Blog Posts by Jordan Chittley

  • Ikea product names sound like sex acts in Thailand

    The company has hired translators to fix the problem

    Most of us have probably owned a Borje, an Expedit or a Vika, but how about a Redalen.

    It's a town in Norway and a bed being sold by Swedish furniture chain Ikea. But it's also a word that resembles getting to third base in Thailand.

    As the Wall Street Journal reports, the company is having trouble getting their hard-to-pronounce item names to work around the world.

    In addition to the Redalen bed, they are selling the Jattebra plant pot, which sounds in part like a crude sex term.

    Ikea's solution is now to hire translators so the terms stop being misinterpreted.

    "The Swedish...words are important because they bring a unique character to the brand," said Natthita Opaspipat, who spent nearly four years preparing for Ikea's Bangkok launch, to the Journal.

    This is a growing problem for many companies. In China, Microsoft's search engine Bing sounds like "illness" or "pancake" so they changed it to "biying", similar to an expression

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  • Paraguay’s president, a former bishop, admits fathering another child

    Fernado Lugo's lawyer announced he fathered a now 10-year-old boy while still a man of the cloth

    Ray Lewis, Shawn Kemp and Evander Holyfield have another member of the group of men who have fathered many children with many different women.

    But Fernando Lugo isn't an athlete, he's the president of Paraguay and used to be a Catholic bishop.

    World Church reports Lugo's lawyer announced the president is the father of a now 10-year-old boy. In 2009, he also publicly confessed to having a son with another woman and there are still two paternity cases pending from another two women. All the cases are from the time when he was working as a priest.

    One of the women waiting for a decision told World Church Lugo has another three sons, all with different women.

    The boy Lugo has just confessed to fathering is named Angel and has his step-father's last name, but Lugo's lawyer said he's working to give Angel the last name of Lugo.

    "The kid knew that his dad wasn't going to reject him. He can't deny

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  • Ilias Kasidiaris slaps Greek political foe on live TV

    A manhunt is underway for the Golden Dawn member who escaped a locked room and ran away

    A spokesman for a Greek far-right party has caused quite an uproar after throwing a glass of water at one leftist politician and then hitting another one in the face three times. And he did it all on live on television during a morning show.

    Ilias Kasidiaris of the Golden Dawn party was locked in a room at the TV studio, but he broke down the door and escaped.

    ITV News is reporting an arrest warrant has been issued and a manhunt is on for Kasidiaris.

    Greek far-right politician slaps rival on TVA Greek prosecutor orders the arrest of a far-right Golden Dawn party deputy after he slapped another politician on live television. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

    Kasidiaris, who is a member of parliament, took offense to a comment made by radical left Syriza party member Rena Dorou about a pending court case against him. He jumped out of his chair and threw water at her for saying there was a "crisis of

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  • LinkedIn confirms hacking, urges users to change passwords

    LinkedIn is confirming that the site has been hacked and as many as 6.5 million users may have had account details stolen.

    In a blog post written Wednesday afternoon by Director Vincenta Silveira, he writes "some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts."

    He writes they are continuing to investigate and has some advice for users.

    Members who have an account  that have been compromised will notice their password no longer works. They will receive an email from LinkedIn with instructions to reset their password, but the email will have no link in it. Once you have reset your password,  you will receive an email notification from LinkedIn.

    In a separate earlier post, Silveira provides some advice on changing passwords.

    He suggests not changing it by following a link, not using the same password on all sites, not using a regular word, make it at least 10 characters with capital letter, punctuation and symbols. He also recommends signing out after using a

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  • ‘Mosquitoes’ being used to fight vandalism in Vancouver

    The devices emit a shrill noise only teens can hear and may soon be in schools

    Vancouver area schools have a problem with vandalism, but luckily they have a solution. It's a controversial device called the Mosquito and it emits a shrill noise only teenagers can hear. The goal is to prevent some of the $500,000 a year of vandalism on schools.

    According to Postmedia News the Vancouver School Board is fast-tracking plans to reintroduce the device to prevent further attacks.

    The Mosquito, designed in the U.K., works with our gradual degradation of our hearing to pierce teens ears with a sound that is described as "nails on a chalkboard." It can often only be heard by people between the ages of 13 and 25.

    They are working to reintroduce the device because after a number had already been installed without board approval, they had to be turned off after complaints from neighbours and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

    Now the Vancouver school district has drafted regulations for schools

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  • Giant squid becomes feast for shark off Australian coast

    Al McGlashan found the deceased mysterious creature and while filming it a shark swam up looking for a meal

    Rare footage of a blue shark chowing down on a giant squid carcass off the coast of Australia is going viral.

    The Daily Telegraph fishing columnist Al McGlashan found the remains of the squid about 50 km off Jervis Bay. The squid had recently died because it was still ruby red in colour. The carcass was about three metres long without most if its tentacles which had been bitten off. While filming the carcass, a 2.5-metre long blue shark appeared and began its feast.

    "It must have died not that long before we found it because it didn't smell at all and its colours were still strong," said McGlashan in a News.com.au article. "Most giant squid remains are smelly and rotten and just off-white by the time someone finds them."

    Australian Museum squid specialist Mandy Reid told the outlet the animals can be as large as 13 metres and this one either just came to the end of its life or

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  • Borup Fiord Pass in Canadian arctic helping find alien life

    A location in northern Canada is helping scientists prepare instruments to discover if there is life on Jupiter's moon, Europa.

    Borup Fiord Pass in the Canadian High Arctic is a yellowish, sulphur-stained patch of ice and snow on Ellesmere Island that is inhabited by bacteria. Because bacteria can survive in this climate and because Europa is similar to Borup, scientists believe the moon could hold alien life and are eager to send a mission.

    But before rovers can be sent to distant planets and moons, they need to be tested on Earth. Ice and sulphur don't co-exist in many places on Earth and that's why Borup Fiord Pass is a good testing facility. According to Space.com, the Pass even looks similar to Europa.

    "The best analogue we have for what could be going on at Europa," said Geological Survey of Canada scientist Steve Grasby to Postmedia News. The more they learn about the geochemistry on Ellesmere Island, the better they will be able to design a mission to search for life on

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  • Recent ‘zombie’ attacks have people talking ‘zombie apocalypse’

    Zombies may be a thing of horror movies, but recently there has been a lot of evidence of their existence.

    First, there was the naked man in Miami who was eating another man's face. Then, a college student in Maryland confessed to police that he killed a man and ate his heart and part of his brain. Finally, a man in New Jersey stabbed himself dozens of times and threw bits of his intestines at police. People said he was walking like a zombie.

    Those events all happening close together was enough to get people talking and terms like "zombie apocalypse" were trending most days last week.

    While these cases are not humorous, it's hard not to think about the fact the zombies are coming. Maybe that roadside construction sign in Texas that read "Caution! Zombies! Ahead!!!" was on to something?

    All that talk has spurred some funny tweets.

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  • Barack Obama unknowingly sings ‘Call Me Maybe’

    Barackdubs is back with Obama's rendition of the Carly Rae Jepsen song

    We all know U.S. President Barack Obama can sing after his brief rendition of an Al Green song at the Apollo Theater in January, but now he unknowingly has performed a version of a song by a Canadian artist.

    In a clever mashup posted to YouTube by barackdubs, the president sings "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen:

    With the words of the song being "I just met you..." it may be more suited to the 2008 campaign, but it's funny regardless.

    In the past, barackdubs has shown the president singing "Sexy and I Know It", "Born This Way" and "Drink to That".

    Even if Obama didn't really sing the Jepsen song, he has sung in the past and is far from the first politician or political hopeful to do so. He sang the brief bit of the Al Green song shortly after a video of Herman Cain singing "Imagine There's No Pizza" started making the rounds online. Bill Clinton rocked out on the saxophone, Jack Layton busted out the axe on his

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  • Zombie-proof condos all sold out in Kansas, Canadians still have options

    The units built out of an old missile silo had a list price of $2 million

    If you are looking for something to protect yourself when zombies attack, we may have found just the abode for you. The only problem: the zombie-proof condos in Kansas have all sold out.

    According to the Survival Condo website, all eight units have been purchased, although one sale is still pending.

    The 1,820-square-foot condos come with an indoor pool (definitely not above ground) and spa, exercise facility, classroom, library, movie threatre, minor surgery centre and an elevator. Owners also get off-the-grid power thanks to a wind turbine and solar panels. Next to the sold notice, the website also states that they "now have an in-house dentist/orthodontist!!!!" on level 3a. Oh and did we mention it comes with a weapons cache.

    All of this went for $2 million for a full floor.

    The place was rated by Mother Nature Network as one of the "best U.S. places to survive the apocalypse."

    The condos weren't dug into the

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