Fellow ScienceBlogger Shelley Batts is a finalist for a student blogging scholarship. Not only is she a fine blogger, but she shares with me a connection with the University of Michigan, where she is now working on her Ph.D. and where I got both my undergraduate and graduate degrees.
So, with that combination of good blogging, fellow ScienceBlogger, and fellow Michigan student (albeit separated in time by about 16 years), I can't help but urge you all to vote for Shelley for the blogging scholarship. There's only one day to go, as voting ends at midnight on November 5. What other of the finalists can say they're part of the prestigious ScienceBlogsc collective? But don't just believe me about this; go over to Shelley's blog Retrospectacle and see for yourself that she's deserving of this prize.
Thank you!
I checked out all the entries listed, and I'm afraid I had to give Shelley only second place. (I wasn't going to judge on who needed it the most, or who would do the most with it, just who had the best blog. -- I'll admit that the list of bloggers supporting Shelley made it easier not to vote for her, because while she deserves it, I had no doubt that she would get a wave of support. And she IS a good choice, but I found the writer of FLATLINE NYC simply was a better writer, wrote a better -- though less frequently appearing, which could be a factor -- blog. The only other choice was Stephen Yellin, "Mr. Liberal." Politically I have to like his ideas, but he mangled Sam Harris' name in the first post and had little actually new or interesting to say to someone not as biased in his direction as I am. (The other seven seemed to be entirely out of the running.)
Anyway, I will be more than glad if Shelley wins, and I wish they had given us a chance to vote 5-3-1.
(I AM curious how many of the people who voted simply followed Orac or the others recommends and how many checked out all the entrants.)