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Category Archives: Housekeeping
Blogrolling for Today
Posted in Housekeeping
Monday
I am teaching tonight (and preparing for the lecture today) so there will be very light blogging today, naked or not (tune in tomorrow).
I am also struggling with writing the cover letter for PLoS. I have never written (or even read) a cover letter before so I asked some friends for samples of theirs and it makes me really uncomfortable how self-advertising they are supposed to be: me, me, me. I have as big ego as anyone, but writing a couple of pages about how great I am just rubs me wrong. I’ll keep trying…
Posted in Housekeeping
Blogrolling for Today
The Daily Dish (I forgot to update my links when he moved to The Atlantic)
Posted in Housekeeping
Blogrolling
Happy Jihad’s House of Pancakes
Shakesville (formerly Shakespeare’s Sister)
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Posted in Housekeeping
Blogrolling
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Posted in Housekeeping
We Like Round Numbers
Is it something about wholeness? Or milestones? But we certainly do like round numbers.
Of course, our numbers are social constructs. Our days and years are determined by the planet we are living on. Our number system is decimal presumably because we all start our early-years arithmetic by counting on our fingers – of which, on the last count, there are ten.
I remember back in middle school, I was actually quite good at math (my strength was in coming up with short, elegant solutions for geometry problems, but I also did well on logic, not so well on algebra), going to math competitions every year and often managing to do well enough to go through school, county, city (yes, Belgrade is big so it is composed of several counties) levels, but I never managed to get to the state or federal level, not to mention the Math Olympics – that was reserved for math geniuses.
As part of preparation for competition we had many, many volumes of collected problems from the past competitions at all levels and the only one I remember still, decades later, has something to do with our love for whole numbers and the way society builds a numbering system.
The problem, at first sight, looked deceptively simple – it was just yet another one of those calculations of the age of a person if you know the ages and/or relationships between the ages of several other people (e.g., A is 10, B will be twice as old as C in two years from now, how old is D?). So we thought nothing of it and started crunching numbers with glee….until we realized we could not do it – something was wrong, our numbers were all out of whack. What happenned?
Well, I am proud that I was the one who figured it out. You see, in order to make the problem a little more fun, they did not use Earthlings in this one, but Martians instead. And they even put a little cartoon picture of a smiling Martian right next to the problem. And, as it turned out, the picture was the clue. How often do you ever see a picture associated with a math problem, after all? The Martian in the picture had three fingers on each hand! The problem was really easy to solve using the number system with a base of 6!
Anyway, this whole rambling post about our love for whole numbers was inspired by a round number that happenned today (under the fold):
Posted in Housekeeping
Blogrolling for today
I am glad to see that I am not the only one who keeps growing my Blogroll instead of purging it – Mike, PZ, skippy and Jon Swift are doing it as well. Here are additions for today:
The Adventures of Tobasco da Gama
Back off, man; I’m a scientist
Posted in Housekeeping
Special Scienceblogs Feed
There are now 59 blogs on Seed Scienceblogs network – that is a lot of stuff to read! You may choose to start your day on the Last 24 Hours aggregator (that’s what I do), or you may subscribe to the entire RSS feed for the whole site, or you may have just picked the feeds for a few of the blogs you particularly like.
Now you have another option – the super-special exclusive Scienceblogs Select feed! Each one of us occasionally (the agreed frequency, I believe, is an average of three posts per week) tags a particularly good post to be included in this feed.
Of course, each one of us has a different idea what a “particularly good post” is, but it is likely to be original, creative, perhaps a little on the longish side, or perhaps hillariously funny. We may tag the posts that we think should go onto the “Basics” list, or we intend to submit to carnivals, or think about submitting for the next years’ anthology. Anyway, it is likely not going to be a one-liner with a link, or a link-fest, or a housekeeping post, or a post that has absolutely nothing to do with science.
By subscribing to this feed, you get the best of the best in your newsfeed reader, as selected by sciencebloggers themselves. Also, if you, along with your own preferred RSS reader, also subscribe to this feed via Google Reader, this may help the Seed scienceblogs content actually show up on Google science feeds and news!
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Posted in Housekeeping
Blogrolling
Science, AntiScience and Geology
Lord J-Bar For Democracy, Not Theocracy
Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets-For the Love of Ocean
Posted in Housekeeping
Programming Notes….
OK, I have a huge sleep debt to pay back this weekend after a long, tough week of sleep deprivation.
I taught my lab this morning which is always exhilarating yet exhausting.
Today is always a sad day – this is the fourth anniversary of my Dad’s death. I’ll have a sip of slivovitz before bed in his honor and memory.
Regular programming will return whenever I recover, likely by Monday…..
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Posted in Housekeeping
Blogrolling – added today
I don’t know why the big boys are purging their blogrolls. I prefer to grow mine:
Posted in Housekeeping
Blogrolling – added today
Scientia Natura: Evolution And Rationality
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
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Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
Question to my readers
My SciBling John Wilkins is regularly updating the list of ‘Basic Terms and Concepts’ posts (which you should check dilligently every day!), at least until a more permanent repository is made.
Today, he included my Lecture #13 on Current Biological Diversity on the list, though my reposting of it was a part of my regular Thursday noon series of educational posts, not intended specifically to be picked up for the ‘Basics’ series (though I believe it belongs there).
On one hand, I feel silly to repost stuff that I just reposted a month or two ago (moving it from the old blogs to the new one). On the other hand, I have written in the past a number of posts I considered “basic” and perhaps they should be brought out to light again (and also relieve me from having to write too much new stuff and spend more time on the Dissertation).
So, should I, for the sake of the “Basics” series, quickly (i.e., over the next week or two) repost everything I think is a “basics” post? If so, which ones truly are ” basic”? Or just forget the whole thing?
Posted in Basic Biology, Housekeeping
Blogrolling
The Barcode Blog
My Biotech Life
The Happy Tortoise
A Natural Scientist
Greg Laden
Gaddeswarup’s blog
Balyblab
Posted in Housekeeping
Just Science?
So, RPM, Razib and Chris are promoting the idea of Just Science, meaning that from Monday, February 5, till the end of Sunday, February 11, we should write only about science itself, and not about pseudoscience, quackery, religion, politics of science etc.
This is my 1864th post on this blog. Out of that, there are perhaps 4-5 debunking some kind of Creationism, and 4-5 debunking some other pseudoscience. A drop in the ocean! There is a little bit more politics (but usually not of science), and several posts on religion/atheism. Everything else is either science or “chatter”, i.e., links to other people, personal stuff, meta-blogging of some kind, the conference/anthology announcements, etc. Thinking that people here would be quite unhappy if I blogged daily about politics (especially with my open support for John Edwards), I do most of that on my old blog.
Right now, I am in the midst of the last-minute preparations for the Science Blogging Conference. After that, I’ll sleep for a day or two. Then, I will eagerly return to my Dissertation and that is where my serious science writing will be focused.
For the blog, I’ll do whatever hits me on any particular day/hour/minute. I can refrain from bashing Creationists during the designated week, but I will not promise anything. I may write serious science or I may not. I have a few books I still need to write reviews of (including Dawkins and Dennett – so that violates the Just Science principle right there). Perhaps I can write one of the Basics posts during that week. I can try. But no promises. I blog at a whim.
But you tell me what you want to see…
Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
Look left…
Since the Big Announcement is slowly drifting down the page, I placed a picture of the book on my left sidebar – just click on it!
Posted in Housekeeping
Crunch Time
Just a couple of quick notes on the run. Busy, busy, busy these days.
The conference is next week. Everything is falling nicely into place – the program is taking its final shape, the swag is growing and we have 160 people registered so far – only a couple of more spots left. Lots of things to do over the next few days to make sure that everything goes well.
The anthology is in its final proofreading phase – watch this place for the Big Announcement!
I also have to clean the house as we are having guests on Sunday, and the kids are both at home sick today (and there is no school on Monday for MLK day) so they need some attention (and some computer time as well).
So, blogging will be VERY light over the next few days, with only an occasional pre-scheduled post unless there are some big breaking news I feel I need to comment on.
In the meantime, you can keep delurking, you can make me a library card (and I’ll post the ones I like the best) like all my SciBlings are doing, or you can ask for future posts explaining some basic terms and concepts of my field – see how Chad explains what that is all about.
Finally, do a good deed today and help out Gary.
Technorati Tag: sciencebloggingconference
Posted in Housekeeping
Today’s Blogrolling
Being added to my blogroll today:
i-Science
Getting Things Done in Academia
Neurevolution
Insurgent American
Feral Scholar
Sicheii Yazhi
The Smirking Chimp
Scobleizer
Altair4 Redux
Jim Buie’s Blog
Mark Maynard
Ang’s Weird Ideas
The Angry Lab Rat
Vagabondvet’s Blog
Trade Street Journal
Random Thoughts from Reno
Reno and its Discontents
Kleinschmidt 2005
Left of Center
Blue Hampshire
Michigan For Edwards
Montana Maven
Female Triumvirate of Evolution Experts
Evolving in Kansas
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Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
Blogroll is finally finished!
You can get to it from the sidebar or from the cute little grey button right under the banner…
Posted in Housekeeping
Blogrolling – added today
Bio Crash
USS-R-US
Rotten bananas
Duckfeet
MVResearch
3gggggggggi3
Bioephemera
Via Negativa
Perceiving Wholes
Wii the Media
Forth Go
Storyblogging
Rockstars’ Ramblings
Butterflies and Wheels
Joel’s humanistic blog
Unit Structures
Posted in Housekeeping
Blogrolling: Z
We finally got to the end of the alphabet. Now I’ll try to put everything together and provide a link to a complete blogroll. But you can keep telling me what good blogs are missing…
Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
Blogrolling: X
I know only these two – do you know any others:
Xark!
Xenogere / strange behavior /
Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
Blogrolling: W
Almost there! A couple of more days and we’ll be done! So, check out the W-list and suggest some more.
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Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
Blogrolling: V
V-V-V, vot begins with V? Very vicious veblogs! V-V-V!
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Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
Blogrolling: S
S is the most popular initial letter for blog names, it appears! Can you even wade through all of these and remember those I missed?
Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
Blogrolling: Q
Any more blogs starting with Q?
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Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
Blogrolling: P
P is a popular letter so the list is longish. As always, check it out: bad links? Let me know. A super-find you are very happy to discover? I’d like to know. A grave omission? Tell me in the comments…
Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
200,000
According to Sitemeter (and its proverbial undercount), the 200,000th visitor is currently on this site. He or she is in Petaluma, California and came to this post from the Last-24Hours page. Why don’t you leave a comment?
Posted in Housekeeping
Blogrolling: O
Let me know what’s missing – in the past installments I missed some of the obvious biggies (and you did not tell me!) like MyDD, Juan Cole, Crooks & Liars…!!!!
Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
Blogrolling: N
Anything missing from this link?
Thank you all for suggestions so far. I have updated the previous posts a couple of times already and now have a backlog so will have to update them all soon again.
Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
Blogrolling: M
Smack in the middle of the alphabet! Let me know what’s missing from this list…
Posted in Blogging, Housekeeping
A Blog Around The Clock 