TIME's annual tribute to the best in blogging covers everything from the economics of gadgets to the Civil War River to Cold War River Pundits keep predicting that blogging will die off, a victim of Facebook, Twitter and other simpler methods of self-expression. But the blog is still thriving; it’s just evolving. Today’s blogs offer everything from serious investigative journalism to silly photos, and they’re created by everyone from talented amateurs to staffers at some of the world’s largest media companies. We picked 25 gems, focusing on ones that aren’t yet household names. Once you’ve checked out our favorites, let us know about yours in the comments 25 Best Blogs 2012; Top 100 Blogs - 1 to 25 - Technorati ; Vale: Newsweek publishes its final print edition
The Battle of the Blogs Dreaming of the Cold War
I’m thoroughly enjoying the playground spat between the USA and Russia The Americans have remains banned Russians with dodgy human rights records ; from visiting the country, but have no such objection to travellers from Iran, Pakistan or Somalia dropping by, no matter how psychopathic they might be. In retaliation, the Russkies have voted to halt their most valuable export to the USA – that of small Russian children, who are used by middle class Americans as mantelpiece ornaments and garden furniture. I assume that adopting a little black child from, say, Malawi, is now considered a little de trop.
• Pussy Riot Wet Dreams; Crikey [ Best Practices for Virtualizing SQL; This is a food blog for everyone, not just men. Mens Blogs - Best Style, Politics, and Food Blogs for Men – Eat Like a Man Women, Men AMEN ]Whatever, there seems to be a yearning, on both sides, for this row to be ratcheted up as far as it can possibly go, with tit for tat acts of spite flung hither and thither. I think they both miss the comforting certainties of the Cold War, an agreeably simpler time. It does seem to me that the Russians are more sinned against than sinning in this particular dispute. I fear they were also more right than wrong in their stance over Syria.
• · 20 best travel blogs; Selecting the winners for the Best Australian Blogs Competition 2012 was a very difficult task for the judging panel and the team at the Sydney Writers' Centre in Milsons Point. Australia's leading blog competitions; Winners in the Best Australian Blogs 2012 Competition.
• · · Catholic and Enjoying It 2012 About.com Catholicism Readers' Choice Awards Finalists; The Top 100 UK Blogs ranking was compiled by listing over 1400 UK blogs and calculating their popularity using the well known metrics of Alexa Ranking and Technorati Ranking for each site. Top 100 UK Blogs The roar of the presses that ruled these rooms has been replaced, just as we all suspected, with the calculated silence of the conduit that carries our data. [N]ever has the building's transformation been so lyrically conveyed 
• · · · The Battle of the Blogs .com ; Brissie
• · · · · In the latest in our series of interviews with newsmakers of 2012, Miriam Elder meets Yekaterina Samutsevich, one of the women whose punk protests as Pussy Riot electrified Russia Things have changed, but our desire to protest remains ; Sales of tablets (the digital kind) are 1,000% up, but a quiet rebellion is growing as people rediscover the joy of vinyl records The antidote to rampant capitalism? ; Warren Buffett’s extraordinary success is partly explained by an all-American rootedness Keep it simple
• · · · · · Jerry Seinfeld Intends to Die Standing Up ; We have become a society that communicates and shares just about everything we do, with one notable exception – work. Work is the place where social firewalls go up when they really should come down. After all, our teams are about teamwork. Social is the perfect tool to get our teams to work more collaboratively ; Newsweek publishes its final print edition transition to a digital future;Vale: Newsweek publishes its final print edition