Non-photo Blogs

A few posts back I said I would list the non-photography blogs that I follow for those who might be interested. The first is a local Public Radio blog "The In Box".  I am aware that some of my friends on the right will see a left bias in the Public Radio connection but the guy who writes most frequently on this blog, Brian Mann, is a self described Republican and the blog is a pretty good (and fair) mix of view points from NCPR's staff. While it mostly deals with local and regional issues it gets into larger issues as well.

It has been proposed by some passionate bloggers that the Internet with its blogs, Facebook, You Tube, etc. will bring about greater democracy because information is no longer controlled by the major news organizations. Without getting into the history of abuses of major news organizations (which I concede) I see a danger in totally unfettered access to publish whatever one thinks via the 'net. I would not even hazard a guess at the number of blogs out there and it is growing daily. If you did come up with a number it would be wrong by the time you wrote it down. How does one sort out which blogs to follow, which passionate writer to believe? I follow two sites "FactCheck.Org" and "PolitiFact.com" to help sort things out. Both sites involve researching and verifying whether something is true or false. Politifact has an amusing scale (the truth-o-meter) that they apply. Although it isn't a blog or something you can subscribe to, for the really outrageous emails that get circulated "Snopes.com" is a good source to sort out truth from fiction. In the end the old adage to believe half of what you see and none of what you hear applies. In my own experience a commentator's objectivity is inversely proportional to their passion. That includes me.

Among other things I am an amateur genealogist and I subscribe to "The Genealogue". It is an interesting mix of oddities that appeal to genealogists.

The last on my list is just for amusement. I am rather fond of maps and "Strange Maps" is just what its name suggests, old, odd, unusual and occasionally silly maps.