Looking at the traffic stats for the week, we see the following pageview totals:
- The Funding Issue: 688
- Unions and Sour Grapes: 777
- Teacher Compensation: 946
- Sheep!: 1,261
So, to recap:
- Ranty blogging about serious issues of science funding and public outreach = Nobody cares.
- Ranty blogging about teachers and unions = Good for traffic.
- Cartoon sheep = Pure blogging gold.
In the immortal words of David St. Hubbins, "Too much fucking perspective."
is it statistically reliable?
Most blogs don't cover news and topics of importance for the same reason that television news broadcasts don't cover news and topics of importance:
People want to be entertained and amused. They don't want to hear about the horrors.
I am guessing that the funding issues post is kind of "inside baseball" for scientists. I found it more interesting than teachers union stuff, but I am scientist and I have mostly the same views on teachers and unions (possibly because my dad was the local union rep to the state legislature, in a state where teachers cannot strike). Most people have much stronger opinions on teacher unions than on whether some TLA gets funded.
Obviously, to increase your pageviews you need "do m-branes dream of 14 dimensional sheep".