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My boys are teaching you how to make brownies
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document.write(““); in millions
USA | 318.2 |
Brazil | 202 |
Nigeria | 173.6 |
Russia | 146 |
Japan | 127 |
Mexico | 119.7 |
Germany | 80.7 |
Iran | 77.5 |
France | 65.9 |
Italy | 60.9 |
England | 53 |
Korea | 50 |
Colombia | 47.7 |
Spain | 46.9 |
Argentina | 42.6 |
Algeria | 38.7 |
Ghana | 27 |
Australia | 23.5 |
Ivory Coast | 23.2 |
Cameroon | 20.5 |
Chile | 17.6 |
Holland | 16.7 |
Ecuador | 15.7 |
Belgium | 11.1 |
Greece | 10.8 |
Portugal | 10.4 |
Honduras | 8.5 |
Switzerland | 8.1 |
Hong Kong | 7.2 |
Costa Rica | 4.66 |
Croatia | 4.2 |
Bosnia-Herzegovina | 3.79 |
Uruguay | 3.2 |
Wow, things can get quite complicated in the World Cup in just a matter of seconds. With the USA losing a win in the last seconds, the scenarios for tiebreakers in the next round are quite complex.
Using this guide of World Cup Tie Breakers, I’ve tried to summarize the potential scenarios for each team. This is a work in progress so if I got it wrong expect an edit or update.
Germany is into the next round if:
Germany Wins, or
Germany draws, or
Portugal and Ghana draw, or
Germany loses and Ghana wins, with the change in goal difference being +6 to Ghana (i.e. Ghana wins by 3 & Germany loses by 3, etc), or
Germany loses and Portugal wins, with the change in goal difference being +9 to Portugal (i.e. Portugal wins by 5 & Germany loses by 4, etc, or
Germany loses, and Portugal or Ghana do not win by enough to overtake Germany on goal difference AND on total goals scored.
Germany loses and Portugal wins and all other tiebreakers are equal, Germany would progress on the fact they already beat Portugal.
Germany loses and Ghana wins and all other tiebreakers are equal, then they would flip a coin.
USA is into the next round if:
USA Wins, or
USA draws, or
Portugal and Ghana draw, or
USA loses and Ghana wins, with the change in goal difference being +3 to Ghana (i.e. Ghana wins by 2 & USA loses by 1, etc), or
USA loses and Portugal wins, with the change in goal difference being +6 to Portugal (i.e. Portugal wins by 5 & USA loses by 1, etc, or
USA loses, and Portugal or Ghana do not win by enough to overtake the USA on goal difference AND total goals scored.
USA loses and Ghana wins and all other tiebreakers are equal, the USA would progress on the fact they already beat Ghana.
USA loses and Portugal wins and all other tiebreakers are equal, then they would flip a coin.
Ghana is into the next round if:
Ghana wins and Germany loses, with the change in goal difference being +6 to Ghana (i.e. Ghana wins by 3 & Germany loses by 3, etc), or
Ghana wins and the USA loses, with the change in goal difference being +3 to Ghana (i.e. Ghana wins by 2 & USA loses by 1, etc, or
Ghana wins and the USA or Germany loses, with the change in total goals scored enough to overtake the losing USA or Germany on total goals scored.
Ghana wins and Germany loses and the tiebreakers even out and Ghana wins a coin toss.
Portugal is into the next round if:
Portugal wins and Germany loses, with the change in goal difference being +9 to Portugal (i.e. Portugal wins by 5 & Germany loses by 4, etc), or
Portugal wins and the USA loses, with the change in goal difference being +6 to Portugal (i.e. Portugal wins by 2 & USA loses by 1, etc, or
Portugal wins and the USA or Germany loses, with the change in total goals scored enough to overtake the losing USA or Germany on total goals scored.
Portugal wins and the USA loses and the tiebreakers even out and Portugal wins a coin toss.
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Chelsea. We got the call up, well, email from the Junior Gunners a few months prior. “Please have your parents contact us” said the email addressed to my son’s usually empty email account. I did and the words coming across seemed somewhat surreal. “Your son was selected to be the mascot” “Does he accept?” “You’ll be getting the logistical details from us shortly”. I was bouncing off the walls and faintly recall the echo of my wife said “maybe we shouldn’t tell him—keep it as a surprise?” as I walked into his room screaming “We’re going to see the Arsenal!” Of course there were some logistics that had to be swung into action. Although an American, we live in Hong Kong now and would have to coordinate not only the flights and accommodations for a trip over the Christmas holiday, but a few extra days to adjust to the jet lag as F@#$%#@$% Sky Sports decided to move the game to Monday Night at 8:00 PM London time (4:00am Hong Kong time). For a few days prior we tried to stay up late and get up early, all to no avail (and in case you are wondering, a jet lag coming from this direction in the middle of Winter was the most horrendous I’ve ever faced). On game day we woke at our normal 2:00am or so, played around, and then forced the kids back to sleep about 10:00am until waking them just prior to our 5:00pm departure time. This wake up left us with one hour to get to the stadium, which was probably a mistake on my part. I did manage to show up at the media entrance exactly at 6:00pm, the required time for a mascot to arrive, only to have the steward say “this is the wrong entrance.” Go this way and that and then around those things and down and…. Being a stupid guy I just grabbed my son and we dashed into the rain trying to figure it out as we go. Ten minutes later in the midst of some Chelsea fans I decided to ask for direction. Luckily I found a fairly senior steward who knew exactly where we should be and we were off down a car park entrance to the underground bowels of the Emirates Stadium. After a security check and several paper towels to dry off, we were met by the Arsenal mascot liaison who walked us into the car park, past the large grass-growing lights that are parked underneath when not in use. We approached the bus entrance where I saw Jill Smith, Arsenal Supporter’s Club liaison, doing her usual magic before the game sorting out dozens of different clubs making sure everyone was in the right place at the right time. We were then rushed into a small locker room for the mascot and other Arsenal employees where my son was given a brand new Arsenal kit. He wore a long sleeve white shirt underneath though because of the cold that night as only Flamini goes out with short sleeves in the winter.
Out we went as word came that the Chelsea bus was approaching. We managed to catch Jack Wilshere standing around serving his suspension for a certain hand gesture to the crowd, but he was still willing to snap a few pics with us and the Chelsea counterpart.
How frickin cute is the @Arsenal mascot? Awwwwww ☺️
— MissGööner92 (@MissGooner92) December 23, 2013
The sight of the tiny Arsenal mascot standing alone, waiting for his team, with Chelsea all lined up in tunnel was priceless.Take ’em on kid
— Richard Ingham Evans (@Ringham7) December 23, 2013
My mother is going to cry if they leave the arsenal mascot on his own for any longer
— Amy Joanne O’Neill (@OhNeil1) December 23, 2013
Arsenal eventually came out along with the referees. Mike Dean introduced himself to my son and patted him on the head (made a note to shave his head when we got home). After a brief wait, they took to the field and commenced the grand entrance you see on TV. There were the handshakes and all that. I asked if anyone said anything like “good game” or anything like that and he said “no, they basically just grunted”. He did his kick about and posed for the center circle photo before coming off the pitch with a huge smile on his face.
We were then escorted to our seats from pitch level and my son turned to me “Dad, I want to do this every year!”
“Me too, son” I replied. “Me too”.
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Farm Direct is a new grocery selling locally grown hydroponic food in the center of Hong Kong. Given my interest in home hydroponics and my wife’s new found interest in food safety, following some rather silly stuff going on in the mainland, I went in to check out the crops. They had a few types of lettuce and bok choy on offer, both items I’m hoping to grow in my own home setup once I get off my butt and get it running. They also had a few imported things like blue berries and tomatoes, but I decided to go only with the fresh local stuff. I’m having my first salad tonight. Will see how it goes. If you want to check it out yourself, it’s at 425 Lockhart Road, at the border of Wanchai and Causeway Bay, just behind the Wanchai Fire Station. Here’s a neat video I found about their farm in Fanling. ]]>
Peak Tram station on Barker Road when I noticed something pretty odd. The cable that pulls the tram up to Victoria Peak was pulled off the tracks and laying on the road, in big segments.
Apparently this is “Spring Cleaning” week for the Peak Tram. Both carriages are in a state of repair at the stations, and the cable was hauled off and cut into smaller segments so that it could be trucked away.
The cable is actually quite a few smaller cables twisted together. I counted 6 coils wrapped around one. Each of the 6 coils had 19 strands inside. Sort of puts to ease the thought of the cable snapping one day.
Ann Gordon, via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]
So today is National Clear out your Browser Cookies and Cache day. January 14th. It’s a new holiday I just declared.
Actually it’s just a glitch.
In an effort to scam another week out of a major paywall-protected newspaper I accidentally clicked the ‘remove all’ cookie option in my browser and deleted 3,285 cookies this morning. The last time I did this, about a year ago, it was 4,250 cookies that had been saved.
So how often should you be clearing your cookies? Some people don’t accept cookies in the first place so let’s just ignore them for the time being. Some clear cookies daily, which seems a bit excessive to be honest.
Apparently there have been some studies. One conducted by Comscore showed that about 31% of people deleted cookies within 30 days. Another by the Sun-Times said 45% within 30 days.
I’ve gone about six months.
So maybe I’ll just set a daylight savings time reminder–when we spring forward or fall back, I’ll clean the cookies in my browser. And change the batteries in my smoke detector (if I had one).
Or I’ll just keep clearing them every time I want to read the Telegraph or the Washington Post.
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Michael Palin, formerly one of the Monty Python crew and now a well-known world traveller and documentarian. He was in Hong Kong to promote his friends new opening at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum and also to do a book signing.
I managed to grab a few books, both Around the World in 80 Days and his recent book Brazil which I sent away as gifts. I also grabbed the Monty Python autobiography, which I had him sign to “The Dead Parrot”. He added “just resting” at the end. I then asked if he had seen the famous Nigerian Internet Scammer version of the Parrot Shop but he said he hadn’t. I told him to look it up on Youtube so maybe he’ll get around to it.
Pretty nice evening. Sometimes we do get some celebrities over here in this land of finance and shipping containers.
[caption id="attachment_4581" align="alignright" width="550"]
Go away kid you bother me.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_4579" align="alignright" width="550"]
To the Dead Parrot, just resting.[/caption]]]>
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