When we were top the league

Yes, Sheffield football is currently suffering, but I was recently reminded by a friend on Facebook that there was a time – however brief – when my beloved Sheffield United were top of the Premier League league – and Man U were bottom:

Fans of the Manchester club may want to look away rather than watch that YouTube clip as Brian Deane and the Blades tear through Gary Pallister, Steve Bruce and Peter Schmeichel et al (see line ups below) on the way to a memorable 2-1 victory which I still remember.
And while – 19 years on – the Red and White Wizzzzzzaaaaaaards find themselves in unhappier times, it’s somehow reassuring to note that some things never change with a (slightly younger) Alex Ferguson er… blaming the ref for the defeat.

Whodathunkit?

That season we beat (amongst others) Liverpool (1-0), Chelsea (4-2) and Spurs (6-0) at Fortress Bramall Lane, finishing in 14th place overall with 52 points. Brian Deane ended the season alongside Hughes, Cantona and Le Tissier with 15 goals.

Happy days.

Sheffield United 2-1 Manchester United
Bramall Lane, Sheffield
15th August 1992

Goals: Deane (5) 1-0; Deane pen (50) 2-0; Hughes (61) 2-1.

Sheffield United: Tracey; Gage, Barnes, Gannon (Hartfield, 86), Beesley, McLeary, Bradshaw, Lake, Cork, Deane, Hodges (Bryson, 68). Substitute not used: Kelly.
Manchester United: Schmeichel; Irwin, Blackmore, Bruce, Ferguson, Pallister, Kanchelskis (Dublin, 68), Ince (Phelan, 7), McClair, Hughes, Giggs.

Referee: B Hill (Kettering).

Byebye BB?

This has been doing the rounds all over the internet since it came out last week, but it needs to be here too, just in case anyone missed it:
Gizmodo’s Ten Reasons Why BlackBerry Is Screwed.

While BB came out as the coolest brand amongst the youth in South Africa in the recent Sunday Times Generation Y survey, it seems that the South African Youth is sadly not really in touch with reality (who’d have believed it?). While BB holds the lion’s share of the smartphone market in SA, it’s all beginning to unravel worldwide.

A lack of new products, a lack of innovation, a particularly pathetic tablet offering, a lack of decent apps and some strong competition from Android and Apple that RIM seem to have no answer to and it really looks like they could be headed the same way as Nokia.
As the article points out, when BB are losing their stronghold on the corporate market, something is obviously going very wrong.

As for the stat that more than 50% of all current BB users want to change to a different smartphone platform on their next upgrade, I can well believe it: exactly 100% of the current BB users in this household would rather be on anything other than her BB.

Lantern ban in the offing?

Sky News today is reporting that there are moves afoot to ban “Chinese” Lanterns in the UK because of their potential “deadly impact”. Apparently, these lanterns can drift for miles and land on farmland, where their metal frames can be devoured by livestock:

Agriculture Minister Jim Paice has urged people to think twice about letting them off at celebrations this summer.
“Anyone who’s seen sky lanterns at night knows how spectacular they are, but they probably don’t know how they can cut a cow’s insides to ribbons and be devastating to the countryside.”

Unpleasant indeed, and a compelling argument for banning them rather than:

The lanterns have also caused the death of a foal, which was put down after injuring itself on a fence after being spooked by the mysterious floating light.

Which would also necessitate the banning of planes, cars and celestial bodies such as the spooky moon and the extremely environmentally unfriendly sun.
Also, did the foal (awww. baby horse. heartstrings tugged.) tell the farmer that it was spooked by the lantern? Or was this just a handy excuse for the insurance claim over this tragic equine incident involving some poor quality fencing?
Apparently:

the lanterns are frequently mistaken for UFOs as they drift across towns and cities.

If you think about it though, if the lanterns are airborne and people don’t recognise them as being lanterns, then they are, by definition, Unidentified Flying Objects. So there’s no actually mistaking involved at all.

But I digress. Often. The fire risk from these things along is surely reason enough to ban them – as they have already done in Germany, New Zealand, China [cue irony klaxon] and Australia (mind you, they recently banned swearing there too).

And, as ever, there are calls in the comments to ban fireworks as well, because they scare cats and dogs. Well, hard luck.
While “Chinese” Sky Lanterns may be a relatively new phenomenon in the UK, fireworks have been around for hundreds of years. And therefore, instead of getting all uppity when your pet gets scared by the bangs (one whole night a year), perhaps you should have thought about that at the time of purchase rather than complaining now.
It’s like buying a cat when you live near a busy road: and then whining about banning cars in case your cat gets run over.

Killjoys.

If you should be feeling particularly creative here’s a great post on how to make your own sky lantern. Don’t let it land near any cows or float near any baby horses though, obviously.

Important Youth issues tackled

With yesterday being Youth Day here in South Africa, youths have been very much in the news. It’s only right that the Youth should have their own day when one looks at the sacrifices made in Soweto in 1976. And the Youth of today still face a huge number of challenges, so what better plan than to focus on these issues on June 16th each year? Step forward then, Simon Molefe: Gauteng Chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), who called on Provinical Premier Nomvula Mokonyane to address the most pressing of problems facing the Youth of today: unemployment, crime, lack of education and educational opportunities and HIV/Aids. Well, no, actually, first of all he had a bit of a pop at taxi drivers who play loud music in their vehicles:

The agency’s Gauteng chairperson, Simon Molefe, called on Premier Nomvula Mokonyane to deal with the issue of taxis playing loud music before next year’s Youth Day because of the negative impact some of the music played in taxis has on the youth. Speaking at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto, Molefe said, “This thing of taxis transporting students from Soweto playing “Imoto entshontshimali” (“The car that steals money”) loudly must be history. The driver of any taxi playing music while taking pupils to school must be arrested.”

OK, but then he called on Provinical Premier Nomvula Mokonyane to address the most pressing of problems facing the Youth of today: unemployment, crime, lack of education and educational opportunities and HIV/Aids. Right? Wrong. Then he got annoyed about churches only being used 14.29% of the time:

Molefe called on communities, especially the youth, to create partnerships with faith-based organisations. “For six days a week the churches are empty. Each church space must be a youth centre focusing on technology and science skills,” he said.

Where’s the Women’s Institute supposed to meet on Thursday mornings now, then? Honestly, sports stadiums are empty most of the time too: must we set up art colleges in them? The Karoo is empty – really empty – all of the time: must we explore for shale gas deposits there? And what are we going to do with all the free space between Simon Molefe’s ears?