Blogging community
terrasig | June 7, 2008Oy vey, am I embarrassed for missing this piece of good news. Last month, Erin Zuiker graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
Folks in the local and international science blogging community may recognize that Erin is the better half of Anton Zuiker, science blogger extraordinaire and co-founder with Bora Zivkovic of the former NC Science Blogging Conference (to be known next year as ScienceOnline'09) and leader of the BlogTogether movement.
Conference attendees this past year may not know that Erin Zuiker was solely responsible for securing and…
terrasig | May 19, 2008One last political post for a little while at least.
We posted almost two weeks ago a note of thanks to the NC Democratic senate candidate, Jim Neal. The progressive candidate and friend of the blogging community (and blogger himself) lost to Kay Hagan, who will now face Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) in the November election.
I missed Jim's response to us in a long thread at BlueNC:
it's never too late for you and science/medicine bloggers to make an impact. Get to know Senator Hagan and other candidates. Inform them about what you are doing and your POV.
You have a voice. Use it. Expect,…
terrasig | May 7, 2008We're not a political blog here but I certainly care about politics as it relates to national science policy and social justice.
Last night, North Carolina's Jim Neal lost in his bid to fight against Sen Elizabeth Dole for her seat in the US Senate. Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend has all the details from last night's gathering at the campaign's election hub, including video of Neal's concession speech. However, he and his supporters have everything to be proud about and I wish Mr Neal all the very best in deciding next how he will continue his service to the community.
Many of us who…
terrasig | May 2, 2008Awhile back, I was given a PLoS T-shirt by Bora Zivkovic, science blogger extraordinaire and online community manager for PLoS-ONE, the flagship journal of the Public Library of Science. Every time I wear the dang thing, someone says something to me about the Open Access journal movement. Of course, I live in a rather science-dense town so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I guess I'm just surprised at the kinds of comments I get.
Yesterday I took a brief jaunt to our local indy bookstore. To get some ideas for my Tar Heel Tavern post for this weekend (submit your entries!!!), I was…
terrasig | April 29, 2008Offer extended through Friday! Friday! Friday! 2 May!!!!Submit entries to tarheeltavern.abel at gmail.
For the first time since I've lived here, the NC primary will actually matter especially given that Clinton and Obama appear to now be running neck-and-neck in PA.
The Tar Heel Tavern was an early blog carnival, with contributions on numerous topics from the unusually dense NC blogging community. The first THT was hosted by Bora Zivkovic at his old blog, Science and Politics, back on 27 February 2005.
I've offered to resurrect the carnival in time for the NC primary with the topic, "What…
terrasig | April 26, 2008Here's a Saturday morning open question to the readership:
I'm experiencing some changes in my life that may affect my blogging frequency in the negative direction (but not the quality, of course). I've always blogged intermittently - this has always been a labor of love, intellectual stimulation, and public education rather than ego fodder - but I already feel a little frustrated with myself, for example, in being able to address topics you submit or questions you ask via e-mail.
Several others at ScienceBlogs and elsewhere start team blogs or take on additional bloggers with a similar…
terrasig | April 24, 2008Doctor Anonymous has a killer web radio show scheduled for tonight at 9 pm EDT with Kevin, M.D., and Dr Val Jones of Dr Val and The Voice of Reason blog at Revolution Health. (Got your name right this time, Val.)
Here's how to listen and participate in the accompanying chat.
According to the Good Doctor Pho:
We will be talking about yesterday's USA Today op-ed and how doctors can engage the media to better express relevant health issues from a physician's viewpoint.
Doc Anon really does a terrific job and I don't watch/listen/participate as much as I should - I even missed Sid Schwab and Doug…
terrasig | April 22, 2008So says Dr Val Jones at Dr Val's Revolution Health Blog, host of this week's Grand Rounds medical blog carnival. The good doctor classified the posts as follows:
[:-)] = A post that demonstrates literary excellence
[{] = Early bird - an author who got his/her submission in early, which is really convenient for the host(ess)
[:-/] = Naughty - an author who forgot to submit an entry to Grand Rounds but who was included nonetheless
Hence, Val classifies me as naughty because she was kind enough to include my post, "Must people die before DSHEA is repealed?," even though I was so inconsiderate…
terrasig | April 21, 2008Once the US Democratic presidential primary is over tomorrow in Pennsylvania, all eyes will be on North Carolina. For the first time since I've lived here, the NC primary will actually matter especially given that Clinton and Obama appear to now be running neck-and-neck in PA.
The Tar Heel Tavern was an early blog carnival, with contributions on numerous topics from the unusually dense NC blogging community. The first THT was hosted by Bora Zivkovic at his old blog, Science and Politics, back on 27 February 2005.
I've offered to resurrect the carnival in time for the NC primary with the…
terrasig | April 9, 2008Neat-o.
The ScienceBlogs conglomerate came up with a great idea that is now being implemented: a RSS feed of the most interesting Sb posts as selected by so-called SuperReaders.
http://feeds.delicious.com/rss/SbReaderClub
Each blog submitted for approval two representative readers who would volunteer to submit the "best of" recent ScienceBlogs posts - after the mothership ruled out any overlap between nominated SuperReaders, a RSS feed was started and you can now see the top 5 recommended posts on the right sidebar of the Sb frontpage (to the right of "Wordburst" under TOPFIVE Reader's Picks…
terrasig | April 5, 2008I had only been blogging for four-and-a-half months when I got an e-mail two years ago today from someone named Katherine Sharpe at Seed Media Group in New York City. Seems they had started this ScienceBlogs.com thing a couple months earlier with 14 blogs, many of which I had already read regularly. I figured that Ms. Sharpe just wanted me for some reader focus group but after I read the e-mail again, it appeared that she was inviting me to join ScienceBlogs. We hung out the Sb Terra Sig shingle two months later, 9 June 2006, with a diatribe containing all you ever wanted to know (or didn'…
terrasig | April 2, 2008An open letter to the Framing Wars:
Can we start by just considering Chris Mooney as a person distinct from Matt Nisbet?
The problem I see is that Chris is suffering blogospheric vitriol far beyond his own comments because of his association with Matt Nisbet. To the best of my knowledge, Matt Nisbet is a communications professor trying to make a name for "framing" as an academic area of research in his discipline (I've only met him once). As I lack academic credentials in his discipline, I am inadequately prepared to pass judgment as to the scholarly gravity of such an area of study. In a…
terrasig | March 22, 2008I usually don't do these kinds of linkfests but we're on the road for a Pharmboy family Easter weekend and there are a few items of interest that slipped through my fingers recently. Here are a few things that readers may enjoy this weekend:
Bora's blog gets its 1,000,000th visitor
Go over and offer congratulations to Mr Community.
Get a tetanus shot first, and be sure to use clean nails.
Adding new meaning to "get off the cross, someone else needs the wood," WSJ Health Blog alerts us to ritual crucifixions in the Philippines. By the way, belated congratulations to our Health Blog…
terrasig | March 9, 2008On this day in 1957,
A magnitude 9.1 earthquake shook the Andreanof Islands in Alaska, the second strongest quake in U.S. history (although Alaska would not become the 49th state until more than a year later), generating a tsunami that hit the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat (Day-O) was number 6 on the Cashbox Top 50 music charts.
Faith Daniels, former news anchor (CBS-TV), and Mona Sahlin, leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, were born.
And, sharing the birthdate with them is little-known blogger and zebrafish guru PZ Myers of Pharyngula and the University of…
terrasig | March 1, 2008It's my great pleasure to congratulate Skookumchick (Rants of a Feminist Engineer) and the world of women bloggers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) on the first anniversary of their blog carnival, Scientiae. With the theme of "renewal," I'll leave it to Skookum to explain how and why she started the carnival:
I decided to start the thing-that-would-turn-into-Scientiae (name by Theo Bromine) because I had found it to be meaningful to read all these amazing blogs being written by women in science, engineering and math. I found it helpful to hear their stories, to…
terrasig | February 29, 2008A lively discussion has ensued this week across the intertubes about the ScienceBlogs.com network to which we belong and what should or shouldn't be provided as content in a blog that calls itself a science blog.
As usual, the most sober, inclusive, and non-inflammatory treatise on the topic comes from ethicist, philosopher, and physical chemist (because one Ph.D. is never enough), Prof Janet Stemwedel of Adventures in Ethics and Science: she calls it navel-gazing. I submit that her navel is among the wisest around:
Why do so many bloggers at ScienceBlogs write about stuff besides science?
We…
terrasig | February 28, 2008[Note: Mr. Tweedy's first post, Shaking It Off, went up on 5 March 2008]
Yesterday, London-based blogger Mo at Neurophilosophy alerted us to a new blog at the New York Times website entitled, Migraine: Perspectives on a Headache. A notable cadre of prominent migraine sufferers have started blogging about their experiences and answering reader questions. Bloggers include author Siri Hustvedt, author-journalist Paula Kamen, German neurologist and psychiatrist Dr Klaus Podoll, and noted Columbia professor and author Dr Oliver Sacks. The blog description is as follows:
More than 28 million…
terrasig | February 27, 2008I was remiss in noting that Hungarian medical student and Medical Web 2.0 guru Berci Meskó has hosted the current and rather large Grand Rounds medical blog carnival at his excellent blog, Science Roll. Fresh off his US tour that included a presentation at the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference and a talk at Yale University, Doctor-to-be Meskó returns in stride with the week's wide spectrum of medical blogging.
For those new readers, blog carnivals are periodic compilations of posts organized around general topical areas. For example, Grand Rounds is a general medicine carnival begun…
terrasig | February 25, 2008[Note: I originally posted this last Thursday under another title but it got lost in other events of that day. As I find it ironic that Mr Comarow has been attacked by an alternative medicine practitioner and advocate, I find this story worthy of reposting.]
A few weeks ago the skeptical blogosphere was up in arms about an article in US News & World Report by Avery Comarow on alternative medicine services in US academic medical centers. Mr Comarow is a senior medical writer for USN&WR and best known as editor for the last 18 years of the magazine's annual feature, America's Best…
terrasig | February 24, 2008I promise this will be the last to say about my vasectomy and the remarkable blogospheric response to my account. But I had to share with readers this observation, something that may only be of interest to other bloggers who like to examine their reader statistics. Here is the distribution by country of my last 4,000 site hits:
I've never had this concentration of non-North American hits since my early days of blogging when Terra Sigillata was the clue for a UK Telegraph crossword puzzle.
But why the Swedish concentration for the vasectomy post? Do the Swedes have an unusually high…