FEW READERS, MUCH POWER

On Sunday The Observer helpfully provided a quick reference guide to "the world's 50 most powerful blogs". Number 33 is blogging colossus Crooked Timber, summarized as follows:

With a title pulled from Immanuel Kant's famous statement that 'out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made', it's an amalgam of academic and political writing that has muscled its way into the epicentre of intelligent discussion since its conception in 2003. Formed as an internet supergroup, pulling several popular intellectual blogs together, Crooked Timber now has 16 members – largely academics – across the US, Europe, Australia and Asia. The site has built itself a reputation as something of an intellectual powerhouse; a sort of global philosophical thinktank conducted via blog.

Wow, with 16 contributors – including intellectual muscle-man John Quiggin – Crooked Timber must get heaps of traffic. Well, according to Alexa, Crooked Timber lags just a bit behind Glenn Reynolds' one man blog, which didn't make the list, by the way. Maybe it's a lefty intellectual favouritism thing.