As reported at World Cup Blog, a soccer match between Elephants and humans has taken place in Thailand. After the forty minutes of play (two times 20), the match ended in a 3-3 draw.

I don’t know if anyone else has thought about this, or whether I miss some sort of a culturally coded message here, but to me it seems that the Trinidad &Tobago shirts in this World Cup are not really optimistic. Or, do also you think that it really looks like they would be wearing ropes around their necks?

Everyone’s favourite weird news channel Ananova reports about a 94-year old German lady who was pronounced medically dead only to spring back up a moment later and ask when Germany’s next match was going to be.

When she was told about her death, she replied “Not likely, not until I see if Germany wins the World Cup. There’s still life in these old bones yet, and I certainly couldn’t miss the football.”

The latest addition to this year’s RoboCup, the robotic equivalent of the World Cup, is a pair of robot commentators.

There is a fun description at BBC’s World Cup 2006 blog of Brazil’s final training session before their World Cup campaign begins. Writes Nigel Adderley:

“On the evidence of their final training session here at the Olympic Stadium it seems incredible they´ve won two of the last three World Cups. It was a chaotic circus which was high on flair and low on any sort of organisation.”

And I suppose that is exactly where their brilliance lies.

They say that on average around half a billion viewers will tune in for each of the World Cup 2006 matches. Well, make that half a billion plus one viewers now:

Our cat yawned through the opening match between Germany and Costa Rica, and wasn’t much more impressed by the Poland vs. Ecuador game. However, on Saturday she occasionally looked at the Swedish players in their match against Trinidad & Tobago, and then was literally glued onto the TV set for the last 30 minutes of the Argentina vs. Ivory Coast game (and so was I!).

In the picture, you can now see her enjoying the first half of Angola vs. Portugal. She hasn’t indicated which team she prefers, but this game has really caught her attention. It is half time as I am typing this, and kitty basically just sat there in front of the telly through the first 45 minutes. Now she is taking a rest on the floor.

I wonder whether it is really good for her eyes, though. Well, at least it is fun for me to have someone to watch the matches with.

Update: The second half just kicked off, and the moment the action recommenced on the field, kitty hopped back on the bookshelf and started watching.

Update: It is 25 minutes into the second half, and kitty now jumped off the shelf, stretched, and curled herself next to my bag. She has decided to leave the match and go to sleep.

Update: 35 minutes into the second half, kitty raised her head, looked at the tv for 10 seconds, yawned, glimpsed at me, and went back to sleep. I must agree, the match is not that exciting. (If it were, I wouldn’t be paying so much attention to kitty yawning!)

Final update: It wasn’t the best game ever. Kitty is still sleeping, and I think I will go and do the same.