Slate Launches "Gaysplaining" Section

Slate today announced the launch of Outward, a new section of the site that "won’t be just another one-note, mainstream 'gay news' blog." Um, ouch?

Being made of the same ornery stuff as the rest of Slate, Outward will be a haven for passionate expressions of underrepresented and controversial points of view that we hope will make you think, make you cry, and even make you mad, all in the service of expanding the limits of the this big queer conversation. If it’s not clear already, that conversation includes anyone who wants in, even if they don’t have a gay bone in their body. Though many (but by no means all) of us working on Outward are queer, it’s important to us that it speaks to—if not always for—everyone. In fact, we especially want to hear from straight readers who have questions about LGBTQ life and culture. Gaysplaining isn’t a bad word as far as we’re concerned, so, if there’s something you’d like to Ask a Gay Person, send your questions.

The first three Outward posts are here.

A Message From RΞICHΞN™

You mean like this?

New Blog: Texts From Hillary

More entries.

Hot Chicks With Douchebags

I draw your attention to the popular Hot Chicks With Douchebags site only to point to their epic take down of Andrew Breitbart. An excerpt:

This meandering buffoon screams for a living on the teevee, having finally found a profitable way to channel his daddy hatred. Substitute “government” for “Father who didn’t love me enough” and you’ll diagnostic the problem with nary a need to take an intro psych course. His is the inchoate rage of self-hatred turned outward. A core pathology that informs so much of douchebag culture. Merely substitute fauxhawks and bling for political babble, and sex drive for vicarious power sycophantage, and you’ll have this retched disgrace of yak spittle in a nutshell.

(Tipped by JMG reader Graham)

Another Poll Thing

I'm getting clobbered.

New Blog: Celebs On The Subway

I've finally sort of perfected the "I'm not looking at you" subway stare, which I've recently used on Liam Neeson, Liev Shreiber, and Marisa Tomei. More about such encounters can be found on this new blog.

Google Knows Where You Are

My obsession with statistics goes into overdrive in the face of the magic of Google Analytics, which reveals some interesting tidbits about JMG readers. For folks dropping by in the last 30 days, by far the largest chunk of you are in NYC, about 11%, twice as many as #2, San Francisco. The top twenty:

1. NYC
2. San Francisco
3. Washington DC
4. Chicago
5. Seattle
6. London
7. Austin
8. Minneapolis
9. Portland
10. Houston
11. West Hollywood
12. Atlanta
13. Oakland
14. Dallas
15. Philadelphia
16. Sydney
17. Los Angeles
18. Denver
19. Beverly Hills
20. Boston

Beverly Hills? How odd. Numbers 7-20 are all at about 1% of total readership, so the order of those cities doesn't mean much. I'm surprised to see London at #6. More surprised that Fort Lauderdale doesn't appear until #66. La-Dee-Da may be where the boys are, but I guess they're at the beach, not reading blogs. Who can blame them?

Meta-Time

You may not be as fascinated with statistics as I am. But this list from BlogWorldExpo caught my eye.

• Over 57 million Americans read blogs.
• Over 12 million Americans write blogs.
  
• 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.
• 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
• 9% of internet users say they have created blogs .
• 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog .
• Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs .
• There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day .
  
• 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs .
  
• 120,000 new blogs are created every day .
• 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006 .
  
• 51% of blog readers shop online .
  
• Blog readers average 23 hours online each week .

Egad, Technorati tracks 70 million blogs? No wonder my blogroll is so long. In the last year, JMG's Technorati rank (which fluctuates daily) has fallen from around 2300 to somewhere around 3831, despite my traffic almost doubling in that time - evidence of the continuing blogsplosion. Here's the current Top 100. Perez Hilton, at #14, remains the top "gay" blog, although some would argue whether his blog falls in that category. Andrew Sullivan is next at #81, with the same disclaimer. Technorati only posts their Top 100, but I'd imagine that Towleroad comes next, he's somewhere in the 600's. Anyway, this post is just an excuse to mention that JMG rolled over another million hits yesterday. Go me. I'm 3831, I'm 3831! Meh, doesn't have much of a ring to it.

Towleroad: The "It" Blog

Andy Towle gets a nice mention in Newsweek this week, where Towleroad is named one of the five "It" blogs. Also mentioned: Perez Hilton, DailyKos, Deadspin, Cute Overload. Congrats, Andy!

HRC Launches Blog

The Human Rights Campaign has launched a blog called Back Story, where you can find up-to-the-minute information about their various projects. Chris Johnson, Back Story's lead writer, has long been my primary contact at the HRC, tipping me off to the latest on what's going on with their efforts on behalf of hate crimes legislation, marriage equality, etc. Good luck, Chris, and welcome!

March Gayness

I was thinking about writing a post soliciting your recommendations for some new blogs for us to check out, but Matt over at Malcontent has come up with a creative and fun game that has the same result. Check out his March Gayness, a take on basketball's NCAA March Madness, in which Matt has created a 64-blog playoff system where readers vote their favorite blogs into the next round. In the first round (Matt used a number randomizer), I'm bracketed against Republic of T, so check him out. There are lots of familiar and unfamiliar blogs in Malcontent's playoffs, and I've already discovered a few that I really like. Thanks, Matt!
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MS Words

Microsoft has been busted for offering to start paying a blogger to make edits to its Wikipedia entries. I am 300% certain that other companies have employees making sure that Wikipedia entries are tweaked to favor themselves, but you have to shake your head at Microsoft for going out-of-house on this. Microsoft has admitted that it violated the Wikipedia terms and conditions but claims that is HAD to correct those errors somehow. I'm shocked, shocked I tells ya. Next thing we'll be hearing about famous bloggers making edits on their own entries.
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Quick Links

High-definition porn shows too much. (Via NY Times)

Gay Superbowl: Bears Vs. Colts. (Via Cup Of Joe)

The "Big Questions" of science, answered. (Via Wired)

A new Pee-Wee Herman movie? (Via SFGate)

Barack Obama's high school pics. Hello Jermaine! (via Gawker)
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HomoQuotable - Japhy Grant

"Like Cinderella in reverse, Mario [Perez Hilton], once a bespectacled cardigan-wearing hipster, has transformed into Perez, who saunters through Hollywood parties in a satin pantsuit with his name embroidered on the back. In a very real way, he's a modern-day Stepin Fetchit, cheerfully describing himself as a "media whore" for hire. The mainstream entertainment press, be it "E.T." or "Good Morning America," is happy to have him until the next bleached-blond, sequined caricature comes along to talk about the sex lives of former American Idols." - Japhy Grant, in a Salon article that eviscerates Hilton while detailing his impact and influence on Hollywood image-peddlers.

(HT to Chris and Bryce for link.)
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