Rotundus.com

Axelle Lemaire: Canadian wins bid for French parliament seat - in London

Odd yet somewhat interesting. Apparently France has added extra-territorial seats to its legislature. Axelle Lemaire won the "Northern Europe" seat - and the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister seems to like griping about the French also having a North American seat. I don't really agree with his objection.

Two studies suggest loneliness can shorten your life

"They found that lonely participants have a higher risk of death. They are also more likely to experience a decline in their activities of daily living compared to people who do not see themselves as lonely. They also found that lonely people are more likely to have readmissions to hospital, poorer quality of life, longer recovery time and a greater chance of medical complications."

Generation Y outspends older Canadians on luxury travel, fashion and dining

Budgetting fail given the current debt situation of many in that age range?

Abortion / breast cancer

The piece's basic argument: that's there a conflict of interest similar to that seen by Big Tobacco in prior decades as far as denying an link between abortion and breast cancer goes. Some bits overstate the case, but the basic idea seems sound.

This comes via BoingBoing, which notes that the same company is apparently planning to attempt to build the world's tallest building and build all 220 floors in only 90 days. Would be nice if all construction went this fast. The Japanese seem pretty good at fast construction as well, rebuilding a freeway in 6 days.

The building in the video above seems to be a bit more prefab than I'd generally expect for construction - but that might not be a bad thing. The builder claims that it can withstand a magnitude 9 earthquake while having a lot of environmentally friendly features as well).

Environmental summits lose value as past pledges go unmet

"“We don’t need the heads of state here, frankly,” Pat Mooney, executive director of ETC Group, an Ottawa-based environmental organization, said from Rio. “Quite honestly the grandstanding around some of these treaties, it was nonsense and we knew it was nonsense at the time.”"

Cupid's Arrow Turns Digital

The pros and cons of online dating based on an interview with one of the authors of a meta-analysis of studies on the topic.

New Study Says You Don't Want To Work With The Opposite Sex

"most workers were much more likely to choose to collaborate with someone of the same gender. Men were as likely to do so as women."

Out Of Africa

"The growth in the sub-Saharan African population is projected to be larger than the entire population of China. The population of Europe is expected to barely change over the period, going from 738 million in 2010 to 702 million in 2060. The population of northern America – the United States and Canada – is expected to grow from 345 million to 466 million. Put together, Europe and Northern America go from 1.08 billion to 1.17 billion. Again, the increase in the the sub-Saharan African population is projected to be larger than this entire region."

Now we just need faster-than-light travel or travel through wormholes or something.

(The highlighted bit in the middle is our solar system. Larger version of the pic available here).