Blogging
clock | July 19, 2010It is with great regret that I am writing this. Scienceblogs.com has been a big part of my life for four years now and it is hard to say good bye.
Everything that follows is my own personal thinking and may not apply to other people, including other bloggers on this platform. The new contact information is at the end of the post, but please come back up here and read the whole thing - why I feel like I must leave now.
Sb beginnings
Scienceblogs.com started back in January 2006. On that day, several of my favourite science bloggers moved to this new site, posting the URL on their farewell…
jstemwedel | July 19, 2010In what is surely a contender for the photo next to the "business as usual in the blogosphere" entry in the Wiktionary, a (male) blogger has posted a list of the sexiest (all-but-one female) scientists (using photos of those scientists obtained from the web without any indication that he had also obtained proper permission to use those photos in his post), and now the blogger says he wants to know what could possibly be wrong about making such a post.
Because no one has ever taken the time to explain this issues in any detail. (You'd think someone who knew how to search for images could…
aardvarchaeology | July 19, 2010Over the past 4½ years I've made a habit of calling out on my blog whenever I've planned trips abroad, in the hope of meeting up with readers. As far as I can remember, the only times when this has actually led to any meetings were two years ago when I went to a) a science blogging conference, b) a skeptics' conference. Those encounters would have taken place regardless of whether I'd shouted about my trips here beforehand or not.
So now I'm taking the opposite approach. Instead of first deciding to go somewhere for a non-blog-related reason and then hoping to meet readers there, I've used…
aardvarchaeology | July 17, 2010The 97th Four Stone Hearth blog carnival will run at Zenobia: Empress of the East on Wednesday. Submit great recent stuff to Judith, your own or somebody else's. Anything anthro or archaeo goes!
The next open hosting slot is already on 18 August. If you're a blogger with an interest in the anthro/archaeo field, drop me a line! No need to be a pro.
jdupuis | July 12, 2010For now, at least.
My natural inclinations about this whole mess are probably closest in nature to either Chad Orzel's or Jason Rosenhouse's, so reading them will probably give you a pretty close idea of where I stand. Bora, not surprisingly, has collected a lot of the reaction.
I also really like what Christie Wilcox has to say:
Let me make it clear, though - I don't blame anyone for leaving. I don't hold it against them. While I may not have had the same visceral reaction they did, I also haven't been here that long. I haven't dealt with this kind of mismanagement and gotten fed up about…
clock | July 10, 2010I will not be saying anything about PepsiCo thing myself yet. I do have opinions (and decisions that come from them), but I am not revealing anything until I am ready (and it may end up being one of those horribly long posts, who knows).
But in the meantime I can put together this linkfest, so you can have a one-spot-shopping place for all the key posts about the event. I don't think this is a complete collection, and I could not order them in a chronological order (too much work, so the order is random) but close enough - the key posts/articles are here, and the comment sections are very…
aardvarchaeology | July 8, 2010
In the past few days I have received four e-mails from Adam Bly, founder and proprietor of Seed Media Group and Scienceblogs. OK, they were group mail sent to all the SciBlings, but four e-mails from him is more than I have received before in 3½ years at Sb. And now Adam has become a SciBling himself, writing at Science is Culture. Head on over and make him feel welcome! I'm going to follow the new blog with keen interest. Folks here have wished for a long time that they knew better what Adam is thinking.
aardvarchaeology | July 7, 2010I reacted to the news about the Pepsiblog debacle with a cynical smirk and a sinking feeling in my stomach. Though I am interested in health-related and environmental issues, they are not at the forefront of my blogging or my professional life. Of course it hurts the Sb brand and Sb's journalistic credibility when the Overlords sell centre-column space to an agribusiness junk-food multinational. PepsiCo would be controversial among the SciBlings even if they just advertised in the sidebar. But to someone writing mainly about Scandy archaeology, skepticism, books and music, it's not such a big…
jdupuis | July 7, 2010So, PepsiCo has started up a new blog here on ScienceBlogs called Food Frontiers.
From the profile:
PepsiCo's R&D Leadership Team discusses the science behind the food industry's role in addressing global public health challenges. This is an extension of PepsiCo's own Food Frontiers blog.
This blog is sponsored by PepisCo. All editorial content is written by PepsiCo's scientists or scientists invited by PepsiCo and/or ScienceBlogs. All posts carry a byline above the fold indicating the scientist's affiliation and conflicts of interest.
From the introductory post:
On behalf of the team…
laelaps | July 7, 2010Important Update: The time has come to close things up here. I will no longer be blogging for ScienceBlogs.com. I am not sure where Laelaps will end up - perhaps back on Wordpress, perhaps elsewhere - but you can be sure that I will keep on writing about saber-toothed cats, whales that walked, early humans, and other cool bits of paleontology. With any luck, I will be able to confirm my plans in a few days. Keep your eyes on my author website or follow me on Twitter to find out where I'll be headed next. This is not farewell - just a brief break in transmission.
By now you have probably heard…
emjohnson | July 7, 2010I'll be taking a break from blogging for the time being because I said I would. Follow me on twitter or facebook to keep tabs on what I'm up to.
For more on this see here, here, and related issues here. But I'm sure everything is different now.
aardvarchaeology | July 7, 2010The ninety-sixth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Testimony of the Spade. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology!
The next vacant hosting slot is already on 4 August 21 July. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro.
emjohnson | July 6, 2010At ScienceBlogs we value our independence. Just consider the recent posts over the laughable PepsiCo nutrition blog to see how seriously people take this. But one thing that would never happen is for anything we write to be edited without our consent.
As I wrote yesterday, I am disappointed in the Huffington Post's decision to grant a public stage to David Klinghoffer, Senior Fellow at the intelligent design "think tank" known as the Discovery Institute. DI is a self-avowed propaganda vehicle seeking to "wedge" religion into public schools. Once HuffPo handed him the megaphone…
awild | July 6, 2010And while you're doing that, I have answered the Monday Mystery back at my tried and true wordpress blog.
I will be blogging at the old digs for the next few days until I have had time to digest the unfortunate recent events here at Scienceblogs. What's going on? I'll let my excellent sciblings explain:
GrrlScientist
Mark Chu-Carroll
Thoughtful Animal
PalMD
Dr. Free-Ride
***update and clarification*** I have reached no decision about the future location of Myrmecos blog.
I like some things about Scienceblogs. Their openness in letting bloggers air this sort of dirty laundry out in…
jstemwedel | July 6, 2010Today ScienceBlogs launched a new sponsored blog, Food Frontiers. The sponsor is PepsiCo. Here's the description of what the blog is going to be about from its inaugural post by Sb overlord Evan Lerner:
On behalf of the team here at ScienceBlogs, I'd like to welcome you to Food Frontiers, a new project presented by PepsiCo.
As part of this partnership, we'll hear from a wide range of experts on how the company is developing products rooted in rigorous, science-based nutrition standards to offer consumers more wholesome and enjoyable foods and beverages. The focus will be on innovations in…
aardvarchaeology | July 5, 2010The 96th Four Stone Hearth blog carnival will run at 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 already on 21 July. If you're a blogger with an interest in the anthro/archaeo field, drop me a line! No need to be a pro.
laelaps | July 4, 2010
"Worker Bee" by Motion City Soundtrack
I have been writing here at ScienceBlogs.com for about two years and nine months now. Some of you have been reading my posts since I started here (thank you for sticking with me!), but readers come and go over time, and so I am jumping on board with the "Who are you?" meme recently restarted by DrugMonkey, Pal, Janet, Bora, and Jason.
Everyone is asking different questions of their readers - some more detailed ones than others - but I think I'll keep it relatively simple: who are you (feel free to comment anonymously or under a pseud, and be as…