Because nobody goes to college to study.

Jemal Countess / Getty

Under the terms of the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, approved by PM Harper on Friday, China can sue Canada in secret tribunals to repeal national and provincial laws that interfere with Chinese investments, including laws limiting construction of the Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline. Read the rest

Making a quick run to the local Whole Foods Market can easily turn into a day-long affair: driving to the store, finding parking, maneuvering your way through fellow shoppers, spending an hour browsing the aisles and then waiting to check out. Apparently it doesn’t have to be that way now that the grocer launched delivery and in-store pickup service – all but taking the experience out of shopping at the upscale supermarket.

The Austin American-Statesman reports that Whole Foods teamed up with Instacart to offer online grocery service in 15 major U.S. cities.

The new service, which will be piloted in Austin and Boston, operates like other grocery delivery services with the exception of placing an Instacart employee in the Whole Foods store to fulfill orders in as little as one hour.

According to a painful-to-watch online video ad for the service, that apparently means you’ll never have to go without a gluten-free cupcake or be forced to sit out of a coffee break but there’s only (gasp) full-lactose milk available.

To use the new service, consumers enter their ZIP code on the Instacart website or app then shop with a virtual cart. Once they’ve checked off their list, customers chose a delivery window of anywhere from one our to two hours or another scheduled time.

Then the embedded Instacart personal shopper receives the order on his or her smartphone, begins shopping for the items and makes the delivery or sets the goods aside for pickup.

Additionally, customers can use the new service to send groceries to others; as seen in the video when a drunk grandma sends her fraternity-member grandson tofu.

The venture provides the first delivery free, before charging $5.99 for one-hour delivery and $3.99 for two-hour delivery. Instacart offers a $99 annual membership for free deliveries of purchases of more than $35.

Whole Foods launches national grocery delivery, pickup service [Austin American-Statesman]

Photo by roaming-the-planet

Photo by roaming-the-planet

Photos by roaming-the-planet

First a Boeing 747, and now an industrial complex on a Vancover island; it seems no canvas is too large for Brazilian graffiti artists Os Gemeos who were invited to the Vancouver Biennale to turn six multi-story silos on Granville Island into their trademark ‘Giants.’ The murals on the 70-foot towers are now the largest paintings ever attempted by the pair, an astounding feat considering Os Gemeos completely donated a month of their time to create the non-profit art project. An Indiegogo fundraising campaign to recoup costs associated with painting the silos has been extremely successful. You can see more over on Arrested Motion.

There are drive-in liquor stores and drive-in banks, but what about brothels? Not here, but in Vienna, where prostitution is legal. Workers have been complaining that they can only conduct business in areas that aren’t near residential neighborhoods, meaning not enough access to clean bathrooms and places like hotels where they can safely and comfortably operate. Drive-in brothels might be the fix.

The idea would be similar to the “sex drive-in” in Zurich, Switzerland, Vienna City Councilor told Die Presse newspaper (via The Local), where legally-operating women of the night can bring their customers in from off the street corners and ply their trade in wooden “sex boxes.”

The problem in Vienna boils down to the areas in the city where prostitutes are allowed to work, which often don’t have hotels they can rent by the hour, clean restrooms and transportation.

In Zurich, prostitutes must obtain permits and pay taxes to operate in these drive-in brothels, and in turn get a safe place to do business.

Frauenberger is planning on bringing up the idea at the city’s next meeting on prostitution with police and non-governmental groups in Vienna.

‘Sex boxes’ mooted as possibility for Vienna [The Local]

Eight of the top 10 scoring cities in the Economic Intelligence Unit's annual Liveability Survey are in Australia and Canada. But which one came out on top?

iOS: For those times when you want to fly on short notice, Flight Tonight—from the folks at Hopper —steps up to help you explore your options.

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Sources say the burger chain is preparing to go public, cashing in on the fast-casual trend.

Summer is ending, and soon America's teens will head back to the new-shoes-on-linoleum-floors hell that is high school. The only thing keeping our weary youth going is FLAMIN' HOT Cheetos®, and now, First Lady Michelle Obama has taken them away. Our nation's school vending machines will have healthy snacks this year.

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What do hail storms in Turkey have to do with the supply of Nutella at your local grocery store? A lot, actually. Hazelnut prices are away up due to a worldwide shortage. Ferrero, the company that makes Nutella, uses about 25% of the hazelnuts in the world. It and simplified its supply chain this year by acquiring a major hazelnut processor, Oltan in Turkey.

Of course, it’s not just Nutella: Fererro also makes plenty of chocolates with hazelnuts. Ferrero Group is best known to Americans for making the unhealthy choco-hazelnut spread Nutella, or maybe for the Ferrero Rocher, a popular candy that also contains hazelnuts. They need a lot of hazelnuts, and with supplies low and prices more than doubling this spring, it makes sense to acquire secure a hazelnut source.

As we’ve told you before, the components necessary to make a single jar of Nutella come from all over the world. azelnuts are grown in the Middle East and parts of Europe, as well as some grown in the United States. Turkey has historically been a source for the nuts, and in a press release, Ferrero praised Oltan’s “historical, valuable, and consolidated presence in the Turkish hazelnut market.”

Nutella Hogs Hazelnuts to Meet the World’s Insatiable Craving for Chocolaty Goodness [Businessweek]

A couple of weeks ago, I called up my 15-year-old sister. I wanted to ask her about a certain celebrity.

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A look at URLs that have sold for $1 million or more.

Just when you thought your Monday couldn't get worse, we give you this creepy photo of Justin Bieber's attempt at facial hair.

The 20-year-old and his barely-there mustache attended the Young Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles on July 27:







But Bieber isn't all bad. Though his facial hair didn't do him any favors, his adorable date for the night certainly evened the score. As the Champ of Charity award recipient for his work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Bieber invited Make-A-Wish participant Grace Kesablak on stage to accept the award with him. He and the little girl also snapped some photos on the red carpet together:



At least he's doing something right.

Turbo the Chihuahua was born without his two front legs, but he doesn't seem to notice. The feisty little dog won't let anything hold him back.

The two-legged pup was brought to The Downtown Veterinarian in Indianapolis, Indiana, about two weeks ago, Today.com reported. Turbo's owners brought him to the clinic because when he was 4 weeks old his littermates made it difficult for the disabled pooch to get any food. At 1 month old, he weighed just 10 ounces.

After visiting other vets who said there was nothing they could do for him, his owners were distraught.

"The couple was besides themselves," Amy Birk, the practice manager of The Downtown Veterinarian told the outlet. "They didn't want the dog to be euthanized."



The owners agreed to sign the puppy over to the staff so that he could get the care that he needed.

"A small dog can do well with a cart," Birk told ABC 7. "So, unless he had another medical condition, there was no way we were putting him to sleep."

Turbo began to eat regularly and gain weight, and the staff set about creating a cart for him to get around more easily. Dogs can't be fitted for a regular cart until they are 6 months old, so they were forced to get creative.

At first, according to Fox 59, the staff assembled a device using parts from a Fisher Price helicopter.



Next, they made this one below out of straws but it proved too flimsy. His current cart is made of pipes from a toy welding kit, but the staff fears he will grow out of it soon.







"We need the cart so he can get support on his front end, so he can move around more naturally and use legs more naturally and his back," Dr. Trish Wiggers told Fox. "So, there is not stress put on all his other joints."

Currently, the veterinary clinic is raising money for a cart specially designed for the little dog. The starting price is $200.

But Turbo, now 6 weeks old and weighting in at less than 1 pound, isn't concerned with his lack of legs. The spunky Chihuahua spends his days doing physical therapy to strengthen his back legs at the practice, and is going home at night with veterinary technician Ashley Looper who has decided to adopt him.

“He definitely has a different personality because he is handicapped," Looper told the outlet. "He is just spunkier. In the morning, he is alert and ready to go and you see him walk and he is just happy!”





The Downtown Veterinarian is accepting donations for Turbo's special cart at their office and by phone. To keep up with Turbo and his progress, visit his Facebook page or Instagram account.

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Talk about irregular. A new ad for Dulcolax laxative features turd-headed characters stuck in what appears to be an anal prison.

"Only you can set them free," the caption reads.

AdWeek wrote that the poop prisoners looked like "stinky love children of the Michelin Man and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Turdles)." At least they're cuter than the Golgothan excrement demon in Kevin Smith's "Dogma."

Either way, they're pretty icky.

The ads reportedly ran in Singapore newspapers and at bus stops. "Instead of approaching the dramatization from the patient's [point of view], we approached it from the excrement's," the agency behind the campaign, McCann Health, said in the trade publication.

Como, like, this list is bueno.

Clickeando = Click

In English: I'm clicking on this picture and nothing is happening!
In Spanish: Le estoy dando un clic y no pasa nada.
In Spanglish: Le estoy clickeando and nada pasa!

Via iagiftshop.com

Linkear = Link

In English: Let me link this post on my story.
In Spanish: Déjame agregar este link a mi artículo.
In Spanglish: Déjame linkear esto.

Cloverway International (CWI) / Via chayennemia.tumblr.com

Mandar Un Mail = Email

In English: Let's send an email to Miley Cyrus.
In Spanish: Mandémosle un correo electrónico a Miley Cyrus.
In Spanglish: Mandémosle un mail a Miley Cyrus.

Warner Bros. / Via businessinsider.com.au

El Parking = Parking Lot

In English: This parking lot is very small.
In Spanish: Este estacionamiento es muy pequeño.
In Spanglish: El parking es bien pequeño.

Via izismile.com

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So far, eight dolls have been left on doorsteps, each resembling the little girl who lives in the house. [ more › ]

In January of 2010, I decided to change my outlook on how I manage my gaming time, how I collect games, and how I contend with the nemesis that so many gamers share: the dreaded backlog.

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If this wedding photo, hailed by various news outlets as the best ever, set off your bullshit detector, your instincts are good. Although the photo is genuine, the feel-good backstory that helped make it ubiquitous on Facebook earlier this month is mostly bogus.

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Plenty of millennials do want to get married -- they just want to do it a little differently

The new American Dream was going so well: drop out, make an app for sending emojis that disappear after 5 seconds, and collect your check. But it turns out the app gold rush is broken for almost everyone.

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Christian Grey -- eh, yeah he's easy on the eyes. But we're in such a deep, all-consuming love affair with our charming furry companions below that we hardly noticed that the "Fifty Shades of Grey" trailer dropped Thursday.

We give you our true obsession -- Fifty Shades Of Grey adorable animals.

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Above is a video that reportedly shows the moment that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed near the border between Ukraine and Russia, killing at least 295 people

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You know just enough French to get drunk.

You've skipped class — not because you're a badass, but because it was too icy to walk to class.

Twitter: @lyhamel

And when you had to go to write an exam, you cursed underneath your frozen breath the entire way there.

instagram.com

You know what a "dep" is.

ijustfeltlikewalking.tumblr.com

Because you've bought beer/wine at one when you were too lazy to go anywhere else.

Twitter: @sesquiotic

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Our friends over at sk8swing.com wanted to share their idea for this cool and comfortable swing made from a skateboard deck. Their design is meant to be a standing swing for children, but it also makes a nice seated swing for adults.

SUPPLIES:

You can purchase a fully rigged swing at sk8swing.com or make it yourself with these ingredients:

Skateboard Deck
Make sure you get a strong deck that can hold your weight.

1/2" Diameter Rope
I used 50' of 1/2" diameter polypropylene rope.

Carabiners + Rope Clamps
I used the hardware to make the attachment points for hanging the swing.

Minwax Polyurethane Spray
This is used to seal the wooden handles.

1 1/4" Diameter Dowel
The dowel is used to make handles that keep the ropes from getting tangled.

Minwax Polyurethane Spray
This is used to seal the wooden handles.

TOOLS:

RYOBI 18 Volt Cordless Drill
Available at Home Depot








RYOBI 18 Volt Circular Saw (with Plywood Blade)
Available at Home Depot

INSTRUCTIONS:

 Disclaimer: Swings can be dangerous! 
HomeMade Modern and Ben Uyeda make no claims about the safety of this project or any of the products shown or mentioned. When making a swing, it is essential to make sure that all of the components have a structural rating and are used in an appropriate application. Be safe!

STEP 1: Drill Holes in the Skateboard Deck
Measure in 1 1/2" from the edge of the skateboard and use that mark as the center for drilling 1/2" diameter holes.







STEP 2: Mark, Drill + Cut the Handles
Use the holes in the skateboard to mark the drill locations on the dowel and then drill and cut the handles for the swing. The length of the handles should be equal to the width of the board.









STEP 3: Sand + Spray
Sand down the dowel handles and then spray them with a coat of polyurethane to seal them.







STEP 4: Cut the Rope
Cut the rope into two equal length pieces.





STEP 5: Make a Loop
Use the clamps to make a loop in the center of each piece.





STEP 6: String + Knot the Rope
Run the ends through the holes in the handles and tie a loose knot behind them. Then run the ends through the skateboard and tie a knot behind it. Keep the knots loose for now so you can adjust them easily.







STEP 7: Hang + Adjust the Swing
Hang the swing to a sturdy support and level the board and handles by adjusting the knots. Once you have the swing in the right place, tighten it and enjoy!





 Disclaimer:  
Make sure you utilize ropes and hardware that are appropriate for structural applications and that appropriate knots are used to secure all parts of the swing. HomeMade Modern does not endorse or make any claims about the safety of this project or any of the project materials used in it.













Thanks again to our friends over at sk8swing.com!

Good luck making your own skate swing and please email, tweet or hashtag photos to @benuyeda, ben@homemade-modern.com or #homemademodern. For more detailed instructions, dimensioned drawings and different variations of the project, check out our soon-to-be-released book.

Sister from another mister. Brother from another mother. The family you choose.

When it comes to describing your friends, those turns of phrase may be a lot more accurate than you think.

Genetics researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Yale University have found that friends can share a lot of the same genes -- the same amount of genes, in fact, as are shared by fourth cousins.

"In a lot of genetics research, the assumption is that we are interacting with lots of people who are not related to us, so genes aren't going to matter," said study researcher James Fowler, Ph.D., a medical genetics professor at UCSD. "This paper suggests that this is not the case at all; our friends are sort of like our family. It's quite extraordinary."

Besides providing geneticists with a whole new set of human relationships to examine (beyond blood relatives), the findings could "completely change our theory of evolution," Fowler told The Huffington Post. "Right now, it's based on the individual, and this work challenges that view; it suggests that we really can't understand evolution until we understand social networks."

Say for instance, that you're an ancient human who was born with a genetic mutation that allowed you to speak, Fowler explained. If you come across a friend that can also speak, you both have an advantage: You're better able to survive together, and more likely to reproduce and pass on your own genes than other people who don't have the ability to speak. Eventually, humans who can speak multiply and go on to dominate the community, Fowler hypothesized. It's that social network understanding of evolution, said Fowler, that could explain why some genes are changing faster than others.

"One of the things we found was that the genes that tend to be most similar [among friends] are also the genes that have been evolving the fastest," said Fowler. "That's really exciting, because it's supportive of a theory that one of the reasons human evolution has been speeding up over the last 30,000 years is because of network effects."

Fowler's study, co-written by Yale evolutionary biology professor Nicholas Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, was published online Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

FRIENDS AS FOURTH COUSINS

Fowler and his team examined 1,932 subjects from the Framingham Heart Study, a well-known and much-researched cohort made up of three generations of Irish- and Italian-Americans from a small town outside of Boston.

They identified 1,300 pairs of friends among that group and compared their genetic markers -- about 1.5 million of them -- to each other. They also compared individuals' genes to strangers within the same group, to see if the friend pairs had more genes in common than the stranger pairs.

Indeed, researchers found that the friends did share a lot of the same genes -- as many as two people who share a great-great-great-grandparent.

"Most people don't even know who their fourth cousins are!" said Christakis in a statement. "Yet we are somehow, among a myriad of possibilities, managing to select as friends the people who resemble our kin."

At this point, it's important to note that the friends weren't actually fourth cousins. Fowler controlled for possible relatedness by removing any pairs of friends who may have even been slightly related.

Fowler found that the friend pairs were most likely to share the genes responsible for a sense of smell. It could be because smells can both draw and repel people from similar environments, making them more likely to find each other, said Fowler. Friends were also more likely to have very different immunity-related genes, which actually has the effect of giving someone extra immunity.

"The difference can be helpful for us because if they're not susceptible to a certain disease, they're not going to spread it to us," explained Fowler.

For the final phase of the experiment, researchers developed a genetic test to predict friendship among the study participants, and it worked. Fowler was able to predict friendship or stranger-ship among 450 participants just by examining their genes. It's the same method geneticists use to predict obesity, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder in people.

One major drawback to the study: All of the participants were of European descent, drawn from a close-knit community that spans several generations. The makes any generalization about the wider population, and other ethnicities, difficult, Fowler admitted. On the other hand, Fowler said he was fairly certain people weren't simply choosing friends from the same ethnic group over friends with other ethnicities, simply because there were no other ethnicities to choose from.

POTENTIAL PITFALLS

But it's precisely the sample's racial and ancestral composition (or "population structure") that makes John Novembre, Ph.D., associate professor of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago, wary of Fowler's results.

"It's well-accepted that people tend to be friends with others of similar ancestry, but controlling for that effect is tricky and crucial for this study," wrote Novembre in an email to HuffPost.

Novembre wasn't involved with Fowler and Christakis' study, but he has conducted research on European genetic structure. His expertise makes him sensitive to potential pitfalls that can develop when researchers try to disentangle ethnicity, ancestry, social ties and genetics, he said. But even if Fowler and Christakis had controlled for population structure perfectly, said Novembre, the results are still "very subtle."

"If taken at face-value, that friends are on average as similar as fourth cousins, the effect is still very subtle," Novembre concluded. "I would guess any one person wouldn't be able to detect such a small effect acting in their life, especially relative to the much stronger societal factors that predict friendships."

Fowler admitted that Novembre's criticisms were fair. However, the subtle friendship effect in genes, he said, are about the same as genetic tests commonly used to predict medical outcomes. "I would also add that our out-of-sample test shows we can do prediction of friendship at the same accuracy as our best genetic tests for obesity, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia," said Fowler in reaction to Novembre's perspective. "So the effects are indeed subtle, but no more so than other genetic studies of important biological and social outcomes."

There's no need to reinvent the wheel when breaking up with someone: Explain to your soon-to-be ex what went wrong, be as transparent as possible, and try your damnedest to let them down gently.

Apparently, that's a lot harder than it sounds. On Saturday, Redditors offered up the most ridiculous breakup excuses that were ever used on them.

If you're responsible for uttering any of these lines, please go hide your head in shame.



1. "I love you and I won't be able to bear it if I lose you. Before that happens, let's break up."

2. "I like bacon. You don't like bacon. We're done."

3. "You're spending too much time with your dying father."


4. "'I'm moving to Antarctica. Yes, I know I'm not a scientist. I'll find work. Please don't call me.' ...I don't know what I did, but I always tell myself I dodged a crazy bullet."

5. "'Your soul is not developed enough to be loved.' Umm, what?"

6. "I had a guy named Tyler tell me once that he was breaking up with me because 'Tyler plane flies solo.' What is that? And no, his last name was not Plane."


7. "Lying in bed together after six months. Him: 'You know when you walk down the street and you think a guy is really hot?' Me: 'Um, I guess...' Him: 'Well, I do too.'"

8. "My ex said, 'If a girl is nice to me at a bar some night, I might not be able to stop myself from having sex with her, and I don't want to cheat on you.' Um, getting about eight steps ahead of yourself there, buddy."


9. "My ex told me he couldn't see himself marrying someone whose parents weren't still together... My dad was dead."

10. "I love you so much and want to spend the rest of my life with you. We have to break up. If it's really meant to be then we will end up together again like they do in the movies."

11. "'You go to Chipotle too much and I'm teaching piano two hours a week now, so we just don't have time for each other.' To be fair I do go to Chipotle 3-5 times a week, but c'mon, really?"


12. Girl drove my car into a pond, totaled it, then broke up with me because 'that's your karma coming to bite you in the ass, so you must have done something terrible.'"

13. "She told me, 'You have too much money. You pay for every date. I think you're doing something illegal. Also, you're never around much. It seems like you don't care about me at all.' The truth was, I was working double shifts at McDonalds and it was killing me inside."

14. "My mom thinks your face is too... controlling and bitchy and that means I wouldn't have any control over you.' I was a senior in high school and he was a sophomore in college. How are faces controlling?!"


15. "I feel called to be a pastor's wife and you're not going to be a pastor."

16. "After cutting my hair to shoulder length and putting in some highlights, my ex goes, 'You're just not the same girl anymore.' Um, okay, bye!"

And finally, this gem from a frugal middle schooler:

17. "'I just can't afford two gifts this year, but we can go back out after Christmas.' My birthday is in December and then there's Christmas. He tried to get me back by giving me a heart bracelet he stole from his mom for Valentines Day. My sixth grade boyfriend, ladies and gentlemen!"


Keep in touch! Check out HuffPost Divorce on Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our newsletter here.

The Raiders of the Lost Walmart are a brave band of retail archaeologists who comb the continent’s stores to find the most ancient books, electronic devices, video games, and software at inappropriately high prices. I say “the continent” because today’s dispatches come from Raiders stationed in Canada.

Yes, they have Walmart in Canada, and yes, retail antiquities can be found there too. For example, behold the flip-phone version of the Blackberry Pearl, released in 2008, found by raider Eric.

Now, there is a market for this phone. I really loved the Blackberry Pearl: really, for my purposes, the biggest problems were the 2G mobile Internet and my tendency to butt-dial with it. I would probably still be using one if the flip version had been available in 2009 when I decided to get a phone with a keyboard on it. The problem isn’t that this phone is still for sale. The problem is its price.

This price isn’t as bad as it appears at first: $398.83 in Canadian dollars is $372.33. Which is still a really outrageous price.

Elsewhere in Canada, how about a copy of DJ Hero? Jeff found this copy on the shelf…not even marked down.

Sure, you could pay the equivalent of $74.52 for this DJ Hero turntable set for the PlayStation 2. Or you could wait a few days for delivery and pay less than half as much on Amazon.

A poor, unsuspecting woman was just trying to have a nice time tapping on the glass of what she thought was a shark tank. Is no one safe?

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