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Duck Stamps and Duck Hunting

I just put up a post in 10,000 Birds reporting on a recent study of duck stamp sales and duck hunting. There have been changes in recent years in the patterns of both waterfowl hunting and the purchase and use of federal duck stamps. Waterfowl hunters are required to have a duck stamp, and about 90% of the funds raised through the sale of these artistic quasi-philatic devices are used to secure wildlife preservation areas. For decades, duck population numbers and duck stamp sales were closely correlated, but recently this correlation has broken down. Read the post to find out the details and…

Edis on Among the Creationists

The Reports of the National Center for Science Education has just posted a new review of my book Among the Creationists. The reviewer is Taner Edis, professor of physics at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. Since Edis's own books on science and religion, The Ghost in the Machine and Science and Nonbelief are among my favorites on this subject, his opinion means a lot to me. So, did he like the book? Jason Rosenhouse, who teaches mathematics at James Madison University, might at first seem an unlikely person to be interested in the creationism/evolution wars. Creationism isa…

Links for 2009-09-13

A Smoove Evening | The Onion - America's Finest News Source "The plan to seduce Michelle Obama in both body and soul has also not moved forward during the last few months. She and her people have stopped returning Smoove's phone calls, and his letters, and the elaborately arranged fruit sculptures he has assembled from the earth's most exotic produce. Also, I think I am on some kind of FBI watch list now. " (tags: onion silly sex) YouTube - I Am a Paleontologist - They Might Be Giants with Danny Weinkauf Because dinosaurs are awesome. (tags: dinosaurs music video youtube kid-stuff)…

So This Is What Ohio Feels Like

Mike Dunford has a post up titled You Almost Have to Feel Sorry for Jim Tedisco, about the special election that's being held to fill Kirsten Gillibrand's House seat. The title alone is enough to tell you that Mike doesn't live in this area any more. Nobody who has to listen to the multi-media saturation bombing that's going on regarding this election could feel sorry for either of the participants. Though, to be fair, the worst of the advertising is actually from the National Republican Congressional Committee, one of the groups that Tedisco is trying to distance himself from. They've got a…

links for 2009-01-16

Simple Checklist Makes Surgery Safer - NYTimes.com "The researchers reviewed the outcome of 7,688 patients who were undergoing noncardiac surgery at the hospitals. About half the patients had surgery before the checklists were adopted, and half after. At the end of the study, the average death rate dropped to 0.8 percent from 1.5 percent, and the average complication rate fell to 7 percent from 11 percent." (tags: science medicine health-care) Methane on Mars varies with the seasons - The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary Society "Michael Meyer: "What we have here is not evidence for…

Ask A ScienceBlogger About...AIDS

I was just thinking about the topic, not with regard to myself, but the issue in general, because of a good interview on Ira Flatow's href="http://www.sciencefriday.com/">Science Friday.  There is no permalink, yet, but it's the show for 8/11/2006, second hour.  They discuss the progress, or lack thereof, in finding a vaccine. To what extent do you worry about AIDS, either with respect to yourself, your children, or the world at large?... I don't worry about it for myself or my family at all, except in the same abstract way that I worry about pancreatic cancer or something like that…

A doubtful essay

There's an essay in the latest issue of Science & Spirit on the history and value of doubt called "Redeeming Saint Thomas." It carries my byline and I'm quite proud of it. Science & Spirit is a curious and evolving publication that explores "things that matter." If that's not reason enough to buy a copy, the cover package of this issue is a series of pieces on stem cells research by veteran science writer Rick Weiss and Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, among others. Which makes it quite timely, considering what's going on in the halls of Congress at the moment. Other writers…

The Dark World of the Slow Loris Trade

Primitive primates indigenous to Southeast Asia, Slow Lorises are endangered and absurdly adorable. Most importantly, they just so happen to be this editor,Aeos favorite animal since early childhood. However, it wouldn,Aeot take a childhood obsession to be appalled at the horrors of the illegal loris trade. Prized for their cuddliness, slow lorises are sold in Japan as impulse-buy pets like puppies. But the process of getting them to Japan is fraught with misery for the animals. Baby lorises are the most valuable, but unable to care for themselves. They cannot defecate without assistance from…

Book News, Part Two

Following up on my earlier post, I wanted to relay one more piece of book news. I've been getting some emails over the past couple months inquiring about my book, Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea. I wrote it as a companion volume to the 2001 PBS television series, Evolution. Like the series, the book surveys the history and cutting edge of evolutionary biology, from the origin of new species to mass extinctions, from the rise of complex life to the emergence of humans. It also looks at ongoing evolutionary races, whether the competitors are hosts and parasites or members of the opposite sex…

Quack Miranda Warning

"These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease." This "Quack Miranda Warning" is on every just about every woo-meister's website. I see dozens of patients every day, and I never Mirandize them, so whats the deal? There are three ways to look at this: the truthful way, the sinister way, and the bat-shit insane way. Truth: Anyone who wants to sell you something that's a load of crap must use this statement to cover themselves legally. Sinister: Variation of above--someone wants to…

What if we lost them as students?

I've only been a college student and grad student at one institution and I have to confess, the library treats students as second class citizens. Particularly technical services. When I mentioned in a sociology class that I am a librarian, a whole bunch of grad students piled on with complaints about interlibrary loan. One guy got only the second page of an article the first time he requested an article, then a completely illegible copy the second time, and then finally a whole copy the third time - after numerous e-mails and about 6 weeks. He kept asking because he didn't want to let them…

From Jeremy Jackson: Randy Olson Got It Right and Al Gore Gets It Right Again

Today the Shifting Baselines blog is proud to host a guest post from Dr. Jeremy Jackson, marine paleoecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and long-term scientific proponent and communicator of the shifting baselines syndrome. He finds similarity in Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project founder Randy Olson and former Vice President Al Gore: Having served as America's Vice President, having created a slideshow powerful enough to win an Oscar, and having won a Nobel Prize, one can assume Al Gore is a smart man. Everyone should have been interested, then, when two weeks ago…

Michael Pollan, Omega-3s, and Fishy Hot Dogs

As I've mentioned previously, Michael Pollan will release this month another book on "the tangible material formerly known as food." In Defense of Food grew out of his brilliant essay on nutritionism. Read an excerpt from the first chapter, a review of the book, and check out his book tour. And here are some of his thoughts on omega-3s: In the years since then, egg producers figured out a clever way to redeem even the disreputable egg: By feeding flaxseed to hens, they could elevate levels of omega- 3 fatty acids in the yolks. Aiming to do the same thing for pork and beef fat, the animal…

Feeding the beasts (a little kitchen science).

Tonight in the kitchen, I have cultures to attend to. Since I won't be on the road again for months, I brought out my jar of sourdough starter to revive with fresh water, flour, and some time at room temperature. And, I have some kefir culture from our friends in Santa Barbara that'll be wanting more milk. In my mental list this morning, I tracked these as "Don't forget to feed yeast and bacterium." But, it turns out, even if I only fed one of these two, I'd be nourishing yeast and bacterium. Let's start with the kefir, with which my acquaintance is more recent. The stuff you can buy in…

Google Inc IS a different kind of thing

In the old days, canals, roads, train tracks, etc. were almost all privately owned in many countries. Some airports too, but not many. Now, most of these elements of our infrastructure are publicly owned or so regulated that they may as well be. Same with utilities. I wrote a while ago about how Amazon Dot Com is a public good that should not be privately controlled. A lot of people got mad at me and pointed out how wrong I was, but that is because they did not understand that the vast majority of on line commerce is actually run by Amazon even though you don't know that while you are…

Carbon tetrachloride (Dry cleaning, fire-retarding, radical reaction solvent)

Here is another molecule that's gone out of favor in recent decades: carbon tetrachloride: Chlorinated solvents are great solvents. Something about the polarizability, medium polarity, (relative) lack of reactivity, just makes them the only thing that will work in a lot of applications. The three simplest chlorinated solvents are dichloromethane, chloroform, and carbon tetrachloride. Those are CH2Cl2, CHCl3, and CCl4. Those are in order of increasing degree of halogenation, and, coincidentally, increasing degree of toxicity. Methylene chloride/dichloromethane is regarded as a necessary evil…

My New Years Resolutions

This year, I will: Totally empty my email inbox every day. Read one classic novel published before 1950 each week. Learn the names of the capitols, mottos, bird and mineral of all of the fifty states. Learn to play five new musical instruments. Lean to speak five new languages In the spring, plant a large garden and live off the produce through the subsequent winter. Learn how to frame pictures from scratch. Reduce my personal carbon footprint to zero. Clean the fridge once a week. Go to the gym every fifteen minutes. Change my own oil. Learn fifty new emacs key combinations. Not eat any…

RIP Colette, the baby humpback

This is a truly sad story. Last week a baby humpback whale, informally dubbed "Colette," was found alone in the waters off Sydney, Australia. The baby was in desperate need of fat-rich mother's milk, nuzzling boats in its attempts to find sustenance, but no surrogate mother came to the rescue. Force-feeding the young whale was not attempted and efforts to lead it out to sea (where there would at least the chance of a mother whale passing by) failed, and Colette was euthanized on Friday. Many people were outraged, but it seems that euthanization was the only viable option. Colette was…

What is wrong with this study?

Attention span: With a daily newspaper, there is a tacit understanding: That day's paper is the latest news; yesterday's paper becomes old news -- recycling-bin fodder, fishwrap, bird-cage liner, art-project makings, whatever. ------------snip----------- The Internet is a 24/7 environment, where everything is happening all the time, right now. That's because it's a hive-mind of people spread across the planet, and something's always happening somewhere. Sinatra wanted to wake up in a city that never sleeps; the Internet is the digital-world equivalent of New York City -- only with a…

Open Source for K-12

Neil Bush's "COW" is probably the closest the Bush family ever has come to real ranching.  Now the COW may be going the way of the href="http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/expeditions/treasure_fossil/Treasures/Dodo/dodo.html?dinos" rel="tag">Dodo This may turn out to be one of the best things that could happen to public education in the USA. The COW, for those of you not familiar, is the href="http://www.ignitelearning.com/COW/index.html">Curriculum on Wheels.  It is a proprietary computer designed for instructional use.   Of course, it uses proprietary software.  The machine href…

Current/Future State of Higher Education: Week 6: Distributed Research & new models of inquiry !

Yes, I've fallen behind a bit on my MOOC due to conferences and other general insanity, but after doing the last week this week I vow to catch up a bit retroactively and do weeks 3, 4 & 5. My weeks 1 and 2 posts are here and here. Distributed Research: new models of inquiry (Nov 12- 18) Introduction - Week Six Distributed research, or more generally, open science, reflect the next logical progression of the internet’s influence on higher education. Early 2000’s saw the development of open content. Since 2008, teaching in open online courses has gained prominence. Distributed research labs…

Web, politics and everything else....

Writing actual science posts takes a lot of time, research, thinking and energy. I assembled a large pile of papers I want to comment on and I actually started writing posts about a couple of them already, but Real Life interferes...and it is so much easier and quicker to post a short opinion-post or a linkfest. Also, my mind has lately been mostly focused on Science Blogging, more Science Blogging, Open Science, Open Notebook Science, organizing the next Science Blogging Conference, Framing Science, Teaching Science and similar stuff I've been reading about a lot lately due to the…

on the failure of capitalism

I regularly get "special offers" inviting me to take up a, usually, 3 month special introductory rate for a wireless or cable or internet service. What these offers never state is what the base rate is that you default to at the end of the introductory period. When done by phone, the salesperson nevers seems to know this rate, and it is never on mail offers. It generally seems unfindable on company web sites also. It is a source of never ending surprise, to the salespeople, that I will not sign up for these offers, because, y'know, they really are bargains. They typically involved 1-2 year…

Virtual Labs

The New York Times today has a story about Web-based classes offering virtual labs, and whether they should count for AP credit: As part of a broader audit of the thousands of high school courses that display its Advanced Placement trademark, the [College Board] has recruited panels of university professors and experts in Internet-based learning to scrutinize the quality of online laboratories used in Web-based A.P. science courses. "Professors are saying that simulations can be really good, that they use them to supplement their own lab work, but that they'd be concerned about giving…

Acai Berry Scam Exposed: We Called It!

Photo credit: Jeff Cronin In the recent past both Travis and I have taken a jab or two at the evolving acai berry craze, whether it was making fun of celebrities (i.e. Rachael Ray) who endorse it or by critiquing weight-loss products based on the magical berry (i.e. AcaiBurn). Apparently, we were onto something.   This past Monday, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has released a consumer warning, urging consumers to not fall prey to the viral ads of countless acai berry based products for weight loss, sexual dysfunction, cancers, and other ailments. In the warning, the…

Never Say Goodbye: Red-Cockaded Woodpecker

tags: Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, Picoides borealis, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) Estimated 12,210 breeding birds. Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view]. Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were photographed by the talented Joel Sartore here at National Geographic online. All images appear here by permission of National Geographic…

Never Say Goodbye: Masked Bobwhite

tags: Masked Bobwhite, Colinus virginianus ridgwayi, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day Masked Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus ridgwayi) 700 (Nearly extinct in the wild, some 700 captive). Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view]. Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were photographed by the talented Joel Sartore here at National Geographic online. All images appear here by permission…

The Secret to Perfect Profile Pictures

tags: online advertising, Samsung, digital camera, MySpace, Facebook, blogs, profile pictures, streaming video This video clip is a hilarious ad for a Samsung digital camera that is aimed specifically at all of us online personalities. We all know the infamous "MySpace angle" of profile pictures, and who can ignore the slew of pouty-mouthed snapshots on Facebook? Well, universally flattering angle, the gig is up. Heck, even Samsung knows the tricks of the profile pic trade and calls out the most common photo maneuvers in a new ad. Quite clever, Samsung.

Politics and/of Science

The latest issue (Fall 2006) of the Social Research Journal has as its theme "Politics & Science: How their Interplay results in public policy", based on a recent conference. The table of contents looks very promising. Unfortunately, none of the articles are online (yet?), so I cannot comment on any one of them. The upcoming Winter issue also looks promising - the topic is "Politics and Science: An Historical View". I hope all the articles come online soon (with permalinks so we can link to them) so we can all read them and dissect them on our blogs.

Future of science publishing interview

A few weeks ago in Lindau, Lars Fischer (remember his guest post here?) sat me down with the digital audio recorder and conducted an interview - we talked for about an hour about Open Access, future of scientific publishing/papers/communication, etc. The article based on that interview is now online - you can read it here, but only if you can read German. Then you can tell me what is it that I actually said ;-) Update: the translation is now here. Update 2: The entire transcript is now available online/

Math 2.0 Webinar tonight

Tonight at 9:30pm, I will be the online guest of the Math 2.0 community, invited by Maria Droujkova, to talk about the organizational aspects of ScienceOnline2010 as they are interested in organizing something similar for the online math community. We'll do the webinar on Elluminate, so if you have not used it before you need to try to log in a few minutes ahead to go through all the hoops, downloads, etc. We'll be in this room - just click on the link and follow the directions. Make sure your volume is up.

OnLine Polls

tags: online poll, scienceblogs While we are talking about online polls, I'd like to point out that ScienceBlogs is conducting a poll on the right sideboard that they will use to improve the site based on reader feedback. Their poll is kinda fun and will only take about 5 minutes or so of your time to answer. Not only that, but you have the chance to win a free iPod nano in a drawing. Of course, I can't win this, because I am a SciBling, but I'd sure love it if one of my readers won!

Off-Road Velociraptor Safari Fun

tags: Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, online game Do you want to take a fun little break while you write your book report, your dissertation or even that big NSF or NIH grant? Well, now you can, by playing Off-Road Velociraptor Safari. In this online game, you are a raptor, and you drive around in a jeep, knocking over dinosaurs, smashing into stuff, and pulling off cool stunts. Seriously. Despite its technical limitations, Off-Road Velociraptor Safari is crazy enough to be fun. For raw dinosaur-based jeep-driving carnage, look no further.

How To Demolish Climate Denial

John Cook, of the University of Queensland, and his colleagues, have created a MOOC ... Massive Open Online Course ... called "Making Sense of Climate Science Denial." Why does this matter? How does it work? What can you do? All of these questions are answered here: University offering free online course to demolish climate denial. Fight sticky myths with even sticker sticklier facts. Do go check it out. See you in class! ___________________ Check out: The First Earth Day, an epoch journey into politics, explosions, folk music, and old boats floating on stinking rivers.…

Words That Make Me Cringe

Click Here for PollOnline Survey | Website Polls | Email Marketing | CrowdsourcingView MicroPoll

Of Radio Shows and Pirate Neurologists

Today I'll be talking for an hour about Soul Made Flesh on Minnesota public radio. You can listen to the broadcast live online at 11 am EST (the show will be archived). At 2 pm EST, you can listen online again when I talk on the Glen Mitchell show on Dallas public radio. Some thoughts on the intersection of evolution and global warming coming this afternoon. In the meantime, check out Pharyngula's check-box comparison of the similarities between Soul Made Flesh and Quicksilver. Damn, why did I leave out those pirate neurologists...?

More on clean feed opposition

At last the MSM seem to be picking it up. A Perth newsmagazine has reported it unfavourably (although are Xenophon and Fielding really waiting for the results, given they are major motivators of the idea?), and an online opinion site suggests that the ultimate source of this stupidity is Clive Hamilton and the Australia Institute, a reactionary "think tank", back in 2003. And a NSW Parliamentary Library report has challenged Conroy's claim, previously challenged by Greens Senator Scott Ludlum, that this is something already in place in various other countries. The report is available online…

Fornvännen's Winter Issue On-Line

Fornvännen 2013:4 is now on-line on Open Access. Ulf Ragnesten on an ornate late-1st millenium BC bronze chain belt from a cremation grave in a Gothenburg suburb. Lars Larsson and Bengt Söderberg on recent excavations at the huge 1st millennium AD royal manor complex of Uppåkra, with in situ arson victims found among the building remains. (Just like what has more recently been found at Sandby fort on Öland!) Pia Bengtsson Melin on recently found Romanesque mural fragments in Marka church in Västergötland. Anders Högberg et al. on scientific characterisation of flint from Polish and South…

Friday Fun: Welcome to My Massive Open Online Cult!

McSweeny's is brilliant at skewering fads. And there is no bigger fad in higher education than Massive Open Online Courses. MOOCs, as they are known. Now I'm not quibbling with whether or not MOOCs are an interesting and potentially extremely valuable addition to the landscape of higher education, because I think they are. What I find unfortunate is how completely so many in the general public/commentariat/tech guru class seem to have so thourougly fallen under the MOOC spell, seeing all their libertarian free market dreams coming true. Almost like a cult. Without any further ado: Welcome to…

Biotech Leader Amgen Joins Festival as Proud Sponsor

Amgen, a leader in biotechnology, and the Amgen Foundation are committed to supporting science education programs and are proud to be a sponsor of the USA Science & Engineering Festival to further encourage bright young minds to explore a future in science and strengthen science literacy. Jean L. Lim, President, Amgen Foundation "Amgen applauds the Festival for bringing together leaders in science education to create an exciting educational event for students and the community," said Jean J. Lim, president of the Amgen Foundation. "The Festival can leverage the passion and expertise…

4-H Program to Wow Students With its 'National Science Experiment' at Festival

We are proud to welcome 4-H - a long-time national youth development program which engages students in science, technology and other life skill experiences through "learning by doing" - as a partner in the USA Science and Engineering Festival. As part of their commitment to STEM programs for youth, 4-H will be exhibiting at the Festival and helping us get the word out about the Expo and the Kavli Science Video Contest. In advance of the USA Science & Engineering festival, 4-H will be hosting the third annual 4-H National Youth Science Day (NYSD). This 4-H event will engage youth from…

Tweetlinks, 10-25-09

Follow me on Twitter to get these, and more, in something closer to Real Time (all my tweets are also imported into FriendFeed where they are much more easy to search and comment on, as well as into my Facebook wall where they are seen by quite a different set of people): Collaboration across news organizations: National (climate) The Climate Countdown and Local (healthcare) Madison media launch All Together Now with a collaborative reporting project on health care. How to talk about human evolution to lay audience? Dawkins and Hewitt - John is onto something there, methinks.... Bachmann…

I am curious: Genomics gets personal in Second Life

Are you curious about Second Life? Next week you can satisfy your curiosity and learn about the personal genomics frontier at the same time. Bertalan Meskó announced that Erin Davis (science writer) and Joyce Tung (human geneticist) from 23andMe will be giving a presentation next week in Second Life on personalized genetics. As travel costs rise and traveling becomes harder, I think we'll see many more things happening in alternative places like Second Life. Virtual environments like this can make on-line communication entertaining in ways that conference calls and webinars can't. I may…

Why Blog?

My dear scibling and fellow big-nose European Bora, over at the one Sblog that comes before Aard in the alphabetical list, has "tagged me with a meme". That is, he has handed me a coat of chainmail. No, he's sent me a chain letter, with a blogging assignment. I usually don't bother about these things because a) I'm afraid to scare readers away, b) I don't find them very fun to write myself. But this time, the question is one that might actually be interesting to some people, and somebody posed it to me face-to-face recently. Why do I blog? As a hint, let me first quote from The Jet's latest…

Lessons for Science from NPR/PBS' Outreach Campaign

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has launched an ambitious new public outreach campaign that echoes many of the strategies I think science organizations and institutions can use to strengthen their public ties. The campaign recognizes that while public broadcasting has a mission to inform, the institution's perceived image and value often turns on social connections. Moreover, any national campaign needs an equally strong local component. As the online mag Current reports, the various print, broadcast and online components of the new campaign will revolve around a flexible concept, My…

scio10: Protocols: Gov’t 2.0

Anil Dash (first employee at SixApart (movabletype), long time blogger). Milestone â thereâs a blog on the White House website. Made statement that federal govât interest and use of new media â most interesting startup 2009. So then he set out to make it true. Govât picks experts, brings them in, listens to them for a bit in a closed door session, and then they go home. How can this be done more transparently using online tools. Expert Labs â part of AAAS.   ends up being really Govât bureaucracy has huge impact on science and technology innovation and use. Needs to be some translation.…

Harry Potter Book Shows Up In Philadelphia

So I'm on the computer, trying to figure out how to go to the Caribbean in the winter cheaply, cursing the airline blackout dates and only half listening to the evening news when suddenly I hear something about the new Harry Potter book...hot dang! There it is! In the flesh! or would that be in the pulp? Channel 6 ABC Action News had a story about a local family who received a package in the mail. The post office called them before they had even opened the package and asked them if they had received the Harry Potter book. "I don't know" said mom. She opened the package and sure…

The first course: a repeat

I'm teaching two classes this semester: one introductory course which is a repeat from last semester and one upper-level course with laboratory, which is a new prep. The intro course: I was reasonably happy with how this course went last semester, so by-and-large my goal is to put minimal preparation effort into the course. That said, I couldn't quite manage to leave the course alone. For details, venture below the fold. Last semester, I gave both on-line (blackboard) and in-class quizzes. It was a lot for both the students and me to keep track of. Plus, while the paper quizzes provided a…

A riboswitch regulates alternative splicing in eukaryotes!

A few days ago I wrote about Ron Breaker and Riboswitches, and today I was alerted to this really neat advanced online publication by the Breaker group on how a riboswitch in Neurospera regulates alternative splicing. Wow. So what is happening? When the fungi Neurospora crassa is exposed to thiamine, it takes up this vitamin B1 precursor and phosphorylates it to form thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP). This small metabolite then binds to an RNA element found within an intron in the NMT1 pre-mRNA. These RNA folds that bind to small molecules are called aptamers and when these aptamers regulate how…

Who da man?!?!

Via grrlscientist here is my EgoSurf result: 5715. You can check me: . Since this uses google I think that explains the high showing of grrlscientist and the low rank of Glenn Reynolds. I have noticed that some blogs are high driven by referrals from other blogs and others by by search engine traffic. My non-Seed weblog has always been driven by a large percentage of search engine traffic, and links come in from diverse sources (online class syllabii for example). More political blogs might be deriving their traffic from a tighter circle of sites and so don't come up as high as they…