Just a quick note bringing a couple of things to your attention. First, I've been slowly (as time allows) redesigning the blogs here on TDG, to try and make them a little more personal. Work is continuing, but things are starting to shape up - you'll notice now (see Katya's blog for example) that every member's blog now has a personal info box with avatar, bio and website. If you do not have these details but wish to, you can add them by going to 'My Account' in the right-hand navigation menu, clicking edit, and using the appropriate tabs for adding an avatar as well as biographical information.

Beneath the 'blogger info' block there is also now a block showing the ten most recent blog entries from that person, making it easier to browse through their writings.

Lastly, I have added functionality for members to embed videos from the major sites (YouTube, Vimeo, Blip etc) into their blogs. This has always been difficult to do, as it required opening up the accepted input to possibly dangerous code. However, using a specialist module, you should now be able to embed videos simply by pasting in the URL of the desired video. I have tested it and it worked okay for me, but please let me know if you experience any problems doing this. The good thing about this is that the fallback from any failure in embedding still gives readers the original link to the video in question.

I still have things on my to-do list (such as moving the navigation menu beneath the blogger info blocks), and there's a real bonus at the end of it all, but I'll let you know more as I get these things implemented.

Some quick site news worth noting:

• The Daily Grail has once again been nominated for a Zorgy Award, in the "Best Paranormal News Service" category. If you want to cast your vote, head on over and get a'clickin...maybe we could beat our 2007 record of 1058 votes? Or maybe we should all vote for The Anomalist for a change, as it fully deserves an award? While there, have a browse of the other noms and categories - it's a good place to find new sites worth visiting, plus a few of our regular linkages are nominated in other categories (e.g. Skeptiko and BoA in the podcast section).
• I have added a right-hand block to all member blogs now, which more clearly points out who is writing the content (blogger name, and avatar if you have one). As I find time I may also pad that out with more information. If you are a logged in member and want to add an avatar for yourself, just go to 'My Account' in the menu on the right of the site, click on the 'Edit' tab and scroll down to the image upload area.

Rock the vote.

Apologies for the lack of updates over the past few days - I'm currently traveling in New Zealand with my family (our honeymoon postponed by ten years, and now featuring 3 kids). I'd hoped to have regular wifi access, but things haven't turned out that way. Mind you, with an amazing array of beautiful sights and exciting activities, and the sun only going down after 9pm, I'm not sure how much 'net time I can fit in anyhow.

At least we did manage to track down an old friend while here...

As always at this time of year, sites present their lists of the best stories and images from the past 12 months. Here's some of the more Grail-centric ones I've come across that you'll probably enjoy...

• New Scientist lists their 12 most popular stories of 2009.
• Livescience's resident skeptic Ben Radford lists the 9 strangest stories of the year.
• Nature presents a feature special on the year that was.
• At The Heavy Stuff you'll find a list of the Fortean-tinged links of 2009.
• Space.com reviews 9 astronomy milestones in 2009.
• National Geographic has a gallery of the top 10 space pictures of the year.
• SciAm has a slideshow of the top 10 science stories of our most recent circuit of the Sun.
• At Cosmic Log, Alan Boyle lists the nominees for the prize of 2009's weirdest wonders.

If you come across more good lists, add them in the comments for others to enjoy.

It's that time of year again, when all sorts of festivities abound, and web traffic dies to a trickle. Each year here at TDG we take advantage of that by easing off our posting schedule and recharging our batteries for the coming year. As such, news posts over the next couple of weeks will be sporadic, returning in full force in the New Year. Of course, you are welcome to continue discussing/commenting on stories, posting blog entries, or adding news yourself by contributing to the user 'Stream'. And there will still be updates to read if/when you stop by over Xmas - just don't expect as many as usual!

With the year coming to an end, I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank all readers and commenters - you help to make the site what it is, and I'm so pleased that TDG contributes to your day in some way. Looking forward to continuing with upgrades to the site next year, and making The Daily Grail an even better place to visit. Best wishes to all for the season, regardless of your faith or non-faith, and hoping 2010 brings nothing but good things to you and yours.

If you're searching for a last-minute Xmas gift or item for your wish-list, it might be worth considering a book from Daily Grail Publishing. Not only are they chock-full of Graily goodness, but each sale helps keep this site running as well as supporting the various authors and researchers whose work is featured in each. First, our four stand-alone books:

• The Guide to Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, by Greg Taylor
• Messengers of Deception, by Jacques Vallee
• The Long Trip, by Paul Devereux
• Ijynx, by Blair MacKenzie Blake

And, of course, don't forget our fortean anthology series Darklore:

• Darklore Volume 1
• Darklore Volume 2
• Darklore Volume 3
• Darklore Volume 4

You can browse all our books at once - as well as other suggestions - by going to the Daily Grail's Amazon store. Your support is appreciated, and I'm sure you'll enjoy the books!

Just as a heads-up to readers - I have enabled Google Analytics on the site, to get a better idea of what people are enjoying, where they are coming from etc., in order to further improve the site. If you are bothered in any way by the thought of GA, you can go into your account preferences and turn it off for yourself. While this will not remove GA completely from the page, it will purposefully exclude data from anything you do on the page from being collected.

Please note that - as per Google's terms of service - absolutely no private or identifiable data is collected. It is simply a method of getting broad statistics for me to see what content is popular, etc.

Continuing on with rolling upgrades/changes to the site: at the bottom of the front page (only) there are now listings of the newest members, the users currently browsing the site, and the most popular content of the day. I may just sleep sometime soon though, so don't hold your breath for anything else for a few days.

For those who have problems with the white background version of the Grail, I've finally put together a workable version of a dark-background theme. It's still not a finished version, and some aspects may either be ugly as sin, or quite simply broken - but as I said, overall there are enough hours in it that it should work fine and be a helpful alternative for anybody who has trouble with the black on white contrast of the new version. Anybody who uses it, please advise me of anything broken or ugly via the 'Contact Us' option in the menu on the right of the page.

To enable the new theme, you have to be a member of the site. Go to the main menu in the right sidebar and select 'My Account', click on the 'Edit' tab, and scroll down to select the 'BlackTDG' theme. Comments are welcome as I work towards a more complete version.

Just a few updates to bring to your attention, and also a plea for assistance. Firstly, the latter: despite several requests, Amazon have failed to link my recent book The Guide to Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol to the previous editions - which means none of the previous reviews or ratings apply to the new book. So, if you've read it, I'd really appreciate it if you can help out by posting a review and rating for the book on Amazon - it makes a big difference to prospective purchasers if there's some feedback there.

Secondly: I'm continuing with site upgrades/updates as I find time. There is now a 'Contact Us' facility available via the main menu on the right of the page. This will allow readers to directly contact individual (or all) Daily Grail admins. Note too that 'regular' TDG members can also take advantage of this and allow others to send them email via a personal contact form - just go into 'My Account' and enable that feature.

Also, I've added a printable page function (and also an 'email to a friend' function) to the bottom of individual story pages - I know some people like to print longer articles out for reading on paper. Note too that at the bottom of story pages there are also now a number of icons allowing readers to submit/share articles (if they desire) via various social networking/news sites.

The 'Spotlight' section on the front page is no longer the latest story from the Daily Grail blog - it is now just the most recent story that I have flagged as worth bringing to people's attention on the front page. Head to the blog (via the menu at the top of the page, or via the link at the bottom right of the 'Spotlight' story) on your visits to get the full run-down of recently posted stories. And at the bottom of the front page I have replaced the rather static 'Most Read Blogs' block with a 'Recent Comments' block.

There is also a new block on the right of the page featuring my Twitter feed, which often contains interesting links and comments pertaining to Grailish topics. I'll be further refining the blocks on the right, and working on various other aspects of the site, as time allows in coming weeks.