The athletic early enrollee has decided to leave the Mountaineers.

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Getty Images Tiger holds up the championship trophy after his win on Sunday.

About a month before THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., caddie Joe LaCava convinced Tiger Woods the demanding Stadium Course suited his game. Tiger won the 2001 event, but has mostly struggled since, leading some to believe he didn’t have the patience or proper game plan to win it again.

So much for that theory. With LaCava providing experience and calmness down the stretch, Woods plodded his way to a two-stroke victory on Sunday. He closed with a 2-under-par 70 — his fourth-straight sub-par round of the week — and finished at 13-under 275.

“I told you you could get this track,” LaCava told Woods afterward, accepting a hearty bear hug from his boss.

“How about that, huh?” beamed a smiling Woods. “Woo!”

It marked the fourth win of the year for the No. 1-ranked Woods and the 78th PGA TOUR victory of his career, second only to Sam Snead with 82. Tiger has now prevailed on his 100th, 200th and 300th career starts on the PGA TOUR.

The triumph didn’t come easily. Woods, who began the final round one in a tie for the lead with rookie David Lingmerth of Sweden and Sergio Garcia of Spain, forged a two-shot lead with five holes to play, but double-bogeyed the par-4 14th hole after pulling his tee shot into the water. That created a four-way tie at the top, which wasn’t settled until Lingmerth missed a long birdie attempt on the 18th green.

Woods, who played in the second-to-last twosome with Casey Wittenberg, made a great par-save at the par-4 15th hole, then got up-and-down from the right front bunker at the par-5 16th hole to regain the lead at 13-under. Playing behind him with Lingmerth, Sergio Garcia also birdied 16 to earn a share of the lead.

Tiger made a great two-putt par from 47 feet at the dangerous 135-yard, par-3 17th hole, where the pin was tucked back-right on the island green. After he split the fairway with a clutch drive at the tough 441-yard, par-4 18th hole, Garcia hit two balls into the water at 17 to fall from contention.

Lingmerth hung tough with a birdie at 16, and just missed a short birdie putt at 17. When he failed to birdie 18, Woods was a winner for the first time on Mother’s Day.

“Sorry, mom,” he said on television to his mother Kultida, his biggest fan. “I think she might have had a heart attack.”

The late drama capped a great week for the 37-year-old Woods, whose girlfriend Lindsey Vonn was there to support him. Following LaCava’s advice, Tiger played smart golf, especially off the tee, using mostly fairway woods and irons. He played for position and did most of his damage on the par-5s, which he tamed in a career-best 12-under.

Woods had great trust in LaCava, who won THE PLAYERS Championship twice caddying for Fred Couples.

“It’s a very tricky golf course,” said Woods, the fifth two-time winner of the tournament. “He did a helluva job of keeping me focused coming down the stretch. He’s a great caddie.”

The four wins mark the 12th time in Tiger’s career he has accomplished the feat. By comparison, Snead and Jack Nicklaus won four or more times nine times.

By winning for the seventh time in his last 22 starts, including four of seven this year, Woods has now won 78 out of 286 professional starts — 27 percent — on the PGA TOUR.

He also added to his resume as the game’s best closer. Tiger has now converted 52 of 56 third-round leads or co-leads in 72-hole PGA Tour events, including six-straight. The total does not include a 54-hole sudden-death playoff victory against Tom Lehman in the 1999 Mercedes Championships.

Asked to describe the state of his game right now, Woods said, “I’m getting better.”

Tiger played mostly mistake-free golf Sunday, lipping out several birdie putts that could have provided a bigger back-nine cushion. But he never got frustrated and kept giving himself opportunities.

He played the front nine in 2-under 34, carding birdies at the par-5 second, par-4 fourth and par-4 seventh holes. His lone bogey came at the 393-yard, par-4 sixth, where he drove into the right rough, hit a palm tree with his second shot, an failed to get up-and-down from short of the green, missing an eight-foot putt. That snapped a streak of 20-consecutive holes without a bogey.

On the back nine, Woods birdied the par-4 12th hole from 15 feet, then parred 13. Standing on the 14th tee, Tiger was distracted by a dragon fly and backed off. Then, he made his worst swing of the day.

“I was in control of the tournament and got to 14 and just hit absolutely the worst shot I could possibly hit,” he said. “I just stayed patient and kept telling myself that’s the only bad swing I’ve made all day. There is no reason why I can’t still win this golf tournament.”

Woods steadied with the big par-save at 15, then played the last three holes 1-under. It proved just enough to separate him from his challengers.

PETERSBURG – Fifty years ago, West Virginia fisheries officials sprang a surprise on the state’s trout fishermen.

In addition to the usual rainbow, brown and brook trout, hatchery crews stocked a fish that anglers had never seen before – a pale yellow trout with a faint pink stripe down its side. To honor the 100th anniversary of West Virginia’s statehood, Division of Natural Resources officials dubbed the alien-looking creature the “Centennial golden trout.”

The brightly hued fish, as it turned out, had been developed completely within the state’s trout-hatchery system, where observant hatchery employees discovered a one-in-a-zillion quirk of nature and transformed it into a trout-fishing sensation.

“Even 50 years later, people consider it a treat to catch a golden trout,” said Homer Tinney, manager of the DNR’s Petersburg Hatchery, where the unusual strain was discovered and developed. “And to think, it started right here.”

The first goldens were stocked in 1963, but their story began early in 1955, when a yellow-mottled juvenile showed up among thousands of rainbows spawned in the fall of 1954.

Vince Evans, Petersburg’s manager at the time, took interest in the odd little fish and nicknamed it “Little Camouflage.”

Evans transferred to the nearby Spring Run Hatchery later that year. His successor at Petersburg, Chester Mace, moved Little Camouflage to a separate raceway and kept watch over her as she grew.

By the summer of 1956, she had grown to 14 inches. Her yellow mottling had changed into a broad golden band that encircled the middle of her body. Later that year, she produced her first eggs – 900 of them – which hatchery workers fertilized with milt from a regular rainbow male.

The eggs hatched, but none of the fry exhibited any yellow coloration.

Early in 1957, Little Camouflage’s offspring and nearly 500,000 other juvenile rainbows were transferred to rearing ponds at Spring Run. Shortly after they arrived, one of the attendants noticed that a few of the fish had started to change color.

Within weeks, roughly 300 of the “rainbows” turned a uniform golden yellow, and as they grew their unusual coloration grew even brighter.

Edward Kinney, the DNR’s Fish Division chief at the time, thought it might be a good idea to try to propagate the eye-catching new strain. Mace and Evans selected the best-colored fish for brood stock and spawned them during the fall of 1958.

The first goldens ran smaller than their rainbow counterparts, but careful breeding remedied that problem. By 1963, DNR officials deemed the strain ready to be stocked in state waters.

“They determined that they would stock one golden for every 10 rainbows, and we’ve maintained that ratio ever since,” Tinney said. “We tend to stock them in lakes and larger streams because their color makes them more susceptible to predators.”

Centennial goldens quickly drew the attention of scientists, who sought to determine what caused the strain’s unusual coloration. Studies showed that despite its name, West Virginia’s version of the golden trout is essentially unrelated to the “true” golden trout found in the high-altitude streams of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.

West Virginia’s version turned out to be, at its core, a rainbow trout – a rainbow trout of a different color, for sure, but genetically identical to the green-backed, black-spotted, red-striped rainbows found in most of the Mountain State’s stocked-trout waters.

“Basically, the golden is a rainbow without any black pigment,” Tinney said.

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After months of arguments about why the Washington football team should change its name, the man on whom such a decision rests is finally weighing in. And team owner Dan Snyder is very firm about it.

“We’ll never change the name,” Synder tells USA Today. “It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.”

Never mind the din of D.C. Council members, former FCC officials, Mayor Vince Gray (sometimes), alt-weeklies, veteran local broadcasters, and news websites clamoring for a change.—Snyder says that the team’s name is not going anywhere. Snyder was talking to USA Today in response to an interview the paper conducted with Amanda Blackhorse, a Native American activist who is the plaintiff in federal litigation seeking to strip the Washington football team of its trademark over what many consider to be a racial slur.

In her interview, Blackhorse dares Snyder to say the team’s name to her face:

She said if she ever had the chance, she’d ask Snyder if he would dare to call her a [Washington football team] to her face.

Considering Snyder’s general obstinacy, it seems doubtful if that exchange will ever occur, but it might not need to. Snyder, unfortunately, is backed up by the general public. A recent Associated Press poll found 79 percent of people are in favor of the team keeping its name.

Still, Snyder’s adamant refusal to ever consider changing the team’s name raises at least one question: If he’s so in love with the current name, why squat on the trademark for Washington Warriors for more than a decade

Check out the original post over at DCist

Chrome Beta for Android recently got updated, much to the delight of the Android user community. Most of the hitches that had plagued the previous version have been corrected, and the new browser is not only better, it is distinctly faster as well. The annoying bugs have been eliminated, and the browser is now fully reliable.

Continued Support:

Android users are spoilt for choice when it comes to the variety of browsers they have. While the native one provided on all Android smartphones performs just as well, most users feel more at home with third party browsers. The Chrome Browser for Android is one of this, and it has a wide receivership, since it offers, or at least promises to offer the same seamless performance as the PC version, but on a reduced scale. It has not been smooth sailing so far, but the new update has fixed most issues to make it an even more user friendly browser without any obvious shortcomings.

What are The Updates reflected in Chrome Beta for Android

The latest update of the browser is the third this month alone, and it aims at addressing the instability elements of the Beta.

The biggest improvement on the updated browser is the page rendering. The rendering response is noticeably faster with no annoying lags, and the overall rendering performance is significantly better.

You can also now scroll images after zooming in. The bug that hindered this has been removed, and the blue line that would sometimes spontaneously display below the search box has also been removed.

Huawei tablet users would experience a black screen as the browser loaded, and this too has been fixed. There are no more accidental crashes on the updated version and the dreaded black screen that appears during loading is now a thing of the past.

Are there any shortcomings in Chrome Beta for Android

Granted, the Google Chrome Beta browser is far from perfect, and it has even been described as being a little rough around the edges, but it is good browser nonetheless. With the enormous support it is receiving from Google and the frequent updates that seek to improve or perfect its different aspects, it is a very solid choice. It, for one, offers more abundant options than the one provided on stock Android.

Availability:

The updated Chrome Beta for Android is available for download from the Google Play Store. You could alternatively visit the Google Chrome blog and download it from there.

Author Bio :

A tech buff with a passion for writing, Although loves to write on Android upgrades and devices run on Android, doesn’t miss relevant news on other industry players. Follow Abhilash on Google+ Twitter.

Check out the original post over at BestAndroidBlog

Browse and compare prices on the latest Android smartphones right here.

Tiger Woods looks to continue his good play this week in THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Competing for the first time since tying for fourth at the Masters Tournament last month, he has won three of six starts on the PGA TOUR this year and remains the top-ranked player in the world.

Woods, who attended a Met Gala dinner in New York on Monday night with girlfriend Lindsey Vonn to help her promote a new perfume and makeup line, worked hard on the practice range Tuesday and played four holes.

“Very pleased,” he said afterward. “I feel like I’ve done some very good work, basically a continuation of what I’ve done for the last couple months. I took a week off after the Masters, and then started kind of training and getting back into it the last week and a half.”

Tiger admitted it took about a week to move past the disappointment of not winning his fifth green jacket at Augusta National. In the second round, he hit the pin with his third shot at the par-5 15th hole, and the ball ricocheted into the water. Tiger managed to get up-and-down for what he thought was a bogey, but was later penalized two strokes for making an illegal drop. The infraction was called in by a television viewer.

“Unfortunately, I hit a good shot and got a bad break,” Woods said. “But I still had an opportunity over the next 36 holes to get it back, and I just didn’t do it.”

In retrospect, the unlucky bounce at No. 15 probably cost him a chance to win the tournament.

“I had a lot of momentum going at the time,” he said. “I think I was tied with Fred [Couples], and I thought I’d stuffed it in there, and I thought it was going to be a birdie and I could take the lead there and maybe sneak one in on the final three holes, and basically start building a lead in the tournament, and it kind of turned the other way with a good shot.”

Once Woods was made aware of his incorrect drop, he owned up to it immediately. Not that he is thrilled with the process.

“I don’t ever see myself calling in and saying Kobe [Bryant] traveled or things like that, or that an offensive lineman held, but it’s our sport, and that’s what we’ve done and we’ve accepted,” Woods said. “Certain groups are going to get more heat than others just because they’re on TV. It is what it is.”

Tiger said Australian Adam Scott was a worthy champion.

“I think it’s fantastic,” he said. “We’ve seen what he can do. We’ve seen how close he was last year at the British Open, and if it wasn’t for a rough finish, then he would have been the holder of the Claret Jug. It wasn’t a surprise to any of us that he won a major championship.”

Woods won THE PLAYERS Championship in 2001 and said he’s pleasantly surprised designer Pete Dye’s famed Stadium Course is in such good shape. Last week, nine inches of rain fell — five during a 36-hour span — temporarily flooding all 18 holes.

“They’ve done an amazing job of getting this place dry and playable,” Woods said.

The key to scoring is finding fairways and greens.

“It’s one of those courses where they’ve got some tough lines, and if you’re not playing well, you’re going to get exposed,” he said. “You have to drive the ball really well, and then on top of that, now that it’s gone to Bermuda, these greens have gotten a lot more fiery coming into them. So it makes it even more important to hit the ball in these fairways to have a chance to spin the ball.”

Errant approach shots can prove difficult to recover from.

“You miss these greens at all, you’ve got some of the weirdest, funky little shots that you’ll ever face,” Woods said. “It’s really hard to get the ball up-and-down.”

As for Monday’s gala, Tiger is an avid Oakland Raiders fan, but enjoyed sitting with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his wife Gisele Bundchen. Asked if he would have attended a red carpet event during the week of a major, Woods cracked, “Yeah, I have. I’ve gone to the Golf Writers dinner at Augusta.”

Laughs all around.

Tiger tees off Thursday at 1:49 p.m. ET on the first tee with defending champion Matt Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker.

Check out the original post over at TigerWoods.com.

           Over 9 million people seeking a place to live, South Floridians living behind tall dikes, most of Bangladesh underwater, a few conglomerates supplying genetically modified foods to the masses, universal health care and free education, burials at sea (already happening in China in 2013), the Northern latitude countries of Canada, Greenland, Sweden, Norway, Russia gaining significance due to their richness of natural resources, megacities with high-speed rail transportation linking most major cities, a water shortage and exorbitant costs for water prompting strict regulations, the California coast rising nearly 2 feet, no snow on Mt. Kilimanjaro, India and China economies outpacing the United States, the extinction of polar bears due to melting permafrost, more international cooperation and less global conflict – this is what the world might look like in the year 2050.  Or it might not. 

We’re looking at a more crowded urbanized world with new places holding economic power.  The BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have emerged.  People are older and richer across the world.  Countries are searching for new sources of water and energy.

            The NORC countries are water rich and are the envy of the world.  Milder winters and new resources have brought scads of newcomers to their cities.  Canada has become the United States’ number one trading partner and millions of Americans have crossed into Canada to find employment in the new north. Canada, Iceland, and Norway’s populations have grown by more than 20%, the highest growth in the world.  People are buying fur coats again.  PETA is still protesting the slaughter of animals for those coats.

 Demography

 Demography is defined as the ups, downs, and movements of different population groups within the human race.  Its measures include birth rates, income, age structure, ethnicity, and migration flows. 

In 1999 this planet produced our sixth billion person.  By 2050, it is projected that this earth will have more than 9 billion people, 9.2 in fact.  In the mid 21^st century our fastest population growth left the OECD countries (30 highly developing countries) and went to the developing world, including India.

By 2050 our planet’s northern latitudes will undergo radical changes due to the melting of polar ice, making them a place of increased human activity and greater economic importance.  New North “NORC” is where this will happen.  It includes all land and oceans lying 45̊̊ N latitude or higher currently held by the United States, Canada, Iceland, Greenland (Denmark), Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.  Population in these countries will soar as the world seeks the rich natural resources of the region.

Sometime in 2008, we don’t know exactly when, there were the same numbers of people living in urban areas as in rural areas.  Since that moment, the world has become more urban, and will continue this trend into the middle of this century. Therefore, there will be fewer farmers and less ability to feed ourselves.  Thus, there is more dependence upon large corporations to produce our food to provide for our ever growing and prosperous populations.  Monsanto, a multi-national corporation is producing more and more genetically modified foods.

            Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods derived from organisms whose genetic material has been modified in a way that does not occur naturally, usually through the introduction of a gene from a different organism. Currently available GM foods stem mostly from plants, but in the future foods derived from GM microorganisms or GM animals are likely to be introduced on the market. Most existing genetically modified crops have been developed to improve yield, through the introduction of resistance to plant diseases or of increased tolerance of herbicides.  Currently, corn, soy, sugar, aspartame, and papayas are GMO foods many advise us to avoid.  The future of genetically modified yellow rice is estimated to save many on the planet from starvation.

This urban shift is driving major demographic changes around the globe. City dwellers are projected to double in number by 2050, rising from 3.3 billion in 2007 to 6.4 billion in 2050.  However, the geography of urbanization is not uniform.  This new trend is most dramatic in the developing world, especially in Asia and Africa, the two most populous places on Earth.  Asia is only about 40% urban today. But by 2050 China will be more than 70% urban.  Africa will triple the size of its cities over the next 40 years.  At 1.2 billion people, Africa will hold nearly a quarter of the world’s urban population.

In 2007 there were nineteen megacities in the world having populations of 10 million or more:  The top 5 were Tokyo (35.7), New York-Newark (19.0), Mexico City (19.0), Mumbai (19.0), and Sao Paulo (18.8), totaling 111.5 million.  By 2025, the United Nations Population Division projects that the top 5 – Tokyo (36.4.), Mumbai (26.4), Delhi (22.5), Dhaka (22.0) and Sao Paulo (21.4) – will reach 128.7 million. Of the eight new megacities anticipated over the next fifteen years, five are in Asia, two in Africa and just one in Europe.

Not all of these cities will be prosperous and good places to live.  While Nigeria is expected to reach 15.8 million residents, most will live in poverty and corruption.  Singapore, however, has become one of the world’s most globalized, stable and prosperous countries in the world.  Its population is projected to increase from nearly 5 million people today to 6.1 million by 2030.  Singapore is a good example of how rapid population and economic growth can grow a city into an enjoyable place to live. Megacities should take a page from Singapore’s playbook.   

Forms of Government

Singapore’s “socialistic democracy” is likely to be a model for the more progressive nations as they struggle to find ways to remain prosperous and remain a clean and inviting place to live.  Despite Singapore’s lack of natural resources, and the fact that much has to be imported, it has not only prospered in the 21^st century but has become a place where multinational corporations are welcomed, and its population highly educated and richer.  When Singapore became a nation in 1965 it put a prime minister in complete control.  Births were limited, education was stressed, the poverty rate dropped to 0.3% (in the U.S. in 2013 it is near 20%), people were forced to save 25% of their salary, and anti-social behavior not tolerated.  Interestingly, its citizens consistently report being happy and satisfied with their government making so many decisions for them.  No one knows exactly what will happen to Singapore in the future if its prime ministers fail to keep control of the people, but in 2013 it seems to be a model that the world will look to in the future.

Natural resources

            With the growing population, demand on the world’s natural resources will increase. Our natural resources include assets such as hydrocarbons (petroleum, coal, oil, natural gas), minerals, and fossil groundwater plus renewable assets like rivers, arable land, wildlife and wood. 

Four fifths of the world’s land surface (excluding Antarctica) is now directly influenced by humans.  The exceptions to this are very remote places like northern forests and tundra, shrinking rain forest of the Congo and Amazon, and certain deserts of Africa, Australia and Tibet.  By 2050 even these remote areas will see a surge in population growth. 

The 20^th century saw extraordinary growth in American consumption of iron, nickel, diamonds, water, softwood, salmon, etc.  This consumption is expected to happen rapidly in the rest of the world by 2050.   If the rest of the world is to live as Americans, Western Europeans, Japanese, and Australians do today, then the world must provide enough natural resources to support the future population.  Global modernization and prosperity are raising our demands upon the natural world now more than ever.

The findings of plentiful natural resources in the northern United States – including natural gas and tar sands – plus the enormous resources in the Arctic Ocean and its surrounding countries has produced a new-found sense of prosperity and less reliance on the need for oil from the Middle East countries.  Thanks to the effects of climate change – the warming of the planet – these northern resources, though still difficult to access, are benefiting the world markets.   

Globalization

Globalization is defined not only as international trade and capital flows, but political, cultural and ideological dimensions.  Very broadly, globalization is a set of economic, social, and technological processes make the world more interconnected and interdependent.  However, globalization can have negative as well as positive consequences.

 Thomas Friedman wrote in 2006 that The World is Flat or is becoming globalized.  Eventually, we will all be potential rivals, as well as potential friends as the world becomes “flatter”.  Today the IMF (International Monetary Fund), World Bank, and WTO (World Trade Organization) are the prime actors making and enforcing the rules of our global economy.  By 2050, these institutions will be replaced by others that consider the well-being of the world – not just the poorest countries. With the expansion of trade deals with most of the world’s countries, the U.S. will discover – albeit slowly – that as countries become more prosperous and their standards of living become higher, producing goods offshore will become more costly.      

          The environmental damage caused by globalization in the emerging countries will take its toll, producing rising cost of goods. Manufacturing will return to the United States at levels not seen since the 1950s and 60s and companies will be clamoring for people to fill these jobs.  Competition will be stiff and job recruiters will be recruiting from all parts of the globe to fill positions.

Nationalism

           Globalization will have reached its tipping point and countries will become more protectionist. This is due partly to a shortage of natural resources in many countries and abundance in others.  If tariff wars break out and global trade becomes exorbitantly expensive, countries will be forced to produce goods locally and protect their own resources.   Nationalism will become popular, although, immigration will be necessary in order to fill the millions of new jobs that this protectionism and nationalism will produce.

           As countries reinforce borders, enforce complex and lengthy customs clearing processes, and raise protectionist barriers, global trade will be down and technological development will be at a standstill.  Scarce resources lead to more international conflicts over resource deposits.  Regionalization of supply chains has emerged leading to strong regional providers, and, thus, excellent relations with government and public services.

          Because of the increase in natural disasters due to climate change, there is demand for more relief operations as well as services. This has created a new sense of nationalism and community, as neighbors help neighbors, and communities help each other.

Climate Change

          The world’s atmospheric CO2 levels in 2012 mirror those eight hundred thousand years ago.  In 2050, CO2 levels will continue to be a concern because they have risen ever higher. There is no international effort to reduce the 3.5 °C temperature increase.  Naysayers have failed to realize that renewable energy and new resources can produce new avenues of profits, more employment and a sense of protecting the future of the planet.

         The United States continues to lag behind the world in recognizing the severe effects of climate change.  This continues in part because of a stubbornness borne out of fear and distrust of change.  The Kyoto Protocol, which many countries had signed on to, and pledged to reduce carbon emission, has been abolished because of a lack of cooperation between countries.  However, individual countries are working to minimize the effects of what its now called global warming.

          Zero-emission plants cut carbon emissions, lessening the effects of climate change. The United States has finally enacted a carbon tax on emissions and recognized that so-called “cap and trade” is a viable alternative to even harsher regulations.  As emissions from automobiles have decreased, due to electric cars, the world’s air has become slowly cleaner, and climate change – global warming – has been reduced. This is the good news.

Coal continues to be produced, mostly in China, to fuel its industries and heat its homes. China, realizing that the carbon emissions from coal have severely polluted its air and is making its cities uninhabitable, has finally begun pursuing other forms of energy.  China is looking towards the United States and Canada to model their energy programs.   Wind power, in its infancy in the early 21^st century, has reached far into the oceans where the wind currents produce the greatest amount of wind energy.  Wind turbines are spotted off shore from every vantage point in the U.S. and Canada.  As wind in the northern latitudes has more force, wind turbines are as common on plains of South Dakota and Montana as they are in the oceans of the north Atlantic, Pacific and Antarctica.   

          Solar energy, though it produces less energy than originally believed, is still widely used throughout the world.  Solar, of course, produces no carbon emissions, and is relatively inexpensive.  Solar panels can be seen atop government buildings across the world and are a common practice on most homes, except for those homes that use wind power. 

The world continues to recycle.  In fact, new growth industries have captured huge profits in recycling products.  Trash has become the new oil.  

Technology  

High tech is now easily accessible. Cell phones, tablets, PCs, smart phones are everywhere. In 2013, the number of mobile phone accounts in use around the world is expected to match the number of people on the planet. Demand in so-called “emerging markets” is outstripping that in mature economies and driving rapid growth. The shift is accompanied by dynamic high-tech trends, which together have profound implications for the entire technology sector.

           By 2050 this is what technology is going to look like:  consumers create, design, and develop their own products thanks to 3D printers; airplanes can fly on solar power; all television is seen through your computer’s internet provider; no landline telephones or telephone poles carrying lines to homes. 

            Robots are a powerful source of concern – both because in some places enough workers cannot be found to fill the empty manufacturing slots to keep up and robots fill the void and because in some other places, robots are taking the place of workers who continue to become unemployed because a robot has taken their job.

          As the debate on the future of this planet continues, the United States will remain the world’s largest economy.  The United States will continue to have the world’s most capable armed forces; however, its military will be used more as a peacekeeper.  Global war and violence will decline as nations have become more reliant upon each other.  The natural resource shortage will encourage cooperation among nations.  The world will become more tolerant of differences in ethnicity and religion and culture as people more easily communicate with each other, thanks to technology. 

                                The future of the world is bright.  Twenty fifty is only thirty-seven years away.  My daughter will be 42 and my son will be 40.  I wonder what their lives will look like. I’m looking forward to that day.

Riding a nice wave of momentum, Tiger Woods returns to competition next week in the 77th Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga. A winner of four green jackets, he enters having won his last two starts and has regained No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time since late October 2010.

Tiger started his 2013 PGA TOUR season by capturing the Farmers Insurance Open. In his last two events, he won the WGC-Cadillac Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational and has now accumulated 77 career victories, second only to Sam Snead (82) on the all-time list.

Woods, who played a practice round at Augusta last week, ranks first in the FedExCup point standings and on the money list. He also leads the TOUR in scoring (68.334) and strokes gained putting (1.476).

In 16 starts as a professional at Augusta National, Tiger has 12 top-10 finishes and has placed in the top five 10 times. His victories were recorded in 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2005. In 1997, at age 21, he won by a record-breaking 12 strokes.

Check out the original post over at TigerWoods.com.

Though last season ended in heartbreak, the Washington Nationals spent the past few months tooling up their roster to come into the new season even stronger than before. With a lineup that features a reigning rookie of the year, an upgraded defense, and consistent hitting throughout, along with a fearsome starting pitching rotation and improved bullpen, the Nats are many prognosticators’ favorites to repeat as division champions and go even deeper into the playoffs.

Unfortunately for superstitious types, those prognosticators include the staff of Sports Illustrated, which is using its baseball preview issue to coronate the Nationals as the odds-on favorite to win this year’s World Series. On paper, that’s great. But it’s also foreboding as Hell.

“Like the ’86 Mets, the 2013 Nationals are the best team on paper at the start of the season,” Tom Verducci writes in the new issue. That Mets team, for what its worth, was led by current Nationals manager Davey Johnson, who will be moving to the front office after this season. “And like that championship team, Washington has young power pitching, a deep bullpen with multiple closers, a blend of power and speed, and an unmistakable swagger.”

That’s all well and good and encouraging to Nationals fans, except for one glaring fact: Sports Illustrated usually gets it wrong when making a consensus pick to win it all. Last year, the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees were the most popular predicted World Series winners among the magazine’s writers; only one scribe, Cliff Corcoran, even guessed correctly that the actual champs, the St. Louis Cardinals, would make it to the World Series. And in 2011, the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies were the most common picks; only Mel Antonen guessed correctly that it would be the San Francisco Giants.

This year, four of seven Sports Illustrated writers making end-of-season guesses—Verducci, Joe Lemire, Jay Jaffe, and Joe Sheehan, are going with the Nationals. We hope they’re right. But in case it all goes horribly wrong, at least we’ll know who to blame.

Check out the original post over at DCist

A day after recording his 77th PGA TOUR victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Tiger Woods was a winner again. This time, it came as part of Team Albany, as he helped the club win the Tavistock Cup at Isleworth Golf and Country Club in Windermere, Fla.

Tiger made a clutch six-foot downhill par putt on the par-4 18th hole Tuesday to force a playoff against Lake Nona. Teammate Ian Poulter birdied the first extra hole to lift Team Albany to victory.

“We’ve seen that a few times on the opposite side at the Ryder Cup,” a smiling Woods said.

Tiger carded one birdie and two bogeys while shooting a 1-over 73. Webb Simpson earned medalist honors with a 70.

Woods, who reclaimed No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking with Monday’s win, returns to competition April 11-14 at the Masters Tournament.

Check out the original post over at TigerWoods.com.