Plenty of Nothing

Blast Furnace No. 2, Sagunto

The restoration work on this Spanish blast furnace won the 2012 Europa Nostra Grand Prix. Source. See here.

Dürer's Paper

Conservators at the British Museum revealed this watermark while cleaning Dürer's mammoth Triumphal Arch. Read about the conservation project here.

New Scottish Banknotes

Source. Nan Shepherd. Mary Somerville.

2016 Men's Hockey Playoff Champions

SC Bern came from eighth place to win the Swiss championship.

KHL: Metallurg Magnitogorsk

Finnish Liiga: Tappara

Svenska Hockeyligan: Frölunda

Czech Extraliga: Liberec

Slovak Extraliga: Nitra

Swiss NLA: SC Bern

Deutsche Eishockey Liga: Red Bull München

Asian League: Anyang Halla

Austrian EBEL: Red Bull Salzburg

Belarus: Yunost Minsk

Britain: Nottingham Panthers

BeNe League: HYC Herentals

Denmark: Esbjerg Energy

France: Dragons de Rouen

Italy: Rittner Baum

Norway: Stavanger Oilers

Poland: Cracovia

Hungarian MOL: DVTK Miskolc

Latvia: Liepaja

Ukraine: Donbass

Iceland: SA Vikingar

Allan Cup: Bentley Generals

Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey: Rivière-du-Loup

Sackville, NB: Downtown Digital Dynasty

Béatrice La Palme

Canadian soprano Béatrice La Palme (1878-1921) wowed them in London and Paris in the first decade of the 20th century. Source.

No Flyers Please

Easter Rising Chocolate

Source.

You Won't Believe What Happened Next

Newly-implemented Scottish anti-drought initiative employs huge industrial fans to blow waterfalls back uphill.

Hibs visit Cappielow. Try this on: Morton are to Hibs as Hibs are to Rangers. The three teams represent three strata in the Championship. Rangers have won the title. Hibs are somewhere in the playoffs. Morton are somewhere outside the playoffs. On Wednesday hosted Rangers and won, evening the season series. Today Morton host Hibs, and can even the season series with a win.

Another theory: Hibs are the Caledonian antisyzygy. They have made it to the Scottish Cup final, while inspiring the expression 'hibsing it'. They have beaten Rangers twice, but lost to Dumbarton twice. Which Hibs will show up today? Jekyll? Hyde?

Morton's final two matches are against Hibs and Falkirk. Those two are effectively already in a playoff battle, with Morton as the surrogate. So, realistically, any points Morton earn beyond 42 this season are bonus.

[Morton 0 - 0 Hibs. Dumbarton book their place in next year's Championship.]

The pyramid. It's the first leg of Round One of the League Two Play-offs between the Highland and Lowland league champions:

Cove Rangers [0 - 3] Edinburgh City (first leg)

This is a sweet fixture. Both of these clubs applied for league membership in 2008, so it's safe to assume that they both genuinely want in, unlike Br*cough*a R*cough*rs, who threw last year's playoff so as to stay out. Either would be a nice addition to the league. Cove Rangers would become Aberdeen's second league club, and are building a new stadium with that end in mind. Edinburgh City could become Edinburgh's Partick Thistle, though if they do win promotion the joke will be to see if they can make it to the Premiership before Hibs. This all assumes that they can get past East Stirlingshire, who have the opportunity to convert the role of multiple wooden spoon holder into League Two gatekeeper.

It's also the first round of the Lowland League Cup. This year's league cup has been held back until April, and so resembles a North American championship trophy, except that every team gets to play, and there are still some postponed league fixtures to clean up.

East Fife won League Two last weekend. Forfar could be demoted to League Two today. [And they are.] 52 years and one day ago the score was Forfar 5, East Fife 4.

6 - 3 seems like an unusual football result. It implies that one side enjoyed goalscoring superiority but both sides suffered catastrophic defensive collapse. It's a much rarer score than, say, 6 - 0. How many times have Morton participated in a 6 - 3 game? Ten. 20/10/1894 Hibs won. 27/12/1919 Morton beat Hearts. 02/04/1932 Celtic won. 14/02/1940 Falkirk won. 08/04/1944 Hibs won again. 17/09/1952 Hibs won again. 27/04/1957 Morton beat Brechin. 02/04/1969 Aberdeen won. New Year's Day 1977 St Mirren won. And most recently, 05/08/2008 Morton beat Stranraer. Three wins, seven loses. Eight out of ten matches were away; 1957 and 1977 were at home. (Statistics are combed from FitbaStats.)

What were the greatest cup upsets of 2015-16?

Aug 25, League Cup R2: Raith Rovers 2 - 1 Hamilton

Aug 25, League Cup R2: Dunfermline 3 - 1 Dundee

Sept 22, League Cup R3: Morton 3 - 2 Motherwell

Sept 22, League Cup R3: Hibs 2 - 0 Aberdeen

Jan 9, Scottish Cup R4: Annan 4 - 1 Hamilton

Jan 31, League Cup SF: Ross County 2 - 1 Celtic

April 17, Scottish Cup SF: Rangers 2 (5) - 2 (4) Celtic

The Premier League split season was introduced in 2000-01. Since then, which clubs have made the split, and how often?

Celtic 16 times; Rangers 12; Hearts 12; Dundee United 9; Aberdeen 9; Motherwell 9; Hibs 7; Kilmarnock 5; St Johnstone 5; Dundee 3; Dunfermline 3; Inverness 3; Ross County 2; Livingston 1.

AFC Champions League group stage this midweek:

FC Tokyo 0 - 3 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors

Shandong Luneng Taishan 1 - 0 Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Gamba Osaka 1 - 2 Suwon Samsung Bluewings

Sydney FC 0 - 0 Urawa Red Diamonds

After five games, Urawa are into the next round, Sanfrecce and Gamba are out of the next round, and FC Tokyo don't know.

CAF Champions League, Second Round, second leg, this midweek:

MO Béjaïa 1 - 1 Zamalek

Enyimba 0 - 3 Étoile du Sahel

Zamalek and Enyimba advance to the group stage.

Other scores:

Nabisco League Cup Wednesday: Vegalta Sendai 0 - 0 Avispa Fukuoka

On Thursday it was B36 3 - 1 NSÍ Runavík. B36 are third in the league.

Yesterday: UCD 1 - 2 Limerick. Limerick have 8 wins in 8 games.

Today it's Montreal Impact [0 - 2] Toronto FC in MLS action.

Pollok [0 - 0] Hurlford United. Pollok win on penalty kicks and advance to the Scottish Junior Cup final.]

Clydebank 1 - 1 Largs Thistle

Mohun Bagan 5 - 0 Bengaluru

Tomorrow: FC Edmonton [2 - 0] Ottawa Fury in the NASL.

Tomorrow: Grulla Morioka host Tōhoku rivals Blaublitz Akita. [1 - 1]

Tomorrow it's the first round of the Faroe Islands Cup: AB [1 - 2] B36.

Tomorrow: Karşıyaka [1 - 0] Balıkesirspor. [17th place! Yes!]

There Is a Shadow

    "There is a shadow, but it is the shadow of the fear of Death, and the shadow of greed. But there is also a shadow of darker evil. We no longer see our king. His displeasure falleth on men, and they go out; they are in the evening, and in the morning they are not. The open is insecure; walls are dangerous. Even by the heart of the house spies may sit. And there are prisons, and chambers underground. There are torments; and there are evil rites. The woods at night, that once were fair -- men would roam and sleep there for delight, when thou wert a babe -- are filled now with horror. Even our gardens are not wholly clean, after the sun has fallen. And now even by day smoke riseth from the temple: flowers and grass are withered where it falleth. The old songs are forgotten or altered; twisted into other meanings."

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lost Road and Other Writings, page 68.

    Tolkien started and abandoned the novel The Lost Road in the mid-1930s. The political situation described above takes place on the island of Numenor in the Second Age, but it's hard not to read into it an awareness on the author's part of events in Europe in the Thirties.

Enceladus Mapped onto a Grapefruit

Source.