Blogging
laelaps | November 6, 2007I apologize, dear readers, that today I probably won't be able to keep up with my more usual prolific rate of posting. The reasons for this today are as follows;
I have two major exams today, one in my "Soils & Water" "Soils and Society" class and my Computers midterm (which for some reason was scheduled to start at 10 PM).
I occasionally experience dizzy spells/lightheadedness during this time of the year, today being one of those days.
I have a weekly presentation to give tomorrow about meat-eating in early hominids that I haven't started yet. I have no doubt that I'll be able to…
neurophilosophy | November 5, 2007I've just found this rather annoying - and (I think) completely useless - blog called brain-master, whose content consists largely of the partial feed for this blog.
laelaps | November 5, 2007I'm a little late on this, but if you haven't already, head on over to Greg Laden's fancy new digs here at ScienceBlogs! Be sure to stop by the Sandwalk, too, as it's celebrating it's first blogiversary.
Update: Also, Chris is celebrating his 100th post with a brand new carnival about classification and systematics, Linnaeus' Legacy! Be sure to check out the taxonomic goodness.
Update the 2nd: Be sure to say "hi" to another brand new member of the ScienceBlogs community, The Quantum Pontiff, too.
clock | November 5, 2007Go say Hello to Greg Laden, the latest acquisition by the ever-expanding Scienceblogs Empire.
neurophilosophy | November 4, 2007This morning, I noticed that the number of subscribers displayed in my feed count (the orange rectangle on the left) had dropped drastically, from more than 800 to 415, and started wondering why my readers are unsubscribing en masse from my RSS feed. But it turns out that there has been a glitch in the subscriber stats from Google Feedfetcher stats: they were offline all day yesterday, and the service should return to normal tomorrow.
clock | November 4, 2007Yes, Weblog Awards are up again. Not everyone's favourite (as opposed to the Koufaxes), as they are easily freeped and one can find candidates who should not be there, i.e., blogs that have not written anything factual in years, e.g., right-wingers in political categories, pseudoscientists in science categories, medical quacks in medical categories, etc. So, the voting at Weblog Awards (which you can do daily) is more voting against than for in many categories. But there are certainly worthy finalists in many categories so it's worth your time to try to remember to vote. Here are my…
clock | November 3, 2007November is a National Novel Writing Month. Not all bloggers write novels, though, so some people proposed alternatives:
National Blog Writing Month (also known as National Blog Posting Month) and the International Dissertation Writing Month. The former is easy - post at least once a day throughout November (easy for me to say with my 8.2 posts per day average). The latter involves posting one's thesis-writing (or manuscript-writing or grant-writing) progress on the blog.
Anyone interested? Follow the links and sign up.
And to get your juices flowing, there is yet another debate about…
neurophilosophy | November 2, 2007
You may have noticed the small icon on the right displayed on yesterday's post about tracking moving objects and on Wednesday's post about the Brainbow genetic labelling system.
The icon denotes a post that includes a discussion on peer-reviewed research, and is intended to distinguish such posts from other posts that often appear on blogs. It (and several other similar icons) was designed for the Bloggers for the Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting (BPR3) initiative, which was spearheaded by Dave Munger.
Posts featuring the icons will be aggregated in categories at the BPR3 website, so that…
sciencewoman | November 2, 2007
The November edition of Scientiae, the women in science carnival, is up at Green Gabbro. Yami did a great job with the carnival, and I'm having fun reading all the great posts. I'm already looking forward to the call for posts for the December edition.
laelaps | November 1, 2007I still am a bit disappointed that I had to miss SVP this year, but fellow paleo-blogger Amanda has suggested that everyone who wants to attend the 2008 meeting put a little progress bar on their blog to remind themselves to start saving up for the trip (you can make your own using this word cash meter). I'm setting mine at $1,500, and although registration is only a fraction of this amount, I'm going to need to save a lot for gas, hotels, food, extra activities, the money I won't be making since I'll have to take off from work, and the armful of books I'm sure to come home with. Indeed, I'm…
neurophilosophy | November 1, 2007The 2007 Weblog Award finalists have just been announced, but for some reason, the list does not include links to the blogs. So here are the finalists in the Best Science Blogs category:
SciGuy
Junk Science
In the Pipeline
Journey by Starlight
Pharyngula
Bad Astronomy
Invasive Species Weblog
ScienceBase
Climate Audit
Bootstrap Analysis
purepedantry | October 31, 2007
I don't know if you caught it on these two posts, but I have started to add the Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research Icon whenever I am analyzing a peer-reviewed paper specifically.
These icons were created by bloggers, including Sciblings Dave Munger, Mike Dunford, and John Wilkins, with the intent of clearly delineating when we are talking about peer-reviewed research, with the general aim of improving the quality of reportage on this research.
If you are a blogger and use peer-reviewed research, I encourage you to check out their site to see how you can include these buttons. Here are the…
laelaps | October 31, 2007Creature-features are fun to watch any time of the year, but they're an absolute must on Halloween. Although there are many excellent SF and horror films to choose from, this year I'm going to have to pick John Carpenter's The Thing.
Based on the Don A. Stuart (AKA John W. Campbell, Jr.) story "Who Goes There?" The Thing is a blend of several horror-film styles that leaves the audience guessing as to who's human and who is not. Set at an Antarctic field station, the film tells the story of the crew encountering an alien that can imitate any living form after the slightest of contact, the…
neurophilosophy | October 30, 2007My post on the ethnobiology of voodoo zombification has just been translated into Greek.
As far as I know, this is the second time something I've written has been translated into another language. (There's also an Italian translation of my post on Phineas Gage.)
clock | October 29, 2007Mo the Neurophilosopher awarded me with a coveted prize - the Intellectual Blogger Award, bestowed to....
...those bloggers who demonstrate an inclination to think on their own. This is what I think is needed in today's blogosphere. The term 'Intellectual' has often been derided in recent times, and this is one way to resurrect the true meaning: "An intellectual is one who tries to use his or her intellect to work, study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas."
So, although this may be for the old stuff and the way my blog used to be…
clock | October 29, 2007If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may have seen this, this and this, i.e., an effort to design an icon that a blogger can place on the top of a post that discusses peer-reviewed research. The icon makes such posts stand out, i.e., the readers will know it is not a discussion of a press release or media reporting, or fisking of a crackpot, a meme, or showing a cute animal picture.
So, I am please to announce that the icons are here! Dave Munger explains.
Pick up the codes for icons on this page. Carefully read the Guidelines before you start using the icon.
See who is using the…
clock | October 28, 2007Back at ConvergeSouth, Leonard Witt did several short video interviews with cool participants.
Among others, you should definitely see brief interviews with Anton Zuiker, Kirk Ross and Ruby Sinreich.
clock | October 27, 2007As usual, some get it, some don't:
Facebook-ing Philanthropy:
Social networks like Facebook that closely resemble users' off-line social life could shake up philanthropy. Even if large organizations don't immediately launch a cause on their own, any Facebook member can start one on its behalf. There have so far been 77 causes launched for UNICEF alone, raising some $11,000 for the fund. "We think it's great that our friends and supporters have done this on their own on our behalf," says spokeswoman Kristi Burnham.
More revolutionary still, social networks are creating a direct relationship…
aardvarchaeology | October 26, 2007The twenty-sixth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at The Primate Diaries. Archaeology and anthropology to rusticate your masonry and bevel your edges until your mind dissolves in bliss.
The next open hosting slot is on 5 December. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me. No need to be an anthro pro -- come as you are.