It's "Miscellaneous Day" in the Blogosphere

In honor of the New Year, today's blog entry celebrates the miscellaneous finds and musings that make "blurfing" (my new word for blog surfing) so much fun.

First, to Lake Superior State University, which in a farewell to 2004, has published its List of Banished Words, including "flip-flop" (and all variants thereof), "improvised exposive device" (call it what it is: a bomb), and "izzle," (the suffix of any variation of fa-shizzle). Use the link at the bottom of the list to submit your own.

Bloggers' attention remains focused on the disaster relief efforts in Southern Asia in the wake of the tsunami. At least eight of today's top 40 key phrases and many of the top links revolve around tsunami relief efforts.

Also, the recent deaths of two politicians -- one current, one former -- have drawn attention among bloggers. They include recently re-elected Rep. Bob Matsui, who died over the weekend of a stem-cell disorder, and the always eloquent Shirley Chisolm, who, as a Democrat in 1972, became the first woman and first African-American to run for president, and who did so with such grace, intelligence and fierce independence that it makes one wonder what happened to politics in the intervening years.

One of today's top links is a piece of advice for soon-to-graduate computer science students from Joel Spolsky, a software expert. In the land of pop culture, New York Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch describes Essence Magazine's campaign against the anti-woman, anti-girl messages and themes in rap songs.

Blog News: First, an update by the Pew Internet and the American Life Projects finds that blogs are gaining popularity and readers. (To whose surprise?) And journalist Dan Gillmor, recently of the San Jose Mercury-News, has left the paper to start his own blog and "grassroots journalism" venture. Calls also are going out for the Bloggies, another "best of the blogs" awards program. Let's hope someone (hint, hint) nominates BlogPulse.com

On the politics front, right-wingers have posted their 40 most obnoxious quotes of the year, while speculation abounds about the visit of CBS Washington bureau chief Janet Leissner to the White House communcations staff...for fence mending, perhaps? Meanwhile, The Drudge Report "reviews" Christine Todd Whitman's new book, which criticizes the Bush Administration for its extreme policies and ultra-conservative agendas. Just in time for the inauguration, no less.

THE BLOGPULSE TEAM IS IN DEMAND (AND FUELING IT, TOO!): Intelliseek's BlogPulse team will be discussing the blog phenonemon at several national/international events in 2005. First, CMO Pete Blackshaw is a speaker at the Jan. 24-25 Blog Business Summit in Seattle, and senior researchers Natalie Glance and Matthew Hurst, from Intelliseek's Applied Research Center, are organizing the Second Annual Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem starting May 10 in Chiba, Japan.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Which New Year's resolution have you decided to pursue? And when it comes to lying or telling the truth, which one do you think gets the most buzz?