personal
drorzel | August 3, 2010SteelyKid's second birthday is Saturday, so we're getting her a few things. Given the recent video I posted, one of her presents was really obvious:
As you can tell, she's inherited her father's skillset. If the dunk picture doesn't convince you, this picture of her ace ball-handling ought to:
Not even two, and she can dribble it off her foot, just like her old man. She's a prodigy, she is.
The hoop and ball were a big hit-- we had to drage the ball along with us when we went out to dinner that night. The other big treat of the day was a visit from Grandma and Grandpa, who brought along…
sa smith | August 2, 2010Yes, we are very socially aware at ScienceBlogs.
But I just did something very, very stupid, and I feel terrible about it, so Im going to confess on the internet so hopefully other people dont make this same mistake.
Remember Giant Schnauzer?
About a week ago, Giant Schnauzer and his owner moved into my apartment building! YAAAAAY!!! Built in play buddy! Everyone has been having a marvelous time (I already have so many stories, involving two humongous grown-up dogs having dueling temper tantrums).
Anyway, as I was taking Arnie out to pee this evening, Giant Schnauzers owner came home. We…
jdupuis | August 2, 2010T. DeLene Beeland (Twitter) contacted me last week and was kind enough to offer to interview me for an honest-to-goodness print newspaper -- The Charlotte Observer: Find the future at a 21st-century science library. It;s part of a series of interviews she's done with science bloggers.
Here's an exerpt from the interview. My answers to DeLene's questions were about 2-3 times longer than she was able to use, so she's done a great job editing them down to more manageable lengths.
Q. What are some of the biggest trending changes in science libraries currently?
One thing we're working really…
jstemwedel | August 2, 2010With this post, I say goodbye to ScienceBlogs.
Am I leaving because of the fiasco with the PepsiCo blog? Not directly.
That's not to say that there weren't serious issues raised by the whole incident. Many of these lie in the realm of journalistic ethics, at least as understood by people you might regard as affiliated with old school journalistic outlets (notwithstanding the fact that many such outlets currently have a significant online presence). The analyses by Paul Raeburn, Curtis Brainard, and John Rennie all do a nice job setting out the central issues in case, so do click through to…
drorzel | August 1, 2010Every couple of weeks, there's another bunch of stories about how e-books are transforming the world, and paper books will soon survive only as collectible fetish objects. It occurred to me this morning that I share a house with a reason why paper books will be around for a while yet, at least in some markets. In fact, I share a house with the cutest reason why paper books will be around for a while yet:
That's SteelyKid with an alumni magazine, not a book, but you get the basic idea. And a lot of the time, she's much less gentle with her reading material:
Kate and I have both largely…
pharyngula | August 1, 2010
I'm still trying to recover. I gave two talks on Friday, one in Abbotsford and the other at Vancouver CFI, which wasn't hard — it was just fun. And then they took us out for a night on the town, and we shut down two bars, and we only got back to our hotel at almost 4am. This was some kind of record for stamina. I also had the TrophyWife™ with me for a change, and now she's got the impression that these kinds of late night shenanigans are routine on my out-of-town jaunts.
There's one preliminary account of the event so far; everything was taped and will probably end up on youtube someday.…
drorzel | July 29, 2010I don't know if Dijon the giraffe has made a Toddler Blogging appearance yet, but in case she hasn't, here she is:
SteelyKid is in the process of explaining that Dijon is her giraffe ("My graph!"). Which she is, being a gift from Aunt Erin and Aunt 'Stasia. She's a rather heavy knit giraffe, and is awesome.
And that's all I've got for tonight's Toddler Blogging, as SteelyKid stubbornly refused to go to sleep, or even close her eyes for the hour and a half since bedtime, and I have a horrendous muscle spasm in my neck from sitting with her. Kate's tagged in on "Oh, God, go to sleep already!"…
pharyngula | July 28, 2010I am pleased to report that the godless heathens of Seattle, including the likes of Ophelia Benson (who, I learned, was once bitten by a gorilla, and thereby acquired the superpowers of strength, ferocity, and calm) and Dana Hunter, know how to close out a bar. Once again, a horde of cheerful chatty atheists had to be shooed out at closing time.
Too many to list showed up, but several of the previously less voluble have agreed to comment more. Here is their chance: introduce yourselves!
pharyngula | July 27, 2010One of the giant panels I was on at Convergence is now a podcast at the Secular Buddhist. It's got me, Bug Girl, Jennifer Ouellette, Lyra Lynx, Maria Walters, Jen Mana, Ted Meissner, Debbie Goddard, Carrie Iwan, and Dave Walbridge, and I'm already worn out just listing them. It was also very well attended: SF conventions are hotbeds of godlessness.
pharyngula | July 25, 2010Today it's family day with a mob of Myerses hanging about and bickering opinonatedly at a picnic. You aren't invited unless you can show evidence of a recent family relationship; showing evidence that all primates are related is nice, but won't get you in the door.
Tuesday at 6ish I'll be at the Pike Brewing Company waiting upon Ophelia Benson. Come on out! Buy us beer! I'm also thinking I might head up there a little early to visit the Seattle Aquarium, since it's right there in the neighborhood.
Friday at noon I'll be at Room B101, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford BC. This is a…
pharyngula | July 24, 2010I've already complained a little bit about the poor availability of network connectivity at my mother's house. I looked next door at the Bible Chapel and discovered the source of the problem. We're jinxed.
No. No it isn't.
drorzel | July 22, 2010After a hard day of toddling, sometimes you just need to kick back on the couch with your sky-bison, and munch on a fruit strip:
You know what I mean?
terrasig | July 21, 2010So, readers know that I went out West this past weekend to visit colleagues at the University of Colorado, spend some thinking time at the southern Colorado ranchland endowed to us by the late PharmDad, and - most prominently - visit PharmMom and PharmStiefvater on the occasion of her 70th birthday. I'm extremely grateful to my wife, PharmGirl, MD, and the illustrious PharmKid for holding down the fort and handling the emotional and practical issues of the little genius starting 3rd grade on Monday.
When Mom told me she'd been following the aftermath of Pepsigate/sbfail, she asked, "So, what…
mmckenna | July 20, 2010Let me tell you a little story about my first husband.
We met when I was in graduate school. He was a foreign journalist working in America and I interned where he worked. I left town, finished my degree, moved back. We reconnected, got married, and were considered enough of a catch -- two sharp young thrusters, an investigative reporter and an editor -- to be head-hunted by a large paper in the Midwest.
To defuse romantic nostalgia, it is important to say that he was unsuited to marriage, with outsize appetites for beer and for women who were not me. But he was perfectly adapted to…
jdupuis | July 19, 2010The fallout of the Pepsigate scandal continues.
Bora's recent relative blogging silence left me with a bad feeling, an ominous feeling. A feeling like the other shoe was about to drop.
Well, it did. Bora is leaving ScienceBlogs.
As with most of Bora's giant summary zeitgeist posts, you just have to read the whole thing yourself. The comments too are incredibly heartfelt.
For me, Bora always epitomized ScienceBlogs. He was always the ultimate SciBling and I was so thrilled to be blogging her next to him when I joined. Bora's also always really epitomized science blogging as a whole to…
pharyngula | July 19, 2010Yes. Yes, I must.
Phil is bragging about his Bacon number of 3. Well, well, well. My Bacon number is…
2.
Everyone, please do the courteous, polite thing and overlook the fact that my connection is via the odious Ben Stein.
terrasig | July 19, 2010With great sadness, I announce that my colleague, Bora Zivkovic (aka Coturnix), is departing from ScienceBlogs.
However, his long-awaited analysis of the Pepsigate #sbfail episode is superb and he provides an unparalleled history of science blogging, its relationship with the legacy media, and his views of the future. He ends on an optimistic note, so I hope that his leaving the network is a GoodThing for both him and his family.
Bora has been and will continue to be a great blog mentor. I am most fortunate to know him in real life as well.
I can't help thinking that this is another nail in…
clock | July 19, 2010It is with great regret that I am writing this. Scienceblogs.com has been a big part of my life for four years now and it is hard to say good bye.
Everything that follows is my own personal thinking and may not apply to other people, including other bloggers on this platform. The new contact information is at the end of the post, but please come back up here and read the whole thing - why I feel like I must leave now.
Sb beginnings
Scienceblogs.com started back in January 2006. On that day, several of my favourite science bloggers moved to this new site, posting the URL on their farewell…
drorzel | July 18, 2010SteelyKid has clearly inherited her father's fondness for basketball. Unfortunately, she doesn't quite understand how to play, yet. She does know that involves throwing a ball up in the air and jumping, though:
She'll get the rest of it eventually.