In today's reading is Time Magazine's First Annual Blog Index, listing the top 25 blogs for 2008. No real surprises, and a bit of a yawn, given that most of them are US-based. Most are technology, gossip and economics-based, and most are more aggregators of information and link farms rather than incisive commentary. Perhaps one eyebrow should rise that good 'ole MeFi still makes the list, but there again, you can't help mediocrity.
In other slightly more bizarre news, Google and the New York Times are now pinpointing on a Google map, where news items occur. I'm not sure whether this is an act of localism or just a hobby of a bored NYT journalist, however.
And finally - also a NYT item - there is finally a story about bloggers blogging till they drop. And essentially this raises all sorts of questions about unfair labour practices and declining lifestyles. Of course there is a cure to all this concern - don't pay by the blog post, and allow people to learn and blog in the workplace, by allocating time for same. Or perhaps that's just idealistic of me.
The NYT article is attracting a fair amount of mockery from those who've ever actually done a genuinely hard, dangerous job or have relatives or ancestors who did - for example coal mining.
But yes, please take care! I'd hate to read that this weeks winning entry in the "Blogger Dead Pool" is "Jo, English blogger found frozen in the snow still clutching a digital camera".