weblogworld

We’re sure Marx and Orwell would have blogged

Orwell, definitely,” said Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds. “Marx would have had to acquire a bit more ‘snap’, I’m afraid, to have made it as a blogger.”

Time for the last post
Financial Times 17 Feb 2006


Well, no to most of this actually. The ones that are interesting are the guys who have some knowledge which they wish to impart or a few well based ideas to thrash through with equaly knowledgeable friends

An example in biology, an area I am interested in, Evolving Thoughts, the weblog of Australian based academic John Wilkins. His blog roll:


Aetiology
Afarensis
De Rerum Natura
Dienekes' Anthropology Blog
Dispatches from the Culture Wars
Ideas of Imperfection: Nostalgia for the Stone Age
John Hawks Anthropology Weblog
Musgrave's Astroblogger
National Center for Science Education
Pharyngula
Philosophy of Biology
PostSecret
Sarkar Lab WebLog
Scott Page's All-too-common dissent
The Lippard Blog
The Loom
The Panda's Thumb
The Questionable Authority
Thoughts in a Haystack
Unscrewing The Inscrutable

He gives a plug for a new philosophy and history of biology blog, hpb etc., by Robert Skipper of the U. of Cincinnati. Academic and arcanerie - experts in general - are a growth area in blogging. Its not just politics, social issues, or personal problems or pictures of cats in contorted poses.There are issues with academics coming outside the peer review system, but most would use a blog to publish a paper: more likely to pass on a few book titles or a useful idea they have come across in reading, or a considered interpretation of a academic text, which might need to be more than a book review.

These guys do not fill their blogs with mind-numbingly boring personal matters of concern only to their perpetrators or half-formed political opinions better left to pundits who actually know something. There's nothing wrong with expressing one's opinion about world events, but for most people this is done in a narrower setting such as a bar over a few drinks, shouting imprecations at some politicians soundbites or obfuscations onTV, or at a dinner party. Or, should it be: that's how it used to be before everyone got a blog or access to the comments of blogs.

posted by Adfero Affero @ Saturday, February 25, 2006