- Much
like Tom Brady, Scottish tennis star Andy Murray is very particular about his
balls. The world found out what happens when something is amiss with his balls
this weekend at the Miami Open, where Murray advanced to the third round even
though he was mistakenly given a women's ball while serving on break point in
the second set against Denis Istomin. The second-ranked men’s player in the
world was having none of being tossed a women’s ball he believed may have come
from one of the flower beds around the court. "I saw it just before I was
about to serve. It's quite off-putting because I just missed two balls long. I
didn't know if that was one of the balls I used in the last couple points,”
Murray said. “It was just a women's ball. The women's balls are very different
to the men's balls. They're much quicker, smaller, livelier.” When he realized
what had happened, Murray engaged in a brief, contentious back and forth with
chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani. "It's unacceptable to have one of those
balls," Murray said after losing the point. Even though he rallied back
for a 6-3, 7-5 victory, the situation clearly stuck with him. The balls men and
women use are actually the same size and have equal pressure, but in many events,
including Miami, men use extra-duty felt, which slows the overall speed; women,
meanwhile, use regular-duty felt. Murray said he knew the difference because the
Penn logo was in red; with men's balls, the logo is in black. Lahyani claimed
he couldn’t see the logo from his chair, but that did nothing to make Murray
feel better………
- Don’t
believe the lie, Myanmar. If your country’s overbearing military chief assures you that he will happily cooperate and work
with a new civilian government that takes over your Southeast Asian country
this week after 54 years of rule by the junta or its proxy, assume that not a
single word coming out of his mouth is true. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing tried
his best to assure the nation that the armed forces will work to bring about
prosperity for the nation when he spoke during the annual Armed Forces Day
parade in the capital of Naypyitaw, but a thundering public address to a
captive audience is hardly the sort of ironclad promise upon which you can hang
your hopes and dreams of having your basis human rights respected, protected
and not trampled to death under a pair of military-issue combat boots. Myanmar's
military has run the country directly or indirectly for five decades and though
it theoretically handed power over to a quasi-civilian government in 2011,
saying that the military has kept out of the way the past four years is like
saying Cam Newton totally low-keys his reaction when scoring a touchdown. Sure,
last year's elections propelled Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy into power and her aide, President-elect Htin Kyaw, will take office Friday,
but the power of the military remains clear and massive. Good luck enjoying
that promised freedom and lighter touch from the powers that be, Burmese
people………
- The
makeover is nearly complete. Blink-182 are nearing
the release their first single recorded since 'Neighborhoods' came out in 2011
and when it drops, the track will officially draw a line between the Tom
DeLonge era and that of new frontman Matt Skiba. Skiba, the lead singer for
Alkaline Trio, was added after DeLonge left the pop-punk act in 2015 after a
series of increasingly contentious disputes. Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker
tabbed Skiba to fill in for a few live performances and that evolved into a
deeper commitment that led to the announcement of an album featuring Skiba
earlier this year. A single for the album is set to be released next month, coming
a few weeks after Barker claimed that the forthcoming album was in the process
of being cut down from 26 or 27 tracks. Interestingly, Hoppus is expected to be
the lead vocalist on the majority of new material, with Skiba in a backup role.
Not only that, but the band have promised that tour dates are in the offing
once the album drops. As to the exact date when fans can expect that finished
album to hit the market, the band isn’t saying. One of the producers on the
project has already hinted at a seismic shift in the band’s direction without
DeLonge around and while that would normally be a reason for concern, so has
been most of the mainstream pop drivel Blink have cranked out in recent years.
Perhaps a change wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world……….
- Really,
Google Maps? Of all the mapping apps on the market, you’re supposed to suck the
least. Apple Maps routinely sends people to the middle of the desert when
they’re seeking the city center or directs them to the depths of the ocean when
all they’re asking for is a nice Mexican restaurant, while no one has used
MapQuest or Yahoo Maps in ages, but Google Maps is typically a reliable option
for navigation. That reputation took a serious hit with last week’s tale of
what used to be a duplex in Rowlett, Texas where Lindsay Diaz and Allen Cutter
used to live. The house was damaged by a tornado late last year, but the couple
continued to live there until last week, when a demolition crew destroyed the
building by mistake after Google Maps provided wrong directions. Diaz was left
with nothing but rubble because the work crew, which was supposed to demolish a
duplex on Cousteau Drive in Rowlett, instead was sent a block away to Diaz's
duplex on Calypso Drive. "[Google's] mistake caused me to lose my
home," Diaz said. Google owned the mistake, admitting its mapping app did
provide the wrong location, but the demolition company, Billy L. Nabors
Demolition, refused to comment on the issue. Ironically, Google Maps now points
to Diaz's home accurately, something Apple Maps, Yahoo Maps and MapQuest all
did previously. Somehow, Google Maps’ combination of satellite, aerial and
street-level images and data to chart the world failed miserably in this case.
According to Diaz, the site supervisor confirmed several facts about the
demolition site with his crew before work began, including that the house was
on a corner lot, damaged by a tornado and had the correct house number - 7601. Unfortunately,
there was one key fact left unchecked and while walking to the nearest
intersection and glancing up at a street sign could have rectified that
problem, that was a bit too much to ask and now, a family is without a place to
live………
No comments:
Post a Comment