I’m in the process of tidying up the left sidebar blog roll.  There are some dead links there, and some that are not dead, but not at all well.  As in, the blogs seem to be abandoned.  So I’m going to move some stuff around a bit, try to clear out the dead wood, and add a few new things that I’ve been hitting on a lot lately, but I just haven’t gotten around to putting on the blog roll.

If I remove a link of yours it’s probably because I think you aren’t blogging anymore, so if you still are let me know and I’ll put it back.  And if you have a different link you’d rather I put up in its place give it to me please.  I’ve found several myself that should be pointing to different places now.

I’m going to add several new sections to the blog roll.  One for the two bloggers on my list, Steve Gilliard and James Capozzola who have both passed away.  I need to move the link to Steve’s blog back to the old blogger site, since it’s still there.  The link currently goes to his later News Blog site which only has his memorial up on it now alas.  I wish they’d have left his posts there up too.  His words should remain with us.  But at least the stuff he posted on blogger is still there. 

I need a section for the various international news sites I visit, and one just for German news and culture sites alone, since my interest in that little corner of the world has taken an uptick.  I want to add a section for all the fun mental health stop sites…like Fark.Com for example.  And I have some more links for cartoon sites and regular blogs that I visit regularly now, like SLOG, that I want to put up.  SLOG is neither fish nor fowl when it comes to blogs.  It’s part of The Stranger news site, but the blog is as sociable as it is newsy, so I’m not putting it in the news section.  It’s a blog.  A news (and commentary) blog is just that.  But it’s not a sharp distinct line either. 

You may find it surprising that I don’t have a Space News section here, seeing as how I work for the Space Telescope Science Institute.  It’s not that I don’t visit certain sites regularly, like Space.Com for instance.  But I’m trying to keep the Institute and my work there separate from my web site and blog for what I think are obvious reasons.  This is not a sharp distinction I draw in life, as anyone who has ever paid a visit to Casa del Garrett knows (The SM-4 throw that’s currently covering one of my cedar chests being but one new example…).  I don’t even have a link to the Institute web site up here.  But in case you’re wondering it’s: www.stsci.edu.  hubblesite.org, the public outreach site, is also a great place to go for Hubble news and views.  I’d put those links up here, but I want to be completely free to speak my mind on my own web site so I don’t want there to be any doubt that my site is not in any way related to the Institute, other then that I happen to work there.  I’m a gay man and I don’t speak for the Militant Homosexual Conspiracy either.