State of the Blog
jgoldman | July 25, 2011If you didn't catch the message, this blog has moved!
You can find The Thoughtful Animal over at the new Scientific American Blogging Network!
Please remember to add or change the link to my blog in your blogrolls. The new URL is:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/
If you use an RSS reader, such as Google Reader, the new feed is: http://rss.sciam.com/thoughtful-animal/feed/
jgoldman | July 5, 2011
In March 2010, I was invited to leave behind the relative obscurity of my wordpress blog for the warm community (and increased visibility) of ScienceBlogs. What a tremendous honor and opportunity that was!
But there comes a time in the life of every blogger when one must say goodbye to one's current home, and move across town. Today is that day. Several months ago, when my friend and mentor Bora Zivkovic officially invited me to join the new Scientific American Blog Network, I simply could not refuse the offer.
So, starting today, you can find The Thoughtful Animal over at the new…
jgoldman | July 4, 2011This weekend saw a trip to the boardwalk and beach in Santa Monica. There are often sailboats out on weekends, and I was hoping to get some good shots with my new telephoto zoom lens.
Unfortunately, it was very, very hazy. The light was bad, everything was very washed out, and it was hard to get any real color. Luckily, I've gotten better and better (and had some good advice from friends) on doing some digital post-processing. The key, it seems, is to play to the strengths of the photo. Too hazy? Perfect for black and white.
Here is the before shot, as it was taken.
And here is the after…
jgoldman | July 1, 2011I'm on Google+.
After a couple days of playing with it, I haven't quite identified what it is for, or at least how I'm going to use it differently from twitter or facebook, but so far I am generally impressed - it's easy, intuitive, and fast. It also allows you a level of selective privacy that - while possible to achieve - is very clunky on Facebook. It only took me 10 minutes on the web interface and another 10 minutes after downloading the Android app to figure out how it all worked. And Google+ is already far better integrated into the mobile user experience than Facebook is (though this…
jgoldman | June 8, 2011Hopefully this here blog will get back into the regular rhythm of posting in a few days. Until then, enjoy these photos from Oakland, Portland, and Seattle.
These pictures, and the rest in the photo set are my first serious attempt at actual photography. Check it out!
jgoldman | June 7, 2011Why write again what Bora has already written?
The great science blog 3 Quarks Daily has announced the voting for it's third annual prize for the best science writing on blogs. Last year, the judge was Richard Dawkins. This year, once the voting by the public narrows down the choices, the finalists will be judged by Lisa Randall.
Check out the nominees and then vote for your favorite.
So this year, several of my posts were nominated. Vote for one of mine, or vote for another, but definitely vote.
Voting closes Wednesday at 11:59pm eastern time (8:59pm pacific time), so do it soon!
jgoldman | May 30, 2011
Is this a difference in kind or in degree?
Image: The earth comes into view just below Endeavour, as it undocks from the International Space Station.
jgoldman | May 25, 2011
Earlier this month, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California had its annual two-day open house. For a laboratory complex that has the same acreage as Disneyland, it was just as crowded as the House of Mouse on a busy summer day. What a refreshing sight it was to see so many people - couples, families, grandparents and grandchildren, groups of teenagers - coming to a scientific laboratory to learn about space and science!
And how awesome to see hundreds of people in line for... not a roller coaster and not a parade, but a chance to see the next Mars Rover, Curiosity!
And…
jgoldman | May 23, 2011The always-fantastic blog 3 Quarks Daily has opened up nominations for its third annual prize in science blogging. This year, the contest will be judged by Lisa Randall, and there will be three winners.
Posts can be nominated by bloggers or readers, and if any of you wanted to nominate one of my posts I would be grateful. Or, of course, nominate any other!
Here are the relevant details:
Please nominate your favorite science blog entry by placing the URL for the blog post (the permalink) in the comments section of this post. You can also add a brief comment describing the entry and saying why…
jgoldman | April 16, 2011A couple weeks ago, I asked readers to offer up some science blogs written by women.
I wrote:
Throughout the month of March, The Smithsonian Channel aired all-new original programming, exploring the scientific contributions of five female scientists: Elisabeth Blackburn, JoGayle Howard, Nan Hauser, Elisabeth Kalko, and Gudrun Pflueger. (I featured one of the programs, about Gudrun Pflueger, earlier this month.)
As the month of programming wraps up, in order to commemorate the Women in Science programming, and to celebrate Women in Science more generally, I've got some schwag from the…
jgoldman | April 14, 2011I've been a bit remiss in posting much this week, mostly because I had to prep a guest lecture (from which I just returned, and it was awesome thankyouverymuch) on the Domestication of Social Cognition.
In the meantime, now that spring is here, baby animals are starting to pop up all over the LA Zoo. I haven't managed to make it to the zoo yet to see them, but in the meantime, enjoy these pictures (click each one to enlarge) provided by the zoo itself.
This baby koala (not a bear! koalas are marsupials, like kangaroos) was actually born on July 6, but because koalas, like kangaroos, spend the…
jgoldman | April 11, 2011I'm working on putting together a resource sheet for various people (teachers, professors, graduate students, etc) that will help them find psychology-related resources on the web.
And I can use your help. To start with, I'm compiling as extensive a list as is reasonably possible of psychology and related blogs.
Here is a starter list, that I put together in about five minutes. What other blogs do you read, that I don't have listed here, that belong in the list? The criteria are (1) they're good, (2) they do research blogging (though they need not exclusively do research blogging, and they…
jgoldman | April 1, 2011Throughout the month of March, The Smithsonian Channel aired all-new original programming, exploring the scientific contributions of five female scientists: Elisabeth Blackburn, JoGayle Howard, Nan Hauser, Elisabeth Kalko, and Gudrun Pflueger. (I featured one of the programs, about Gudrun Pflueger, earlier this month.)
As the month of programming wraps up, in order to commemorate the Women in Science programming, and to celebrate Women in Science more generally, I've got some schwag from the Smithsonian Channel to give away to a reader!
The schwag package includes: the Smithsonian Channel…
jgoldman | March 30, 2011...For a feature article in this week's Nature on how scientists go about developing and managing online personas. You can check out the article - for free - here. It's a good article, and you'll probably recognize some other familiar faces (e-faces? blog-faces?) in it as well.
While the interview, which I did back in the beginning of February, was enjoyable, I fear that my quotation in this article is slightly out of context. To be fair, I don't remember the exact course of the conversation I had with the writer - but here, I'll use my blog to make clear what I meant and ground my statement…
jgoldman | February 16, 2011Yesterday I posted this photo and offered up a prize for the best caption.
"Well, me and Joan been together...oh, 'most forty years now. Eats a lot, but she's been good to me, sure enough! Hey, don't make fun of the uniform... [whispers] Joan kinda' likes a man-in-uniform, servin' her dinners, knowwhatImean? [wink]"
The winner is Matthew Garcia (twitter / blog)!
The runner up, simply because I actually laughed out loud when I read it, is Enrique Guttierez (twitter / blog), who offered the following: "Hokey pokey!"
Gentlemen, email me or DM me your mailing addresses, and a limited edition…
jgoldman | January 28, 2011If you're plugged into the science blogtwitosphere, then you surely know that the topic of women science bloggers has been written about extensively. Rather than re-hash what many others have said, I'll direct you to these posts by Kate Clancy and Daniel Lende. Then, late last night, Ed Yong wrote a post highlighting a handful of blogs he reads that happen to be penned (typed?) by science writers who happen to possess two X chromosomes. I also noticed that of all the names and blogs that Ed listed, only one was new to me. Perhaps this is because I'm well-plugged-in to the sciblogtwitosphere,…
jgoldman | January 18, 2011
I'm not sure exactly how, but somewhere between the lemurs, the books, the dinners, and the ridiculously short sleep sessions that I encountered at Science Online, I managed to learn quite a bit from many of those science writers to whose level of awesomeness I aspire, and am consequently left with a handful of scattered thoughts.
Here is the first set of those scattered thoughts. Comments are, as always, welcomed and appreciated.
At the first of two sessions that I helped co-moderate, we discussed ways for the more established science writers to help support new talent. There is a bit of a…
jgoldman | January 7, 2011It's here! After more than a month of reviewing, I am pleased to announce the list of posts that will be included in this year's edition - the fifth - of The Open Laboratory!
In no particular order:
Givin' props to hybrids by DeLene Beeland
The decade the clones came: Beware the mighty Marmokrebs! by Zen Faulkes
Can seabirds overfish a resource? The case of cormorants in Estonia by Hannah Waters
The Data Speak by Andrew Thaler
Testing the flotation dynamics and swimming abilities of giraffes by way of computational analysis by Darren Naish
Shark week! by EcoPhysioMichelle
Size really does…
jgoldman | December 31, 2010
Even though I'm on a mini-blogcation (owing to my temporary residence in the Cave of Open Lab), I'd like to take a moment to wish all of my readers and friends across the blogosphere, a very Happy New Year.
I plan on being back to a somewhat normal blogging schedule in about a week (something like January 10). Enjoy these hilarious animal videos (behind the fold), in the meantime.
Image source
jgoldman | December 16, 2010I'm still here, I swear. Most of the time I'd normally devote to writing blog posts has been spent in the Cave of Open Lab™, the last couple weeks. But it will be worth it, I promise.
Brief update, by the numbers:
900 posts (first reviews back on 266 of them; waiting on the remaining 634)
41 reviewers
1 editor (that's me)
1 series editor
1 cover designer (it's done and it looks awesome! - but, yes, we're keeping it a secret for now)
An artist's rendition of the Cave of Open Lab™ (source)
In the meantime, if you'd like some awesome stuff to read, why not read some of the posts that were…