Intellectual? Me?

I usually try to stay focused and avoid meme-like posts, but Bioephemera has kindly tagged me (along with four fine others) for the Intellectual Blogger Award, so I'm attempting to follow up on the meme by naming a few good possibilities myself. Unfortunately, she seems to like some of the same blogs I do, so I will do my best, naming three others that I can think of who should be included:

Language Log does a wonderful job of looking at how modern English is developing, and the developments in the field of linguistics as they apply to language in popular culture. They manage to write with humor and intellectualism at the same time, using everything from comics to memes to talk shows to demonstrate their point. Quite amusing and instructive.

BLDGBLOG is about "architectural conjecture, urban speculation, [and] landscape futures." I love this blog because not only does the writer, Geoff Manaugh, find the most amazing pictures, but he then riffs on them, either describing a world-that-could-be or making some connection to something apparently unrelated that is quite dazzling in its logic and application. For example, there was a post recently connecting an underwater neutrino detector with HP Lovecraft, complete with pictures of terrifying undersea creatures. Very nice.

And of course, there's Bibliodyssey, who indundates us all with amazing pictures from old books and then often talks about them in interesting ways. Just looking at the incredible feast of images is worth its weight in gold; but I like the research put into the subjects that are written about. One burning question always follows me as I read the posts: where does peacay (the blogger) find all this stuff?

If you're interested in reading the description of what the Intellectual Blogger Award is all about, check it out here. I think it's a great idea to make note of people for thinking on their own. Thanks, Bioephemera!