Here's a link to where the Olympic torch is now:

http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-information/olympic-torch-relay/olympic-torch-relay-interactive-map/

Ya gotta love a country with city names like Moose Jaw, Medicine Hat, and Red Deer, right?

We love ya Canada and can't WAIT to see you February 12th in all your winter glory!

See below the official web site:

http://www.vancouver2010.com/

Forever XXI: Vancouver gears up for the Games
Vancouver set to welcome the world to the Winter Olympics
By Rob Lovitt
Travel writer
updated 12:30 p.m. CT, Wed., Jan. 20, 2010

The XXI Olympic Winter Games are expected to draw 5,500 athletes and officials, 250,000 spectators and enough sponsors, protesters and media types to create a 17-day whirlwind of sports, entertainment and headlines.

It’s been nearly seven years since Vancouver won the bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics, 12 years since the Canadian Olympic Committee selected the city to present that bid and 24 years since the city hosted anything this monumental.

“Expo 86 was our coming out … the Olympics are our coming of age,” said Emily Armstrong, spokesperson for Tourism Vancouver.

With just over three weeks to go, inquiring minds want to know: Is Vancouver ready for it’s close-up?

Flanked by the Fraser River and Coast Mountains, the city has always been a cosmopolitan, Pacific Rim outpost surrounded by the natural splendor of British Columbia. The eighth largest city in the country (2006 pop.: 578,000), it’s also the largest metropolitan area (2.1 million) to ever host the Winter Games.

The Games themselves — February 12­–28 — cover even more ground, with events taking place from the suburbs south of downtown (curling and speed skating) to the mountains above “West Van” (snowboarding and freestyle skiing) to the slopes and trails of Whistler and the nearby Callaghan Valley (alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, jumping, bobsleigh, etc.), 125 kilometers north of the city. (For a complete list of venues, click here.)

‘It’s been exausting’
Such a massive undertaking doesn’t come cheap. According to the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC), the price tag for building and renovating venues, originally estimated at $470 million, will be more like $580 million (all funds in Canadian dollars). VANOC’s operating budget, meanwhile, has ballooned from a projected $1.35 billion five years ago to an estimated $1.76 billion.

And those costs don’t even include skyrocketing security costs — original estimate: $175 million; current estimate: $900 million — or the price tags of non-Games-specific infrastructure. Among the big-ticket items: improvements to the Sea to Sky Highway between Vancouver and Whistler ($600 million), an expanded convention center ($1 billion) and a new rapid-transit link between the Vancouver airport, Richmond and downtown ($1.2 billion).

Such improvements will prove a boon to visitors, but local residents have borne the brunt of the build-up. “It’s been two years of construction,” said longtime local reporter Frances Bula. “We’ve basically had to cross the Berlin Wall to get to the other side of town. It’s been exhausting.”

Construction issues and cost-overruns aside, the city and surrounding areas are in high gear for the Games. The venues have been competition-tested; the countdown clock outside the Vancouver Art Gallery is down to double digits, and the night sky is lit by a 42-foot-high set of Olympic Rings perched on a barge floating just off the downtown waterfront.

“After the rings go up, you start to feel more like an Olympic host city,” Armstrong said.

A long road for fans
For visitors, especially Americans who thought the Olympics’ proximity would spell easy access, the road to the Games has had its share of bumps. “We’ve always watched them on TV, but they’re so close we figured it was a great opportunity to see them in person,” said Jim Jeffreys, a high school administrator in Seattle, who started planning an Olympics visit with his wife and son 18 months ago. “We had no idea it would be so complicated to get tickets and find a place to stay.”

Ticketing was especially nightmarish due to the combination of high demand, limited supply and an exclusive vendor with a penchant for high mark-ups, system crashes and little or no customer service. “We requested tickets for 10 to 12 events and got three,” Jeffreys said, who did better than many. With less than 100,000 tickets available to U.S. fans (out of 1.6 million total), many would-be spectators got completely skunked.

Lodging presented another challenge as more than half of greater Vancouver’s 25,000 hotel rooms were reserved for Olympic officials and national delegations. Those that weren’t were either scattered in distant suburbs or exorbitantly priced — or both. “We found one rundown hotel in Burnaby,” Jeffreys said. “It wasn’t near any of the venues and they wanted $850 a night.”

It’s a bit of a surprise then that there are still tickets and rooms to be had. On the ticketing front, VANOC has implemented a “fan-to-fan marketplace,” a first-of-its-kind online bazaar on which ticket-holders can sell unwanted tickets. Although they started out prohibitively expensive — Opening Ceremony for $1,100 a piece, plus service fee — some, such as men’s cross-country skiing and women’s preliminary hockey, are going for just $25.

And there are still rooms available in both Vancouver and Whistler. In Vancouver, they range from hostels and B&Bs to the Norwegian Star, a cruise ship docked in North Vancouver. In Whistler, groups of four or more can still squeeze into condos for less than $200 per person per night. “There’s definitely a premium for the Games,” said Breton Murphy, spokesperson for Tourism Whistler,” but there’s still some good value.”

The key, Jeffreys suggested, is perseverance, along with recognizing that the Winter Olympics may never come this way again and biting the bullet regarding the process and high prices. “It’s been crazy, but we’ve passed the stressful part of it. Now, we’re just excited about what’s to come.”

Sports, celebrations and simmering issues
In Vancouver, the buzz is already palpable. Two weeks ago, the city began hanging the first of 6,000 Olympic lamp-post banners and people throughout the city are sporting red mittens — likely to become the Games’ hot accessory — as a show of support for Canadian athletes. As usual, Whistler has been abuzz ever since they fired up the lifts back in November.

The athletic competitions, of course, are the big draw, but even visitors without event tickets will find a lot to do, much of it for free. In Vancouver, the city is hosting LiveCity Vancouver, which will feature live concerts, Olympic programming on large LED screens and Provincial and sponsor pavilions at two outdoor celebration sites. A First Nations Pavilion (outside the Queen Elizabeth Theatre) and an outdoor ice-skating rink in Robson Square should also draw big crowds.

Whistler, too, will be hopping with Whistler Live!, which will feature live concerts, DJ beats, street performers and family entertainment at six sites around the village. Free programming will run from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. throughout the Games — even on days when there are no scheduled competitions in town.

Amid the festivities, however, not everybody will be celebrating the Games — especially in Vancouver. Alongside its vibrant culture and gorgeous surroundings, the city suffers from a host of urban ills, including chronic homelessness and serious drug addiction — issues that activists believe have been shunted aside or swept under the rug as the Games have gathered momentum.

Add in issues of free speech, native rights and the debate over hosting the Games at all and displays of civil disobedience are all but guaranteed. “Vancouver’s famous for it,” Bula said. “It’s a cultural tradition here and a way for people to show they’re not going to live by VANOC’s rules.”

Let the Games begin
Meantime, pre-Games planning continues apace.

In Whistler, construction crews are building temporary stadiums at outdoor venues and putting the finishing touches on the resort’s Medals Plaza.

In Vancouver, streets are being closed — there’s no parking near any of the events during the Games — and fencing is being erected to secure venues and handle the expected crowds.

It’s all part of an effort that VANOC CEO John Furlong has likened to “staging three Super Bowls a day for 17 days.” It’s a massive undertaking, and there will likely be some bumps during the festivities — check nbcolympics.com’s Olympic coverage often for updates — but at this point, all but the most ardent critics are ready for the Games to begin.

As for travelers heading to Vancouver in coming weeks, the Games will provide an unprecedented opportunity to experience one of the world’s great destinations. “It’s the whole Olympic experience,” said Armstrong. “Yes, it’s about sports, but there’s so much more going on.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34943900/ns/travel-seasonal/

Vancouver airport puts on Games face
Facility takes role of city’s front door very seriously

The opening ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics are just around the corner, and final details are hurriedly being worked out and set in place in downtown Vancouver, up at Whistler and at various venues and attractions throughout the region.

It’s particularly exciting out at the airport.

Vancouver International Airport will be the first stop for more than 230,000 Olympics-bound athletes, officials, coaches, support teams and out-of-town visitors, and it is taking its role as the city’s front door very seriously.

“We’ve been working on this since 2003,” said Paul Levy, the airport’s vice president for 2010 planning. “Ever since it was first announced that Vancouver would host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.”

To prepare, Vancouver International officials have been traveling to other Games to get a first-hand view of how airports handled the onslaught of athletes and spectators. Levy and his team have gathered tips and advice from airport officials in Sydney, Salt Lake City, Athens and other cities that have hosted previous Olympics events.

Big shopper, big bags, big screens
Logistics for any large event can be complicated, of course, but the 2010 Winter Games bring with them special challenges — and opportunities — for the host airport.

Previous host-city airports advised Vancouver International to keep Olympics-related souvenirs available on site. “They told us, ‘This stuff sells!’ Levy said, “So we’ve had six stores selling Olympics-related merchandise and are making sure we have extra stock stored very near the shops so we can re-stock quickly even when the corridors are crowded.”

Year-round, travelers arrive to Vancouver’s airport with an average of 1.6 bags. However, athletes, Olympics-bound or not, don’t travel light — they arrive with an average of five to seven bags, many of them oversized. In response, the facility purchased extra-large trolleys to help move luggage through the airport.

Visitors will also find a wide variety of helpful amenities and services at the airport. Last July, Vancouver International opened a free, pre-security observation gallery with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on the airfield, offering complimentary telescopes, interactive kiosks and plenty of comfortable seating. Slideshow

The airport, which offers free Wi-Fi, extended the staffed hours at the customer information counters and rolled out a 24-hour over-the-phone translation and interpretation service that can handle more than 170 different languages, including Cantonese, Vietnamese, Urdu, Arabic and French.

And 26,000 members of the airport community, including airport and airline employees, volunteers and staff at many airport shops and restaurants, went through “Get Your Game Face On” training so they’ll be prepared to answer questions posed by Olympics-bound visitors, including how to buy tickets for the Canada Line SkyTrain that links the airport with downtown Vancouver and other towns.

For those spending time inside the airport, there will be entertainment during peak travel periods and plenty of large overhead screens broadcasting Olympics events. The airport has also set aside a special area where fans can participate in the unofficial, but very popular, sport of buying and trading pins.

Failure is not an option
There are plenty of behind-the-scenes safety, security and logistical issues to consider when preparing for the Games. Vancouver International worked in conjunction with airlines and a wide variety of law enforcement personnel to ensure everything goes according to plan.

Mark Southern, Air Canada’s director of station operations in British Columbia, said his team has been running through all possible scenarios of what can go wrong, including baggage belt breakdowns, jet mechanical problems, computer crashes, earthquakes, volcanoes, snow storms and flight crews coming down with the H1N1 virus.

“We think we’re ready to react to anything,” Southern said. “Now my only real worry is that Canada won’t win the gold medal in hockey.”

On the security front, Vancouver International is working with a variety of agencies, including Transport Canada and the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU), which is an Olympics-focused blend of police, military and security forces.

The unit has a complex security plan in place that includes “a heightened presence of officers at the airport” and a “continuous gathering of intelligence on issues, both domestic and international,” said ISU’s Joe Taplin.

Grand finale
When all is said and done, the biggest challenge for Vancouver International will actually come when the Games are over. March 1, the day after the closing ceremony, is expected to be its busiest day ever.

“It will be beyond anything we’ve experienced,” Levy said. “Our busiest day to date has been 28,000 people. But on March 1, we expect more than 39,000 people, and their luggage, at the airport.”

But there’s a plan for that, too. On March 1, travelers will be able to check in for their flights at a remote terminal on airport property and then board buses that will take them directly to the gates.

That’s not the only congestion-busting idea, either. Many Vancouver-area hotels have agreed to grant all Vancouver International-bound travelers late checkout so that travelers with late afternoon or evening flights don’t have to pack up their stuff and spend long hours hanging around the airport.

Now that’s an idea that deserves a gold medal.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35084051/ns/travel-seasonal/

Winter Olympics to demo lighting controlled by thoughts
By Priya Ganapati, Wired
February 4, 2010 1:16 p.m. EST

(WIRED) -- Along with the figure skating, ice hockey and snowboarding, another event will compete for attention at the Winter Olympics in Canada this month.

A Canadian company has created what it calls the "largest thought-controlled computing installation." It's an experiment that lets visitors to the Olympics use their brainwaves to control the lights at three major landmarks in Canada, including Niagara Falls.

"When people put on the headsets and find themselves increasing the brightness of the lights by just thinking about it, you can almost see their brains explode," says Trevor Coleman, chief operating officer for InteraXon, the company that has created this installation.

As consumers get more comfortable with going beyond the keyboard and the mouse to interact with their computers, companies are looking for alternate ways to make the experience better.

Already, touch and voice recognition have become a major part of the user interface in smartphones, and harnessing brainwaves or other biological data is slowly emerging as a third option, especially in gaming.

Companies such as NeuroSky offer headphones that promise to translate the gamer's brainwaves into action on screen. A biometrics company called Innerscope is helping Wired host a geeked-out Super Bowl party. And even Microsoft is working on alternate forms of input; its Project Natal promises to add gesture recognition to Xbox 360 games later this year.

InteraXon's installation is spread across three sites: Toronto's CN Tower, Ottawa's Parliament Buildings and Niagara Falls. All three locations have two chairs set up, each with its own headset.

The headsets have an external probe that touches the wearer's forehead to measure the baseline brain activity. The chairs are rigged to offer tactile feedback as users enter the desired brain state.

The headset measures the brain's electrical output and reacts to alpha waves, associated with relaxation, and beta waves, which indicate concentration.

As users relax or focus their thoughts, the computer sends a message to the site they are viewing. InteraXon's software translates users' thoughts to commands that will change the lighting display.

For instance, by concentrating, users can make the lights at the CN Tower spin faster or change the brightness of the lights at Niagara Falls.

It's easy enough once users get started, says Coleman.

"To achieve the beta state we ask users to focus on things like an object ahead and its details, while for an alpha response we ask them to take a deep breath and relax to let their mind go," he says. "But after a minute or two of trying it, we found most users no longer require the physical cues," says Coleman.

Over the two weeks that the exhibit will be open, InteraXon expects more than 2,000 visitors to try it out.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/04/wired.olympics.mind.control.lights/index.html?hpt=T2

I am at Ground Zero for these Olympics. The City has taken on an instant International feel, with mild daytime temps and moderate weather, everyone seems to be walking about, taking pictures, and enjoying this jewel of a City, foreign languages are overheard everywhere, along with the Official English and French of Canada. Everyone looks fit, and trim, and Athletic, no surprise, local Restaurants are full, and everyone is happy, typically this time of year we all have Winter Blues. National Flags hang from Hotel and Dormitory Windows where the Athletes are Billeted, giving an instant colorful addition to the Chrome and Glass exteriors of the buildings, I must admit, i was skeptical of the games, until now, didn't buy my Whistler Season's pass for the first time in 15 years, but now with the Athletes and their families all here, it is time to enjoy. Lots of free stuff is available, local Ice Arena's have practice sessions for all ice events, I can walk a few blocks to some local Ice, and although they don't disclose times of practice sessions, if you are lucky, you can see some pairs practicing their routines, some Hockey players working on their stuff, and the speeders and short track people working on their specialties.

Mizar

Nice Post Blue;
By the way, my favourite ( cdn spelling) place names are;
Head smashed in Buffalo Jump, and the town of Vulcan
By the way, for those who cannot attend and want to see the lights, go to;
http://vancouver.weatherpage.ca/
and then go to weather cams, choose katkam, and go to archives and choose the date and time of the pic.
or go to
www.katkam.ca/
Mizar

Mizar - I am so jealous! I cannot WAIT for the opening ceremony!

I so sappy - I just love the Olympics!!!!

Canadians trying to guess who will light Olympic flame

Vancouver, British Columbia (CNN) -- The most popular question in Canada recently has been who will light the Olympic caldron at Friday night's opening ceremonies.

Speculation has focused on NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, but others have campaigned for Betty Fox, the mother of the late Terry Fox, a national hero.

In 1980, Terry Fox, battling osteosarcoma, set out to cross Canada, running about the equivalent of a marathon each day to raise money for cancer research. But Fox, who had a prosthetic right leg, had to quit after 143 days as his cancer spread. He died less than a year later.

The idea of a hologram of Fox carrying the torch the final steps also has been floated.

Hundreds of millions of people are expected to tune in on televisions around the world for the event, which begins at 6 p.m. local time (9 p.m. ET). There will be no worries about the weather; these are the first ceremonies to be held in a domed stadium.

Canada hopes to make a good impression on viewers of the games, which will take place over 17 days.

"Hosting these games is an achievement on the world stage that all British Columbians and all Canadians can be proud of," British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell said. "Together, we have welcomed the world with open arms to see and experience our nation, our province and our communities."

Singers Bryan Adams and Sarah McLachlan will be among the acts at the opening ceremonies, and one of the highlights will be a ski jumper leaping through the Olympic rings, according to the Ottawa Sun.

The Olympics are a point of national pride for this nation, which failed to win a gold medal at the Calgary Games in 1988. Canada has poured a reported $117 million into its Own the Podium program, designed to create a team that leads the total medal count at these games. That should take at least 27 medals, three more than 2006 when Canada was third in the medal count.

"I'll make you two promises," said Gary Lunn, Canadian minister of state for sport. "We're going to win gold. We're going to win gold at home for the first time. Our Canadian team will do better than they ever have before."

Not every Canadian is excited about the games. Protest organizers have said they hope to launch a large demonstration Friday night outside BC Place, site of the ceremony. They will gather blocks away, then march toward the facility just before the ceremony begins. They will be protesting many things, including the money spent on the games.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge appeared undaunted, saying that his organization welcomes protests as an outlet of freedom of expression.

While weather is not a concern for the opening ceremonies, the unseasonably warm temperatures have brought little snow to the area. But Olympic officials and athletes have said too much has been made of the conditions and that the courses in Whistler, two hours to the north, and nearby Cypress Mountain will be ready.

Meanwhile, the speculation about the caldron lighter will continue right up until the moment the flame is lit. The government would like to see an aboriginal athlete do the honor, according to media reports, while others have said it should be wheelchair athlete Rick Hansen.

The identity of the person or persons is still secret.

"It's one of those challenges you have where only one or two people can know, or it isn't going to stay locked down," said John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee. "And I have gone to bed and woke up every day for the last 90 days praying I wouldn't see it on the front page of the papers. And so far it hasn't."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/11/olympic.ceremony.preview/index.html?hpt=T2

O Canada!

You rocked it to the HOUSE last night!

Thank you so much for a beautiful opening ceremony even under such sad, sad circumstances.

What a warm reception you gave the world's athletes!

As Canada relaxed and enjoyed its own Games, Olympics became celebration of spirit

By Dave D'Alessandro/The Star-Ledger
March 01, 2010, 6:00AM

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The enduring motto of the Olympic games, at its core, is a schoolyard boast: citius, altius, fortius, which loosely translated means, “I’m faster and taller and tougher than you, so bite me.”

That’s the Jersey version, anyway.

But it is that spirit that most countries take to the quadrennial scramble for ratings and dollars and fame known as the Winter Olympics, which concluded Sunday with a marvelous prime-time crescendo that barely concealed a gaudy, final bid for more ratings and dollars and fame.

All in all, however, this can be stamped a rousing success, even though the vast majority of the 2,622 athletes from 80 countries competing in 86 medal events failed miserably.

No shame in that. But it so happens that we heard athletes talk about failure a lot these last two weeks. It was the same neurotic, melodramatic, self-important, I’m-here-to-dominate rubbish — the Wheaties-box cult of silver-is-first-loser, etc.

What should inspire people to surpass their normal limits is not the strangling fear of defeat, but liberation from it. As someone once said: Sports isn’t life. It’s merely a celebration of it.

We think this started to be fun only after our hosts learned that.

For a while there, you wondered whether there were really 80 countries attending these Games. As they began, you had a hunch there were really just two: Canada versus Everyone Else.

The nation seemed so welcoming, but sometimes you have your doubts when the host plays under a banner that reads Own the Podium — presumably, Mission Accomplished was taken — which made it seem as though everyone else was just in their way.

Then Nodar Kumaritashvili died, hours before they kicked off. He was 21, the son of an Olympic luger. The track was too fast, and everyone knew it, and you could make a convincing argument that the Canadians had tried to push their homecourt edge to the last hundredth of a second with tragic results.

Not surprisingly, the organizers said it was Nodar’s fault. He was merely a daredevil who could not cheat death, they explained — an insensitive and inappropriate way to deal with the tragedy. They immediately got to work fixing the track (not an admission of guilt, mind you), but since they had bobsleighs rolling over like rotisserie pigs almost daily, they weren’t especially good at that, either.

The show went on, but it had trouble gaining traction. There was a torch glitch at the opening ceremony. There was no snow up in the mountains. There were ice problems at Richmond. Events were canceled.

For nearly a week — amid the sappy ceremony and fireworks and flag fondling — everyone was carping about how badly it was going.

That Own the Podium thing wasn’t exactly working out, either. The campaign cost the Canadians $117 million, which is a lot to pay for a cheap American-sounding catch phrase — especially when some still felt that it is dishonorable giving elite athletes the funds needed to close the gap with their neighbors; and that true sportsmanship is sacrificed when you replace the spirit of competition with envy.

Then Alex Bilodeau won a gold medal — the first in history by a Canadian on home soil — in a freestyle skiing event on Feb. 14, and the country started to exhale. Medals followed in quick succession by his teammates, such as Maelle Ricker and Christine Nesbitt.

Jon Montgomery won the men’s skeleton event, and spent the entire night gleefully parading around Whistler with a beer pitcher in his hand, an image that led off every newscast across every province of the federation.

From that moment forward — and especially after the hockey team got its groove back — there was a sense that the country was now setting the mood for the Games, not the other way around.

The first way was forced, contrived, corporate. The new way was the Canadian way. It included beer.

The medal count kept going up for Canadians and Americans, but it wasn’t something you felt the need to track anymore. With each passing day, as you grew to know the athletes, the competition itself was the adventure that gave meaning and texture to their lives.

And ours.

Mike Babcock, the Canadian hockey coach who despite his sloppy syntax can never hide his considerable wisdom, put on his you-don’t-get-it expression Saturday and explained it this way:

“You’re an adrenaline junkie if you’re in sport. All you have to do is watch the skiers and speed skaters — that’s what it’s about. The highs are very high. If you’ve been in Olympic Village all week, you see people who are totally elated, and you’ve seen people who are totally crushed.

“But that’s the reason they’re in it. It makes your job exciting. That’s what this is about. The people of Vancouver are so jacked up to be Canadian right now, it’s all fantastic. To me, the good part of it outweighs the pressure. And I say to my kids every day, ‘Do the best you can, and get on with your day.’ ”

The Americans? They were dominant in sports they never dominated before, and that’s nice. We can dust off the mangled metaphors or the inevitable reference to Greek tragedy, and portray Lindsey Vonn as a goddess, Shaun White as a Rembrandt, or a curling match as Antietam. It doesn’t matter much.

Suffice it to say, we had our share of redemption stories, which we all find the most compelling. Bode Miller was arguably the star of these Games, winning three medals, and then taking — as the Brits might say — the most awful purler in the grand slalom. Johnny Spillane overcame his fear of flying and won three medals, even though ski jumping tends to be a part of that Nordic combined business.

Shani Davis remains so talented, yet so unloved — a guy who seems to find neither joy in his victories nor pain in his defeats, but we’re happy for him anyway. The women were all feisty and beautiful and competitive, but none more so than the two California figure skaters who did not medal — the formidable Rachael Flatt and the elegant Mirai Nagasu, who are likely to climb the podium in Sochi, Russia in 2014.

So much to rehash, so much to take home as a lesson, even for someone who will never be a sports polymath.

We learned that while skiers are flaky, ski-crossers and short-track skaters are insane — absolutely in step with the pixies.

We learned that curling is far more hip than you think, because that Canadian skip — the bald-pated Kevin Martin, a terrific fellow who basically looks an amiable hobbit — has women asking him to sign their body parts.

We learned that the host country can take some snow and ice sports that are basically junior varsity box office, scatter them across nine venues, and give them all relevance, probity, and occasionally, serious heat.

We learned that when it is done in the right spirit, sport still transcends cultural boundaries.

And we learned that two million hosts and a quarter-million visitors can transform the entire southern corner of this magnificent province into a city of man — one that served not only the needs of the consumer and the demands of the networks, but satisfied a desire for beauty and a thirst for community.

A correspondent for CTV, Stephen Brunt, had it right: “Cynicism is easy,” he said. “But there is power in the collective experience. And admit it, it feels good. It feels good to let your heart show.”

They did that here. Bravo, B.C.

http://www.nj.com/olympics/index.ssf/2010/03/as_canada_relaxed_and_enjoyed.html

They are claiming this was one of the best Olympics in decades, Bravo Vancouver very nice job