Category Archives: Blogging

I am off to ConvergeSouth where there will be a fascinating Program.
Now, my session is entitled “Conquering Fear – Overcoming Social (Networking) Anxiety”. If you walked into a session with this title, what would you expect to hear, want to hear, want to say?

Tomorrow is the time to publish your blog posts for the Open Access Day competition.
And tomorrow night is the deadline for two good carnivals: Praxis (October 15th on The Other 95%) and the Giant’s Shoulders (October 15th on Second Order Approximation).
And if you missed it, there will be prizes for the biggest DonorsChoose donors.

Go say Hello to the newest SciBling – John Wilbanks (who is also the Vice President of Science Commons), you can see his former blog here.

Related:
Wiki for beginners
Blogs for Beginners

Shakesville (formerly known as Shakespeare’s Sister) is four years old.
Afarensis is four years old.
Highly Allochthonous is three years old.
What is it about October and all those blogiversaries? What were all those people doing nine months prior….

And finally, the last two clips….

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Another five….

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Another five….

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…and another five clips out of 47:

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If you are in NYC, you should go to this!

Another five clips from the Millionth Comment party at the NC Zoo in Asheboro:

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Another five…..

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Another five clips:

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Here are another five clips (out of a total of 47) from the Millionth Comment party at the NC Zoo:

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Another 5 (out of 47) short clips from the Millionth Party at the NC Zoo:

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When we met at the Zoo we took 47 short movie clips. Here are the first five and I will post the rest over the next few days:

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The North Carolina scienceblogging contingent celebrated the millionth comment at the NC Zoo in Asheboro yesterday.
We met at 1pm and were first greeted by the Executive Director of the NC Zoological Society, Russ Williams, who also runs a delightful blog Russlings.
Then, we were taken on a delightful tour of the zoo by Jayne Owen Parker, Ph.D., the Director of Conservation Education of the Society. Dr. Parker’s personal interest is in animal behavior, especially social behavior. As much as this is my own area of expertise, I have to admit that I learned a lot of stuff I did not know before. Perhaps we can use some of those pieces of information for future blog posts – how giraffes take care of their young, how different species of zebras have different social organizations, what the lions’ manes are for, why are Patas monkeys matriarchal, etc.
So, who else was there?
We were joined by Heather Soja, the AHS Zoo School Lead Teacher and Biology Teacher and her two beautiful children. Old friends, Anne and Christian Casper came on the tour with us. As did Kim Gainer and her daughter Patti. Greg (the founder of the Giant’s Shoulders carnival) came with his fiance – it was so nice to finally match the name and face! Of the SciBlings, former, old and new, there were Kevin Zelnio with his wife and kids, James with his wonderful wife and son, Sciencewoman with husband and super-charming Minnow, Dave and Greta Munger, SciCurious (the most recent addition to The Borg, previously at Neurotic Physiology) with boyfriend, and Sheril with her boyfriend David.
We talked a lot about – Shakespeare! You never know with science bloggers what will happen!
After the 4-hour tour, we got hungry, so we went to the local Chili’s for dinner and had a lot of fun together. Videos and pictures – tomorrow.

Update:
Here are the pictures:
Pictures from the Zoo, part I
Pictures from the Zoo, part II
Pictures from the Zoo, part III
Pictures from the Zoo, part IV
And movies:
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #1
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #2
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #3
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #4
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #5
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #6
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #7
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #8
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #9
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #10
And others also report:
Russ
Sheril
Sciencewoman
Greg
Linda Zelnio
Kevin Zelnio
Dave and Greta
Scicurious
And if you live elsewhere, perhaps you can still join a party closer to you.

Write a cool, fun, funny scienc-ey post and send it to SCQ and you can get a kids science book:

The SCQ is pleased to announce that the winner of the last book was Alex Roger’s “Astro I Reference Notes.” To keep things rolling a little bit, we would like to present the next book up for grabs. This one is called “Follow the Line Around the World” by Laura Ljungkvist.
We think every reader should submit just for the possibility of owning a book who has an author with such a marvelous last name.
Anyway, like before any kind of submission will do, and please send on your good material to tscq@interchange.ubc.ca (deadline is October 15th).

A nice article in The Economist today, about science blogging, Science 2.0 and publishing:
User-generated science:

By itself this is unlikely to bring an overhaul of scientific publishing. Dr Bly points to a paradox: the internet was created for and by scientists, yet they have been slow to embrace its more useful features. Nevertheless, serious science-blogging is on the rise. The Seed state of science report, to be published later this autumn, found that 35% of researchers surveyed say they use blogs. This figure may seem underwhelming, but it was almost nought just a few years ago. Once the legion of science bloggers reaches a critical threshold, the poultry problem will look paltry.

The new version of ResearchBlogging.org gets a nice shout-out. There is one thing in there that I would like to correct, though:

Nature Network, an online science community linked to Nature, a long-established science journal, has announced a competition to encourage blogging among tenured staff. The winner will be whoever gets the most senior faculty member to blog. Their musings will be published in the Open Laboratory, a printed compilation of the best science writing on blogs.

I want to point out that the two things are not related. The Senior Scientist Blogging Challenge is not in any way connected to the Open Lab 08. The inclusion of blog posts into the anthology will be decided by Jenifer Rohn and me after a panel of judges reads all the entries and makes suggestions for the Top 50 (which we will probably just take whole as we did before) – nobody’s post will be pre-approved for any reason.

There is a nice article about science/nature blogging in Canberra Times. Several bloggers are mentioned, including Grrrl, Greg and Henry. There is the perpetual mix-up between Nature Network and Nature Blog Network, but that’s OK, I guess.

“According to studies cited by Google, around 60 to 80 per cent of blogs are abandoned within a month of being created, and few are regularly updated. A report by Calson Analytics, an online independent analysis of digital technology trends, states that the average blog has the lifespan of a fruitfly. Another study, ”The Blogging Iceberg” by the Perseus Development Corporation, differentiated between popular blogs (like Gee’s) ”which are often updated multiple times a day and which by definition have tens of thousands of daily readers” and those written for ”nanoaudiences” of family, workmates and friends. The survey found blogs were updated ”much less often than generally thought”. Active blogs were updated, on average, every fortnight. Some 2.7million blogs were abandoned after two months, with fewer than 50,000 updated daily. Blog abandonment rates were not based on age, but those who gave up on blogging ”tended to write posts that were only 58 per cent as long as those bloggers who continued to publish”. The conclusion was that ”those who enjoy writing stick with blogs longer”.

Happy to see blog carnivals mentioned, in this case Circus of the Spineless and I and the Bird:

But while those ”dear cyber-diary” blogs written for nanoaudiences may be as ephemeral as fruitflies, there’s a thriving cyber community linked by a love of the natural environment. Many of these blogs are linked to carnivals a blog event dedicated to a particular topic and, like a magazine or scientific journal, published weekly or monthly, with each ”edition” cross-linked to other blog postings in the designated topic. Two of the most popular with cyber-naturalists are Circus of the Spineless (”a monthly celebration of insects, arachnids, molluscs, crustaceans, worms and most anything else that wiggles”) and I and the Bird, ”a bi-weekly showcase of the best bird writing on the web”. The Nature Blog Network lists the best nature blogs on the web, based on a daily hit rate and the average number of page views. Top of the list is ”Ugly Overload” a blog dedicated to ”giving ugly animals their day in the sun”, with scientifically knowledgeable postings about not-so-cute critters such as spiders, caterpillars, worms, Borneo bearded pigs and Pacific Spookfish. You can browse postings on a variety of categories, including vermin (”Chow Time for Roaches”) and Oversized Uglies, which features snippets on elephant seals, hippos and genetically modified beef cattle.

If I am correct, Ugly Overload and Oversized Uglies are off the list now.

From SES: Science, Education & Society – Science Diversity Meme – Latino/Hispanic Scientists:

September 15 is the beginning of Latino or Hispanic Heritage Month. (It concludes October 15). America celebrates the culture and traditions of U.S. residents who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Sept. 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, respectively.
Like my Women in Science Meme in March, I am hosting a Diversity in the Sciences Meme and challenging everyone to name 5 Latino Scientists, Engineers, and or Mathematicians. In the end, I hope we can get a great list that represents each major STEM discipline.
Why am I hosting such a meme? All too often, the story of the scientific discovery doesn’t mention anything about the discoverer. And without a human story or face to attach to the discovery, very often, most students (elementary through college) simply assume that the scientist was a Man, was middle-aged or older, and was white or European. One the easiest ways to promote diversity in STEM is to make a conscious note of the diversity within the discipline and share a real human story. So, will you join me in this meme?
Can you name 5 Latin/Hispanic Scientists?
Rules:
1. Be sure to name their discipline or field.
2. You can’t choose people from your own institution or company. (I may go soft on this one, this time)
3. You can’t Google or use the internet to aid in your search. (But if you know someone is a scientist, but not sure what disciple, you can look that up).
4. You can consult textbooks, journals, and class notes.
5. You can ask others to help you brainstorm, but they can’t use the internet just to get 5 names fast (see #2).
6. Living and deceased scientists are acceptable.
7. Links to or references about the named scientists are greatly appreciated. Let’s share the knowledge, and tell mList as many as you can, even if it isn’t five.
Major Discipline Fields: (you can add more)
Astronomy
Biology
Biomedical & Medicine
Chemistry
Engineering
Genetics
Geography
Geology
Mathematics
Physics
Psychology
Social Sciences
Space & Planetary Sciences
I encourage you to post this meme at your page and track back.
Thanks

A few seconds ago, the
Millionth Comment was posted on Scienceblogs.com (go there and make yourself eligible!).
Join us for the party!
And if you intend to come to the NC party, please filll this form so we can get the head count and give you prizes!
Also, here….

The party is getting close -next Saturday. You can still tell us if you are going to join us either here or here.
Meeting time/place: 1pm right inside the North America entrance.

Chad did an interesting analysis the other day – looking at the traffic attracted by science posts vs. non-science stuff (e.g., pretty pictures, politics, etc.). This made me look at my all-time traffic here (I know some of the posts are re-posts from the old blogs where they got lots of traffic as well, but I can ignore that for the purpose of this exercise). I rarely ever check Google Analytics, so the first surprise was my 6th place in overall traffic for the past month! And then I looked at the Clock content to see what have been the greatest hits over the past two years.
Considering I have more than 6000 posts and many of them are brief and low-content, I was quite happy with what GA brought out to the top – quite a nice collection, in fact. What can we say?
First, older posts had more time to accumulate traffic. Second, a few silly posts got one-time big traffic because of Digg, Redditt, Stumbleupon, etc., but that lasted a few hours and is gone.
Some pictures got hot-linked by others and got all the way up to the top of Google Image searches, and these keep bringing traffic all the time.
Obvious PZ-baiting also brings a big burst of non-lasting traffic.
Participating in flame-wars, just like participating in community activities (conferences, scifoo, anthology, Ask The Scienceblogger,….) brings a lot of traffic for a brief period of time and then it’s gone.
Politics, as a rule, brings nothing.
The science posts, especially Basic Concepts and BIO101 lecture notes keep going and going and going.
Friday Weird Sex Blogging brought a lot of traffic – but those posts are science!
So, if I intend to keep growing regular readership, I need to write science posts more – they may get few comments, and little immediate traffic growth, but they are a gift that keeps on giving.
Here are my top-traffic posts, under the fold, so you can take a look. I ordered them by total Pageviews (and stopped once I hit posts that got less than 1000 pageviews):

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Everything about the Science Blogging 2008 London conference can be found here and here.

Readers of my blog are surely familiar with Scicurious, a frequent commenter here and someone whose posts I have linked several times over the past few months because they are, well, sooooo cool!
So, I am super-happy to announce that Scicurious will be joining Evil Monkey as a co-blogger on Neurotopia 2.0.
Some people are excited about drugs. I am excited about (neuroscience of, OK) sex. I am excited to see the NC contingent grow even bigger!
So, go say Hello to Scicurious and keep checking Neurotopia in the future.

Guys, keep commenting! A lot. Because if you do, and you are lucky, you will be eligible for a prize:

….one lucky reader will win an all-out science adventure — a trip for two to New York City and exclusive science adventures only ScienceBlogs could give you access to.
The trip includes airfare, four nights in a four-star hotel, behind-the-scenes tours of top museums and labs, and dinner with your favorite ScienceBlogger.

The Grand Prize is this:

Grand Prize: 2 round-trip economy class tickets on a carrier of Seed Media Group’s choice from the major airport closest to winner’s home, to New York, NY. 4 nights double-occupancy lodging at a four-star hotel of Seed Media Group’s choice, plus museum tickets and tours, meals and other prizes of Seed Media Group’s choice. Estimated value: $10,000.

Million comments – that’s a LOT!!!!
But, even if you are not a Grand Prize winner, you can still meet your local SciBlings. This post on Page 3.14 will get updated as more information comes in. But for now, there will be meet-the-readers parties in Oklahoma City, OK, Twin Cities, MN, Vancouver, Canada, Detroit, MI, San Francisco, CA, Seattle, WA, Sydney, Australia, perhaps London, U.K., NYCity, NY, etc.
The Big Party is in North Carolina, where you can meet many SciBlings, some living here, some luckily traveling here at just the right time! And it is not just me! You will also be able to meet (most likely) Sheril Kirshenbaum, James Hrynyshyn, Abel PharmBoy, ScienceWoman, Kevin Zelnio, SciCurious, Dave and Greta Munger, Russ Williams and hopefully other readers and bloggers.
As I noted earlier:

We will start in the morning, meeting at the N.C. Zoo in Asheboro and seeing the exhibit led by one of their staffers (perhaps seeing some stuff behind the scenes). Then we will spend about an hour in their new Valerie H. Schindler Wildlife Learning Center (scroll down to read more) to meet with the zoo stuff and researchers, with the members of the NC Zoo society (whose President is a wonderful blogger), the teachers and students at the Zoo School, and then proceed to a nearby watering hole for some food and drinks (yes, serving of alcohol just got legalized in Asheboro a few months ago).
I (and other NC sciblings) will post more information once we have it, but it would be nice if you could post a comment here and on other NC scienceblogs if you can/will show up so we get an idea of potential numbers.

So, RSVP and let’s meet!

Check out Paul Bradshaw‘s list (it’s really 100 things, not 1000):

#1 Blogging is not ‘writing a blog’. Blogging is linking and commenting. Any writing is a bonus.

…and then there are 99 more. Which ones you agree with, which ones not? After all, blog is just a software and different people use it for different purposes, so none of those lists are applicable to all.

Pawel wins the Big Prize!

Go say Hello to Daniel at Genetic Future