If you’re a TV watcher in the U.S., you’re probably already aware that the Writers’ Guild of America is on strike, owing largely to inability to reach agreement with the studios about residuals from DVDs and from internet distribution of TV shows and movies.
While I am a member of a faculty union that was on the verge of a strike last spring, I am not now nor have I ever been a writer for the large or small screen. I don’t have a lot to say about the details of the contract negotiation in this particular case (Lindsay does). But, as Chris points out, as a blogger — indeed, a blogger who has “gone pro” — what I’m doing is connected in some interesting ways to what the WGA members are doing. Thus, I’ll give you my two cents as of this moment:
Author Archives: admin
InaDWriMo: help me get writing!
Via ScienceWoman, I learn that there’s a month for those of us who aren’t ready to write a novel, namely, International acaDemic Writing Month.
I am so there.
Back when I was disserting (the second time) a bunch of us who were at the stage of our studies where it felt like we ought to be getting serious writing done formed a kick-in-the-butt club. We met roughly twice a month (possibly weekly for certain stretches, if I’m remembering correctly), talked about what we had accomplished since the last meeting, brainstormed ways to face down writer’s block, and most importantly, we set goals for what piece of writing we would accomplish by the next time we met.
Making the goal public, at least within our group, meant that we had to do our best to actually meet them. (It also meant that our fellow dissertation-writers could talk us out of setting unreasonably ambitious goals and then beating ourselves up for not meeting them.)
Somehow, post-grad school, it’s been harder to find the same kind of motivation and support from fellow toilers. So I’m going to follow ScienceWoman’s lead and make some writing goals for November a matter of public record.
Which means I’m accountable to you all for making some progress with them.
How not to make the case for animal rights.
People with concerns about the use of animals in biomedical research should also be concerned about the actions of the Animal Liberation Front and other “animal rights” groups — at least if they want other people to take their concerns seriously.
It seems that ALF views actions like the attack of the home of UCLA scientist Edythe London last week as somehow advancing its cause. This in itself makes it pretty clear to me that they have set aside reasoned discourse as a tool and gone straight to violence and intimidation.
Friday Sprog Blogging: you learned *what*?
Sometimes it feels to us like the parent’s role in a child’s education is one of eternal vigilance.
It is possible, however, that the Free-Ride offspring are more actively engaged in messing with their parents’ heads than are most kids their age.
Dr. Free-Ride: Did you learn anything interesting today?
Younger offspring: Uh huh. We learned about the quack and the moo.
Dr. Free-Ride: About the duck and the cow?
Getting involved with more than your wallet: strategies for supporting science and math education.
With just over 10 hours left in our ScienceBlogs/Donors Choose Blogger Challenge 2007, it’s time to think about what happens next. Supporting classroom teachers with your funds is a noble gesture, but it’s just a start.
To really get math and science literacy (and enthusiasm) to the levels we’d like to see, your time and personal involvement can do an awful lot. In this post you’ll find ideas from ScienceBloggers about how to turn your good intentions into action.
Rudy Baum responds to questions about C&E News.
In response to my open letter to the ACS, Rudy Baum, the Editor in Chief of Chemical & Engineering News, emailed me some information which I am posting here with his kind permission:
Waiting for the last minute to donate to the Blogger Challenge?
It looks like you get 1440 extra minutes. And you can blame Presidential candidate (in South Carolina) Stephen Tiberius Colbert. From the DonorsChoose blog:
…our site was flat-out overwhelmed by the massive traffic that resulted from Stephen Colbert and Craig Newmark’s announcement around midnight on Thursday, October 18.
As we scrambled to increase capacity, we continued to receive big spikes in web traffic from the re-airings of that Colbert show on Friday, October 19 in the morning, afternoon, and early evening, and across US time zones.
Since no new Colbert episodes were airing last week (October 22-26), Comedy Central re-ran the previous week’s episodes! These additional re-airings generated many more big spikes in web traffic, mostly in the 24 hours starting on last Wednesday at midnight: between daily re-airings and the staggered showings across time zones, we think the Colbert show that introduced DonorsChoose.org may have aired between 3 – 9 times during that 24 hour period. Amazing.
This was GREAT news for the teachers who use DonorsChoose.org to get much-needed resources for their classrooms. But not so great for our web servers.
The DonorsChoose tech team think they have a healthy, happy system again. And it’s looking like the “last minute” of the 2007 Blogger Challenge is being moved to the very last moment (11:59:59 PM) of November 1, Eastern time.
In light of this new information, I leave it to you to decide what to do. I’ll just point out that even hard-core procrastinators are not required to wait until the last possible moment.
The ethics of science blogging: help set the agenda.
At the upcoming North Carolina Science Blogging Conference on January 19, 2008, I’ll be leading a discussion on the ethics of science blogging (not about blogging about ethics in science). If you attend the conference (and if you’re not sucked in by one of the other attractive discussions scheduled for the same time-slot), you’ll be able to take part in the conversation in real time.
But even if you won’t be able to come to North Carolina for the conference, you can help set the agenda for our discussion by editing the wiki page for the session.
In earthquake country, familiarity breeds … yawn.
I’m told we had a moderate earthquake here last night. Indeed, it is reportedly the largest earthquake in the area since the 1989 Loma Prieta quake — which, as it happens, was the temblor that welcomed me to the San Francisco Bay Area.
I completely missed it.
Ten challenges met, ten still in play.
The 2007 DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge ends tomorrow, and ScienceBlogs readers have met (and exceeded) 10 of the 20 challenges we mounted, raising $47,705.
Here’s who’s left: