Postcampus.com - the website I'm developing for the journalism students I've been teaching is now online.
It's still very much in test mode - I'm having enormous trouble with the table format and the CSS which is rendering some of it illegilble - but it should be ready soon.
Now for England v Switzerland...
In a spirit of bleak dejection after the national humiliation at the hands of the French today, I hereby expound my theory.
Long-sleeved shirts are cursed.
Every player who has screwed up for England in the past few years has been wearing a long-sleeved shirt. Examples (photographic evidence pending):
Euro 2004 v France: Heskey (who shouldn't be on the side in the first place) conceded a free kick outside the box, allowing Zidane to equalise. Gerrard compounds this by badly miscuing a back pass leading to a rash leap by James and subsequent penalty and defeat.
World Cup 2002 v Brazil: Seaman held responsible for two savable goals by Ronaldhino.
World Cup 1998 v Argentina: Beckham's petulant kick leads to a red card; down to 10 men, England are knocked out when Ince and Batty miss penalties.
All of the above were wearing long-sleeved shirts at the time. They need to be banned.
Amritsar, India (April 13, 1919). British troops under the command of General Reginald Dyer fire on unarmed Indians in the thickly crowded plaza at Jallianwala Bagh, leaving (by some estimates) 379 dead and 1200 wounded. A peaceful crowd had assembled in the walled plaza to protest the enactment of the Rowlett Act, which the British administration had issued to secure 'emergency' powers for itself.
My Lai, Vietnam (March 16, 1968). Angry and frustrated men of Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, Americal Division entered the village of My Lai. The agitated troops, under the command of Lt. William Calley, were poised for engagement with the Vietcong. As the "search and destroy" mission unfolded it soon degenerated into the massacre of over 300 apparently unarmed civilians including women, children, and the elderly.
Kent State University, Ohio (May 4, 1970) Over the course of four days, Kent State students protested against an American invasion of Cambodia which President Richard Nixon launched on May 1. A group of seventy National Guard troops advanced on the protesters with fixed bayonets in an attempt to disperse the crowd. When they reached the top of a hill, twenty-eight of the Guardsmen suddenly turned on the protestors and fired a 13-second fusillade of between 61 and 67 shots, killing four students and wounding nine.
Derry, Ireland (January 30, 1972) Soldiers from the British Army's 1st Parachute Regiment opened fire on civilian demonstrators in the Bogside, near the Rossville flats, killing 13 and wounding a number of others. The march, which was called to protest internment, was "illegal" according to British government authorities.
Beijing, PRC (June 4, 1989)... Soldiers gun down hundreds of democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds under the gaze of the international media.
It doesn't matter who does it, where it happens or why, it doesn't make it right.
BBC Article on Commemorations.
Could be a sign of a shift in my mentality. But I'm annoyed. Usually when I do soething illegal here in China I get away with it. This time I didn't, and I'm distressed.
Last night AC Milan were in town, playing Shanghai Shenhua at Shanghai Stadium. Since we'd been let down by a student who had said that tickets were available via the university then failed to produce them, we did the usual thing. Turn up and bargain with a tout.
Ticket touts are a feature outside any stadium, but compared to the subtle and illicit goings on at Wembley or Twickenham Shanghai touts are part of the furniture. Frequently they'll do their thing not just under the gaze of security guards but literally four feet away from them.
However, having spent 400 RMB on four tickets at cover price 380 RMB, this time we were in for a shock. The computer at the barrier didn't read them; they were fake.
The worst thing is I didn't feel ashamed at having been caught out. Of course there's no comebacks, the disorientated foreigner act working as usual. But what made me most annoyed was that the tickets were fake.
Can't you even buy illegal tickets here without being conned? I'm so used to buying illegal DVDs that work it comes as a shock if they don't. The fact is, that in some ways breaking the law is a norm...