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

Welcome to the three-day roundup …

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

(I only do one Clicks of the Day post for the weekends so that I can actually have a weekend, lol. And amount of content will fluctuate depending on how much of a weekend I actually have!)

    Edmonton/Alberta/Canada

  • Edmonton in talks with PCL about arena construction
  • “The city announced Friday it’s negotiating a contract with PCL Construction to act as construction manager for the maximum $450-million project, even though the financing is $100 million short.”

    Arena plans chugging along.

  • Local foodies taste and talk at second annual conference
  • “Saturday at NAIT, some 150 people entered the world of local food ­— making everything from cherry butter to rabbit paella — during the second annual Eat Alberta conference. The daylong series of cooking classes, tastings and talks, was put together by a group of Edmonton volunteers and foodies keen on sharing the skills and tastes of provincial products with one and all. Sessions included demonstrations, tastings and cooking classes, a local lunch, and a wrap panel on How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse, featuring local foragers, canners and gardeners with tips on making the most of your own garden, river valley or backyard apple tree.”

    Ugh, SO cool. I wish I could have gone! (Remember I work weekends).

  • Smith won’t condemn candidate’s anti gay blog post
  • “Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith refused Sunday to condemn a blog post by one of her candidate decrying tolerance toward gays and lesbians, but reiterated her party won’t legislate on contentious moral issues. Edmonton-South-West candidate Allan Hunsperger, a pastor with The House church in Tofield, wrote on his church’s blog in June of 2011 that “accepting people the way they are is cruel and not loving.” Asked about the writing, Smith noted the party won’t legislate on such social issues but said Hunsperger was free to hold his personal views.”

    Hm. (That’s the most I’ll say to remain non-opinionated on controversial issues in the public eye lol).

    World

  • Secret Service agents relieved in Colombia amid prostitution allegations
  • “A group of Secret Service agents and officers sent to Colombia ahead of President Barack Obama were relieved of duty and returned home amid allegations of misconduct that involved prostitution, according to two U.S. government sources familiar the investigation. The 11 Secret Service members — both agents and uniformed officers — were interviewed Saturday at the agency’s Washington headquarters, after which they were placed on administrative leave, Assistant Director Paul Morrissey said in a statement. They are under investigation after preliminary findings revealed that they brought back several prostitutes to the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena, sources told CNN on Saturday.”

    Awkward.

  • At least five dead in Oklahoma as tornadoes pound U.S. Plains
  • “Dozens of tornadoes tore through parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa overnight and one twister killed at least five people early on Sunday as storm sirens failed to sound in an Oklahoma town and caught people unaware. Storms skipped across what is often called “Tornado Alley” in the U.S. Central and Southern Plains and more were forecast. But casualties appeared limited because many of the twisters hit sparsely populated areas, and during daylight hours or evening when people were still awake.”

    I don’t know why people don’t just pick up and move somewhere else… living in Tornado Alley seems awful.

  • The Titanic’s 1,500 dead remembered 100 years after the tragedy
  • “At sea and on land Sunday, wreaths were cast, memorials unveiled and people stood in silence to remember the 1,500 people who died in the sinking of the Titanic ocean liner a century ago.”

    May they rest in peace. I can’t believe it’s been 100 years! I don’t quite get the fascination with the Titanic but hearing all of the stories is really interesting.

    Health

  • Obesity during pregnancy may pose health risk for fetus: study
  • “A new Canadian study has shed fresh light on a growing problem in the nation’s maternity wards: pregnant women whose obesity poses health risks for the fetus that may be as dire as the effects of smoking or drinking. The swelling ranks of obese, expectant mothers face a heightened danger of miscarriages, stillbirths and premature babies, and more likely to deliver children who develop diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even spina bifida. A study released just this week found obese women were almost 70 per cent more likely than others to have an autistic child.”

    It’s just bad news all around so we all need to start living healthier.

  • The terrifying wedding diets that are all the rage
  • “Pre-wedding diets have become extreme. Linda Lee writes of this awful new bridal “trend” in The New York Times Friday using the headline “Bridal Hunger Games.” Katniss would not approve, though, to be honest, weight loss by feeding tube and the injections of a hormone associated with pregnancy do sound pretty dystopian.”

    Oh god. I’ll lose weight the normal way… working out and eating healthier.

  • The World Happiness Report explains what makes people happy
  • “The report, commissioned by the United Nations Conference on Happiness (yes, that exists), contains over a hundred pages of musings on world happiness (including) … Richer people are happier than poorer people on average, but wealth is only one factor in overall happiness… Unemployment obviously reduces happiness, but not because of what you may think. It’s not the loss of income, but the loss of things like self-esteem and workplace social life that lead to a drop in happiness… Married people across the world claim that they’re happier than single counterparts.”

    So, what makes you happy? Are you happy?

  • ‘Superbugs’ found in 4-million-year-old cave
  • “According to National Geographic, a team of microbiologists, exploring a four-million-year-old cave in New Mexico (the Lechuguilla cave system, located in Carlsbad Caverns National Park) have, at a depth of around 1,600 feet, discovered bacteria which are resistant to most modern antibiotic drugs. What is curious about the discovery is that the bacteria would not have had any contact with antibiotics or, indeed, with human beings.”

    Whoa, scary.

  • Will Cameron’s deep-sea voyage yield breakthrough drugs?
  • “Blockbuster-moviemaker-turned-aquanaut James Cameron’s solo dive in the Pacific to the Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep site last month opens up a vast, under-explored region of the world’s oceans to researchers. There, scientists hope to discover, retrieve, and study a host of previously unknown organisms and chemical compounds that may someday help solve decades-old medical mysteries.”

    Way to go James Cameron.

    Technology/Social Media/Internet

  • The risk factor rises at RIM
  • “f you’re looking for more evidence Research in Motion Ltd. is a changed company in the post-Jim Balsillie era, read a copy of the company’s annual information form, filed this week. The document gives a solid indication that the people running RIM are much less sure of themselves than in the past. Rather than reading like a dismissive boilerplate, the latest set of risk factors reads more like a confessional by a fallen giant.”

    Poor RIM.

  • These contact lenses give you superhuman vision
  • “Contact lens wearers can get a new perspective on their environment with the latest vision technology — contact lenses that let the wearer focus on two fields of view at once. Wearers can keep an eye on a projected image while their surrounding scenery can also be looked at — resulting in superhuman vision. And, while most of the world is fascinated with Google Glasses, the Pentagon is focused on getting a supply of these contacts, called iOptik”

    Interesting.

  • Canadians can cash in on YouTube
  • “Canadians can start earning money off their viral videos, now that YouTube has unrolled its YouTube Partner Program in 20 countries. The program, previously only available to the site’s most popular creators, allows any user to become a YouTube partner, with access to extra resources to promote videos and ability to monetize content with advertising.”

    Time for me to upload cat videos! Lol.

  • Why one in five U.S. adults don’t use the Internet
  • “Even though the Internet has become a key tool for accessing services, getting an education, finding jobs, getting the news, keeping up with people you know and much more, one in five U.S. adults still does not use the Internet at all, according to a new Pew report. Why? Mostly they’re just not interested — not in the Web, e-mail, YouTube, Facebook or anything else that happens online.”

    My parents don’t use it because they A) they don’t have time to (they work basically 9 a.m. until midnight each day, tough times running a restaurant!) and B) they don’t understand how to. I’m sure if they had spare time to invest they could learn but it’s just never been something they tried to dabble in (despite their three children being major Internet junkies, lol).

    Business/Work/Economy/Media

  • Work/life unbalanced for Canadians
  • “Many Canadian employees feel like the line between their work and home life is becoming increasingly blurred, according to Randstad’s Global Workmonitor survey. The overlap between work and private time is substantial. Of those surveyed, 46% said they handle private matters during working hours and 51% said they handle work-related matters during private time… Some Canadians feel they don’t have a choice in their work/life balance; 29% of survey respondents said they’re expected to be available 24/7, while 43% said they feel they fall short of expectations if they don’t respond immediately.”

    Society needs to re-prioritize!

  • Postmedia plans online paywalls, sale of Toronto headquarters
  • “The Ottawa Citizen and Vancouver Sun are putting up online paywalls and the National Post will sell its headquarters as Postmedia Network Inc. struggles in a bleak advertising market that it doesn’t see improving any time soon. Print advertising has fallen so steeply in the last several quarters that chief executive officer Paul Godfrey said he has been making personal sales calls to bank executives to help him understand why they are spending their money elsewhere.”

    Sad.

  • 72% of adults are local news enthusiasts
  • “A recently published Pew Internet & American Life Project report finds most Americans continue to follow local news. The reliance on local news is consistent in all age groups, though stronger among those who are 40+, and among female consumers. The younger population, 18 to 39 years old, use the greatest number of local news sources — an average of 4.38 weekly… Nearly three quarters of adults are consistently plugged into local news — so much so that 32% of survey participants say the loss of local outlets would majorly impact their lives.”

    Many are news guzzlers like I am!

  • The Chinese Yuan may become a world currency
  • “China seeks to replace the diminishing U.S. dollar as the world reserve and trade currency, and efforts are underway in Beijing to set up the Chinese yuan for global currency.”

    Ruh roh, US dollar.

    Entertainment

  • J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore site is now open to the public
  • “With the books and movies all finished, are you suffering from Harry Potter withdrawal? Maybe it’s time to head over to Pottermore, an online hub developed by J.K. Rowling for fans of the boy wizard. The free site is now open for all to join.”

    This really feels anti-climactic, lol. Also, they don’t let you pick your own username (to protect your identity, but that’s lame lol).

    Weird News, Other News & Fluff

  • 3 Brazilians Arrested For Murder, Cannibalism
  • “Police have arrested three people for allegedly killing at least two women, eating parts of their bodies and using their flesh to make stuffed pastries known as empanadas that they sold to neighbors in their northeastern Brazil city. The three suspects – a man, his wife and his mistress – belonged to a sect that preached “the purification of the world and the reduction of its population,” police inspector Wesley Fernandes in the city of Garanhuns told the Globo TV network Friday.”

    WHAT THE HECK!!!!!

  • Vietnam man buys little piece of American dream
  • “Vietnamese businessman Pham Dinh Nguyen flew to the U.S. for the first time, drove to a tiny, frigid trading outpost and bought his own piece of the American dream: Buford, Wyoming — population 1.”

    This is awesome!

  • Vietnam’s bowl of secrets
  • “One day, about a year or so ago, a government official showed up and said the family had to be more open about the secret of the noodles—that if something happened to the family, there would be no one to make them. Now that Hoi An is thriving with tourism, city officials said it would be a disaster if cao lau, the city’s chief culinary attraction, disappeared.”

    What an interesting story.

  • Adorable tiny food sculptures that fit on the tip of your finger
  • “Israeli artist Shay Aaron, whose work we first spotted over at booooooom, creates impossibly tiny, handmade clay sculptures of delicious looking treats, most of them on a 1:12 scale. In addition to being mouthwateringly realistic, his tiny food is pretty gorgeous.”

    Soooo cute!!!! I want these to decorate my kitchen!!

  • Caine’s cardboard arcade goes viral
  • “Last summer, Caine turned the front of his family’s auto parts store into an elaborate DIY arcade full of his favourite games. Caine designed tokens, gift-bags, business cards. And waited. Then – his first customer. Nirvan Mullick, a filmmaker… saw in this young creative mind a kindred spirit and the subject of his next documentary.”

    What a great story!!!

  • [Video]: Meet Ksenia, the world’s cutest cat from Russia
  • “According to Daily Mail, Ksenia first appeared on YouTube in December 2011 but only in the last few days has she caught attention of YouTube viewers. Now she is an Internet star. But some viewers are expressing doubts that she is a real cat. She looks too good to be true many say. Daily Mail reports some skeptics say she is probably a “hi-tech animatronic toy.” Others say she is a CGI technology trick.”

    Lol pretty cute but I would say MY cats are the cutest. Interesting that people are wondering if its even a real cat though.

  • [Video]: Cat and his slave
  • “As if cats already didn’t have it made with people scratching their fuzzy bodies, this little feline takes it to the next level by tricking a dog in on the action.”

    LOL. Too funny.


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

They are the most precious kitties… :)


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Linda

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