later

So all the storm nuts on the net are excited about Alberto. The bad weather in the Caribbean is still growing. GFDL is forecasting a Cat 3 making landfall in Florida, which is just insane in June! For comparison, the first storm in 1992 was Andrew, which granted was the worst storm in US history between Katrina & Camille ( 2005 & 1969), and that was at the end of August!

Meanwhile, more real back to us here in Europe, the World Cup kicked off tonight. I'd forecast the opening game as a draw, which it would have been but for two amazing goals for Germany. And I'd forecast 1-0 for Ecuador over Poland: it ended 2-0 (but the second goal was offside :-) (Still, if flukey and wrongly reffed goals weren't counted, football would be truly dull!)
England, should they get through to the next round, will play one of these teams. On tonight's evidence, Ecuador look the strongest: well organized, Italian style of play. Only not very strong in attack. Strangely, they were also mostly African-descent players, when according to Wikipedia (and what I thought I knew of Ecuador), African/Slave descendants are only a tiny minority of the population (about 3%). I don't know why that is, but I'm curious.
Up there in the picture is Cristian Mora, the surprise goalie, who was either born on the 26th AUgust 1979 (FIFA) or on the 28th August 1982 (BBC). He'd nicely face-painted flags on his cheeks anyway...