IT Insights Blog

The IT Insights blog is taking the day off, in honor of the U.S. observance of Independence Day. We will be back on Friday, July 6. Until then, why not check out the holiday-themed Thomas Jefferson quiz at GoCertify?

July is here, and we're getting very close to the Final Four of the biggest sporting event in the world, soccer's FIFA World Cup. Believe it or not this thing has only been rolling for 88 years — the first World Cup was held in 1930 — and two tournaments were skipped on account of World War II. So there have only been 21 World Cup titles, and Germany (4 titles) and Brazil (5 titles) have almost half of them. These guys are like the Celtics and Lakers of soccer.

It's a big weekend in the professional sports world. This is the weekend when NBA players who have played out their existing contracts can sign new deals. Some will sign with the teams they already play for, and others will seek employment in a new city, playing for a new team. A player who is contractually in a position to seek a new deal is called a free agent — available to every team, free to weigh competing offers and seek the best deal from the highest bidder.

Once a year in summer, everybody at TestOut walks across the street to a small park right in the center of Pleasant Grove and sits down to break bread together. Metaphorically break bread, that is. There are usually dinner rolls, and rolls are bread, so bread is definitely broken. That's not what has most TestOut-ers, however, licking their chops for weeks in advance of the this pleasant and collegial get-together. The real attraction is the food or, more specifically, the beef.

In March of 1977, Marvel Comics launched a patriotic new superhero named Spirit of '76. Which feels like a pretty big missed opportunity when you think about it. What, the Marvel Comic guys didn't know the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence was coming up? The character's whole shtick is how patriotic and All-American he is. You couldn't have gotten your stuff together a few months sooner, and had Spirit of '76 make his debut in, oh, 1976?