Tag Archives: apps

Clicks of the Day: Thursday, August 2, 2012 Edition!

August 2, 2012 – 9:23 pm

Welcome to Thursday, August 2 2012′s Clicks of the Day!

Clicks of the Day is a daily round up of news posted Sunday through Thursday with quantity and quality of content differing depending on how busy Linda’s day is.

    Edmonton/Alberta/Canada

  • Hundreds march to support gay beating victim

    • “Pairs of men and pairs of women, many wearing purple, marched to the legislature Thursday from the Garneau neighbourhood where a gay University of Alberta student was assaulted two weeks ago. About 200 people attended the no-hate rally that started with the march at 6 p.m. on 84th Avenue and 110th Street, the spot where 26-year-old Chevi Rabbit was attacked on July 19. Drivers on 109th Street honked vehicles in support as the line of people streamed past, some carrying signs that read: From hate 2 hope. Applause broke out from a small group waiting at the legislature as the marchers, led by Rabbit, arrived for the rally.”

    Fantastic!!

  • Former Capital Health CEO resigns from Alberta Health Services board

    • “Health Minister Fred Horne announced Thursday the resignation of Alberta Health Services board member Sheila Weatherill, who approved the controversial expenses of AHS’s top financial executive when they both worked under Edmonton’s former health region. Weatherill’s resignation came one day after Allaudin Merali stepped down as chief financial officer of Alberta’s superboard over $346,208 in expense claims he made when he was Capital Health’s CFO between 2005 and 2008. Weatherill was CEO of Capital Health — and Merali’s boss — when the province consolidated health boards in 2008. That year, Weatherill received $1.5 million in severance pay and Merali was given $1 million. Both also received hefty retirement packages employees are no longer eligible for.”

    This story. Wow.

  • Six kittens abandoned in suitcase get second chance

    • “The Humane Society has more kittens to find homes for after six were found abandoned in a suitcase earlier this week.”

    I wish people didn’t abandon animals like this :’( SIDE NOTE: The kitties are SOOO CUTE!!

    World

  • Half of U.S. counties considered disaster areas

    • “Nearly 220 counties in a dozen drought-stricken states were added Wednesday to the U.S. government’s list of natural disaster areas as the nation’s agriculture chief unveiled new help for frustrated, cash-strapped farmers and ranchers grappling with extreme dryness and heat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s addition of the 218 counties means that more than half of all U.S. counties – 1,584 in 32 states – have been designated primary disaster areas this growing season, the vast majority of them mired in a drought that’s considered the worst in decades.”

    Sad.

  • Annan stepping down as special envoy to Syria

    • “Kofi Annan says he has received no support from world powers to take decisive action over the escalating violence in Syria, and has decided to resign as the United Nations special envoy to Syria as of Aug. 31.”

    Also sad.

    Health

  • Study says even modest weight-loss can improve health for decade

    • “Research presented Thursday at the American Psychological Association’s 120th Annual Convention, this year in Orlando, Fla. claims that even modest weight loss of 20 pounds can provide a decade of health benefits to overweight and obese persons.”

    Encouraging!

    Technology/Social Media/Internet

  • Fake profiles: Facebook has 83 million of them and counting

    • “You know those Facebook friends of yours that write posts about how much they hate “fake people?” There’s an 8.7 percent chance that they’re fake, too. In its company filings, Facebook says that it has more than 83 million fake profiles.”

    That’s a lot of fakies!

  • Internet add-on blocks baby photos on Facebook

    • “A new Internet browser add-on that allows users to avoid seeing baby photos on Facebook is quickly gaining popularity online.”

    Lol pretty funny! Meow.

  • Facebook enhances content targeting for brands

    • “Paid advertisers on Facebook have had a range of options for targeting ads across criteria like age, gender, interests and location. Now the social network is extending more of those options to brands’ page posts to target subsets of their fan bases.”

    Inteeeresting.

  • Facebook’s stock: The bleeding just won’t stop

    • “Ouch! Shares of Facebook dropped another four percent today, leaving the company’s stock price just above $20 a share — almost half where its shares debuted in a mid-May IPO. And let’s not even talk about the $45 a share Facebook hit on its first day of trading. That seems like a distant memory. The news hasn’t changed since Facebook’s latest wave of selling, which began when Zynga spooked investors with its lousy earnings report last Wednesday and continued with Facebook’s own unspectacular earnings. Fear of mobile. Fear of a slowdown in user growth. And, in a sense, just fear.”

    Poor Facebook.

  • Tired of phone brightness at the cinema? There’s an app for that

    • “A lot of individuals feel it is necessary to text, check email or play around with their mobile phone in the middle of a movie at the local cinema. Many have complained about the annoying light, but there’s an app for that… Kyle Goomansingh may have the answer to the bright light that can distract moviegoers. It’s an app called In The Dark, which was developed to adapt to the room’s light and allow cellphone users, who cannot bare to look away from their device for two hours, to text message or email without causing a disturbance.”

    I don’t think you should be checking your phone while at the “cinema” lol but this is definitely a welcome app!

  • Student texted about quitting texting while driving off cliff, lived

    • “In yet another example of why you shouldn’t text and drive, an Alabama college student drove off a cliff while texting. Fortunately, he survived, but incurred some serious injuries. After six months of recovering, he’s finally able to talk about it. Right before Chance Both’s truck went over a cliff, he texted, “I need to quit texting, because I could die in a car accident.” Both suffered a broken neck, a crushed face, a fractured skull and traumatic brain injuries, a local news station reported. He was brought back to life three times by doctors.”

    WOW! What a story. Don’t text and drive.

    Business/Work/Economy/Media

  • EI changes offer jobless more incentives to find work

    • “Starting next week, jobless Canadians will be able to pocket more of their employment insurance benefits if they find temporary jobs during their search for full-time work. A new pilot program announced in the Conservative government’s spring budget gets underway Sunday.”

    Incentive~

  • Huffington makes her tablet magazine free, after five issues

    • “Arianna Huffington and her lieutenants may have overestimated readers’ willingness to pay for content: The magazine, O’Brien announced during a companywide meeting Wednesday afternoon, has switched to an unpaid model. It’s now listed as a free download in the iTunes store.”

    I won’t paaaay.

  • NBC research undercuts assumptions over Olympics tape delay

    • “NBC researchers are finding that people who know Olympic results before the network’s tape-delayed telecast are more likely to watch it.”

    You gotta see it happen for yourself, even if you’ve heard about it ;)

  • RIM announces new PlayBook for faster networks ahead of its new smartphones

    • “Research In Motion is launching its new PlayBook tablet for advanced networks that will have a faster Internet experience, giving the Canadian tech company an updated product to sell before its new smartphones come to market. RIM’s latest PlayBook will be launched next week — in Canada first — and is designed for wireless networks with speeds equivalent to high-speed home Internet services on land lines.”

    Oh RIM. I don’t know if this will help ya.

    Environment/Space/Animals/Science

  • Elephants woo mates with deep bass tones, research shows

    • “Elephants are the Barry Whites of the animal kingdom, research has shown. They produce their own version of the legendary soul singer’s seductive bass tones – only much, much deeper. An elephant’s infrasound rumble, often too low for the human ear to hear, is used to keep herds together, and by males to find mates. It allows the animals to communicate over distances of up to six miles.”

    How cool!! Great lead too, haha.

  • 2,500-year-old chocolate may have been used by Maya as condiment

    • “Archaeologists say they have found traces of 2,500-year-old chocolate on a plate in the Yucatan peninsula, the first time they have found ancient chocolate residue on a plate rather than a cup, suggesting it may have been used as a condiment or sauce with solid food.”

    Neat. :)

  • Northern ice study defies theories

    • “Greenland’s ice seems less vulnerable than feared to a runaway melt that would drive up world sea levels, according to a study showing that a surge of ice loss has petered out… The discovery of fluctuations casts doubt on projections that Greenland could be headed for an unstoppable meltdown, triggered by man-made global warming. Greenland contains enough ice to raise sea levels by seven metres if it all thawed.”

    Good news, right?

    Entertainment

  • J. K. Rowling withholds new book from publishers, fears piracy

    • “Author J. K. Rowling has decided to withhold her upcoming book from a handful of foreign publishers over fears of piracy. “The Casual Vacancy” is set for a Sept. 27 release in the U.S. and U.K. but will not be sent to certain countries like Italy, Finland, and Slovenia until it is officially published in English. Publishers in Germany and in France are the exceptions.”

    #Paranoia

  • Meet Google’s new interns: actors Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson

    • “Wedding Crashers duo Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson will play Google interns who are bossed around by managers half their age in The Internship, a comedy set to premiere in 2013.”

    Cool!

    Weird News, Other News & Fluff

  • Man wants billions to make immortality possible by 2045

    • “Immortality is a great for True Blood, but it’s not something most people take seriously — except for Dmitry Itskov, that is. The 31-year-old Russian plans on making immortality a reality by 2045. His plan, “The 2045 Initiative,” will sound familiar if you’ve seen the James Cameron blockbuster Avatar — and he just needs a few billion dollars to make it happen.”"

    I don’t think humans should be trying to be immortal… it’s not natural!!

  • Century-old baseball cards discovered in Ohio attic sell for $566,000

    • “Rare, century-old baseball cards discovered in an Ohio attic have fetched more than US$566,000 at auction. The cards were from a rare series issued around 1910 and featured Hall of Famers like Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner.”

    Perhaps something I can dig up will fetch me a fortune and I can pay for my wedding, lol.


Thor (and/or Loki) Photo of the Day:

Thor didn’t want me to leave today!!!


Have your say on some of these Clicks of the Day’s! Leave a comment! Or tweet me!

Linda

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Clicks of the Day: May 13, 14, 15 2012 Weekend Edition!

May 13, 2012 – 8:09 pm

Welcome to the three-day roundup …

Weekend Edition (May 13, 14, 15) of Clicks of the Day!

Clicks of the Day is a daily round up of news posted Sunday through Thursday.

    Edmonton/Alberta/Canada

  • Firefighters spend weekend battling wildfire near Drayton Valley

    • “Firefighters spent the weekend trying to a contain a wildfire burning near the Lodgepole community located southwest of Drayton Valley. The wildfire prompted evacuation warnings by RCMP. Residents in the area of Lodgepole were placed on standby for short notice of evacuation Saturday night.”

    Scary. Especially given that it’s not the only one burning out of control in the province. And according to the province, all fires this year have been caused by humans!

  • E-book: How Could a Whole Town Burn?

    • “The Journal begins a new era today with the launch of our first electronic book, How Could a Whole Town Burn? Slave Lake One Year After the Fire.”

    Always impressed by The Journal’s innovation.

  • Canadian farmers have never been older: census data

    • “Canadian farmers have never been older, raising questions over who will produce the country’s food in the coming decades. For the first time on record, farmers in the 55-and-over age category comprise the highest percentage of total operators, Canada’s 2011 census of agriculture shows. An aging work force in Canada’s farming community has long been a source of concern as the profession struggles to attract young people to the sector.”

    Well that’s not good!

  • Debt-ridden and unemployed: We are the class of 2012

    • “Nearly 60 per cent of us will graduate with student debt, which now totals $20-billion in Canada and continues to grow.”

    Awful. I am really lucky I’ve paid off my loans!!!

    World

  • 49 bodies left on Mexico highway

    • “Forty-nine decapitated and mutilated bodies were found Sunday dumped on a highway connecting the northern Mexican metropolis of Monterrey to the U.S. border in what appears to be the latest blow in an escalating war of intimidation among drug gangs.”

    Wow…

  • Last-ditch coalition talks fail in Greece

    • “Last-ditch attempts to form a coalition government in Greece have failed once again, bringing the country one step closer to new elections, as well as potential removal from the eurozone.”

    Just a mess over there.

  • Earliest Mayan calendar shows no hint of ‘world end’

    • “The earliest known Mayan calendar has been found in an ancient house in Guatemala and it offers no hint that the world’s end is imminent, researchers said Thursday. Rather, the painted room in the residential complex at Xultun was likely the place where the town scribe kept records, scrawling computations on the walls in an effort to find “harmony between sky events and sacred rituals,” said the study in the journal Science. The hieroglyphs date back to the ninth century, making them hundreds of years older than the calendars in the Maya Codices, which were recorded in bark-paper books from 1300 to 1521.”

    Oh we’ll see…

  • Indian men arrested for trying to bury baby girl alive

    • “Police in northern India have arrested a baby girl’s father and uncle for allegedly trying to bury her alive. The two-month-old baby’s father said he had been advised by a spiritual guru to bury her to help secure the good health of his next child, police allege.”

    I am disgusted.

    Health

  • Stem cell shield ‘could protect cancer patients’

    • “It may be possible to use “stem cell shielding” to protect the body from the damaging effects of chemotherapy, early results from a US trial suggest. Chemotherapy drugs try to kill rapidly dividing cancer cells, but they can also affect other healthy tissues such as bone marrow. A study, in Science Translational Medicine, used genetically modified stem cells to protect the bone marrow. Cancer Research UK said it was a “completely new approach”.”

    Cool!

  • 1 of 6 cancer deaths worldwide caused by preventable infections

    • “One in every six cancer deaths worldwide is caused by preventable infections, a total of 1.5 million deaths yearly that could be halted by widespread vaccination programs, researchers reported Wednesday. Since 1990, that number has grown by about half a million, suggesting that vaccination programs are losing ground in the battle rather than gaining it.”

    That sucks.

  • Time magazine cover suggests attachment parenting has gone too far

    • “Time magazine’s latest cover photo has created quite a buzz: A super-trim, blonde 26-year-old mother standing in skinny jeans and a tank top, hand on hip, chest thrust out with an exposed breast — affixed to which is the mouth of her 3-year-old son, who’s standing on a stool to reach it. The magazine is marking the 20-year anniversary of “attachment parenting”, a phrase coined by Dr. Bill Sears and his wife Martha in The Baby Book, a best-seller that came out in 1992. Attachment parenting advocates for keeping your baby as close to your body as possible — at pretty much all times. Parents are supposed to wear their babies in slings, instead of pushing them in strollers. Mothers breastfeed their toddlers, some through nursery school. And parents co-sleep with their kids in the same room, with babies in attached bassinets and older kids in the bed.”

    Bizarre. I feel like I would be a very protective, coddling type of mother but I would not be practising “attachment” parenting techniques. That’s a bit too much.

  • Psychopaths’ brains display abnormalities

    • “Scientists who scanned the brains of men convicted of murder, rape and violent assaults have found the strongest evidence yet that psychopaths have structural abnormalities in their brains. The researchers, based at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, said the differences in psychopaths’ brains mark them out even from other violent criminals with anti-social personality disorders (ASPD), and from healthy non-offenders.”

    Shudder.

  • Kids’ TV time tied to unhealthy food choices: study

    • “Children and teens who watch a lot of television are less likely to get their fruits and vegetables and more likely to snack on candy or drink soda every day, according to a survey of close to 13,000 U.S. students. The link to poor eating habits remained even after the researchers, whose findings appeared in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, took into account how much exercise kids typically got as well as how often they snacked while in front of the television.”

    Interesting.

  • [Infographic]: In 80 years, we lost 93% of variety in our food seeds

    • “In 1903, we had almost 500 varieties of lettuce. By 1983, we had just 36. Radishes, peas, and beets have fared no better. In fact, the most steadfast of the crops has been the tomato, which, probably due to the popularity of strange and tasty heirloom varieties, only lost about 80% of its seed diversity. It’s a shame to lose so many intricacies of nature’s tastiest gifts. But more worryingly, monocultures strip the land of nutrients: Where you once had self-sustaining harvest cycles, you get farm land denuded of nutrients that then needs copious chemical fertilizers to grow more food. And the crops themselves become vulnerable to plant diseases.”

    Bad news.

  • The secret of happiness? Take the time to appreciate it, researchers say

    • “Though happiness can sometimes feel like the Holy Grail, researchers say it’s not as elusive as many presume. The real challenge, it appears, is maintaining the emotion once we find it. In a process known as “hedonic adaptation,” we gradually adjust to positive changes — say, a new romance or job promotion — over time, with the emotional high abating as our new circumstances become the norm. We then seek out new and improved sources of fulfilment, and in doing so, fail to get the most out of the original event, researchers say.”

    Milk it for as long as you can!

    Technology/Social Media/Internet

  • What your Klout score really means

    • “The interviewer pulled up the web page for Klout.com—a service that purports to measure users’ online influence on a scale from 1 to 100—and angled the monitor so that Fiorella could see the humbling result for himself: His score was 34. “He cut the interview short pretty soon after that,” Fiorella says. Later he learned that he’d been eliminated as a candidate specifically because his Klout score was too low. “They hired a guy whose score was 67.” Partly intrigued, partly scared, Fiorella spent the next six months working feverishly to boost his Klout score, eventually hitting 72. As his score rose, so did the number of job offers and speaking invitations he received. “Fifteen years of accomplishments weren’t as important as that score,” he says.”

    Crazy. I feel like we have been hearing a lot of about Klout lately and probably will continue to hear about it. I’d like to break the 60 mark. :)

  • Tweeting to E.T.: Project will use Twitter to send messages to space

    • “Twitter’s bringing the world together in 140 characters or less. But can it bind together life forms from across the universe? A project that aims to send tweets to a distant planet capable of sustaining life is in the process of being funded, and your tweets could potentially be picked up by extraterrestrial life forms.”

    Interesting…

  • The Floppy Disk means Save, and 14 other old people Icons that don’t make sense anymore

    • “What happens when all the things we based our icons on don’t exist anymore? Do they just become, ahem, iconic glyphs whose origins are shrouded in mystery?”

    So interesting. :)

  • Zuckerberg says mobile first priority

    • “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose limited role in promoting the No. 1 social network’s market debut has drawn criticism, laid out its growth strategy to investors on Friday, saying that transforming its mobile and advertising experience are top priorities in 2012. Integrating online apps more strongly into Facebook is also a major goal, he told hundreds of investors at an event that capped the first week of Facebook’s cross-country “roadshow” to pitch its highly anticipated initial public offering. Facebook aims to raise about $10.6 billion, dwarfing the coming-out parties of tech companies like Google Inc and valuing it at up to $96 billion – rivaling Amazon.com Inc’s.”

    Mobile is a pretty big deal.

  • On Facebook, deleting an app doesn’t delete your data from their system

    • “In the revised data use policy… Facebook also clarifies that “if you’ve removed an application and want them to delete the information you’ve already shared with them, you should contact the application and ask them to delete it.” This implies that, even if you change Facebook’s privacy settings since beginning to use a third-party service, or no longer user the service at all, the service may keep your data on hand unless directly asked to delete it. That is, Facebook won’t be your middle man in data cleanup; however, Facebook does note in the policy that apps are contractually obligated to delete data if asked.”

    Hmmm.

  • Microsoft redesigns Bing

    • “Microsoft Corp unveiled a new design on Thursday for its second-ranked Bing search engine, introducing elements from Facebook and other social networks, as it tries to claw market share from leader Google Inc.”

    Lol. Oh Bing. Does anyone else find it hilarious whenever someone on TV says “Let’s Bing it.” LOL.

    Business/Work/Economy/Media

  • Groupon expands beyond deals with rewards program

    • “Groupon wants to be known for more than just deals. It is launching a free loyalty program called Groupon Reward for U.S. consumers and merchants, part of a bigger effort to become the “operating system for local commerce,” as Groupon CEO Andrew Mason put it earlier this week. Groupon Rewards, which builds off an earlier trial in Philadelphia, will give merchants a way to track and recognize loyalty without employing old punch cards.”

    Interesting!

  • Globe to charge readers for online content

    • “The Globe and Mail is moving to charge readers for its online content, following a trend established by the New York Times and other major publications. Publisher and chief executive officer Phillip Crawley told an all-staff meeting Thursday that the paper will implement a metered paywall system this fall, asking readers to pay if they read more than a certain number of articles each month. The number of free articles per month hasn’t yet been announced, nor has pricing.”

    I loathe paywalls.

    Environment/Space/Animals/Science

  • For the first time, researchers track manta rays with satellites

    • “For the first time, an international team of researchers has used satellites to track the movements of manta rays, providing valuable new information about the massive rays, which are considered “vulnerable” to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The preliminary findings for the Atlantic mantas showed that they traveled as far as 680 miles over a one- to two-month period searching for food, sticking close to the coastline. They also spent considerable time in shipping lanes, which rendered them vulnerable to being hit by freighters.”

    I hope we can save them :’(

  • Science casts a new eye on dino history

    • “Much of what we thought we knew about dinosaurs is changing as fresh science creates new pictures of these ancient creatures and how they lived. New discoveries of smaller dinosaurs from China have revealed many were covered in feathers. Paleontologists now believe many dinosaurs were warmblooded and some even lived in areas that saw snow.”

    Who knew!

  • Could humans hibernate?

    • “While these are incredible breakthroughs and promising starts, we’re still a long way from making human hibernation simple, safe, and reliable. Other experiments failed to induce hibernation in sheep and pigs with hydrogen sulfide, so it might not work on larger animals, including us. Testing the Massachusetts method on humans, meanwhile, would be a bit tricky, ethically speaking. It’s a start, though, and sooner or later we might move beyond mere sleep and hibernate our way through surgery, or a flight to Jupiter.”

    Hmm.

    Weird News, Other News & Fluff

  • [Video]: Nintendo dominoes

    • Very impressive!!!

  • Mother’s Day: Eight cats and dogs who’ve adopetd babies from another species

    • “Mother’s Day is all about celebrating the greatness of maternal love. But because there are enough paeans to human moms and their incredible acts of kindness and sacrifice, this year, we’re celebrating moms from the animal kingdom. Not just any animal moms, though, these are cats and dogs who’ve adopted babies from a different species and treated them like their own.”

    Sooo cute.

  • [Video]: Kitten scares puppies away

    • LOL! What a great kitten! Bad puppies for teaming up against it!

  • [Video]: Kitten drinks milk with his paw

    • What a hoity toity kitten. :)

Thor (and/or Loki) Photo of the Day:

Thor pampering Loki!


Have your say on some of these Clicks of the Day’s! Leave a comment! Or tweet me!

Linda

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Clicks of the Day: Wednesday, May 9, 2012 Edition!

May 9, 2012 – 8:53 pm

Welcome to Wednesday, May 9 2012′s Clicks of the Day!

Clicks of the Day is a daily round up of news posted Sunday through Thursday.

    Edmonton/Alberta/Canada

  • Emotional day in court at McConnell’s sentencing

    • “The sentencing hearing for the mother convicted of manslaughter in the drowning deaths of her two sons last month began Wednesday morning in a Wetaskiwin courtroom. On Wednesday, the Crown Prosecutor asked for a sentence of 12 years for Allyson McConnell, the Millet woman who was found guilty of manslaughter in April.”

    Such a sad case.

  • Cancer deaths on the decline in Canada, but lung cancer still a top killer

    • “A new report says the most preventable cancer – lung cancer – continues to be the top cancer killer among men and women in Canada, but overall cancer death among Canadians has declined. That’s due in part to improved cancer survival through advancements in treatments, better screening and prevention measures.”

    Such a preventable cancer. Don’t smoke, guys!

  • Historic Mercer Warehouse transforming into entrepreneurial hub

    “A historic downtown building is being turned into an entrepreneurial hub. The latest addition to the hundred year old Mercer Building at the corner of 104 Avenue and 104 Street is Startup Edmonton, a non-profit organization that rents office space and gives guidance to local entrepreneurs.”

    104 Street is really going to be the place to be, hey?

  • Cross-country expedition to help victims of child exploitation begins

    • “A three month, cross-country expedition to raise money and awareness about child exploitation kicked off on Wednesday. Members of the Angel Express Society began their 4,000 km expedition on horseback, which will take them from Edmonton to Halifax. The two participants of the non-profit organization hope to raise $1 million to support young victims of sexual abuse.”

    Good cause and definitely a unique way of raising money and awareness.

  • New Edmonton suburbs will cost another $1.2B: report

    • “New neighbourhoods already approved by Edmonton city council will cost the city an additional $1.2 billion for fire halls, parks, police stations and libraries, says a new report that gives the numbers for the first time. “Oh my god, that’s not including the LRT,” said Coun. Linda Sloan, hearing the figures for the first time. “It just shows the city is not sustainable. We can’t continue to grow the way we are.” City councillors have approved development in 44 new neighbourhoods on the fringes of the city without knowing how much services for these neighbourhoods would cost. The growth co-ordination strategy, released in draft form this week, quantifies the cost for the first time.”

    Ruh roh.

  • Best Eateries 2012

    • “Best Vietnamese: Indie 3rd place: Pho Hoang.”

    My parent’s restaurant King Noodle House Pho Hoang was voted third best independent Vietnamese restaurant in Edmonton in Vue Weekly’s 2012 Best Eateries! What an honour. :) Please visit if you haven’t yet! Our soup is DELICIOUS! (I’m not biased ;))

  • Inmates to pay more for room and board in federal prisons

    • “Inmates in Canadian prisons will pay more for room and board, and some will see their so-called incentive pay slashed, under new rules introduced by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews Wednesday. Toews said the changes are expected to save taxpayers more than $10 million per year — money that can be put toward rehabilitation programs.”

    If it saves us money then woo hoo.

  • As prisons close, complaints of overcrowding rise

    • “nmates in Canada’s federal prisons have been sleeping in trailers, interview rooms, family visiting spaces and gymnasiums, while the percentage of prisoners sharing cells built for one has nearly doubled in under three years, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail. The documents, obtained from access to information requests, suggest a penal system stretched to capacity. Canada’s prison population has been rising since 2005 after years of steady decline, growing 7 per cent between March 31, 2011 and May 1, 2012.”

    Rough.

    World

  • Obama endorses gay marriage, says same-sex couples should have right to wed

    • “President Obama announced Wednesday that he believes same-sex couples should be granted the right to marry, becoming the first U.S. president in history to fully embrace that level of civil rights for gays. Obama’s announcement gave an immediate jolt to the decades-long movement for gay equality at a moment when a growing number of states are moving to ban — or legalize — same-sex unions and as polls show a majority of Americans support marriage rights.”

    Absolutely.

  • Bomb hits convoy carrying UN observers in Syria

    • “A roadside bomb hit a Syrian military truck Wednesday just seconds after the head of the UN observer team drove by in a convoy, demonstrating the fragility of the international plan to end the country’s bloodshed.”

    Will the violence never end?

    Health

  • Music benefits babies’ brains

    • “Babies who receive musical training smile more, communicate better and react more calmly to unfamiliar or unfavourable situations, according to new research out of Ontario’s McMaster University. The study involved one-year-olds and their parents who spent six months participating in one of two types of music-related activities. One group played with toys while music played in the background. The other group learned to play percussion instruments and sing lullabies, nursery rhymes and songs with actions.”

    Music is good for the soul. :)

  • Baby clothes go high-tech: Pyjamas to monitor heart beat, temperature, movement

    • “Rogers announced Tuesday that it has partnered with U.S.-based biomedical engineering company Exmovere Holdings Inc., for the launch of digital pyjamas, called Exmobaby, later this year. The machine-washable outfit has embedded sensors and a AAA-battery powered wireless transmitter that beams information to a computer, smartphone or tablet. The manufacturer claims the product can perform electrocardiogram tests to measure electrical activity in the heart, monitor skin temperature and movement, and detect mood changes.”

    Interesting.

  • Health watchdog warns ‘obese’ is derogatory term for overweight

    • “British health workers dealing with the rising epidemic of obesity have been warned that referring to overweight patients as obese can be construed as derogatory. Charged with tackling rising obesity levels, public health workers employed by councils have been issued with new guidelines by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) regarding the type of language they use when referring to obesity.”

    Society is so sensitive these days.

    Technology/Social Media

  • Phishing, other malicious websites soar in Canada

    • “In almost every way, the malicious Web page is indistinguishable from the bank account login screen on TD’s own site – complete with corporate logos and a password entry field. Except the site has nothing to do with the Canadian bank. Instead, a user who tries to log in will have unwittingly handed over their banking info to cyber criminals… The number of such phishing sites in Canada grew 170 per cent in the past year, making it the second most popular phishing-site host country in the world behind the U.S., according to a new study by Internet security firm Websense.”

    Awful.

  • [Infographic]: Wake up call: 59% of mobile apps don’t earn enough to break even

    • “With Instagram recently having been acquired by Facebook for $1 billion and OMGPOP, makers of Draw Something, cashing in for $200 million, developers are attacking the mobile app space with a renewed vigor. Before jumping head first into a new project aiming to be the next big acquisition target, developers might be wise to look over a white paper recently put together by App Promo. App Promo conducted a study last month in an effort to investigate how well mobile developers are performing in this crowded space. In its survey, the company found that a staggering 59% of mobile apps do not generate enough money to break even. Only 12% of developers earn $50,000 or more from their apps, and these developers were found to have big marketing budgets of $30,000 or more. They also spend about 14% of their time focusing on marketing on average.”

    That’s still more than half – and the ones who do make it big really, really make it big.

  • Twitter hack breaches thousands of accounts

    • “A Twitter hacker on Monday revealed thousands of user names and passwords for the microblogging site, but here’s the good news: Most of the compromised accounts appear to be spam. Word of the breach began spreading Tuesday after hacking news and activist hub Airdemon posted a dispatch saying 55,000 accounts had been compromised. It linked to Pastebin pages containing the allegedly compromised user names and passwords.”

    Always change your password!

  • Facebook announces its own app store

    • “In a move that should surprise no one but make many developers happy, Facebook today announced a marketplace for finding apps called the App Center. “The App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga,” writes Facebook engineer Aaron Brady on the company’s Developer Blog. The Center will also include a mobile version, which Brady says is designed to increase the number of mobile apps that use the social network. The new hub, which will open in the next few weeks, will organize apps by user ratings, an important change from the current “like” system which can favor apps with huge marketing budgets. App makers will also get a dashboard for tracking how people are rating their apps.”

    Fun!

    Business/Consumer/Media/Economy

  • Pentagon approves use of BlackBerry 7 models

    • “Research In Motion on Wednesday said the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) had approved six models of the company’s BlackBerry 7 for use on its networks, extending a long relationship with the smartphone known for its tight security. The approval will allow RIM’s single largest customer to upgrade to the Canadian smartphone maker’s latest phones as it waits for the launch of its next-generation BlackBerry 10 devices later this year.”

    I would have gone with iPhone, lol.

    Environment/Space/Animals/Science

  • Mars was covered in water just like the Earth

    • “Early Mars was covered in water just like the Earth today, scientists believe… They calculated that the speed the particles must have been moving to recreate the divot would have required an atmospheric pressure 20 times greater than that found today. This suggests Mars once had a thicker atmosphere, said prof Dufek.”

    Wonder if Earth is headed the way of Mars too?

  • Smallest mammoths found on Crete

    • “The smallest mammoth ever known to have existed roamed the island of Crete millions of years ago, researchers say. Adults were roughly the size of a modern baby elephant, standing over a metre tall at the shoulders. Remains were discovered more than a century ago, but scientists had debated whether the animal was a mammoth or an ancient elephant. A new analysis of the animal’s teeth suggests it falls closer to the mammoth lineage.”

    Neat.

  • Unidentified floating object: Mysterious blob filmed in the deep – and no-one can work out what it could be

    • “A mysterious ocean ‘blob’ has been recorded by a deep-sea remote-controlled underwater camera. The creature looks like nothing seen before, with speculators suggesting it is everything from a jellyfish to the remains of a whale placenta. While, at a quick glance, the description of a jellyfish makes sense, the creature has organs and appendages never spotted on a jellyfish before.”

    So interesting!!!!!! Deep sea creatures (and mysterious blobby things) fascinate me.

  • Jaguars preying on green sea turtles creates conservation headache in Costa Rica

    • “There is a plethora of wildlife in Costa Rica. They have a problem however, that you won’t find in any other nature reserve. Oryx, the international conservation journal has a significant report today by Diogo Verissimo. Tortuguero National Park is a bay for turtle conservation on the north-east coast of the country but nobody told the local wildlife. The local jaguars have taken a liking to their fellow conserved species the green turtle. This is one of the biggest green turtle rookeries in the world, so obviously the reptiles have to be conserved. However the big cats are also “flagship conservation species” because they are highly endangered throughout Costa Rica and the whole continent.”

    So sad. Endangered species make me so sad.

  • Big rise in North Pacific plastic waste

    • “The quantity of small plastic fragments floating in the north-east Pacific Ocean has increased a hundred fold over the past 40 years… All the plastic discarded into the ocean that does not sink will eventually break down. Sunlight and the action of the waves will degrade and shred the material over time into pieces the size of a fingernail, or smaller. An obvious concern is that this micro-material could be ingested by marine organisms, but the Scripps team has noted another, perhaps unexpected, consequence. The fragments make it easier for the marine insect Halobates sericeus to lay its eggs out over the ocean.”

    Hmm.

    Weird News, Other News & Fluff

  • Ignore LOLcats and you ignore humanity

    • “LOLCATS, those adorable anthropomorphised images whose captions defy conventional rules of spelling and grammar, may actually be making us smarter. At least according to one boffin who has written an entire dissertation on the matter. Graduate student Kate Miltner has been awarded the best masters degree ever from the London School of Economics for her paper on the appeal of LOLcats. Ms Miltner’s study found that LOLcats weren’t so much about cute little kitties that couldn’t spell, but an essential form of human communication.”

    Amazing!! Lol.

  • Sunrise-McMillan Elementary School misspells own name for nine years

    • “Sunrise-McMillan Elementary School in Fort Worth, Texas, has made an embarrassing correction after nine years: the spelling of its name, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reports. According to the station, the school added “McMillan” to its name during the 2003-2004 school year to honor its first teacher Mary McMillan, but accidentally spelled it “McMillian.” School Principal Marion Mouton told KDFW-TV that the correction process is going to be tedious.”

    Lol. How does that even happen.

  • 14 photographs that shatter your image of famous people

    • “When you step out the door, you’re playing a role. Whether you’re a hippie, stock broker, police officer or biker, you dress the way the world expects you to dress, you act the way the world expects you to act. So you can imagine how much more intense this is for celebrities, whose very careers depend on managing a public image down to the molecule. But even they can’t keep the occasional image-shattering photo from leaking out to the public…”

    Really interesting photos!

  • Japanese apparel company unveils new product, an ‘ice bra’

    • “A company that produces underwear has just unveiled a new bra that is constructed to be energy-saving. It is created of frozen packs to keep women cool during the hot summer months.”

    Lol… seriously.


Thor & Loki Photo of the Day:

Thor and Loki love each other dearly. :)


Have your say on some of these Clicks of the Day’s! Leave a comment! Or tweet me!

Linda

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