Apple Maps is life threatening to motorists lost in Australian heat

Apple Maps inaccuracies could be life threatening to motorists in Australia’s scorching heat, police have warned.

Officers in Mildura, Victoria, say they have had to assist drivers stranded after following the software’s directions.

Some had been without food or water for 24 hours, of course this is nothing new ever since it was released in September Apple’s software has been heavily criticised, and last week Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook admitted Apple had “screwed up”.

Tests on the Apple Maps system revealed it listed the town of Mildura in the middle of Murray Sunset National Park, some 45 miles away from where it actually is, leaving motorists trapped in the park with no water supply and 46 degree heat.  

While Apple have clearly dropped the ball on this one, I’m a little concerned that motorists are so willing to follow these mapping systems and seemingly not pay any attention to their own instincts or road signs.

I mean when you pass a sign that says now entering a National Park and you look at the map to see your close to your destination, isn’t that the time to say maybe this thing is leading us astray, instead of trusting a system which since its launch has proved to be flawed.

What makes this worse, from Apple’s perspective, is that they previously used Google Maps a system which works and yet they decided to drop it and spend a fortune developing their own which they’ve clearly rushed and now its endangering people’s lives.

Messi breaks Muller’s goal-scoring record

Lionel Messi has set a new record for most goals scored in a calendar year with 86, his brace against Real Betis took him one ahead of Gerd Muller’s previous record 85 set in 1972.

Messi’s record bid looked in doubt when he was stretchered off against Benfica in mid-week, but having not missed a game for Barcelona in more than two years, it was no surprise to see him back in the starting XI on Sunday. 

He needed two to break the record and it took him all of 25 minutes to do it, that took his 2012 total to 74 in 57 with Barca and 12 in nine with Argentina, and he still has three more games to set the benchmark even higher.

What makes this even more remarkable is that at 25 Messi hasn’t reached his peak yet and could get even better.

This record should once and for all prove he’s the best in the world by a considerable margin and I’m pretty sure when he’s retired he’ll be considered the best ever, either way it’s a joy to watch. 

Climate talks could mean compensation for poorer nations

UN climate talks in Qatar have taken an historic turn, which could see rich nations having to compensate poor nations for losses due to climate change.

The US is fiercely opposed to the measure saying the costs could be unlimited, with the EU yet to declare a position.

Saleem ul-Huq, from the think-tank IIED, said: “This is a watershed in the talks. There is no turning back from this. It will be better for the US to realise that the principle of compensation is inevitable.”

Poorer nations are already bitter that richer nations are dragging their feet over a promise made to mobilise $100bn by 2020 to help them develop clean energy and adapt to climate change.

There’s no other way to say it, this is a stupid idea, I’m in total agreement that the richer more developed and industrialised nations should do more to develop cleaner more sustainable energy and do more to tackle climate change but compensating poorer countries for losses is too vague and too subjective.

How many nations would be entitled to compensation? How much should they be compensated? How do you judge if that’s a fair reasonable amount? Who pays what?

Todd Stern, the US chief negotiator, was heard saying: “I will block this. I will shut this down.”  

I hope you do Todd because it needs to be.    

Wisconsin father of 9 ordered to stop having kids

Wisconsin father or nine, Corey Curtis, has been told by judge, Tim Boyle, to stop his compulsive procreating and pay the $90,000 he owes in child support.

Curtis who has nine children with six different women, was also told by Judge Boyle “It’s too bad the court doesn’t have the authority to sterilise, common sense dictates you shouldn’t have kids you can’t afford”.

Brilliant, I think this might even top the judge from Ohio who made a dangerous driver wear an idiot sign, why aren’t judges in Britain more like this.   

Starbucks agrees to pay more corporation tax

Starbucks has agreed to pay more UK corporation tax, after a public outcry over how little it pays.

Kris Engskov, managing director of Starbucks UK announced that the company would pay “a significant amount of tax during 2013 and 2014, regardless of whether the company is profitable”. One tax expert described the move as “unprecedented”.

The extra tax could amount to £20 million, with  Mr Engskov adding “We are going to do what’s required beyond the law”.

The question here is instead of companies being pressured into voluntarily paying more than the law requires to appease everyone, why don’t the government close the loopholes and ways round the law corporations like Starbucks take advantage of year after year.

Because all Starbucks are doing is offering up a token gesture and choosing to pay tax on their terms, that doesn’t really solve the problem.  

Dogs taught to drive

I had to read the headline several times to check I wasn’t going barking mad, but turns out its true three dogs in New Zealand have been taught to drive.

They can steer, break and even change gear, their trainer Mark Vette: said “We chain behaviours together... in this case we've got 10 behaviours we're putting together. Then you put them into a sequence.

“It’s a lot to do, and for the dog to actually start to get an idea of what actually is happening takes quite a long time.”

But hasn't all been straight forward, as Mark added: “A couple of days ago the car was going too fast, the trainer nearly got run over.”

I’m sorry I can’t keep this up any longer teaching dogs to drive what the f**k is the matter with you, I hope one of the dogs does run someone over to show just how monumentally stupid this idea is.

The animal adoption charity responsible for this lunacy decided to do this to show just how intelligent dogs are, wrong, all they’ve succeeded in doing is showing just how much they’ve taken leave of their senses.    

I’ve never been to New Zealand but there must be more to do than this, I mean really teaching dogs to drive what the.......

Marijuana decriminalised in Washington State

Possession of marijuana has become legal, yes legal, in the US state of Washington, a month after voters opted for decriminalisation.

From midnight (08:00 GMT) anyone aged 21 and over was allowed to carry up to 1oz (28.4g) of cannabis, but smoking it in public will still remain illegal.

It’s such a shame it’s only Washington state and not DC, would love to see Obama giving a presidential address from the oval office, my fellow Americans the economy is fine, everything’s fine, just chill.

It will be interesting to see the tourism numbers for people travelling to Washington in the next few months and also the increase in business reported by fast food outlets.

Ginola defends Bale over diving claims

Former Tottenham midfielder David Ginola says Gareth Bale’s reputation as a diver is “unfair”.

Bale was booked for diving for the second game in a row against Fulham, let’s be clear Bale isn’t the only one who dives, but he goes down way too easily and the theatrical swan lake nature of his falls make it look even worse.

Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas said the decision to book Bale at Craven Cottage was “a little bit harsh” and that there was contact, but football is a contact sport and if two players come into contact that shouldn’t be the cue for one of them to throw themselves to the ground and demand a free-kick.

And I don’t buy the argument that because he’s running at pace the slightest knock can send him over, if that were true he’d be on the floor the whole game.

Back to Ginola who also feels that referees should protect Bale’s ability rather than punishing him, which would be a fair case if people were kicking lumps out of him every week, but they aren’t so refs are totally justified in booking him.

Bale can solve his problem by trying his best to stay upright, refs and fans would have much more sympathy if he made an effort to carry on and not fling himself to the ground, and the FA and Premier League can step in here as well.

If a player, any player, dives they should be retrospectively punished and given a one game ban that would soon stop them.

Cameron tells editors to sort out press regulator

The Prime Minister has met newspaper editors and told them to act quickly to set up a new press regulator following the release of the Leveson report.

Daily Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher tweeted that the meeting “felt like the summoning of the Five Families”, let’s hope the press make an offer the PM and public can’t refuse.

A new regulator will be put in place but it all comes down how the gap will be bridged between those who say we should follow all Leveson’s recommendations including legal underpinning and those who believe that is a step too far and compromises press freedom.

Either way it needs to be done quickly, editor of The Independent Chris Blackhurst said “if it takes too long we will get statute”.

Instead of having all these meetings and discussions and proposals for potentially doing things this way or that way, why not just implement the changes suggested by the Leveson report.

If draft legislation is already being worked on fine tune that, because all you’re going to get from the editors is we can’t have legal underpinning that means state controlled press we prefer an alternative that we like.

Put in place the recommended changes otherwise Leveson’s whole report and investigation will be a redundant costly waste of time and money.

Australian smokers given plain packs

Australia has become the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes, from now on all tobacco company logos and colours will be banned from the packaging.

They have all been replaced by a dreary, uniform, green/brown, colour accompanied by a raft of anti-smoking messages and photographs, with the only concession being the name of the brand and variant in small print at the bottom of the box.  

Australia’s health minister, Tanya Plibersek declared“This is the last gasp of a dying industry.”

While I’m not a smoker, tried it didn’t like it, it seems to me that there is very little you can do to discourage people from smoking if they really want to, these measures might make occasional smokers think twice, but as for everyone else I can’t see it working.

As for the tobacco industry it’s hardly on its knees, it’s still a multi-billion pound global industry, and try as you might you’ll never put them out of business, all you’ll do is drive them to less regulated, developing parts of the world, that’s hardly a solution.

If people want to play Russian roulette with their lives and risk developing mouth, throat or lung cancer, let them.

The new packaging that shows photos of smokers with teeth missing and others that are meant to discourage people, that’s been tried and why not try that for other things, why not have a picture of a dead polar bear plastered across a petrol pump when you go to fill up, it’s the same principle.

While this campaign is being launched with the right intentions, it seems those behind it are being a bit short-sighted.