Red card for Zizou.

Big day on Norton Street.

V for Italia.

One of the great moments of Australian media legend came when the Daily Telegraph in Sydney was announcing to its readers the death of Joe Stalin in 1953. They prepared a banner reading "Stalin Dead - Official". The Tele's owner, Frank Packer (father of Kerry, grandpop of Jamie) ordered the banner be altered to read "Stalin Dead - Hooray".

New York Post front page, 6.7.06

The authorities are really getting tough in Henan Province as they try to clamp down on dangerous working conditions in local coal mines. This report today from the Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin:

Mine managers in Henan be suspended if nine people die in one accident

With Portugal's loss to the referee in yesterday's Euro 2006 semi-final, my interest in the tournament has drawn to a close.

My prediction for the big game on Sunday morning: Portugal 2 Germany 1. And on Monday, France 3 Italy 0 with riot police throwing a cordon around Michel's Patisserie in Norton Plaza for the rest of the day.

Another domain name I bought a while back and never got around to using.

I've put worldcup-champions.com up for auction on eBay. The auction closes in three days time, on Thursday about twelve hours after the Portugal-France semi-final. The domain name is currently registered until 24 February 2007.

If anyone is interested, the auction is on eBay here.

Chris Masters' long-awaited unauthorised biography of infamous Sydney squawkmeister Belford Parrott has been shelved. The book, tentatively titled "Jonestown", was intended as a follow-up to Masters' Four Corners report on Mr Parrott in 2002.

The ABC issued a press release this afternoon, possibly the first press release I can ever recall announcing the non-publication of a book. The decision, according to ABC Enterprises director Robyn Watts, was made for "purely commercial reasons".

Andrew Johns is, arguably, the greatest rugby league player of the last decade. As a kid he would, like all sportsminded schoolboys in Australia, have played a bit of cricket at school and over the summer. None of this, however, explains today's revelation that Johns has been signed up to make two appearances in the New South Wales Twenty20 side for next season.

Not much for me to say except let the great minds speak for themselves:

The Nationals support efforts to reduce Australia's greenhouse emissions but do not support international rules which disadvantage Australian industry and interests.

- from the National Party of Australia's environment and conservation policy

On the other side of the house:

I haven't been this excited about a game of soccer since... well, no, I haven't.

Australia 2 Croatia 2. What a nailbiter. We're in the final sixteen.

Italy? Doddle.