Blogging

Via Bora Zivkovic, I see that there's a new blog in town -- this one devoted to the joys of scientists blogging to advance their work. It's called Science of Blogging and it's by Peter Janiszewski and Travis Saunders who blog at Obesity Panacea. I'll let them explain their mission: Social media provides a tremendous outlet by which to translate and promote scientific knowledge and engage the public discourse. All scientists, researchers, clinicians, government and not-for-profit organizations have much to gain by adopting an effective and viable social media strategy. Science of Blogging will…

THANKS to those of you who've been in touch asking why I haven't been blogging lately. Rest assured that I'm still very much alive and kicking - I put the blog on ice temporarily to work on several other projects, and will start updating it regularly in the near future. I've written something special to make up for my prolonged absence, and will post that sometime in the next few days. I may also have one or more big announcements. Meanwhile, you might like to read the articles I've written for The Guardian. I've been writing for their science blog on a roughly fortnightly basis since…

A week or two ago, in a comment on the Blogging Groups and Ethics post, I lamented that I always seem to be reading the same librarianish blogs, not mixing it up too much. I wished that we might have a blogging community to assemble around, or at least a good aggregator. Well, Bora Zivkovic challenged me in the comments to at very least aggregate scitech librarian blogs for the ScienceBlogging.org site. It's taken me a while, but I've done it. Using the list I previously created for the List of Science & Technology Librarian Blogs I created a Friendfeed group which Bora has since…

The latest Cites & Insights (v10i11) is out and in it Walt Crawford explores some of the recent developments in the blogging landscape in a section called The Zeitgeist: Blogging Groups and Ethics. It's a very good overview and analysis of what's going on both in the science and librarian blogospheres. It's well worth checking out. Some highlights: Blogging Groups and Ethics Do you blame Roy Tennant when the Annoyed Librarian writes posts that undermine librarianship and libraries? I'm guessing you don't. Whoever the Library Journal incarnation of the Annoyed Librarian might or might…

Your Hate Mail Will be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008 is a collection of John Scalzi's favourite posts from the first decade of his blog's existence. And it's quite a collection too -- of course one that is best taken in short doses, one or two posts per day over a longish period of time. Just like you you consume a blog. Scalzi started Whatever way back in 1998 and since then it's become one of the most popular science fiction author blogs out there. His mixture of humour, politics and just general zaniness is hard to resist. Most of all, Scalzi is passionate, he has a strong…

The Four Stone Hearth blog carnival lives on without a hitch thanks to Afarensis, its new editor! The one hundred and first instalment is on-line at Sapien Games. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! Let me remind you, though, that "sapiens" is not a plural.

I know I'm sure as hell having a hard time keeping up with all the comings and goings. If anything, the impression is probably that the lights are practically out and we're all singing Old Lang Syne. This, of course, is far from the case. The lights are still on, we're most of us blogging away. Here's a list compiled from the Blog Index page and from the drop down on every page. I'm also only including reasonably active blogs, ones with posts since January 1, 2010. WCG Common Sense has also provided a nice graphical representation of some of the recent science blogospheric ebbs and flows…

Yet another science blogging community: Wired Science Blogs. From Meet the New Wired Science All-Star Bloggers: At Wired Science we are always looking for new ways to deliver you more science and more awesome. Starting today, we are bringing on a group of hand-picked, superstar science bloggers to help us do just that. *snip* We hope Wired will give these bloggers the platform and attention they deserve and help bring quality science blogging to the forefront of science discussion across the web. In recent weeks, several science blogging networks have sprung up, including PLoS blogs,…

Maybe you have already seen an announcement, or maybe this is the first time you heard that wired.com is starting a new science blogs section. Oh yeah, and they invited me to join. So, I did. This brings a couple of important notes. First, this will obviously be my last post at scienceblogs.com. You might want to change your blogroll and rss reader to the new address: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/dotphysics And RSS feed at http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/category/dot-physics/feed Note that other than the address and different banner, everything will pretty much be the same. Second,…

The last little while has seen an amazing proliferation of science blogging communities. Scientopia, Guardian Science Blogs and PLoS Blogs are only the three most recent that I know of. I think it's great -- the more the merrier I say. Of course, as networks take up more and more space in the science blogging ecosystem it seems to me that independent bloggers might feel isolated or under pressure or neglected some how. I don't think that will be a huge problem as independents will continue to thrive in niches large and small and will continue to draw audiences to what they have to say.…

Yes, YASBC. Yet another science blogging community. Welcome to PLoS Blogs! From the introductory post: Today we are pleased to announce the launch of PLoS Blogs a new network for discussing science in public; covering topics in research, culture, and publishing. PLoS Blogs is different from other blogging networks, because it includes an equal mix of science journalists and scientists. We're excited to be welcoming our new bloggers, including Pulitzer Prize winner Deborah Blum to the network. *snip* Our scientists: Take As Directed: David Kroll, Ph.D. is a cancer pharmacologist who…

The 100th Four Stone Hearth blog carnival will run here at Aard on Wednesday. Submit great recent stuff to me, your own or somebody else's. Anything anthro or archaeo goes!

Here is my plan. Post a "what is this" on every Friday until I run out of things. I will post the answer on Tuesday. Maybe we should start keeping points. You get more points for being the first one to get it right. You lose points for getting it wrong. Last week was easy, but I think this is more of an appropriate level. Here it is: Nice - it has a tag, but no part number. Honestly, this one stumped me for a while. If you have any reasonable questions, I might answer them.

Here's a list of the reasonably active Science & Technology library blogs I know about. I've not included medical library blogs in this post because it's not a field I'm all that knowledgeable about. That list would make a great post in it's own right, but it's not this one. My definition of "scitech librarian blog" is pretty loose (even on the librarian part of it), but in this case I think casting a fairly wide net is probably the best plan of action. In no particular order: Science Intelligence and InfoPros by Herve Basset Christina's LIS Rant by Christina Pikas Book of Trogool by…

Austria seems like a nice place to visit - I have never been there. However, I am not going to Salzburg (even though I said I was). The original plan was for WOMWorld/Noika to fly me to visit Felix and the Red Bull Stratos team. It was an exciting plan. Now there is a new plan. The new plan is for me to instead go to the ACTUAL Red Bull Stratos Jump. I know it is not Salzburg, but in my mind this is a huge upgrade. Ok, I can't help it. This is the first thing that came to my mind. Me: But I thought I was going to Austria. We had a deal. WOMWorld/Nokia: I am altering the deal. Pray I…

Perhaps you have had enough time to think about the first "What is this" demo item. Here is the item in question. It seems most of you were right on track with this one - probably because you can still buy such a device. This thingy launches a small ball horizontally while at the same time dropping a ball. It is supposed to show that the vertical and horizontal components of an object in projectile motion are independent. It takes two balls (which I didn't have when I took the picture). One ball goes on each end and the arm is pulled back. Update: Thanks to Kevin and Frank for pointing…

Let's play a game. I think this will be fun. So, a couple of years ago I had the duty of organizing the physics demo room (well, "demo" is maybe not the best term). This room is quite large and there is a whole bunch of stuff in here, some of the items are very old. There were lots of items that I knew exactly what they were. But, there were other items that made me go 'huh?'. So, here I will post an item. You post a comment regarding what you think it is and what it is used for. Some of these items I know the answer to, some I do not. Some of these pictures might just be part of a…

Check it out: Scienceblogging.org. On twitter too! Thanks to Dave Munger, Bora Zivkovic and Anton Zuiker for coming up with what we've all been waiting for -- a way to keep track of all the new science blogging networks that have been sprouting up everywhere lately. From Bora's Drumroll, please! Introducing: Scienceblogging.org: But over the last month or two, the world of science blogging changed. Scienceblogs.com is there, big and good, but not as dominant as it once was. Other existing networks suddenly became more interesting and more visible. They started growing. New networks got…

The ninety-ninth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at A Very Remote Period Indeed. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology!

The 99th Four Stone Hearth blog carnival will run at A Very Remote Period Indeed on Wednesday. Submit great recent stuff to Julien, your own or somebody else's. Anything anthro or archaeo goes! The next open hosting slot is on 15 September. If you're a blogger with an interest in the anthro/archaeo field, drop me a line! No need to be a pro.