So much happened in the last four months (since the last notable news entry), that I wouldn’t know where to start. I’ll try to recall the highlights, but I’ll try to be brief.

On the domestic front we had a bout of extreme cold (while in the opposite hemisphere they had the hottest weather in nearly eight decades!). For the rest of the time we had the (now) usual cycle of freeze (snow) / defreeze (rain) with more snow than usual (at least more than last year; 195 cm so far). At work it is the usual hell, but I guess I came to term with it, becoming more zen (i.e. no giving a f**k) but I am still set into trying to find another job (in a quieter library, some place closer to home, maybe some desk job but I would rather prefer to keep working with books).

My blog was hacked and I finally made a move to a proper WordPress hosting. It is still a work in progress (still lots of repair to do), but I am now very satisfied with the look of the new blog. Of course, I’ve been more busy working on the blog itself and I didn’t write as much as I would have liked (but, still, I kept busy with some reviews, an essay on the art of reviewing and some articles like a biographical notice, a bibliography update, indexes, etc).

I had lots of trouble to have the city cut a branch of the tree in front of our house because it was touching the electric wires. The expensive repair/renovation in the backyard & balcony couldn’t be completed before the arrival of the cold weather (bad planning and lots of wasted time). The stupid contractor didn’t even provide an invoice so we cannot file our subsidy demands and he didn’t even bother to respond when we demanded that the work be completed in a timely manner in spring!

The digestion problems I’ve had since the beginning of the year convinced me to finally submit to tests and I had to endure a coloscopy (the test itself lasted just fifteen minutes but the two days of liquid diet and “preparation” were hellish!). They found that I was suffering from fatty liver and a sigmoidal diverticulosis (which could complicate into a diverticulitis). More stuff to be careful about…

This string of problems made me rather depressed. What’s the purpose to constantly fight if it is to simply eat in order to work, and work in order to be able to eat? I felt like the entropy of the world was catching up to me: the world was stopping making any sense, I was getting tired and weaker, everything was crumbling around me! Fortunately, writing and working on the blog was some sort of therapy for me and I now feel much better. Spring will be arriving in a little more than a month (despite mixed signals from the groundhogs) and we’ll be able to enjoy flowers under the sun again!

In the news, Catalonia declared independence from Spain, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital (killing all chances of peace in the Middle East), Disney acquired most of 21st Century Fox, the #metoo social awakening happened, the U.S. government shotdown twice, the Dow Jones dropped,  SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket with a Tesla car as payload (!), there was a missile false alarm in Hawaii and Japan, we had various disasters (wild fires in California, mudslides, earthquakes, floods in Europe), and the usual Trump craziness makes me despair for some sanity. Finally, there nothing much on TV since it’s the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics!

Despite everything, I managed to stay a little acquainted with the affairs of the world and gathered many notable news & links — which I now share with you (in both french or english, slightly categorized, but in no particular order — note that, to save on coding time, the links will NOT open in a new window as usual), after the jump.

[ Traduire ]

Apple Stuff

• Apple adds live news to its TV app (Engadget)
• Apple Introduces ‘Health Records’ Section Coming to Health App in iOS 11.3 (Mac Rumors)
• Apple now selling Linksys mesh Wi-Fi system as AirPort line remains unchanged (9 to 5 Mac)
• Apple discusses ‘Spectre’ and ‘Meltdown’ fixes on iOS, macOS (Engadget)
• Meltdown and Spectre: All Macs, iPhones and iPads affected (BBC)
• How to: Check iPhone battery health, DIY replace, and speed up performance (9to5Mac)
• Slow iPhone? Here’s how to check the health of your battery (Cult of Mac)
• How Apple Watch saved one man’s life — and how it’s empowering him after his heart attack (9to5Mac)
• How to combine multiple screenshots into a single image on iPhone (9to5Mac)
• Apple’s Alleged Throttling of Older iPhones With Degraded Batteries Causes Controversy (Mac Rumors)
• iPad Says “Not Charging” When Plugged Into Computer? Here’s The Fix (OS X Daily)
• Hands-On With the New Amazon Prime Video App for Apple TV (Mac Rumors)
• University study shows iPhones can miss 21% of your steps – but half of it is your fault (9to5Mac)
• Apple Classifies 2011 Mac Mini as Obsolete (Mac Rumors) [Darn!]
• Amazon Prime Video finally arrives on Apple TV (Engadget, 9to5Mac)
• Apple Pay Cash money transfers are available in the US (Engadget, 9to5Mac, Pocket Now)
• Use Apple Pay Cash with a debit card to avoid a 3% credit card transaction fee (Apple Insider)
• The complete list of Siri commands (CNET)
• iOS 11.2 enables 7.5W wireless charging for iPhone 8 and iPhone X (9to5Mac)
• There are two new ways the Apple Watch could help save your life (Cult of Mac)
• The Apple Watch can accurately detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests (Tech Crunch)
• How to remove a virus from an iPhone or iPad (Macworld)
• I chose the iPhone 8 Plus instead of waiting for iPhone X and I don’t regret it (iMore) [my thought exactly]
• Apple promoting iPhone X and 8 Plus Portrait Lighting effects feature with duo of new tutorials (9to5Mac)

Books, Library & Culture

• Winter Japan Book Club at the Argo Bookshop (link)
• Les Irrésistibles: Bug, vol. 1 (lien)
• 20+ Times Librarians Surprised Everyone With Their Sense Of Humor (Bored Panda) [Examples to follow ?]
• Most popular 100 reviewers this week |(Goodreads) [Don’t even check, I am not there…]
• Another book reviewer: The Book Geek (link)
• An Interview with the Most Popular Reviewer on Goodreads (Goodreads Blog)
• CanLit relit (The London Free Press via Pressreader)
• 16 Practical Tips For Anyone Who Wants To Write A Book (BuzzFeed)
• La disparition des bibliothèques personnelles (1/5): De moins en moins de livres pour soi (Le Devoir)
• La disparition des bibliothèques personnelles (2/5): dis-moi ce que tu lis, je te dirai qui tu es (Le Devoir)
• La disparition des bibliothèques personnelles (3/5): faut-il conserver les collections de nos grands penseurs (Le Devoir)
• La disparition des bibliothèques personnelles (4/5): portrait du politicien, avec des livres (Le Devoir)
• La disparition des bibliothèques personnelles (5/5): Biblio de pixels ou biblio de papier? (Le Devoir)
• La fin des bibliothèques personnelles (Le Devoir)
• Coup d’oeil sur vos bibliothèques (Le Devoir: série sur la disparition des bibliothèques personnelles)
• These three strategies can help you master any subject (QZ)
• Enki Bilal et le bogue de l’an 2041 (Le Devoir, Amazon)
• What Happens When an Algorithm Helps Write Science Fiction (Wired)
• 13 Pieces Of Life-Changing Wisdom From Ursula K. Le Guin (BuxxFeed)
• Goodreads Best Books of 2017 (link)
• “Bug” : la fable web apocalyptique d’Enki Bilal (France Inter)
• Weep for American literacy as you read about the Most Popular Kindle Books of All Time (Daily Dot)
• Des bibliothèques publiques de qualité pour tous ! (La Presse+)
• Man Booker Prize: George Saunders wins for Lincoln in the Bardo (BBC)

Entertainments (and other geeky stuff)

• France Gall, French singer who shot to fame in 1960s, dies (BBC)
• Conan TV Series from Amazon (ICv2)
• The Future of the Alien Franchise (ICv2)
• Royal rabbit hole (Montreal Gazette via Pressreader)
• Actress bids adieu to X-Files’ Scully (Montreal Gazette via Pressreader)
• HBO’s Watchmen Pilot Names Director (ICv2)
• This site makes browsing Netflix simple again (CNET, link)
• A French Village series finale (season 7) premieres on MHz Choice (link)
• The 18 Netflix Original Series to Be Excited About in 2018 (Indie Wire)
• Disney to Buy 21st Century Fox Assets for $52.4 Billion in Historic Hollywood Merger (Variety)
• Disney-Fox Talks Move into Higher Gear (ICv2)
• Le rockeur Johnny Hallyday s’éteint des suites d’un cancer (Le Devoir)
• Amazon ‘Lord of the Rings’ Series May Be Only the Beginning (ICv2)
• Why Star Trek: Discovery is a betrayal to the franchise (National Post) [WTF!? No, it’s a great show!]

Health & Environment

• Sydney swelters on hottest day since 1939 as mercury hits 47.3C (BBC)
• Extreme weather: Social media reaction in US and Australia (BBC)
• La grippe attaque de front le Québec (Le Devoir)
• Scientists inch closer to universal flu vaccine as virus wreaks havoc on North America (Global)
• A yearlong guide to house cleaning, starting with the January declutter (Chicago Tribune)
• Forget walking 10,000 steps a day (BBC)
• No poke: A skin patch to regulate blood sugar levels may be a happy goodbye to insulin injections for diabetics (DNA India)
• Solar panels, rooftop gardens on Candiac housing development will pay for themselves: developer (Montreal Gazette)
• An IGA in Montreal is growing its own vegetables on the roof (Montreal Gazette)
• F-Bombs away! Neuroscientist says swearing is healthy (Ottawa Citizen via Pressreader)
• 5 Strategies to Make Yourself Work When You’re Just Not in the Mood (Heleo)
• The emotional benefits of small talk outweigh your fear of being awkward (QZ)
• Nearly half of Americans now have high blood pressure, based on new guidelines (CNN)

History & Sciences

• Heretical text of secret teachings of Jesus lost for 1,500 years discovered at Oxford University (The Independent)
• Your house is a gigantic bug habitat, and there’s nothing you can do about it (The Washington Post)
• L’humanité court à sa perte, préviennent 15 000 scientifiques à travers le monde (Le Devoir)
• Mystery of ‘screaming Egyptian mummy’ which has baffled archaeologists for years finally resolved (Fox)
• Rise and fall of the mighty Minoans (National Geographic)
• See Views of SpaceX’s Starman Riding a Tesla Roadster in Space! (Space)
• A Triumphant First Launch for Elon Musk’s Giant Rocket (The Atlantic)
• CBC under fire for documentary that says first humans to colonize New World sailed from Europe (National Post)
• ‘Serious gap’ in cosmic expansion rate hints at new physics (BBC)
• Ancient DNA sheds light on the mysterious origins of the first Scandinavians (The Conversation)
• Astronomers Find a Spectacular Source For Those Mysterious Repeating Space Signals (Science Alert)
• Mystery Radio Bursts From Space Just Got Even Weirder (National Geographic)
• Winter solstice 2017: Five things you should know about the shortest day of the year (WaPo)
• Nasa funds helicopter mission to hunt for alien life on Titan (The Telegraph)
• Cigar-shaped space rock is not an alien spacecraft, scientists conclude (The Telegraph)
• Is this mysterious space rock actually an alien spaceship? (NBC)
• ‘Big void’ identified in Khufu’s Great Pyramid at Giza (BBC)
• Skeletons could provide clues to who wrote or protected the Dead Sea Scrolls (Science News)
• 10 Remote Roman Forts (Heritage Daily)
• Artificial life just moved a step closer to reality (NBC)
• Archaeologists find first evidence for Julius Caesar’s invasion of Britain (The Telegraph, BBC)
• What Archaeology Is Telling Us About the Real Jesus (National Geographic)
• A mysterious 3,000-year-old castle has been found under a lake in Turkey (Science Alert)
• Earliest evidence of wine found in giant, 8,000-year-old jars (Washington Post)

Humour 

• Dilbert 2017/06/22
• Non Sequitur 2017/06/22
• Bizarro 2017/06/22
• Bizarro 2017/06/26
• The Other Coast 2017/06/28
• Bizarro 2017/06/28
• Bizarro 2017/06/30
• Non Sequitur 2017/07/10
• Non Sequitur 2017/07/18
• Dilbert 2017/08/02
• Rhyme with Orange 2017/09/10
• Between Friends 2017/09/10
• Rhyme with Orange 2017/09/14
• Dilbert 2017/09/14
• Bizarro 2017/09/28
• Ben 2017/10/21

Japan & Japanese popular culture (anime & manga)

• Un nouveau tome de The Five Star Stories annoncé au Japon ! Animeland)
• Glénat annonce des rééditions pour Gunnm Other Stories et Last Order (Animeland)
• Akata ouvre son catalogue numérique ! (Animeland)
• Top 10 Manga of 2017 (ICv2)
• January 2018 NPD BookScan: Top 20 Manga (ICv2)
• Netflix scelle une alliance avec Bones et Production I.G (Animeland)
• Discover the world of Japanese food manga and anime (The Hindu)
• Otaku Coin Adds Oculus Rift, ANN Bosses to Advisory Committee (Crunchyroll)
• My Brother’s Husband review: a Canadian gay man about the house (The Guardian)
• Osamu Tezuka, Une vie en manga chez Pika Graphic en janvier (Animeland)
• Quand Youtube rend accessible les classiques japonais… (Sens Critique)
• Barnes & Noble Names the Best New Manga of 2017 (ICv2)
• Frederik Schodt recalls the ‘different world’ of manga translation in the 1970s (The Japan Times)
• Akihito to become first Japanese emperor to abdicate in 200 years (The Guardian)
• Seven Seas Licenses Riyoko Ikeda’s Claudine Manga (Anime News Network) [It’s about time that someone releases some of those great ‘70s shoujo manga !!]
• Award-winning manga translator Frederik L Schodt still has pages to turn (Japan Today)
• Tidiness guru targets new audience (Montreal Gazette / Edmonton Journal via Pressreader)
• What is the Meaning Behind The Japanese Concept of Ikigai (Country Living)
• Un Japon crépusculaire au FNC 2017 (Shomingeki)

Local News

• Monumental Dougherty : a place to visit at the botanical garden (link)
• ‘This is a major discovery’: Explorers find massive ice-age cavern beneath Montreal (CBC)
• Sale to Scotiabank Marks End of Era for Billionaire Stephen Jarislowsky (Bloomberg)
• Celine Cooper: Let’s ensure age-friendly Montreal is inclusive (Montreal Gazette)
• Près de 100 000 clients de Bell Canada victimes de piratage informatique (Radio-Canada)
• Petition against Laval’s animal bylaw calls sterilization ‘mutilation’ (Montreal Gazette)
• Jacques Cartier and the lost village of Hochelaga (Montreal Gazette)
• Quebec’s plan to launch digital ‘health booklets’ for patients raises concerns (Montreal Gazette)
• Budget de Montréal: Valérie Plante brise une première promesse (Le Devoir)
• Les taxes des Montréalais en hausse de 3,3% en 2018 (La Presse)
• Mars and the North Pole are warmer than Winnipeg: A guide to how damned cold it is (National Post)
• 15,000-year-old caves discovered under Saint-Leonard park (Global)
• The Story of Human Migration Out of Africa Just Got Rewritten (Inverse)
• Scholars Have Found a Rare Copy of Heretical Writings on Jesus And His ‘Brother’ (Science Alert)
• La Banque du Canada n’est pas pressée d’augmenter les taux d’intérêt (Le Devoir)
• Métro: un problème de fabrication retarde la réfection des escaliers mécaniques (La Presse) [Un délai de quelques mois je pourrais comprendre mais à la station St-Michel l’escalier a été “en réparation” pendant plus d’un an !!!]
• Grogne au sujet du transfert de 25 millions d’artefacts historiques à Ottawa (Le Devoir)
• Attention, choc hypothécaire à l’horizon (La Presse+)
• R.I.P. Patrick Campbell (link)
• Filmmaker Claude Gagnon on the trail of Will James (Montreal Gazette, Jan. 2015) [Unfortunately, the project seems to have been put on ice for now]
• Pénurie de bibliothécaires scolaires (Le Devoir)

Photography

• All-In-1 Film & Slide Scanner (linK)
• Tech tricks to help you organize your digital photo library (Popsci)

Politics, Economy & Society (and Trump Insanities!)

• Why Are Trump and the G.O.P. So Determined to Kill PBS? (Vanity Fair)
• Fact-checking website crashes during Trump’s first State of the Union (CNN)
• How did France, gastronomic capital of the world, sink to brawls over Nutella? (The Guardian)
• Catherine Deneuve says #MeToo is driven by ‘hatred of men’ (NBC)
• “You Can’t Make This S— Up”: My Year Inside Trump’s Insane White House (Hollywood Reporter)
• The history of 2017 in seven charts (The Guardian)
• The FCC just repealed net neutrality. What happens next? (Tech Crunch)
• 2017: Year in Review on Flipboard (link)
• The Nationalist’s Delusion (The Atlantic)
• House Dems introduce articles of impeachment against Trump (CNN)
• Are Americans just stupid? (National Observer) [It’s hard not to ask yourself that question when you watch the news lately…]
• British Prime Minister Theresa May Accuses Russia of Sowing Discord in the West (Time)

Technology & Gadgets

• Aggressive WordPress Brute Force Attack Campaign Started Today, 3am UTC (Wordfence) [no wonder my blog was damaged!]
• SpaceX hid a second, secret payload aboard Falcon Heavy, and it sounds amazing (Science Alert)
• “Starman” Live Radio: Join SpaceX Live Views From Space (Youtube)
• LED flame lamp (Amazon, Little Play Land)