Inside View from Ireland: 10 Questions Arising

SUNNY WEATHER beckons outside and unfinished tasks cry inside so I'll leave the Sunday reading aside, but with 10 questions arising.

1. How many pizzas will Britons consume during the World Cup? Enough to cover 320 football pitches, according to Mark Tighe.

2. How much do Americans spend annually in coffee shops? €8.4 bn, says Dominic Ru$he. But coffee consumption is falling in the USA.

3. What's wrong with the Boeing Dreamliner? Bubbles in the fuselage create by multiple layers of carbon fibre tape, reports Dominic Rushe. Bubbles tend to freeze and crack with altitude.

4. Why will Skype's siver lining become tarnished? Because of the solid patent infringement claims brought against it by Net2Phone, writes John Naughton in The Observer.

5. What kind of PR stunt happened in Cuba over the weekend? Three inmates at Guantanamo Bay hung themselves in their solitary cells. Colleen Graffy, the deputy assistant secretary of State for public diplomacy, told BBC's Newshour that "it certainly is a good PR move to draw attention."

6. Why was England so flat against Paraguay in the opening round of the World Cup? The players were stopped on several occasions from drinking water during breaks in play. Beckham drank from a plastic bottle that he got in front of the Paraguay dugout.

7. Which film will fans of Super Size Me probably enjoy seeing in the Irish Film Institute on Saturday, June 23rd during the Darklight Film Festival? Lunacy, directed by Simon Bogojevic Narath.

8. TV viewing figures are up 9% this month over last year. What much-discussed British TV show is down in viewing numbers? Big Brother, says Anna Pickard in The Guardian.

9. What is the in-colour for sunglass rims this year? White. As modelled by Chantelle in several glossy magazines on sale this weekend.

10. What two people were subjects of the "most viewed" news stories on Yahoo! during the sunny Sunday afternoon in Ireland today? Paris Hilton (#3 story for backing her SUV into a Honda Civic) and Robert Scoble (#5 story for leaving Microsoft).

[1] Mark Tighe -- "Expat fans import World Cup fever" in The Sunday Times, 11 June 2006.
[2] Dominc Rushe -- "Starbucks targeted in US coffee war"