Quaken Crocus

[off-topic]

You might concur with this:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/almost-half-of-poor-ame…

"Almost half of poor Americans go to the library for Internet"

indeed, this was my experience, although i suspect that nearly all poor and working poor rely on public libraries for wifi .. unless they are "borrowing" it from their neighbors or are going without.

I have to admit I leave mine off and use wired internet partly so that local students don't "borrow" mine! Not meaning to be stingy, but the university campus has good wifi and they can use that.

While I'm writing, good luck with your science writing now that you have access to the embargo. Just an idea: there must be some birding magazines that would take a regular update on the latest in genetics / molecular biology for non-scientists? Not that they'd pay much... (Just an on-the-spur-of-the-moment idea. Probably dumb, but "hey," etc.)

i only have access to SCIENCE embargoed material (as well as PLoS, but I've had PLoS access for three years due to the kind invitation of their editors to my sciblings and me). i will admit that having such access does make me feel rather under a microscope and i worry i will fail somehow ..

regarding your suggestion, i do share my writing with "bird people" and have done so ever since my undergrad days. i've always been rejected by birding and "nature" magazines whenever i've pitched stories to them, so i've mostly given up on them, choosing instead to publish on my blog. but that said, my writing has been eagerly sought out by avicultural magazines throughout the USA and Australia and by newsletter editors for wildlife areas throughout WA state. of course, none of them pay me anything but i try my best to be supportive of their publications anyway, even during those many years when i was unemployed and facing a rather bleak and uncertain future.

Thought it was too obvious for you to not have tried! :-)

Bizarre that the birding and nature mags turn them down. Sounds to me as if they need to read that recent survey by a major US paperâthe NYT?âthat showed that it was the informative science pieces that readers valued the more!

The only writing I've done so far is for my blog. I'd still like to try run some form of writing as a sideline to my work, but it's hard to see how to make it viable out here (in NZ).

i will admit that having such access does make me feel rather under a microscope and i worry i will fail somehow

Just write! ;-) After all the people that don't haven't the gumption, but you do.