Plenty of Nothing

Urban Logging

Trouble at the Windmill

Wind turbines -- so green and futuristic. I love the sight of them twirling away on the horizon. So much cleaner than coal or oil, and safer than nuclear power, or oil.

And yet!

Windbyte has an astonishing collection of photos of wind turbine failures. These things can topple over in the wind, throw a blade, or spectacularly burst into flame like the one above in Germany in 2008. D

Away To Dundee

This sort of boat is known in France as a dundee, perhaps because it was active in the North Sea herring fishery. But the picture source maintains it's a corruption of the word dandy. Which also kind of makes sense, because the Dandy was published in Dundee.

Morton are at Dens Park today to play Dundee FC.

Morton enter this game in ninth place, with five points after six league games. Is that the worst start since they joined the First Division in 2007? No. At this point in 2010-11 they had four, and in 2008-09 and 2009-10, three. But in 2011-12 and 2012-13 the Ton had eleven points after six games. So the supporters are unhappy. Or at least they were until this happened.

Morton's win on Tuesday was the Ton's first victory at Celtic's home ground since August 25th 1971.

When in this century has Celtic lost a cup game to a team from a lower league? 1) Tuesday. 2) April 10th 2010 when they were knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Ross County. 3) January 7th 2006 when they were knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Clyde. 4) March 23rd 2003 when they were knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Inverness CT. 5) February 8th 2000 when they were knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Inverness CT. It happens about once every three years.

Dundee's Willie Dyer and Peter MacDonald played for Morton last year, and Carlo Monti a couple of years before that. [Dundee win 3 - 1. Two goals by MacDonald. This has become a pattern: Morton can't beat ex-Morton. Peciar gets the one goal for the visitors. Morton have gone from first to worst in six weeks.]

It's the First Round of the Scottish Junior Cup. 64 clubs are in action, including Largs Thistle, who are away to Blackburn United; Greenock Juniors who are at Irvine Victoria; and Port Glasgow who visit Neilston Juniors. [Largs Thistle and Greenock Juniors advance. Port Glasgow are out.]

It Happened In History: West Germany and Yugoslavia met 20 times on the football field between 1952 and 1990. West Germany won 12 times, Yugoslavia won 5 times, and there were 3 draws. Source. With the end of the Cold War West Germany became part of Germany, and Yugoslavia became many parts.

Yesterday Boulogne, home of the North Sea herring fleet, hosted Strasbourg. The city of Strasbourg looks across the Rhine to the former West Germany. [Boulogne won 1 - 0.]

The Icelandic league wraps up today. ÍBV are at home to Þór. [Þór win. ÍBV finish the season in sixth place, and do not qualify for the Europa League next year. KR win the league title. Fram won the Icelandic Cup August 17th. This concludes our broadcasts from Vestmannaeyjar.]

Tomorrow Consadole Sapporo visit Roasso Kumamoto in Kyushu. [Kumamoto win 2 - 1.]

Northern Parula

About the Bulgarian Hockey League

Bulgaria is not a hockey power. The Bulgarian national squad currently ranks 37th in the IIHF World Ranking, out of 48 countries, and plays internationally in Division III. But, they're playing hockey, and have been since at least 1952 when their first national championship was held. How is their domestic league organized?

Frugally. The Bulgarian Hockey League (properly Държавното първенство по хокей на лед or Dŭrzhavno pŭrvenstvo po khokeĭ na led or State Championship of Ice Hockey) consists of four clubs, all of them located in the capital Sofia, and three of them in the same rink, the Sofia Winter Sports Palace, capacity 2,500.

Two things stand out about this league. One, it's a Soviet creation and does a fine job of maintaining the look and feel of the Soviet era. Two, it has adopted the organizational logic of a senior city hockey league. In the 1920s Ottawa and Montreal had high-quality city leagues that acted as feeder systems for their professional franchises and were not heavy on travel or building maintenance costs. In the case of Sofia the club at the top of the food chain is the Bulgarian national team.

The schedule is brief. In recent years the number of league games per team has ranged from 8 to 12. There is a Bulgaria Cup competition that runs concurrent with the league.

The clubs are:

HK CSKA Sofia. Founded in 1964. 14 times Bulgarian league champions. 13 times Bulgarian Cup winners. Colours: red and white.

HK Levski Sofia. 13 times Bulgarian champs. 17 times Bulgarian Cup winners. Winter Sports Palace. Blue and gold.

HK NSA Sofia. The National Sports Academy team. Founded in 2009. They play at the Winter Sports Palace. White, blue, black and gold.

HK Slavia Sofia. 21 times Bulgarian league champions.12 times Bulgarian Cup winners. They play in their own rink, Slavia Ice Stadium. Black and white.

Joachim Stroink

It is a Dutch name.

2013-14 Scottish League Cup, Round Three

They're in his heart. Source.

Greenock Morton visit Parkhead today for what is probably the highlight match of their season, Round Three of the League Cup against Celtic FC.

Morton and Celtic last met on January 19th, 2010, in the Fourth Round of the Scottish Cup, when Celtic won 0 - 1 at Cappielow. Celtic knocked Morton out of the Scottish Cup in 1999, 1998 and 1992 as well, and out of the League Cup in 1991. The last time the two clubs met in league play was 1987-88: Celtic won all four matches. The last time Morton beat Celtic was November 3rd, 1984, 29 years ago.

And what's more: Celtic are the current Scottish champions and Scottish Cup holders; they have won the Scottish League Cup 14 times to Morton's zero; they have reached the UEFA Champions League group stage the past two years; their park holds 60,000; and Rod Stewart mentions them in one of his greatest hits.

Can Morton win today? Celtic played Hearts on the 14th, AC Milan on the 18th (in Milan) and St Johnstone on the 21st. So they might be frazzled. There is also the possibility that manager Lennon will rest too many of his top players. These are two straws to clutch.

Of the 16 clubs in the Third Round, nine are from the Premiership, six the Championship, and one (Stranraer) League One. Likeliest upset: Hamilton over St Johnstone, or maybe Queen of the South over Hearts.

[The unlikeliest upset happens: Morton win 0 - 1. Dougie Imrie is the heroic scorer.] [Hibs, Inverness CT, Morton, St Johnstone, Aberdeen, Motherwell, Hearts and Dundee United advance.]

Three Ages

Buster Keaton's Three Ages opened 90 years ago tomorrow. In the first, prehistoric, segment, he introduces many of the caveman gags that would become standard caveman tropes. There's caveman golf (above), an adroit caveman baseball gag that reputedly took hundreds of takes to get, and the ever-popular dragging a cavewoman around by her hair. Though the scene where he rides on a brontosaurus' head, later copied by The Flintstones, was itself swiped from Winsor McCay's 1914 animated short, Gertie the Dinosaur.

Princess Soto'ori and the Spider

The incident of Soto'ori-hime and the spider is frequently treated in Japanese woodblock print. Soto'ori, seeing the spider, thinks she would rather it were her lover sneeking up on her, and writes a poem. This version is from A Collection of the Portraits of Immortal Men and Women by Yashima Gatukei and Totoya Hokkei (1824). I like this composition the best because you can read the surprise in her posture, and can't be certain she isn't winding up to launch the bug out a side door. Source.

Home To Queen of the South

Art Nouveau window in the abandoned Clune Park Church, Port Glasgow. Source. The Clune Park neighbourhood, three miles east of Cappielow, is an unloved remnant of industrial Port Glasgow, and from 1881 to 1919 was home to Morton's lost local rivals, Port Glasgow Athletic.

Queen of the South visit Cappielow today. Both teams are in the bottom half of the division and really ought to be higher. I believe I said something similar last week. In fact there is not much space between second place and ninth. So that's a ray of sunshine. QoS are coming off Tuesday's Ramsdens Cup quarter-final match against Rangers, which Rangers won 0 - 3.

Derek Young and Derek Lyle [and Ryan McGuffie and Iain Russell] of QoS used to play for Morton.

[Morton lose 0 - 2. Both QoS goals are scored by ex-Morton players. Morton are in ninth place.]

Champions League: AC Milan 2 - 0 Celtic.

ÍBV have been cramming in games to get their season finished by the end of September. On Monday they hosted Stjarnan and won 1 - 0. Thursday they entertained Valur and lost 0 - 2. Tomorrow they visit Keflavík. [Keflavík win 4 - 2.]

Yesterday Boulogne visited Étoile Football Club Fréjus Saint-Raphaël on the Côte d'Azur. In Roman times Fréjus was called Forum Julii. The club goes back to 2009. I believe I said something similar last week. Hopefully it's out of my system now, but you saw how long I went on about Japanese club names. [1 - 1.]

Tomorrow Consadole Sapporo host V-Varen Nagasaki. [Sapporo win 1 - 0.]