Edmonton/Alberta/Canada
- Speaker rules Redford was not in contempt of Legislature
“The drama in Alberta’s legislature escalated Monday, as several members of the official opposition walked out of the house – before the speaker ruled the premier had not mislead the house, as the opposition had accused Redford of last week. On Monday, Speaker Gene Zwozdesky officially ruled contempt of parliament allegations made by the opposition last week had no standing, and the allegations were dismissed. The ruling came after MLAs from the Wildrose party were shut down by the Speaker a number of times during question period – as Zwozdesky would not allow questions on the contempt of parliament issue.”
What a messsssss.
- Too many drivers still get behind wheel impaired: police
“Strathcona County RCMP, with the help of Edmonton police and Alberta sheriffs, kicked off the first Checkstop of the Christmas season this weekend and despite tougher penalties and increased awareness, police say too many drivers continue to get behind the wheel impaired.”
Why are people doing this??? Stop it. It kills. It injures. So preventable.
- Province projects up to $3B deficit, critics concerned
“The provincial government has released their fiscal update for the second quarter, and the update outlined major hits to the province’s finances, and critics are worried the province is sitting on an ‘economic time bomb’. Based on results published so far this year, the province is forecasting a deficit between $2.3 and $3 billion.”
Fail.
- Beef inspectors told to turn blind eye to contaminated carcasses
“Federal beef inspectors at the XL Foods plant in southern Alberta whose E. coli crisis sparked the country’s largest meat recall were ordered to turn a blind eye to contamination on carcasses being processed for sale to Canadians, CTV News has learned, a directive that was imposed by the inspectors’ supervisors lasting four years.”
What the heck.
- Local researchers propose tax on sugary, sweetened drinks
“Local researchers suggest a tax on soft drinks could help improve the health of Albertans while generating additional provincial revenue. Data shows Albertans drink more than one litre of pop per person, per day – which means the province has the highest percentage of people in the country who consume sugar-sweetened beverages.”
Probably wouldn’t actually deter people from buying, honestly.
- Two employment agencies charged for collecting illegal fees from foreign workers
“The province has laid charges against two Edmonton-based employment agencies, for allegedly collecting illegal fees from foreign workers. Jonalyn Gandeza and Ira Nadnaden are facing a number of charges, including operating an unlicensed employment agency, charging prospective employees to help them find employment and misleading or deceiving a consumer.”
Just awful.
- Some Edmontonians choosing private health care over public for medical needs
“Hundreds of Edmontonians are choosing private healthcare over the public system, at a cost they say is worth the extra money. Copeman, Edmonton’s first private healthcare clinic, brings together a number of health specialists including a family physician, dietician, kinesiologist, and neuropsychologist, all under one roof. Becoming a member of the clinic costs $4,200 per adult for the first year, with the price dropping in subsequent years. Lori DaSilva and her family pay thousands per year for health services at a private clinic in Edmonton. They say the services they receive from a private clinic is worth the money.”
It’s hefty but when you add up all the services you get/unlimited/no waits/etc. it does seem to be worth it…
- Drunk ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ singer convicted, wears Viking horns to court
“The Alberta man who became a YouTube sensation for enthusiastically belting out “Bohemian Rhapsody” from the back seat of an RCMP cruiser has been convicted of impaired driving and refusing a breathalyser test. Robert Wilkinson will have to pay a $1,400 fine and will be prohibited from driving for one year.”
I thought his rendition was hilarious – but wearing Viking horns to court is pretty dumb.
- Paul McCartney allows animal advocacy group to lobby at Edmonton concerts
“A local animal advocacy group has received permission from Sir Paul McCartney himself, to use his two concerts in Edmonton to lobby for Lucy the elephant to be moved from the zoo. Voice for Animals Humane Society asked the former Beatle if they could set up at Rexall Place for Wednesday and Thursday night’s shows to raise awareness about their fight to have Lucy transferred from the Valley Zoo to an animal sanctuary. McCartney said yes.”
I am all for having Lucy be in a better environment with other elephants, etc., but if the move could kill her – I don’t see how people can say that’s better??
- Edmontonians launch Yeggies to celebrate the best in social media
“The Oscars. The Emmys. The Grammies. And now, The Yeggies. A new initiative has been launched in Edmonton to celebrate the best social media content and creators the city has to offer. Officially called the Edmonton New Media Awards, the Yeggies strive to recognize some of the forgotten talent in blogging, podcasting, videoblogging and tweeting.”
How fun!!!!
- Google updates Street View with panoramic views of Edmonton
“Edmontonians now have the option of checking out some familiar city landmarks from the comfort of their own home. Google has launched maps with enhanced, 360-degree panoramic Street View for several Edmonton facilities including City Hall, Churchill Square, the Muttart Conservatory and the Valley Zoo.”
Pretty neat though I don’t know when I’d ever use it.
World
- NFL star kills girlfriend, self, in murder-suicide: police
“Kansas City police say NFL linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend early Saturday, before driving to the nearby Arrowhead Stadium where he turned the gun on himself.”
Messed up…
- New York City goes without murders, shootings, stabbings for more than one whole day
“For the first time in well, a long time, New York City went a whole 24 hours this week without a single murder, stabbing, or shooting. Gotham enjoyed the unusual peace from 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, until 11:20 a.m. Tuesday, when a 27-year-old man was shot in Brooklyn. This rare feat in the city’s history is so rare, that the NYPD can’t even remember the last time it happened, NY1 reports. “Nice way to start the week,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.”
Crazy.
- Bangladesh factory owner: I didn’t know fire exits were needed
“The owner of a Bangladesh clothing factory where a fire killed 112 people says he was never informed the facility was required to have an emergency exit, a sign of how far removed the leaders of the nation’s garment industry are from issues of worker safety.”
Uhhh.
- Critical loans released, averting Greek bankruptcy – for now
“European and global financial leaders have agreed to release (EURO)44 billion ($57 billion) in critical loans to Greece and provide billions in additional debt relief in order to help the country stabilize its ailing economy.”
Good luck Greece.
- William and Kate expecting their first child
“The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting her first child, but has also been admitted to hospital for treatment of nausea and vomiting related to her pregnancy. In a statement posted Monday to Prince William and Catherine’s website, the couple said they were “very pleased” to announce the pregnancy, which comes after weeks of speculation that an apparent heir to the British throne could be on its way.”
A lot of people around the world were excited about this news, lol. It’s meh. I do think Kate is so pretty though!
- A world map of average life expectancy by country. How does your nation rank?
“Here now to provide a some perspective on the matter of mortality is a variegated patchwork comprising 188 of the world’s countries, with each nation color-coded in accordance with the average life expectancy of its citizens.”
Canada sits at #12.
Health
- Common diabetes drug may help treat ovarian cancer, says new study
“Could a common medication prescribed for diabetes also treat a killer among women? One group is saying yes. Health.com is reporting ovarian cancer patients who were taking metformin lived longer than those who didn’t, which may possibly offer scientists more insight on how they can treat, and ultimately cure, the disease. The drug, which is usually prescribed to lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes, is derived from French lilacs.”
Interesting.
- Concussions in male, female varsity hockey players more common than reported: study
“The occurrence of brain-rattling concussions among both elite male and female hockey players appears to be much higher than reported, suggests a study in which sports medicine doctors were behind the bench observing a season’s worth of games. The study, which followed players on two Canadian university teams during the 2011-2012 season, found the incidence of concussions was three times higher in males and more than five times greater in females than most previous research had found.”
Eep.
Technology/Social Media/Internet
- Yes, you can get arrested for a Facebook status update now
“A 21-year-old Indian woman thought Mumbai shouldn’t have been shutdown for the funeral of an Islamophobic leader. Broadcasting such opinions on Facebook was apparently grounds for arrest.”
So much for freedom of speech.
- Photo of New York police officer giving homeless man boots goes viral
“A tourist’s snapshot of a New York City police officer giving new boots to a barefoot homeless man in Times Square has created an online sensation… the officer – identified as Larry DePrimo – came up to the man with a pair of all-weather boots and thermal socks on the frigid night. She recorded his generosity on her cellphone. The photo shows the officer kneeling beside the man with the boots at his feet. A shoe store is seen in the background.”
Love. this.
- Social media grows out of its infancy stage
“Social networking is no longer a passing trend as we entered the fully-fledged social media age this year, according to the Nielsen and NM Incite’s 2012 Social Media Report. The core finding of the report is that American consumers continue to spend more time on social networks than on any other category of sites.”
Obviously!
- Text messaging turns 20. Usage may rise 40 per cent by 2016
“Text messages turn 20 Monday and their use may rise 40 percent by 2016, even as mobile-phone owners increasingly rely on Facebook Inc. and WhatsApp to communicate. The first SMS, or short message service, text was sent over Vodafone Group Plc’s network on Dec. 3, 1992 with the message “Merry Christmas.” By 2016, users may send 9.4 trillion texts, generating $127 billion in revenue, up from 6.7 trillion forecast for this year, according to researcher Informa Plc.”
Happy birthday Text Messaging! Love you way more than phone calls in most day-to-day situations!
- The world’s first 3-D photobooth turns you into an action figure
“From now until January 14, 2013, creative lab Party (read a profile on them here) has set up the world’s first 3-D photobooth in Harajuku (Tokyo). It’s a reservations-only combination 3-D scanner and printer that won’t just capture a flat face shot, but a head-to-toe, 360-degree, topographically accurate rendition of you. The printed portraits themselves are highly detailed, and immeasurably charming.”
Very cool.
Business/Work/Economy/Media
- $7 for a coffee? Starbucks introduces its priciest brew yet
What can you get with $7? Well, you can probably grab a very nice lunch at the food court, or two decent brown-bag lunches from home. Or now, you could get a single cup of coffee. Starbucks has just announced its most expensive coffee yet, a so-called Geisha blend labelled Costa Rica Finca Palmilera.
What a waste of money!
Environment/Space/Animals/Science
- ‘Binge-drinking gene’ discovered
“Scientists believe some people have a gene that hard-wires them for binge drinking by boosting levels of a happy brain chemical triggered by alcohol. The gene – RASGRF-2 – is one of many already suggested to be linked with problem drinking, PNAS journal reports.”
Hmm.
- Carbon dioxide emissions worldwide up again
“The amount of heat-trapping pollution the world spewed rose again last year by 3 per cent. So scientists say it’s now unlikely that global warming can be limited to a couple of degrees, which is an international goal. The overwhelming majority of the increase was from China, the world’s biggest carbon dioxide polluter. Of the planet’s top 10 polluters, the United States and Germany were the only countries that reduced their carbon dioxide emissions.”
We suck.
- Black hole found, 17 billion times as massive as sun
“You would probably not enjoy the galaxy NGC 1277. Never mind that it’s far — 220 million light-years away in the constellation Perseus. The problem is that at its center is a giant, giant black hole, 17 billion times as massive as our sun, so big that scientists calculate it makes up 59 percent of the mass of the galaxy’s disc. Astrophysicists have long believed that there’s a black hole at the center of our Milky Way, but it probably accounts for something like 0.1 percent of the galaxy’s center. The one in NGC 1277, scientists report in today’s edition of the journal Nature, is the second largest they’ve ever observed, and it upends what they thought about how galaxies form.”
Soooo interesting!!!!
- Mars rover discovery revealed
“In a sand drift on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered … sand. At a meeting of the American Geophysical Union here, scientists working on the mission talked about the analysis of the first soil sample. John P. Grotzinger, the project scientist, inadvertently set off expectations of a major discovery when he told National Public Radio a couple of weeks ago that the data was “one for the history books.” On Monday, Dr. Grotzinger said he was referring to the richness and quality of the data coming from Curiosity’s sophisticated instruments on the soil sample, not that it contained a major discovery. Dr. Grotzinger and other Curiosity scientists said their analysis did not provide definitive evidence for the building blocks of life as some had speculated.”
Well maybe he shouldn’t have said it was one of the history books!!
Weird News, Other News, Good News and/or Fluff
- You can now have Pixar’s cute moving lamp as a pet
“Nine years before Pixar presented the world with Toy Story, their first full-length animated film, the computer animation studio released Luxo Jr., an animated short about two anthropomorphized lamps that taught us that humans can form an emotional bond with pretty much anything. Inspired by Pixar’s icon, three New Zealand students designed and built a roboticized lamp, says CNet Australia. The lamp, equipped with six servos and a webcam, can move and play (though it doesn’t seem to be able to hop).”
So precious!!
- 25 wonderful words and phrases we learned in 2012
“In 2012, we invested in dictionaries. Old dictionaries. Slang dictionaries, mostly, and often we didn’t have to invest much. What we spent at yard sales and used book stores was well worth it, and we’ve been shoehorning great terms like these into office conversations all year.”
Lol some weird ones that I’ll try to incorporate into regular speak.
- Holdout homeowner accepts deal, highway house demolished
“Authorities have demolished a five-storey home that stood incongruously in the middle of a new main road and had become the latest symbol of resistance by Chinese homeowners against officials accused of offering unfair compensation. Xiayangzhang village chief Chen Xuecai told The Associated Press the house was bulldozed Saturday after its owners, duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife, agreed to accept compensation of 260,000 yuan ($41,000).”
Bizarre story + photos WERE real! And just like that – the home is bulldozed after all.
- More babies were named Apple, Mac and Siri in 2012
“The Apple empire has extended to the baby crib. A new baby name report released this week by BabyCenter, a pregnancy and parenting information website, shows more parents named their children after Apple-related products in 2012. The name “Apple” was used for at least six girls in 2012, twice as many as in 2011. “Mac,” meanwhile, was used for at least 49 boys, up from 25 a year ago. And at least 17 girls were named “Siri” this year, up from 11 last year.”
Soo stupid.
- [Video]: Tiny dog tries to get toy back from mean cat
Lol. Pretty cute.
- [Video]: Sleepy kitty
UTTERLY PRECIOUS!!!
- [Video]: Kitten playing in slow-mo
Aw.
- [Video]: Kitten chases tail in a bucket
Teehehe.
- [Video]: Ping pong cat
Pretty impressive cat!!
Just hanging out on the sectional. ;)
