By Maja Gojkvoic

After the second semi final on Thursday 22 May, the EBU reveals that one of the ten contestants who qualified in thursday nights round was selected thanks to the support of the back-up jury, and would not have made it to the Final under the old rules.

The new rule was put in place before this year´s Eurovision Song Contest. The rule states that the top-9 contestants chosen by the televoters qualify for the Final. The highest ranked contestant from the back-up jury results and who have not yet qualified through the televoting, also qualifies for the Final.

After the first Semi-Final, it appeared that the televoters and the back-up juries selected the same 10 contestants to qualify for the Final. This was not the case after the second Semi-Final, as one of the 10 contestants who qualified was not in top-10 of the televoters. So, one of the qualified Semi-Finalists would not have made it to the Final without the support of the back-up jury.

In order to keep the Final exciting the country that was chosen by the back up jury will not be revealed until after the final inorder to keep the suspense high. The complete results of the two Semi-Finals will be revealed through www.eurovision.tv on Sunday morning.

by Lev Eldudin

We’ve all been there, and the decision is not an easy one. You’re home in the afternoon on a weekday, you find yourself having a couple more hours free than you expected. Do you take your siesta?

It sounds like a simple yes or no decision, but there are a lot of factors that play into the verdict. How long do I sleep for? Is it a couch or a bed endeavour? Shouldn´t I do that load of laundry that I’ve been putting off for weeks that has forced me to have to steal my roommate’s skid-marked underwear?

Recent research, not to mention Spanish culture, says forget the laundry and snooze it up. According to an article on BIO.com (http://http://web.archive.org/web/20070310193716/www.bio.com/newsfeatures/newsfeatures_research.jhtml?cid=19200022), a short nap is very natural after a long hearty afternoon meal (especially if the meal is cocido, in which case you want to sleep to forget the fact that you just ate that stuff). The article goes on to say that a short nap after eating can help prevent obesity, and can keep your mind functioning better for the rest of the day. Daytime sleep can also prevent narcolepsy, which is a scary, scary thing.

The real question though is how long to nap. If you’re out for too long, you’ll wake up feeling groggy, disoriented and sometimes even grumpy. And nobody likes a grumpy guy with skid marked underwear.

To avoid that, most sleep research suggests taking a power nap, somewhere between 15 and 45 minutes, but not longer. If you sleep longer, you will shift into the next, deeper stage of sleep, and interrupting that is what you feel when you wake up from a nap and have no idea where you are or what day it is. However, one full sleep cycle is about two and a half hours, so if you’re really dead you can get a nice, long, full nap, one that is usually reserved before a long night of partying.

The toughest part of taking a nap though, is the inescapable guilt. With every ´to nap or not to nap` internal debate comes the guilt. While our Spanish counterparts have long been famous for their post-meal pillow parties, the American in me still feels that guilt before every nap that I take. The internal battle is there whether or not we admit it to ourselves, but please, don’t let guilt take away what you hold most dear. You’ve got modern science behind you. Screw the man, set your alarm, hop into your bed or couch or floor or cardboard box, and snore away!

By Maja Gojkovic

Thursday 22nd May saw the second of the Eurovison Song Contest 2008 take place, the second semi final.

This is the first time in the competitions history that there has been two semi finals, in order to determine which 25 countries go through to the final.

The second semi final was as good as the first if not better, the theme of the show was ‘water’ and included some special touches such as during one of the breaks, a viedo clip showing Serbian tennis star Ana Ivanovic welcoming viewers to her home city of Belgrade.

After the remaining 19 participants performed, the voting commenced. The voting revealed that the final 10 countires going through to the final were: Ukaraine, Croatia, Albania, Iceland, Georgia, Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Turkey and Portugal.

The second semi final winners will join those from the first semi final (Greece,Romania,Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Russia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Poland and Norway) to battle it out in tonights final round of the Eurovison Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade. France, United Kingdom, Spain and Germany also join the group but their entries qualified straight to the final as they are part of the big four. 

The countries that are not going to the final and that are heading home include: Andorra, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, FYR Macedonia, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, San Marino, Slovenia and Switzerland.

Never mind and better luck next year, sometimes taking part is better than winning hahaha.

The final of the competition takes place this evening, you can watch it live on www.eurovision.tv.