Plenty of Nothing

Pliocene Japan

What boggles my mind about the world of five million years ago is that there were horses, dogs and elephants running around, but countries like Japan, Italy and Panama hadn't finished raising out of the sea. See here for a guide to how the Japanese archipelago formed.

Squirrels of the Mughal Empire

The British Library has an exhibition of Mughal art on now.

Lake Banook Thing

Gävle Goats

Each winter the citizens of Gävle illegally erect a giant straw goat in the centre of town, then illegally burn it down. The whole sordid tale.

Skellefteå AIK are playing Brynäs IF of Gävle in the SM-slutspel quarterfinals. SM-slutspel, the Swedish equivalent to the Stanley Cup playoffs, literally means Swedish Master Endgame, and lends the proceedings some of the intellectual aura of a chess championship. Brynäs are the defending Swedish champions, but they finished this regular season in eighth, earning themselves a pairing with first-place SAIK. Ottawa's Jakob Silfverberg played for Brynäs.

Each series in the SM-slutspel is best of seven, the games alternating ABAB(ABA) in contrast to the NHL's AABB(ABA). Today is the fourth game of the series, so it's in Gävle.

SAIK won the first game 5 - 0, the second game 3 - 7 in Gävle, and the third game 4 - 1. They can eliminate Brynäs today. [And they do. SAIK win 0 - 4, and sweep the series.]

The Playoff to the Kvalserien concluded March 13th. This playoff pitted the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh teams of the HockeyAllsvenskan against one another in a round robin for the final spot in the Kvalserien. Each team plays each other team twice, and the one with the most points moves on to the Kvalserien. The wrinkle is that the teams are also given points according to their position in the regular season standings. So before any games were played BIK Karlskoga had 4 points, Djurgårdens had 3, Örebro 2 and Oskarshamn 1. Örebro won.

So now the Kvalserien has begun. The six clubs Timrå, Rögle, Leksand, Södertälje, Västerås and Örebro will compete in a round robin for two spots in next season's Elitserien.

The HockeyAllsvenkan doesn't just supply rising clubs to the Elitserien, it receives them from Division 1. The Kval till HockeyAlsvenskan has begun, featuring six clubs, among them former Swedish champion Björklöven.

Spring Snow

The River Leven

The Leven.

Morton travel to Dumbarton for a grudge match with the Sons. You'll recall that on the 2nd of January Dumbarton FC embarrassed league leaders Greenock Morton by winning 0 - 3 at Cappielow.

Dumbarton's wee stadium sits at the foot of Dumbarton Rock, and also at the mouth of the River Leven, a small river connecting the Clyde to Loch Lomond six miles inland. In the 19th century clubs from this little valley in West Dunbartonshire won a total of six Scottish Cups: Vale of Leven in 1876-77, 1877-78 and 1878-79; Dumbarton in 1882-83; and Renton in 1884-85 and 1887-88.

This weekend is the beginning of the final quarter of the 2012-13 season. In the third quarter Morton won six, tied two and lost two, scored 16 and allowed ten.

Today's Raith versus Dunfermline match could be the last ever for the Pars, who are rapidly sliding toward liquidation. If the club voluntarily enters administration it might survive the season with only a points deduction. What was the last year Scottish football did not have to deal with a club going into administration or liquidation? 2007-08, if you count Gretna's summertime demise as part of 2008-09.

For the second Tuesday in a row Partick have been unable to make up one of its games in hand. Their March 12th fixture was postponed due to a frozen pitch. Morton have not suffered a weather-related postponement this winter. At this rate Partick won't make up their postponed matches until the last weeks of the season, making the title race that much more suspenseful. And add this to that: Partick, who are so good at home, have only four home games left; Morton, who are so good on the road, have five away games left.

Greenock's Belville Street Flats were dynamited last week.

[Morton win 0 - 3. Goals by Tidser, Hardie and MacDonald. Dumbarton cannot win the division. Cowdenbeath cannot win the division. Partick also win, so no change at the top. Raith and Dunfermline finish 1 - 1.]

Tomorrow is the final of the Scottish League Cup, between Hearts and St Mirren. [Buddies win!]

Tomorrow Sapporo visit Kobe. [Kobe win 1 - 0.]

Classical Modernism

Jiro Takidaira

Oh! Just discovered Jiro Takidaira. He practiced kiri-e or cut paper picture making, an art somewhere between manga and woodcut. This changes everything. See here. And here for an article about the discovery of a batch of his sketches, which were normally cut up in the picture-making process. And here.

Unarigoe, Chapter 5, Page 1

Stora Bryggeriets öl

The advertising poster was one of the great art forms of a century ago and Stora Brewery of Stockholm was all over it. Sources: top, middle, bottom.