On August 16, 2008, a small plane carrying a young married couple and their flight instructor crashed in the Arizona desert. Doug Kinneard, the instructor, was killed in the crash; Stephanie and Christian Nielson survived, both severely burned. Prior to the crash, Stephanie's weblog, the NieNie Dialogues, "had attracted a small but ardent following, thanks to its upbeat dispatches about marriage, home décor, entertaining and the art of raising four children ages 6 and younger." After the crash, with burns on over 80% of her body, she spent two months in a medically induced coma. One month later, she was released from the hospital (link to Stephanie's sister's blog); one month after that, she began blogging again. Stephanie's posts since then have chronicled her gradual recovery, her re-integration into her family, her love and gratitude for her husband, and, finally, on the one-year anniversary of the plane crash, herself. [more inside]
posted by granted on Aug 16, 2009 - 61 comments

"Uh oh, They're here": A Washington Post editorial about Elisha Strom, who blogged about the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force in northern Virginia with intensity and focus, displaying officers' photos, their cars, and in one now-gone entry, one officer's home. For this on July 16 she was arrested. [more inside]
posted by waraw on Aug 12, 2009 - 94 comments

The Early Days of Blogging - Presented at the 2009 HyperText conference, this paper is an extensively cited and well-researched narrative of the blogosphere's formative period. It delves deep into the involvement of Jorn Barger, Dave Winer, and other A-list luminaries.
posted by SpecialK on Jul 6, 2009 - 36 comments

The Girl Who Cried Webmaster: "I’m annoyed and exhausted, I have a considerable load of work to take care of, and after you’ve read what appears below, you’ll probably agree that I’ve earned it."
posted by grumblebee on Jun 3, 2009 - 84 comments

"Field Middle School student Max Timander, 12, has taken blogging's egalitarian spirit to a new height, despite his lack thereof. He runs areyourockin.com, a reviewer-centric rock blog covering a smart mix of hot albums (the new Green Day "is so addicting," he says) and "retro" discs -- by early-'00s acts such as the White Stripes and David Gray." [more inside]
posted by mippy on May 26, 2009 - 36 comments

A short film about Andrew Gilligan and sock puppets. [more inside]
posted by imperium on May 7, 2009 - 13 comments

John Gruber of Daring Fireball:

"My friend Merlin Mann and I had a session at SXSW Interactive about two weeks ago. It certainly wasn’t a panel, and it wasn’t really a presentation. It was more like an hour-long duet rant, the main goal of which was to inspire anyone who wants to publish or write on the web to pursue their obsessions in a serious way. We got the audio recording of the session from SXSW a few days ago, recorded short intro and outro segments, and Merlin spliced it together and has published it on his 43 Folders podcast. I encourage you to go ahead and listen to it."

People die and different folk celebrate and mourn in various ways. However, while it does seem as if everyone is blogging about baseball and boxing or UFC during these times that try men's souls'... not everyone can write about it for the CTV network. John will be missed by both Blue Jay and Expo fans and perhaps fight fans as well. Please take a moment of your time to click on some links, thank you.
posted by christopher.taylor on Mar 26, 2009 - 3 comments

The OMB has a blog (feed) -- Peter Orszag started one at CBO (still going under Douglas Elmendorf née Bob Sunshine) and carried blogging over to the White House. The Atlanta Fed has one too (not to be confused with Macro Man). David Altig unofficially began it as an economist at the Cleveland Fed and then, when he became research director in Atlanta, made it official (altho still hosted on TypePad). Are there any other (federal/state/local/non-US) worthwhile government blogs (wikis sure) out there from our shiny new iPod gov't? cf. DoD live (check out the other service blogs, e.g.)/air force live & USAgov on twitter
posted by kliuless on Feb 28, 2009 - 5 comments

"The biggest problem with the metal bikini, was that it wasn’t metal. ——Not that metal would’ve been an improvement over what it was actually made of, which was kind of a hard plastic. Whatever it was, it didn’t adhere to one’s skin. MY skin. My young, soon to be popular, unlucky skin. SO, when I was relaxing leisurely against Jabba the Hutt’s gigantic, albiet grotesque stomach, my hard, plastic bikini bottom……….well, it had the tendency to make my now not so private privates quite public. Especially for the actor standing behind Jabba playing Bobba Fett—–I believe his name was Jeremy—–from where Bobba/Jeremy stood, so straight and tall and severe behind his mask——to put it simply and weirdly, Jeremy could see beyond my yawning, plastic bikini bottoms all the way to Florida."

- Carrie Fisher goes from writing the occasional book to daily blogging, from substance abuse to abusing punctuation
posted by crossoverman on Feb 3, 2009 - 66 comments

Launched with much fanfare in 2005, Pajamas Media planned to harness the distributed power of dedicated bloggers to challenge the traditional news media. On March 31st, their blogging network will shut down, along with the ad revenues it channeled to conservative commentators. With the collapse of the blog advertising market, they've decided to focus their energy on the PajamasTV video network and its exclusive correspondents.
posted by verb on Jan 31, 2009 - 78 comments

How to make a newspaper out of blog entries. Ben Terrett and Russell Davies explain how they turned their friends’ (and strangers’) blog posts, Twits, and Flickr photos into the thousand-copy broadsheet Things Our Friends Have Written on the Internet 2008.
posted by joeclark on Jan 14, 2009 - 23 comments

How to blog, or counter-blog, for the US Air force, in handy flow chart form.
posted by Artw on Jan 6, 2009 - 40 comments

JournalSpace: R.I.P. [Sub-Titled: When is the last time you tested your backups?]
posted by GatorDavid on Jan 3, 2009 - 70 comments

Neuroanthropology's Best of Anthropology Blogging 2008. [Via]
posted by homunculus on Jan 3, 2009 - 11 comments

How To Do Almost Anything With Social Media from Mashable. All kinds of practical tips and tons of useful link resources for personal or business uses. At the bottom of the page are additional links to things like 24 Most Underrated Websites of 2008 l How to Find a Babysitter Online l How to Find Your Way Around Any New City.
posted by nickyskye on Dec 28, 2008 - 8 comments

Massive coordinated terrorist attack in Mumbai. The news is pouring in, but not from traditional sources. The latest breaking news seems to be coming from Twitter, many from people on the scene. One local has been snapping photos, and Flickr just gave him a free three-month account to upload the images. Metroblogging in Mumbai has been updating the news as it comes in as well.
posted by Astro Zombie on Nov 26, 2008 - 571 comments

Michael Bérubé, professor of American Literature and Cultural Studies at Penn State, one of America's most dangerous professors, award winning blogger, author, and father of Jamie Bérubé, has started up his blog again. I, for one, welcome our new(ly) blogging (again) overlords. previously
posted by pasici on Sep 29, 2008 - 15 comments

Time Capsule: the internet and E-democracy. “Peoples’ lives now are as dependent on the Internet as they are on the basics like roads, energy supplies and running water. We can no longer take that for granted and we must advocate for the Internet politically, and support its vitality personally.” - Susan Crawford, University of Michigan School of Law. In recognition and memory of the beginning and continuation of the political internet, they have organized a Time Capsule of e-democracy's beginnings - everything from using e-mail to plead your friends to vote to flash animations that set the web alight. It is to be sealed on September 22. Help tell the story of internet politics.
posted by parmanparman on Sep 15, 2008 - 2 comments

Photographer Thomas Hawk may or may not have run afoul of SFMOMA's photo policy and was forcibly ejected from the museum by its Director of Visitor Services. Hawk blogged the incident extensively, encouraging readers to publicize his grievance through social networking. Now two conversations are going on: how photographers' rights are restricted in an age of paranoid security, and whether what some call online character assassination by someone influential is okay.
posted by liketitanic on Aug 11, 2008 - 51 comments

Living the life observed, or the life exposed? Emily Gould (formerly of Gawker) writes about the impact her blogging, and exposure on the internet, has had on her life. (NYTimes, registration or use of bugmenot possibly required.)
posted by Forktine on May 22, 2008 - 102 comments

A supportive blogging community of mainly women cross-linked on each other's blogrolls and leading an increasingly compelling marketplace of small-scale goods and handmade lives , green-living ideas , product promotion , and lifestyle-making suggest that the internet may be able to foster a localized economy model of living on an international scale--or at least gain the attention of that other idyllic-life icon. [more inside]
posted by rumposinc on May 12, 2008 - 20 comments

A Lone Tibetan Voice, Intent on Speaking Out. Woeser (previously mentioned here) is a Tibetan writer and poet living under house arrest in Beijing, from where she blogs about the recent unrest in Tibet (there are English translations of her posts at China Digital Times). Last year she was awarded the Norwegian Authors Union Freedom of Expression Prize, but she was not allowed to travel to Oslo to collect the prize.
posted by homunculus on May 6, 2008 - 15 comments

Blogging May Cost You Your Life NY Times discusses the possible "death by blogging" of two prominent Tech Bloggers, Russell Shaw and Marc Orchant, Blognation. A third, Om Malik of gigaom.com, 41, survived a heart attack in December. I am thinking twice about my late night posts.
posted by doug3505 on Apr 6, 2008 - 56 comments

How To Disagree
posted by chuckdarwin on Mar 30, 2008 - 72 comments

Blosxom is an ultra-lightweight piece of blogging software that uses the existing structure of a file system to index and date your posts. The program itself weighs in at a scale-tipping 16.4 kilobytes, and does everything you need to tell the world about your navel. And for those things it doesn't do, there are plugins. At the other end of the weight scale is the >160 page annotated source code.
posted by kaibutsu on Mar 6, 2008 - 32 comments

Post a controversial comment, get arrested. "Some were disturbed by the post police say James Buss left on a conservative blog, but other observers said it was a sarcastic attempt to discredit critics of education spending."
posted by mathowie on Dec 4, 2007 - 121 comments

Blog a Penguin Classic.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Sep 21, 2007 - 58 comments

A beautifully-composed blog of wedding Photographer James Christianson
posted by growabrain on Aug 21, 2007 - 30 comments

Happy Vinyl Record Day, everyone. On this date in 1877, Edison invented the phonograph. To commemorate the date, a blogswarm of 22 of the best vinyl sharity blogs out there have come together to celebrate the legacy of the dominant recorded music format of the 20th century, led by jb of The Hits Just Keep On Comin' and featuring Flea Market Funk, Echoes in the Wind, Funky 16 Corners, Davewillieradio, Good Rockin' Tonight, Py Korry, It's Great Shakes, (bonus!), Ickmusic, Jefitoblog, FuFu (bonus!), Lost in the 80's, Three-Sixty-Five 45s, Underground Vault of Records, AM then FM, The "B" Side, In Dangerous Rythm (bonus 1, bonus 2), You Must Be From Away, Got The Fever, Retro Remixes, Bloggerythms and finally The Stepfather of Soul.
posted by jonson on Aug 12, 2007 - 34 comments

A Nashville blogger decided to tackle to the project of consuming and reviewing all 51 sandwiches on the Which Wich menu. The local Which Wich caught on, and despite some negative critiques, decided to promote the blogger's URL on every sandwich bag leaving their store.
posted by brittney on Jun 15, 2007 - 20 comments

Blog like it's the end of the world! via The Zombie Apocalypse
posted by Wulfgar! on Jun 13, 2007 - 52 comments

"Dillan Kramer," the alias of a man accused of killing his family doctor, is currently on the run from the FBI with his son, "Michael," and he's liveblogging the entire thing. High potential to be fake, sure, but is it? Go, hive-mind -- use your powers; get to the bottom of this!
posted by c:\awesome on May 25, 2007 - 42 comments

Blogger & Podcaster to become a successful blogger online, one must apparently appear in an offline magazine. Ho-kay.
posted by dabitch on May 7, 2007 - 30 comments

Freaks and Geeks keeping it real. [TNR login=metafilter pwd=metafilter] In late March, New Republic columnist Noam Scheiber posted an article strongly criticizing, among other things, Chicago Economics Professor Steve Levitt's "cute and clever" approach to the dismal science, now famously known as Freakonomics. Levitt replied last week with a post of his own. And now, Scheiber has appears to want some more of this.
posted by psmealey on May 3, 2007 - 40 comments

On Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's blog, Curt responds to commenter questions, reviews his starts pitch-by-pitch, discusses his various charities, engages ex-teammate Kevin Millar in conversation, and responds to the recent controversy over his bloody sock from the 2004 postseason. Love him or hate him (or defend his blogging, at least), it's a new way for athletes to engage the public, and any baseball fan can learn a lot from his analysis of his starts.
posted by ibmcginty on Apr 28, 2007 - 23 comments

An Indonesian TV crew was invited to Malaysia for their Visit Malaysia Year 2007 campaign but encountered many problems. They write up about it - and start a flurry of comments and controversy across the Malaysian government about blogging. [more inside]
posted by divabat on Apr 6, 2007 - 14 comments

The Homicide Report, by Jill Leovy: An L.A. Times blog built on the list of homicide victims reported to the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office each week.
posted by docgonzo on Feb 14, 2007 - 12 comments

Gizmoz : for those of you who want your own video blog but don't want to mess with the intricacies of a webcam.
posted by Dave Faris on Feb 12, 2007 - 9 comments

Tastespotting is a wonderful visual blog for food enthusiasts, by the makers of notcot.
posted by jonson on Feb 8, 2007 - 12 comments

Liveblogging the Scooter Libby (Plame-outing) Trial. Get your popcorn. This is compelling (and potentially historic) stuff. Firedoglake.com is highly recommended. There is also a lot of knowledge to be found in the comments. Feel somewhat behind and want to catch-up quickly? Some are wondering why this isn't getting more play in the evening news. Perhaps the public isn't clamoring for it? ABCnews, CBS News, NBC/MSNBC News (does this page even work?), FoxNews, and CNN.
posted by spock on Feb 1, 2007 - 39 comments

Time magazine recently launched a new politics blog, Swampland. The blog is, to this point, most interesting for its confrontations between the commenters and the bloggers. [m.i.]
posted by ibmcginty on Jan 26, 2007 - 26 comments

"Bloggers are nihilists because they are 'good for nothing'. They post into Nirvana and have turned their futility into a productive force." "Blogging, the nihilist impulse," based on a lecture by Geert Lovink.
posted by the_bone on Jan 10, 2007 - 66 comments

First post!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jan 5, 2007 - 58 comments

Sandeep Makam is an advertising copywriter who lives in India - his Blog is called twenty-four, and it's devoted to displaying the most interesting global print advertising he runs across. A couple of my favorites so far include this Red Cross spot for the ongoing victims of Chernobyl (click on the images to get the full size), and this great bit of typographic fun. More favorites listed inside. Similar, previously.
posted by jonson on Dec 31, 2006 - 8 comments

Blogs by Phone - for when your family and friends have trouble keeping up with your blog posts. (YouTube video from SixApart)
posted by divabat on Dec 22, 2006 - 23 comments

A tribute to the 75-minute period where Tom DeLay actually received feedback from America. Tom DeLay drops unrestricted comments almost immediately on his first disastrous day as a blogger.
posted by jonp72 on Dec 11, 2006 - 60 comments

One Day in History is a national blogging event organised by the History Matters campaign in the UK. They want UK citizens (or anyone with UK ties) to blog a diary entry about their day today (17 October). The entries will be archived at the British Library, creating a snapshot of everyday life in 2006 for the bemusement of future generations.
posted by chrismear on Oct 17, 2006 - 7 comments

Earn $10 from home! Simply write about McDonalds for your blog. [via Public Address]
posted by meech on Oct 15, 2006 - 47 comments

CBC Blogging Manifesto Tired of waiting for CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster, to come up with a blogging policy, CBC bloggers – including the infamous pseudonymous blogger A. Ouimet – charge ahead and write one themselves.
posted by joeclark on Aug 13, 2006 - 12 comments