Making Their Presence Felt: Space Maps, Bird Flu and Liberals

Doesn't matter if you're the kind of navigator who gets lost driving around the block: there's no reason to get lost in outer space, now that Google has expanded its mapping functionality to Google Mars and Google Moon, today's two most-cited URLs among bloggers. Bloggers from around the world, in fact, are discussing the ability to Google-cruise the Red Planet and the lunar surface the same way travelers locate a hotel in downtown London. Probably useless, says Shelly Lives blogger, "but worth that 10 seconds of amazement."

Yeah, crows George, I'm a liberal
At least in Oscar winner George Clooney's mind, being a liberal is a thing of pride, and his Huffington Post essay declaring his liberalism is today's third most cited URL among bloggers. "We can't demand freedom of speech then turn around and say, But please don't say bad things about us. You gotta be a grown up and take your hits. I am a liberal. Fire away," says he. And you know bloggers, they take up the challenge. "Moronic" says Brainster, and the American Princess thinks George has probably already used Google Mars. But a musing Chicagoan likes what he hears, and so does Fiat Lux.

So let's take the theme of that symposium a step farther and use a BlogPulse trend graph to see how "conservative" vs. "liberal" stacks up, with a hint of progressivism thrown in for good measure (note: the January peak coincided with Canada's elections):




Bird flu flutters
After hearing reports of pending bird flu infestation in the U.S., I had to wonder: should I start stocking up on duct tape and plastic again? Actually, tuna and powdered milk are on the agenda, according to the contents of one of today's most-cited news stories. Enough of the alarmist tone already, says Jiblog, urging instead sound advice and plenty of planning for what could be more sweeping natural disasters. (And we all know how well our governmental bureacracy is at dealing with THOSE). Get ready, says Crofsblog, "for the great tuna rush of 2006". Just eat around the mercury and stuff.