For irreverent and often caustic spin on the UK from a Scottish perspective try Mr Eugenides. His blogroll would also be a good place to get good UK blogging.

Michael Nielsen doesn’t exactly blog daily but he was one of the first big name physicists out there blogging and showing the way it should be done. Nowadays he’s a bit of a Science 2.0 evangelist which would probably make for some interesting reading for Troppo readers.

It hasn’t been mentioned here but it isn’t exactly a secret but I think that Wonkette is the best of the big American political blogs. It’s basically a blog which is all about maximising the snark, which makes for hilarious reading. Their analysis, though hidden in uber-snark is normally more spot-on than the big pundits.

Also on US politics there is Obsidian Wings.

As for science blogs I would check out the ScienceBlogs page and take you pick. My favourite is The Quantum Pontiff.

Or Rod Brown for that matter.

A Don’s Life http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/

Tears of a Clownsilly http://skittlesmaze.blogspot.com/

Eddie Campbell http://eddiecampbell.blogspot.com/

BLDGBLOG http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/

Making Light http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/

Easily Distracted http://weblogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/

Charlie’s Diary is the blog of Scottish sci-fi author and creator of the two coolest races in First edition D&D, Charles Stross. He’s a mix of career news and internet issues. I guess he is a filthy lefty but it rarely comes up.

Stephen Fry is a geek; who knew? He mostly blogs about geekery like gadgets and internet issues, but it is Stephen Fry, so the writing is rewarding regardless of content.

Brad De Long also edits Egregious Moderation, collecting like-minded essays from across the interwebs. So centre-left and mostly American.

he’s also an IT guy so there’s also a mix of interesting tech themed posts.

Would someone be good enough to delete the last two?

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/

AntiWar.com provides a wideranging overview of news links, articles and commentary about current and potential wars as well as developments in politics, intelligence and civil liberties. Unapologetically partisan but a source of some very interesting info.

For anyone interested in finance, and in particular the slow motion catastrophe currently unfolding in the mortgage, banking and derivative markets, the following two sites provide intelligent and at times amusing analysis. The principal focus is on the US markets with occasional sidetrips into Europe and elsewhere.

http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com

AntiWar.com provides a wideranging overview of news links, articles and commentary about current and potential wars as well as developments in politics, intelligence and civil liberties. Unapologetically partisan but a source of some very interesting info.

For anyone interested in finance, and in particular the slow motion catastrophe currently unfolding in the mortgage, banking and derivative markets, the following two sites provide intelligent and at times amusing analysis. The principal focus is on the US markets with occasional sidetrips into Europe and elsewhere. Calculated Risk and Naked Capitalism.

http://www.futurepundit.com/

Butterflies and Wheels
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/notes.php

Obsidian Wings is pretty good, too, for a lefty site…

For those interested in Europe with a less UK/right wing perspective than A Certain Idea, A Fistful Of Euros is the go.

Dani Rodrik’s blog is the one for those interested in globalisation and economic policy for developing countries, and for macroeconomics and economic history you can’t go past Brad deLong (as well as good discussions of US politics from a liberal – in the US sense – POV).

For US politics from a lefty perspective (but with a good token Republican poster for variety), try Obsidian Wings. And if you want to find out what is happening in the Middle East from a true expert who is big on historical context of events, rather than from the very facile version in the MSM, you need to read Juan Cole.

Speaking of which do you know William Gibson has a blog too? Sparse but always ponderable entries.

Rigorous Intitution – the ultimate conspiracy website written by someone who treats it all as a marvellous mythopoetic exploration.

Global Ideas Bank – choc-a-block with thread-starting ideas.

A fat, left-wing, Welsh, gingernut stockbroker who knows how to intelligently shit stir like very few other bloggers. Shorter DD summary: V. smart, funny and always up for a good punchup.

Intelligent, eccentric, sharp-tongued and surprisingly knowledgeable for some beyond the Pennines pinko about international and local security issues – but none of that changes the fact he’s still unfortunately from Yorkshire.

And of course one of the wired world’s great work time wasters. If you search hard enough you can find both Evil Pundit and I there. In the same photo.

Also, from a legal-econ-politics perspective, The Volokh Conspiracy is pretty good. Lots of feature-length analysis by experts, although obviously focused on US law and sometimes economics. Slant: libertarian/conservative.

Professor Bainbridge provides conservative US corporations law, wine and politics blogging (he’s a chair in securities law at UCLA).

Samizdata I suspect you already know since there is a strong Aussie element there. Slant: not-quite-too-paranoid Anglo-libertarian.

I always read Certain Ideas of Europe for interesting tidbits but that is mainly because of my particular interest in the EU. Slant: The Economist.

Well, what else did you expect from me?

Greg Mankiw – think of a right of centre less shrill version of Paul Krugman
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/

Ilana Mercer – if there were any justice she should be more famous than those airheads Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin and sell more books. Usually thoughtful though politically incorrect paleo-libertarian – principled on civil liberties, and free markets, sceptical of the war but socially conservative on immigration and gay marriage
http://blog.ilanamercer.com/

Will Wilkinson – thoughtful high brow philosopher who works for the libertarian Cato Institute

http://www.willwilkinson.net/flybottle/

Looking through my feeds list everything else is either Australian or about programming.