Joshua Topolsky

This is just awesome.

As George Orwell points out in “Politics and the English Language,” one need not take on the responsibility of thinking when composing sentences:

You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you — even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent — and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself. It is at this point that the special connexion between politics and the debasement of language becomes clear.

Please read the whole post.

As you may already know, our friend and editor in chief, Ryan Block, is making his way out into the wide world to start on a new project with Engadget’s founder Peter Rojas. It goes without saying that everyone on the team wishes him the absolute best on his new endeavors, and would agree that his presence in our day-to-day rush will be missed.

You may also know that I’ll be taking the reins as editor in chief of the site, which is hugely exciting to me — in fact, it would be impossible to overstate my enthusiasm about this next phase of Engadget.

I would like to say this, however: Peter and Ryan have left an undeniable and resonant mark on the face of not just blogging or tech coverage, but on the entire field of journalism. They have beat a unique and important path, and I’m humbled and honored to be asked to continue the legacy they’ve stamped out.

Yes, the shoes at Engadget are big ones to fill, but I have nothing but faith — not only in Ryan’s choice, but in the support and talent of the team we have assembled right now. I couldn’t imagine a more polished, committed, and discerning group to lead into the next chapter of Engadget’s story. I look forward to not just carrying on what Peter and Ryan have so carefully built, but to growing and cementing Engadget’s rightful place at the forefront of technology journalism.

At the end of the day, I can tell you this: I feel equal parts awe and pride at the success and respect that Engadget has garnered, and I can’t wait to keep on down that road.

New rule. If you’re going to claim to run a gadget blog, you have to do the one thing central to the concept: actually cover gadgets. Things that don’t count as gadgets: Cute animals, movie trailers, stuff that explodes, tits, your drawings of Simpsons characters. When 50% of your front page is covered in a smear of bandwidth-wasting garbage that looks like Fark.com threw up on Perez Hilton, you’re not a gadget blog — you’re just shit.

Number 32 baby! No — but in all seriousness, here’s a very interesting look at the stats on who’s doing what in the blogosphere. Congrats to our own Thomas Ricker for… you know… blogging really hard.