Greyhound racing

Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive industry in which greyhound dogs are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (now based on a windsock) on a track until the greyhounds cross the finish line. As with horse racing, greyhound races often allow the public to wager on the outcome. In coursing the dogs chase a lure (originally a live rabbit that could be killed by the dog).

In many countries, greyhound racing is purely amateur and for enjoyment. In other countries (particularly Australia, Ireland, Macau, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US), greyhound racing is part of the gambling industry, similar to although far less profitable than horse racing. There is concern in countries with greyhound gambling regarding the well-being of the dogs and the use of live-baiting. The effectiveness of industry self-regulation is often called into question. A greyhound adoption movement has arisen to assist retired racing dogs in finding homes as pets, with an estimated adoption rate of over 90% in the USA.

Plan Dog memo

The Plan Dog memorandum was a 1940 American government document written by Chief of Naval Operations Harold Rainsford Stark, and has been called "one of the best known documents of World War II". Confronting the problem of an expected two-front war against Germany and Italy in Europe and Japan in the Pacific, the memo set out the main options and suggested fighting a defensive war in the Pacific while giving strategic priority to defeating Germany and Italy. The memo laid the basis for the later American policy of Europe first.

Background

During the Interwar period, the Joint Planning Committee (which later became the Joint Chiefs of Staff) devised a series of contingency plans for dealing with the outbreak of war with various countries. The most elaborate of these, War Plan Orange, dealt with the possibility of war with Japan.

In light of the events of the late 1930s (the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the German conquest of Poland and Western Europe) American planners realized that the United States faced the possibility of a two-front war in both Europe and the Pacific. War Plan Orange was withdrawn, and five "Rainbow" plans were put forward. Unlike the earlier colored plans which had assumed a one-on-one war, the Rainbow plans contemplated possibility of fighting multiple enemies, and the necessity of defending other western hemisphere nations and aiding Britain.