A new study concluded that "after two months of regular blogging, people felt they had better social support and friendship networks than those who didn't blog." That must be nice! It's given me tension headaches and carpal-tunnel symptoms. [Discovery News]

We tried to translate a tip, above, about some comment purportedly deleted by Engadget editor-in-chief Ryan Block, but we failed. Maybe it's revealing enough as is — about the would-be Engadget commenter, not Block. Click to expand the email.

Carrie Brownstein, member of defunct, earnest grrl-rock band Sleater-Kinney, is bloggin' for NPR. Everybody's blogging! Nerd-a-rific. (Although we often found the femband a bit cloying and shrill?) In response to the Maxim magazine/Black Crowes outrage in which Maxim reviewed their record without listening to it, Brownstein reviews albums by the White Stripes and the Shins that haven't been recorded yet. Um, everyone knows that feminists aren't really that funny, but judge for yourselves!

Biometrics payments firm Pay By Touch is selling assets in "a mad scramble to recover any money whatsoever that our convicted Google stardom dreaming leader John Rogers pissed away," a tipster tells us. One of those assets was Pay By Touch subsidiary ATM Direct, a business Alex Muse and other Texas investors were hoping to acquire. But that didn't happen. To explain why, Muse wrote a post to his Texas Startup Blog. It's critical of Pay By Touch. Critical enough that Pay By Touch chief Thomas Lumsden threatened Muse with a lawsuit if he didn't remove it. Below, we've reposted the whole thing.

Let's play a guessing-game! A shamelessly link-whoring blogger has collected photographs of every fellow geek you've ever seen, and many you haven't. (We've put them together in a gorgeous tapestry of self-regarding dorkiness, in a shameless link-whoring exercise of our own.) There's a reason most of these faces are hard to recognize. If bloggers were hot, they'd be washed-up teen football stars, or on TV. Whereas the mainly pasty faces in this gallery are basically the nerds who got ignored in high school. Writes Young Manhattanite: "It's like Children of the Corn, except they killed all the black people and all the women... I feel like I've scanned past the same photo 352 times." Which makes this test particularly hard: even if you dispute the very notion of a famous blogger, see how many of them you can recognize. Your score, and ritual abuse of blogger looks, in the comments. We're working on the honor system here, so no cheating by looking at the original gallery, which has the names. Special bonus question, to sort out the empty boasters: we've sneaked a stray photo into the mix, of a priest arrested for indecent exposure; who is he? (Click for an enlarged view).

Dear Internet: If you really wanted to see photos of screenwriter Diablo Cody's nipples, you could've just read her old City Pages blog, where all of them came from. Honestly, people. [Defamer] (Clarification: we're bitching about EGOTASTIC, to whom we did not wish to deliver more traffic, not our friends at Defamer. Also the internet as a whole.)

"They're toads," Tony Kornheiser recently said about bloggers on a radio show for which he is paid good money. "They're little toads. Actually, they're pimples on the behind of the greater body politic in this country and in this city. And because, because they have access to airwaves and three or four people read them, they think, 'Oh, I'm very important.'" Kind of like radio hosts! But enough of that goofball, there are nine bigger blogger-haters who deserve derision — not because bloggers don't deserve constant mockery, but because insulting an entire class of people always guarantees failure.

Meghan McCain, daughter of John and frequent blogger, did not comment directly on her father's current sex scandal, but she did write a few words of encouragement to her parents, and bemoan the state of modern politics. She followed that up with 500 pictures of herself. [McCainBlogette.com]

VentureBeat editor Matt Marshall does have a striking resemblance to Superman's Jimmy Olsen, as Jangl CEO Michael Cerda suggests. The analogy's even more apt if you compare Marshall to the Smallville version:

The George Polk awards—described by blogger Will Bunch as the "Golden Globes of American journalism"—were announced early this morning. One of them went to a blogger who blogs! Far out! An army of Davids has stormed the gates! Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo (a blog!!) won the Polk Award for Legal Reporting, for his role in exposing the US Attorneys scandal that eventually brought down Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. On a blog! A blog that follows the rather traditional journalistic model of "hiring" and "paying" "reporters." Brave new world! [E&P via Attytood]

In honor of Presidents Day, our nation's greatest ever president, Richard Milhous "Dick" Nixon, started a blog! Because everyone gets a blog! It's called "The New Nixon Blog" and America's Dead President Hero "would be fascinated by the blogosphere," according to his blog, written by the staff of his presidential library. Because Nixon adored the latest technology, see, giving all his secretaries IBM Selectric IIs and also state-of-the-art audio taping equipment. Of course, we all know how much Nixon adored free speech. And cursing! Blogs have lots of cursing. The blog also will feature contributions from right-wing columnists and authors (like Hugh Hewitt), all of whom should know better than to defend Nixon, as he was not actually particularly conservative, just an amoral sociopath. Also James K. Polk is following you on Twitter and Franklin Pierce has a Tumblr. After the jump, a hilarious 1968 campaign ad from America's drug-addled criminal racist President who probably beat his wife.

Our much-vaunted, delightfully lecherous Gawker photog Nikola Tamindzic has launched a new photosite, Home of the Vain. It's no longer just nightlife photography! By way of introduction, he's showcasing never-before-seen half-naked photos of Josh and Emily, back when things were brighter. Josh frankly glistens, and Emily? Well, she always looks like a million bucks. (Meanwhile, Alex Balk lets us know that the best thing about his new job is the "respect I get from my co-workers.")

As Mr. Kissinger said in his remarks: "I don't know what a blog is. I don't know how to find a blog." His computer, he said, is used to read newspapers.

"I thought my privacy was mine, not yours," he added somewhat feebly. Powerline's John Hinderaker shrugged and shot Kissinger a lopsided smile. "You should've known better. After all, I'm a blogger." [NYT]

After two years at Yahoo, Susan Mernit got the ax at Yahoo Personals. Know any other layoff victims? Send them in.

Just what the interweb needs: More middle-aged sports bloggers! The LA Times has launched a blog by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the bald-headed intellectual responsible for the skyhook and six NBA championships. Kareem is the rare professional athlete who became an author and historian, so his blog is, frankly, better written than most metro papers. And it includes a lesson on the black history angle of the invention of the lightbulb! So that's useful. But is this whole athlete/ blogger thing really a road we want to trod? Because Mr. Abdul-Jabbar might be the smartest guy doing it, but he's DAMN sure not the only one. Everything you need to know and nothing more, explained right now.

BREAKING UPDATE: DOREE BOUGHT JOSH THE FATEFUL CLAFOUTIS. OR HALF OF IT ANYWAY. [The Doree Chronicles, Related, Previously]

Former Gawker editor Joshua David Stein's Page Six Magazine story on the unhappy end of his not-quite-secret romantic relationship with former Gawker editor Emily Gould leaves neither of them looking particularly mature. It is, poetically, not available online. The best recap may be this one, from Karen, an "avid quilter" and "middle aged blogger." Former Gawker editor Alex Balk gives Barack Obama "the coveted Balk endorsement," because he hates baby boomers, dynasties, and women (j/k!). He also pens the ultimate Radar post. Former Gawker managing editor Choire Sicha interviewed Paulda Abdul, commented on the Stein/Gould affair via IM transcript, and started a band. Jessica Coen: still Tumblring. Update: The full story, with commentary, may be found here.

The New York Review of Books, highbrow home of Joan Didion letters and occasional epic literary feuds (or "nerd fights") today undertakes it greatest challenge: explaining "blogs" to its million-year-old readers. The author assigned to the task? Journo (and cartoonist!) Sarah Boxer, who has assembled a little print anthology of blog "writing." Which means that her task is two-fold, actually: explaining blogs to old people and justifying collecting them into a book to herself. How does she fare? Hilariously!

Good news, well-off nerds: you don't have to take your iPhone and your Nintendo DS and your dozen USB cables and your tricorder and your Apple Newton out of your carry-on bag when going through airport security anymore. Thanks to bloggers! The TSA announced (they have a blog now, remember?) that the bitching and moaning of slightly inconvenienced bOINGbOING commenters led them to call up the offending airports and suspend the foul practice. Hooray internet! Hooray "blogesphere"! Ron Paul for President! [boingboing via Gizmodo]

Last week gadget-toting geeks discovered they were the target of newfound security screening rage when TSA employees at San Francisco International invoked a new policy requiring all electronic devices, not just laptops, be removed from bags and placed in trays. It turns out the electronics hassle was unauthorized, perpetrated by local officials. Here's what's still making us feel insecure: The TSA has a blog, and says the episode helped "validate our forum." (Photo by Tim Moore)