Clicks of the Day: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 Edition!

Welcome to Tuesday, April 24 2012’s Clicks of the Day!

    Edmonton/Alberta/Canada

    The last provincial Election-related round up or awhile! ;)

  • Alberta PCs win a poll-defying feat
  • “The story was already written, edited and ready for the history books: Alberta’s 41-year Progressive Conservative dynasty is dethroned by an upstart party claiming to be the true voice of the right in Wildrose Country. But that’s not the version Alberta’s voters delivered on Monday night. Despite poll after poll and ensuing media analysis suggesting that Danielle Smith and her Wildrose Party were within striking distance of a majority, Premier Alison Redford not only held on to power, but delivered a stunning majority mandate.”

    I was surprised at how wrong the polls were.

  • Redford calls for change as Tory reign continues in Alberta
  • “Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives have survived the biggest scare of their four decades in power and will head up a 12th consecutive majority government. In her acceptance speech, Redford stressed that her government will not rest on it’s laurels. ‘Albertans want change. They want positive change and they want change that moves Alberta forward. You know what I know, change is difficult and we don’t always get it right, but I’ll tell you this Progressive Conservative party has introduced change and has promised change and will make change in this province,’ Redford said to cheers from her supporters.”

    We’ll see what change will actually come from this win.

  • ‘Soul-searching’ on agenda for Wildrose, Smith says
  • “While Danielle Smith and 16 other Wildrose MLAs are heading to the Alberta legislature this spring, some of the party’s more controversial policies may not be coming with them, Smith says. ‘Our members have now seen that some of our policies were rejected by Albertans, quite frankly,’ she said in an interview. ‘We will be revisiting some of those. You can’t run a government if you don’t get sanction from the people.'”

    Mmmmhm.

  • Alberta Liberals lose half their seats and title as official Opposition
  • “The Alberta Liberals are not what they used to be. The party suffered a serious blow in Monday’s provincial election, losing four of the eight seats it held when the vote was called and the title as official Opposition.”

    Gotta feel bad for them.

  • Alberta voter turnout best since 1993 election
  • “Alberta had the strongest election turnout in a generation last night, with almost 57 per cent of eligible voters casting ballots. That’s far higher than the record low set by voters in the 2008 election, when only 40.6 per cent of voters showed up at the polls.”

    Pretty good turnout (still could always be higher).

    —-

  • Canadian police officers overworked, understaffed, stressed-out: survey
  • “Canada’s police officers may be well-paid, but they are paying dearly in terms of their mental and physical health, according to the findings of a major study of officer wellness to be released Tuesday by Ottawa’s Carleton University. The study, believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, says officers are stressed-out and stretched thin like never before — facing long hours, constantly changing shifts, understaffing, more complex caseloads and a lack of career-development opportunities, as well as growing family pressures at home. Managers can no longer expect officers to “suck it up,” the researchers warn, adding that police agencies likely will see greater absenteeism, more long-term disability and benefits payouts, and more difficulties attracting and retaining officers if they ignore these work-life balance issues.”

    Intense.

  • Air Canada’s slow descent
  • “It is the country’s biggest and most dysfunctional airline, at war with its unions, losing money and protected by Ottawa… It all raises the question of whether Air Canada can actually be fixed, or if it’s time for Ottawa to open the skies to newer, more competitive—and perhaps even foreign—upstarts. Even if it means clipping Air Canada’s wings in the process.”

    My flying experiences with Air Canada have all been awful.

  • Up to 1,000 StatsCan economists to be hit by budget cuts: union
  • “A substantial number of the 2,500 economists working at Statistics Canada could end up being told that their jobs have been affected by the federal government’s budget cuts, forcing them to compete with each other for their jobs, says the union representing them.”

    Sad.

    World

  • North Korea’s nuclear test ready “soon”
  • “North Korea has almost completed preparations for a third nuclear test, a senior source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing said, an act that would draw further international condemnation following a failed rocket launch… Now the North appears to be about to carry out a third nuclear test after two in 2006 and 2009. “Soon. Preparations are almost complete,” the source told Reuters when asked whether North Korea was planning to conduct a nuclear test. This is the first time a senior official has confirmed the planned test and the source has correctly predicted events in the past, telling Reuters about the 2006 test days before it happened.”

    Oh boy.

  • ‘Bleak’ situation in Syria, says Kofi Annan, shocked by reports of violence
  • “International envoy Kofi Annan told the UN Security Council Tuesday that the situation in Syria is “bleak” and expressed alarm at reports that government troops are still carrying out military operations in towns where UN observers are not present. He expressed particular concern at media reports that government troops entered the central city of Hama on Monday after UN observers departed, firing automatic weapons and killing a significant number of people.”

    Awful.

  • Pentagon sets up new spy agency to eavesdrop on a changing world
  • “The Pentagon is to create a new spy service to focus on global strategic threats and the challenges posed by countries including Iran, North Korea and China. The move will bring to 17 the total number of intelligence organisations in the US… US military news website Insidedefense said the defence department had asked Congress for authority for spies to work undercover posing as businessmen when conducting covert operations abroad.”

    Lots of spying going on out there…

    Health

  • Weight training helps stave off dementia, study finds
  • “Exercise programs, especially those involving weight training, help stave off progression to dementia in older people already showing signs of cognitive impairment, researchers have found in a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.”

    More evidence suggesting I should really get more fit, lol.

  • Exposure to abuse, violence can alter children’s DNA: study
  • “The stress of exposure to early-life violence can leave lasting marks on children so deep that it affects their DNA, according to the findings of a study by researchers at North Carolina’s Duke University. Chromosomes of children who were exposed to maternal violence, bullying or physical maltreatment by an adult showed signs of biological aging. The DNA of those children showed signs of “wear and tear” beyond that caused by chronological aging.”

    You always think yeah experiencing stuff like that would affect children but it’s interesting to see that actual DNA shows “wear and tear.”

  • Canadian research sheds light on bedwetting and how parents can help their kids
  • “About 15 per cent of five-year-old children and up to eight per cent of eight-year-old kids are bedwetters, according to the Canadian Paediatric Society. Canadian researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton say three conditions typically contribute to bedwetting: excessive urine production at night, an overactive bladder and an inability to wake up in response… (The) study also points to British findings that suggest that kids have a “significantly higher” likelihood of bedwetting if a parent was a bedwetter.”

    Poor kids are always so embarrassed when they wet the bed too. It’s okay, it happens/has happened to the best of us, lol.

  • The face’s of Alzheimer’s
  • “The prevailing view of people with Alzheimer’s is often a depressing one: the patient slumped in a chair or parked in front of a television set. But a new book and photo exhibition this month in New York show another side of the disease, one in which people with dementia can still be engaged, lead active lives and experience love and joy.”

    Nice photos. Alzheimers makes me sad.

  • Geekiness and autism: Is there a connection?
  • “Laura Nagle loves physics. She peruses scientific papers for her own enjoyment, and she can sometimes work out the answers to cosmological mysteries in her head when she watches documentaries about the universe. She has read, in her estimation, about 12,000 books. You might say Nagle, 58, is a geek. But if you knew that she also has had severe problems communicating with others throughout her life, and had trouble in school because she’s not “well-rounded,” you might guess that she also has autism… Nagle’s experience speaks to a pervasive stereotype in popular culture that people with high-functioning autism – a form of which is called Asperger’s syndrome – are geeks… it’s worth looking at why this image of the geek with autism has emerged, and exploring the realities of how autism and talent intertwine. Understanding the condition better is ever more important as the number of people with autism rises.”

    Really interesting.

  • A shopping guide that guides you to good food decisions
  • “Conscientious shoppers check the nutrition label of most foods they buy. But that takes up precious time that many grocery store patrons don’t have (or don’t want to sacrifice). And taking the time to figure out whether a product is local or not? That’s an even bigger pain. Enter the Lambent Shopping Trolley Handle, a 16-LED multicolor display that clips onto any shopping cart and signals product information via pattern changes. One color pattern might indicate that a product is organic, and another might tell you if it’s local (low, medium, or high food miles).”

    That’s interesting.

    Technology/Social Media

  • New, sneakier Flashback malware infects Macs
  • “A new, sneakier variant of the Flashback malware was uncovered yesterday by the French security firm Intego. Flashback.S, which Intego described Monday, uses the same Java vulnerability as an earlier version that has infected an estimated 820,000 Macs since its appearance and still plagues over 600,000 machines. But unlike Flashback.K, the variant that first surfaced last month and has caused consternation among Mac users, Flashback.S never asks the victim to enter an administrative password for installation, but instead relies only on the silent exploit of the Java bug to sneak onto the system.”

    Come on, unstoppable, virus-free Macs :'(

  • Gideon Sundback, inventor of the zipper, honoured by today’s Google Doodle
  • “Where would humankind be without the zipper? Google’s latest “doodle” — click on the homepage zipper and watch it “unzip” to learn more — commemorates the birth of Swedish inventor Gideon Sundback on April 24, 1880.”

    Such a cool “doodle!”

  • Are your Facebook friends really your friends?
  • “Facebook didn’t necessarily make Tanja Hollander lonely, per se, but it did make her curious. It was a little over two years ago when she looked at that number representing “friends,” 626 in her case, and started to analyze it… Hollander has been on a mission to photograph every person that was included in that number at that time… If you were to take a snapshot of your Facebook friends, what would it look like? And how awkward would the process be?”

    What an interesting project.

  • Facebook tops 900 million users
  • “Facebook surpassed 900 million active users last month, according to a regulatory filing, helping the social network post more than $1 billion in sales in the first quarter. But the company’s growth rate, though still staggering, continues to slow. Facebook’s monthly active user count — the number of users that engage with the site at least once a month — grew by 33% in the first quarter over the first quarter of 2011. A year ago, the network was growing at a 58% annual clip, and in the first quarter of 2010, that number was more than doubling. Facebook also noted last month that it believes approximately 5% of those users are fake. Still, for a company approaching 1 billion active users, a 33% growth rate is nothing short of impressive and is likely to fuel more interest in the company.”

    Facebook’s path for world domination continues.

  • Swiss mind control robot offers hope for real life ‘Avatar’
  • “Swiss scientists have demonstrated how a partially paralyzed person can control a robot using brain signals alone. The team at Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne says the experiment takes them a step closer to enabling immobile patients to easily interact with their surroundings through a robot “avatar.””

    Very cool.

  • Amazon introduces dedicated store for parts and supplies
  • “Amazon unveiled Monday an online store focused on the parts and supplies business — think drill bits, automatic hand dryers, laboratory centrifuges and miniature polyimide tubing, among other things.”

    Useful! (For those who use parts and other supplies a lot lol).

  • Chip lets smartphones see through walls, clothes
  • “Researchers at a Texas university have designed a chip that could give smartphones the long-envied ability of comic book her Superman to see through walls, clothes or other objects… To assuage privacy worries, the professor and his team at the Texas Analogue Center of Excellence are limiting their study to what the chips can make visible at distances of four inches (10 centimeters) or less, according to the university.”

    I’m always amazed at what we are possible of creating.

    Business/Consumer/Media/Economy

  • One in two college grads are jobless or underemployed
  • “It may not be news to the 1.5 million college graduates struggling to find a job or toiling behind café counters, but Northeastern University researchers break it down: 53.6 percent of bachelor’s degree-holders under age of 25 were jobless or underemployed last year, the highest percentage since the dot-com bubble of 2000. In the last year, college graduates were more likely to be employed as servers, bartenders, and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists, and mathematicians combined. The class of 2012 is about to get a gigantic wake-up call.”

    Sad statistics.

  • IKEA’s biggest product launch in years: A TV, sound system and blu-ray player
  • “Last week, Ikea shared a plan much bigger than a new veneer. It was the Uppleva, their first foray into consumer electronics… If Uppleva is priced for the masses–and Cayouette indicates that it is–the product will be a runaway success.”

    Will this be a hit? Probably!

  • Less men forces women to choose their careers over marriage: study
  • “See a successful woman with a master’s degree and a high-paying job? She probably focused on her career because she couldn’t find a man to settle down with, American researchers say. The controversial idea that women can’t have it all is resurfacing in a University of Texas and University of Minnesota report that says a scarcity of men forces women to pick up the briefcase instead of making time for getting married and starting a family.”

    I believe this is true, lol.

    Environment/Space/Animals

  • Investors consider asteroid mining
  • “A cryptic news release issued last week suggested a blockbuster team of investors – including Google Inc. co-founder Larry Page and Avatar writer/director James Cameron – are set to back a space-exploration venture that could have plans to mine asteroids.”

    Lol. Of course James Cameron would be involved in such a project.

  • Mammals and fish in Arctic on the rise
  • “The populations of Arctic marine mammals and fish are rising, a report by the Arctic Council’s biodiversity working group at a Montreal conference says… They said in a statement on Monday that the Arctic wildlife population changes are linked to ”Arctic climate oscillations and changes in commercial harvest” in neighbouring waters.”

    Hm..

    Entertainment

  • Prime-time ratings bring speculation of a shift in habits
  • “Across the television landscape, network and cable, public television and pay cable, English-language and Spanish, viewing for all sorts of prime-time programming is down this spring — chiefly among the most important audience for the business, younger adults… So bring on the detectives. What is going on here? … (An) explanation behind the steep decline in network shows is the way networks now parcel out episodes of their more popular offerings. Around March, they begin inserting strings of repeat, which, more than ever, viewers avoid. At the same time, viewers who scheduled the show on a “season’s pass” on a DVR will learn later that they have a new episode to watch — and when they do, they will not be watching something else on live television. And that, many television executives say, may indicate a fundamental shift in how viewers consume television programming. They no longer watch nearly as much of it while it is broadcast.”

    I hate that there are repeats riddled in between new episodes. So stupid. DVR/PVRs catching up to network executives!

    Weird News, Other News & Fluff

  • [Video]: Frog sitting on a bench like a human
  • LOL.

  • [Video]: Cat hugs her teddy bear
  • So cute.


Loki Photo of the Day:

Kangaroo Cat!!!!


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