Saturday, March 6th, 2010
The role of Indonesia’s reformist finance minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, in the bailout of a small bank will be debated by parliament on Wednesday following months of hearings by a committee.
A committee probing the 2008 bailout of Bank Century on Tuesday handed two conflicting recommendations to parliament. One found the bailout was justified, the other called for a criminal investigation into Indrawati and Vice President Boediono.
Here are five facts about Indrawati:
* Indrawati, 47, ranks among the most powerful women in the region and is one of the few Indonesian policymakers with an international profile.
* As finance minister, she has cleaned up the corrupt tax and customs departments by introducing more transparent practices, firing those caught taking bribes, and even springing surprise raids on staff to keep them honest.
Her policy of increasing tax collection to boost state revenues has earned her many enemies among the business elite who are now under pressure to pay up — particularly after the tax office published a list of the 100 top tax dodgers which included a coal firm controlled by tycoon and politician Aburizal Bakrie.
* During her time as finance minister, Southeast Asa’s largest economy has become a member of the Group of 20 leading economies and is one of the fastest growing ones in the region, partly thanks to the combination of sound economic policies and a more stable political situation.
Fitch upgraded Indonesia’s sovereign credit rating to one notch below investment grade in January. It is expected to achieve the coveted investment grade within a couple of years and join Brazil, Russia, India and China — the BRICs — as a member of the emerging market elite.
* On the downside, she has been less successful in going after some of the Suharto-era figures facing accusations of corruption, and has met resistance from less reform-minded cabinet colleagues and coalition politicians, particularly Bakrie, the tycoon who heads the Golkar Party.
Her decision to rescue Bank Century in 2008 in order to avert a wider financial crisis was the subject of a highly politicised parliamentary inquiry that has now handed its recommendations to the house of parliament.
* She got her doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois, lectured at Georgia University on Indonesia’s economy, and was an executive director of the International Monetary Fund representing 12 economies in Southeast Asia from 2002-2004.
sources : http://in.news.yahoo.com/137/20100303/760/twl-factbox-facts-about-indonesia-s-sri.html
(Reporting by Sara Webb and Sunanda Creagh; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Posted in indonesia, news | 4 Comments »
Saturday, February 27th, 2010
Two German researchers, Heinze and Walter, found that the ants are going to die will leave the nest to avoid the outbreak of disease to others. This departure is proof of the high social level, an ant, so concerned with the interests and safety of the group rather than egoism and his own life.
This research was conducted with the disease infects (mushrooms) to some worker ants in a colony. ant wrote infection barricaded herself in a nest (not working) and after making sure he suffered pain, he went out and away from the nest until he died. This departure a few hours up to 1 day before his death. Ant ill will evacuate themselves without coercion from other ants.
Hopefully we can take a lesson from this simple creature. concerned with the safety of the group / race than selfishness and personal satisfaction.
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Saturday, February 27th, 2010
10 new Israel aircraft without crew (UAVs) will debut in Afghanistan this week, before Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has been sending unmanned aircraft to the forces of Heron Kingdom Australia on Thursday.
Under the contract worth 91 million dollars, the Australian military will receive 10 Heron aircraft. Israeli companies are already working with the Canadian military in Afghanistan for air equipment maintenance.
Israeli Heron aircraft is similar to the American production of drones that often killed civilians in Pakistan will also use the German military. The government also announced that Brazil has set aside 350 million dollars to buy Heron unmanned aircraft to patrol the air in the city and its borders. The aircraft will also be used as an air safety at the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.
Australian military aircraft Heron Israel chose this among other competitors after the aircraft has proved successful in tests of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Under the agreement Israel and Australia, these types of aircraft Heron will start operation in early 2010 for the first year, and adding another option for two years.
Australian military hoped, with the use of this Heron Traffic will increase Australia’s military operations in Afghanistan. This Heron aircraft including unmanned aircraft type Medium Altitude Long Endurance, which can fly for 30 hours with a height of 30.000 feet and capable of carrying loads weighing 250 kg.
Wings have a width of 16.6 meters, as he had take off weight 1.200 kg, can be controlled automatically from a distance of hundreds of kilometers. This aircraft was designed to fly at the climate and conditions of Afghanistan.
may Allah protect Palestinian people
Posted in daily, news | 10 Comments »
Saturday, February 27th, 2010
(CNN) — Bob “Doctor” Lee is known for his smooth soul and classic R&B during the overnight hours, but working while many of us are sleeping takes its toll.
The Harlem radio DJ says he enjoys carrying his listeners through the night, but sometimes he finds himself dozing off.
“When you’re working these types of hours, sometimes you have to get some shut-eye when you can,” Lee said. “I go down to the gym to one of those mats, put your head back, next thing you know (laughs) you’ve picked up a couple minutes of sleep.”
He isn’t alone. In the next “In Focus” series from CNN’s award-winning photojournalists, we’re introduced to people who are awake and working the night shift while the rest of us are asleep.
Rink to court while you sleep
Saving furry lives 24/7
Overnight ride with EMS
Tough hours, great view
Health risks working nights
Vegas lights through the night
It’s a slice of life that many people don’t see — and a different angle on news about jobs and the economy. The on-air and online project also looks at the effect night shift work has on lives, health and families.
Lynette Slaton, a mother of three, has worked third shift for years as the night manager at Amy’s Bread in New York. The hours are hard on her and her family, but she is determined to provide a better life for them. Lynette stays up with her children during the day so she can have a hand in raising them.
“When I look at them I want them to have so much, but right now, with the way the economy is and everything, I just feel more secure being able to be with them and not having to put them in a day care setting so young,” she said.
The series also takes us behind the scenes of Atlanta, Georgia’s, Philips Arena, where workers race against the clock overnight to convert the professional sports arena from the home of the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers to the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks when the teams have back-to-back games.
See how the Philips team turns ice into wood
“The games end at 9:30 at night,” said Richard Manley, the arena’s assistant manager of conversion. “We’re starting at 10 o’clock. We change this building over every night from hockey to basketball to hockey.”
“This is what we call the third shift, the night shift,” said Barry Henson, the arena’s vice president of building and event operations. “When everybody else is asleep, this is when this building can change from one thing to the next.”
CNN’s Tom Foreman hosts this special series from a virtual environment designed by the graphics team at CNN’s Washington Bureau.
Using green screen technology and a combination of 3-D and 2-D animation, Foreman takes us on a tour from coast to coast as we meet people who work the night shift. See more of the “Nightshift In Focus” series:
• Saving furry lives 24/7
• Overnight ride with EMS
• Tough hours, great view
• Vegas lights through the night 
• Health risks working nights
sources : CNN
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Saturday, February 27th, 2010
(CNN) — Annoyed by a French competitor’s bragging, U.S. Olympic swimmer Don Schollander stalked him into the men’s bathroom, then planted himself inches behind his rival — at the urinal.
Within earshot of his competitors, seven-time gold medalist Mark Spitz reportedly once complained to his coach that he felt tight when he wasn’t hurting at all. Famously mustachioed, the American swimmer said his facial hair helped wick water, enabling him to swim faster. Soon after, the Russians grew mustaches.
Favored in many events, skier Lindsey Vonn announced before the 2010 games that a shin injury might keep her off the snow. Some sports journalists wondered whether she was exaggerating to lower expectations.
To compete at the Olympic games, an athlete must be ready to face fierce mind games, too.
“The laws of the jungle apply — show weakness and risk being eaten,” said Nicole Detling Miller, the U.S. speed skating team’s psychologist. Her job is to help racers maintain their mental focus and combat rivals’ dirty little tricks.
They can be simple but menacing:
In a room full of empty chairs, take a seat right next to your biggest threat, or walk up and offer a handshake.
Spark paranoia by saying: “Oh, hey, that’s a wild new move you have there. Never seen that,” when you’ve not noticed anything unusual at all.
Do something that makes competitors question your sanity.
“You know what was an incredible move? I would throw in a surge [fast sprinting] early in the race because everyone knows you never want to do that at mile 15 in a 26.2-mile race,” said Bill Rodgers, who ran the 1976 Olympic marathon.
The eight-time winner of the Boston and New York City marathons also liked to fire questions at the runner keeping his pace to gauge how much that person was suffering.
“Every athlete does what they can for an edge,” he said. “It’s part of the fun.”
Fun can come a bit frostier on the ice. Skaters sometimes refuse to move out of the way of a rival, forcing the approaching skater to maneuver around, Detling Miller said. Others will stand in the entry gate and take their sweet time removing their blade guards so that no one else can get on the ice.
“If you’ve got a lot of guts, you can get behind a rival and draft off them,” she said. “Ooh, that takes a lot of confidence.”
For the athlete who prefers a minimalist, classic psych out, there’s always The Stare.
“I knew that I could physically not beat her, but mentally I could. I pulled out all the stops. I glared at her so hard. I stared and kept staring,” six-time Olympic gold swimmer Amy Van Dyken told CNN, recalling her infamous showdown at the 1996 Olympics with Le Jingyi of China, who was then a world-record holder.
Van Dyken took it further. “[I] put pool water in my mouth and spat it out in her lane. And then I would slap my arms and grunt,” she said.
It’s against the rules to have unnecessary noise on the starting blocks. Van Dyken reasoned that body functions didn’t fall into that category. “I had phlegm because I’m asthmatic,” she said. “I found that to be an appropriate time to clear my throat as loudly as I could.
“When she [Jingyi] looked down, I knew I had won.”
Van Dyken did take the gold; Jingyi had to settle for silver in that race.
In the 2000 games, Van Dyken tried the tactic again and spat into Inge de Bruijn’s lane and then insulted the Dutch swimmer by saying she could beat de Bruijn if “I were a man.”
The swimmer took a heap of criticism for her actions, and made Sports Illustrated’s list of most unsportsmanlike conduct at the Olympics.
“People can say that it’s unsportsmanlike, but I shook her hand after the race,” Van Dyken said. “[Competitors] aren’t my friends. You’re not swimming for yourself or your swim club anymore. You’re competing for the entire country. If I don’t do my best at the Olympics I have to wait four years. That’s a lot of pressure.”
Pressure aside, Detling Miller and most sports psychologists say they don’t encourage their athletes to spend energy trying to psych each other out. Besides making an athlete look ugly, it can very easily distract from a competitor’s own performance.
It can also backfire by making an athlete seem insecure or fueling a competitor’s drive to win.
Consider American swimmer Gary Hall Jr., who trash-blogged during the 2000 summer Olympics that his team would “smash” the Australians “like guitars.” Aussie Ian Thorpe finished a body’s length ahead of Hall in the 4×100 freestyle relay, inspiring Thorpe’s teammates to play air guitar on the pool deck.
“Trash talking is the least subtle, often least effective way to assert your presence on any field,” said Shane Murphy, the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Sport Psychology Department from 1987 to 1994. He has worked with athletes of all levels for 25 years, teaching them breathing and meditation techniques that keep them calm and remain “in the zone.”
Most of the time, he said, a competitor will psych himself out.
“When I begin working with an athlete, I want to know what their fears are, what is going to make them hesitate,” he said. “We’ll start out with me saying, ‘Let’s think of something that might go wrong.’”
The 2010 Olympics have been dubbed the Glitch Games. The weather has been bad and, especially anxiety-inducing, skating events had to be delayed for more than an hour because resurfacing machines were not working. Those mishaps pale, of course, in comparison to the death of a Georgian luger the first day of the games.
“A lot of athletes will say, ‘I’m scared of crashing,’” said Murphy. “I say, ‘OK, let’s imagine that there’s a terrible crash on the course.’”
Visualization techniques or guided imagery begins by controlling breathing and having the athletes imagine the inner workings of their muscles. Murphy will ask an athlete to make a fist and release it while saying a phrase that’s personally meaningful, such as “Now it’s time to let it go,” or “This is my time to make it happen.”
Before the super-G event last week, cameras captured Vonn at the top of the mountain with her eyes closed, mumbling something while making a swooping motion with her hand as if she were mentally going over the course from start to finish. Vonn took a bronze in the event.
Sometimes the best way to get a self-doubting athlete to believe they can win is to make them feel bad … about feeling bad, Murphy said.
Murphy was coaching a competitor in the modern pentathlon — running, swimming, shooting, horseback riding and fencing. The athlete was incredibly talented but performed poorly in fencing. It took Murphy a while to figure out why. Then it dawned on him. Fencing was the only sport that involved a face-to-face encounter.
“My guy would always say, ‘Oh, he wants it more than I do. I’ll let him have it.’” said Murphy, frustrated that the athlete was giving up mentally.
That was the athlete’s attitude,” said Murphy. “Finally, I said, ‘You’re really cheating your opponents in fencing.’”
This deeply bothered the athlete. How, he asked?
“‘I don’t think you’re giving them your best performance,’” Murphy recalled replying. “‘They are not ever going to know how good they are unless they can test themselves against you when you’re at your best.’
“A light went on and he started doing much better.”
Olympic snowboarder Louie Vito saves the trickery for the half-pipe and listens to hard-driving hip hop on his iPod to stay focused. “If I have a bad contest — I fall or something — I’m not going to listen to that same song ever again,” said Vito, who failed to medal at the games.
Snowboarders don’t spit at each other, fake injuries or block each other at the top of the pipe. But, all boarders know a story about one of them, he said. Vito won’t name the guy, but said he was known for saying to competitors about to drop: “Make sure you don’t fall on that first hit right there.”
“Whatever, that’s one guy,” said Vito. “You can only control yourself. I don’t feel like I need to play mind games with anyone. It’s just a contest, man. It’s just a contest.”
sources : CNN
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Saturday, February 27th, 2010
we saw many useful tips in lifehacker.com and we are glad to share that tips here on daydaily.com. here a few tips we taken from lifehacker.com about olypmpics. read the complete articles below.
Dear Lifehacker,
I’m a huge fan of the winter Olympics and I don’t want to miss a minute of coverage. Where can I watch the games online?
Signed,
Curling Rocks My World
Photo by garrettbh.
Dear Curling,
We’re big fans, too, and want to slurp up all the coverage we can find, so here’s how we’re planning to attack the games online this year.
Note: We’ll update this post as the games begin (and continue) and we find more sources, better options, or more details about what is and isn’t working out, so you may want to bookmark this one for later.
Figure Out When Your Must-Watch Events Are Happening
The first thing to check out is a schedule of events so you know exactly when your favorite events are taking place. The event’s official website, Vancouver 2010, has the complete schedule of both the Olympic and Paralympic games, and will be continually updated with results as they come in.
Track Down the Games Online
Once you’ve figured out what you want to see, it’s time to track it down online. Many live streams of the events can be accessed right from Vancouver 2010, which routes you into the nationally televised broadcasting stations of dozens of countries. Though we can’t say for sure until the games start, this will probably be a great way to view coverage of specific teams and athletes since each nation will likely favor coverage of its stars. In other words, if you want to track every movement of the German bobsled team, streaming one of Germany’s live broadcasts will probably serve you well.
Be aware that some websites will sniff out your location and block you from viewing if you’re outside that particular country, so you may need to try several streams until you find one that works for you. Alternatively, you could try using a proxy service like xroxy or proxify, but make sure you’re not violating the website’s or your ISP’s terms of service before you do. (Also, proxies significantly slow down your bandwidth, so don’t expect great video.)
Watching the Olympics Online in the U.S.
Stateside viewers who mainly want to keep track of American athletes and teams will want to check out NBC’s official 2010 Winter Olympics video page as well as their local listings advisor. From the listings advisor, enter your zip code and cable, satellite, or antennaed-television provider to call up a list of what channels in your area are televising the event. From there, you can hit up the individual local networks to see if they’re offering live streaming on their web sites. Smaller stations may not be, but you might get lucky in some of the country’s major metropolitan areas.
And Elsewhere…
If you want a little local Canadian flair added to your viewing, watch the Olympics via CTV’s dedicated online channel. Check the interactive Viewer’s Guide to find out which Canadian station will broadcast what event, including popular local channels like TSN and Sportsnet.
Our friends across the pond aren’t left out, either. BBC Sport plans to offer four separate live streams, as well as cranking out some content for its mobile site.
Unofficial Olympics Streaming Sites to Check
A few independent websites plan to offer live video streaming of the Olympics but most are unclear about where they’ll get their feeds. Most say they aggregate their videos “from a variety of sources” so, in the end they might not be the most reliable option. If they’re the only choice you’ve got, though, here are a couple of sites that look like they’re worth checking out:
If you’re worried online video streams sagging under the weight of too many viewers, one other option you’ve got is to find a friend with a Slingbox and beg access to it during the games. The cool gadget connects to a television and broadcasts programs to computers that are connected to the local network. The catch is, the TV needs to stay on the channel you want to watch, so your friend is out of luck if they want to view another program while you get your fill of downhill skiing.
Hooking the Slingbox up to an unused television and stashing it in another room usually solves that problem, but if your buddy goes to all this trouble for you, a really nice thank-you gift is in order. Alternatively, you could always just build your own Slingbox with Windows Media Center and a $60 TV tuner card.
Share Your Best Methods
So, Curling, here’s a few options to get you started on the road to 24/7 continuous Olympic viewing. We’ll update this post as we come across more options. Of course, dear readers, if you know of other sites where we can get our snowboarding groove on during the Olympics, be sure to share in the comments.
Love,
Lifehacker
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Friday, February 26th, 2010
today are birthday of great prophet Muhammad SAW, In the Islamic calendar, the 12th day of Rabi-al-Awwal marks the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
There is a difference of opinion about whether the Milad Un-Nabi should be a time of celebration. There is evidence that the Prophet, his Companions, and the early followers after them did not celebrate or otherwise observe his birthday. On the contrary, Muhammad was careful to warn his people not to imitate other faiths, whose followers elevated their prophets and added to the religion what was not in the original teachings.
Those who disagree claim that although not practiced in the early years of Islam, the remembrance of the Prophet’s birthday is a “good innovation.” They see it as a time to read the Qur’an, and remember the life, teachings, and example of the Prophet Muhammad.
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Friday, February 26th, 2010
AdMob
, the mobile advertising network currently being acquired by Google, this morning featured the latest results of its monthly analysis of consumer usage and attitudes across the Android, iPhone and webOS application platforms in its January 2010 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report. 
Among the most interesting things the survey found is the conclusion that 91 percent of iPhone users would recommend their device, compared to 84 percent of Android users and only 69 percent of webOS users.
That 22% difference has got to hurt for Palm.
Other than that, not much noteworthy in this month’s survey results, which states that consumers who use iPhone and Android devices showed “remarkably similar” activity levels, downloading approximately the same total number of applications and spending approximately the same amount of time using them. What I would deem logical and not remarkable at all.
AdMob further says iPhone users continue to download more paid applications, with 50 percent of users purchasing at least one paid application a month compared to 21 percent of Android users. The survey also included consumers on webOS devices and found that they downloaded fewer paid and free applications, although they remain active.
AdMob says it stores and analyzes handset and operator data from every ad request in a network of more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and iPhone, Android, and webOS applications. The AdMob share is calculated by the percentage of requests received from a particular handset; it is a measure of relative mobile Web and application usage and does not represent handset sales.
Additionally, AdMob claims that the number of ad requests to their network went up 32 percent between December and January, to a total of 15.2 billion ads.
source : www.techcrunch.com
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Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Duisburg. Many students are happy when they formulas and variables after school to get rid of are. Ibrahim Handoko contrast, has developed its own terms. His ideas presented to the 15-year-old on Thursday at the “Young Scientist” regional competition in Duisburg.
Taking care of the younger sister and her math homework, not just one of the favorite pastimes of a 15-year-olds. But Ibrahim Handoko owe this unpleasant task, the idea with which he now participates in the “Young Scientists”. His sister, eight-year number needed to solve the walls. Normally, this works like this: If you add up the numbers of neighboring stones, they give the number of the stone, which lies above them. The aim is to find the right number of the last stone on the number pyramid. To come now to the number at the top of the wall – and more free time – have replaced the high school student, the values in the wall with letters and developed a formula. “For me it’s now easier to control,” said Ibrahim, finally, he must not consider any intermediate result.
As in mathematics teaching Pascal’s triangle was on the curriculum, recognized the parallels and regularities and Duisburg further generalized his formula. Not only that, the expected 15-year-old who likes not only coefficients, but also karate further: In addition to the formula for the sum he set up the other for the three basic operations and was also sets rules for special cases such as square and concerted following figures. After class, put the 15-year-old every now and then in front of his arithmetic book, and gradually he developed the terms. “I was relieved when I finally solved the problem,” says the reticent boy, the ninth class of the Gymnasium Landfermann visited his success. With his formula can not only solve simple numerical walls of his sister, Ibrahim’s rule is applicable to all tasks of this type with any number of stones. This saves computational steps and time.
Elementary formulas developed
“It is exceptional that a student in his spare time with fancy deals with mathematics, but it happens”, says Michael Wallau, Ibrahim mathematics teacher and project supervisor. The 55-year-olds are particularly pleased that it has succeeded in high school, completely independent to set up a basic formula. Because even though pages and pages of computation paths impressive work: “The shortest formulas are the best.” And in fact, Ibrahim’s term is so short that it fits on one line on the blackboard. That his students have found the formulas that owe to his previous knowledge, his Entdeckerdrang, but also a little to chance. That the equation can be applied only on the number of walls does not reduce, the discovery Wallau said: “Science is dedicated to many things to understand them, do not necessarily apply to them.”
Even Ibrahim, with baseball cap and baggy pants does not fit into common stereotypes mathematician, does not care. “One must not always think of the economy, about the money.” So it is that he did not even know that beckon even with “Young Scientist” prize money. That mathematics for many of the unpopular subjects, may Ibrahim, who can imagine studying medicine does not understand: “You can be in almost any situation Mathematics.” Even the baker would eventually be able to calculate how much flour, water and sugar he needs. When his classmates, his discoveries are good. When he introduced his class some of his formulas, he won praise.
35 projects in science and technical subjects
A total of 70 participants will be on Thursday at the regional competition in Duisburg 35 projects in the areas of work, biology, chemistry, geosciences and imagine space sciences, mathematics / computer science, physics and engineering. The younger ones participate in the competition experiment students have participated. The 15 – to 21-year-olds, many of them student who hope to participate in the “Young Scientist” – state competition. They present including LED Safety helmets, trying to predict the growth of plants, or find a Chillischärfemessmaschine just how sharply food. How many participants make progress, judged by a panel of teachers, university professors and experts from companies.
Mathematikass Ibrahim is a bit nervous before the competition. “That, what I did is fairly easy to understand, there are more exciting experiments, such as in chemistry,” he muses. Even if he only needs a pen and paper to present his idea, he wants to present to the jury in the ThyssenKrupp Education as attractive as possible. “I hope that I win, but it need not be necessarily,” says Ibrahim modest. But once a researcher at the “Youth” to be there, means the 15-year-olds with Indonesian passport deal. “I want to show that there are foreigners who are interested in the society.” And he was conducting research on “youth” are still stuck, Ibrahim has yet another iron in the fire. On Saturday, he took part as the best freshmen in the state competition in Duisburg in mathematics Olympiad in Neuss.
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
VANCOUVER — Germany joined the United States at the top of the Winter Games medals table on Monday as Canada awoke to an Olympic-size hangover following their demoralising loss to the United States men’s ice hockey team.
Germany won gold in the women’s cross country team sprint as well as silver in the men’s event and team ski jump to climb to the summit alongside the high-flying Americans.
Both countries had seven golds midway through the 10th full day of competition. The Germans had nine silvers, two more than the U.S, but the Americans had five more bronze than their European rivals.
Norway moved to outright third by winning a sixth gold in the men’s cross country team sprint and Austria collected their third of the Games in the team ski jump.
Canada were sitting in a respectable joint fifth place but the golden avalanche they hoped for has failed to materialise and the hockey defeat by the U.S. only made it more unbearable.
The host-nation have failed to win a medal in the Alpine skiing events at Whistler mountain, where the Americans have won eight, and their dream of claiming gold in the ice hockey was in danger of melting fast.
The inquisition has begun and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), which spent millions of taxpayers’ dollars preparing their athletes for the Games, has come under attack.
“It’s painful to do the autopsy while the patient is alive and kicking,” COC chief executive Chris Rudge said.
GLOOMY MOOD
His pleas not to prematurely judge the results fell on deaf years and The Vancouver Sun newspaper echoed the gloomy mood of a nation with the headline: “Woe Canada, U.S. sticks stake in our hearts.”
For Canadians, anything other than winning gold in the ice hockey would be deemed a national failure.
They remain in the competition but the loss to the U.S. has left them facing a qualifying playoff with Germany for the daunting prospect of meeting Russia in the quarter-finals.
Canadian head coach Mike Babcock tried to offer some reassuring words for his compatriots.
“We’ve just chosen a longer route to get to where we want to go,” he said.
Austria, another traditional winter sports powerhouse struggling in Vancouver, made a brighter start to the final week of competition when Wolfgang Loitzl, Andreas Kofler, Thomas Morgenstern and Gregor Schlierenzauer joined up to win gold in the ski jumping.
Team ski jumping may not be the highest-profile sport at the Olympics but Austria are a giant in the discipline, winning every world and Olympic title since 2005, and they dominated once again to leave Germany to take the silver and Norway bronze.
“I think we don’t have that much pressure. We know we have the strongest team so we know what to do in order to be the best,” Loitzl said.
A late surge by Claudia Nystad enabled Germany to win the women’s cross country final ahead of Sweden, who had led at every exchange. Russia came third.
Germany looked to be on course to win the men’s final too when they led at the final changeover but Norway’s Petter Northug unleashed a powerful burst on the last lap to snatch his first gold of the Games after failing in three individual events. Russia again took the bronze.
The only other medal to be decided on Monday will be the figure skating ice dance at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, which concludes with the free dance.
Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir led the competition after the compulsory and original dance routines from Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White and the Russian favourites Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin.
source : www.vancouversun.com
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