Ciao Olympics 2006

Across 16 topsy-turvy days in Turin, the U.S. Olympic team teetered somewhere between torment and triumph, each step up to the medal stand tempered by one step back somewhere else. There were unlikely Alpine golds from skiers Julia Mancuso and Ted Ligety. And the disaster in the mountains that was Bode Miller and his tattered reputation.

Speedskater Joey Cheek set a standard for Olympic class, winning two medals and donating his $40,000 reward from the U.S. Olympic Committee to a charity for children trapped in war zones. Teammates Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis typified something less than class, fussing and fighting like second-graders in a sandbox.

A kid dubbed "The Flying Tomato," Shaun White, sailed into the sky above Bardonecchia to claim a gold medal in the snowboard halfpipe. Another snowboarder, Lindsey Jacobellis, hot-dogged her way out of a gold medal in a still-stunning turn of events that typified a growing Generation X Games gap among the Americans.

No one came into the games with higher expectations than skier Miller and speedskater Hedrick, each entered in five events. Miller won nothing; Hedrick collected a gold, silver and bronze but dulled his wins by yapping with Davis. The U.S. medal haul came from their domination in men's long-track speedskating and snowboarding, with seven medals apiece. Short track skater Apolo Anton Ohno added a gold and two bronzes, one of the latter in a relay event.

The games' most enduring moment was also its most bizarre. Jacobellis, on the next-to-last jump of the first women's Olympic snowboardcross, grabbed her board in an unnecessary bit of showboating - and then crashed, blowing her gold medal. Her silver seemed almost insignificant. The stunt was endlessly replayed, with Jacobellis alternately cheered (by the snowboard community) and chastised (by everyone over 40).

The disagreement demonstrated a generation gap involving the age of the sports, not the athletes. The new wave U.S. Olympians on snowboards or skis wanted to put on a show ... and maybe get a medal, too. Take aerial skier Jeret "Speedy" Peterson. A seventh-place finish in the aerials couldn't wipe the smile off his face. "I came here to do the Hurricane," he said, referring to the difficult maneuver, "and I did the Hurricane." Never mind that he botched it. Or that an easier stunt might have won a medal.

Tanith Belbin, a Canadian who won American citizenship on Dec. 31, came to Turin and won a surprising silver medal with ice dancing partner Ben Agosto on Feb. 21. But Michele Kwan, plagued by a groin injury, never reached the ice and Sasha Cohen was lucky to win the Silver where the gold was in easy reach, if she had not fallen on her first two jumps in the long program.

The surprising U.S. men's curling team swept through the competition to grab a bronze - the first American Olympic medal in the sport - when skip Pete Fenson delivered a clutch shot on the last stone of the match.

Magnetic Tape Best for Storage

From "ComputerWorld"

Although opinions vary on how to preserve data on digital storage media, such as optical CDs and DVDs, Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland GmbH, takes this view: If you want to avoid having to burn new CDs every few years, use magnetic tapes to store all your pictures, videos and songs for a lifetime. "Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD," Gerecke said in an interview this week. "There are a few things you can do to extend the life of a burned CD, like keeping the disc in a cool, dark space, but not a whole lot more."

The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data "shifting" on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam. "Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years," Gerecke said. "Some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years." Distinguishing high-quality burnable CDs from low-quality discs is difficult, he said, because few vendors use life span as a selling point.

Hard-drive disks also have their limitations, according to Gerecke. The problem with hard drives, he said, is not so much the disk itself as it is the disk bearing, which has a positioning function similar to a ball bearing. "If the hard drive uses an inexpensive disk bearing, that bearing will wear out faster than a more expensive one," he said. His recommendation: a hard-drive disk with 7,200 revolutions per minute.

To overcome the preservation limitations of burnable CDs, Gerecke suggests using magnetic tapes, which, he claims, can have a life span of 30 to 100 years, depending on their quality. "Even if magnetic tapes are also subject to degradation, they're still the superior storage media," he said.

Lay Off Lindsey

"Alone in the clear, Lindsey Jacobellis could have practically crawled to the finish line and won. After an Olympic-sized flub, she probably wishes she had.

Coasting to what should have been a runaway victory Friday, the 20-year-old American grabbed her board on the second-to-last jump before the finish line. Inexplicably — and some say inexcusably — she fell."

So get over it. Leave her alone. She won a Silver medal at the 2006 Olympics and that is more than a lot of other Americans. Several highly expected winners have not even medaled. I say congratulations to Lindsey Jacobellis.

Pandas Play in Snow

Our Washington National Zoo Panda and cub play in the 10" of snow that fell this past weekend in DC.

American Idol wins Grammy

Kelly Clarkson beat a few superstars - Mariah Carey, Sheryl Crow and Paul McCartney - to become the first contestant from "American Idol" to win Grammy awards on Wednesday, but she forgot to thank the wildly popular TV talent show that made her famous. Clarkson thanked Jesus, God, the radio, her fans and her mother when she picked up Grammys for best pop vocal album and for best female pop vocal performance, but in two speeches she omitted any mention of "American Idol," which aired on Fox against the CBS broadcast of the 48th annual Grammy Awards for part of the night. An overwhelmed Clarkson, who could not hold back tears during her first acceptance speech, could not believe her good fortune in winning the second. "I don't know what is going on but thank you Jesus and God and everyone else who supported my career," she said. Clarkson picked up the Grammy for best female pop vocal performance for her hit, "Since U Been Gone," and also performed her single "Because of You" on the telecast. When asked backstage why she didn't mention "American Idol" in her acceptance speeches, she said she had in fact thanked the show indirectly by thanking her fans. She said she also forgot to thank a lot of important people in her life. "I forgot to thank my dad and the rest of my family. I did thank the fans and that's 'American Idol,"' she said, noting that her omission had nothing to do with sharp recent criticism of her by "Idol" judge Simon Cowell. Irish rockers U2 upset the form book at the annual Grammy awards here Wednesday, hauling in five trophies, including the coveted Album of the Year award for "How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb." On an evening notable for performances by veterans like former Beatle Paul McCartney and funk pioneer Sly Stone - both in their sixties - U2's success came at the expense of the younger generation. "If you think this is going to go to our heads, it's too late," said U2 frontman Bono, who revealed that the main inspiration behind the album was his father, Bob, who died in 2001. "He was the atomic bomb in question and when he died it set off a kind of chain reaction in me," Bono said. "And I've been shouting about him and giving off about him and complaining about him and screaming about him for the past few years. Maybe tonight is the time to stop," he added. The other Album of the Year nominees were Mariah Carey for "The Emancipation of Mimi," Paul McCartney for "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," Gwen Stefani for "Love. Angel. Music. Baby" and Kanye West for "Late Registration." Despite winning 13 Grammys, McCartney, 63, had never played the awards event. "I finally passed the audition," he said, before launching into a raucous version of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter." Madonna, who stole the 2003 show by smooching with pop princess Britney Spears, kicked off the evening with Gorillaz -- appearing alongside a 3-D colour animation of the four characters created by Blur frontman Damon Albarn. Go here for complete Grammy Awards

Super Bowl Wasn't Super

Super Bowl XL Sunday wasn't exactly "super". Not that much build-up or hype over this game and almost everyone wanted Pittsburg to win and almost everyone thought Pittsburg would win. So when the game started everyone at the game was cheering for Pittsburg to win. More about the game later. First the commercials. Not as good as all the pre-commercail hype. My favorites were the Budweiser commercails, especailly the "Magic Fridge", "The Game", "The Stadium" and the "Little Colt". I also liked the CareerBuilders "Bunches of Jack-asses". Though Fed-ex's "Caveman" was funny but not the best as a lot of people did. Did not like the Pepsi, Ameriquest and others I can't even remember(ads you can't remember are useless and wasted millions of dollars). Half-time show was good with the "Rolling Stones". Hard to beleive Mick Jagger is 62 - but he still rocks. Concer was just a tease. Would rather of had 60 minutes of the Stones and a shorter football game. The game itself was kind of blah. Had no real favorite in the game. But Seattle got totally "hosed" by the refs in this game. Too many bad calls went against Seattle. Really think Seattle should have won this game. But the final score says Pittsburg won 21-10. But who really cares, it wasn't the Redskins.

Happy Groundhog Day

Punxsutawney Phil says six more weeks of winter.