If you would like to get an enjoyable introduction to banking and markets, you could do worse than Terry Pratchett’s Making Money.

He does have a habit of spotting trends and writing books about them. Of course, this is fantasy and has nothing to do with the real world, or what happens when people discover that their bank is broke.

In the CBC wrap-up it would appear that Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and NDP Leader Jack Layton did rather well, while Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper remained neutral, and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion had a bad night. Duceppe felt that Dion had a pretty good night in Wednesday’s French debate, but really wasn’t effective in last night’s English debate.

Obviously the debate centered on the failings of the Conservative government as envisioned by the other parties, but there were also criticisms of Dion for not calling for a no confidence vote on several occasions.

There was also a joint press conference in the US by the Vice Presidential candidates, but why bother. The format makes these things meaningless.

The Ig Nobel prizes have been awarded. Go to CNN for the explanations, because the Annals of Improbable Research, which awards them, is hammered with traffic.

A contender in the future has to be this piece of British research: Sick leave ‘link to early death’. According to the BBC story they have discovered: people who get sick die before people who don’t.  [I blame it on the break down in extended families – normally your grandmother would explain this to you, usually after the death of a pet.]

Waiting For A Table

Where’s dinner?

[Editor: This is KT-2, a juvenile. She isn’t senior enough to rush the food bowls, and has lost the immunity given to kittens. Like most teens she lays around and sulks a lot.

Friday Ark