A picture is worth a thousand words, right?
Is the racquet supersize or is the player mini size?
You be the judge.

Sustainability and green awareness has been the trendy thing for the last few years. It seems like everyone is getting onto the bangwagon these days and who can blame them? North American is the epitome of capitalism and if it makes you lots of money then it’s chic to be green to be in the green.
Nike is the latest in this crazed silliness and just recently launched a new shoe for NBA all-star Steve Nash called the Nike Trash
Talk. The Nike Trash Talk is modeled after Nash’s current shoe, the Nike Zoom BB II Low, and meets Nike’s Considered design standards (www.nikeresponsiblity.com) for taking a sustainable approach to performance footwear innovation.

“Any opportunity to promote the environment and preserve our planet is a step in the right direction,” Nash said. “I’m very excited to be one of the first athletes to wear the Nike Trash Talk. I think people will love the shoe, and hopefully by wearing it I can inspire others to try it out as well.”

Nike footwear designer, Kasey Jarvis said: “I was really looking for a ‘here and now’ solution to footwear waste, and creating a performance product using waste materials felt like a very innovative solution. Using Nike’s Considered design ethos I was able to create a shoe that stands up to the stringent on-court performance requirements but is also more environmentally friendly.”

The Nike Trash Talk meets Nike’s Considered design standards because…

The upper is pieced together from leather and synthetic leather waste from the factory floor using zig-zag stitching.

The mid-sole uses scrap-ground foam from factory production

The outsole uses environmentally-preferred rubber that reduces toxics and incorporates Nike Grind* material from footwear outsole manufacturing waste.

The Phoenix Suns’ colorways will have shoe laces and sockliners which use environmentally-preferred materials and will be packaged in a fully recycled cardboard shoe box.

Nike is releasing a limited number of the Nike Trash Talk in three different colorways – two Phoenix Suns colorways (home and away) and one colorway for Nash to wear this week for the All-Star Game. The All-Star colorway will be sold at the House of Hoops by Foot Locker in New York and in New Orleans this week with a suggested retail price of $100. The Phoenix Suns colorways will launch April 22, 2008 at the House of Hoops by Footlocker.
Source: Nike

Whatever happened to the high-5 after a victorious point? Or how about the more trendy fist-bash that people are doing after a win? I don’t really care how good the Bryan brothers are in doubles tennis but someone should really tell them that this gayness needs to be stopped. It’s quite gay to bash another dude’s chest multiple times throughout a match but what if that person is your twin brother?! Do the Bryan brothers call up each other after they score with a girl to chest bash as well?!

For all the tennis lovers who wished there was more doubles coverage on TV, maybe this partially answers your questions why no channel will air it.

World number one Roger Federer has shrugged off his lack of match practice in the lead-up to Australian Open 2008, saying he is feeling in top shape as he begins his campaign for a third-straight title at Melbourne Park.

Having not played a competitive match since winning the Masters Cup in November, although he did take on Pete Sampras in three exhibition matches later that month, Federer was then forced out of the AAMI Classic at Kooyong last week.

But the three-time Australian Open champion told reporters on tournament eve, a couple of days before he was to take on Argentine Diego Hartfield in the first round, that he is ready for action.

“Of course it’s been some sort of a different preparation to some other Grand Slams,” Federer said. “It’s always tough in Australia because you don’t have many matches coming in.”

“But I’m very much used to it, not playing for four weeks or six weeks and then coming in and playing a big tournament. So for me it’s not much of a change.

“I’ve been playing sets the last couple days, you know, which was very important for me, to be able to play points. I’m happy with my form, to be honest. Very pleased. Physically I’m fine now, too. No more issues. I would consider myself a hundred per cent.”

Federer added that while the stomach illness that temporarily hospitalised him last week had taken a bit of a toll, he believes the work he did in December before coming to Australia will hold him in good stead.

“I practiced very well in Dubai before coming here, so I definitely, you know, created a good base for this fortnight,” he said. “That’s what I feel now when I get back on the practice courts. You know, I feel the way I would like to feel.”

“Tennis comes back very quickly. You know, it’s not like I haven’t been playing tennis for four weeks. It’s only been one week I couldn’t play tennis. When you practice so hard, like the way I did in Dubai, then you practice for a couple days, you’re right away back into things.”

“That’s for me important to know. I feel like I’m moving well. Surface seems to, again, suit my game, which is obviously important after all the talk about it. Now we’ll see how it goes.”

The 12-time Grand Slam winner, who needs three more major titles to eclipse the all-time record of 14 currently held by Sampras, also gave the Australian Open a ringing endorsement.

“It’s a great Grand Slam, great facilities, one of the best in the world,” Federer said. “So I think they deserve it. They’ve been able to maintain great crowds and a great event for us players.”

Federer is also set to take on Sampras again in March at Madison Square Garden in New York, and he is looking forward to renewing acquaintances with the former world number one.

“For me it was a dream come true to get a chance to play at the Garden. It’s somewhere I never played at,” he said. “Pete really wanted to have an exhibition in the States, as well. So I said, Sure, where should we do it? Sort of Madison Square Garden came about.”

“Honestly, it was just nice to hang out with him, see what type of a person he is. We’ve become friends, you know. It was very nice, you know, that we have obviously the record going on.”

“I don’t think it matters too much to us. It’s just more about having respect and, you know, liking each other, you know, during that trip. It’s the last exhibition we got planned, and after that we’ll see where it takes us.”

Like many of his strong rivals who speak of the dangers that lurk in the early rounds of any big tournaments, Federer is likewise confident of another strong showing in the next fortnight.

“The danger always looms around, you know, the first few rounds because you know you want to get the feeling for the court, the balls. It’s been a year. You come back with a lot of pressure trying to defend the points,” Federer said.

“There’s always a lot of pressure, but somehow I always get through. You know, I got the right approach and I’m confident. I got different styles of play I can use, you know, to win matches.”

“Always in the first round, you know, I don’t play against a fellow top-10 player, which helps obviously. This is also one of the reasons I always maybe played very well throughout the Grand Slam.”

Source: Australian Open Site

What a horrible start to the stock market for 2008!. People are talking about slow downs and the dreaded “R” word……RECESSION! I don’t know that much about the markets but it’s scary to think that fear from rumours are driving the market this much. It’s really true that the rich do get richer because it’s so easier to take advantage of scared traders and volatile markets. If you are trading on the side like I am while working a full-time trade, remember to have tight sell orders or else you will lose the farm!
In the words of a famous investor: “there’s always a bull market somewhere” and hopefully you will find it. A bull will always beat a bear in the long run.

Not very good news this morning for tennis fans around the world: Roger Federer has informed officials at the Kooyong Classic that he is withdrawing due to a severe stomach virus. The Kooyong Classic is a exhibition tournament that is a warm-up to the Australian Open. Previous entrants to the Kooyong Classic have fared very well at the first Grand Slam of the year, most notably, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer.

Federer is hoping to add to his 12 Grand Slam resume and overtake Pete Sampras’ record 14 Slam titles.

Arriving early for practice to defend his Aussie Open Championship:

From Yahoo! Sports:
Roger Federer has a severe stomach virus and has pulled out of an exhibition tournament less than a week away from the Australian Open.

Federer told officials at the Kooyong Classic on Monday that he became ill after arriving in Australia last Friday from his training base in Dubai.

“It continued to get worse over the weekend,” the top-ranked Federer said. “After trying to practice on Saturday afternoon, I went to see the doctors and they immediately performed a series of tests. The doctors have advised me that I should take a couple of days off and recuperate so that I am able to be 100 percent for the start of the Australian Open.”

Federer, aiming for his third straight Australian Open title, hopes to resume training by Wednesday or Thursday. The eight-man Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament begins Wednesday.

Tournament officials also said that Germany’s Tommy Haas has withdrawn. He had recent shoulder surgery for a chronic injury, and it has not recovered in time. Haas said he still hopes to be ready for the Australian Open, which begins Jan. 14.

Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko has been picked as one replacement player at Kooyong, with another to be named later.

Others in the Kooyong field are Andy Roddick, Fernando Gonzalez, Andy Murray, David Nalbandian, Ivan Ljubicic and Marat Safin.

Talk about the apple not falling far from the tree: Britney Spears’ 16 year old sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, is pregnant!
I may sound mean for saying this but in my opinion, both sisters are trash! Regardless of how much money they have, you can take the girl out of the trash but you can’t take the trash out of the girl. It’s just insanity that their parents do not provide any support and guidance to their out of control party-crazed daughters. If you are hestitant in having children, here’s reason #1 for not having any daughters!

From Yahoo!:

NEW YORK - Another Spears baby is reportedly on the way and it’s not Britney’s. Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old “Zoey 101″ star and sister of Britney, told OK! magazine that she’s pregnant and that the father is her boyfriend, Casey Aldridge.

“It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected,” she said. “I was in complete and total shock and so was he.”

Spears is 12 weeks along and initially kept the news to herself when she learned of the pregnancy from an at-home test and subsequent doctor visit, she told the celebrity magazine, which hits stands in New York on Wednesday and the rest of the country by Friday.

What message does she want to send to other teens about premarital sex? “I definitely don’t think it’s something you should do; it’s better to wait,” she told the magazine. “But I can’t be judgmental because it’s a position I put myself in.”

After she found out from a doctor that she was pregnant, she said, “I took two weeks to myself where I didn’t tell anybody.”

“Only one of my friends knew because I needed to work out what I would do for myself before I let anyone’s opinion affect my decision. Then I told my parents and my friends. I was scared, but I had to do what was right for me,” she said.

Spears broke the news to her mother, Lynne, just before Thanksgiving, the magazine reported.

“She was very upset because it wasn’t what she expected at all,” Spears said. “A week after, she had time to cope with it and became very supportive.”

Lynne Spears, already grandmother to Britney’s young sons, told the magazine: “I didn’t believe it because Jamie Lynn’s always been so conscientious. She’s never late for her curfew. I was in shock. I mean, this is my 16-year-old baby.”

She said her actress daughter, the telegenic heroine of her popular Nickelodeon series, has known Aldridge for years and began dating him in high school.

But in a recent interview with The Associated Press, Spears said she had no steady boyfriend. “I kind of just keep my options open,” she said. “I have a bunch of friends that I always hang out with, a bunch of guy friends.” She declined to talk about her older sister.

Spears spoke to the AP shortly before Thanksgiving, the day she told OK! she informed her mother about the pregnancy.

Jamie Lynn plans to raise the baby in her home state of Louisiana “so it can have a normal family life.”

Nickelodeon released a statement: “We respect Jamie Lynn’s decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation. We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn’s well being.”

A publicist for the network did not immediately respond to phone and e-mail requests for additional comment.

“Zoey 101″ is scheduled to conclude its third season Jan. 4 with a cliffhanger episode in which Spears’ character must decide whether to leave her fictional Pacific Coast Academy boarding school in California to join her parents in London.

The show is scheduled to resume in February, and its producer, Dan Schneider, has said filming on the fourth season has already been completed.