Remember those prizes 3 Quarks Daily is offering for the best science blogging of the past year?
Well, the nominees are now up, including four of my posts:
Postcards from the Maker Faire.
On Saturday, the Free-Ride family went to the Maker Faire.
The place was abuzz with things to do and see and hear (and taste and feel), so we’ll just give you the snapshot.
Snail eradication (day 24).
This morning’s conditions were more of the same — overcast and dry.
There were no gastropods in evidence.
Stepping away from silence.
This month, Sheril Kirshenbaum and Dr. Isis are spearheading a blogospheric initiative to call attention to a continuing epidemic of mass rapes in Liberia even six years after the end of its 14 year civil war, and to try to do something about it.
Last month, Nicholas Kristof described the situation in the New York Times, touching on the particular case of a 7-year-old rape survivor named Jackie:
Some very raw thoughts on the assassination of Dr. George Tiller.
Sunday morning, Dr. George Tiller of Wichita, Kansas, was murdered on his way into the church where he worships. Dr. Tiller was targeted because he was one of the few doctors in the U.S. who performed late-term abortions.
Snail eradication (day 23).
Another overcast, cool, and dry morning today.
Snail eradication (day 22).
This morning was overcast, cool, and dry.
But, as it wasn’t a school day, I was determined to get some gastropod action.
Friday Sprog Blogging: science fair wrap-up.
Since the school science fair is safely behind us, we can give you a peek at the projects the Free-Ride offspring presented. (We couldn’t do this prior to the science fair without running the risk that the sprogs would be accused of lifting their projects from a blog post.)
Here’s the elder Free-Ride offspring’s project board (or at least the central panel of it):
Snail eradication (day 21).
This morning was dry and cool and overcast, so the pickings were slim.
Ethics and the ‘Oprah effect’.
There’s an interesting piece in the Chicago Tribune on the “Oprah effect”. The upshot is that products or people who Oprah deigns to grace with airtime tend to find enormous public acceptance.
While this is well and good if the product is a novel or the person is a television chef, it’s less clear that the Oprah effect is benign in the case of people without medical expertise offering medical advice.
From the article: