Blogging, tweeting and podcasting

•

While looking at Airminded's stats the other day, I noticed that my brief biography of L. E. O. Charlton has been linked to by the Wikipedia entry about him. I guess this is some sort of mark of distinction in this Internet age of ours,It probably just means that I write on such obscure topics that it's easy to get a high Google rank ... though it perhaps depends upon what you think of Wikipedia itself. Overall, I think it's a good thing, especially for what it costs to use it (ie, nothing). Of course, there are errors, but then the whole point of Wikipedia is that if you see something wrong, you can fix it yourself. Admittedly, that doesn't work so well if you aren't already an expert on the subject at hand ... so it needs the involvement of those who are experts (or reasonable facsimiles thereof). I've already fixed a minor error in the Charlton entry, but there are significant omissions (eg, it mentions his books written for children, but not those on the next war in the air!), which, if nobody else does, I'll have to get around to fixing. At some point.

• 2 Comments

•

Orac at Respectful Insolence has called attention to the attempted arson attack on The Holocaust History Project, and called for other bloggers to link to the THHP home page as a show of solidarity. There's no proof as yet, but the suspicion is that Holocaust deniers are responsible.

Holocaust denial is pseudohistory, a pathological and degenerate form of history. It imitates the form of historical scholarship, but involves no critical inquiry; the conclusions reached are pre-determined, ideological and anti-Semitic. Holocaust deniers deserve scorn when they pretend to be historians. They do not in general deserve imprisonment, as has happened to David Irving in Austria recently. But they do deserve imprisonment if they use violent means to stifle the debate they cannot win, as may be the case here. The Holocaust is undeniable; there's simply too much evidence for it. Holocaust deniers need to admit that and move on. Until they do, we are lucky to have groups like THHP around, and they deserve our support.

• 4 Comments

•

A new addition to the historioblogosphere -- and one very close to my own interests! It's called The Blogger will always get through... and is the work of the indefatigable Peter Hibbs, who runs the amazingly exhaustive and informative NBCD (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence) site, primarily (but not exclusively) covering Britain in the era of the world wars. As Peter relates, the blog

records my thoughts on odd subjects related to the development of this website, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare, Air Raid Precautions/Civil Defence and anything else that happens to grab my interest.

He's actually been blogging since the start of the year, so there's already a goodly number of posts to go through: highlights for me so far include the things people leave in their gas masks, beating air raid sirens into washing machines and a possible public air raid shelter in Norbury. Anyone who is interested in Airminded's subject matter will likely find it worth their while to read The Blogger will always get through... too, so do yourself a favour and check it out!

PS Bonus points for the blog's name ... very punny indeed.

• 2 Comments

•

The winners of the first Cliopatria Awards for the best history blogs have been announced. Congratulations to all the winners! On the theory that they are the best of the best, the Top Guns of the historioblogosphere if you will, I have added Frog in a Well (Best Group Blog), BibliOdyssey (Best New Blog)Airminded was surprisingly nominated in this category, but boy was the competition stiff!, The Rhine River (Best Series of Posts) and Easily Distracted (Best Writing) to the list of noteworthy blogs on the sidebar. Go, read, and learn. I already had Blog Them Out of the Stone Age (Best Individual Blog) and Old is the New New (Best Post) listed, and I am particularly pleased about the former award, as it was Mark Grimsley's blog which convinced me that blogging could be a serious and useful part of doing military history. So it's terrific to see Blog Them Out of the Stone Age win the recognition it deserves.

• 4 Comments

•

Like about half the historioblogosphere,If Google is any guide, that word is original to me. I'm not proud of this. I've been playing with LibraryThing (where I am airminded, naturally enough). Well, more than playing - I've added just about all my books (even the dodgy pseudoscience and pseudohistory ones - I'm a paid-up skeptic, I swear!) and made a first pass at tagging them too - everything from history and science fiction to Mars and Cornwall.

I've also added the blog widget to my sidebar, so that it will display an ever-changing selection of books from my collection. At my request, LibraryThing's creator Tim Spalding added the ability to show random books from a selected tag only (in this case, history). Thanks Tim!