There are other theories, of course  

Greg at BTD links to this great flash animation that's apparently been making the rounds for some time, but which was in any case new to me. I was trying to decide whether I agreed with Greg's claim that "[t]he media universe imagined in 'EPIC' couldn't exist without some good old fashioned news reporting" when I came across this bizarre piece in today's Times about a smell emanating from New Jersey. In it Jonathan Miller has apparently lifted a series of bloggers' speculations and applied some of that good old fashioned news reporting (along with a gorgeous maple syrup photo) to fill in some of the details -- but of course not all! Anyway this juxtaposition -- the perennial question of whether blogs would survive without a media to piggyback vs Jonathan Miller's cheeky blog-inspired fluff piece -- made me laugh.

I also heard today that the Indianapolis Star is accepting amateur photo submissions.