The eight qualifier and four wildcard spots for the upcoming Intel Extreme Masters Season IX event at Fan Expo in Toronto have been set. Over 200 StarCraft II players tried to enter the biggest SC2 tournament in Canada this year but only eight qualified straight through to the group stages.
Wednesday Link-Off: And It’s Only Wednesday
So I was having a conversation at my day job yesterday talking about plans for the rest of the week. However, my rest of the week plans were only for Thursday and Friday because I was convinced that yesterday was Wednesday. You would think that working on my usual Wednesday post yesterday would have tipped me off but I’ve had a long week this week and it’s only Wednesday.
But since it’s Wednesday, it’s time for the links. Let’s start with Canadian model Michea Crawford.
It doesn’t matter where you work or what you do, you have a right to a safe workplace, both mentally and physically. Writers at Jezebel have seen their mental well-being come under threat as anonymous accounts are posting rape GIFs on their website but Gawker won’t do anything to deal with it. (Jezebel)
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford received a bomb threat telling him to resign or be blown up. Smoking crack on camera multiple times didn’t stop him. A bomb threat didn’t either. (National Post)
Education might not be the great equalizer after all. A recent study shows black men need more education than their white counterparts to get a job. (The Atlantic)
Fails of the Week
Every so often, we take a look at the most epic fails from the week that was in the Fails of the Week. This week, we have five pictures and videos that we think are the most epic fails of the week. As an added treat, I even have one from my hometown this week.
Car Wall: New for 2015
Since we’ve quasi-relaunched The Lowdown Blog today, I thought that we should do something a little bit different and little bit special for the official launch of the redesign. That’s why today features the first update of the Car Wall in a blog post in over five years. Yeah, this has been coming for a while.
If you’ve been following us since 2007, you know that the Car Wall is sort of what kicked off our Man Lab. The Car Wall is all about those cars that will get you attention from women. The cooler a car is, the more attention that you should get. For example, Kias and Hyundais aren’t cool because they out you as cheap which is not a good first impression.
So for today’s car wall, we have five cars to rate as the new model year gets underway.
Welcome to the New Look Lowdown Blog
If you stopped by the blog this weekend, you might have noticed that we’ve updated our look. It’s been a while in coming. Lest my memory fail me, we last updated the look of the blog in 2012 for The Lowdown’s 5th anniversary. We’re a bit short of seven years of doing The Lowdown but we thought we were due for an update.
There are few big changes to the blog with this update. The first one you’ll notice is that we’ve gone from a mostly black layout to a mostly white one. While I like the black layouts we’ve traditionally used, the white is easier to read so I think everyone is going to like that change. The sidebars with all the social media, search, archive and other widgets (including our logo) are permanent fixtures and on both sides of the page now. We’ve also added pictures to the related posts listing at the bottom of the page.
So take a look around the new blog and tell us what you think. If you notice any issues, drop us a line in the comments to this post.
Sunday Link-Off: Working Overtime
Hello and happy Sunday. There’s absolutely nothing new for you to look at today. Nope. Not at all. Any layout changes are a figment of your imagination… unless you’re reading tomorrow in which case you are seeing a new blog theme. Funny how that works.
Anyway, it’s time for us to do the links. Let’s kick things off with Chrissy Tiegen.
Is there a labour shortage in Canada? If you ask the Fraser Institute… who the hell knows because they don’t really understand the study they’re trying to do. (MacLean’s)
President Obama is being sued over signing “too many” executive orders into law but no one’s complained about his latest one. It’s a big piece of workers’ rights reform and it could be the biggest piece of legislation signed into law this term. (Slate)
Sponsored content in news publications seems like a new problem but is actually something that dates back many, many years. (Paleofuture)
Entertainment Link-Off: Short and Sweet
Let’s keep it short and simple this week. I am currently busy from the Melbourne International Film Festival screenings, so I’m a bit short on words this week in the ELO. Perhaps you can catch some of my updates from the film fest when I get around to posting them all! In the meantime, let’s kick things off with Nina Dobrev at the Let’s Be Cops premiere.
After the jump, imagine if GoT had a subway line, Bear Grylls tells us how to survive movie situations, watch Chris Pratt rap and finally catch Nina tackling giant beer pong with Jimmy Fallon. Continue reading
The Walking Dead: Season Two – Episode Four (Spoiler-Free) Review: My Body is a Cage
One of the advantages of being behind on playing an episodic game like The Walking Dead: Season Two is that you can play multiple episodes in quick succession. I didn’t get into the first season until a random Steam Sale so I was able to go through the first three episodes at the same time. There’s something to be said about being able to keep the story rolling by binging episodes. It works for TV so why wouldn’t it for video games?
Once again, my habit of going contrary to the consensus critical opinion continues in this review. While critics rated it as the worst episode of the season, I have it as the second-best. So what did I see that no one else did?
The Walking Dead: Season Two – Episode Three (Spoiler-Free) Review: Survival, From a Certain Point of View
For some reason, my views of this season of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead skews opposite of that of most reviewers. While I absolutely loved Episode Two, many were lukewarm relative to me. Then I look at Episode One and most critics liked it more than I did.
Episode Two introduced William Carver, the antagonist for this season of the game, and the story made a turn for the darker which is something that strikes a chord with me. The majority of critics called it the best episode of TWD Season Two when it came out. I won’t go that far but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a good episode of the game.
Wednesday Link-Off: All The Write Stuff
I know that only writers and aspiring writers care about writing and other writers but there are a lot of links today about sports writers and sports writing. That might not be everyone’s cup of tea but hopefully there’s a link for everyone in today’s post.
But before we get to the links, let’s start with Nina Agdal.
Texas’ war on abortions isn’t really doing much to promote the “right to life” of unborn children as endangering them and their mothers when they look for abortions. (Washington Post)
The UN has released satellite photos showing Gaza before and after Israel bombarded it. (Sploid)
It seems like it might just be a coincidence but your name might an impact on your life. (The Atlantic)
The Lowdown 