I live in downtown Toronto, which, when last I researched the matter, is statistically the most ethnically diverse city in the world. As such, the World Cup is a pedestrian’s nightmare – with no general squad bias, the entire duration of the tournament is a storm of rabid fans cheering and criss-crossing sidewalks and spilling out of pubs and driving their World-Cup-themed automocars down the street, honking all the while; World Cup Toronto is a sight that needs to be seen to be believed. You should come next time. No, you can’t sleep on my couch. Anyhow, the point is that the World Cup creates in human…

The Google home page today celebrates the World Cup all across the planet, except (strangely) in the US, where the search giant is celebrating the birthday of the great Jacques-Yves Cousteau. That pretty much tells us the US has no chance winning the cup in the global “soccer” game this time around, and completes Google’s preparation for the football event, which is destined to dominate everything for the rest of the month. Thousands of expectant fans have already gathered at Soccer City in Johannesburg to mark the start of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, though great statesman, Nelson…