Interesting Stories - Pro Blogging, Blog Rumors, Catch Human Liars

How do you know if some rumor, making rounds in the blogosphere, is true or not ? Scobleizer shares a very practical tip from his blogging experience:
I find that if something untrue is reported on blogs that the company usually lets the blogosphere know (and they should!)

But, if something is true? They stay quiet.

..if a blog survives 24-hours without anyone refuting the facts? That’s when rumors turn to belief.
The Economist writes that more people are quitting their day jobs to blog for a living.
Most of the 57m blogs in existence are personal diaries that happen to be online. These blogs have tiny audiences and make no effort to sell advertising.

Services such as Google's AdSense, which places text advertisements on blogs and generates a few cents per mouse click, might bring in some spare change.
Steve Rubel adds that folks who make six figs from blogging as their sole source of income will be few and far between. This will especially become apparent when there is an advertising slowdown - and there will be.

Forbes has a nice slideshow with hints to help humans if they are being lied to. Some good tips:

» The more minutiae a liar has to provide, the more likely he is to slip up.

» Subject's failure to make eye contact is often sign of deceit

» Look for dilated pupils and a rise in vocal pitch. Both phenomena were more common in liars than truth-tellers.

In short, we are programmed to believe compliments and avoid painful truths, both of which make a liar’s task much easier.