Plenty of Nothing

Winter in Flanders (1928)

Winter in Flanders (1928) by Valerius De Saedeleer.

Creighton and Falkland

Shimbun Akihata

Shimbun Akihata is the Japanese Communist Party's daily newspaper. Even if you don't read Japanese you can tell it's a Communist Party publication because it's so text-heavy. And you can tell it's Japanese because it's so cute!

Kikou Yamata by Tsuguharu Foujita

Kikou Yamata (1897-1975) was a French-Japanese novelist and journalist, who produced the first French translation of The Tale of Genji in 1928. This portrait is by Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968), the French-Japanese painter. Source. See her bibliography here.

Drummer's Close

Drummer's Close as seen from the A8 on Google Street View. Before the construction of Greenock's municipal palace, people lived here. The brown sandstone building is the James Watt Memorial College. His statue is just around the corner on William Street. See also.

Hibs visit Cappielow. Today's match is being broadcast on BBC Alba, and starts at 5:15 pm local time.

Hibs hold first place by virtue of a better goal difference than Dundee United's. Morton are fourth thanks to a better goal difference than Raith Rovers'. Dundee United visit Raith today. A Raith win will help Hibs and a Morton win will help Dundee United.

Morton have played Hibs six times in the 21st Century. Hibs took three wins, Morton two, with one draw.

Teams that have beaten Hibs this season (all competitions): Brondby, Queen of the South, Ayr United.

Caolan McAleer has been released by Morton. He appeared as a starter three times and as a substitute nine times.

[1 - 1. Morton goal by Oliver. Raith and Dundee United also tie. Morton remain in fourth place. Match report.]

How many Scottish League games have Hibernian played against each of the 2016-17 Championship clubs, all time?

St Mirren                227

Dundee United       175

Falkirk                    166

Morton                   127

Dunfermline            104

Raith Rovers           100

Ayr United                 81

QoS                          56

Dumbarton                47

Because Hibs are almost never out of the top division this is a good indicator of how much time each of the other clubs has spent in the top division.

Current lossless streaks:

0                Ayr United, Morton, Dumbarton, Raith

1                Queen of the South, Hibs

2                St Mirren, Dunfermline

5                Falkirk

10              Dundee United

What if the SPFL went to two divisions?

This is a very interesting scenario. The league could go to two divisions of 21 clubs each. Each team would play 40 games and see each other team in its division twice, once at home and once away, plus cup games. This is essentially the system that was in place for the middle fifty years of Scottish league history, and it's in line with the league structures in England, Spain, France, Germany and Italy. All you have to do is combine the Premiership and Championship into Division A, and Leagues One and Two into Division B, and in the transition year relegate one more Championship club than you promote from League One. After that you could have three clubs go up and three down, with any number of playoffs. The drawback is that there is not much to play for in the second half of the season for most of the clubs, whereas in a four-division system a midtable club can be eligible for both promotion and relegation right up to the last two or three weeks.

Morton's 2012-13 squad, where are they now?

Fouad Bachirou                     Östersunds FK

Archie Campbell                    Kelty Hearts

Willie Dyer                              Brechin City

Aidan Fulton                          

Liam Gormley

David Graham                       Rathfriland Rangers

Jordan Halsman                    Shettleston Juniors

Martin Hardie                         retired

Lewis Hawke                          Furman Paladins

David Hutton                          Dunfermline Athletic

Peter MacDonald                   Clyde

Declan McDaid                       Cowdenbeath

Dylan McLaughlin                   Port Glasgow Juniors

Mark McLaughlin                    Beith Juniors

Ewan McLean

Colin McMenamin                   Stenhousemuir

Simon Mensing                       Carolina Railhawks

Jason Naismith                       St Mirren

David O'Brien                         Camelon Juniors

Craig Reid                              Keflavík

Kevin Rutkiewicz                    Irvine Meadow

Stephen Stirling                      Stenhousemuir

Scott Taggart                          Alloa Athletic

Tony Wallace                          East Fife

Kyle Wilkie                              East Fife

Peter Weatherson                  Shettleston Juniors

Still with the club: Derek Gaston, Thomas O'Ware, Michael Tidser.

How is Neuchâtel Xamax FCS like Greenock Morton?

Not very much. Xamax had a run of success in the Eighties and Nineties that makes Aberdeen a closer analogy. They won the Swiss title in 1987 and 1988, and have been in European competition 13 years, during which they eliminated both Dundee United and Celtic from the UEFA Cup. Their stadium, built in 2007, has 12,000 seats, all roofed. Xamax went through a financial crisis in 2012 that caused them a Rangers-like drop into the lower tiers from which they are still climbing. They wear red and black stripes. There is one strong point of comparision: Stade de la Maladière sits as close to Lake Neuchâtel as Cappielow does to the Clyde, and the view is remarkably similar. Lake Neuchâtel is 7 km across, about the distance from Cappielow to Helensburgh.

Empress's Cup quarter-finals:

Match No. 41, Nippon TV Beleza [1 - 0] JEF United Chiba Ladies

Match No. 42, Albirex Niigata Ladies [2 - 0] AC Nagano Parceiro Ladies

Match No. 43, Vegalta Sendai Ladies [2 - 0] Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara

Match No. 44, Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies [0 - 1] INAC Kobe Leonessa

FIFA Club World Cup:

Wednesday: Atlético Nacional 0 - 3 Kashima Antlers ; Club América 0 - 2 Real Madrid

Tomorrow: Real Madrid [2 - 4] Kashima Antlers

Kashima are the first Asian team to make it to the Club World Cup final. This is their fourth game in the tournament. Real Madrid enjoyed a bye into the semi-finals. [Real Madrid are champions of the world.]

Pollok [4 - 1] Largs Thistle

Strathspey Thistle [1 - 3] Clachnacuddin

Source.

84th All Japan Ice Hockey Championship

Oji Eagles versus Nippon Paper Cranes. Source.

Japan has had an annual ice hockey championship since 1930. Today the 84th edition starts in Nagano with eight teams facing off: the four Japanese teams of the Asia League; three university teams*; and the President's Cup** winner.

Quarter-finals (today):

Game No. 1, Chuo University [1 - 2] Nikkō IceBucks

Game No. 2, Nippon Paper Cranes [9 - 1] Kansai University Kaisers. [Highlights.]

Game No. 3, Kushiro Kousei Company IHC [2 - 6] Oji Eagles

Game No. 4, Tohoku Free Blades [7 - 4] Meiji University

[Congratulations to Chuo University for not losing so badly.]

Semi-finals (tomorrow):

Game No. 5, [Cranes 3 - 4 IceBucks]

Game No. 6, [Free Blades 4 - 6 Eagles]

Third-place game (Sunday):

Game No. 7, Cranes [1 - 4] Free Blades

Final (Sunday):

Game No. 8, IceBucks [2 - 3] Eagles

[Oji Eagles are Japanese champions.]

*The top team from the Kansai league, and the top two from the Kanto league. The current members of the top division of the Kanto league are Chuo U, Hosei U (The Orange Seals), Meiji U, Nihon U, Toyo U, and Waseda U.

**President's Cup competition began in 2013, and is a championship for Japanese hockey clubs that are not part of the Asia League. To date the winners have been: (2013) Team Hasegawa, (2014) Toyota Motor Hokkaido Centuries, (2015) Kushiro Kousei Company IHC, (2016) Kushiro Kousei Company IHC. Kushiro Kosie play in the J-Ice North Division.

Ikea Lamp Commercial (2002)

Watch.

Yogic

Classics Titles from Canadian University Presses in the Late 20th Century

 

Heraclitus, Fragments: A Text and Translation with a Commentary by T.M. Robinson (University of Toronto Press, 1987), 226 pp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Michael O'Flynn, Generalissimos of the Western Roman Empire (University of Alberta Press, 1983), 250 pp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gordon S. Shrimpton, Theopompus the Historian (McGill-Queen's Press, 1991), 368 pp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hermann Bengtson, History of Greece: From the Beginnings to the Byzantine Era, a translation by Edmund F. Bloedow of Griechische Geschichte (University of Ottawa Press, 1988), 835 pp.

Young Miss

This Japanese movie poster with Soviet Constructivist influences is for the lost Yasujiro Ozu comedy Ojo San (Young Miss), which opened on this day in 1930. Source.