Author: admin

I don’t even know how to begin to give this site a rating. It is a blog of very self-explanatory nature because it is called “blog.bioethics.net” and therefore one assumes it is a blog about bioethics. That would be a correct assumption. Bioethics is a subject which touches every one of us in some profound way, so it is simply a fascinating blog.

It was started by the founding editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB) and is hosted by two other associate editors of AJOB. They are all PhDs and really like to blog. I say this because of the great number of posts each day–so much to say, so much to do! (It must be a thrill to get information out there so quickly when before they had to wait until AJOB was published.) In the “What is this?” sidebar heading you find out these men started the blog because “bioethics clearly needs a good blog” and they are “trying to create it.”

What I found almost immediately was that this blog wasn’t simply scientific jargon regurgitated. It has humor. As you would imagine stem cells are an ongoing topic on the blog. On one post called “Pigs Never Need Die Again,” someone writes about a recent Johns Hopkins stem cell group study on pigs with heart problems. The last sentence reads “No word on how they recruited pigs with heart problems to the study.” (chuckle)

I hope more and more people find out about this blog and leave some much needed comments. There is no authority on bioethics like these guys, so learn somethng new from them today.

I do wish they would archive some of their articles instead of running them all on the main page. I mean, when you are posting and updating several times a day, posts from October don’t need to be on your main page. (Think about the poor suckers who still use a dial-up connection!) Archive, doctors, archive.

blog.bioethics.net

Strangely Normal is described on the website as A conservative teen’s thoughts on politics, religion, culture, and the world in general. It is written by a 15 year old homeschooler, and I have to tell you that I feel for this kid.

I feel like I have special merit to review this blog because I grew up in a Christian family, went to a private Christian school and even homeschooled for two years before I graduated. I used to be like this kid. With that being said, here we go.

His blog is based on a blogger template. Enough said about that. But considering he is fifteen and blogger is completely free, I can’t fault him. He has some polling features and news about George W., but that’s about it when it comes to things that help his blog stand out.

On to the content. Keep in mind that this blog looks at the world through the eyes of a 15 year old homeschooler. While it is innocent and cute at times, I can’t help but feel for the kid. He talks about the validity of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), Politics, the woes of Kerry and the greatness of Bush–which I find funny because he’s 15 and can’t vote. So for 3 more years, his opinion doesn’t matter when it comes to politics. Concerning the CCM post, I’m sorry…but you just don’t compare CCM music with Radiohead.

Anyway, I would like to point out that he writes exceptionally well. His opinions are well articulated for being 15, and I applaud him for that. He also receives applause for having a strong sense of self in his blog.

I give this blog a 3.0 for exceptional writing. I would like to see more light discussions…everything seems so heavy. I’ll be interested to see what his viewpoints are after about 5 more years. It’s going to be interesting.Strangely Normal

Cybergrass is not a personal music blog, but rather a cyber magazine devoted to Bluegrass music. In the header we are informed that it has been in existence since 1992. An impressive run for a website in anyone’s book.

The color scheme is pleasing to the eye. However, the three column layout is excessively busy. And add to that a couple of automatically scrolling link boxes on BOTH sidebars…and you have a recipe for eyestrain and headache if you spend much time here. I realize they have a lot of information they want to provide, but in my opinion, standard links to separate pages would be much more user friendly.

I hesitate to list all the categories of information to be found here, but suffice it to say that if you have a question about Bluegrass music and the current events surrounding it, this is your cyber fount of wisdom.

In the center column there is a message board where members can post all manner of information on Bluegrass events all over the
U. S. and the world for that matter. One recent post lets the readers know that a Bluegrass Festival in North Carolina has been canceled because the fairgrounds is under 8 feet of water! This would be valuable information if you were planning to attend.

One has to admire the sheer volume of data provided here, but I think the presentation could be improved dramatically by some common sense de-cluttering.

Cybergrass

I need to know what the hell is wrong with you people, so I decided to visit a blog that would answer that question. The blog What the Hell is Wrong With You People? seemed to be the logical place to start. The blog’s subtitle is “Reason to question humanity’s sanity…” I liked that. It rhymed.

Written by a guy calling himself Gern, this blog has been around since early 2004 and features Gern’s observations on odd movies, his life, and the lives of others in the headlines. (No, not Paris Hilton, stop it already.)

It has red type. All over the place, links, headlines, certain passages–red, red, red. I extremely dislike red type, unless it is a vampire blog and then, well, that goes without saying that you need red type. If it’s not a vampire blog, then all I see is blood red type all over the pages, making me think of blood, which makes me think I’m reading a vampire blog…

So, I had to get past the red type thing, which I did, and I read his current entries and his archives. Another thing that gnawed at me was that he has all these links (again with the red) in just about everything he writes, and if you click on the link, it doesn’t open in a new window. It takes you there. Then, you have to hit the “Back” button on your browser to get back to Gern and his questions on humanity’s sanity. It’s annoying, Gern, so please find the “open links in a new window” code for your blog. Thank you in advance.

If you read from the beginning, you find out a lot about him, his past, his friends, and he did one of those 100 Things lists if you want to know even more. He spends a lot of time on the Web finding odd headlines to comment on (Party Crashing Batman Steals Birthday Cake is an example and actual story.) He writes random lists of things that enter his thoughts, and most of them are quite witty. For example, the July 26, 2004 archive is a list of 6 automobile names that will never be made, “Chevy Chase” is one of them. “Jeep Bastard” is another. (I know, made me laugh, too.) He also has a love of comics (something I don’t share) and writes about them frequently, even including screen shots of what he’s referring to.

I was puzzled, however, by the posting of the lyrics to “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen, including no explanation or even the name of the song. It must have been on his mind that day, that gloomy, nostalgic, depressing day that would make you want to post the lyrics to ‘Thunder Road.’

I loved his Blogger Profile–under Favorite Music, he writes “Stuff you hate.” (chuckle)

What the Hell is Wrong With You People?

The blog greets you with the following description: “My name is Jay and I work for a prestigious brokerage firm. This blog is an inside look at what kind of people are managing your money.”

With such a description, I imagined that those “kind of people” would probably make for fun reading. I immediately dived into the oldest archives (dating from May of this year), determined to read the whole blog.

But more than having fun, I found myself shaking my head in confusion and sometimes in utter disbelief.

Right-Brained would rightfully belong in a “black humor” category. It’s full of nasty inside information on the world of brokerage, the language is, if not downright filthy, in the very least rated R and many of the posts deal with individuals that could be taken right out of a Paul Thomas Anderson script (Fassbinder would also do nicely.)

I quickly came to the conclusion that brokerage is a field I don’t really care for. In any case, Jay is a pretty decent author. He can tell a story with the right words (though too many of them happen to be swear words) and tell it well.

The confusing aspect of this blog is the nature of the posts, as not all of them deal with brokerage and the people Jay works with. For instance, I came across a post regarding chickens, another regarding his niece, there’s also a rather sad entry on his dad’s Cancer and a touching reverie on his mother’s death… Perhaps this is due to the fact that Right-Brained is a new blog still looking for its direction, but if this were the case, then Jay should definitely change the blog description to something a little broader.

Regarding design, the template is a standard blogspot template that does nothing for the reader’s aesthetic eye and as is usual with blogger templates, it makes the blog visually stale.

In the end, Right-Brained is the type of blog that has not yet found its substance; is it the world of brokerage or the author’s life in general? I feel it needs a clearer direction and a more appealing template. It could also do with a little less swearing, but this is a very personal opinion.

Objectively and regardless of the fact that it’s not my type of blog and many of the posts I found to be in bad taste, I give it a 2.75 because of the author’s talent for words. Given the right direction, Jay’s writing style could make for a better blog.
Right-Brained