Yahoo! Answers

The suspense is over. Welcome to Yahoo! Answers hits the streets: Episode 2! Last month, we introduced to you Answers on the Street, where we take YOUR interesting questions and travel coast to coast to find the answers to just a few of them.

And now, this week’s question…

We’ve all been in this situation. You’re at work, finishing a project, and there’s this co-worker that just gets under your skin. They’re too loud, they won’t stop talking, they just won’t shut up. What do you do?

Think you know the answer? We know our community can do better. You’ve heard the answers on the street — now we want to hear from you! Give us a shout and tell us what you think. Just click the question below to submit your response.

Question: How do you deal with a co-worker who talks too much?

Episode 1 Winner

Congrats to janet a for the Best Answer to How do you tell someone they have bad breath? Here’s Janet in her own words:

I love the Internet. My daughter recommended Yahoo for email, and one day I clicked on “Answers” and I was hooked. I love the Senior section, all of the Medical categories (I’m a retired x-ray technologist), and the Jokes and Riddle Category, oh, and the Food & Drink (Recipe) category — I could go on and on!

When I’m not on the computer, I’m usually outside with our 3 Chihuahuas – My husband and I live in the mountains and take at least 2 walks every day, and of course the dogs go with us. I love to cook and love to read, especially mystery novels.

Thank you again for the Best Answer — it was exciting and fun!”

Get Featured

You can be the next winner and get 200 EXTRA POINTS and get recognized on our Answers Blog.  Heck, if you have a webcam and we like your video, we may even feature a video of you on our Answers Blog! We’re not the only ones that can make videos.  Simply upload your video here. In submitting your video keep in mind your obligations under the Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.  Also, you must be 18 in order to submit a video.

We had over 2000 answers the last time so keep them coming! Don’t forget to check out our blog for future videos. We’re just getting started.

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We could probably go on at length about what it was like to be part of this global spectacle but honestly, you just need to watch the video:

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Photo by Axel Bührmann

Just two weeks into the World Cup and we’ve already seen ingredients for a blockbuster movie. Landon Donovan scored a late goal in added time to seal perhaps the most dramatic time in American soccer history. USA advances!

Now you’ve all had chance to check out the talent from all of the countries participating in the World Cup we want you all to take your pick of your team of the tournament by picking the top 11 players you would have in your own World Cup team for our World Cup featured question:

Who would you choose to be in your World Cup team of the tournament?

To ask this question we’ve partnered with Brooks Peck from our very own ‘Dirty Tackle’ on Yahoo! Sports.

At the end of the tournament Brooks Peck will be choosing his own `Team of the Tournament` and the first response to match his will get the best answer and 110 BONUS POINTS — that’s 10 points for each player on your team!

Remember, as with any soccer team you’ll need to include just ELEVEN players:

-         A goalkeeper
-         Defenders
-         Midfielders
-         Forwards

But the formation is entirely up to you!   One more `rule`: The players must have appeared in the World Cup, too!

Once you’ve formed your team, why not share it with your Facebook friends by publishing your answer to this question?  See what they think of your team choice and if they want to make their own!

Still can’t get enough of the World Cup?  Get the latest World Cup 2010 news and coverage here.

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At this very moment, the best football players from all over the world are making their way to sunny South Africa to compete for the prize of all prizes. All eyes will turn to the Rainbow Nation to see if the numerous critics and doubters were right after all: They don’t believe the country is ready to host the greatest show on earth. Well, the time for words and debate is over, let the action begin and we’ll find out for ourselves!

Behind all the exciting games and magnificent stadia we will be seeing on our screens and the long hours we will be spending encouraging our team on to at least one more win, there is a fascinating country extending well beyond what will be shown.

Don’t worry, this is not a history class, nor a geography test about South Africa. It is just a quick introduction to some facts you may find interesting (like the fact that Kruger National Park is almost the same size as Holland). Hopefully what follows will help add context and flavour to a whole month of football and activities that will happen in Answers.

The Rainbow Nation

South Africans often describe themselves as the Rainbow Nation due to their wide ranging diversity in people and cultural groups. South Africa has a population of 45 million people speaking 11 official languages, with Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans being the most common home languages (English is the fifth most common home language, but is understood by most people as, primarily for economic and political reasons, it is the lingua franca).

The best known and biggest cultural group in South Africa is the Zulus. They proudly defend and practice their own traditions, and became a very important force against the British army in the late 19th Century.

Unusually, the country has three capital cities: Cape Town (Legislative), Pretoria (Administrative), and Bloemfontein (Judicial).

The South African flag as we know it today was adopted on Liberty Day, April 27th 1994 (during the first democratic elections after the abolishment of apartheid.

Sports

Sport in South Africa is almost a national religion! Children actively engage in all types of sport from a very young age and inevitably dream of emulating their heroes in football, rugby, cricket and just about every other sport you can think of.

Since the first democratic elections were celebrated in 1994, South Africa has hosted a variety of international sporting tournaments: The Rugby World cup in 1995 (which they won), Football’s African Cup of Nations in 1996 (which they won), and the Cricket World Cup in 2003. The country has also hosted auto racing’s A1 Grand Prix since 2006.

South Africa has always been a formidable competitor in Rugby Union. The national team, the Springboks, have won the Rugby World Cup on two occasions: 1995 and 2007.

Bafana Bafana (as the South African football team are known, meaning “The Boys”) have the hopes of a nation riding on their shoulders. The South African Football Association (SAFA) was banned from all international football events from 1974 till 1992, so winning the African Cup of Nations in 1996 was a significant triumph. Since then Bafana Bafana have proven somewhat inconsistent, slaying giants one moment and losing dismally to underdogs the next. So anything could happen in June/July 2010!

Famous South Africans

You may know of several other famous South Africans, but here we offer a small list of some of the names that have conquered the world, and you may be surprised by some of them:

J.R.R. Tolkien, writer and author of “Lord of the Rings”.

J.M. Coetzee, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Nelson Mandela, revolutionary leader, first black president and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Charlize Theron, the first South African actress to win an Oscar.

Christian Barnard, the doctor who realised the first ever heart transplant.

Jody Sheckter, Formula 1 champion in 1979.

Gary Player, World Golf Hall of Famer and winner of 9 major tournaments

Desmond Tutu, Archbishop and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984

Hugh Masekela, Grammy Award nominated musician best known as a trumpeter

As we mentioned, this is just a small introduction to South Africa, and the beginning of a whole month of activities that we have prepared for the Answers Community around the FIFA World Cup. Stay tuned, and you will find yourself in the middle of a number of contests, activities and rewards that we’ve set up for you along the way.

“May the best team win!”

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We receive emails regularly from many of you expressing your interest in writing a blog post on the Answers blog.

As much of our success is down to our amazing community members, we want to extend an offer to all you – the opportunity to volunteer a blog post and have it published on the Answers blog!

Have you ever dreamed of being famous in the US? Then this is your chance! If your blog hits the spot we may even feature it on our sister-blogs in one of the 21 countries where we blog and translate it into some of the 9 languages we operate in.

This is your chance to have your voice heard, and have millions of people read your words! If that isn’t incentive enough, how about an extra 100 points for each post we publish?

How do I become a guest blogger?

Simple – come up with a suggestion or a full blog post and email it to y_answrs_favorites@yahoo.com.

Here are a few tips and rules to follow:

1) What should you write about? – Focus on what would interest the Answers Community. We are open to any subject area, even if only slightly related to Answers. This could include educational, instructional or informative topics. Some examples are as follows:

o Subjects that you may have professional or personal experience in, for example if you have recently planned a wedding, you may want to pitch a topic on “How to organize a wedding?”
o Or you could pitch ideas based on your personal experience on Answers, such as tips on getting the most out of Answers, things that could be improved, and anything that you would like to share with the Answers community.

2) Use correct spelling and grammar. The more understandable your suggestion is, the higher the chance it has to be used or chosen as a possible blog topic.

3) If you use any Answers content in your blog posts, it should adhere to the Community Guidelines.

Finally, the legal bit – your blog will be featured on the site in accordance with our TOS. We reserve the right to translate and make editorial changes to your blog if selected.

We look forward to hearing from you – y_answrs_favorites@yahoo.com

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