Up early. Gym.
Dodgeball Youth Cup all day.
Heat, wind, dust, sun.
Some amazing games. Many happy faces.
2,500+ photos. Editing will follow. Terrifying.
United. Harsh red card. Missed penalty. Decent draw.
Couple of Milk Stouts.
Bed. Well deserved.
Category: sport
Rugby is back
Rugby League is back. Not here in SA, where quite literally no-one thinks that it’s real, but in the UK and in Australia. I’d love to watch some from the UK, but we don’t get that here. But two or three NRL games a week is a very welcome addition to my sport-watching programme [Mrs 6000 groans].
And because of the time difference, it doesn’t get in the way of the footy!
The Harvey Norman replay returns!
See?
We’re 30 minutes into a game that I’m really not that bothered about, between two teams that I don’t even like, and I’m already questioning the ref’s poor decisions and I’m already fed up with James Tedesco’s whining. To be fair, he’s mainly whining about the ref’s poor decisions, but still…
And it’s only on in the background while I’m doing other stuff.
[goes and does other stuff in the kitchen at half time]
Still, it’s a nice escape from the other stuff that’s happening around the world.
Although if the ref keeps going with calls like he’s just started the second half on, there will be violence.
And quite reasonably, too.
A little premature?
That thing I did on the drama of the Doomsday clock.
Awful. But then, this also suggests that we could keep going at the frankly horrendous rates of killing each other and destroying the environment that we’ve been working so hard upon for the last 12 months for at least another 88 years, and we’ll still be ok. Just.
See, they’ve gone in all too dramatic, and now they have no wiggle room at all.
And the follow up post, a year later.
Once again, I am calling for a reset of the Doomsday Clock. Think of it like decimalisation hitting the UK in 1971, or the introduction of the Euro in 1999 (and 2002). Because at the moment, the Doomsday Clock is pointless. The constant attempts to drag the time down as low as possible for dramatic purposes means that it not longer has any value.
I stand by both of those posts, but I’m also very willing to admit that they might have a bit of a point if they were to chop and extra minute or so off any interim update in the very near future.
The US has launched “major combat operations” in Iran, designed to eliminate “imminent threats” from the country’s regime, Donald Trump announced on Saturday.
The operation is “massive and ongoing”, the US president said in a video on social media, pledging to use “overwhelming strength and devastating force” to destroy Iranian missiles and ensure it cannot develop a nuclear weapon.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks aimed to “remove the existential threat” posed by the Iranian regime, as he urged the people of Iran to topple the government.
A short time beforehand, Israel said it had launched “preventative” strikes on Iran.
‘No red lines’ in Iran’s response to attacks, says official
A senior Iranian official said there would be “no red lines” to the regime’s response to the Israeli and US strikes on Iran.
“We are telling Israel clearly to prepare for what is coming,” the official told Al Jazeera.
“Our response will be public, and there are no red lines… All American and Israeli assets and interests in the Middle East have become legitimate targets.”
And yes, we’re only a couple of hours in and already Iran, Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE have been attacked by one side or the other.
Russia has condemned the US/Israeli attack, but wants to keep Trump onside. The UK is trying not to get involved. South Africa hasn’t woken up properly yet after a bit of a bender last night.
China is just sitting there laughing…
…at least, for the time being.
Me? Big concerns over the 15:25 at Kenilworth this afternoon, and also whether United can bounce back away at QPR after a somewhat disappointing result midweek.
Oh – and also the potential end of the world thing as well.
Yeah. Also that.
Bye!
Any football news from Up North today?
Only this:
Not the 20-0 rout that some foolish people were predicting. It was never going to be like that.
But the history books will record that Wednesday were relegated at Bramall Lane, and that’s what really matters. The three points are also very welcome, but Derby days are all about beating your rivals, and to send them on their way to League One…
…well, that was just the icing on the cake.
Incidentally… recent local derbies have been won by Us (obviously), Liverpool, ManU, Arsenal and Sunderland.
Red is clearly the colour of local dominance.
Upload
Great news: TLC have decided to upload the new series of Mock The Week onto YouTube.
You can find it here.
Not so great news: You need to be in the UK to watch it.
Of course, there are many ways of being in the UK when you’re not actually in the UK, and so that’s not too much of a problem.
And I’ll also be using some of those techniques to enjoy the Winter Olympics over the next couple of weeks, given that our national broadcaster can’t afford it and the local Sports TV service has decided not to buy any rights either.
But that’s reasonable, because it’s only the cold places and the big countries that pay for that sort of thing, right?
Well, if I lived in Curacao or Afghanistan, I could watch.
Micronesia, Ghana and Guinea-Bissau are all broadcasting them, as are Yemen and South Sudan.
Cold. Big. Nope.
In fact, it seems like SA is just about the only place on the planet that is not showing any Olympics.
And so local residents will have to rely on the Olympics YouTube channel (not great) or digitally fly to some other place (like Yemen) to watch.
Which is absolutely ridiculous in 2026.