Blogging
clock | July 24, 2007Yesterday, I extricated myself from PLoS for lunch, because I really wanted to go and meet one of my most regular readers and commenters, who goes around here as Michelle. We had a most delightful conversation over lunch at Jack Falstaff and pictures (which, of course, include Professor Steve Steve) are under the fold:
clock | July 21, 2007Let's start with some Essential Facebook Readings of the day:
The Facebook Juggernaut...bitch!
Where are Facebook's Early Adopters Going?
Hmmm, Facebook: a new kind of press release
All your widgets are belong to Facebook
Why We're Like a Million Monkeys on Treadmills
Facebook: the new data black hole
What would get me (and others) to shut up about Facebook?
Why I Dropped Scoble and Seceded from the Hunt for Newer Shinier Things
My predictions for the near future, and I'll explain them below:
1) In a Clash Of Titans, Google turns iGoogle into something better than Facebook. Facebook is…
clock | July 21, 2007Duke University, after years of being behind the curve, is now striving mightily to establish itself as a leader in online science communication. As a recent news article shows, the school is activelly encouraging its students to keep blogs and make podcasts.
I have already mentioned Sarah Wallace and her blog about genomics research in Chernobyl.
Nicholas Experience is a blogging/podcasting group working on environmental science (OK, Sheril is their most famous blogger, but she did it herself, without being prompted by the Nicholas Institute).
At the Howard Hughes Precollege Program…
clock | July 21, 2007Bjorn is going to the 8th International Congress of Neuroethology (ICN) in Vancouver this week (and I am so jealous, as the 1st Gordon Conference in Neuroethology was one of the most memorable meetings I ever attended and, IMHO, that is the coolest research in all of science). Any other bloggers going there? I'd like to compile a linkfest if there are a few more bloggers there who produce sufficient material over the next week.
neurophilosophy | July 21, 2007The Angry Toxicologist has just joined ScienceBlogs, so go and say hello.
ScienceBlogs also has a Cheerful Oncologist, so I'm wondering who'll be next to join their ranks. Will it be a disgruntled pharmacologist? A despondent dermatologist? Or pherhaps an exultant gynaecologist?
clock | July 19, 2007This picture, from this article, must have been taken some time last week, just a couple of days after Jimmy Wales came to talk to us here at PLoS. That is when he placed the PLoS sticker on his laptop:
voltagegate | July 19, 2007After a long hiatus (in blogging terms), Jen has restarted The Infinite Sphere (unfortunately someone swiped her original address), a blog about environmental science, conservation, limnology and ecology. She started blogging at is also the cofounder of Oekologie and a dear friend.
I love when she blogs about caves. Check out her first post on the subject, about the Tennessee Cave Salamander.
clock | July 18, 2007BlogTogether, the central online spot for Triangle (NC) bloggers, just got a new look. More to come....
clock | July 18, 2007Read the entire comment threads as well:
Why Facebook, why now?
Facebook: $6 Billion? Nah.
Robert Scoble is Media
The 'secret' video lives of Facebookers
Adopting Communication Practice
My Facebook secret is out...
Then sign up and start networking...
clock | July 18, 2007We101 is a new blog aggregator based on geography - sorry, for US residents only, for now. Find your nearest city and add your blog. Then later, when you travel, use the site to identify local bloggers you may want to meet for a beer.
voltagegate | July 18, 2007Go say hi to the Angry Toxicologist, our new SciBling here at SB:
I am a Ph.D. scientist in the public health sector with a good amount of toxicology and regulatory knowledge. I'm not going to be dishing about projects I am privy to, but I am much freer to make my opinions known anonymously, than I could do in a completely public forum.
Although other topics will probably be brought up from time to time (friday is no day for science), this blog will be focused on public health and the science behind it and will be written for the non-scientist without dumbing anything down.
clock | July 18, 2007Well, I have the reputation about blogging around the clock, but every year more and more bloggers take that idea literally and they do it for one day for good cause, as a part of Blogathon.
Bill explains:
The mechanics are simple: bloggers sign up to blog for their chosen charity, and sponsors pledge either a lump sum or an amount per hour blogged. The goal is to blog for 24 hours straight, with one post every 30 minutes.
Over the past few years, more and more bloggers have been signing up and raising substantial amounts of money for good causes. Sign up here, then blog all day on the 28th…
voltagegate | July 18, 2007
Welcome to the Tangled Bank and to The Voltage Gate. The theme of this 84th edition of TB is science in Ancient Greece, so we'll be exploring what that meant to them, and jumping ahead a couple millenia to find out what it means to us.
I want to begin this edition with an important announcement. Aetiology's Tara Smith has some news about the Clergy Letter Project (and Evolution Sunday). This founder, Mike Zimmerman, is trying to create a list of scientists who would be willing to answer the more technical questions posed about science and evolution by participating clergy. Tara has all the…
clock | July 17, 2007Prompted by the WSJ article about blogs, Scoble, Scott Rosenberg, Duncan Riley, Dave Winer, CrunchNotes and Rex Hammock and others discuss the history of blogging.
aardvarchaeology | July 16, 2007Orac mentioned that he runs recurring De-Lurking Days on his blog. "Lurking" is to hang around a web forum or a blog without making your presence known. "De-Lurking" is to come out into the light of on-line day, however briefly.
Aard currently has about a hundred visits by returning readers every day, and most regulars don't come here every day. This means that Aard must have several hundred lurkers.
Dear Reader, is Aard on your blog reading list? Then please make a comment, as brief as you like. Thank you.
clock | July 15, 2007The Wall Street Journal has an article about blogs, written by 10 or so people. Some of it is good, some of it is bland and out-of-date, and you can just skip Tom Wolfe's piece (via Ed Cone).
Also, check out 55 Essential Articles Every Serious Blogger Should Read (which makes it the 56th such article?).
As always, take caution. A blog is no more and no less than a piece of technology - it is up to you to figure out how you are going to use it. So, go ahead and read those 55, but keep in mind that at least half of the 'advice' is not relevant or appropriate to you and your own blogging…
neurophilosophy | July 15, 2007 From the Wall Street Journal:
We are approaching a decade since the first blogger -- regarded by many to be Jorn Barger -- began his business of hunting and gathering links to items that tickled his fancy, to which he appended some of his own commentary. On Dec. 23, 1997, on his site, Robot Wisdom, Mr. Barger wrote: "I decided to start my own webpage logging the best stuff I find as I surf, on a daily basis," and the Oxford English Dictionary regards this as the primordial root of the word "weblog."
aardvarchaeology | July 11, 2007Alun at Clioaudio has done an excellent job of tracking down good archaeo & anthro material for the 18th Four Stone Hearth blog carnival.
The 19th 4SH will appear at Sherd Nerd on Wednesday 18 July. Submit good stuff (your own or somebody else's) to Amanda.
Bloggers with archaeo and anthro interests are invited to volunteer for Four Stone Hearth hosting duty. It's a good way to market your blog and make new blogging friends!
I'm hosting the Carnival of the Godless here on Sunday 22 July. Submit here.
clock | July 11, 2007Seen on a forum:
I just heard something interesting on the news and I'd like to toss it out to the community for your thoughts....
Forget resumes, job boards, cold calling and even going to the company. The "BIG THING" is Blogging for a Job.
It seems that many recrutiers find YOU by reading your blog.
If this is the way to go, how do you get one started? What do you put into it??
Ha!!!!