Portal talk:Current events/Archive 4

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Archive This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Contents

Febraury 12, 2007

What happened to February 12th? Did nothing happen that day? Or did somebody remove the content? --Cdogsimmons 19:11, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Wording

Although there is nothing wrong with the sentence "The National Court of Spain finds five out of six Algerian men guilty of membership in a terrorist organization..." it sounds like it was a study that was done.65.93.196.201 03:14, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

World news headline

Forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, but why it the result from this "Super Bowl" thing a news headline? I gather it's some american football event, but I don't see how a result thereof warrents a news headline, while, say, there was none for the Six Nations victory England had over Scotland, reclaiming the Calcutta Cup. Sports headlines are not world news. MaKamitt 13:46, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

I quit agree. -- Evertype·✆ 19:10, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Correction to Guinea headline requested

  • Suggested wording for In the news article on Guinea:

In Guinea, a general strike ended with an accord to find a new prime minister. At least 59 people were killed by security forces during the 17 days of demonstrations.

  • Reasons for correction: The blurb states that 59 people have been killed in "violent clashes between police and demonstrators" however, it is clear from reading the news that human rights advocates have been saying 60 people were killed by security forces during the strike, and a figure of 59 dead (more than half of them shot in a crackdown on Jan 22) has been confirmed by the Health Ministry, as reported in this Reuters article. Therefore, the original blurb on this subject is reprehensibly inaccurate in its portayal of what has actually happened and should be changed. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/abd23075b5b6851f62247e3db4d1416a.htm

Davdavid 16:01, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Australian Drought

There should definitely be something about the drought in Australia in the Ongoing events section. -Tubby

US '08 Presidential

Why is the news of Hillary Clinton joining the ranks of 2008 US Presidential nominees deemed worthy of the current events page, while the same actions by Barack Obama, Sam Brownback, and reportedly Bill Richardson are not? Also, I would move to put up news about a recent smear tactic by certain American media outlets against Obama to paint him as a terrorist sympathizer and to incorrectly label him as a Muslim (as well as furthering hostile stereotypes towards Muslims). 1 2 3 4 Fifty7 21:05, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Kidnapping and lots of money

2 histories that I havent seen here, the history about Shawn Hornbeck that was find this week after 4 years being kidnapped and looks like he have Stockholm syndrome. also, this week in Cali, Colombia it has been discovered like 6 stack of money (in euro, us dollar and colombian peso) from the drug bussiness. the news say that the money belong to several drug barons requested by the us goverment. In total there is more that 70 millions of dollars, and several bars of gold if anyone want more info leave me a message, im kinda busy studying so i cant make the article by myself--ometzit<col> 01:42, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

UK Debt

In the December 29 heading, it says the UK finally paid off its Second World War debt to the US and Canada. It goes on to mention that the UK still has a debt from the Napoleonic Wars. I looked at the news article, and the Napoleonic Wars yet find no proof of this claim. Kaiser matias 10:16, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

This article confirms it: BBC. I'll add it as a source AndrewRT(Talk) 20:14, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Wow,this is very intresting!

Importance of events

A ferry sinks in Indonesia killing over 500 people. A car bomb explodes in Madrid killing two. Guess which one gets featured on the main page?--JyriL talk 15:21, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

I must agree, but both should get on the Headlines. As should the coach overturning on the Motorway, killing two, and as should the fact that polonium-210 was found in another restaurant, neither of which did. But 'Canada defeats Russia in the gold medal game to win the 2007 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships' did. J.P.Lon 21:38, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Bomb blasts in Bangkok

Has any article been created regarding this? If so could it be added on to the Main Page template? Kaushik twin 17:02, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

I've created an article about it, 31 December 2006 Bangkok Bombings, according to the format used during the Mumbai bombings, much of what I've created is from Wikinews; hopefully we could have as co-operative an effort as was done during the Mumbai bombings... Kaushik twin 17:11, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Sports current events portal

Can someone please archive the Sports current-events portal? I don't know how to do it. Thanks -- Mwalcoff 03:25, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Can someone help organize the sports current-events so you can see a specific type of sport only?Andrewrhchen 22:22, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

New UN Secretary General

I was surprised to not find n:New UN Secretary General assumes post on the main page.--Andrew c 20:44, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

His appointment was. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:In_the_news&oldid=81273482 . --199.71.174.100 01:31, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Reason for school shooting deletion?

I posted a story in "January 3, 2007" showing the school shooting story that happened in Tacoma, Washington. What happened to it and why has it been deleted? --Jacrio 17:15, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

It's removed because it's relatively umimportant and looks out of place next to other world news headlines.
BTW, Jacrio, please don't sign as "Andrew c" unless you are really him. -- 199.71.174.100 01:28, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, that was my mistake (the incorrect signing). I do think that this story is notable though. It has appeared on national news headlines including CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo! and multiple Internet news outlets. --Jacrio 21:21, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, what the heck is some story about a kid on a boat doing on there? He's 14 and sailed across the ocean. Big whoop. A kid dies in humiliation in front of his school students and no one cares. WTF? I think that's much more notable than some kid on a boat. Seriously... --Jacrio 21:24, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Why not add the school shooting story to Portal:Current events/United States? That seems an appropriate place for stories of national but not international significance.-gadfium 07:35, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
WTF? Remove the offending entry, Jacrio. --199.71.174.100 20:38, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Severe?

Ok, could someone please define severe damage? In the article about the metal object from the sky someone states the house was severely damaged. A hole in the roof and some broke bathroom tiles is not what I would call severe damage. If the whole roof had been knocked off the house, sure... but anything that is not really structural damage is not all that severe. In addition, all the pictures I have seen show the object to be much larger than a golf ball. This all may seem trivial but it is an interesting story - it would be good if the facts reported on the page were at least semi-accurate.--CokeBear 16:14, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Hard drives

Hello. Today's news says Hitachi broke a terabyte barrier. According to Amazon.com, terabyte drives are on the market from LaCie, Buffalo and Beyond Micro. Maybe someone like Maxtor makes them all, I don't know, but do you think this news is notable as written? -Susanlesch 23:11, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

  • Maybe it would help to say that it may be that the comments on the PC World story cited pretty much answer this question. -Susanlesch 04:46, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

bomb scare

some one should put it. it was in florida —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Crabworld (talk • contribs) 23:04, 7 January 2007 (UTC).

Merge the sub pages to here?

Since most of the regional pages are poorly maintained is it time to consider merging them into the single portal? All except Sports, as the volume of updates on that page is large. If not the regional pages then at least the Sci and tech portal which is looking neglected. --Monotonehell 06:16, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I would support this. I maintain Portal:Current events/Oceania, which is one of the more active pages, but there are rarely updates to that pages from other editors. Other regional pages are mostly in worse shape. Many regions have no such page at all. We've been running these pages for about 18 months, and during this time Wikipedia has grown tremendously, but there seems to be little interest in them. The discussion at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Current_events#Sub-Article_Merges is still relevant, but the issue should be revisited.-gadfium 05:42, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
This is alright with me. -- tariqabjotu 05:48, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I'm trying to maintain Current events/Britain and Ireland when I have time, and there seem to have been more editors on it recently. I'll step up efforts on it. Current events/Southeast Asia is doing well, and is an example of how these pages should ideally look if they are going to exist. I seem to remember Current events/Oceania being quite active last time I looked, but it isn't any longer. As for the others, all they look to be pretty much dead which is a shame (especially Current events/Africa, that could be a great victory against systemic bias). the wub "?!" 00:57, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Videogames

Who decided to remove videogames from the Current Events - Topic Specific box? I have searched for the discussion related to its removal but have been unable to find it. Sarg 07:37, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Try Portal:Current events/Video gaming

ah

Middle East

I'm somewhat confused as to what to do with articles like July 2006 in the Middle East and Portal:Current events/Middle East/August 2006 in the Middle East, which stand alone as the only content in their region, and which are in any event throughly replicated by articles like Timeline of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. Please let me know on my Talk, TewfikTalk 05:50, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Us embassy explosion

The US embassy in greece has heard an explosion. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070112/ap_on_re_eu/greece_us_embassy http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/12/athens.blast/index.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6254399.stm Richardkselby 06:10, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

January 10???

What happened to Portal:Current events/2007 January 10? IT seems to have disappeared. Portal:Current events/2007 January 11 and Portal:Current events/2007 January 9 are there, but 10 is missing. What gives?MPS 15:05, 12 January 2007 (UTC).

Ok nevermind... someone blanked it arbitrarily. AOK now. MPS 15:07, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Kyrill storm - WTF?

The Kyrill storm has killed 36 or more people in Europe, but of course, who cares about that when you can put Big Brother's inmates' rants on the Main Page. Seriously... could someone change this? Even if the Big Brother racist comments have cause some international repercussion, they have killed nobody. I'd think the loss of 30+ lives is more important than 3 women bitching around in a reality show... -- Danilot 11:43, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

ITN works by people nominating candidates here. You should probably assume good faith rather than slanging accusations around randomly. Regarding the big brother item, it was included after the discussion on the same candidates page I linked to above where it was pointed out that the show has caused riots in the streets, questions in parliaments and international media attention. --Monotonehell 12:25, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism

Can't fix it. January 19. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.73.99.194 (talk) 16:34, 19 January 2007 (UTC).

Well it is fixed now 147.188.225.245 09:37, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Hrant Dink headline

Dink did mention the Armenian genocide frequently, but it wasn't the act of writing about it that got him in legal trouble. The line in question was actually targeted toward Armenians to rid themselves of bitterness and resentment toward the Turks. If you look at the section entitled "Trial" on Dink's page, you'll see that the headline on the front page is inaccurate. Dink was persecuted, but not precisely for writing about the massacres of the Armenians. Hashshashin 01:32, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

I see that someone's changed the headline on Dink's assassination. Thanks--it much more accurately captures the scope of his article. He of course addressed the atrocities (as well he should have), but he was talking about a lot more. Hashshashin 19:39, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Terribly written

This is a section that REALLY needs to be rewritten. I don't know how to format things for this page:

"Following the furore over the treatment towards contestant Shilpa Shetty in Celebrity Big Brother 2007 by contestants including Jade Goody have resulted in Jade being evicted by popular vote from the show, to an empty crowd due to heighten concerns over safety after the issue reached a highpoint in UK-Indian relations. (BBC News) "

First of all, "following" doesn't connect gramatically with how the sentence continues; "empty crowd" is an oxymoron: unless the crowd are brainless or something; "heighten concerns" should be heightened concerns; and i htink "highpoint" should be "lowpoint"? 124.149.58.234 09:45, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

You just click "edit" and change it, it's easy. Is that better? 147.188.225.245 09:36, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Serbian seventh parliamentary election (2007)

I think that the text shown is slightly POV and violates neutrality. For instance, it should be said that ..Radicals lead, followed by Democrats..Radicals didn't achieve majority as most voted for the democrat bloc.. or something like that. The fact that SRS received most votes means nothing - compared to the last (2003) elections, the Serb Radicals have lost their strength. This news depicts (if I imagine that I know nothing of the subject) that the Radicals are winning and might create the next government. This very unlikely to happen. And most of all, the text shouldn't express this like a braking news - because in Serbia, it is traditional that the Radicals always win most votes. And always the parties of the democratic bloc unite against the "greater evil" and form a government. It has always been like it and does come like a surprise. I suggest rephrasing it a bit (acording to my personal suggestion). --PaxEquilibrium 12:05, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. It's a wiki, go change it – Qxz 14:53, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
How come when it's protected? --PaxEquilibrium 19:54, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Robert Pickton trial

The Robert Pickton serial murder trial near Vancouver is the top story on MSNBC right now and 2nd in most national US news outlets (and top story in all of Canada). Perhaps that should be added to this, not to mention it should be considered to be on the main page (as this trial involves so many murders it will take days or even weeks to sort out). From news reports, it's one of the worst serial killing cases in Canadian history.

From the AP news release: "If convicted on more than 14 charges, Pickton would become the worst serial killer in Canadian history, after Marc Lepine who gunned down 14 women at the Ecole Polytechnic in Montreal in 1989 before shooting himself."-→Buchanan-Hermit™/?! 21:28, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Midwest ice storm?

someone needs to fix the link.toaster 23:00, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Israeli President charged with rape

President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, charged with rape in the ongoing investigation since July 2006. Haaretz LeaHazel : talk : contribs 14:51, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism

Hey, I don't know where to report this, but:

216.120.146.60

Changed the January 22nd month with "Attack of the Nintendo Wiis"

Here's the link to his log:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/216.120.146.60

Fephisto 21:19, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the report. It's been fixed.-gadfium 22:05, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

QE2

Over 200 people getting sick is a "minor disruption"? User:Zoe|(talk) 21:17, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy

Someone with better French than I possess should definitely check out whether these two islands (well, one island and half an island) have already become separate COMs or not. Links: here and here. Thanks! —Nightstallion (?) 22:46, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Miserable failure google bomb doesn't work any more

I know you don't care but: [1]&[2].--Steven X 11:07, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

The names of the days are gone

It says January 28, 2007 () instead of January 28, 2007 (Sunday) for all the days. It wasn't anything I did because it was fine after I added yesterday by incrementing the day as directed in the HTML comments, but I see no other edits to the portal. So I presume it's a glitch or edit somewhere else in the portal's structure. TransUtopian 07:11, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I noticed this too. The template which I think is responsible is Portal:Current events/DateHeader2, which hasn't changed recently, so I presume this is some MediaWiki change. I'll ask about this at Village pump (technical).-gadfium 07:18, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, gadfium. TransUtopian 07:26, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
Now fixed, after I mentioned it on IRC.-gadfium 08:06, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
Yay! Thank you. TransUtopian 13:06, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Day entry

Is that possible to have them somehow automatically? It's almost 10 GMT and still today's template wasn't added. --132.73.80.97 09:49, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

It would be simple to automate it: just change the relevant line of the page to:
{{Portal:Current events/Inclusion|{{CURRENTYEAR}}|{{CURRENTMONTH}}|{{CURRENTDAY2}}}}
The disadvantage of this is that the date changes on UTC time. For more than half the world, the day begins earlier - 12 or 13 hours earlier in the case of New Zealand. I suspect it would be possible to do a little bit of date arithmetic to compensate for this (but that would make the line much more complicated), but the result might then be to display a "future date" to many of Wikipedia's readers. The newly added pane would also be empty much of the time. Not automating the changes may be a deliberate compromise.-gadfium 23:11, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Black Sea Forum

It states on Black Sea Forum for Partnership and Dialogue that "after Bulgaria and Romania join the EU...".

Is the change of use still going ahead? Jackiespeel 19:07, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Moshe Katsav

Why is this still such a big deal that it still has a place on Wikipedia front page??? Who cares this much about someone who didn't really have any real powers to begin with! Please remove it and replace it with something more worthwhile. 66.171.76.248 00:10, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I agree, the Israeli President position is largely cerimonial and has no real power. The former minister who might face up to 3 years in Jail for kissing a female IDF soldier is more note worthy. Mikebloke 16:57, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

No it's not. The president, even though he has no executive role, is the head of state. Would you say the same if a constitutional monarch of a European state was facing serious criminal charges?--Nitsansh 21:41, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
Also, Ramon has resigned immediately after he was being indicted. Katzav has only suspended himself, and if he would like he can end the suspension at any time. And the normal sentence for the offense Ramon was convicted for is just conditional imprisonment or several months of jail time that could be converted to mandatory service work. The maximum sentence for the rape case brought against Katzav is 14 years if I recall correctly, and convicted rapists are never exempt from at least several years in prison.--Nitsansh 21:49, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

The bottom line: I'm not against removing the reference for Katzav, because that's no longer current news, but in my yardstick, Katzav's case is more news-worthy than Ramon.--Nitsansh 21:51, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

can't see where the vandalism is

Between January 30 and 31, there's an obscene comment, but it's not in the main page or January 31, so it must be in another of the templates, but I don't know which. MeekSaffron 00:32, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

It's gone. Thank you to whoever corrected it. MeekSaffron 00:36, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

CBB Racism Controversy

In light of recent events regarding the racism controversy surrounding Shilpa Shetty during her time in Big Brother, I would like to know if it is appropriate to create a new article for this purpose and place it in the "Ongoing" section of this portal. Ekantik talk 06:00, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

There was one. Celebrity Big Brother 2007 racism controversy was created due to a discussion on the article's length. J Di moved all the text back into Celebrity Big Brother 2007 (UK) on 27 January, without consensus or discussion that I've located, though admittedly the original discussion was short and there has been no protest following the merge back.
Easiest thing would be to add
[[Celebrity Big Brother 2007 (UK)#Accusations of racism and bullying|Celebrity Big Brother 2007 racism controversy]]
to the Ongoing section. (The complex link is because redirects don't work on specific sections.) Whether it would be appropriate I don't have much of an opinion on. It seems significant enough at a glance.
You could also break it out into its own article again, but I would advise adding Template:Splitsection to that section and discussing it on Talk:Celebrity Big Brother 2007 (UK) beforehand, as the content was moved back without protest several days ago. TransUtopian 13:50, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

American Football Headline

Given that American Football is only popular in the US, is it really necessary that it is placed on the front page? Surely it can be just as noteworthy in [States] section. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mikebloke (talk • contribs) 15:21, 5 February 2007 (UTC).

I agree - it seems entirely biased and somewhat misguided to have an headline that states entirely unimportant (and perhaps even non sensial) information, for a significant number of people - this is ranking an American sports result on par with the death of over 100 people by an act of terrorism etc. Perhaps articles with a little more international relevance would be more suitable... (AJMW 15:41, 5 February 2007 (UTC))
Agreed also. We don't put the winners of the FA Cup/Community Shield (not sure which is the equivialent, I don't know the Superbowl's qualification) on the front page, so we shouldn't put Superbowl winners on it either. The sports page sure, but not the main one. Weden 18:09, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
I don't much care about football. However, I wonder whether economic impact makes any difference. It was widely reported in the US that the financial value of the Superbowl is greater than that of the two next-largest sporting brands, the Summer Olympic Games and the World Cup, combined. Beearkkey 03:03, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
The SuperBowl can headline the front page because Wikipedia is a US based company where the Superbowl is the singlegreatest sporting event of the year. Besides, terrorist attacks occur so regularly people get tired of hearing about them and would occasionally prefer a little good news. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dizoktacobb (talk • contribs) 22:13, 6 February 2007 (UTC).
I disagree with that statement. This is Wikipedia in English, which is a global language spoken in many countries.
I don't see how some blokes with battle armour on running around and the game stopping every 2 seconds is 'good news'. Just take away the armour and stoppages and you've got Rugby, but I don't see the Rugby World Cup going on the main page... Not only that, how can you say people are 'getting tired' of hearing about terrorist attacks? What about the families who've lost people? Do you think they're 'getting tired'? No, they're in bloody mourning. Let's see you lose a family member in an attack then we can see whether you omit it or not because you were 'getting tired' of it. Weden 11:07, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
The Super Bowl is one of the most televised event worldwide, not only in USA. Even in countries that have no local tradition of American Football this is considered a major event and gets wide coverage in the sports pages. I don't think it makes the headline in the general news pages, though. Anyway, it's old news by now...--Nitsansh 21:55, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
Like where!? Who else (apart from the obvious, eg. Canada) other than the US watches the SuperBowl? There was coverage of it over here, but it was at midnight until about 4 in the morning on ITV and not a single news show even mentioned it! Weden 16:59, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
Like my previous commentator, I completely disagree on your statement Even in countries that have no local tradition of American Football this is considered a major event and gets wide coverage in the sports pages. - Superbowl might be broadcasted, or might be on page 89-something in some newspapers, but it's almost never considered a major sports event. There may be some die-hard enthusiasts that get up at night to watch it on some kind of pay-per-view special channels, but I would guess you could easily count them in the hundreds all over Europe :-)) - Get real, American football and the Superbowl is just a US-event. MikeZ 08:34, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

There are roughly 370 million native English speakers in the world, 215 million of those live in the U.S. We have news on the Dutch Prime Minister and the Italian Football Federation, not too many English speakers in those countries and those are hardly global news events. Yes, global warming and terrorists attacks do qualify as global news but it is nice to see good news on the front page occassionally. Sports are forms of entertainment and I would think entertainment is good news. --Holderca1 19:53, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

So it's two fingers to the rest of the world then? Weden 13:38, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
Not at all, it just seems that it is always those two fingers pointed towards the U.S., anytime there is a U.S. related article in the news it is asked why it is listed. Do Americans ask why the World Cup is listed in the news? It isn't a big deal there. As much money that is invested and the number of people that watch in a single day sports event is big news regardless of what country it occurs in. Also, regarding your Rugby World Cup comment, did a little digging, the last Rugby World Cup final occured on November 22, 2003. In the News only dates back to February 22, 2004. I see no problem with inclusion of the Rugby World Cup on the main page. I personnally think this needs to be discussed in detail on which sporting events are automatically included here, that way when discussions like these come up, we can simply place a link to that page. --Holderca1 15:16, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
The World Cup may not be a big thing in the US, but although there are 300 million Americans there are 5.7 billion other people on the planet, and the World Cup is far more important than the SuperBowl to those 5.7 billion. I don't care whether you're American or not, I just think that 5.7 billion > 300 million and that speaks for itself.Weden 21:38, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
OK, seriously, are you kidding me? I was finding it amusing reading about the ridiculous nature of the debate - Super Bowl, major sporting event for the USA... so it makes the page. A bunch of people who are not fans of US Football get their panties in a wad. Who cares? But now, apparently, you are claiming that 100% of the rest of the world cares about the World Cup. Not counting Vatican City there are 192 countries in the world. 32 make the World Cup (and somewhat ironically INCLUDING the USA). 32 countries do not make up 5.7 billion people (or 6 billion including the 300 million Americans). 100% of the world is not a footie/soccer fan, not even 100% of the 32 countries that made it would be fans. I'd even warrant that you can't even say the majority of the humans on Earth are football fans no matter which kind of football you are talking about. I'd say there are a lot of people who place eating, clean water, not getting shot or blown up, and not catching deadly diseases well above the World Cup. Clearly, you have a very strong, anti-American bias which was amusing to watch at first, but you've crossed a line into being offensively stupid over a sporting event. I'll bet you there are likely more than 3 billion people that by reason of age, gender or location don't give a flying flip about the World Cup OR the Super Bowl, so you are debating something that interests only a minority of the occupants of the planet. Get over it.--CokeBear 06:34, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Weden is right about the importance of soccer at least in Europe, CokeBear. I've never watched a soccer game in my life, and I find it very strange that even people from countries that are not in the World Cup are all excited about the World Cup. I don't understand why that is so, but it is so. As for those people who are more interested in eating, clean water and so on - they're not interested in the Super Bowl either.--Grace E. Dougle 11:38, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
You completely misread my comment, I never said that the World Cup should not be on the main page. I also never said that the Super Bowl was more important than the World Cup. You also have to realize that not everyone on the planet speaks English, this is the English Wikipedia, if you don't speak a word of English, you aren't going to come on here anyways. Alas, a civil conversation on this topic seems nigh impossible, so I am done. --Holderca1 21:15, 13 February 2007 (UTC)