Washington D.C. seems to be veritably dripping with leaks these days, as five of today's most-cited news stories have the word "leak" in their headlines. Coverage ranges from fired CIA agent Mary McCarthy (today's No. 5 most-blogged personality) to speculation that the Secretary of State has also been the source of leaks. Discuss.

Care to dance, monkey?
Some people are big-picture people, and that obviously applies to the creator of today's No. 10 most-cited link, Ernest Cline's Dance, Monkeys, Dance!" Anyone who attended grade school in the 1960s will remember the "ding!" sound from the film-strip format.

Got your agenda right here...
Other discoveries: The blogger at Angry Biscuit provides a bitey-tongue-in-cheeck (we think?) gay agenda for all of the "family" groups who have longed claimed there actually is such a thing. Dave Weiss' personalized tour of Microsoft's Macintosh lab has been among the most popular blog posts in the past few days, and TPM CAfe notes that no one's paying attention to bipartisan Congressional give-away of the Internet, which has led to a Save the Internet campaign.

Up, up and away...
And oh yeah: the phrase "gas prices" now has 49,701 blog results attached to it (and is the day's No. 24 most-cited phrase). Speaking of up and coming things, we turned to BlogPulse Trend Graphs today to gauge "buzz" about the upcoming 2006 Congressional mid-term elections and the 2008 Presidential election:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:48 PM

Author Michael Crichton's "This Essay Breaks the Law," an op-ed piece from Sunday's New York Times, continues to break the law and generate blog traction as today's third most-cited link and second most-cited news story. Crichton discusses who owns what in the context of U.S. patent law. "Patent Nonsense?" puns the blogger at Reason Hit & Run, while the future lawyer at Intellectual Quicksand ponders the state of laws such as these.

Really? It's that obvious?
Also maintaining traction is psychologist Jack Block, whose longitudinal study of 95 Berkeley children (here come the "moonbat" comments) came to a startling conclusion (today's most-cited news story) about the seeds of political leanings: that whiny, tattletale children tend to grow up to be politically conservative, while confident, free-wheeling children tend to evolve into political liberals. Suburban Guerilla offers commentary with a headline as pointy-tongued as the commentary, while the Brainster dubs it the "silliest article of the day" for its statistical meaninglessness.

So long, Humphrey
But some bloggers are even more worked up at the death of Humphrey, the stray cat adopted by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1989 (today's No. 9 most-cited link). Was he really, as one LiveJournaler proposes, "the last honest occupant of No. 10 Downing Street"? Elsewhere, tributes pour in like milk into the cat dish.

BlogPulse notes
For the next two weeks, I'll be vacationing/traveling in Alaska (yes, in winter) with only intermittent Internet connections. I'll do my best to keep bloggily informed, but if I miss a few days here and there, it's because I'm surrounded by snow and engrossed in, well, vacation. And who knows, maybe an oil spill or two.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:51 PM

Today's most-cited blog post raises the dire possibility that the increasing Middle East tension over months-old cartoons considered offensive to Muslims may, in fact, combine with other factors to start a war that would spread from the Middle East to Europe and beyond. The blogger at Civitas raises the possibility by asking, "If There's Hell Below, Is This Where We All Shall be Spending Xmas?"

Other assesments emerge from The Volokh Conspiracy, who writes that "intolerance, ignorance, and parochialism" are fueling the East vs. West clash (today's No. 14 blog post), an event no doubt fueled by Iran's solicitation of Holocaust cartoons as retribution (today's fifth-most-shared link). (Seems to me, the world needs a strong mother figure to deliver a pointed, finger-wagging lecture about everyone settling down, taking a time-out and acting like grown-ups for a change).

Meanwhile, paradise IS out there
Scientist Bruce Keehler is today's burstiest person because his trek into the Indonesian jungle (the subject of today's No. 5 news story) uncovered new species of butterflies, frogs, birds and plants. "It's beautiful, untouched, unpopulated forest; there's no evidence of human impact or presence up in these mountains," Dr Beehler told the BBC News website. (We like it already). "So cool," agrees Shakespeare's Sister.

Oscar Buzz
The Academy Award ceremony is in early March, and BlogPulse's trend-graphing tool monitor buzz about the nominees for this year's best picture. Will "Brokeback Mountain" win? Will "Crash" steal its thunder, as some have predicted?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:54 AM

The BlogPulse team takes a vacation after today until Monday, and wishes all of our users a happy, safe and peaceful holiday. What will you do over the weekend? What culinary delights await? BlogPulse's trend-graping tool takes a look:

The menu
Will it be turkey, ham or vegetarian offerings this year?




The Activities
I often wonder if Grandpa Hausfeld has a corner chair in heaven, where after a big family meal, he settles in, opens the newspaper, places it over his head and falls asleep for the rest of the afternoon?



Turkey-Table Talk
And which topics of conversation will dominate the get-togethers this year?


Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:04 AM

When a Republican-dominated Senate begins to stand up to White House policy, and when Arianna Huffington has a late-night "chillin' " dinner with Iraqi Ahmad Chalabi, you know strange hook-ups are happening on the political front. It's all captured in the blogosphere today.

Revisionist spin for all!
The current wave of paradigm shifting comes at a time when President Bush's approval ratings are at all-time lows (today's No. 2 top news story) and observers are questioning Bush's war policies and spin (today's 4th most-shared news story) and what one op-ed writer (No. 8 news story) calls "scare tactics." Slate examines the new "I was wrong but so were you" thinking (No. 9 top news story). Republicans are responding (today's No. 9 top link) with a new video of high-ranked Democrats vowing their 2002 support for toppling Saddam Hussein and some conservatively righteous indignation (no pun intended, really). Revisionist reactions abound. (Shouldn't the core question be about which commander-in-chief knew the entire truth about WMD and other Iraq issues and did/didn't share it in 2002 before asking for Congressional support?)

Should we stay in Iraq or start to figure out how to leave with honor (hmmm...when have I heard that phrase before)? A BlogPulse trend graph tracks buzz. Note: the August spike coincices with Marine mom and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's visit to the Bush vacation ranch in Texas.



Drink up, kids!
lf you thought the folks at Jones Soda couldn't top last year's turkey-and-dressing-flavored cola, you were wrong (today's No. 14 top link). Potential taste-tester reactions to salmon-flavored soda range from an understated "ewwww" to a slightly more gastronomic "my guts are lurching" (from the aptly named Crusty Stinkersquirt) to a heady "oh, the prescience!" headline at iracane.com. (Thanks, but I'll stick with RC Cola).

Explain, please?
I want no-tax-but-still-spend Republicans to explain this (really? a fiscal hurricane?) and I want intelligent design's proponents to explain this.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:13 AM

No doubt you've already heard Christmas carols at the mall (I have, and I scurried away as fast as I could since that music should NEVER start playing until the day after Thanksgiving, thank you). And turkey extravaganza comes next week. True to the season(s), bloggers are starting to drop hints about shopping (today's 7th most popular key phrase), next week's long holiday weekend and even Christmas trees. Not surprisingly, Thanksgiving and Christmas dominate holiday-related buzz in the blogosphere, according to a BlogPulse trend graph (the October Thanksgiving spike refers to Canada's Thanksgiving celebration):



Hot new stuff from Google
They never seem to quit at Google, and today's most popularly shared link takes users directly to Google Analytics, a new web analytics tool. PlasticBag.org is impressed with the features. Popularity of the new service is evident in the multi-language citations about Google Analytics...five of the first 10 are non-English links.

Still hot-under-the-collar re: Sony
Sony BMG, meanwhile, is backtracking on its anti-piracy CDs.

And more heat targeted at Target
The bloggers at Ameriblog and Hughes for America are launching a boycott of Target, which is allowing its on-staff pharmacists to delay or not fill prescriptions for the Plan B morning-after contraceptive on moral grounds. "Target is caving to America's Taliban, and it needs to stop," says John at Ameriblog, today's No. 5 top blog post. As always, bloggers react.

Today's moment of levity
For those who loved Theodor Geisel's rhymes, you'll love today's 39th most popular link: "If Dr. Seuss Wrote for Star Trek.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:08 PM

The nomination of another middle-aged white guy to the U.S. Supreme Court has shifted blog discussion toward women's issues, intended or not.

Maureen Dowd's examination of the women's movement, What's a Modern Girl to Do?, excerpted from an upcoming book, is today's 10th most-shared link, with reactions ranging from Nichelle Newsletter's "get thee to a nursing home!" rallying cry to Bamber's less-than-flattering reaction.

And if the issue of abortion weren't enough to divide religious reds from coastal blues, today's most linked-to news story, about a vaccine for cervical cancer, will add to the gap. Conservatives are questioning the vaccine on the grounds that it might encourage teen-age girls to have sex. Pharyngula wonders about the wisdom of questioning a cancer-preventing vaccine; PatridiotWatch wonders how that line of un-healthy thinking might play out intimately. (If it were a vaccine for prostate cancer, would the fears be the same? Hmmm...)

Worried about winter?
Speaking of fears, can't help but notice increasing attention to bird flu and other potential threats for the Winter of 2005:




Let the showdown begin?
Tensions are ratching up in the nation's capital, and not solely because of Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. Adding to the fray are Tuesday's hastily called closed Senate session (today's No. 9 top news story) by Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid (today's fourth most-discussed blog personality) to hash out the Bush Administration's prewar intelligence, with plenty of bloggers posting Reid's statement in its entirety. That pushed former Office of Management and Budget Directory Larry Lindsay into the burstiest person spotlight because he's cited in the memo as another administration official who was "let go" for, supposedly for stating the facts about the war.

The next chapter
And while no one's able to predict what'll happen to recently indicted Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Lewis Scooter Libby, Tuesday's BlogPulse Spotlight blog found this little gem about Libby's juicy extra-curricular writing endeavors, a fitting beginning to National Novel Writing Month.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:02 AM

I was going to digress briefly today from all the speculation about who will (or will not) be indicted this week (today's No. 9 top news story) by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald (now with his own web site, today's No. 24 top link), and who will (or will not) fill the ninth chair on the U.S. Supreme Court (today's No. 19 top blog post)....

Forget Barbie. This is MY dream car
...but my eye was caught by this Ford Mustang "Pony" photo instead (today's No. 31 top blog post), which unfortunately turned out to be a spam blog (note the lack of additional content, author profiles, archived entries and other common blog features). But as someone who drools, cranes and sighs with jealousy every time a 1965 Ford Mustang drives past, I had to share. If I win the lotto, I'm gettin' one of these babies AND the '65 version. Red. Convertible. Manual transmission.

Bill Clinton will be interested in this...
With indictments expected this week from Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald's investigation into who leaked CIA Agent Valerie Plame's name to the press, some conservatives are planting the theory that perjury and obstruction of justice indictments are meaningless "technicalities" if the true crime can't be tracked. Hmmm....does that mean Clinton's impeachment should be reversed? Wampum notes the double talk; Slapnose describes it as pure spin. Is Fox News single-handedly playing a role in this recent (dare we say it? spin-zone) version of Newsspeak?

Honestly? Bring back Ashley and Kate
Today's BlogPulse Spotlight blog takes a look at the weekend success of the Doom movie and the distrurbing popularity of these two singing sisters.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:04 AM

Lots and lots of diverse stuff in BlogPulse today, from the battered remains of the Gulf Coast to the battered remains of an iPod nano, from Bill Gates to Ellen Degeneres. Let's stroll through it forthwith, shall we?

Awww... Anything But Nukes!
We thought we were done having to worry about a nuclear holocaust — after all, this is the era of killer hurricanes and terrorism — but, nope, sure enough, it's still out there: Our top link today is a WaPo story about the Pentagon's recent revisions of the procedures for deploying nuclear weapons. If Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld approves it, the new protocol would enable American commanders to request presidential authorization to use nukes to pre-emptively stop terrorist attacks, or destroy weapon stockpiles found in enemy hands. Bloggers are remembering — or getting a taste of — what it was like when the world hunkered precariously under the nuclear sword of Damocles. Shakespeare's Sister sez: "Could there be a more wrong-headed idea that developing a doctrine of nuclear preemption, no less while we are still in the midst of a war that was launched on the 'unassailable certainty' that Iraq had WMDs, which turned out, of course, to be entirely incorrect?" Well, we know what we think.

The Hot Air Keeps Blowing, Long After The Storm Has Passed
For bloggers, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina seems to have settled into being just another perpetual idea war, like the Air America scandal, with liberals and conservatives squaring off over what President Bush should, shouldn't, did and didn't do. For examples see the citations from our no. 17 link, "How Bush Blew It;" or what bloggers said about link no. 33, " Reaction To Katrina Split Along Racial Lines." And speaking of blog idea wars, whatever happened to Cindy Sheehan?

Assorted Tech Updates
Also in BlogPulse today are bloggers' thoughts — which seem to be wary — on eBay's acquisition of Skype: "I want to make sure Skype works just as well (or better) for me in the future. eBay doesn't exactly have a stellar record of taking over companies and giving good service." Other links include Bill Gates' webcast; GoogleMaps' hole-through-the-Earth-emergence-generator; and the Ars Technica geeks, taking out all their years of being bullied by jocks on a defenseless little iPod nano. You guys are sick, doing that to that poor thing.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 12:05 PM

Seems the storm following the storm is getting as much attention as the actual cleanup and relief efforts of post-Hurricane Katrina. Today's blogosphere is rife with accusations against FEMA -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency that, in a post-9/11 world, was supposed to streamline and coordinate response efforts to major catastrophes.

Let the scrutiny begin
A timeline by Right-Wing NutHouse (lots of traffic, slow to load) is today's most cited blog post, while other bloggers and news stories are pointing specific blame at FEMA, including the lack of disaster experience by anyone in charge (today's No. 13 top post), the New York Times' initial examination of finger-pointing that's already starting (No. 6 link), Daily Kos' examination of volunteer workers (No. 6 link) and volunteers in boats (No. 21 link) being turned away by FEMA, while the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette weekend reports of Red Cross food deliveries turned away in New Orleans (No. 15 link).

Perhaps not surprisingly then (sigh), today's 18th-most-shared link is from FEMA's own web site three days before the hurricane hit, basically saying: don't come unless we call you first. Cosmic Variance blogger has terms for a new FEMA acronym: Flagarantly Egregious Malfeasance Agency.

Media grows spine: outside world notices
The BBC has noticed something interesting: an American mainstream media that seems to have awakened from its spin-induced, war-embedded fog. Reporters and anchor folks are finally asking hard questions and demanding answers, and MSNBC's Keith Olberman is just one of the news peeps getting attention.

Oh, Bar....
Discourse.net is calling it a "let them eat cake moment," and it happened when former First Lady Barbara Bush actually told NPR this from the Astrodome in Houston: "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this - this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them." Did the acorn fall far from the tree, asks MetaFilter?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:36 AM

See what happens when politics and religion get a little too chummy? You've got a Christian televangelist advocating assassination of a democratically elected world leader as a cheaper alternative than another $200 billion war. Then Venezuela accuses televangelist Pat Robertson of advocating terrorism, and the administration officials currently engaged in one $200 billion war can't back away from Robertson fast enough.

The fallout over Robertson's ill-timed comments dominate the blogosphere today, noted by this "terrorist" graph:



Robertson is today's leading (and burstiet) personality, followed closely by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the guy he thinks deserves to be offed. For the first time in more than a week, in fact, anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan moves from the No. 1 to No. 5 spot among blogged-about personalities. The Robertson mouth-off captures 10 of today's most-shared news link (including seven of the top 10), six of the day's top shared links (which is also infected with blog spam; our apologies), and six of today's top 10 key phrases.

"Crazy Old Uncle Pat" opines Scott Randolph.net; Shattered offers an updated religious moment for such talk; No Right Turn wonders...Chrisitan Coalition or Christian Taleban? (sic)

Google Talkin'
Elsewhere, mouths are little more sane (yes, we said it) at Google, which this week introduced Google Talk, today's most-discussed phrase. "Pretty simple," says Makezine during a test; "uphill battle" predicts Open Loops.

More church-state mixing, with a dash of humor
Pastafarianism is what they're calling it: observance of the religion that believes in the Flying Spaghetti Mosnter as the true creator of the universe (continued staying power at No. 9 top link). Launched as a spoof of Kansas' decision to embrace intelligent design as official science curriculum, it has spawned spoofs (and contests) of its own.

Overlooking the obvious?
Couldn't help but notice today's No. 4 top link, which notes that 65 of 490 girls at a Canton-area high school are pregnant. Among the various "causes," no one mentioned (ahem) Canton-area boys.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:51 AM

Officially, most schools don't begin the fall term for another few weeks or so, but it doesn't feel that way on BlogPulse. The gradual adoption of Bible-reading courses in public schools (today's No. 2 top news story) and President Bush's nod to intelligent design theories in science curricula (No. 17) are drawing all sorts of blog reaction. In Bush's home state, the critical Pink Dome can't help but ask, "They can read in Texas?", while Pandagon questions the "educational" motives of the group promoting Bible study. Bush is painted as anything but intelligent by Trial Shoe blog, while Perfectly Crumulent says the Prez is primarily pandering to far-right constitutents.

All those calisthentics...
And to think my junior class thought it novel when "phys ed" teachers Coach McTaggart (boys) and Sister Joan (girls) traded roles for a week: Sister taught the guys to square dance (successfully), while Coach tried (in vain) to inspire the girls to fall in love with golf. Today, gym class goes virtual, (today's No. 6 news link). "Finally, a gym class we'd be good at," says Gawker, while B2Day calls it "another dumb idea" in education.

Spam, sausage and spam
Today's top links show what happens when BlogPulse experiences a slip-up in its spam filtering: 36 of the top 40 links are spam blogs. Fortunately, our list of top 40 weblog posts and top 40 news articles for the day are clean.

More Rove-ing questions
Today's burstiest person, Susan Ralston, is apparently the latest from Karl Rove's office to testify before Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury into the investigation of who leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press. Think Progress and War and Piece speculate on the meaning...and the connections.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:25 AM

Let the politicking begin? It already has, judging by blog activity today. Leading all blog posts is Patricl Ruffini's 2008 Straw Poll for the GOP nominee best suited to replace the current resident of the White House. The results show Virginia Sen. George Allen leading the way.

And just to remind us she's not disappeared completely, actress/activist/author Jane Fonda jumps to No. 19 among today's bursty people for announcing an upcoming cross-country bus tour to protest U.S. military involvement in Iraq. "Bagdhad Jane" is the (oh-so-70s) nickname already resurrected by conservative blogger Michelle Malkin (today's No. 2 blog post) and others, while one LiveJournal blogger notes simply: "Jane Fonda is my hero: Clinton/Obama '08." Let the campaigning begin...

Passings....
Today's burstiest person is, well, dead. Vardin Kushnir was found murdered in his Moscow apartment. His claim to fame: he was one of Russia's most prolific and seemingly unapologetic spammers. In not-so-reverent postings, bloggers react, including Nick Lewis, who describes the tactic as a "spam control method" the rest of the world should consider. "Momma told you not to spam," chastises Sandhill Trek.

Fun-lovin' ancestors...
Don't' read this if you're a prude (today's No. 16 link).

Konfabulous?
There's excitement in the air over Yahoo!'s purchase of Konfabulator as reported (curiously) in today's 7th top news story at Macworld News. Desktop widgets are now free and available to computer users not running OSX Tiger. Those who purchased the Konfabulator software in the last two months will receive a refund.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:45 AM

Whatever your politics, most people can agree that the job of White House spokesperson is not easy, and, indeed, Scott McClellan had sort of a rough day at the office yesterday when reporters grilled him on the ongoing investigation of who leaked to reporters the name of an undercover CIA agent. Bloggers haven't let go of the story since it broke -- at least ten of today's links are about it. Waveflux read the McClellan transcript and says he's impressed the White House press corps was "actually doing its job." So many other bloggers used the term "White House press corps" (many of them in conjunction with "growing a spine") that it's today's no. 20 bursty phrase. And Rove is today's no. 2 key person. Where ever this story leads, it's a sure bet it will stay front and center for bloggers.

Bloggers Beware The Halls of Academe
For the many bloggers who also are college professors or grad students, this column (no. 4 link) from the Chronicle of Higher Education may prove enlightening -- and disturbing. Using the pseudnym "Ivan Tribble" and not revealing his own institution, the writer says it's foolish for professorial applicants to have blogs and even more foolish to mention them to potential employers, because what may seem like harmless off-duty nattering can be that last thing a hiring committee needs to slam the door. Perhaps you're not surprised bloggers disagree: "...[T]here are certainly other places (like the department in which I work) where blogging is seen as a valuable activity, for students and faculty members alike," writes one professor, while another almost-was scholar welcomes the column: "Thank you, 'Ivan Tribble,' whoever you are, for reminding me why choosing not to pursue an academic career was one of the best decisions I ever made."

A New Battle In An Old War
It's not all jailed reporters and getting fired on BlogPulse today, though. Bloggers are buzzing about the very tools that let them do what they do -- computers -- and the future of important products for archnemeses Apple and Microsoft. Today's no. 6 link is to a piece about the real rationale behind Steve Jobs' switch from IBM to Intel chips for his computers ("a must read" writes Sexy Jihad) and no. 19 reveals some screenshots from Microsoft's new Longhorn operating system ("Doesn’t seem all that different aside from a color change and lots of different opacity settings. Then again, these screenshots only reveal aesthetics, and don’t tell much else," writes Brandon.) Generally everybody on both sides seems unhappy with the innovations... who knew computer types were so difficult to please? Oh, right.

The Greatest Human Achievement of All Time?
Since the dawn of time, man has seen the boundaries created by nature and his own hand, and longed, with an impulse for the ages, to jump over them. Sometimes with motorcycles, sometimes with steam-powered sky-cycles, and sometimes, as our no. 17 link reveals, on a skateboard. (A precarious vehicle, to be sure; we all remember what happened when Homer tried to jump Springfield gorge.) "OMG -- absolutely crazy," writes grossy. At Creative Procrastination they want to try it themselves. That's fine, but does man dare to recreate the MegaRamp?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:54 AM

Gay marriage in Spain: that's where bloggers are traveling in their discussions today. (Today's headline asks "Will you marry me in Spanish?" for those who had to look it up, as I did).

Six of today's top links refer to the Spanish parliament's 187-147 vote legalizing gay marriage, leading to cries of Way to Go Spain! and Viva Espana! from LiveJournal bloggers and some thoughts on Catholicism in the latest country to legally recognize same-sex unions. Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero is today's burstiest person, with a not-so-happy Antonio Martinez Camino, spokesman for the Spanish Bishops Conference, a close second.

Now that Spain has joned Canada and Belgium, the blogger at Uncut Diamond offers a tongue-in-cheek warning to "my Yankee friends" about what happens to a civilized country that condones gay marriage. Blogger reactions vary.

Giant melting Popsicle invades NY!
Today's No. 33 link is a good example of why weather should always be factored in when planning outdoor marketing stunts. Disaster on a stick is the nickname for messy, gloppy meltdown of a Snapple Popsicle in New York's Union Square earlier this week.

BLOGPULSE TECHNICAL UPDATE: Please be advised that the BlogPulse engineering continues to work through a data quality issue that affects blog posts from June 20 on. Because of the problem, trend charts from June 20 on are showing low percentages or unexplained dips. Other fixes and updates will be coming soon. Thanks for your patience!

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY JULY 4th! BlogPulse will keep running over the holiday weekend, but the Intelliseek staff will enjoy an extended holiday through July 5. See you again on Wednesday, July 6!

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:04 AM

Several things are evident in today's BlogPulse findings: the Internet has indeed become a spot for activism, the microchip inventor is being revered, and President Bush this week has fallen out of the Top 10 blogged-about personalities for the first time since May (perhaps even earlier).

Even Billy Corgan, former lead singer for the Smashing Pumpkins, scores higher (No. 9) today than the President (No. 13) for saying he wants the band back together.

Point I: Activism, Community on the Web
The Internet certainly has become a place for support groups and activism. A blog called PostSecret seems to have lasting power among bloggers (today's No. 4 link). It's a place where users can post their innermost secrets for the world to see. Sordid Blog can relate.

Secondly, the folks at Moveon.org are keeping alive their online petition drive (No. 7 link) to save the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (NPR/PBS) from Congressional funding cuts and political attacks. The Dirt Under My Nails blog is typical of the "how dare they?" comments that bloggers write as they pass around the petition link. News that a longtime conservative think-tank member was hired to monitor Bill Moyers is only fueling the flames.

And the Electronic Frontier Foundation is launching a similar online campaign (No. 15 link) to counter a Congressional movement to resurrect the "broadcast flag," which would allow broadcasters to interfere with public/personal videos. The Build Your Own PVR blogger mentions the campaign.

Ode to a chip maker
Today's burstiest person is inventor Jack Kilby, the 81-year-old Texas Instruments engineer (and Nobel Prize winner) who died earlier this week of cancer. His legacy: much of the groundwork that led to the invention of the microchip...and the electronics revolution that followed. Good Morning Silicon Valley puts him in the company of Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Is Social Security an issue on its way out?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:49 AM

Let's begin with "Batman Begins," which obviously did well enough at the box office in its opening week to propel star Christian Bale and Katie Holmes into the Top 5 personalities cited most in the blogosphere. In fact, seven celebs or director/producers involved in the movie (Bale, Holmes, "Bruce Wayne," Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Christopher Nolan) appear in the top 20 key personalities today. Tempus Fugit blog calls it the "best Batman movie ever."

Ms. Holmes and Tom Cruise also are creating "buzz" because of their recent Paris engagement, which is captured quite nicely in a BlogPulse trend graph:



The pesky Downing Street Memo won't go away, no matter how hard conservative bloggers try to downplay and discredit it. Captain Quarter's blog (today's top link) is raising the possibility that they're fake because they were retyped; PowerLine blog thinks anything fake would at least be a bit meatier; Loaded Mouth blog investigates independently and conclues that the British government's acknowledgement is proof enough.

Sagging polls, support
Sen. Chuck Hagel's blunt assessment of the war in Iraq and President Bush's performance makes it to No. 4 among today's top links, while Condoleeza Rice now says the nation was told Iraq would be a "generational commitment." Huh?

Fat soap
Here in Cincinnati, a city that knows a thing or two about making soap thanks to two guys named Procter & Gamble, couldn't help but notice the $18,000 bar of soap sold last week. Obviously not for the guest bathroom.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Iraq continues to occupy the minds of bloggers as one of the world's hot-spot countries.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:44 AM

Proof once again that many First Ladies tend to have more flair and depth than their male counterparts: First Lady Laura Bush jumped into the limelight over the weekend for her stand-up schtick at the White House correspondents' association dinner, where she included vice presidential wife Lynne Cheney in her routine.

Mrs. Cheney is today's burstiest person for agreeing to be the butt of a joke about "Desperate Housewives," and Mrs. Bush moved from nowhere into the No. 8 spot among key people.

But much of the blogosphere attention today is turned internationally (well, except among Macintosh users, who are veritably DROOLING over the new Tiger System X operating system. One word: YUM).

In the British Isles, voters are gearing up for Thursday's election for a new prime minister, and Tony Blair is on the hot seat.



A few British bloggers are keeping track of the polls, while others are monitoring news reports are suggesting the Blair had been told that an invasion of Iraq was illegal, but pursued it with President Bush anyway.

Also on the international front, bloggers are dissecting the U.S. military's report clearing American troops in the March shooting of a recently freed Italian hostage/journalist in Iraq.

Curious blog discoveries
Also hidden among the blog gems: instructioons on how make your own DVR from PC parts, an online game to test your skills at guessing Google search terms based on the images they produce, a Darth Vader blog (really)and the true story of a weekend's runaway bride by the name of Jennifer Willbanks.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Let's check in this week on the prices of gas and crude oil.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:14 AM

Who knew? I mean, really...who knew that in a week when Iraqi election results are being warily analyzed....and the real impact of President Bush's 2005 budget is sinking in...that Valentine's Day would creep so deeply into the consciousness.

Nine of today's top links refer to Valentine's Day, and favorites include a short film by zefrank.com about Valentine's Day (No. 8 link) and a T-shirt that only geeks in love could love (No. 35 link).

And that's where lovey-dovey stuff ends and a little bit of bizarro stuff creeps in. Such as the fate of Maya Keyes, daughter of conservative commentator Alan Keyes (defeated soundly by Sen. Barack Obama of Chicago in the 2004 elections). Seems his daughter's services are no longer needed by her values-preaching family. And if it's dirt you want, it's dirt you get on Jeff Gannon, who until last week had White House press credentials. He resigned when other reporters questioned his ties to the Bush White House and found questionable web sites linked to him.

If you've read any of the conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., the Popular Mechanics put together some experts to debunk them, one by one.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: So do you love Valentine's Day or hate it? Opinions are mixed.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:28 AM

Now that Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles are making it official, the Royal Family gossip machine is cranking full-steam again. But apparently the buzz is mostly about the bride, not the bridegroom, as usual. Ms. Bowles, soon to be referred to as "Her Royal Highness Duchess of Cornwall," shows up four times in today's Key People lists (Nos. 5-6 among key people; Nos. 1-2 among burstiest people), while poor Charles is nowhere to be found except among news stories about the pending spring wedding.

Comedian and radio personality Al Franken has entered blog consciousness, too, but only because he's decided against running for a Senate seat in his home state of Minnesota. (Would Stuart Smalley consider doing campaign ads for him? Would his campaign slogan be: "I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone it, People Like Me!"?)

On the potential terrorist front, North Korea's admission that is has nuclear weapons to defend against a "hostile United States" captured at least 5 of today's top 40 links. Also being shared among top links is a New York Times sotry indicating that the Federal Aviation Administration had dozens of warnings in the six months leading up to the 9/11 attacks that terrorists were serious about using hijacked airplanes and suicide missions against the U.S. I've asked it before and I'll ask it again: Do we feel safer now?

And just in case no one says it first thing Molnday morning: Happy Valentine's Day!

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: With North Korea's Kim Jong Il turning up the heat, how do the world's hot-spot nations stack up now?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:48 PM

Even if you don't appreciate the humor politically, you gotta give the brains behind this Fatwallet.com affiliate credit for creative license. They offer hard-core evidence, the kind our intelligence system demands, of the war-related medals won by President George W. Bush during his service in, well, whatever he served in and whenever he served. Find them at Cockeyed.com for a few grins (No. 28 among today's top links).

For the more compassionate side of these United States of America, a web site founded to provide resources and links to victims of Hurricane Charley, Strengthen the Good, has been joined by a similar service from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation on of Venice.

For a sense of just how small and connected the world really is, check out No. 33 on today's list of top links, a photo of Earth at Night.

But what's on the minds of school children and parents everywhere these next few weeks? Why the start of school, that's what. And what does each school year bring? More politically correct ways to take the fun out of school and pile on the self-esteem. Or so they claim. Among today's blog finds, a move among Boston schools to replace red pens with purple pens for correcting those pesky writing assignments and term papers. Seems some teachers find red a bit too "over-the-top in its aggression," according to one teacher. My question: how long until the same people who claimed the purple Teletubby character was gay start mouthing off about the hidden agenda behind purple Sharpies? Similary, out Sacramento way, school officials are clamping down on that out-of-control activity known as "recess." Just what kids need: one more reason not to enjoy school. Maybe they can do origami instead, based on this No. 40-ranked BlogPulse link today.

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Which free, independent elections are getting more blog traction than others? Iraq vs. Florida vs. Afghanistan. Revealing, eh?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:56 AM

It's obvious that blogging has gone mainstream when The Onion -- that publication and web site of no-bounds satire -- takes on the blog phenomenon. And this one's a doozy, coming out of nowhere to No. 3 on Wednesday's "top links" list on BlogPulse. Stop for a moment and think what an unedited, unsupersived George W. Bush blog would be like. Leave it to the Onion folks to do it justice.

Thursday's BlogPulse results show that there IS one candidate who can blow both Bush and contender John Kerry out of the water -- or at least a few notches down the list of most-discussed personalities: namely, Harry Potter, who jumps to the No. 1 spot among key people. The reason? Movie execs just announced that actor Ralph Fiennes and actress Miranda Richardson will appear in the next Harry Potter movie as Lord Voldemort and journalist Rita Skeeter, respectively.

Speaking of blowing Bush out of the water, the Ron Reagan (Jr.) article in September's Esquire, titled "The Case Against George W. Bush," is making the rounds, with links in blogs and by e-mail pass-around. Can't help but make one compare the eloquence of the son of one former President with the eloquence (ahem) of another.

And Rep. Sen. John McCain has taken on the the Bush White House for not disallowing the attacks against Sen. Kerry by Vietnam swift-boat veterans. The ads are, in his words, "dishonest and dishonorable."

Somewhat curiously, one of the most popular links this first week in August has been a blog written by a survivor of sexual abuse, and it's popularized the mantra, "No Pity. No Shame. No Silence." It received so many comments, in fact, that its author had to turn them off.

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: With continuing military engagements in Iraq, the issue of a military draft has resurfaced. Track discussion of draft possiblities vs. a volunteer army here.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 03:46 PM