Keeping To A Sporting Theme,

here are a few more basketball courts,

 we have featured the painting of basketball courts before, 

 and it appears they are growing to be ever more popular, 

 all of these are from Project Backboard, 

which began in 2014 when Daniel Peterson, a former college basketball player and employee of the Memphis Grizzlies, noticed the neglected state of several basketball courts scattered around the city, as Peterson began updating courts across Memphis, his interest widened to include ways he could not only improve his local courts, but generate excitement in surrounding neighbourhoods for their public parks,

 after learning local artist Anthony Lee was already designing an installation for a nearby court, he partnered with the artist to paint the park’s gray asphalt with bright blue and pink designs, the collaboration marked the beginning of Project Backboard, while also inspiring Peterson work with local artists who were already engaged within a chosen community, “I prefer to work with artists who have a connection to the park or city where we are working, having the artist on site is very helpful for installation and, especially if it is a city I am not as familiar with, a local artist can create a work with more meaning and context. That said, there are artists I have worked with in the past that I would love to work with again if the right opportunity comes along!”

after reviving several basketball courts in Memphis, Project Backboard has moved on to produce projects in St. Louis and Los Angeles, currently the organisation is working with cities along the East Coast, specifically Baltimore and New Rochelle, New York, to explore other courts in need of an update, if you want to collaborate on an installation in your own city, visit Project Blackboard’s Instagram.

At School I Hated Sports,

with a vengeance, 

photographs Wilson, with one exception, basket ball, which I really enjoyed, so it was with some interest I looked at a new basketball, 

luckily I started playing after the leather basket balls had been replaced by the ones commonly used today, but now welcome the new ball on the block, behold the Wilson Airless Prototype which was unveiled last month, during the NBA All-Star Weekend, when Houston Rockets forward “KJ” Martin was filmed bouncing it around a bit and throwing it at the basket, although Wilson has kept the traditional binding pattern of the regular basketball, ensuring that players can still get their fingers into the seam lines for better grip, the prototype has a very futuristic look, because containing air pressure inside is no longer a requirement, the ball itself is see-through, with hundreds of small hexagonal holes allowing air to pass through,

working with manufacturing company EOS, Wilson reportedly 3D-printed its airless prototype using the selective laser sintering (SLS) method of additive manufacturing to fuse several layers of polymer powder, the most difficult part of the process, making the ball rebound,

one slight worry about the hexagonal holes is that apparently it will not allow you to spin the basketball on your fingertips, but will the new ball catch on? the one used is just a prototype, it remains to be seen if Wilson launches the airless basketball commercially, crikey, this post has brought school memories of playing basketball for the school flooding back!

We Have Featured Highly Coloured,

outdoor basket ball courts before,

like this one from French fashion brand Pigalle and design agency Ill-Studio, back in June this year, 

 and it seems they are popular, as this aerial picture shows, 

 Artist Katrien Vanderlinden has painted colourful shapes inspired by toy bricks onto a basketball court in the Belgian city of Aalst,

Vanderlinden's Ezelsplein mural is based on a children's mathematical reasoning game named Logical Blocks, which comprises squares, rectangles, triangles and circles, in different shapes, sizes and colour,

inspired by these shapes, she added triangles, circles and rectangles in between the traditional court markings – creating spaces for the local children to play other games, block colours in hues of blue, yellow and pink were chosen to fill in the shapes, as an "ode" to the bold and graphic Memphis art movement, and above the completed court, and it appears She is not alone in designing a project to be best-seen from above, in response to the increasing popularity of drone photography of basketball courts on social media, 

 for instance Nike have gotten in to the frame,

  when they enlisted Brooklyn-based artist Kaws to paint his signature motifs across two basketball courts in New York City,

the artist who is known for his brightly coloured, cartoon-like works and limited-edition objects covered two side-by-side courts on Manhattan's Stanton Street,

other artists are dong the same, like the one above, "Drones are also widespread nowadays, so to make an artwork that can only be viewed as a whole from an aerial point of view isn't such a crazy idea," Ezelsplein commented, I wonder if the NBA will ever feature an artists basketball court in a league game?

When Playing Basket Ball At School And College,

when picking a team, the players height was often considered an advantage,

screenshot from Sina Weibo, so at 7ft 5in (2.26m), Zhang Ziyu, a 14-year-old basketball player from Shandong, China, would be a wise pick as a player, especially given that that Zhang’s parents were both professional basketball players, but still, her stature is surprising, especially considering her age, She is already  taller than both her father (6ft 11in/2.13m) and her mother (6ft 6in/1.98m), 

but Zhang Ziyu has more than height going for her. Coming from a basketball family, she has been playing the sport since she was just 5-years-old and training under the watchful eye of her mother, a former member of China’s national team, hopefully she will be able to cope with the challenges of her height, sports experts agree that if Zhang keeps up her training, she has a bright future in basketball, but psychologists have warned that the height difference between her and the other kids her age could cause social issues, and asked that the girl be protected from bullying, for the full story have a look here.

Back In My Youth,

before motorcycle accidents to my legs,

I played basketball, so I was intrigued to see a new record being made, for the most bounce juggles in one minute using three basketballs, Zaila Avant-Garde, a 13-year-old basketball enthusiast set her first Guinness World Record by bounce juggling three basketballs 231 times in one minute, a star player on her school's basketball team in New Orleans, said she started practicing dribbling when she was 5 years old and practiced bounce juggling for two years before attempting the world record for her 13th birthday,

Avant-Garde was able to bounce juggle three balls 231 times in one minute, beating the previous record for most bounce juggles in one minute (three basketballs), 213, "I hope to one day make it all the way to the WNBA. Dribbling is just one part of my overall basketball skillset," the girl said, amazingly in the video above she bounced not only 3 but also 4 and 5 balls at a time! amazing.

Grab A Coffee,

a large one, and if you are like me, be prepared to be amazed, 

as my English Lit master would say to the class, "ears akimbo for knowledge" I found this video amazing, imagine a wolf, that looks like a fox on horse legs, and it eats mostly vegetables and even has a mane! This is just one of the creatures in this amazing video, which introduces us to some strange creatures from Mamadou Ndiaye, that's the internet zoologist Mamadou Ndiaye, not the basketball player Mamadou Ndiaye, or the other basketball player Mamadou Ndiaye, I had no idea but apparently Mamadou Ndiaye is a pretty common name, back to the video, some of the creatures I knew about but there were one or two surprises, so grab a coffee and hopefully you will see it through to the end and hear the what the clouded leopard sounds like, it was not what I expected for sure!

American Basketball Player Donell “D.J.” Cooper,

has been banned from the sport for two years, 

after failing a drugs test, well I guess there are a number of players in any sport that take performance enhancing drugs, but this is not why he was banned, he was banned because he is pregnant! the 28-year-old point guard who last played for AS Monaco, in Europe, was suspended for two years by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) after a urine sample was found to contain high levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)—a hormone produced by the female placenta during pregnancy, the FIBA assumed that Cooper had submitted a woman’s urine as his own, without knowing that she was pregnant at the time, so they banned him from playing competitively for two years, the FIBA has refused to comment on the details of this case, it did clarify that Donnell Cooper will be allowed to play again on June 24, 2020, presumably after giving birth. 

Many Of Us Will Have Seen

Japanese prints in the style of Ukiyo-e, 

 a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries, its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna the term ukiyo-e (浮世絵) translates as "picture[s] of the floating world" and of course some artists have used the theme for their art work, from Star Wars,

Nintendo characters, 

to different GIFs, 

 well here comes a new take on them, Edo Ball, 

 a series of artworks by Australia-based art director Andrew Archer and “inspired by basketball, Japan, NBA and culture.”

 the series began in 2013 and its genesis, as art projects usually are, came from the artists genuine passion for basketball, ukiyo-e, and Japanese culture, the original series, aptly titled “Season 1” included 12 artworks released in 2016, now on “Season 2,” 

 Archer has just recently released 10 new artworks, each artwork has a story behind it; one that is either based on Japanese mythology, history, NBA players themselves or a combination of all of the above, prints are available in Archer’s online shop for $42 each, and no I am not on commission, I just thought it was a neat play on an art medium.

I bet you do not belive this!

Imagine you have a very long piece of string. It's long enough to stretch all the way around the earth.

Since the circumference of the Earth is about 40,074 kilometres, that's how much string you would need.

Imagine that you lay out this string along the ground and on top of the oceans, all the way round the Earth.

That's one long piece of string!Now pull it tight, so it lays flat. The string makes a big circle that is 40,074 kilometres, or 4,007,400,000 centimetres long.

Then you realize that you have an extra metre of string in your pocket, and you want to add it to the string around the Earth ...

You'll have to cut the circle of string somewhere, as it passes in front of you on the ground. Then you'll add exactly one metre more string.

Now you want to spread out this extra bit of string around the Earth, supporting it somehow, so that the string forms a circle off the ground, all 40,074 kilometres (plus one metre) around the world.This may take a while! But eventually, you've smoothed the string out into a perfect circle, all the way around the Earth, and slightly off the ground because of the extra 100 cm you added.

Here's the question I want to ask you ...

How high off the ground would the string be?You would probably say that the string will hardly be off the ground at all. After all, you only added 100 cm, and the string's length was 4,007,400,000 cm to start with. Most people guess something like 0.00005 cm.The very surprising answer is that the string will be 15.9 cm off the ground, all the way around the Earth!If you think about it, this is a very large distance for so little change to the total length of the string!Another way to look at the problem may make the answer seem more reasonable. The height of 15.9 cm is in addition to the radius of the Earth. Since the Earth's radius is about 637,800,000 cm, the change in height is in fact very tiny.But wait, there's more ... The size of the object you're wrapping the string around is completely irrelevant to the problem!

Imagine wrapping a string tightly around a basketball, which has a circumference of about 94 cm

Then you add exactly 100 cm of string, and smooth out the circle all around the ball.

You will make the surprising discovery that the loop of string is once again 15.9 cm above the ball!

Whether the ball is the Earth, or a basketball, or a marble, adding one metre of string to the circumference will make the string form a loop 15.9 cm above the surface, regardless of the size of the sphere the string is wrapped around! These surprising results may be more believable once you see the answers worked out.

Proof I hear you shout! well here it is,

Here are the calculations that show the height of the string above any sphere, after you add one metre.

We'll make the radius R, and the circumference C.

This will be a proof that it works for any values of these measurements.

We added 100 cm to the circumference, making the new longer length of the string C+100 cm.

Next, we solved for the radius of this new bigger circle.

After some simplifying, you can see once again that the new radius is bigger by exactly 15.9 cm.

Because we did this without specifying values for R and C, it is a proof that it will work for any sphere.

so now you know!

Some More Street Art,

this time literally on street level,

in a collaboration between French fashion brand Pigalle and design agency Ill-Studio, 

 the Paris Duperré basketball court was recently redesigned and repainted with a vibrant new colour scheme,

 the narrow basketball court is nestled between two apartment buildings in the 9th arrondissement, 

pictures courtesy Alex Penfornis and and Sébastien Michelini, I wonder if the colour scheme makes the game a little distracting for the players?

What Do You Buy A Sports Fan,

that has everything?

well here is an idea if they are into basketball, Hermès has just released this, a bright blue calfskin basketball, this report from the Hollywood Reporter, The fashion brand, which has turned out footballs and soccer balls in the past, eschewed its signature orange in favor of a California-chic, cool blue for the bull calfskin ball that's made using the same hand-stitched technique as Hermes' coveted Birkin bags, 


'It represents the sky, the ocean and all the beautiful pools that are a way of life in L.A. and Southern California,' says Robert'Chavez, Hermes U.S. CEO, who says that the exceptional quality of the leather as well as the artisanal craftsmanship account for the ball's price,


and the price? just $12,900 will have one of these beauty's bouncing along your driveway.

The City Of Taipei,

has employed a novel way of promoting,

 the upcoming 29th Summer Universiade Games, which will be held from August 19 to August 30, and involves 22 different sports across 70 venues,

 and to build excitement over the coming competition the interiors of the city’s mass rapid transit (MRT) trains, 

 have been decorated in themes to match some of the major sporting events of the games, Taipei’s subway cars are now sporting themes such as track and field, soccer, baseball, basketball, swimming, and athletics throwing events,

 and travellers are getting into the mode,

 having their pictures taken,

 for myself this is the carriage that looks the most realistic,

I could almost believe the boy on the left does not want to put his feet into the water!

You Would Have Thought,

that the offer of free homes would be snapped up,

 but that was not the case in the village of Guanhu, China’s Guangdong province, five years ago, Chen Sheng, the founder and chairman of drinks company Tiandi No 1 Beverage Inc, committed 200 million yuan (US$31.9 million) to the construction of 258 luxury villas on a plot of land offered by authorities in the village of Guanhu, China’s Guangdong province, each property measures 280 square meters and the three-story villas feature five bedrooms, two reception rooms, a garage and a small garden, the new village also has a small stream passing through it, several pedestrian bridges, basketball and badminton courts and even a public stage for various cultural events, but even though everything was completed last year, the place remains deserted, why? Greed,

  according to a 2013 census, the small village numbered 190 households, but Chen decided to build an extra 68 villas, to make sure that anyone who moved to the village before construction of the new homes was completed would also have a new villa, that turned out to be a big mistake, as soon as the plan to build the luxury village was announced, people in Guanhu started fighting over who should get one or multiple villas, some families claimed that they needed multiple homes, either for their extended families, or for their children when they get married, to make matters worse, farmers who had moved from the village suddenly expressed a desire to return and also staked claims to villas, Chen Sheng commented that he was so disappointed by the people he had been so generous to that he hasn’t even visited Guanhu in the last two years, “As soon as I went back to the village, everyone started making all kinds of demands, so I don’t go back anymore” he said, “If I return, everyone would have all sorts of requests, so I’d rather not return.” 

apart from the free houses, Sheng was once quoted as saying that he planned to build a large pig farm and plant lychee orchards close to the new village, thus creating 100 new jobs for the community, the meat processing factory he owned would buy the pigs from the new farm, thus guaranteeing a market for them, “Within four years, the villagers’ average income will be 200,000 yuan ($32,000) a year, so they won’t have to worry about houses or their children’s education,” the businessman said at the time, back to now, the deserted luxury village has become the target of vandalism, earlier this month, at least 10 windows were smashed with stones, and the whole place is already in need of repairs, so no-one gets a new home, all because of greed.

Beer Finished So It Was Over To The Cultural Show,

they hold the show on the hour,  

but as always check first,

the costumes are extravagant,

the dancers performing dances from the various regions that make up Thailand,

there is also a comedy boxing show,

even though it was the low season the place was packed, Diana sitting in the center,

the sets were changed for every number,

with great attention to detail,

if you have not seen the show it is a 'must do' when you visit Pattaya,

next a drumming display,

followed by a tribal dance, the object is to stay instep and not get a bruised ankle, easier said than done!

a fight is staged on elephant back,

it seems strange not saying horseback,

another regions village dance,

followed by the grand finale, with small

elephants dancing,

then joined by their larger brothers,

after a wave of goodbyes from the cast,

we make our way to the outdoor enclosure for the elephant show,

first the parade,

there must be a reason why they hold each others tail,

they all do it,

then the show begins,

first a balancing act,

then a dart throwing contest,

both elephants have totally different styles,

this one determined not to miss, the score 5-2 in this ones favour,

we were next treated to two elephants riding tricycles,

to huge amounts of cheering from the many children there,

football next,

I do not watch a lot of football,

but when I do it amazes me how some one being paid so much can put the ball so high over the net, these elephants are nearly spot on every time!

which means the goal keeper has his work cut out,

basketball is another popular sport given the elephant treatment,

of course getting near to the net is allowed!

I am not sure what this sport is called, a long ribbon is circled in the air,

along with hula-hooping around the trunk,

for the brave how about a elephant massage?

by trunk,

or by foot,

some one did not tell this elephant to be gentle!

but all was well in the end,

after the show it was time for a few pictures and who was first in the queue?