With the knockout stage of Euro 2004 kicking off today, there’s one thing we’ll leave behind in the group matches… and that is an all-square final scoreline!

With a clear result necessary for one team to progress and another to pack their bags, we’ll have extra-time and penalty shoot-outs if necessary.

That’s normal, you say. What’s new?!

Well… many of you might not know that the usual golden goal rule will not be applied in this tournament. Instead, they’re going to have a Silver Goal rule.

Here’s what will happen if the two teams find themselves deadlocked with an indecisive scoreline after 90 minutes of play…

*If scores are level on 90 minutes, extra time will be played and the silver goal rule will come into force.

* If a team scores a goal in the first period of extra time, play continues until the first period is complete and if one team leads, they win the match. If it is still level at the end of the first period, the second period will be played to its end and if scores are still level, there will be a penalty shootout.

* In the penalty shoot-out, each team alternately takes five spot kicks. If, after this procedure, both sides have converted the same number of penalties, kicks continue to be taken in the same order, until one team has scored one goal more than the other from the same number of kicks.
[source: BBC SPORT]

Now you know! …So pick your favourite teams and enzoi!!! :-)

Here’s a chance for all the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ fans to vie for a chance to appear in the movie version of H2G2 which is currently under production.

All you need to do is to enter into a photography contest run by BBC and the winner will get to act in the H2G2 movie.

BBC says,

we want you to send us a photograph of the place on Earth you think deserves to survive the planet’s destruction:
*Maybe there’s a building that you think is awe-inspiring
* It might be a breathtaking vista from the top of a mountain or bowl of a valley
* Perhaps you have a picture of an animal in its natural habitat that blows you away
* Or it might be a warning to other planets against pollution and over-industrialisation

So get your cameras out and go trigger-happy!! And do it fast… the deadline is 25th June 2004. :-)

With ideas like chai in kulhads, indigenous mathakola and now Internet on trains, flying thick and fast around the corridors of Railway ministry, the question of railway safety, with over 300 rail accidents occurring every year, is being conveniently ignored as usual.