Holy shit! Melanie of Just a Bump in the Beltway tags me with the Random Eight meme and no sooner do I get it done (incurring her wrath because I didn't pass it on), when I learn that as a ScienceBlogs newcomer we also got tagged with the pi meme by Janet (Dr. Free-Ride).
It could be a lot worse. Pi is an irrational number whose decimal expansion doesn't end or repeat and this is a truncated version (eight digits; I don't know if this is because the ScienceBlogs publishers are bandwidth cheapskates; or the mistaken notion you cannot represent an irrational number exactly on a computer. That's a limitation of Windows. I use a Mac.).
Anyway, here goes:
3 reasons you blog about science:
1. I like to learn things.
2. The best way to learn things is to explain them.
3. Public health has the word "public" in it.
Point at which you would stop blogging:
That's what Mrs. R. wants to know.
1 thing you frequently blog besides science:
1. Atheism; anti-War (I know that's two things, but they are one thing for me)
4 words that describe your blogging style:
1. It reads like it has just been translated from German (and it's not clear into what language)
2. It's adorable
3. Some highly opinionated readers consider it highly opinionated
4. They are absolutely incorrect. Period. End of discussion.
1 aspect of blogging you find difficult:
1. Feeding the beast daily
5 ScienceBlogs blogs that are new to you:
2.Chemblog
(These are the same ones that came with the meme, but they're all new to me and look great)
9 blogs you read outside the ScienceBlogs universe:
3.MyDD
4.dKos
NB: There are a lot of others, too. These are just a few of some terrific blogs "out there."
2 important features of your blogging environment:
1.Unholy mess (I'm an atheist, after all)
2.I use a Mac
6 items you would bring to a meet-up with the other ScienceBloggers:
1. Mask or paperbag to put over my head (I'm an anonymous blogger)
2. Laptop, so I could feed the Beast
3. Mrs. R., although she wouldn't come
4. CD of Shostakovitch's potboiler oratorio, Song of the Forests (about forest restoration in the Soviet Union; now you know what you are dealing with)
5. A clean pair of jeans in case we go to a nice restaurant
6. A Revere name tag (because I have a paper bag over my head)
5 conversations you would have before the end of that meet-up:
1. With PZ about penis stories so I could increase the size of my traffic (my blog traffic, that is)
2. With Coturnix about my sleep disorder
3. With Tara about mutual acquaintances
4. With Mad Mike about my penicillin allergy
5. With Tim about how to get my RSS working
6. With anyone who will talk to someone with a paperbag over his/her/its head
- Log in to post comments
The RSS is working. The feed is at http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/index.xml
It's not listed in the Scienceblogs RSS page, but it works in my RSS reader.
a.r.: Thanks. I'm querying how to get it on the RSS list.
You wrote: Public health has the word "public" in it.
In my old age I have increasingly tried to use the expression the public's health. "Public health" to many connotes a run down clinic, restaraunt inspection, etc. We don't talk about the Patient Health, we talk about the patient's health. My patient has been for 50 years the public.
Dave Sencer
Dave: Yes, you are right about the connotation. When I began medical school (I'm somewhat younger than you), public health was a low status profession. It meant, as you imply, that you were going to be reading TB films in the south Bronx or something like that. The bright kids were all going into psychiatry or internal medicine, the "intellectual" fields (now of course they are all going into specialties where they can perform "procedures").
The era from the mid-sixties until the mid-eighties were in some sense an anomaly in public health history in that the status of public health was tremendously enhanced by the recognition of its social importance (when things of social importance actually enhanced status, anyway).
The Reagan counter-Revolution has successfully eroded that and we now find ourselves again marginalized. However the situation isn't quite the same. Public health has now become professionalized (via Schools of Public Health), which is both good and bad, but at least different. In addition, 9/11 jolted the new generation of student out of their self-absorption and we are again seeing a resurgence of interest in trying to make a difference and social responsibility.
At least that's what I see when I peer through my rose-colored glasses (which I need to see anything these days).
I truncated pi where I did because I didn't want to have to round up (for the purists who can go many more decimal places further) AND I didn't want to make the meme so long that no one would do it. Bandwidth wasn't a consideration.
Dr. Free-Ride: Sorry. I should have been a clearer. The bandwidth comment was a joke. Bandwidth for an infinite number of digits would be a bit of a problem for any host.
Conversations you would have before the end of that meet-up:
You wrote: 'With Coturnix about my sleep disorder'
I always wondered where you found the time to maintain your most excellent and informative blog. It's been quite an education these past months.
Best Wishes to you and Mrs. R