Blog news

Soapblox, which hosts both Blue Mass. Group and Red Mass. Group, got itself hacked last night and now the guy who runs Soapblox has announced that rather than try to do something about that, he's simply abandoning the whole thing.

For the moment, both colors of our local political blogosphere are still up, but the founders of Blue Mass. Group have issued an urgent plea for help from anybody who knows how to set up the multi-user version of WordPress.

UPDATE: The Soapblox guy says he won't be shutting down; Blue Mass. guys are, however, still looking at alternatives.

Dr. T, who muses about anesthesia and oboes and topics in between, is a finalist in the 2008 Medical Weblog Awards' "Best Literary Medical Blog" category. Help her win.

The Globe's gone through a lot of changes over the past couple of years, but one thing remains a constant on Morrissey Boulevard: A fixation on stories about the amazing things women can do these days. Like, oh, become tattoo artists. Lissa Harris has started a blog to chronicle all these "Women Do" stories:

... Far from having sprung fully formed from a fit of pique this afternoon, the Women Do Project has been underway for some years--since at least 2006, when I was toiling in the swamps of the Weekly Dig's Media Farm. There, it came to my attention one day that women go bowling. Amazed by this, I did a little poking around, and discovered that women also shoot guns and DJ. Yea, they even blog. There seemed no end to the stuff Globe reporters would uncover about these preternaturally accomplished she-beings. ...

Susan Senator reports that she and her son Nat will be on the "Today" show sometime between 7 and 9 a.m.:

... They are doing a piece on autism and the family, in light of the Jett Travolta tragedy. They wanted to explore the idea of shame and autism, and they were asking me about that, and going public, etc. I hope they handle it sensitively.

Oh, no, not Joe!

Um, what?

http://bostoncivic.ning.com/

Ken George at WBUR has set up a snow-related Twitter group, so if you're still at this point in the sentence and know what I'm babbling about, put #snow1219 in your tweets. If you want to follow the posts, look here or here.

Chris Monks has cancelled his blog post for today.

The first is that James Aloisi would be a big mistake as state transportation secretary.

The second is that it would be most cool if bloggers of all political stripes got together to blog for joy and help out a charity this holiday season.

Matthew jogs in Forest Hills Cemetery. Running with the Dead chronicles his runs through this "genteel necropolis of rolling hills, puddingstone outcrops, and the watchful trees."

Chronicle tomorrow night features the work of independent video producers, including our own Steve Garfield, who posts photos of a video crew shooting him shooting interviews.

Joy of Sox has been voted the Best Sports Blog north of the border.

Boston Daily reports on some stupid hacker messing around with Boston Sports Media Watch, which, as I type this, seems to be back up.

The phenomenon of blogging has been around long enough for writers and pollsters to study it. In July, Pew/Internet and American Life Project published a study called

“BLOGGERS: A portrait of the internet’s new storytellers.”

You can find the full report (pdf) here. Take a quick gander at their findings below. Do you see anything there that surprises you?

Joy of Sox is once again one of the finalists for Best Sports Blog in the annual Canadian Blog Awards. Let's not have a repeat of last year when it didn't win. This year, click here and put Joy of Sox in first place.

Michael Prager does a nice job with his list of must-see Boston Web sites.

It got me to thinking, though: New blogs pop up around here all the time. How to find them? A lot of them submit their URLs to the Boston Blogs directory. But I should probably start highlighting the new ones here. So here goes with the first batch:

Phantom of the Movies
"Great Movies, Great Stuff."

Sacred Cods and Holy Mackerals
"Following Massachusetts politics is both my hobby and profession. I feel I bring with me a unique perspective as both an idealist and pragmatist, who knows what goes on in the smoke-filled backrooms and why, yet still holds out hope for good government that is responsible to and held accountable by We The People. Hopefully through this blog I can bring you, the reader, some additional information on what really goes on in the marble corridors of the State House. Sorta like a 'spin-free zone,' but without the douche-iness and pomposity. This will also be a 'whackjob-free zone,' so leave your xenobhobia, paranoia, and general hostility towards mankind at the door."

Dracut Musings
"A Dracut guy's take on state and national politics."

Arun Shanbhag, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School, happened to be visiting his parents when the terrorists attacked. He's been posting accounts and photos.

In case you're not too busy with your own Thanksgiving preparations, you can join Nika.

The magazine has laid off blogger and general great writer Amy Derjue (whom you can still read at her personal blog).

Paul Levy at Beth Israel Deaconess discusses the full-page ad Brigham and Women's and Mass. General took out in the Globe today to tell us how wonderful they are (no doubt out of a sense of bursting pride, not because of a Globe Spotlight article on how they are using their muscle to boost their reimbursement rates).

Bostonist Tom Lewis works out the new calculus for comedian Jim Gaffigan’s sold out stand up show this weekend at the Berklee Performance Center:

If you have a baby in Boston and want to send him or her to a public school, you eventually come up against The Lottery - the game that decides which school your kid goes to. And veterans will tell you that finding the right numbers, um, schools, to play in The Lottery is no easy task.

Geeky Mama lives in Roslindale and has a toddler. On Braving the BPS Lottery, she's posting her reports on her visits to schools in the West Zone (basically, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale and West Roxbury), along with news related to public schools in Boston.

Povo last night held a panel discussion on blogging and related topics at Archstone, an amazing apartment tower on Washington Street that is both cool (what a great pool they have) and depressing (because you realize that when the economy recovers, Chinatown will be overrun by similar buildings, destroying the very essence of what brought the buildings in to begin with).

Anyway, it's always good to meet the people behind all the blogs out there and hear how other people are doing cool things (like getting jobs and work out of their blogs).

Jacqueline Church, one of the panelists, posts a detailed account of our discussions on stuff like monetization and Twitter.

The Globe reports on the arrest of a Sudbury man on charges he lied to the FBI about the whereabouts of an al-Queda trainee. He is not facing terrorism charges himself. Miss Kelly explains why she thinks Tarek Mehanna goes by the nom-de-blog of Abu Sabaya, under which he writes Iskandrani, a blog that "posts English language translations of classical Islamic texts in support of violent jihad." The blog's last post is from Oct. 16.

The Registry of Motor Vehicles has figured out a way: stop all those damn mailings. Beginning immediately, the RMV will cease mailing the helpful renewal letters for Driver’s Licenses and vehicle inspection that we’ve all become accustomed to. Not to mention reducing business hours at many branches...