The month in review (2014-03-31)

March. Already three months into the year. Until today (partly cloudy, 5°C) spring was nowhere to be seen. We had small snow storms almost every weeks (the latest this week-end) and winter seems to never end. How depressing. I feel that I am really getting at the end of my rope with my job: the long commuting that keeps me from doing anything useful at home during the week, the teenagers' insubordination and constant insolence, absurdity and inefficiency everywhere and, in the last week, a terrible cold that made me weak and tired… So many frustrations… I can't take this anymore and feel I am on the verge of depression. But what can I do? I can't quit. All I can do is fight the darkness and rest as much as I can. I really need some change…

I took a few days off. I really needed the sleep, but above all the psychological rest… Just not having to commute, not hearing the constant noise and teenage girls chatter (busy hours with an average of 70 dB while the limit for an industrial area is 75 dB!), not having the crying babies (peak at 105 dB!) and kids running all over the place, not having to regularly scold children for not behaving… That's a great rest in itself! I wrote a little (but there's never enough time) and watched TV (the usual plus a few new shows: Cosmos: A space-time odyssey, Helix, Parade's End, Resurrection, The 100, True Detective; and a few movies: After Earth, Blue Jasmine, Star Trek: Into Darkness).

A raccoon hung around the back balcony a few times. We finally found a nice adoption family for Toffee and might be able to place Roussette soon. This week is supposed to be warm and sunny. Hope for spring and more…

Local news were saturated with stories about the Quebec provincial election with talks of possible referendum if PQ is elected or the secular charter. International news were all about the Ukraine situation and the disappearance of Malaysia Airline flight MH 370. I've gathered links to a few other interesting news stories after the jump:


Anime & Manga related, Japan, Popular Culture

• 18th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Nominees Announced (ANN)
• Streaming, Media Drives Manga Sales (ICv2)
• Naoki Urasawa's 'Master Keaton' From VIZ in December (ICv2)
• New VIZ Shojo in Q4 (ICv2)
• Interview with Dark Horse Manga Editor Carl Horn (ICv2)
• New 'Princess Mononoke' Releases (ICv2)
• Top 25 Manga Properties for Fall & Holidays 2013 (ICv2)
• Top 300 Graphic Novels for February 2014 (ICv2)
• Barefoot Gen Manga Pulled from Izumisano City's School Library Shelves (ANN)
• Macross Science-Fiction Anime Franchise Gets New TV Series (ANN)

Apple, apps and mobile devices news

• iBetterCharge puts iPhone & iPad battery notifications on your Mac (9 to 5 Mac)
• New in iOS 7.1: Big iPhone 4 performance improvements, better navigation audio, and more (9 to 5 Mac)
• Seriously though, where is the new Mac mini? (TUAW)
• Microsoft releases Office for iPad, subscription required for editing docs (Engadget)
• Sorties De Métro Montréal, l'application qui va vous simplifier la vie (MacQuébec)
• Turn Your iBooks Into Audiobooks (Of A Sort) (Cult of Mac)

Books, Digital Edition & Libraries

• Offline Magazine opens up its slick iOS platform to publishers; starting with Brooklyn Magazine (Venture Beat)
• Man arrested for vandalizing Anne Frank books at Tokyo library (The Globe and Mail)
• Japan arrest over Anne Frank book vandalism (BBC)
• Questions en rafale avec l’auteur Maxime Houde (Métro)
• Vatican digitizing 1.5 million pages from its archives (Chicago Tribune)
• Vatican Library to digitise archives with Japanese support (BBC)
• How to Buy Ebooks From Anywhere and Still Read Them All in One Place (Life Hacker)

Economy, Environment & International/U.S. Politics

• Malaysia Airlines Jet Made 'Tactical Aviation Maneuvers': Law Enforcement Officials (ABC)
• Warming melts last stable edge of Greenland ice sheet (The Telegraph)
• French President Hollande 'to name Valls as new PM' (BBC)
• Ebola outbreak in Guinea 'unprecedented': MSF (BBC)
• Climate inaction to be 'catastrophe' (BBC)

Health, home & garden

• Angry people 'risking heart attacks' (BBC)
• Blood Test Might Predict Who Will Develop Alzheimer's (Today)
• The children of Japan's Fukushima battle an invisible enemy (Reuters)
• Say bye bye to parmesan, muenster and feta: Europe wants its cheese back (The Guardian)
• Faut-il laisser son chat sortir dehors? (Canoe)
• Making Vaccination Mandatory for All Children (NYT)
• Autism Rate Soars in CDC Study (ABC)
• Study: Daylight saving time linked to heart attacks (The Globe and Mail)
• More people will catch TB from their cats, top vet warns (The Telegraph)
• Pet cats infect two people with TB (BBC)
• Manger bio, manger local: quels sont les avantages? (Canoe)
• Connaitre les notions de base sur les hypothèques (24h digital)

Local News & National Politics

• Il retrace lui-même les suspects (24h)
• La STM patiente en attendant que les premières voitures Azur soient à point (Métro)
• Hydro-Québec peut augmenter ses tarifs de 4,3 % le 1er avril (La Presse)
• Dossier Élections Québec 2014 (La Presse)
• Dossier Élections Québec 2014 (Le Devoir)
• Indépendance: Marois conserverait le dollar canadien et une frontière ouverte (Le Devoir)
• Le Québec ne serait pas accro à la péréquation (Le Devoir)
• L’effet PKP profite aux libéraux de Couillard (Le Devoir)
• Le PQ s’inquiète pour rien, dit le DGE (Le Devoir)
• Group calls for proportional representation in Quebec (The Gazette)
• Anglophone students worry their votes are being suppressed (The Gazette)

Media, Culture, Entertainment & Society

• The 2014 Oscars Recap (Esquire)
• Streaming Passing TV (ICv2)
• England 'divided into readers and watchers' (BBC)
• 'Game of Thrones' End Point Revealed (ICv2)
• Night Life Montréal 1950 (Youtube)
• Journalism's Digital Resurrection (Business Insider, Vice News' link)
• It's no longer illegal to rip CDs [in the UK] (Wired)
• Broadchurch wins Broadcasting Press Guild hat-trick (BBC)
• George R.R. Martin Releases Chapter From New 'Game of Thrones' Book (Mashable)

Sciences & History

• $10M Calif. Gold Coin Hoard Found in Yard May Have Been Stolen From Mint (ABC)
• Among the Wounded in Syria’s War: Ancient History (NYT)
• 4,000-year-old Dartmoor burial find rewrites British bronze age history (The Guardian)
• Mysterious underground caves discovered in Chile (The Telegraph)
• Big Bang breakthrough announced; gravitational waves detected (CNN)
• Oldest Evidence of Human Cancer Discovered in African Tomb (ABC)
• Big Bang Discovery Opens Doors to the "Multiverse" (National Geographic)
• NASA Discovers New Gully on Mars (NBC)
• Gravitational waves discovery: 'We have a first tantalizing glimpse of the cosmic birth pangs' (The Guardian)
• 1,300-year-old Egyptian mummy had tattoo of Archangel Michael (Fox)
• Newly Discovered Dwarf Planet Hints at 'Super Earth' in Far Reaches of Solar System (ABC)
• Distant new world may point to undiscovered planets in solar system (The Guardian)
• Augustus rules again as Rome acts to restore lost mausoleum (The Observer)
• British experts say they have found London’s long-lost Black Death graves (The Globe and Mail)
• Black death was not spread by rat fleas, say researchers (The Observer)
• Comet lander checks in with Earth (BBC)
• Black Death skeletons unearthed by Crossrail project (BBC)

Technology, Gadgets & Internet

• Les fantômes de Facebook, ces amis dont on ne reçoit plus les messages (L'Express)
• GE-backed Quirky Aros is a window air conditioner with Nest smarts, controlled by iPhone (9 to 5 Mac)
• LG introduces Smart Bulbs complete with iOS support (iMore)

Union stuff & Montreal's libraries

• Pétition contre les coupures d'heures dans les bibliothèques de CDN-NDG: Ne fermez pas nos bibliothèques ! (lien)
• ‎Le Bureau des régimes de retraite de Montréal (lien)
• Une coalition syndicale réclame un retour à la négociation (24h)

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