Archive for the 'Blogging' category

Advice for new grad school bloggers...

Mar 20 2012 Published by under Blogging, Grad School, Lab

So today I got an email for a cool cat named Darwin Foo, who is about to go to graduate school, on advice for starting up a blog.  Turns out Darwin has created a blog Darwin + Fu = My Equation For Life.  So Darwin, here is my advice to you and any other grad student bloggers.  Dear readers if you have any pearls of wisdom, feel free to contribute as well.

1. There are no rules to blogging, do whatever the hell you want.
2. Write for you! Mostly, its the most comfortable and its where you best stuff will flow from and you are creating an honest point of view.
3. Since you are not pseudonymous, be careful about how critical of things and people you are. Folks now know who you are, best not to slag off too hard on anyone you work with or where you work.
4. Go comment on other folks blogs and make sure to leave the link to your blog as a trackback, that way they can navigate to your blog and read you.
5. Feed the trolls, but not too much. I give the Tideliar some filet mignon from time to time, but he'll keep eating if you don't cut him off.
6. Have an RSS feed, that way I and others can add you into their Google Reader subscriptions
7. If you are going to research a topic, really research. For example, in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina famed rapper Kanye West publicly declared that then President George Bush didn't care about black people. Kanye was a bit hurried in his research and missed the mark by a bit. If he would have done his due diligence, he would have found out that George Bush didn't care about black people OR poor people. Lesson learned Kanye, do your homework.
8. Have fun, if its not fun, you aren't going to be able to do it.
9. Oh and when you get a following, make sure to throw some linklove in other people's directions. The ever lovable DrugMonkey was the first to throw me some linklove and make mention of my blog (which I surmise he found me from his comments section) and gifted me much of the meager following that I have today. So I will always be thankful to him, even though he holds me upside down and shakes out my lunch money every day.
10. The internet will turn on you one day. It happens to everyone but don't be surprised if they go all 4chan on your ass. Just deal with it. It will subside, unless you piss off the homeopathic people. Or doulas!

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Houston bound and down, loaded up and trucking...

Mar 12 2012 Published by under Blogging, LinkLove

I'm heading out to Houston today for a two day meeting, if any readers want to hang out or grab a bite to eat let me know.  I'm already going to grub with The Protein Wrangler, a fine young gent who works in the Texas Medical Center.  And for a nominal fee (i.e. cab money), I'd be willing to autograph whatever items you wish whether it be a pipet, a baby, a gallon of milk.  Anything helps.

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Sweeps Week Programming: Databases

Nov 21 2011 Published by under Blogging, Uncategorized

So, I'm throwing caution and what little reputation I have to the wind and guaranteeing content each day next week.  What's the theme you might ask?  I plan on covering a different biomedical database each day and hopefully some new and interesting ones that you haven't heard of before.  So that means I'm going to be going for the more obscure and leaving the low hanging fruit like BLAST, CGAP, dbSNP, and databases of their ilk alone.

If you like what you see or know of a better database let me know.

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Welcome Cassandra's Tears

Oct 23 2011 Published by under Blogging

who is our new guest blogger.  I really dig his blog, especially the Timeline on Creationism and Science.  Go read him here and at his original blog home.

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Time to start jamming again

Oct 21 2011 Published by under Blogging, Meetings

Just got back from my society meeting.  Met a lot of really cool readers of Scientopia and Canadians.  I'll be making a series of posts on the meeting next week but this is all I've got for you right now.

Enjoy some Ram Jam

 

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Observations on the day...

Jun 20 2011 Published by under Blogging

-My brain hurts.
-My wife rocks and she makes a delicious taco.
-Training a summer student is difficult but well worth it in the end. I think.
-Gearing up to write another fellowship proposal, so far I'm like 0 for 8, but you'll never get better if you don't keep on writing.
-I miss the McRib.

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Happy Bloggiversary...

Jun 10 2011 Published by under Blogging, Uncategorized

So today marks my 2 years of blogging at a variety of places (Blogger, LabSpaces, here, WordPress) and I have to say looking back on it, it has been an awesome time.  I actually began blogging when I read the blogs of a few influential characters:  Drugmonkey, CPP, Thomas Joseph of Its A Microworld, Dr. Isis's sexy pregnant ass and the ever lovable Tideliar.  So honestly if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be doing this or have met so many great people through this medium.  So thanks to you guys, you have been nothing but supportive and magnificent. Thanks to everyone that read my crap and posted comments, you folks helped me to grow as a writer, a scientist, and a person.

Oh and today I have to pay my credit card.

Oh and stay black bitches, let's keep on partying.

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Grab a pen and paper, or your keyboard...

Feb 15 2011 Published by under Blogging, CongressCritter, LinkLove, NIH Budget

Hat tip to Dr. Isis, for her post on the letter from FASEB asking for scientists to contact their congressional representatives to oppose the proposed $1.2 billion dollar budget cut to the NIH budget in HR1.  Paylines are already tight, and between the potential 5% cut in the budget proposed in HR1 and the ever increasing cost of doing science, this would put many people out of work.  I've already broken out pen and paper and am writing a handwritten letter to my congressman.

This is go time people and if you ever complain about people not getting into the fight to advocate for science, this is your chance to make a difference.  Pass this on to a colleague or better yet bring it up in your lab or faculty meeting and have folks in your lab or department write letters to their representatives.  Tell them what you do, how it will make a difference, how it will make the human condition a much better one.  Also tell them the detrimental effects to you and those personally around you if this funding cut goes through.  People laid off, studies left undone, patients left untreated.  Make them see that this would be more than cutting a line item on a budget, this is about cutting the careers of many who have worked so hard to see that our lives are improved.  Please take the time to communicate the importance of science funding with your congressional representative.  I fear that if we do not advocate for science, and quite strongly for this manner, this will be the first of many cuts to come our way in the future.

Also check out PiT, GertyZ, Thomas Joseph, and JuniorProf take on HR1.

See the contents of the letter below:

"Dear Colleague,

For months the new House leadership has been promising to cut billions in federal funding in fiscal year (FY) 2011. Later this week the House will try to make the rhetoric a reality by voting on HR 1, a "continuing resolution" (CR) that would cut NIH funding by $1.6 billion (5.2%) BELOW the current level - reducing the budget for medical research to $29.4 billion!

We must rally everyone - researchers, trainees, lab personnel - in the scientific community to protest these draconian cuts. Please go to [this link] for instructions on how to call your Representative's Washington, DC office today! Urge him/her to oppose the cuts to NIH and vote against HR 1. Once you've made the call, let us know how it went by sending a short email to the address provided in the call instructions and forward the alert link to your colleagues. We must explain to our Representatives how cuts to NIH will have a devastating impact on their constituents!

Sincerely,

William T. Talman, MD
FASEB President"

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Science Blogger or Science Communicator...

Feb 15 2011 Published by under Blogging, LinkLove

Who fucking cares?

So last week I put out a post about some great student bloggers that I though folks might like to read if they haven't already picked up on them.  One of the bloggers I featured was Joe from Its Okay To Be Smart.  Now Joe seems like a lovely chap but he makes the disclaimer that he is a science communicator not a blogger.  Well he recently clarified his standpoint on this and I guess he doesn't want to be painted into a corner by just communicating through a blog.

"I have run across  a lot of very talented Heroes of Science (my name for them, anyway) out there on the internet, and many of them are just amazing. Of course, the medium of choice for disseminating science “a la interwebz” is the blog. Hence so many people calling themselves “science bloggers”. I don’t like that.

To me, the word “blog” really implies the diary formats of Geocities or LiveJournal, actual “Web Logs”. What are you really setting out to accomplish? Just log some intelligent thoughts in reverse chronological order? For most of you, I am willing to bet that you want to communicate science, and writing it on the internet just happens to be your weapon of choice.

Look at it this way: A carpenter is much more than a “hammer swinger”, and a chef is certainly beyond “onion chopper and pan flipper”. If you are a science communicator on the internet, a blog is just a tool. The real mission of a chef is a meal, and your real mission is more than a blog post. I hope."

This is just semantics and dude, here is the cold splash of water.  No one gives a fuck what you call yourself.  People who read you don't give a damn what you call yourself, they read you because they find you interesting.  If you want to wear thigh high boots and call yourself Doctor PussyMagnet like BrooksPhD, do whatever suits your fancy.

So my official response to science communicator versus science blogger debate is:

"Meh"

Thank you and good day.

Oh and you are not going to change my opinion that Tumblr is the biggest piece of shit platform to ever be designed since fucking Xanga.

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Guest Posting and Guest Blogging

Feb 14 2011 Published by under Blogging, LinkLove

Okay folks, first up I am guest posting over at Scientific American today, stop by and check out "What Guido Fanconi taught us about chemotherapy."

Next up, Scientopia has set up a Guest Blogge to showcase some non-network bloggers.  The first couple of posts have been great so make sure to stop by and read them.  The schedule is posted below and I wanted to especially thrust some accolades at Mark, Comrade Physioprof, and Dr. Isis for bringing this to fruition.  Thanks guys, you hard work is appreciated.

February 13-26
Zygoma and Frautech

February 27-March 12
Thony C from The Renaissance Mathematicus and bloggers from Disability Studies, Temple U.

March 13-26
Rue from Outdoor Afro

March 27-April 9
KJ Haxton from Endless Possibilities v3.0 and Patrice Brassard and Émilie Pérusse-Lachance from Le Physiologiste

May 8-21
Scientist Mother

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