FIFA World Cup Predictions and Outcome

Congrats to the 2010 champions, ¡Viva España! What were the chances?

Well I do not know much about soccer, but I do know that JP-Morgan, UBS and Goldman Sachs issue in depth reports every fourth year calculating the next champion based on predictive modeling. Turns out, England, the team JP-Morgan's 70 page report referred to as champs lost in the Round of 16, while UBS and Goldman reports predicted Brazil would end up on the top. C'mon... did you really need a complicated algorithm to predict that?

After reviewing the reports, the questions are: Where did Wall Street go wrong in their models (and why isn't Congress investigating it)? What was the data set, assumptions, independent and confounding variables? Is it necessary to include GDP in the calculation, and how about including team performance outside of the World Cup to the data set? Can you think of a better methodology to predict a winner? Clearly, there is no absolute truth in predictions, but we can try to improve their ability to foresee the future.

Or perhaps we should save ourselves the trouble and just depend on Paul the Octopus to call the shots?! Now I'll toot my vuvuzela to that!

Infinity Set at Wimbledon?

Today was a historic day for tennis not to be forgotten. American John Isner was victorious over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in a first round Wimbledon match lasting a world record 11 hours and 5 minutes spanned over 3 days. My hats off to these immortal athletes for their cool sportsmanship and their mindblowing endurance - they practically played the equivalent of 4 full tennis matches just among each other without a slam of the racquet or slip to the umpire! Sports broadcasters have dubbed the final set as the "Infinity Set", however how can it be an infinity set when the fifth set actually terminated at 70-68? Although a true infinity set is theoretically possible, I wouldn't doubt that Wimbledon officials reevalute the tiebreaking rules before that becomes a reality.

Corona Commercial

I can get used to watching NBA playoffs for a lifetime with my husband given the advertisments are Super Bowl caliber as they were during the Magic/Celtics game last night. In a commercial for Corona beer, a wiseguy orders his Coronas at the bar and he notices a sign that states, "Happy Hour: 5-8". He rotates the "8" in the sign by 90 degress so it is to appear as the infinity symbol and then rejoins his friends for the now never ending happy hour!