A CNN war correspondent was told to shut down his popular site, touching off an ongoing debate on blogging as a legitimate form of journalism. This, from Susan Mernit, raises quite a few questions.

I wonder: If journalists spend years training, why should amateurs think they can do a balanced job? (Is journalism ever balanced?) Journalists may be imperfect messengers, but does that mean you want your news from the equivalent of the local gossip? Blogging is quite a question raiser, innit.

You could be flogged alive if caught promoting a product on your blog without disclosing any affiliations, or payments for writing services. Well, not quite, but flogging, where corporate bloggers masquerade as normal folks and talk up their products as if they were a customer, is frowned upon by Technorati and the authorities.

I call flogging A dose of real life and quite amusing, because when they are outed, these corporations get even more publicity, more sales and no black marks worth diddly.
You know, who is going to boycott Sony because an everyday guy called Charlie is in fact Hiro Yakamota (made up name) from the Sony Corporation Marketing Department? Noone.

And perversely, I expect a small blogger like myself would probably be lambasted and abandoned by all and sundry for surreptitiously talking up products I was getting paid a commission for. Oh well, we should just do the right thing and disclose all, and meanwhile, expect creative corporate flogs to slip through the net. As you were and back to real life.

For surreal blogging, why not log the daily goings on in Second life? Talk about rich pickings for schizophrenics.

The Blog Interrogations caught fire with Hari, a funny guy with more brains than are good for me. See if you can better his answers to these 5 questions. I also have a review policy now.

We've linked to several web search engines offering random payments & prizes! Click the icon & search our keyphrase Zwinky . Add the code to your sidebar too! Ask Ed!

Hit the head icons above to peruse hundreds of Ed's posts about your favorite topics.

Endgadget, number one blog on the Technorati tree, just published a post about a multi-touch screen for a laptop. I have used Gestures with a trackpad and they rock, really, and I have a laptop too, but I don't see how fingertip control of flipping images and carousels will ever be applicable to any blogging software I know of.

I am all for geekery, but for starters, I would not want to have my laptop screen dismantled and then rotated 180 degrees by a Cambridge boffin, and more importantly I don't think I could ever change the habit of a lifetime: "Touch my Mac's screen and you're dead!" You know, those annoying gits who point and can't abide not to physically touch the word you can see perfectly well. Graaaghhhh.

Anyway, the technology is surely coming to a portable screen near you, soon, courtesy of Microsoft. Watch the vid if you don't believe me and blog about it.

If you ever want a little nudge to keep you blogging, digest this little snippet on blog popularity I found on wikipedia. There are 200 million discontinued blogs on the internet. If you don't want to add to the dotsam and netsam clogging up the blogosphere, don't jettison your commitment to daily / weekly writing. Class and stickability always win, and as there are only 100 million people still blogging today, the stayers are guaranteed to shine through!


Poorer than You explains how to win a free iPod shuffle from a company that distributes eBooks and comics. It is not a scam, as their high-tech iPod Shuffle (not the one they won from the guys at WOWIO) but the Shuffle they actually paid money for in 2005, is breaking and they need a new one. And you know you want to win too, because bloggers can't possibly concentrate without white earbuds vibrating in their lug holes.

Internet Entrepreneur Tyler Cruz became an accidental hate magnet when he signed up to Pay per Post. He asked PPP to stir up some interest in his blog in return for promoting their service. They obliged, he was happy. Not everyone was so pleased, however, to see him get preferential unofficial superficial treatment. The whiners were probably the folks who have been signed up for ages, can't write for toffee and wonder why they don't make any money?

We've linked to several web search engines offering random payments & prizes! Click the icon & search our keyphrase Zwinky . Add the code to your sidebar too! Ask Ed!

Hit the head icons above to peruse hundreds of Ed's posts about your favorite topics.

The celebrity insider dishes the clean-cut dirt on Simon Telly Tubby Cowell.



The Blog Interrogations continue with Denise O. I spoilt her link, so she stays another 24 hours. If you're tired of work, you'll appreciate her banner. Hari is tomorrow. I also have a review policy now.

We've linked to several web search engines offering random payments & prizes! Click the icon & search our keyphrase Zwinky . Add the code to your sidebar too! Ask Ed!

Other contests this week

Tectonic Designs is a hive of contest information. From plain old free stuff to prizes for writers, quiz artists and everything in between, there is plenty to enter and win.

Steve is offering up to $200CAD for the better reviews of his MIS Specification, a tagging system for the multimedia files quickly filling the world's hard drives.

Ades has regular info on competitions and giveaways and put me onto CypherHackz contest via Sabahans contest. Where will it end with blog review contests?

Blog About Your Blog has 160 187 RSS readers now. And at last the mini fridge winner has been announced via video - fingers and all in the pictures.

Blog Interrogation
I have a bit of a backlog with the 5 question and answer Blog Interrogation. Sorry folks, it all comes to he who waits and we will be back on track from tomorrow.

Want to join the fest? Via 5 questions, you will find it unavoidable to tell us what you blog about, and share any regrets and insights of use to us bloggers out there. And as this is The Pisstakers, you can let your hair down and have some fun, if you want.

Send your answers in to Ed, unsolicited, and remember, this is not a meme or false link love exercise. All interrogations stay on my review blog which is PR4 and promoted..

We've linked to several web search engines offering random payments & prizes! Click the icon & search our keyphrase web satire. It is a win-win, perhaps!

The funny quotes widget has just been updated with some new links to enjoy when you click on a quote.

Who would have thought Billy Connolly would employ the website designers from Toy Town? He must be getting soft in his ranty old age.

There are a load of good jokes leading off another quote, and Lord likely has produced a cool saying for the women. Don't shoot the messenger, you should have seen the last one he sent in!

If you have any quotes email them to me, and / or if you would like to install the widget (it works fine and the background adapts to your color scheme) copy and paste the code.

The Funny Quotes widget has been seen over 30,000 times so far this month. 40,000 times in May. That is quite useful for attracting traffic because when someone clicks on one of the quotes, it links back to the blogger who submitted the quote.

Just send me a funny line (funny to people who don't have any context to go on, by the way) and a URL and I will add it in to the widget. Play fair and install the widget (it seems to work without damaging websites) and watch the viral effect grow.

Or just install the widget for entertainment value. Everyone loves a smart ass quote - even serious money making bloggers!

Rumors of the death of The Pisstakers have been greatly exaggerated! Ed is back and thanks to you all for popping by over the last couple of weeks.

It looks like overall visitor numbers are barely down on the period before I stopped posting. So, I will blog on in a new posts from Ed seem superfluous kind of way!

I don't know if I am better or badder than ever, but I am back, and suffice to say, I have noticed a thing or two worth commenting on during our protracted move.


Comcast are about as useful as a snowball in hell. You would think that the least you could expect from a homogenous faceless corporation is a standard email service wherever you go. But no.


When the American government announces one day in the nearish future that China is now the biggest economy in the world and owns half of the US, don't hold your hands up in horror.


If a 2-year old kid vaulted the perimeter fencing of a condo, found its way to the pool area, broke through that fence and then drowned itself, all hell would break loose, legally. No shit.


Appliances bit back big time again as we tried to use the self-clean function on the oven. Give me strength.



Your village called. They want their idiot back. From Callie Ann (More Daily quotes.)



We've linked to several web search engines offering random payments & prizes! Click the icon & search our keyphrase Zwinky . It is a win-win, perhaps!

Today is the belated back to school MyBlogLog Sunday - part 13 at the Pisstakers.

Coffee has been replaced by bottled water for my Sunday beverage of choice. I will live longer and healthier, but life will feel less rich dunking my toast in cold water. Oh well.

Here are the 10 lucky faces for this episode of MyBlogLog Sunday, brought to you finally by a blogger with no distracting commitments. After a while away from the blogosphere it will be doubly interesting for me too to dive into different domains around the internet and check out what has been happening, and spot any new trends, other mini reviewers emerging....

Thanks for taking part today, and to those of you who don't know what on earth is going on here, the MBL Sunday rules are explained here. (As a hint, be a MyBlogLog member who visits here just before I start blogging on Sundays!)

Permalink is permanent
All mini reviews from today are instantly added to the archives, so you can get a permanent back link to your mini review today.

MyBlogLog Sunday prize winner

MyBlogLog Sunday info links

Other contests this week

Tectonic Designs is a hive of contest information. From plain old free stuff to prizes for writers, quiz artists and everything in between, there is plenty to enter and win.

Steve is offering up to $200CAD for the better reviews of his MIS Specification, a tagging system for the multimedia files quickly filling the world's hard drives.

Ades has regular info on competitions and giveaways and put me onto CypherHackz contest via Sabahans contest. Where will it end with blog review contests?

Blog About Your Blog has 160 187 RSS readers now. And at last the mini fridge winner has been announced via video - fingers and all in the pictures.

Blog Interrogation
I have a bit of a backlog with the 5 question and answer Blog Interrogation. Sorry folks, it all comes to he who waits and we will be back on track from tomorrow.

Want to join the fest? Via 5 questions, you will find it unavoidable to tell us what you blog about, and share any regrets and insights of use to us bloggers out there. And as this is The Pisstakers, you can let your hair down and have some fun, if you want.

Send your answers in to Ed, unsolicited, and remember, this is not a meme or false link love exercise. All interrogations stay on my review blog which is PR4 and promoted..

We've linked to several web search engines offering random payments & prizes! Click the icon & search our keyphrase web satire. It is a win-win, perhaps!

Be back later.