Blogging
clock | July 27, 2008Literacy debate: Online, r u really reading?:
As teenagers' scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading -- diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.
But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.
clock | July 27, 2008Scoble: The blog editing system in action (also check out the discussion on FriendFeed):
Journalists who fight this system (and readers who don't check out the comments) are missing the point. This is a participatory media, not a one-way one, and, while it has a different editing system (the editing is done post publishing, not pre publishing) it's pretty clear to me that this system arrives at the truth a lot faster than anything on paper does.
I thought Bloggers vs. Journalists was Over. I guess not, as long as dinosaurs are still extant and capable of mouthing words...
Related...and…
clock | July 26, 2008I had to cancel my trip to Toronto in September so, after the SciBling meetup I have nowhere to travel all the way until ConvergeSouth in October, which will be fun (this year co-organized with BlogHer), so I hope you consider showing up if you can.
clock | July 26, 2008Serbia: New Instructions and Law Regulations on Online Privacy:
On July 21, RATEL, Serbia's Republican Agency for Telecommunications, posted a Document of Instructions for Technical Requirements for Subsystems, Devices, Hardware and Installation of Internet Networks on their official web site. This news didn't go unnoticed yesterday in Serbian blogosphere and internet community, as many bloggers expressed various opinions as well as disapproval because of the potential abuse of users' privacy.
This document of instructions defines technical requirements for authorized monitoring of some…
clock | July 26, 2008Pandagon is six years old today! How many is this in dog years? Congrats Amanda, Pam, Jesse and the crew!
clock | July 26, 2008From Jay Rosen:
Save this movie as a reference when someone asks you to define a Citizen Journalism in the future....
clock | July 26, 2008There has been a lot of chatter on the interwebs (for years, but again now) about the differences between the ways the political Left and Right use the Internet and blogs:
GOP losing the new-media war:
.......The right is engaged in the business of opining while the left features sites that offer a more reportorial model.
At first glance, these divergent approaches might not seem consequential. But as the 2008 campaign progresses, it's becoming increasingly clear that the absence of any websites on the right devoted to reporting -- as opposed to just commenting on the news -- is proving…
awild | July 26, 2008The more avid readers (that's you, mom!) may have noticed a lack of activity on the blog of late. Life has intruded. Next week I will be leaving my job at the University of Arizona and taking a new one in Illinois. This means tying up loose ends on the beetle project, saying goodbye to friends, and moving a house.  Full-on blogging will resume by mid-August, I presume, once the dust has settled.
There is much I will miss about Tucson, but on the other hand I'll be joining the Entomology Department at Champaign-Urbana, one of the world's finest centers of insect research.
clock | July 25, 2008I keep getting asked: why should I participate in blog carnivals?
The Wikipedia page about blog carnivals is not really accurate (it includes things that are not carnivals), and also suffers from overzealous, obsessive-compulsive, self-important administrators (who have probably never seen a carnival, never submitted a post to one, never hosted one, never started or managed one, ah well...).
I have written a lot about carnivals in the past (see especially this, this, this, this and this) so you should check those out for more "meaty" treatments, though some of the stuff in there is a little…
clock | July 25, 2008Bjoern Brembs is on a roll! Check all of these out:
Incentivizing open scientific discussion:
Apart from the question of whether the perfect scientist is the one who only spends his time writing papers and doing experiments, what incentives can one think of to provide for blogging, commenting, sharing? I think because all of science relies on creativity, information and debate, the overall value of blogging, commenting and sharing can hardly be overestimated, so what incentives can there be for the individual scientist?
Journals - the dinosaurs of scientific communication:
Today's system of…
clock | July 24, 2008This is not meant in the sense of "who the heck do YOU think you are?", but more along the lines of the experiment that Ed is doing:
1) Tell me about you. Who are you? Do you have a background in science? If so, what draws you here as opposed to meatier, more academic fare? And if not, what brought you here and why have you stayed? Let loose with those comments.
2) Tell someone else about this blog and in particular, try and choose someone who's not a scientist but who you think might be interested in the type of stuff found in this blog. Ever had family members or groups of friends who've…
clock | July 24, 2008Sheril will be there.
Janet will be there.
Zuska will be there.
Grrrl will be there.
Brian will be there.
Ed will be there.
Mark will be there.
Josh will be there.
Jake will be there.
Orac will be there.
I will be there.
A dozen or so more Sciblings will be there (watch the other blogs for their future announcements).
Are you going to be there?
laelaps | July 23, 2008
At Zooillogix Benny tells us about cuckoos that can change their cries and frogs that can selectively hear different sounds.
John Lynch just co-authored a great paper about the importance of the history of science to education. Head on over to Stranger Fruit to congratulate him and have a look (I'll be blogging about this one soon, too).
John tackles the question of "If humans evolved, why are there still monkeys?" at Evolving Thoughts. Coincidentally I'm off to photograph some of our primate relations today so I'll soon have some photos to compliment his excellent essay.…
purepedantry | July 22, 2008Have you ever said any of the following?
1) That Jake fellah (or other ScienceBlogger) has insightful things to say. By Heaven, I would like to meet him and discuss said insights.
2) That Jake fellah (or other ScienceBlogger) is one sexy mama. I am aroused by the possibility of discussing science with him in person.
3) That Jake fellah (or other ScienceBlogger) is a big fat jerk. I sure would like to meet him so I can punch him in the snoot.
If the answer is "yes" to any of those statements, you are in luck. SEED magazine will be hosting a ScienceBlogger meetup in New York on August…
laelaps | July 22, 2008Last year I missed the super-secret ScienceBlogger seance; by the time I found out that some of my favorite bloggers were in the city I already had other plans. Little did I know that just a few months later I'd get assigned my own personal brain slug and be assimilated into the ScienceBorg so I don't have to worry about missing it this year, but since so many of the Sb horde will converge on NYC we wanted to schedule something special for anyone who might want to meet us.
I'm a little fish in the blogging pond compared to some of the folks who will be there but if you stop by on Saturday,…
clock | July 21, 2008Remember last summer when a bunch of sciencebloggers all snuck into NYC under the cover of the night for a weekend of frolicking and karaoke? We kept it too secret last time, so very few of our readers had enough time to show up and meet us at short notice.
This time we are meeting again in NYC, a couple of weeks from now. But we want to give you more of a heads-up so you can plan. We will do other stuff in secret, but we want to meet our readers on Saturday, August 9th, around 3pm. Where? Depends on how many of you say you will come for sure (it will be indoors, in an air-conditioned…
laelaps | July 20, 2008
If I got paid to do reviews of books, movies, websites, and products I definitely could turn it into a full-time job. Almost every day something turns up in my inbox telling me about a new website or product that someone wants me to take a look at and plug here. I end up deleting most of them (sometimes wondering why some of these people think I'm fit to review websites about herbal remedies and other such things), but a few are interesting enough that I do want to take a look. Some things I know I'm going to like before I even receive the materials, others I end up being pleasantly…
awild | July 20, 2008Apparently both Wordpress and Smugmug host images through Amazon's servers, and Amazon failed in a spectacular fashion this morning. The outage took down both www.alexanderwild.com and many of the images for this blog, so if things appear to behave oddly, that's what's happening.
clock | July 20, 2008Just like they did it last year, Howard Hughes program at Duke is hosting student blogs in their summer program. Check out what the students are writing on their blogs, starting at homepages of the undergraduate students and high school students and going through the blogrolls on the right-hand sidebars.