I must admit to having very little faith in any regulatory body of the U.S. and living down here in the lower 40, that's about all I can safely say-but hell, I'll go out on a limb here and say that I don't have any more faith in some of the Canadian regulatory bodies. But what do I know? I thought that naked short selling was always against the law, especially when you couldn't find the shares to borrow within 3 days. But now the SEC will only currently enforce that rule for a select number of banks? What's wrong with that picture. Where has the SEC or other authorities been on this issue for years and years? If you were to say "looking the other way with a wink and a nod to their "friends", I wouldn't argue.

Canadian shareholders that have owned more than a few explorers or micro caps and have been around the block a few times, would certainly know more, but I'm not so sure naked short selling isn't beyond belief in Canada also.

From what we all may pick up on various Agorcom boards, it would appear that each and every PR issued by a company lately has to be read, re-read, digested, ruminated upon, folded twice and blessed in order that the regulatory gods are appeased. We also hear from time to time that the regulators did not approve of this or that, caused something to be retracted or rewritten. Case in point pehaps details and embelleshments that Noront may have wished to make on the Blackbird properties. Some posters have previously mentioned that the regulators are "all over" the Ring of Fire Plays. I'm not quite so sure of that.

I wish I could be more optimistic if something untoward occurs, and that is a big IF, as the drill results are the 800 lb gorilla here, everything else may be secondary. It could well be that I'm being overly cautious and over concerned about this one part of FNC, but if FNC can put out a July 24 PR concerning stock options granted-and very well deserved for the crew that has been with FNC since about when the good Lord created creation-couldn't they throw a few bones to the shareholders with the good news about Magpie? If you find the time to talk about options, talk about Magpie. I may be reaching here, but if you're getting options, couldn't you step up to the plate and resolve this without investors and shareholders having to hold the board's feet to the fire?

When I buy anything on any Canadian stock exchange, my own personal understanding is that if anything goes wrong, I'm pretty much out of luck. I'm not sure about litigation in Canada, or if the laws are such that a board has a hell of a lot of leeway. There could be a lot of legal reasons they can do things that leave most people puzzled. In the U.S. all we have to do is throw a rock, and we will undoubtedly hit some lawyer. And like sharks, they're always hungry.

I think FNC is hopefully too big and too well known, with enough shareholders that no sleight of hand will occur regarding this one specific issue. This issue shoud quickly be put to bed by FNC-the ball is in their court. All the rest looks like blue sky to me.