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Blogroll Amnesty Day

By pharyngula on February 3, 2008.
i-82248e822316ec716c54807cf9ecedf7-BlogRollAmnestyDaysmall.jpg

Both Jon Swift and Skippy are spearheading a regular event, Blogroll Amnesty Day, in which we recognize and acknowledge the breadth and depth of blogtopia (yes, we all know who coined that term!). It's today! You are encouraged to scout out new blogs, get out of old ruts, and explore new or otherwise unfamiliar blogs, add them to your bookmarks, or if you have a blog yourself, add them to your blogroll.

It feels strange to admit this, but Pharyngula seems to have somehow become a moderately big fish in the blogosphere — it was, once upon a time, just a little frivolous exercise I was running on my personal computer, and now it has become a big frivolous exercise running on a professional network. And how did it get there? Nobody succeeds in the blogosphere without making connections, lots of connections, and joining in the spirit of profligately linking to sources everywhere … and getting linked to in return. All the big dogs get that way by growing from small beginnings with the help of a community of readers — and once you've grown large, that does not mean your obligations to that community end.

So in that spirit, I make it easy to join the Pharyngula blogroll. Just leave a comment on this post with a link to your page, and I'll toss your syndication link into my newsreader. There is no requirement that you link back to me.

There are a few restrictions.

  • A blog must have syndication — RSS or atom. Almost all blogs do nowadays, so it's not much of a limitation. I do all of my blogreading with a newsreader rather than a web browser, so this is essential.

  • I actually read the blogs on my blogroll, so if you're some right-wing creationist nutcase, I may look once or twice for the amusement value, but I won't keep you on the list for long. Really, my blogroll may be open, but I do have some standards.

  • I am ruthless about pruning the blogroll, too. It doesn't matter how good you are, if you don't update more than once a month, you get culled. If you turn into a right-wing creationist nutcase, a kiddie porn purveyor, or just get really, really boring, you will get removed.

  • I get a lot of requests, so I'm going to be picky and insist that you enroll by leaving a comment on threads that announce an open enrollment. Requests get lost in my mail flood, otherwise, and it helps if I've got them all in one place.

  • Blogs will get added immediately to my newsreader and enter my reading lists right away. However, the public blogroll that you can see on the web only gets updated intermittently. It's actually a bit out of date right now; the scripts I use to convert my newsreader file to html broke when I updated my laptop to Mac OS X Leopard. Have no fear, though, I've got curl sucking away in the background as I type this, bringing in a php upgrade.

  • Be interesting to me.

See, that's not hard! Go ahead, leave me a link in the comments.

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I'm just getting my feet. Working out the kinks. I'm still working on my editing as I haven't done much non-accounting/non-legal writing in decades. I have about 30 posts.

The Main blog link:

http://thefaithfulpenquin.blogspot.com/

Today's main post:
http://thefaithfulpenquin.blogspot.com/2008/02/nevile-chamberlain-demon…

I do have an Atom feed through Blogger. Just don't know how to use it. I put that above post in it. I think. :)

And, for the record, I'm a socially-moderate, open-minded yet entirely pissed-off Eisenhower Republican who has no truck with religion, creationism or fantasy-thinking and actually believes in a properly run government instead of this Reagan legacy cluster-fuck piece-of-crap with the theocratic Republicans and Neville Chamberlain Democrats.

I try to do at least one, hopefully two posts, a day. Some are madder than others. :)

And, yes, I really am Neurotic.

I maintain a blog about the law surrounding information security and data privacy which can be found at:

http://ephemerallaw.blogspot.com

It has nothing to do with science or politics. However, if you're interested in learning about something which touches everyone (but very few people know or care about) it could be just your thing.

I write about philosophy (especially the philosophy of science) atheism and progressive politics.

I've linked here for quite some time, I'd be most honored if you'd link to me.

Hi,

The Intelligent Design crowd makes me crazy. Keep pounding; we can't afford to lose any more bright, natural-born scientists and engineers to ID lunacy.

Regards,
Bob Felton
Civil Commotion: The Intersection of Religion, Law, and Politics

Aye, we want readers! We want discussions! We want blogawards!

Yours is certainly a good blog. And through you I've come to read some really great blogs I would not have encountered otherwise.

Cheers!

I don't update nearly enough to qualify for the blogroll.

It takes a lot of stamina, good ideas, and dedication to be a successful blogger, so my hat's off to PZ. Many atheists I meet know and love this blog.

I do a topical blog on Library issues, but I only update infrequently. I sometimes piddle with MySpace, but I don't take it seriously...though sometimes I post rough drafts of essays that become refined posts somewhere else. Or just blog about whatever.

I haven't updated my LiveJournal in several months.
Topical blogs are the way to go, though. One blog for one person about anything and everything is too random to be much fun, either for readers or the author after a time.

Because I do update my topical blog on Library issues so infrequently, I'm always amazed when I still run into readers who want to strike up a conversation about something I wrote or pay me a compliment, etc.

Blogging is basically (semi-)professional writing...almost like being an independent columnist, and it takes dedication and regular production to do it and do it well. You don't get paid--unless you generate enough traffic to lure advertisers I guess. But it's also way more effective at reaching a mass audience than old fashioned newsletters mailed out from a home printing press.

The 18th century had pamphleteers...the 21st century has blogs.

I always check in on PZ's blog every few days.

Dunno if I'm already on, but this is the link to my feed:
http://badidea.wordpress.com/feed

Though I'm a little embarrased, since the latest 3 posts are just briefly responding to things I read first here. :) That isn't normally the case.

Best recent post was about the outrageous blowhardary of conservative priest Richard Neuhaus, who thinks the only good atheist is one writhing in despair and regret at their inability to share in the wondrous bounty of Catholicism. I mean, literally: the person he quotes approvingly literally imagines that as how atheists in "good faith" should act.

Lead Acetate. The name doesn't really have that much to do with the posts, which are mostly current events, but I never turn down a story about lead. I've also been posting about the pig brain story from down in Austin. Hope you like it.

If you are interested in a german blog on astronomy, science and pseudoscience and universities and life in germany, then please visit Astrodicticum Simplex. This blog went online today - so there is not much content yet - but I am optimistic that this will change soon ;)

florian

Well, I guess your pruning rule disqualifies me (not that the others wouldn't, necessarily). I try not to make many posts, especially since few people read my blog, and I try to only make more entries when I think they will be useful for a long time. Otherwise, I'd have tons of posts that no one looks at instead of maybe 10 that actually do get looked at by people who come across my site.

Might as well put my URL here anyway: http://asolis.net/

I am an American grad student at a Canadian university, studying eukaryotic evolution. I write about my science and my politics, mostly, the latter of which are pretty much in sync with PZ. (I like living in Canada, by the way, so I pronounce that "Pee-Zed"!) I only update the thing once a month or so, but I think that I am about on par with John Logsdon....

In case you have trouble with the automatic linking: http://opisthokont.blogspot.com

Ooh! Add me! Add me!

Not writing as much as I'd like, due to all the top secret important stuff that keeps eating up my time. It's so top secret that I can never remember where the time went, after it has gone. But I can manage once a month.

http://www.cotch.net/index.php

I have a blog on motor control and general science/academia over at www.motorchauvinist.com. It hasn't been updated in ages, mainly because I have been so busy. But I defend my PhD thesis next week, so after that I should have more time!

It is slightly ironic that the last post on it is a firm statement that the recent hiatus is now over. That was in September last year...

Actually I have written a couple of articles since then on a community magazine site spanning the nontheist discussion forums. It's called Nontheist Nexus; you good people should go check it out.

It's called "My Two Cents," which is not very original, I'll admit. However, calling it "The Erotic Adventures of Onan the Enormous Gorilla with the Huge Willy" was a trifle long. It's basically my ravings about current events, politics and religion. I'm very down on my county's school board for having a case of the ID stupids.

http://whaven33884.blogspot.com

I'm a PhD student from New Zealand studying developmental genetics in Edinburgh. I'm trying to write about genetics and development, but so far have just been posting random science things. Some of which are funny/interesting, some of which are not.

site: http://youngfrankenstein.wordpress.com/
feed: feed://youngfrankenstein.wordpress.com/feed

Cheers!

hey there, my little bloggy is linked to my name below. i enjoyed your most recent debate with the creationist. youi sound so harsh on your blog posts (but i like that) and yet you sound like THE NICEST guy in your debate and your presentation "no ghost in the machine".

thanks for all you do, PZ!

thanks for participating, pz!

you are the original blogroll amnesty day practitioner! you've always had a generous policy for your blogroll, and i wish other major blogs would be a gracious as you!

http://agnostictruth.blogspot.com/

I hope the feed reader for this site is working alright. There's a distant possibility that it can be inaccessible at times, but I'll hope for the best on this. Also, perhaps going to http://agnostictruth.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
may also help.

The reason it's called agnostic is not because I'm agnostic (I'm an atheist), but the truth, in a philosophical sense, is agnostic in many ways.

# 2 Sounds a little disengenuous being a Eisenhower
Republican who has no truck with religion. Eisenhower is
the one who enthusiatically signed the bill putting
"In god We Trust on all US coins. This alone places him
in ignominious regard as it should rightly be. This is an
item and reminder that we see every day and one that just
rankles my sensitivity to all things that stink of religion. With one stroke of his pen he had subjected us to
continual reminder that we are not guided by reason. The
action will probably last forever as the usage of coin
will not be eradicated nor its message.

I do the bulk of my work at Newshoggers these days and my co-bloggers are always worth a read.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Newshog

But I'd also like to pitch my personal blog The Impolitic. I've been taking on some smaller bloggers to give them a wider audience and still post there myself as well. I'd like that one to grow again, so if you have a moment to check us out.

http://theimpolitic.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Thanks so much for the offer.

My interblog is Dominionist's for Tancredo 2008, currently the largest and most popular interblog focused on the candidacy of Rep. Tom Tancredo as President and Saviour of our Dominion.

If your own neighborhood is constantly harassed by roaming packs of mexican rape squads, or has too many children who have two mommies or two daddies, or if you want to hear the real scoop on current apostate and former Pastor Gov. Mike Huckabee, or you want to learn about Rep. Tom Tancredo's 5 point plan to build a secure border with landmines that actually explode, I welcome you to stop by and join the discussion and consider Joining our Loving, Christian Community.

We have only a few topics that cannot be discussed due to heavy Youth Group activity, including: condoms, Ms magazine, evolution other than Darwinism, NASCAR numbers 19 and higher (especially 24), hip hop music, rap music, urban music, urban rap music, pedophilia, Catholicism, pre-marital sex, sex with animals, sex between unmarried animals, Muslim and the Muslims who believe in it, and a few other topics.

http://protoplasm.wordpress.com

Well, I know I was in the public roll once-upon-a-time. I'm pretty sure I haven't morphed into a right-wing creationist nutcase or a kiddie porn purveyor without my noticing ... "boring" might be another matter ... so, anyway:

Thoughts in a Haystack

I didn't get a confirmation email or anything from my previous comment, so maybe it didn't go through? Anyway, I'm trying again!

My young little blog: http://panhandlefaithless.blogspot.com/

I'm seeking to help educate people in the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas about atheism, and create a place where panhandle atheists can discuss their specific experiences of being such a small minority in such a sparsely populated area.

Mainly for more local readers, but I wouldn't object to others.

Not much biology, but it's more a support and education blog.

EonBLue

http://kensalter.com

I talk about whatever interests me, but mostly about the negative aspects of religion in the world, especially with education.

I also host some freeware software I wrote - FSAutoStart which helps with performance on Windows OS.

If you used to be on the blogroll, but aren't now, just resubmit. I really am terribly ruthless about expunging entries: I ask my newsreader who hasn't posted anything in 30 days, and poof, they're gone. Clickety-click.

Also, my newsreader can be fooled. If you change your url, or if you've just changed your newsfeed, it can lose you, and then, savage brute that I am, I don't even check. I just kill your blog. Bang bang.

Sorry, but it's the necessities of maintaining an excessively large blogroll.

No, the blog doesn't have to be in English, although it should be in a language Google translation tools can handle. I've got an "International" section in the blogroll that contains some of those furriners (I can read a little German, though, so I can sorta make sense of those).

My blurb: "The quest for empirical knowledge and reason gives purpose to life. Supernaturalism, mysticism and religion take it away. The best anyone can do is to attempt to eliminate all beliefs and subjective biases."

A link to my little hobby at Skeptobot would be much appreciated. It's to vent my spleen on Bad Science and Bad Religion whilst forcing myself through the final stretch of my PhD.

Your blog is already in my feed -- and I actually read it quite frequently. I don't know how interesting you'll find mine, but I do have few regular readers. After a year of blogging as a retiree, I've gone back to work on a short term contract as an ops instructor at our local nuclear power plant.

I very much appreciate your posts on the struggle of science against the idiot creationists.

Thanks for doing this! My blog is Exploring Our Matrix, so named because it started as an opportunity to talk about some of my side interests, such as religion and science fiction. But it then grew into a forum in which religion and science, video game parodies, and advocacy of a theological outlook opposed to fundamentalism are also included.

The address of the blog is http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com

I hope that, even though you do not share my religious outlook, the arguments against pseudoscience and critical evaluation of the claims of young-earth creationists and cdesign proponentsists will keep me from being deleted...at least for a while! :)

I've never linked my blog in any of your open calls before, but I'm feeling ambitious today, so I will. I've been reading you since way back before the Scienceblogs move. No one has more tentacles than you.

I'm a philosopher and cognitive scientist, atheist and PhD student on the job market. I blog short bursts of information (I don't know how well my entries come through on a reader - the format and layout of my blog tend to dictate my posting style).
http://www.firepile.com/robin

My blog "The View from Here" is generally about the irrational aspects of all religions with emphasis on the atheist viewpoint. I also publish the odd article or book review on science, especially evolution, refuting the creationist view. Now and then a political rant sneaks in there if it relates to religion.

While not wishing to be another Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch fame, I am particularly down on all aspects of Islam which I feel represents a very real threat to Western values of freedom, democracy and separation of church and state.

Thanks for the invitation, PZ. (And thanks for the link to my post about Bush policy towards overdosing heroin users -- I never knew there were that many tubes leading to my site...)

My blog is The Inverse Square Blog, mostly concerned with science as it intersects public life, with history of science and little of whatever else I feel like thrown in. It's URL is inversesquare.wordpress.com

Top of the amnesty to you....Tom

@#53 Eisenhower is the one who enthusiatically signed the bill putting "In god We Trust on all US coins.

Well, he was hardly the first, Lincoln had that distinction. "In God We Trust" first appeared on the 1864 two-cent coin. It disappeared about about 20 years later and reappeared on all US coins in 1938. Since then all coins have carried the inscription.

My blog is full of AWESOME documentaries about philosophy, science and the beauty of the natural world (lots of video goodness). More than anything, I try to show the awesomeness of reality, although I do have my days when I just have to mock stupidity and let them have it.

http://berto-meister.blogspot.com/

Oh yeah, and I update it almost daily... Hope everyone likes it!

Peace out!

PZ, I'm a frequent reader of Pharyngula since I stumbled upon your blog looking for material on phenotypic plasticity (I think I was trying to track to Slijper's Goat at the time). Several colleagues and I have begun putting a blog together on the relation between brain science and anthropology. There's some material on evolution, and it's pretty godless, if you want to know the truth.

neuroanthropology.wordpress.com

We've been at it for around two months, but we've got about 60 posts and a few thousand hits.

By Greg Downey (not verified) on 03 Feb 2008 #permalink

http://www.crev.info Intelligent criticism - to either keep you informed, or amused (depending on your POV).

By Ross Nixon (not verified) on 03 Feb 2008 #permalink

tomh @ 83 I stand corrected for an oversight. What I should have said was that "In god We Trust" became the
national motto of the Unuted States. This is far more
injurious than the earlier placing of that insane nonsense
on our money, and one to which we all take particular
and obvious umbrage.

Been reading Pharyngula for a while (pretty sure I found this blog through Making Light), finally de-lurking to participate in this. I run a semi-amusing and only mildly interesting tumblelog at http://ofvarieddelights.com which my Mom says is the best blog she has ever seen. And I don't think she would lie.

Hi PZ,

I can't turn down an opportunity like this. My name's James Cronen, and I'm a physics teacher and overall good guy who recently re-launched his blog.

I write about physics, education issues, technology, presenting physics ideas to non-physicists, and other random junk. I'm a big advocate for teaching physics to all, even if just conceptually, and I think the world would be a much better place if everyone thought like scientists. (Duh!)

Here's the URL: http://www.jamescronen.com

Enjoy!

I write on feminism, progressive politics, parenting, and the occasional cat at Kittywampus.

I'm a non-sciencephobic women's studies instructor and a mere agnostic (but a staunch anti-theocrat).

And I'm gonna keep reading you and linking to you whether you add me or not. Just yesterday your post on truck nutz inspired me to reflect on their deeper meanings. :-)

My blog is called Darren's Diatribe and it is mainly about skepticism and stupid things which annoy me.

http://snodgrass.net.au/

I'll second Myrmecos - insects extraordinaire.

By Capularis (not verified) on 03 Feb 2008 #permalink

Hey PZ, many thanks for your generosity, also for using "profigately" in a positive sense, as it's one of my favorite words. Thanks also for today's post on cells/casinos, which helped move along a completely unrelated train of thought I was entertaining.

As to whether I'm entertaining enough to stay blogrolled, I make no guarantees, but I do what I can.
I yam what I yam: virgotext

You know, I really should get me one of those blogroll thingies ;¬)

I do all of my blog reading via Bloglines and I always look forward to the latest Pharyngula updates. I have no idea how you find the time to update so often!

Anyway, mine is here.
http://www.davidrutt.me.uk/wp/

I promise to add a Blogroll today - and I'm going to be visiting lots of links from here too

Classes keep me busy (2 senior labs, undergradtuae physics research project, finisihing the loose ends of a senior thesis in chemical physics, and finishing my language unit), but this "Mardi Gras break" has allowed me to finish working on those to HOPEFULLY allow me to update my webblog more than once a month.

http://chemphyselucidations.blogspot.com

Hope the Pharyngulers enjoy! :)

I lurk here lots & thoroughly enjoy reading your site & many of the others that you link to. I know I'm not in the same league - but if you do want to add the 'Bioblog' it's aimed at senior secondary school biology students (although I'd like to think it's read more widely than that!): http://sci.waikato.ac.nz/bioblog - sorry, I'm a teckonological incompetent & I'm not sure if we have an RSS feed yet (blush)

I'm actually a podcast blog, and music at that, so I'm not sure if I qualify. But as long as you are offering, please stop by and give a listen to my weekly 'cast. I'm also a member of the "out campaign," and my site proudly bears the scarlet A.

http://djdeedle.libsyn.org/rss

What timing - I had just started putting together my online outpost:

http://www.defaithed.com/

The subtitle is "A layman's journey from religion to reason". Yes, there'll be just the sort of commentary on religion that you'd expect from a site named "Defaithed". But I'll be keeping the tone positive by focusing on what's really important to me: the world of science and reason, which is just jaw-droppingly fantastic, even for a laboratory-less layman.

While there's not much there yet, there will be. I can thank my addiction to Pharyngula (and its allied sites) for giving me the impetus to finally write.

On the small chance that you read down this far:

One post per day. Every day. 100-200 carefully chosen original words.

If one theme it is marketing hype. Where economics meets evolutionary psychology.

Plus the usual subjects described above. Science. Stats. Religion. etc.

Reduce to Common Sense

I'm over there at danielharper.blogspot.com. It's mainly political stuff and movie/book reviews, but it's really just whatever's on my mind. I'm also trying to get a bachelor's in biology, when I can take the money and time to take the classes.

Well, depending on if you're interested in someone who does/may have Schizoid and Avoidant Personality Disorders, check out

http://schizavoidpathic.blogspot.com/

It's new, and it's pretty much meant to log my attempts to get over it all, and my self-analyses of what's going on. As such, it (should) only be stuff connected with the obvious topic. I'll make a new blog if I want to chat about what I had for dinner (a-hahaha..yeah, right). I'm fairly constantly writing down stuff about it, so I might as well publish it. Depending on your neuroscience interests, it may be more interesting to your psychological comrades than you.

We're all fresh and newly updated - Pennsylvania Nonbelievers.

PZ, I'm a fan and I will ruthlessly pilfer your content when appropriate to our topic - with due credit given. Thank you for your wonderful blog!

The prospect of being read by the esteemed PZ Myers was just the motivation I needed to write my first couple of posts. Maybe the knowledge that you're reading my blog will keep me posting at least once a month, too! :-P

I can be found at A Vegan Atheist.

I would love to post my blog here, only problem is... my only blog is on myspace, and I mostly update with personal matters. It does get me thinking about starting a ranting/personal views blog though...

By malendras (not verified) on 04 Feb 2008 #permalink

The Christian SETI Alliance (http://christianseti.blogspot.com) is devoted to the proposition that Young Earth Creationists possess a medieval and hugely embarrassing worldview by insisting that the Earth is the only possible location for life in a universe of around eighty billion galaxies. The author, a Christian trenchantly opposed to Young Earth Creationism, reflects on how a literacy in Science aids and enhances a sense of the numinous.

Lastly, an invitation is made to join our BOINC distributed computing group at SETI@Home to help search for alien life elsewhere in the Universe.

Hi! Free Range Academy here, we are atheist, science-intensive, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting unschoolers seeking to distance ourselves from the usual misconceptions about home education by flinging ourselves onto your blogroll, and your mercy. Cheers!

The Odd Blog - where I talk a load of old toot about politics, atheism, egalitarianism, some stuff, some other stuff, a bit of this, some of that and WOW! Some of that other thing!

Yeah, well. I don't want your expectations to be too high.

Open Source Me.

I'm a little right wing (but still an ardent atheist and skeptic) - I need to add some more skeptical and tech posts to get a better mix.

Shadow of the Hegemon.

You add me to your reader, I'll add you to mine. Mostly political, but I'm really pondering writing a long series about my deep and abiding love for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

(It is indeed a love that will echo through the ages.)

Oh, and I've been around since 2002. Started around two weeks after Atrios, in fact, though I used to have updating issues which are long since rectified. So there's that.

Open Source Me.

I'm a little right wing (but still an ardent atheist and skeptic) - I need to add some more skeptical and tech posts to get a better mix.

Jeez, I have to catch up on my reading more often. May I submit my little blog? It's Coffee House Poetry. I write about a variety of topics -- whatever catches my fancy -- science, medicine, politics, religion, atheism, puns, creative writing, random weirdness . . . kind of a catch-all.

Thanks!

Hello,
In honor of Blogroll Amnesty Day I have added your blog link to my blogroll at robsingleton.net. Please link mine to yours in return. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at robtherev@gmail.com. Thank you!

Rob Singleton

"Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal"

That's wonderful, especially the last phrase...random biological ejaculations...
You should win the sexy atheist award just for that choice of words. :)

I can't enter the atheist competition...I'm more of a goddess worshiping kind of girl.

But, I would like to request space on your blogroll and would also like to add you and your ejaculatory self to my blog roll if this post isn't too late and you haven't moved on to other topics.

I'll definitely be back as you've put a little smile on my face which has left me feeling curious about what else lurks here and there on this blog.

Cheers.

darkdaughta