These two wines were highlighted by the LCBO:

RODNEY STRONG MERLOT 2006
Sonoma County, California
497933 (D) 750 mL $19.95

ARDAL CRIANZA 2005
DDO Ribera del Duero, Spain (Bodegas Alitus/Balbás)
167601 (XD) 750 mL $17.95

Forums and videos are showing that many people experience bad reception with the iPhone 4 when they are holding it (and touching the metal rim which acts as the antenna). Is this widespread? Does this only affect certain phones or people with certain body chemistry?

The International Engine of the Year awards have just been announced. Not to be confused with Ward’s 10 Best Engines, this award is presented by a collection of worldwide auto journalists. The winner is the Volkswagen 1.4-litre TSI Twincharger which unfortunately not an engine we see here in Canada. The runner up, BMW’s 3-litre DI Twin Turbo is featured on many cars in Canada – the 135i, 335i, 535i, X5 35i, X6 35i and Z4. I’m not sure if the single turbo version of this engine which debut in the latest BMW models was in the running for the award.

Winners in each category include:

• Best performance engine: Mercedes-AMG 6.2-litre (C 63 AMG, S 63 AMG, SL 63 AMG, CL 63 AMG, E 63 AMG, CLS 63 AMG, ML 63 AMG)
• Sub 1 litre: Toyota 1-litre three-cylinder (Toyota Aygo, IQ, Yaris/Vitz, Citroën C1, Peugeot 107, Subaru Justy)
• 1.0-1.4L: Volkswagen 1.4-litre TSI Twincharger (VW Golf, Scirocco, Jetta, Touran, Tiguan, Seat Ibiza Cupra)
• 1.4L-1.8L: BMW-PSA 1.6-litre Turbo (MINI Cooper S, Clubman Cooper S, Peugeot 207, 308, MINI JCW, Clubman JCW)
• 1.8L-2.0L: BMW 2-litre Twin Turbo Diesel (123d, X1 23d)
• 2.0L-2.5L: Audi 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo (Audi TT RS)
• 2.5L-3.0L: BMW 3-litre DI Twin Turbo (135i, 335i, 535i, X5 35i, X6 35i, Z4)
• 3.0L-4.0L: BMW 4-litre V8 (M3)
• Above 4.0L: Mercedes-AMG 6.2-litre (C 63 AMG, S 63 AMG, SL 63 AMG, CL 63 AMG, E 63 AMG, CLS 63 AMG, ML 63 AMG

The engines highlighted in red are not available in Canada.

Well, it was more Ottawa’s earthquake than Toronto’s, but I was in TO when I felt it. Here’s the information on the 5.5 magnitude quake from the US Geological Survey.

Magnitude 5.5

Date-Time  * Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 17:41:41 UTC

Location 45.866°N, 75.457°WDepth 15.7 km (9.8 miles) set by location program

Region ONTARIO-QUEBEC BORDER REGION, CANADA

Distances

* 39 km (24 miles) N (356°) from Cumberland, Ontario, Canada

* 45 km (28 miles) NNE (21°) from Gatineau, Qu�bec, Canada

* 52 km (32 miles) NNE (26°) from Hull, Qu�bec, Canada

* 53 km (33 miles) NNE (21°) from OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada

* USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID us2010xwa7

First earthquake I felt. The two others, one I was asleep for, the other I was in my car.

Despite what Google’s Blog says:

A little over a year ago, we released an early preview of Google Voice, our web-based platform for managing your communications. We introduced one number to ring all your phones, voicemail that works like email, free calls and text messages to the U.S. and Canada, low-priced international calls and more—the only catch was you had to request and receive an invite to try it out. Today, after lots of testing and tweaking, we’re excited to open up Google Voice to the public, no invitation required.

It is still not available in Canada:

The oil spill needs no introduction. This post is just to highlight there’s some really good coverage of the spill at the New York Times:

• Oil Spill Timeline (press play)
• Oil Spill Landfall
• Efforts to Stop Leak
• The Blowout

I’ve had an induction range for about a month now, and wanted to share my thoughts about this new type of cooktop. First off, a lesson about what induction is. Induction is a method of cooking that uses magnetic fields to heat up your cookware to the desired temperature. This means there is no heat transfer from a coil or cooktop to the cookware, it’s the cookware itself that heats up to the desired temperature. This gives two very good advantages, one is that the cooktop itself remains very cool. It also allows for very fine control of the temperature – as soon as you dial down the heat, the heating surface will cool off. This control is much like most gas cooktops but is a distinct advantage over normal coil or electric ranges.

My impressions so far are very positive. Getting the pan or pot to the right temperature is VERY fast. The temperature is also much hotter than my previous electric range – especially with the “boost” option that my Samsung range came with. Some not-so-obvious benefits include lower power consumption (less energy is required for a pan to reach a certain temperature) and some safety benefits (the cooking surface does not get as hot as any other type of range). As mentioned before, the cooktop remains very cool during it’s operation, as exhibited by the picture attached provided by Bosch.

There are some drawbacks. Only pans that exhibit magnetic properties can be used with these cooktops. You have to be careful, because even though the majority of All-Clad pans are compatible with induction, they have a few pieces that are not. The specific Samsung unit I bought has a fan that turns on when the cooktop is on. It’s reasonably noisy (louder than my fan hood) so you have to be aware of it’s operation. Also the Samsung unit has the rear cooking elements placed slightly too far back. Not a big deal most of the time, but if you want a wider pan in the rear large burner, it’s a bit of a pain. On the other hand, the Kenmore unit had cooking elements that were placed slightly too close together. The other main drawback is price. An induction range will cost from $500-$1000 more than a premium electric range.

Overall, I’m very happy with my induction range. I highly recommend it. Most full and slide-in induction ranges (like the Samsung I bought) come with a convection oven, but that’s another article.

It doesn’t do anything your existing XBOX 360 can’t do – except for built-in wifi, however it does look much better:

Motor Trend did this video of these three cars in action. Definitely worth a viewing: