IT’S terrific to see winter sports in action once again.

Ice Hockey is amazing. Same with skiing. And what better place to do it than Vancouver in Canada.

But a death in the early stages last week showed perhaps how dangerous these sports are and how these sportsmen must be admired.

21-year-old Norad Kumaritashvili lost his life at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Friday after losing control and smashing his head on a metal pole at the side of the luge track.

“He called me before the Olympics, three days ago, and he said, ‘Dad, I’m scared of one of the turns,’ ” his father David Kumaritashvili told journalists at his home.

“I said put your legs down on the ice to slow down but he said if he started the course he would finish it. … He was brave,” David Kumaritashvili said outside his home in the rural town of Bakuriani in the Republic of Georgia.

Nodar Kumaritashvili’’s father said his son had dreamt of competing at the Olympics since he was a young child.

It really does make you stand up and admire the athletes that get through these events; let alone win gold.

IT’S the day that you either love or hate.

And it may depend if you have a love in your life or not.

But then even if you do, the pressure’s on to keep her happy.

It was amazing that this Valentine’s Day, men continued to flock to florists for those traditional roses.

It’s the day that shows your love and affection to the person you love the most.

One couple that I know of were maybe a familiar couple to you.

The woman said to the man prior to Valentine’s Day that she doesn’t want anything this Valentine’s Day so the man didn’t buy her anything.

But the woman was on about it to him all day because she didn’t get anything; not even a single rose.

This is exactly why I got my beautiful partner something – even though she said she didn’t want anything either.

It’s like an intuition that you have to have when you’re with woman.

For the record, I got my fiance some earrings from Diva and a large bunch of roses mixed in with some white lillies to give it that classic look.

Every girl likes flowers – even though I think they are a waste of money.

They are highly effective on days such as Valentine’s Day.

And girls love it. Even though a lot of men think it’s complete commercialism.

Then of course, there’s the movie Valentines Day.

I saw this on the Friday prior to Valentines Day.

What an amazing movie it is full of young talented stars. Probably one of the best movies I’ve seen in the past year and I’m a guy.

Well it’s got Jessica Alba in it, what can I say?

IT’S embarressing for Cricket Australia to suggest that pre-season AFL rates higher on television and in total crowds than Australian cricket in what is cricket season.

Well that is just the predicament that cricket is in at the moment.

One Day Internationals have become mundane to even the biggest cricket enthusiast.

Sporting fans are pleading for more 20-20 cricket matches. But then again, how long will that last for.

People want faster and more vibrant games such as football. With pure speed and skill rather than watching a four being hit every 20 or so balls.

Cricket is in strife in Australia.

Although the money is in the Indian Premier League, it could drop off in domestic cricket once the popularity disappears in 20-20 cricket.

20-20 cricket is keeping the game alive. But how long for?

Will fans be after 10-10 cricket in another five years.

Cricket at an international scale must re-develop a way on how to make the game more attractive to the viewer.

Sporting fans are much more impatient now than what they were 20 or 50 years ago.

They want action and they want it all the time.

Hence why the remote control is pushed to channel seven and ten rather than nine.

NAB Cup football is exciting but not as exciting as the main season.

But footy fans want to see the top players. The new ones running around.

That’s a hell of a lot more attractive than a boring ODI.

KY Hurst, what a champion!

You talk of some of the great Australian ironman legends – Ky Hurst would be at the top if not one of the most impeccable over time.

At 28, he has amazing surf skills and showed his best on Sunday on the Sunshine Coast to come from last in the semi final of round three of the Nutri Grain Ironman contest to finish first.

Again in the final, he came and conquered and was well behind after falling off the ski. He was last again.

He needed a big swim and there he was – albeit with the luck of a giant wave that sucked in most of the competitors ahead of him – Hurst fell to the lead in what was one of his biggest performances yet.

He has won four Australian Ironman titles and is currently in second place on the road to another.

THERE has been a rapid decline of newspaper sales in Australia and around the world.

A lot of that has to do with generation Y not buying newspapers and simply looking up their news online.

Fairfax and News Limited this year will limit its news being put online so that it will be available for subscription based readers only.

Mr Bernard Salt, a KMPG demographer, told The Age that the fall in spending on newspapers and books – down 11.9 per cent in real terms in 2009 – is worrying for these industries. ”Gen Y is simply not buying newspapers. If they want to look at something, they look at it on the net.”

He says e-books and tablet computers will lead this online transition. ”We are about a year off open warfare between new technology and old,” he says.

He predicts that in two to three years’ time this transition will reach a tipping point, ”then everyone will have to have a Kindle or an iPad”.

The new technology with iPhones and the new iPad makes it tougher for these newspapers to survive.

Already advertising is at an all time low and that has meant that newspapers are now on limited staff after many redundancies due to the economic crisis last year.

More and more people are now turning online – so what is the future of our newspapers? Will there always be newspapers around or will technology actually kill it?

I believe there has to be newspapers around for archive and historical reasons. It’s a print publication. You can cut it out and keep it.

Surely that’s a big enough sign to suggest newspapers can still remain viable.

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has backed up his comments that women should stay virgins or no sex before marriage.

But surely he is speaking from a generation or two ago when saying this.

The majority of the current generation like to experiment and that appears the overall view of Generation Y.

There is still the minority that don’t believe in sex before marriage.

Some live and die by the rule.

In a revealing interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly, Mr Abbott said women should try to stick to ”the rules” when considering sex before marriage.

When they cannot abstain, women should use contraception, the former Catholic seminarian says.

“Look, I was subjected to a one-hour grilling from the editor of the Australian Women’s Weekly, I was asked direct questions and I did my best to give an honest answer”, Mr Abbott told Radio 3AW today.

“I think all of us should act in ways that value ourselves. I’m trying not to be prescriptive here, I am trying not to be a preacher, but if someone asks my advice I would say don’t do anything you will live to regret if you can possibly help it.”

Asked to reveal his advice to his daughters, Mr Abbott told Neil Mitchell on 3AW: ” They shouldn’t give themselves away lightly.”

He said his advice to males was ”Much the same – treat people with respect and don’t act in ways that demean other people.”

IT appears to be a common theme in the Victorian news.

Indians getting bashed – this time three of them being taxi drivers in Ballarat.

Are they easy targets? The fact that some people believe that Indian people don’t fight back.

The attacks take the total of incidents involving Indian nationals in Ballarat to four in just three days.

One of them a student, told The Age, that he was fearing for his life.

It has become that serious that it is life or death for some Indian people.

This is really sad that this is happening in Australia; a country in which has more recently accepted multi-culturalism.

It is a country that has accepted a lot – until now.

Does the economic crisis have much to do with this? In a previous post, I wrote about how one Indian living in Melbourne wondered if it was because some Australians were frustrated that Indians had jobs and some Australians didn’t.

Was this a motivating factor in the fact that more Indians are getting bashed and killed than any other culture in the country?

INDIAN students have faced a horror period in recent times in Melbourne and around Australia.

They have protested holding signs up such as ‘Racism is more dangerous than swine flu’.

The protests follow a number of racial attacks on them in Melbourne.

Many are brutally bashed; many find themselves with little hope when going out for a few drinks.

They are targeted in the Australian community; they’re seen as easy targets…but why?

I have recently discussed this issue with several Indian people in Melbourne.

They believe Australians are angry with Indians because they seem to “steal the good jobs from them” and the Australians left with jobs such as cleaning are left frustrated and in turn, try to intimidate and take it out on the travelling Indians.

One said that he “wasn’t scared” but that most Indians were “easy targets.”

He agreed that Australia’s attack on Indians has only been recent with a trend that seems to be continuing.

Many pick up jobs all around Australia; a lot flock to marketing and salesman positions.

There are more Indians and Asians in Australia than what their are pure Australians.

It must be a frustrating thing for those rare Aussies left. To see their country taken over by a flock of internationals.

Whether that’s racist or not, it appears Australians must accept multi-culturalism.

But it is apparent that Australians aren’t accepting it that well.

The Indian that I spoke to this week said that employers prefer Indians to work in workplaces than some Australians is that they work harder and work for less.

This is argumentative of course, but there’s no doubt Indians work hard for their dollar.

But just as the frustration boils over in tough economic times, Indians could feel more pain than good. And that is not right.

WEIGHT loss can change many people physically but can it change you mentally as well?

The answer is yes according to UK soapie star Ricky Groves, who told the media this week that his wife left him for another man after becoming obssessed with fitness while losing a significant amount of weight.

Groves, who is in EastEnders, told the UK press that his wife became heartless and cruel after shedding more than 17 kilos.

Certainly, you would think most people would change a lot after losing that amount of weight.

It brings more confidence and the confidence to get the men or women that maybe they couldn’t attract before.

That is why love is so important.

If they truly love that person in the relationship, they shouldn’t give into temptation.

“Immediately Hannah (Waterman) changed … the people behind the project were very pushy, very controlling,” Groves told the Daily Mail newspaper.

“They’d say, ‘This is your target weight for this time period and if you reach it, you’ll get another [$17,000].’”

Scottish rugby legend Ian McGeechan admitted on Sunday receiving a knighthood in the New Years Honours list had been a humbling experience.

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