Comments

  3. clinteas says

    I find it interesting how much difference in popularity and quality there is between the various scienceblogs.

    I dont know anything about the inner workings at Seed,but I would have thought there would be some pressure for quality or consistency.

    I read blogs like Neurophilosophy and Evolving Thoughts,with their 7 and a half comments on average (sorry John lol)but usually really interesting and thought-provoking pieces,and then theres stuff like i wont name it where I ask myself WTF is this doing on SB in the first place !

  4. says

    Different strokes for different folks, you know. Besides, if there wasn’t some variation among the sciblings, and you had to read all eleventy-billion sciblogs, you’d never get anything done.

    Besides, Built on Facts looks like a good addition. Look at those gigantic…nozzles.

  5. says

    Different strokes for different folks, you know. Besides, if there wasn’t some variation among the sciblings, and you had to read all eleventy-billion sciblogs, you’d never get anything done.

    Posted by: PZ Myers

    Ummm… well… That pretty much happens now, and I only read a handful of science blogs.

  7. clinteas says

    //you’d never get anything done. //

    Talk about ny social life during Crackergate……

  10. Patrickc says

    At least it’s not stamp collecting!

    (JOKE! It’s a joke! — don’t crucify me! Hat tip to Prof. Rutherford…)

  14. Steve LaBonne says

    Is physics really science? I mean, they’re always assuming perfect spheres and stuff like that. Sounds kind of made-up to me. ;)

  16. says

    This article will appear in Sunday’s NYT

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?scp=3&sq=troll&st=cse

    “In the late 1980s, Internet users adopted the word “troll” to denote someone who intentionally disrupts online communities. Early trolling was relatively innocuous, taking place inside of small, single-topic Usenet groups. The trolls employed what the M.I.T. professor Judith Donath calls a “pseudo-naïve” tactic, asking stupid questions and seeing who would rise to the bait. The game was to find out who would see through this stereotypical newbie behavior, and who would fall for it. As one guide to trolldom puts it, “If you don’t fall for the joke, you get to be in on it.”

    Today the Internet is much more than esoteric discussion forums. It is a mass medium for defining who we are to ourselves and to others. Teenagers groom their MySpace profiles as intensely as their hair; escapists clock 50-hour weeks in virtual worlds, accumulating gold for their online avatars. Anyone seeking work or love can expect to be Googled. As our emotional investment in the Internet has grown, the stakes for trolling — for provoking strangers online — have risen. Trolling has evolved from ironic solo skit to vicious group hunt.

    “Lulz” is how trolls keep score. A corruption of “LOL” or “laugh out loud,” “lulz” means the joy of disrupting another’s emotional equilibrium. “Lulz is watching someone lose their mind at their computer 2,000 miles away while you chat with friends and laugh,” said one ex-troll who, like many people I contacted, refused to disclose his legal identity.

    Another troll explained the lulz as a quasi-thermodynamic exchange between the sensitive and the cruel: “You look for someone who is full of it, a real blowhard. Then you exploit their insecurities to get an insane amount of drama, laughs and lulz. Rules would be simple: 1. Do whatever it takes to get lulz. 2. Make sure the lulz is widely distributed. This will allow for more lulz to be made. 3. The game is never over until all the lulz have been had.”

  18. Prazzie says

    From the new blog: “…Seed Media actually provides us with a modest but nice paycheck depending on our readership.”

    I did not know that. Does that mean that all those lovely Catholic people who visited recently resulted in more money for The Violator? Or do you need a stable audience? By that I mean “a crowd of regular readers”, of course.

  20. says

    Psalm 104
    Bless the LORD, my soul! LORD, my God, you are great indeed! You are clothed with majesty and glory, robed in light as with a cloak. You spread out the heavens like a tent; you raised your palace upon the waters. You make the clouds your chariot; you travel on the wings of the wind.
    You make the winds your messengers; flaming fire, your ministers.
    You fixed the earth on its foundation, never to be moved.
    The ocean covered it like a garment; above the mountains stood the waters.
    At your roar they took flight; at the sound of your thunder they fled.
    They rushed up the mountains, down the valleys to the place you had fixed for them.
    You set a limit they cannot pass; never again will they cover the earth.
    You made springs flow into channels that wind among the mountains.
    They give drink to every beast of the field; here wild asses quench their thirst.
    Beside them the birds of heaven nest; among the branches they sing.
    You water the mountains from your palace; by your labor the earth abounds.
    You raise grass for the cattle and plants for our beasts of burden. You bring bread from the earth, and wine to gladden our hearts, Oil to make our faces gleam, food to build our strength.
    The trees of the LORD drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon, which you planted.
    There the birds build their nests; junipers are the home of the stork.
    The high mountains are for wild goats; the rocky cliffs, a refuge for badgers.
    You made the moon to mark the seasons, the sun that knows the hour of its setting.
    You bring darkness and night falls, then all the beasts of the forest roam abroad.
    Young lions roar for prey; they seek their food from God.
    When the sun rises, they steal away and rest in their dens.
    People go forth to their work, to their labor till evening falls.
    How varied are your works, LORD! In wisdom you have wrought them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
    Look at the sea, great and wide! It teems with countless beings, living things both large and small.
    Here ships ply their course; here Leviathan, your creature, plays.
    All of these look to you to give them food in due time.
    When you give to them, they gather; when you open your hand, they are well filled.
    When you hide your face, they are lost. When you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust from which they came.
    When you send forth your breath, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.
    May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD be glad in these works!
    If God glares at the earth, it trembles; if God touches the mountains, they smoke!
    I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God while I live.
    May my theme be pleasing to God; I will rejoice in the LORD.
    May sinners vanish from the earth, and the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, my soul! Hallelujah!

  22. valhar2000 says

    It’s about physics! I guess that’s OK, even if it isn’t biology.

    What are you babbling about, PZ? It is a well-known fact that physics is a subset of biology, the part that deals with the forces between the atoms that make up living beings, and all that.

  23. Crudely Wrott says

    I welcome the latest ambassador of the Physics Overlords. Because they understand motion and force and how stuff works.

  24. Beth says

    Hey, what is going on? IE will not open Pharyngula any more. Nor will it open a number of other atheist blogs. Sabotage? Divine wrath?

    Opera works. So does Mozilla Firefox. Anyone else having a problem with IE?

  25. Jason Failes says

    Yes, Jack, we all own bibles.

    Everyone here has been given multiple bibles by Gideons, door-to-door religion salesmen, well-meaning friends, and wrath-promising evangelicals.

    Many of us have even read our bibles.

    That’s why we’re atheists.

  26. Torbjörn Larsson, OM says

    Apparently someone need to Jack off on these threads. The manner of some peeps (perps, actually).

  27. DingoDave says

    Speaking of Werhner von Braun;
    It might be time to judiciously unleash some of Tom Lehrer’s caustic wit upon your unsuspecting public.

    Check this out.

    and here,

    and here,

    or,

    and here,

    and here,

    and,

    and here,

    and here,

    and,

    and,

    and,

    and,

    and,

    also,

    and,

    and finally, his “piece de resistance”,
    http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html