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.

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?

Or maybe Melbourians are taking it for granted.

Melbourne remains the third most liveable city in the world, and just 2.5 percentage points short of perfection according to the rankings.

Ranking 140 global cities on 30 criteria covering stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure, the think tank of The Economist magazine gives Melbourne a score of 97.5 out of a possible 100.

Winter Olympics host Vancouver remains No. 1 , scoring 98.0, despite its unfortunate lack of snow, while Vienna was ranked second with 97.9.

Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, was judged the most unliveable city in the survey, with a total score of just 37.5.

Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, tied with Algiers as the second worst, followed by Port Moresby.

Half of the top 10 cities come from lands Down Under. Sydney was seventh, Perth and Adelaide equal eighth and Auckland 10th (96.1).

Canada had three of the top five cities, with Toronto ranked fourth and Calgary fifth. London was ranked 54th with a score of 88.4. European cities were ranked the most liveable by region but only Vienna and Helsinki (sixth) made the top 10.

It surely makes you think sometimes. Those who love to travel and those who are always pouring backlash onto Melbourne when it is judged the third most liveable city in the world.

Where else would you want to be? Maybe Vancouver for the Winter Olympics and that’s about it.

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.

Yet it ended in disaster like a horror movie.

But for the Victorian public, that rollercoaster has turned into a macabre spectacle.

It was a search for a fallen millionaire. First he was spotted alive creating hope for the family and beyond.

Then he was pronounced dead within days.

It’s been nearly eight years since a story like this has gripped Melbourne, and it eerily played out in the same coveted area of Malvern and surrounds.

In April 2002, wealthy Victorian socialite, Margaret Wales-King, and her husband, Paul King, went to a family dinner at her son’s home — close to the Rockefeller family home — and then vanished.

It’s a gripping story that had the media chasing every angle for the past six weeks.

It has created headlines overseas even – but Victoria is a state that loves its gossip.

The Rockefeller story fed them even more. This time it was bad news at the end of it all.

It appears there is blatant racism in Australia with more and more Indians being terrorised in Australia; the land of opportunity.

There is significant doubt to whether these Indians are asking for being bashed and bullied.

Surely, the world would be a better place without this annoying bullying.

There has been numerous reports of bullying and several indians put up a protest in Melbourne late last year to stop the bullying.

Police confirmed on Tuesday the two victims in the incident on Australia Day were Indian students according to AAP.

Leading Senior Constable Kendra Jackson said one of the victims said he had been racially abused during the attack. ‘‘There are allegations from the victim of racial remarks,’’ she said.

The 18-year-old was taken to St Vincents Hospital with lacerations to the left ear.

The 22-year-old did not require hospital treatment.

The attack comes just weeks after the stabbing murder of Indian student Nitin Garg in a park in Yarraville in Melbourne’s inner west.

But party all you like as long as you don’t ruin it for others.

On the first day of action on Monday, several Croatian fans took it upon themselves to begin a fight with the Serbians before the opening match on court six.

And several were caught with weapons in their bags.

In the past three years, the two cultures have hit each other with plastic chairs, spat on each other and been in entrenched in massive fights that have seen a bloody affair.

Just two years a fight broke in a twilight match where I witnessed and sat just a couple of rows behind all the action.

The fighting between the two cultures broke out before police began spraying capsicum spray which landed in the eyes of innocent people like myself.

It was a fraccus that began vocally and ended in tears for many.

Something needs to be done in order to keep the Croats and Serbs away from each other.

And it just could be Bernard T0mic after he defeated Novak Djokovic at Kooyong yesterday.

The breakthrough win has lifted expectations on the youngest Australian tennis sensation.

But he appears to have the maturity to keep it within himself.

This is the year that he must show Australians that he is ready to take the mantle of Lleyton Hewitt; finally after a decade of Hewitt dominating the male Australian ranks of tennis.

Now Hewitt, the veteran, has some competition.

And the rivalry between the two is simmering.

You can almost say it is intense.

The biggest obstacle Tomic may face however is his father who of course just late in 2008 was fined by Tennis Australia for his attack on an umpire.

Bernard must make his own decisions or it could turn out to be another Jelena Dokic affair.

Dokic made a statement last year at the Open and will be hoping to impress again.

Does she have the guts to do what she did last year again this year?

Jelena is a mystery bet. Another Aussie Sam Stosur is climbing up the ranks rapidly and will be one of the favourites for the Aussies. You’d expect Sam to get through to a quarter final in the Open given her experience and maturity has risen.

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.

Remember those hot summer nights watching the tennis till the early hours of the morning; watching every hard hitting ace and every ‘c’mon’ that Lleyton Hewitt would yell; riding every bump with Jelena Dokic or hoping a young Bernard Tomic or a more experienced Alicia Molik surprise.

There’s so much Aussies love about tennis.

While cricket is our national savior – as we crush the majority of the opposition – tennis we are up against it.

There are only a couple of Aussies that are capable of taking out the Australian Open but the interest is still widely significant in the race to the finals.

We look in awe at the men such as Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer and can’t believe the power of the Williams sisters – Serena and Venus.

Going to the tennis is a great experience also rather than just watching it on the box.

Sitting in Rod Laver Arena is a unique experience; as is sitting on the outside courts in the sun. There’s the tension involved with the players, the colour of the crowd and the voices of different cultures surrounding you.

Head to Melbourne Park from January 18 for a massive two weeks of tennis.