Oops! I was busy working on some writing for the week and completely missed that there was supposed to be a set of links that went up this morning. I did my annual Video Game Awards / VGX / The Game Awards write-up that will be posted this Thursday. I’m also working on the Doctor Who review for this week. There will also be a gaming column up either tomorrow or Tuesday.

For now, we have some links to do. Since I’ve been doing a lot of games writing, let’s kick off with Brooke Lawson who the internet might better know under the stage name Dodger.

The terrorists in the Paris attacks didn’t use any super-secret encryption or other under the radar means to plan the attack. They did it right under everyone’s noses. (Wall Street Journal)

It’s already time to start year-end awards. MacLean’s names Justin Trudeau their newsmaker of the year. (MacLean’s)

What do you really know about the John Furlong case? I’m guessing very little that is factually accurate. You see, the abuse allegations against John Furlong were never proved false in a court of law. In fact, the only legal proceeding regard Furlong that went before the courts has proven that people are allowed to make statements that are not necessarily accurate when defending oneself from a serious attack. So here are the sworn affidavits alleging abuse at the hands of John Furlong. (Canadaland)

A new book says that the roots of modern American conservative culture started in the blue state of California in the 1930s. (Salon)

Miss World Canada won’t be going to the Miss World finals in China after speaking out about human rights abuses in that country. (Reuters)

In ongoing GOP news, they’re still panicking over Donald Trump winning the nomination. (The Hill)

While the world is focused on ISIS, the wealthy Arab countries are ignoring them. (PolitiFact)

The head of the DEA doesn’t believe in the medicinal properties of marijuana. Now, over 100,000 people have signed a position to have him resign and replaced. (Mother Jones)

Former Miss USA / Miss Universe Olivia Culpo has dumped Tim Tebow after two months because of his famed abstinence pledge. (The Big Lead)

“Russian sailor drank half a litre of rum before crashing 7,000-ton ship full speed into Scotland.” (The Independent)

I don’t know if you noticed from watching Game of Thrones but The Mountain is a scary dude. He just set a world record in the strongman keg toss event and made it look stupidly easy.