Yes, Valentine’s Day is in the top three Hallmark holidays of the year. No, it is not a holiday actually created by Hallmark, despite what half a dozen people have independently asserted to me in the last 48 hours. I am appalled that the commercialization of this holiday has people keeping score on who loves the most (and who is most loved) on the basis of overpriced flowers, jewelry, and chocolate.*
The rampant commercialism of the day notwithstanding, this seems like as good a time as any to share some love:
Category Archives: Blogospheric science
We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!
Scientists move through the world without needing badges to indicate their various achievements.
This does not mean, however, that scientists might not want badges. If scientists all wore sashes of badges over their lab coats, it might well facilitate communication by letting them determine the relevant interests and experience of the other scientists with who they are talking. Badges would also provide a natural opening with which scientists could share their best stories with each other. (“What did you freeze?”)
Badges also help a scientist stay nimble with a needle and thread.
Below are the Science Scouts badges I have earned, so far. Each is linked to its Scout Handbook description. Questions about how I may have earned particular badges will be entertained in the comments.
The impact of blogging on me (a meme).
Dave Munger tagged me with a meme about (among other things) the effect blogging has had on my life. The questions seem worthy of relection, so I’m game:
Keeping score in academe: blogging as ‘professional activity’ (or not).
During the discussion after my talk at the Science Blogging Conference, the question came up (and was reported here) of whether and when tenure and promotion committees at universities will come to view the blogging activities of their faculty members with anything more positive than suspicion.
SteveG and helmut both offer some interesting thoughts on the issue.
Nanotech ‘blogversation’ worth checking out.
ACS LiveWire is hosting a “blogversation” (don’t shoot me, I didn’t coin it!) about nanoscience and nanotechnology. Here are the panelists:
SBC 2007 — photographic evidence.
While I’m readjusting to my own time zone (just in time for the start of spring semester — whee!), I thought I’d share some pictures from the Science Blogging Conference. Here, for example, is intrepid conference organizer Bora Zivkovic. He could have sat back and just enjoyed his pre-conference dinner, but instead he stayed busy taking pictures and circulating to greet the conference-goers and find out what was going on with them. Actually, in real life Bora seems a bit more laid-back than he does on his blog. Still, compared to my typical energy level? He could be a hummingbird.
SBC 2007 — questions in the air.
The wifi at the hotel is a little tentative, so I’ll save detailed posting about the Science Blogging Conference until I’m back on the west coast. In the meantime, I wanted to note some of the questions raised in various sessions during the conference:
SBC 2007 — links to slide sources.
I promised the folks who were listening to my talk at the Science Blogging Conference that I’d post the links to the various blog posts whose screenshots I used to illustrate my points. Here they are:
North Carolina Science Blogging Conference 2007 — Friday dinner.
Bora just said, “There are twenty bloggers here. Who’s live blogging the dinner?!”
I guess the answer is: Me.
Not entirely random accumulation of items.
I’ve decided that the “intersession” we have between semesters is a cruel hoax. Though it promises a few weeks in which one might actually get some writing done, what it delivers is an endless list of tasks (many spawned by bureaucracy) that one must scurry to accomplish before the next semester starts. Feh!
As I’ve been scurrying, I’ve accumulated some items I’d like to share: