Month: February 2006

The above statement by Mercedes Motorsport Boss sound worrying for Mc Laren. Mercedes engine has played some part in causing the Mc Laren to lose the championship in 2005 and another slow start in 2006 season due to poor engine will have great effect again on the title chase again . To win the championship, playing catch up is difficult and tough for the drivers. To win, F1 team need to lead from the start of the season like Alonso in 2005 or like Mika Hakkinen in 1999. We do hope that Mercedes can work the engine ready for the first race in Bahrain and reliability is at least the aim they need to achieve. Renault has won in 2005 where reliability and consistency played a big part in the victory. We shall hope for the best. Haug: ‘We are behind where we want to be’ Thursday February 16 2006 Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug has admitted that McLaren are lagging behind in their preparations for the 2006 F1 season. In the first two days of this week’s Valencia test, McLaren have failed to match the front-runners, lacking either pace or reliability. On Tuesday, the Woking team’s two drivers present failed to get within a second of the P1 time, while the following day Kimi Raikkonen showed pace but not reliability. The Finn, who was P2, suffered yet another engine failure. And although everyone at McLaren and engine partner Mercedes is well aware of the problems, Haug fears they won’t have enough time to solve them before the season starts in March. “Some teams are ahead of us, which we wouldn’t mind but only if we had another month to prepare,” Haug told Motorsport Aktuell magazine. “We have not had a dream start. We are behind where we want to be.” He added: “We are doing everything possible in order to be competitive for the first race in Bahrain.” Article Source

An article of dogs ownership published by Star last month where I was one of the person interviewed. One of the family By ELIZABETH TAI The Star, 24 Jan 2006 Patches, a two-year-old Shih Tzu, is one lucky pooch. Not only does he have a well-made bed area (complete with fluffy pillows) and a basket full of toys, he has his very own chef too. “My pastor thinks I’m mad,” said Ten Siew Yung who once held a birthday party for Patches at her pastor’s house with friends and relatives. Actually, her friends and relatives think so too, but Ten is used to it by now. She just laughs it off and says that she’ll do anything for “Patchy Boy”. That includes preparing well-balanced home-cooked meals made out of the finest organic ingredients for Patches. Every morning before going off to work – Ten is a private tutor – Ten throws some quinoa grains into the rice cooker, lightly steams meat and vegetables and then adds some healthy supplements, which she makes herself, to the meal. Ten Siew Yung and her dog, Patches. Ten prepares Patches’ meals carefully, ensuring that they’re organic and nutritious. Patches eats only organic chicken – after it’s been put through the ozonizer to remove toxins. Sometimes Ten gives him some fish oil, home-made yoghurt, or liver treats which she makes herself. Ten created Patches’ menu after much research from books bought from the Internet. She cautions against feeding dogs food scraps as it is not well-balanced and contains ingredients that are harmful to dogs. Her obsession with Patches’ nutrition came after he had an operation which shortened his intestines. “A lot of dogs die young of diseases, and I wonder if it’s to do with the food that they’re given,” said Ten. She wanted to prevent that from happening to Patches and threw herself into research. After breakfast, Patches will be taken to his dogsitters’ place (she pays her a monthly fee) so that he will not be alone while she is away at work. “I know that they can be left alone but my heart is just not at peace when he’s alone,” she said and then laughed, sounding almost embarrassed. Ten didn’t think that she’d become the kind of dog owner she is today. “I lost a dog when I was young and I was very affected by the incident. He was poisoned and he died on the vet’s table,” said Ten. After the incident, Ten vowed not to have dogs, so when a good friend gave her a Shih Tzu puppy, she was reluctant to keep him. She promised her friend that she’ll “try it out” for a week. “For some reason, we developed a strange bond. He seems to understand what I say,” she said. The trial period is long over, and now the two are inseparable. Fruit of urbanisation Pets as surrogate children? It’s nothing unusual, said Deputy Chairman of the Malaysian National Animal Welfare Foundation Dr S. Sivagurunathan. Before, …

Every year during the Chinese New Year holiday, many dog owners lost their dogs due to fire crackers. In spite of the ban on fireworks, many still play fireworks during the CNY and the fireworks these days are much more advance and louder. Many dogs, by nature, fear loud noise such as thunder and fireworks and there is a great tendency that they are runaway whenever they ear these loud noise. Hence it is important to restrain your dog or keep them indoor during these period. I was just told last week that one of the fellow owner of a protection dog ( a malinois) he recently purchased at RM 26,000 lost his when neighbour play fireworks which is too loud for the dog to handle. Many of these protection dogs are trained to get used to loud noise such as gun shot and yet they run away out of fear. Fireworks these day are so powerful and continue to blast for about a minute and continue blasting surely post a great threat to the dog. No wonder they will run away if they can. Related article on the STAR The Star, 4 Feb 2006 KUCHING: The Year of the Dog started badly for dog owners here, with several of them searching anxiously for their lost pets. They said their dogs had run away from home, frightened by the noise of firecrackers and fireworks. Some went to the animal shelter run by the Sarawak Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA), off the Kuching-Serian road, to look for their missing pets. “They came crying, saying they had lost their dogs,” said Elizabeth Lim, who is in charge of the animals at SSPCA. “They wanted to check if their pets had been caught and sent to the animal shelter by the local authorities or by some good-hearted people.” She said once dogs panicked, they might hide anywhere – in a drain, a corner of a building or under a bridge. She advised owners not to limit their search to the immediate neighborhood as there were cases in the past where dogs had taken shelter in the houses of strangers several kilometres away.