Clicks of the Day: August 10, 11, 12 2012 Weekend Edition!

Welcome to the three-day roundup …

Weekend Edition (August 13, 14, 15) of 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

  • Evacuation on U of A campus was false alarm: police
  • “Students were evacuated from the Students’ Union Building at the University of Alberta Sunday afternoon over what turned out to be a false alarm. Police were called to the campus around 2 p.m. Sunday after reports of a man with a gun. However after investigating, police discovered the gun was a paintball gun.”

    “Whoops.”

  • Edmonton man warns of dog attacks, wants city to step up patrol
  • “An Edmonton man has a warning for park and trail users in the city, after he was bitten by a dog. Greg Doucette believes dog attacks are happening more frequently and in areas where dogs shouldn’t be off leash. He wants the city to step up patrols.”

    Lots of people had something to say about this on the CTV Facebook Page! As I don’t frequent parks, trails or own a dog I have little feelings about it, lol.

  • Hundreds of Edmonton cab drivers could strike Monday
  • “Hundreds of Edmonton cab drivers could hit the picket line on Monday. The union that represents the drivers for Yellow Cab, Barrel Taxi, Checker and Prestige Cabs have served strike notice and say if an agreement is not reached over the weekend, close to 800 drivers could be on strike Monday morning.”

    Yikes! (Rarely use cab service so this wouldn’t impact me, feel bad for the unhappy cab drivers through).

  • Perseid meteor shower set to light up sky this weekend
  • “Sky gazers are in for quite the show this weekend as the annual Perseid meteor shower hits its peak. The Perseid meteor shower takes place every August, hitting its peak between August 11 and 13, when those looking skywards could see up to a hundred meteorites every hour – weather permitting.”

    I can’t get myself to stay awake long enough to try and watch! :'( I get soooo tired.

  • Volunteers allowed to issue parking tickets under City of Edmonton program
  • “You might not be able to curse City Hall over your next parking ticket — the person handing out the fine could be a volunteer bylaw officer. For almost 30 years, Edmonton has allowed landowners or staff who meet certain requirements to issue city tags for parking infractions on their own property. Last year, the roughly 200 volunteer officers gave out 11,079 tickets to drivers who parked illegally, blocked emergency lanes or left their vehicles in a handicapped zone without authorization.”

    Interesting – I didn’t realize volunteers could give you a parking ticket.

  • London 2012: Canada’s bronzed Olympic Games
  • “For Canada, London 2012 was not about owning the podium or winning the games. Rather, the best-remembered stories will be of Canadians bouncing back, of athletes taking the hardest knocks but fighting to the end anyway. So often the choice was to either come away with nothing, or to come away bloodied, bruised and possibly bronzed. Canadians almost always chose the latter.”

    Gooo Canada!!!

    World

  • Grief, anxiety after twin quakes in Iran
  • “Twin earthquakes that struck Iran on Saturday have killed hundreds, injured thousands and caused massive damage across the northwest region of the country, Iranian state television said Sunday. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the first quake occurred at 4:53 p.m. Saturday, had a magnitude of 6.4 and struck 60 kilometres northeast of the city of Tabriz at a depth of 9.9 kilometres.”

    SO sad! :(

  • The Pope drops Catholic ban on condoms in historic shift
  • “After decades of fierce opposition to the use of all contraception, the Pontiff has ended the Church’s absolute ban on the use of condoms. He said it was acceptable to use a prophylactic when the sole intention was to “reduce the risk of infection” from Aids. While he restated the Catholic Church’s staunch objections to contraception because it believes that it interferes with the creation of life, he argued that using a condom to preserve life and avoid death could be a responsible act – even outside marriage.”

    Oo.

    Health

  • Teens who feel ‘fat’ likely will be as adults: study
  • “Researchers say they have evidence that teens can really make their dreams come true. But rather than turning thoughts of a successful career into reality, they say teens who imagine they’re overweight are more likely to grow up fat.”

    It’s all about positive thinking!

  • Stressed men drawn to heavy women
  • “When placed under stressful situations, men rate larger women as more attractive, new research has shown. British researchers found that men exposed to tasks that were designed to put them under pressure preferred a wider range of female body sizes. They conclude that stress can act to alter judgments of potential partners.”

    Oh .. studies.

  • Migraines don’t hurt brain function: Study
  • “Painful as they may be, migraines don’t hurt your brain, new research shows. Researchers at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital analyzed data from 6,349 women aged 45 and older who had participated in a large health study in which they indicated whether they suffer from migraines. In followup tests of their cognitive function — conducted every two years, up to three times — the researchers found no significant difference between women who experienced migraines and women with no history of it.”

    They’re just painful!

  • Can daily aspirin help ward off cancer?
  • “A new study bolsters the case that daily aspirin may help protect against cancer, although the effect seems weaker than previously thought. And the final chapter on the popular but controversial drug has yet to be written, experts say, because like earlier research the new work has considerable limitations.”

    Hmm.

    Technology/Social Media/Internet

  • Social media proves a force in consuming Olympics
  • “Twitter estimates there were more than 50 million tweets about the Olympics, at a pace of 80,000 per minute after Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won the gold medal in the 200-meter sprint. Facebook saw the number of fans of Olympic athletes soar: American gymnast Gabby Douglas had 14,358 followers on July 27 and 540,174 less than two weeks later. All of the activity pumped up interest in the games.”

    Social media can be awesome like that.

  • Facebook campus gets its own Main Street
  • “Mark Zuckerberg wired together nearly 1 billion people on the Web. Now the ambitious young entrepreneur is building another kind of community, this one out of bricks and mortar. Construction is booming along a bustling stretch that cuts through the center of Facebook Inc.’s campus in Silicon Valley, where staffers stroll or ride bikes and RipStiks between buildings. Here the social networking giant is designing its own Main Street, putting in storefronts that will cater only to Facebook employees, whether they’re in the mood for a straight-razor shave or nigiri rolls.”

    God, Facebook is so cool.

  • McDonald’s Canada’s social media platform aims to debunk myths
  • “When McDonald’s Canada created a social media platform offering to take direct questions from the public and answer them — truthfully and in real time — there was some skepticism about whether the burger giant would really let the unfiltered questions fly. The questions ranged from asking whether McDonald’s beef was called “100% beef” because the corporation owned a company with that name, whether the ammonia-tinged additive known as “pink slime” was used as meat filler, and a persistent urban myth in Quebec that the fast food chain puts antiemetic in its food to keep customers from getting sick. Smart social media hinges on consumers being able to direct the line of inquiry, said Mr. Tremblay. “We always talk about the brand being transparent, but here we are being transparent about what people really want to know.” Mr. Capobianco said the biggest challenge for the brand will be to keep that transparency up. “They clearly embraced it, so where are they going to go?” McDonald’s says it will keep the site live and monitored, though the team working on it is smaller than it was in the early phase of the program.”

    Totally interesting.

  • Google’s self-driving cars: 300,000 miles logged, not a single accident under computer control
  • “Ever since Google began designing its self-driving cars, they’ve wanted to build cars that go beyond the capabilities of human-piloted vehicles, cars that are much, much safer. When Sebastian Thrun announced the project in 2010, he wrote, “According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents. We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half.” New data indicate that Google’s on the right path. Earlier this week the company announced that the self-driving cars have now logged some 300,000 miles and “there hasn’t been a single accident under computer control.””

    Pretty cool…

  • How an 18-year-old made $35,000 for tweeting parody accounts
  • “If there was a How to Make Money On Twitter for Dummies, Jon King would be its best-selling author. In the last four months, King has earned more than $35,000 by tweeting sponsored messages on the microblogging platform. Not too shabby for an 18-year-old high school student. “I’m always on Twitter, it seems like; so I figured, why not try to make a little money off of it?” King told the Daily Dot. “You have you good weeks. And you have your bad weeks, but it’s a pretty well-paying job.” In short, King operates six popular parody accounts, the first of which, Condescending Wonka (@WilllllyWonka), was inspired by the Condescending/Creepy Wonka meme and boasts 376,000 followers. All together, his accounts — including @_ShitMenSay_, @willlllywonka and his personal favorite, @AntiJokeJamal — have more than 1 million followers.”

    Wow good for him.

  • Pinterest opens site to all, stops invite-only policy
  • “Image-based social networking service Pinterest has relaxed its sign-up policy, opening the site to all. Previously, people needed invites to become members and “pin” online images onto its virtual “boards”. Launched in 2010, Pinterest became the fastest-growing site ever, passing 10 million users in nine months.”

    Can we expect even more pinners now??

  • Call me (or email me), maybe?
  • “Do you prefer to communicate via phone or via email? What makes you decide to get off the computer and make a phone call, instead?”

    For the most part I prefer email 9 times out of 10.

    Business/Work/Economy/Media

  • Google death benefits pay dead employees’ families for 10 years
  • “Google treats its dead employees better than some companies do their living workers. Google’s unusual “death benefits” include paying the deceased’s spouse or domestic partner 50% of their salary for 10 years, the company’s “chief people officer” What’s more, all of the dead Googler’s stocks vest immediately. Each child of the employee receives $1,000 per month until age 19, or age 23 for full-time students.”

    Pretty sweet perks at Google!

  • Why are young people ditching cars for smartphones?
  • “Youth culture was once car culture. Teens cruised their Thunderbirds to the local drive-in, Springsteen fantasized about racing down Thunder Road, and Ferris Bueller staged a jailbreak from the ‘burbs in a red Ferrari. Cars were Friday night. Cars were Hollywood. Yet these days, they can’t even compete with an iPhone — or so car makers, and the people who analyze them for a living, seem to fear. As Bloomberg reported this morning, many in the auto industry “are concerned that financially pressed young people who connect online instead of in person could hold down peak demand by 2 million units each year.” In other words, Generation Y may be happy to give up their wheels as long as they have the web. And in the long term, that could mean Americans will buy just 15 million cars and trucks each year, instead of around 17 million.”

    Interesting!

  • Social still can’t beat search in online shopping
  • “Social media’s traffic contribution to online shopping sites increased 77 percent in one year, but few users actually buy anything, according to a new report published today by marketing firm Monetate. The firm’s study shows that search engine and e-mail referrals are more than holding their own against social media sites when it comes to generating sales in the second quarter of 2012.”

    Yeah if I’m buying something online I’m going there directly with my purpose.

  • Microsoft job posting hints at next Xbox launch within 18 mos
  • “Microsoft might be launching the next Xbox within the next year and a half. The software giant posted a job listing on its Web site seeking a marketing professional. In that posting — which now appears to be taken down — the company said that “over the next 18 months, Microsoft will release new versions of all of our most significant products including Windows (Client, Server, Phone and Azure), Office and Xbox, along with completely new offerings like Microsoft Surface.””

    Hmmm.

  • Thieves target credit card’s magnetic stripe as chip, PIN technology rules
  • “Shopping and swiping your credit card could leave you at risk for fraud. So can dining and paying for your meal with a swipe of your credit card. Even though Canadians are increasingly using credit cards with chip and personal identification number (PIN) technology, there are still some businesses that rely instead on the swipe of a card’s magnetic stripe to process transactions electronically. Credit card fraud will continue until the magnetic stripe, which can also access account information, is phased out and taken off the card.”

    Back away thieves…

  • Lego, the world’s most famous toy, turns 80
  • “Looking at Lego’s most impressive creations — its giant “Star Wars” sets, its Master Builder Academy initiative, its programmable Mindstorms system — it’s easy to forget that it was 80 years ago that the global behemoth had much more humble beginnings when Ole Kirk Christiansen started a little wooden toy company in Billund, Denmark. Lego is celebrating its 80th birthday, and touting its growth from a tiny outfit in a single building in Billund to the world’s third-largest “producer of play materials,” employing 10,000 people, many in its variety of production facilities in Europe and beyond.”

    80 years! You go, Lego.

  • Applebees, Taco Bell invade the world of food trucks
  • “As if to prove the inevitable evolution of all things cool to pedestrian commercialism, the hipster trend of high-end food trucks is being invaded by cookie cutter chain names. As the headline says, Applebees and Taco Bell are two big names cashing in on the roving restaurant trend. But there are also now trucks from Sizzler, Jack in the Box and Red Robin. If those big fish weren’t enough to have you wondering if food trucks had jumped the shark, consider that NBC (yes, that NBC) recently had a food truck at SXSW and several U.S. cities have reported seeing a food truck selling Gap-branded tacos.”

    Hmmm.

    Environment/Space/Animals/Science

  • Summer’s record heat, drought point to longer-term climate issues
  • “In all, about 58,000 dead fish were along a 42-mile stretch, according to state officials, and the cause of death appeared to be heat. Biologists measured the water at 97 degrees in multiple spots… Under the most wide-reaching drought since 1956, and torched by the hottest July on record dating from 1895, the United States has been under the kind of weather stress that climatologists say will be more common if the long-standing trend toward higher U.S. temperatures continues. Most immediately affected are the nation’s water sources and the people and crops that rely on them.”

    Oh dear…

  • World over-using underground water reserves for agriculture
  • “The world is depleting underground water reserves faster than they can be replenished due to over-exploitation, according to scientists in Canada and the Netherlands.”

    Oh great.

  • Extreme Earth microbe research might pave way for discovery of alien life
  • “The region beneath Earth’s surface may be crawling with diverse organisms, and now researchers reveal the lives of just one group of bizarre beasties: methane-spewing microbes that hide out in the cracks of hot undersea volcanoes. Called high-temperature methanogens, these microbes rely on the hydrogen and carbon dioxide in their superheated deep-sea vents for growth, excreting waste products like methane. The possibility of past or present life on other worlds such as Mars, where the rover Curiosity has just set out to investigate whether the environment was ever fit for microbes, will become clearer by figuring out the extreme limits (or minimum requirements) for some organisms on Earth.”

    Neato!

    Weird News, Other News & Fluff

  • The U.S. is a land of many chips
  • “You say potato, I say pot-ah-toe … chip. And that’s just the start of it. Though thin and flat may be the national standard – and bestselling variety – of this ubiquitous snack, regional and sometimes hyper-local preferences for different calibres of crunch, thickness, seasonings and endless other elements have created a surprisingly diverse culinary patchwork of chip styles around the country.”

    Weird flavours in the U.S.! And some places don’t have common flavours we find here in Canada. Lol I mostly just wanted to share this because I thought it was funny there was such a lengthy article dedicated to CHIPS. I love chips.

  • NASA’s adorkable ‘Mohawk Guy’ doesn’t want to date you
  • Lol.

  • [Photo]: 12 Gotham newspapers during ‘The Dark Knight Rises’
  • “As Gotham plunged into anarchy during “The Dark Knight Rises”, the Gotham Gazette continued its stellar daily news coverage of the increasingly absurd events. Here’s TDKR re-imagined in 12 headlines.”

    Hilarious!

  • [Photos]: World Elephant Day 2012
  • “The Elephant Reintroduction Foundation has declared August 12, 2012 its first World Elephant Day, a day of awareness in which it asks people to “express concern, share knowledge and support solutions for the better care of captive and wild elephants alike.” African and Asian elephants face danger around the world due to poaching, hunting, habitat destruction and mistreatment in captivity. According to the Foundation, “an insatiable lust for ivory products in Asian markets” has fueled a dramatic decline in African elephant populations since last year.”

    Stop the poaching/hunting/habitat destruction please!

  • [Video]: This is one cool cat
  • “The hat, it’s the hat, the hat takes it to the next level.”

    Lol so cool!

  • [Video]: Orphaned spotted lamb adopted by Dalmatian dog
  • Awwww!!!!

  • [Photos]: Mother dog saves her puppies from fire
  • “A heroic dog saved her puppies from fire. It happened yesterday in a house fire in Chile. A dog saved her pups by dragging them one by one out of the house to the fire truck as firefighters fought the fire. She knew to place them safely in the compartment of the truck while she went back for each one.”

    Wah!!! These pictures make my heart melt!!!!

  • [Video]: Spice Girls Closing Ceremony Performance
  • Love it!!!!!!!!!!


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

Thor and Loki getting a fresh batch of laundry all hairy!


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Linda

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