Blogging news
tsmith | November 5, 2006There are scholarships out there for just about everything nowadays--including blogging. Scienceblogs' own Shelley of Retrospectacle is one of this year's finalists; head over to check out the other finalists and vote for your favorite! (And be quick about it; voting ends today!)
tsmith | September 16, 2006Science blogger Eva of Eastern blot has news that an article she wrote on the topic of science blogs, which includes interviews with PZ and Carl (in addition to myself and others), is now online. The article is titled, "Who benefits from science blogging?", and the .pdf can be found directly here.
tsmith | August 23, 200610 Ways To Enrage A ScienceBlogs.Com Audience.
A few of the better ones:
10) Ask why they don't just find a missing link to prove Evolution.
9) Say you're not convinced the entire state of Kansas is stupid.
***
3) Tell them that saying they have a "Lysis To Kill" at football parties isn't all that funny.
(OK, I liked that last one. Many of the rest were kinda stinkers).
Apparently they don't think much of us and y'all from their sidebar:
Top 10 Reasons You Should Read Scienceblogs.com Instead Of Us:
1) You have no sense of humor.
So, he thinks our audience has no sense of humor, but hey…
tsmith | July 13, 2006Received this press release in my email: Rudd Center Creates Blog for Discussion, Debate of Obesity Epidemic"
The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale goes live today with a blog that encourages people to discuss topics ranging from how advertising determines what children eat to what pressures a bride-to-be is facing to squeeze into a size-four gown.
The center was founded last year in response to the obesity epidemic as well as to the prejudice faced by people who are obese. As a practitioner of "strategic science" designed to develop solutions to this major public health…
tsmith | July 5, 2006I'm still in a bit of a somber mood today, but while PZ is blushing, I suppose I won't be quite as shy. He mentions a new article in Nature (link) listing popular science blogs. Aetiology didn't make the top 5 by their rubric (those were Pharyngula, of course, along with Pandas Thumb, Real Climate, Cosmic Variance, and The Scientific Activist), but it made it into the top 50 (#7 using their methodology--which, they note, is just a rough snapshot). They also limited it to blogs by working scientists writing about science, and have a separate category for writers.
tsmith | July 5, 2006I had relatives visiting this weekend and haven't touched the computer since Friday, so let me start back out by updating y'all on the finally DonorsChoose numbers. Janet has the summary here, but it's actually been revised a bit as some other blogs met their goal (and were thus eligible for a 10% bonus from the DonorsChoose people):
Total donations: $22,554.38
Amount matched by SEED: $10,000
Completion bonus from DonorsChoose: $1447.30
Total raised: $34,001.68
Thanks to all of you who donated and spread the word. This is a pretty awesome accomplishment.
Additionally, as Janet notes:
Don'…
tsmith | June 22, 2006Y'all may have read about this on one of the other participating blogs, but just in case, I'll recap here:
First, what is it? My initial post on it is here; essentially, several of us here at Scienceblogs have put together a wish list of projects at DonorsChoose.org, a non-profit that matches donors with teacher-submitted projects in need of funding. My challenge is here; so far, I've had 7 donations for a total of $269.82. An excellent start, but I'm hoping a few more of you will kick in--even a $10 donation, if submitted by 10 of you, would make a huge difference.
Second, SEED has…
tsmith | June 22, 2006Figures. I'm even mentioned in last week's "Ask a Scienceblogger" question, and I'm not around to answer it!
How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically?...
Looking at the responses, I think Mark already nailed it: insanity. But I suppose I'll ramble a bit below the fold, anyway...
(Catch that? Look--rambling by me! Another post appears! Lather, rinse, repeat!)
Seriously, though, I do strive for most of my posts to go beyond just my ramblings and random…
tsmith | June 15, 2006As Janet has surely mentioned by now, we're kicking off a The ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose raise-money-to-help-science-classrooms-a-thon!
I write a lot on here about science education. Indeed, that's a big motivator for having this site at all. Science is endlessly fascinating, and it's a pleasure to have the means to share some of my own love of the area with y'all. But of course, appreciation for science can--and should--start long before adulthood. I know I had some great teachers in elementary, junior high, and high school who made math and science interesting, but it's a tough job, made…
tsmith | June 12, 2006So, I see Janet started a "get to know you" post (with a "pi" theme). I'm busy today and was swamped all weekend (and as such, don't have any more lengthy science posts finished), so...answers below the fold.
3 reasons you blog about science:
1. Because I'm a really big nerd, and all things science fascinate me.
2. Because I think bringing science to the public is critically important.
3. Because my kids aren't quite old enough to torture with the newest paper on emerging zoonoses. Yet.
Point at which you would stop blogging:
If it interfered with other parts of my life.
1 thing…
tsmith | June 3, 2006More interesting stuff I didn't get to...
First, outbreak news that I've not had a chance to write about. A huge cholera outbreak is ongoing in Angola; meanwhile, a small measles outbreak has been reported in Boston.
Invasive bullfrogs may be spreading around the deadly chytrid fungus that has been implicated in mass amphibian deaths around the world.
The FDA has approved a new shingles vaccine for adults who had chickenpox.
New studies show that the time to get kids interested in science is when they're young.
And something I keep meaning to mention...BlogHer. Not familiar? Read all…
tsmith | May 19, 2006Another blog I read has been highlighted in Science Magazine's Netwatch:
WEB LOG: Invasion Chronicles
An outbreak of pine shoot beetles (Tomicus piniperda) has prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to restrict the export of bark chips and other forest products from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Meanwhile, farmers in southwestern Puerto Rico are angry because the government has failed to control hungry mobs of Asian and African monkeys, descendants of escapees from a medical lab, that are pillaging their fields. For more news about wayward organisms and efforts to control…