Blogging, philanthropy, and commerce. (Oh my!)

I 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 relish and a third of a pan of the persimmon semifreddo. Yay for actually eating our leftovers rather than losing track of them in the back of the fridge and finding them covered with mold!

Regular readers may have wondered at the absence of a sprog blog last Friday. In one of life's little ironies, spending time with the Free-Ride offspring (who had a day off from school last Friday) makes it harder to carve out time to post about the time I've spent with them. Suffice it to say, we were not out shopping. Instead, the sprogs did some holiday season cyber-philanthropy. (Their preferred charities this year are Amazon Conservation Association, Family Giving Tree, and Heifer International. We'll also be bringing food to the food bank and giving DonorsChoose gift cards to our teachers.) I'm thinking this will become a day-after-Thanksgiving tradition in the Free-Ride household.

Finally, if the sprog merchandise is worming its way into your "I want it!" list, I should mention that Cafe Press is offering free shipping this weekend. The catch is that you have to order $75 or more of merchandise. But In addition to the sprogs' shop, there are also nice items available from other ScienceBloggers:

DrugMonkey
Greg Laden
Bora
Sandy
Omnibrain

Just so you know.