[new media, romance and evidence]

"Mobile phones, BlackBerrys, emails, social networking... Never before has it been so easy to cheat on a partner. But has technology made it simply too difficult for philanderers to cover their tracks?

*****

In today's world, to function as an effective member of 21st-century society, we have to engage with a bewildering array of electronic gadgets, few of which we fully understand. We stomp digital footprints all over the place, and the unforeseen result of engaging in the information age is that it is becoming harder to have secrets – and, as a result, it is harder to cheat on each other.

Day-to-day actions, such as taking the bus to work and buying a magazine on the way, used to be ephemeral. But today, every journey, every communication, every penny spent, is logged and stored. As we move through life, we leave millions of specks of electronic evidence. Stored on hard drives and mainframes, this data acts like specks of DNA sprayed across the bedsheet of cyberspace. It's all there waiting to incriminate us."

Read the whole article at the Independent.

[toronto]

[easter snow!]

[easter cake]

The death-by-chocolate cake I made for our Easter lunch with friends Julian and Della.

yes I'm proud of it! and no, there isn't any left...

[dr. julian murton on cbc radio]

Wowee! We know someone famous. Julian (related to the famous jam-making Della) is on CBC radio talking about his speciality: permafrost.

"Siberia's Methane Lakes

In parts of Siberia, small lakes are beginning to form on what used to be dry Arctic tundra.

They're nice to look at, but ultimately deadly for the global environment and everything in it.

They're called "thermokarst" lakes, caused by melting permafrost. And they're belching methane, one of the worst of the greenhouse gases.

Like that's not enough, the melt also threatens to release vast bogs of carbon dioxide. But nobody knows exactly how. Or why. Or when.

That shortage of research troubles Dr. Julian Murton. He's a member of the International Permafrost Association.

He's also Professor of Geography at the University of Sussex in England, and he joined us from Brighton.

Listen to his talk with Rick."

[sunday bbq]

Another lovely afternoon spent with the fabulous Della and Julian ducking blackbirds in their lush garden.














After a satisfying bbq (kudos to Julian and showing off what he learnt in Canada) we ambled through pastures and ponds,

















narrowly evading some crazy cows...




Not ones to send us home empty handed, we returned with an armful of freshly grown (from Della and Julian's allotment) rhubarb and Della's homemade jam.