The Sporting Life category archive
No Place To Hide 0
Read those permissions carefully, folks. If they think they can get away with it, they will try to get away with it.
The suit [PDF], filed with the Northern California District Court this week, alleges that the Android and iOS versions of the Golden State Warriors App can track and record audio from the handset’s microphone without user notification or permission.
According to the complaint, the app, developed by Signal360, can potentially wirelessly detect so-called beacons in stores to work where you’ve been shopping, and can potentially use the handset’s microphone to pick up signals within the audio of TV adverts, music and broadcasts that are inaudible to the human ear in order to serve them targeting advertisements.
There Are None So Blind as Those Who Will Not Look,
Sit with Colin Kaepernick Dept.
0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Sam Louie looks at the kerfuffle about Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem at a blanking football game for Pete’s sake. A nugget:
This from WTHR-TV Sportscaster Bob Kravitz in Indianapolis:
“I found it interesting, but completely understandable, that when I posed the Kaepernick question on Twitter, the responses broke along racial lines.
From whites: “If you don’t like America, go somewhere else. Leave. We’ll help you pack.”
As a white folk who has associated mostly with white folks but thank heavens not entirely because that’s how America works, I can state quite confidently that white folks don’t get it.
I try to get it, but I know I don’t not really but I promise to keep trying.
But, Christallmighty, as long as cops who kill black persons for being have an automatic “Get Out of Jail Free” card, there is no “liberty and justice for all” and the “American Dream” remains a farce and a con.
I’ll stop now, for all I have left is profanity.
Football uber Alles, the Prevent Defense Dept. 0
Play college football. Doing so gives you magical powers to prevent prosecution.
Aside:
It’s not that I think they should necessarily be prosecuted, but it’s Louisiana, folks. What do you think would be happening to them if they were just two random black kids from down the street?
Mulligan, Virginia: A Variation on the Stadium Scam 0
The small city of Buena Vista, out on the other side of the state, thought a new shiny municipal golf course would solve all its problems. It didn’t, so the city took a drop.
Then, in December 2014, the city council voted to stop making payments, which left ACA (ACA Financial Guaranty Corp–ed.) holding the bag.
Try just stop paying your taxes. By the by, ACA is suing.
Afterthought:
I have a suspicion that, until the editor got hold of it, the last sentence of the excerpt above included the word “golf” before the word “bag.” If it didn’t, it should have.
Just Good, Clean Fun 0
Seriously.
Starting on Wednesday, city crews began taking couches, mattresses and other furniture from residents’ porches in hopes of removing “fuel” for post-game fires.
In the story, cited at Above the Law, the author points out that, among other things, this would seem to be an unlawful taking in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United Sates.
The Super Stadium Scam 0
The AP’s Paul Newberry calls out the NFL for its strategy of dangling Super Bowls in front of cities to get free stadiums. (Cities seem to be easy marks for the NFL’s con game.) A snippet:
Nothing much has changed since then, but cities keep playing the game.
Where’s the ref to throw the flag on illegal use of hand-outs?
Twits on Twitter 0
Bob Molinaro spots a sporting twit:
Football uber Alles 0
Winning is the only thing.
Amateur Athletics 0
Yeah.
Right.
The University of Tennessee athletic department, with an operating budget of $126.6 million, spent $18.2 million on salaries, or 14.3 percent of its budget. The University of Memphis athletic department, with an operating budget of $43.4 million, spent $11.2 million on salaries, or 25.8 percent of its budget.
Yesterday, my local rag carried an interview with ESPN commentator Jay Bilas. When asked about “amateurism,” Bilas had this to say (follow the link for the full interview):
Warning Label 0
Bob Molinaro, sportswriter extraordinaire:
. . . as if high school kids ever pay attention to warning labels.
Want to know what it feels like to drive 100 miles an hour on a curvy country road late at night? I know an ex-high school kid who can tell you.
Goodell for What Ails You
0
MarketWatch marvels at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s $34.1 million compensation in 2014 (the most recent information available) and wonders whether the NFL is getting their money’s worth*:
In fact, of the 21 stadiums built throughout the league since 1997, team owners and the NFL itself have dedicated more than $180.5 million to just nine of them. Even among those stadiums, only five had the majority of their costs covered by the league and owners’ outlays.
At points in 2014, it was questionable which was the better investment: an inanimate object that works for the NFL less than 14 days out of the year or Roger Goodell.
__________________
*I say that the short answer is “No.” The long answer is “Hell, no.” Follow the link for MarketWatch’s opinion.
Indeed, I doubt any one, even the most magickal mythical mystical CEO, contributes worth to an enterprise that deserves compensation at an hourly rate of $16,000+.
But Soft! What Light on Yon Diamond Breaks? 0
I understand that there was a sporting contest yesterday. I had no interest in it.
Nevertheless, there is hope.
Pitchers and catchers report next week.
