[identity] when blogs become news centres

Most of us run blogs in our own idiosyncratic way. Some of us try to make them one man magazines, others invite people to contribute but in the end - they're still blogs, with one principal writer whom the reader is expecting to see more often than not.

Some which spring to mind are The Devil's Kitchen and Capitalists at Work, perhaps Bryan Appleyard.

Of these three, I'd say the only one which manages to be a group blog in its truest sense is CaW. The other two have many contributors, as do I but people tend to go there for the particular style of that blogger and that blog. Anything else is a bonus.

I've always thought that when a blogger tries to get something going at his blog, he's pushing it uphill and it usually ends up with him being the major contributor, even if one prepares a techie site and mailing list to go with it.

One site which does break the shackles and is an alternative to the MSM is the First Post, which presents as a newspaper and the only thing which makes it "bloggy" are the opinion pieces, of which there are many.

In no doubt about its identity is one of the originals - Samizdata - firmly in the blog camp, with many contributors who are subordinate to the management as far as editorial control goes. Samizdata keeps on keeping on - I'm not sure if it makes money.

One I haven't seen for years is Harry's Place, which used to be ruled with a rod of iron by its manager or so the folk lore went - who knows what happens today? Like Samizdata, that's as close as one is going to get to a public blog.

The Economic Voice is, in its layout, more newspaper than blog but it is presented as a forum for your views. A great idea but it has stiff competition from so many other pundits around the sphere. TEV would decry the word competition and opt for consensus, no doubt. However, I can think of Politeia and Gates of Vienna immediately as blogs gathering their own memberships as well.

EU Referendum is half and half, as far as I can see - a blog come news service on the EU issue and the most consistent voice on the issue.

Steve Green had an interesting thing going - one half of his site was a referendum on a daily basis but two things ended that, again as far as I can see - the sheer upkeep of such a blog and the wish of the readers to treat it as a Tory blog, so that is what it became.


Group blogging projects need a good deal of planning and selling and a generous slice of luck. The chance of one or two contributors dominating them is always high unless the proprietor is clearly in charge. In the case of nourishing obscurity, it doesn't attempt to be anything but a one person blog but does try to shake it up a bit with guest posts and a variety of subject matter.

Will the group blogs or group projects ultimately outlast the single blogger? One would think the chances are that they would although some bloggers seem to keep on keeping on. Group blogs though never rest, never cease to publish, never have hiatuses. If they're well run, they will always be a port of call for those on the net.

[late evening listening] majune and moby

Project by Daniel Winterhoff - Majune:



Moby - from 18:



So far, we have had Dearieme [ongoing], Ubermouth, Cherry Pie and HGF featuring their selections here.

I'd like to open it up a bit by asking if you have a favourite youtube piece of music that can be run here. Just send link or name of the piece to:

nourishingobscurity@gmail.com

I'll also start the ball rolling by tagging a few people, say Xlbrl, Tiberius Gracchus and North Northwester, to provide theirs. If they're reading this - go to it, lads.

[useless knowledge] is your mind cluttered

1. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer and.generally more comfortable to sleep on. That's where the phrase, "?" came from.

2. The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English alphabet, as you know. What you might not know is that it was developed by whom to test telex/fax communications?

3. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is .....? Hint - what we hope all the pictures on blogs are.

4. The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account ..... what?

5. The phrase "?" comes from an old English law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

Answers

Goodnight, sleep tight; Western Union; uncopyrightable; the weight of all the books that would occupy the building; rule of thumb

[sherlock again] who was the killer

Sherlock Holmes received an urgent telegram from a client who felt certain that his life was in danger. Holmes and Watson hurried to his lodgings only to find that they were too late. The man had been murdered minutes before they had arrived.

"I found him lying there," said the landlady. "Before he died, he muttered something about belonging to a secret club and quoted the number 92."

"Damned strange thing to say, Holmes," said Watson. Holmes nodded in agreement. "Did he say anything else?" Holmes asked the landlady.

"I asked him who had done this terrible thing to him, but he just repeated the number 92!" she answered.

Holmes thanked her for her help and discharged her. He then proceeded to search the dead man's room, coming across a letter addressed to the man from the other three members of the secret club.

Their names were Wilson, Updike and Brown. In the top left of the letter was the name of the dead man, Smith (Code 69).

From this, Holmes deduced that he had been murdered by another member of the club, and that the number that he had uttered to the landlady was in fact the code number of the murderer.

Holmes then supplied the name of the killer.

Which of the three was the killer?

Wilson

[match tricks three] try before you check

These 6 matches form 2 triangles.

Rearrange them to form 4 triangles.

Check your solution here.

Try these as well:

Matchtricks 1
Matchtricks 2

[michael ignatieff] and the politics of duress

The question is - to buy into Canadian politics or not? Your humble blogger bought into American politics, he bought into Brit politics so if we're treading on thin ice, we might as well dance ...



Let me repeat, from the youtube: "We might even have to engage in some forms of targetted assassination." [Michael Ignatieff]

Hey, way to go, Mick. Do you still want to force an election?

No doubt about it, Canada has changed from what I remember, so much so that some people might still think it's a utopia.