A shout-out to As It Happens

I've been listening to As It Happens much more frequently ever since Trump launched his trade war against Canada.  For readers unfamiliar with the program, here are excerpts from the Wikipedia entry:

As It Happens is a Canadian interview show that airs on CBC Radio One in Canada and various public radio stations in the United States through Public Radio Exchange. Its 50th anniversary was celebrated on-air on November 16, 2018. It has been one of the most popular and acclaimed shows on CBC Radio.

The bulk of the program consists of a CBC journalist, currently Nil Köksal since 2022, conducting telephone interviews with newsmakers and other persons of interest. The other co-host, Chris Howden as of January 6, 2020, introduces the interviews and other segments... 

The show is broadcast each weekday from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. (half an hour later in Newfoundland) throughout Canada. It used to be widely accessible to much of the northern United States, but as the CBC switched its CBC Radio One from powerful AM signals in Eastern Canadian urban centres to FM stations, it became harder to receive CBC content further away from the border.

I download the podcasts to my phone and listen to them while running errands.  My introduction to the program actually began way back in 1997, when I presented a research paper on the role of sleep paralysis in literature and folklore at a national meeting in San Francisco.  In that lecture I mentioed the "old hag" phenomenon in Newfoundland.  Two evening later I was in my hotel room when the phone rang, and moments later I was being interviewed by then-host Michael Enright.

American listeners to NPR's All Things Considered will find themselves right at home with As It Happens.  The whimsical humor nicely offsets the grimmer realities of world news.  I invite readers to leave their own reviews in the comments.

Addendum:  One interesting segment several days ago was a report that some Canadian professional hockey games will now be simulcast on the radio in the Cree and Inuktitut languages, as well as the traditional English and French.  What was most interesting to me was that instead of adopting English words for concepts like "icing" and "cross-checking," they are going to create new words in their own language - demonstrating an admirable respect for ancient languages.

Winter planting

Yes, you can sow seeds on top of snow.

The photo above is the second in a sequence posted by Marcie O'Connor on her incomparable blog Prairie Haven.  I first wrote about her blog back in 2009 -

Prairie Haven is a blog describing the process of "unfarming" - helping restore a conventional rural farm return to its natural, "wild," state. It's not a laissez-faire process of benign neglect; instead it entails lots of hard work with controlled burns and eradication on nonnative invasive plants.

The blog is presented as a journal, stretching back for nine years (!) [now 21 years!!!], with supplemental categories documenting the flora and fauna that have appeared during the restoration process. Photographs are large-format and professionally composed and edited. More importantly, the accompanying text, while brief, shows a deep and broad knowledge of the natural world. 

- and then in 2015 I described a memorable walk down her driveway during a butterfly census.  This week I visited the blog again to read the latest post, and while browsing the manifold richness of material there, I saw her post about restoring Buffalo Ridge Prairie.  Here is the baseline photo (from 2001) when the previous owner had planted it in soybeans:

This is a 20-acre field on a hilltop in the center of their property in the Driftless Area. After the soybeans and corn stubble had been removed by mowing and glyphosate, the former prairie was reseeded with native plants in 2004/5 - " There was lots of snow that winter, so I did most of the planting on snowshoes" (top photo).

Here's the result, in July of 2009, when the restored prairie was 4 years old.

Awesome.  

Prairie Haven has a 21-year compilation of information on prairie restoration, moths, butterflies, raising silkmoths, spiders, mosses, lichens etc.  It rewards deep exploration.

Addendum:  Those interested in "unfarming" land might be interested in this 2025 article in The Guardian.  (web searches for "rewilding" will probably be more productive than those for "unfarming.")

A remarkable 9th-century swan

This is a special book from the early Middle Ages (France, 9th century). Not only does it contain a high volume of very attractive images, but these images are also not what you would expect: they are drawn, as it were, with words. They illustrate Cicero’s Aratea, a work of astronomy. Each animal represents a constellation and the written words in them are taken from an explanatory text by Hyginus (his Astronomica). His words are crucial for these images because the drawings would not exist without them. It is not often in medieval books that image and text have such a symbiotic relationship, each depending on the other for its very existence.

Image and text from Erik Kwakkel's excellent blog.  At the link you will find five additional images of similarly-illustrated animals, and links to the digitized primary source and related materials.

Reposted from 2013 to note that the Public Domain Review has posted a gallery of sixteen of these "calligrams."

I'll bet you didn't see the mantis on the orchid

Neither did the fly.

From the Mail Online, via The Soul is Bone.

Today I'm posting five items I've harvested from The Soul is Bone, and I'm adding it to my category of recommended blogs.  It's a tumblr maintained by the same blogger who created Deformutilation, which I also frequently visit.  The content is described as

Educationally bizarre: Current events, medicine, animals, forensics, oddities, teeth, eyes, deformities, funerals, cemeteries, blood, albinism and such ........

Both sites include graphic images of human pathology (especially ocular pathology) which are not hidden beneath any folds and thus may be too intense for some readers.  But the tumblr clearly has an abundance of images of "things-you-wouldn't-know" material, always with appropriate links to the source.

"Pond-effect" snow ?

Most people who live in cold climates are aware of the phenomenon of "lake effect snow."  Even so, it's sometimes startling to realize the  magnitude of the effect.  The image above, from Paul Douglas' On Weather blog, shows a recent dump of 32 inches of snow on Oswego, New York - in one day.

What I learned yesterday while reading up on this at Dr. Jeff Masters' Wunderblog, is that a long fetch over open water is not mandatory.  His photo illustrating the Oswego event -

- shows, in addition to the 32" snowfall at the far right, areas of enhanced snowfall downwind from power plant cooling ponds (lower left corner).

Note the thin streaks of snow to the southwest of Lake Michigan in north central Illinois. According the the National Weather Service in Chicago, these bands of snow were lake-effect induced, but not from Lake Michigan--the snow was due to cold air flowing over warm waters in power plant cooling ponds. Image credit: NASA.

And here's a close-up image from the Chicago NWS:

You learn something every day.

The Best Blogs of 2012

YouTube link. 

The voting is now complete.  The blogs listed below (in no particular order) have been selected as the Best Blogs of 2012.  Click on the video to hear Freddy Mercury sing you a celebratory song while you peruse the list.

Tank Hughes writes the eponymous TankHughes.com: "I write enthusiastic posts about the history of words, I create a comic every Monday, I make short music playlists based on themes, and I think up odd useless projects."

Flask is the author of furthermore, flask, which "is simply my own story or part of my story, or at least a view from my window or hints about what's on my worktable... really. soon i am going to tell about beans, beans, fritos and cheese, and there will be pictures."

ScottyMo's Double Features pairs up the movies in his 600+ DVD collection and explains "why they work together, and what they mean to me. Posts are usually succinct and amusing."

Tyler Hewitt has two blogs; his Lightbender is "'a journal of the creative process', which basically means that I show and talk about my work (both in-process and finished pieces) and occasionally post about other interesting art related things," and at A Photo A Day he posts original photographic work.

Setecq, by Seth, contains "largely my photos of things around NYC, along with interesting reading, creations by friends, and miscellany."

Theory Fighter is "a blog about video game design, theory, and criticism. We are focused on initiating intellectual discourse about games and other media of interests.  I mostly cover video game related events that I attend (lectures, seminars, workshops). There isn't much coverage of these events in the blogosphere."

Maia uses Traveling Maia to document her travels "(mostly to Europe and South Seas) by boat and bike, with snippets/curiosities/observations about food, science, snark, and other.

Zhoen explores the world One Word at a time, via "essays, meanderings and mutterings, lots of cat photos. That's all, really. No point, no agenda, very personal."

At Books As Portable Pieces of Thoughts, Anachronist presents "book and movie reviews, mainly for my own sadistic pleasure. I've also written several historical and cultural essays. It is a form of a treatment, I am weird, I know."

Tread Life, by Jerry Smith is the best motorcycle blog in this list: "It's about motorcycles, which I started riding in 1968, and now and then it's about writing about motorcycles for a living, which I've done since 1980. Also some stuff about dogs. Some curveballs, too."

forMYinformation, by trickpa, is an "accumulator" blog which "collects things off the net that interest me. Mostly humor and posts I'd like to refer back to."

Lady Aritê gunê Akasa is in the Society for Creative Anachronism (a living history group) and has a Sarmatian persona (one of the Eurasian steppe nomad cultures). Sarmation in the SCA is where she is compiling everything she learns about them plus her other experiences in the SCA.

The Town Scryer is described by jaundicedi as "a mixed bag of humor, socio-political observations and ephemera from the perspective of a eclectic Pagan veteran of the counter-culture."

Twelve Mile Circle is an appreciation of unusual places. It's all about spots on the map that just don’t seem to make sense. Highpoints, non-contiguous boundaries, latitude/longitude confluences, and other trivial geographic facts are all fair game for my adventures.

Frank Kasell reports "I'm just finishing up a trip through China to research a book about Chinese street food.  A Field Guide to Chinese Street Food, is the companion piece to the future book. The blog includes reviews of Chinese street food (I've now eaten the street food in 53 cities in 32 of the 33 Chinese provinces), information about travel in China, and other bits of mostly relevant information I find interesting."

At CascadeExposures.com Jan posts her "own photos Mon-Fri, with little or no commentary. They're mostly stuff from my garden, places around the northwest, or anything else that I see and like."

Dora is the author of My Idea of Paradise.   "Becoming a mom in recent years has brought a whole new perspective to my work as a pediatrician. This blog is my way of sharing those experiences with others. Most of the topics are child/family focused and are meant to help, inspire, or amuse its readers."

You can read James Comins' novels (!) and short stories at his Smashwords website.

Let's Go (いきましょう) is Beckey Mulkey's blog following her family's life and adventures in Okinawa, Japan.

Seth Wilson is an artist, animator, teacher, and blogger.  Inkfumes Sketchbook is his "personal blog for illustrations, doodles and sketches. No digital stuff, mostly scans from my sketchbooks and what not."

Offbeat Home, by Cat Rocketship, offers "homey inspiration and advice for offbeat occupants."

Another home-related blog is That Crazy American Housewife by Britney, which posts "recipes, crafts, activities, and.. well, its random."

Bradd Libby blogs about "PEER issues (Population, Economics, Environment, Resources), though occasionally about physics and chickens and Google and such."

David Crews – Essays, Poems, & Musings on Life, Spirit, Entheogens, and What Is Real is "a philosophical and arts blog for my writing, pro photography, travel, poetry, digital artwork, and more," including his experiences with Amazonian shamanism.

DeeSaturate, by Dee Cunniffe contains "bits and bobs about comics, toys, movies and process. I've recently become involved in the comic creation process (flatting and colours) - so I share the things I learn from being a newbie in comics world."

Tanveer Ahmed uses The Beachcomber's Delight as "a repository of tales, links , extracts,poetry, photographs and quotes I come across while surfing ( anything that could make people go hmmm.. or make them smile)."

Dan Lewis' Now I Know is an emailed newsletter "the purpose of which is "to share something new, interesting about the world, each morning. Like the fact that carrots used to be purple, or that Abraham Lincoln created the Secret Service the day he was fatally shot, or that there's an island of hyper-poisonous snakes off the coast of Brazil."

Endomental and I {heart} Rhody are companion blogs, the latter focusing on the state of Rhode Island - "the smallest state geographically, but it has so much to offer in food, history, culture and natural beauty. We want to see it all and share it with our readers."

William D. Richards established A Writer's Chronicles as "a place where I could comment about the process of writing and publishing my books... It serves to help me clear my mind of miscellaneous thoughts before writing and I hope might be a point of reference and education for anyone considering following the path of becoming a writer."

In her spare time, when she is not managing Neatorama or writing for Mental Floss, Miss Cellania posts "funny found stuff, with a few serious links" at Miss Cellania; she has written over 4,000 posts in seven years - a remarkable and enjoyable archive to browse.

If you're interested in reviews of beer, you can find hundreds of them at cjemmott's Five Thousand and One Beers.

Madeline's blog is Octopuses - ""a humorous blog by a Virginia girl" (with a pinch of marine biology), though my camera skills have increased infinitityfold!"

Dr. Mieke and her family were among the first visitors ever at TYWKIWDBI.  Her "home blog" is The Grange: a small farm in the Northern Rivers area of NSW.  For her professional work as a social psychologist specialised in interpersonal & intercultural communication she set up a blog for Master's students focusing on the management of technological systems for hotels, conventions and events.

Criggo is a premier humor blog which is on my regular reading list and to which I have linked a dozen times over the years.  It highlights "bad newspaper articles/headlines/advertisements.

Teacher Rich maintains The Frustrated Teacher, a blog about "eduwars," politics, and lots of editorial cartoons, which I occasionally harvest.

Flippism is the Key, by Professor Batty, "has been exploring all things strange thought to be common and all things common found to be strange since 2004. Special emphasis on Icelandic culture, photo-illustrations, a weekly cartoon and serial fiction."

Lauren Villarama's blog, a wee i,  "is mostly about my life's little tidbits, nothing too serious. I have pages on my film photographs and sketches, just a few of my interests."

~im just only me~ maintains two blogs. "Caught in the Dawning is just a collection of my poetry from over the years, with links to some of my favorite blogs. What may be more interesting is my other blog Cabbages and Kings wherein I post random art and drawings from time to time."

Mikeb302000 is "mainly about gun control, but I post quite a bit about liberal politics and every once in a while something of general interest and amazement."

GDad is the author of Cranial Hyperossification.  "I started my blog as an exploration of the adoption process from the perspective of a gay man. Now, the posts are sort of all over the board."

bulletholes writes Bulletholes in the Mailbox - "a journal, a notebook and stories of things I’ve done and people I’ve met. I don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story, but a lot of my stories need very little embellishment. I written about some hard things, and written myself out of some dark places too."

Once There Were Lions is teacher Scott Lilley's blog "about ecology, biology, education, natural history, technology, current events, environmental science, and other things that happen to fall into the large Venn diagram where those things occasionally overlap."

EMC lives on the island of Shikoku in Japan, and his blog, Tiny Reactors, "is about that, and about things I am reading or trying to read in Japanese, and the places I go in this out-of-the-way place, and the things I do."

Paperworker has created Regular Paper - "a visual blog with personal collage work."

"Language lover and linguist-in-training" Allison's blog is Polyglossic -"As a future scholar I'm particularly interested in endangered language preservation and revitalization, but as a person I'm also a little addicted to learning languages and to writing and literature, so all of these things get featured on my blog. I also have a weekly feature on Fridays where a native speaker gets to show off his or her language in a short audio clip and text."

Elly Vortex has had the good fortune to move to the majestic North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota.  This year she started Tales of the Witch of November in order to blog about about "my hiking, biking, and snowshoeing adventures. I'm planning to hike much of the Superior Hiking Trail this year, visit many state parks, and do some road races on my bike. I also write about weird and interesting stuff I find on the North Shore."

Bird in the Machine, by emj, is a chronicle of an American family's life in rural England.

Piera's "fandom-related" tumblr, This Tumblr Pwns N00bs, includes "the occasional sciencey, arty, history-y, or otherwise good-quality post."

Veuve describes Illustrated Obscurity as being "mostly about art, politics, culture, and random things that interest me. I also have a link to my art on the blog."

Cindy Kilpatrick, a K-12 librarian, maintains three blogs.  Going Beyond Survival in a School Library should be self-explanatory.  On and Over the Hills features her photography, and The Nature of the Hills is "more of a catalog than a blog as I attempt to record the flora and fauna specific to the unique high-altitude ecosystem of my home region" [in Alberta].

UrsaRodinia writes a newsletter (news, jokes, videos & links gleaned from the internet) rather than a blog; its contents are sometimes cited online in Eideard.

The Wild Edge is Kirk's blog about "my photography, and a little bit about my life in Maine and other things that occasionally gets my interest."

Every story at T. Purton's 200 Word Stories has 200 words, and when complete, the blog will also have 200 stories.  His accumulator blog is Disappointing Children.

Dietetic Sinners, by Heather, is a personal blog about "food I cook, the craft projects I mess up and the things I buy (candle sand storage containers) and my life in gen'l."

Sets of Nine is jonfen's tumblr in which the images of "contemporary art with occasionally smut, nature, memes and history topics" are arranged... well, take a guess...

It seemed like a good idea at the time is Funder's blog "about endurance riding with my Tennessee Walking Horse in the mountains of Nevada, but there's a healthy proportion of non horse stuff too."

Jonathan Holmes uses Crait's Lunchbox "to release my free programs and games that I program. I also post what influences my design and coding process...(and) I post about technology news, chickens, music, and I play rugby [on an undefeated state champion team], so I post about that, too."

From Finland comes Ennen oli paremmin- "about old photos and kind of funny little stories. Nothing too serious, I guess."

Richard "RichiH" Hartmann compiles "random thoughts about about Free Software, technology, and travel to the weirder destinations on Earth" in his blog.

Robs Webstek is "a kind of magazine style collection of things I like and subjects that fascinate me. It’s a mix of old photos (for instance daguerreotypes), paintings, maps, actresses, etc" collected by Rob From Amersfoort.

The posts in Philip Graham's eponymous blog "concentrate on issues of craft in the writing of fiction and nonfiction, and also focus on the creative arts in general... One recent post, "What Casablanca Can Teach a Writer," was a finalist for the 3QuarksDaily website's 2012 Arts & Literature Prize."

Buttonmashing is Tony's blog about video games.

Kat from California writes Kat's Almost Purrfect World, about Barbie dolls and to "share free vintage images, craft tutorials, recipes, images from my daily life and more."

Bill's blog, Practicing Resurrection, is "mainly about life on our farm [White Flint Farm, in Virginia], peppered with frequent quotes and poems from Wendell Berry."

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 

The end.  Uff da!  I have visited all 71 of these blogs; they vary from the casual hobby blog to the sophisticated professional website, and the content is obviously all over the place.  Only the most uncurious reader will not find one or two links to explore.  I've added a couple to my bookmarks.

I'll close with some administrative notes.  First of all, bloggers, please proof-read the entry about you and notify me re any corrections needed on the typography of your blog's title (spelling, caps), any incorrect links, and any misinterpretations by me re your gender, nationality, or the nature of your blog.  No need to affirm correctness or to write thank-you notes.  Don't expect a surge of visits, because many readers of this blog will already have stopped by during this past week after reading your listing comment.

Now, about the title, video, and introductory sentence of this post... On a whim, I decided to convert the list of blogs to a list of "winning entries" in an imaginary contest.  Why not?  It's a little misleading, but I tried to make it technically correct by having "voting" on the outcome (one voter - me), and by eliminating one obviously inappropriate blog entry (thus making these the 71 "best" of the 72 entries). 

The other advantage of titling the post as I did relates to Google searches.  For whatever reason (probably related to links in and out), TYWKIWDBI posts often rank high in Google searches of words in the titles of the posts (less so re content).  I'm hoping that later on, after it gets indexed, if someone searches Google for the "best blogs" of 2012, this post will wind up on the front page, and you guys may continue to get some traffic for the rest of the year.  Perhaps not.  We'll see what happens.*

If I do this again next year, I may set it up with actual (and probably silly) "categories" (Best Blog about Farms in Virginia, Best Guide to Chinese Street Food, etc.)

These closing administrative comments will be erased next week.

*So far, so good.  A Google search for "best blogs" (in quotes) + 2012 shows this post as #7 out of 43,000,000.  For "best blogs of 2012" this is #1 out of 17,000.

Fasting Against God

Several weeks ago I discovered Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog, which describes its content as "the outlandish, the anomalous, and the curious from the last five thousand years."  As expected, it has quite a bit of "TYWK"-type material, so some of you may want to bookmark it.  Here's are some sample excerpts from a post today:

The story recorded in the Tripartite Life of St Patrick claims that the saint went to Croagh Patrick in County Mayo. There he climbed to the top, sat down and told a passing angel that he would not leave the mountain ‘till I am dead or until all my requests are granted’...

Fasting  is typically a religious act; an individual deprives themselves of food to concentrate the mind better on God. However, in ancient Ireland, fasting was not only religious. It also had another purpose. The ancient Irish law books, of which several survive, explain that a person could fast against a man who had injured him in some way and who was of a higher social rank.

The wronged individual went to the wrong-doers house and sat outside from dawn to dusk refusing to eat. By so doing he brought bad luck or ‘pollution’ to his opponent. The one fasted against then had two options. He could either admit his wrong and redress it – the fasting would stop and social harmony would be restored. Or he could counter fast to ward off the curse.

It is an extraordinary custom. Not least because it can be paralleled in ancient, medieval and, indeed, modern India and probably dates back to early Indo-European beliefs, beliefs that have survived at the two ends of the Indo-European continuum...

God, we learn, has, faced with His servant’s fasting, given way and the angel offers Patrick concessions... that those who sing Patrick’s hymn will be saved from torture, and, the promise that has already been mentioned; namely that when the end of the world comes Patrick, not God, will judge the Irish. 

There's more at the link, and many other choice morsels at the blog.

Congratulations to Not Exactly Rocket Science

Ed Yong's accessible-to-the-intelligent-lay-person science blog has been named "Research Blog of the Year."  And his blog has now moved under the umbrella of Discover Magazine.   I've cited his blog on numerous occasions, but I encourage those of you with science interests to bookmark and visit the site on a regular basis because I can't begin to highlight all the good stuff there.

Moqo-Moqo: a Recommended Blog

Most of the blogs I have recommended have been "accumulators," typically without a single theme.  Moqo-Moqo is also an accumulator - of photographs.  I particularly like the fact that Moqo-Moqo is themed to the biological diversity of the natural world.   In recent years he/she seems to have added a bit of commentary or identification of the subject, but for the most part the emphasis is on the visual image.

Another reason I'm offering a recommendation is that unlike many (?most) other photoaccumulators, this one makes a reasonable effort to give credit to the source of the photo, either via text or via a link embedded in the photo.  Sometimes, as with the indigo bunting above, the link goes to the photo itself; other times (and less optimally) it goes to a Flickr photostream's front page or to another accumulator.  But at least the effort and courtesy is made.

Whenever TYWKIWDBI starts becoming dreary from a run of posts about business, politics, ethics, crime etc, I can always lighten the mood with some nature photos from Moqo-Moqo.  If you like that subject matter, give it a browse at the link.

Golden Age Comic Book Stories - a Recommended Blog

Since the Weblog Awards are not going to be held this year, I'm going to take some time to recommend other blogs that I think should have/would have/might have received awards.

Despite its name, Golden Age Comic Book Stories is not simply about traditional comic books.  As you scroll through the extensive list of labels in the left sidebar, it's apparent that the focus is on art and illustration, be it in comics or other publications such as books and magazines.  I enjoy searching by artist (here are the selections for Arthur Rackham, N.C. Wyeth, Frank Frazetta).  There are also photo compilations, especially of movie stars (Claudette Colbert, Barbara Stanwyck).

For a blog that's only entering its third year, there is an immense amount of visual material to explore.  For a sample, just go to the home page and scroll down.

Prairie Haven - a Recommended Blog

I've been meaning to add to the category of recommended blogs, but haven't done so for over 6 months. I have a French aggregator I want to add, and a Tumblr photoblog - but I'll start with Prairie Haven.

It was perhaps 30 years ago that I encountered Edwin Way Teale's book A Naturalist Buys An Old Farm, which thoroughly intrigued me. Some time thereafter I did try living on the remnants of an old farm in the semi-rural Kentucky countryside and discovered that doing so while working a 60-hour week wasn't practical.

Prairie Haven is a blog describing the process of "unfarming" - helping restore a conventional rural farm return to its natural, "wild," state. It's not a laissez-faire process of benign neglect; instead it entails lots of hard work with controlled burns and eradication on nonnative invasive plants.

The blog is presented as a journal, stretching back for nine years (!), with supplemental categories documenting the flora and fauna that have appeared during the restoration process. Photographs are large-format and professionally composed and edited. More importantly, the accompanying text, while brief, shows a deep and broad knowledge of the natural world. One reason I didn't write anything for TYWKIWDBI a few days ago is that I spent hours exploring this site.

The property being "unfarmed" is a beautiful western Wisconsin site with an impressive variety of microhabitats, which the owners are enhancing. Inspired by the blog, I've now requested Teale's book from the library for another reading.

Addendum:  for another successful "rewilding" of a conventional farm, see this 2024 article in The Guardian about a venture in the U.K.

J-Walk - A Recommended Blog

J-Walk becomes the fourth addition to my series of blogs that I highly recommend to those who enjoy TYWKIWDBI. Like Presurfer, Neatorama, and Nothing to do with Arbroath, it is an "old-timer" with a high Technorati authority ranking (415 today, which gives it an impressive rank of 7,243).

The J-Walk title is a logical extrapolation of the name of the blogger, John Walkenbach, who refreshingly allows a bit of his own personality to emerge in the blog (unlike some blogs that are distant and impersonal), so if you monitor the site you will inevitably encounter posts about Excel spreadsheets and banjos.

If you enjoy my blog, J-Walk will almost certainly appeal to you because the range of content is wide and the subject material is sufficiently eclectic to appeal to the typical TYWKIWDBI visitor. I link to J-Walk perhaps once per week, but have bookmarked many more items that I haven't had time to write up, so herewith is a linkdump which you can sample as a taste of what you might encounter after adding J-Walk to your "daily visits" folder:

Video of an impressive trick pool shot.

Pringles proves in court that their product is not potato chips.

Conjoined barn swallows found, and to be sent to the Smithsonian. Joined at the hip and alive (but probably not for long).

Dog receives pension for faithful tending of sheep.

A list of 100 things to eat before you die. (I've only had 25 so far...)

Video of election night coverage in 1960.

A Catholic priest telling parishioners they shouldn't take communion until they do penance for voting for Obama.

Why you should never trust a screencap (you can alter websites on your computer and then take a screencap photo of them to "prove" that's what they showed).

Nothing To Do With Arbroath - a Recommended Blog

This month's installment in the Highly Recommended Blog series is Nothing To Do With Arbroath, one of the stalwarts of the web (since January 2005, which is forever in blog-years), accumulating a Technorati authority rating of 367, placing it in the top 10,000 blogs.

I didn't discover Arbroath until March of this year, and since then have had occasion to link to it about twice a week. The unusual title apparently relates to the blogger's home territory of Arbroath, Scotland. The subtitle "A Daily Mish-mash of Stuff, Fluff, and Nonsense" reasonably reflects the content; the material I link to in Arbroath is typically what I would term "ephemera" - items that pass by and which we may not see again but which are worth noting before they disappear.

Much of the content in Arbroath is harvested from online newspapes and periodicals, especially those of the British Isles. One category of special interest to the blogger is the inanity and insanity of bureaucracy, with stories ranging from the humorous to the horrorshow.

Since I'm in the process of cleaning up my stored links, I'll use this occasion to offer some of the Arbroath links which I bookmarked but haven't had time to use. Browse the list below, and if the material interests you, consider adding Arbroath to your list of regularly visited blogs.

Firefighters were called to rescue a branch which was trapped in a tree.

On a GCSE English exam, one pupil who wrote “f*** off” was given marks for accurate spelling and conveying a meaning successfully.

A man was arrested on suspicion of assault after he sprayed his next-door neighbour with a garden hose during a minor argument.

An 83-year-old woman's birthday party drew some uninvited firefighting guests after the candles on her cake set off a smoke alarm.

A 78-yo man walking innocently along a road has his walking stick confiscated by police because it could be used as an offensive weapon.

Councillors approve reimbursement to themselves for walking to work.

Neatorama - a Recommended Blog

Anyone who has visited TYWKIWDBI on a regular basis should recognize Neatorama, because I have frequently linked to material there, or used material there as an inspiration for a blog entry (on a quick search now I find 50 mentions of Neatorama in TYWKIWDBI's 1400 blog entries.)

The strength of Neatorama comes from its governance; the blog is the creation of Alex Santoso, but he has assembled a group of several dozen contributing bloggers, so that Neatorama becomes a compendium of their creations and discoveries.

Neatorama also has a significant amount of original material; for an example, look at this fascinating list of idiot savants compiled by Alex. And the amount of material is overwhelming; this is a blog that will reward a daily check.

Technorati ranks Neatorama in their Top 100 (out of I think 12 million blogs). The overall spectrum of content seldom includes politics and current events, but instead leans toward light-hearted and ephemeral items. I think it's fair to say that if you enjoy TYWKIWDBI, you should be monitoring Neatorama.


Previous entry in this series: The Presurfer. In the months to come I'll cover J-Walk and Nothing to do with Arbroath.

Presurfer - a Recommended Blog

I'm starting a series of entries on blogs that I recommend to the TYWKIWDBI community.

The first one I'll feature is The Presurfer. Its mission statement is simply stated and not much different from that of TYWKIWDBI:

The Presurfer is Your Daily Dose of Diversion. A weblog about the weird, unusual, funny, strange and informative sites that can be found on the Internet.

The Presurfer was created by Gerard Vlemmings in the Netherlands in 2000. I discovered the site a couple years later when it began to receive awards and was featured in MacUser or MacWorld or MacSomething. I've visited on a daily basis for years.

The Presurfer's Technorati rating in the blogosphere is 6,360 (out of I think 12,000,000 blogs), which places him in the stratosphere of influence and prestige. By contrast, TYWKIWDBI is ranked at 490,000 or thereabouts.

I offer this recommendation not because I think my comments will improve his traffic (my 200 visitors/day will not impact his several thousand/day), but because if you like the content, tone, and attitude of TYWKIWDBI you will probably enjoy the Presurfer.

I'll offer other recommendations in the weeks/months to come. Those who want a head start can take a peek at Neatorama, J-Walk, and Nothing to do with Arbroath for starters.