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  • Soccer Fairy 2:06 pm on June 18, 2006 Permalink | Comments  

    Help Public Schools, Protect the Honor of Physics 

    <p>In the noble tradition of using the power of blogs for good, Janet at <a href=”http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2006/06/readers_and_sciencebloggers_he.php”>Adventures in Ethics and Science</a> has organized an effort at <a href=”http://scienceblogs.com/”>ScienceBlogs</a> to <strong>raise money for school teachers who want to get their students excited about science</strong>. It&#8217;s an unimpeachably good cause, no matter where your political sympathies might lie.</p>
    <p><a href=”http://www.donorschoose.org/challenge.php?id=146″><img class=’alignright’ src=’http://cosmicvariance.com/wp-images/link_donorschoose_small.gif’ alt=’Donors Choose’ /></a> So all the ScienceBloggers are kicking in, with only one problem: they are dominated over there by the squishy sciences, leaving physicists in the dust. So we here at Cosmic Variance, in the spirit of disciplinary solidarity, are suggesting that you visit Chad at <a href=”http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2006/06/with_great_traffic_comes_great.php”>Uncertain Principles</a> and drop a few dollars onto his <a href=”http://www.donorschoose.org/challenge.php?id=146″>donor list</a>. Let&#8217;s see if we can&#8217;t teach those life-science types a thing or two about altruistic selection. (There are even contests you can win, so any Objectivists motivated [...]

    Original post by Sean and Elliott Back

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  • Soccer Fairy 12:49 pm on June 16, 2006 Permalink | Comments  

    Welcome to the Blogosphere 

    <p>No, not you; you&#8217;re already here in the blogosphere. I&#8217;m talking about all those physicists out there to whom &#8220;blog&#8221; sounds like something you feel compelled to do after doing too many Smirnoff shots the previous evening, rather than the place you go for the most erudite and challenging large-scale conversation in human history. </p>
    <p>Blogs are a tool of immense power that people haven&#8217;t quite figured out how to use quite yet. Physicists, in particular, have been slow to take advantage of this new medium (with a few brave and laudable exceptions, of course). A peek at our <a href=”http://cosmicvariance.com/links/”>blogroll</a> or a visit to <a href=”http://mixedstates.somethingsimilar.com/”>Mixed States</a> would give the impression that there is a lot of physics blogging out there, which is certainly true; but &#8220;a lot&#8221; needs to be compared with the dominance of more traditional forms of communication (papers, talks, conferences, books, journalism), or [...]

    Original post by Sean and Elliott Back

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  • Soccer Fairy 1:16 pm on June 15, 2006 Permalink | Comments  

    Quick Hits 

    <p>Stuff going on in the blogosphere:</p>
    <ul>
    <li><a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/6/15/64611/5920″>Darksyde</a> writes about <a href=”http://www.bradmiller.org/”>Rep. Brad Miller</a>&#8217;s attempt to provide protection for scientific whistleblowers employed by the government. Since pressuring scientists to make their results conform to politically-desireable outcomes is standard operating procedure for the current administration, such protection is especially valuable and timely.</li>
    <li><a href=”http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2006/06/13/national-acadamies-of-science-to-congress-loosen-the-purse-strings/”>Phil Plait</a> reports that the National Academy of Sciences has released their <a href=”http://fermat.nap.edu/execsumm_pdf/11644″>advice to Congress concerning NASA</a>. Guess what? Not nearly enough money is being allocated to accomplish what the agency is being asked to do. Since science is one of the first things to go when the budgets fall short, let&#8217;s hope Congress actually listens.</li>
    <li><a href=”http://scienceblogs.com/”>ScienceBlogs</a>, you may have noticed, has expanded. Among CV favorites that have found a new home within the Borg collective are <a href=”http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/”>Dynamics of Cats</a>, <a href=”http://scienceblogs.com/loom/”>The Loom</a>, and <a href=”http://scienceblogs.com/mixingmemory/”>Mixing Memory</a>; Bora Zivkovic of <a href=”http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com/”>Science and [...]

    Original post by Sean and Elliott Back

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  • 3:53 pm on June 12, 2006 Permalink | Comments  

    The View of the Universe from the Nevada Desert 

    <p>The first-ever <a href=”http://www.yearlykos.org/”>YearlyKos</a> get-together has now come and gone. For me it was an interesting experience on several levels. First and foremost, it was an opportunity to meet in person several bloggers whose work I had long admired from afar: <a href=”http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/06/yearlykos_wrapup.php”>PZ Myers</a> of Pharyngula, <a href=”http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/2006/06/wes_clark_really_gets_it.php”>Chris Mooney</a> of The Intersection (and <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465046754″>The Republican War on Science</a>), <a href=”http://majikthise.typepad.com/”>Lindsay Beyerstein</a> of Majikthise (a <a href=”http://preposterousuniverse.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_preposterousuniverse_archive.html#109366438078106969″>guest blogger</a> from way back), <a href=”http://www.dailykos.com/user/DarkSyde”>Stephen DarkSyde</a> of Daily Kos and Unscrewing the Inscrutable, and a number of others. Only secondarily, I kicked butt at the Riviera poker tables, held my own at slightly higher limits at the Wynn, and got destroyed at the MGM Grand.</p>
    <p>There was a great feeling of history being made — a real-life collection of committed political bloggers and diarists, talking politics and ideas and strategies and generally trying to figure out how to move [...]

    Original post by Sean and Elliott Back

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