 134302, 07.04.2018.
T1 - Intermolecular dissociation energies of dispersively bound complexes of aromatics with noble gases and nitrogen
AU - Knochenmuss, Richard
AU - Sinha, Rajeev K.
AU - Leutwyler, Samuel
N2 - We measured accurate intermolecular dissociation energies D0 of the supersonic jet-cooled complexes of 1-naphthol (1NpOH) with the noble gases Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe and with N2, using the stimulated-emission pumping resonant two-photon ionization method. The ground-state values D0(S0) for the 1NpOH·S complexes with S= Ar, Kr, Xe, and N2 were bracketed to be within ±3.5%; they are 5.67 ± 0.05 kJ/mol for S = Ar, 7.34 ± 0.07 kJ/mol for S = Kr, 10.8 ± 0.28 kJ/mol for S = Xe, 6.67 ± 0.08 kJ/mol for isomer 1 of the 1NpOH·N2 complex, and 6.62 ± 0.22 kJ/mol for the corresponding isomer 2. For S = Ne, the upper limit is D0 < 3.36 kJ/mol. The dissociation energies increase by 1%-5% upon S0 → S1 excitation of the complexes. Three dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D) methods (B97-D3, B3LYP-D3, and ωB97X-D) predict that the most stable form of these complexes involves dispersive binding to the naphthalene "face." A more weakly bound edge isomer is predicted in which the S moiety is H-bonded to the OH group of 1NpOH; however, no edge isomers were observed experimentally. The B97-D3 calculated dissociation energies D0(S0) of the face complexes with Ar, Kr, and N2 agree with the experimental values within <5%, but the D0(S0) for Xe is 12% too low. The B3LYP-D3 and ωB97X-D calculated D0(S0) values exhibit larger deviations to both larger and smaller dissociation energies. For comparison to 1-naphthol, we calculated the D0(S0) of the carbazole complexes with S = Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, and N2 using the same DFT-D methods. The respective experimental values have been previously determined to be within <2%. Again, the B97-D3 results are in the best overall agreement with experiment.
AB - We measured accurate intermolecular dissociation energies D0 of the supersonic jet-cooled complexes of 1-naphthol (1NpOH) with the noble gases Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe and with N2, using the stimulated-emission pumping resonant two-photon ionization method. The ground-state values D0(S0) for the 1NpOH·S complexes with S= Ar, Kr, Xe, and N2 were bracketed to be within ±3.5%; they are 5.67 ± 0.05 kJ/mol for S = Ar, 7.34 ± 0.07 kJ/mol for S = Kr, 10.8 ± 0.28 kJ/mol for S = Xe, 6.67 ± 0.08 kJ/mol for isomer 1 of the 1NpOH·N2 complex, and 6.62 ± 0.22 kJ/mol for the corresponding isomer 2. For S = Ne, the upper limit is D0 < 3.36 kJ/mol. The dissociation energies increase by 1%-5% upon S0 → S1 excitation of the complexes. Three dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D) methods (B97-D3, B3LYP-D3, and ωB97X-D) predict that the most stable form of these complexes involves dispersive binding to the naphthalene "face." A more weakly bound edge isomer is predicted in which the S moiety is H-bonded to the OH group of 1NpOH; however, no edge isomers were observed experimentally. The B97-D3 calculated dissociation energies D0(S0) of the face complexes with Ar, Kr, and N2 agree with the experimental values within <5%, but the D0(S0) for Xe is 12% too low. The B3LYP-D3 and ωB97X-D calculated D0(S0) values exhibit larger deviations to both larger and smaller dissociation energies. For comparison to 1-naphthol, we calculated the D0(S0) of the carbazole complexes with S = Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, and N2 using the same DFT-D methods. The respective experimental values have been previously determined to be within <2%. Again, the B97-D3 results are in the best overall agreement with experiment.
JO - Journal of Chemical Physics
JF - Journal of Chemical Physics
Knochenmuss R, Sinha RK, Leutwyler S. Intermolecular dissociation energies of dispersively bound complexes of aromatics with noble gases and nitrogen. Journal of Chemical Physics. 2018 Apr 7;148(13). 134302. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5019432

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We present to you "The EFS and ESSM Syllabus of Clinical Sexology", a textbook which covers all the different aspects of Clinical Sexology and the contents of the exam for the qualification in Sexology, the ECPS. "The EFS and ESSM Syllabus of Clinical Sexology", which is comprehensive book written by the Educational Committee of the ESSM and the EFS, is now available for all members.
Take a good look at the preface and contents.
To view the syllabus you require a HTML 5 ready browser. Recommended are Internet Explorer (9.0+), Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera or Safari as of 2011 or later.


At lifestyle custom cabinetry we cater for a range of home and workplace creations in both commercial residential settings will advise you on the best use. Lifestyle kitchen bath design llc offers custom and bathroom cabinetry in fairfield county ct contact us today for more information on our. True custom cabinetry and kitchens designed built for you in our facility tarpon springs.
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text:
SHOOK	SHOOK
YASS	YASS
SLAY	SLAY
SAD	SAD
LMAO	LMAO
A Star is Born: Chart History
Joanne World Tour boxscore
Gaga: Five Foot Two
Which iconic lyric from Lady Gaga's ARTPOP album are you?
Plan a Gagaween party and we'll tell you which Lady Gaga song you are
Can you make it through your stay at Hotel Cortez?
You need to listen to these revamped versions of Lady Gaga's songs
Can you identify which era these pixelated Lady Gaga looks belong to?
Can you be Lady Gaga's assistant for the day without getting fired?
Haus Laboratory reviews by Youtubers
Here's what Netflix would look like if it produced content with Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga served nothing but LOOKS in the Haus Beauty advert
You can finally appreciate Lady Gaga's Enigma visuals in HD
in Buzz
Celebrating 8 years of The Fame Monster
by Gaga Media November 18, 2017, 9:06 am 219 Views
YES YOU READ IT RIGHT. The Fame Monster was released exactly 8 years ago today. Feel old yet?
This album has shaped the fanbase to what it is today, and Lady Gaga served some of her most legendary moments during this era. Global domination was just starting! Take a trip down memory lane below!
#1 The Fame Monster
The Fame Monster is Lady Gaga's second album, but also know as a re-release of "The Fame". The album spawned 3 VERY successful singles with iconic music, videos and visuals.
The album/singles were nominated for 6 Grammy awards, and Lady Gaga took home 3: Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Short Form Music Video for Bad Romance.
#2 Bad Romance
Lady Gaga releases her most iconic and successful song "Bad Romance". On August 2nd 2010, it was announced that that it was the second song in history to earn 10 MTV Music Video Awards nominations!
The music video earned 7 VMAs, making it the most awarded music video by a female artist!
As of 2015, the song is 11X multi-platinum selling 11 million certified units!
#3 Telephone
Telephone was the second single from the album featuring Beyonce. As of 2016, the song is 3x multi-platinum selling 3 million certified units.
This became Lady Gaga's 6th consecutive #1 single on the charts; it peaked at #3 on the Hot 100 and topped the US Pop Songs Chart!
#4 Alejandro
Alejandro was the third and final single from the album. The song peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2016, the song is 2x multi-platinum selling 2 million certified units.
The music video received 25 million views within 3 weeks of its release - making it the first video in Youtube history to do so.
#5 The Monster Ball Tour
The Monster Ball tour officially began 4 days after the release of "The Fame Monster". The tour became a COMMERCIAL SUCCESS and grossed an estimated $227.4 million from 200 reported shows!
The concert was also filmed by HBO at Madison Square Garden and then later released on DVD/Blue-Ray.
The tour gathered Breakthrough Performer Award, and the Concert Marketing & Promotion Award at the 2010 Billboard Touring Awards!
#6 Lady Gaga at 2010 VMAs
The 2010 VMAs was an iconic and memorable night for Little Monsters. Lady Gaga swooped 8 awards that night and announced the title of her next album: Born This Way.
Lady Gaga also served looks that night and shocked the world by wearing her iconic meat dress.
I was crying, everyone was crying! We did it kids!
#7 Grammy performance debut
Lady Gaga had her Grammy performance debut with Elton John in 2010! The two performed an unforgettable medley and since then, the two have had an incredible friendship.
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Lady Gaga Media was established in 2012, we provide the latest news on singer/actress Lady Gaga.
Joanne World Tour: St. Louis, MO (November 16th)
A look back: Lady Gaga at the AMAs
Gaga Media
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RyanMonster
SHOOK	 SLAY	 SAD	 YASS	 LMAO
We need to talk about this foreshadowing scene in A Star is Born
October 4, 2018, 11:02 am
SHOOK	 SAD	 SLAY
Guess the Lady Gaga era
YASS	 LMAO
10 Reasons Why Jackson Maine Would Stan Joanne
Lady Gaga stickers!
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Soaking up the breeze, right bang smack on the sand, arms flung wide open to the Atlantic, this is JANEIRO. Located in the middle of Leblon's marvellous beach-culture, we bring Rio's bossa vibe to life. Nature is a joyful accomplice. And what about that view? The Cagarras islands scatter across a horizon blue as far as the eye can see. No make-believe needed here. At night, the Moon beams, and in the distance, the lights of Vidigal glitter and dance like fireflies. Pure poetry for the eyes, woven into the urban effervescence of the city. The barefoot simplicity of the beach finds its way into the smallest of details; from the rooms to the food, the music to the art, all is an extension of the golden sands out front. We sway to no other rhythm but Rio's.
Who could ever be lonely with sea-views like these? In each of our 53 apartments, the windows are an ever-changing work of art. Soft and subtle tones spark memories of the sand and Nature's greens and blues, showcasing design pieces from Brazil's emerging talents. Something soothes beyond what your eyes can see. Your bed? It's 'nossa praia"* (see below for your first lesson in Carioca slang). Share your shower with ocean-views. It's all a question of experience. In a city like Rio where so much merges together, here simplicity and technology sleep side by side. Nothing is by chance.
The Taste of Rio. Our menu is inspired by the healthy lifestyle that reigns here and the easy-going food culture that underpins this perpetually relaxed city. Dishes are an ode to local traditions with an eye on international trends. Always crafted from the freshest of ingredients, the subtle smoke of the charcoal-grill is one of our favourite spices. Set on the second floor, this is the place for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our signature menu is as creative as it is modern, yet never losing the soul and flavour of home-cooking.


Given the important UFO and high-strangeness events taking place in Chile, we contacted researcher Rodrigo Fuenzalida of AION to get a sense of the magnitude of the situation. Chile has an extended history of UFO sightings and was considered – for decades – one of the most reliable sources of reports involving ground traces and non-humans presences. Mr. Fuenzalida took time from his busy schedule to answer a few questions posed by INEXPLICATA.
Hi, Rodrigo. What's going on in Iquique?
The fact is that all of the symptoms of a UFO Wave are emerging in Iquique. Since the month of December  we have been getting UFO reports – some of them very well documented, with photographs and even videos taken in broad daylight. In the months that have elapsed since, the amassed information has been more consistent, especially because a considerable number of cases have not been made known to the press, thus eliminating any "contamination" of the communications regarding sightings.
Do you think the current wave is in any way related with the earthquake?
The earthquake occurred over 1600 kilometers away from Tarapacá, although UFO reports have emerged from areas affected by the quake, and there's even material collected by various sources, such as the CNN video on a fallen building in the city of Concepción. However, sightings were frequent in the city of Iquique. We know that an earthquake is coming to northern Chile, but we don't know when. It's a challenge to see the measure in which seismic activity could be related to UFO manifestations.
Is the wave currently experienced in Tarapacá greater than others in the past?
Yes, indeed. I believe it's the most widely documented wave in the region. Several of these reports have included records, multiple witnesses, manifestations occurring at different times of day, and sometimes low-flying objects. We've received reports from truck drivers in the Atacama Desert who have been a short distance away from these UFOs. We also have coastal reports involving objects being seen over the sea. With such a track record, it's possible to consider this as the most important UFO wave in northern Chile in recorded history.
What's your take on worldwide movements that seek the "disclosure" of UFO information?
I think these movements serve the purpose of institutional legitimation of the UFO phenomenon, confirming the widely known secret that several of our world's governments have expressed concern over the subject of UFOs. Probably as a subject tied to defense, aimed at sensing the degree to which these reports involved secret prototypes belonging to some world power or another. I think they should contribute toward the challenge we face at the moment: trying to ascertain what in fact are UFOs. In order to achieve this, efforts must be focused on bolder scientific research projects regarding the subject.
Any thoughts you'd like to share with your readers in the U.S.A.?


Feroze Memon suggested that other chapters of PHL should also be allowed to start such certificate courses.
She said that there was a flight heading out for PHL at 4:35 p.
He is still a driver but doesn't work for PHL Taxi anymore.
Although rare, it is important to recognize PHL because it responds favorably to chemotherapy and may have a better prognosis than hepatocellular carcinoma or metastatic disease of the liver.
The results of the study purported that total PHL value of the rose cut-flower at the different levels of the marketing chain was Rs.
Based on the clinical and imaging findings, the differential diagnosis of PHL may include: hepatic adenoma, focal nodular hyperplasia, fibrolamellar carcinoma, hemangioma or hepatocellular carcinoma (Table1).
PHL is one of the six bidders for a casino management license in Philadelphia.
PHL takes on even more importance because of its links to societal concerns regarding food security, sustainability, and poverty.
PHL has embarked on an expansion plan to expand the capacity of its existing hotel PIK from current 122 rooms to 169 rooms at an aggregate cost of Rs.
Authorities later determined that the bag contained no explosive materials, and normal operations resumed at PHL by late Monday night.
Canadian researchers studied PHL in 1279 extremely premature infants born at 28 weeks or less between 1974 and 2003.
The eventual goal of PHL was to learn about its customer base with an eye to increasing its market.


The plans above are for a gadget that my son is deep into planning. Fortunately for him tomorrow is Kid Inventors Day! Once we figure out more about what sorts of tools and equipment he will need to create his prototype, we may be underway in making it happen. Wish us luck!
Once you have a new idea, plan out your idea, make a prototype, if the prototype works, you have an invention and can get a patent!


During each person's life are times in which we experience trials, in which there seems there will never be sun again, and times where the rain is pouring down so hard that we can barely see life for what it is two feet in front of us. In every person's life rain must fall, for if there was never any rain, we would never be able to appreciate the sunshine.
If there was never any pain in life, we would never be able to appreciate the fruits of our hard labor, the fruits of our sacrifice, and emotions and feelings such as love, happiness, and joy. So take time to think about the fact that though you may be going through some difficulties at the moment, it is only so that you will be able to appreciate your life in the times that are great. It is in times of difficulty that we are made stronger, and that we are made the best people we can possibly become.


71. Which of the following is not a Java Code Editor?
72. Eclipse is free open-source Integrated development environment.
73. We can run java program directly from the IDE using shortcut.
74. We can debug java program using IDE.


text:
Scottish Cup Final Live
Motherwell v Celtic
Today's Scottish Cup final kicks off at 3pm. Follow the build up and the match action live on Twitter. I'll be pitching in my tuppence worth throughout the afternoon.
Hashtaggery: #scottishcup #scottishcupfinal
Follow me: @ScotFootBlog
Who's gonna win? Vote here
Labels: #scottishcup, #scottishcupfinal, football twitter, Motherwell v Celtic, Scottish Cup 2011, Scottish Cup Final live
Scottish Cup Final: Motherwell v Celtic
Scottish Cup final day. Nothing beats it.
It takes a bit of a battering, the old trophy. Sponsorless and struggling in a footballing world where other competitions hold sway.
Tell you what though, still means a hell of a lot to any side lucky enough to win it.
Today Hampden hosts the Scottish Cup's most successful team, Celtic, and Motherwell.
Now Motherwell are far from our least successful exponents of cup football. But today they chase their third win in their eighth final.
Celtic are on the hunt for win number 35 in their 54th final.
In a one off game that lack of parity in historic achievement means very little. Well, actually that isn't quite true. Since Jock Stein's Dunfermline shocked them in a 1961 replay Aberdeen are the only team apart from Rangers to beat Celtic on Scottish football's grand day out.
So Stuart McCall's side must wear their knowledge of our footballing history lightly today. Fear it and they'll be cowed underdogs without a chance.
Of course success like Celtic's brings its own obstacles. A lost League Cup final and being pipped to the SPL title mean has allowed Rangers to take the baubles and bragging rights in a long, emotional season.
The 2008/09 League Cup was Celtic's last trophy. In this Scottish footballing landscape when the Old Firm duopoly has rarely been so pronounced that must be both a frustration and a concern.
Today offers the chance to avoid a second straight trophyless season.
And a first managerial trophy for Neil Lennon. It takes very little understanding of human emotions to know how much that will mean to Lennon, perhaps more than a lot of the other honours he collected in a well garlanded playing career.
This might not be the trophy they desperately want at the start of each season, but today still carries a weighty significance for Celtic.
Motherwell? Well, can the cynic in me suggest that they are likely to be the more refreshed team having essentially gone awol for the last five games of the season?
Can they shut out that bad run of results, convince themselves that their focus has always been on 3pm at Hampden this afternoon? And how will their defeat at an emotional Celtic Park last Sunday affect them?
Will they see it as an opportunity, a chance to raise their game and surprise a complacent opposition? Or will it convince them they are playing against a team that can pummel them at will?
Stuart McCall, no stranger to trophies in his own playing career, will have had a strange week with his players, building them into giants when their most recent experience is of being blown away by today's opponents.
Celtic will have been disappointed last week but not shocked. Rangers won the league on the last day but it was the expected outcome. The damage was done in Celtic's defeat to Inverness. It's that game that Lennon will be using to guard against the crime of complacency today.
As Inverness proved - and as Motherwell proved earlier in the season - Celtic are from invincible. At their exhilarating best they can put to the sword any team in the country. Get them on an off day and they can be beaten.
Surely though the Scottish Cup final is no place for an off day. You would think not. But footballing fate tends not to respect such things.
League form, squad quality and history. Everything points to this being Celtic's cup for the taking.
And I expect that to be outcome.
In football you never know what will happen? Well, in Scottish football you often do have a fair idea of what's going to happen.
Motherwell can win today. They have impressive performers who can cause Celtic problems and take advantage of any weaknesses Celtic show.
Realistically though Celtic are big favourites for a reason and I don't expect to shatter the earth by predicting a Celtic win.
Who'll win the Scottish Cup - leave your vote here
Labels: Motherwell v Celtic, Scottish Cup 2010/11, Scottish Cup Final, Scottish Cup preview
Scottish Cup: Celtic Ten Years On
Sigh heaped upon sigh.
After Wednesday's post celebrating Motherwell's 1991 Scottish Cup win I knew I had to redress the balance.
Fast forward ten years.
Celtic win the Scottish Cup, complete the treble, with a comprehensive 3-0 win over my Hibernian.
A cracking Celtic team it was. Lubo Moravcik was forced off after only 18 minutes. But Martin O'Neill, oft criticised for the functionality of his tactics, began the game with Moravcik, Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton in his team.
That posed a functionally attacking threat.
Neil Lennon, Johan Mjällby and Alan Thompson all started for Celtic. They'll feature again this weekend in very different roles.
Paul Lambert too. Now off to the English Premier League. Jackie McNamara replaced Moravcik and opened the scoring, little did he know that one day he would inherit the Jags.
The day before this game I had a massively important exam. It lasted all day. When it finished I got barnstormingly drunk.
It was with a whopping hangover that I began my cup final day in Edinburgh's Penny Black pub.
It's before 9am, you can still taste last night's dirty pint, your friend of a friend's dad has just told you he won't accept swearing in his company.
And somebody's put a dark rum and coke with a pint of lager chaser in front of you.
You know it's going to be a day of days.
Unfortunately for Hibernians of my ilk, a wayward genius had departed. Russell Latapy, the defence probing magician, had spent the week knocking my post exam shenanigans into a cocked hat.
Possibly last seen chasing down Princes Street in a Mini Cooper stuffed full of Brian Lara, Dwight Yorke and a bevy of lovely ladies, Russell had been given the chop by Hibs manager Alex McLeish.
A fine Hibs team that had spent the new year going off the boil were at the mercy of an exceptional Celtic team with a fine manager.
Celtic duly delivered.
Celtic's starting XI looked like this:
Robert Douglas, Johan Mjällby, Ramon Vega, Joos Valgaeren, Didier Agathe, Neil Lennon, Paul Lambert, Ľubomír Moravčík, Alan Thompson, Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton
Tommy Johnson and Tom Boyd joined McNamara in coming off the bench. Jonathan Gould and Alan Stubbs were the unused subs.
Hibs, it's perhaps forgotten, started with the briefly shining light that was Marc Libbra up front. The veteran Ian Westwater was the reserve goalkeeper.
In Motherwell's cup win a decade before only three of the starting 22 were foreigners.
Only six of the starting 22 in this final were Scottish.
Two Henrik Larsson goals finished off a 3-0 win for Celtic.
> Was it Spurs that always won stuff in years ending in one?
So do Celtic.
1910-11, 1930-31, 1950-51, 1970-71 and 2000-01 - Celtic were Scottish Cup winners.
Not that coincidence means anything.
Labels: Celtic, Celtic v Hibs, Henrik Larsson, Motherwell v Celtic, Scottish Cup 2010/11, Scottish Cup Final
SPL: Dubai Or Not Dubai
News filters through - from The Sun of all places - that the SPL's proposed winter break could be used to play a glamour cup competition in sunnier climes. Dubai and Flordia are mentioned.
Now it would be imprudent to discount the possibility that this is little more than a careless whisper leading a journalist to take a flight of fancy.
But with the SPL's ideas factory seemingly as bankrupt as Scottish Labour's election team who can tell?
I'm beginning to develop a complex, I'm so agin every idea coming from the SPL that I do wonder if it's me that is the problem.
Seriously though?
A glamour cup competition in Dubai? What's that all about.
A few things immediately spring to mind.
The nature of the winter break itself. The benefits of a break for the players will surely be lost if we bring them back earlier in the summer only to jet them off to play additional games during a period of rest and relaxation.
And if January in Scotland is too cold for "glamour" then why, instead of wintering elsewhere, does Scottish football not consider "summering" in Scotland?
Neil "Donkey" Doncaster the SPL's man with a dozen berated plans likes to talk of increased TV revenues. This is his default reply to almost any question.
He promises the moon. Alas he never convinces that he's got anything more than a papier-mâché space ship to get us there.
So the idea that a glamour tournament abroad would be timed to appeal to domestic TV audiences lacks cognisance of the broadcasting reality.
There's a reason Scottish football is designated TV football's graveyard shifts. We don't have audience appeal. We're the shabby looking Wimpy to English football's Fat Duck.
So we get Sky or ESPN on board. In return for 20 shillings and a loaf of mouldy bread they say "we'll show your groundbreaking, glamour cup competition in the footballing stronghold of Dubai or Florida. But we'll only show it in your normal TV slots."
That would lead to some odd kick off times. Kick off times hardly designed to allow players to return to these shores refreshed and raring to go.
And where would the fans fit into all this?
Fans who are railing against too many televised and too many games between the same sides are being told they can watch more televised games between the same teams.
It will be more glamorous though because it won't be in Scotland and you, the fans, the lumpen proletariat dragging the game down with your demands for quality, fair prices and consultation, won't be there.
I suppose this might just be the English Premier League's 39th game idea given a tartan spin. The SPL are blinded by what they see as the glamour and big bucks of England.
They consistently ignore English football's bloated, debt ridden underbelly, all of it underpinned by a very "old media" revenue model.
What we need are bold ideas. Bold ideas that the fans can relate to and that the fans want to be a part of.
In an odd interview during BBC Scotland's rather unsatisfying Bigotry, Bombs and Football documentary last night, Neil Doncaster was at pains to point out that the SPL sees clubs and their supporters as seperate entities.
Actually he doesn't see the fans at all. Or he sees them as nothing more as a hindrance to his brave new world.
What possible benefit does this latest plan have for fans? Where in this radical strategy for changing Scottish football are the ideas to give the fans more representation? Or the policies for ensuring fans pay a fair price for games?
They're absolutely nowhere. Because the SPL doesn't care. Scottish football doesn't care. Just ask the Kilmarnock fans how letdown they felt by their own board on Sunday.
There is, in Dubai, a monument to sporting hubris. An incomplete reminder of what happens when greed, arrogance and a failure to care about your core support lead you to chase ill conceived dreams.
The desert is in the process of reclaiming the only ten holes of a Tiger Woods designed golf course that were ever built.
Neil Doncaster might like to take a look round. And muse on how lonely failure can be.
Labels: 10 team SPL, Dubai, Florida, SPL, SPL winter break
Scottish Cup: Motherwell's Twenty Year Itch
Motherwell fans who give credence to such things as fate and coincidence will be taking strength ahead of Saturday's Scottish Cup Final.
It was 20 years ago that Tommy McLean's side brought the trophy back to Fir Park after that crackerjack of a game with brother Jim's Dundee United.
An Old Firm free, Hampden belter of a game.
Twenty years ago today in fact.
The 13 Motherwell players who featured were:
Ally Maxwell, Luc Nijholt, Chris McCart, Craig Paterson, Tom Boyd, Ian Angus, Jim Griffin, Phil O'Donnell, Davie Cooper, Iain Ferguson, Dougie Arnott, Colin O'Neill, Stevie Kirk
Angus, Ferguson, O'Donnell and Kirk, from the bench, scored the goals that delivered Motherwell to the promised land after 120 minutes of drama.
More of the same on Saturday?
Labels: Motherwell v Celtic, Motherwell v Dundee United, Scottish Cup 1991, Scottish Cup 2010/11
On Football Boots
Often times these days I find myself ruminating on the past. In days of yore and of my youth, when Edinburgh's trams were of the distant past rather than of the distant future, football boots were a different beast altogether.
Like Henry Ford's motor vehicles you could have any colour you wanted as long as it was black. Trainers too came from another world. You had a pair of trainers. And you wore them whatever you were doing. From the tennis court to the tarmac playground to the basketball court.
These days a glance at Football Trainers and Boots from JD Sports offers a kaleidescope of colours and variety.
Take the Nike Mercurial Victory Firm Ground. The plum red colour is eye catching. More than that though these are boots made to play football in. The start of each new season of my boyhood career was marked by grimacing and odd running styles as players tried to "break in" their new boots.
Not these days, when boots like the Mercurial Victory slip on like, well, like a slipper. Boots that won't make a bad player Wayne Rooney but will at least allow you to make the most of whatever skills you have been blessed with. And allow you to move from first to last without feeling like you've got ill fitting concrete blocks on your feet.
Your artificial surface needs are covered too. Shoes like the Adidas F10 TRX Astro Turf take away the need for the multi-purpose stinky trainers of my childhood. No more blaming your footwear on your lack of control in the weekly fives, the best football trainers now offer the same advantages of the best boots.
There is an important point here. Anyone and everyone can these days get reasonably priced boots that will enhance their performance on the firm pitches of summer or the artificial pitches that are good enough for our clubs to train on but not compete on.
The footwear technology is in place to free us from our stubborn insistence on playing football at the worst possible time of the year.
> Sponsored post
Labels: artificial pitches, football boots, football trainers, JD Sports, summer football
Ernie Walker 1928-2011
When Ernie Walker was in charge of the SFA everything in the world was perfect.
Obviously it wasn't.
But when I were a lad and Ernie ruled the roost Scotland qualified for World Cups. All the time. Five qualifications in a row he presided over.
Ah, to be back in the day for just one shining moment of optimism.
Was Ernie, who died at the weekend, perfect? Who is?
But he was a visible character who gave the SFA a public face that garnered respect. How we long for that now.
I hadn't realised he had a role in appointing Matt Busby as Scotland coach. That means he was instrumental in securing the services of Busby, Jock Stein and Alex Ferguson. Not bad going.
His relationship with Stein probably defined his reign. His relationship with Ferguson was perhaps less affectionate.
"I warned you about that shit, Johnston," Walker told Fergie following some MoJo high jinx during Scotland's 1986 World Cup play off trip to Australia.
He was a Scotland fan too. It was as a fan that he met Graeme Souness in the depths of the stand the night Jock Stein died. Unable to watch the tense end to the game they found each other and repaired to a hospitality bar. The news that eventually reached them was worse than any result.
He was also a fan when he summed up the 1986 game against Uruguay:
"There was no game of football here today. We found ourselves on the field with cheats and cowards and we were associated with the scum of world football."
He got a bit of a carpeting for that. Survived it though. And he was obviously a bit of player to survive the intricacies of international football governance for so long.
Walker's death drew this reaction from Lennart Johansson, former president of UEFA:
"Some days the sun is shining bright, but then all of a sudden clouds and rain disturb us. This is what happened when I discovered that my old friend, Ernie Walker, has passed away."
Younger readers might also be surprised to learn that before the McLeish Report, Scottish football had other blueprints for revolution that it chose to ignore.
That was the fate of Ernie's much lauded think tank - an initiative that also involved Rinus Michels - on Scottish football.
Some of what Walker recommended back in 1995 is now being implemented. The slow turning world of Scottish football is no place for visionaries.
Ernie was also instrumental in formalising the training of coaches in Scotland. That we have spent too long at the mercy of the Largs Mafia is not to underestimate the positives that the coaching scheme has delivered or the graduates that have gone on to greatness.
In truth Ernie's SFA reign should have been treated in much the same way as "post-Queen" republicans would treat the monarchy.
Walker, as the incumbent, linked the age of Busby with the age of Andy Roxburgh. He held back the tide of TV football for as long as he could.
By the time he retired in 1990 the world had changed and football had changed with it. The moment should have been seized for revolution. Maybe he realised that himself when using that think tank to recommend changes that the SFA had no stomach to implement.
Five World Cups though. And a certain bonhomie that seemed to win him friends across the game.
Maybe we could do with a dose of the Ayatollah right now.
Labels: Ernie Walker, Jock Stein, Scottish Football, SFA, Sir Alex Ferguson
SPL: Controversy As Walter Smith Says Nothing New
A broadside to mark his departure.
As I wrote earlier it would be wrong to paint Walter Smith as having lived out his final days as Rangers manager above the fray of Scottish football's navel gazing bickering.
Today's papers would seem to confirm that opinion. The Telegraph reports Smith as saying:
"The season got off to a bad start, in that respect, when Celtic put up a challenge to referees and to everybody else. That got the season off to a bad start and it went downhill after that.
"From my own point of view, I hope everybody would realise that people who work in Scottish football - referees included - are always under terrific scrutiny. It was an unfair circumstance they were placed in this season and I just hope that now everybody gets on with it.
"And I hope Celtic realise that, if their team is good enough, they will win. If they're not good enough, they'll not win - and they can't look at anybody else, whether it's referees or any other influence.
"I don't say that in a smug way. I just felt that it set the tone for what it has been a poor season for our country, in terms of publicity overall."
And so our futile game of "he said, he said" continues.
Celtic to blame for all the troubles of this rancourous season? No.
Was this blog alone in raising some concerns about the way Celtic conducted themselves earlier in their season? No.
But football is a game of opinions. We've seen the horrible consequences when people don't accept the rights of others to express themselves.
What is of more interest is the media process. A process that will no doubt stir no little comment across Scottish football's internet sphere of influence in the hours and days to come.
But here's the thing. This is a regurgitated story. New quotes do not maketh a new story.
Sadly over hype will mean we're all covered in the cold vomit of this poisonous season for a few days longer. Goodo.
Here's Walter in October:
"I felt there was an unfair pressure on Willie Collum. I thought he handled the game extremely well today. We will always have arguments about certain decisions.
"But that is two Old Firm derbies out of three where the match referee has been put under unfair pressure before the start of the game.
"During all the time I have been involved in Rangers v Celtic matches, in the majority of these games, it has been the better side on the day that has won.
"There is too much focus being placed upon referees. And there's no doubt Willie Collum was placed under an unfair burden today.
"There comes a time when we must stop blaming officials. We have to have a look at what happened (in the game).'
"We all have our ideas about decisions that did or didn't go against us. We have to look deeper than that for the reasons games are won and lost." (Daily Mail)
Wattie again. This time in February.
"Everyone has to remember that Celtic have won three of the last five SPL championships. So, if people are conspiring against them, I wouldn't like to see what they'll do once they (referees) stop.
"I think Celtic have tried to use that to their own advantage - I don't believe there's any doubt about that - but Gordon Strachan's comments have led everyone to the actual truth.
"It would have been very hard for Gordon to agree with it, given he led them to three championships." (Daily Mail)
And March.
"It would have been nice if whoever complained, or wanted to complain, had come out of the closet to do it, rather than in an anonymous manner."
"I thought the referee handled the game very well today. It was always going to be awkward for him. It was a totally unfair circumstance he was placed in this week and I thought he coped with it really well." (Scotsman)
Heaven help us. He was at it again in April.
"Celtic started this season with a campaign about never getting decisions.
"Well, they got one today. I don't think anybody can say that that was a penalty out there." (BBC)
And what's this from August 2008:
"I don't feel a degree of sympathy. But I think a lot of stuff that's been going on in the early part of the season has been exaggerated. Referees and linesmen make mistakes the same way as players and managers make mistakes.
"We are certainly getting them highlighted in a manner that is far greater than anything I can remember, but if referees do make an error it is because it is an error, not because they support clubs or have a bias towards this, that or the next thing. If we stop accepting that factor then we start to have real problems." (Telegraph)
If Walter Smith blew the lid off his silence yesterday then we must conclude that he's shite at keeping secrets.
Still. Shame to let that spoil another round of good old vitriol and mud slinging.
Labels: Celtic, Neil Lennon, Rangers, SPL 2010/11, Walter Smith
SPL: Walter Smith Says Goodbye To Winning Rangers
13 years ago today Walter Smith took his leave of Rangers. After season upon season of success his reign fizzled out.
Wim Jansen led Celtic to the league title, stalling Smith's Rangers on nine championships in a row.
In Smith's final game Hearts took the Scottish Cup with a 2-1 victory. Rangers consolation that day came from Ally McCoist.
That McCoist was prevailed upon from the bench to try and save the game was evidence of an ageing squad finally losing the winning habit.
Having pre-announced his departure, Smith was unable to engineer a glorious farewell.
But Smith seemed to have few regrets. As he got to terms with surviving in the Premiership on a restrictive budget at Everton and as he brought a new belief to Scotland he seemed content.
Doubters still sniped at the scale of his achievements at Rangers but he gradually settled into the role of one of Scottish football's sagely father figures.
And then Rangers felt themselves hitting the skids. Suddenly Ibrox needed a sagely father figure.
The call went out. And, to the dismay of the Tartan Army, Smith responded.
Maybe he did feel there was unfinished business. Maybe a distress call from his first was love was too much to resist.
Whatever his reasons Smith took the job.
And when he raised the SPL trophy yesterday he provided a winning final sentence to the valedictory chapter of his SPL career.
The trophy collection has grown. Three more championships, two Scottish Cups and another three League Cups. And a UEFA Cup final appearance thrown in for good measure.
And he's done it against an ever changing backdrop of uncertainty. From the riots in Manchester before that European final to the ongoing controversy over an unreconstructed songbook, Smith's own supporters have given the manager more than just football to contend with.
His board have been often divided, the financial repercussions of mismanagement have bitten hard and this season's league win came after one of football's more protracted - at times farcical - takeover sagas.
This year, of course, a lunatic fringe has added a whole new level of rancour to life in the Old Firm bubble.
If nothing else Smith is presumably content that his hair already given up the battle and turned resolutely silver before he wandered back to Govan.
He's persevered through all this with his sense of humour and his dignity intact. It would however be wrong to depict him as Saint Walter, forever above the fray.
Smith's passion has remained strong, his desire to win has never left him. He's not been above mind games or of a little bit of media manipulation. Experience has made him a master of keeping his powder dry when it's sensible to do so, making his occasional strikes against his own board, the opposition or the authorities more effective.
Most importantly he's kept delivering on the pitch. At times this season Rangers have looked lacklustre, the squad lacking depth, some ageing limbs creaking, some important performers haunted by a loss of form.
They lost the season's top goalscorer in January, Kenny Miller's departure coming just months after Kris Boyd moved south. Rangers, Scottish football's very own Bank of Govan, had built their house on the same sand as Fred Goodwin.
It is important to raise the counterpoint that even in penury Ibrox had a financial clout that only Celtic could match. Rangers accounts may have crashed back to earth but there was no levelling of our mountainous playing field.
But there was a rising in the east to contend with. Neil Lennon had a new squad at Celtic, one which brimmed with quality and which drew from it's manager a very clear understanding of exactly what this two horse title race means.
Worringly for Rangers it also began to look like Celtic had built a side that could ruthlessly exploit their opponents weaknesses.
Smith kept calm and carried on. The League Cup was won at the expense of Celtic. The final Old Firm league clash was billed as a must win. Rangers snaffled a point that now looks priceless.
When Celtic, as teams with little experience of closing out a title are wont to do, were tripped up by an obstacle delivered straight from the cool Highland night sky, Rangers were poised to take ruthless advantage.
Noting the size of the points target Celtic had set, Neil Lennon paid tribute to Smith's achievement.
And how.
Not since 2004/05 when Alex McLeish and Rangers pipped Martin O'Neill's Celtic by a single point have the SPL champions amassed the 93 points that Smith won this year.
That, of course, stands as an indictment of the other ten teams. But it's still a hell of goodbye from Smith. Somehow he's cajoled and demanded better of his team when they looked like they were down and out.
Crucially he's also never let them lose that winning habit - an annoying habit if you're sat in the SPL's cheap seats - of not losing too many points when they are playing badly.
Do the hardships make the final triumph sweeter? Maybe they were always going to be sweet enough.
Smith broke the rule about never going back. And still he came out on top. Not for the first time he broke another rule by announcing his intended departure. This time fate did not leave him without a trophy.
Rangers now take a step into the unknown reign of Craig Whyte and Ally McCoist. It's Smith's legacy that they do so as champions.
Smith's future is uncertain. We won't see him in the SPL again. Will an English club come calling? Will there be an effort to build bridges with the SFA to pave the way for a role with the governing body?
Yesterday Neil Lennon said: "If I was to lose to anyone, it would be Walter Smith."
That spoke volumes for their relationship and for the enduring bonds that can be forged in the centre of Glaswegian footballing madness.
You do wonder, however, if Smith glances across the city and sees the evil insanity that has surrounded Lennon this season and thinks that the golf course rather than the football pitch is now more deserving of his attention.
If this is the end, then it's a triumphant end. An unlikely return topped with what had looked an unlikely championship.
Frank Sinatra never said goodbye quite as well as this.
> An encore? Various members of the fourth estate are hinting at tomorrow's newspapers carrying some choice words about Celtic from Walter Smith.
As I mentioned. He keeps his powder dry before launching a broadside. And the rumours are at this one has been brewing. It could be an interesting day.
Labels: Celtic and Rangers title race, Neil Lennon, Rangers, SPL 2010/11, Walter Smith
SPL Today: Celtic Hope As Rangers Eye Prize
So a desperate season comes down to this.
It is, after all, just football. A game where championships can still turn on the final day, a game where the drama should be confined to the pitch.
Today has already been dubbed Helicopter Sunday.
It says much for the bankruptcy of the SPL's ideas departments that they think using a six year old marketing device will still engender excitment. A costly, meaningless gimmick.
Celtic v Motherwell
A dress rehearsal for the cup final. Celtic must win. Win and hope. An interesting game for Motherwell though.
Is the temptation to simply keep their powder dry?
Will a heavy defeat, even for an understrength side, have a harmful psychological impact on their chances next week?
Stuart McCall faces some big decisions.
But this game is all about Neil Lennon and his Celtic team. Without the inexplicable hate campaign Lennon would still have offered Scottish football it's most compelling narrative.
Here is the novice manager, with an abrasive footballing persona that has always been divisive among the majority of fans who can accept that character without using it is an excuse to display centuries old stupidity, going head to head with the experienced Walter Smith.
And for great swathes of the season Lennon has come out on top. In a season where many of us might already have walked away from a land where too many are apparently gripped by a illogical rage fuelled madness, Lennon has somehow risen above it all to arrive at the doorstep of a debut season championship.
Yet he might still come up short. What frustration he must feel, this most hyperactive of touchline coaches, to know that he is essentially unable to influence events today.
Celtic can win, can win handsomely, and still it might not be enough.
To have come so close, come so far, and realise that the destiny of the league is out of your hands must be an agonising pain.
I expect Celtic to win today. I expect them to win well. Their fate will be decided elsewhere.
But lets hope that this isn't the last the SPL will see of Lennon. Let's hope he's back next season, planning, coaching and kicking every ball.
Managers fail, managers succeed. Managers are loved. Managers are loathed.
Let Lennon be all that of more. And let him leave, when the time comes, on his terms or on Celtic's terms.
Not because he's being hounded out by a mindless terror campaign.
Where does Scottish football go from here? Treating Neil Lennon like it would any other manager would be a hell of a start.
Home win.
Dundee United v Hearts
The rather flimsy filling between two great chunks of tasty bread this. Third visit fourth. Over the season those league spots are probably just about right.
There's likely to be a demob happy feel about this one. Likely also to be chance for the SPL to see some of these players turn out for their current clubs. Who can say how squads will look when the great kaleidoscope of the summer transfer window has been shaken?
I'll go for the home win but I really don't know what to expect.
Kilmarnock v Rangers
Ninety minutes for Rangers to deliver Walter Smith a valedictory title that has, at times, looked unlikely.
For chunks of the season it's seemed that Smith was persuaded to stay only to wisely apply the band aids needed to hold Rangers together as the club lurched from crisis to crisis.
We should have known that would never be enough for a man with so trophy laden a career, nor for a group of players who, even as the creaked and groaned, have never lost the habit of winning.
And so all Rangers need to do is win.
But how Kilmarnock and Kenny Shiels would love this scalp to end a season that has exceeded most expectations.
Stranger things have happened. Helicopters have been told to change route before as unlikely results have turned the title tide.
Not today though. I just can't see it.
Rangers to get the away win. And Walter Smith to go out on a high.
Labels: Celtic v Motherwell, Hearts v Dundee United, Kilmarnock v Rangers, SPL predictions, SPL Preview, SPL today, Walter Smith


text:
package logical

import (
	"time"
)

type ControlGroup struct {
	Authorizations []*Authz  `json:"authorizations"`
	RequestTime    time.Time `json:"request_time"`
	Approved       bool      `json:"approved"`
	NamespaceID    string    `json:"namespace_id"`
}

type Authz struct {
	Token             string    `json:"token"`
	AuthorizationTime time.Time `json:"authorization_time"`
}


text:
The Simpsons: "The Kid Is All Right"
Dennis Perkins
ReviewsThe Simpsons
"The Kid Is All Right"
We don't need The Simpsons to make a specific political stand. Nor should we want it to. It's an idea that struck me when watching this season's It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia episode "Gun Fever Too: Still Hot," wherein the Gang take typically-horrifying and self-centered sides on the gun control debate. In the comments, the debate over that debate quickly erupted—and cross-erupted. All sides of the issue lobbed attacks at each other, as invariably happens whenever a program with a comments section touches even tangentially on any hot-button topic. With most people snugly ensconced in their intractable positions, nothing was agreed upon, of course—except that everyone was disappointed that the show didn't take a coherent position (read: their position) on the gun control debate. But is that really what we want our TV shows to do? Especially our comedy series?
Shows like Sunny or The Simpsons, at their best, produce memorable political or social satire when they skip the straightforward polemics in favor of examining how people (in the guise of its characters) invariably stake out our moral positions according to internal factors far less clear-cut and noble than we'd like others (and ourselves) to believe. Which isn't to say that all morals are relative, that there's no such thing as right or wrong, or that TV satire shouldn't come coupled with its writers' convictions. But I contend that it does mean that satire is most effective when it filters its themes through the complexity of its characters. Otherwise, you've got Julia Sugarbaker standing center stage and speechifying about why, say, she has the right to run her car over the pornography-peddling local newsstand while a self-selected studio audience nods and applauds in smug agreement, and anyone looking for memorable comic insight feels his eyes glaze over.
So does this episode of The Simpsons, in which Lisa discovers that her new friend Isabel (voiced by a nondescript Eva Longoria) is a Republican, pass the eye-glaze test? Well, the political one, sure. Lisa has always been the show's moral center and, as its most outspoken leftie, that means that the show generally comes down on the liberal side of things. Although, even when conservative writer's room legend John Swartzwelder was around, The Simpsons has always leaned more to the left. (I maintain that's because great comedy incorporates a generosity of spirit, but that's an argument for which I'll be berated in the comments.) Here, the essential decency of Lisa Simpson underlies the episode's inevitably kindhearted resolution—she loses, but she keeps her friendship with Isabel, and her impassioned plea for clean elections and an end to negative campaigning and the influence of monied outside interests manages to sway a whopping 53 percent of the second grade electorate to her liberal ideas. Although not to her specifically—the show's primary criticism of the Democratic party seems to be that while its ideas are more palatable, its candidates are traditionally dull as, well, Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, and John Kerry, all of whom make benignly uninspiring appearances in Lisa's dreams. (Clinton is there too, but his post-presidency path of drily well-intentioned philanthropy isn't as entertaining to dream Homer. Homer: "You used to be fun." Clinton: "Kevin Costner used to be a movie star—get used to it.")
As for what Fox News will inevitably call out as "conservative-bashing," the episode essentially let's Lisa do the talking, with most of the outright evil being perpetrated by Springfield's notorious Republican party inner circle (which, as we've seen in the past, consists of Mr Burns, the Rich Texan, Rainer Wolfcastle, Krusty, Superintendent Chalmers, and Dracula.) It's they who, coveting Isabel Gutierez' Latina demographic, flood Springfield elementary (redubbed "Springfield Isabelementary") with campaign propaganda and unsuccessfully attempt to bribe the principled young Republican with a wheelbarrow full of ice cream. Sure, Isabel is willing to reap the benefits of all this undemocratic special interest money (defending her acquiescence with a facile "money is free speech" talking point), but Lisa's not blameless either, employing Bart as a James Carville-esque political operative to bombard the school with embarrassing training wheel bike-riding footage of Isabel and, well, actual bombardment balls festooned with her picture. Naturally, Lisa eventually thinks better of what Watergate conspirator Donald Segretti termed "ratfucking," but, well, that's why Lisa is Lisa. If there's any Sugarbaker-style grandstanding going on, it's in Lisa's explanation to the school that liberalism, at it's heart, means "that those who have more than enough should share with those who don't." That it passed the eye-glaze test for me is because such heartfelt sentiments, coming from the mouth of a decent child like Lisa comes across as guileless and kind. (And, of course, because I agree with it.)
If there's a bigger flaw with "The Kid Is All Right," it's that it's just not very funny. Longoria brings nothing to the table, and there's a dearth of quotable lines along the way. (Skinner's glee at seeing Lisa "thoroughly de-high-horsed" notwithstanding.) For most of its running time (there's no B story), the episode seems content to let Lisa learn (and teach) a lesson in plain old Lisa Simpson decency, and I was strangely okay with that (as ever, Yeardley Smith imbues Lisa with genuine heart). Taking time out from its seemingly accelerating descent into gag-driven wackiness, The Simpsons taking an episode to engage in more character-based storytelling isn't necessarily a bad thing.
The recent tradition of couch gag flights of fancy continues, with the Simpsons, transformed into musical instruments, rebelling jazzily against Mr. Burns' "classical only" regime. While it's not a bad approximation of the old "Silly Symphonies" Disney shorts ("Silly Simpsony"), I maintain that the time spent on these expanding gags would be better spent on the main story. Unless Guillermo del Toro is involved.
"Conservatives only get more conservative because each year they get a little further through Atlas Shrugged."
Marge, explaining how people's beliefs go through phases: "Bobby Kennedy worked for Joe McCarthy. And Larry David was on Fridays."
I just didn't get the running bit where Lisa and Bart belly up to Maggie's imaginary watering hole to drown their troubles in imaginary booze. And whomever came up with Bart's smarmy, sexist line to a stuffed pig, "I bet by the end of the night your gonna look pretty good" should just go work for Family Guy already.
Also, the way Isabel's Republicanism is introduced makes no sense. She and Lisa worked on their presentation on FDR together, so presumably Lisa would have ferreted out the fact that Isabel thought the New Deal was unconstitutional, etc. Plus, the way Isabel announces her political leanings seems far too calculated to stun and dismay Lisa—if it was intended as a gambit on Isabel's part, then she'd be portrayed as malicious throughout, which she's not. It's just a clumsy example of "premise introduction."
And since I'm feeling complain-y, the wordless callback to Mr. Bergstrom was a major bummer—don't take one of the best guest star/characters from a classic episode and brush it off with a cheap joke.
Lisa has her own library study carrel.
Bart's figured out that karate instructor "Sensei Weinstein" is actually his therapist.
TVReviewsThe Simpsons


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NAD Honors Historic Promotion of an Adventist Chaplain Serving in the U.S. Air Force
By: Mylon Medley, North American Division
Chaplain John Elliott, the second Adventist chaplain in the Air Force to achieve the rank of colonel, receives the Flame Award from Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries of the North American Division...
New Audience, New Format for NAD's Fourth "Is This Thing On?"
Adventist student leaders on public campuses engage in dialogue with North American Division officers during the May 22, 2019, Is This Thing On? Live Facebook Event held during the ACF Institute...
U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black Named 2019 Canterbury Medalist
By: Becket Media Relations, North American Division
Barry C. Black, 62nd Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, has been named Becket's 2019 Canterbury Medalist for his honorable defense of religious liberty for people of all faiths. The Canterbury Medal,...
Harold W. Baptiste, Former North American Division Secretary, Passes Away at 81
By: Georgia Standish, North American Division
Harold Wilson Baptiste, former secretary of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America (NAD), passed away May 25, 2019 in Baltimore, Maryland, at the age of 81. Baptiste's special burdens...


Jordan Brand sets forth the Jordan Heiress Collection for the spring. When it comes to the ladies, Jordan Brand has released some amazing colorways throughout the years including collaborations with some of today's most influential females.
Come May, Jordan Brand is back with another pack dubbed the Jordan Heiress collection that will consist of the Air Jordan 1, Air Jordan 10, Jordan Reveal and the Jordan Jasmine. All four silhouettes will feature a pearl tone on the uppers, which is on point for the current season. The Air Jordan X and Air Jordan 1 will feature a smooth tumbled leather upper, while the other two models will be made up of Jordan Brand's current cozy materials. Look out for these to release at Jordan Brand retailers come May 7th.


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If you do not wish images of yourself to be published, you may opt out by contacting we@socoded.com. We also ask you to obey our lanyard recommendations outlined below to make our life identifying people who do not want to be published easier.
Conference staff must abide by the Code of Conduct as well as the rules outlined below.
Only official conference A/V staff are permitted to record talks. No other recording devices should be used during your talk or anyone else's. If you would like to make your own recording, please contact us requesting an exemption to this rule.
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Please report an violations or issues with recording or photography directly to conference co-chairs Julia Starsy, Ole Michaelis or Thorben Schröder.
A big thank you to Open Source Bridge for letting us use their Recording Policy as a template.


At first I thought we had a broken Wonsers, then about ten minutes later I pulled out part of the embossing was was in shock. Needless to say, the rest of the privy was dug with an immense adreneline rush. Can it get any more rare than this? As far as I know there is one damaged example known, and two seperate reports of broken ones dug, one in Southern California, and one in the Valley. Does anyone know what colors the other pieces were ?
I can't even read the thing. The photo is too dark to really make out what it looks like.
I believe that TQ has a mostly glued back example of one. I have the claim of Trade Mark around here somewhere. Circassion Tonic. Wild lookin' bottle.
Tom Quinn does indeed have the only completely intact example of this bottle. H. Landis did indeed trademark this product in 1873. It is very exciting to see another example having been dug! Very little information is known about this product. A picture of Tom Quinn's example can be seen in Wichmann's Bitters Book.
as Warren stated Casper Landis had no known partner in his Tonic endeavors. I did extensive research on this bottle after pieces were dug in a local town. IIRC, it was discussions with Jeff W. that led to the supposition that The "H" simply could have been "Himself" like Warren alluded to. Regardless, it is one freakishly rare bottle and was probably blown in one or two small orders in 1873. Landis was listed as a proprietor of "Medicinal Baths" at 51 Minna St. in 1873, but by the next year it was "Tan Baths" at the same location. By 1878 he ran "Tan and Herb Baths" at 51 and 53 Minna. in 1880 he had lost the 51 address but still had "Tan Baths" at 53 Minna.
Landis was not ever listed as the proprietor of any Tonic, but remained at 51 and/or 53 Minna for several years. Hopefully, a few more examples of Landis's very unusual bottle will tun up in future digs.
so far all the pcs of seen, including a neck in San Deigo and frags in Sacto, are all the same shade of amber.
One run only on these ???
Ill wager that you are spot on, Tom, probably a VERY short lived production. You never know, though, stranger things have happened with Western bottles and a mint example could "appear" at any time. Of course, such a pit would have to contain at least one "Old Figment" to compliment the Circassion.
Rumor has pieces of an Old Woodburn in the same pit. Any truth to that?
I heard it was pieces of a green club house ??
I don't know if I will have the "oomph" to make the drive up to Anderson for just a few hours. Chemo this morning, so may be at a low point tomorrow. Heck, who knows, I just might go ahead and do it. An "infusion" of glass and old friends could just be the ticket.


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Greater Ohio
University of Akron Making an Impact
At Greater Ohio, we often talk about the important role "anchor" institutions (universities, medical centers, etc.) play in Ohio's metros. These institutions often provide a large number of jobs, contribute to a place's social, cultural and human capital, and have a stake in maintaining the health of their community. The University of Akron is a great example of an anchor institution making an impact in their region.
The University of Akron is a national leader in polymer science and research. Recently, the university broke ground on its $13 million National Polymer Innovation Center. The center will encourage collaborations between students, researchers and companies to build new high-tech materials and other products. The university's strong reputation in the polymer sciences has also helped the City of Akron attract a polymer-related industrial cluster. With the development of this new center, the mutually beneficial relationship that the university and city share has the potential to further strengthen.
Newer PostLavea Brachman Speaks to Dayton Rotary
Older PostOhio Hub of Innovation and Opportunity


Locale is an Italian bistro with cocktails on tap and a small coffee shop at the ground floor of Vladimirsky Passage.
Locale is a collaboration of two restaurant teams – Italy Group by Timur Dmitriev and Mikhail Sokolov and Dreamteam by Alexey Burov and Pavel Kokkov.
Italian bistro with a wide selection of draft beers, cocktails on tap and a magnificent view of the Vladimirsky Cathedral. The primary focus of the menu is the product and its genuine taste with minimal cooking impact and without the use of ingenious techniques. We cook house made pasta from Italian durum wheat flour. Bistro Locale Concept Chef is Ilya Bournasov (Hitch, Apres Ski, Atelier, Tapas & Bar).
In the summer of 2018 the courtyard of Vladimirsky Passage hosted the first St. Petersburg street food market. It gathered 19 street food projects by renowned city restaurants - Smoke BBQ, Italy, Trappist, Hitch, Duo, Forno Bravo, Babaganoush, Varvara by OCG of Good Deeds, Chemi, Chuck etc. During the three months of its work the market was attended by about 30 000 visitors and became a new gastronomic landmark of Rubinstein street. The food market is closed from September 3rd 2018.
The history of Mikhail Sokolov and Timur Dmitriev's restaurant group started in 2010 with the restaurant Italy at Bolshoi Prospect. Now ITALY GROUP counts 16 locations. Each of them begins with the kitchen and the taste that has to be created. The mission of ITALY GROUP is to add taste to life.


I'm sorry that I've been so quiet on the recipe side on the blog lately. There had just been some things that needed my full attention these past weeks. I spontaneously flew out to Paris for a still secret project that I will tell you all about soon, and then it seems like everyone around me got sick (excpet for me ha!), and there were some family issues that required my full attention. I guess you could call it life. So I decided to take a week off and go on vacation with my mom. It was the best decision ever, and I cannot tell you how good the sun felt on my skin after such a long winter.
Now I am back with lots of new recipes, some interesting topics and these sweet potato quinoa falafel. I created this recipe for the book "how we cook" – a book featuring 25 of the best food bloggers in Germany. And I was part of it. It still feels surreal, and I am very grateful that Julia included me in this book of amazing people like Our Food Stories, Theresas Küche or Eat This!.
I have to admit that I had kind of forgotten what this recipe tasted like, because I created it more than a year ago. But testing it once again, I have to say that it tastes incredible. And it's really easy to make – don't be scared of the long list of ingredients. They are mostly spices or condiments.
As you know, I am always interested in how a recipe helps nourish my body. These falafel balls are made with sweet potato and quinoa, two of the best foods for your health. Sweet potatoes are rich in beta-carotene, which is transformed into Vitamin A in the body. I bet you already knew this, but did you also know that Vitamin A is not only vital for eye health, but also crucial for a functioning immune system. A lack of Vitamin A can have fatal results. So we all better add more carrots, sweet potatoes and leafy greens to our diet. Quinoa is still my all-time favorite plant-based source of protein. It's so easy to cook as it takes less than 15 minutes, and it keeps in the fridge for about a week, so I make sure to cook some at the beginning of the week, to always have some great protein during the week.
Even if this dish may not be all Easter-y, it's still worth a try.
Wishing you a great Easter Holiday, everyone!
Peel and cube the sweet potato and either steam it in a steamer until soft or roast it in the pre-heated oven at 180 °C for about 30 minutes.
Cook the quinoa with 600ml of water for about 15 minutes. Fluff with fork, and measure 150g for the falafels. Set the rest aside for the bows.
In a food processor, mix the soft sweet potato, quinoa chickpeas, and all of the other ingredients except for the flour and mix into a paste. Take out about 2 tablespoons of batter and form little balls with it in your hands. Place the balls on a baking tray covered with a bit of buckwheat flour and roast them in the pre-heated oven (180 °C) for about 30 - 40 minutes. They should be crunchy on the outside, but soft in the inside.
Mix all of the ingredients for the tzatziki in a small bowl.
For the bowl, mix the salad, the baby spinach, and tomatoes and spread evenly over two bowls. Add about 4 - 5 falafel balls to each bowl and sprinkle with the tzatziki, some dill and cilantro.
The remaining falafel last about 3 - 4 days in the fridge and can be frozen, too.
I Love this recipe, have made it and enjoyed it often!!!
Just wondering if it would work with normal potato instead of sweet potato?
Hi Hannah, I'm not sure if it would taste just as good, as the sweet potato adds a welcome subtle sweetness to the falafel. But you can always give it a try.


Once that displays, the rest of the step 1 page shows. However, when you click next step, nothing happens.
I have disabled the lock, chmodded my cache, etc. From my standpoint, it looks like it is telling me there is already a session. I cleared my browser cache, and nothing changed. Can anyone help me resolve the issue? Is this a known iPage problem, a local computer problem, or "other"?


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The £90 million black hole facing Lancs councils due to Covid-19
Coronavirus has had a devastating effect on the British economy.
With the country entering lockdown on March 23, a national – and international – recession has been deemed likely by many, including Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.
It is why pressure has mounted to reopen 'non-essential' businesses quicker than first anticipated, with many expected to open their doors from next Monday (June 15).
Pressure is also growing for parts of the hospitality industry to reopen their doors, if social distancing can be maintained.
But as well as the private sector, coronavirus has resulted in a huge blow to the coffers of councils running essential services up and down the country.
From social services to bin collections and road repairs to schools, councils have kept working through the coronavirus crisis under enormous pressure.
But despite the continued efforts of councils across the red rose county, a funding black hole of £93.5 million has been identified by the authorities.
The worst hit is Lancashire County Council, with a funding black hole of £48 million reported.
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council is reporting a loss of funding gap of £16m, while Lancaster City Council projects it could be up to £9.1m in the red due to the pandemic.
LancsLive has approached each Lancashire council for an up to date take on their finances. Those who replied can be found below.
Six councils did not respond to our enquiries, meaning that unfinanced costs to local authorities could be closer to, or upwards of, £100m.
Here is a round up of the financial situations facing Lancashire's councils due to the coronavirus pandemic:
Blackburn Town Hall
At Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, an eye-watering £16 million funding hole has been identified by council bosses.
It's budget for the year is £143 million, which has been boosted by £9.29 million through additional coronavirus funding from central government.
And the authority's reserves stand at £7 million as of March 31, leaving it almost £10 million shy of breaking even.
"We are lobbying with the whole of local government for more funding to be made available so we can continue providing essential services and support residents at this time," a council spokesperson told LancsLive.
In May, Councillor Mohammed Khan OBE, Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, warned that its finances will not stay steady if its loss of income is not "fully covered".
Lancashire County Council (Image: Copyright Unknown)
Lancashire County Council, which runs a number of services across the county including education, roads, and waste and recycling centres, is projecting a loss of £48 million due to coronavirus.
Its overall Covid costs stand at £104m, but this has been more than halved due to a government grant totalling £56m.
Overall costs had stood at £120m but were reduced in the monthly review between April and May.
County Council leader Geoff Driver had previously called for the government to foot the bill in full.
And he said that the reduction in costs has been put down to the government telling county councils to not include estimated losses from council tax and business rates into their budgets – because they are being reported by the district and city councils which collect the money before it is then redistributed.
The county council receives the vast majority of council tax in Lancashire – excluding Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen.
He said: "Next year there will be a big deficit on the collection [of council tax] and we'll have to stand that."
But LancsLive understands there is no plan for an emergency budget at this stage, with current plans lasting until February 2021.
Blackpool Town Hall (Image: Andrew Teebay/Liverpool Echo)
Blackpool Council has reported a funding black hole of £8.4 million.
Its financial report submitted to central government on May 15 revealed a total cost of £21.9m as a result of coronavirus; something that was reduced by £9.9m of Covid-19 support grants of £3.6m of Enhanced Hospital Discharge grants.
Council leader Simon Blackburn said: "Blackpool Council's foremost priority is to ensure that we are doing everything we can to respond to this worldwide health crisis in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and protect lives.
"Work is ongoing to address the short-term and long-term impacts that the pandemic will have on the council's finances.
"We expect the Government to honour its commitment to ensure that all councils get the financial support they need in order to continue supporting communities, local economies, the care sector and health service and the council has identified reserves funding to underwrite this."
Views of Lancaster Cathedral, Lancaster Town Hall and Lancaster Ashton Memorial rooftops. (Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Lancaster City Council has projected its worst case scenario being a £9.1 million overspend on budget, with a worry that 'normal' financial levels will not return for years.
Its best case is a funding deficit of £4.6 million.
And council bosses are adamant that if central government does not offer more help, cuts will be necessary, with all non-coronavirus spending now being reviewed.
Up to £6.9 million is expected to be lost in income, reduced by government funding of £1.54 million and internal savings of between £1.1 million and £1.3 million.
In notes to the city council's cabinet ahead of its meeting on June 9, the council's chief finance officer notes: "There is a likelihood that incomes may not recover and COVID-19 related expenditure may extend into future years.
"In the longer term, it is recommended that the council undertake an outcomes based budgeting exercise to refocus budgets around the Council's COVID recovery priorities."
Lancaster's usable reserves at the end of March 2021 is set to be £13.6million, meaning it's usable reserves after a worst case scenario would stand at just £4.3 million.
Councillor Dr Erica Lewis, Leader of Lancaster City Council, said: "At the beginning of the crisis, government ministers told us to do everything we needed to do to support our residents and that they would have our backs.
"The government continues to ask councils to do more and more, often at short notice and with no consultation on the practicality of the measures they are proposing, and then failing to fund us for that extra work.
"The expected shortfall in funding and losses in income means we are putting in place processes to review all non-COVID related spending.
"We urgently need funding certainty from the government. We also need central government to work with local government as partners.
"If the government continues to fail to provide funding certainty and to partner with us to recover and reset it is likely that the council will have to look to make savings."
Preston town hall
The figures for Preston have not been made public, with council bosses telling LancsLive it is "too soon" to realise the full impact.
But the council did admit the £1.5 million of additional funding from central government is "unlikely" to cover all the extra costs and revenue losses brought on by the virus.
Neil Fairhurst, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Customer Services at Preston City Council said: "The funding received from Government has financed the initial costs of COVID19, supporting our community hub, the extensive work carried out by our teams and partner agencies helping the homeless and other key services.
"However, for local government as a whole it's unlikely that this funding will cover all additional costs and it is too soon to realistically estimate the full impact of COVID on the council finances for future years."
(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Burnley Borough Council, like Preston, said it is unable to provide clarity on a shortfall in funding.
A spokesperson said this figure is subject to a briefing to council leadership.
But LancsLive can reveal there are no current plans for an emergency budget, with its unallocated reserves standing at just £1.4 million.
Its budget for 2020/21 is £15.6 million, boosted by £957,000 in central government coronavirus funding.
South Ribble Borough Council
South Ribble Borough Council is preparing for a loss of around £2 million in 2020/21.
This is despite additional government funding of £1.14 million.
But council leader Paul Foster told LancsLive he has "no regrets" due to the necessary actions taken to taken Covid-19, with the 'community absolutely coming first, no matter what'.
Instead, the Labour-run authority is calling on central government to 'do its bit' and help local government as the crisis continues.
Councillor Foster said: "I am extremely proud of what we have been able to achieve in South Ribble despite such adversity.
"But ultimately, yes, there has been a significant cost to what we've been supplying, by way of groceries, community support, and council tax support – and we believe that, added with loss of income, this figure is about £2 million.
"I have absolutely no regrets, though, about the steps we have taken to tackle Covid-19 and the dreadful effects it has had on our way of life.
"However, I am nevertheless concerned that central Government need to do their bit and help us out with the financial impacts that we all now face as local authorities, which are being much talked about at present (and rightly so) – and which must, must be heard by the likes of Robert Jenrick, Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson."
Like its neighbours at South Ribble, Chorley Borough Council is facing a funding black hole of around £2 million.
And like South Ribble, criticism is being left at the doorstep of central government over a lack of "necessary clarity" as to its role in helping local government during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Council leader Alistair Bradley told LancsLive: "We are disinclined at this stage to draw up what would be quite a rough and imprecise calculation regarding the council's financial future.
"Why? Because there are many gaps in our projected balance sheets, where we simply do not know the numbers in each column.
"We are yet to receive the necessary clarity from central Government over whether they will cover all our costs, as indicated at the start; or what the plan is for local authority funding next year.
"This is going to be difficult, but the work we've done over the last few years has put us in a good position to rise to this sort of challenge and continue to provide excellent services for residents and businesses.
"We are looking at all our major projects to see what we can, what we should, continue with, and we might well look at setting a new budget in the autumn when we have a better idea of how Covid-19 will have affected us."
Coun Bradley added: "Whilst the economic losses have been significant, nothing can compare to the trauma, impact and grief of losing a loving one.
"So the council, whilst reflecting on the hard financial circumstances we are in, does not want to lose sight of the real losses in this borough, around Lancashire and the whole country and we are committed to remembering those who have died at the hands of this awful disease."
Wyre Borough Council, which includes Fleetwood and Garstang, is looking at a large drop in income of £8 million.
It's costs are expected to increase by more than £1.1 million; the amount that it has received from central government in coronavirus funding relief.
In May, we reported that the council predicted a £5.5 million funding conundrum, showing the estimates have worsened in Wyre.
A council spokesperson said: "We estimate that our income in a full year could reduce by as much as £8m and our increased costs are forecast to exceed £1.1m.
"And so the conversation with central government must continue on how we work together to deal with the challenges faced by local government, whilst at the same time recognising the huge challenges faced by national Government too."
Fylde, Ribble Valley, Hyndburn, Rossendale, West Lancashire, and Pendle councils did not respond before deadline.
Preston streets set for deep clean every week as city reopens
Former Preston nightclub set for transformation in new masterplan


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Videocon case: Kochhar yet to return ICICI Bank bonus
Kochhar was directed to return about Rs 10 crore in cash bonuses she had received as CEO, and also give up close to 6 million shares of the bank she had as stock option, which was about Rs 350 crore.
Former ICICI Bank managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) Chanda Kochhar has so far not abided by the order of the bank to return the money she had got as bonus and the stock options between April 2009 and March last year.
Sources say Kochhar is yet to pay back despite reminders.
The bank board on January 30 said it would claw back all the perks she got.
This followed a report by a probe panel, headed by former Supreme Court judge B N Srikrishna, which indicted Kochhar for allegedly violating the bank's code of conduct in the Videocon loan case.
Initially, the private lender is learnt to have sent a few reminders but later, sometime in May, when Kochhar had communicated to the bank about her objections on treating her resignation as termination, the bank did not pursue the matter, said a source privy to the development.
The source added the bank might take up the matter with the regulators, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India, and seek their intervention.
An email sent to ICICI Bank did not elicit a comment.
Text messages to Kochhar remained unanswered.
Kochhar was directed to return about Rs 10 crore in cash bonuses she had received as CEO, and also give up close to 6 million shares of the bank she had as stock option, which was about Rs 350 crore (when the bank board issued the directive).
However, she did not exercise all the stock options over the nine years of her tenure.
"A certain amount has been exercised and acquired by her but it is not clear yet how many of those options had been exercised and vested, and how many are yet to be vested," said the source.
Soon after the board's decision, the private lender had clarified it would revoke her existing and future entitlements, including unpaid amounts, unpaid bonuses, vested and unvested stock options, and even medical benefits.
According to the RBI's compensation guidelines of 2012, a clawback is an agreement between an employee and the bank in which the employee agrees to return previously paid or vested remuneration to the bank.
ICICI Bank, too, has provisions for a clawback, according to a copy of its 2018 compensation policy available on its website.
It says employees will be required to sign clawback agreements on variable pay. In a clawback arrangement, "the employee will agree to return, in case if it is asked for, the previously paid variable pay to the bank in the event of an inquiry determining gross negligence or integrity breach, taking into account relevant regulatory stipulations," it said.
Experts are of the opinion that this may not be a critical matter for her because there could be criminal charges against her.
Another view is that the bank's agreement with Kochhar may not envisage any clawback.
In that case the bank has to approach court, another expert said.
Photograph: PTI Photo
Shrimi Choudhary in New Delhi


I was interested to come across an ABC article today that quoted the Reserve Bank of Australia's governor, Glenn Stevens as saying during a Federal parliamentary committee hearing that, 'As a statement of probabilities, a rise (in interest rates) is more likely than a fall'.
I find this very interesting. At the last rise in November, and in the time since, the commentary from 'financial analysts' has been that interest rates have peaked, and that the next move will be down.
It is interesting to see who the experts used to commentate on these things are - most commonly they are employed by the big banks, such as Chris Caton who is employed by BT/Westpac.
These experts have been pretty consistent in the story over the past 18 months - underestimating the liklihood of interest rate rises and tending to talk them down. 12 months ago no-one was predicting 3 interest rate rises and, according to the Reserve Bank of Australian, more chance of a rise than a fall to come.
What I had not thought of is that these people - who are generally employed by banks - have employers who benefit from interest rates being low. Therefore public comment by bank economists about lower rates helps their employers as banks customers are more likely to spend more money on credit, borrow more money to buy houses and so on when interest rates are low.
It is an interesting conflict of interest.