Link-O-Rama

What is going on in their brains that makes Trump supporters so blindly devoted?

"Essentially, they’re not smart enough to realize they’re dumb."

FINALLY, I feel that the next run-up has arrived.

I mark this now for posterity. As of 2/15/2019, one bitcoin is worth: €3,222.08.


Let's see where we're at in 90 days!

I'm only saving this link because there are several idiotic comments made in this article, that I want to comment on later.

"Our children are at particular risk. For the first time, we have kids who have spent their whole lives eating unhealthy diets high in processed foods."

Corruption and bias in the Family Court system? What a shocker.
And Herjavec was stuck in unnecessary court action to satisfy the whim of a bitter ex for 4 longs years. Why is this possible?!

95+

Here's an explanation from a Purdue PHD in an old Google newsgroup:

This is a HUGE, disgusting, unforgivable, unprecedented, horrible, shameful, fucking invasion of personal privacy.

And it's pretty well guaranteed that once you give up this important personal information, that the incompetent boobs at CanGov will not be able to keep it safe. The very first thing they'll do is give a copy to the U.S. and the U.K. prior to getting hacked by the Chinese and every Swedish 16-year-old with a laptop.

Spontaneous remission involves 9 key factors:
• Radically changing your diet
• Taking control of your health
• Following your intuition
• Using herbs and supplements
• Releasing suppressed emotions
• Increasing positive emotions
• Embracing social support
• Deepening your spiritual connection
• Having strong reasons for living

"With the exception of products such as eggs, best-before dates refer to food quality, not safety. Many products that carry the dates don’t even need them"

Thank you Global News!

A great article with a diffeent take on protein consumption.

This explains why my ex-mother in law will outlive me.

The Indoor Generation.

Which ending are you going with?

This part is scary:

For nearly a year, in a painful odyssey that will be familiar to many patients, Williams tried to find out what was wrong with himself - and fix it. He underwent tests and scans, tried new medications, did physical therapy, worked out with a trainer, and sought out alternative treatments like self-hypnosis and yoga.

It's incredibly easy to get around France on public transit, despite manifestations (demonstrations), greves (strikes), and weather events. That fact has really jumped out at me since when I am in Canada and without a car to borrow, I am effectively stranded. I try to maintain my pedestrian habits (that came out wrong LOL) while in Canada, and I notice that even on very long walks through the center of small cities, I only see a handful of other pedestrians.

In France, I sometimes have access to a car but I rarely, if ever, need it. Walking covers 85% of where I need to go and a bicycle takes care of another 10%. Train and plane covers the last 5%. The whole thing has got me wondering, why can't Canada implement some kind of public transit infrastructure? As part of my wondering, I stumbled across this link. Canada is 235th out of 249 in the list of least densely populated countries! There is not another 1st world country less dense (in terms of population, not intellect) than Canada! The only countries even less densely populated than Canada are barren and unforgiving wastelands like Iceland, Greenland and Australia.

But still, I don't really buy the population lack-of-density argument as a valid one to explain the lack of decent public transit in Canada. Most of the country is in Toronto and there really is no excuse for either the urban sprawl and wasteful private spaces or the lack of decent subway system there…

I hold no illusions that the 'law' is in any way related to justice. I think that the circus that is 'closing in' will be doing so for quite a long time - like - 8 years in total long.

Still, the comments on the article are interesting, especially this one:

'You know, I'm two years younger than Trump, and probably a lot smarter; and I'm starting to make a lot of little mistakes. Saying things wrong. Forgetting things. Confusing things. Mixing things up.
Luckily, I have noticed this and I've turned over control of most everything to people younger than myself -- colleagues, my grown children, younger friends.
I used to be the boss, the organizer, the guy who took control, the guy who fixed things when they got messed up. I still feel like I SHOULD be able to do it, but when I try, I usually end up getting tired halfway through and wanting to turn it over to somebody else.
I think there really comes a time when it's time to step back and admit you're getting old, and let the younger people take over. Even if you don't like it. Even if you don't really notice it yet.
I'm talking to you, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump. Retire and smell the roses, before you start making BIG mistakes, and end up on the wrong end of history.'

We flexitarians don't not eat meat, we just don't not eat too much of it…

Hello All,
It seems that me and this guy are the only ones who employ courteous greetings without fail.
Regards,
Stephan

Years ago, I feared that it would be government interference that would be the final nail in Bitcoin's coffin. I'm disappointed to be right on that point.

Well said. I get that these are the top two teams in the world. But there is no way that Canada's score today was only 0.79 better than the French. As good as the French were. Canada demonstrated some of the best skating that world has ever seen.

One suicide per day in France last year. It's ridiculous to think that suicide prevention programs and policies will make a whit of difference.
Instead, ask what environmental, dietary, or societal factors are contributing to this rise. What's the big picture?

I can tell by looking at Victor Dergunov's little avatar photo that he's a lot smarter than me. The fact that he and I share the exact same outlook on BTC, for the exact same reasons, makes me feel pretty good!

“The more educated you are, the less likely you are to favour Trump… more highly educated people - university degrees, graduate degrees - tend to support the Democratic Party, while those with less formal education tend to support the Republicans,” Simpson said.

Well, then I must be a true scholar, because I can't stand Trump.

Fantastic article that says everything I've been thinking.

I'm not surprised that Coinbase is turning over personal records; they're the biggest and the scummiest of all the exchanges. They're practically criminals themselves under the guise of a responsible business. But this isn't about those Coinbase douchebags - it's about BTC taxation.

I believe that governments know full well how BTC and the blockchain works. Therefore they know that once held, BTC is completely anonymous. It is only possible to track those buying and selling via an exchange (like CoinSuckbase), after that …nothing. It's a black hole. So I can plainly see the IRS strategy going forward. They'll use lots of bluster and threatening language and employ high-profile but non-effective stupidity like forcing exchanges to turn over personal records (same as FACTA and CRS) with the claim of putting an end to the holy trifecta (drug dealing, terrorism, and tax evasion) but in the end, only the honest, fearful masses will pay.

This is because governments simply cannot tell who owns what is in circulation right now. In fact, I have serious doubts that if I use a small New Zealand exchange to buy my BTC and then move it into an offline wallet - that anyone ever will know those coins exists anywhere. I mean, they'll see the transactions in the blockchain, but those could belong to any other drug dealer.

…I tire of this…I'm only explaining to myself anyway, and possibly to some court in the future as they troll this web site for background on me - so why do I bother?

"Bitcoin’s rise may reflect, for better or worse, a monumental transfer of social trust: away from human institutions backed by government and to systems reliant on well-tested computer code. It is a trend that transcends finance: in our fear of human error, we are putting an increasingly deep faith in technology."


FINALLY, an article that gets to the true source of the rising growth of crypto. There has always been a "trust gap" and these days (at least for me) it's more of a trust chasm. BTC addresses that quite nicely and with a growing market like that, it cannot fail.

Love this site, but it really could use a search function.

At the moment, I recommend ordering your murder with Monera instead.

I believe that most, if not all of what Garth says in this article is wrong. He conveniently doesn't provide a timeline for his predictions, but I'm going to say that absolutely none of what he predicts will transpire over the next year.

Time will tell I guess. This will be a fun link to revisit next year.

I think that a small portion of the overall BTC price per coin should reflect its immense entertainment value.

In philosophy departments throughout the world, the Blind Men and the Elephant has deservedly become the poster child for moral relativism and religious tolerance.

A good site, but consider this:

The primary cause of listening issues is the failure to learn the sound-symbol relationship in French. Learners will naturally tend to pronounce letters and letter combinations as they are pronounced in their native language. However this makes your French difficult to understand and interferes greatly with your acquisition of the language. Basically, if the word has no fixed, obvious pronunciation to you, you are unlikely to acquire it. Also, if there are major differences between the words as you produce them and the way they sound when you hear them, here too you will gain much less from listening and will acquire less, since you won't recognize the spoken forms of words you know in print and will have much less information to work with when unknown words need to be guessed.

In short, not knowing the sound-symbol system for French early on your studies is a deal breaker. Fail here and you will never be conversant. Some people progress well in this area but few do well without explicit instruction and lots of practice. Short of intensivity on the level of 4-6 hours a week, most people just won't show much growth.

Another issue with French is juncture, the changes in sounds that occur between adjacent words when speaking. Most learners receive at least a little direct instruction here, but not enough to produce these changes reliably in speech. Here again, there are serious consequences for comprehension if you don't get enough solid instruction and practice.

French is spoken in phrases, and words within the phrases blend together in predictable but unfamiliar patterns. If you don't know the patterns and don't produce them yourself, you're unlikely to be able to separate the phrases you hear into their component words and you will understand very little. Again, you won't get much benefit from listening and you won't progress much.

Then … intonation. Raising and lowering of the tone has some functions similar to those in English, such as indicating that a sentence is a question. However in French it's a divider between phrases and contributes greatly to your ability to manage longer sentences. Very few learners appreciate how critically important these tone changes are for comprehension and teachers rarely give it the attention it deserves.

So, in summary, pronunciation skills are a main key to success and not a "frill" to be postponed to later.

Not that grammar and vocabulary don't matter. You aren't going to understand broadcasts where you don't know nearly all the words very well (probably 95%+ for some topics) so that's something to think about, too. If the news report is about EU politics and you don't know lots of vocabulary for that topic, forget about understanding it globally. You won't. However, if you know the phonetics of French you'll pick out the words you know quite reliably, and that's where you have to start.

L’association les Compagnons de Maguelone est une association laïque régie par la loi de 1901.
Elle a été créée le 06 mai 1969. Son siège social est basé au
Domaine de Maguelone, 34250 Palavas les Flots.

At the time I visited and read this, I thought "créée" was a typo, however I was gently told that it's not!

Further investigation reveals that it's the complement object direct (COD) of the participe passé of the verb: creer. Stated in English: "The past participle agrees in gender and in number with a preceding direct object. In other words, if the direct object pronoun is feminine, add an e to the end of the past participle"

Crazy language.

"In fact, I might go so far as to argue that, in most activities, a big part of what separates the top level guys from the wannabes is the willingness to always work on the basics. That is, wannabes tend to want to only do the sexy and fun stuff; it’s the guys who reach the top who consistently and constantly hammer away at the fundamentals."

"If you don’t believe me, find a place where athletes of different levels train. One difference will be that the higher level guys always do the basics: they warm-up properly, do their drills with attention and focus, pay constant attention in training, cool-down correctly, etc. The guys skipping all of the stuff that isn’t fun are the ones who not only don’t make progress but usually waste their careers looking for Training Secrets."

This is a GREAT article that illustrates concisely and in plain language what an uneven mess the tax system has become.

When a parent insists that a child turn off their phone for the day at a reasonable hour - say 9 or 10PM, some idiot teens actually think that's tantamount to child abuse. LOL.

#90+

Value Village (and the) "ethical issue of framing itself as a charity, when it is in fact a multi-national corporation."

#90+

I just bought the last 250g bar!

Wow. Just Wow.

Only in France: Pupils (and their teacher) pose naked for their school photo

…then laugh again…then cry again…then laugh again. For example,

Me: Goodnight.

Brain: Pssst…

Me: What?

Brain: What disease do you think we have?

I can relate to the above all-too-well! :)

Hmmm…I talk a big game about loving short stories but when called upon recently to reveal my favourite short story author, I drew a blank. Apparently, I claim to love the genre but I actually spend all of my time reading only longer novels from real writers. :-)

So, the person asking me the embarrassing question ended up offering me as an example - Saki (aka Hector Hugh Munro). Edwardian literature. Ugh. Berk. Bof.

Only because it seemed I was backed into a fucking corner on this, I very grudgingly located and read his: "The Lumber-Room" (Saki's shit is so old, it's in the public domain now, so free and easy to find.)

The story took all of 10 minutes to read and after I finished it I thought, "Well damn … that wasn't bad at all!"

(all of them)

Remember these?

Yeah, neither do I.

Ursolic Acid, Vitamin D, Curcumin, ECGC, Sulforaphane, Quercentin, Apigenan, and Luteolin.

Said another way: Apples, Sunlight, Turmeric, Green Tea, Broccoli, Onions, and Chamomile Tea.

Without getting into the morality or the ethics of the case ... after all the government might have been fully justified in the refusal, but if someone ... ANYONE could have come up with $6K, or if an orthodonidist somewhere could have done some pro bono work, then the taxpayers would have saved over 100k.

Funny how none of the orthodontists making the recommendation stepped up to do the charitable thing. Just to used to milking the government teat, I guess?

#90+

A nice, concise, and thoughtfully written article. I wish there was more of this on the Internet.

She has a shit quality of life, and is even more ecologically unfriendly to the planet than usual. So let's celebrate her stupidity and publicize with a dumbass CBC article.

Good detailed article. As I thought, none of the changes affect me so I say go for it. :)

Personally I can't stand this writer - Robyn Urback - but I have to admit she hit one right out of the park with this article. Things will likely pan out exactly as she lays it out in her article.

This is a hell of a thing. I went back as far as I could go to 1905 (there was a song from 1904 but it was a religious song) and found the song linked above.

Neat!

While a like a full-bodied beer on occasion, I find the lighter crisper taste of a Czech Budvar more appealing in general. For a daily drink, I don't need or want notes of coffee, caramel, grated orange rind, obscene levels of hops or malt, unfiltered, adulterated with tequila, whiskey, mayonnaise, etc.
I've just discovered the Monaco. Even though my friend Anne tells me it's a chick drink, I can't get enough of them. Pour a little less than an ounce of grenadine into a pint glass, and then fill it up with lager. Amazing. And finally a use for grenadine. :) I've also tried it with sirop de clementine - very good too. And of course, if you use sirop de citron, it's a Radler. Anne tells me if I ever want to man-up, I can order "une picon biere" which is - instead of the grenadine, uses an ounce of Sirop de Picon (21% alcool)
http://punchdrink.com/recipes/picon-biere/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirop_de_Picon
Well, I like quinine and I love orange flavour, so a Picon biere looks pretty good to me. I haven't had one yet, but I'm a little worried that they will be so good that I'll fall off the wagon. :)

A 65 year-old clubbing 74 year-old.

This video has it all. Fat inbreeders in cheap t-shirts, lippy irritating ... people sticking their nose in where it it doesn't belong. That city has got to be the armpit of Canada.

For dealing with racism, I can see the tried and true method of social shaming, like we've done for other fun things like tax evasion and drinking and driving.

But if we criminalize it (hate speech) or try to civil litigate against it (as we see here) then we're doomed to this sort of restrictive Orwellian future where we all fear even speaking at all… especially because we're all racist and homophobic at heart… (except for me) it's just that not all of us say it out loud.

I was in this small town on the border of Prague and Austria and I had this aperitif, an "Aperol Spritz" which was just awesome.

I went to buy a bottle here but it's weirdly expensive - 1.5L for 18 euro which is like almost $27 CAD. Still, I think I will cave and get a bottle. Cheap Prosecco here is only 1.50 euro so I should save on that. Try it out if you're in a resto and you see it on the menu, It's awesome.

Great headline.

If I saw the teen do that, I'd be all like: "Dude, what're you doing? I would have totally eaten that."

Police say he wouldn't have been charged if the pizza hadn't had anchovies on it.

The fact that the bill passed through senate blows my mind.

It's time for trans people to pick a side. They can't just arbitrarily decide to be "non-gender" and then legislate that we all "respect" that with our use of language. Or rather, if they can do that, then so can I. I'm declaring myself today to be of "transient gender". (TG - oh wait, that's already taken … TstG then)
Don't let my virility or hyper-masculinity fool you. Sure, today I may be a guy, but tomorrow I may decide to be female, shemale, or neuter. Outwardly, as you all well know, the difference will be imperceptible, but dog help you if you misuse a single pronoun.
I've got no RRSPs, no saving, no prospects for retirement so suing people for calling me the wrong pronoun on the wrong day is my last option! :)

What's great about that article is not only how sensible it is, but also how concise it is. He really gets the message out in just a few words.

As expected, both the liberals and the PCs, for completely different reasons, rip him to shreds in any comment boards you find under this article.

While this article is about something else, what grabbed my attention were the last few paragraphs:

"When an individual is leaving Canada by air, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) does not play a role in their exit, the agency told CBC Toronto.
That's unlike when someone leaves by land - Canada and the United States exchange information on "third country" nationals (non U.S. or Canadian citizens), Canadian permanent residents who aren't U.S. citizens, and U.S. permanent residents who aren't Canadian citizens.
No information is shared on Canadian citizens, the CBSA said. But that could soon change.
Last June, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tabled Bill C-21, proposing legislation that would allow Canada to know when and where someone both enters and leaves the country."

So, it looks like this battle is lost. It no longer not just the cops that say “What do you have to hide?”; it's now the citizenry that go: “I have nothing to hide, so why shouldn’t my government know where I am at all times”. Somehow they think they are more safe that way. So they just give their privacy and liberty away and give even more ammunition to assholes like Goodale. Sheep will be sheep.

Before you know it, we’re like UK or US. Oh wait, we're already there.

I don't find the article funny at all. Police entrapment. Making fun of a likely desperate person only trying to survive. And especially printing her full name in the article before she's convicted of anything. Drug addicted or not, I guess she's not entitled to any privacy or dignity.

The AP should be ashamed of themselves for printing this garbage.

The biggest part of the whole issue is that a prosecutor's career advancement is based on conviction rate. If they convict lot of people, they get promoted. So they are not seeking the truth … It's kind of chilling that they would knowingly put innocent people away just to keep their numbers up.

Just like the movie: Law Abiding Citizen.

I am continually amazed at the bunch of complete fucking idiots that run this province.

Wow, this is seriously cool. Click on the link to see the true size of France super-imposed on top of Ontario.


For a real "trip", grab Russia and super-impose it over Africa!

Ever wonder why words like "pong ping", "jabber-jibber", and "tock-tick" sound so wrong? There's an unwritten English rule you’ve been using all your life called ablaut reduplication that states:

If there are three similar words then the order must go I, A, O. If there are two similar words then the first is I and the second is either A or O.

This explains why we say ping pong, jibber-jabber, and tick-tock instead.

What the heck is Tulsi?!

Of course, I can't help but be partial to Montpellier, but this could literally be *ANY* of France's cities, or any of most of Europe's cities for that matter. But I guess the author just happened to land in MP.

This video articulates very well what I've been trying to say for some time now. I really believe in the addictive aspect of the news as well. Myself, I try to wean myself off of it but invariably return to it after a while. So it's a constant struggle for me (among many :) )

French is impossible! 22 seconds in, she's actually saying: "On va etre en retard"

"If the police happen to arrest a homeless person who has a dog, they cannot jail the dog, nor can they just abandon it on the streets. Instead, they must house the dog in a special dog hotel. For most offenses, that’s too much trouble and costs too much money, so the police simply do not prosecute travelers for minor offenses such as riding on a train without a ticket."

It's very difficult to watch Yeonmi Park recount the incredible story of her life so far, both in North Korea and after escaping to China.

Great song. Great video. Great movie.

Why can no one ever see the corollary to this? Here we have another example of someone doing something perfectly legal yet it's *wrong* to do. It is also just as possible to do something illegal but that is essentially *right*.

Surprisingly spot-on.

There really should be a comma there... :)

This "legal" invasion of privacy by the courts and the government is terrifying, but Canadian sheep as a whole are too polite to take the necessary steps to protect their own liberty.

In France, almost every store has T45, T55, T65, and T80. So which one do I use? The cheapest! :)

I have access to unpasteurized Camembert. Though it's pretty pricey, it's also pretty good. And I think I've read that the rind is actually good for you?

I can hardly believe it! That jingle drives everyone in France within listening distance of a Gare … absolutely crazy! :)

Not a bad drink. Of the vermouth drinks, I still prefer the Manhattan though.

A guide to useful words, terms and phrases used in French property-related classified advertisements relating to buying or renting a house or apartment in France.

Very thought-provoking article that touches on several subjects - gun-control, PTSD, the use of robotics as weaponry, and how police kill innocent people without consequence.

The ‘Bong’ sound/musical cue in Inception is actually the song Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien by Edith Piaf slowed down.

One statement jumped right out at me: "There are also broader social implications, the report said, such as unemployment, crime and the "substantial" impacts on people other than the drinker. These include injuries related to assault, workplace accidents, motor vehicle collisions, family disruption, violence and lost income." and also a broader concept - that being that WE NEED TO PRIVATIZE LIQUOR SALES IN ONTARIO!!! Consider this: "For instance, in Quebec, where beer and wine have been available in corner stores for years, there were fewer alcohol-related hospitalizations."

Very interesting article. I can certainly relate to the "consequences of stress" part!

I've grown up a bit over the last year, and I see more clearly how I can get caught up on the social media induced bandwagon of vilification, convicting someone before I even really understand why I am convicting them. I like to think that I'm more critical now, and participating in the online hate-mongering less and less.

Seriously Canada?! Get out of Latvia!!

Rennes?! No way! We in Montpellier void our rheum on Rennes! :)

LOL > GreaterFool cardinal rule #7: “Never buy real estate with anyone you have not slept with.”

Neil's hilarious line: "…Canadian consumers are routinely shorn and milked…" made my day.

I think my odds of dating a supermodel are more like 1 in 68,000.

It's thanks to this guide that I learned what *voyons donc" means. Franchement! Voyons donc! :)

A good article about one of my favourite places, that I honestly thought was already on the map!

I love the tone of this article. Good for France for taking the hard-line on Brexit to prevent the Brits from getting a more favourable outcome than if they stayed.

"Belgacem had a record of robbery and drug offences (…) was out on bail, banned from leaving France and obliged to report regularly to police, having been handed preliminary charges for robberies in 2016."
This guy wasn't a terrorist; he was just a waste of some space that the French have thankfully reclaimed.

Fascinating read on the state of France's economy today: Mar 9th, 2017.

Good article.

Youtube channel of educational website "Oh La La, I Speak French!"

Interesting in that not only are the winter sales over, but the title of this link is a perfect example of the need to make the COD (finis) agree with the subject. (Of course the verb here is être.)

Wow! Two things jump out at me … that the *chicken* is more than 50% soy, but also that there's no mention of how the food was adulterated!

Il est maintenant temps d'être sérieux à ce sujet!

Could this be the future leader of the Canadian Progressive Conservative party?

Measure your level using CEFR levels using the European-standard test.

Excellent summaries of all kinds of French grammatical concepts.

And doesn't this make more sense? If it is bad to give peanuts to young children, don't you think we'd have learned of this before the recommendation made in 2000?

Wynne has recognized her 'oopsies' and is asking for Ontarians’ patience and trust to fix the problem A wonderful, sarcastic opinion piece by Robyn Urback.

Man who dissolved after falling into acid hot spring in Yellowstone National Park was looking for a place to soak. "…there was a considerable amount of dissolving…"

This is how a video mashup should be done.

Tim Horton's, the famed Canadian coffee chain, has announced it will be expanding to the UK.

LOL, I love the oxymoron: "famed Canadian"

I'm sure it's just as good as being an actual published author, without all the extra hassle of money and income and stuff like that.

The Bestseller Code is an algorithm built to predict, with 80 percent accuracy, which novels will become mega-bestsellers.

I'm a big Survivor fan, so of course I'll watch this, especially because I get to see more of Joe, who is possibly my all-time favourite Survivor contestant, however I found Kelly's personality kind of flat in her second Survivor appearance. I hope she can perk up a bit for this new show.

A fantastic and thought-provoking read, courtesy of the Guardian.

Just putting this here for later…

Often in my old life, I had to determine what the Ontario Sales Tax portion of a total was. Simply, it's the after-tax total times 0.88496, so: $1130 * 0.88496 is $1000 (the pre-tax amount) leaving $130 for the Ontario Sales Tax.

This is honestly one of the best articles I've ever read on carb-cycling and hormone regulation while losing weight.

Excellent article. It is possible!

Really leans towards news that would be of interest to a retired British ex-pat or vacationer, but it's better than nothing.

My own online privacy is my interest of the day. Even if I take great pains to keep my online data private from the general public, companies and government still seem to have free reign.

Nik used only mspaint, moviemaker, and free music from YouTube's audio library.

The statement that really stuck with me was: "Those are stories … manufactured by a really small number of people on both sides, who amass a great deal of power and wealth by convincing us to keep killing each other."

:-) Actuellement, I was able to read cette article with much less effort que usual. Il dois etre mon months of study!

1.3 billion views, yet it's totally ludicrous! There's no way that the porridge in the pot could expand by that many orders of magnitude. By the time, she filled the 10th pot with the overflow, it gets seriously ridiculous. (Porridge can't expand like that) And pouring a whole pot of porridge into a wolf's belly?! I'm pretty sure the wolves would have attacked her and horribly mauled her. And don't even get me started on hitting what looks to be a Kodiak bear with a hockey puck! :-)

Seafile is a lot of fun. I have it running on my Raspberry pi Model B and a laptop SSD connected via USB, along with a CUPS printer…and it's all working flawlessly. I'm really liking private cloud syncing!

"That's a long distance call, Doug!" This commercial is pretty old (2002) but it remains one of my favourite commercials of all time.

This Walmart ad has gone viral because it is a little different than the usual smiley face-laden messages pumped out by the chain. The site where I found all this out had lots of comments stating that it just isn't that funny, but I laughed. And continued to laugh for a while afterwards. I'm still laughing now. And since I'm an authority on what's funny, it must be.

Absolutely mind-blowing. "All my possessions for a moment of time." - Elizabeth I of England

Best one: GetOffMyLawn Runners Up: Pong Lenis, MyNeighboursSuck, (.) (.) Boobies, and YerBabysUgly.

This is such a thoughtful well-written article with so much hope for the future, I thought it would be a shame not publicize it with the full weight and power that shoppe.ca commands.

"The calls are coming from inside the house" Niklaus and I just love this one… (funnier if you're Canadian)

By far, one of the best Photoshop tutorials I've ever come across. I could never do this in real life without the tutorial to help me along…

This takes me way back and it still sends chills down my spine. (The Six Million Dollar Man - Main Title Theme Song at TelevisionTunes.com)

One of the best superbowl commercials ever. "Hey dummy."

I, Phosphate Pen, think that this is pretty neat. I wonder if my wife, Handsaw Bra Wash, will think the same?

The French restaurant “Le Petit Chef (Little Chef)” came up with an original way to entertain guest while waiting for their order by using an overhead projector on the ceiling. The animation is on the table and your plate. There is a small chef who appears on your plate, …watch what he does!

Not really all that interesting, but I need the link. :-)

Kind of neat!
•?((¯°·._.• $ţ€ρhąɲ h๏ρρ€ •._.·°¯))؟•
•?((¯°·._.• §ț£קȟåñ ȟ¤קק£ •._.·°¯))؟•
•?((¯°·._.• ⓢⓣⓔⓟⓗⓐⓝ ⓗⓞⓟⓟⓔ •._.·°¯))؟•

je me roule par terre de rire.

More detail on the only house I really want.

Arnie is my hero.

Tous les mots du monde prononcés par des locuteurs natifs

Almost every TED-talk is subtitled in its entirety in about 30-40 languages. Google "Ted Talk learn French", turn on the subtitles, and try to read them as the speaker talks. At the very least, it can be an interesting challenge. The difference between this and news is that it's not exactly listening comprehension, and you're hearing the original English at the same time. This method could help.

This is a 24-hour streaming French news station to listen to. TV Shows and Movies don't have enough dialogue. They aren't supposed to. Watching News is much better. The dialogue is crisper and in the standard accent most of the time. They seem to speak fast at first, but stick with it. Your listening comprehension will go through the roof after just a little while. The key is that they are constantly talking. As they are talking and giving the news, start reading the ticker at the bottom out loud. It challenges you to read quickly before it changes. Don't worry, it's usually just a sentence or two. Turn up the volume just a little bit louder than normal and talk over the [French] newscaster (important). Now you're immersed.

Pretty good site with some interesting blog articles on French culture and clear explanations of French grammar.

Impressively full-featured. Leaning towards the rank beginner.

Humourous language lessons both online and in PDF format from the University of TEXAS?!

Good verb conjugation tool that generates nice printable pages.

FANTASTIC contextual phrase translator that uses official translations from government meeting minutes. (like the Hansard from Canada)

A world-class dictionary/translation tool and reference.

…like an online Bescherelle.

"Je suis de America. J'habite Sam" :-) There are 12 or 13 episodes of this funny and easy-to-follow sitcom on YouTube.

Plus one!

I give you three $20 notes +3 * +20 = +60 for youI give you three $20 debts +3 * -20 = -60 for youI take three $20 notes from you -3 * +20 = -60 for youI take three $20 debts from you -3 * -20 = +60 for you

The best way to watch Star Wars is something called “Machete Order,” detailed here by computer software blogger Rod Hilton in 2011.

Everything you ever wanted to know about DRM and ebooks, but were afraid to ask.

*sigh* It isn't unlawful to have luggage that "smells of marijuana." Drug dogs hit on whatever their handlers tell them to; they didn't find any marijuana or this guy would have been spread eagle on the concourse floor. It also isn't illegal, and shouldn't be suspicious, to buy a one-way airplane ticket. People often go from one place to another without planning to return soon. Why is this a mitigating factor to anything? So once again we have a situation where a person wasn't doing anything wrong, was harassed by the cops anyway, was charged with "assault on a police officer" and "resisting arrest," those BS charges were dropped, there were never any drug charges, and… His money is gone.

Only THREE cents of every dollar donated went to help those with cancer. That is no accident. 3% is the minimum required by the US federal government to maintain non-profit status.

She sure is pretty though.

Very interesting but ultimately, just one person's opinion and therefore difficult to hang too much of one's hat on.

This article, yet another that quotes individual study after study shaping the results into something that supports the premise of the article, finally illustrates to me that I should simply eat what makes me feel good, and let that be the indicator of what an acceptable diet is. So for me, that's a very low carb, non-processed food diet.

Pretty well every page of this site is excellent.

A test you can try on any olive oil you currently have is to stick it in the fridge and see if it solidifies. If it doesn't, you definitely don't have olive oil. Even if it does, it only means that you *may* have olive oil.

I'm so doing this!

If you're looking for a New Year's resolution that's easy to accomplish and will improve your health, look no further than these ultra-simple tips and tricks...

Austin Kleon is a writer and artist living in Austin, Texas. He has some good tips on how to read more and read more better.

A very good documentary by the Canadian TV show: the fifth estate.