I was reading a fairly sensible analysis of the UK election in The Economist when I came across this

There are echoes in this of a campaign involving Lynton Crosby, Mr Howard’s chief strategist, in Australia in 1996. It looked as though the Labor prime minister, Paul Keating, could not lose the election—until his opponent, John Howard, suggested that the electorate use its voice to “send a messageâ€? to Mr Keating. The tactic worked, and John Howard won a surprise victory.

As i recall it, the only person at all surprised by the election outcome was Paul Keating. And the only catchphrase i can remember from the campaign was “relaxed and comfortable”.

Thanks to Nick Caldwell the old blog design is on its way back, hopefully with some improvements. Still some features needing to be added, but at least we’re getting away from boring blue.

James Russell has shuttered his blog. Hot Buttered Death It’s one of a handful that were around back in the Mesozoic Era of 2002, when I first started blogging, and I’ve always enjoyed his rather offbeat approach. Still, blogging takes its toll, and James has decided to pack it in. So long and thanks for all the fish!

While bloggers tend to burble on about replacing the mainstream media, there’s nothing like getting an on-air mention from the very same MSM. This Media Report on blogging mentions most of the leading sites in Ozplogistan, including this one. If you’re quick, you can catch the repeat at 8:00 pm.

I foolishly decided that I would do the upgrade of WordPress to v1.5 myself, rather than getting it done for me by someone who knew what they were doing. Four or five hours of frustration later, the upgrade is done, though I still have to reconfigure the template. Enjoy the default layout for the moment.

Update Well, I can get the main page working fine with the old layout, but the comments are a mess. The header is displayed in a botched form, when it shouldn’t be there at all. If anyone can give me advice on what to do, that would be great. Otherwise it’s the default layout for the moment.

Despite my expectations of a bit more free time, I’ve been scrambling all week, and much of my blogging time has been spent dealing with comment spam and similar nuisances. So, although I noticed Tim Dunlop hadn’t posted for a while, I didn’t get around to emailing him, and I also didn’t tour Ozplogistan as I do when I have free time. Imagine my surprise when I found out he’s spent the week at Tim Blair’s. I’ll be interested to read the comments threads, again when I get time. Meanwhile, Tim D is back on air and blogging up a storm.

Slightly belatedly, I’ve added a link to Mark Bahnisch’s new solo blog (he was formerly on the Troppo team). The title is apparently an allusion to Descartes self-description as a masked philosopher Lots of interesting stuff, as you’d expect. Also, new US blog Democracy Arsenal There’s room for more, so please send suggested links. I don’t promise to link everyone, but I usually link to anyone reasonable who links to me, if requested.

I wasn’t watching it tick over, but Technorati just passed 1 billion links, of which this blog accounts for 311. Here’s the Technorati Top 100, including Crooked Timber at #59.

I don’t know exactly what to make of this number. A link can be anything from part of an extended debate to a cut-and-pasted item on a blogroll. Still, its obvious that the blogosphere is still growing rapidly and in all dimensions. There’s some more data, here , herehere