Love for Terra Sig readers

But never fear! Click HERE to come to our new home: cenblog.org/terra-sigillata/ Please update your bookmarks and see this farewell post about our departure from the ScienceBlogs community after four years. The 234-ton load of Holy Cross Church is transported across the North Carolina Central University campus to make room for their new nursing building. The former primary place of worship for Durham's Black Catholics was relocated to a site near the home of founder, Dr. James E. Shepard, and will serve as a community center. This photo is from a gallery shot on April 23, 2010, by Harry Lynch…
So, readers know that I went out West this past weekend to visit colleagues at the University of Colorado, spend some thinking time at the southern Colorado ranchland endowed to us by the late PharmDad, and - most prominently - visit PharmMom and PharmStiefvater on the occasion of her 70th birthday. I'm extremely grateful to my wife, PharmGirl, MD, and the illustrious PharmKid for holding down the fort and handling the emotional and practical issues of the little genius starting 3rd grade on Monday. When Mom told me she'd been following the aftermath of Pepsigate/sbfail, she asked, "So, what…
In the midst of all of the PepsiCo #SbFAIL events of the week (here and here are my two contributions), I totally missed checking in on my blog traffic statistics this week. But every Saturday morning I get my weekly e-mail report from SiteMeter, the service I use to track how y'all get to the blog, what search terms you use, etc. Yes, sometime during the week we drew our one millionth pageview since starting up here at ScienceBlogs four years ago last month. It's small potatoes compared with other bloggers at the network, some of whom draw a million page views every two weeks or two months…
Many moons ago in blog years, RealJournalist&trade and Not Exactly Rocket Science blogger Ed Yong queried his readers to learn who they were and why they read him by answering some questions in the comment thread. Now that he has moved over to Discover, Ed has launched his query anew and blog brother DrugMonkey has tagged other science bloggers to do the same. Why? Well, I actually asked readers for similar input back in December when I celebrated my 4th anniversary of writing Terra Sigillata. We're now drawing about 1,300 people dialing up our blog daily yet only a good post will draw…
I just commented over at DrugMonkey's on a question he re-posed on behalf of a question posed by blogger, Lorax: However, I am concerned about message. I do not want the interesting and important science to be diluted (to some potential readers) by the fact that I am an opinionated bastard. So, I have been considering starting a new blog that would contain the science- and education-oriented posts and maintaining this one until no one IWOTI. As is common in my commenting elsewhere, my diatribe grew longer than the blogpost itself and, therefore, is now a blogpost here presented to you for…
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…
Wow. I really don't deserve this but I truly appreciate your concern, advice, and best wishes sent over the last few days following my post on losing, and slowly regaining, my voice. I didn't know anyone was still reading but some of you must have seen my RSS feed pop up under the cobwebs on your reader. What's interesting is that I generally look well in person other than getting winded when walking too fast or going up stairs (yes! I can walk up stairs now! w00t!). And to be honest, the loss of 14 lbs I didn't need has actually made me look a little more fit. I've still got a long way to go…
Last July we wrote about the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and spoke of Buzz Aldrin's autobiography about his battle with alcoholism in the years following. The post drew a comment from a reader who I've renamed "Anon." Thank you so much for this post. I am a recovering drug addict and am in the process of applying to graduate programs. I have a stellar GPA, have assisted as an undergraduate TA, and have been engaged in research for over a year. I also have felony and was homeless for 3 years. I don't hide my recovery from people once I know them, but I sometimes, especially…
I wanted to issue a great big thank-you to all of you who came by to comment on the 4th anniversary of this blog and share with us who you are and why you read. After a slow start, a few blog links and Twitter-prodding by my colleagues got the commenting going full bore. I intend to respond to each of you in the comment thread but it may take a couple of days. I have been very pleasantly surprised by how many of our readers are not trained as scientists but are simply interested in science or in the scientific topics we present here. That is completely AWESOME because one of my concerns…
The Preamble Four years ago today, I wrote my first post in the blogosphere over at the old Blogger version of Terra Sigillata. The post, entitled, "A Humble PharmBoy Begins to Sow," set out my mission to be an objective source for information on natural health remedies and drugs that come from nature, whether used as single agent prescription drugs or as botanical mixtures and supplements. I read blogs for about six months before setting off on my own, primarily because I wanted to be sure my efforts were not redundant with others. Because I am academic and paid by a combination of federal…
Dear Readers: No I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. I've only been quiet because I am getting crushed during this last week of the semester. I have a couple of topics I want to share with you but it may not happen today. Please accept my apologies for slacking on my commitment to each of you. Regretfully, Abel
Lookie what came in to my e-mail box overnight after yesterday's post about the hypotrichosis treatment, Latisse® brand of bimatoprost. Hmm...I have a few ideas who might have sent this (no profanity, so it wasn't Comrade PhysioProf). And very interesting that this comes just a week before FDA holds an opening hearing entitled, "Promotion of FDA-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools. For your information, here's the PDF schedule courtesy of colleague John Mack - Pharma Marketing Blog and @pharmaguy. John is currently running a survey in his masthead to solicit…
A little over a week ago, we posted on the very sad story of the accidental death of a University of Colorado sophomore from ingesting poppy seed tea. The poppy, Papaver somniferum, is the commercial source for prescription narcotic painkillers such as morphine and codeine. The seeds can be had online and in retail stores. The plants can often be grown if these seeds are not roasted or otherwise sterilized. I had originally suspected that the CU-Boulder student had not used poppy seed tea but rather some other decoction of the plant itself. I had always contended that the seeds did not…
I am truly humbled by reader response to my Thursday post on the 12th anniversary of my father's death. What began as a simple journaling exercise interspersed with some great photos provided by my sister has become one of my most highly-read and most-commented posts. I don't want to comment too much lest I take away what this post has meant to me and others. But for background, this is something that I had intended to write for the 10th anniversary of Dad's passing. However, I had only been with ScienceBlogs for a few months and wasn't yet in a position to write so frankly and personally…
We're really fortunate here at Terra Sigillata World Headquarters to have a strong, dedicated readership. But I'm always tickled when we attract new readers and attention to the views we express here. Late yesterday I received a very nice e-mail from Andrew Plemmons Pratt, Managing Editor of Science Progress, a blog of the well-known liberal think tank, Center for American Progress. In his post, Don't Bury the Next Generation of Researchers Under Billions in NIH Funding, Andrew notes my enthusiasm in our 23 Feb post for being sure that junior investigators already in the pipeline not be…
So, I'm over at CVS Pharmacy this morning looking for a sympathy card for Orac and Mrs Orac and a get-well card for Sheril, and - I admit it - some 25-50% off Valentine's stuff for the PharmKid. There, I came upon this complete and utter gem. Frankly, this is gilling me - but what better way to share the love with your catch than a double crispy chocolate fish from the R.M. Palmer Candy Co., of Reading, Pennsylvania: This foiled, life-like fish is the best you'll ever taste - made of our delicious Double Crisp candy. The natural-looking foil makes this fish the perfect "catch" for your…
I don't know about you folks but I am just spent. I did tons of background reading for a couple of upcoming blog posts but I just couldn't put fingers to keyboard today. So let me just wish each and every one of you all the best for a happy and healthy New Year. Professionally, I wish you get the paper / grant / degree / position / sanity / equality / respect that you so richly deserve. Personally, I simply wish you happiness - whatever that means to you in your situation, no matter where you are in the world. Well, despite the enjoyment of a number of glasses of champagne and other fine…
Blame Isis: Figure 1: New Balance 908 trail shoes with my Polar S1 footpod (to go with my four-year-old Polar RS200). And don't give me grief about my Smartwool Light Hiking Socks - best trail running sock on the planet.
We had one of our most active comment threads the other day when I posted my thoughts on drdrA's own superb post about what is most important to her in being a woman in science. I noted my own desire to listen to and understand as completely as possible the issues of my women colleagues and discuss, in an upcoming ScienceOnline'09 session with Zuska and Alice Pawley (Sat 17 Jan, 11:30 am, session C), how they can enlist academic allies who have the traditional power and resource structure (i.e., white guys like me) to establish partnerships in working toward fair and equitable treatment of…
Just a quick reminder of who you're really supporting when you come by and click on this humble blog. It's no secret that joining Seed Media Group's ScienceBlogs.com can bring the blogger(s) a very small amount of compensation based upon grades of site traffic - depending on your traffic, this could be about as much as paying for your monthly highspeed internet connection at the house. But over the course of a year, this ends up being more money than I donate personally to my public radio station. Anyway, when I started Terra Sig at the old joint and was invited to join Sb, I was in a…