the buzz log

Times are tough, but that doesn't mean that paying obscene amounts of money for nonessentials is completely out of style. This week, a video game fetched $17,000. Also buzzing: Lance Armstrong's humorous fine, and a photo that has some saying, "Baby's got Barack." Read on for all these stories and more with the Buzz Week in Review.

It's not about the fine
Actually, it is. Lance Armstrong, the all-universe cyclist, was penalized $92 at the Tour de France this week for—wait for it—"showing up late." Indeed, the man who has made a career out of getting to the finish line first arrived to the pre-stage registration late, and was given a fine for his impudence. Armstrong later apologized for his tardiness via his Twitter account. A Yahoo! Sports blog writes that Armstrong cast the blame on friend Ben Stiller, who was visiting. Regardless of who was at fault, Armstrong rode to the head of the pack in Search this week, surging 346%.

The $17,500 video game
And you thought the deluxe version of Rock Band was expensive: This past week, a gamer paid $17,500 for a very rare Nintendo cartridge that was used in the 1990 World Video Game Championships. The game, which contains mini-versions of Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and Rad Racer, was purchased on eBay by a (very) dedicated collector of gaming lore. Known within certain circles as the holy grail of video games, the cartridge is one of only 26 that were ever made (according to rumors). Of those, just 12 have ever surfaced. News that the game sold for such an astonishing sum pushed lookups on "most expensive video game" and the rather incredulous sounding "$17,000 for a video game" into the warp zone. Additionally, this blog from Yahoo! Video Games scored high in the Buzz.

Ogler-in-chief? Not so fast
Barack Obama found himself in the middle of a storm this week when photos surfaced of the president appearing to leer at a young lady's caboose at the G8 summit. Despite a video that later cleared things up (Mr. Obama was simply turning to help another guest down a step), searches on "obama checking out girl," "obama looks at woman's butt," and "tail to the chief" all posted tremendous gains. Even more popular was the girl's name: Mayora Tavares, a junior delegate from Brazil. While Obama was absolved by the video, French president Nicolas Sarkozy wasn't so lucky. To the casual observer, it really does look like he's admiring the female form.

Also buzzing this week...
• General Motors emerged from bankruptcy, but it's keeping its logo blue, thank you very much.
• The highly anticipated "Bruno" hit theaters. Prepare to cringe.
• Levi Johnston dished on Sarah Palin's supposed reasons for throwing in the towel.

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