Highlighting Round 2 of Steemit’s Independent and Original Blog Posts
Blog Spotlight, Issue 2
Highlighting More of Steemit’s Independent and Original Blog Posts
A newsletter curated by 
Other submissions and comments are always welcome from the community. For submission guidelines, scroll to the bottom of this post.
A link to Issue 1 of the newsletter also appears at the bottom of this post.
Update on the Blogger Contest
https://steemit.com/blogspotlight/@donkeypong/300-reward-for-the-most-popular-guest-blog-post-200-finders-fee
The race is on to find top bloggers to join us here on Steemit. And I’m funding this contest from the STEEM $$ proceeds of the newsletter’s upvotes. Your upvotes of this newsletter are crowdfunding Steemit’s outreach to bloggers.
You see, if big time bloggers can bring their members here to upvote their posts, they have a chance to snag not only upvotes but also $300 in STEEM $$ from your truly,
And Steemit members also have a chance to win $200 by referring the winning blogger. Please see the contest post above for details.
Note to the Tech Guys
I really appreciate your suggestions on integrating links into the newsletter text via markdown. This is a busy week on my end, but I promise to practice this soon and hopefully can integrate it into an upcoming coming issue.
Last Week a Script, and Now an E-book?
Another user, 
But his law article deserves mention because it may be the first instance of an e-book being published on Steemit. If not an e-book, it’s an article of impressive length and quality. Thank you 
With all due respect, I’d rather that Blog Spotlight readers upvote the (other) featured posts below, since they haven’t hit the big time yet. But let’s give
https://steemit.com/law/@steemship/understanding-civil-lawsuits-in-the-u
Featured Original Blog Posts, Worthy of Being Read and Upvoted
Less well known, but also appearing in the # law category, is a gem of a blog posting by 
Being arrested or mistreated by a police officer is a stressful situation to be in, so the author’s advice to play the game and act within the system demands a certain amount of discipline. And yet it’s the most effective course of action, as he explains clearly. Have a look at
https://steemit.com/police-brutality/@evan-koser/know-your-rights--filing-a-complaint-against-an-officer
- The fundamental problem of manned space exploration by macrochip in # space
We have seen plenty of recent news coverage of planned space missions such as India’s launch of a mini shuttle, which rather looks like it was built from Legos. Also, there’s been a heavy volume of talk from the likes of Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking about how we can get to Mars and even Alpha Centauri. So it’s good to get a more earthly perspective from one of our very own Steemit blog posters, 
This blog post presents a number of challenges that humankind has yet to overcome before we can launch the starship Enterprise to see what’s out there. It’s a bit sobering to read, but certainly a more grounded analysis of the technological hurdles we face as well as possible solutions. All in all, this is a very nice post, worthy of more discussion from the community.
https://steemit.com/space/@macrochip/the-fundamental-problem-of-manned-space-exploration
- The Strange History of the Cryptocurrency Wiki Page by proggr in # steem
A mystery. And a conspiracy, perhaps? Our intrepid investigator, 
The author does a really nice job presenting screenshots and evidence to back up the written analysis. More than that, this blog post connects some important dots for the reader. The plot thickens, the game’s afoot. This is investigative journalism, Steemit style! Check it out and give it some votes.
https://steemit.com/steem/@proggr/the-strange-history-of-the-cryptocurrency-wiki-page
For two weeks, I’ve tried to find a good video posting to feature in the newsletter. Last week’s edition included some photography and garden blogs – fun stuff. But try as I might to diversify this week’s featured postings, most of the good content postings just seemed heavier than last week’s.
There are plenty of postings in the # videos and # music topics, but most of these appear to be re-posted from elsewhere. That’s not a bad thing, because it brings those to our attention. But that kind of post doesn’t really fit with the mission of this newsletter, which is to highlight original content. Hopefully, as Steemit grows, we will have some exclusive and fresh videos, music, and photographs that are published here.
Poster 
https://steemit.com/boxing/@nanzo-scoop/watch-mcgregor-vs-mayweather--who-needs-who
Good blog postings do not need to be long; they need to add something useful to Steemit. At only three paragraphs, you might wonder if this post is long enough. But wondering is at the heart of this post, which poses more questions than it answers. It ends with an eternal question, “What can and what should we do to make our societies, our workplaces, our countries, and the world a better place?”
That ending was only a beginning. As I write this, this post had garnered only a handful of upvotes so far, but it already had sparked an astounding 23 responses. That is the value of a good blog post. Some of them inform and they end up with few responses, which is fine. Others stimulate and provoke a conversation. This one did.
https://steemit.com/wisdom/@markopaasila/politics-sucks-but-what-can-i-do-what-should-i-do
This thoughtful post opens a discussion about the permanence of anything posted on the blockchain. We’ve heard that Steemit runs on the blockchain, but this may be the first blog entry that focuses on the potential negative consequences of a non-deletable post. Blog poster 
He suggests that posters should use extra caution on our platform, given that posts are probably admissible evidence in a court of law. Most of us will not post anything illegal, but should a drunk or angry person think twice about posting? Share your comments and your upvotes on this post.
Submissions and Comments
Submitting Your Blog to the Spotlight: If you have another independent and original blog post to recommend from writers, blog authors, photographers, videographers, journalists, commentators, moviemakers, music artists, visual artists, or other fresh content creators, then please reply to this post and include the link in your posting. Other readers may upvote these also, and all ‘reply submissions’ will be considered for featured spots in upcoming issues of the Blog Spotlight.
Criteria for Evaluation: All featured blog posts are evaluated based on their originality and included here if the curator feels they help make Steemit a better place. The curator does his best to establish that these posts contain unique content, and that work includes cross-checking the content online. This is harder to do with videos and some photos, so as always, the community may decide which posts are most deserving of its upvotes.
Community comments are always welcome. Just reply to the newsletter posting thread here in #blogspotlight.
Link to Issue 1: https://steemit.com/blogspotlight/@donkeypong/steemit-blog-spotlight-issue-1