Sunday, Jul. 23, 2017 - 21:35

This mornin' I (to my credit) got the copulate out of the flat. Leaving just before ten, the plan was to find some stuff to draw (as mentioned yesterday) and maybe look round the charity shops. Alas I think I need to head out earlier when it's as fucking hot as it turned out to be today - I had a nice circular walk and a wee sit and chill in the shade of the ornamental gardens, but didn't find anything I wanted to draw so came home by eleven. Warm, and I needed the loo.

The Women's Cricket World Cup final today at Lord's today saw England bat first and have a couple of stutters and a couple of periods of real dominance as they reached a total of 228/7 (Sciver 51, Taylor 45; Goswami 3/23) with India probably the happier. Defending a medium total, however, England's bowlers made a good start with Mandhana out for a duck and captain Raj ran out a little later with India falling a bit behind the rate. After this though a very good partnership moved things India's way, Kaur and Raut both passing fifty before Beaumont caught the former with ninety still left. A couple of dropped catches, tension, and Raut fell with seven overs (and forty runs) left, lbw to Shrubsole. A smattering more wickets followed quickly to leave India 201/7 with new batswomen in. Tail exposed, it was going down to the wire. In the end it was Shrubsole's bowling (assisted well) which was pretty key - six wickets for 46 from 9.4 overs as India were all out for 219. England win the ICC WWC!

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the start of one of the worst riots in United States history. It began on 12th Street of Detroit in the predominantly African American inner city. The death toll in the end was 43 people, over three hundred were injured and one and a half thousand buildings were fire damaged or burnt down. I'm completely in agreement with the fact some folk have shit lives and may feel unfairly treated, but I'm not a big fan of civil disobedience or rioting as compared to peaceful and/or democrtic processes. It strikes me as the equivalent of tantrums and teenage strops as opposed to reasoned argument or strategic action. That said, I'm not disenfranchised, I acknowledge so don't completely know. I guess all what matters to some folk is whether it has a positive effect, not the principles underlying it all. It was a 'long hot summer' for race relations in the USA, the riots in Detroit weren't a one off.

Russia's consumer rights watchdog is to investigate fidget spinners amid claims on state TV that the gadgets could be used by political opponents to lure children.

Of course, Goran Vlaović and Sarah Cawood were born on the same day in 1972. On June 11th 1996, one of these two was scoring the winner for Croatia against Turkey, and the other was working in TV ('Videotech', with Margherita Taylor and Beverley Turner, maybe, or perhaps 'The Girlie Show'?). I'll let you work out which was which.

Two years ago today, my journey home from work was delayed for half an hour because a hot air balloon had crashed in a field close to the railway and there was some worry that the bastard had incursioned onto the tracks. No decapitated Montgolfier brothers or minced Richard Branson (no irony alas - it was a Arriva train, not a Virgin train) though, it turned out. Boo hissy and other ghost/snake noises.

Lot of pigeon fights today - I saw two on my walk this morning and two or three separate incidents in the tree outside my lounge window this afternoon. Is it breeding season or something? Must be the Columbidae equivalent of mad March hares? No, apparently not - current evidence suggests that wild, domestic and feral pigeons mate for life, although their long-term bonds are not unbreakable. They are socially monogamous, but extra-pair matings do occur, often initiated by males. Due to their ability to produce crop milk, pigeons can breed at any time of year.

Elephant trunks form on the outer wall of the H II region cloud. Astronomers can only study the structure of the surface of the trunks because the opaqueness of the gas obscures the internal core. The length of the columns are measured in light years, which is the distance that it takes light to travel in one year. Astronomers can calculate the densities and temperatures of the EGGs and the trunks by using infrared, millimeter, and radio observations. They have determined that elephant trunks have cold cores (20K) surrounded by warm gas (60K) with an outer hot shell (250-320K).

The Ruotsinsalmi sea fortress is a fortification system in Kotka, Finland. It is part of the South-Eastern Finland fortification system built by Russia after Russo-Swedish War of 1788-1790. Ruotsinsalmi sea fortress formed the southern part of a double fortress together with Kyminlinna and it was built to counter the Swedish sea fortresses of Svartholm in Loviisa and Sveaborg (Suomenlinna) in Helsinki. Ruotsinsalmi also acted as an outpost of the Kronstadt sea fortress in Saint Petersburg. During the Crimean War, a British-French fleet destroyed the Ruotsinsalmi fortifications in 1855.

The afternoon UWEC game ended Scotland 1-2 Portugul, with both teams hoping to bounce back from losses in their first games in the tournament last Wesnesday. Scotland started well and had more of the chances, wasteful in the first twenty minutes, esp. Clelland failing to score from the follow-up to a shot saved. Mistakes aplenty from both sides, and a bad one by Barsley swinging her leg and not connecting with a deflected cross, and Portugal's Trindade Coruche Mendes put it home just before the half hour. More scrappiness, little composure, Scotland went in down at half time and in trouble. Portugal started the second half better, but eventually Scotland pulled the game back to the level of control they'd had in the first half. We got an equaliser three minutes after a Scot blazed over when well placed, Cuthbert with a composed low finish into the far corner midpoint of the second. Mendes scuffed a shot wide when well placed. Portugal regained the lead route one, Ana Leite racing onto a flick and sliding it past Gemma Fay. Caroline Weir hit the post with five left, described as unlucky but in truth she had quite a lot of the goal to shoot at and was quite close in. The net result is that it looks like Scotland's women's football team, like the men always do, will fail to prgress from the group stages of a major championships.

A little later, we had a result of England 2-0 Spain in the other European Championship game of the day - a wet evening in Breda. Now why the fuck were The Lionesses in a navy blue kit? Spain almost started after thirty seconds, but Losada fired over. England responded, poor defending from a throw and Frank Kirby ran through with options, gave the keeper the eyes and slotted in the near post ninety seconds in. Millie Bright had the ball in the net from a great looping far post header but the officials incorrectly ruled it out. It developed into a fairly one-sided half, though perchance surprisingly it was Spain who looked the better side. For all their possession (75% of the share) however, the girls in red & yellow didn't actually threaten the goal of Karen Bardsley at any point, just passed around in front of two strong navy banks of four. The second period, the rain abated a little, more of the same, substitutes to freshen, and a very odd moment with fifteen left. In trying to clear a Spanish cross Ellen White slipped and the ball hit her arm, the referee blew up for a penalty but then reversed her decision ten seconds later and gave an uncontested drop ball. Yes, hand-ball has to be deliberate to be given, but.. a let off. Five from the end, and against the run of play a scrappy moment saw Jodie Taylor have the ball break to her in the box, and she got enough on it to beat the keeper and make it two.