Photos from the Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games

Fergus Scottish Festival

Olympics: Cuban fighter banned for life after attacking judge

Angel Valodia Matos, cuban taekwondo fighter, has ruined his entire life, as well as the life of his coach.

Read the story here.

I wonder what he is about to do now? Of course, he might re-specialise in some other fighting class, which is surely about to be very hard. Even then, I highly doubt any success.

He has also ruined the life of his coach, who is not a very young man anymore and will not be able to adjust as quickly and successfully.

Very funny indeed…

Olympic Medals for Canada! Gold, Silver and Bronze!

Gold, Silver and Bronze! Finally!

Great going!

Congratulations to Carol HUYNH with gold medal for women’s wrestling in freestyle 48 kg category,

Congratulations to David CALDER and Scott FRANDSEN with silver medal for men’s pair in rowing,

Congratulations to Tonya VERBEEK with bronze medal for women’s wrestling in freestyle 55 kg category!

Congratulations to all Canadians!

I think there’s more to come!

XXIX summer Olympics: Swimming is out…?

I have just finished watching the swimming final in the men’s 200 metres breaststroke at the Olympics.

I have had high hopes for Mike Andrew Brown (here), as he was very close to getting the first medal for Canada in these Olympic games. But he fell short, just some 0.09 seconds behind a Frenchman Hugues Duboscq and came 4th.

Both Oriwol and Beavers swam in semifinals of the 200 metres backstroke, but none moved on into the finals.

Beavers has finished 5th in the men’s 200m Individual Medley semifinal, so again just only place short. He could have been going into finals.

On the positive note, Annamay Peirse has finished third in women’s 200 metre breaststroke semifinal. So she is now heading into the finals on Aug 15. Boy, I hope she gets it!

Canada at XXIX summer Olympics at Beijing

What is happening to the Canadian Olympics team? So far the score is perfect for Canada: 0 – 0 – 0 : 0. That’s the best thing you can wish for in biathlon. But hey! Wait a minute, that’s not right, that’s medals!

Canada hasn’t yet won a single medal! It’s been 6 days without a medal now! Not even close (well, a couple of times… that doesn’t count because it still wasn’t close, really…). What’s with all that Canadian Olympics spirit? Where is it hiding? Let us help you find!

But even so, I cannot blame the athletes: they are trully doing the best they can and trying to show that Canada has some athleticism in the country. What does bother me is the small number of athletes that Canada has sent to the Olympics. How can we win anything when there’s just too few of us?

In any case, let’s hope that we get on the right track and we figure out a way to start receiving medals. I hope that, if this Olympiad becomes a disaster (which it is very likely to), it will shook the Canadian Olympic Committee really well.

Here’s some things that there’s still hope for:

• Baseball. The top competitors are Canada and the States, but some other countries (like Cuba, for example) have been doing really well in the past. But I think the (boring) MLB will pay off and Canada will get a medal there (may be even a gold)
• Rowing.
  1. Men’s Pair: Calder and Frandsen. They have gotten into the final, which will be on August 16th. let’s hope. They’ve shown some really strong effort along the road.
  2. Women’s Eight: Mandoli, et alii. Great effort to get into the final (Aug 17), but the competition is tough.
  3. Men’s Eight: Light, et alii. They have been strong all the way through, so I’ve got large hopes for them. Now they’ll be competing in the final on Aug 17.
• Softball Same as with baseball. I think we’re already in the medals, but will cross that bridge when we get there.
• Swimming
  1. Men’s 200m Breaststroke, Brown. He is in the top competitors, so he’s got a really good shot at a medal. The final is starting in about 20 minutes.
  2. Men’s 200m Backstroke, Oriwol, Beavers. Both have gotten into the semifinals (Aug 14). May be…
  3. Men’s 200m Individual Medly, Beavers has gotten into the semifinals, also on Aug 14.
  4. Women’s 200m Breaststroke, Pierse has advanced to the semifinals, Aug 14.

Other competitions follow, but we have to see these ones first.

On the side note, I cannot not mention my admiration to what Michael Phelps has already achieved. 5 gold medals! Absolutely mind-bottling!

Camp Oochigeas

My fiancee right now is volunteering at a camp for children with cancer, called Camp Oochigeas. All the kids are very small (4-8 years old), all of them are very fine, funny and great.

I am not going to say much, except a phrase that one child said that just makes you want to cry:

I don’t like drinking too much water, because if I do it tastes like those yellow pills they give us at the hospital.

If you were lately thinking of where to donate a few dollars, may be this is the right place.

Visit their web site: http://www.ooch.org/.

Russian and Georgian War

The Russia-Georgia War.

Answer me this: “Why can’t we live in peace together?” We, Russians and Georgians, both put our flag upon the Reichstag! This certainly must mean something!

And of course, everyone is telling a different story, as if both sides are talking about different events, not immediately connected. It is clear that Saakashvili is a good doll with strings pointing westward. But I am no political analyst, all that aside, can Russian government be that stupid to get into this war?..

I have a few Russian channels at home and in a summary form, here’s what is conveyed:

• There is genocide against Russian and South Ossetian people in the region
• Russian troops haven’t bombed a single civilian object. All the footages of bombed civilian sites are originated by Georgian troops themselves. To quote: “It is a very smart technique to destroy your own civilian object, make it look as if it’s been bombed by the opponent, blame it on the opponent, and complain about how a big and huge Russia attacks a small and week Georgia”.
• Russian citizens tried to leave Tbilisi, but the local police stopped them and restricted them to stay within the city.

What the Georgian government is saying you all know from the news. I have no information about it that would be conflicting with what’s conveyed by, say, BBC.

If you are curious about my personal opinion, then I really do not have much to tell you, except the fact that it is entirely sad that a bunch of gentlemen (if they can in fact be called so after these events) want to play toy soldiers.

I’ll try to update this post for any interesting or controversial information I might encounter.

As an arbitrator, who knows both Russian and English, and sees how the conflict is conveyed by the international media and the Russian media, I may suggest a few things:

• I recommend following BBC news (here), as they, to my mind, seem to be more or less objective and neutral.
• Check this blog for anything that is in conflict between what international and Russian news tell.
• I strongly do not recommend following CNN news, as their story is very flavoured with American position, which in turn is very-very subjective for understandable reasons…

Let’s sincerely hope this bloody madness…

Update: Russian troops are now moving into Senaki. Interestingly, both sides are calling for a ceasefire (Russians, according to Russian media, and Georgians, according to international media), but there isn’t any ceasefire.

Toronto Explosions

Toronto was rocked today by a series of explosions that took place around 4 o’clock in the morning in the north-central part of the city. Propane tanks in a propane depot started to blow one after the other. To make it clear: this is not a terrorist act.

Luckily, no one is hurt (as far as the news are at the moment). The entire perimeter is blocked and evacuated. That’s about 10,000 (ten thousand) people are forced out of their homes by Toronto Police and Fire departments. Major highways and streets are blocked (e.g. HWY401 between HWY400 and the Don Valley Parkway, Sheppard, Wilson, etc. see here). Some of the subway stations are also shut down (Downsview station, Wilson station and Yorkdale station). Poison control stuff is monitoring the area for lethal and poisonous gases, but everything is fine so far.

A terrifying video at YouTube, caught by one of the local residents: here.
The largest explosion is at 1:50 in the video.

I live in Eglinton and Islington area, which is quite a distance away from the ground zero (8-9 km away). I was working late last night and I heard the explosions very clearly. To my shame, I believed it was just thunder, although I did notice something strange about it. It was most probable that I head the large explosion at 1:50 in the video, because I did not hear a series of explosions, only a single one.

Update: It has now been about 14 or 15 hours since the evacuation took place. All the major roots are still closed. The HWY401 is no doubt the utmost important artery in Toronto, and it is closed. I had to drive around the city for a couple of reasons today, and boy may I just say: I can’t remember the traffic so bad since Moscow, where I used to live!

It took me 1 hour and 53 minutes to get from one end of the city to the other (that’s about 8km give or take). For comparison, it usually takes me about 15 minutes on a Sunday (using HWY401), about 30-40 minutes in heavy rush hour traffic (using HWY401). And even accounting for the fact that I had to use one of the avenues instead, I assume it would usually take about 30 minutes to do that without using HWY401 on a Sunday and may be an hour during rush hour.

That said, it is clear that the city is completely paralised. The commuter time is increased more than twice and that’s on a Sunday. I do not even want to start getting into estimates of what the situation would have been if it was a weekday…

Now the moral is: one again Torontonians are faced with a clear evidence of the fact that Toronto’s infrastructure, especially the public transit, are not even close to where they really should be! Disastrous traffic jams, all because citizens predominantly prefer personal automobiles to public transportation; at the other end, roads are in such bad condition (and I am not trying to mention the condition of the roads themselves, but rather the infrastructure induced by the roads) that once one piece falls out (like HWY401), everything goes to hell along with it.

The question of the public transportation is a very stubborn issue in Toronto. I do not blame Toronto for not having a decent transit system at the moment (I realise that the city took a huge step in growth far ahead of the transportation system, in addition to some other factors), but I do blame the City Hall for not taking any immediate action on the matter. I should post a separate blog post on this issue, since I think I might have a lot to say.

Update: A lot more information, pictures and videos can be found here, in another blog.

Update: Unfortunately, sad news. A 25-year veteran of Toronto Fire died at the scene today. Many condolences to the family, friends and colleagues. Great service will not be forgotten.