Author: Steve Murray

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Sunday Link-Off: Cracking the Case

alex-morgan-health16-02Good news! The Donald Trump link (singular) is buried below the fold. Instead, you can read all about Rob Ford. No, don’t compare the two and Jimmy Kimmel explains why Ford is the better person in a link after the jump.

Anyway, it’s Sunday which means we’re doing the links. Since she missed a critical penalty kick at the Olympics, here’s American soccer star Alex Morgan.

The moment the world was waiting for has finally arrived. The Rob Ford crack video has finally been released. (CBC News)

Kevin Donovan talks about his time working on the crack video story. (Toronto Star)

Three years after the scandal first broke, people still care. Did the Toronto press care? (Torontoist)

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

Clash Royale, Pay-to-Win Mechanics and Your Wallet

clash-royale-bannerI’m not sure a day goes by that I don’t see justified complaints about Clash Royale over on Reddit. The game doesn’t attempt to match make on skill but is often determined by who has the better cards. Emotes should be mutable. The tournament system has died without Supercell propping it up.

There’s a perfectly good reason why Supercell isn’t addressing any of this: Money. Addressing these issues would likely take money out of Supercell’s pocket not just through the costs of making the changes but the loss of revenue from making them.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Sports

The History of Daily Fantasy Sports (Infographic)

With the NFL preseason getting underway starting with the Hall Of Fame Game this weekend, fantasy football season is coming soon. Not everyone is going to just play their usual leagues. Daily Fantasy Sports is a multi-billion dollar industry. Whether you think that it’s gambling or a legal form of skill-based entertainment, daily fantasy sports is a big deal in sports but it’s not exactly new. In fact, while fantasy sports has been around for over 70 years, daily fantasy is actually almost ten years old. For more fun facts on fantasy sports, we have this handy infographic for you.

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Wednesday Link-Off: This Again?

aimee-teegarden-tca16-02Yes, sorry, we’re talking US politics again. When one of the candidates is a walking controversy machine, it makes it very easy to come up with links. At some point, something noteworthy might happen in the world that breaks through the noise but we’re stuck with Trump for a while now.

Anyway, it’s Wednesday so that means we’re doing the links. Let’s kick things off with Aimee Teegarden.

Argue as he might, the polls aren’t skewed and Donald Trump is actually losing to Hilary Clinton in the polls. (FiveThirtyEight)

Not helping Trump is that fact that he claims that Clinton is owned by Wall Street while proposing reform to specifically benefit Wall Street. (Think Progress)

And yesterday, he said that “second amendment people” could stop Hilary. He claims it’s about their ability to band together but it sure sounded like a call to arms. (The Guardian)

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Randominity

The Most Famous High-Functioning Alcoholics (Infographic)

When you think of alcoholics, you think of people whose addiction results in their lives falling apart around them. What you don’t realize is that some 20% of alcoholics are able to keep everything together despite their problems with the drink. These people are high-functioning alcoholics and the could be anything from your neighbour to a famous actor to leaders of men. To learn more about some famous high-functioning alcoholics and the signs of one being a high-functioning alcoholic, we have this handy infographic for your perusal.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Humour, Sports

Olympic Fails of the Week

Sure, we’re only a couple of days into the 2016 Olympics / LOLympics / Apocalympics but there have been all sort of failures at this year’s Rio Summer Games. So here eight pictures, videos, tweets and news stories with just some of the epic fails from the Rio Apocalympics so far. (Don’t worry. The French gymnast isn’t in here. That would be cruel.)

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Sunday Link-Off: Apocalympics

nina-dobrev-instagram16-01bSo the 2016 Olympics are underway and none of the athletes have died as of writing. That’s a massive surprise considering all that’s gone wrong in the run up to the Olympics. The best thing to come out of Rio 2016 so far is the alternative to “LOLympics” of “Apocalympics.” Considering the dangerous conditions of Rio, that’s a more appropriate term.

Anyway, it’s Sunday which means that we’re here to do the links. Let’s kick things off with Nina Dobrev.

Right-leaning media personality Glenn Beck says that Russia hacked Hilary Clinton’s emails to take her down. This on top of smoke regarding Trump and his team’s connections to Russia can’t be coincidence. (The Hill)

President Trump would be hard on immigration despite immigration being a major part of American history and culture. Would he be as hard on his wife? Her record with regards to immigration and work visas is raising some serious questions. (Politico)

A woman in Dallas just ruined public information requests for the rest of us. She filed 89 of them and uncovered a Secret Service sex scandal. (Dallas Morning News)

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Best of LAGTV’s When Cheese Fails

I think I’ve mentioned a few times on the blog that I’m a big StarCraft fan. Even if I’m absolutely terrible at the game, I love watching competitive StarCraft and consider the WCS Championship and Homestory Cup appointment viewing. For more regular content, there is the folks over at Life’s A Glitch TV. They have regular content on YouTube and tournaments on Twitch which are almost always entertaining, even if the games they are sent aren’t perfect.

LAGTV has a couple of regular series and today we take a look at some of their best When Cheese Fails matches.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Randominity

The Most and Least Ticketed Cars (Infographic)

Have you wondered if you have picked the right or wrong car? Sure, professional car reviews and consumer reviews can help you somewhat but those just tell you how good the car is when it’s running and not any attention it might get that will leave you stopped on the side of the road. Yes, tickets are a near inevitability of driving but not all cars attract the same attention from the police.

The folks over at Insurance.com did a study looking at the tickets of over 300,000 drivers to see which were the most and least ticketed cars. Then our friends at Your Mechanic synthesized that into infographic form to see which cars to buy to avoid tickets. The answer is GM vehicles because cops feel bad enough for you because you drive a GM.

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Wednesday Link-Off: Reign of Terror

margot-robbie-vanityfair16-07Both US political conventions are done and we’re moving onto the final three months of the campaign and the end can’t come soon enough. Granted, it seems like Trump is trying very hard keep things unintentionally entertaining unless you’re a staunch ABC (anybody but Clinton) voter. In that case, you have to be hope that independents are too busy laughing at you to vote at all.

Anyway, it’s Wednesday which means that it’s time for us to do the links. Let’s kick things off with Margot Robbie since Suicide Squad opens this week. Unfortunately, DC continues to struggle with movies. Perhaps they should stick to TV.

The Philippines is in a state of terror as the police embark on state sanctioned killing of drug suspects. (ABC News)

Why is Donald Trump going easy on Russia and Vladimir Putin? It could be because Trump’s businesses have financial ties to Russia while his advisors have business ties to Russia. (Time)

One of the great investors and business minds of any generation, Warren Buffet, explains how Trump once lost investors 90% over a period when everyone else made 150%. (CNN Money)

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