- And the hits just keep on coming for Tiger Woods as a new year brings more of the same for the man formerly known as the world’s most dominant golfer and in the eyes of some, its most dominant athlete. Woods, who has lost sponsors and business partners this year just as he did last year, is still slip-sliding down the world golf rankings as well, continuing a trend he began late last year when England’s Lee Westwood bumped him from the No. 1 spot. Five years in the top spot came to an end with Woods still struggling to rebuild his personal life and regain his stroke on the course. He settled into the No. 2 spot and managed to stay there for all of three months. That reign as golf’s second-best player ended this weekend when German Martin Kaymer, the 2010 PGA Championship winner who also won last year's European money title, curb-stomped the field at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship to win by 8 shots Sunday and in the process, ripped the second slot in the rankings from Woods. Kaymer needed only to finish seventh to displace Woods and he accomplished that and then some. He finished off his victory in style, shooting a 6-under-par 66 in the final to finish at 24-under 264 and win his third Abu Dhabi title in four years. "It's quite nice to overtake somebody who is probably the best player in the world, perhaps the best player that ever lived," Kaymer said. "To be in front of him for a little bit -- we'll see how long it takes him to overtake me again -- but you know, it makes me very proud to be better in the world rankings than the best player in the world." Well played, Martin, well played. Humility, respect…..I almost believe that you expect Tiger to morph back into his old self and start obliterating entire tournament fields again. Anyone who watched Woods hack his way around a course last year knows those days are long gone and almost certainly not coming back, but there are still some of his peers who treat him with more respect and trepidation than he’s due at this point. As for Woods, he comes out of hiding to make his 2011 debut Thursday at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego. Perhaps there is no more telling sign of his recent decline than the fact that what was once an important moment on any PGA Tour calendar year is now a ho-hum news bit barely worth mentioning. It seems safe to assume that Woods’ focus won't (or shouldn’t) be on regaining the top spot in the world rankings, but on simply putting together four consistent rounds and being in contention when Sunday rolls around………
- She may or may not have a point (for once), but Kim Kardashian will have to forgive me if I can’t take a damn thing she says seriously. After all, she’s famous for…….well, why is she famous again? That’s right, she’s the daughter of a plastic surgery-addicted former Olympian who has managed to gravy train her old man’s fame into reality shows and who has dated enough professional athletes to make anyone outside of Alyssa Milano jealous. She’s made futile attempts at a music career and gained the, um, admiration of dudes around the world because she’s hot and has a nice backside. However, I just don’t feel like any of those things qualify her to comment on social issues of minimal, average or major significance. Yet there she was, lashing out at MTV following reports that 90 girls at a Memphis high school became teen moms over the past year. "I find it so sad and disturbing," she lamented on her blog. "It seems that shows like 'Teen Mom' are all of a sudden making teen pregnancy seem cool in the eyes of young girls. The kids from these shows are all over the news, even on the covers of magazines, and have become almost like celebrities, but girls, these are not people you should idolize!" Exactly! Just like some vapid, camera-whore reality star whose family has made a lot of money and garnered much more fame than they deserve from reality TV……umm, never mind. But rather than trample on the river of wisdom flowing from Ms. Kardashian, I’ll get out of her way and just enjoy along with the rest of you. "When I think back to when I was 16, there is no way I would even have considered having a baby. That thought wouldn’t even have entered my head," she continued. "Having a baby is one of the biggest and most life-changing decisions a person can make, and while I’m not saying that no teen is in the position to raise a child, having a baby so young shouldn’t be seen as the trendy thing to do." Her wisdom wasn’t received favorably by at least one of the train wrecks MTV has exploited for its shows about knocked-up teens, "Teen Mom" cast member Amber Portwood. "Last time I checked, Kim Kardashian had a sex tape floating around on the internet and I'm pretty sure she made a lot of money off of it," Portwood fumed. "She made a sex tape when she was younger and she wants to bash the girls on 'Teen Mom'?" Geez…..this is a tough one. On the one hand, anyone who has been on “Teen Mom” is as low on the societal and reality television food chains as can be. On the other hand, no one is less qualified to criticize anyone on life choices and judgment issues than Kardashian. Even if she has a valid point, it’s discounted significantly because of who she is. I’m just going to declare both sides to be losers in this fight and tell everyone out there than the safest thing to do is ignore everything that comes flying out of these fools’ mouths. Flipping a coin probably gives you a better chance of success in life……….
- Wow. Will the stunners in this life never cease? There are far too many developments that come out of left field and blindside us all to continually have unpredictable, totally bizarre occurrences taking place on a near-daily basis. For example, who ever could have imagined that a drunk dude heading home from a bar would do something asinine like trying to jump a metal fence topped by pointed spikes to reach his apartment building, or that said drunk dude would be unsuccessful in trying to Javier Sotomayor his way over the fence and end up impaling himself on one of the spikes? The scene of this completely unforeseeable incident was Sacramento, Calif., where officers headed to 1818 P Street at 1:23 a.m. Monday after a report that man was stuck on a fence and screaming. They quickly determined that the man misjudged the leap and instead of clearing the fence, landed on a spike instead. He was found hanging upside-down when officers arrived and after they (presumably) stopped laughing several minutes later, they got to work. Rather than trying to extract the man from the fence and risk doing serious damage to his leg by tearing an artery or something else, they called the local fire department, which came, removed a 2-square-foot piece of the fence and took the man to a local hospital for treatment. Why he couldn’t just go through the front door of the building like a normal person, I don’t know. Maybe his rent was late because he blows all of his money on alcohol and entering through the back of the building was his way of avoiding the landlord. Either that or I’m just wasting time trying to understand the actions of someone whose blood-alcohol content was probably somewhere north of .14, but one or the other……….
- Tired of leaving an easy trail of cookies for others to follow your online actions? The makers of your favorite (and least favorite) browsers have heard those concerns and are taking actions. On Sunday, Mozilla announced it was exploring a "Do Not Track" feature for Firefox. One day later, Google introduced a Chrome add-on that lets users opt out of tracking cookies that monitor their movement and behavior online. The change is not a major one, but it at least signals that Google has heard the public’s concerns about Internet privacy and security and is making an effort to address them. Google issued a wordy statement about its "Keep My Opt-Outs" add-on, which plays along with the self-regulation efforts by the online advertising industry to let users permanently opt out of ad tracking from the companies that participate in various programs, including the Network Advertising Initiative. Any time self-regulation is involved, there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical, something Google basically admitted in its blog post about the add-on. "This new feature gives you significant control without compromising the revenue that fuels the Web content that we all consume every day," said Sean Harvey and Rajas Moonka, a pair of Chrome product managers. They seem to be hailing “Do Not Track” as walking the line between privacy and keeping the advertising-driven online world functioning as it always has. Many critics have been quick to hail it as a case of much ado about nothing, which seems more accurate. Google also plans to build similar add-ons for other browsers, and has released the code for the Chrome extension as open-source so developers can spot bugs or make modifications. Building add-ons for other browsers is a solid idea because Chrome is a third-rate piece of garbage that doesn’t merit using in the first place. Mozilla’s approach is different, according to…..Mozilla. You’ll have to take the company’s word on that because other than announcing that a new technology to address the issue is in the works, Mozilla hasn’t said much else. Microsoft is following suit and keeping details of its "Tracking Protection" for Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) close to the vest because it ships this Friday. As always, the Internet is constantly evolving and changing, often just not fast enough to keep up with threats and problems………..
- Not to spark a worldwide panic that leads to frantic, bug-eyed people bum-rushing their local grocery or convenience store and buying up every last candy bar from the shelves, but now seems like a solid time to warn you all that the trading future of cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate, is extremely uncertain after some of the world’s biggest trading houses halted their operations in Ivory Coast, the west African country which accounts for 40 percent of global supplies. The suspension went into effect today and within a few hours, prices had spiked by as much as 7 percent. The price increase came after the internationally recognized president-elect of Ivory Coast imposed a one-month export ban in an attempt to oust Laurent Gbagbo, who the international community has said lost the election. So yes, chocolate is a caught up in a political war for the future of a nation. Rather than fight the ban (and The Man), several trading houses were slowing down or shutting their operations to fall in line with it. Cargill, the world’s largest cocoa trader, “temporarily suspended” purchases. The order came down from the UN-backed government of Alassane Ouattara and other cocoa traders quietly copped to following Cargill’s lead by either stopping buying fresh beans or shutting completely their businesses in Ivory Coast. The ban is for one month at this point, but if extended, it could have far-reaching consequences for prices and the way cocoa is traded. Don’t underestimate the potential impact from the ban, as companies in Ivory Coast move cocoa worth $4.5 billion a year from villages around the country to the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro and then to processing plants back in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. Not only does the ban affect those places, but it also impacts all of the middlemen who work in harvesting, transporting and processing the coca in Ivory Coast. Officials at some of the bigger cocoa houses have openly worried that the ban will last much longer than one month and only worsen problems the cocoa industry in Ivory Coast was suffering due to European Union sanctions. The EU has blacklisted Ivorian economic entities and individuals, including the head of the coffee and cocoa trade management committee, Gilbert Anoh N’Guessan, because of their ties to Gbagbo. Included in the ban are the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro. The ban also bars EU-registered vessels from docking at Ivory Coast ports. All of this drama could not come at a worse time, as the majority of the Ivorian cocoa crop is harvested October until February. Estimates place the amount of cocoa already harvested at 840,000 metric tons, up 10.5 percent from last season’s 760,000 tons. In the lull, neighboring cocoa producers like Ghana, Liberia, Burkina Faso and Togo are expected to seize the opportunity to grab a larger share of the market. Already, Ghana’s cocoa production has been better than expected after a spell of favorable rains in the middle of last year, boosting supplies. Prices for cocoa are high following four years of shortages, but many analysts believe that the cocoa market is set to move into a surplus in the 2010-11 marketing year. Oh, and the ban will also spur smugglers to find a way to get cocoa beans out of the country, creating something of a black market situation and adding a nice layer of intrigue to the situation. As for what this means to that Snickers bar you’re about to snag from the local Costco……probably not much, at least not yet………
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