Like most Americans, we don’t have too much of an interest in soccer if the players are 18 and older. We don’t know why, but soccer is a bigger sport for the kids. The translation…we didn’t watch the World Cup.

However, The Register has a funny take on that French player, Zinedine Zidane, who was kicked out of the World Cup. Depending on which country you’re from…you may not have seen the same thing that the officials saw.

Check out the following link: http://www.theregister.com/2006/07/13/zidane_headbutt_outrage/ .

Google offers the ability to chart how often users search using a particular key word. This service is called Google Trends. One of the most interesting things to do with the service is to compare which keywords are being search more than others. For example, are users more interested in searching on Google for weather or politics?

As you can see above, google users are more interested in searching for weather (blue) than they are for politics (red). What does this say about public interest in politics? Well, I’m not really sure, except to say people possibly have more interest in hearing what their meteorologist is forecasting for tomorrow’s weather than what their politicans are promising before the next election. Neither Republicans (red) or Democrats (blue) seems to have an edge over each other:

Also, neither interesting in the Republicans or the Democrats can compare with the public’s interest in the weather (orange). Check out this Google Trend:

Let me first say, I love Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Secondly, let me also say that by the time we hit the month of April, I and most others in this city, are just too darn tired of cold weather. We are ready for the warmer months that come with spring and summer. We are ready for the flowers to bloom, the brown lawns to turn green, the children to play outside, and the nice bicycle rides on the finest bicycle trails this city has to offer. So no matter how much you tell me that it’s a chance of a lifetime…I am not heading to the North Pole so I can freeze my toes off a little longer. Crazy people…

About 50 runners are scheduled to compete in this year’s North Pole Marathon, covering 26.195 miles in circles on a large piece of floating ice near the top of the world.

The runners have paid $10,000 each to enter the race.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Dr. Vir Nanda of Apple Valley, Calif., told the Los Angeles Times.

Excerpt from article posted at WPMI.com.

We may eat a lot of pizza in our home, but I don’t think we have big enough stomaches to eat this extra-extra-large pizza:

A pizzeria is vying for a spot in Guinness World Records for the world’s largest commercially available pizza. The $99, 150-slice pizza isn’t a one-time deal. In fact, The Big One is already available, though Mama Lena’s Pizza House has had few takers so far.

The would-be recordsetter measures about 3 feet by 4 1/2 feet and takes up nearly all the space in the shop’s brick oven.

The current record holder is a 4-foot diameter pizza offered by Paul Revere’s Pizza in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Dubbed the Ultimate Party Pizza, it uses more than 10 pounds of dough, 48 ounces of sauce and about five pounds of cheese.

A tip for Mama Lena customers: Call ahead. The Big One takes about 15 minutes to prepare and another 20 to 25 minutes to bake, said Rob Carrabbia, whose wife, Wendy, owns the pizzeria in the suburban Pittsburgh town of McKees Rocks.

I know this has already made the Internet rounds, but I’m too impressed to not post it here. A remake of The Simpsons introduction we all see everytime the cartoon starts was done by Sky TV for airing in the UK. Only this introduction uses real actors and not animated characters! A link to the video can be found at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=49IDp76kjPw . The following excerpt is from a Reuters-Yahoo article:

Painstakingly crafted by Sky (BSY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and its ad agency Devilfish, the video was originally intended as an on-air promotion for the Sky One network, which airs new episodes of “The Simpsons” in the UK.

The company decided to release it on the Internet as part of a word-of-mouth brand building exercise, tapping into the red-hot Web video sector.

“If we had only showed it on air, you might turn to someone and say that was really cool,” said BSkyB communications director Matthew Anderson. “Putting it online, there’s a fantastic discussion between millions of people — it’s bringing the Simpsons to them instead of having them tune in.”

After less than a week, the video has been viewed millions of times at online video sites like YouTube (http://youtube.com/watch?v=49IDp76kjPw) and Google Video.

A slightly humorous story making the rounds on the Internet posted below:

From CNN:

The school purchased 23 PlayStations last month to use with educational games for third- through fifth-graders.

But not all the teachers took to the video games — one became so flustered that she didn’t want use them in class, principal Sharon Sand said.

So on Wednesday, students gave advice on plugging in the machines, using the software and navigating the buttons.

I am a news junkie. I love to read the news both in the newspaper and online. I have a number of favorite online news sites bookmarked and I’m very loyal at surfing those sites each day. Sometimes when I wake up at night, I take a quick look at the computer to see what’s happening with the world. Hello Europe at 2 AM CST! Yet despite my interest in news, business, and sports…every Sunday there is one section of the newspaper that must be read first. The Sunday Comics. Maybe reading the comics is something a man in his upper 30’s shouldn’t admit, but it’s the truth. What else can I say…

In case you don’t know, the comics are also online. Since I can’t legally pull any of the comic strips off of their site and place them here, you’ll just have to settle for the link above. They archive the comics for a few months so you also get a chance to read any of those strips you missed last Sunday! You know, the Sunday when you had company over and had to show your maturity when their children wanted to read the comics. Deep down inside all you could say was “Darn kids, when will they ever grow up?”.