Welcome to Wednesday, May 9 2012’s Clicks of the Day!
Clicks of the Day is a daily round up of news posted Sunday through Thursday.
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Edmonton/Alberta/Canada
- Emotional day in court at McConnell’s sentencing
- Cancer deaths on the decline in Canada, but lung cancer still a top killer
- Historic Mercer Warehouse transforming into entrepreneurial hub
“A historic downtown building is being turned into an entrepreneurial hub. The latest addition to the hundred year old Mercer Building at the corner of 104 Avenue and 104 Street is Startup Edmonton, a non-profit organization that rents office space and gives guidance to local entrepreneurs.”
104 Street is really going to be the place to be, hey?
- Cross-country expedition to help victims of child exploitation begins
- New Edmonton suburbs will cost another $1.2B: report
- Best Eateries 2012
- Inmates to pay more for room and board in federal prisons
- As prisons close, complaints of overcrowding rise
- Obama endorses gay marriage, says same-sex couples should have right to wed
- Bomb hits convoy carrying UN observers in Syria
- Music benefits babies’ brains
- Baby clothes go high-tech: Pyjamas to monitor heart beat, temperature, movement
- Health watchdog warns ‘obese’ is derogatory term for overweight
- Phishing, other malicious websites soar in Canada
- [Infographic]: Wake up call: 59% of mobile apps don’t earn enough to break even
- Twitter hack breaches thousands of accounts
- Facebook announces its own app store
- Pentagon approves use of BlackBerry 7 models
- Mars was covered in water just like the Earth
- Smallest mammoths found on Crete
- Unidentified floating object: Mysterious blob filmed in the deep – and no-one can work out what it could be
- Jaguars preying on green sea turtles creates conservation headache in Costa Rica
- Big rise in North Pacific plastic waste
- Ignore LOLcats and you ignore humanity
- Sunrise-McMillan Elementary School misspells own name for nine years
- 14 photographs that shatter your image of famous people
- Japanese apparel company unveils new product, an ‘ice bra’
“The sentencing hearing for the mother convicted of manslaughter in the drowning deaths of her two sons last month began Wednesday morning in a Wetaskiwin courtroom. On Wednesday, the Crown Prosecutor asked for a sentence of 12 years for Allyson McConnell, the Millet woman who was found guilty of manslaughter in April.”
Such a sad case.
“A new report says the most preventable cancer – lung cancer – continues to be the top cancer killer among men and women in Canada, but overall cancer death among Canadians has declined. That’s due in part to improved cancer survival through advancements in treatments, better screening and prevention measures.”
Such a preventable cancer. Don’t smoke, guys!
“A three month, cross-country expedition to raise money and awareness about child exploitation kicked off on Wednesday. Members of the Angel Express Society began their 4,000 km expedition on horseback, which will take them from Edmonton to Halifax. The two participants of the non-profit organization hope to raise $1 million to support young victims of sexual abuse.”
Good cause and definitely a unique way of raising money and awareness.
“New neighbourhoods already approved by Edmonton city council will cost the city an additional $1.2 billion for fire halls, parks, police stations and libraries, says a new report that gives the numbers for the first time. “Oh my god, that’s not including the LRT,” said Coun. Linda Sloan, hearing the figures for the first time. “It just shows the city is not sustainable. We can’t continue to grow the way we are.” City councillors have approved development in 44 new neighbourhoods on the fringes of the city without knowing how much services for these neighbourhoods would cost. The growth co-ordination strategy, released in draft form this week, quantifies the cost for the first time.”
Ruh roh.
“Best Vietnamese: Indie 3rd place: Pho Hoang.”
My parent’s restaurant King Noodle House Pho Hoang was voted third best independent Vietnamese restaurant in Edmonton in Vue Weekly’s 2012 Best Eateries! What an honour. :) Please visit if you haven’t yet! Our soup is DELICIOUS! (I’m not biased ;))
“Inmates in Canadian prisons will pay more for room and board, and some will see their so-called incentive pay slashed, under new rules introduced by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews Wednesday. Toews said the changes are expected to save taxpayers more than $10 million per year — money that can be put toward rehabilitation programs.”
If it saves us money then woo hoo.
“nmates in Canada’s federal prisons have been sleeping in trailers, interview rooms, family visiting spaces and gymnasiums, while the percentage of prisoners sharing cells built for one has nearly doubled in under three years, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail. The documents, obtained from access to information requests, suggest a penal system stretched to capacity. Canada’s prison population has been rising since 2005 after years of steady decline, growing 7 per cent between March 31, 2011 and May 1, 2012.”
Rough.
World
“President Obama announced Wednesday that he believes same-sex couples should be granted the right to marry, becoming the first U.S. president in history to fully embrace that level of civil rights for gays. Obama’s announcement gave an immediate jolt to the decades-long movement for gay equality at a moment when a growing number of states are moving to ban — or legalize — same-sex unions and as polls show a majority of Americans support marriage rights.”
Absolutely.
“A roadside bomb hit a Syrian military truck Wednesday just seconds after the head of the UN observer team drove by in a convoy, demonstrating the fragility of the international plan to end the country’s bloodshed.”
Will the violence never end?
Health
“Babies who receive musical training smile more, communicate better and react more calmly to unfamiliar or unfavourable situations, according to new research out of Ontario’s McMaster University. The study involved one-year-olds and their parents who spent six months participating in one of two types of music-related activities. One group played with toys while music played in the background. The other group learned to play percussion instruments and sing lullabies, nursery rhymes and songs with actions.”
Music is good for the soul. :)
“Rogers announced Tuesday that it has partnered with U.S.-based biomedical engineering company Exmovere Holdings Inc., for the launch of digital pyjamas, called Exmobaby, later this year. The machine-washable outfit has embedded sensors and a AAA-battery powered wireless transmitter that beams information to a computer, smartphone or tablet. The manufacturer claims the product can perform electrocardiogram tests to measure electrical activity in the heart, monitor skin temperature and movement, and detect mood changes.”
Interesting.
“British health workers dealing with the rising epidemic of obesity have been warned that referring to overweight patients as obese can be construed as derogatory. Charged with tackling rising obesity levels, public health workers employed by councils have been issued with new guidelines by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) regarding the type of language they use when referring to obesity.”
Society is so sensitive these days.
Technology/Social Media
“In almost every way, the malicious Web page is indistinguishable from the bank account login screen on TD’s own site – complete with corporate logos and a password entry field. Except the site has nothing to do with the Canadian bank. Instead, a user who tries to log in will have unwittingly handed over their banking info to cyber criminals… The number of such phishing sites in Canada grew 170 per cent in the past year, making it the second most popular phishing-site host country in the world behind the U.S., according to a new study by Internet security firm Websense.”
Awful.
“With Instagram recently having been acquired by Facebook for $1 billion and OMGPOP, makers of Draw Something, cashing in for $200 million, developers are attacking the mobile app space with a renewed vigor. Before jumping head first into a new project aiming to be the next big acquisition target, developers might be wise to look over a white paper recently put together by App Promo. App Promo conducted a study last month in an effort to investigate how well mobile developers are performing in this crowded space. In its survey, the company found that a staggering 59% of mobile apps do not generate enough money to break even. Only 12% of developers earn $50,000 or more from their apps, and these developers were found to have big marketing budgets of $30,000 or more. They also spend about 14% of their time focusing on marketing on average.”
That’s still more than half – and the ones who do make it big really, really make it big.
“A Twitter hacker on Monday revealed thousands of user names and passwords for the microblogging site, but here’s the good news: Most of the compromised accounts appear to be spam. Word of the breach began spreading Tuesday after hacking news and activist hub Airdemon posted a dispatch saying 55,000 accounts had been compromised. It linked to Pastebin pages containing the allegedly compromised user names and passwords.”
Always change your password!
“In a move that should surprise no one but make many developers happy, Facebook today announced a marketplace for finding apps called the App Center. “The App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga,” writes Facebook engineer Aaron Brady on the company’s Developer Blog. The Center will also include a mobile version, which Brady says is designed to increase the number of mobile apps that use the social network. The new hub, which will open in the next few weeks, will organize apps by user ratings, an important change from the current “like” system which can favor apps with huge marketing budgets. App makers will also get a dashboard for tracking how people are rating their apps.”
Fun!
Business/Consumer/Media/Economy
“Research In Motion on Wednesday said the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) had approved six models of the company’s BlackBerry 7 for use on its networks, extending a long relationship with the smartphone known for its tight security. The approval will allow RIM’s single largest customer to upgrade to the Canadian smartphone maker’s latest phones as it waits for the launch of its next-generation BlackBerry 10 devices later this year.”
I would have gone with iPhone, lol.
Environment/Space/Animals/Science
“Early Mars was covered in water just like the Earth today, scientists believe… They calculated that the speed the particles must have been moving to recreate the divot would have required an atmospheric pressure 20 times greater than that found today. This suggests Mars once had a thicker atmosphere, said prof Dufek.”
Wonder if Earth is headed the way of Mars too?
“The smallest mammoth ever known to have existed roamed the island of Crete millions of years ago, researchers say. Adults were roughly the size of a modern baby elephant, standing over a metre tall at the shoulders. Remains were discovered more than a century ago, but scientists had debated whether the animal was a mammoth or an ancient elephant. A new analysis of the animal’s teeth suggests it falls closer to the mammoth lineage.”
Neat.
“A mysterious ocean ‘blob’ has been recorded by a deep-sea remote-controlled underwater camera. The creature looks like nothing seen before, with speculators suggesting it is everything from a jellyfish to the remains of a whale placenta. While, at a quick glance, the description of a jellyfish makes sense, the creature has organs and appendages never spotted on a jellyfish before.”
So interesting!!!!!! Deep sea creatures (and mysterious blobby things) fascinate me.
“There is a plethora of wildlife in Costa Rica. They have a problem however, that you won’t find in any other nature reserve. Oryx, the international conservation journal has a significant report today by Diogo Verissimo. Tortuguero National Park is a bay for turtle conservation on the north-east coast of the country but nobody told the local wildlife. The local jaguars have taken a liking to their fellow conserved species the green turtle. This is one of the biggest green turtle rookeries in the world, so obviously the reptiles have to be conserved. However the big cats are also “flagship conservation species” because they are highly endangered throughout Costa Rica and the whole continent.”
So sad. Endangered species make me so sad.
“The quantity of small plastic fragments floating in the north-east Pacific Ocean has increased a hundred fold over the past 40 years… All the plastic discarded into the ocean that does not sink will eventually break down. Sunlight and the action of the waves will degrade and shred the material over time into pieces the size of a fingernail, or smaller. An obvious concern is that this micro-material could be ingested by marine organisms, but the Scripps team has noted another, perhaps unexpected, consequence. The fragments make it easier for the marine insect Halobates sericeus to lay its eggs out over the ocean.”
Hmm.
Weird News, Other News & Fluff
“LOLCATS, those adorable anthropomorphised images whose captions defy conventional rules of spelling and grammar, may actually be making us smarter. At least according to one boffin who has written an entire dissertation on the matter. Graduate student Kate Miltner has been awarded the best masters degree ever from the London School of Economics for her paper on the appeal of LOLcats. Ms Miltner’s study found that LOLcats weren’t so much about cute little kitties that couldn’t spell, but an essential form of human communication.”
Amazing!! Lol.
“Sunrise-McMillan Elementary School in Fort Worth, Texas, has made an embarrassing correction after nine years: the spelling of its name, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reports. According to the station, the school added “McMillan” to its name during the 2003-2004 school year to honor its first teacher Mary McMillan, but accidentally spelled it “McMillian.” School Principal Marion Mouton told KDFW-TV that the correction process is going to be tedious.”
Lol. How does that even happen.
“When you step out the door, you’re playing a role. Whether you’re a hippie, stock broker, police officer or biker, you dress the way the world expects you to dress, you act the way the world expects you to act. So you can imagine how much more intense this is for celebrities, whose very careers depend on managing a public image down to the molecule. But even they can’t keep the occasional image-shattering photo from leaking out to the public…”
Really interesting photos!
“A company that produces underwear has just unveiled a new bra that is constructed to be energy-saving. It is created of frozen packs to keep women cool during the hot summer months.”
Lol… seriously.
Thor & Loki Photo of the Day:
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Linda
