//<!-- arrays of text / hrefs -->
var theTickerText = new Array();
var theTickerLinks = new Array();
var theTicker_Blank = new Array();



theTickerText[0]  = "";
theTickerLinks[0] = "";
theTicker_Blank[0] = "";

var Inc = new Number(0);      // used to itterate through array
var theCharacterTimeout = 10; //pause tween chars
var theStoryTimeout = 3000;   //pause at end of line
var theEnumerator = 0;        //used to iterate through the individual strings

// --- Run the ticker
function start()
{
doTheTicker();
}



function doTheTicker()
{
if(Inc > (theTickerText.length - 1)){Inc=0;}

   if((theEnumerator % 2) == 1)
   {
      writeTicker("_",Inc);
   }
   else
   {
      writeTicker("*",Inc);
   }

   theEnumerator++;
	
   if(theEnumerator == theTickerText[(Inc)].length+1)
   {
      writeTicker("",Inc);
      theEnumerator = 0;
      Inc++;
      setTimeout('doTheTicker()', theStoryTimeout); 
          
   }
   else
   {
      setTimeout('doTheTicker((Inc))', theCharacterTimeout);
   }
}

function writeTicker(aWidget,vn)
{
   
   var hrefstr = new String();
   var endhrefstr = new String();
   
   hrefstr = '<a class="ticker" href="' + theTickerLinks[vn] + '"';
   if (theTicker_Blank[vn]=="1")
   {hrefstr = hrefstr + ' target="_blank"';}
   hrefstr = hrefstr + '>';
   endhrefstr = "</a>";
   document.all.hottext.innerHTML = hrefstr + theTickerText[vn].substring(0,theEnumerator) + aWidget + endhrefstr;
}