Click to nominate your favourite blogs
Bloggies nominations are open but only til Sunday this week. There is still no Science and Technology category, after 2013 when 4 out 5 finalists were skeptics. Protest by nominating science blogs for all the other categories that apply. As I’ve asked before:
Do these dumb awards matter? They bring in new traffic, and help bloggers tick credibility boxes with the media and with donors. So yes. If you bother (I know it’s a chore) it is a way to say thanks and to put your favourite sites further up the rankings lists. Think of it as a way to alert more people to the sites you feel deserve more attention. It’s free advertising for them. You might have a bit more sway if you also tick the box “I’d like to be on the panel of voters who choose the finalists”.
They may have axed the Science and Technology Category because too many skeptics kept winning it, but that only meant skeptical blogs won in other categories. The blogs you visit every day may not be just science blogs, but politics, education, entertainment, and topical blogs. They may also be New, Secret, Humorous, Groups, and they may be well designed, and well written. What I’ve said before still applies:
You might think the blogs in your usual science circle are not Education, Topical, Group, Secret, or Business blogs, but when you look at the past finalists (eg for Education: Science is beauty, or AMS Graduate Student) you will see that science blogs easily fit. In terms of science education, skeptical bloggers are doing more for the history and philosophy of science, the scientific method, statistics, rhetoric, and paleohistory than any national curriculum. Are skeptics blogs well known and promoted by the media, or are they all a best-kept secret? Which skeptic blogs started in 2014 and are new?
Nominations close on Sunday evening. To nominate click here, fill in at least three different URLs. But you can nominate any blog for several categories as long as they suit the category.
This is important. The blogoshere is slowly taking over as a source of news/information. At some point (this year?) it would be instructive to analyze the various metrics related to internet sites that are categorized as warmest/lukewarmist/skeptic. It may be very interesting, and something to use to counter claims of varying interest.
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Blogs may be helping but when these dubious people of “knowledge” can command this sought of coverage for their crystal ball gazing, I really do despair.
What do we do when we have to contend with this.
Skeptics simply cannot get the same inches in mainstream media as the alarmists.
I might add, this was front page, for want of a better word, news in the Murdoch press as well today as well.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/26/climate-change-will-hit-australia-harder-than-rest-of-world-study-shows
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How could climate change hit Australia any harder –
Just a couple of verses,(for our overseas friends this is a poem called “My Country” by Dorothea Mackellar) –
I’m showing my age but when we were kids we had to learn this poem by heart as well as “The Pioneers”
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
I for the love of me can’t see where it is possible for climate change to make any changes to Australia except if we have an ice-age.
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Just as a matter of interest, Mac, when was this written (sorry to be so ignorant) and if more than 50 years ago (which I suspect) what does this say about “climate change” (IPCC definition) or not?
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Dorothy MacKellar started writing the poem in 1904. It was first published in 1908.
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She wrote very slowly, it would seem … 😉
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I’d like to know the mechanisms in place that led to the decision for scrapping the science and technology category, this action alone highlights the need for blogs that present questions that make the ‘post modern’ thinkers uncomfortable.
We could have a million skeptical scientific blogs working on ideas but if only one makes an actual breakthrough it’s more than worth it. ht/ A. Einstein. 😉
100
I think you meant this site: http://2015.bloggi.es/
(your link goes to last year’s)
[Thanks Jonas. Fixed now. Had the correct link at the top but somehow inserted the wrong one at the bottom of the article. – Mod]
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As usual, I’m probably banned from nominating, never mind voting. Someone with a clean record out there nominate Jo, another second, and we’ll all pile in.
Pointman
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I nominated you Pointman …
I do not think that the Bloggies do banning.
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Yes, but they like to rejig the rules (aka rig the game). If the only option they’ve left to vote for is a skeptic blog with the nicest wallpaper, bloody well vote for it.
https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/the-great-global-warming-con/
Pointman
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So did I, let the games begin …
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As we head towards Paris 2015 and a global climate governance agreement, more than ever it is time to step-up.
Meanwhile, the BoM/CSIRO ramp up the 97% certified climate doomsday monster:
Science agency the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology predict temperature rises of up to 5.1c in Australia by 2090 in their most comprehensive forecast yet
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/26/climate-change-will-hit-australia-harder-than-rest-of-world-study-shows
. . .
It is worthwhile remembering that not one of their collective doomsday climate predictions have come true.
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They failed to predict the floods of 2011 and the rains of 2015 …
They failed to predict El Niño on all occasions …
SMH 27 Jan 2015: Extreme El Nino and La Nina events to increase in a warming world, researchers say
“In a study published on Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, an international team led by CSIRO’s Cai Wenju found extreme La Nina events forming in the Pacific would increase from about one in 23 years to one every 13 years because of rising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
“If we do nothing, this is what happens,” Dr Cai said. “It’s an awful result.”
. . .
If we do nothing about this constant scaremongering, the result will be much worse.
130
“They failed to predict the floods of 2011 and the rains of 2015 …”
And they gave out a dire warning last November that SE Australia was in for a “long, hot, and dry summer”. Well, the summer is now two thirds gone, and we have had temperatures struggling to get into the 30s: only one day (in Melbourne) around 40 (between Christmas and NY), and day after day of temps in the low to mid 20s, while the outlook for early February is for more of the same. Meanwhile, we have had a lot of rain: in early December, and more in late December, then a deluge in early January such that the fall is above average for the month.
IF THE BoM CAN’R FORECAST THE WEATHER PATTERN FOR THE NEXT THREE MONTHS, WHY IN THE WIDE WORLD SHOULD WE BELIEVE THESE BOFFS WITH THEIR FORECASTS FOR 90 YEARS HENCE?
Give me a break!!
120
Talk about having a bet each way.
10 years ago, almost to the day, these same organisations were predicting warming water in the Pacific Ocean would increase the intensity, frequency and duration of El Nino events and leave Eastern Australia in a state of never ending drought.
Then the rains came and washed that prediction into the sewer.
Now after a number of wet years they tell us that the warming Pacific Ocean will, guess what, produce more intense, frequent and longer lasting La Nina events leaving Eastern Australian in a state of constant flooding (Until the next drought hits?). If your predictions cover all the possibilities then you can never be wrong!
Why is it that climate science, almost exclusively, feels this compulsive need to get out in the media and make speculative predictions based on inadequate and failed modelling techniques? It’s not science and it only damages the reputation of the organisation, in this case the CSIRO, that has had an outstanding record of research built up over decades. Could it be that they feel that any publicity is good publicity and having any media profile will help keep the grant money flowing?
Luckily for these characters the mainstream media has a collective memory that only goes back about 5 days. Unfortunately for them more and more people are now seeking their information online where real debate on these subjects now takes place.
I’ll be voting for JoNova, just have to find polling booth.
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Oops! Sorry handjive.
I’ve angrily posted the link above.
So the smarter ones here could pick holes in the CSIRO report.
I wad so angry after reading the link elsewhere.
I hadn’t read the comments first.
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What we have here is the BoM/CSIRO moving goalposts from 2070 to 2090.
CSIRO: Climate change in Australia: technical report 2007
The projections focus on the years 2030, 2050 and 2070 for various greenhouse gas emission scenarios.
Some projections include probabilities of changes.
These projections supersede the last set of climate change projections released by CSIRO in 2001.
. . .
This is pathetic and despicable.
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Less a prediction….
More like an internal memo/directive ! 😉
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Bringing this comment back on topic sort of, here is one from smithsonianmag that contradicts the above contains a prediction that went wrong and gets ZERO COMMENTS.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-clam-shells-show-what-drives-el-nino-still-unclear-180952278/
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2014: HEATWAVES: HOTTER, LONGER, MORE OFTEN
Written by Professor Will Steffen,
Professor Lesley Hughes and Dr. Sarah Perkins
Published by the Climate Council of Australia Limited.
http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/uploads/9901f6614a2cac7b2b888f55b4dff9cc.pdf
SMH, Jan 22, 2015:
No heatwaves, but Canberra summer has still been hotter than average
“A lack of extreme temperatures in Canberra has led many to question where our summer has disappeared to, despite official records showing this season has been hotter-than-average.”
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I am going to nominate Skeptical Science in the humorous category. The Kidz in the Treehut have been a rich source of inspiration to Josh and thereby the font of much mirth for hundreds of thousands.
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I done that last year.
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I managed to Nominate this site in 6 Categories. We can’t nominate you in the Life Time Achievement Category which you won last year.
– BEST AUSTRALIAN OR NEW ZEALAND WEBLOG
– BEST EDUCATION WEBLOG
– BEST WEBLOG ABOUT POLITICS
– BEST TOPICAL WEBLOG
– BEST WRITING OF A WEBLOG
– WEBLOG OF THE YEAR
Good luck Jo, you deserve the recognition.
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Not sure about the rules. Does everyone making a nomination have to submit 3 entries into each category? I just put Jo into all those categories but my nomination seemed to bounce.
Also suggest Best designed. The comments layout here is far better than other websites. That promotes active and amusing discussion.
[Peter I had no problem in nominating just one or two in some categories. I agree about design too, this is one of the few sites you can have a ‘live’ debate with comments nested. You do have to enter your name and email address, and when you submit your nominations you are sent an email to click on a URL to confirm the votes. – Mod]
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I will try again.
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done and forwarded this thread to friends.
in response to the climate change will hit australiha harder propaganda – all the following and more can be found online. like politicians, the CAGW message is specially tailor-made for each market:
Rural communities around the world will be hit hardest by climate change — report
Global warming to hit Asia hardest, warns new report on climate change
World’s Poor to be hit Hardest by Global Warming: World Bank
Coastal cities will be hit hard by climate change: expert
Unicef: Children will be hit hardest by climate change
Climate change will hit Africa hardest
Pakistan to be hit hardest by climate change
Honduras Hit Hardest by Extreme Weather From Global Warming – experts say
In U.S., Warming Will Hit Poor and Minorities Hardest
Global Warming Hits World’s Women Hardest – Especially When They Don’t Have Equal Rights
Arab countries to be hit hardest by global warming says World Bank
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That’s a good one considering the “world’s poor” have in many cases the World Bank to thank for their situation.
I would argue that the headlines should read “Green energy policies will hit the poor the hardest and create more poverty.”
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A lot of the lefty blogs and publications won’t let you link unless the link is to like minded lefty lunatics, like themselves.
But I do get a pretty good run on some if I stick to topic and don’t bite when they bait me.(or question my parentage)
So Pat, with your permission, I’m going to “steal” this and use it as my “own”.
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Speaking of spin, this article amuses me:
http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/food-news/mcdonalds-french-fries-ingredients-revealed-20150127-12yxb3.html
In particular this quote:
This is because this palm oil is used by evil fast food giant McDonalds…. as opposed to the palm oil from plantations that get used for bio-fuels, which is the good oil, of course.
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Yo BD, do you have any numbers of the comparative amounts of palm oil used for bio-fuel, and by McDonalds?
Might be interesting to turn this right around on them.
IMO the growing of crops specifically for bio-fuels is probably second only to wind-turbines in environmental idiocy !
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Always the same predictable misanthropic brain farts with the green types isn’t it ?
“Cheap food for humans bad , expensive fuel that #$@%s up human’s machines good , environment ? who cares? Humans bad”
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for those watching the tennis and noticing spectators rugged up to ward off the cold, & players warming up in long sleeves, etc:
26 Jan: Melbourne Age: Marc Moncrief: Australian Open 2015: actually, it’s not the coldest tournament ever
“My goodness, wasn’t it cold yesterday at the Open,” you could hear them say. “This must be the coldest Open we’ve ever had!”
Well, no.
OK, Monday wasn’t resplendent. It was pretty cold. In fact, the minimum was 7.5 degrees. That was the sixth lowest minimum we’ve had at the Open since it moved to Melbourne Park in 1988, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
You have to go back about a decade to find a colder day: to January 19, 2004, when it reached 6.7 degrees…
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/tennis/australian-open-2015-actually-its-not-the-coldest-tournament-ever-20150126-12yfgg.html
last year:
Jan 2014: The Conversation: It’s time for Australia to change its attitude to extreme heat
by Liz Hanna, Director NHMRC Project: Working in the Heat – Health Risks and Adaptation Needs at Australian National University
(Disclosure Statement: Liz Hanna receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council)
It is not sensible to schedule the gruelling Tour Down Under for January in Adelaide. Likewise, the Australian Open tennis championship should not be held in Melbourne in January. This year, players have complained about having to play on in temperatures well above 40C.
Yet the vested interest in these major sporting events is massive. Given the involvement of television stations, advertising, flights, hotels, transport, security and the range of support industry staff, there is an understandable reluctance to interrupt meticulous plans. But is that worth the death of, say, one of the world’s top tennis players?…
Hot weather records around the nation are crashing, often by unusually large margins, whereas new cold extremes are becoming less frequent. The past is quite different to today, and very different from the future.
A clever country would recognise this.
http://theconversation.com/its-time-for-australia-to-change-its-attitude-to-extreme-heat-22164
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SBS: Long-range weather forecasting suggests the Australian Open players won’t endure on-court temperatures into the forties in 2015.
The veteran weatherman was unruffled by the suggestion that such predictions more than a month away were largely guesswork.
“I’ve been with the bureau for 57 years, so if I don’t get a feel for it, I don’t know how you could,” he said.
Meteorologist Bob Leighton said his long-range forecast for the Open was a milder one than last year, with little or no rain.
. . .
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It’s the rainfall monthly averages in a hell of a lot of places in the eastern part of the continent that nobody is talking about.
Albury where I live has smashed it’s January record.
Corryong in the North East of Victoria has surpassed theirs.
And Cabrarmurra in the snowy mountains….well have a look what this “long hot dry summer” has done to its record.
But I suppose the alarmists will just say thats just weather.
Hypocrites.
http://www.weatherzone.com.au/nsw/snowy-mountains/cabramurra
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Ah.. but is it filling the dams 😉
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Griss, I’ve fished the snowys dams and rivers for over forty years.
And every year they increase the inviromental out flows from the dams.
From letting it go down the snowy to down the murrimbidge and swampy plains river.
It defeats the purpose of these massive storages built to “hold” water for power generation in lean times.
By doing so it restricts what the snow hydro was built to do.
Generate clean reliable power in the good times as well as the bad.
The greens hate dams but they can never get rid of this national icon.
But they and their coalition partners in labor can and have certainly “nobbled” it.
So in answer to your question
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No.
10
I happen to think its very important to maintain healthy rivers, and well controlled environmental flows are part of that.
But as you say, that means they can’t get as much hydro from the dams.
That means they have to use more coal or gas fired power instead, thus releasing more CO2 into the atmosphere.
Win, win :-).
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The tennis story should be printed and framed as the ultimate example of how weather has become daily alarmist vomit.
“But it got warm on Monday – not really warm, but warmer than about 60 other Australian Open days. The top was 21 degrees”
I mean really? If you sit there long enough Im sure you can think of some more ridiculous comparisons and generalisations to demonstrate the MSM’s fixation with comparing meaninglessly small bits of random data with other nonsense and urban myth to produce a headline.
The weather is no longer a report, its a running commentary/verbal arms race that ran out of predictions 20 years ago and is now lost in repetitive story syndrome dementia.
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of course, last year the heat was all over the MSM:
Jan 2014: Guardian: Graham Readfearn: Is the Australian Open tennis feeling the heat of climate change?
Did climate change conspire to burn Serbian tennis player Jelena Jankovic’s bum during this year’s Australian Open Tennis Championships?
Was global warming a conspirator in causing Canadian player Frank Dancevic to hallucinate a cartoon dog shortly before collapsing on court six?…
You can’t blame climate change entirely for hot weather, but you can say that it increases the risk of extreme hot weather events occurring…
Dr Sarah Perkins is a researcher at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at the University of New South Wales and specialises in studying heat waves.
I asked her if human-caused climate change was contributing to charred bums and Snoopy sightings at the tennis.
“It’s contributing,” she says. “In Melbourne we are seeing an increase in the amount of extreme heat – there’s a disproportionate change when compared to the 1C increase we’ve seen in the average temperature for Australia…
If we’re asking if there’s a link between Jelena Jancovik burning her bum on a seat and human-caused climate change, then the answer seems likely to be yes.
As for the future, it seems likely that the chances of more heat during the Australian Open are on the rise…
Organisers might need to start thinking about some climate adaptation measures – including remembering to put a towel on Jelena Jankovic’s chair…
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2014/jan/16/australia-tennis-open-climate-change-extreme-heat
the cooler temps this year have been pretty much ignored; in fact, Herald Sun and UK Daily Mail have managed instead to push a Heat story!
at DM, one headline, five sub-headings and two paras before u discover this relates to 2013!
Updated 26 Jan: UK Daily Mail: Nelson Groom: Australian Open feeling the heat: Tennis fan sues tournament organisers after she ‘collapsed’ in 40C temperatures
She said there was not enough cover as players endured 40 degree heat
She is claiming damages for lost income and to compensate her family
A five-day County Court trial is scheduled for February 2016
The woman from Traralgon, Victoria, said there was not enough cover as players and the crowd endured a 40-degree day on January 17, 2013, reports the Herald Sun…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2924400/Tennis-bosses-sued-woman-claims-collapsed-enduring-40C-temperatures.html
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TheIslamblog.com contains the following:
Global Warming Scam: Carbon Dioxide Is Good for the Environment and Not a Pollutant
“The “global warming” fraud is another scam being perpetrated by the International Bankers and their institutions and governments in order to tax all human activity as a means of stealing the wealth of nations and the fruits of private endeavour. With the power of the world’s media on their side, they have been working for close to two decades to foist this scam onto nations through fake science and setting up international treaties. Whilst this scam took a hard blow with “climategate” too much money has been invested and they continue full steam ahead with the propaganda and lies. Perhaps the greatest underlying elemenent to their huge fraud is labelling C02 as a pollutant that needs regulation! Whilst this is so plainly false, what leads to confusion is that because there have been countless institutions, organizations and jobs created on a global level and supported through financial input in order to roll in this agenda, the scam has won ardent support from those who receive personal and financial benefit from this entire circus (charity organizations, university departments, scientific prostitutes seeking research grants to keep themselves employed, private institutions, technology companies, and governments seeking extra revenue to service the national debt). Whilst nobody denies the necessity of reducing pollution and being more energy-efficient, a scam on a scale such as this should not be allowed to continue.”
I hate it when I agree with them, because it makes me feel I must be wrong.
On the other hand, this may turn out to be my favourite blog. Crazy!
50
“Scientific prostitute!” Love it, may use it from now on.
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I call them money s[nip]
00
‘Do these dumb awards matter? They bring in new traffic…’
And the blog is getting increased traffic because of the blog’s growing reputation. As the years go by and weather deteriorates, the blog hits should grow appreciably.
——–
If a Warmist sneeringly says 2014 was the hottest year in recorded history, you can remind them that over the past 10,000 years 97% of the years were warmer.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/01/2014-was-one-of-the-3-coldest-years-in-the-last-10000.php
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I’m sorry but this year I’m gonna have to disappoint you and give Woogs World the tip again, I know you’ve beaten them before but this is a serious award and must be voted for seriously.
13
Well, that explains the sum total of your knowledge.
ZERO !!
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You probably already saw this: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/26/climate-change-will-hit-australia-harder-than-rest-of-world-study-shows
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Those of you who have signed up for a course in ‘making sense of climate change denial’ 101x from John Cook, would have received an email with a link to the Facebook page.
So, there is a video, (which will be part of the course we’re told) that explains the South American temperature record recently discussed here @jonova:
Man-made adjustments transform cooling to warming in Paraguay, South America
Clear your desk of all spillable liquids, and prepare to laugh (or cry):
https://www.facebook.com/denial101x
. . .
I’m signed up for a lesson in name calling. I can’t wait!
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That’s great handjive you denialist POS.
Sorry just getting into character. 🙂
10
I’m nominating Jo Nova and Jennifer Marohasy for Best Australian or NZ Weblog, but I need a third. Suggestions?
10
All done, Jo. Put you in first for five categories. Sure you will win at least one! Go Jo.
10
Humor is important. Nominate
http://livefromgolgafrincham.org/
http://www.cartoonsbyjosh.com/
and of course
http://www.skepticalscience.com/
for a laugh.
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The alarmists still belting you with a big stick mate?
10
No worries.
10
Just voted SkS for both the categories of “best Religious” and “Most Humorous” blog
Voted Jo’s as weblog of year.
30
Do we nominate SkS for “Best Religion or Spirituality Weblog” ? 😉
00