Weapons of Mass Distraction is certainly an original, intriguing title for a weblog. I naturally expected it to focus on current events, and was correct in this assumption. I initially found the layout creative and aesthetically pleasing, though I was naturally miffed to discover the site’s navigation was cut off on my screen.
We have here a Canadian news blog which discusses news pertinent to Canadians. As an American, many of the topics were, well, foreign to me. However, I did not find this the least bit alienating. In fact, I was all the more interested. WMD is a news blog, no doubt, though it is pleasantly interspersed with what one could call editorializing, and the author seems to enjoy taking an online quiz now and then.
In essence, we have a very accessable news blog that readers of non-news sites might use as a bridge to new material. We have here the pundit-ish links to news sites accompanied by the author’s thoughts, but we also have subtle strokes of the personal weblog, with pleasantly humanizing diversions from this format. Readers quickly come to trust the author, whom they can easily feel a connection to.
I was especially charmed by the author’s occasional feature, “Saskatchewan or Mars,” which challenges the reader to guess which locale the photo shows. Equally charming is his occasional digression from news into discussing the downfall of porn magazines and various bands. This blog isn’t very old, but the quality of it’s content makes it absolutely adorable. With another six months on it, it would indeed be a very high-quality read. To the author of this site, I say: Blog early, blog often.
The site loads quickly, and opens with a large sketch of the human head, showing the blood vessels and muscles in blue over a black background. The rest of the page eloquently continues this color scheme, with fairly legible white text. Unfortunately, though, the site appears optimized for large resolutions, and in order to view the navigation, I had to change mine. I could not help but think that, were I not reviewing this site, I would not have bothered with it. I recommend the author review his stylesheets and fix this error. I also recommend adding biographical information, which is almost always a plus with any blog.
I recommend that Danny of WMD keep writing in this digital topos koinos of his. While this isn’t a trove of news, it needn’t be. I suggest readers look at it as a bridge between the world of personal journals and the world of the pundits. All in all, Weapons of Mass Distraction succeeds fabulously at being one man’s outlook on an information-drenched world.
Weapons of Mass Distraction