Blogging
sciencewoman | October 14, 2007
Tomorrow's Mommy Monday post will have an environmental theme. Here's why:
This coming Monday, October 15th, many blogs will participate in the Environment-themed Blog Action Day.
On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone's mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.
Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means we need you! Here are 3 ways to participate:
* Post on your blog…
laelaps | October 14, 2007Neil has got the latest edition of The Boneyard up at microecos, complete with some fantastic artwork by Dan McCarthy. The next edition will be up in two weeks at the HMNH.
neurophilosophy | October 14, 2007A reader writes:
Dear Mo,
I want to quote your Brain in a Nutshell Essay. Can you please provide me some bibliographic data of this essay. I don't want to cite just Mo and a short-lived URL.
I was flattered to get this email, but I wasn't sure how to respond. I suggested something along these lines:
Costandi, M. (2007). The Brain in a Nutshell. Neurophilosophy Weblog. Retrieved on September 26, 2007, from http://scienceblogs.com/
neurophilosophy/2007/08/the_brain_in_a_nutshell.php
As luck would have it, the second edition of Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors…
clock | October 13, 2007I started teaching my BIO101 Lab this morning again. But this was the first: two of the students said: "Hey Mr.Z, we looked around the Web and learned a lot about you - A Blog Around The Clock, The Magic School Bus and now we have all the dirt on you!"
It was bound to happen - and it was fun, actually, a good ice-breaker for the beginning of the new class. Perhaps they will post comments here (please do). And I also pointed them to my classroom blog, as they are also taking the lecture portion with another faculty member at the same time.
clock | October 13, 2007I got tagged with this cool meme, demonstrating evolution in cyberspace:
There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...". Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:
* You can leave them exactly as is.
* You can delete any one question.
* You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is..." to "The best time travel…
neurophilosophy | October 13, 2007Fellow neuroscience blogger Shelley Batts is one of 20 finalists in the running for the Student Blogging Scholarship. She's up against some stiff competition for the $10,000 first prize, and is currently in 2nd place with about 20% of the votes.
For her Ph.D., Shelley is researching the degeneration of hair cells in the inner ear. So take a minute to vote for Shelley, because hers is the kind of work that could eventually lead to better treatments for the deaf and hard of hearing.
clock | October 12, 2007Jonathan Eisen, Rosie Redfield and Douglas Theobald destroy the especially egregious example of bad media reporting on the "function of appendix" paper.
Kate does not dance around the issue when discussing a study on the relationship between lapdancers' earnings and where they are in their monthly cycles.
Anne-Marie went into the caves and spent the day sexing bats
Did T.rex give us a finger? Two? Three?
The neurology of Alice in Wonderland - so cool!
In praise of yeast.
The Economy of Prestige (see: Nobel Prizes).
Math, Science and Art: Fibonacci Numbers, the Cochlea, and Poetry.
What is…
clock | October 12, 2007Alma Swan and Lawrence Lessig remind us that Creative Commons is celebrating its 5th birthday this December.
Alma writes:
Creative Commons (CC) is celebrating its 5th birthday. Lawrence Lessig has written to all supporters describing its 'dramatic' growth during the last quinquennium and yet acknowledging that as CC works to strengthen the underpinnings of participatory culture 'others are working equally hard to make sure culture remains proprietary'. Although this way of putting it is rather starkly black and white, and there remains a need for proper protection of creative rights in a…
clock | October 12, 2007A few days ago, I told you about this year's $10,000 scholarship for student bloggers. A few days later, the voting has been vigorous (and the competition somewhat heated!), and Shelley is currently in second place. You can help her get to the top by voting for her if you have not done so already. And certainly go and check out her wonderful blog!
aardvarchaeology | October 11, 2007A blogging and scientific experiment.
There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is ...".
Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:
You can leave them exactly as is.
You can delete any one question.
You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is..." to "The best time travel novel in Westerns is...", or "The best time travel movie in SF/…
aardvarchaeology | October 10, 2007The twenty-fifth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Remote Central. Tim is celebrating the carnival's first birthday, yay! Archaeology and anthropology to make you and take you for the ride of your life.
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.
laelaps | October 10, 2007It seems that I'm down with the memes again, for as I was searching for some Thoughts in a Haystack I managed to once again become infected. Indeed, John has asked me to put my money where my mouth is when it comes to throwing around words like "pseudoextinction" in reference to my blog, and hence here's a fitting meme about the "evolution" of Laelaps;
In order to understand from whence Laelaps sprang, we need to travel backwards through the mists of time to the tumultuous year 2006. On October 18th, 2006 I wrote my first "real" science-oriented blog post about the lack of understanding about…
clock | October 9, 2007You may remember, from several months ago, that Attila started a contest for the best designed lab web page.
Soon, the project became too big for a lone blogger to tackle. Especially after an article about this appeared on the online pages of Nature. So, as Attila announced today, the contest goes Big Time.
The Scientist is now hosting the official contest. Of course, Attila is one of the judges. Several web-pages have already been nominated and now it is your job to think of the best-designed, prettiest, most-functional and most up-to-date laboratory homepages and nominate them for the…
purepedantry | October 9, 2007The illustrious Shelley Batts, fellow ScienceBlogger and author of Retrospectacle, has been nominated for a blogging scholarship for yet another year -- she won some money last year as a runner -up.
Shelley is an excellent blogger and a truly fun chick, so if you have a free moment please go here to and cast a vote for her. Last year the political bloggers stole the whole thing, but I am certain that if we rally the science bloggers can take it this year.
sciencewoman | October 9, 2007By popular request, Minnow once again graces my banner. Click on over from your feeds and take a look.
clock | October 8, 2007Some good, thought-provoking reads about the Web, social networking, publishing and blogging:
Aggregating scientific activity
Social Networks at Work Promise Bottom-Line Results
Would limiting career publication number revamp scientific publishing?
The Public Library of Science group
The Seven Principles of Community Building
clock | October 8, 2007This is really suspicious - magic perhaps! Every time I make a wish (and whisper it in prayer to the, hushhhhh, super-secret gods of atheists) for a favourite blog to get invited to join Scienceblogs.com, that actually happens in a matter of a few days. Poof! Just like that. Just look at today - Brian Switek just moved his lovely Laelaps blog from the old site to the new place right here.
Dinosaurs. Lots of dinosaurs! And much other good stuff - evolution, history of science, book reviews, cool animals... He'll move his old legendary posts over to the new place gradually over time, so…
clock | October 8, 2007You may remember last year's contest, when my SciBling Shelley Batts was a Runner-up for the big prize.
The finalists for this year's $10,000 scholarship have just been announced and Shelley is one of the finalists again. Hopefully, this year she'll win.
And you can help her by voting for her.
clock | October 8, 2007The first week of the DonorsChoose fund-drive is up and the donations are coming in rapidly to a variety of school projects via my SciBlings' challenges.
You can check out all the projects picked by my SciBlings here and my own here.
You can get to my pledge also by clicking on the thermometer on my sidebar (scroll down a little bit) and watch how the mercury in all of our thermometers rise over time. As you can see, 37% of my challenge has already been funded!
Thank you so much! If you continue being so fast and generous and we reach our goal too soon, I will add more projects to…
clock | October 7, 2007Chris Clarke explains eloquently what is, essentially, my blog commenting policy (though I transgress on other people's blogs...sorry).
The Senate vote on the mandatory free access to NIH-funded research has been postponed, which gives you all a few more days to do your part!
John Dupuis interviews Richard Akerman. I met Richard at Scifoo, and John is coming to SBC. Both are science bloggers interested in new technologies and how they impact science libraries, so the interview is quite enlightening.
Dicyemida: Leading a double life - an invertebrate you probably never heard of, but if you…