Blogging
aardvarchaeology | August 9, 2007Curious about what the Aard regulars look like? I am! If you consider yourself an Aardvarchaeology regular, then please gimme a pic of yourself and I'll put it into this gallery post. If you've got a pic on-line somewhere, just put a link to it in a comment. Otherwise, feel free to email me a pic.
Here's Greenman Tim of the Walking the Berkshires blog, touching a canebreak canebrake rattlesnake with a less-than-ten-foot pole.
Karen a.k.a. the Ridger keeps the Greenbelt blog.
Jan Morén probably speaks Scanian, Sweden's equivalent of a presidential Texas drawl.
Dennis of Dust in a Sunbeam is…
clock | August 9, 2007Earlier today I had coffee with Anton Zuiker so we could catch up on everything, e.g., my new job, his new job, scifoo, etc.
So, the news to watch out for regarding local blogging events:
On August 31st, we will start the new blogging year with a party, of course, so come and eat and blog about it.
Then, on September 23-25th, the big three-day FoodBlogging series of yummy events (also see the write-up in the Independent) so come and eat and blog about it.
The blogger meet-ups will, next year, move away from its exlusive Carrboro location and start alternating between Chapel Hill/Carrboro and…
clock | August 8, 2007Dave and Co. are trying to figure out a way to institute a universal icon that everyone could use on top of their blog posts whenever the post is a serious commentary on a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal and contains a link to the paper itself (and not just a press release or media commentary).
What do you think? Leave your ideas, questions and responses in the comment thread there.
clock | August 8, 2007One can scan blogs for months and see no mention of Pilobolus, then see two posts on the same day. Not knowing about each others' intentions, both Elio Schaechter and I posted about it on the same day.
neurophilosophy | August 7, 2007A few new additions to my feed reader:
Advances in the History of Psychology - whose "primary mission...[is] to notify readers of publications, conferences, and other events of interest to researchers and students of the history of psychology." By Jeremy Trevelyan Burman, Ph.D. student in the history and theory of psychology at York University.
Brain in a Vat - "a neuroscience research digest." By Noam, who "recently graduated from Yale with a double major in Philosophy and Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics [and is] conducting laboratory research at the University of Pennsylvania…
clock | August 3, 2007A month has passed.
It was a steep learning curve, but I think I have climbed high enough on it to be confident that I'll be fine on my own back in Chapel Hill. Being a part of the PLoS team is such an exhillarating experience - there is so much energy and optimism around the office, everybody from CEO to the newest intern living, breathing and dreaming Open Access 24/7.
Not to bore you about the job any more - you will be hearing about PLoS over and over again here - let me, for now, just show you some pictures (under the fold) from the farewell party last night at Jupiter in downtown…
aardvarchaeology | August 1, 2007The twentieth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Afarensis. Check it out! Archaeology and anthropology to put a spring in your step and a glint in your eye.
voltagegate | July 31, 2007
Millenia ago, Brian from Laelaps presented The Voltage Gate with the Thinking Blogger Award, and I have finally found some time to pass it on to blogs that make me think. It's difficult to siphon the 50 or so blogs I peruse and only choose five, but I'll do my best.
Jen, The Infinite Sphere: Jen's original blog, Studying Biology and Environmental Science (I think the URL has been swiped unfortunately), was one of the first science blogs I ever read. I was immediately drawn in because of our shared experience as nontrad biology students and her posts about her studies and hobbies (like…
retrospectacle | July 31, 2007Its been a while since I updated the Ye Olde Blogroll, and since I've gotten a few email requests for links (good ones, not links to essay writing services) I thought I'd declare open season on links. I'll be updating this weekend, so if you want me to check out your site, leave it in the comments. I can't promise I'll link you but I will take a look. The 10 most interesting new blogs get mentioned in a post of their own!
aardvarchaeology | July 29, 2007Wednesday 1 August the will see the Four Stone Hearth blog carnival appear in all its archaeo/anthro glory at Afarensis. If you have read or blogged anything good on those themes lately, then make sure to submit it to the proprietor ASAP. (You are encouraged to submit stuff you've found on other people's blogs.)
There's an open hosting slot on 29 August and further ones later in the fall. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me.
clock | July 28, 2007Why do conferences all tend to happen at the same time, hogging a couple of weekends per year, with vast chasms of free time in-between?
So, next weekend, there is going to be a lot of science content, including a science blogging session at YearlyKos. You'll be able to meet Tara, Chris, Sean, Ed, Karmen and Lindsay there, among many others.
At the exactly the same time, Alex, PZ and I (and many others who have not made their participation public yet) will be at Science Foo Camp, down at Google campus in Montain View (no link as the site is not open for public yet). That was not an easy…
neurophilosophy | July 28, 2007Earlier this week, I posted an email I received about a nutritional supplement called EM Power Plus. The makers of this product, a Canadian company called TrueHope, claim that it can alleviate the symptoms of bipolar disorder.
In the comments to that post, PalMD, author of the WhiteCoatUnderground blog, is having what appears to be an on-going debate with Peter Helgason, the quack who emailed me.
Update: PalMD has written about the miracle cure.
neurophilosophy | July 28, 2007
My recent post on prefrontal lobotomy has been the most popular thing on this blog so far, and the comments on it are worth reading.
While searching for more information about lobotomies and the neuroleptic drugs that replaced them, I came across this fantastic webpage at NobelPrize.org, which contains more information about Egas Moniz, the Portugese surgeon who first performed the procedure.
That's where I found this diagram of the instrument designed by Moniz for the prefrontal leucotomies he performed with his colleague. From the diagram, one can see how the instrument (called a…
clock | July 27, 2007
You can now register for the third ConvergeSouth conference in Greensboro, NC, October 19-20, 2007. Among many others, you will be able to meet me there. Keep and eye on the blog for new developments.
clock | July 26, 2007Yup, there is a Wikipedia page about Scienceblogs.com, but it has practically nothing on it. If you go to the Discussions page, you will see some more. Be a Wikipedian - edit, add, remove and write stuff there. It is 'bad etiquette' for us to edit a page about ourselves, so our readers need to do it for us. Go forth and make the page grow and become comprehensive and useful.
clock | July 25, 2007SPARC just announced the Mind Mashup: A Video Contest:
SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) today announced the launch of the first annual SPARC Discovery Awards, a contest to promote the open exchange of information. Mind Mashup, the theme of the 2007 contest, calls on entrants to illustrate in a short video the importance of sharing ideas and information of all kinds. Mashup is an expression referring to a song, video, Web site or software application that combines content from more than one source.
Consistent with SPARC's mission as an international alliance of…
aardvarchaeology | July 25, 2007Back in January I ran a Greatest Hits roundup for my pre-Aard blog site. Now Razib has taught me how to check which Aard entries are the most-read ones via Google Analytics. Many are of course carnivals, and the rest are heavily influenced by who has linked to them, but anyway: here are the ten most-read non-carnival Aard entries since 1 January.
Wish I Could Do That In Linux
Scandinavian Attitudes to Nudity
Subway Beggar Retaliation
Are Humans Polygamous?
Jim Benton on the Atheist / Agnostic Issue
Modelling the World in Real Time
Circumcision and Clean Syringes
Book Review: Stenger, God,…
clock | July 24, 2007Just came back home from a very pleasant dinner with Matt Nisbet. What luck that our trips to San Francisco coincided so well! Oh, and of course, Profesor Steve Steve was there as well...