Blogging
purepedantry | June 26, 2006Matthew Yglesias has a great satire on the hysterionics in the MSM about blogging:
The world, then, has recently been dangerously lacking in "-ofascist" (or perhaps O'Fascist, like in Ireland) threats. Thankfully, New Republic culture critic Lee Siegel has now uncovered the most insidious threat of all: Bloggers. "The blogosphere," he told us last week, "radiates democracy's dream of full participation" but is, in fact, "hard fascism with a Microsoft face." Some thought Siegel was engaging in a little ill-advised overstatement. But no. The bold truth-teller was all-too-serious, as he revealed…
clock | June 24, 2006If you like my banner, you should also go and see what Carel did for his own blog! Gorgeous!
clock | June 23, 2006Just check out these recent posts by Karmen, Afarensis, Afarensis again, PZ and Tara.
clock | June 23, 2006Josh Rosenau tagged me with the 4 Meme and I cannot say No. Here it is:
4 jobs you've had (note: I've got a lot to choose from-29, to be exact):
1. Horse trainer and riding instructor
2. Translator of Disney comic-strips from English to Serbian
3. Assistant to the Handicapper and Racing Secretary, as well as the Finish-line judge at the Belgrade Racecourse
4. Biology teacher at various levels to various kinds of students at various schools.
4 movies you could watch over & over:
1. Enter The Dragon
2. Hair
3. Aristocats
4. Coyote Ugly
4 places you've lived:
1. Belgrade, Yugoslavia
2.…
clock | June 22, 2006I went to the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Bloggers Meetup today. Most of the usual suspect opted out tonight, so there were only four of us there, but that did not make it any less interesting.
Who was there? Jackson Fox, Dave Johnson, David Warlick and myself.
What did we talk about? I talked about how great it was for me to move to SEED's stable of science bloggers.
We talked about the future of book publishing and science publishing, about aggregating science-related blogging, about the BarCampRDU unconference, and the new way to blog a conference.
If you follow all of those links above, you…
clock | June 22, 2006This is one hundredth post since I moved to scienceblogs.com! Wow - that was fast! And only nine of those are re-published old posts from old blogs.
OK, tomorrow at noon will be the second septidieversary (two weeks, OK?) of this blog. Time to take stock again.
I got 183 comments in two weeks! Thank you all - that is great! Only a few of those I had to dig out of the Junk Folder. The spam-prevention software appears to be working just fine, especially for Trackbacks.
This blog is ranked 8th out of SEED scienceblogs in the total amount given by readers to the DonorsChoose educational…
clock | June 21, 2006I am a science teacher. I think I am actually a pretty good science teacher. So, it came to me as a surprise as how much I was baffled by the new SEED AskTheScienceBlogger question:
What makes a good science teacher?...
The answer, I guess, depends on the precise definitions of the words "makes", "good", "science" and "teacher".
[read the rest under the fold]
Is this the question about inherent talents shared by the good science teachers, or the methods one may use to turn a lousy or mediocre teacher into a good one?
Being extroverted helps. Being a natural performer helps. Loving…
clock | June 21, 2006My post about sleep has been translated by Davide 'Folletto' Casali into Italian, and posted on his blog. You can see the translated post here. If you can read Italian (and even you do not - just for fun, and to reward his hard work), go and look around his blog.
clock | June 18, 2006The Tar Heel Tavern (carnival of North Carolina blogging) #69 is up on Poetic Acceptance, and, as the number implies, the theme is Reciprocity.
In other news, Rivka of 'Respectful of Otters' is back from a long hiatus and is blogging again.
clock | June 15, 2006The new question-of-the-week was just beemed down from the mothership:
How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically?
I do not have a day job! I am a stay-at-home dad.
I occasionally teach - but that is either on Saturday mornings (lab) or evenings (once a week), so that does not take too much time. Preparation also does not take much time.
I am supposed to be writing my Dissertation, but I've been very, very lazy for far too long. Most of the writing and…
clock | June 15, 2006Janet has the update on our educational fundraiser. People are pitching in, a little bit of money at a time. But....but, where are my readers?! Only $10 so far?! Come on - I know you can do better than that! Click here:
Help public school kids through my DonorsChoose challenge!
clock | June 11, 2006 Want this badge?
The newest edition of the Carnival of the Godless is up on The Atheist Mama. If you are unfamilirar with this carnival, check out the Archives here.
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Also, if you are interested in local blogging, check out The Tar Heel Tavern, a blog carnival of North Carolina bloggers. The latest edition is up on 2sides2ron.
clock | June 10, 2006If Janet says something, we better listen! So, a little introduction is in place:
3 reasons you blog about science:
At the time when the Age of Reason is under assault, every effort must be made to make science accessible and understandable to as many people as possible. I'd like to think of myself as a small part of that effort.
Blogging about politics distracts me from my Dissertation writing. Blogging about science inspires to me to try to finish as soon as possible, go back to the lab and re-join the reseacrh community.
It is generally a good idea to blog, at least sometimes, about…