Looking at the traffic stats for the week, we see the following pageview totals:
- The Funding Issue: 688
- Unions and Sour Grapes: 777
- Teacher Compensation: 946
- Sheep!: 1,261
So, to recap:
- Ranty blogging about serious issues of science funding and public outreach = Nobody cares.
- Ranty blogging about teachers and unions = Good for traffic.
- Cartoon sheep = Pure blogging gold.
In the immortal words of David St. Hubbins, "Too much fucking perspective."
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is it statistically reliable?
Most blogs don't cover news and topics of importance for the same reason that television news broadcasts don't cover news and topics of importance:
People want to be entertained and amused. They don't want to hear about the horrors.
I am guessing that the funding issues post is kind of "inside baseball" for scientists. I found it more interesting than teachers union stuff, but I am scientist and I have mostly the same views on teachers and unions (possibly because my dad was the local union rep to the state legislature, in a state where teachers cannot strike). Most people have much stronger opinions on teacher unions than on whether some TLA gets funded.
Obviously, to increase your pageviews you need "do m-branes dream of 14 dimensional sheep".