Shameless Self-Promotion
terrasig | June 2, 2010Just the other day, I wrote about how DrugMonkey and I have experienced unprecedented and sustained blog traffic for posts we wrote in February on K2 Spice, one of a couple of marijuana-like "incense" products still sold legally in the United States.
Every morning, I dial up my SiteMeter blog statistics and take a look at what posts readers first land upon when coming to visit the humble world headquarters of Terra Sigillata.
Last week, 2,700 to 2,800 of the 4,000 most recent hits were landing on our February K2 Spice post. (You will also note below the sad state of my readership in that…
terrasig | October 23, 2009Before my colleague DrugMonkey gives me more grief about not yet having a CafePress shop (theirs here) to sell and give away paraphernalia related to this blog, I have a question for you, the always erudite and good-looking reader of this humble blog.
You see, I don't know exactly what text to put on T-shirts, coffee mugs, and thongs, that properly reflect the name recognition - dare I say, "brand" - of this blog. When I first started the blog on 15 December 2005, I thought that Terra Sigillata was a great name and a great metaphor for the natural product medicines I try to write about…
jstemwedel | August 7, 2009For those of you who have been following the various online reviews of and reactions to Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum's book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, you may be interested in the Firedoglake Book Salon discussion of the book. The discussion takes place Saturday (tomorrow), 5-7 pm Eastern (2-4 pm Pacific; those of you in other time zones can probably calculate your local time equivalent better than I), will include author Chris Mooney, and will be hosted by yours truly.
Given that I'm pretty convinced I have the best commentariat in the…
terrasig | July 12, 2009For those of you in the North Carolina Research Triangle area wanting to extend your weekend as much as possible, you'll want to catch a a local music showcase at The Berkeley Café in Raleigh (217 W Martin St, 27601) tonight, Sunday 12 July at 7 pm. Yours truly will be playing a 30 min solo acoustic set of mostly original songs.
(Addendum: Cool! Eva Amsen just posted her interview of me yesterday for her Musicians and Scientists project)
Most notable on the bill are two fantastic roots reggae bands, Anchants and Curry Don (de Doc). I'm supposed to go on 8 pm or so.
Figure 1. This lovely 2001…
jstemwedel | July 8, 2009In case you're interested, Paw-talk, a website aimed at humans with pets, invited me over to chat about philosophy, ethics, science, and the use of animals in research. You can find that interview here.
It's also worth noting that the site features a number of interviews with science bloggers you may recognize ... perhaps because the Paw-talk team has a hunch that people surfing the web for pet-related information may also have a latent curiosity about matters scientific. Good on Paw-talk for feeding that curiosity!
terrasig | July 7, 2009While invoking my little-known real name, the ABC News Medical Unit shows its commitment to providing scientifically-objective and medically-valid commentary to the Michael Jackson circus.
The post cited was from 26 June where I discussed the first Michael Jackson revelation that he had repeatedly been given the unusual opioid drug, meperidine, presumably for his chronic back pain.
From this morning's ABC News story by Vic Walter and Richard Esposito with contributions from JoAnna Schaffhausen:
One pharmacologist blogged about [p]ropofol this week and explained in his science blog how Demerol…
jstemwedel | June 5, 2009"Hey, buddy! My eyes are up here!"
Just a quick reminder that the voting is still open for the 3 Quarks Daily contest for the best science blogging of the past year.
My post How does salt melt snails? currently has 15 votes, which is not enough to push it into the top-20 vote-getters and move it on to the judging round..
If you haven't voted yet, you still can (until June 8, midnight Eastern time). How about showing a little love for my scientific explanation of gastropod destruction?
jstemwedel | June 1, 2009Remember those prizes 3 Quarks Daily is offering for the best science blogging of the past year?
Well, the nominees are now up, including four of my posts:
How does salt melt snails?
SVP Ethics Education Commitee statement: lessons learned from 'Aetogate'
The Hellinga Retractions (part 1): when replication fails, what should happen next?
The Hellinga Retractions (part 2): when replication fails, what should happen next?
If you have several hours and a taste for some informative and entertaining writing about science, the full list of nominees will provide lots of good reading.
But don't let…
jstemwedel | March 21, 2009This week at Bloggingheads.tv, PalMD and I have a chat about science, ethics, and alternative medicine. Plus, we have a little disagreement about what constitutes paternalism.
Go watch!
jstemwedel | February 2, 2009
I've been derelict in my duty to inform you that 2009 has been declared the Year of Science, which is, of course, just an excuse to celebrate science-y goodness every day. Each month has a theme and a variety of options for exploring that theme.
For February, the theme is evolution (in part because some fellow named Darwin has a birthday this month). In addition to getting a good dose of Darwiniana, you can check in on scientists sharing their thoughts on evolution and science more generally, explore evolutionary thought and the process of evolution, look at the connections between…
jstemwedel | January 11, 2009While the ScienceBlogs upgrade was underway, a shiny new Bloggingheads diavlog was posted, featuring yours truly and PalMD.
Mostly we talked about medical ethics, with some time spent on ethical issues around research with human subjects.
jstemwedel | December 5, 2008I realize that I forgot to mention here that I've been writing posts on the Invitrogen-sponsored group blog What's New in Life Science Research. The blog is hosting discussions about stem cells, cloning, biodefense, and genetically modified organisms. (The cloning discussion just started yesterday.) As you might guess, I'm primarily blogging about the ethical dimensions of these biotechnologies. We'd love to have you get involved with the conversation.
In other news:
As of this morning, we have finished nearly all of our leftovers from Thanksgiving. All that remains is some cranberry…
jstemwedel | December 4, 2008The Free-Ride offspring have put the wheels in motion to achieve financial independence from their parental units. They intend to make their fortune on T-shirt sales.
Poor deluded kids!
Anyway, they would like you to know that you can score your own copy of this artwork:
on a T-shirt, mug, or totebag, at CafePress.
I would like you to know that we value you as readers whether or not you buy any merchandise.
jstemwedel | May 3, 2007I have a couple posts brewing, but they will be delayed by my pile of scut work. Meanwhile, I have a new post at WAAGNFNP with my thoughts about why the (unionized) faculty in my university system took such a long time to feel ready to strike. It's something you can read while you dodge your own stack of scut work.
jstemwedel | March 12, 2007... especially if you've just lost an hour to an unseasonably early Daylight Savings (can I blame the groundhog for this?), here are some attractive time sinks:
Pick a bracket. Maybe you've already picked your bracket for the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Even ScienceBloggers partake in such diversions, myself included. (This year, all my picks were determined by coin toss.) But basketball isn't your only Spring spectator sport option. Check out the 2007 Science Spring Showdown at The World's Fair. Grab a bracket and start making your picks. The match-ups to watch in the first…
jstemwedel | February 26, 2007My humble haiku,
Clobbered in the poll -- Unless
You vote, intervene.
Voting closes February 26, 11:59 PM EST -- so act now!
(If you want to be sure you're voting for mine, I reproduce them below the fold.)
The one of my two entries with the most votes so far:
A mature science
has no need for causal talk?
Chemists shout, " 'Fraid not!"
"Underlying Stories: The Structure of Causal Talk in Chemistry and in Everyday Life"
The other haiku I submitted, which is not doing well at all:
Chlorite, iodide.
What makes such oscillations?
Perturb, gauge response.
"Experiments and theory toward the…
jstemwedel | February 24, 2007Jim Gibbon has opened voting on his academic haiku contest. I urge you to check out all the 17-syllable distillations of scholarly works, but especially those in the physical sciences category.
Two of those haikus are mine. (Technically, one of them ought to be in the humanities category, but I can see how an exploration of philosophical issues in chemistry might look like it belongs in the physical sciences.) Here's your chance to make me a winner!
jstemwedel | January 8, 2007As some of you will have noticed, I'm scheduled to give a talk at the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference in just under two weeks. This morning, I finished (kind of) working out that talk.
A few things worth noting:
This is not a completely drafted speech or anything like that. It's a talk, and one that's meant to set up a discussion among conference participants. However, given that it covers terrain I think about quite regularly, I have a very good sense of what I'm going to say.
Indeed, the real labor here wasn't in hammering out the logical structure of my remarks, but in…
jstemwedel | December 7, 2006... Page 3.14 shares the transcript. Go read what we said when Ben Cohen and I shot the cyberbreeze about Karl Popper and the allure he holds for scientists.
I can't promise it will leave you ROTFLYAO, but it might make you :-)
TTFN.
jstemwedel | November 16, 2006If you're ready to admit that we're almost done with 2006 and that it might be OK to start making plans for 2007, check your calendar and think about coming to the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, a "free, open and public event for scientists, educators, students, journalists, bloggers and anyone interested in discussing science communication, education and literacy on the Web."
(more after the break)
The conference will be happening in Chapel Hill, and is mostly scheduled for Saturday, January 20, 2007. (There's also a Friday night dinner planned, and a Thursday aftenoon…