The right result but England were robbed of a goal. Linesman will probably never officiate again.
When will FIFA start using technology? Why bother with a 4th referee?
FIFA – collectively – remains an ass.
World Cup: Germany 4 England 1 (2)
June 27, 2010World Cup: Shift of power
June 27, 2010A nice graphic from the New York Times.
The accompanying article is a little too politically correct but does have some interesting insights:
“Deeper than that, Italy appears to have no plan, no idea how to raise talents to carry on its long and proud place as one of the three traditional powers of world soccer — after Brazil and Germany. Italy’s lack of youth and the lack of self-belief on display this month are compounded by the feeling that the old Europeans seem to be too aloof, perhaps too rich, to embrace the African culture. While they hide away in five-star luxury, the Latin Americans go out into the communities around them.
But something got under the skin of the surly, withdrawn, self-obsessed and now departed French and Italians. They are big names in soccer, but of small consequence to the World Cup as it goes forward without them. They will not be missed. The old order is dead, long live the new. Blow those vuvuzelas.”
EU Idiocy: My “3 egg” omelette is to be banned
June 27, 2010One would hope that idiots in Brussels would have better things to do.
Sorry — My mistake. They are only idiots after all…….
“Shoppers are to be banned from buying eggs by the dozen under new regulations approved by the European Parliament. For the first time, eggs and other products such as oranges and bread rolls will be sold by weight instead of by the number contained in a packet. The new rules will mean that instead of packaging telling shoppers a box contains six eggs, it will show the weight in grams of the eggs inside, for example 372g. Or that a bag of white rolls has 322g inside instead of half a dozen. The rules will not allow both the weight and the quantity to be displayed”.
Breakfast in future will have to be a 106g omelette with a 52g bread roll!!!! But perhaps if we can get all hens to be the EU standard they can all begin producing eggs of a constant weight.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1289882/EU-ban-selling-eggs-dozen-Shopkeepers-fury-told-food-weighed-sold-kilo.html#ixzz0s26berUz
World Cup: The view from the bottom
June 27, 2010After the group matches:
The ball is a loser. The Jabulani ball is unpredictable and flies through the air too easily. Long crosses have been unusually erratic. Goal kicks are routinely reaching the opposing goalkeeper.
N. Korea and Cameroon lost all their 3 group matches.
Algeria and Honduras scored no goals at all.
France, Nigeria, Algeria, Cameroon, New Zealand, Italy, N. Korea and Honduras had no wins.
Uruguay, Argentina, USA, England, Holland, N. Zealand, Brazil and Portugal were undefeated.
Only Argentina and Holland won all their games.
N. Zealand and Australia acquitted themselves well but should not have been there (ahead of more deserving teams). N. Zealand did well enough to return home in triumph as undefeated warriors! Italy deserved their comeuppance. Maradonna was almost as entertaining off the pitch as his team was on the field.
N. Korea being there was a travesty but I hope their team members do not fall foul of the Great Leader. Apparently the catastrophic game against Portugal was shown live on TV after the delayed transmission of the first match. Some TV programming Director is also probably out of favour.
The quality of the matches has improved in the knock-out stage but very few games in the group play were a joy to watch.
The most innovative aspect of this World Cup remains the Vuvuzela.
World Cup and Aquarium visitors: ‘Psychic’ octopus predicts Germany victory over England
June 26, 2010‘Psychic’ octopus predicts Germany victory over England
With the German vacation season soon to start the Oberhausen Sea Life Aquarium is trying to drum up visitors.
They have discovered that their octopus, named Paul, is psychic and has a special interest in football.
An octopus in a German aquarium who is said to be psychic has predicted the country’s football team will knock England out of the World Cup. When consulted, Paul the octopus chose a mussel from a jar with the German flag on it ahead of one in a similar jar bearing the cross of St George. The two-year-old cephalopod has a record of predicting past German results in this manner, his owners say. Paul has so far correctly predicted all of Germany’s results in South Africa. His keepers say he correctly predicted 80% of Germany’s results during the 2008 European Championship.
Paul is two years old and was born in England. Hopefully he does not suffer much from a conflict of loyalties and let us hope that Paul keeps getting his daily ration of mussels irrespective of the results from S. Africa.
High probability of La Nina: Good news for the Indian monsoon
June 26, 2010Good news for the Indian monsoon
The Indian Meteorological Department has increased their rainfall forecast from being 98% of normal to being 102% of normal because of the La Nina conditions developing from the cooling of the Central Pacific. The monsoon is expected to be “on time” and Northern India will get some relief from the sweltering temperatures they have been suffering.
Development of La Nina will also lead to global temperatures continuing to show the decline which has been apparent for the last decade.
The monsoon is formally defined to last for the 4 months of June to September every year and the onset and progress of the northern front of the monsoon is closely watched and can have a major impact. Even though the Indian economy is not as vulnerable to bad monsoons as it used to be, the importance of the monsoon to agriculture (and therefore also to related industries such as fertilisers, pesticides,pumps and even tractors) means that the difference between a “good” monsoon and a “bad” monsoon can be as much as 2% of annual GDP.
(photo credit: worldslatestnews.com/…/)
La Nina is also expected to bring more rain to Australia.
While La Nina will be welcomed in India and may disrupt the Ashes Tests in Australia it is not good news for the soya bean crops in Brazil.
Lunar eclipse and Moon Illusion
June 25, 2010A partial Lunar Eclipse will take place on June 26th. Observers in Canada, the US and East Asia will be able to see the eclipse when the moon is near the horizon when the Moon illusion is also apparent.
The moon illusion refers to the moon seeming larger when it is near the horizon than when it is high in the sky. Some people judge it to be as much as twice as large, but the average estimate is 50% to 75% larger. But this an optical illusion.
A picture “explaining” the illusion and a few of the wonderful moon images at mgstock9.co.cc/moon-illusion
Periodic table gets bigger: Element 114 Ununquadium
June 25, 2010Element 114 has been made and confirmed in the laboratory but elements 113, 115, 116, 117 and 118 are predicted but still to be made.
Temporary names assigned to elements 113 to 118 are: Ununtrium, Ununquadium, Ununpentium, Ununhexium, Ununseptiumand Ununoctium.
New Scientist: Element 114 on the brink of recognition
The periodic table is set to get bigger, now that three labs have independently made atoms of element 114. There’s still one big uncertainty though – should it be classified as a metal or as a noble gas?
In February 2010, an element with 112 protons in its atomic nucleus was recognised and named Copernicium by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). A similar honour should shortly be on the way for element 114. Ununquadium is the temporary name with the temporary symbol Uuq and atomic number114.
In 1999, researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, claimed to have made atoms of element 114, but no confirmation was available. Now teams at two other laboratories say they have produced it.
One team was led by Heino Nitsche and Ken Gregorich at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. The other was led by Christoph Düllmann at the Centre for Heavy Ion Research (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany.
Element 114’s likely chemical properties remain in doubt, however. One prediction suggests it is a noble gas, while another indicates it has properties similar to lead.
World Cup: The last 16
June 25, 2010With the knock-out phase coming up perhaps we will see a little more purposeful and attractive brand of football.
Six teams left from Europe, 5 from S. America, 2 each from N. America and Asia and only one team from Africa. The work ethic and team spirit of Japan and S. Korea is in marked contrast to that of some of the teams from Europe. Italy and France notwithstanding it is not so much the eclipse of Europe as the rise of Asia and N. America. Africa did not live up to the expectations. Australia and N. Zealand should not have been there.
My current favourites are Argentina followed by Brazil and Germany. Japan may still cause a few surprises.
Brazil against Portugal today has the potential to be a great match but will probably be rather dull.
Maybe I am getting used to the sound but the Vuvuzela does not seem as intrusive as it did in the first week.
photo: Japan v. Denmark
The k2p blog 
On comments to blogs and sticks and stones…
June 27, 2010As a relatively recent blogger I find the nature of comments to posts is intriguing. So far less than 2% of the views have resulted in comments.
I categorise comments to blogs tentatively as:
Types 5 and 6 are not very pleasant to read but perhaps they are better than no comment at all in that they represent people sufficiently engaged to comment. I think they cannot be fulfilling their own purposes since every offensive remark only seems to discount any content that might be present. Comments of Type 2 and 8 are the most irritating. Types 7 and 3 are the most appreciated.
Sticks and stones may break my bones but ………
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