I think...

This morning I managed to perform a true cliché: slipping in the shower and hitting my head. I didn't suffer from amnesia, so no soap opera plots arose. But I did get four stitches in my forehead, and canceled my class for today. So I've finally got time to acknowledge that I was listed as one of the blogs that makes Phil Ford think. The responsibilities of being a thinking blog are multitudinous:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.

So, with my thinking fuzzy as it is, here are five blogs that make me do this fuzzy thinking. The ranking is completely random, guaranteed by the rattling of my skull. And I'm deliberately not picking the blogs listed by Phil, Matthew, or Tim, though I read almost all of those blogs regularly and also find them thought provoking. Update: And here is Daniel's list.

1. Crooked Timber. This moblog discusses economics, political science, philosophy, educational theory, communication theory, literature, science fiction (a special category of literature often neglected by literature blogs), music, and politics. The roster of posters include experts in many of these fields, and the comments are particularly high in signal and low in noise.

2. Think Denk, the blog of pianist Jeremy Denk. I have to make sure I have plenty of free time before I tackle a typical Denk post. These posts are dense with cultural references, analysis, and emotion that require much thought and introspection.

3. Cognitive Daily. The ScienceBlog on cognition by Dave and Greta Munger is a fabulous resource for learning about and discussing these issues. They make the most of the medium, with videos, graphs, audio clips, and surveys to explain or research various psychological theories and findings.

4. Making Light is the joint blog of Teresa and Patrick Nielsen Hayden. They are both editors at Tor. Teresa is the master of comment moderation, inventor of disemvowelment for persistent trolls. As a result, the comments are incredible, a community that can take a specific topic or an open thread and run the gamut from Persian grammar to China Miéville to gardening, all making sense. Poetry also abounds.

5. Father Jake Stops the World. I've been learning about Episcopalian life, theology, and spirituality from this blog. Very progressive, so much so that it triggers my knee-jerk response to question the assumptions of these politics, thus making me re-examine my own progressive politics and theology.