protected static Date parseDate(String str, String format) throws TBlogException{
        if(str==null||"".equals(str)||"null".equals(str)){
        	return null;
        }
    	SimpleDateFormat sdf = formatMap.get(format);
        if (null == sdf) {
            sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format, Locale.ENGLISH);
            sdf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));
            formatMap.put(format, sdf);
        }
        try {
            synchronized(sdf){
                // SimpleDateFormat is not thread safe
                return sdf.parse(str);
            }
        } catch (ParseException pe) {
            throw new TBlogException("Unexpected format(" + str + ") returned from t.sohu.com");
        }
    }