SIRIUS XM Radio announces extensive broadcast coverage of 2009-10 NHL Season
Live play-by-play of NHL games will be available to XM subscribers and SIRIUS subscribers with the “Best of XM” NHL Home Ice channel offers hockey talk and analysis 365 days a year
SIRIUS XM Radio will offer listeners around the country comprehensive coverage of the 2009-10 NHL season with an extensive schedule of live play-by-play of NHL games and daily hockey talk on the NHL Home Ice channel.
Starting with tonight’s Opening Night games and through the Stanley Cup Final, XM listeners will have access to live play-by-play of every regular season and playoff game on XM channels 204-209. SIRIUS subscribers with the “Best of XM” programming package will get most regular season games and every NHL postseason game on SIRIUS channels 208-220.
In addition to live games, SIRIUS XM offers the 24/7 hockey talk radio channel, NHL Home Ice, on XM channel 204 and SIRIUS channel 208 with the “Best of XM.” NHL Home Ice features live play-by-play, plus hockey talk, news and analysis every day of the year.
NHL Home Ice features the weekly live show, NHL Hour, hosted by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and a rotation of League executives, including Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and Senior Executive VP of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell. The hour-long show, co-hosted by former NHL player Bill Clement, debuts today and airs every Thursday (4:00 pm ET). NHL Hour provides listeners with the latest news and events from the highest levels of the NHL and encourages fans to submit questions by calling 1-877-NHL-ON-XM or emailing HOMEICE@xmradio.ca.
NHL fans can also tune in to SIRIUS channel 122 for CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada Radio (weekdays, 4:00 – 7:00 pm ET), hosted by Jeff Marek, Kelly Hrudey, Cassie Campbell Pascall, Craig Simpson and Scott Morrison.
On SIRUS XM Sports Nation, SIRIUS channel 122 and XM channel 143, former New York Rangers forward Ron Duguay and former New Jersey Devils defenseman Ken Daneyko host their weekly show, Ice Breakers (Thursdays, 7:00 – 9:00 pm ET), a lifestyle-themed show that features the duo’s thoughts on the NHL, lifestyle, entertainment and more.
Source: SIRIUS XM Radio
World’s most prominent rally race, Dakar debuts new Ethanol category in 2010
For the first time in its 31-year history, the world’s largest rally competition, formerly known as Paris-Dakar, will include in its 2010 edition a category in which competing vehicles will run on ethanol.
The new category was introduced by the organizers at the request of Brazilian rally veteran and former Paris-Dakar winner Klever Kolberg, who will drive the first-ever flex-fuel vehicle to take part in the prestigious race next year — a Brazilian-made 2010 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport model equipped with flex-fuel technology, with support from the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA).
Kolberg, who finished first in the 1993 competition in the “marathon motorcycles” category, appropriately launched his 2010 renewable fuel effort at the world’s largest fair dedicated to the sugar-energy industry, the annual Fenasucro, held in the town of Sertaozinho in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, the heart of Brazil’s sugarcane industry. After a news conference at the UNICA booth, Kolberg held a one-hour autograph-signing session next to one of his training vehicles, on exhibit during the four-day event.
“Professional sport has always been aligned with the business world and sustainability has been at the top of the agenda for quite some time. Today it is easier to get to any part of the world, and the Rally Dakar is proof of that. The question is what fuel will we use, and if we choose clean energy, the world thanks us,” said Kolberg, who was also the first Brazilian ever to face the challenges of the Paris-Dakar race in 1988, when it was held mostly in Africa.
“I left behind a comfortable situation, in which my previous rally team was widely supported, to pursue this project which I believe will be extremely important for the sport and the Dakar itself, given its worldwide presence. And I’m receiving a great deal of support from competitors who want the Ethanol Category to be a success,” adds Kolberg.
There is special meaning in supporting Kolberg’s effort according to UNICA President, Marcos Jank. “Ethanol is already utilized by the Indy Racing League, which is one of the most important racing categories in the world, and it is being adopted by a variety of categories here in Brazil and around the world. It is certainly significant to see that trend now arriving also at the Dakar, without a doubt one of the great events of its kind in the globe,” he said.
Choosing ethanol for a challenge of the Dakar Rally’s magnitude also makes sense from a technical point of view, according to UNICA’s technology and emissions expert, Alfred Szwarc: “A rally race demands performance, toughness and reliability from a vehicle if it is to get to the finish line and be competitive, and flex-fuel technology is certainly capable of meeting these challenges with clear advantages over gasoline or diesel, especially from a sustainability perspective.”
First introduced in 2003, flex-fuel vehicles have become a resounding success in Brazil. In the first six months of 2009, flex models accounted for 93% of all new light vehicle sales. Cars equipped with flex technology run on pure ethanol, gasoline or any combination of the two. Currently, eleven automakers produced close to 70 flex-fuel models in Brazil: Citroen, Fiat, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Toyota and Volkswagen.
New continent, new circuit
The 2010 Dakar will be held in Argentina and Chile, with the start set for January 1st in Buenos Aires. In 2008, a day before the start of that year’s event from Lisbon, the competition was cancelled because of security risks in Mauritania, where four French tourists had been murdered. Renamed Dakar, it has since been run in South America. The event currently attracts more than 500 vehicles, including cars, SUVs, motorcycles and trucks.
2010 Dakar official site www.dakar.com
Source: Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA)
Panasonic’s High Definition Equipment to be Used as Video Shooting and Recording System for Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games
First Full HD Broadcast of Olympic Winter Games
Following Success In Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Panasonic’s DVCPRO HD Series And P2 HD Series Will Capture Olympic Highlights In Vancouver
Panasonic announced that Olympic Broadcasting Services Vancouver (OBSV), the Host Broadcaster, will use the P2 HD series with solid-state memory cards for video recording equipment to support the broadcast of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. As in the Beijing Games, Panasonic’s “DVCPRO HD” will be used as the recording format.
All international video delivered from the International Broadcast Center (IBC) — which will reside within the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Center in February 2010 — to the rights-holding broadcasters around the world, will be produced and distributed in 1080i High-Definition (HD) format. Following the HD standard of excellence set by Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 will be the first Winter Olympic Games captured with HD (1080i) equipment.
Panasonic’s digital technologies, which have been used as the official recording format in nine Olympiads, starting with the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, will capture High-Definition video with superb sound quality for distribution by broadcasters to TV viewers worldwide during the Vancouver Winter Games as well.
“Since Barcelona 1992, Panasonic has been contributing to the video capture and recording of the Olympic Games as an official broadcast equipment supplier with its state-of-the-art technology,” said Tadao Shimozuru, Director of Professional AV Systems Business Unit, Systems Business Group, in Panasonic Corp.’s AVC Networks Company. “In the HD age, Panasonic will provide tapeless and High Definition video equipment during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, including the P2 HD series camcorders and related equipment incorporating the latest video codec ‘AVC-Intra,’ in addition to the proven ‘DVCPRO HD’ format. The P2 HD series employs reusable, solid-state memory based on a no-moving-parts design, which has significantly reduced the need for replacing parts, unlike conventional tape-based and disc systems. In this sense, they can be considered products that do not produce waste, including boxes of used video tapes. We are convinced that our broadcast equipment will contribute to the environment-oriented Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.”
“As in Beijing 2008, during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, everything will be broadcast from the venues in High Definition,” said Manolo Romero, OBSV’s CEO. “We are confident that for Vancouver 2010 we will be able to capitalize on the experience we gained in Beijing 2008 by providing reliable and efficient, high-quality video broadcast to TV viewers around the globe.”
Panasonic’s advanced HD imaging technologies will make it possible for TV broadcast viewers around the world to share the excitement of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games through the company’s latest flat panel VIERA HDTVs and Home Theater Systems. HD video can also be recorded with Panasonic’s DIGA Blu-ray Disc recorder (where available) so that the excitement of the events can be reproduced any time.
Source: Panasonic
Chemistry and the Winter Olympics: Why is the Ice on the Nordic Ski Jump Slippery?
In February 2010, the Dow Performance Fluids Business’ chemistry will be front and center at the Nordic Ski Jump Venue in Whistler, British Columbia, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Games.
The Dow Chemical Company delivered and installed 900 gallons of pure DOWFROST(TM) HD fluids to the ski jump venue in late December 2007. Since then, the ski ramp has hosted several competitions leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympics Games.
Chemistry from Dow will help keep 100 meters of ice uniformly frozen on the Nordic Ski Jump ramp. So why is the ice so slippery? If you ever asked a coach this, you might have been told it is because the pressure of the blade on the ice causes the ice under the blade to melt, and this layer of liquid water makes the surface slippery and allows the blade to glide over the ice.
For skaters, a 100-pound person gliding on one edge, for example, can produce a pressure of several tons per square inch on the ice, and when a solid is compressed under pressure, a small amount of energy is absorbed by the solid. In the case of water ice, this energy can cause a small amount of melting, but not much. So instead of asking a coach about why the ice is so slippery, you should ask a chemist!
Research into the properties of ice over the past few years shows that even at several tons per square inch, there is not enough melting to account for the slipperiness of ice. Another hypothesis has been that the motion of the blade over the ice causes frictional heating that melts the surface of the ice under the blade. But this too is probably not the answer. It turns out ice is slippery for a completely different reason.
Chemistry & Ice
Water ice, it turns out, is extremely complicated stuff. Water is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen combined into molecules. In each water molecule there are two hydrogen atoms for every oxygen atom. Water can exist as a solid (ice), liquid (what you drink) or a gas (steam). Which form you get depends on the temperature and the pressure of the water. As a liquid or a gas, water flows easily and has very low friction. It turns out that the surface of solid water can also have very low friction. At normal atmospheric pressure water freezes at a temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit. When ice cubes are melting in a glass of liquid water the temperature of both the ice and the liquid is 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Energy absorbed by the mixture goes into melting the ice cubes while the temperature stays constant at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
At normal atmospheric pressure when liquid water freezes it forms a solid crystal with a hexagonal (six sided) microscopic structure. This hexagonal structure is revealed to us in snow flakes which take on the shape of hexagons and six pointed stars. Ice in a skating rink is usually kept at a temperature of about 4 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit below freezing. (Hockey ice is generally maintained colder than figure skating ice.) The layer of ice in a skating rink is a huge crystal of solid water with a hexagonal structure.
Image yourself now as a water molecule buried deep inside the ice. You are completely surrounded by other water molecules in all three directions. You are locked in place. You can’t move up or down, or left or right, or in or out. You can’t rotate. You can’t do anything but vibrate away, shivering where you are. But what if you were located at the very top layer of the ice?
If you are in the top layer of the ice, you have company in the frozen molecules underneath you, and to the sides, but not on top. So you are not completely trapped. You are actually able to move around some. Not much, but some; and a lot more than when you were buried in the middle. Because of this you are not quite a liquid, but you are also not rigidly a solid.
This top layer of the ice is known as a quasi-liquid-layer. Ice can be pretty cold and still have a quasi-liquid layer, with the thickness of the layer depending on the temperature. Experiments show that this layer exists in ice at temperatures up to about 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees C) below the freezing point of water. As you warm up, and get closer to the freezing point of water, the quasi-liquid-layer gets thicker, and finally at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees C), the surface can begin to melt and a true liquid layer can form. Below 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 degrees C) there is no quasi-liquid-layer and ice isn’t particular slippery. At very cold temperatures the friction increases tremendously at which point skating on ice would be about as productive as trying to skate on sandpaper.
In a skating rink, the temperature is kept in the range where a nice slippery quasi-liquid-layer exists. The surface molecules are free to move around some and they are easily pushed out of the way as the blades move over the ice. Because they are free to move around they do not obstruct the motion of the blade or grab onto the blade and slow it down to any significant extent. Ice is slippery because at the temperatures inside ice rinks (and outside in most winter climates) the surface layer of the ice behave like a layer of ball bearings on top of which your blades glide.
So, it’s not about pressure, it’s not about heating due to friction. Ice is slippery because at the right temperatures its surface just is, and the skater doesn’t have to do anything to make it that way.
Source: The Dow Chemical Company
Deloitte Announces Sponsorship of U.S. Olympic Committee and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams
Official Professional Services Sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Committee and the 2010 and 2012 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams
Deloitte announced its sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), the 2010 and 2012 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams, as well as the 2011 U.S. Pan American Team and the 2010 U.S. Team for the Youth Olympic Games. As a result of its commitment to provide the strengths of its organization for maximum social impact, Deloitte and its subsidiaries will provide support to help the USOC and U.S. Teams operate efficiently and successfully throughout their journey to the Olympic, Paralympic, Pan Am and Youth Olympic Games.
As the Official Professional Services Sponsor of audit, tax, consulting and financial advisory services, Deloitte’s subsidiaries will contribute by offering a variety of in-kind professional services to the USOC.
“We believe the business community has a powerful role to play in answering the call to service to help nonprofit organizations deliver results,” said Barry Salzberg, CEO, Deloitte LLP. “There is no better opportunity to put the intellectual capital and business knowledge of our people to work than through the delivery of our exceptional professional services capabilities for the strategic, operational, and financial benefit of the USOC and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls.”
“We are proud to welcome Deloitte to our family of sponsors and appreciate the expertise and support they bring in preparing America’s athletes for the Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Stephanie Streeter, USOC Acting Chief Executive Officer. “This contribution and the breadth of capabilities they bring will be instrumental in our mission to enable America’s athletes to realize their Olympic and Paralympic dreams.”
Deloitte’s core values – integrity, strength from cultural diversity, and commitment to each other – are reflected in the Olympic Movement. In addition to Deloitte, other member firms of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu have committed to the international Olympic Movement. Deloitte Canada is the Official Professional Services Supplier to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and Deloitte UK is the Official Professional Services Provider of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Separately, subsidiaries of Deloitte have been engaged to provide pro bono services to Chicago 2016 which is bidding for the right to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
USOC
The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the sole entity in the United States whose mission involves training, entering and underwriting the full expenses for the U.S. teams in the Olympic, Paralympic, Pan American and Parapan American Games. In addition to being the steward of the U.S. Olympic Movement, the USOC is the moving force for support of sports in the United States that are on the program of the Olympic, Paralympic, Pan American and Parapan American Games.
Source: Deloitte