Quarter Final Teams Settled

The 8 teams that will play in the Quarter Finals over the weekend have been settled in the 16 team stage last week. Netherlands, Argentina, Croatia, Brazil, England, France, Morocco and Portugal. 

The first match will be Croatia VS Brazil on Friday at 3pm British Time. 

The Second Match with be Netherlands VS  Argentina on Friday at 7pm British time. 

The third Match will be Morocco Vs Portugal on Saturday at 3pm British Time. 

The final match of the weekend will be England Vs France on Saturday at 7pm British time. 

By Saturday night we will know the four teams that will play in the Semi-finals on Tuesday and Wednesday. It would be very nice if it is England playing Morocco or Portugal on Wednesday night but we will see. 

One weekend, four matches. 

We are through again

Last Sunday I managed to watch half of the England match with Senegal, both teams played very well. I saw England score two goals then I had to go to work. There was a third goal during the second half. 

England is through to the quarter finals and will play France on Saturday at 7pm British time. I think I will be able to watch the whole game on that day. Hopefully. 

The last two 16 team stage matches are today. Later today we will know what 8 teams have made it to the Quarter finals. 

It is winter now and very cold and dark here in Britain. It will be interesting to see who has won. 

What November 22 means to me

At the start of November, me and my family celebrated Guy Fawkes day known as Bonfire Night. I was reading the history of the day, I didn't realise that king James was a descendant of Henry the 7th (Henry the 8th's father). He descended from Henry the 7th's 3rd Child, we was like a cousin of the Tudors. King James Stuart curated the king James Bible, the first Christian Bible that was translated from Latin to English. Guy Fawkes is the celebration of the failure to blow up King James. We light fireworks and burn wood and feast outside. It is the English equivalent to the American thanks giving, a feast in the later part of Autumn. 

The theme of the second half of November was the Qatar world cup and Twitter handover. Elon walked into the twitter headquarters with a sink and said "let that sink in", that is the kind of joke I would say. For about 10 years, Twitter has been wrestling with Freedom of Speech and Censorship, both paradigms are very important. You should have the freedom to express your views but also adhere to the laws, deformation through lying, conspiring to cause a public nuisance and do violence, there is a law for all those things. Twitter was censoring many people to keep their sponsors happy but sometimes they were restricting the freedom of speech. 

During the last third of November, the Qatar world cup started, it is very unusual to have a world cup in autumn and winter, the summer time is off limits to them because it is too hot. The players could get heat stroke or something like that. It is nice to have a world cup in winter when it is cold and dark in my part of the world. The darkness can really mess with your head sometimes. 

 

Censorship Standoff

Elon Musk's Purchase of the Twitter social media platform has been completed recently. I'm given the impression that Elon is looking to increase the freedom of speech and unblock users that were considered a mischief; they wrote politically incorrect things and spread false rumours or conspiracies. They were censored by the company. I don't think it was Twitter's fault, I think they were worried about keeping their sponsors happy, they're a business at the end of the day. 

This will be a tricky one, how do you stop people spreading harmful info yet be a totally free speech platform at the same time. Perhaps they can have fact bots that tell people their message is false but leave the original message up there, I don't know. 

I hope Apple doesn't block the twitter app. Twitter hasn't changed for me because I don't follow a lot of these profiles anyway. I just write messages and hope I'm not just writing to no one. 

Funeral Brat

Yesterday I saw a video of a young lady mocking her Dad's dead body at his funeral. I thought to myself that it is very disgusting to do that. If you hate your father that much then why did you go to his funeral? I sensed that her insults were lies. She called her father a racist, xenophobe and white supremacist because he was a Donald Trump supporter. I added a link to the video at the bottom of this blog post so you can make your own judgement. I like the end of the video when one or two people tried to clap but they stopped because it was awkward. 

Her Dad's wife was a different race to him and so was she but he stuck around, a racist wouldn't do that. He gave her life and took care of her through her whole life, should that not merit some respect?  I support Donald Trump because he is against abortions and Hillary Clinton wanted to increase the birth control abortion window to the 3rd Trimester of pregnancy, days and weeks before the baby is due to be born; imagine if some stupid brainwashed kid was reading my blog now, they would think I'm a racist. You know what is xenophobic? Going to a country that is hosting the world cup, where being openly gay and promoting gay rights is illegal and disrespecting their laws and customs, that is xenophobic. I feel like young people are all brainwashed and they don't think for themselves. They're like mindless zombies. 

I think that anyone that mocks their dead parents at their funeral should be condemned by the community they live in. It is a big disgrace. The irony is that she is a racist because I saw another video of her saying she will never make friends with white people. That is racist. If you have something against your parents and you're at their funeral, keep it to yourself. Show some respect. Concentrate on the positive things. 

Funeral Brat

We are through

It is almost winter here in Britain, it is 5°c all day most days and it is getting dark very quickly but England are through to the 16 team knockout stage of the world cup. I don't ever remember having a football world cup in winter. I like the world cup being hosted in the winter. 

It is sad that two British Nations were in the same group in the world cup, Wales played well. It would be nice if they went to the 16 team knockout stage but they lost in the group stage unfortunately. 

The two best teams in group B, USA and England will play against the two best teams in group A, Netherlands and Senegal. Netherlands will play USA and England will play Senegal. 

This Sunday from 19:00 I will find out which team will get to the Quarter finals (the best 8 teams). Before that I will see if USA wins against the Netherlands this Saturday. It will be a very interesting weekend. 

So Much for free

Sometimes I am amazed by how many things are free of cost to use for individuals, they are free to use because they have figured out a way to pay the running cost without charging users directly. 

All the social media platforms that I know about are free to use, if you have a problem with them then don't use it. Foundation education here in the UK is free, medical care here in the UK is also free; they are funded by public spending but they are free at the point of service.  The Wikipedia encyclopedia is free to use, I read many articles on there and learn many things. I have learnt about history and things like that. 

I was going through the free TV apps on my smart TV stick and was amazed by how much stuff you get for free. Pluto TV, ITV player, You Tube, they are all free to use. 

There are many software platforms that are free to use. Most of the Linux based os systems are free. All the main programming development kits are also free.