Blogging
laelaps | November 24, 2008The results for the 3rd Annual Blogging Scholarship are in, and, I'm sad to say, I did not win. I came in 5th, and the winners were The Burnt Orange Report, USS Mariner, and American Papist.
I must admit that I am little disappointed, but as I have said before, I wasn't expecting to win. It's not all bad, though. For making it to the final 20, I received $100, but what I am more grateful for is the support of my readers, friends, and fellow bloggers. By the end I racked up about 2,100 votes, which was far more than most of my competitors received.
More importantly, I appreciate everyone who…
clock | November 23, 2008Daniel Drezner: Public Intellectual 2.0:
".....The pessimism about public intellectuals is reflected in attitudes about how the rise of the Internet in general, and blogs in particular, affects intellectual output. Alan Wolfe claims that "the way we argue now has been shaped by cable news and Weblogs; it's all 'gotcha' commentary and attributions of bad faith. No emotion can be too angry and no exaggeration too incredible." David Frum complains that "the blogosphere takes on the scale and reality of an alternative world whose controversies and feuds are ... absorbing." David Brooks laments, "…
awild | November 23, 2008I've posted enough Friday Beetles that I can no longer remember which species I've already done. Some species were almost posted twice out of sheer forgetfulness. Must be the academic scatter-brain.
So to keep them all straight I've made a list. This is mostly for my own good. In any case, here is the Friday Beetle Directory:
Adranes - Ant-Nest Beetle
Onthophagus gazella - Gazelle Scarab
Dineutes sublineatus - Whirligig Beetle
Lutrochus - Travertine Beetle
Scaphinotus petersi - Snail-eating Beetle
Laccophilus pictus - Predaceous Diving Beetle
Apteroloma caraboides - Snowfield Beetle…
clock | November 22, 2008NYTimes:
Eliminating daylight time would thus accord with President-elect Barack Obama's stated goals of conserving resources, saving money, promoting energy security and reducing climate change.
Eugene Sandhu:
In order to conserve energy, President-elect Barak Obama should eliminate daylight saving time.
Boing Boing:
President-elect Obama wants to get rid of daylight saving time in the United States to conserve energy.
The game of broken telephones? Or lack of reading comprehension, or just wishful thinking? I though we were the Reality-Based Community.
More....
aardvarchaeology | November 20, 2008The fifty-fourth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Moneduloides. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology!
Submissions for the next carnival will be sent to me. The next open hosting slot is on 17 December. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. No need to be an anthro pro.
laelaps | November 20, 2008... and Traumador, it's host, has something special in mind;
So my thinking for this themed boneyard is for anyone and everyone out on the innerweb to put up a post about their favourite museum... it doesn't have to be a really "smart" or sciencey one, cause afterall it's me the archosaur without enough grey matter to fill a walnut running the show! rather i'd like to get to know other museums of the world through the eyes and words of other palaeo lovers who have been to them.
Other posts about paleo will be accepted, of course, but it would be fun if everyone could contribute something…
sciencewoman | November 17, 2008 Isis tagged me for the five things meme that's making the rounds (again, actually, I know I've done this one at least once before.) But this time I borrowed Abel's idea and added a cool graphic that I got from takoma-bibelot on flickr.
5 things I was doing 10 years ago.
working towards my undergraduate degree
trying to decide whether to be a scientist, doctor, or lawyer
using ICQ to chat with my now-husband
living in my first apartment with a good friend and a third
falling in love with the Princess Pup
5 things on my to do list today
work on paper revisions
write tomorrow's lecture…
clock | November 17, 2008The geriatric leaders of the government of Italy are making fools of themselves by trying to regulate bloggers, i.e., get them to register with the government, pay taxes, be liable for what they write, etc.:
The law's impact would turn all bloggers in Italy into potential outlaws. This could be great for their traffic, I realise, but hell on the business aspirations of an Italian web start-up, not to mention any tech company that wants to sell its blog-publishing software in Italy, or open a social network here. In addition to driving out potential tech jobs, the stifling of free speech also…
sciencewoman | November 17, 2008Open Lab 2008 is a printed anthology of the best science blogging of the year. We're now only two weeks from the deadline (December 1) for nominating posts for inclusion in this year's anthology. The fifty best posts, plus one poem and one cartoon, will be chosen by a panel of judges, and the winners will be printed in a book published by Lulu.com. That's right, time spent frittered away on blogging could earn you the right to (truthfully) say "I'm a published author." As usual, Bora's got all the details.
Open Lab is now in it's third year, and the last two years had wonderful writing about…
clock | November 16, 2008There is quite a lot of chatter around the intertubes about changes in the communication environment that happened between the last and this election and how those changes may be affecting the way the new White House communicates to people as well as how the new White House will receive communications from the people.
A lot of people are impatient - they want to see everything in place right this moment. Easy, guys! The inauguration is on January 20th. Until that time, Bush is the President and the Obama communications folks have time to think through, design and implement communication…
clock | November 15, 2008The meme started here, so if you decide to do it yourself, please post a link to that as well (so your post can be tracked).
A number of people have already posted their responses - some quite thought-provoking - so take your time to read them and reflect. Then write your own.
See responses by:
Eva Amsen
Henry Gee
Clare Dudman
Steffi Suhr
Stephen Curry
Martin Fenner
Massimo Pinto
Larry Moran
Kristi Vogel
Maxine Clarke
T. Ryan Gregory
Mike Haubrich
John Wilkins
Paulo Nuin
Heather Etchevers
Lee Turnpenny
Ricardo Vidal
Bob O'Hara
Andrew Perry
Pedro Beltrao
Shirley Wu
Deepak Singh
Thomas…
awild | November 15, 2008A few places where myrmecos.net photographs have recently appeared:
La Banque de Savoirs has a French-language slideshow featuring several of my images.
The BBC illustrates a recent news item on the link between pests and climate change using an Argentine Ant photo from my back yard in California.
The Xerces Society- North America's premier invertebrate conservation group - is borrowing myrmecos.net images for banners here and here.
GIANT MICROBES, the folks responsible for plush Syphilis, are using images to accompany their new line of plush Lasius and Solenopsis.
clock | November 14, 2008There are two large and influential annual blogosphere surveys - one done by Technorati, and the other one by Blogads.
Henry Copeland has just started the (fourth?) annual Blogads survey. More people respond and more diverse the responders, more representative and trustworthy their data will be.
So, I encourage you to spend the next 12 minutes filling up their survey.
I guess there will be some more information about it on the survey blog later on.
clock | November 14, 2008That is, for Brian Switek, scienceblogger extraordinaire? If not, do it now. Takes just a second.
laelaps | November 14, 2008With a little less than a week to go, I have fallen behind in the 3rd Annual Blogging Scholarship contest. Thanks to the many links and referrals I received from friends during the weekend and the beginning of the week I was able to hold on to third, but later this week The Burnt Orange Report came out of nowhere and buried me. At present I'm barely holding on to 4th, with the MIT Admissions blog catching up.
Even if I was able to make it back into the top 3, the far-and-away leader of this contest is the USS Mariner, a sports analysis blog. With nearly 7,000 votes, it is doubtful that anyone…
sciencewoman | November 13, 2008As you've probably heard, Isis the Scientist has gotten herself some new digs around these parts. Her blog, "On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess," also got itself a shiny new banner.
And while I've got to admit that I admire her for strongly-held opinions on footwear and other subjects, I'm disappointed by her obvious failure to cite her sources.
Banners from my pre-partnered days, in order of creation. All of these banners far predate the creation of Dr. Isis's pretentious little blog.
:)
laelaps | November 13, 2008...then I need your help.
Yesterday, after being inspired by the announcement of Ed's book, I broached the concept of there being a "best of" Laelaps collection. A few of you have voiced your encouragement, and I am definitely considering producing a collection of my work in print form. I'm probably the worst person to ask to choose what posts are best, particularly since I've been a little down lately, so I need you to pick your favorite Laelaps posts.
All you have to do is let me know which posts you would like to see in print in the comments. You don't even need to send me a link (a short…
clock | November 12, 2008Yes, we can!
My SciBling Ed Yong has collected some of his best posts from the last year and published them as a book. Yes, I already bought a copy for myself. And you should, too - just order it here.
Ed says:
I started Not Exactly Rocket Science as a way of reaching out to people with no specialist knowledge and only a passing interest in science. The book is meant to help draw in people who don't really read blogs so if you have any friends who are interested in science, why not tell them about it or buy them a copy in time for Christmas?
Carl Zimmer wrote a blurb:
"Few blogs make a…
laelaps | November 12, 2008
One day, back when I was blogging via Wordpress, I stumbled across another science blog called Not Exactly Rocket Science. I was very impressed by what was posted there, and it is no surprise that ScienceBlogs eventually snapped up Ed to write here.
Ed has earned a reputation as one of the best science bloggers out there, and now you can purchase a collected volume of some of his best work. Announced yesterday, Not Exactly Rocket Science contains about 80 of Ed's well-crafted pieces. I definitely encourage you to pick up a copy.
Now the question is, "When are we going to see the bound…