New science bloggers wanted for Sciblogs 2.0

Sciblogs 2.0 coming soon

After nearly six years in operation, Australasia’s largest blog network is getting a facelift and some fresh voices.

Sciblogs features commentary from around 30 scientists and science writers and is consistently ranked among the country’s top 10 blogs based on Sitemeter statistics.

But the platform is well overdue for a revamp and will soon be relaunched with a new look, new additions to the blogging line-up and a remit of appealing to a wider audience.

Among the changes will be:

• A more visual look and refreshed blog homepages
• Mobile-friendly design so Sciblogs looks good on smartphones and tablets
• Some new bloggers covering everything from drones to psychology
• News content drawing from sources such as our new Scimex.org research news portal.

Become a Scibling

We are on the lookout for new science bloggers to join our lively stable of bloggers and as well as writers, videographers and social media gurus who are passionate about science communication and who are keen to collaborate on Sciblogs.

“The likes of Iflscience, Science Alert and the science blog networks of Scientific American and Scienceblogs shows there’s strong appetite for science news and commentary,” said Sciblogs editor and SMC Director, Peter Griffin.

“We want to grow the Sciblogs community featuring the best, most interesting science from New Zealand and around the world. We’ll improve our mobile and social media presence so Sciblogs content is easier to browse and share.”

The new Sciblogs will go live by the end of August – contact Sciblogs editor Peter Griffin if you would like to get involved.

The Mind of the Science Denier

Over recent months I have been following, and learning more about, the issues of fluoridation and the Ukrainian civil war. One is a scientific issue (at least in most of the debate), the other political. Yet in the social media discussions both issues are dominated by motivated reasoning, cherry-picking, confirmation bias and outright prejudice. The same thing is going on in both issues and in many cases show denial, the favouring of belief over facts and evidence.

Donald Prothero points out that this is just human nature. We are not “rational machines,” and, if we are honest, we should all be able to recognises these faults in our own approaches, no matter how sceptical and scientific we think we are.

Prothero presented an interesting talk at the recent Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas, he deals mainly with creationism, climate change denial and anti-vaccination beliefs but the lessons have much wider applicability.

He has some great cartoons in his lecture. But I also liked how he drew lessons from his analysis about how supporters of science and scepticism should deal with discussions when science denial occurs. Simple antagonistic argument and debunking is usually not effective. We need to recognise the beliefs and values underlying the denial and respond to those.

TAM2014 – Donald Prothero – The Mind of the Science Denier.

The lecture is based on part of Prothero’s recent book Reality Check: How Science Deniers Threaten Our Future.

 

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July ’14 – NZ blogs sitemeter ranking

 Image Credit: Learn Blog Tips

There are now over 300 blogs on the list, although I am weeding out those which are no longer active or have removed public access to sitemeters. (Let me know if I weed out yours by mistake, or get your stats wrong).

Every month I get queries from people wanting their own blog included. I encourage and am happy to respond to queries but have prepared a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) people can check out. Have a look at NZ Blog Rankings FAQ. This is particularly helpful to those wondering how to set up sitemeters.

Please note, the system is automatic and relies on blogs having sitemeters which allow public access to the stats.

Here are the rankings of New Zealand blogs with publicly available statistics for July 2014. Ranking is by visit numbers. I have listed the blogs in the table below, together with monthly visits and page view numbers.

Meanwhile I am still keen to hear of any other blogs with publicly available sitemeter or visitor stats that I have missed. Contact me if you know of any or wish help adding publicly available stats to your bog.

You can see data for previous months at Blog Ranks

Subscribe to NZ Blog Rankings

Subscribe to NZ blog rankings by Email

Find out how to get Subscription & email updates

November ’13 – NZ blogs sitemeter ranking

Image credit: Amnesty International Aotearoa Blog

There are now almost 300 blogs on the list, although I am weeding out those which are no longer active or have removed public access to sitemeters. (Let me know if I weed out yours by mistake, or get your stats wrong).

Every month I get queries from people wanting their own blog included. I encourage and am happy to respond to queries but have prepared a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) people can check out. Have a look at NZ Blog Rankings FAQ. This is particularly helpful to those wondering how to set up sitemeters.

Please note, the system is automatic and relies on blogs having sitemeters which allow public access to the stats.

Here are the rankings of New Zealand blogs with publicly available statistics for November 2013. Ranking is by visit numbers. I have listed the blogs in the table below, together with monthly visits and page view numbers.

Meanwhile I am still keen to hear of any other blogs with publicly available sitemeter or visitor stats that I have missed. Contact me if you know of any or wish help adding publicly available stats to your bog.

You can see data for previous months at Blog Ranks

Subscribe to NZ Blog Rankings

Subscribe to NZ blog rankings by Email

Find out how to get Subscription & email updates

Image credit: Ryan Shell

Something for all those lapsed catholics

I keep running into lapsed catholics. They seem to be everywhere – and usually they are nice people.

There’s something about being lapsed which gives you a sense of humour.

But I wonder how many have tried to formalise their position. After all, there are all sorts of people out there who might lay claim to your soul, or some of your assets, after your death if you don’t.

Well, don’t worry – there’s now an app for that – the Excommunication app.

And apparently it does work – I have that on good authority.

Seems to be a pretty straightforward way of settling one of those things that may have hung over you for years.

View Excommunication app in iTunes preview

Click on images below to enlarge screen-shots

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