On Blogging

There's an interesting blog post, entitled The Blogosphere 2.0. The author discusses nine ways in which blogging has changed over the years, and I thought I'd comment on a few of them:

1. The A-List Doesn't Matter Anymore. ... People used to read the A-list blogs because they were first on the scene to tell us what the hot articles and issues were. But now we get that information from Twitter, Facebook, and Google Reader. ...

Personally, I've never followed the so-called "A-List" bloggers that much. Looking at Technorati's top blogs (the first 30), I'm only a regular reader at one (Daily Kos, because I occasionally post there), and have only visited very rarely two others (Huffington Post and Boing Boing). Almost all of the others I've never heard of. For me, the "A-List" has never mattered.

2. It's all about niche blogs. If you have a particular expertise and unique perspective, they you can quickly gain a following. Everyone else is out of luck.

I completely agree, which is why I've created a few other niche blogs; my problem is, very few people ever read them and they're much more difficult to keep going.

3. Norms and practices. ... Bloggers do not link to each other as much as they used to. It's a lot of work to look for good posts elsewhere, and most bloggers have become burnt out. ... Many have stopped using blogrolls, which means less love spread around the blogosphere.

The first part is true; writing up my links posts can be a lot of work to do, even for a fairly short list of links. I also find myself arguing (to myself) that I should really spend more time writing my own content, as opposed to commenting on others' writings (such as I'm doing now). Doing that would mean less time to link to others.

Blogrolls have become somewhat passe' with the advent of feed readers. I occasionally maintain my blogroll, but it's really there more for people who visit my blogs sporadically (which is most people). I almost never use my own blogroll; I rely solely upon Google Reader now.

4. Blogger Burn Out. Many of the top bloggers have been absorbed into some other professional enterprise or are burnt. It's a lot of work to blog. Most bloggers, and not just the A-listers, spend 3-5 hours every day blogging. That's hard to maintain, especially since there is no money in this.

This is actually my biggest pet peeve about other bloggers (especially Muslim bloggers): there are a lot of quitters out there. While I have the long-term goal of growing my readership into a much larger group over time, I try not to overwhelm myself with a high level of output. Yeah, I do have a wife and a baby, and they are a much higher priority than blogging ever will be, so if I don't post anything for a few days that's fine by me. But I do dislike other bloggers quitting. If you're on my Google Reader feed, hey! You're someone I want to read! Pace yourself better! I realize life gets in the way of writing, but don't just out-and-out quit! Take your time if you need to but keep writing consistently (once a week) if possible.

Use your blogs to target particular audiences and have a clear mission, and you'll get a following. Blogging should be the means to another goal -- a rough draft for future articles/books, a way to network with professionals, a place to document your life for your children, a way to have fun. Those are very real and good outcomes of blogging and that's why I'm continuing to keep at.

All of this was excellent advice, and I already use some of it. I do like to experiment with blogging, trying different series, some of which have worked out and some of which hasn't. (The jury is still out with respect to the links posts, which is another experiment of mine.) What I have found about my writing is that I get a lot more attention over the long run from my more "educational" posts. Looking at my current top 20 posts, I've got two posts that date back from 2006, one from 2007 and one from 2008. (My Titanic pages, which are on my website and not on my blog, were written back in the late 90s and still generate about a third of all my daily hits.) What I've discovered is that the vast majority of my readers are college students, businesses, and government agencies, people who are searching for specific information. And that's why I frequently write about oil and the economy, because a lot of people are interested in those subjects (as am I). But, of course, I think of myself as a Muslim writer, and I like to write Islam/Muslim-related posts. My Muslim readers are my core audience, and I hope you all enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy reading yours. (But write some comments here, darn it! ;) ) So "Dunner's" remains as it's always been: a blog that covers lots of different topics, those that "amuse and abuse" my mind, resisting the lure of niche writing, and probably at the expense of a larger audience. But I do enjoy blogging so. :)

The Independent: Secret War Report Led to Spy Charges for Roxana Saberi

One of the potential pitfalls for those of us bloggers who cover news stories is that of the knee-jerk reaction. It is all too easy to react quickly to a story without having read or heard all of the information. The recent case of Roxana Sabieri, the Iranian-American journalist who was recently sentenced in Iran to eight years for spying, is very typical of the knee-jerk reaction. Of course, there were several other factors that made Ms. Roxana a cause celebré. The fact that Ms. Roxana is pretty certainly didn't hurt her. (If you think I'm being sexist, don't forget the numerous other cases of attractive women and girls the media and bloggers have fawned over.) Add to the fact that Ms. Roxana's arrest and trial made for a story similar to the typical "damsel in distress" fairy-tale or Lifetime channel "women in jeapordy" movie, with the "villain" in this case being Iran (and a Muslim country to boot). It's no surprise that the public went gaga over her story.

Which made the linked article over at The Independent (UK) all the more interesting for having provided some of the missing details. For example, the charge of spying was not simply a trumped up charge, but had some basis in fact:

A joyful Roxana Saberi yesterday thanked those who helped win her release as her lawyer revealed his client had been convicted of spying in part because she had a copy of a confidential Iranian report on the war in Iraq.

Ms Saberi, a freelance journalist who was freed on Monday after four months in prison in Tehran, had copied the report "out of curiosity" while she worked as a freelance translator for a powerful body connected to Iran's ruling clerics, said the lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht.

It turned into a key part of the prosecution's case against Ms Saberi during her secret, closed-door trial in mid-April before an Iranian security court, Mr Nikbakht said. Prosecutors had also cited a trip to Israel that Ms Saberi had made in 2006, he said. Iran bars its citizens from visiting Israel, its regional nemesis. (Emphasis mine.)

Now certainly the Iranian government didn't help their image in their rush to judgment:

Ms Saberi's original trial was a swift, single session that her father said had lasted only 15 minutes. She didn't have a chance to speak and she was sentenced to eight years in prison, drawing an outcry from Washington.

But she spoke in an appeals court on Sunday, explaining her side to the judges, Mr Nikbakht said.

Still, she had done wrong, as she admitted to the court:

Ms Saberi had admitted that she had copied the document two years ago but said she had not passed it on to the Americans as prosecutors had claimed. She had apologised, saying it had been a mistake to take the report.

At the time, Ms Saberi was doing occasional translations for the website of the Expediency Council, which is made up of clerics who mediate between the legislature, the presidency and Iran's clerical leadership over constitutional disputes. Mr Nikbakht gave no details on what was in the document because it remains confidential.

Ms Saberi also told the appeals court that she had engaged in no activities against Iran during her visit to Israel, Mr Nikbakht said.

The court accepted her explanation and reduced her sentence to a suspended two-year term, prompting her release.

And to make matters worse for Westerners who despise Iran and its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the latter comes out of the story looking like one of the good guys:

Another of Ms Saberi's lawyers, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, said a letter from the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the court, urging it to give Ms Saberi's case a complete review, had helped bring about the sentence reduction.

Update: Moon of Alabama comes to similar conclusions:

Iran had good reason and acted within its laws in arresting and sentencing Roxana Saberi. The 'western' media used the case for the usual Iran bashing. Ironically this publicity gave Iran the opening for offering a deal.

The speed of the appeal sentence and the probation are unusual. The personal intervention of Ahmedinejad and the presence of Vali Reza Nasr in Tehran point to a government deal. For immediately setting free Saberi, Iran will get some U.S. concession.

Within a few days we are likely to see some reporting in Iranian media that the three diplomats arrested in Arbil two years ago have been set free.

A small step on the larger path of U.S. Iranian détente.

Links for 8 May 2009

Politics:
Why we need a federal hate-crime law: Exhibit A in rural Pennsylvania (I grew up about 100 miles from where this crime was committed. I am surprised not in the least that this sort of crime happened there or that the teens were acquitted in the local criminal court.)

Latest right-wing-lunatic smear about Obama: Dijongate (Sean Hannity of Faux News going to new lows. Oh, dear! President Obama putting dijon mustard on his hamburger. How elitist!)

Even Joe The Plumber Is Sick Of The GOP, Announces He's Leaving The Party

Coulter: Goldwater lost because he was too liberal ( @_@ Rolling eyes.)

Cheney: ‘I think it would be a mistake’ for the GOP to become more moderate. (Thus sayeth one of the men most responsible for the fall of the Republican party.)

Hannity’s Two-Week Silence: Is He Ready To Admit Waterboarding Is Torture? (The man is a coward.)

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! (TBogg snarks on Hannity.)


Economics:
This shoot is definitely growing bigger and greener (This is Dr. Hamilton's follow-up to his post on May 1st, sugesting that, based upon initial unemployment insurance claims, the economy is slowly beginning to improve.)

Employment -539,000 (Bonddad goes over the unemployment numbers. Also see here.)


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Safinatun Naja’ Translated into English (Bin Gregory notes that the introductory text on Shafi'i fiqh, Safinatun Naja', has been translated into English and is now available for download.)

Patriotic, respectful and homophobic: a portrait of British Muslims' state of mind

British, Muslim and loyal: MCB welcomes Gallup poll findings

I Think It's Time for a Library Run (We may be about to lose another Muslimah blogger; insha'allah, hopefully not!)


Miscellaneous:
A Halo of NGC 6164

100 Awesome Blogs By Some of the World’s Smartest People (Of the 100, three are on my RSS reader, and I occasionally read one other. However, there are some rather notable exceptions to this listing, especially with respect to economics blogs, including Econbrowser and Brad DeLong blog.)

Links for 7 May 2009

Politics:
Ed Shultz Show: Michelle Bachmann Earns Another Spot on Psycho Talk (I'm truly amazed this woman won re-election last year. What were her constituents thinking?)

Graham: ‘If we’re going to let the bloggers run the country, then the country’s best days are behind us.’ (“My hope is that our Democratic colleagues — if you start listening to the bloggers — if we’re going to let the bloggers run the country, then the country’s best days are behind us.” Heh!)

Limbaugh Responds To Powell: He Needs To ‘Close The Loop And Become A Democrat’ (Please do!)

Colbert Report: Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger to Byron York

Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Muslims, Islam Channel and QF: who represents who?

Miscellaneous:
Crazy mum fills her house with stuff bought from eBay (IZ Reloaded links to a website about a woman who has an obsessive buying compulsion from Ebay. The original webpage can be found here. I actually remember seeing this webpage back in the 90s; it's been around quite a while, and it's just as scary now as it was then. These people do need help but the best thing one can do for them is just to start throwing the $#|+ away!)

"Bedtime Music" Hiatus

Just a brief note to say that I'm putting my Bedtime Music series on a one-week hiatus, insha'allah. I've got some things to do this week that are of a super-high priority. I may or may not get time to do other postings this week; if I do, expect them to be very short and simple (like videos).

My Post of the Year

Time for a little navel gazing as we come up to the end of 2008. Blogging has been a bit of a roller coaster ride for me this year. On the one hand, I wrote more blog posts in 2008 (379, not counting this one or any others published before tomorrow) than in any other year. On the other hand, the birth of my daughter A'ishah has taken away a considerable amount of time writing, which is only natural as taking care of her is the much, much higher priority in my life. What's interesting is that at least one person began to think that I was no longer writing on my blog. As I mentioned in that post, it's not that I've quit writing; it's just that I've been extremely busy. (I almost feel guilty for writing this post. Almost. ;) )

This year the tone of my blog has changed somewhat. I haven't written quite as much about Islam as I had in the past, and there were a lot more posts on political and economic issues. Writing about politics isn't a surprise, especially in such an important election year. The posts on economic issues were driven by two motives: both the number of serious issues that have cropped up in the past year that I felt deserved commentary, and an overall rekindling of my interest in the subject. For the past two years I had been teaching economics, which is a subject I've always enjoyed, to the point where I'm now going to try to go on for a Ph.D. in the subject, insha'allah. And so I've done a number of very small-scale analyses on different topics, many of which I've cross-posted over at Daily Kos, where I tend to get a lot more feedback. But I don't really feel that any of these posts qualify for a "post of the year," so I'm leaving them out of the list.

The blog posts that gave me the most pleasure writing this year (other than those about my daughter ;) ) was my series on The Great Arab Conquests. Somewhat surprisingly it generated little comment from others; however, the lack of attention it got didn't diminish the joy I had in writing these. I wish I could write a lot more of this type of post.

Be that as it may, my top four blog posts for 2008 were: On Submission, written in February; The Pearl - Thoughts on Identity, written in November; Six Pieces of Advice Meme For Boys, written in March; and my post of the year, Straight Talk About Islam, written in May. Two other posts in the Straight Talk About Islam Series have been written since the original post; be sure to check them out as well.

JDsg is alive and well...

...he's just been super-busy. ;)

I got the following comment today:

I've notice you no longer write on your blog, I sort of enjoyed reading you posts, it was always interesting.

Wow! Talk about leaving the wrong impression! I know, I haven't written much in the way of essays or commentaries on current events as I usually do; the problem has been a very hectic schedule over the past couple of weeks. Milady and I have been cleaning up the flat, tossing some old furniture and buying some new stuff. For example, even though today is Christmas, Ikea delivered three new wardrobes that we ordered (very badly needed), our new office chair (to replace the old one with the miserable casters that were always falling off), and a new bookcase (to replace another that was falling apart). I've also been preparing a lecture on astronomy very similar to the one I did back in 2005. Because there are supposed to be around 60 kids for this camp, I just finished burning 70 CDs last night with all the photos I'm using to give away as gifts to the kids. And I'm trying to prepare my college applications (going on for a PhD, insha'allah). And I'm trying to finish up an essay for the blog. :)

So it's not like I've given up on blogging; far from it. I'm just trying to squeeze in everything while helping out at home, including taking care of the baby. In the meantime, I have tried to keep up with my three regular series (Bedtime Music, Drum Corps Saturday, and Movie Sunday), following the blogger's rule that, even if you can't write something for the day, at least put up a picture or video so that you have some new, fresh content. In that regard I hope my readers have enjoyed some of the posts (Bedtime Music in particular has been growing more popular over time). But I do apologize for not being as regular in my written posts as I used to be, and I hope that you all will continue to visit my blog and leave comments.

ShaikR is Back!

ShaikR is back! For those of you who may not be familiar with Shaik Abdul Khafid, he's a local (Singaporean) Muslim blogger who's known both for his former blog, Spiritual Tendencies, and his artistic talents. The latter was primarily manifested through his banners, such as the "Muslims Against Terrorism" and "Islamized Blogs" series, which can be found on a number of Muslim blogs (see the sidebar to the right).

In the past few days, the Shaik has released a new series of "Muslims Against Terrorism" banners, plus a few new ones; I love the "I Laff @ Islamophobes." All of the banners can be found on his graphics page.

The Shaik has also drawn a number of comics that skewer both Islamophobes and a certain breed of Muslims.

Check it out!

I'm Not This Bad...

...am I?


Don't answer that! ;)

The Blog Readability Test

Not a bad level, actually. As a writer, I am concerned about having my writing as readable as possible. Not that I try to dumb down my writing, but I do want people to understand what I'm saying as easily as possible. (I think it also helps that I try to use George Orwell's rules at the end of his essay, Politics and the English Language.)


BTW, my other blogs come out as:
Dunner's Learn About Islam - Junior High School Level
Ang Moh in SG - Elementary School Level
Areology - Genius Level

The readability level of Areology isn't any surprise as that's a blog devoted to science and space exploration. You know, something you need an ed-you-kay-shun to understand. ;)

"You like me, you really like me"

Or... maybe not.

Two sets of "awards" are being given now among the Muslim blogosphere: the Brass Crescent Awards, by altMuslim and City of Brass, and Umm Zaid's "IslamiBlaghies." Of course I am up for neither. As I mentioned on Street Prophets the other day:

People read me but no one comments

That's the story of my life. I've made slow progress over the years in building up an audience (not too large and not many loyal), but what aggravates me most of all is that hardly anyone comments. (This is, in part, what I enjoy about writing diaries here and at Daily Kos, that I can write something and get a number of responses, far more than what I'd get on my blog.) This sort of reminds me of my time in Korea, trying to start conversations with my students. Student would ask, "Mr. JDsg, what do you think?" And at first, I'd be stupid enough to answer them: "Blah, blah, blah." And the answer would be so freakin' reasonable that they'd all shut up. Same thing happens with my blog. "Oh, whatever Mr. JDsg said, that's the bottom line; no need for me to comment anything further."

{sigh}

I realize that the odds are stacked against my not being noticed. One, I'm not able to post as much as I'd like due to work and family. No surprise there. I'm not unemployed, and I'm not a househusband. It's not like I can spend hours writing long tomes about... whatever. If you've read my blog over the months, you might have even noticed that I often write two or three posts over the weekends, when I have more time. Weekdays I'm lucky to get one written in a day.

Two, my main blog is more of a general content blog than being exclusively devoted to Islam. Maybe 25% of all my posts have been devoted solely to Islam and/or Muslims. Once again, no surprise there (if you know my personality). I find lots of topics interesting. I think my masthead is rather accurate, especially that last section: "Islam, videos, current events, business, science, and any other topic that amuses and abuses my mind."

Third, I don't often write completely original posts, and I think the two awards above focus on writers who do just that. I often write about events that have happened and my reaction to them. Writing a post that's completely original is time-consuming, which I don't have a lot of.

Another factor, I think, is that I live in an area that doesn't have a whole lot of dysfunctional Muslims. I read blogs like Umar's and Tariq's, and often think, "What the f*** is up with that?" Tariq's Nationalism? post being a great example. That's not to say S'pore doesn't have problems among the Muslim community, but our problems tend to be well known and discussed in a variety of media, including the MSM. Our issues are not just percolating at the blog level.

That all being said, here's a list of my favorite posts (of my own) from the past year, separated into three categories (Islam/Muslim-related, general content and photographs (my own)), in chronological order, from oldest to newest:

Islam/Muslim
Jihad
An Open Letter...
The Difference Between the Qur'an and Its Translations
Sequoias in Their Midst
What Can I Do For Him, Here, Now?

General Content
The Accounting of Love
Mister? Why Your Face So Red?
"Physician, Heal Thyself"
Funeral Masks
I Didn't Vote for Bush, Either

Photos
Self-Portrait: The Uncle in Niece's Eye
Moon Over Singapore
Movement and Energy
Singapore Scavenger Hunt

Response to "Islam, Muslims and Amerca, Part 4"

I've been commenting on a blog called The Thinker these past few days; however, one of my recent comments didn't post as normal and WordPress is not allowing a new copy of the comment to post over there. As a result, I've decided to post my response to OMC here. To view the original post and the previous comments, click here.

Are you stating in your position that Islam and, or Islamic standards have not been changing? Are you implying that “all is well in Islam”? From the Muslim perspective now, are you suggesting that there IS NOT any discord or various modifications going on within the faith?

Is Islam or Islamic standards changing? If it is, it's only fractional at the most. Is all well in Islam? Islam is perfect; Muslims are not. In that respect, no, not all is well among Muslims, just as all is not well among Americans. There is always room for improvement. One of my wife's favorite phrases is, "We strive to be better Muslims." Is there any discord or various modifications going on within the Muslim community? Of course, just as there is within any other community worldwide. So? There are one-point-something billion Muslims worldwide, not all of whom see eye to eye. There are one-point-something billion Christians worldwide as well, and not all of them see eye to eye either. I don't see Muslim nor Christian cultures going into "demise" anytime soon, but I do see fewer Muslim identity crises happening and more Christian identity crises happening than perhaps you do.

You seem to be suggesting that Muslims are undergoing a change in identity, a more pro-Muslim identity, as exemplified by the wearing of the hijab and your Muzaffar Christi quotation. But I would say that neither is particularly strong evidence. In some areas, where the wearing of the hijab is not particularly common (e.g., the US and Turkey), there may be more of a wearing of hijab now than there used to be in the past. But for most of the Muslim world (and this is something I've noticed myself in my travels through Europe and Asia), the wearing of the hijab remains relatively static. Meaning, the number of women who wear hijab (or a variant) is and has been relatively the same. If anything, the women in your "backwardness" quotation are young women; I see this type of women (and girls) all the time. They're in their late teens-early 20s, who are still in their "party girl" phase, who are still a little immature. By their late 20s (early 30s at the latest), they begin wearing the hijab on a daily basis and almost always continue to do so for the rest of their lives. They've always viewed themselves as Muslims, but they've matured in their understanding of why they should wear the hijab daily.

As for the people "who have no choice but to see themselves as Muslims," this tends to be the non-practicing, "secular" Muslims. Ironically, these people don't see themselves as Muslims because of Islam, but because of anti-Muslim hate or actions by police. They begin to realize that the rest of society rejects them as one of "us," being instead the "other," the Muslim. Your problem, not ours.


Personally, I do NOT feel that it is in good or proper form to bring up partial quotes from unknown people at an unknown time as I feel that this practice serves to Invalidate your points.

Sorry about that. I though I had included a link to the original article in the comment. Here it is: The Pathologisation of Muslims in Europe. And, incidentally, while I know that you've cited your sources, it would also help if you provided a link as well.


Why would a non-Muslim have problems with their identity? Why is it that Europeans in particular are having an identity crisis?

Ask the German that. I know some Muslims believe that European identity was formed solely by Islamophobia, through the Crusades. I've studied enough European history (particularly ancient history) to know that's not the case. But the European reactions to the growing Muslim communities throughout Europe have created numerous identity crises in a number of countries, many of which have been exploited by right-wing political parties (e.g., the BNP). Europeans see themselves, I believe, as a stagnant (in terms of population growth), irreligious society in comparison to the Muslim community, which continues to grow strongly and is quite devout in their faith (certainly much more so than most non-Muslim Europeans). They feel threatened by this community whose religion they don't understand very well and who are not so easy to socialize with (many Europeans eat food that is haram (forbidden) to Muslims; e.g., beer and pork). And, lastly, I don't think many Europeans (and Americans, for that matter) understand how to create and live in a harmonious society that accommodates multiple ethnic and religious groups; this is one of the areas where I think Asians (and SE Asians in particular) excel at. Governments here work to create identities that everyone can share; not to divide people based on their ethnicity or religion. I haven't seen many (if any) European governments trying to do the same.

Ramadan Mubarak!

I'd like to wish all my Muslim brothers and sisters a blessed and successful Ramadan. May all of our fasts be accepted by Allah (swt). Ameen!

I also want to wish a special Ramadan Mubarak to the wife of one of my friends back home. Although she isn't a Muslim, she's been wanting to observe Ramadan with us this year as well. She's asked me a lot of questions in the past two weeks or so, and I've been trying to answer her as best I can.

I had wanted to make this post yesterday, but I was a little busy. :) The first day of Ramadan for me was a bit of a struggle, especially at the very end of the day. I was quite dehydrated, which gave me a massive headache. Iftar didn't help last night, either. Milady had bought me some beef rendang, along with some rice from her mom's. Now, I normally like rendang but for some reason, last night's batch was extremely spicy (much more so than normal). Last night was one of your stereotypical "steam coming out of my ears" moments. :) However, I got over that fairly quickly and ate some leftover pizza from the previous night instead. Tonight, Milady said that she'll be making me some spaghetti with olive oil and herbs, so that should be much more soothing to my delicate taste buds. ;)

I also wanted to say that this is my 501st post on this blog. I had hoped to write something special for post #500, but I felt that the Sumatran earthquakes was a more important story for me to write on instead of giving myself an "Attaboy." :) I know I don't have a very large (or consistent) audience, but I do enjoy writing for "you."

On the Changes at Sunni Sister

Umm Zaid had a recent post about several changes at her blog: a new (old) background (she's back to her "veryplaintxt" theme), turned-off comments, and no blogroll. She asked, "Should I turn comments back on? Return the links to normal?" but then neglected to turn the comments back on for that particular post. These are some of my thoughts regarding her changes:

For long-time readers, backgrounds don't matter and will probably become even less important as more people switch to RSS feeds. I've got over 30 blogs linked to Google Reader now, which keeps me updated far better than if I visited each blog separately. Google Reader doesn't show me the background for any blog, just the contents of the posts. And that's what's most important to me anyway, the content. Not whether you've got your cartoon pirate showing up or not. Still, for the first-time or casual reader, a nice looking background may be important.

Likewise, I think blogrolls will become less important over time due to RSS feeds. Still, they're important to maintain over time. For me, the blogroll is an indicator of the company a blogger keeps. Who do you read? Yes, I do judge bloggers by who's on their blogroll (especially if they write often about religion or politics).

As for comments, I can't really imagine not allowing comments except under special circumstances. I don't have a problem with bloggers who censor comments coming onto their blogs; I do it myself. I don't have a problem with people who turn off comments for specific posts. I can even understand why a blog like Islamophobia Watch keeps their comments off all the time; I'd probably do the same if I had a similar blog. But to shut comments off willy-nilly? No, not my style. I don't know about Umm Zaid but I want to encourage a community of people visiting my blogs, to read and comment about my posts. To cut off commenting for no good reason is a slap at the readership. "Sorry, I don't care what you think!" No, that's definitely not my style.

Areology

Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment. I had been thinking of starting a new blog, something along the lines of two astronomy-oriented photoblogs that I enjoy reading, Astronomy Picture of the Day and LPOD - Lunar Photo of the Day. Areology, which means "the study of Mars," is a topic I've become increasingly fond of, and I thought I'd try my hand at creating a blog along the lines of the above two, except focusing on Mars (of course). So please come visit me at Areology, where we can learn a few things about Mars together.

The above photo of the western hemisphere of Mars (click to enlarge) is a compilation mosaic of over 100 photos taken by the two Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.

Which is More Important...

...to the cowardly right? The medical treatment of soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital?


[Method: Google search on the last three months for term, "Walter Reed" minus term "Code Pink." Results were hand searched to find posts about neglect at Walter Reed.]

Or the fact that the cowardly right can't get it up any more?


You decide.

(h/t: Patriotboy)

Hakim Abudullah Features: Islam in the West

I came across Hakim Abdullah Features: Islam in the West this morning. It's an RSS feed of various Muslim blogs (including this one). Seriously, the feed almost looks like a compilation of my blogroll: Indigo Jo, Tariq Nelson, Sunni Sister, Writeous Sister, and several others (plus a few blogs that I don't normally read, like Eteraz). Unfortunately, there are also a couple of blogs that I do read that don't appear to be on the feed just yet (Izzy Mo, Umar Lee); insha'allah, these are either already there or will be put on soon.

Anyway, this feed looks rather interesting, and I hope to check it out more in the next few days, insha'allah. (The only problem with the feed appears to be that you can't comment directly on the blog from the RSS reader; I'll have to visit the appropriate blog to do that.)

Anyway, check it out!