Religious Tourism in Quebec?

With the canonization of Brother Andre, Quebec is hoping to cash in on the estimated $18 million dollar faith tourism industry. They'd like to attract pious visitors to such sites as  St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal or Our lady of the Cape Shrine in Trois-Rivieres.

But wait! There's other holy places to visit in Quebec!

What about...

A farm in Warwick where it is said that in 1957 Fernand Lachance invented poutine, exclaiming: "Ca va faire une maudite poutine!" (It will make a hell of a mess).

Or Rue St-Hubert in Montreal where, in 1951, the very first St. Hubert rotisserie chicken restaurant opened.

Or one of the many dépanneurs from Hull to the Gaspé where René Lévesque bought his smokes.



The End is Near for Tumblr!

Tumblr has been a favorite for microbloggers. But with Yahoo's acquisition of it will things stay the same? Tumblr's profits, while being a popular company, have remained very low: Under $10 million a year. This was good for users because it meant that there was nobody to sue! For years the site was the bane for those protecting their copyrighted material. Yahoo, a major corporation, gives them somebody to go after. I wouldn't be surprised to see major changes from here on in as Y! protects itself and, also, monetizes the site.

Microsoft unveils its new Xbox One...

http://goo.gl/RF5Ny

Sexy Girls Wearing...Corsets?

Everything old is new again!

And, to a large extent, the corset is back in style!

The fashion industry has rediscovered corsets! Today you can even get one that looks authentic but doesn't effect the shape of your body.

What is it?

The corset was originally a quilted waistcoat with lacing which, when tightened, changed the shape of the body: Usually giving thin people an hourglass figure by reducing the width of the waist.

Even some men have been known to wear corsets. Infact it was a fad in the 1820's:
Every guy had to get one to improve his shapely figure!

Why?

By restricting their bodies wearing a corset people would change shape, attaining a thin waist. Ethel Granger held the record for the smallest waist at 13 inches...

It goes to show that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder!

Most people who wear corsets don't wish to achieve such a traumatic waist reduction, though. Many women who wear them today shoot for 2 to 3 inches.

Today corsets are very popular in the bdsm and goth communities.

Interesting fact:

Some people wear corsets for medical reasons. After Andy Warhol was shot in 1968, he wore a corset to prevent the wound from worsening.

Do corsets do it for you?
	Yes!
	No! They're some sort of torture device left over from centuries past.
pollcode.com free polls

The Indestructible Fidel Castro

With conservatives railing about Canadians who holiday in Cuba, calling it a dictatorship worse than Stalin's, and Fidel's recent retirement from politics, here's a look back on how Fidel Castro beat overwhelming odds to live so long...

With numerous attempts having been made on his life, Castro has proven himself to be indestructible. Now retired at 84 years of age, he has outwitted every assassination plot. One anecdote about his longevity is that he once declined a gift of tortoises, who can live for up to 200 years, because he feared that the pets would die on him.

And there's more than a few people who wanted him dead. The American government plotted against his life ever since he swung toward communism in 1960, the mafia wanted to see him finished as he had put an end to organized crime and casinos, and Cuban exiles wanted him nixed because they lost everything during the revolution.

Cuba had been a 1950's paradise. A Caribbean Las Vegas frequented by the rich and famous. But American capitalism owned everything and the leader, Fulgencio Batista, was corrupt.

It was Batista who first tried to have Castro killed. He fled to Mexico. Then, despite overwhelming military odds, Castro returned and seized power and popularity. After Batista fled, the U.S. considered eliminating Castro as he began to execute 1000s of Batista's supporters and started to collectivize agriculture. Everything from poison pills to exploding cigars was considered. The CIA even considered a powder to make his beard fall out or getting him to accidentally ingest LSD so that his supporters would think that he's crazy. Since Castro enjoyed scuba diving, a colourful sea shell full of explosives also sounded like a good idea.

After the failure of The Bay of Pigs, killing Castro became an obsession for the Kennedy's. Operation Mongoose consisted of a covert bombing campaign against the island where they blew up factories, burned crops, and armed rebels. But after the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, America agreed not to invade Cuba.

In 2000, 200Ibs of explosives were put under a podium where Castro was to speak in Panama, probably by Cuban exiles. However, the bomb was discovered by his security. He has hundreds of men guarding him and even uses look-a-likes to confuse possible attackers.

Now retired, he has outlived his contemporaries and many tortoises.

6 Evil Canadians You Probably Never Heard Of

More recently we've hears a lot of Canadian murderers thanks to the likes of Luka Magnotta, Col. Russell Williams, Robert Pickton, and Paul Bernardo.  These people are evil Canadians that many know of. On the surface, the Great White North may look all innocent with its maple syrup and Celine Dion. But when you scratch the surface there's more:

William Lyon Mackenzie King

Mack with his Nazi friends.

The 10th Prime Minister of Canada was a man who spoke to ghosts and decided foreign policy with a ouiji board. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lyon_Mackenzie_King

The Mad Trapper of Rat River

A loner turned crazed madman, nobody is sure exactly who the Mad Trapper was. But people were glued to their radios in 1932 as he led the Mounted Police on a crazed chase. With superhuman ability he survived them blowing up his cabin, shootouts, and -40 weather. He scaled cliffs during blizzards to get away from the men who were hunting him down, covering 85 miles in 3 days. But the RCMP always get their man and he was killed in a final gun fight.

http://cm.mountainlifemag.ca/2011/11/in-this-issue-the-mad-trapper-of-rat-river/

Roch Thériault

Thériault was Canada's Charlie Manson. A cult leader who inspired love and support from his followers, he began doing operations on them. After pulling teeth out with tweezers, castrating a boy, he accidently disembowled his wife. In prison for murder he became a victim of murder himself when a fellow inmate stabbed him.

Roch Thériault

Richard Blass

An amateur boxer who found an interest in the mafia, Richard Blass couldn't stand how Italians controlled the criminal underworld of Montreal. So with his own gang he became a crime kingpin. Known as, 'The Cat,' because he survived so many assassination attempts, he was a multiple murderer and escaped from prison twice. He was killed by police in 1975.

Richard Blass

John Hamilton

Canadians even made friends with people like John Dillinger. John 'Red' Hamilton helped Dillinger escape from prison and rob banks.

John Hamilton

Harold Ballard

Probably one of the most evil Canadians, he was like the Joseph Stalin of professional hockey. Running the Toronto Maple Leafs into the ground, he was owner from the 1960s into the 1980s. Micromanaging the team, he drove players crazy and insured the Leafs would never win a Stanley Cup. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Ballard

http://vintageleafs.blogspot.ca/2011_06_01_archive.html

Real Zombies? Some People Have Woken Up From Death

Have you ever gone to the hospital with an ailment, forgotten what went on next, and then woke up in the morgue? It's happened to some people.

Jesus may have raised Lazarus from being dead. These people awoke more recently without His help...

In Russia Lyudmila Steblitskaya has awoken from death not once: But twice! In October 2012 her heart stopped but doctors were able to resuscitate the grandmother. But then in November she died for good. Her distraught daughter made all of the arrangements for the funeral. But after being packed away at the morgue for three days, she woke up complaining that her skin was peeling from the severe cold. http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/features/a-dead-siberian-woman-speaks-of-miracle-on-coming-back-to-life-after-three-nights-in-morgue/

In China Li Xiufeng scared/astounded friends after being dead for six days. In February 2012 she succumbed to a head injury and was found not breathing. She was put in a coffin in her home so that people could pay their last respects. Terrified neighbours found the coffin empty and Ms. Xiufeng in her kitchen cooking. The real downside to coming back from the dead in China is that all of her possessions had been burned, in accordance to local tradition. http://www.weirdasianews.com/2012/03/09/chinese-woman-declared-dead-climbs-coffin/

In Venezuela Carlos Camejo died in a car accident. During the autopsy as medical examiners began cutting into him, he felt excruciating pain and sprang screaming back to life. http://odditiesunsolved.tumblr.com/post/14493407024/carlos-camejo-33-was-declared-dead-after-a

For a more comprehensive list of people who've come back from the great beyond: http://theweek.com/article/index/228986/7-bizarre-tales-of-people-coming-back-from-the-dead

Many doctors believe these cases can be attributed to, 'artificial death.' A rare condition in which the heart rate is so slow it can't be recorded...Which reminds me of real zombies...

Tetrodotoxin is a poison which mimics an artificial death. Check out the movie, 'The Serpent and the Rainbow' which is based on the story of a botanist who travels to Haiti to find out about a drug purported to kill people and bring them back in a zombie-like state.

Denis Rodman has gone from this:

To this:

He use to have cooler friends. Going to North Korea to pal around with his new soulmate, Kim Jong-un, he probably doesn't understand what many of the DPRK's citizens live like. The irony is that if a North Korean dyed their hair and wore a wedding dress they'd end up here...

Also known as Hoeryong concentration camp, and part of a large system of prison camps throughout the communist dictatorship, Camp 22 is an 87-square-mile penal colony located in the North Hamgyong province colony where most of the prisoners are people accused of criticizing the government.

Inmates, most of whom are serving life sentences, face harsh and often lethal conditions.

According to the testimony of a former guard from Camp22, prisoners live in bunk houses with 100 people per room and some 30 percent bear the markings of torture and beatings -- torn ears, gouged eyes and faces covered with scars.

Prisoners are forced to stand on their toes in tanks filled with water up to their noses for 24 hours, stripped and hanged upside-down while being beaten or given the infamous "pigeon torture” -- where both hands are chained to a wall at a height of 2 feet, forcing them to crouch for hours at a time.

Tiny rations of watery corn porridge leave inmates on the brink of starvation, and many hunt rats, snakes and frogs for protein. Some even take the drastic measure of searching through animal dung for undigested seeds to eat. Beatings are handed out daily for offenses as simple as not bowing down in respect to the guards fast enough. Prisoners are used as practice targets during martial arts training. Guards routinely rape female inmates...

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/01/hell-holes-torture-starvation-and-murder-norm-at-worlds-worst-gulags/

The comptometer is a type of mechanical calculator, in use before electronic machines were invented in the 1960s and '70s. This model was made by the Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company of Chicago and looks like a model from the 1940s. 

They were incredibly fast for addition as the operator could use all fingers to strike the keys simultaneously, sometimes making them superior to calculators. Complicated, they required hours and hours of training to use.

http://typewriters.tumblr.com/

Inside the DPRK

Google chairmen Eric Schmidt recently went to North Korea. Here is his daughter's excellent account of the trip: https://sites.google.com/site/sophieinnorthkorea/