- Relying on Apple maps is no longer merely a foolish choice
that will cost you hours of wrong turns; it can also kill you. In its short
time in existence, Apple’s mapping service has proven to be highly inaccurate
and in most cases, downright wrong. In Australia, it’s techno-ineptitude is
putting iPhone users in grave danger. The individuals in question have been
using Apple Maps to find the town of Mildura, which the service suggests lies in the
middle of Murray-Sunset National Park. The app has pegged the city of 30,000
people as being more than 40 miles away from its actual location and dropped it
in the middle of the Outback. Police in Mildura have reported several motorists
needing to be rescued in the park after following erroneous Apple Maps
directions there. The park is dangerous because it has no water supply and temperatures
there can reach a blistering 114 degrees Fahrenheit. "Some of the
motorists located by police have been stranded for up to 24 hours without food
or water and have walked long distances through dangerous terrain to get phone
reception," Mildura police said in a statement. "Police have contacted Apple in relation to the issue and hope the matter is rectified promptly to
ensure the safety of motorists
travelling to Mildura. Anyone travelling to Mildura or other locations within Victoria should
rely on other forms of mapping
until this matter is rectified." When asked about the possibility that his
company’s mapping app was putting people in life-threatening danger, Apple
spokesman Adam Howorth was curiously unwilling to comment despite insisting
that the company is working hard to fix the issue. The good news for would-be
Mildura visitors is that Google Maps does list the city in its correct
location, northeast of Murray-Sunset National Park. Chalk this up as yet
another failure for the much-maligned Apple Maps experiment, for which senior
executive Scott Forstall -- who oversaw the tech giant's mobile software unit
before leaving the company in October – was (allegedly) forced out after
refusing to apologize for Maps’ many issues………
- It may seem like the Arizona Cardinals quit on Sunday.
After all, how does an NFL team lose a game 58-0 if they don’t quit? The
observation that the team may have shut it down in their annihilation at the
hands of the Seattle Seahawks came from Larry
Fitzgerald Sr., father of Cardinals star receiver Larry Fitzgerald. The elder
Fitzgerald alleged that the Cardinals waved the white flag in their ninth
straight loss even though there is a much simpler explanation: They’re really
that bad. With the poo-poo quarterbacking platter of John Skelton and Ryan
Lindley, there simply isn’t a healthy QB on their roster capable of completing
more than 50 percent of his passes or not turning the ball over habitually. Claiming
they quit is a lazy and ignorant take, one Larry Fitzgerald refuted during a
radio appearance Monday. He responded to his father’s remarks on Twitter by
suggesting that the Cardinals would "never" quit. "We're
professionals. That will never happen," Fitzgerald said. "We're going
to continue to play. We're going to continue to practice. We're going to
continue to prepare every week like we would if we had won nine games in a row.
That's not going to change. We're not going to quit." That’s good to hear
because as bad as they are, if the Cardinals actually do quit no one will be
able to tell and they may lose 85-0. Quitting or not, they just hammered
another nail into the coffin of head coach Ken Whisenhunt, who was
pre-fired/given a vote of confidence for the rest of the season on Monday by team
president Michael Bidwill. Whisenhunt is all but assured of losing his job at
the end of the year after presiding over the first team in NFL history to start
a season 4-0, then lose nine straight. In his defense, the level of talent on
the roster is abysmal and Fitzgerald is the only legitimate playmaker currently
wearing a Cardinals uniform. One of the best pass catchers in the NFL, the
dreadlocked freak of nature has 11, 31, 23 and 2 yards in his past four games
and just six catches in that span, leaving him with just 652 yards this season.
Ever the professional, he hasn't publicly criticized his quarterbacks' play and
insists he doesn’t want a trade. The eight-year, $120 million contract he
signed in 2011 probably salves some of those wounds………
- Political intrigue is high today in Mali, the day after Malian soldiers
arrested Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra as he allegedly attempted to board
a plane and flee the country for France. The nation has been in a state of
turmoil for months and matters have worsened since a group of soldiers seized
power in a March coup. Even though it technically handed power back to
civilians earlier this year, the group remains powerful and after apprehending
Diarra, the soldiers accused him of blocking efforts to stabilize a nation
divided by a coup in the capital and the Islamist takeover of the desert
north. "He was arrested ... as he tried to leave for France,"
said Bakary Mariko, a spokesman for the group. Arresting the prime minister
typically makes stabilizing a government and nation more difficult and it
likely will not lessen tensions in the West African nation, where soldiers and
politicians remain divided since the coup in March and the northern part of the
country is occupied by al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters. According to Mariko, Diarra
had been taken to Kati, the military barracks town just outside the capital
which still serves as the former junta's headquarters. Mariko wanted to make it
clear that this was not a coup and that the soldiers were merely looking to put
an end to Diarra’s shenanigans. "The country is in crisis but he was
blocking the institutions," Mariko said. "This is not a coup. The
president is still in place but the prime minister was no longer working in the
interests of the country." Animosity between the former junta, interim
President Diouncounda Traore and Diarra have grown since Diarra was made prime
minister in April after the military officially handed power back to civilians.
He has shown strong ties to the military in the past, but that relationship
doesn’t appear quite as strong these days. Coupled with the problems in the
north, where some politicians have begun to support the idea of a
foreign-backed military operation to retake control of the region from al
Qaeda, and Mali is a combustible place to be these days………
- On the positive side, a student living in an off-campus
apartment near the University of Maryland nearly burned an apartment building
down and it wasn’t because he or she was smoking pot and left an unattended
fattie on the desk in the bedroom. No, this instance of an absent-minded
student torching curtains and setting a building ablaze occurred for religious-
and holiday-related reasons, as in a menorah lit in celebration of Hanukkah
caused a fire that displaced nine University of Maryland students. The brick
building was engulfed in flames when Prince George's County fire crews were
called to the off-campus apartments, located in the 4200 block of Knox Road,
around 6:50 p.m. Monday. They spotted smoke emanating from the building, but
the fire had not progressed too far by that point and firefighters were able to
enter and extinguish the kitchen fire with no injuries reported. According to
the residents of the offending apartment, they lit their menorah and stepped
away for a moment – probably to update their Facebook status to “Just lit
menorah…OMG! Awesome!” or to Instagram out a vintage photo of said menorah to
their followers – and when they returned, they found their humble abode on
fire. Nine students from two apartments were displaced by the fire, all of whom
are being assisted by the County Citizen Services Unit. Two lessons can be
derived from this sad incident, the first being that Jewish religious displays
involving an open flame and a cramped off-campus apartment are a recipe for
disaster and secondly, don’t assume that just because a college student caught
something on fire that he or she was merely looking to get baked before plowing
through a package of Pop Tarts and watching “Planet Earth” DVDs………..
- Florence Welch: lead singer of a successful alternative
band and early frontrunner for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Don’t laugh because
Welch has already done more to warrant the award than the European Union and
its currency, the euro, did to merit recognition this year. Welch and her band.
Florence and the Machine, were performing at the Exhibition and Conference Centre in
Aberdeen, Scotland, on Sunday when a fight broke out in the crowd. FATM’s music
isn’t the sort of rage-producing sonic noise that typically causes fights a la
Rage Against the Machine or Tool, but nonetheless there was a fight in the
crowd midway through the song “Shake It Out.” Welch spotted the scuffle and
rather than continue performing, she stopped the song and very politely
demanded that everyone involved in the tiff cool it immediately. "Excuse
me, all of you – stop it,” she said. “I can't sing this song while there is a
fight going on in front of me. It doesn't matter who is right or wrong, just
sort it out and be friends.” After spotting a girl crying near the scene of the
fight, she said, "Is she going to be OK? Are you alright my love?"
Not willing to restart the show until she was certain the girl was OK, Welch -
barefoot no less - offstage and climbed into the crowd where she comforted the
girl while telling the crowd, “Everyone who's friends, kiss and make up and be
good to each other.” When she’s not playing peacemaker at her own shows, Welch
is busy joining The Rolling Stones
on stage at shows at London's O2 Arena and suggesting she needs to take an
extended break from the music industry before starting work on her next album
and will use the time away from the business and her band to write a musical……….
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