- You can have my belly putter when you pry it from my
gloved, well-paid hands that almost never have to o any manual labor
whatsoever. As golf’s governing bodies debate the future of the controversial
putter that has been used by three of the past four major champions, one of
those champions is having none of a possible belly putter ban. U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson bristled Wednesday
at the suggestion that the putter he and others have used to win major
championships should be outlawed. Should a revision to the rules be made,
Simpson sounds like he would have a major beef. "Do I think they should be
banned? No, and here's why," Simpson said at the Ocean Course, where the
PGA Championship began Thursday. "You take a wooden driver compared to a
460 cc titanium (the kind used today), and to me that's a lot bigger difference
than a 35-inch putt to a 45-inch putter. Last year, the strokes-gained putting
(a statistical category), nobody in the top 20 used a belly putter or a long
putter. If anybody says it's an advantage, I think you've got to look at the
stats and the facts." As Simpson and fellow belly putter users line up on
one side of the debate, the United States Golf Association and Royal & Ancient
-- the game's rules-making bodies – are on the opposite side. Peter Dawson, the
R&A's CEO, said during last month's British Open Championship that
"we're seeing now people who can putt perfectly well in the conventional
way thinking that an anchored stroke gives them an advantage. I think that's
the fundamental change that we've witnessed in the last couple of years."
Along with Simpson, Keegan Bradley at last year's PGA, and Ernie Els at the
Open Championship used a belly putter to win. When using a belly putter, a
golfer’s hands are typically wedged into the stomach or the chest. Some in the
game feel that gives players an unfair advantage and the debate is heating
up……….
- There isn't a movie studio in Hollywood that wouldn’t love
a part of the superhero action. If that means a multi-superhero flick with mass
appeal, so much the better. After the resounding success of “The Avengers” and
news breaking that Joss Whedon will direct a sequel to the bid-budget epic, Warner Bros. may be ready to join the fight by
launching its own superhero team-up film helmed by a big-name director. None
other than Chuckie Sullivan of “Goodwill Hunting” fame, Ben Affleck, is
reportedly in talk with the studio to direct “The Justice League,” a film that
would unite DC Comics’ marquee superheroes, including Superman, Batman, Green
Lantern and Wonder Woman. Because of the success of “The Avengers,” which united Marvel’s Iron Man, Thor, Captain
America and Hulk franchises, a Justice League movie was basically a guarantee. When
a movie grosses more than $1 billion worldwide, copycats are assured. Warner
Bros. has movie rights locked up for all of DC Comics’ big characters and now
that director Christopher Nolan, who has long advocated keeping Batman
separate, stepping aside after directing “The Dark Knight Rises” to cap his
three-film stint in the franchise, a Justice League movie has no real
impediments. Nolan will serve as producer on next year’s Superman reboot, “Man
of Steel,” but has said he will walk away from the superhero world once that
film is done. “Batman is going to outlive us all, there’s no question of that,
but I’m done with it,” Nolan said in July. “I’ve told my story and I’m glad to
have had the privilege of working with the character, but it’s done.” Nolan may
be done, but the superhero team-up trend clearly is not………..
- Brazil should probably protect its rain forests, right? That
seems like a no-brainer for a nation known mostly for being home to the Amazon
and in fact, it’s exactly what President Dilma Rousseff promised to do when she
took office. Yet one year ago, Rousseff authorized a change that ceded much
responsibility for environmental oversight to local officials and the result
hasn’t been positive for the environment. Of the 168 Ibama field offices
operating a few years ago, 91 have been shuttered, according to Ibama
employees. Companies who deal regulalrly with the agency say they are receiving
fewer fines for violations and having less regular interaction with government
overseers. The shift to local control is largely viewed as an all-out retreat
from nearly two decades of progressive federal environmental policy and in the
19 months since Rousseff took office, longstanding rules that curtail
deforestation and protect millions of square miles of watershed have been
rolled back. The president herself even issued an executive order to shrink or
repurpose seven protected woodlands, clearing the way for hydroelectric dams
and other infrastructure projects, and to legalize settlements by farmers and
miners. She has also brought a process of setting aside land for national
parks, wildlife reserves and other "conservation units," implemented
by three previous administrations, to a virtual halt. In her favor, Rousseff
isn't denying what she’s been doing and she maintains that further development
in the Amazon rainforest, an area seven times the size of France, is essential
to maintaining the economic growth that has made Brazil the world's
sixth-largest economy. Rather than protect the rain forest, the government
wants to build 21 dams in the Amazon through 2021 at a cost of $48 billion
to meet
the energy demands of Brazil's growing consumer class. With 60 million
Brazilians still living in poverty and the world on its way to the country for
the 2012 World Cup soccer tournament and 2016 Summer Olympics, that sort of
societal blight isn't what the powers that be want to show off. "I have to
explain to people how they are going to eat, how they'll have access to water,
how they'll have access to energy," Rousseff said in a speech in April.
With an approval rating of 77 percent, most Brazilians don’t seem to mind her
lax environmental policies. Critics warn that Rousseff's policies endanger the
world's largest rainforest and trade long-term damage for short-term economic
gain. Those critics are aghast over plans for Belo Monte, a$13 billion project
to build the world's third-largest dam on the Xingu River, an Amazon tributary
in Para. Enviro-lovers appear to be fighting a losing battle when it comes to
saving the rain forest, but they refuse to surrender………….
- Maybe some day, Microsoft will stop making crappy products
headlined by the world’s worst operating system…..right? Maybe that day is
today, as Bill Gates’ crew unveiled
the Windows Phone Dev Center — replacing the App Hub — which brings new
features aimed at making it easier for developers to get paid and reach more
markets. The center is a collecting point for tools aimed at developers making
apps for the Windows Phone 7.5 (or earlier) platform. To keep it relevant, the
Dev Center will also be used for submitting and managing Windows Phone 8 apps
in the future. "The site, an evolution of our retired App Hub developer
portal, is designed to provide everything you need to build, publish, and
manage apps for Windows Phones around the world," spokesman Ash Wahi wrote
on the Windows Team Blog. "The result of months of careful planning and
attention to your feedback, it has new features to help make Windows Phone app
development faster and more profitable." Microsoft has maintained that the
center is structured with future growth and movement into new geographical
markets in mind. Gone is the cluttered look of the App Hub and in its place is a
new version with back-end modifications to improve reliability and performance.
Developers can now use PayPal to pay for their developer account or get paid,
which is new. There is specific pricing based on country and developers can
monitor how their apps have been rated and reviewed for each market at a glance.
Microsoft has promised that the Windows Phone Dev Center will also support
in-app purchasing when Windows Phone 8 is introduced. Developers should also be
excited that they are no longer limited to 100 users if they want to give their
apps a run-through with beta testers. Even with all of these changes, there are
still significant questions about whether Microsoft can attract developers to
the Windows Phone platform. A better operating system would probably help……….
- So about that slice of pizza you were planning to order
at the Sbarro in the York Galleria
food court…..never mind. There will be no slices of pizza, hot dogs on sticks,
burritos or Cinnabons ordered at that particular food court any time soon, not
with the food court still closed due to a Pennsylvania Department of
Agriculture investigation. The problem, disturbingly enough, is roaches. A
"severe roach infestation" affected eight of the nine restaurants,
according to state officials, leading to the closure of the entire food court.
Cleaning crews scoured the food court Wednesday to sanitize all nine
restaurants, even the lone roach-free establishment, Auntie Anne's pretzel
shop, which closed voluntarily because the area will be fumigated and food
could not be prepared safely, according to state officials. The roach raid on
the food court came after state inspectors received a consumer tip and went to
the mall to examine the food court. Over a 24-hour span, they checked the
restaurants and discovered eight of them were infested. Auntie Anne's was the
only clean eatery, which is slightly bizarre and more than a little
inexplicable given that the food court was apparently overrun by the pests. So
far, health inspectors have not been able to determine the source of the roach
outbreak, but yellow caution tape has cordoned off the area the past few days
and state officials are working with mall management to address the problem.
Burning the entire food court to the ground and starting over seems like a
solid option given how filthy the area must have been, but probably isn’t on
the table. The Galleria Mall issued a statement Tuesday in which it said
nothing of note, apologized to patrons for allowing them to unknowingly eat in
a roach-infested, filthy food court and promised the food court will reopen as
soon as the Department of Agriculture deems it appropriate………..
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