Inside PBS Blog

The floodwaters continued to recede in Iowa this week, revealing plenty of destruction, but also some old-fashioned neighborliness â€" with a digital twist.

Dan Wardell, who appears on Iowa Public Television as Dantastic, host of the IPTV Kids Clubhouse, has spent the past few weeks visiting with children from flood-damaged communities and blogging about it.

"The kids come up to me and say, 'We're staying at Grandma and Grandpa's right now. We can't get to our house,'" Dan says. "They don't have homes. They don't have their toys. … For me it's an honor to do what I do."

Dan is visiting victims of the flooding as part of his Reading Road Trip, an IPTV-sponsored campaign to promote childhood literacy in 60 cities across the state.

At each stop, Dan visits the local library to read to kids, sometimes drawing as many as 550 parents and children.

When the flooding began, IPTV feared Dan might have to cancel his stops in the affected communities. As it turned out, these visits have drawn some of his biggest crowds.

"I think the kids need to feel safe and that somebody cares about them," he says. "It's one thing to have mom and dad tell you that, but when they have somebody from TV tell them they're safe, that means a lot."

The Iowa flooding is just one of several big stories being blogged about in public television this week.

Over at Tavis Smiley's site, "Young Voices" blogger Sean Nixon reacts to a New York Times story on Barack Obama's ties to ethanol's use as an alternative fuel.

"While biofuels might have a place in weaning us gas-guzzling Americans off Saudi crude, they are far from a solution to our energy problems, and corn-based biofuel, which uses as much energy to create as it provides, is an environmental nightmare," Sean writes.

And speaking of energy, "Nightly Business Report" correspondent Stephanie Dhue blogged this week about oil speculators, comparing the energy markets to the housing market bubble of a few years ago.

"Yes, land, unlike stocks, is a limited resource," Stephanie writes. "But as we are learning with the housing crash, the fundamentals did not support the rapid price run-ups."

Not so fast, says charlie, a commenter who writes, "This commentary is typical of those uninformed about physics, the second law of thermodynamics and misinformed by neoliberal economic thought."

I have no idea what he's talking about, but maybe you do.

If so, share your thoughts on charlie's high-falutin' theories â€" or the coverage of the Iowa flooding, Obama's ties to ethanol or any other topic on your mind â€" in the comments section below.