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If you never miss an episode of Downton Abbey, you’ll love this Facebook adaptation of Season 3, Episode 5 from Happy Place.

Full story at Happy Place.

Bringing Facebook into the 20th century.

Best marketing idea ever: Budweiser red light lights up when your hockey team scores.

Budweiser is selling a lamp that lets your know when your team is about to play a game and then lights up when your team scores. (Maple Leaf fans won't see this very much.) Read more here:

www.budweiser.ca/redlight/light.php

The problem is that it's sold out right now.

Total hockey news: hockey.alltop.com

#HolyKaw

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NPR discusses the "Ikea effect" where people believe that the fruit of their labor is good. This must apply to books too!

www.npr.org/2013/02/06/171177695/why-you-love-that-ikea-table-even-if-its-crooked

#HolyKaw

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Dr. Matthias Schlesewsky and colleagues at the Department of English and Linguistics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz conducted a study to compare the reading experience of ebooks versus paper. He concluded:

“Our results thus indicate that negative subjective assessments of readability for e-books and other digital texts are not a reflection of real-time information processing demands.”

Read more here:

news.discovery.com/tech/gear-and-gadgets/e-book-testing-stacks-up-well-against-print-130206.htm

#HolyKaw

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William Shatner will be calling Commander Chris Hadfield at the Space Station this morning – stay tuned for the details if you cannot watch it live online.

Shatner is an avid Twitter member and Hadfield has been gathering a huge following by tweeting photos of the earth as viewed from space. This seems like such a natural hook-up!

Full story at CBC News.

More space news.

With public WiFi becoming a way of life and the office becoming anywhere with a decent signal, knowing how to stay safe on these networks is as important as guarding one’s purse of wallet when out and about.

Mashable has a great article by Laptop Magazine about how to safeguard your privacy and personal information wherever work takes you.

1. Turn Off Sharing

You may share your music library, printers or files, or even allow remote login from other computers on your Wi-Fi network in the privacy of your own home. Unless you disable these settings before connecting to a public Wi-Fi network, anyone else in the vicinity may be able to hack into your PC…

2. Get a VPN

The most secure way to browse on a public network is to use a virtual private network. A VPN routes your traffic through a secure network even on public Wi-Fi, giving you all the perks of your private network while still having the freedom of public Wi-Fi.

While free VPN services exist, a paid VPN service guarantees the connection’s integrity. If you regularly connect to unknown networks, setting up a VPN is smart to protect your personal information…

Full story at Mashable.

Crime prevention tips.

Photo credit: Fotolia

In Britain, a charity called “The Reading Agency” has put together a list of books to be prescribed for mild to moderate depression – hopefully reducing the amount of pills that are taken. And they don’t mean traditional self-help books, but novels.

The list includes:

• Salman Rushdie: Haroun and the Sea of Stories
• Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden
• Laurie Lee: Cider with Rosie

The agency says that reading can improve stress levels by over 60%.

Full story at CBC News.

More reading and literature news.

Reason enough to visit China! Holy kaw!

johnlehmann.tumblr.com/post/41779418945/whats-the-latest-tasty-treat-from-pizza-hut-in

Food news for foodies (and not much about food like this!): food.alltop.com/

#HolyKaw

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Ah, frosty maiden of the north, you tempt travelers from around the world with sweet harmonies and even sweeter deals on furniture, but what do we need to know before traveling to Sweden?

CNN’s Mary Kavanagh has ten fun facts about this beautiful country for tourists to know before they’re stuck bracing themselves against the cold with just a jar of pickled herring.

1. Only one store sells hard alcohol

If you enjoy a drink, you might want stock up on duty free en route to Sweden. Gas stations and local stores are forbidden to sell wine and hard alcohol.

In an effort to control alcohol consumption in the country, the government set up Systembolaget stores in 1955.

The store has a monopoly on retail sales of alcohol: it’s the only place you can buy wine and spirits and beer with an alcohol content above 3.5 percent.

You have to be 20 years or older to buy in stores, though in Swedish bars and restaurants the drinking age is 18.

Most towns have one Systembolaget. Cities have a few, but finding them isn’t always easy.

General opening hours are Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Perhaps this is a good time for a detox.

2. Pickled herring is a way of life

Some of us love chocolate. Swedes love pickled herring.

No festive occasion is complete without it.

Herring comes in many flavors and is usually eaten with crisp bread or potatoes, sour cream and chives.

Smoked fish is also popular — mackrel, eel and salmon. Fish smokeries in the villages along the coastline offer locally caught and smoked delicacies.

Another eating habit peculiar to the Swedes is the tradition of eating fermented fish (surströmming). It comes in a tin and if you’re able to handle the smell once you open it, you can probably stomach it.

Full story at CNN.

All about Sweden.

Photo credit: Fotolia