north carolina
clock | October 28, 2007Back at ConvergeSouth, Leonard Witt did several short video interviews with cool participants.
Among others, you should definitely see brief interviews with Anton Zuiker, Kirk Ross and Ruby Sinreich.
clock | October 28, 2007Local elections are next week.
This is my official endorsement for Sally Greene for Chapel Hill Town Council.
And not just because she is a blogger.
Or because she was endorsed by The Independent.
But because of what Brian said.
clock | October 27, 2007Paul announced it and I will try my best to be there on Tuesday:
Who: Bob Young, founder of Lulu.com, Lulu.tv and Red Hat
Date: Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Time: 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Location: Sonja Haynes Stone Center, Room 103
clock | October 22, 2007So, while I still have a few more minutes on this wonderful wifi (another Scifoo camper attending ASIS&T meeting just walked into the coffee-shop a few minutes ago - how the world is small!), let me summarize my thoughts on ConvergeSouth2007 before they are erased by the new memories generated by the ASIS&T conference.
First of all, I'd like to congratulate Sue, Ed, jw, Ben, Sean and the rest of the Greensboro crew for a fantastic job - the third year in a row - of organizing this conference. It is my favourite: I get to meet all of my friends at least once a year there. And next…
clock | October 14, 2007The last time we met at the Tar Heel Tavern was on April 2nd. After that, the inspiration dried out and no Tarheel-brewed amber-colored liquid was flowing for months. With the grass wilting everywhere around us, it was easy to just give up and stop watering one's blogging flowers with creative juices which were in such short supply. Even slippery slopes are not slippery when not wet. And thirst for knowledge is hard to sustain in the presence of real thirst. But, a long series of bad, bad puns aside, it is time to re-start the carnival, open up the taps and let it all flow! In two weeks…
clock | October 9, 2007Another thing I will also have to miss - the Inaugural Event of the 2007-2008 Pizza Lunch Season of the Science Communicators of North Carolina (SCONC), on October 24th at Sigma Xi Center (the same place where we'll have the Science Blogging Conference). Organized by The American Scientist and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the first Pizza Lunch Session will feature Dr.Fred Gould, professor of Entomology and Genetics at NCSU (whose Insect Ecology class blows one's mind - one of the best courses I have ever taken in my life). Fred recently received The George Bugliarello Prize for an…
clock | October 9, 2007Darn - I'll be out of town on that date, but you make sure to show up! The October meeting of Science Cafe Raleigh will be on the 23rd at my favourite Irish pub in Raleigh, Tir Na Nog, and the speaker is Dr. Mary Schweitzer, the NCSU researcher who discovered and analyzed soft tissues in fossilized bones of T.rex:
Dinosaurs: Rewriting the Rules of Fossilization
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
6:30-8:30 p.m. with discussion beginning at 7 p.m. followed by Q&A
Location: Tir Na Nog, 218 South Blount St., 833-7795
Speaker: Dr. Mary Schweitzer
Dr. Mary Schweitzer studies dinosaur bones, as many…
clock | October 8, 2007Kirk Ross in this week's 'Carrboro Citizen':
Jim Neal, a key Democratic Party fundraiser, is on the verge of announcing a run for U.S. Senate, sources close to Neal say.
Neal, a native of Greensboro who now lives in Chapel Hill, will head to Asheville this weekend for the Vance-Aycock Dinner, a traditional gathering of Democratic Party movers and shakers and a place where potential candidates often test the waters. He is expected to file official paperwork as early as this week.
Neal was a top fundraiser for the John Kerry and John Edwards ticket in 2004 and a major supporter of Gen. Wesley…
clock | October 8, 2007Dr. Oliver Smithies, the Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA, together with Mario R. Capecchi and Martin J. Evans, won this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine:
This year's Nobel Laureates have made a series of ground-breaking discoveries concerning embryonic stem cells and DNA recombination in mammals. Their discoveries led to the creation of an immensely powerful technology referred to as gene targeting in mice. It is now being applied to virtually all areas of biomedicine - from basic research to the…
clock | October 6, 2007OK, I live here, yet I had to learn from Brian that the AMNH dinosaur exhibit is coming to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh. The exhibit will be open from October 26, 2007 till March 2, 2008 and I will make sure to go and see it while it is in town (and take pictures if they'll let me and then blog about it). If you come from out of town to see the exhibit, don't forget to also see the dinos that are on permanent display at the Museum: the Acrocanthosaurus (the only skeleton of its kind displayed anywhere - and it is not a cast either but the real thing) and…
clock | October 6, 2007Jeffrey Pomerantz invited me to give a brownbag lunch presentation on Science 2.0 yesterday at noon at the School of Information and Library Science at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was fun for me and I hope it was fun for the others in the room, about 20 or so of faculty and students in the School.
This was my first attempt at putting together such a presentation, something I will be called on to do several times over the next couple of months and more. I was happy I made it within one hour, excellent questions included, though I probably talked too long about blogs and…
clock | September 25, 2007The highlight of this week's foodblogging event must have been last night's dinner at Piedmont restaurant in Durham.
Anton has several posts about the events of the past couple of days, including a detailed description (including the menu, and exactly who was there - about 30 people) of the dinner itself. I came a little late (because I always get lost in Durham as the layout of that city always stumps Google Maps), but as soon as I started chatting with the wonderful people there and eating the wonderful food, my mood changed for the better and I really enjoyed the evening (yes, while…
clock | September 25, 2007This is why you should attend ConvergeSouth. OK, Anton will lead a session, and so will I, but check out the entire program - it is just getting more and more amazing every year! And it is probably the most pleasant and enjoyable conference in any given year.
clock | September 25, 2007And it is hard to find anyone better than Brian:
I am now available for hire to consult on the creation, care, and feeding of online communities. Plus I can create audio and video for the web. To get an idea of my professional experience you can check out my resume here and my portfolio here.
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I'm interested in working for non-profits, businesses, and progressive political campaigns. I can help you make your own media and demonstrate how it will strengthen your mission and benefit your organization financially. But most important is communicating with customers,…
clock | September 23, 2007The three-day Foodblogging event has started, with a reading/booksigning by Michael Ruhlman at the Regulator bookshop in Durham.
Among those in the audience were Reynolds Price, local bloggers Anton Zuiker and Brian Russell, as well as Anna Kushnir, foodblogger who drove all the way from Boston (OK, via Virginia) to attend the event.
I bought The Reach of a Chef and asked him what is the best way to get a kid/teenager who is interested in cooking started. He said that hands-on experience is essential and that one should carefully pick a course that focuses on basics and not on fancy gimmicks…
clock | September 23, 2007I was out and offline all day yesterday, so I missed this wonderful article by Dan Barkin in yesterdays' N&O (I just took the paper out of its plastic bag a few minutes ago):
Bloggers to talk science.
It tells you where Anton Zuiker comes from and where he is going next. The killer paragraph is this one:
The Web has evolved into a tribal Internet of passionate bloggers like Zuiker, and he has become a sort-of local brand. He's a quiet visionary. He's a low-key doer. He's a let's-get-together-and-see-where-this-goes guy. It's the Zuikers of this new, interwoven world who may play a…
clock | September 14, 2007Unfortunately, due to the Murphy's Law of conference dates, I will have to miss this fantastic meeting, because I will at the time be at another fantastic meeting, but if you can come, please do - registration will be open online in a few days.
Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity
The conference theme is about bringing scientists and humanities scholars to talk about ways that science is changing human life.
November 8th, 9th, and 10th, the National Humanities Center will host the second ASC conference.
And the program features a Who's Who list:
Thursday, November 8th
Frans de Waal
Martha…
clock | September 13, 2007OK, that is an overstatement (for now). Will Raymond for Town Council!
There. That's better.
I thought Will must be busy as I did not hear from him lately and he did not show up at any of the recent bloggy events in the area. So, he was busy preparing for his second run for the Town Council. He did not make it last time around, but now the voters know him better, so anything can happen! And having the broad support of local bloggers is not something to scorn at in a place like Chapel Hill either!
I am sure that he'll announce on his blog when he needs locals to volunteer, but until then (…
clock | September 11, 2007The Triangle blogging season has started, so I hope many of you locals and visitors join us for the first meetup of the year:
The Durham bloggers meetup will be the second Wednesday of each month at 6pm at Tyler's Tap Room in the American Tobacco Warehouse District. First meetup will be Sept.12th. Anton will coordinate. Duke is rapidly taking to blogging, and we've discovered some cool food bloggers in Durham -- and Pam Spaulding has represented the city well -- so we hope this meetup gets good attendance.
I bet there will be a lot of science and health bloggers there! What with Anton's new…