blogging

Google Analytics is dangerously addictive. You can see who’s visiting your blog, country by country, city by city and in real time. I have to ration myself or I’d be checking it every 5 minutes. Anyway, it turns out that I have now been writing this blog for two years. So here’s the verdict so far:
Number of posts: 445
Number of comments: 1322
Number of spam deleted (penis enlargement, viagra ads etc – let me know if you want me to let them through for your general amusement): 102, 069 (roughly 80 for every genuine comment, how depressing)

Could the Economist be any more patronising?

“I noticed that the doormat was at a slightly crooked angle. I reached down and moved the mat back into its correct place.” Thus began a recent entry on The dullest blog in the world. Although this publication is something of a satire on the internet’s inane blogs, scientists are finding—to their surprise—that useful information can actually be mined from the tedium of the blogosphere.

The technology may be new, but the issues facing mothers aren't. In fact, the feminist movement has been working against pregnancy discrimination and for paid family leave, publicly funded child care and early childhood education for 40 years. Yet a little more than half of employed U.S. women don't have one paid sick day for themselves or to care for family members, which means they lose money anytime they have to skip work because of an ill child.

A coalition of non-governmental organisations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, has arranged for 50 bloggers from around the world to report live from the G20 summit in London next week.

The arrangement, supported by the Government, means the bloggers will attend the official launch, round-table discussions and briefings from world leaders.

Members of government delegations have also been invited to speak with the bloggers to discuss developments in the main summit chamber.