Good Queen Jane

The ISU General Congress is currently meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia. At this meeting a new President will be chosen to replace ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta, who is officially stepping down on Friday, June 10, after 22 years. There are also rule changes being considered. Although there are are no official announcements until after the meeting concludes, a major change was leaked. Anonymous judging is to be scrapped at all figure skating events organized by the ISU after a near-unanimous decision at the ISU General Congress on Wednesday, according to a report on the insidethegames website. A proposal submitted by the Norwegian Skating Association to end anonymous judging was approved Wednesday at the ISU Figure Skating session, insidethegames reports. Approval to the proposal was made to rapturous applause during Wednesday's closed meeting of the Figure Skating section of the ISU, insidethegames was told, with just one delegation thought to have opposed the measure. The mood after the decision was reported to be one of jubilation, with almost all delegates and observers insisting it was a change for the better and will help the sport to improve its image. The proposal is expected to be effective immediately and put into use for next season. Way to go, Norway! Insidethegames also reported a Dutch proposal to introduce a mandatory age limit of under 70 in the calendar year of nomination was also approved for all ISU referees, judges, technical controllers and technical specialists. A second attempt to extend some age limits to 75 was rejected.

Glarkware, take note.

That's why I think the virus Harold is releasing will take out The Machine as well as Samaritan, or leave them both unable to interfere in human life. That's the collateral damage that the Machine was talking about.

I'm guessing that Fusco's son is looking after Bear in whatever safe place that Fusco has put them.

The interaction of the contestants was the best part of the show. They were all fun to watch (even Colby!) They owned their nerdiness (#plant battle), had a good amount of trash talk without falling into arrogance, and were respectful of each other in defeat. Even the host was funny without being over the top. I would have enjoyed spending an evening with them.

My prediction is that the Machine infiltrates Samaritan and corrupts both Samaritan's and its own programming, creating a new entity/program, under the control of no one. Team Machine turns Blackwell, who kills Greer. My hope is that Finch and Bear join Grace in Italy, Fusco carries on as a NYPD detective, that Reese's ex-CIA boss brings him back into the agency and Shaw goes to South Africa to work with Samuel, but I doubt that there will be such a happy ending.

Tim had a great range of knowledge but I thought he was going to pass out from hyperventilating by the end of the show. I hope he's allowed to practice breathing exercises between shows.

Are there two episodes on Monday or should the date of this episode be 2016.05.31? And kudos to those who predicted Finch's number would come up!

A world run by Samaritan is getting to be really scary. Self preservation seems to be Samaritan's first concern with innocent people killed simply because they might expose part of his manipulations. Now it looks like we are also going to have a Final Solution. Only those humans with the right genetic make-up will live on in Samaritan's Brave New World. The willingness of Samaritan's True Believers to kill is chilling. I remember 12 O'Clock High from the television series, but I looked up the plot of the book/movie on Wikipedia this morning. Elias is right; to win a war you have to accept that there will be collateral damage. Otherwise, you will end up unable to function. It's time for Finch to unleash the Machine.

I'm not worried about Fusco. If Bear can run for a fire extinguisher, he can pull Fusco out of the rubble. But the bodies appeared very well preserved considering some have been missing for several weeks. I guess I'm not up on my music. I though Finch was singing an authentic Irish protest song. It was only after I Googled it that I discovered Finch was into Twisted Sister. I do love Michael Emerson's "singing." His rendition of "Happy" on the short-lived Arsenio Hall show is still one of my favorite videos.

Alfonso Ribeiro should be on his knees every night, thanking Dancing With The Stars for reviving his career. That said, he was fun to watch in Duet. And I would pay real money to see Colin, Ryan and Betty White line dancing. Glad this show is back.

In defense of SE Cupp, she did realize what she had said about 2000 years and tried to amend her answer to mean in Western civilization. Not a great save, but she did try.

Boo-ya! Thank goodness he didn't go to the bonus round. It was funny how calm he got when calling a letter.

It was nice to see a CIA bigwig who was also a decent human being. This show has gotten me so paranoid that I suspect anyone who is not Team Machine of evil intentions and planning on killing everyone in sight. I wonder if Samaritan's mal/spyware is an attempt to reach the Machine. I really think that that it will be the Machine herself who will take down Samaritan, either by converting him or turning him off a la Hal in 2001.

I'm confused as to what is going on with Grace. Is she in New York or not? I couldn't read the captions on the picture that the Machine showed Finch at the end (the light was bad, that was it, couldn't be the fact I wasn't wearing my glasses.) I thought that the Finch's decision to keep the system open had something to do with being able to watch Grace.

Oh, Show, I really want to like you (and I have in the past). But this episode.... It's like everyone was appearing in Dean's show. I am ready for this subplot to be over. Please?

It's nice that the teachers all get money for special projects, but I missed the videos of the students cheering on their teachers that they used to show around the interview sections. They gave you a sense of what kind of school they teach at and the teachers all looked so touched and/or amused by the good luck wishes. So boo hiss to no videos.

They frequently use this camera technique when in OPA's office and only in OPAs office. I guess it has something to do with the beveled glass or just to remind us we are in the office since the Gladiators spend so little time there.

Watching Jason Brown's program, I totally understand why he has back problems. Such beautiful but backbreaking spins! If Jason can master the quads, he will give Hanyu a run for the money.

Jackie Wong from the Rocker website has put together a detailed explanation of the rules for this weekend’s Team Challenge Cup. The rules are about as complicated as one could make them. I think people sat around a table and said, “How can we best confuse people about what’s going on?” I have a feeling that a lot of people in the arena and watching the event on various media won’t have a clue about how the winners are being determined. Here’s Jackie’s summary of the rules: For clarity's sake, let's take a look at the actual format of the event, because if you haven't looked at the rules, you will likely be supremely confused. Here's how Team Challenge Cup works. First thing to note is that Day 1 and Day 2 are basically two different competitions with two different final standings. Note: This explanation is based on TCC's announcement from February. •Team Short Program Competition (Day 1) - Men and Ladies only ◦Competition happens in 3 warm-up groups of 3 men and 3 women each (mixed groups!!!) ◦Each team assigns one man and one woman, without duplicates, to each warm-up group (e.g., North America, Europe, and Asia will all have one man and one woman in each group) ◦Points are awarded within each warm-up group in head-to-head-to-head matchups ◾Group 1 Men: 12 points for 1st place, 10 points for 2nd place, 8 points for 3rd place ◾Group 1 Ladies: 12 points for 1st place, 10 points for 2nd place, 8 points for 3rd place ◾Group 2 Men: 12 points for 1st place, 10 points for 2nd place, 8 points for 3rd place ◾Group 2 Ladies: 12 points for 1st place, 10 points for 2nd place, 8 points for 3rd place ◾Group 3 Men: 12 points for 1st place, 10 points for 2nd place, 8 points for 3rd place ◾Group 3 Ladies: 12 points for 1st place, 10 points for 2nd place, 8 points for 3rd place ◾Each team can earn a minimum of 48 points and a maximum of 72 points ◦Teams will decide whom to assign in which group without knowing what the other teams did, so this element of chance could make things very interesting ◦The total points earned by the three teams will determine the Team Short Program Winners - these points will NOT carry over to Day 2 ◦Tiebreakers ◾1st tiebreak is the aggregate score of the top men's SP and top ladies' SP ◾2nd tiebreak is the aggregate score of the 2nd men's SP and 2nd ladies' SP •Team Challenge Cup (Day 2) - Men, Ladies, Pairs, Dance ◦Cuz it's not confusing enough, the actual thing called the Team Challenge Cup happens on Day 2, where the entire team of Men, Ladies, Pairs, and Dance teams all compete ◦Unlike the first day, the second day is all about point totals (!!!) ◦Pairs and Dance compete in the afternoon and skate a Free program, and the top scoring Pair and Dance for each team will be counted toward the total score (the other scores are dropped) ◦The Men and Ladies skate their Free Skates in the evening, and the top 2 Men and top 2 Ladies on each team will count toward the total score (the other scores are dropped) ◦Warm-up groups will again be mixed, with the final group featuring the top skaters in the SP from each team I’m not sure even the skaters get all this. They will probably go out and do their programs, then wait for someone to tell them if they won something. It would be so much easier if they had just kept the team format used at the Olympics and at the ISU World Team Cup in Japan.

The inaugural Team Challenge Cup will take place in Spokane, Washington on Friday and Saturday, April 22-23, with an Exhibition on Sunday, April 24. Here’s everything you need to know about the Team Challenge Cup. There will be over $600,000 in prize money awarded at this event, both to the teams as well as to individual skaters, so there is a lot of incentive for skaters to do well. Friday will be a Short Program Competition for Men and Ladies only, which will feature head-to-head match-ups for more than $100,000 in prize money. On Saturday, the slate will be wiped clean and teams will compete in a Free Skate Competition. Pairs and Ice Dancers will compete in the afternoon, and Men and Ladies will compete in the evening. Competitors will perform their Free Skates, and the aggregate-scoring format will combine the two sessions to determine the winning team. All athletes competing on Saturday will contesting for team prize money, with bonus money being offered for individual placements in Pairs and in Ice Dance. About $500,000 in prize money is at stake in this event. By the way, Jason Brown has announced that he has dumped his “Great Gatsby” short program, which he used earlier in the season. The program had a lot of quick movements back and forth and a lot of fast torque, which exacerbated his back problems. He will be skating to “Appasionata”, which is a slower, more lyrical piece. Brown does plan to use the “Scent of Love” Free Skate program in Spokane, which he got to perform only three or four times early in the season. He added that “Appasionata” and “Scent of Love” will be his programs for the 2016-17 season. Broadcast Schedule Icenetwork will live-stream the event from Spokane. You must sign up and pay a fee to receive this live streaming. Current Icenetwork subscribers must pay $9.99 for access to the live-streaming. Non-subscribers can purchase access to this event for $19.99. CBS also will be showing highlights from the Team Challenge Cup on Sunday, April 24. Below is the broadcast schedule for the Team Challenge Cup. All times listed are EASTERN. ICENETWORK LIVE STREAM Thursday, April 21 8:00 pm - Red Carpet show 10:30 pm - Team Introductions and Match-up Announcements. Friday, April 22 10:30 pm - Men and Ladies Short Program Competition Saturday, April 23 4:30 pm - Pairs Free Skate, Free Dance 10:00 pm - Men and Ladies Free Skate Sunday, April 24 6:00 pm - Exhibition Icenetwork’s announcing team will be Mike Mancuso, who will handle the play-by-play, Charlie White, Michael Weiss, John Coughlin and Tonia Kwiatkowski. CBS Sunday, April 24, 1:00 - 3:00 pm As always, be sure to check your local listings for the channel and time in your area for the CBS broadcast. COMPETITORS There has been a change in the list of competitors. Papadakis and Cizeron of France have dropped out of the competition and have been replaced by Coomes and Buckland of Great Britain in the Ice Dance line-up for Team Europe Team Asia Shizuka Arakawa (JPN), captain MEN: Boyan Jin (CHN), Shoma Uno (JPN), Denis Ten (KAZ) LADIES: Rika Hongo (JPN), Satoko Miyahara (JPN), Elizabet Tursynbaeva (KAZ) PAIRS: Wang and Wang (CHN), Suto and Boudreau-Audit (JPN) DANCE: Kim and Minov (KOR), Wang and Liu (CHN) Team Europe Christopher Dean (GRB), captain MEN: Michal Brezina (CZE), Mikhail Kolyada (RUS), Sergei Voronov (RUS) LADIES: Evgenia Medvedeva (RUS), Elena Radionova (RUS), Roberta Rodeghiro (ITA) PAIRS: Stolbova and Klimov (RUS), Della Monica and Guarise (ITA) DANCE: Coomes and Buckland (GRB), Cappellini and Lanotte (ITA) Team North America Kristi Yamaguchi (USA), captain MEN: Jason Brown (USA), Nam Nguyen (CAN), Adam Rippon (USA) LADIES: Gabrielle Daleman (CAN), Gracie Gold (USA), Ashley Wagner (USA) PAIRS: Duhamel and Radford (CAN), Scimeca and Knierim (USA) DANCE: Weaver and Poje (CAN), Chock and Bates (USA) This is the last competitive event of the current skating season. While the intensity won’t be quite the same as Worlds, skaters will be competing for some big bucks, and that should get their attention. There are probably a few skaters who also are looking to show they can skate better than they did in Boston.

This episode was really focused on the business aspects, so focused that it almost put me to sleep. If I ever invent a product, the first thing I'm going to do is line up a co-packer and get into trade shows.

That made me smile because one of the obscure pieces of trivia I know is that matches were originally known as "lucificers."

Not to get all theological, but under the concept of the Trinity, Jesus is God, not a separate person. He is called the son of God to differentiate that aspect. So Lucifer would be Jesus' favorite son.

Wasn't it lucky that there just happened to be cameras filming at Surprise Ride when Kevin made his totally unexpected telephone call? Or that a possible partner for the Coop coincidentally was coming the same time that Barbara was there to talk them out of franchising? I wish we didn't have to have all the reenactments of things clearly decided. The Sharks and the entrepreneurs are just not that good as actors.