AC Milan Brazilian midfielder Kaká scored the winning the goal against Catania only a few minutes ago. This, believe it or not, is relevant to us here at CrunchGear, for the Manchester City-bound player (if you believe the European sports pages) is Sony’s new frontman for an upcoming Bravia ad campaign. And if you’ve spent any amount of time on YouTube then you know what to expect from such a campaign: a big idea and an even bigger budget (Kaká’s no fool) leaving you wondering, “Wait, this is about TVs, right?”

That quick, shaky (sorry!) video shows you some behind-the-scenes action of the shoot in a Turin square. It also shows one Dan Magness breaking a whole bunch of keepie-uppie records. Incidentally, Turin is home to Juventus, one of AC Milan’s principal rivals.

Some explanation is in order.

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Some strange science news for you now. You know how you can “buy” stars, even though such purchases aren’t recognized by any legitimate scientific organization? Well, Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abromovich—he’s a tremendously wealthy Russian, for those of who don’t know who he is—just did one better.

He bought [Spanish] his girlfriend 100 acres of land on the moon.

Yes, the Russian billionaire “bought” the land, which is located between 20-24°S latitude and 30-34°W longitude up there, in order to make it up to his soon-to-be wife, Daria Zhukova. Apparently their crazy wedding had o be toned done because of the credit crisis, which has affected Abramovich’s fortune.

The land, in case you’re looking to symbolically buy some moon property, was purchased from The Lunar Embassy.

The demo for the PC version Football Manager 2009 is now available. The game, for you normal people who are allergic to simulation games, puts you in the role of a big league football (soccer) manager. It’s sorta like Fantasy Football, but only one-third as lame.

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A heads-up to my fellow football fans.

There’s a reason why Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 knocked FIFA 09 off its “fucking perch” in the UK this past week: it’s a better game, bar none. Granted, it’s still absurd that Konami hasn’t ponied up for all the Premier League licenses and all that, but what are you gonna do? Authentic logos don’t a good game make, to rip off Bill O’Reilly syntax.

In other news, what Champions League game are you watching today? Manchester United v. Celtc (which is what ESPN2 will have) couldn’t possibly be any more boring, while Real Madrid v. Juventus looks pretty solid. I may have to Bootcamp into Windows on my MacBook to see that.

Chelsea owner and cheerleader-in-chief (when the side plays attractive football) Roman Abramovich is building a £200 million (~$352 million) yacht that includes at least two helipads, a harbor, a submarine and its own missile defense system. That’s an artist’s impression of what Abramovich’s money can buy/build.

The 550 foot-long yacht, named the Eclipse, is being built in the same German shipyard where the Bismarck was built. It will have a crew of 70 (!), and enough accommodations to entertain 24 guests, including an onboard theater and discothèque.

Abramovich is only 41-years-old, so he still has plenty of time to enjoy wealth. Good for him.

Maybe now he can buy players who aren’t made of glass.

via Gizmodo

Once again the world of man is threatened by a robot menace. Did we not learn from Terminator and The Matrix that down this road waits crushing oppression under an unyielding steel grip? Or a lightweight aluminum one? While at the moment this leg appears to be shaky, small, and less than deadly, it’s only a matter of time before it joins with its brethren to start their own league (as foretold on the NES) and then their own political party.

Unfortunately, as tech journalists, we’ll be forced to cover our own species’ demise at the hands of the machines, post by post. When they come for our soft flesh, we’ll liveblog it.

More videos and pics below. [via MAKE]
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The demo for FIFA 09 is nowon the PS3’s PSN. Not a moment too soon, since we’re right in the midst of World Cup 2010 qualifiers.

That up there is England, winning. Yes, truly shocking.

Now there’s a football manager who knows his stuff

Football (soccer) fans should keep their eyes on YouTube today as Sega and Sports Interactive will be showing off some of the new features you can expect in Football Manager 2009, both the console and handheld versions. The Sports Interactive folks promise a few “revolutionary” features, as well as the standard evolutionary ones; good to see they’ve got all their bases covered.

Admittedly, football management is a bit wonkish even for me—4-4-2 or Christmas tree, etc.—but there’s gotta be a few stat heads who enjoy the sport. This game is for them.

And yes, we’ll have the videos here after they’ve been uploaded. Till then, be sure to put on your Fabio Capello and Jose Mourinho hats.

Well! Sports Interactive, true to their word, uploaded the videos yesterday. You can find them on YouTube, or right here.

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Sky Sports HD, anyone?

The Western economies may be slowing, but the past summer’s sporting events, including Euro 2008 and the Beijing Olympics, have boosted HDTV’s profile in Europe. Both events generated a “surge in the penetration of of High Definition technologies throughout Europe.” So says DEG Europe, which is a sort of HD lobby there that tries to convince consumers that HDTV is really, really cool (and worth the money).

It’s estimated that by the end of the summer, or now-ish, about one-third of all Euro households will have HDTV. Not that I’m living at now :-(

Another caveat: consumers are still buying plain old DVDs, but DEG Europe sees that business soon topping off.

IFA tells a similar tale. Despite the terrible economy—Germany’s retracted last quarter—companies like Panasonic and Sony and Samsung were still hawking the biggest and brightest TVs money can buy. Strange industry, this.

The Summer Olympics begin tomorrow (time zone permitting), but you’re stuck in the office all day long and can’t watch. Not so! Using some of the same methods we discussed a few months ago, you can watch your favorite sport—I’ll be watching football (soccer) from the many watering holes in and around Barcelona—as it happens, in real time.

Note that NBC is showing damn near everything (with some exceptions) on its Web site, but that’s U.S.-only.

So if you’re in the mood to watch Lionel Messi give FC Barcelona a heart attack every time he touches the ball—seriously, the local papers here are treating “el caso Messi” like it’s a break-in at the Watergate Hotel—or to see the Chinese gymnastics team give the Americans a thorough shellacking, swing on over to Wired, whose Wiki has more than enough info to get you started.