Micael Froomkin left a comment:

How nice to see my favorite under-appreciated blogger turn up at one of my favorite appreciated sites.

Now if you could only get them to spill the beans on how they implemented that anti-spam measure in the comments box?”

Like hell we are. Yes, we get mentions in Foreign Affairs and award nominations, yadayada, but we have like 800 (sitemeter defined) visits a day. And we’re one of the best damn blogs there is! That’s underappreciated.

…that’s not what I was gonna write about at all. Um. Well.

The anti-spam hack we use was written by Stefan Geens. It’s pretty easy to implement and seems to be quite effective. Instructions here. (Don’t miss the updates to the post if you want MT Blacklist or MT 3.x compatibility.)

On another note, several of you have said you miss Edward Hugh. Edward has much better things to do than blogging right now, but he thinks he’ll come back around easter.

I’ve started to blog regularly on Europundit after a year of v. sporadic updates. It’s all links to things I find interesting. Also have a spiffy new design.

A former US guard says he unwittingly gave Nazi leader Hermann G?ring the poison he used to commit suicide…. Story.

Tony Judt reviews three books about Europe and America in the New York Review of Books. He’s nothing extremely original to say, but he’s eminently, and refreshingly sensible. Go read it.

The general topic should be good for a discussion.

It’s in German, but the idea behind this game should be obvious to everyone – it gives you a capital city and you have to ‘throw’ a dart to hit its location on the map. I was closest to the centre of Lisbon (just 18km out, which is effectively a direct hit, given the scale of the map) and a slightly embarrassing 406km away from Moscow. (found via The Ex-Communicator)

For those of you who haven’t alrady seen it through other blogs, European Commission Vice-President Margot Wallstr?m now has a weblog on her official site. There are no comments yet, and no gossip about what happens in meetings of the Commission, but it’s an interesting step forward.

With their symposium on China Mi?ville, our friends over at Crooked Timber have set a mark for the rest of us to jump for. Seven perceptive posts all about one author, along with a response from the writer himself. Plus lively debates in the comments on several of the threads.

Thanks for the great reading, and for showing the rest of us what a blog can do.

Slate announces that its parent, Microsoft, has sold the pioneering online magazine (where afoe‘s own Scott MacMillan’s byline appears from time to time) to the Washington Post. I haven’t seen Slate‘s figures, but it’s just possible that Microsoft might not need to show its financial statements pro forma for the divestiture.

At this juncture it would be as well to remind our readers that the rumours of afoe‘s impending acquisition by Rupert Murdoch are just that, rumours. All the same, we take comfort from Mr Murdoch’s long-standing policy of respecting his journals’ editorial independence and treating his employees decently. Coming soon: ‘The French-Democratic-Islamofascist Conspiracy to Deprive New Europe of Christmas — An afoe Special Report‘.