At Ameel's insistence, I finally started using Google Reader a few months ago. It was a bit weird at first because one of the things you lose is each blog's individual look and feel. But although there are a few blogs that I still mark as read in GR and then go and read at the actual site, I'm mostly over that and am quite happy to say that it's very handy. It's also somehow made it easier to keep adding blogs to my list now that they come to me. And that is what this post is about. My blogroll is out of date and I've been meaning to fix that, but as I do, I thought I'd write a bit about the blogs and feeds I read, particularly the new ones. In alphabetical order, too!
Ameel's Career & MBA Exposition(ACME): This is Ameel's "professional" blog, in which he talks school, career, and tech. I find it interesting not just because he's my husband (of 4 years as of today) but because it's full of information and links to information on technology, particularly as it relates to the WWW.
Arts & Letters Daily: As the name suggests, AL Daily is a listing of articles of note concerning books, writers, current events, education and culture. The articles come from a range of sources and represent differing opinions. If I'm at a loose end, I'll usually go there and browse through the archives or go through the links on the left - I don't know how many there are but I can safely say I have not looked at them all and probably won't be able to. There is seriously tons to read.
Bad Astronomy Blog: I probably would not have found this blog if Phil Platt (the Bad Astronomer himself) had not written about the bad physics in the Transformers movie. I've been hooked pretty much since I read that. The posts about astronomy are interesting enough on their own, specially given the enthusiasm with which he writes, but there's also quite a bit of coverage about the religiosity against which scientists and skeptics have to fight in the US. Some is scary, but mostly it's just very funny. The website also debunks such conspiracy theories as the moon hoax and tackles astrology and pseudoscience among other things.
Bitchitorial: Written by Natalie P., owner and webmistress of Heartless Bitches International, this blog replaced the Bitchitorial section of the site itself, although the site is alive and well. It's not updated very often, but I find her straight-talking, no-nonsense perspective on everything wonderful to read.
Eglantine's Cake: Author Penni Russon maintains this blog, where she writes about things that she wants to write about. This can range from writing about writing, books, work, kids, teaching, projects, home, cooking, people, research, issues or anything else, really.
Pharyngula:I heard about PZ Myers on the Bad Astronomy Blog and eventually followed a link to his blog. Myers is a biologist and a leader in the charge against nonsense like 'intelligent design' and other pseudoscience that seems to be gaining increasing currency, particularly in the US. Tangles with creationists and right-wingers are common and very entertaining.
PunkAssBlog: I've only just started reading this one, but it's quite interesting. Written by a number of contributors, its commentary on current events is sarcastic, intelligent and very entertaining.
Random Tangent: Ameel's personal blog.
Science Based Medicine: This is a vey interesting and informative new blog written by five regular contributors and a few guests. All writers have medical credentials and some are fairly well known online already. The point of this blog, as laid out here is to "scientifically examine medical and health topics of interest to the public. This includes reviewing newly published studies, examining dubious products and claims, providing much needed scientific balance to the often credulous health reporting, and exploring issues related to the regulation of scientific quality in medicine." Today's post about 'Alternative Flight' is well worth a look.
Stephen Fry: To quote a friend, "Stephen Fry has a blog? Stephen Fry has a blog? Stephen Fry has a blog? Heart of my heart, Stephen Fry has a blog?" And he's a geek. *swoon*
The Happy Feminist: This is another new addition to my reading list. I've been going through her posts as thoroughly as possible because what she seems to routinely make good points about women in (American) society. Take a look here, for example. She's articulate, interesting and thoughtful, which gets my vote.
The Little Professor: I don't remember where or when I came across this blog, but it's become something of an old friend. There are posts about novels, the Victorian novel, teaching, universities, teaching at university, grading, academics, and so on. I particularly like the lists of books and the 'numbers' posts.
I think that's it for the time being, though in the course of writing this I managed to find at least a dozen more blogs that look interesting, so I may be back with a new list once I'm done getting to know them a bit. In the mean time, if I've misrepresented anyone's blog or got anything wrong, I apologize and will fix it if I catch it or if you let me know where the eff-up is.
Ameel's Career & MBA Exposition(ACME): This is Ameel's "professional" blog, in which he talks school, career, and tech. I find it interesting not just because he's my husband (of 4 years as of today) but because it's full of information and links to information on technology, particularly as it relates to the WWW.
Arts & Letters Daily: As the name suggests, AL Daily is a listing of articles of note concerning books, writers, current events, education and culture. The articles come from a range of sources and represent differing opinions. If I'm at a loose end, I'll usually go there and browse through the archives or go through the links on the left - I don't know how many there are but I can safely say I have not looked at them all and probably won't be able to. There is seriously tons to read.
Bad Astronomy Blog: I probably would not have found this blog if Phil Platt (the Bad Astronomer himself) had not written about the bad physics in the Transformers movie. I've been hooked pretty much since I read that. The posts about astronomy are interesting enough on their own, specially given the enthusiasm with which he writes, but there's also quite a bit of coverage about the religiosity against which scientists and skeptics have to fight in the US. Some is scary, but mostly it's just very funny. The website also debunks such conspiracy theories as the moon hoax and tackles astrology and pseudoscience among other things.
Bitchitorial: Written by Natalie P., owner and webmistress of Heartless Bitches International, this blog replaced the Bitchitorial section of the site itself, although the site is alive and well. It's not updated very often, but I find her straight-talking, no-nonsense perspective on everything wonderful to read.
Eglantine's Cake: Author Penni Russon maintains this blog, where she writes about things that she wants to write about. This can range from writing about writing, books, work, kids, teaching, projects, home, cooking, people, research, issues or anything else, really.
Pharyngula:I heard about PZ Myers on the Bad Astronomy Blog and eventually followed a link to his blog. Myers is a biologist and a leader in the charge against nonsense like 'intelligent design' and other pseudoscience that seems to be gaining increasing currency, particularly in the US. Tangles with creationists and right-wingers are common and very entertaining.
PunkAssBlog: I've only just started reading this one, but it's quite interesting. Written by a number of contributors, its commentary on current events is sarcastic, intelligent and very entertaining.
Random Tangent: Ameel's personal blog.
Science Based Medicine: This is a vey interesting and informative new blog written by five regular contributors and a few guests. All writers have medical credentials and some are fairly well known online already. The point of this blog, as laid out here is to "scientifically examine medical and health topics of interest to the public. This includes reviewing newly published studies, examining dubious products and claims, providing much needed scientific balance to the often credulous health reporting, and exploring issues related to the regulation of scientific quality in medicine." Today's post about 'Alternative Flight' is well worth a look.
Stephen Fry: To quote a friend, "Stephen Fry has a blog? Stephen Fry has a blog? Stephen Fry has a blog? Heart of my heart, Stephen Fry has a blog?" And he's a geek. *swoon*
The Happy Feminist: This is another new addition to my reading list. I've been going through her posts as thoroughly as possible because what she seems to routinely make good points about women in (American) society. Take a look here, for example. She's articulate, interesting and thoughtful, which gets my vote.
The Little Professor: I don't remember where or when I came across this blog, but it's become something of an old friend. There are posts about novels, the Victorian novel, teaching, universities, teaching at university, grading, academics, and so on. I particularly like the lists of books and the 'numbers' posts.
I think that's it for the time being, though in the course of writing this I managed to find at least a dozen more blogs that look interesting, so I may be back with a new list once I'm done getting to know them a bit. In the mean time, if I've misrepresented anyone's blog or got anything wrong, I apologize and will fix it if I catch it or if you let me know where the eff-up is.