Losing sight of the ball

The recent introduction of Hawk-Eye technology to tennis Grand Slam tournaments demonstrates the short-sightedness of the game's governing officials. Hawk-Eye predicts the trajectory of the tennis ball after recording its position periodically during flight. While the technology was intended to assist in resolving border-line calls (if challenged by the players), its "last-word" interpretation and has been decidedly shoddy.

The recent Wimbledon final, a fierce battle between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, illustrated the frailties of Hawk-Eye together with the clearly
unscientific rules on interpreting the results. To me, the ball is out if it hits the ground outside the painted line. However, the chair umpire repeatedly declared the ball in when the edge of the ball (as determined by Hawk-Eye) was only a whisker within the outer edge of the line! Even when 99.99% or more of the ball was well outside the line. Consequently, the point of impact was outside, yet the shot was called "in".

This is quite ridiculous. In each of these instances, the linesman made the right call. Even at real-time speeds, without the aid of cameras and replays, the on-court staff were immediately able to identify the ball as out. And they were absolutely right. Each time, the chair umpire over-ruled, once even agreeing that he would have called "out" after seeing the Hawk-Eye prediction! Yet, he had to go with the "rule" and overturn the linesman.

Worse, the rule ignores Hawk-Eye's margin of error. The company claims that the technology is accurate to within about 3.5 mm. If this is taken into account, then a ball that is shown to be just out can actually have touched the line by a few hair-widths! Similarly, the "out" calls at Wimbledon could have been well out instead of barely being "in". The verdict, for me, is clear: the focus should be the center of the ball (or a small region about the center). The current rule makes no sense, and Federer was justifiably miffed as call after call went cruelly against him.

Granted, Hawk-Eye provides insights that were not available before. But the officials need a big lesson in rational thinking.

Handling telemarketers

Telemarketers are getting more annoying, refusing to take "no" as your final answer. I am currently being hounded repeatedly by a finance company whose credit card I canceled. Instead of respecting and accepting my decision, they call at least once a week with pressure tactics to try and get me to re-activate my account. If you try to be nice, you waste several minutes on the phone. The only solution, it seems, is to rudely cut off the caller.

One effective option is to say that the person of interest is not currently at home. Do they have a message you could take? The guaranteed response: This is just a courtesy call, and they will try again later. Ask them which organization they represent, and see them squirm and wriggle as they look for a way to hide this info!

My most recent encounter was actually partially funny. The caller asked to speak to "Rachaman Balakardishna", a highly mangled version of my own name. I grabbed the quick-escape lifeline and declared that a person by that name did not live at our residence! The caller's interest flagged immediately, and I minimized my lost time.

The bookie's bane

[From Cnn.com]

Irish bookie pays out as cops bust 'wrong' Gore

DUBLIN, Ireland (Reuters) -- An Irish bookmaker who offered 14-to-1 odds that Al Gore would be the next high-profile American to be arrested paid out on Friday after police detained the former vice president's son, also named Al.

Al Gore III appears with his parents, Al and Tipper Gore.

Having not specified which Al bettors could back, Paddy Power said some of the 50 or so people who placed money on the rank outsider being arrested had been quick to claim their winnings.

"We got a good stoning thanks to the vice president's son," the company said in a statement.

The "bizarre coincidence" would cost it more than $13,600.

Al Gore III, 24, was stopped for speeding on Wednesday and arrested for drug possession after a sheriff's deputy smelled marijuana and searched his car.

Paddy Power, which is well known in Ireland for wacky publicity stunts and for offering bizarre and sometimes controversial bets, offered odds on July 3 that had made Paris Hilton the 2-to-1 favorite to be arrested.

It had ranked President Bush and Bill Gates among the outsiders on odds of 33-to-1 and 50-to-1 respectively.