Is it Gawker? No, even if it occasionally seems like it. The Awl is a project of onetime Gawker writers Alex Balk and Choire Sicha, who branched out from Nick Denton's mothership to found a blog with the motto "Be less stupid." The Awl eschews the celebrity roundups and blind items of Gawker while aiming for a more original take. The result is a mix of news, media critiques, videos and longer essays that, even when low brow, usually manages to present itself in a high-brow way. The Awl is little more than a year old, and we expect it to continue to find its voice.