Shortly after the BlogHer 08 conference, I met fellow Seattelite Debbie from Delicious Baby. We talked about a bunch of stuff that's relevant to travelbloggers including what makes me, in my role as the contributing editor for travel, pay attention. Debbie suggested that I post my guidelines. What makes me stop and take notice? What makes a travelblog leap off the travel list here on the BlogHer site and on to my own blogroll? (And did you know, I see every new blog that's added?

Various media outlets are reporting a 16-year-old student has died after a shooting at a Knoxville, Tennessee high school. On MSNBC.com: Knoxville chief deputy Bill Roehl said a suspect was taken into custody Thursday morning after the shooting shortly after 8 a.m. at the Central High School cafeteria. Authorities haven't released the names of the victim, who died at University of Tennessee Medical Center, or the suspect. Roehl said no other students were injured.

Right now the blogosphere seems relatively quiet. Many people are watching the Olympics or they are preparing for the upcoming Democratic and Republican National Conventions. While the plethora of blog-worthy news items never seems to dissipate, what I will be doing in the little spare time I have during this quiet time is reviewing some of the Blogher members listed in the Race, Ethnicity & Culture section.

Over the next three days, an exciting and unusual event is unfolding in the sky. First, two swift planets, Mercury and Venus -- combined, these signify artistic communication -- unite in Virgo, the sign of the craftsman. This would be nice enough by itself, due to the ease and idealism it brings. But there's another huge factor in the mix -- Uranus! It's impossible to predict what will happen when the Awakener is stimulated by faster planets, but do watch for completely surprising, even shocking events.

It's amazing what people will do to get out of work. I heard tale that there are laaaaaaaaaazy women out there who love having their cervix manipulated in order to have a catheter shoved through to their uterus so an embryo that was created out of an egg that they had surgically removed from their body can be transferred back. All just to get out of that 8 a.m. staff meeting. You know that kind of woman also is the type who looooooooooooooooves to waste time with things like having mammograms or colo-rectal exams. Slackers.

Last week, I asked people to point out great feminist writing on the internet. Liz Henry suggested two posts that address racism and feminism, On Feminism, Part 1 and On Feminism, Part 2 by The Angry Black Woman.

Over the last few weeks, the Internet has been abuzz with sci-fi fan reaction to writer Orson Scott Card's most recent posts for the Mormon Times (Science on gays falls short and State job is not to redefine marriage) about homosexuality and gay marriage. Though he has been outspoken on the issue of homosexuality as far back as 1990, it has only recently attracted great attention.

More than 100 college presidents have signed on to an initiative that seeks to lower the drinking age in the U.S. to 18 years of age. Dubbed the Amethyst Initiative, the project seeks to open a civic discourse on the appropriateness of a legal drinking age of 21 in an era of binge drinking on college campuses. Here is the initiative's brief statement in its entirety: It’s time to rethink the drinking age

If you're a mom, and you nurse, you need to read this: codeine ingested by some nursing mothers can harm - even kill - their babies.

About three years ago, I watched a fabulous documentary series sponsored by the Skoll Foundation called The New Heroes. The series featured stories of 12 social entrepreneurs including Martin Fisher and Nick Moon, the co-Founders of KickStart (which was called ApproTEC at the time of the series).

Photo by Leah Jones

"For the most part, I cook alone. For one. Well, actually, I cook for three. It's just me at different times. Dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow, and then dinner tomorrow night because I'll probably be too tired to cook after classes or the gym." Though details will vary, doesn't this describe many of us? Garrett from Vanilla Garlic writes about what it's like to cook for one, on a budget. Just click this post's title to get in on the thinking.