Paul the octopus strikes again

Oracle octopus abandons Germany

Paul predicted Germany would lose to Spain in last night's semi-final match, and they did.

Carles Puyol's header in the 73rd minute off a corner will see Spain in their first World Cup final after an impressive 1-0 win over Germany in Durban.

Paul now has a perfect record in the FIFA tournament, this year he correctly chose the winner in each of Germany's six matches.

I'm still not sure whether the octopus has magical powers, is very lucky or if there is some food-tampering going on, but the whole fiasco brings some light and fluffiness to the game.

Spain will play the Netherlands in the 2010 final on Sunday, the 11th of July.

Why watch people play soccer when you can watch robots?

Mechanical maneuvers at robot World Cup

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is taking the world by storm, and although China didn't qualify for the real tournament in South Africa, they are determined to participate in the world game- robot style.

Over the next three days, China will host the inaugural International Humanoid Robot Olympic Games. (As if hosting the Olympics two years ago wasn't enough.) In this Olympic Games- with a twist- nineteen teams from China, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Germany will compete their shiny, humanoid robots in a number of events including track-and-field, soccer, volleyball, boxing and weight-lifting.

While the competition may not draw the same crowds as the World Cup, the event looks to be a hallmark of the future. The organisers have even gone so far as to claim that the robot Olympics is designed to help make more intelligent robots for use at home. (My Mum always said she would invest in new technology when it could clean the house and cook dinner. Perhaps her waiting days are almost over.)

If you ask me, the robots look like an unsettling mix between evil automatons straight out of Dr Who and toy transformers.

But if robots are more your 'thing', you can have your very own soccer-playing android for the bargain price of $1,000, according to RIA Novosti. (Warning: designing a robot also involves many months of painstaking work. I'm just saying...)

Sounds like it would be easier to just go watch real people kick a ball around, even if the refs are terrible and some of the players are whingers (don't get me started on the vuvuzelas). I'd imagine the boys are easier on the eyes as well. Robots are butt ugly, don't you think?