Comments on: Insurance companies get ready for World Cup “sick” days http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/101 Feel Smart Again Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:55:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: Mangesh http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/101/comment-page-1#comment-104 Mangesh Thu, 11 May 2006 18:40:59 +0000 http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/?p=101#comment-104 I'm so excited for this World Cup. Have you guys seen the Henry ad that Nike did? The other Brazil soccer ads are pretty great too, but this <a rel="nofollow" href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3717325334120391504&q=joga&pl=true"> one</a> puts the widest grin on my mug. I’m so excited for this World Cup. Have you guys seen the Henry ad that Nike did? The other Brazil soccer ads are pretty great too, but this one puts the widest grin on my mug.

]]> By: John http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/101/comment-page-1#comment-87 John Thu, 11 May 2006 14:42:13 +0000 http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/?p=101#comment-87 What surprises me about that statistic is that it implies that more than five billion people are NOT going to watch the World Cup. What's the problem here? It is a paucity of television sets? Because I can't believe that there are five billion people on this planet who would choose to miss the likes of Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. Watching Brazil in the World Cup is like watching Van Gogh paint, except Brazil is more exciting and more beautiful and everyone has two ears. What surprises me about that statistic is that it implies that more than five billion people are NOT going to watch the World Cup.

What’s the problem here? It is a paucity of television sets? Because I can’t believe that there are five billion people on this planet who would choose to miss the likes of Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. Watching Brazil in the World Cup is like watching Van Gogh paint, except Brazil is more exciting and more beautiful and everyone has two ears.

]]> By: Mary http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/101/comment-page-1#comment-84 Mary Thu, 11 May 2006 13:00:58 +0000 http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/?p=101#comment-84 This reminds me of that old Super Bowl myth that gets constantly repeated in newspapers every January: that 1 billion people watch it, too. I'm not sure how people came to believe something so obviously absurd (there aren't even 300 million people in the U.S., which is really the only place people watch football), although I suspect it's a simple problem of decimals. According to my trusty friend Wikipedia, Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005 was watched by 93 million people, which may be just shy of 100,000,000 but it sure ain't 1,000,000,000. This reminds me of that old Super Bowl myth that gets constantly repeated in newspapers every January: that 1 billion people watch it, too. I’m not sure how people came to believe something so obviously absurd (there aren’t even 300 million people in the U.S., which is really the only place people watch football), although I suspect it’s a simple problem of decimals. According to my trusty friend Wikipedia, Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005 was watched by 93 million people, which may be just shy of 100,000,000 but it sure ain’t 1,000,000,000.

]]>