Blog Roundup

It's that time once again: where we delve into the technicolour world of Preston's blogs. This month we'll be turning our attention to the 'new and views' patch of Preston's blogosphere.

First up is Punk Psychologist. Just as the title suggests, this is a blog, maintained by psychology lecturer Mike Eslea, whose twin subjects - psychological musings on themes as varied as mental arithmetic and knife crime, and old-school British punk rock - occupy the majority of the posts. The overall raison d'etre of the blog, however, is to aid science in its defence from the evils of 'pseudoscience'. Eslea variously tackles homeopathic medicine, chiropractors and the great MMR autism hoax in his posts. All of which are, of course, backed up with the sort of linked references you'd expect from a rigorous-minded academic. He even goes so far as to test his theories about acupuncture's efficacy by submitting himself to various needle 'treatments' and filming the results for his followers' edification. Amid all this holding up of quack science to swashbuckling scrutiny, he also finds time to go watch Killing Joke and get his hair dyed.

Missives From Doktor B is also a journalism blog, although with its roots more firmly anchored in the world of Westminster and party politics. Liam Pennington - Doktor B's Clark Kent, if you will - wears his Liberal Democrat allegiances on his sleeve being, as he is, a card-carrying member of the party. This, however, has given readers a more detailed insight into the recent Lib Dem conference than one ordinarily tends to expect from a blog. Elsewhere, 'B' analyses the ongoing campaigns again Barack Obama's plans for healthcare reform orchestrated by Republican rivals, the apparent success in the far-right BNP's campaign for self-legitimisation, and that hottest of topics: Derren Brown's recent lottery 'prediction' stunt.

Andy Dickinson another local lecturer, is similarly rigorous when it comes to including links to other blogs and websites, to the point where some of his posts are composed solely of links to recent articles which he's found interesting. Current areas of interest have been what the future of print journalism (if there is one) would look like, the growing importance of Twitter and, naturally, the influence of bloggers. Handily, there's also tips on how to get the most out of various software and online resources for the would-be blogging journo.

And finally we come to the wonder that is iFranky - a blog by self-confessed 'web nerd', also has plenty of advice for aspiring bloggers looking to establish a greater online presence for their writing: how to reference a blog as part of a CV, a list of indispensable 'Holy Shit' online resource discoveries, and plenty geek-heavy posts about things such as 'visualization graphs'. This blog also takes on a veritable trove of further subjects: current posts have focused on the on the ever-ongoing debate about what the legal status of downloading music should be.

And that's all for now, folks. Join us next time when we explore yet more of the flaura and faunae in Preston's blog-forest!