Clicks of the Day: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Edition!

Welcome to Thursday, June 14, 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

  • Loved ones of fatal hit and run victim shocked
  • “While police investigate a deadly hit and run late Wednesday night, friends and family of the man killed in the incident are grieving the tragic loss. Police said a Good Samaritan had pulled over to help a stranded driver in the southbound lanes of the Anthony Henday near 62 Avenue late Wednesday night. Investigators were called to the scene after 11:30 pm, after the man was struck and killed by a passing vehicle. Family confirmed the Good Samaritan is 46-year-old Andrew Green, a new Edmontonian who had just moved into the area from Toronto six months ago.”

    This is very sad. :(

  • Homicides cooling compared to last year
  • “It wasn’t until June of last year that Staff Sgt. Bill Clark of the Edmonton police homicide unit began to worry. Only six months in to the year, and 24 people had already been slain on city streets. The 14-member homicide unit was beginning to feel the strain… Already this year, there has been some significant arrests made on a couple of those cases. With detectives pursuing other investigative avenues on their files, Clark expects to see more positive results as the year goes on.”

    Good news.

  • Woman accused of defrauding immigrant for millions speaks out
  • “The president and founder of the Temporary Foreign Workers Association of Canada has responded to allegations that she scammed Fusako Kametani out of a substantial amount of money… I am devastated by these false accusations. It is my fervent hope that these allegations will not tarnish the reputations of my and other decent humanitarian organizations in Canada helping people.”

    There’s always two sides to the story…

  • Montreal teacher fired for showing body-parts video
  • “A Montreal high school teacher was fired Thursday for showing a Grade 10 class what is believed to be the video of the infamous body-parts killing. The school board issued a statement saying the 29-year-old teacher, who was under contract until the end of the school year, was terminated — effective immediately. The teacher at Cavelier-De LaSalle High School showed the video on June 4, apparently at the urging of students in his history-and-civics class. Students said that during a discussion of current events, and the Magnotta case, they had asked him to show the video and he apparently relented after they voted 22 to 3 in favour of watching it.”

    Hm.

  • Marathon vote on budget bill passes halfway mark
  • “Federal MPs passed the halfway mark in a marathon voting session on the government’s omnibus budget implementation bill, which began at around 1 a.m. ET Thursday morning. The opposition parties have introduced more than 800 amendments or deletions to Bill C-38, which include major changes on everything from Employment Insurance to environmental approvals for major projects. Andrew Scheer, speaker of the House of Commons, grouped some of those amendments together and ruled others out earlier this week. The end result is that as many as 159 votes are being undertaken by MPs — a process expected to take about 24 hours.”

    I hope whatever the end result is is good for us…

    World

  • UN Monitors find stench of death in Syrian town
  • “Smoldering buildings, looted shops, smashed cars and a strong stench of death greeted U.N. observers who entered the nearly deserted Syrian town of Haffa on Thursday, a day after President Bashar Assad’s forces overran it as part of a major offensive to recover rebel-controlled territories. The monitors had been trying to get into the town for a week after fears were raised that a brutal assault by regime forces was under way. They found the main hospital burned, state buildings and an office of the ruling Baath party in ruins and a corpse lying in the street.”

    So sad.

    Health

  • One in 12 patients readmitted to hospital within 30 days
  • “More than one in 12 Canadian patients who were sent home from hospital in 2010 were readmitted within a month, a new study reveals. In many cases, those patients were back in hospital within a week – a finding that raises questions about whether some patients are being discharged too early.”

    Just trying to kick people out as quickly as possible to make room for the next batch~

  • Pure ecstasy can be ‘safe’ if consumed responsibly: B.C. health officer
  • “B.C.’s top health official says taking pure ecstasy can be “safe” when consumed responsibly by adults, despite warnings by police in Alberta and British Columbia about the dangers of the street drug after a rash of deaths. Dr. Perry Kendall asserts the risks of MDMA — the pure substance originally synonymous with ecstasy — are overblown, and that its lethal dangers only arise when the man-made chemical is polluted by money-hungry gangs who cook it up.”

    Hmmm. I don’t know about that.

  • Computers won’t rot your brain – if you exercise
  • “Staring at a computer screen for hours on end won’t rot your brain — if you get enough exercise. A recent Mayo Clinic survey of nearly 1,000 people between the ages of 70 and 93 showed computer use combined with regular exercise actually keeps the brain sharper than just exercise or computer use alone… This goes against most past studies about the computer’s impact on the health of your brain. Excessive computer use has been tied to brain damage and depression.”

    I don’t exercise as much as I should… but I certainly don’t feel depressed!

    Technology/Social Media/Internet

  • Facebook wants users’ cell numbers in bid to bolster security
  • “In the wake of a rash of password leaks, Facebook wants to educate its members about how to make their accounts more secure and is asking for users’ cell phone numbers as part of that effort. The social network has begun adding a message at the top of every member’s news feed that suggests they “Stay in control of your account by following these simple security tips.” The message includes a link to Facebook’s security page, where users are tutored on how to identify a scam and choose a unique password, and are asked to provide a cell phone number where replacement passwords can be sent.”

    Hmm.

    Business/Work/Economy/Media

  • Nokia to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide, Canada affected
  • “Nokia Corp. will lay off 10,000 jobs globally by the end of 2013, the company said Thursday, in a further drive to save costs and streamline operations. The company will shut some research and development projects, including facilities in Burnaby, B.C., and Ulm, Germany.”

    Job loss sucks.

  • Cost of kid-raising hits $234,900 in U.S
  • “It takes a bundle of cash to raise a bundle of joy in the United States. New parents can expect to spend more than a quarter of a million dollars raising a child, according to a government report issued on Thursday. A middle-class family with a child born in 2011 can expect to spend about $234,900 in the next 17 years on food, shelter and other necessities. And that’s before a family adds in the cost of college.”

    Definitely costly, that family thing.

  • Dollarama to introduce $3 items as part of ‘natural evolution’
  • “Dollarama, one of the largest dollar stores in Canada, is set to introduce $3 items in the coming months. Already raising prices on much of its dollar items, its CFO says it can offer higher quality and a wider range of products.”

    Lol. Sign of the times.

  • Newspaper delivers headlines to your coffee sleeve
  • ” When customers order their drinks, a barista runs their coffee sleeve through the device, printing the latest headlines on the cup’s jacket. The sleeves are adorned with a short URL and QR-Code, so readers can learn more about a story by either typing the Web address found on the cup or by simply scanning the QR-with their smartphones.”

    Well that’s neat! (Also, I don’t drink coffee. This boggles many given the industry I am in).

  • 10,000 words founder Mark S. Luckie to join Twitter
  • “In an interview with Journalism.co.uk, Luckie elaborated on what being Twitter’s creative content manager would entail, saying he would be “serving as a liaison between Twitter and the journalism community.” He will be tasked with “coming up with creative ways that they can use Twitter, moving beyond hashtags” and also shaping the opportunities for news outlets and individual journalists by “soliciting their ideas and building up new products based on that.” Luckie told me his new role at Twitter gives him a “global platform to elevate how journalists report social media.” He also wants to be receptive to new ideas — or as he put it, to “digest the suggestions” — journalists have for expanding Twitter and how it is used.”

    Interesting.

  • Can you ‘Live Below the Line’ on $1.50 a day?
  • “Live Below the Line is an initiative of the Global Poverty Project, an education and campaigning organization whose mission is to increase the number and effectiveness of people taking action against extreme poverty. The challenge asks you to take a day, or five, and live on $1.50 or less to see what life is like for the 1.4 billion people who live below the poverty line every day.”

    This would be extremely difficult.

    Environment/Space/Animals/Science

  • China’s Wuhan city covered in mysterious haze
  • “Young and old residents of the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan were advised to stay indoors on Monday after a thick haze blanketed the city of nine million people, official media said.”

    Mysterious.

  • City block-sized asteroid to fly by Earth
  • “An asteroid the size of a city block is expected to pass Earth tonight. The huge space rock, 2012 LZ1, may fly by close enough for earthlings to watch it online, Space.com reports.”

    I think I missed it, lol.

  • Woolly mammoths wiped out by multiple killers
  • “Woolly mammoths were apparently driven to extinction by a multitude of culprits, with climate change, human hunters and shifting habitats all playing a part in the long decline of these giants, researchers say… Scientists have often speculated over what might have driven the mammoths to extinction. For instance, for years researchers suspected that ancient human tribes hunted the mammoths and other ice age giants to oblivion. Others have suggested that a meteor strike might have drastically altered the climate in North America about 12,900 years ago, wiping out most of the large mammals there, the so-called “Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.” Now an analysis of thousands of fossils, artifacts and environmental sites spanning millennia suggest that no one killer is to blame for the demise of the woolly mammoths.”

    Poor woolly mammoths.

  • New study claims humans evolved from primitive species of shark
  • “A new study says all jawed vertebrates, including humans, evolved from a species of shark that lived about 300 million years ago. Scientists came to the conclusion after analysis of a 290-million-year-old fossil braincase… Researchers say the braincase showed the shark belongs to the same group as modern animals called gnathostomes — animals with jaws. Gnathostomes include several extant vertebrates including fish, birds, reptiles, mammals, including human beings.”

    Interesting!

  • 10 weirdest urban ecosystems on Earth
  • “Cities are havens for weirdness. From communities built around garbage to dogs that ride the subway, urban environments have fostered all manner of weird patterns. Here are the 10 freakiest urban ecosystems on the planet.”

    Pretty interesting.

  • Red dot becomes ‘oldest cave art’
  • “Red dots, hand stencils and animal figures represent the oldest examples yet found of cave art in Europe. The symbols on the walls at 11 Spanish locations, including the World Heritage sites of Altamira, El Castillo and Tito Bustillo have long been recognised for their antiquity. But researchers have now used refined dating techniques to get a more accurate determination of their ages. One motif – a large red dot – is said to be more than 40,000 years old.”

    Very impressive art, lol.

    Weird News, Other News & Fluff

  • Cooked squid inseminates woman’s “tongue, cheek and gums”
  • “According to a scientific paper from the Journal of Parasitology, a 63-year-old Korean woman “experienced severe pain in her oral cavity immediately after eating a portion of parboiled squid along with its internal organs.” She spat out the food in her mouth, but still had a “pricking and foreign-body sensation” in her oral cavity. When she went to the hospital, they removed a dozen “small, white spindle-shaped, bug-like organisms stuck in the mucous membrane of the tongue, cheek, and gingiva.” Yes, the dead squid’s spermatophores were still active, and they’d inseminated the woman’s mouth.”

    What the heeeeckkk!!!!

  • ‘Vampire’ skeleton to go on display in Bulgaria
  • “Ever since archaeologists announced last week that they have found two ancient skeletons in Bulgaria with iron rods thrust through their chests, the media have been reporting how Bulgarians once did that to prevent the dead from emerging from the grave as vampires. On Saturday, one of those 700-year-old skeletons will be put on display at the National History Museum in Sofia, and its director, Bozhidar Dimitrov, says he expects there to be a big turnout.”

    I feel bad for all of the people who died because people thought they were vampires/witches/wizards/etc. back in the old days.

  • Homeless Texan man finds $70,000 in gold
  • “Timothy Yost was homeless and down on his luck. He was used to living on the streets, even though the streets are no place to live… Strolling along the Colorado River in Bastrop, Texas, Yost discovered a bag. When nobody was looking, he took a look inside. He certainly did not imagine in a million years, that he would find treasure to the value of over $70,000.”

    Good for him… so lucky.

  • U.S. man catches fire after applying sunscreen
  • “Sunscreen is supposed to protect us from getting burned, but in the case of one man in Massachusetts, it did exactly the opposite. Brett Sigworth says he was grilling up a meal on a charcoal barbecue last month when he remembered he was not wearing sunscreen. He sprayed on an aerosol form of Banana Boat sunscreen to his chest and arms and rubbed it in for a few seconds before walking back over to his grill. When he reached his arm into his grill, flames shot up his arm and spread up his chest and neck.”

    Well that sucks.

  • [Video]: Cats playing patty cake and what they were saying
  • This is apparently very old but I only just saw it and it’s super cute and hilarious. :)


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

Lol Loki is such a WEIRDO!


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Linda

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