Olympic Torch Relay Interactive Map : Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

 

Olympic Torch Relay Interactive Map : Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

Originally uploaded by danbrint

How cool is this? You can see the entire interactive map over here.

I’m hoping to take a day off (or work from home) to witness this. I’m thinking the kiddies could afford a few hours off as well

Jenson to McLaren, Kimi to Brawn ?!

Seems that Jenson Button paid a visit to McLaren and is fueling rumours.

Yet another combo I’d find quite palletable although Ross Brawn has already stated that Kimi is ‘too expensive’

The Ecclestone dynasty is assured to endure as Button doesn’t deserve to be champion – Tamara Ecclestone

Button doesn’t deserve to be champion – Tamara Ecclestone.

So it seems that foot-in-mouth disease and pure mentalness is not limited to the men in the Ecclestone family. Bernies daughter (who has suddenly vaulted to ditz #2 in my world) muses to the press that Button doesn’t deserve the F1 title because ‘he won all those races so long ago’ and ‘if they all had the same car there is no way Button would be champion’.

Seriously ??? WTF – Why the hell does the media insist on talking to people like this?!?!?! LIke her opinion matters AT ALL!!!

I’d google her but that would only add to her 5 minutes of fame.

Heidfeld to McLaren?

It’s starting to look as though Kimi Raiikonen is going to not be in F1 in the 2010 season. I had hoped that he would join Toyota (and suceed) thereby justifying my two most recent auto purchases (Corolla and Matrix). Toyota promptly departed from the F1 scene owing to financial concerns. I had heard that they were spending somewhere in the 100m range every season and not really seeing much in return.

So, now my hopes are pinned on Kimi going back to McLaren but it looks as though his salary demands are going to possibly pave the way for Nick Heidfeld to move up to a first class team (no offense BMW).

Heidfeld himself has admitted that he is ‘not ruling out any team’ in the wake of BMW’s withdrawal, and should ‘Quick Nick’ indeed join McLaren, it would doubtless please engine-partner Mercedes-Benz and represent a deserved boost for the oft-overlooked man from Mönchengladbach.

The 32-year-old acted as McLaren-Mercedes test driver back in 1998 and triumphed in the International F3000 Championship (now GP2 Series) for the McLaren Junior Team the following year, only to be passed over in favour of then Sauber team-mate Raikkonen when Mika Hakkinen retired at the end of 2001, to the general surprise of paddock observers. Whilst Raikkonen’s career subsequently took off, Heidfeld’s has yet to really accelerate out of neutral – but a McLaren seat in 2010 could finally offer him the chance to fulfil his undoubted talent and, after more than 150 starts in the top flight, belatedly break his grand prix duck.

Yu can read more over at totalF1

On reflection I’d actually be ok with this. While I like Kimi, I always seem to cheer for the underdog and it would be nice to see Nick get a shot with a premium set of wheels and Kimi has had 2 such opportunities and has been fortunate enough to win a world championship with Ferrari while fate robbed him of a couple during his initial stint at McLaren. So maybe I’ll be happy no matter what. At least I can go back to hating Ferrari (no offense to Massa) and should either Nick or Kimi join McLaren I could cheer them on as well (I’m not a big fan of Hamilton I’m afraid).

 

Ontario schools to teach financial literacy

As of 2011, students from grade four to 12 will learn how to use and manage money under the Ontario government’s new integrated school curriculum.

Read on…

About time I say!

GT5 – worth the wait !!!

Ps3Vault is reporting that the long awaited GT5 is to include A TRACK EDITOR!!!!

Good god!

Fuel Economy

So owing to the new wheels and a recent long haul trip (just under 1000k total) I wanted to see the fuel economy of the new car. A drive up to Parry Sound and back plus a couple  of trips to work should yeild pretty good results as this is 90% highway miles .

Total Distance: 996 km (or 619 miles)
Fuel: 83 litres (or 21 gallons)

Economy: 8.2 litres/100km or 28 mpg

Not quite as good as I had hoped but maybe it’s because the engine is so new. The Corolla showed a progressive improvement to the point where while it started out reporting an average of almost 9l/100km, now it’s showing  7.7l/100km. Even at 7.7 l/100km this is only 31 mpg – I had expected better.

I’ll take some more measurements over the coming months and see if things improve. It may be that I have to alter my ’style’ to get higher economy – not sure I’m willing to go THAT far…

Halloween car photo.

Actually I took this a few days before halloween but …

I had to use photochop to correct the colour cast.

Car Log – my new ride

So with the purchase of my latest ride I’m going to attempt to keep some sort of log on it. Not sure why but maybe I’m just that boring. I picked it up on the 20th from the dealer. Not sure if I got a great deal but a fair one I think. Highlights include:

• 2,500 for my Impreza. Its 9 years old and has 240,000 km on it. No AC, blown dash lights, typical Suby clutch shudder which gets really bad in the winter, fan only works on high and rust is covered up by bodywork and a paintjob done by my father-in-law who has some skillz!
• 1,250 factory incentive.
• 2.9% financing over 60 months. Which for Toyota is pretty good and with the end of the recession it’s sure to not last much longer.

Car looks good and smells good. I like the white! I’ve opted for the XR model mostly because I wanted the larger 2.4 litre engine. I did not spring for any sort of upgrade though as I could not justify to myself $1,600 for alloy rims and a leather steering wheel. I HAVE ordered some quality winter tires – General Altimax Artics from tirerack which at 78 each are a steal compared to $140 at the local crappy tire and I’ll be shopping for some nice RIMS over the winter…

F1 silly season in full swing.

Well okay, maybe its a bit late to be calling it the silly season as it sounds like a number of rumours are about to be firmed up (one way or the other).

Jenson Button - soon to be crowned 2009s F1 champion

It’s been a great year with alot of changeup at the top with teams such as Brawn and RedBull coming to the forefront while Ferrari, BMW and McLaren have been struggling. Most attribute this to an interpretation of the 2009 rules that Brawn and RedBull turned out to be correct about.

Regardless of how it happened I’m pleased to see that Jenson Button looks to be we well on his way to securing his first F1 championship. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy (except maybe Barrachello who is 2nd in line).

Rumours I heard this weekend that are sounding very solid are:

1) Alonso to Ferrari
2) Raikkonen back to McLaren (sorry for Kovalainen going ?)
3) Barrichello to Williams in exchange for ??
4) Kubica to Renault (replacing Alonso)

All of these would be good moves in my book. If we could just squeeze in a return for Villeneuve I’d be thrilled.