In the Euro 2012 group stage, we've seen an awful lot of ties (usually: 1:1) so far, which begs the question: What are the tie-breaker rules in case two or more teams in the same group are tied for points at the end of the group stage?

A quick look at the competition rules, section 8.07 shows (emphasis mine):

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied, in the order given; to determine the rankings: a) higher number of points obtained in the matches among the teams in question; b) superior goal difference in the matches among the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points); c) higher number of goals scored in the matches among the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points); d) superior goal difference in all the group matches; e) higher number of goals scored in all the group matches; f) position in the UEFA national team coefficient ranking system (see Annex I, paragraph 1.2.2); g) fair play conduct of the teams (final tournament); h) drawing of lots.

Compare this to the 2010 FIFA world-cup tie-breaker rules and you'll see that they are quite different: The FIFA puts the overall team performance in the group stage first, while the UEFA cares more about how the teams in question compare with each other. That means that two teams can be tied for points, and the one with a much higher goal difference can still draw the shorter straw if they lost the match against the other team in question.

Also, I applaud the UEFA's choice to consider fair-play conduct as part of their tie-breaking rules, though putting it behind the "team coefficient ranking system" makes it look not too sincere. After all, the current rankings don't show a single pair of teams with the same coefficient, so the fair play rule would never apply. Likewise, to cynics, the UEFA rules might convey the message: "If you're ranked high enough, you don't need to care about fair play."

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One of my wife's friends is teaching English to Ukrainian kids, and she sent me this excellent comment today:

One of my students told me today that "Mozilla" in Ukrainian does not sound like a very nice word. He said it sounds like a person who is a very bad at shooting arrows. In other words.... a stupid and inept archer. Just thought you should know.

We are lucky implementing JägerMonkey did not require extensive experience with bow and arrow I guess?

Thanks for sharing this story, Margot!

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A week ago, Tara and I took a trip to Lyon, France, and spent a few days basically eating the most delicious food in the universe all day (did I mention the Lyonnaise are the undisputed masters of cooking with shameless amounts of bacon?).

While we were there, I also took a bunch of pictures, such as this HDR image of the Basilica of Fourvière:

(larger size)

Another experiment I made is this wide-screen panorama of the city of Lyon that I later stitched together with Hugin.

(you must see this one in the original size.)

Also, this one is really funny:

If you want, check out the whole photo set. Hope you like it!

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