Football

Hello, Karstuhl here!

It is hard to have the time to write blog posts between the matches of the World Cup. I wonder what we will do in the evenings after the World Cup? I guess we will go by, we did before the World Cup, didn't we?

Champion

Hello, Orange here!

Hailey was so disappointed she did not get to go to the dog ahow today, that she asked me to write the daily blog post. I gladly agreed. We got great results. My mother Tenn won Best of Breed and won a CAC, the latter making her Swedish Show Champion. My friend Javier won the male CAC. To me, my mother's victoria was the best news today, even though my favourite football team, the Netherlands, won against Mexico and made its way to the World Cup quarter finals. I am happy today.

Go, Colombia!

we all hope colombia will win tonight. it is the country where paula was born, and we have no feelings of that kind for uruguay.

brazil won its game against chile, after penalties. they were not very convincing. if colombia wins, it will face brazil in the quarter final. it does not seem like a hopeless endeavour.

Nana

Hello, Karstuhl here!

I was asked by Mommy to write a blog entry. However, I cannot think of anything to write about.

Nananananana...

Belgium Goes On

Belgium goes on to the final sixteen of the World Cup after three victories. This is one of my favourite teams, since my Dad's dad was from Belgium and Dad used to root for Belgium. I have high hopes for the Belgian team, they have played very convincingly. We will see what happens, but I believe they will go far.

Shiba Scares off Bear

In Odate outside of Tokyo, Japan, a five year old boy was attacked by a bear the other day. The family's Shiba was with him, barked loudly and managed to scare the metre high bear away. Understandably, the Shiba was hailed as a hero. The boy suffered nothing more than a few bruises. He had a check up at a hospital, but could leave for home the same day. This must make for a terrific story that he will always be able to tell new friends. I am so happy that he had this heroic Shiba with him.

He Bit Another Player

We watched the Uruguay-Italy game tonight. I hoped Uruguay would win, and they did. The victory was soiled, however, by the player Suarez, who bit an Italian player. The referee did not see this, otherwise Suarez would obviously have received the red card. I guess he will be disqualified for the remainder of the tournament. A dog biting another competing dog at a dog show would be disqualified. You just do not do that.

Last Sixteen

Hello, Orange here!

Today, my favorite team in the World Cup played in their ordinary colour, nothing but orange. It is the Dutch team, of course. It was clear since last game, that they would go on to the last sixteen, but they played to win, nevertheless. They beat Chile, 2-0, and thus made sure they won Group B. This means they will meet the second best team from Group A in the first knock out game. I believe they will continue from there at least to the quarter finals. We will have to see what their opponents will be. Go, the orange team!

America in the World Cup

The USA is one of my favourite countries, since my Mum is from that splendid country. It is participating in the World Cup and doing pretty well. The latest game was played after midnight, Swedish time, but we tried to stay awake and did follow it. We were quite disappointed, when Portugal scored in the very end, making the result 2-2. Still, America has a good chance to go on to the last sixteen. We do hope it does.

Elves on Iceland

There are strange places in this world. On Iceland, the authorities have changed their plans on building a new road, so they will not disturb the elves said to live where the road was supposed to be built. I can understand if you change the plans in order not to disturb endangered animals, or even plants, but are there any proof elves actually exist? Certainly not, but ennough Icelanders believe in them, nevertheless. A strange place, that island.

Midsummer

it is midsummer eve, the day before midsummer day. we celebrate this day a lot in sweden. it is the shortest night of the year. this year, it actually happens on the right day. the swedish law makers have said that we should celebrate on the eve and day that is the friday and saturday colsest to the summer solstice, and this year, the summer solstice actually is om midsummer day. i like that, it is better to celebrate midsummer at the summer solstice, as is the idea from the start, than in a friday and saturday which is close by but not quite the thing.

happy midsummer, everyone,

Deer

When we started the morning walk today, a deer fled from our garden. We were interested, but the deer just wanted to get away. Pity, deer is tasty - but then, I fuess the deer wanted not to turn into dead meat.

Orange!

Hello, Orange here!

The orange football team was the first that made it through to the last sixteen. The orange team is, of course, my favourite. It is the national team of the Netherlands. You can see all of the fans wearing my colour, which is also the colour of the team.

Later tonight, Chile won against reigning world champions Spain. We were disappointed, because many of us have family in Spain. From the way the team played, however, Chile deserved the victory. With the reigning world champions out of the tournament, the rest will be interesting in a different way. We are looking forward to seeing what will happen.

No Goals

We watched the Brazil v. mexico World Cup game tonight. It ended with a draw, the first time Mexico has scored any point against Brazil in a World Cup. There where many shots close to becoming goals, but neither team succeeded in scoring a single goal. If the game as such is equal, I think it is much more fun watching a game that ends with a draw than one that ends without any goals. We hope for more goals in many other games.

Referees

Hello, Karstuhl here!

The FIFA World Cup is upon us, for better or worse, but mostly for better.

Once again, there have been decisions by the referees that have been questioned in hindsight. When you see the reruns of some incidents in the football field, you can see that the referee interpreted the situation wrongly. Like always, there are some people who call out for the right of the referees to watch the reruns and get a second opinion. They claim this would make the games more fair.

I am against the use of reruns. I think it is in the nature of the game that the referees judge the situation live and without regret. You just have to accept this as a player and as a fan. If reruns would be allowed for a second opinion of the referee in the World Cup, you would change the game. It would not be the same game as it was before. It would also not be the same game as it would have to be in lower divisions of national leagues, because you cannot have cameras and the ability to watch reruns at every football game anywhere in the world. The World Cup football games should be like every other football game in the world.

You might say that the World Cup games are worth so much more than lower division games. Still, it is the same sport and I believe the same rules and the same respect for the decisions of the referees should be applied everywhere. This is fair.

Besides, you do not have reruns and second opinions by the judges on dog shows, either, and dog shows are so much more important than football games.

Hunting Mamooths

New archaeological evidence suggest that early humans were successful in hunting the giant extinct animals called mamooths, thanks to domesticated dogs. The evidence shows that the emergence of dwelling sites with large remains of mamooths appeared quickly. This was about 45,000 to 15,000 years ago. Humans and their ancestors had hunted mamooths for much longer before, but the hunts suddenly grew much more successful. There are many aspects of hunting with digs that would explain this. With the help of dogs, the humans got more protein with less effort and could grow in numbers.

I believe in this theory. It definitely makes sense. Everybody knows dogs and humans hunt very well together. Every hunting human makes a better job with the help of good hunting dogs. Thus, we have an early example of how dogs are a great part of human culture.

So does this mean that dogs are in part to blame for the extinction of mamooths? Perhaps the dogs that once were. You cannot blame modern day dogs, nor modern day humans, for the extinction of an animal that occured thousands of years ago. We can, however, learn something from earlier mistakes and work to preserve the animals that live among us now.

Disappointment

We are very disappointed that Japan lost its first game in the football World Cup. Ivory Coast won. The difficult thing is that I do not know of any Ivory Coast dog breeds. Which dogs in Sweden can I congratulate for the victory?

Clothes Pins

Daniel brought in some clean laundry from the garden. He dropped some wooden clothes pins that I found and started to chew on. This was fun. It did not  last long, though. Paula and Daniel did not allow me to keep the pins. Well, I do have other things to chew upon, so I do not need clothes pins.

Divine Bears

Before the first World Cup game today, we watched a documentary on TV about the old Sami people and their religious beliefs. They talked a lot about bears,  who were animals held sacred by the Sami. They held everything sacred, a straw of grass had the same importance as a human. Yet, there was not a word about wolves or dogs. What did they think about wolves? Did they have dogs? I would have liked some information about this.

World Cup Trivia

The 2014 FIFA Football World Cup starts tomorrow. This is why I will now repeat a blog entry on World Cup trivia that I wrote on Tuesday, July 13 2010, after the final of the 2010 World Cup.

Flags
There is red in all of the flags of European World Cup winners, but in none of the flags of South American World Cup winners.

Gold Medals
There are now as many gold medals won by Spanish speaking countries (Uruguay '30 and '50, Argentina '78 and '86, Spain '10) as Portugese speaking countries (Brazil '58, '62, '70, '94, '02).

Spain is, so far, the only football World Cup gold medalist of the 21st century not to have won gold in the 20th century too.

Four countries have won gold in the World Cup before winning any other medals: Uruguay ('30 - first ever World Cup), Italy ('34), England ('66), and Spain ('10).

All the three countries which have won gold but no other kind of medal has fourth as next best result: Spain in '50, Uruguay in '54, '70, and '10, England in '90.

Silver Medals
The Netherlands is alone on top of the list of "number of World Cup finals of countries which has been there but never won gold": three: the Netherlands ('74, '78, '10), two: Czechoslovakia ('34, '62) and Hungary ('38, '54), one: Sweden ('58).

The Netherlands is the country which has lost the most games for World Cup medals without having won any: three finals ('74, '78, and '10) and one bronze game ('98). Germany has lost four finals ('66, '82, '86, and '02) and one bronze game ('58), but has won as well.

Four countries have won silver before winning any other medals: Argentina ('30), Czechoslovakia ('34), Hungary ('38), and the Netherlands ('74).

Sweden is the only country to have won both silver ('58) and bronze ('50 and '94) without ever winning gold.

Many Different Medalists
Out of all the nineteen World Cups played so far, there are only seven when all the medalists have taken medals before: '70, '78, '82, '86, '90, '94, and '06.

The World Cup 2010 was the seventh where medals have only been awarded European countries, the others being '34, '54, '66, '74, '82, and '06. There has been no World Cup with only South American medalists.

Out of all the nineteen medalists, there are as many as seven that has not won more than 1 bronze each.

The USA (bronze '30) is the only medalist not to come from the football associations of either Europe nor South America.

Top Scorers
The 2010 World Cup was the third where more than one player has won the list of top scorers, the others were '62 and '94.

Fans
Some people living in Africa can say that they live in the country winning the first World Cup played in Africa: inhabitants of the Spanish towns of Ceuta and Melilla and of the Canary Islands.

While Brazil is the only South American country to have won gold when the World Cup was played in Europe ('58), other South Americans can also say their home country won the World Cup when it was played in Europe: inhabitants of French Guyana, since France won in '98.

Raised Petrol Taxes Hurts Dog Breeding

The Swedish government institute that works with economical prognoses. Konjunkturinstitutet, has published prognoses on what has to be done to make Sweden fulfill its goals on lowering emissions of carbondioxide and other greenhouse gases. One of the ways to get there, is to raise the carbondioxide emission taxes substantially. This would make the price of petrol (or diesel oil) much higher.

What worries me about this, is that a much higher petrol price will have a detrimental effect on the Swedish dog breeding. Dog breeders often live in the countryside and need cars. They often have to bring their dogs long distances to go to dog shows and other dog competitions to make their dogs champions, thus proving their worth as breed dogs. Then the breeders often have to travel far to get their bitches to male dogs for mating. Many dogs are large, and so the dog breeders need large cars that consume relatively large amounts of petrol. With higher petrol prices, all of these journies would become more expensive.

Dog breeding is already an expensive hobby, most people lose money on it despite the high prices for pups, but they do it for the love of the dogs. At the same time, dogs contribute very much to society, so dog breeding is very important for society. If the carbondioxide taxes would be raised, I wish there would be an exception from the raised taxes for dog breeders.

Princess Leonore

We watched the young princess of Sweden Leonore being baptised today. It was aired live on TV. While I have not fully understand why humans baptise their children - dogs never baptise our pups - I liked the ceremony.

Daniel would probably have watched as well, but he had to be outdoors, mowing the lawn. It is important that he does this, it keeps ticka away.

I hope Princess Leonore will live a long and happy life with many dogs around (but now I repeated myself).

Origins of the Moon

Scientists have found traces of another world on the Moon. Analyzing rocks brought back from the Moon to Earth by Apollo astronauts, they have found minerals that differ from what you would expect. They see this as proof of the theory that the Moon was formed from debris from a planetary collision about 4.5 billion years ago, when Earth collided with another celestial body in the very beginning of the history of our solar system. This is interesting, isn't it? It does not really matter that it is of no consequence to our everyday life. Science does not always have to be, it still gives us this sense of wonder, when it provides us with a greater understanding of the world around us. This is good in itself.

National Holiday

Today is the seventieth anniversary of D-day, the British, American, and Canadian invasion in Normandy, to throw Nazi-Germany oit of France and the rest of Western Europe. The invasion succeeded, to the benefit of all in this part of the world.

In Sweden, it is also our national holiday, for other reasons. It was quite all right, we had a little celebration at home,

Danish Constitution Day

Hello, Orange here!

This day is the annual Danish Constitution Day. It is the national holiday in Denmark. I have no family ties to Denmark, but I like the Danish flag. It is mostly red and then white. This means that it has the same colours as a red Shiba Inu with the white ura-jiro, like me. I hope the Danes have a nice national holiday. In Sweden, we celebrate ours tomorrow.

Prison Sentences Against Wolf Tormentors

The Court of Appeals of Lower Norrland in Sweden has sentenced two men to two years each in prison for hunting down and killing a wolf bitch in a very cruel way. The judgment was on the 28th of May 2014, case number B 539-13.

One of the men used skis, the other a snowmobile. They hit the wolf with the snowmobile, then crushed the head of the wolf by smashing it. The Court of Appeals finds the evidence enough to sentence both men to prison, though one of them was freed when the case was first tried. The prosecutor appealed and now both are sentenced to prison. This is good. Wolves are protected animals. Also, regardless of protection by the law, no animal should be tortured in the way described in the judgment - or in any way, for that matter.

I am pleased that prison sentences was the outcome of the trial.

Chocolate Pudding

Humans always say chocolate is poisonous for us dogs. We did not get to taste the chocolate pudding that Paula and Daniel had for dessert tonight. They had some whipped cream too, though, which was tasty. When you do not get to taste one thing, there is often another great thing to taste. This is important to know in all aspects of life. Just consider, if the chocolate pudding is not available for you, the whipped cream probably is, and it is certainly just as tasty.

Rain

There is a heavy rainfall tonight. This is typically Swedish summer weather. I would, however, like sunny days and clear summer night skys better.

Chihuahua

Daniel's brother Elias has bought a dog, a male, long haired Chihuahua called Sheldon. This is nice, it has been a while since Elias had a dog. I believe all humans fare better when they have at least one dog.

Football National Team

The World Cup in football is coming up. Sweden is not playing, our national team was not good enough in the qualification games. Tonight, though, it played a friendly game against Belgium, which will participate in the World Cup. I was not interested in the game. How could the result be anything but another lost game, considering that Belgium is highly ranked? It could do nothing to boost the team for the World Cup either, since the team will not participate. I will follow the World Cup for the great sport event that it is, but it would be better if Sweden would be in.