Burner, Biscuits, Blogs.

That is an entirely inappropriate picture today, it is raining fit to float an ark, but I liked this one and we did see not only chickadees but also a Bard Owl this morning. It shook itself like a dog does to get rid of the water.

So, don't vote for Darcy Burner, she's an evil witch, I certainly won't be. Not that I can, I can't even vote here in Canada let alone down in the States.
Our friends to the South have elections coming up, and since some of our TV channels are US ones, we are overwhelmed with adverts taken out by the candidates themselves or their opponents, all trying to influence the voting.
Darcy Burner, a person I wouldn't vote for simply on account of her name, has clearly angered the Republican party for her sins. Their anti-Darcy ad claims that she will increase taxes for families, she will increase taxes for seniors and she will (specifically ) increase taxes for single mothers. A second thinking about this leads me to the conclusion that Darcy must therefore be a democrat, who will probably want to do some spending on public programmes and yes, may have to raise taxes all round. Her own ad claims that she comes from a military background and wouldn't touch veteran's benefits. It's all quite bizarre. The ones from the candidates themselves all have to end with,
'I'm (Darcy Burner) and I endorse this message.' Well duh. I'm sure there must be a history there somewhere.

At least Darcy is acting like a democrat - or at least my imagined Darcy. Our very own Tory government on the other hand don't understand what being a Tory means. Stephen and his merry crew have just made their very heartland, their own dyed in the wool supporters and those whom they might have been able to draw in all howl with pain by imposing a tax on Income Trusts, the very and exact thing they promised never to tax. See Stephen, extra taxes - that's what the other team do. Double Duh!

So. Now. Get a bunch of Brits sitting around a table on which you place a big tray of scones and very soon you'll have an argument about whether 'scones' is pronounced 'scohnes' or 'sconnes'. Almost guaranteed. And this difference in pronunciation isn't based on accent or area, it is just a quirk. But the other day, I found out that Canadians get round this.
There are various older ladies who come into the Nature House and bring baked goods. The other day, a very nice lady came in and brought a big batch of lovely looking scones and some home made jam.
'Oh, those look nice scones,' quoth I,
'Biscuits,' she said. Bizarre thought I, but I wasn't prepared to taste them to find out whether they had any of the essential qualities of biscuityness. It's particularly odd because in the supermarkets, what we would refer to as biscuits, ie biscuits are in fact labelled biscuits. Still, no-one argues about how to say 'scones'.

Blogs, I read in the Guardian yesterday, are going to be the downfall of the internet. Jolly good then. This is apparently because we spread untruths and people read them and believe them. Not only that but we link to each others' blogs and this reinforces the lies we tell. Hmm...interesting.
I have certainly noticed that there are types of blogs that are almost like small communities. So you have little clusters of left-wing or right-wing or sex or friendship blogs and they do indeed all support each other in one way or another. A bit like people do in real life, or like newspapers do. I'm sure the rise of news sheets from the coffee houses was considered subversive when they started.
But it's ok because the universities of Massachusetts (holy crap that's a difficult word to spell and in fact it's not a uni, just an Institute of Technology) and Scunner hampton, oops, sorry, Southampton, are introducing degree courses in web science. So that's alright then, I can carry on linking and blogging and disseminating my own personal opinion and all will be well.

But don't vote for Darcy Burner, she's an evil witch....or is she?