Shameless Self-Promotion

What does it take to knock off K2 Spice readership?

terrasig — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:32:33 +0000

What does it take to knock off K2 Spice readership?

Just 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 posts on Stiff Nights erectile dysfunction supplement and Horny Goat Weed products are the next most popular direct hits.)

Finally, one post has knocked it out of the top spot after nearly four months:

Monday's post about the memorial unveiling of the gravestone for Henrietta Lacks this past weekend.

I have been completely overwhelmed by the interest in this story. This widespread attention would not be possible without the Facebook and blog referrals by author Rebecca Skloot, The New York Times Science page, and the enthusiastic Twitter referrals by other writers who I respect greatly such as David Dobbs, Sara Goforth, Mike Rosenwald, T. DeLene Beeland, Ted Winstead, scribbler50, Eric Ferreri, - as well as the dozens of you sci/med bloggers and folks from other walks of life who found this post worthy of recommending to your friends.

Please accept my apologies if you were not mentioned by name - I don't have Bora Zivkovic's flair for aggregating and linking to every referral but you have my gratitude for further popularizing the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family.

And for those of you so inclined, here are images of the memorial program that weren't included in the last post:

terrasig Wed, 06/02/2010 - 01:32

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Hey Abel, glad the NYTimes widget sent some traffic your way, but I just thought I'd show you where I first saw the link to this post: the twitter feed of buyk2incense.

As I was saying over at Obesity Panacea about the difficulty of getting rid of sham weight loss ads from our automated ad network, algorithm-based advertising occasionally makes exactly the wrong decisions based on keyword optimization.

But, like spam, the sheer number of people who will click on anything related to sex, drugs, or free money is enough to make such errors totally irrelevant. This phenomenon ensures that Jonah Lehrer's article on gay animals and this short piece on women watching monkey porn will forever be two of SeedMag's most popular articles. You can imagine the search terms that got people there.

You are more than welcome, TS. Was a especially nice post, giving us both the flavor of the day and a feel for how powerfully Lacks' story, related so richly by Skloot, can affect not just you as a researcher and person but your relations with many circles of society. (Plus the pictures were cool.)

I take it this means you're finally finally over that cold!

Evan Lerner - note to self: sex, drugs, free money - but no rock 'n' roll???

David - you are too kind yet again but, yes, my inhaled corticosteroid-induced dysphonia has resolved to the point that I was actually able to speak in church Saturday. I'll be starting speech therapy in two weeks to strengthen my vocal cords and learn good vocal hygiene.

Oh, and by the way: K2/Spice is sadly back on top in this morning's ranking of the last 4,000 hits: K2 over Henrietta 1331 to 781.

By what name do you refer to this blog?

terrasig — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:25:18 +0000

By what name do you refer to this blog?

Before 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 mostly. (Read here if you didn't know the Terra Sigillata story.) However, I never anticipated that:

1. More than two dozen of you would actually be repeat readers.

2. "Terra Sigillata" would be difficult for some to pronounce.

3. "Terra Sigillata" would put us in the bottom quarter of most blogrolls.

I started thinking about this when some of my colleagues put "Abel Pharmboy" in their blogrolls where, happily, I was at the top of their alphabetical lists.

When I meet people in meatspace, they invariably call me "Abel" even if they are privy to my real name, but there is often hesitance in pronouncing "Terra Sigillata" - the only exception, no surprise here - is Bora Zivkovic. It can be pronounced in two ways depending on whether you are a student of Latin [sij-uh-ley-tuh] or, more commonly (and the way Bora does it), sig-uh-lah-tuh. (You can go here to hear the second, more common pronunciation).

However, when referring to the blog I used "Terra Sig." Of course, "my blog" also works. (I'm also reminded that Dr Shelley Batts (Retrospectacle, Of Two Minds) was fond of using my hip-hop name, "T-Sig.")

I'm not planning on changing the blog's name, mind you. I am more interested in knowing how you refer to the blog so that I can put text and images on a CafePress shirt that the 500 of you will actually recognize. I can assure you that regardless of your input, my new tagline, "The Awesome Power of Natural Products," will be featured.

Hence, might I impose upon you to take a moment from your Friday slacking to answer this poll. You are permitted up to two answers and, for the more creative among you, an "Other" choice and fill-in box has been provided.

Of course, any comments or suggestions for T-shirt design will be gladly taken under consideration below.

Have a great weekend!

terrasig Fri, 10/23/2009 - 01:25

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At least according to classical latin, isn't the pronunciation "sig-i-lah-tah"? I usually say "Terra Sig", which is generally enough for people to Google accurately and find your blog.

Actually, in proper Latin, it's 'seeg-ee-lah-tah'.

Thanks, Eric. Yes, your pronunciation is actually most common.

"Terra Sig" on Google currently brings the blog up as the #3 return. "Terra Sig blog" actually brings up the old Blogger blog as #1, then this one #2 despite the fact that I haven't posted over there since June 2006 and this blog has 10X the number of posts and total visitors. Any SEO folks care to comment?

Katharine, see, there's even no online consensus about the Latin pronunciation!

For a native speaker of one of the romance languages, pronouncing Terra Sigillata is quite straightforward. But Abel Pharmboy is cool.

That was a tough call. I decided on Terra Sig because I favor conservation of syllables and, in English, the longer form conveys no more information (at least, for us- the cluelescenti). I decided against the APB-type names because I think the name of the blog is the primary consideration.

As far as pronunciation, take the case of a simple, organic functional group "amide" for which I accept three pronunciations. I think what happens is that somebody publishes a paper proposing the term, and we are left to our own devices to figure-out how to enunciate it.

That science blog ... you know the one ... with the funny name ... the pharmacy guy.

Yea ... the one with the picture. Kinda a caricatured drawing of an 80s lounge lizard?

I know that one ... picture looks like an extra from that old TV show ... ummm ... Miami Vice.

Exactly.

Puts out good posts. A bit full of himself I think.

Good, clear posts ... understandable and interesting ... I've learned a lot from that blog. But you're right ... a bit full of himself ... sort of like Miami Vice was ...

Something about being around drugs I think ...

LOL.

Isn't the Roman way 'si-gil-LAH-ta'? The penultimate a is long, so it's the accent point, altering the i's to 'i' instead of 'ee', and the syllables are CV/CVC in Latin. So: TER-ra si-gi-LAH-ta.

Go ahead, market it as Terra Sigillata. Use a fancy font, too, and great big letters.

Underneath, in slightly smaller script, put something like: "The power of the earth" or "the earthy science" or "uncommon cures from the common clay".

"Gettin' Siggy Wit It."

Shoot me. Shoot me now.

@Art - you're killing me. Full of myself like Miami Vice was. 80s lounge lizard. I guess it's the appearance of neck and chest hair by the artist (Australian illustrator and painter, George Aldridge) that I lack completely. I did spend a fair bit of time in Florida though.

@PhoenixWoman - yes, that's why I have the "medicines from the Earth" tagline in the masthead my brother-in-law and sister designed for me.

@bill - That was actually good. I'll shoot you when you get home /BugsBunny

The lounge lizard look is all from the caricature. The jaunty, laid back, gratuitously relaxed posture. The glasses that lend both inscrutability and exaggerated coolness. The porn star facial hair. The jacket/tee shirt look is very Miami casual-cool.

But there is nothing wrong with any of that. A caricatured drawing is not a person. Any more than what you see in a fun house mirror is the person. But it is the picture you selected and says something.

Personally it doesn't matter beyond being a convenient triviality to post about. My predilection is to pull a Mr.Rogers and love you 'just the way you are' because the oddity of presentation are by far overwhelmed by the usefulness of the blog itself as an educational and informational source.

As for the name. I can never remember it. But there isn't much need to remember it because, as with other Sciblings, I connect with your posts by way of the Sciblogs 24 hour scroll page. Pharmboy would be more immediately memorable but I can't say it would change how frequently I read your posts.

Discuss "Unscientific America" Saturday at Firedoglake Book Salon.

jstemwedel — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:59:21 +0000

Discuss "Unscientific America" Saturday at Firedoglake Book Salon.

For 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 blogosphere, I'm hopeful that a bunch of you will be able to join us!

jstemwedel Fri, 08/07/2009 - 13:59

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HOLY FUCKNOLY, SG! You're hosting FDL book salon!!11!!!!1!! w00t!!!!

Argh! Wish I'd seen this sooner!!!

A boy, a guitar, and an amplifier

terrasig — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:02:16 +0000

A boy, a guitar, and an amplifier

For 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 Taylor 810 and SWR California Blonde amplifier will be driven by the author this evening at Raleigh's Berkeley Café near the campus of North Carolina State University (yes, the university with this week's robotic bat story).

Tickets are a little steep, IMHO, for a Sunday show ($8 adv/$10 door) but I've got a couple for any cash-challenged folks if they email me in the comments - first comment, first serve. My colleague, Bull City frontman Jim Brantley, calls the band versions of my music "powerpop" to give you some idea of the style. You can head over to the MySpace site to hear them - the unplugged versions of those and others will be available this evening for the listening pleasure of those in our glorious state capital.

In a very timely coincidence, I I had the lovely pleasure yesterday afternoon of being interviewed by Dr Eva Amsen (Eastern Blot, Expression Patterns) for her project, Musicians and Scientists. Those of you who read her blogs regularly will get a kick out of the adaptation of her Erlenmeyer flask icon fashioned into a treble clef.

Eva herself is a killer violinist based currently in Toronto and has previously interviewed friends such as militant knitter and food scientist Cathy Davies (Lab Cat) and Nature Senior Editor, Henry Gee.

Eva has mercifully edited our conversation down to 7 min and posted only the most crucial parts of my story of avoiding formal musical training for 30 years while still somehow bamboozling paying customers in New Jersey, Florida, Colorado, and North Carolina.

Eva had originally intended to interview me in January while at ScienceOnline'09 but I had to quickly spirit Prof Janet Stemwedel and acmegirl (Thesis - With Children) to the airport after the shuttle left without them. So, we caught up yesterday via Skype.

In a sort of turnabout, Bora Zivkovic recently posted his own interview with Eva here.

Many thanks to Eva for getting this post done before heading to Australia.

Hope to see some of you in Raleigh tonight.

Links:
My Musicians and Scientists interview with Eva Amsen
My solo MySpace site
Berkeley Café website

terrasig Sun, 07/12/2009 - 02:02

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The Old North State

The Working Scientist

Hey Abel! Good luck with your gig tonight. I have many fond memories of your gigs in another neck of the woods and am desperately sad I live too far away to make it tonight!! Have fun and enjoy yourself!

Where is our update, Abel?

I chat with Paw-talk about ethics and animal research.

jstemwedel — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:08:43 +0000

I chat with Paw-talk about ethics and animal research.

In 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!

jstemwedel Wed, 07/08/2009 - 12:08

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Shameless Self-Promotion

Terra Sigillata cited as source for ABC News Michael Jackson story, sorta

terrasig — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:02:20 +0000

Terra Sigillata cited as source for ABC News Michael Jackson story, sorta

While 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 abuse could have caused cardiac problems and could have increased his risk for heart rhythm disturbances from the [p]ropofol: "As I wrote last week in my blog post on DemerolÂ® (meperidine), Jackson's reported long-term use of this analgesic for back pain may have already primed him for cardiac problems due to the accumulation of a toxic metabolite, normeperidine," Dr. David Kroll said. "However, most relevant to the Jackson case is that propofol can cause cardiac tachyarrhythmias (rhythmic disturbances at high heart rate), especially in people predisposed to cardiac problems."

Unfortunately, I drew no direct hyperlink to the blog and my real-life academic affiliation(s) were not noted. But the quote was a good one and meperdine (together with Diprivan/propofol) continues, as far as I know, to be a viable avenue of investigation in the death of Mr Jackson.

I also enjoyed that fact, however, that my quote was missing from the responses of other experts to the reporters' queries for impressions on the list of drugs found at the Jackson home as cited by The Sun:

Medical experts contacted by the ABC News Medical Unit said that the list of 20 drugs reportedly found in Jackson's rented home was "jaw-dropping" and "amazing."
"That list is enough to put down a swarm of zombies," said Richard Bradley, Chief, Division of EMS and Disaster Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

"The list ...would be typical for an anesthesia cart in an operating room or what you might find in a recovery room, ICU, ED, etc.. Definitely not what you'd expect to find in a home," said Joseph Ornato, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Jaw-dropping? Amazing? C'mon, my learned colleagues, you could have done better than that.

For the record, my response was, "Holy shit!"

There are still some things that can be said on-blog that are off limits to the MSM.

Unless you are The Onion.

terrasig Tue, 07/07/2009 - 08:02

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good deal.

Pharmboy, you are the bomb!

Whoo hoo-- great job

Holy Shit is right! and "put down a swarm of zombies" was clever imagery by Richard Bradley.

A reminder.

jstemwedel — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:02:26 +0000

A reminder.

"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 Fri, 06/05/2009 - 11:02

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but your shell is so hypnotic, with it's swirls...

Done.

Careful becca, or we'd have to start calling you "Professor Shell Woman"

There's far too much stalk showing. The snail SHOULD cover em up, now. I'm uncomfortable with this but can't stop looking away. ok, I snuck a little peek, but I'm not staring, not really, not now at least. OH NO. Hell! hey look, it's pointing those things right at me! I'm being sexually harrassed! have you no shame, snail? PUT THOSE THINGS AWAY.

TY for the LOL!

Even if you don't make it to the next round (and even if you do), perhaps you would approve use of your image for t-shirts, etc and sell them on CafePress or similar to support some thing appropriate?!

Clicked on the post because I thought it was related to a post of Isis' (didn't turn pictures on until I hit the full post). Definitely voting on that one. Snail is hypnotic!

Aw too late to vote.

3QD 2009 science blogging prize nominees posted, voting round open.

jstemwedel — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:03:05 +0000

3QD 2009 science blogging prize nominees posted, voting round open.

Remember 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:

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 that reading distract you from voting -- the polls are now open for you to select your favorite of the nominees. The voting ends at midnight on June 8, 2009, so you have a little time to read and ruminate on your choices.

As you might guess, I'd be honored to get your vote on one of my nominated entries. (Personally, I'm pulling for the snail entry.)

jstemwedel Mon, 06/01/2009 - 14:03

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Science Saturday: Alternative Medicine Edition at Bloggingheads.

jstemwedel — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:08:27 +0000

Science Saturday: Alternative Medicine Edition at Bloggingheads.

This 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 Sat, 03/21/2009 - 10:08

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I could have listened for another hour. Perhaps the two of you will do this again soon.

If you aren't regularly reading the Science Based Medicine blog, I highly recommend it. There is a different blogger each day, and I haven't seen any topic get stale or repetitive, perhaps due to the different areas of experience of the contributers. I'd like to see that blog as reading material in doctors' waiting rooms.

I was thrilled with the idea of NCCAM dating back to when it was first proposed, but the actual results of their testing and now some of their methods and proposals have moved me in the opposite direction. If we need to do science regarding CAM treatments people commonly use, it has to be real science with reliable results.

Argument:
Some of the NCCAM studies seem valuable --e.g., does cranberry juice lower antibiotic levels. Don't these useful studies justify NCCAM's existence?

Counter-argument:
There's a hidden implication in the above argument: that these useful studies would not be done by the NIH due to unfair bias against anything not directly related to drug development.

The hard-working, ethical researchers at the NIH reply, "Oh so I'm aware of promising, low-cost treatments we ought to study but I'm not gonna let that happen. So you have to go around me to NCCAM to get the funds. Do you realize what you're saying? You've just accused me of being on the take. Well, you'd better have evidence to back that up, asshole."

Science is not sectarian. Researchers don't do research in order to promote a particular school of thought or advocacy group. NCCAM, strangely, is sectarian.

Here's the evidence: You can study herbs at NCCAM but not the stuff in the herbs.

Because if you look at the components of the herb, you might figure out the active ingredient. Knowing the active ingredient, you might then figure out how it works in the body. And you might then develop a drug. And that wouldn't help the chiropractors and naturopaths.

Argument:
We ought to study particular CAM therapy X because so many Americans are using X.

Counter-argument:
We have to ask, why are so many people using X? Is it because the line between science and quackery has been blurred?

Taking nonsense seriously brands the nonsense as something serious.

Example: Thimerosal was removed from vaccines not because the CDC had evidence that thimerosal was harmful, but because parents were worried and the CDC hoped to remove their worry.

Unfortunately this intervention by the CDC seemed to prove to many that it was in fact lying when it said thimerosal was not harmful. The intervention caused many to be less trusting rather than more trusting toward the CDC. More than one parent has said to me, "They wouldn't have removed it if it wasn't harmful."

Celebrating the Year of Science.

jstemwedel — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:19:40 +0000

Celebrating the Year of Science.

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 evolutionary science and our society, and check out the fun zone for games, videos, and a contest. There's even a page of resources to help you get involved in science -- including some classic "Friday Sprog Blogging" posts and "Tips for Talking Science" from yours truly.

There's too much good stuff on the site to absorb in just one visit. Luckily, we'll have the whole year to enjoy it!

jstemwedel Mon, 02/02/2009 - 02:19

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Isn't it amazing that someone like Darwin is celebrated for his thoughts. Evolution is bunk! I am not a creationist either. But to evolve an animal had to make a conscious decision. An example: a fish had to decide that land was the next place it was going to make its home. How many fish had to make that decision and how many realized they would have to die before their gills evolved into lungs? Yet there are people who actually believe in evolution. Somebody is not thinking things through.

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