meta-blag
palmd | May 28, 2009There's a contest going on in the blogosphere, and I want in. 3 Quarks Daily is taking nominations for best social science or natural history blog post published between May 28th, 2008 and now. Go here to nominate your favorite piece, but HURRY---nominations end June 1. This year's judge is Steven Pinker.
So, when you think about nominating some of my wonderful posts, remember you can check over at denialism blog as well.
Srsly...please nominate some nice posts. My ego would love it.
palmd | May 21, 2009OK, that's an exaggeration, but I'll explain. First, some colleagues and I have been talking about two related issues: how to continue to build readership, and what attracts or repels certain groups of readers. I love my readers and commenters, but are there things I could be doing to attract more readers? And what would I be willing to do?
For example, if I started promoting quackery, I could not only build my readership, but make ass-loads of money. This I will not do. I might also attract people to my blog who currently are turned off to it. But if promoting quackery is what it takes…
palmd | April 22, 2009As anyone who has been following the naturopathy thread knows, this blog often covers controversial topics. To help elucidate the problems, there is often vigorous debate, which I rarely censor.
I bring this up because of this blogs recent HONcode certification. As I told you, HON is struggling with the format of blogs. They are rather ambivalent about such a "free for all" format. Hence this email:
Dear DrPal,
We have recently received a complaint concerning your site:http://www.scienceblogs.com/whitecoatunderground/
It is regarding the post about the Naturopath Challenge.
We make it…
palmd | April 16, 2009As of this evening, I will be displaying the HONcode certification badge on the left sidebar of this blog. I was able to achieve this certification on my original wordpress blog, and then at denialism blog. The HONcode serves a specific, limited purpose, and some of you might be interested in what that purpose is, and how it is evolving.
If you have virus protection on your computer, it will (hopefully) warn you when you are about to enter a questionable site or perform a dangerous download. There is no analogous way to sort out good from bad medical sites. The Health on the Net…
palmd | April 8, 2009Blake has pointed out to me that my feedburner feed isn't working, so I'm changing back to the scienceblogs feed. If you use rss feeds, please change your settings accordingly. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it.
palmd | April 3, 2009Open Lab is a project that collects all the best science blogging of the year, kills a few trees, and prints them all together in something called a "book". Of course, I am featured in Open Lab 2008 (with 49 of my closest friends), and I'd love to be this year as well.
Here is how you submit a post:
Just click on this thing. Of course, just nominating all of my fabulous posts would look a bit funny, so nominate posts from your other favorite bloggers as well. Don't worry about how many you submit---the editor can handle it.
palmd | April 2, 2009We're being far to easy on our medical students. In the old days, when giants walked the Earth, medical students wore sackcloth and lived in the anatomy lab with the cadavers. They didn't have time to do something as frivolous as writing.
Well, they are doing just that. Some rather clever med students are finding time to become blogospheric bros. I would point you to Tim Kreider, one of my co-bloggers at Science-Based Medicine. He's written some terrific stuff, and I think I can promise you some truly stimulating pieces to come.
We also have Beyond the Short Coat, which, despite it's…
palmd | March 26, 2009My first blogiversary at scienceblogs.com came and went on March 20th, and I failed to eat cake. Oh well, next time I'll remember party favors.
palmd | March 22, 2009I was invited to speak on Atheist Talk this morning, a radio show put on by Minnesota Atheists. Stephanie Zvan did the interview, and she's quite good. The show is available as a podcast, and today's show had little to do at all with atheism (in fact, in all the times Stephanie and I have corresponded, I'm not sure if I've ever discussed my views on religion). This morning's show was on medicine and skepticism, and I think it's worth a listen.
Between the radio show and the bloggingheads gig, I didn't manage to crank out a PalCast today, but I'll see what i can do later in the week.
palmd | March 19, 2009That would be a good descriptor for an average summer blockbuster, but really, it's just to catch your attention so that I can send you over to my friend Isis's place. She's talked a major academic science organization to match her to give a scholarship to a promising young scientist. How will she raise her end of the funds? By having you click onto her site. She'll donate any site revenue to the scholarship, so go now and go often---and while you're there, read her excellent writing.
palmd | March 17, 2009Apparently there's been a problem with the commenting function on the blog. I think this is fixed, so if you've been trying to comment and haven't been able to, try again, and if you have a problem, email me at palmd [at] 1 x10^100 mail.com.
palmd | March 10, 2009Just some reminders:
In case the Underground has not yet sufficiently infiltrated your online life, I'm on twitter, facebook, and friendfeed. It's all great fun, but I'm still not sure what to make of all these media. Still, I'm trying them out, and we'll see what shakes out.
palmd | March 5, 2009So, Open Lab 2008 is now available, and you must buy a copy. Open Lab collects the best writing from the blogosphere and (ironically) captures them in print. It's a nice chance to read some great stuff that you knew you'd love, and some great stuff you've never even seen. The cover art by Dave Ng and The Flying Trilobite is awesome. The proceeds go toward ScienceOnline10, next year's online science writing conference, which totally rocks. Lot's of the attendees are graduate students, academics, high school students, and other types of hungry people who could really use a subsidy to come…
palmd | February 4, 2009It's a tradition in the blogosphere for more popular blogs to help out the little guys.
But only once a year. Usually in February.
Many blogs have very liberal blogroll policies: you link me, I link you. Since I moved into the new space here, I've been very lazy conservative with my blogroll, trying to keep it uncluttered. I've finally figured out how I'm going to organize the darn thing. I've set up a tab at the top of the page that leads to the full blogroll, so just go there and leave your link in the comments with a brief description, and I'll add it on (reciprocity is all I ask…
sb admin | January 8, 2009ScienceBlogs is going to be having it's back end worked on starting sometime tomorrow, which is much less uncomfortable than it sounds. If I have something that I absolutely can't resist telling you, it will be up at my old WP blog until Sb gets its new and improved back end up and running.
sb admin | January 7, 2009The feed for my nascent podcast (dubbed "PalCast" by Isis) has moved. You may or may not be affected (assuming you're a listener). The new feed address is here, but you're still better off using feedburner.
This switch is due to the benevolence of our Seed Overlords, who graciously gave me a little corner of the server to help me out with this foray into a new medium. As I become more familiar with the technology, you will be subjected to guests of all sorts...really.
sb admin | January 2, 2009ScienceOnline09 is rapidly approaching, and I'm very excited about my "geek-cation".
I'll be co-moderating a session on anonymity with Abel from TerraSig, and I'll be leading a session on Blogging 101 at which you can actually start a real blog. w00t!
I'm also hoping to talk some people into joining me for a podcast, preferably one that involves the participants drinking.
If you're coming to the conference, visit the links above to discuss the sessions. If you're not coming but want to feel like you're there, were going to be doing lots of live blogging.
sb admin | January 1, 2009I've been spending a lot of time with family and friends lately, something I don't often get the chance to do. And while I'm not happy about the reason for it, I'm still thankful for all the friends I sometimes forget I have.
One thing I found out from many of my friends is that if I post a piece on my facebook page, they'll read it. But they won't necessarily come here to read my other stuff. Why not?
The ongoing discussion here in the blogosphere sometimes needs an interruption, a break to remember what it is we do here, if anything. I'm not big on "Top 10" or other similar New Years…
sb admin | December 29, 2008The latest edition is up at iTunes and Feedburner. Once again, I've failed to deliver the product I intended due to some difficult circumstances, but I promise some kind guests and some controversial guests in the future.