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tlambert | March 27, 2009Like several other bloggers here (e.g. Coby Beck), I have been interviewed by The Reef Tank.
sb admin | March 25, 2009The question of whether or not I am a geologist is not just an amusing exercise in academic politics. In Washington, as in most U.S. states, geology is a regulated profession; guidelines for who can and cannot call themselves a geologist in a professional context are laid out in the administrative code and enforced by the Geologist Licensing Board.
I am not a geologist, nor will I become one any time soon. To comply with Washington law, I would need to complete coursework in the core subjects of geology (as specified in WAC 308-15-040: structural geology, mineralogy, petrology and sedimentary…
goodmath | March 20, 2009 Seed's tech guy did a reset and restart of the server, and it appears that now I'm able to turn off registration without completely disabling comments. So everyone who's been having trouble commenting, please give it a try again, and let me know if you have any trouble.
sb admin | March 19, 2009On Monday, airline passengers were the first to observe the eruption of the just-barely-above-the-water volcano that forms the islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai, in Tonga. Three days later, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake occurred on the Tonga trench.
Was the timing of these two events just coincidence?
Yes.
Why do I think the events were unrelated? Well:
Earthquakes happen all the time. Thankfully for Tongan residents, I am using a geological definition of "time" here, but still: A major earthquake on a major plate boundary does not require any special explanation.
The earthquake was a…
goodmath | March 7, 2009 Just a quick status notice: a bunch of commenters have been having problems with the system demanding authetication to be able to comment. I'm trying to fix it with the help of the SB tech folks. My first attempt made things worse, and made it impossible for anyone to comment. I'm trying to re-enable comments now, but since I'm not sure what disabled them, I'm not sure of what will work. Commenting ability using typekey authentication will be re-enabled ASAP; and commenting without authentication will be re-enabled as soon as the SB techs can figure out what's causing the authentication…
greengabbro | February 17, 2009I got a request for advice from Maryam, an old undergrad committee-comrade-in-arms, which I have mangled for clarity:
To make a long story short, I'm co-teaching a communication class to engineers and I want to introduce them to science blogging. I'm planning to have them write brief essays about classic science papers (similar to the Beginnings of Immunofluoresence), and then post the essays to a class blog.
The main instructor of the class is a rhetorician, so we put emphasis on rhetorical situations and interpersonal communication. I wanted to introduce blogging because it's a new and…
tlambert | February 8, 2009As promised a little while ago, I've copied everything here and shut down the old blog. I've set up redirects so links to the old blog end up at the right place. Links to
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~lambert/guns/lott98update0.html#0112 Deltoid 0.0, using straight html, which looked like this,
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~lambert/cgi-bin/blog/2003/01/#0112 Deltoid 1.0, using Blosxom,
http://timlambert.org/2003/01/0112/ Deltoid 2.0, using WordPress, and
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2003/01/0112.php Deltoid 3.0 using Movable Type
all take you to the same post (my first ever blog post…
tlambert | January 28, 2009It seems like only yesterday we got to 10,000 comments and now John Mashey has posted the 50,000th comment, with more content than most blog posts. And here's his acceptance speech:
Thanks to all. I always hoped my efforts would be rewarded, although I never expected this!
CafePress is HQ'd about 20 miles away, although who knows, the T-shirt might come from China for all I know. There is at least hope that it's a short truck ride away.
My forthcoming Deltoid T-shirt will take its proud place amongst some other rare T-shirts I own:
-- SGI "Building a better dinosaur" Jurassic Park dino,…
greengabbro | January 26, 2009In addition to helping judge this year's Open Laboratory science blogging anthology, I'm also the production editor (i.e., typesetting jockey). So as I go through, reading the entries in much greater detail than I ever would otherwise, I'm noticing a couple of things:
All of the pieces are either about biology, or professional "life in science" stuff. Geology is represented this year by Kim's piece and my own, and is actually in good shape relative to physics and chemistry. But that's not saying much - the volume as a whole is very life-centric.
Some of the pieces, um, I'm not sure what the…
tlambert | January 24, 2009There are less than 100 comments to go before we reach 50,000 comments here at Deltoid. The tradition around here is for some sort of award, so if you are number 50,000 and you include a valid email address you will a prize something like this.
tlambert | January 9, 2009ScienceBlogs is upgrading to Movable Type 4. During the upgrade process there will be no new posts or comments. Everything is supposed to be back to normal in 36 hours. What could possibly go rong?
Update: And we're back...
greengabbro | January 9, 2009Just a note: ScienceBlogs will be doing some system upgrades this weekend. The site will still be accessible, but you won't be able to post any new comments, and we won't be able to post any new entries.
The upgrade will start at 1 pm EST today (Friday), and should be done by Saturday evening... probably.
This would a perfect time to explore my freshly-updated blogroll. And I think a number of Sciblings will be guest-blogging at Comrade PhysioProf.
greengabbro | January 4, 2009Okay, I've slightly missed the main New Year's resolution bandwagon. But the beginning of February will mark the first anniversary of my move to ScienceBlogs, so I figure I have a whole month in which to be self-indulgent reflective and renewal-minded. And I've been thinking of starting my personal calendar year on National Pie Day, anyway.
So here are my blog-related resolutions for 2009:
Update my blog roll
Purge all my to-blog folders and half-written drafts. I think 2008 was an especially bad year for letting ideas languish - knowing that potential employers are reading, I've been turning…
greengabbro | December 11, 2008Dear Science Bloggers (Self, You Too):
Stop burying your leads.
Ledes. Leads. Whatever. Your opening line - the one that draws you in to a story, that limns the scope of your writing while providing the so what. It belongs at the beginning and you are placing it two or three paragraphs deep into your entry.
I tell you this, because after a month or so of mostly ignoring the blogosphere (not for any particularly interesting reason) and buzzing through some John McPhee and Natalie Angier books instead, my expectations for writing have been reset. I also tell you this because I have just…
greengabbro | October 8, 2008As you may or may not be aware, Green Gabbro is one of the smallest blogs on the ScienceBlogs network. But on the challenge leaderboard tonight, I'm just two donors behind a first place tie between Drug Monkey, Science Women, and Uncertain Principles. These blogs all get at least triple my traffic (and Science Woman and Alice have stooped to bribery, to boot), but still are struggling to keep up with your generosity.
On a per capita basis, the geoblogosphere kicks philanthropic ass!
I'm also pleased to report that we've put new hot plates into a woefully underequipped high school science lab…
greengabbro | September 27, 2008TODAY! TODAY TODAY! Come party with me, Sandra, Dave, and GrrlScientist in the upper mezzanine at Ozzie's, 105 W. Mercer St. just behind the Space Needle*.
Some of the Seattle Skeptics are showing up, and later on, a few folks from the Pacific Science Center. Meet lots of people who care about science and science education, and drink beer (or orange juice, you know, if you're into that sort of thing) on Seed's dime! We'll buy the first couple of rounds, at least, and keep going until we run out of budget.
We'll start at 4 and carry on until... um, I'm not sure how long we'll carry on, but I…
greengabbro | September 11, 2008For those of you who don't actually read any other ScienceBlogs (hi, Mom): We're approaching the one meeeellionth comment here at the ScienceBorg! This means there's a contest! If you submit a comment with a valid email address between... um, whenever the contest started, and whenever it is that the millionth comment is posted, which is coming up pretty darn quick now... you will be entered to win a trip for two to New York City, including dinner with your favorite ScienceBorgling and other geeky adventures courtesy the Seed Mothership. Here are the official contest rules.
For those of you…
greengabbro | July 21, 2008The chip in my head (the nice doctors at Seed installed one when I signed up for this blog) is all a-twitter. That means it's almost time to make my way, slack-jawed and drooling with my arms groping vaguely about the space in front of me, all the way across the continent to Seed's aboveground urban lair.
Dear readers, I know that Seed didn't implant chips in your brains (probably), but you're still invited to join the shambling hordes. And I, for one, welcome the opportunity to meet each and every one of you in the spicy flesh.
Saturday, August 9, at an as-yet unspecified time in the mid-…
tlambert | July 15, 2008There seems to have been an outbreak of poetry about me from Right Wing Death Poets (RWDPs). Tim Blair:
He was a hero to the blogosphere
Across this wide brown land
Tim Lambert of Scienceblogs.com
With his clue stick in his hand
The mighty throbbing clue stick!
Tim gripped it like a lance
And stroked and loved and cared for it
He housed it in his pants
Then the clue stick ceased to function
Its mojo all was spent
Tim whipped it out and waved it 'round
But what had been had ... went
Tim needed inspiration
It came one day in class
"Hey, fatso!" yelled a student
"Shove your clue stick up…