By Khilen Mehta

Portugal- Portugal’s best performance to date in the competition came in 2004 when they lost in the final to Greece. Prior to that, Portugal had appeared in two semi-finals where they lost on both occasions to France. They have played 108 matches in their 13 participations in the UEFA European Championship, winning 58, drawing 26 and losing 24 with 183 goals scored and 98 conceded. Although they may have only lost once in their qualifying group they endured a tense finale in their last group game against Finland where a 0-0 draw saw them through. However with arguably the best player in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 8 goals in qualifying, they will go into every game with confidence.

Manager- Luis Felipe Scolari, “I know we have to improve for the finals.”

Key Player- Cristiano Ronaldo will carry on his unstoppable goalscoring form

Prediction- Beaten semi-finalists

Turkey- After a stirring start to their qualifying campaign which saw them win their first three games without conceding a goal, Turkey almost threw it all away but in the end they managed to qualify with a game to spare. Despite playing in all 13 UEFA European Championship qualifying rounds, Turkey’s first participation in a final tournament took place at UEFA EURO 96. Prior to the finals of UEFA EURO 2008, they have played 95 matches. In that time, they had won 35, drawn 22 and lost 38 of those fixtures with 110 goals scored and 135 conceded. Altho they lack incisiveness, they have pace and guile in midfield, and proven goalscorers in Kahveci and Tuncay upfront.

Manager- Fatih Terim, “I made a promise that we would qualify and make a significant contribution at the finals.”

Key Player- Nihat Kahveci is a proven international goalscorer

Prediction- Stubborn opposition but ultimately lack the class to progress

By Will Cade

When I think of competition, I usually imagine blood thirsty corporate lions pouncing on anyone they can to get a leg up. If anyone benefits from this merciless striving, it’s the individual at the top. Sometimes, though, more than co-workers stabbed in the back trail in the wake. A trail of innovation can also follow behind, waiting for the right opportunity to be put to good use.

Innovation and competition are probably the most intense in the computing world. Advancing exponentially, computers double in speed and nearly half in price every 2 years. Most people from our generation have experienced this trend. Say you receive a laptop for graduation and head off to university feeling well prepared and at least a little bit proud of your new, gleaming piece of hardware. By your third semester, a whole new generation of students have made their way onto campus, with a whole new generation of laptops. If you’re a techno-junkie like me, you might ask them what their “specs” are (like processing speed, hard drive size, RAM, etc.) and how much they paid. Realizing these newbies have cheaper, smaller, and better laptops, you might have the philanthropic desire to usher them into university life - with a good hazing.

Although this trend may bruise your ego on the university campus, it’s also helping usher the third world into the digital age. Up to this point, the information super highway has been reserved to industrialized powers. But now, thanks to cheaper, smaller, and better laptops, technology companies are marketing $100 laptops to developing countries. Well, the cost was $100, but after a slight revamp, the more traditional laptop has become a flat-panel, touch screen laptop doubling as an e-book, which costs closer to $200.[1]

Don’t crucify the capitalists just yet; even when they’re bettering humanity, they’re still human, and damn good businessmen. These revamps are intended to help school children, for they can function as laptops and e-books, saving schools money on books. Provided technology continues advancing like it has, these laptops should become cheaper in the next year or so. The designers of the laptop are also offering tax-deductible contribution programs (1 laptop to 1 child for $200) if you’re interested in contributing yourself.[2]

Or, if you’re a broke university student and you can’t even afford to buy yourself a new laptop, technology is offering you another way to do some good in the world. The website www.thehungersite.com donates food for every click and has links to sister sites for breast cancer, child health, literacy, the rainforest, and animal rescue. I have it as my homepage on my own laptop, so even if I spend the whole day gluttonously downloading pirated music, I at least start the day by doing some good.

[2] http://laptopfoundation.org/en/participate/

By Khilen Mehta

Well it´s official. Votes have been counted, political bias has been taken into account and a professional career has been forged. Televoters from 43 countries have decided that the winner of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest is Dima Bilan representing Russia with his song Believe!

Russia won this year’s edition receiving 272 points. The runner-ups were Ukraine’s Ani Lorak and Greece’s Kalomira in third place. Great Britain continued to proved what years of colonisation have done to their reputation as they finished joint bottom with Poland.

Dima Bilan said this was a commemorable day, and he sincerely thanked the team behind him. They did not always smile, Dima Bilan said, but it has been a long, hard journey. Moreover he gave a personal thanks to Eugeni Pluschenko, who was the figure skater next to Bilan during his performance of Believe. He has also decided to donate the Eurovision trophy to the composer of the song.

In Spain itself almost 14 million tuned into the television on saturday night to watch Chiki Chiki debut to the rest of Europe, a record of the last six years. Unfortunately although the performance entertained everyone, it was never going to win over the hearts of all of Europe.