Clicks of the Day: Thursday, May 17, 2012 Edition!

Welcome to Thursday, May 17 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

  • Premier restates province won’t contribute $100 million for downtown arena
  • “Premier Alison Redford re-stated Thursday that the province will not be investing $100 million in the downtown arena project. “We haven’t had any different discussion with respect to that. Our perspective hasn’t changed, nor will it,” Redford said before the premier’s dinner at the Shaw Conference Centre Thursday.”

    So where is this $100 million coming from then? Sigh.

  • Vince Li granted supervised leaves from Manitoba institution
  • “A man who beheaded another man on a Greyhound bus four years ago will be allowed supervised visits away from the Manitoba mental health centre he’s currently housed in, a provincial review board said Thursday. At an annual review Monday, doctors submitted a recommendation for Vince Li to be granted the supervised, 30-minute trips into town.”

    Too.. soon?

  • Quebec tables emergency bill to end tuition strikes
  • “The Quebec government tabled controversial legislation in the national assembly Thursday evening with the goal of ending student protests that have been causing friction in Montreal for months. The legislation, first announced Wednesday by Premier Jean Charest, will bring about an early end to the school year, with students returning early in August to finish their spring semester before starting the fall session. The legislation also includes harsh penalties for anyone who prevents students from entering an educational institution, with fines of between $1,000 to $5,000 for an individual. The fines climb up to a maximum or $35,000 for a student leader and up to a maximum of $125,000 for a student federation or a students’ union. Debate on the legislation was expected to stretch through the night, with final voting on Friday.”

    Will this actually end it?

  • Cross-border shopping hitting economy hard, BMO says
  • “A new report by the Bank of Montreal backs what Canadian retailers have been saying for months: cross-border shopping is costing the Canadian economy and plans to raise the duty-free limits are about to make the issue worse. BMO’s deputy chief economist, Doug Porter, said in a report released Thursday that although the price gap between the same items for sale in Canada and the U.S. is narrowing, cross- border shopping appears to be intensifying.”

    Regularly crossing the border to shop wouldn’t be feasible for me.

  • Can’t find a job where you live? Ottawa might help you move, new study suggests
  • “A new study from the Human Resources Department suggests Ottawa is looking at ways to get people receiving employment insurance to move to other regions with more jobs. Such measures would go beyond the Harper government’s new policy that appears to require that some EI recipients take unfilled jobs, but only in their own region. A focus group study, completed in January, asked 75 people on EI in Quebec and Atlantic Canada what would it take to get them to move to regions where there are more jobs available. Sage Research Corp. reported that the EI clients in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., Corner Brook, Nfld., Miramichi, N.B., and Yarmouth, N.S., all reacted positively to some proposed financial incentives, such as reimbursement for moving expenses or for travel costs to a job interview.”

    Interesting.

    World

  • US ready to attack Iran, says envoy to Israel
  • “The US has plans in place to attack Iran if other measures fail to stop it developing nuclear weapons, Washington’s envoy to Israel says. Dan Shapiro said the US hoped diplomacy and sanctions would persuade Iran to alter its nuclear programme, but a military option was “ready”. US President Obama has previously said military action has not been ruled out.”

    Intense.

  • Court docs: Trayvon Martin shooting ‘ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman’
  • “Prosecutors on Thursday made public a trove of evidence used to justify murder charges against Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman, including a police report that concluded “the encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman.” The evidence – including 183 pages of documents, witness statements and other material – was released Thursday to news organizations and other requestors by special prosecutor Angela Corey’s office, who has charged the 28-year-old Zimmerman with second-degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Martin on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla. Also included was a document explaining what material was withheld. An initial review of the evidence, which was provided to Zimmerman’s attorney early this week, uncovers documentation that will be helpful to both prosecutors and the defense.”

    The plot thickens…

  • 200-year-old shipwreck discovered in northern Gulf of Mexico
  • “A wooden ship believed to be over 200 years old was discovered during a recent exploration of the northern Gulf of Mexico, according to a press release from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Scientists were able to view the remains of “anchors, navigational instruments, glass bottles, ceramic plates, cannons, and boxes of muskets” aboard the ship, NOAA stated. “Artifacts in and around the wreck and the hull’s copper sheathing may date the vessel to the early to mid-19th century,” said Jack Irion, a maritime archaeologist with the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.”

    Cool.

    Health

  • Drinking coffee may help you live longer: study
  • “One of life’s simple pleasures just got a little sweeter. After years of waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn’t matter.”

    I feel like I’ve read a few of these articles over the past year. I still refuse to become a slave to coffee!

  • Parents happier than non-parents: study
  • “Parents are happier than non-parents and feel they derive more meaning from life, according to new research from the University of British Columbia… Parents as a group reported being happier and more satisfied, and thinking more frequently about meaning in life than their counterparts without children, the researchers said in the paper In Defense of Parenthood.”

    Believable. :)

  • Statins could benefit everyone over 50, study suggests
  • “A new study suggests that just about everyone over the age of 50 should consider taking medications to reduce their cholesterol to cut their risk of stroke and heart attacks. The huge study, published in The Lancet, finds that the medications, called statins, benefit even healthy people with no known heart problems. The study, from researchers at Oxford University, found that statins safely reduce the risk of non-fatal heart attacks, strokes, and the need for angioplasty and other “revascularization” surgery by about a fifth in a wide range of individuals.”

    Would rather live naturally.

  • Is gaydar real? Study says people can tell who’s gay just by a glance
  • “A controversial new study suggests people can judge whether someone is gay in less time than it takes to blink. Reporting Wednesday in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers found college students could detect sexual orientation, at a rate better than chance, simply by looking at someone. This “gaydar” proved proficient for judging both male and female faces, which flashed for just 50 milliseconds, as well as inverted faces.”

    Interesting!

  • Common antibiotic boosts death risk: study
  • “A popular antibiotic used for treating bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections and sexually transmitted diseases may boost the risk of death, a US study said Wednesday. Azithromycin has been on the worldwide market since the 1980s, but the study in the New England Journal of Medicine is the first to document serious heart risks — up to a 2.5-fold higher chance of cardiovascular fatalities — in the first five days of treatment compared to another or no antibiotic.”

    Always makes you wonder what we’re currently taking that is actually going to be bad for us in the long run.

  • New malaria vaccine made from algae
  • “Malaria is a major disease worldwide affecting billions of people. Until now no vaccine could be produced inexpensively on a mass scale. In a significant step forwards, a new, inexpensive vaccine has been trialled using algae. A science group based at the University of California, San Diego have genetically engineered algae to prepare a vaccine which can prevent the transmission of the parasite that causes malaria.”

    That’s pretty fantastic.

    Technology/Social Media/Internet

  • Facebook prices its IPO at $38 ahead of Friday’s trading
  • “Facebook is about to burst out of the IPO gate Friday, with a blistering initial public offering that is expected to raise billions — not to mention the eyebrows of some investors on Wall Street. Priced at $38 a share on Thursday, the 8-year-old social-networking company, fronted by hoodie-wearing CEO Mark Zuckerberg, could raise $16 billion in funding, not including an overallotment option. It could end its first day of trading worth up to $104 billion. That would make it worth more than Disney, Ford and Kraft Foods.”

    That’s a whole lot of money. Also a lot of money:

  • Study: You’re not clicking on Facebook ads — and you never will
  • “A U.K.-based digital-marketing agency, Greenlight, today released the results of a survey (PDF) it conducted with 500 people related to the value they find in Facebook advertising. According to the firm, 44 percent of respondents said that they “never” click on an advertisement or sponsored listing in the social network. Another 31 percent of respondents said that they “rarely” click on ads. Just 13 percent of those surveyed said that they either “often” or “regularly” click on the ads.”

    I certainly have never clicked an ad!

  • Pinterest raises $100 million to fund international expansion
  • “Rakuten has confirmed that it has led a $100 million round of investment in Pinterest. Of the investment, Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani says, “While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and curate to make the experience more entertaining. We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest’s vision and Rakuten’s model for e-commerce. Rakuten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world.” … The investment, Pinterest’s third, places the two-year-old social bookmarking site’s valuation in the range of $1 billion to $1.5 billion.”

    Pinterest is on fiyaah.

  • Tweets give insider’s look of astronaut training
  • “Hadfield is Canada’s most experienced astronaut. He has been to the former Russian space station Mir, and has done several spacewalks to install the Canadarm2 on the International Space Station. However, while Canadian astronauts are generally too busy for interviews during training, Hadfield is tweeting up a storm at Twitter.com/ Cmdr_Hadfield.”

    I wonder what his data plan is like up there, lol.

    Business/Work/Economy/Media

  • Skechers to pay $40M to settle government charges over claim shoes toned muscles
  • “The government wants you to know that simply sporting a pair of Skechers’ fitness shoes is not going to get you Kim Kardashian’s curves or Brooke Burke’s toned tush. Skechers USA Inc. will pay $40 million to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that the footwear company made unfounded claims that its Shape-ups shoes would help people lose weight and strengthen their butt, leg and stomach muscles. Kardashian, Burke and other celebrities endorsed the shoes in Skechers ads. Wednesday’s settlement also involves the company’s Resistance Runner, Toners, and Tone-ups shoes and claims of deceptive advertising for those shoes as well.”

    Ridiculous!

    Environment/Space/Animals/Science

  • New study proposes throwing unwanted drugs in garbage
  • “How should consumers get rid of unwanted pharmaceuticals and other drug products? A new report assess the best way in terms of cost and environmental impact and has concluded that those unwanted pills should be simply thrown in the thrash.”

    Hm.

  • Australasia has hottest 60 years in a millennium, scientists find
  • “The last 60 years have been the hottest in Australasia for a millennium and cannot be explained by natural causes, according to a new report by scientists that supports the case for a reduction in manmade carbon emissions… “Our study revealed that recent warming in a 1,000-year context is highly unusual and cannot be explained by natural factors alone, suggesting a strong influence of human-caused climate change in the Australasian region,” said the study’s lead researcher, Dr Joelle Gergis.”

    Of course it’s human-caused…

    Entertainment

  • Donna Summer tributes pour in after disco queen dies
  • “Music stars, fans and industry heavyweights have lined up to pay tribute to Donna Summer. The US singer, famous for disco classics including I Feel Love and Love To Love You Baby, died at the age of 63 on Thursday. Stars including Dolly Parton, Sir Elton John and Mary J Blige praised her vocal talent and huge impact on music. Her family said they were “at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy””

    Sad. May she rest in peace… Also I was going to say I didn’t know who she was but then I listened to the “Love to love you baby” song and was like Oh!!!

    Weird News, Other News & Fluff

  • Michigan teen finds severed finger in his Arby’s sandwich — after he bites into it
  • “A Michigan teen finishing off an Arby’s roast beef sandwich chomped down on something tough that tasted like rubber, so he spit it out. Turns out it tasted like finger. The fleshy, severed pad of an unfortunate employee’s finger, apparently.”

    This almost makes me want to vomit. This also adds to the vomit:

  • Man finds deep-fried cockroach in McDonald’s hash brown
  • “A man who stopped at McDonald’s for an early breakfast has posted online a photo showing a deep-fried cockroach attached to the hash brown he allegedly bought at the McDonald’s outlet. The photo shows a crushed cockroach with splayed wings plastered to the potato cake. The man said the cockroach was hidden from sight by the paper with which the hash brown was served.”

    My goodness!!!!!!


Loki Photo of the Day:

He typically sleeps this way.


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Linda

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