Blame it on Rio: Brazil wants to put happiness in constitution

We always knew those Brazilians were party animals. Well, at least the ones that aren't living in poverty in the shanty towns. Now, they want to put happiness in their constitution. "In Brazil, we've had economic growth without the social growth hoped for," said Mauro Motoryn, the director of the Happier Movement, a non-governmental organization backing the legislation. "With the constitutional amendment, we want to provoke discussion, to seek approval for the creation of conditions in which social rights are upheld." Like I said, Blame it on Rio.

 

Read more in the Huffington Post here

Why liberals fear vaccines

Interesting Q & A from ScienceInsider: "Why the 'Prius Driving, Composting' Set Fears Vaccines – " Journalist Seth Mnookin's new book, The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear, explores the public health scare over vaccines and autism. The 1998 paper in The Lancet by British physician Andrew Wakefield that sparked the panic has long since been debunked and retracted, and Wakefield himself has been barred from practicing medicine and accused of fraud. But that hasn't stopped thousands of people from refusing to vaccinate their children out of fear that they could become autistic."

Read more here

Shocker: It snows in Canada

Today it is snowing! In Toronto! In Canada! And there are several inches of snow on the ground! What to do? Well firstly, cancel all classes at schools in the city. Yes, all those kids that walk a few blocks or take public transit to school will not have to bother because all schools are closed. But wait, what about workplaces? Hmm, seems it is pretty well business as usual for  private sector companies, and for a good reason: This is an inconvenience not a disaster. I would love to rant further, but I must get out and shovel the driveway so I can go the office. Which, of course, is open.

 

See a gallery of snow photos in Toronto from National Post here. 

Canada's regulators promise expensive internet

A recent ruling by Canadian regulator the CRTC all but guarantees Canadians will face steadily increasing costs for Internet. The recent ruling forces third party Internet providers to provide only metered bandwidth – pay per gigabyte. While in theory there is nothing wrong with paying for services you use , there are several issues that make this ruling troubling. Canada does not allow foreign companies to compete for service in Canada, creating an artificial market from the start.

This applies to cellular service as well, making Canada one of the most expensive countries in the world for cell phone service as well. Now let's get to cable. Essentially, the country in carved up into fiefdoms, with two dominant players – Rogers and Shaw effectively owning the wires and cable service in their regions. Bell and Telus also provide Internet service via their phone lines and some fiber.

Third party Internet providers buy there bandwidth from the big players. But here is the kicker: Rogers, Shaw and Bell are also in the television broadcast business.

Could this simply be a way to ensure revenues as traditional revenues from television migrate to Internet service based ones?  You bet.

But hey, I am Canadian and I'm mad as hell!

Read more from boingboing here

Canadian cop, Hells Angels clash in Mexico

From the Toronto Sun:  "A Canadian police officer suffered a broken jaw following a run-in with a member of the Hells Angels in Mexico last weekend.
He was among a group of officers from Quebec who were vacationing in Playa del Carmen, a sea resort in southern Mexico that’s also known as a favourite hangout for Quebec gangsters.
The officer had gone to a bar in nearby Cancun with two colleagues and at one point he stepped away to snap a picture of the biker.
When the off-duty officer failed to return, his two friends went looking for him. Assuming he had returned to the hotel, they went back to their room and realized he was missing. They returned to the bar and found him bloodied and bruised from a serious beating.
The officer underwent surgery in Mexico and returned to Canada on Thursday. The assailants have vanished.
It’s not clear whether the officer and the assailants knew each other."

Rejected Super Bowl Commercials

This one didn't make it to the Super Bowl, but it's definitely worth watching:

See more banned commericals here

Nearly 11% of U.S. houses are vacant!

Can this be true? The short answer is YES.  There are 31 million housing units in the United Stated, 112.5 million are occupied –18.4 million of them are vacant. This is an incredible statistic and makes me wonder how long it will take the U.S. to climb out of this mess. Vacant housing means these properties are likely deteriorating to some degree as well. There are bargains out there, but not enough bargain hunters at this point.

Photo: © Jeff Wasserman

Man claims drug turned him into gay sex addict

A French father claims a drug taken to treat Parkinson's disease turned him into a gay sex addict and a gambling addict. The 51-year-old father of two says he became addicted to internet gambling after taking the drug and lost the family's savings, resorting to theft to feed his habit.  He also claims he became a compulsive gay sex addict and after exposing himself on the internet he entered into high risk encounters that led to him being raped.

The behaviour ended when he stopped taking the drugs but by then he had been demoted in his defence ministry job.

Internet almost out of addresses

The Internet is getting close to running out of IP addresses after the organization (IANA) that handles the Internet protocol addresses assigned two of seven remaining blocks  to the Asia Pacific Network Information Center. The Internet could run out of IP addresses as early as September 2011. The current system provides for 4.3 billion addresses. All is not lost, however. A newer system is in the works – the IPv6 registry system, which should take care of the problem for most people – we hope. 

RadarOnline.com: Charlie Sheen spends $500k on hookers and drugs

RadarOnline.com is reporting that Two and A Half Men star Charlie Sheen spent more than $500,000 on escorts and drugs in the six months before checking into rehab. Well, a guy has gotta have fun.

 

Read more here

Vegas chef serves up $5,000 burger

 Vegas chef Hubert Keller is serving one fat burger at his Fleur restaurant at the Mandalay Bay resort for $5,000.

Keller's Kobe beef burger is topped with  foie gras, black truffle, and truffle sauce and is served on a brioche truffle bun.

The kicker is that Keller throws in a bottle of Chateau Petrus 1995 – which retails for about $5,000.

 

Read more here

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Learning curve: How to survive a 1,000 foot fall

British climber Adam Potter plunged 1,000 feet down the side of a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. He survived.    Read how here.

Bizarre: The weird story of Plenty of Fish's hack attack

The dating website Plenty of Fish was hacked by Chris Russo a hacker from Argentina.  In his blog,  CEO Markus Frind recounts the bizarre episode, blow by blow, which ended with with Frind contacting the hacker's mother by email.

Read his story here

Bummer: Oral sex may be causing neck and head cancer

Listen up porn stars: 60 to 70% of all tonsil cancers in the United States  are now HPV-related, according to William Lydiatt, professor and chief of head and neck surgical oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. HPV  – genital warts in street talk – can set off those cancers, researchers say.

Read more here 

Wired: photographer's beat is the underworld

From Wired.com: "Photographer Taryn Simon has spent the better part of the past decade crisscrossing the US in search of rarely documented, illicit, and sometimes brutal subjects. Her straightforward images capture everything from wrongly imprisoned men exonerated by DNA evidence to confiscated counterfeit watches to a mentally retarded tiger kept illegally in Arkansas."

 Read Q & A with photographer and see photos

Diddy buys 16-year-old son $360K limo

Just what every 16-year-old kid needs – a $360K limo? Diddy just bought his kid a limo for becoming a honour student. At least the kid is doing well in school!

Read more in the Independent

Graphic: What's killing us

Have a look at this amazing graphic by Richard Johnson of the National Post that shows what we are dying of:

Go to graphic

Vacation: Rent a private island in Georgia

Looking for the ultimate get-away? Check this out – Eagle Island in Georgia is for rent for your private amusement:

Read more here

Superbowl literally a "heart-breaker"

From the Globe and Mail: "New research shows that cardiovascular deaths jumped 15 per cent in the hometown of the losing team in the days after the big game."

 

Read more here 

Male breast surgery on the rise

I suppose the women of Britain should be jealous but I have a feeling it has more to do with obesity than anything else.  This from the BBC:

"The numbers of men having breast reduction surgery is increasing, according to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS).

The association said male breast reduction operations increased by 28% last year."

Read more here