Snip from Placeblogger.com's "about" page:

What's a placeblog? A placeblog is an act of sustained attention to a particular place over time It can be done by one person, a defined group of people, or in a way that’s open to community contribution It’s not a newspaper, though it may contain random acts of journalism It’s about the lived experience of a place

Placeblogs are sometimes called "hyperlocal sites" because some of them focus on news events and items that cover a particular neighborhood in great detail -- and in particular, places that might be too physically small or sparsely populated to attract much traditional media coverage. Because of this, many people have associated them with the term "citizen journalism," or journalism done by non-journalists.

Placeblogs, however, are about something broader than news alone. They're about the lived experience of a place. That experience may be news, or it may simply be about that part of our lives that isn't news but creates the texture of our daily lives: our commute, where we eat, conversations with our neighbors, the irritations and delights of living in a particular place among particular people. However, when news happens in a community, placeblogs often cover those events in unique and nontraditional ways, and provide a community watercooler to discuss those events.

Link to Placeblogger.com. If you maintain a "hyperlocal website," and it's not already in the index, you can submit it for consideration here: Link.

Jay Rosen (an advisor to the project) writes about the launch here, and there's a Poynter item by Amy Gahran here.

LA Times has an interesting article about polonium-210, the radioactive substance that killed Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

In many ways, polonium-210 is an ideal poison for espionage -- deadly, and undetectable until it's too late.

A dose of the white powder smaller than a grain of salt could have been dropped into Litvinenko's drink at the Millennium Hotel's Pine Bar in London without altering the taste, according to chemist John Emsley of Cambridge University.

Within minutes of ingestion, the energetic particles shooting off the polonium-210 molecules began killing the cells lining Litvinenko's gastrointestinal tract. As the cells sloughed off, they caused nausea, severe internal bleeding and enormous pain.

"It was as if his internal organs received a severe sunburn and peeled," said Peter Zimmerman, a physicist at King's College London.

Pound for pound, polonium-210 is at least a million times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide, the poison used to execute prisoners in gas chambers, according to medical toxicology books. Radiation safety experts calculate that a single gram of polonium could kill 50 million people and sicken another 50 million.

But it is extremely hard to get. About 100 grams — or 3 1/2 ounces — are produced each year, primarily by Russia.

Link

BB pal Bonnie Burton of Lucasfilm says,

Here's my behind-the-scenes look at the Star Wars Spectacular at the 2007 Rose Parade: 200 stormtroopers, Grambling State Marching Band, floats and Grand Marshal George Lucas. Lots of great pics of troopers practicing on the field and having fun meeting each other from 22 different countries!

Here are the images: Link.

I'm also blogging all about it here: Link.

Those float activities commemorate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. About a million people are expected at the parade today. A really loud, low-flying aircraft passed over my house in LA this morning -- shook the walls, scared the heck out of both me and my dog, and seemed to be flying from the direction of the parade. Maybe it was a Rebel Alliance ship heading out to kick some Empire butt.

Here's a related photoset of float prep, with closeups that show how they build these flower floats, from Lorelei: Link (via Wayne's List).

Update: About the low-flying, insanely loud aircraft that gave me instant 9/11 flashbacks and sent my golden retriever running for cover, Wil Wheaton says:

That was the stealth bomber and two stealth fighters. They fly over the rose parade route every year, and scare the everlivingfuck out of a lot of people who don't know what the hell is going on. They go right over my house, about 1200 feet above my bedroom.

Update: Wil's brother Jeremy captured the stealth crafts in flight as they flew away from the parade -- snapshot below. They look so small and distant in this photo, but trust me: they sure sounded like close-range whupass.

Brian Roller says,

In your section about the flyby before the Rose Bowl game, it was mentioned that 2 stealth fighters and a stealth bomber flew by, along with wikipedia links about them, one of which was wrong. The two aircraft following the B2 are F22s, which are stealth but are not the F117 you linked to. The B2 is actually VERY quiet... however I live near a base that operates F22s and can attest that they are not, which was likely the concern.

The Weak In Rock says,

I read the comments and looked at the pictures on the site and they reminded me of an experience I had back in September of 1995 while on tour with my band. We were driving through eastern Nevada on our way from Salt Lake City to Reno very early in the morning, probably around 6 or 7 am. Our van was pretty much the only vehicle on the road and we got buzzed by a B2.

I kid you not. We saw it coming miles away as a black speck on the horizon, saw it bank and turn towards us and then in an instant it was right on top of us. At that moment four punk rockers who thought themselves very tough and cool came very close to soiling the seats of the van. I'll agree with the commenter who said the B2 isn't loud, but it did cause a pretty impressive vibration and is easily the most frightening airplane I've ever seen. I remember saying to my bandmates back then that all the US had to do was fly a squadron of those things over a city at reasonably low altitude and pretty much most populations would surrender.

Having one fly over you at low altitude is like living through the opening scene of the original Star Wars in real life.

I'll be joining CNN International anchor/correspondent Kristie LuStout today at 6:45pm ET / 3:45pm PT to explore some of the more talked-about technology trend predictions for 2007.