Speed Liking – Click Your Way to Fame

Blogging Question of the month from Virginia in New York:

Dear Margie: I am a WordPress.com blogger. When I publish a new post – within seconds, someone presses the WordPress ‘Like’ button. How can this be? They didn’t have time to read the post, so how do they know they like it? Is it possible they read as fast as Santa Claus travels on Christmas Eve?

Answer:

Dear Virginia – Yes, there is a Santa Claus – but there is no way that someone can read entire blog posts in just a few seconds. I’m afraid you are being scammed by the WordPress Reader. You see, besides showing the first few words of your post (and any pretty picture you inserted), the Reader also lets you ‘Like” and ‘Reblog” that post – without even going to your site!

I know you are going to ask what anyone gains from liking a post they haven’t even read. Virginia, Virginia – your questions just get easier and easier! The ‘Like’ button puts a reader’s Gravatar picture on the bottom of your post and that is the link back to their blog. If you are one of those bloggers who faithfully visits the blogs of those who ‘Like’ your post, then you will go read their latest post!

Now, some bloggers (me included) actually use the ‘Like’ button after they have read a post and they are simply saying “I Like what you have written, and I’d say so in the comments except 43 other people have already said “Nice Post!”  Unfortunately, less scrupulous bloggers are simply “Speed Likers”, and the only way WordPress could thwart that activity is if they take the ‘Like’ button off of the Reader.

Would you like to see another application of Speed Liking? Just watch this tongue-in-cheek video:

Weird is when someone you don’t know goes through all of your Instagram photos and likes them. Then when you click on their profile, there are only pictures of pigs.
- Unknown -

Resources:

The Idea for this post came from a blog called Mostly Bright Ideas. The blog post was titled “Five Thousand Whats”.

If you have read all the way down to this part of the page, and you are interested in more information about Gravatars, Commenting, and Reblogging – here are some helpful links:
Visiting Cards – Yesterday and Today
To Comment or Not to Comment, That is the Question
Comment Etiquette – All or Some?
When Does Reblogging Violate Copyright?
Reblogging and Image Copyright

Contemplating Sardines

The Curmudgeon at Large is compiling a Cookbook and one of his first selections is a menu that incorporates the nine food items that will help you to prevent a heart attack. He says that one of the foods is the Sardine.

I can’t remember the last time I bought a tin of Sardines, but the thought of oily fish packed tightly in a tin made me curious about the current status of sardines in the world of the gourmet. Taking that one step further, what would be a sardine-wine pairing?  (Wine is also on the Curmudgeon’s list of heart healthy  foods) . The first web site that addressed this question was on a Chowhound discussion forum – What to drink with four year old sardines?  Apart from the suggestion that it might not be good to eat a tin of sardines of that age, the pairings included Maalox, Pepto-bismol, beer, sherry, and several white and red wines.

From there, I clicked on the link to The Society for the Appreciation of the Lowly Tinned Sardine.  This site artfully combines serious dedication to the fish with not so serious delivery of information.

Some of the great Chefs appear to be fond enough of the sardine to have figured out how to put it into a recipe. Jamie Oliver posts recipes for pizza, spaghetti and potato salad, while also paying tribute to the British favourite, sardines on toast.  Alton Brown kicks it up a notch (though not the way Emeril would)  in  a recipe for  Sherried Sardine Toast.

That is about all I can dredge up on the sardine. If there is anything else to be said about the sardine, I’m sure you will tell me!

It is much better to eat little fish like sardines directly from the ocean, rather than after they have been filtered through a larger predator.
- Deep Sea News -

The Siksika First Nation – Idle No More

Between March 23rd and 27th,  vandals caused extensive damage to 25 Summer Cabins in a quiet little Golf Resort called Hidden Valley.

Normal operating procedure for this community of 300 cabins, situated on a 324 acre parcel of land leased from the Siksika First Nation, would be to repair or rebuild what the vandals destroyed. After all, the cabin owners have rebuilt twice in the past when the community was extensively flooded by the Bow River.

But this isn’t a normal year. It is the last year of the Resort’s lease. A small but vocal group of Siksika Nation Members have decided not to Redesignate these lands for use by non-nation members. By extension, they do not wish to renew the lease proposal that the Siksika Nation Chief and Council negotiated with the Cabin Owner’s Association.

In a Referendum this past December where 4167 Siksika Members were given the opportunity to vote on redesignation, 641 voted NO, while 269 voted Yes. The remaining 78% of the population chose not to vote.

The Cabin Owners (some of them members of the Siksika Nation) were surprised and devastated by the ‘No’ vote. They have been paying the maintenance and improvement costs for the amenities – a 9 hole semi-private Golf Course, pro shop, restaurant, and man made lake – for the past 38 years. With green fees of just $20 a round, the golf course has attracted a loyal following of the Nation’s members and provides employment in a corner of the reserve where there are few jobs. In addition, the Resort pays an annual rights fee to the Nation in order to use the land for six months of the year.

They were equally surprised, but optimistic when Chief and Council passed a resolution that said they intended on holding another Referendum that would extend the existing lease for another 2-3 years so that the will of the entire Nation could be determined.

This action didn’t sit well with those who had voted NO. They had been celebrating the fact that the ‘colonists and their 300 years of lies’ would be forced off of their land. They couldn’t understand how the cabin owners were suddenly back in the running. They did not seem to realize or accept that their Chief and Council had initiated the offer of a second Resolution.

It was at this point that a group of vandals decided to take matters into their own hands. It is hard to say what they expected to accomplish, or where their loyalties lie, but the damage was another blow to the Cabin Owners. They were also disheartened when they found out that Chief and Council were in no hurry to hold the next referendum – the proposed date would not give the cabin owners time to remove their cabins if the vote was NO again. (I expect there isn’t enough time to remove the cabins anyhow as a result of the timing of the first vote.)

The whole thing is of interest to me because this Resort is where our extended family have cabins. It is a place where we have been gathering for over twenty years. We care about this land, and we care about what happens to the people – the ones who own the land, the ones who look after it, and the ones who use it.

The distance between the Cabin Owners and the Vote NO! dissenters cannot be measured. It is more than a failure in communication between partners; more than the mistrust the dissenters have of their Chief and Council. It is more than a dispute over who pays how much for what – and when. It is, in so many ways, the re-enactment of the settling of Canada, only this time some part of the First Nation feels like they have won.

It is sad to think what the rest of this First Nation will lose in the process.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Color

Any colour – so long as it’s black.
- Henry Ford -

I haven’t felt much like blogging for a few months now. Have I been Blue? Yes, some days. Other days, I’ve been seeing Red (but that is a post for another day). Very occasionally, I’m Mellow Yellow - (white wine can do that). For the past week or so I’ve been kind of Grey though – I’ve got a cold.

I perked up, however, when I saw the Photo Challenge this week was Color (or Colour). Just click on this Tag – Colour – and you will see just a few of the Colour themed posts I’ve done in the past few years.

So, what to choose for this theme?

In the creepy crawly department, I found a scorpion in the bathroom the other day, but in my hurry to remove it from the house, didn’t get a photo. I did, however, find this very handsome Large Milkweed Bug a few days later – well, actually I found lots of them and they were very absorbed with mating, so I had to wait for some time to take a picture that wouldn’t compromise their right to privacy.

A recent visit to Goldfield Ghost Town (see Two Subjects for a few words about this Arizona destination) offered many opportunities to photograph the bright yellow flowers, blue skies and Superstition Mountains, all while eating ice cream in a freshly baked waffle cone. Life just doesn’t get any better than that.

Another bug – a honey bee in a the bright pink flowers of – well something. Arizona plants and insects are still pretty much a mystery to me.

Things happen fast here in the Sonoran Desert. These Wolfberries are already a deep red orange in colour and I expect they will be a welcome food source for something very soon. I have read that the berries are people food too, but Arizona berries are pretty much a mystery to me too.

When the water of a place is bad it is safest to drink none that has not been filtered through either the berry of a grape, or else a tub of malt. These are the most reliable filters yet invented.
- Samuel Butler -