Blogging
clock | February 22, 2010I arrived in San Diego on Thursday night and checked in my hotel that was 6 miles away, almost in Mexico - I could see the lights of Tijuana from the hotel. I had to take a cab each morning and evening.
On Friday morning, I got up bright and early and came to the convention center, lugging my huge and heavy laptop with me. And that was the first surprise of the day - there was no wifi anywhere in the Convention Center, and almost no power outlets anywhere: something I am not used to as the meetings I tend to go to are pretty techie and take care of such details.
Not even speakers/panelists…
clock | February 22, 2010Go say Hi to the newest addition to Scienceblogs.com, Claire L. Evans at Universe.
Check out the archives of Claire's old blogs Universe and Space Canon. Lots of Science Fiction!!!!
aardvarchaeology | February 22, 2010The 87th Four Stone Hearth blog carnival will run at the Anthropology in Practice on Wednesday. Submit great recent stuff to Krystal, your own or somebody else's. Anything anthro or archaeo goes!
The next open hosting slot is already on 10 March. If you're a blogger with an interest in the anthro/archaeo field, drop me a line! No need to be a pro.
awild | February 18, 2010
The inaugural blog carnival celebrating the Beetles is now online- go see!
jdupuis | February 17, 2010A bit of self-promotion. Forgive me. I'll be brief.
My TAIGA fisking post from a while back is featured prominently in Walt Crawford's most recent Cites & Insights (March 2010) (pdf, html) with quite a bit of value-added comment from Walt on TAIGA, the Darien Statements and other topics. Thanks, Walt.
I'm flattered to be mentioned in Graham Lavender's presentation at the recent Web2.You conference in Montreal. His very fine presentation was on Blogs and Twitter for Individuals and Institutions. No doubt referring to my 2008 presentation at Web2.You, on slide 3 he mentions that "…
awild | February 16, 2010I am impressed. Several of you* figured out the mystery behavior: reflex bleeding, a defensive response employed by some arthropods with especially nasty hemolymph to deter predators. A couple of you even pegged the identity of the mystery arthropod, a blister beetle in the genus Epicauta. Here's the uncropped photo:
An Epicauta blister beetle reflex bleeds when grasped with forceps.
Five points each to Tim, Ainsley, Neil, and Dave. And, ten points each to Pete and TGIQ.
So. Um. Don't spend them all in one place...
Posing on a mesquite flower.
*what's up with all the guessers-of-mysteries…
jstemwedel | February 16, 2010On the post where I asked you what made you feel welcome to comment on blogs and polled you on what would make you unlikely to comment on a post, friend of the blog Eva notes in a comment:
One of the bloggers at nature network is currently polling (silent) readers about what makes them not comment. Registration requirements are in first place at the moment, followed by the mysterious "another reason", so I'm curious to hear what the other reasons were, and whether they overlap with anything from your poll!
So, in the interests of sharing the information gathered by my (decidedly…
clock | February 14, 2010A few days ago, I asked what it takes for a young person to start and, more importantly, continue for a longer term, to write a science blog. The comment thread on that post is quite enlightening, I have to say - check it out.
What is more important - that post started a chain-reaction on Twitter and blogs. Arikia Millikan, herself a young blogger, wrote a post in response which also attracted a lot of interesting comments. Go and comment.
Mason Posner wrote not one, but two posts in response: Science blogging in the classroom, an update and Young science bloggers need community. Go and…
jstemwedel | February 13, 2010I'm not looking for a general theory of what sets up the right room for dialogue as opposed to an argument, nor even for a fine grained analysis of whether dialogue or argument is what most blog readers and commenters are looking for.
If you're reading this post, I'm interested in knowing what you prefer.
First, a quick poll (where you can choose all the answers that apply):
I'm unlikely to comment on a blog post where(polls)
What puts you off of commenting on a blog? What conditions make you feel welcome to comment -- indeed, set up an irresistible urge to jump in and participate?
Or,…
jstemwedel | February 12, 2010Matthew C. Nisbet put up a post today titled The Right Room for a Dialogue: New Policy on Anonymous Comments
. In it, he writes:
I've long questioned the value of anonymous blogging or commenting. Much of the incivility online can be attributed to anonymity. And with a rare few exceptions, if you can't participate in a dialogue about issues without using your full name and true identity, then what you have to say is probably not that valuable.
These long standing thoughts were called to mind again after reading a post by Andrew Revkin at Dot Earth. Quoting as the subject to his post a line…
clock | February 11, 2010Mason Posner is a professor of Biology at Ashland University in Ohio. He also blogs on A Fish Eye View (though I notice he did not update it in a while). About a year ago, and inspired by some discussions emanating from ScienceOnline'09, he decided to try using blogs in his teaching. He did it last spring. And he is doing it again this spring.
You can check out his Marine Biology Course class blog, where he and the students are all posting in one place.
But also check out his Senior Capstone course in Biology and its class blog - he is the only one blogging there - the students are required…
jstemwedel | February 10, 2010Earlier today, I had this conversation with my better half.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: (with a look of deep concern) So, I saw something in your post today.
Dr. Free-Ride: Oh? (Wondering if a heinous typo got through cursory attempts at editing)
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: Yes.
Dr. Free-Ride: What?
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: In the photo.
Dr. Free-Ride: Oh, that blogiversary cake!
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: Yes. Where is it?
Dr. Free-Ride: You may not remember, but that was actually what we used to celebrate the fourth blogiversary last year.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: There were…
aardvarchaeology | February 10, 2010The eighty-sixth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Testimony of the Spade. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology!
Submissions for the next carnival will be sent to Krys at Anthropology in Practice. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. The next vacant hosting slot is on 10 March. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro.
And don't miss Ed Yong's piece on the first genome for a prehistoric human, a Bronze Age Greenlander who's spent 4000 years in permafrost!
awild | February 10, 2010It's no secret to anyone with an email inbox that the real internet is shadowed by a fake internet. The fake internet is full of fake blogs, fake web sites, fake discussion forums, and fake emails. All full of real links to real companies who pay someone money to increase their visibility by gaming the Google rankings using vast and vacuous link farms.
Anyway. I usually ignore this parallel universe, but this morning I found something entertaining and ant-related. Repeated instances of what looks like a bad student essay were splashed across dozens of sites in the spamoverse, each with…
aardvarchaeology | February 10, 2010It's de-lurking time again! If you're a regular Aard reader who never comments, or if you do comment but have an inkling that I may not know who you are, then please comment on this entry and tell us a few words about yourself. Also, questions and suggestions for blog entries are much appreciated.
jstemwedel | February 10, 2010Five years ago today, I put up the first post on a blog that was mean to capture the overflow of discussions and ideas from my "Ethics in Science" class. Back then, I wasn't entirely sure that I'd manage to maintain the blog through the end of the semester.
It just goes to show you that you can't always tell which of the things you try will become sustainable practices (although maybe the ones that don't involve exercise equipment have better odds).
On the occasion of my fifth blogiversary, I'm reflecting on a question posed by BlogHer upon BlogHer's 5th anniversary:
What are five…
aardvarchaeology | February 8, 2010The 86th Four Stone Hearth blog carnival will run at the Testimony of the Spade on Wednesday. Submit great recent stuff to Magnus, your own or somebody else's. Anything anthro or archaeo goes!
The next open hosting slot is on 10 March. If you're a blogger with an interest in the anthro/archaeo field, drop me a line! No need to be a pro.
laelaps | February 4, 2010I got a pretty nice surprise yesterday morning; Laelaps was listed as one of the "Top 30 Science Blogs" by the Times science magazine Eureka! I was proud to see this blog featured alongside those of Scicurious, Ed, Carl, David, Sheril, Bora, and many of the others who made the list. Even better, Eureka wants to expand the list to include the top 100 science blogs, so be sure to send in your nominations for the best of the best to eureka@thetimes.co.uk, with "Best blogs" in the subject line.
And, as Ed already said, Times science editor Mark Henderson deserves three cheers (and a bit more) for…
emjohnson | February 4, 2010Deconstructing Social Darwinism, Part I
Deconstructing Social Darwinism, Part II
Deconstructing Social Darwinism, Part III
How Can Haiti Be Sustainable?
Uniting Primates and Cetaceans Through Personhood
Bonobos and the Emergence of Culture
Civility, Science Communication, and the White Patriarchy
Robert Sapolsky on the Uniqueness of Humans
Deconstructing Social Darwinism, Part IV
The Huffington Post Publishes the Craziest Things