Oh What A Web We Weave...

Now, now...certainly there are those of you out there producing progressive blogs that should receive an honorable mention and a link from rU. Should you have trouble posting here, try doing so at NEVER GIVE UP, a partner forum at THE NEW CAFE.

Okay now,

Zag

New BShares Corp Setup As (rU) Grows

Some of you may have studied the modest trading history of this blog/clearinghouse at BlogShares. What you probably don't know is that now, through the wondrous magic of the boys and girls at BShares, we've created a new corporation there as well ~ (rU).

Extremely closely-held, (rU) will work within its charter, along with our friends at BlogShares, and in conjunction with our new site, www.redumbrella.org, to expand our presence and our reason for being here as 2006 rolls on.

We invite you to link your way to the sites above, take a look around, and go bookmark crazy as things develop...

Zag

TexasKos, BlogShares Corporations Spell Good News For Progressives

Last year, we built an eclectic list of Sites Worth A Visit at A Heathen's Perspective, and we continue to keep the list trimmed and updated when time permits.

This year, along with many other worthwhile progressive and humorous blogs we've visited, a special thanks goes to the new BlogShares tool of creating new Corporations. The founders, administrators, and corporate members should, through trading activity and creative, cost-free gamesmanship, enhance the Web presence of a host of new blogs, blog lists, and industries that will make the ride on the Web a lot more user-friendly for progressive and wickedly funny sites to go and hang with (as the kidz say).

One of the best and the brightest of this year's new crop is Texas KOS, aka TexasKos. I think you'll be hearing a lot from the folks over there as 2006 rambles on.

Whether well-known or obscure, we hope to continue our work as a modest clearinghouse for no-nonsense, no-holds-barred sites for anyone who resonates with our approach. Thanks for stopping by!

Zag Akimbo, founder

Moment of Triumph: When Drooling Superstitious Freaks Attack

Moment of Triumph: When Drooling Superstitious Freaks Attack

The "Market Forces" worked in 2005!

We came right down to the wire. Oh, the THRILL of it all! There I was, hunched over my G4, desperately trying to buy/sell/trade/issue bonds...basically anything legal that BlogShares allows for players on the trading floor ~ And THERE! Right THERE! I sold off most of the shares I owned in stale blogs, bought shares in vibrant, progressive blogs and humorous ones to boot, and by golly...I increased Heathen Monk's monthly earnings by more than 200%! I'm rich, I tell ya - RICH!

And the nicest thing is, that anyone with an internet connection can stop by and search for that mean ol' Heathen Monk, or "A Heathen's Perpective," or even "redUmbrella," and see the list of undervalued blogs we found in 2005. You'll have to dig a little deeper to see whose blogs our "analysts" predict great things for this year. But it's there! Ain't life grand?

All my best,

Zag

A Simple Way to Track and Find Good Blogs

Blogshares. Ya gotta love it! A fantasy stock exchange tailored for bloggers, blog watchers, and blog groupies. The old Heathen Monk has begun building his portfolio at Blogshares, and should you stop by here, just click RIGHT ABOUT HERE to view all of the blog holdings in HMonk's fabulous porfolio!

Zag

Roll Up Your Sleeves and Dig In!

Online research. It's here. Not to fear. Get using it! Among other fine sites we've chosen a few from "Sites Worth a Visit" to whet your appetite. Let's start with the mother of all Web resources, The Internet Archive. Consider it the Smithsonian of the World Wide Web. But wait! Don't surf away yet! The Columbia School of Journalism (CJR) is chock full of information and opinion. Why not start with the list of which corporations own what? You'll find it right here. And of course all of your legal inquiries can be tracked down at the Cornell Legal Information Institute. Finally, if you're against the death penalty and want to keep an eye on developments around the country, try The Death Penalty Information Center. These and other sites around the Web should keep you busy during your summer break.

Thanks again for stopping by,

Zag

Sites Worth a Visit

As we continue to search for valuable progressive and humorous sites, we invite you to visit the growing list of Sites Worth a Visit at A Heathen's Perspective. We hope you'll find many obscure sites you may not have discovered yet. Feel free to leave a comment letting us know your take on these sites' value to your own research of the blogosphere.

Zag

Tweaking Our Seach Criteria at (rU)

As we continue to refine our methods here at red Umbrella (rU), we'll be sharing some of our latest picks in what we consider to be undervalued blogs and other sites from the progressive and humorous subspheres of the blogosphere. Below you'll find a few new examples of what we have in mind:

Political Landscape

VelVel on National Affairs

Personal perspectives from the dean of the Mass. School of Law at Andover. This blog, while available for trading at BlogShares, is extremely undervalued, as is the school's approach in assisting mid-life and underprivileged students to get a quality legal education.

Progressive Personas

Author Jane Hamsher's firedoglake combines serious thought with biting humor to produce a wonderfully readable blog and a link to her book, "Killer Instinct." Firedoglake is trading well on BlogShares, and its share price, while a bit higher than newcomers may be able to afford, is still quite undervalued in our opinion, making firedoglake a strong buy.

Humorous Sites

Two satirical visual/textual sites that don't appear to have been added to BlogShares system at this time are:

The Wizard of Whimsy, and of course, The White House. Both sites are obviously labors of "love" and deserve to be traded at BlogShares as soon as possible!

Well, there ya have it. Happy trading, everyone!

Zag

Wpc Testing Phase Begins!

In our effort to take advantage of the many tools available at BlogShares, (rU) has begun testing a Web-public available list of undervalued blogs. You'll find our first test list at Heathen Monk's Main folder.

Click and scroll the "Main" button and you'll find other folders, including "Strategic Insight Fund," and various "UnderVal" folders. As we begin to get our sea legs at BlogShares, we'll be refining our stock picks based on blog content, share price, and frequency of entries, among other factors. Check back here for more updates as we refine our Wpc user-friendliness.

Thanks!

Zag

Testing Examples, March 20, 2005

Here's a fine example of what we consider to be an undervalued progressive blog: MediaGirl. Besides clicking your way to MGirl from rU's Main folder as explained above, you can track the blog's trading value here. Check back later for more examples as well as a weekly or monthly "best of" list of undervalued progressive blogs, based on our closely-held criteria.

From the world of humor comes StrangeCosmos. I think you'll see that it remains highly undervalued at BlogShares too!