Tag: humor

I mean, I knew evolution was controversial and that I can be a bit snarky at times.  But does my own local paper -the Davis Enterprise have to have a whole article about how they hate me and my blog?

Well, here is one for you microbiome fans out there.  Went to the UC Davis Vet School store on the way to work and found a display selling Paper from Poo. Not human poo of course but from animals that have a lot of fiber in their diet, like pandas, cows, horses and elephants. Some of the slogans are great such as:

“We take the ‘OO’ out of Poo!”

“We’re number one at number two”

Here are some pics of the display:

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

For more on this see the PooPooPaper website.

Morris, MN — For the final act of the drama that has captured the imagination of science blogging fans around the world, PZ Myers of Pharyngula plans to announce his decision live on the Discovery Channel at 9 on Thursday night.

The arrangement, first reported by Discovery, was confirmed by a person close to Myers, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on Myers behalf.

Yesterday, Myers met with representatives of Discover, Google, Wired, and many others to discuss his plans in regard to the ScienceBlogs free blogagency diaspora. Now, they and everyone else will soon find out Myers’ highly anticipated plans. Thursday marks the first day that free bloggers can sign new contracts that have been verbally agreed upon. Starting yesterday, bloggers and blog hosts were allowed to negotiate, but not consummate new deals.

The most-hyped free blogagency diaspora in science blogging history has so far been mostly bluffs, whispers and hypothetical situations. Prominent bloggers like Sharon Astyk of Casabaun’s Book, David Dobbs of Neuron Culture, Chris Rowan of Highly Autochthonous, Dave Bacon of The Quantum Pontiff, Scicurious, Blake Stacey of Science After Sunclipse, Alex Wild of Myrmecos, PalMD of the White Coat Undergound, Dr. Isis of On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory, GrrlScientist of Living the Scientific Life, Janet Stemwedel of Adventures in Ethics and Science, Brian Switek of Laelaps, and many others are all reportedly on the move, but the details remain murky.

But one player has emerged who may be a key factor in the decisions of Myers and other prominent soon to be ex-ScienceBlogs bloggers: Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science.  Yong blogs at the highly respected Discover blog site with other stars like Carl Zimmer of the Loom. Yong, regarded as one of the most sought after free bloggers is reported to be happy at Discover but also is considering his options.

“The days are passing by a lot quicker now,” Yong wrote Wednesday on his Twitter page. “It’s always like that when you have to make a BIG decision.”

Myers and Bora (of Blog Around the Clock), Brian Switek (of Laelaps) and Scicurious all reportedly want to co-write a blog with Yong, according to multiple news reports. Myers has never blogged directly with an science blogger as talented as Yong, although Yong was at Scienceblogs for some time before moving to Discover. Bora paired with others to win a blog championship in 2006.  Switek has blogged with a variety of support personnel, but none enough to carry him to the blogging championship. In turn, Yong, according to news reports, has shown interest in blogging with Myers, Bora, Switek, Scicurious or all of them.

Last week, Yong, who shares an blogging agent with Switek, posted a picture on Twitter of the two of them at dinner. The caption ended “although it feels like someone is missing……” in a reference to Myers.

Discover Blogs General Manager Diana Scover conceded before free blogging began that Yong would probably sign with another team. If Yong does, he will lose the sixth year on his guaranteed blogging contract and earn less money under the so-called Rebecca Skloot rules rules that offer perks to free bloggers who remain with their organization.

Therefore, Yong would need Discover to facilitate a sign-and-trade deal with his preferred blogging site to maintain those benefits.

In a text message, Joe Eisen, the agent for Yong and Switek, confirmed that ScienceBlogs had inquired about landing Yong in a sign-and-trade deal. Eisen did not say if Yong would be interested in blogging for ScienceBlogs should Myers return. ScienceBlogs would be over the blogging cap and would not be able to sign Yong outright. Given the recent controversy at ScienceBlogs it seems highly unlikely Yong would go there whether Myers remained or not.

A sign-and-trade deal with Discover would almost certainly cost the ScienceBlogs a prominent blogger like Dr. Isis, and Discover would also probably use any deal to try to free itself of one of their expensive contracts like that of Carl Zimmer, which extends another four years.

A Discover official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss blogger movement publicly, said Discover had “nothing imminent” with a sign-and-trade deal for Yong. A deal between Discover and ScienceBlogs appears improbable.

Flush with blogging-cap space, Wired and Google who also met with Myers and Bora and Switek, have sought ways to land Yong. ScientificBlogging, the first site that met with Yong when free blogging started, are hopeful they can obtain Yong, a Sacramento native, in a sign-and-trade deal.

Google meanwhile, can offer Myers, Bora, Scicurious, and Switek a talented blogging support staff and massive exposure, even if they have no prominent science bloggers to speak of currently.

On Wednesday, Myers, Bora, Scicurious, and Switek retreated to their blogging camps. None met with reporters, and Bora canceled a scheduled news conference at his youth event in North Carolina.

Myers arrived nearly four hours late at his evolution academy in his hometown with a contingent that included his business manager, Chaz Darwin, the prominent atheist scientist Richard Dawkins, and others.

Myers walked onto the floor and watched while some of the country’s top high school science bloggers writing for a second day. He playfully wrote twitter posts from the floor during a break and then retreated through a side door.

Anticipation mounted that Myers would use social media outlets as a conduit to release the news of his destination. After recently activating his dormant MySpace page, Myers created a Twitter account Wednesday that gained more than 85,000 followers before his first message, which broke his public silence from the start of free blogging.

But those who hoped his first message would deliver the big news were vastly disappointed:

“Hello World, the Real PZ is in the Building ‘Finally,’ ” it read, before crediting Dr. Kiki for motivating him to join.

Still, Myers had attracted nearly 150,000 followers by 7 p.m. Richard Dawkins, confirmed that the account belonged to Myers but said that Myers would probably not use Twitter to release his decision.

Instead, he’ll use Discover

————————————–

With apologies to the New York Times and Jonathan Abrams to leveraging an article of theirs.

Molecular comparisons show that soup on this planet divides into three primary groupings, commonly known as the stews, the broths, and the chowders. The three are very dissimilar, the differences that separate them being of a more profound nature than the differences that separate typical meals, such as steaks and salads. Unfortunately, neither of the conventionally accepted views of the natural relationships among meals -i.e., the five-kingdom taxonomy or the appetizer/dinner dichotomy–reflects this primary tripartite division of the eating world. To remedy this situation we propose that a formal system of meals be established in which, above the level of eating, there exists a new taxon called a “course.” Meals on this planet would then be seen as comprising three courses, the appetizer, the main course, and the dessert, each containing two or more plates

Well, the results of our detailed survey are in.  With the help of people from all around the world, we have classified and rated days of the week for 2009 based upon a large number of criteria.  A really large number of criteria.  And the rankings are:

1. Tuesday.  In a big surprise, Tuesday won out over the other days.  Our analysis indicates that this was due more to dislike of other days rather than the popularity of Tuesday itself.  In particular, the problems this year with Friday not only took down Friday, but also Thursday (see below).  In addition, Tuesday allied itself early on with the always popular Saturday when Saturday broke with Friday over the furlough issue. And Tuesday always scores well with the Monday haters, because when it comes, that is proof they made it through their nemesis.  Congratulations Tuesday.
2. Saturday. Riding on Tuesday’s coattails and it’s own strength as the first day of the weekend, Saturday moved up from last years poor performance to snag a second place. Clearly the break with Friday paid off as apparently did Saturday’s decision to not run any negative campaigns against Sunday as it did last year with it’s “Sunday, the day before Monday” campaign. 
3. Sunday. Despite a general impression of being dull and boring, Sunday this year snagged it’s traditional third slot because people viewed it as a safe bet and it still won out the traditional “weekend” voters. Also – Sunday negated the negative ads from last year by hiring a skilled rapid response team that posted humorous YouTube videos mocking any negative ads that came out.
4. Wednesday. Rolling in at fourth position is Wednesday.  Never popular.  Never disliked.  But always right in the middle. Normally in competition with Tuesday and Thursday for the fourth spot, Wednesday beat out Thursday by a wide wide margin this year, most likely due to the Friday issue but simply could not compete with Tuesday’s excellent campaign.
5. Thursday. What a downturn for Thursday. Last year third.  This year the bottom of the middle in a deep fifth place.  Sadly, this was something out of Thursday’s control as the enormous unpopularity of Friday simply killed Thursday’s campaigning.  Many see this a a fair turn of events, as Thursday previously has ridden its position near the end of the work week to popularity despite not really doing much of anything special.
6. Monday. The big shocker this year.  Monday moved up from it’s traditional seventh spot to get a #6. Clearly, this was in a large part due to some issues with Friday but also Monday ran a very smooth campaign focusing on it’s strengths (e.g., many Holidays) and acknowledging rather than ignoring its weaknesses. Monday has publicly stated that it is aiming for #5 next year, at whatever the cost.  Our prediction – not going to happen.
7. Friday. From first to last, in one year.  Friday won last year and in many previous years where it usually duked it out with Saturday for top spot.  But this year Friday was killed by furloughs.  Not only did the people who were furloughed on Friday vote against it, but so did all the people who had to wait in line at DMV’s and other government offices.  In addition, Saturday and Thursday teamed up for a brilliant ad campaign pointing out that just about everyone knew someone who was furloughed, and they suggested early in the year that it would be immoral to even “feel” happy on Friday.  This campaign killed Friday’s chances early on. And with the financial issues continuing it looks like Friday may have trouble next year too.