A few hundred yards away around 40,000 people are singing - well, yelling - “Stand up if you hate Tottenham”. The noise of the home support at the Emirates Stadium is loud enough from where I’m sitting - it must be cacophonous for the players on the pitch. I can’t imagine what the noise must have been like when Arsenal’s support didn’t consist mostly of metrosexual graphic designers.

Anyway, my question is, does the psychological impact of such unrelenting hostility from such a large crowd of people help account for the puzzling phenomenon of home advantage in football? For an imperfect (given the season’s only part over) illustration of this, have a gander at this chart I made out of the current Premiership table.

Clearly playing at home makes a huge difference to most teams. Liverpool’s home form is the best in the league, but away they’re worse than Bolton. Tottenham have the fifth best home form and the fourth worst away form. Really bad away form will probably get you relegated: the bottom three get more than three points at home for every one away. And consistency home or away will push you towards the top, (unless you’re Wigan, equally shit at home or away): Man Yoo and Chelsea are both nearly as good away as they are at home.

So what’s going on? (By the way, Arsenal have just scored - at this stage I’m able to tell by the volume of the roar). It’s possible that home advantage as such doesn’t really exist, but the belief that it does makes away teams play defensively and thus lose more often (or win less often). But assuming that the effect is somehow more ‘real’ than that, is it down to player psychology, crowd effects, physical fatigue from travel, referee bias, or what? A quick literature review (thank you, Google Scholar) throws up the following findings:

• Home Ground Advantage of Individual Clubs in English Soccer. Stephen R. Clarke, John M. Norman (1995) “… A paired home advantage is defined and shown to be linearly related to the distance between club grounds”.
• Home Advantage in Sport: An Overview of Studies on the Advantage of Playing at Home. Nevill A.M.; Holder R.L. (1999) “A number of studies provide strong evidence that home advantage increases with crowd size, until the crowd reaches a certain size or consistency (a more balanced number of home and away supporters), after which a peak in home advantage is observed. Two possible mechanisms were proposed to explain these observations: either (i) the crowd is able to raise the performance of the home competitors relative to the away competitors; or (ii) the crowd is able to influence the officials to subconsciously favour the home team. The literature supports the latter to be the most important and dominant explanation.”
• And my personal favourite: Testosterone, territoriality, and the ‘home advantage’. Neave N, Wolfson S. (2003) “In an initial study, we showed that salivary testosterone levels in soccer players were significantly higher before a home game than an away game.In a second study involving a different group of soccer players, this finding was replicated over two home games, two away games, and three training sessions. Perceived rivalry of the opposing team was important as testosterone levels were higher before playing an ‘extreme’ rival than a ‘moderate’ rival. Self-reported measures of mood in both studies were not linked to testosterone level. The present results corroborate and extend earlier findings on the relationships between testosterone, territoriality, and dominance in human competitive encounters and further suggest an important role for testosterone in the home advantage seen in various team sports”.

I took a couple of visiting business types out to a fancy slap-up dinner, and as we waited for the car to pick us up, another car pulled in. It contained about twelve young men, maybe around seventeen years old, all waif thin, and wearing studiously ditressed jeans; designer knock-off caps; and polo shirts.

They piled out of the car, and with the stereo thumping out a middle-eastern tune with a steady rhythm, clambered all over it. It was pretty much like a safari park, with little monkeys leaping on your car and fiddling with your windscreen wipers. Once on the roof, the bonnet, the boot, they started to dance, body steady except for hips thrusting back and forth.

By the end of the five minute show, they had formed groups of two or three and were dry-humping one another to the same rhythm. The first would stand legs akimbo, hands on the car as though being searched, and the next one or two would lay hands on the first’s shoulders, around the waist, or would simply wave them in the air in mock ecstacy. With that, the car jerked forward, an impatient driver at the wheel, and the group piled back into the car and sped off.

I have never seen such a mass display of simulated homosexual behaviour. Given that it was in a conservative Muslim country, it was all the more baffling.

Great discussion of Irish Public Service TV ads over at Crooked Timber. The one that really sticks in my mind is described by commenter shane h:

A seemingly harmless family dog turns into a bloodthirsty killer after dark. Joins a roving gang of similarly un-tethered dogs for a sheep-killing rampage. I can still picture the field full of sheep lying with their throats torn out. I think it left quite an impression on anyone who was young at the time!

You can say that again. It was fucking terrifying, and I don’t think I’ve ever trusted a dog since.

Thanks to Sketchup, I’ve knocked together a 3D model of the studios I’m working on. It’s a great little programme; it let me put these together in record time, and really accurately (I cheated, I took someone’s CAD file as a base, which is another nifty feature).
Also, I thought I’d show off the massive studios I’m working on…yeah.

The Irish National Lottery last year awarded advertising contracts worth some €20 million to two agencies, DDFH&B and Carat Ireland, to develop “advertising, media and promotional materials” for the lottery.

The result is a campaign on web and TV featuring three semi-adorable fuzzy bears created by Brown Bag Films. Bears which, er, bear more than a passing resemblance to those previously created by Matt Clark and Matt Everitt (two friends of my housemate Ian) which were used in animations for Ricky Gervais’s site.

For the sake of comparison, in the stills below, the bears created by the two Matts are top and the ones from the Lotto ads bottom.

Oh and here’s a page from the wonderfully named youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com with videos just in case there was any doubt left that the Lotto ads were fairly directly inspired by the Matts’ work.

Some of the people on creativeireland.com noticed the resemblance too, and the ensuing discussion brought up the following:

I know two other post houses that pitched on it, the bears were a definite reference as part of the brief but no one wanted to directly rip them off. Any time different character designs were presented though, they kept being brought back to the bear designs by the agency

This really does look like the most blatant ripping off of someone else’s work. The two Matts seem to be taking it rather better than I would, but I hope they end up getting more out of it than sympathy.

397 front pages from 37 countries, to be exact. I recommend the map view, which led me the other day to the wonderful headline “Monster-Storm Wütet Über Deutschland”. Everything’s funny in German.

Here’s further evidence that Captain Planet played a pivotal role in the Norn Iron peace process:

Captain Planet saves Belfast

It’s interesting to note the quasi-German accents of the Protestant guys, while the Catholic guy has a Caribbean lilt. That’s multi-culturalism for you.
Captain Planet reminded me of Captain Euro:

The web site is http://www.captaineuro.com/. Fascinating stuff. Especially his arch nemesis, Dr. D. Vider - who I presume is a member of UKIP.

I wonder what Captain Euro would make of Captain Britain:

Or Super President - the President of the USA, as a superhero

Or Israel’s Uri Oan

we could go on and on and on!

I’m about to apply to my driving test, as I’ve been driving around illegally for too long now. The 46 week wait between applying and actually sitting the test should give me adequate time to learn how to drive properly.

Meanwhile, before turning up at the test centre according to http://www.drivingtest.ie/drivingtest/HTMLContent/frameset.html, I will have to ensure a number of things about my vehicle, including:

“6.    The vehicle must be in a roadworthy condition…
…2)     Loads should be properly secured; loose objects inside the vehicle such as screwdrivers, knives, gas bottles etc. must be secured prior to commencing the drive. You may not carry passengers or pets while undergoing the test,
3)     The windscreen should be clean and free from visual obstructions, including excessive cracks,
…5)     The passenger door on the tester’s side should be working properly and, in particular, should be possible to open from the inside as well as the outside,…
…10)    There should be no leakage, into the vehicle, of exhaust fumes”.

Presumably in case you try to stab, blow up, blind, trap or poison your driving tester.

New Knock airport board member Ulick McEvaddy wants the US military to use Knock Airport.

Given that the airport was built by a priest, Monsignor James Horan (without planning permission, but when did earthly laws ever apply to them?) to bring pilgrims to the shrine in the village of Knock where the virgin Mary is supposed to have appeared, I can’t think of any reason not to let US soldiers on their way to wage what is perceived as another crusade in the Middle East and Afghanistan through the airport.

None whatsoever.

Incidentally, Mr McEvaddy has already made millions refuelling the military planes which stop off at Shannon, and also famously provided a holiday home for Tánaiste Mary Harney and finance Minister Charlie McCreevy which got them into trouble because Mr McEvaddy and his brother had been lobbying the government to build a second Dublin Airport terminal.

(Sorry about the links, my Mac hates this site)

Boffins in the imaging industry have come up with a remarkable method for modelling human faces in 3D. It’s a pretty ingenious approach.

In a way, this kind of stupidity is almost endearing. Here’s George W. Bush being interviewed on ‘60 Minutes’:

PELLEY: Do you think you owe the Iraqi people an apology for not doing a better job?

BUSH: That we didn’t do a better job or they didn’t do a better job?

Romario says he has scored 987 career goals - apparently I’m not the only one who doesn’t believe him, but his club are going to humour the old coot and try and give him enough friendlies to get him into quadruple figures. All of which is preamble to the real business of this post: a YouTube compilation of favourite Romario moments! Actually this one is mean to be just his one-on-ones with the keeper, but I remember him scoring many if not most of his goals this way and I think they illustrate his key qualities - speed, absurdly good control and a somewhat obnoxious yen for making the opposition look silly. So there’s no end of outrageous dummies, chips, walk-it-into-the-nets and my personal Romario fave, the 20-yard toe-poke when the keeper’s least expecting it.

Genius.

A number of street artists around the world have taken to expressing themselves through an innovative practice known as Reverse Graffiti. Taking a cue from the “Wash Me” messages scrawled on the back of delivery trucks, they seek out soot covered surfaces and inscribe them with images, tags, and even advertising slogans using scrub brushes, scrapers and pressure hoses.

Brazilian Alexandre Orion, turned one of Sao Paolo’s transport tunnels into a stunning mural last summer. The mural, comprised of a series of skulls, very succinctly reminds drivers of the impact their emissions are having on the planet.

The authorities were miffed but could find nothing to charge him with. They had no other recourse but to clean the tunnel - but only the parts Alexandre had already cleaned. The artist merely continued his campaign on the other side of traffic. The utterly flummoxed city officials then decided to take drastic action. Not only did they clean the entire tunnel but also every other tunnel in Sao Paulo.

From Streetsblog.

I thought this was pretty interesting. Dick Gleeson, who is the Dublin City Planner but no relation of mine that I know of, talks about all the whizzy things he’d like to do to the city. A lot of it’s around the west end of the city, and he wants to make Phoenix Park more connected and accessible to the rest of the city, which seems reasonable. I also like the way he’s happy to say that Ballsbridge is actually a bit rubbish. I can’t quite picture what he means by this though:

Gleeson said the city would open up to the west with a new public park, linking IMMA in Kilmainham, south of the river, to the National Museum at Collins Barracks, north of the river, via Heuston Station.

There’s something really arresting about this photo by Reuters photographer Andrea Comas, on a story in the New York Times about the fallout from ETA’s recent bombing in Madrid. I don’t know what it is - maybe the stillness, the range of faces and expressions, the way they’re all looking different ways, the uncertainty and trepidation of the moment captured so clearly. It’s beautiful.

How cool - a short story by F Scott Fitzgerald exploiting the name Orson Welles had made for himself before he made any actual films. That’s from the excellent wellesnet.com.

Incidentally I watched Chimes at Midnight over the Christmas break and it’s brilliant. I’m starting to wonder how anyone can honestly claim that Welles’s career after Citizen Kane was a disappointment. Okay, so if he had been more conscientious and conventional he would have made more films, but if he had been more conscientious and conventional he wouldn’t have made Chimes at Midnight, or Touch of Evil, or F For Fake. If we ever get one more fat wastrel like him we’ll be very lucky.

Conor’s post about Apocalypto led me to stumble on this fasinating article from 3quarksdaily which talks about evidence from the field of ‘acoustical archaeology’ that the Mayans were able to design structures to create particular sound effects. An example is the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza, which apparently produces a bizarre ‘flutter echo’ when a ball is whammed off a wall. There’s even a short recording you can listen to here - I love the awed reaction you can hear just at the end. Acousticoarchaeologist David Lubman suggests that the Mayans deliberately engineered this effect to make the ball games, which were already pretty intense affairs what with the speed and the violence and the blood, even more exciting. He thinks the reverberating echo’s resemblance to the sound of a rattlesnake might be significant, though to me the sheer percussive strangeness of it would be impressive enough on its own. Oh and the Great Ball Court also works as a ‘whispering gallery’ so you can hear a whispered conversation at one end all the way down the other, but nobody can quite work out how the Mayans managed to do this yet.

A “ripping boys’ own yarn” according to the silent, faceless, text reviewer on Film4. As it seems to borrow most of its plots from ’50s comic books and several action-movie standards, I suppose that makes sense. While I laud Herr Gibson and his crew for making a film like this, set in the ancient Mayan world, and recreating it as faithfully as one probably can on video. Unfortunately, the film is crippled by being irretrievably predictable, taking a few too many cliches from those comic books, and by lengthy scenes of turgid monotony.

One moment in particular highlights the dull thinking of the piece. The, now captive, hero is about to have his still-beating heart cut from his chest as part of the Mayan sacrifices to their vengeful sun-god. Daubed in blue paint by the locals, he is brought to the top of a pyramid and stretched across an altar. Handily, there is a total eclipse of the sun. Naturally the locals are confounded, and release him from his bonds, saying that the sun-god has been sated by today’s feast of corpses. Of course, all this was predicted by an eerie little girl, who told the kidnappers to beware the one who runs with the Jaguar, and blackens the sun.

The only thing missing from the sacrifice scene was a bespeckled old man in khaki, puffing at a pipe, who whispers into the ear of the hero “If my calculations are correct…” before the sun is blocked. The rest of the team of archaeologists would then use their knowledge of ancient Mayan civilisation, and “bang-sticks” or “sky-machines” to convince the natives that they are gods. Once on their thrones, the most dashing of the group will fall for a Mayan servant girl, whom he shall rescue before completely destroying their civilsation and travelling to the future in the professors odd contraption.

“George Bush can hang one Saddam Hussein but we will create an army of Saddam Husseins. Let him come to our village and see how Saddam Hussein can never be executed”