Malaysia

The Amateur Traveler talks to Ira Bernstein about two lesser visited cities in Italy - Turin and Bologna. Turin has the reputation as the Detroit of Italy because of its long association with Fiat but that nickname does not express the beauty of the city, the warmth of its people nor the quality of its wine. Bologna has a reputation for good food in a country known for its good food which may be one of the reasons that Bologna is known as "the fat". The city is the home of bolognese sauce and lasagna. It also lays claim to one of the oldest if not the oldest university in Europe. Ira takes us on a tour of surprising museums (like the largest Egyptian museum outside Cairo), pivotal history and of course wonderful food. 

The Amateur Traveler talks to Italophile Ira Bernstein who returns to the show to talk about day trips in Tuscany that you can take from Florence. We talk about visiting the walled city of Siena and its famous bareback horse race the palio, viewing the many towers of San Gimignano, climbing the leaning tower of Pisa (after you take the obligatory picture of someone holding it up), and walking on the walls of Lucca. Each town has its own character and attractions. Arezzo has a jewelry museum and the home of the “Father of Humanism” Petrarch. Fiesole is a rich enclave, a suburb of Florence with views of the city and a roman theatre. Montepulciano and Montalcino are both known for their wines. Ira talks about some of the events that the locals enjoy like the palios, flea markets and flag throwing competitions. So even if you just get as far out of Florence as Piazzale Michelangelo there are many places to explore in Tuscany.

The Amateur Traveler talks to Jeremy from Palm Beach Gardens Florida who talks to use about cruising up the Norwegian coastline into the Arctic Circle on a Hurtigruten cruise. Jeremy lives someplace warm so when he and his wife travel they often travel someplace cold so cruising into the small fjords of Norway during the Winter appealed to them. Hurtigruten started as the boat that delivered the mail to the isolated villages on the coast of Norway (which it still does) but added passenger and ferry service also.

Hear about travel to Oslo and Western Norway as the Amateur Traveler talks to Øystein about his native Norway.

Hear about Hiking the Lycian Way in Southern Turkey as the Amateur Traveler talks to authors Warren and Betsy Talbot from MarriedWithLuggage.com about the month they spent hiking this amazing trail. The Lycian Way runs for a little over 500 km (not counting getting lost) from Fethiye in the west to Antalya in the east. We talk about their whole journey as well as segments people with much less time could hike.

Hear about travel to the Cayman Islands as the Amateur Traveler talks to Kendra Pierre-Louis from kendrawrites.com about her trip to this island paradise.

Hear about travel to Perak, Malaysia  as the Amateur Traveler talks to Jub from TikiTouringKiwi.com about this region that Lonely Planet named as one of the 10 best regions to visit in 2017.

Hear about travel to Poland as the Amateur Traveler talks again to Chris Bogdon about his recent trip to Poland. Chris brought his kids and his parents to experience the country where his family came from. Chris did an overview of the country on a bus tour.

Hear about travel to the Lofoten Islands of Norway as the Amateur Traveler talks to David Nikel, author of the Moon guide to Norway, about one of his favorite regions in that beautiful country.

Hear about travel to California's premier wine region of Napa and Sonoma as the Amateur Traveler talks again to free lance journalist Jill Robinson about this area with more than just wine... but a lot of that

Hear about the United States UNESCO World Heritage Sites as the Amateur Traveler talks to Gary Arndt from Everything-Everywhere.com and The Global Travel Conspiracy podcast about these best of the best sites.

Hear about travel to Langkawi Malaysia as the Amateur Traveler talks to Rod Sanchez from The Jetsetting Family Travel Podcast at thejetsettingfamily.com about this island paradise.

Hear about travel to Tokyo as the Amateur Traveler talks to family travel blogger / podcaster Jason Andrew Jenkins from AnEpicEducation.com about a city he called home for 13 years.

Hear about travel to Mantua, Verona, Padua Italy as the Amateur Traveler talks to Gina Mussio from ginamussio.com about these wonderful cities in her adopted country.

Hear about travel to Lafayette, Louisiana as the Amateur Traveler talks to Susan Moore from solotripsandtips.com about this center of Cajun culture.

Hear about traveling the Dempster Highway as the Amateur Traveler talks to Lisa from TheHotFlashPacker.com about this iconic drive into the Arctic Circle in Canada. 

Hear about walking the South Downs Way in England as the Amateur Traveler talks to Aaron Millar about this week-long trek.

The World Health Organization is once again facing increased scrutiny and outrage. The renewed public outcry is not, however, directed at the shoddy initial response to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, instead coming as a result of unsettling details recently discovered in the organization’s child and adolescent sexual education guidelines. Set forth by global health…

The post WHO Comes Under Fire for Saying Kids Under 4 Should Be Taught About ‘Early Childhood Masturbation’ appeared first on The Western Journal.

A stray cat from Las Vegas has lived to see another day thanks to kindhearted police officers who paused to remove a soup can wedged firmly onto the cat’s head. The lure of a salty, potent-smelling soup can was likely too tempting to resist for the cat who was hooked at the first taste. As…

The post Watch: Cops Save Helpless Stray Cat Found with Head Stuck in Soup Can appeared first on The Western Journal.

In just under five months, both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will, one assumes, step onto a debate stage at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. It’s one heck of an assumption, and for more reasons than one. We don’t know if there are going to be debates…

The post With Debate Months Away, It’s Clear Biden Isn’t Ready for a 1-on-1 with Trump appeared first on The Western Journal.

Celebrity Deaths in April 2020 Here’s a look at some of the famous faces we lost in the month of April. Ellis Marsalis Jr. Ellis Marsalis, 1934 – 2020 He went out the way he lived: embracing reality pic.twitter.com/sPyYUuBoIG — Wynton Marsalis (@wyntonmarsalis) April 2, 2020 New Orleans jazz legend Ellis Marsalis Jr., 85, died on…

The post Famous Faces Who Passed Away in April 2020 appeared first on The Western Journal.

If you’re a big business and you abused the Small Business Association’s new Paycheck Protection Program, you’re getting very close to the deadline for you to pay the government back. If you don’t, that means the government is going to be coming after you — and you can definitely be ready for an audit. That’s…

The post Big Businesses That Abused Paycheck Protection Program Should Get Ready for an Audit appeared first on The Western Journal.

Record-breaking high and low temperatures were recorded in parts of Canada going into the weekend, including the nearly 28 C recorded in the Squamish area of British Columbia and the -4.2 C recorded in Kitchener, Ont.

Nearly 10 years after Congress passed a law to curb online gambling, a new investigation finds offshore sites are not only still thriving, but in some cases routing crucial parts of their operations through equipment based in the U.S.

TL;DR: You don't have to buy a drum set to learn how to play the drums. Instead, just grab the Senstroke by Redison bluetooth drum kit for $189.95, on sale for 5% off as of May 9.

If you want to learn how to play the drums, then a quality set may cost you upwards of $1,000. Not only is this a hefty price to play for individuals who aren't fully committed to the instrument yet, but their massive size may be impossible to fit inside your space. Or at least your housemates may not appreciate it.

With the Senstroke by Redison Bluetooth Drum Kit and App Bundle, you can practice, play, and record on just about any surface for a much more affordable price — and it'll take up little to no space.  Read more...

TL;DR: Give a meaningful gift during these difficult times with a Tribute Video Montage for $64.99, a 34% saving as of May 9.

A Zoom happy hour only goes so far.

If you're looking for a way to celebrate and send affection to your loved ones, regardless of the reason, check out Tribute Video Montage as an alternative to those wonky (and sometimes awkward) video calls. 

Sending a Tribute might just be one of the best morale-boosting presents you can send during these trying times. It's a way for friends and family to share their love and appreciation for someone they want to celebrate, whether for a major milestone, like a 50th anniversary or 30th birthday or just because. The platform is super easy to use and breaks a 10-hour process down to just 10 minutes. Read more...

Americans have been receiving contradictory information about the coronavirus pandemic, so much so that it's become a joke. One example is face masks: In March, the World Health Organization advised people to not wear masks if they aren't sick or caretakers of the sick. 

But given that some coronavirus patients are asymptomatic, opinions of masks from top officials have shifted. The CDC and the media now advise you to wear a damn mask. And a new study may provide more evidence that masks can help beat the outbreak.

According to this study, if 80 percent of Americans wore masks, coronavirus infections would plummet, Vanity Fair reports. The title of the study makes the researchers' view clear: Universal Masking is Urgent in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Read more...

With all the stress in the world — you know, a deadly, terrifying global pandemic — Spotify dropped a new service: a daily, personalized aimed at wellness. Fittingly, it's called Daily Wellness and I gave it a try. 

OK, first, let me drop my biases: I can be a cynical person and I'm pretty high energy — like hyper hyper — which has made meditation difficult for me. I can get both mentally and physically uncomfortable while trying anything resembling meditation or therapy or sincere reflection.

That being said, amid the pandemic — and battling some, let's say, serious anxiety — I've been taking active steps to try to improve my mental health. Therapy, meditation, exercise, whatever else, it all seemed like a good idea to help me get through the day. Read more...

I interviewed four business leaders in late 2019 to get their perspectives on the biggest obstacles and opportunities organizations are facing. Craig Lemasters was the president and CEO of Assurant Solutions. Under his leadership, Assurant Solutions doubled in size to $4B, underwent a digital transformation to expand an offering of risk management solutions in the […]

Tasmota — Alternative firmware for ESP8266 with easy configuration using webUI, OTA updates, automation using timers or rules, expandability and entirely local control over MQTT, HTTP, Serial or KNX. Selfie 2 Waifu — deep learning constructs an anime character from your photo. Paper for the underlying technique. (via @tkasasagi) The Handbook of Cyber Wargames: Wargaming […]

Popcorn Linux — exploring how to improve the programmability of emerging heterogeneous hardware, in particular, those with Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)-diverse cores, from node-scale (e.g., Xeon/Xeon-Phi, ARM/x86, CPU/GPU/FPGAs) to rack-scale (e.g., Scale-out processors, Firebox, The Machine), in both native and virtualized settings. Additionally, the project is exploring how to automatically compile/synthesize/execute code on ISA-heterogeneous hardware. […]

Leaving Amazon (Tim Bray) — May 1st was my last day as a VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services, after five years and five months of rewarding fun. I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19. Observability is a Many-Splendoured Thing (Charity Majors) […]

Raman Spectroscopy — Low Cost, High Performances, 100% Open Source Raman Spectrometer. […] We currently offer the spectrometer in a Starter Edition version designed for teaching Raman spectroscopy and we will soon release a Performance Edition version which achieves a tested 12 cm-1 resolution at low costs. Great to see this getting into the hands […]

Super Bootable 64 — Super Mario 64 shipped before the SDK was finalised, and it had to be compiled with optimisations turned off. This meant the binary was easily reversed to source code, and now the unportable has been ported. This site probably won’t last long, because DMCA, but it’s technically a sweet feat. (via […]

After last month’s “all coronavirus, all the time” report, I was concerned that this month would be more of the same.  And there is, indeed, a lot of coronavirus. But there are many other trends and interesting items to look at–possibly a sign that people are working effectively from home. Coronavirus Coronavirus prompts serious discussion […]

Mathematics for Machine Learning — We wrote a book on Mathematics for Machine Learning that motivates people to learn mathematical concepts. The book is not intended to cover advanced machine learning techniques because there are already plenty of books doing this. Instead, we aim to provide the necessary mathematical skills to read those other books. […]

A family in lockdown performs the Beatles' "Come Together." Read the rest

The flood stricken Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo says it is on track to lift its boil water advisory sooner than it was originally projected.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will not pay the full price for medical masks that do not live up to medical standards.

Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper believes Major League Baseball should relax its "dumb" rule preventing top players from competing in the Olympics.

NZ Rugby CEO Mark Robinson says there is still no clarity on the prospects for Test rugby in 2020, but said they will explore every avenue.

11 Million Struggling to Pay Mortgage Payments and Rent

Instant Reaction: Unemployment, May 8, 2020

Peter Kay’s Car Share Synopsis Peter Kay’s Car Share is a situation comedy television series produced by BBC One that premiered in April of 2015. Peter Kay’s Car Share follows the story of John (played by Peter Kay), an assistant manager in a supermarket and his co-worker and promotions rep Kayleigh (played by Sian Gibson). […]

Wayward Pines Synopsis Wayward Pines is a mystery thriller television series produced by Fox Network and set to premiere in May of 2015. Based on the book Pines written by Blake Crouch and produced by M. Night Shyamalan Wayward Pines follows the story of an FBI agent Ethan Bruke (played by Matt Dillon), who travels […]

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and finding the perfect gift for such a special occasion can be a really overwhelming task, particularly if you’re a last minute shopper. That’s why, to help you out, we’re sharing with you the best Mother’s Day gift ideas you can give to every supermom on your list. […]

The post DumbLittleMan’s Ultimate Gift Guide for Mother’s Day 2020 appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

In one way or another, social learning has been part of our lives for a long time. We spend a large amount of time at work. During this time, we are bound to learn from our colleagues and get a chance to talk on mutual topics of interest. Moreover, social media has given an outlet […]

The post Social Learning as a Way to Foster Productivity in the Workplace appeared first on Dumb Little Man.