Misc
ksharpe | December 19, 2007It's been a little over a week since ScienceBlogs launched a beta version of its first daughter site, in German.
Today, we present what we hope will be the first of many informal updates on what's buzzing among the 13 German-language blogs at ScienceBlogs.de. (Unless noted, links will take you to posts in the original Deutsch.)
Thanks to German Sb editor Beatrice Lugger for her translations.
1. The UN on Forests
The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali wasn't the only scientifically-interesting UN activity in the first half of December. The United Nations Forum on Forests had a…
jrice | December 18, 2007We bring you, as always, the large-scale versions of this week's channel photos.
(Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.)
First photo here, the rest below the fold.
Life Science. From Flickr, by suneko
Physical Science: Jupiter and its moon Io. From NASA, via pingnews.com
Environment: Oil-covered ruddy duck in Oakland, CA, 11/11/07. From Flickr, via wolfpix…
jrice | December 13, 2007Here they are: the large-scale versions of this week's channel photos.
(Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.)
First photo here, the rest below the fold.
From Flickr, by CharlesLam
A bouncing basketball, photographed at 25 images per second. By Michael Maggs, edited by Richard Bartz. Via Wikimedia Commons
From the NOAA Photo Library, via pingnews.com
From…
tqa | December 12, 2007
Terry Pratchett just announced that he's been diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's. He's at least somewhat upbeat, though:
PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell. I know it's a very human thing to say "Is there anything I can do", but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.
I'll resist that "very…
tqa | December 11, 2007
I took two years of German not all that long ago, but I can't really say I learned the language. I can pick out words here and there, make it to the bathroom, and say "I'm sorry, but my German is terrible". That last bit was the one that came most in handy when I was there for a couple of days last year.
Fortunately, I've got some incentive to improve my language skills. There's a good chance that we'll be moving out there in a couple of years, which wasn't a bad incentive, but hasn't been enough to get me off my butt yet. Fortunately, I've just been given another incentive: there's now a…
vhughes | December 11, 2007On Monday, our German partner Hubert Burda Media soft-launched ScienceBlogs.de, a new ScienceBlogs site in German. In thinking about science blogs written in other languages, we thought now would be a good time for a quick reader poll.
Below we've got two questions for you, dear readers, about your language skills. It'll only take a few seconds to answer, so please do so. And if you'd like to add more thoughts about ScienceBlogs and language, please comment on the post—we'd love to hear it!
Question Number 2:
Care to explain your reasoning? Comment below!
ksharpe | December 10, 2007December 10 is a big day for ScienceBlogs. Today, Hubert Burda Media, one of the largest media companies in Europe, and our partner in Germany, launches a beta version of ScienceBlogs.de, a German-language website that brings the ScienceBlogs idea and spirit to Europe.
I've had the pleasure these past few months of working with the team behind ScienceBlogs.de, and I'm delighted to let my editorial counterpart in Germany, Beatrice Lugger, introduce ScienceBlogs.de in her own words.
Dear ScienceBlogs Community,
Just three months after ScienceBlogs.com and the German publishing company Hubert…
jrice | December 7, 2007We hereby present to you: large-scale versions of this week's channel photos.
(Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.)
First photo here, the rest below the fold.
Autumn maple leaf veins, with the rest of the leaf removed by a semiconductor etch. From Flickr, by jurvetson
From Wikimedia Commons, by Luc Viatour
Biofuels. From Flickr, by jurvetson
From Flickr, by…
vhughes | November 30, 2007
After a brief hiatus, Page 3.14 brings back the ScienceBlogger interviews. Now we hear from those clever, if odd, creatures of Zooillogix, Andrew and Benny Bleiman. (In the photo, Benny's on the left.)
What's your name?
Andrew and Benny Bleiman
What do you do when you're not blogging?
Andrew: We both work in software. I run marketing for a search engine company. Benny is in sales, so in his words he "closes deals and crushes beers." In my words, he makes 70 cold calls a day and has a bit of a drinking problem.
More below the fold...
What is your blog called?
Zooillogix
What's up with that…
vhughes | November 28, 2007Most of the ScienceBloggers are pretty angry that the New York Times failed to list any science books on their list of 2007's 100 Notable Books.
This might be a good time to mention the critically acclaimed new science books written by sciblings Chris Mooney and Jonah Lehrer. We're delighted (if not terribly surprised) to see that they're receiving well-deserved accolades by major critics.
Details below the fold...
Chris Mooney's Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming, was reviewed by the Washington Post, Nature, and the New York Times. It's just been named…
tqa | November 27, 2007
I haven't always had as much concern about copyright infringement as I do now, but I've always considered it to be a given that copyright infringement involves taking something that doesn't belong to you without paying the owner. Taking something that doesn't belong to you without paying the owner is, at least under any system of ethics that I'm familiar with, theft. Not "something like theft". It is theft.
I was surprised (and a little disappointed) to find that a handful of people over at Pharyngula don't seem to understand that view. There's a discussion going on over there right now in…
jrice | November 26, 2007Check out the large-scale versions of this week's channel photos.
(Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.)
First photo here, the rest below the fold.
From Flickr, by TailspinT
"Velvet Beauty," from Flickr, by cobalt123
Augustine Volcano, from Flickr, by TailspinT
Petroglyphs in the Valley of Fire, from Flickr, by betelgeuse2
School child in Central African…
stoat | November 22, 2007Cruise ship sinking off Argentina says the BBC. And "Passengers and crew have been rescued off Argentina from a cruise liner, which began sinking after it hit ice. The M/S Explorer ran into trouble near King George Island in the Antarctic Ocean, near the South Shetland Islands. Andy Cattrell, of the UK's Falmouth Coastguard, told the BBC about 100 passengers and 54 crew members have been evacuated and are in lifeboats."
I hope "rescued" isn't too optimistic... they are still a long way from civilisation in small lifeboats.
[Update: everyone is now xferred to another ship, it seems. And the…
vhughes | November 21, 2007
Behind the scenes, a few ScienceBloggers have recently confessed some tenure-risking transgressions in the laboratory. (Just think of all the mischief to be had with dry ice, helium tanks, liquid nitrogen, or an autoclave...)
Which makes us wonder: What's the most embarrassing or over-the-top thing you've ever done in a lab? (Or in a lab coat?)
(Or in a cold room?)
(Or while wearing lab safety goggles?)
Needless to say, this post doesn't mean that ScienceBlogs editorial endorses any kind of unscrupulous behavior. In other words, have fun sharing stories, but don't try this at home! Or in…
jrice | November 19, 2007Feast your eyes on the full-size versions of this week's channel photos.
(Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.)
First photo here, the rest below the fold.
Pyrrhosoma nymphula, from Wikimedia Commons, by Luc Viatour
Velcro hooks, from Flickr, by olivepixel
Stump of an elm tree lost to Dutch Elm Disease, from Flickr, by Unhindered by Talent
From Flickr, by emdot…
stoat | November 17, 2007No, not really a challenge, perhaps a rebuttal to those who think its only safe in Japan. I left my bike over friday night at Cambridge railway station, and forgot to remove the front light. When I came back... it was still there. Pathetic or what?
jrice | November 13, 2007As always, take a gander at the full-size versions of this week's channel photos.
(Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.)
First photo here, the rest below the fold.
From Flickr, by Brian Switek
Astronaut Leroy Chiao, and his refracted image in a sphere of water, aboard the International Space Station, from NASA
San Diego fires, from Flickr, by TailspinT
From…
tqa | November 12, 2007
Two unions representing professions involved in the entertainment industry are on strike right now - Broadway stagehands in New York, and writers for both big- and little-screen productions nationwide. These strikes - especially the writers' one - have stirred up some discussion about online writing in general (and blogging in particular), and how non-traditional writers might benefit from unionization. From fellow Scienceblogger Chris Mooney:
Meanwhile, on to bloggers, who are entirely dismissed as workers ... because blogging is somehow supposed to be fun or a hobby. Well, guess what:…
stoat | November 11, 2007
More fireworks - we went to three parties in the end.
D in front of the fire.
hrynyshyn | November 8, 2007Vote now, before the polls close today at 10 pm ET, in the Best Science Blog competition. It's neck and neck between Bad Astronomy, which is a pretty cool read, and Climate Audit, which is a place where people who refuse to accept the science on climate change hang out. So help give BA the edge.