ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith seemed to forecast the reaction to Trump’s attendance at the game if the Knicks didn’t bring home the win.
“If they lose tonight, I’m looking right at him,” Smith said. “I’m saying it, it’s just me. I’m blaming him. I’m blaming the president of the United States of America if the New York Knicks lose this tonight.”
Who thinks we need to rekindle a cheerful songs era? If I recall correctly, Womack & Womack had a global hit with Teardrops, but it failed to do much in the US.
New Zealand currently sits second on cricket's World Test Championship table, and overall fifth in the world. As I write this they are playing at Lord's Cricket Ground, the home of cricket. They're playing England who are ranked fourth in the world and currently sit seventh on the World Test Championship table. So, both teams are the creme de la creme of world cricket. You'd expect this to be a contest for the ages.
Except it isn't. What we are being fed is slop. The NZ team is playing so badly, one has to wonder about the players will to be in the team. They are atrociously bad, disgraceful. A school team could bat better.
NZ has been given an easy target to win the match as England are playing equally badly. But, in all likelihood, NZ will lose as the batsmen simply refuse to score runs. They appear to be more willing to get out as soon as possible. The match is now only in its third day, and they've been like this the whole way through.
The pitch itself seems to be very substandard, but it is the same for both teams, so they should adjust. But in NZ's case that hasn't happened. Extras are proving one of NZ's best players. Yes, the runs scored not off the bat are doing better than these actual elite players.
Searching questions need to be asked, and players who haven't performed need to be dropped. And don't just look at athletic performance but everything else, including off-field behaviours and relationships.
You'll never run out of reasons not to buy an EV. The most compelling reason being they're vulnerable to spontaneous combustion, and when that happens, the fire cannot be put out. Don't park one in your house.
AI is selling our own work back to us. They're charging consumers for information they themselves have not paid to acquire. In the near future, all those impacted will demand they be fairly compensated for their work, and that's when the edifice falls apart.
The first sonic boom was in South Carolina. Then, less than three days later there's been another over the east coast of the US, this time in Massachusetts, north of Boston. Weird, huh.
Well, it's been a long wait, but finally the US is calling out New Zealand for its lack of defence spending. Currently, New Zealand cannot even secure its own air space and it has naval vessels tied up because it has no crew for the ships. And even if crew existed, it's doubtful NZ could even find the money to pay them, within existing budgets.
I've often written about this parlous state of affairs. I have tracked the decline in NZ defence spending to the start of NZ's MMP method of choosing political leaders (MMP = Mixed Member Proportional). From that date, 1996, defence spending started to fall off a cliff. The reason for this is easily explained; to form a government, the various parties contesting elections must form coalitions and make deals. Defence is always the unwanted cousin, and so is quickly traded away. Thus, now NZ's military barely exists.
The current NZ government plans may as well be filed under, believe it when you see it. They're all talk, making endless announcements of announcements, going to do this, intending to do that, conducting consultations, examinations, it is most unseemly.
However, the only issue I have is with the way the US is going about this; it won't have the desired effect. Usually, NZ is spoken to behind the scenes, quietly. With the approach the US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, is taking, don't expect NZ to spend more on American equipment.
I wonder what this was? A sonic boom was heard over the South-east United States, about four hours before the Blue Origin rocket blew up in Florida. The most likely explanation is that it was a meteor, but it's still fascinating.
They're calling the result of last night's State of Origin match between New South Wales and Queensland the biggest comeback in Origin history. Queensland were running away with it until Kalyn Ponga was sent off for making head contact with a New South Wales player. This dropped Queensland down to 12 men for the rest of the game. New South Wales made a storming comeback and snatched the win in the dying seconds 22-20.
However, I think this perfectly illustrates how referees are having too much influence on the outcome of matches. The fans pay to see 13 against 13, not 12 against 13 for a long period. Mismatches ruin the spectacle. Personally, I think all games should stay 13 against 13, just that any player sent off must stay off for the remainder of the contest.
Currently, one misdemeanour and the game is ruined.
Oh no, reports are coming in that the US may restart strikes against Iran. This would likely result in Iran targeting desalination plants in the Gulf, just as the region enters the summer months. For those who do not know, countries like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar rely on desalinated sea water for their potable water supply. Dubai, Doha etc will be unliveable without fresh water and their buildings also require air-conditioning because their daily highs can reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).
Imagine 15 million people from the region moving out and arriving in the West, all within a month. Yeah, that'd be a problem.
This is partly the reason I don't trust German software. It comes with bugs, because Germans always do things inhouse, instead of hiring the best. I've experienced this first hand with Lufthansa and so I had to laugh when I heard about it with Volkswagen.
I remember back in the late 90s and early 2000s, hearing about their diesel engines, how clean they were. I thought to myself, they're probably faking it. That turned out to be true!
(Excuse the AI voice, these narrations are becoming somewhat irritating)
Association Football - It looks highly likely that Premier League team, West Ham, will be relegated to the second tier of the English pyramid system, called the Championship.
What does this mean for the club? Well, they'll receive a serious haircut in terms of revenue and they will need to sell off many of their most expensive players.
I like promotion/relegation, and this is what's wrong with the NBA and other leagues like it. At certain points in the season, teams know they cannot win the title and they stop playing hard, knowing they cannot go down. If there was even a chance the bottom team may drop, then watch the fur fly, they'd be scrambling for the wins. For the record, the team with the worst record in the latest season is the Washington Wizards with a regular season 17 wins and 65 losses. Why can't another team be given the chance of buying them out and potentially moving the team to another city? It'd keep the league on their toes.
Africa is embracing oil and gas. Oil from the Lake Albert field is about to start flowing down the pipeline from Uganda to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. Dangote has said he'll build a refinery there as well, so long as everyone in the region agrees. The pipeline has been built so that oil from the DR Congo and South Sudan can also travel along it. Not all oil is being exported, a percentage is held back where it is extracted, to support local businesses in Uganda. Things are really looking up.
Pauline Hanson's One Nation party in Australia has just become the highest polling political party. This is a meteoric rise. They could become the government at the next election.
