A draw, and the most blatant dive so far

We got a goal against Italy! And almost got a second one. Their goal was a dubiously awarded penalty--Italy have got diving down to a fine art--so I think we did bloody well considering.

As for that blatant and utterly shameless Cote d'Ivoire dive that succeeded in getting Kaka sent off for a slight tap on the chest (Keita falls, clutching his face in pretend agony) I do in fact have words.

It's time soccer used something like cricket's third umpire who makes the final decision based on replays if asked by the two on-field umpires. Dives and handballs are shown pretty clearly on the big screen at major matches; how hard is it for a "second ref" to do that, or even for a the ref and linesmen to actually look at the damned thing and see what happened? I hear that rugby players are fined or penalised for behaviour captured on camera (I don't watch rugby) but I'm told it's cleaned up the game a lot. Soccer could do with this. At the very least, the decision against Kaka could be reversed, but right now the ref has the final word and it's sometimes just wrong.

Cuteness, and the past being not so foreign

Some links. I suppose I should make a hairy great Terminal link icon, but this one is of a beautiful Amur leopard which does match the first link and shows you what an adult looks like.

Adorable Amur leopard cub. She looks so astonished at the world in the second photo. :-)

And now for some from the How to be a Retronaut site which zoefruitcake told me about.

Smiling Victorians - candid shots of happy Victorians.
Colour film of 1920s London - fascinating stuff. It's amazing how much more real and immediate the past looks in colour.
Coloured stereo views of Japan from about 1895 to 1910. They're meant to be used in a viewer, but they've animated the two views to give an idea of the 3D effect.
USB Typewriters for a steampunk keyboard! And speaking of that, Steampunk stormtrooper!
Classic photos redone in Lego. My favourites are the moon walk and Maradona's 'hand of God'.

For more of the past in glorious colour, feast your eyes on these amazing photos of the Tsarist Russian empire which I posted about a few years ago; click on the links in the Exhibition Sections. One of my favourites for its stunning colour is The Emir of Bukhara in the Ethnic Diversity section.