You Can Get A Watch

There is an adage that states – cynically or realistically, depending on your point of view – that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. Seven weeks ago the racing world hailed as the possible second coming of Pegasus a Derby winner who took the great race by seven lengths in a record time.

Yesterday the superlatives flowed for Harbinger, who won the 60th running of the sport's great all-aged summer showpiece, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, by an even wider margin, 11 lengths, in a course record time. And that Epsom hero, Workforce, trailed in fifth of six runners as 8-11 favourite, beating only his pacemaker.

Whether or not that makes yesterday's winner Pegasus's fleeter half-brother incarnate, and worthy of being made even-money favourite for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in Paris in early October, will be revealed only by time. But undeniably, his effort here was visually astounding, even to his trainer Sir Michael Stoute, who also has charge of Workforce and who has been in the business for more than 40 years, long enough to have worn most T-shirts. "It wasn't a shock he won," he said, "but the way he won was. You don't see that sort of performance often; it was absolutely breathtaking. You could see he was looking good from a long way out. He was always just cantering."

Harbinger was Stoute's fifth King George winner, after Shergar, Opera House, Golan and, last year, Conduit. The first-named was a brilliant three-year-old, the other four late-maturing older horses of the type with which their trainer excels.

Harbinger, a four-year-old, was the catch ride to end catch rides for Olivier Peslier after stable jockey Ryan Moore opted to stick with the colt who had given him his first Derby in such spectacular style. Peslier anchored Harbinger in fourth place as Confront dashed to the front to fulfil his trailblazing duties, followed by Workforce and his contemporary Cape Blanco, winner of the Irish Derby.

But, as the two three-year-olds, still running as if in double harness, went past the hare early in the straight, it was apparent that as far as Peslier was concerned it was a matter of when, not if, as he cruised alongside. The moment came approaching the furlong marker when he gave his mount the slap that evoked an electrifying response that left his rivals, headed by Cape Blanco, leaden-hooved.

"You cannot imagine how I felt in the last furlong when I looked up at the big screen and saw the others so far behind," he said. "I had hardly had to ask him anything, and when he did go it felt as if he was flying, and he kept flying. Today, he was a king."

Harbinger is owned by one of the up-market Highclere syndicates managed by Harry Herbert; its 20 members paid £36,500 apiece to cover purchase (£189,000 as a yearling) and training costs. The son of Dansili has proved a worthy investment; his share of yesterday's £1 million Betfair-sponsored purse was £565,000, but that is back-pocket change alongside his value as a potential stallion. Before his second career, though, he must finish his first and the Arc is the one gap on Stoute's CV. "It will certainly be considered," he said. "He has done nothing but progress this year. He has matured physically as an athlete but his great quality is his mind. He is level-headed and sensible and worries about nothing."

Cape Blanco, staying on gamely as Workforce faded, took the three-year-old bragging rights for Ballydoyle, three and a quarter lengths in front of perennial best man Youmzain, who added a third King George placing to his three Arc runner-up spots.

"He ran his heart out," said Aidan O'Brien of Cape Blanco, "never stopped trying, and he's still progressing." The chestnut may drop back in trip to the 10 furlongs of next month's York International; the stable has another of the season's best four-year-olds, Fame And Glory, reserved for the Arc.

As for Workforce, Stoute promises there will be another day. "We've never pitted him and Harbinger against each other at home," he said, "so I really didn't know which had the best chance today. Ryan said afterwards that he was a bit on edge, a bit keen, and that the ground was quick enough for him. But this was only his fourth race. He'll be back."

The caravan moves on to Goodwood this week with the next Group One pitstop Wednesday's Sussex Stakes, the season's first elite all-aged clash over a mile, with Cape Blanco's stablemate and last year's winner Rip Van Winkle set to test the mettle of the star three-year-olds, headed by the Richard Hannon-trained Canford Cliffs.

With his first outing of the campaign, a sixth place at Royal Ascot, under his girth O'Brien is relishing seeing the four-year-old square up against the younger horses. "He was a bit fresh at Ascot," he said, "but he's come on a lot since then. It's going to be an interesting race."

Before Cape Blanco emerged as leader of the three-year-old pack, hopes down Co Tipperary way were pinned on St Nicholas Abbey. Ruled out by a minor injury after failing as favourite in the 2,000 Guineas, O'Brien reported yesterday that the colt is now back in routine exercise and the faith is still kept that he may prove a champion. There is the intriguing possibility that he will remain in training as a four-year-old. Watch this space in 12 months' tim

driver from www independent.co.uk

Anglo-French bassist and co-founder of rock band The Stranglers, Jean-Jacques “JJ” Burnel, spoke to The Independent Online about the perils of growing up as “a Frog” in the 1960s, his passion for motorbikes and why Plato’s The Republic changed his life.

What would you normally be doing if you weren’t talking me? I would still be at the gym probably. I just rushed back from there. I teach karate so I like going to the gym to compliment it two or three times a week. Either that or I do a bit of rowing. I’ve recently fallen in love with rowing. It’s not very rock ‘n’ roll but it gives a kind of balance to my life. If I didn't do it I’d probably be dead by now.

If you were Prime Minister for the day, what would you do? [Laughs] Wow, just for the day? I think I’d probably have all criminals who murdered and raped rounded up and put on island. No, seriously, I’d take British troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Is there a phrase you use all the time? My girlfriend says that I say ‘It’s a numbers game’ quite a lot. In reference to everything, actually.

Describe the house you grew up in. I grew up in a couple of houses, but the one that I really remember was a thatched restaurant - my dad was French chef and my mum was front of house. It had a lovely lawn out front which my parents tended to, a dry stone wall and, obviously, it was thatched. I worked in the restaurant every weekend from the age of fourteen, which meant I didn’t get laid until much later than my schoolfellows. But, there were some advantages, as by the time I was 17 I was able to afford to buy a Harley Davidson motorbike with my own money.

What did you want to be as a child? I can’t remember really, there were different peer group pressures. But overall I just wanted to be English. I’m a British citizen and I sound native, but technically I’m French. Growing up as the kid of French people in those days was tough. There weren’t so many immigrants then and I was born in Notting Hill where they all used to come in initially. Being a Frog was not a great option at the time. It got me beaten up on more than one occasion. Also, do you know the song ‘A Boy Called Sue’? Being called Jean-Jacques was a bit like that. My mum might as well have called me Sue.

Name a book that changed your life. A book that really struck a chord with my when I was in my early teens was Plato’s The Republic. It was so interesting discovering the way that political thought develops in society. How you go from an aristocracy to a tyranny to an oligarchy to a democracy. It awakened certain things in me.

What the best advice you’ve ever received? It was from my dad, he said: “Always look at her mother.” [Laughs]

What advice do you wish you’d received? Never marry a French girl. Especially one from the South of France - someone should have warned me!

What were you like at school? Very uptight, because I was French. Pretty classic otherwise. Bit of a rebel. But I actually really appreciate the school I went to now.

If you could meet anyone from history who would it be and what would you ask them? It’s a toss up between Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. I’d ask Alexander why he started wearing Persian clothes. And I’d ask Napoleon why the fuck he went to Russia. [Laughs]

driver from www.independent.co.uk

On Monday's finale episode of The Bachelorette, Ali Fedotowsky will hand out her final rose — or will she? Recent reports  have raised the possibility that Ali may end this season all by her lonesome. Who do you want her to end up with? Roberto, the sexy former baseball player with whom she's had strong chemistry since Day One? Or Chris L., the family man whose relationship with Ali went from friendship to much more?

It would be hard to find a taxpayer who doesn’t know that AIG benefited from tens of billions in government aid during the recent financial crisis. It would probably be just as hard to find a taxpayer who could tell you what a derivative is. Yet anyone still stewing about the former should be up in arms about the latter. While the failure to regulate derivatives was at the heart of the AIG meltdown, the big Wall Street firms that create and trade these instruments are spending millions to make sure they stay unregulated in many cases. And they just might succeed.

To review: Derivatives are essentially a bet on the price of another asset, like a stock or a bond. Beginning in the early 2000s, the financial wizards at AIG used a certain type of derivative known as a credit default swap (CDS) to place big bets on securities backed by mortgages. The bets paid off handsomely as long as real-estate prices rose. But, as the real-estate market began to wobble, the securities started plummeting in value. That left AIG on the hook for billions in losses and brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy.

driver from www.tnr.com

TOMS RIVER, N.J. — Another wave of oppressive heat clamped down on a broad swath of Eastern states on Saturday, with temperatures in the high 90s and 100s and residents scrambling for shade or just staying indoors.

In the Mid-Atlantic, already the locus for brutal temperatures several times in July, weather experts warned of the dangerous conditions and residents resigned themselves to coping with the discomfort.

"Oh, it's disgusting. It's already really hot," meteorologist Heather Sheffield of the National Weather Service said of morning temperatures in Washington, D.C.

One possible weather-related death was reported in Maryland, where paramedics said the high temperatures and humidity likely played a role in the death of a 20-year-old man who was biking, went into cardiac arrest and hit his head on a tree as he fell.

With the heat and humidity combining for a possible heat index of over 110 degrees, the weather service issued an excessive heat warning for the first time this year for an area stretching from south of Washington to north of Baltimore, along the Interstate 95 corridor. By midday Saturday, a wide band from lower New England to the Deep South was under a heat advisory.

The thermometer hit 100 degrees in Washington and Baltimore by mid-afternoon, where the heat index was 109. In Norfolk, Va., it was 104 degrees and 108 degrees with the heat index. Elsewhere, record highs for July 24 of 97 degrees in New York and Philadelphia and 99 degrees in Newark, N.J., were reported.

As temperatures soared toward 100 degrees in New Jersey, Harry Oliver was trying to make sense of it all as he waited to get sandwiches inside a Toms River convenience store.

"When I complain about the heat and humidity, my wife reminds me that I was begging for this type of weather when I was shoveling all that snow this past winter," the 47-year-old Lakehurst resident said. "Now I'm looking forward to the snow again."

Oliver said he and his wife didn't want to cook. "It's hot enough in the house already, even with my air conditioning running 24/7," he said.

In New York City, the heat brought out the inner entrepreneur in one resident.

A.J. Ousmane, 27, a native of the West African nation of Mali, sold ice-cold water bottles for $1 from a cooler on a Harlem sidewalk. He planned to stay out all afternoon, and hoped to make about $55 for the day, after expenses.

"I keep moving with the shade," he said, as he positioned himself in the creeping shadow of a coin-operated laundry.

Poolside, 20-year-old Meredith Watkins slathered herself with SPF 15 and filled her water bottle before working a shift as a lifeguard in suburban Columbus, Ohio. Watkins scouted the swimming pool for an excuse to jump in – something she says she does at least once an hour on hot days.

"You still gotta do your job when it's this hot," she said, twirling a whistle on a red lanyard. "Especially with the humidity, it makes it awful. You just sit there and sweat and sweat."

Kristin Kline, a weather service meteorologist at Mount Holly, N.J., said this summer hasn't been "record-setting hot" in most places. The off-and-on scorching heat that's been felt in the Mid-Atlantic can be blamed on "a Bermuda high" between Bermuda and North Carolina that is pushing hot, humid air into the region, Kline said.

In Pennsylvania, Louie Correa, 55, of Louie's Appliances was out trundling a fan and a kitchen table into a South Philadelphia home. He said that earlier in the day, he had been by the homes of some older residents to make sure they were all right.

"Sometimes they see me knocking on the door, and the neighbors say 'What you want there?' Like this morning, I said 'Oh, just making sure Miss Regina is all right,' 'Just making sure Frank is all right,'" Correa said.

While temperatures climbed, Jason Wish dabbed a sweaty T-shirt on his brow as he loaded crates of tomatoes and bushels of peppers into a truck at a farmer's market in suburban Columbus, Ohio. He and dozens of other farmhands hurried to pack up their produce and escape to air-conditioned vans and pickups.

"It makes me wanna jump in the pond and go swimming," Wish said.

Many hit the beach for relief, though not all were there to soak up the sun.

Jeff Clarkson, 47, and his 12-year-old son Chuck planned to hit the arcades along the Point Pleasant area boardwalk in New Jersey.

"I don't want him out there too long 'cause it could be dangerous," said the elder Clarkson, whose family was visiting from suburban Philadelphia. "But in here, we can spend time together and stay kind of cool, though it's likely to cost me a lot of money by the time we're through."

Not much relief was in the forecast Sunday. Sunday's highs were expected to reach into the low- to mid-90s, but heat indices should be slightly lower – in the high 90s, possibly as high as 101 in cities.

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Under the new law, due to come into force early next year, women face a fine or community service for hiding their faces in public and those forcing women to wear the full veil risk prison.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has described the garment as "not welcome" in the staunchly secular French republic.

In this case, the women at the Rives des Corbieres holiday camp were told to leave as they had breached the camp's rules allowing only conventional bikinis or one-piece swimsuits "for hygiene reasons".

Police received conflicting accounts of what happened next.

The pool's lifeguard filed a complaint saying the husband of one of the women threatened him with a bowling ball.

The husband filed a complaint claiming security personnel beat him up.

Marie-Paule Bardeche, a regional government official said: "This is above all an issue stemming from the holiday centre's internal regulations, in place for hygiene and sanitary reasons.

"Access to the swimming pool is reserved for ordinary swimsuit wearers. Even long shorts are forbidden." Last year a Muslim woman was banned from wearing a "burkini" at a public pool in a Paris suburb, also for hygiene reasons.

She later tried and failed to sue the council for discrimination.

Police have this year also stopped and fined two women for wearing a burka while driving, saying it contravened road rules as it impaired their field of vision.

The holiday camp where the burkini incident took place is run by a staunchly secular organisation called the "Aude federation of secular works".

The women had plunged into the pool at le Port Leucate wearing full body swimsuits, including a head-covering hijab veil, but were immediately told to get out of the water.

The incident occurred less than two weeks after French MPs voted to ban body and face-covering garments, including the full Islamic veil, from public places including the street.

UPDATE: Sarah Palin's lawyer has told TMZ: "The story asserting that Sarah Palin is 'boycotting' Bristol's wedding has been fabricated. There is no truth to this."

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Bristol Palin has told Us Weekly that her mom, Sarah, "doesn't really approve" of her and Levi Johnston's engagement. Bristol said, "My mom is not 100 percent backing us up right now," and that, "People are more worried for me than excited for me."

According to Bristol, Sarah believes actions speak louder than words. "She's going to wait to see if [Levi] changes," Bristol explained. "But she's just glad he is getting on the right path. She knows how much Tripp means to me, and she wants Tripp to have a father figure."

In a video on UsMagazine.com, Bristol said, Levi "stepping up and getting his education, GED and whatnot, him getting a job and supporting us emotionally and financially and whatnot then I think [my mom will] accept it and be happy for us."

Bristol also said, "I want to get married soon, just so we can live together and be together all of the time."

Your abuelito is dead, Papa says early one morning in my room. Estd muerto, and then as if he just heard the news him-self, crumples like a coat and cries, my brave Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and don't know what to do.

I know he will have to go away, that he will take a plane to Mexico, all the uncles and aunts will be there, and they will have a black-and-white photo taken in front of the tomb with flowers shaped like spears in a white vase because this is how they send the dead away in that country.

Because I am the oldest, my father has told me first, and now it is my turn to tell the others. I will have to explain why we can't play. I will have to tell them to be quiet today.

My Papa, his thick hands and thick shoes, who wakes up tired in the dark, who combs his hair with water, drinks his coffee, and is gone before we wake, today is sitting on my bed.

And I think if my own Papa died what would I do. I hold my Papa in my arms. I hold and hold and hold him.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Two stars of the HBO series "Entourage" are backing the new owners of a popular restaurant next door to a racetrack in eastern New York.

Kevin Connolly, who plays Eric "E" Murphy on "Entourage," and Kevin Dillon, who portrays Johnny "Drama" Chase, are among the investors in Siro's in Saratoga Springs.

Both actors are from New York.

Mortgage banker Keith Kantrowitz said Monday that his group bought the restaurant. He says the investors all have personal relationships with at least one of the owners.

The restaurant had been purchased from a group that had owned it since the early 1980s. A sale price wasn't disclosed.

Nowadays a lot of fake commodities are poured into the market. Fake commodities such as fake seeds, chemical fertilizers, building materials and daily necessities can be found almost anywhere.

There are two main reasons for such phenomenon. For one thing, both manufacturers and some consumers of fake commodities, to some extent, can benefit from the production and consumption. Profit-driven fake commodity manufacturers find it worthwhile to run the risk. For another, some local governments are dependent on these fake commodity manufacturers for realization of tax revenue increase, which adversely facilitates fake commodity production and circulation.

There is no doubt that fake commodities will do harm to society. First, fake commodities break the rule of fair competition and cut into the profits of the brand-name owners. Second, companies that buy fake commodities will suffer a loss. Third, certain fake commodities, such as food and medicine, will cause irreparable harm to the health and well-being of the consumers. So we should realize the harmfulness of fake commodities.