Artist's View of Gay Cities Around The World

The above picture was created by lesbian artist Wendy MacNaughton for GayCities.com. Apparently, there is a contest going on at http://www.gaycities.com/best-of-gaycities/ where people can vote in different categories and the prize is a trip to Berlin, Germany (a city I have never been to but would love to visit).

It's sort of fun. Click on the picture to go to the website to vote!

World Cup Final Today: Spain v. The Netherlands

Today is the final of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Spain will be playing the Netherlands. Holland is undefeated in this year's tournament, while Spain has been one of the top 2 ranked teams in the world for the last three years (the other, Brazil was vanquished by the Dutch team in the quarterfinals).

One week after I watched him win his 2nd Wimbledon title, Spaniard Rafael Nadal will be in the audience to watch his team, La Furia Roja battle for their first World Cup title. Only seven countries have won the World Cup since the quadrennial competition began in 1930 (Uruguay, Italy, Germany, Brazil, England, Argentina, and France) so today history will be made.

Yesterday, 2-time defending champion Spain was eliminated from the Davis Cup by France in the semifinals. Is this a harbinger of Spain's defeat in the World Cup? The world's most famous cephalopod, Paul the Octopus has chosen Spain as the winner over the Netherlands today. He has not been wrong in all of his predictions at this year's tournament. He also correctly picked Germany to defeat Uruguay in the third place (runner's up) match. Germany won with a thrilling come-from-behind 3-2 victory to seal an all-European sweep.

MadProfessah's prediction: Netherlands (2-1)

World Cup Semifinal Spain v. GermanyToday

The second semifinal of the World Cup ishappening today. Spain is playing Germany. The winner will play the Netherlands, who defeated Uruguay 3-2 in the other semifinal while I was over Greenland yesterday.

With Rafa Nadal winning Wimbledon on Sunday, many are expecting Spain to win, as does Paul the prognosticating octopus, who has not been wrong yet!

Federer Loses 2nd Grass Court Match in 7 Years!

Roger Federer lost his 2nd grass court match in 7 years in the final of Halle to Lleyton Hewitt 3-6 7-6(4) 6-4, the first time in 16 consecutive matches the former Australian #1 had not lost to the 16-time major champion. Federer's only other loss on grass had come at the hands of Rafael Nadal in the epic 2008 Wimbledon final, which many observers call the greatest tennis match ever played.

Federer had a 29-match win streak on grass at Halle dating back to 2002, and after losing to Robin Soderling in the French Open quarterfinals this year and failing to defend that title he faces defending his Wimbledon title for the first time with a loss in a grass court warm-up tournament. Federer is going for his record-tying 7th Wimbledon title, this times as World #2, behind Nadal.

As Federer approaches the end of his storied career the shock defeats will become more frequent and the major wins will become less frequent. However, with 16 Grand Slam singles title, 2 more than the previous record, he is playing for the record books, and I expect him to win at least two more, ending his caeer with 18 or 19 after the 2012 London Olympics.

Germany May Get Openly Gay Vice Chancellor

Guido Westerwelle, 47, openly gay
head of Germany's Free Democratic Party

Germany is about to make history by having an openly gay man as the second-highest ranking politician of a G-8 country. Guido Westerwelle, head of the Free Democratic Party, is likely to become Vice-Chancellor of Germany and Foreign Minister (equivalent to the United States Secretary of State, which is the third highest member of the Executive Branch). The Free Democratic Party placed well enough in this weekend's elections that returned Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party to power that the FDP and CDU will together form a conservative coalition to form a majority in the Bundestag, the German Parliament.

And Herr Westerwelle is not the only openly gay politician making history in Germany. Klaus Wowerweit, 52, has repeatedly won re-election as Mayor of Berlin and has made no secret of his desire to become Chancellor of Germany one day.