Blog of the Week : 01/30 - 02/05 2011

The Blog of the Week for the week of January 30th to February 5th, 2011 is 'The Scope'. This space is the online presence for the popular free newspaper distributed monthly in St. John's and surrounding areas. The blog has been listed on the BlogRoll for a very long time and anyone who has been watching (like me) would have seen it evolve from a simple blog (mainly to help promote the paper) to the full service site it is today, packed with original content not necessarily found in the print version. It has rants, restaurant reviews, music info, classifieds and a general cornucopia of culture. In all it's excellence, the site retained the ability to comment on it's constantly updated posts keeping it's original blog like essence in tact.

So, enough out of me; I think you've been here long enough. Click the pic and get visitin'!

Blog of the Week : 01/23 - 01/29 2011

The Blog of the Week for the week of Jan 23rd to the 29th, 2011 is '365 Days Of Children's Books'. This blog is a fairly new addition to the BlogRoll and the Blogosphere as a whole, having only begun this year. The theme of the site is fairy evident from it's name, but what's interesting to note is that each and every week, the creator of the site will be featuring at least one Newfoundland and Labrador author. With now 22 posts, it'll be interesting to follow the site at it's reaches 365. At which point, I wonder whether or not the name of the site will change. :)  I guess we'll find out next year but, in the meantime, be sure to check out this great resource for children's books for yourself.  Click the pic and away you go!

2011 Predictions

I've been holding back on this post for a while. Partially to get a better lay of the land, partially to make sure certain factors settle out. Here is my set of predictions for 2011:

(1) There will be an election in April.

I've gone back and forth on this one. I believe an election will happen this year for two very important reasons: April 15th, and June 17th.

April 15th is the date of the separatist Parti Quebecois convention. Pauline Marois, the PQ leader, will undergo a critical leadership review. Gilles Duceppe, although officially supportive, will no doubt watch the result with interest. There is no better time for Duceppe to make the leap to provincial politics. Marois, practically as unpopular as Quebec Liberal leader Jean Charest, could easily be ousted. That would leave the door wide open to a jump for Duceppe - only if an election does not occur. Having an election puts Duceppe and the separatist movement off balance. They will be in the middle of an election as the PQ prepares to tear itself apart.

June 17 is the date of the Liberal Biennial Convention. No doubt a similar leadership review will occur for Liberal leader Micheal Ignatieff. Smacking Iggy Puff with an election, who has had some internal leadership issues, right before a leadership vote puts him off balance. Should Iggy fail to meet his own party's expectations, they may decide they want a leadership change themselves.

Ordinarily I would suggest that the Harper Tories will survive this year. To me there is clear negotiating common ground with the NDP who have asked for all intensive purposes practical demands for their support of the budget. However for the Tories I believe the turmoil an election would create for their opponents will rule the day strategically.

(2) Dalton McGuilty will still be premier.

I say this with some sadness. The Ontario Liberal's have been a disaster. The Province's economy, government, and confidence are in shatters. Yet the number of times a rooky party leader like Tim Hudak have made it on the first kick at the can are rare and few. My bet is that McGuilty will win another term, and if Hudak can survive his real chance is in 2016.

(3) The NDP will be defeated in Manitoba

Hugh McFadyen has a good chance of defeating the NDP government. He's survived one kick at the can, and if the polls hold steady he will be the next premier.

(4) Brad Wall will still be Premier

The Saskatchewan Party has governed well. It has become an economic tiger in Canada as a result of the policies of Brad Wall. They reduced taxes, cut spending and the province seems more confident by the day. Couple this with the fact that he faces a rooky opposition leader makes it improbable that he will loose.

(5) 2011 will be the year of Austerity

We're already seeing it, but more will be to come. Their will be massive confrontations all across Canada with labor unions, and special interest groups as the taps get cut off by a number of provincial governments.

I would look to Ontario in particular for much of it. Dalton McGuinty's government shows signs of understanding just how bad the situation is.

Blog of the Week : 01/16 - 01/22 2011

The Blog of the Week for the week of Jan 16th to the 22nd, 2011 is "Model Citizens". This is the online web presence for a nifty little shop in downtown St. John's. The blog is much more than just way to promote a business however; With discussions on design, constant additions of original photography and random other tidbits found throughout, the site is always an interesting visit. In fact, I just read that a new contributor to the blog has been introduced, which can only mean more additions to already wonderful site.

If you haven't gone already, what are you waiting for? Click the pic and check it out!

Listed, Relisted and Delisted

One of the many tasks I've been trying to get to was a clean up the main list to remove any blogs that were seemingly abandoned. It's a normal duty of mine and felt now that I'm in the mix of revamping, it was time to do so again. I should note that I only removed the blogs from the main listing on the left hand side but they will remain in the category listing, just in case.

In doing this task, I decided to add the new requests for additions at the same time. It felt so good to be adding new blogs instead of subtracting them that I decided to go mining for extra additions. The first place I searched was through all the blogs that have previously been removed, just to see if any had reserfaced. As luck would have it, some did...

Anyway, enough of me blabbering on here; go check out some blogs!

THE NEWLY LISTED

NLPOST
http://nlpost.wordpress.com/

365 Days Of Children's Books
http://365daysofchildrensbooks.blogspot.com/

Newfoundland Nature
http://www.newfoundlandnature.blogspot.com/

THE RE-LISTED

Sue's Blog
http://nlpost.blogspot.com

Labrador Power
http://www.labradorpower.blogspot.com/

NL Outport Life
http://nloutportlife.blogspot.com

Gone to the Dogs
http://vickyth.wordpress.com/

THE DE-LISTED

Self-Worth: The Fuel for My Fire
http://www.theworthinstitute.com/
Last post: Dec 6th, 2009

Stackelberg Follower
http://stackelbergfollower.blogspot.com/
Last post: Dec 1st, 2009

Tom's Image Blog
http://tomsimageblog.blogspot.com/
Last post: Oct 28th, 2009

NL Politics: Serious Business
http://politicos4tw.blogspot.com/
Last post: Sept 15th, 2009

Stay Between the Ditches
http://staybetweentheditches.blogspot.com/
Last post: Sept 5th, 2009

Photography of Newfoundland and Labrador
http://atlanticshore.blogspot.com/
Last post: July 11th, 2009

Techreluctant.com
http://techreluctant.com/
Last post: July 8th, 2009

Basement Glass
http://basementglass.blogspot.com/
Last post: March 2nd, 2009


Another To-Do scratched off the list!


Stealth-Man To The Rescue!

Stephen Maher's latest piece makes an bold assertion:
The F-35 are stealth fighters, designed to be capable of blowing up ground targets without showing up on enemy radar. Other fighters — the Super Hornets, the Eurofighters and the Gripens — look cheaper and might be just as good as defending our airspace, even if they’re not as good at blowing up bunkers in faraway deserts.
The bias is just bleeding through those words. Stephen might as well just come out anti-F-35.

Putting on my "objective cap" for a moment (It's a well worn non-Liberal one of course), I can think of a good thought experiment to assess this requirement.

Let's say I was comic book hero. Let's say I was shopping for a car. Let's also say that there was an option to have an invisibility cloak installed in your car (eat your heart out Worf!). Deciding if it's a valid option to include in our selection criteria comes down to an assessment we all make when making a purchase: is it a "need to have" or a "want to have."

An invisibility cloak on your car would be freaking awesome and cool. If that were our only reason to include it in our criteria it would most certainly be a "want to have." In other words - it's a waste of money to make it a firm restriction on your car choice.

But let's say we know that our arch-enemies from the Lolly-Pop Guild are getting it on their new vehicle, or have already done so. Well if we want to continue fighting crime we better make an invisibility cloak a "need to have" or we're likely dead and those bastard little elves are one step closer to world domination.

Both Norway and Russia have already chosen stealth fighters (Denmark has made no firm decision yet). All of these twits are competitors in Canada's long standing Artic disputes.

It's like saying "the other guys have tanks, but all we really need is swords." If Canada wants to be taken seriously in the Artic I think it just might be a good idea to have Stealth Fighters.

Blog of the Week : 01/09 - 01/15 2011

The 'Blog of the Week' for the week of Jan 9th to the 15th, 2011 (and our first selection since the return to this initiative) is "Fisherman's Road". This space comes from the mind of Ryan Cleary, who many people in Newfoundland and Labrador should be familiar with. From his days with The Independent, to his time in radio with VOCM to the tossing of his hat in the political arena for a federal election, Ryan is no stranger to our province. His blog is a treasure trove of political opinions and social commentary and one well worth the visit. With the consistency of posting you're sure to always find something new to digest... so no need to further read anything here; get on a pay him a visit. Click the pic and away you go!

NL Bloggers Choice Award

The Newfoundland Labrador Bloggers Choice award is back and better than ever! Well, better than year one. This is only it's second year... but you get the point. Year two of this initiative features a dramatic shift in it's operation. I've decided, now that we have all the blogs categorized, it only makes sense to have winners for each separate grouping. So that's what we've done! That's right, now up to 10 winners will be chosen each year by their peers, deemed a NL Bloggers Choice Blog and featured heavily apon this site.

Here's how it will work:
  • Each category listed to the right will have 3 blogs carefully selected based on many elements; design, content, frequency of posting, etc, etc and solely at the discretion of the organizer of this list (for the first year anyway).
  • These blogs will then be put up for vote and voting is quite simple. All one must do is reply to the voting thread listing their choice(s). It'll be as simple as that. There is one slight addition however; certain value is applied to the type of blogger who replies:
    • Anonymous voters will be worth 1 point. They can't be ignored, but shouldn't be overvalued (and flood control will be applied just for good measure).
    • Logged / linked in voters will be worth 5 points, as to me the non-anonymity of these votes are worth more.
    • Votes from fellow NL Bloggers currently listed on the roll will be worth 10 grand points. These are our true peers after all and adding this interactivity will only be a bonus in the end.
  • Then, after a week of voting, the blog with the highest number of points in each category wins: Simple, well somewhat simple, but effective. :)
All this will commence sometime very soon and further details even sooner than that. Just wanted to let everyone know that I think we're in for a fun ride. I'm hopin' so anyway!

As always, stay tuned...

Beginning 2011

Now that 2011 has come and the busy holiday season is quickly ending, I can fully concentrate once again on getting things back in order around these parts.  There's still quite a bit of work to do, but I would like to provide some updates on where things stand and whats on the way.

Blog of the Week
After a very long hiatus, this initiative will commence again in one week on January 9th and I will be doing everything in my power to continue from there every single week without any large gaps between postings.

NL Bloggers Choice Award
Sometime in the coming week I will be posting the new rules and regulations for how this awards initiative will continue this year and going forward.  There is still much for me to do before setting out get some votes, but the details on how things will work have been developed and will be shared in the coming days.

Guest Bloggers Initiative
Sometime in the near future, I will be calling for submissions from fellow Bloggers who may be interested in being a guest writers on this blog.  This is intended to be a way of further promoting the great talents which exist in our community here, with full credit and link backs provided within the post. Full details on how this will work continues to float around my brain and will be shared in the near future.

Other Items
In addition to the 3 main initiatives above, there a few other items I have in store. Sometime in the coming months, I'll be posting some blogging tips that I've learned over the years as a way of helping any new bloggers who are just starting out.  I'll also be working on more ways to help cross promote each other, which is something we lost with the closing of BlogRolling.

As you can see, there is still a lot of work to do on this end but the light at the end of the tunnel is somewhat visible.  I can't tell you exactly when all this will be finalized, but what I do know is that as we quickly approach the 5th anniversary of this space, things certainly are shaping up for the better.  Please stay tuned as I unveil everything as it gets developed.