Since many people in the US find soccer about as interesting as, well, soccer, for many folks the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa has been exciting not for the actual games, but instead because of the emergence of Paul the Octopus as the world’s foremost soccer prognosticator. Paul lives at an aquarium in Germany, where he’s correctly predicted the outcome of all of Germany’s World Cup matches (including their shocking loss to Serbia in the group stage of the tourney). Much to the dismay of Germans, Paul also correctly predicted that Spain would oust Germany in the semifinals earlier this week, and so naturally it seems like his prediction this week of Spain over the Netherlands in the final should hold as well.
Or should it? Pauls’s not the only World Cup-predicting animal out there. In fact getting animals to predict the outcome of World Cup matches is, like Hogan’s Heroes and David Hasselhoff, incredibly and inexplicably popular in Germany, as evidenced by this extensive slide show.
Sadly, we couldn’t find any other German animals’ World Cup final predictions, but we did manage to locate some Thai elephants predicting the outcome, as well as Mani the Parakeet in Singapore. Like Paul, the elephants picked Spain, but Mani, whose fortune-telling owner acknowledges “he’s been wrong before,” went with the Netherlands. All of this of course adds up to a very strong indication that Spain will take the World Cup over the Netherlands come Sunday, provided you believe that animals can somehow predict the results of sporting events that they couldn’t possibly begin to understand from thousands of miles away.
As Coach Taylor, Kyle Chandler might not exactly win state in this year's Emmy race, but for now he's at least made the playoffs.
The 2010 Primetime Emmy nominations are out, and the big news, as far as we’re concerned, is that the best show on television for the past four years was only slightly snubbed this year, instead of being completely ignored. We’re talking of course, about NBC and DirecTV‘s Friday Night Lights. Although it somehow failed to be nominated in the best drama category again, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton were nominated in the outstanding actor and actress drama categories for their portrayals of Coach Eric Taylor and his wife Tami Taylor. If you haven’t seen Friday Night Lights, you really should watch it- the show is all over Netflix and Hulu for easy streaming, so there’s really no excuse.
Honestly, the rest of the Emmy nominations were reasonably unsurprising, with HBO‘s The Pacific miniseries netting the largest nomination total at 24. Fox’s Glee was hot on its tail with 19 nominations, including our slam-dunk pick for this year: Jane Lynch for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy. You saw it here first. Despite its confusing ending that didn’t really resolve much, Lost managed to weasel its way into the outstanding drama race, and in a wonderfully ironic twist Conan’s Tonight Show got a nomination for outstanding variety, musical or comedy series but Jay Leno‘s version of the Tonight Show was left out. Boo-hoo.
The 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be televised on NBC on August 29th.
What can he say? The Dear Leader loves him some Bieber.
Teen/Twitter idol (and probable hoax) Justin Bieber recently held an online vote to decide which country he should tour next. Somehow, the geniuses running the polling left every country on the table. Yes, every country. When the crazy cats over at 4chan got word of this, you can pretty much guess how they followed up their “Justin Bieber syphilis” prank from last month.
Yep, they (allegedly) stuffed the ballot box for North Korea. While Justin’s been mum so far on whether or not he plans to perform in Pyongyang, we think that maybe the internet is giving those 4chan folks too much credit. We need to consider the fact that Kim Jong-il himself might be behind this. After all, the “Dear Leader” is known to be a huge fan of the western culture he bans within his own country, so it’s not that far-fetched to think that he’s come down with a case of Bieber Fever. Assuming that Kim does in fact love Justin Bieber with the fire of any North American tween girl, he might very well employ his country’s extensive cyber war assets (as well as his own Internet expertise) in order to rig the vote in North Korea’s favor. The only move left for Kim to complete his nafarious plot is to respond to the vote by publicly welcoming Bieber (and supporting act Sean Kingston) to North Korea for a special performance. (If all this seems a little too crazy, keep in mind that in 1978 Kim had noted South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his wife kidnapped and forced them to make films produced by Kim, so this kind of thing is entirely plausible in the topsy-turvy world of North Korea.)
Regardless of who’s behind North Korea’s win at the polls, we hope Justin follows through and goes to the Hermit Kingdom. It could be the best thing to happen there since–well, ever.
Yale grad and former NFL tight end Eric Johnson clearly admires Jessica Simpson's intellect, sophistication, and grasp of current events. (photo: E! Online)
When the news broke that Jessica Simpson was seeing another NFL player, we immediately wondered which franchise she was about to derail. After all, many in Dallas still hold her personally responsible for the Cowboys‘ January 2008 playoff collapse and subsequent mediocrity. The good news for football fans this time around is that she’s dating an ex-NFL player, Eric Johnson. Though Johnson’s been out of football for the past two seasons, he had several productive years playing tight end with the 49ers, leading the team in receiving in 2004. Hopefully this means San Francisco is safe from the Simpson curse, but we can’t say the same for Johnson himself. He’s separated from his wife with with a divorce pending, and though ex-boyfriend John Mayer reports she’s crazy in the sack, we can’t quite figure out how a Yale grad like Johnson has anything to say to Simpson, who is not noted for her intellect or even her oral hygiene regimen.
Incidentally, what’s Jessica famous for these days? We can’t remember the last time she released an album, and that whole Dukes of Hazzard thing fizzled out fairly quickly. Oh well, we’re sure her creepy father Joe has something oddly distasteful planned for the future.
This July 4th, pour one out for Button Gwinnett and the founders, then help us think of a cocktail to honor the one with the best name. It has to involve rum, right?
Fill up the cooler and fire up the grill, folks–we’re just hours away from Independence Day weekend here in the central (central!) timezone. The 4th of July is more than just a time for food, family, and yes, fireworks (not on the plane!), but also one to remember where it all came from: the American Revolution. Without folks like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams and even non-presidents like Alexander Hamilton, we wouldn’t have all the wonderful rights and privileges we enjoy today. As much as it may be fashionable to complain about the decline of our country and/or government, when you take a step back and look around, it’s hard not to realize that, all things considered, we’ve got it pretty good, thanks in no small part to the foresight of a bunch of relatively rich, privileged white guys with funny names (Button Gwinnett!) from 200+ years ago.
So, this 4th of July, when the fireworks are up and the grill has cooled down, pour one out for the many people who have dedicated their loves over the last 234 years to make our country what it is today. We’ll be doing the same, and also trying to devise a new cocktail called the Button Gwinnett. Seriously, how can this guy not have a drink named after him yet?
Yes, our pets section includes Great Danes. No, you should not under any circumstances see the Marmaduke movie.
We’ve put off bragging about it for a while, but you may have noticed a new Juggle section in your recent visits to Juggle.com… That’s right, the internet’s most trusted encyclopedia and reference resource has gotten a lot more pet-friendly. Though we’ve always loved animals, we’re now able to help everyone share that love with our Pets section, where you’ll find extensive listings of popular dog and cat breeds. If you’re looking for a pet this is a great place to start, as our listings feature descriptions of a breed’s temperament and extensive image galleries as well as the breed’s behavior and biology. You can even see which cities a breed is popular in if you’re looking to either follow a trend or buck it. Juggle is now one of the few places where you can learn the truth about cats and dogs and about The Truth About Cats and Dogs. (Sorry. We couldn’t resist.)
A Special Note to Parents: If your kids are begging you to take them to see Marmaduke please don’t give in! Even if you like Owen Wilson! That movie is terrible and you’ll never, ever get that 87 minutes of your life back. Instead, try checking out our Great Dane page with your kids (the image gallery is awesome). Once you’ve learned about the breed, take everyone out for ice cream. If you absolutely must see a movie with an animated Great Dane, rent Scooby-Doo. It’s not as terrible as you’d think (and certainly a million times better than Marmaduke), and Matthew Lillard is surprisingly excellent as Shaggy. Whichever way you go you’ll save some time and likely some money, and, most importantly, you’ll still be sane.
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