Clicks of the Day: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 Edition!

Welcome to Tuesday, March 27 2012’s Clicks of the Day!

    Edmonton/Alberta/Canada

  • Health Care tops list of issues for Albertans: Ipsos poll
  • “Health care is the top priority for all Albertans — particularly for undecided voters — heading into the April 23 election, says an Ipsos poll released to Global. A survey of 890 voters from March 20 to 25 indicated that health care in general was the issue they thought should receive the greatest attention from Alberta’s leaders. That was the case for young and old, male and female, high income and low, and across party lines. Most importantly, health care was even more likely to be identified as the top issue by undecided voters, meaning it “could potentially be game-changing,” said Ipsos Reid associate vice-president Jamie Duncan.”

    Understandable. What’s your top priority?

  • Hundreds more doctors, 1,500 more long-term beds: Mason
  • “NDP Leader Brian Mason rolled out his party’s health plan to build 1,500 new long-term-care beds, spend $100 million more on home care and cover basic dental costs for children under 18. The New Democrats would also cap seniors’ drug costs at $25 total, instead of $25 for each prescribed drug they need. They would maintain the cap on seniors living costs and hire “hundreds” of doctors over the next four years. Mason said these aren’t “extraordinary promises” but ways to bring down waits for emergency care and strengthen medicare.”

    NDP gets the ball rolling, addressing the top election issue.

  • Promises, promises: Party platforms in Alberta’s 2012 provincial election
  • “The platforms are crafted. The promises planned. Now it will be up to voters to decide which party’s campaign best fits their with their vision of Alberta.”

    Great interactive platform information for all the parties.

  • Company IDs 10,000 computers behind cyber-attack on NDP leadership vote
  • “A large-scale cyber-attack involving more than 10,000 computers was responsible for the online polling problems during Saturday’s NDP leadership vote, according to Scytl Canada, the company contracted by the party to conduct the vote. While the attack in no way compromised the sanctity of the vote — in other words, no ballots cast by bona fide NDP members were added, subtracted or changed — Scytl indicated in a statement Tuesday that the attack was an attempt to crash or slow down websites by “saturating servers with bogus external communications requests that deny legitimate users access” — otherwise known as a distributed denial of service attack.”

    Glad it didn’t actually compromise the vote in the end but does leave you wary about online voting in general.

  • Toews urges pursuit of Anonymous, says threats not just against him but all MPs
  • “Toews appeared before a House of Commons committee Tuesday examining whether his privilege as an MP was breached when online videos disclosed details of his personal life and called for his resignation… MPs are struggling with what exactly they should study, especially since they’re not sure they can track down the source of the videos, attributed to the activist group Anonymous.”

    Lol.

  • Vancouver will be ready for rioters this playoff season: mayor
  • “Saying they had learned from the mistakes that contributed to the ugly Stanley Cup riot last year, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and other officials are rolling up the red carpet to downtown public celebrations should the Vancouver Canucks make it to the semifinals of the playoffs this year. Instead, the city plans to put out little red carpets at its 23 community centres, inviting families and youth to watch the playoffs in much more toned-down conditions than the closed streets and Jumbotron screens that attracted 150,000 people last June 15.”

    Lol I still think people would opt for watching the games at a bar instead of a community centre but good effort.

  • Patients charged to access Health Canada’s medical marijuana program
  • “Some Canadians say greed is taking over Health Canada’s medical marijuana program. Patients just need a doctor’s signature to obtain the drug, but finding a physician willing to sign can be tough. Now, an exclusive Global News investigation has discovered some patients are having to pay hundreds of dollars just for that signature.”

    Awful.

    World

  • Trayvon Martin shooting thrusts hoodies into spotlight
  • “Nationwide protests calling for further investigation into the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin a month ago have used a familiar garment as their rallying point: the hoodie. National Basketball Association star LeBron James and his teammates on the Miami Heat as well as rap artist Sean Combs are among celebrities who’ve joined a social media campaign rallying “A Million Hoodies for Trayvon Martin.” More than 300,000 people have posted pictures of themselves in hooded sweatshirts to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, according to organizers. Slogans on the photos include “We are all Trayvon” and “Hoodies Don’t Kill, People with Guns Do.” Viewing a person as dangerous because they’re in a hooded sweatshirt is akin to being nervous about tinted windshields or dark sunglasses because they make it difficult to identify a person.”

    Sad that him wearing a hoodie could have played such a big factor in his death. :(

  • Two million set for ‘March on Jerusalem’ Friday, organizer claims
  • “Two million Arab and international protesters will march toward the borders of Israel and take part in activities designed to highlight Jerusalem’s Arab character on Friday, the event organizer claims. Ribhi Haloum, general coordinator of the “Global March to Jerusalem,” said in a press statement that volunteers from 80 countries will take part in the march. Jordan and Lebanon will send protesters to the border, whereas Egypt will organize a solidarity marathon from Cairo University to the pyramids in Giza and a large rally at Al-Azhar University. The organizers emphasized the peaceful nature of the march, which will coincide with Land Day, an annual day of commemoration marked by Arab citizens of Israel to protest land confiscation.”

    Hope it doesn’t turn violent.

  • Strauss-Kahn warned over alleged prostitution ring
  • “Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was formally warned Monday that he is under investigation for “aggravated pimping” for his alleged participation in a prostitution ring in France, prosecutors said.”

    What a winnner.

    Health

  • New guidelines say kids under four should move more, sit less
  • “Little children should be moving more and sitting less, according to new recommendations that are being billed as the first Canadian guidelines for physical activity and sedentary behaviour for children four and younger. Kids younger than two shouldn’t spend any time in front of a screen — be it a TV, a computer or a tablet, the guidelines say. And for children aged two to four, screen time should be limited to less than an hour a day. ‘There’s no redeeming feature of screen time under the age of two,’ says Mark Tremblay, who chaired the committee that drew up the guidelines.”

    We’re all getting so sedentary. Myself especially. #needtogetouttheremore.

  • People with ‘bigger brains have more friends’
  • “Oxford University researchers found maintaining friendships requires more brain power. Their study concluded that people with real friends have to use more cognitive skills to understand what someone else thought. This, however, did not occur with “online” friends, such as those made on social networking sites including Facebook or Twitter.”

    Rough being popular ;)

  • Good news for dieters? Green coffee beans studied
  • “Taking a coffee bean supplement, combined with an otherwise healthy diet and lifestyle could be an inexpensive way to lose weight. (But) experts warn it’s best not to jump on the finding too quickly. No one knows how the beans help with weight loss. Additionally, the study was small and short.”

    Good to know we’ve got options.

    Technology/Social Media

  • Google to launch third-party commenting platform to rival Facebook
  • “Google is about to launch a new commenting system that will tie into the search giant’s Google+ platform, web services and web search, a source close to the product’s development confirmed with The Next Web… The Google comment system, which will almost certainly rival that of Facebook, will have deep links to Google’s network of services and websites, indexing comments in Google Search, and most significantly, the system will be available for use on third party sites. You can’t go anywhere these days without running into a site that is using Facebook’s third-party comment platform, and it looks like Google wants in on the action. A third party Google comment system would ensure that users are further plugged in to their Google accounts, and one step closer to Google+.”

    The latest in the ever growing Google vs. Facebook battle.

  • Pinterest Bans Pro-Anorexia Content to Little Effect
  • “Just one month after Tumblr banned content that “actively promotes or glorifies self-injury or self-harm,” Pinterest has updated its terms of service to prevent users from pinning content of a similar nature. This is the second update Pinterest has made to its terms of service in the past week. Despite the update to its terms of service, Pinterest seems to have done little-to-nothing to edit out the pro-anorexia content. A search for one of the most popular related tags, “thinspo,” yields thousands of pins of thin, scantily clad women: some arguably healthy, others not.”

    I’m sure they’ll wipe out the “thinspo” pins soon. Good on them for updating their terms of service. Addressed copyright (selling your pins) issue as well.

  • Farm Vile: Why an OMGPOP dev shunned Zynga as ‘evil’
  • “A former OMGPOP developer says he didn’t join buyer Zynga along with the rest of the company because the company might have shut down his own game. Also, he thinks Zynga’s evil.”

    Really interesting read.

  • This Plastic Can Repair Itself Using Light and Temperature
  • “Call it superhero plastic. Researchers at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society introduced plastic that can repair itself when temperatures change or if it’s exposed to light. The substance could potentially have numerous valuable purposes, one of those being it could signal the end of dinged plastic on cellphones.”

    Cool.

    Business/Consumer/Media/Work

  • Gannett Buys 1,000 iPhones For Journalists
  • “The Gannett organisation, considered to be a leader in mobile journalism, bought over 1,000 iPhone 4S smartphones for print and broadcast journalists as day-to-day tools… Gannett’s Director of Digital Content, MacKenzie Warren, pointed out that ‘reporters and photographers need to collect and record things, do some rudimentary editing and transmit that content. This one device can accomplish some or all of those critical steps.'”

    A step we should be seeing more of for other orgs.

    Environment/Space/Animals

  • Antarctic ice sheets losing their grip
  • “Floating ice shelves in Antarctica are losing their grip on adjacent bay walls, potentially worsening an accelerating loss of ice to the sea, researchers say.”

    Bad news.

  • The aye-aye of frogs rediscovered after 62 years
  • “A pair of researchers have rediscovered a long-lost frog in the tiny African country of Burundi. Known as the Bururi long-fingered frog (Cardioglossa cyaneospila), the species hadn’t been seen for over 60 years—since the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon in 1949—but was rediscovered in Bururi Forest Reserve.”

    Good for that species! Surviving despite mankind’s destruction.

    Entertainment

  • ‘Hunger Games’ hits top spot on North American box office with $214 million global debut
  • “Post-apocalyptic action movie “The Hunger Games” opened with a staggering $155 US million at U.S. and Canadian box offices, the highest domestic opening for a movie that isn’t a sequel, and established what may become one of Hollywood’s biggest blockbuster franchises. Internationally, the Lions Gate Entertainment drama about an oppressive society’s teen death match added $59.3 US million from 67 markets for a global haul of $214.3 US million. The massive U.S. and Canadian debut for the film ranked as the third-highest domestic opening weekend in history behind only last summer’s “Harry Potter” finale and 2008 Batman movie “The Dark Knight,” Lions Gate said on Sun day.”

    So happy for The Hunger Games! :)

    Weird News, Other News & Fluff

  • [Video]: Teen Opera Singers’ Amazing ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ Performance Goes Viral
  • “A YouTube recap of a stunning opera performance by teenage singers Jonathan Antoine and Charlotte Jaconelli on the Britain’s Got Talent TV show has gained more than 1.1 million views in three days, thrusting the duo into viral video fame. The heartwarming seven-minute video shows the singing partners discussing their friendship before performing for the judges and a thrilled audience. Antoine steals the spotlight, with Simon Cowell saying he should “dump” his singing partner because she might bring him down in competition. Antoine declines Cowell’s suggestion.”

    Wowsa. Though I don’t really “get” opera, lol.

  • Red Deer man offers $10,000 reward to find his missing dog
  • “Since announcing a $10,000 reward for the return of his missing dog, Meyer Schoeman has been getting a lot of attention. Strangers are offering to help find the pup. News outlets from across Alberta are contacting the Red Deer resident for interviews and the pooch’s mug is popping up on social media.”

    That’s a heffffty award. I hope he finds his dog.

  • What if everyone in America flushed their toilets at once?
  • “Would flushing in concert explode all the pipelines, cripple the water supply, flood the streets with sewage, and, in short, destroy civilization as we know it? Turns out it’s a complex thought experiment, and, without the possibility of a real-world test, experts can’t be sure how things would, quite literally, go down. But a total system failure doesn’t seem likely.”

    Something you never really think about, lol.

  • Albert Einstein brain samples go on display
  • “Sections of Albert Einstein’s brain are going on display in Britain for the first time this Thursday in an exhibition of notable examples of human grey matter. When the physics genius died aged 76 in 1955 his brain was divided into sections, two of which are going on show at the Wellcome Collection show Brains: The Mind As Matter.”

    So… weird… lol.

  • 5 Terrible Ideas That Solved Huge Global Problems
  • Including “Tokyo Decides to Prevent Crime With Mood Lighting” – “Norway Reforms Convicts by Giving Them Insane Amounts of Freedom” – “The CIA Fights Communism With Modern Art” and more!

    Really interesting.

  • Beyonce, Tiny Puppy In California, Could Be World’s Smallest
  • “A puppy named after one of the world’s biggest pop stars could set the world’s record for tiniest dog. Animal rescuers in Northern California say the female Dachshund mix, named Beyonce, was so small at birth that she could fit into a spoon. At two weeks, she’s about the size of a business card.”

    Now it’s about the size of an iPhone!! Sooo small! So adorable. Hope it grows up okay.

  • [Video]: Dogs on Swings
  • “A compilation of dogs sitting on swings.”

    Lol. I can’t believe this is common enough to compile! Haha funny video.


Thor and (or) Loki Photo of the Day:

Loki loves looking at the computer screen!! :)


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