Blogging
oracknows | September 19, 2007Thanks to fellow ScienceBlogger Abel Pharmboy, it would appear that I was mentioned in an article in The Scientist about science blogs in general (not ScienceBlogs in particular). I'm gratified at how many mentions of my humble blog I see in the comments, and far be it from me to toot my own horn...
Oh, whom am I kidding? Head on over to register your favorites--even more so if Respectful Insolence is one of them.
oracknows | September 10, 2007Way back when I first started my blog, one of my favorite blogs was A Photon in the Darkness, in which Prometheus regularly demolished quackery, particularly autism-related quackery. Sadly, Prometheus' blogging has become more and more sporadic over the last year or so, with gaps sometimes longer than a month between posts. I was worried that he might be retiring permanently from the blogosphere. That would be a great loss.
Recently, however, Prometheus has been a bit more active. In fact, he's even moved his blog to a new location: http://www.photoninthedarkness.com. Moreover, he's recently…
oracknows | August 22, 2007It's been brought to my attention that Perry DeAngelis, regular contributor to The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast, member of the New England Skeptical Society has passed away unexpectedly at far too young an age. I don't know any of the details, although as a regular listener to the Skeptics' Guide podcast I knew that he had been in the hospital for a while, although I had begun to wonder if it was more serious than it first seemed as his time in the hospital kept getting longer. I also know that it's almost as though I knew Perry, having listened to him almost every week for over a…
oracknows | August 19, 2007Yes, I was there on Friday and Saturday, when more than half of the present complement of ScienceBloggers (a.k.a. "SB'ers" or "Sciblings") gathered in New York to meet, greet, and talk science, that is, between bouts of heavy drinking. (Fortunately, I was wise enough not to show up for the karaoke; if PZ's description is any indication, I wasn't nearly inebriated enough to enjoy it.) I didn't take nearly as many pictures as certain others there, one of whom bought a rather snazzy camera from a store on 42nd Street (something I would have cautioned him about, had I been there before Friday),…
oracknows | August 3, 2007So what do you do when you didn't have time to write something new? Well, you could leave the blog blank, which is anathema to me) or you could do the time-honored space-filling technique valued by bloggers everywhere once they reach a certain level of traffic.
Yep! It's one of the very rare times for an open thread on Respectful Insolence. In fact, I can't even remember the last time I did one of these.
Don't let Orac down. Take advantage of it and speak your piece! Or don't, and let the tumbleweeds roll through the ol' blog this afternoon, metaphorically speaking...
oracknows | July 28, 2007I guess that's where I've been thus far in my life:
create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.
How about you? Has anyone been to 100% of the states?
oracknows | July 27, 2007After all this annoyance I've had lately about homeopaths doing surgery in Arizona (not to mention the licensing of quackery there), I can't forget that the blog carnival bequeathed to me, The Skeptics' Circle, is fast approaching. This week, the host will be none other than fellow ScienceBlogger Dr. denialism blog. Since the Circle is in the family this time around, so to speak, don't forget to send MarkH your best skeptical blogging and then join him (and me) for the carnival next Thursday, August 2.
And, as always, if you're a skeptical blogger aspiring to be the next James Randi and think…
oracknows | July 26, 2007...or was it?
I'm pretty sure it was.
The dream needed a little bit more of a zingy ending, though, like waking up and finding Bobby Ewing still alive or finding out that everything that happened at the hospital was the fantasy of an autistic boy.
Or something like that
oracknows | July 22, 2007Yesterday, it was a personality quiz. Today, other ScienceBloggers have been assimilated into the LOL Cat craze. Given that I've had a tangential brush with the craze myself in the past when I posted a bunch of LOL Doctor Whos, and because last week was sufficiently serious, with all the posts about secondhand smoke and DCA, I figure, why not? I'll see which LOL Cat I am too. My only resistance to assimilation is that I'm doing the test on Sunday, rather than "Caturday":
Your Score
: Serious Cat
30% Affectionate, 30% Excitable, 53% Hungry
Hungry for knowledge in any internet…
oracknows | July 21, 2007This one seems to be making the rounds among blogs that I frequent. Given that it's Saturday, when I usually don't post anything that requires serious writing, it's a perfect day to let the sheep in me have free reign and follow the flock, taking this test:
Your Score
: Robot
You are 100% Rational, 0% Extroverted, 42% Brutal, and 28% Arrogant.
You are the Robot! You are characterized by your rationality. In fact, this is really ALL you are characterized by. Like a cold, heartless machine, you are so logical and unemotional that you scarcely seem human. For instance, you are very…
oracknows | July 14, 2007While perusing my comments yesterday, I became aware of what looks like a promising new blog, Occam's Trowel by Scott Prinster. Check out his self-description:
Scott Prinster is continuing his graduate studies in the History of Science department at the University of Wisconsin. His current interest is in the interaction of religion and science in the pre- and early Reformation period in Eastern Europe, especially as part of the movements known as the Radical Reformation. Scott has also been a Unitarian Universalist minister for 12 years, and has served congregations in Michigan and here in…
oracknows | July 14, 2007The last couple of days have been a bit surreal, haven't they?
After all, how often does this box of blinking lights get into a blog altercation with a Libertarian comic over global warming? Actually, it was a commentary on bad reasoning, but global warming happened to be the topic. In the aftermath of my referring you, my readers, to comic Tim Slagle's blog piece "rebutting" me and to another piece by him in which he used some--shall we say?--creative chemistry and thermodynamics to support a political argument, I'm not sure if I should feel guilty or not. This guilt exists mainly because I…
oracknows | June 27, 2007It was with sadness that I saw fellow medical blogger Dr. Charles' announcement that he is taking a break ("perhaps a long break," as he puts it) from blogging. He points out that he's been at it for almost three years.
My first thought was that I was sad to see him go and hope that he eventually finds his way back to the blogosphere.
My second thought was: Geez, in blogosphere time, I've been at this a long time now.
I started blogging in December 2004, which means that I'm rapidly approaching three years at it. Dr. Charles was actually one of the first bunch of medical blogs that I…
oracknows | June 27, 2007Please take a moment to head over to Majikthise and pay your respects to Lindsay, whose father, Barry L. Beyerstein, died yesterday.
Dr. Beyerstein was a prominent skeptic and very active in the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He also served as chair of the Society of B. C. Skeptics, not to mention being a member of the Executive Council of CSI and serving on the editorial board of The Skeptical Inquirer.
He was only 60 years old.
Many moons ago Lindsay suggested to me in an e-mail that I get in contact with her father to become involved in the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental…
oracknows | June 23, 2007This one's been floating around ScienceBlogs and the blogosphere in general; so I thought, what the hell? (Oh, wait, did my use of the word "hell" affect my rating?) In any case, this sounds about right:
Mingle2 - Online Dating
You'll be happy to know that I don't really plan on trying to "evolve" to rate a PG-13 or R rating. I really see no need, although sometimes the comments probably earn such ratings. On the other hand, I won't shy away from "adult" content if I consider it sufficiently important that I want to blog about it.
oracknows | June 3, 2007I've just found what has to be literally the coolest weblog ever.
Its whole raison d'être is a pet peeve of mine, too, but I literally never thought of starting a blog about it.
oracknows | June 1, 2007Bummer.
A while back, I asked, "Where's Flea?" The question was asked in response to the mysterious disappearance of his blog a couple of weeks ago, leaving only a blank Blogger blog. Flea, as you may remember, was one of my favorite physician-bloggers. A pediatrician, he consistently provided pithy and interesting commentary on life as a solo practice doctor, his battles with emergency room physicians who don't call him when his patients show up in the ER, and various other issues, not to mention the occasional tussle with antivaccination loons. His disappearance seemed related to a…
oracknows | May 27, 2007I've been a bit remiss in my blog carnival plugging; so here's my chance to make up for it. Here are some carnivals worth checking out:
Carnival of Bad History #14: The Backlog Edition (The name speaks for itself.)
Carnivalesque #27 (Ancient, medieval and early modern history.)
Tangled Bank #80 (Science.)
The Creation Museum (The blogosphere's skeptical response to Ken Ham's creationism museum, which recently opened. Unfortunately, I forgot about this, and didn't write up something suitably snarky myself, but fortunately plenty of other bloggers did. Alas, the message will be lost on the…
oracknows | May 25, 2007Hot on the heals of the loss of Flea and other medical bloggers, Dr. Hébert announces without explanation other than that "I've had enough" and "I'll be gone for a little while."
Cryptic indeed.
I can understand why someone might quit blogging or take a hiatus. However, if I were ever to decide to do either, I'd at least give you an explanation.
oracknows | May 22, 2007A fellow ScienceBlogger has suffered a profound loss. Sadly, on Sunday, my blogchild Mark lost his father.
If you like Mark's blog (or even if you don't), please do me a favor and take a moment to read Mark's tribute to his father and offer your condolences. He has mine.