Wow. So Italy and Germany play to a scoreless draw for about 94 minutes of regulation time.

They go through another 15 minutes of OT (plus stoppage), and then, about two minutes before penalty kicks would be called upon, Italy breaks the deadlock with a terrific shot by Fabio "Louganis" Grosso, drilling it with his left foot just inside Germany's far post.

But Italy wasn't done yet.

With time running out, Italy broke in on Germany. The ball was passed to Alessandro del Piero on the left, who was all alone. German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann came out to challenge him but del Piero shot quickly with his right foot, catching Lehmann on his heels.

The ball rode a wire into the upper right corner.

And Germany's dreams of a World Cup championship on home soil in 2006 are now irretrievably dashed.

If you take partisanship out of the equation, however, and you simply enjoy watching soccer at its highest level, I don't know how anyone could complain about today's game.

Passionate, graceful, creative, hard-fought -- it was pretty much a perfect soccer game. Beautiful, even.

Here's hoping France and Portugal have a similar game on Wednesday.

I liked this passage from a Greil Marcus speech reprinted in Salon:

There's a way in which you can see every American story as a version of the Declaration of Independence: every story an attempt to make it true, or prove it a lie. In 1941, Henry Luce called the 20th century "the American century"; he meant this was the century when America became a colossus from which the rest of the world would have to step back, trembling with awe. But if that American century was truly American, you can almost see Lincoln reminding us -- or, if not Lincoln, the doorkeeper at Independence Hall -- then the story of the American century is the story of all sorts of previously excluded, marginalized, scorned, despised, ignored or enslaved people -- laborers, women, African-Americans, Asian Americans, Jews, Latinos, gay men and women -- entering into full citizenship and full participation in national life. If not full citizenship, a more complete citizenship than even Lincoln or the doorkeeper could in fact have imagined -- as, again and again, decade after decade, those echoing words of the Declaration of Independence sounded as if for the first time.

Nick Denton, one of the first people to try and make a business of blogs, has put two sites up for sale, reorganized others and sent some of his journalists packing. What does he know that others don't?

From the NYT:

A Chinese draft law that threatens to fine the news media for reporting on "sudden incidents" without permission applies to foreign as well as domestic news organizations, an official involved in preparing the legislation said Monday.

The law, now under consideration by the legislature run by the Communist Party, calls for fines of up to $12,500 for unauthorized reports on outbreaks of disease, natural disasters, social disturbances or other so-called sudden incidents that officials determine to be false or harmful to China's social order.

Wang Yongqing, vice minister of the legislative affairs office of China's State Council, or cabinet, told reporters at a news briefing that the law should apply to all news organizations, including foreign newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets, which usually operate under different rules from those of the Chinese news media.

Almost exactly 30 years ago, militants with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Baader-Meinhof gang hijacked an Air France jet, eventually ending up in Entebbe, Uganda.

The Israeli military pulled off what was seen as a miraculous rescue.

For a look back, see this BBC story.

Beeb analyst Paul Reynolds takes a look back at the "Great Game" of the 19th century between Britain and Russia in Afghanistan.

Seems like World Cup mania has affected the ability of some Buddhist monks in Thailand to attend to their more spiritual duties.

T.O. photog Joseph Michael did some World Cup tourism and assembled a Web-based photo gallery: 32 Nations, One City. Each photo represents the nationality of fans cheering for one of the participating teams.

He invites you to guess the nationality and promises one clue in each photo.

While his web design skills need a tune-up (sorry, Joseph: It had to be said), it's a nice work of documentation about this event.