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It is with great regret that I am writing this. Scienceblogs.com has been a big part of my life for four years now and it is hard to say good bye.
Everything that follows is my own personal thinking and may not apply to other people, including other bloggers on this platform. The new contact information is at the end of the post, but please come back up here and read the whole thing – why I feel like I must leave now.
Sb beginnings
Scienceblogs.com started back in January 2006. On that day, several of my favourite science bloggers moved to this new site, posting the URL on their farewell posts on their old blogs. I took one look at the homepage – which at the time was a simple, black-on-white version of the current Last 24 Hours page – and said to myself: this is where I want to be. My instant feeling was that whoever does not get on this site will bite the dust – become invisible in the shadow of the network. I e-mailed several of the original 14 bloggers with a simple question: "How do I get on?" They all assured me that the site will add more bloggers and that my name is already 'in the hat'. In June of that year, I was one of the 20+ bloggers in the "second wave" of migrants to Scienceblogs.com.
How the move to Sb changed my blogging
You can hide on your own little Blogspot blog. You cannot hide on a network. My first instinctive and unconscious change, something I only became of aware later, was that I changed the way I made factual statements in my posts. What does that mean?
I started thoroughly fact-checking the statements before posting instead of learning the hard way that readers will do it for you.
Of course, I started (in 2003/4) in political blogging where much is a matter of opinion, stakes are high, tempers are short, speed of blogging is important, and stating things confidently and even ferociously is important as a persuasion method. If I have heard some useful factoid somewhere, I would often boldly claim it as true without checking first.
But then I gradually switched to blogging about science. This is the domain of verifiable facts. The goal is education, not so much political action. I wrote about my area of expertise, and I wrote in a way that built on that expertise and made it accessible to the lay public. I wrote about things I knew a lot about and was very familiar with the literature. So I referenced, cited and linked to a lot of supporting documents – peer-reviewed scientific papers.
When I moved to Scienceblogs, I doubled up on that effort, even when writing on other topics. Sometimes I wrote purposefully provocative posts, stating extreme positions and playing Devil's advocate. Such posts were written as mind experiments, or as "let's see how far the blind following of the logic can take us, even if it sounds crazy" and I hoped that nobody would mistake them for my real positions. But I tried not to make statements of fact if I was not sure they were actually facts. I became a better blogger. My place here requires I be trusted. For that, I needed to trust myself first.
Getting invited to blog here is an honor, and the only correct response is to blog with maximal integrity, even during online fights and kerfuffles that alight in every corner of the blogosphere, including the science blogosphere, with predictable regularity. Every single blogger on scienceblogs.com, even those who I may disagree with 99% of the time, blogs here with strong personal integrity (yes, human beings sometimes make mistakes, but they correct them once the onslaught dies down and it is possible to do it without losing face). And that is one of the greatest strengths of this network – just wander around the Web randomly for a while and you'll see some interesting contrasts to this.
How getting hired by PLoS changed my blogging
Most of you probably know that I got the job with PLoS in the comments section of my blog. It is the support for my application for the role at PLoS voiced by my commenters that sealed the deal in the eyes of PLoS. Would I have that kind of support if I was not on Scienceblogs.com?
As an Online Community Manager at PLoS, I try to model myself and learn from the experiences of people like Robert Scoble, one of the first "corporate bloggers" (and everyone who thinks there is anything new or wrong with being paid to blog, should read Say Everything by Scott Rosenberg, a definitive history of blogging which will open your eyes). I have been a supporter (and promoter) of Open Access model of scientific publishing well before I got this job and I often blogged about PLoS papers because I – and everyone esle – have access to them. PLoS is a fabulous organization to work for. Its goals match my own. And I love all the individual people working there. Working with them is a blast, and I am proud of it. It is unfortunate that, in this economic situation (and my own personal economic situation), I can only work there part-time.
I assume that many of my readers are also interested in Open Access and may also be interested in what PLoS does. So, I blog (and tweet, etc,) about news from PLoS. As I see which new papers are coming out in PLoS ONE (and other PLoS journals) a couple of days in advance, I pick those that catch my attention, that I personally find interesting, and post links to them here once they are published. Nobody at PLoS has ever asked me to blog (or not blog) anything work-related on my own individual blog (that is what everyONE blog is for). I do it because I am genuinely excited about some of the papers, or am proud of what the PLoS team at the HQ has accomplished – new functionalities or benchmarks, etc. Like everyone else, I am promoting a cause I believe in, and I am blogging what I want and like.
One of the things that changed in my blogging comes from self-awareness that I am an online public face of PLoS. I need to behave in ways that are appropriate for this role. Thus I try to avoid (as much as that is possible) getting into big online fights and I am more careful about my use of language, especially profanity. The fact that I am much less likely today to blog on very controversial topics reflects much more my own tiredness of such topics and the endless flame-wars and troll-hunting that always follow such posts. It gets really boring after a while. I just don't have much appetite and energy for that any more (if you think battling Creationists is nasty, try debating nationalists of various stripes from the Balkans on Usenet during the wars there – those people WOULD really kill you if they could physically get at you). I want my blog to be a positive force (while fully understanding that would be impossible if others were not doing the dirty trench warfare at the same time, providing the environment in which a positive blog can exist) and I want it to be a creative place, an informative place, and a peaceful and welcoming place for everyone interested in science and in science communication. And for my Mom. Hi, Mom!
So, while this is supposed to be my individual blog, I think of it as such, and it is seen by others as such, it is impossible to completely separate the personal from the professional. I am one of the lucky few for whom life and work are perfectly integrated – I do what I love, with great support (emotional and financial) from my wife. One of the things I am is a promoter of Open Access and PLoS, so this part of my persona is bound to find its way onto my personal blog – it would be self-censorship NOT to allow that stuff onto my blog.
Metcalf's Law, or why are we here at scienceblogs.com
It appears that many commenters during the recent l'affair Pepsi did not understand the difference between blogging on Scienceblogs.com and blogging independently on Blogspot or WordPress. It is not so much about the direct traffic. It is not so much about payment (I earned through Blogads, back on my old blog in 2006, the same amount as I am getting here today). It is the 'network effect'.
Let's say I keep blogging my usual stuff day after day. I get some regular readers, some people coming from searches, some people coming from external links, etc. I also get a lot of traffic from other blogs here, from the homepage, Last24H page, from the various widgets (e.g., Reader's Choice, Editor's Choice, top page banner), multiple kinds of RSS feeds (e.g., Select Feed), etc. But if I have to say something really important, something that may require action, or something that many people need to know, or an important question that I may ask, there is a group of people that I can rely on much more than just my usual daily readership – the SciBlings (the name given to my fellow bloggers on Scienceblogs.com). I know they will pick up an item, link to it on their own blogs, and dramatically increase my reach for that one particular item. I don't need to beg, or e-mail anyone, this happens spontaneously by the virtue of me being piece. Remember that still very few people read blogs through RSS feeds – they come via searches and links. These days, some of those links are posted by my SciBlings also in other places like Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. Then others, outside the network, start linking to it and blogging/tweeting about it, spreading my message far and wide. This is something that would be much more difficult on an independent blog. This is what I call "indirect traffic" – a potential instant reach that I get just by virtue of being on this network.
This kind of network effect resulted in an explosive rise in the online reputation and ranking of Scienceblogs.com. Technorati does not count Sb as a single entity (it used to), but ranks each blog independently. The most high-trafficked blog here, Pharyngula, is ranked at number 68 today. The 68th most influential blog in the world right now. Even if Pharyngula accounts for as much as half of the traffic here (I think it is at around 40%…OK, just checked, it is 42.15%) and half of the number of incoming links to the site, the site as a whole is probably up around top 30th of all the blogs in the world. That is serious visibility and influence for all of us.
All that interlinking between us, as well as links from outside, result in all of us having Google Ranks of about 6 or 7. That is huge. Much of my traffic comes from searches (of course – I have more than 10,000 posts on many topics, some very long, using many different words and phrases). If I click to see a particularly interesting set of search keywords that brought someone to my blog, I discover that my blog is one of the top ten hits for that search string. And studies have shown that most people only check the top ten results when they do a search.
Furthermore, such a significant rise in traffic and rank of scienceblogs.com resulted in all sorts of other deals. Choice posts of ours are linked from the New York Times science page. Likewise with the National Geographic site. Our blogs are sold on Amazon.com for Kindle. And the site is indexed not just in Google but also on Google News.
This means not only that each one of us gets more direct traffic, and more potential indirect traffic from our SciBlings due to being on the network, but also an even larger and more powerful indirect traffic and visibility outside of the network. We are being closely watched, both by thousands of other bloggers and by the mainstream media. Whenever Scienceblogs.com explodes with a story, MSM takes note. It is not by chance that some of the first reactions to the Pepsi scandal, even faster than on individual's blogs, appeared in places like The Guardian and the Columbia Journalism Review. As Jay Rosen and Dave Winer noted in their weekly podcast, the distance between us at Sb and the global media is very small. We are not just a loose collection of individuals blogging just for fun any more.
That is huge power. I keep mentioning this power every now and then (see this, this, this and this for good examples) because it is real. Sustained and relentless blogging by many SciBlings (and then many other bloggers who followed our lead) played a large role in the eventual release of 'Tripoli Six', the Bulgarian medical team imprisoned in Libya. Sustained blogging by SciBlings (and others who first saw it here) played a large part in educating the U.S.Senate about the importance of passing the NIH open access bill with its language intact. Blogging by SciBlings uncovered a number of different wrongdoings in ways that forced the powers-that-be to rectify them. Blogging by SciBlings brings in a lot of money every October to the DonorsChoose action. Sustained blogging by SciBlings forced SEED to remove the offending Pepsi blog within 36 hours. And if a bunch of SciBlings attack a person who did something very wrong, that person will have to spend years trying to get Google to show something a little bit more positive in top 100 hits when one googles their name (which is why I try to bite my tongue and sleep over it when I feel the temptation to go after a person). The power of the networks of individuals affects many aspects of the society, including the media.
With great power comes great responsibility, and I am not sure that all of my SciBlings are aware of the extent of this power. A Scienceblog is not a personal diary or a hobby any more.
Scienceblogs.com is Media
Scienceblogs.com has always been the project of the Seed Media Group, thus at least a self-designated media organization. But since the moment our blogs got indexed in Google News we de facto became writers for a media organization. I am not sure some of my SciBlings really understood the importance of that day and how that changed who we are and what we do.
Most of us here do not consider ourselves to be journalists or even have goals of wanting to become journalists. A few of us are. And a few of us are not sure what we are any more. But by virtue of being searchable on Google News we are journalists, whether we want it or not.
Do we write news? Some of us sometimes do. But videos, cartoons, quotes, linkfests, etc. are considered not not to be News only if one adopts a very narrow and traditional sense of the term – reporting on an event that just happened. If you open a newspaper, you will see much more than News in that sense – there are obituaries, comic strips, classifieds, horoscopes, quotes, photos, poems, crossword puzzles….all of that is News in a sense that most consumers of news think: News is what comes in the Media.
I think it is much more productive to think of media in a different way. Media is a means to disseminate and exchange information. Some of that information is important, some is informative, some is entertaining, some is educational, some is aesthetic, some is comic, some is analytic, some is opinionated, some is relevant to many people, some is relevant to just a handful, and yes, some of it may actually report on "what event just happened". Some of it is distributed by legacy media companies, some is distributed by individuals to each other.
We here at Scienceblogs, by virtue of moving from our individual blogs to the network, have largely left the realm of "distributed by individuals to each other". We are the Media. Which means we need to be aware of it, and behave accordingly. This does not mean we have to change anything about our blogging. After all, we were picked and hired in the hope we would continue to do exactly what we were doing with our blogs before the move to Sb. But the same picture of a cat posted on WordPress just for fun, as a hobby, becomes News once posted on Scienceblogs.com. Gotta keep that in mind at all times.
We have built an enormous reputation, and we need to keep guarding it every single day. Which is why the blurring of lines between us who are hired and paid to write (due to our own qualities and expertise which we earned), and those who are paying to have their material published here is deeply unethical. Scientists and journalists share some common ethical principles: transparency, authenticity and truth-telling. These ethical principles were breached. This ruins our reputation, undermines our work, and makes it more unpalatable for good blogger to consider joining Sb in the future. See also Jennifer's post on this issue for a clear-headed take.
Seed is not in magazine business any more
Seed Media Group was founded in order to publish Seed Magazine. And it was a very nice magazine, glossy, lush, filled with awesome visualizations. Some articles were awesome, others a little flakier, but nothing nearly as bad as some other (don't make me name it again) popular science magazines managed to publish under their own banners. I liked Seed Magazine. My kids liked it. It was a cool, modern and novel way to design a pop-sci publication.
In a happier time, before the meltdown of the media industry and then a general meltdown of the economy, Seed Magazine would have survived. But it was not meant to be. About a year ago, the last issue of Seed Magazine appeared on the newsstands. Its brand was not big enough, with enough longevity and reader loyalty, for any other corporation to step in and buy it out. It's gone.
But if you think you are in the magazine business, if you think that your main product is a magazine, and if you have an office full of writers, editors and graphic designers, what do you do? You retain the mindset of a magazine publisher. Instead of rethinking the mission of the organization as a whole, Seed was only rethinking how to repackage Seed Magazine. They did not let the magazine die. They moved it online instead, retaining most or all of the editorial and writing staff. As Jay Rosen likes to quip about Washington Post, "the print guys won". The print mindset won.
Yet, at the same time, Seed had a bunch of "side-projects", including some cool visualization stuff and yes, Scienceblogs.com. Some of those projects, including the magazine itself, fell by the wayside. But Scienceblogs.com was going from strength to strength:
Looking at the graph (I know, PageRank measures one thing, other services measure it differently, but the take-home message is the same), it is obvious that the main product of the Seed Media Group is Scienceblogs.com.
One could argue that traffic is not the proper measure, but I cannot think of a better one. If it was a scientific journal, having a middling traffic would not be so bad if other metrics, e.g., citations, media coverage, incoming links, proportion of visits that result in a PDF download, etc., are high. But there is no such thing to measure for a magazine. Impact of an article in a magazine is measured only by traffic, and traffic is also an important metric for advertisers.
What used to be a fun side-project, Scienceblogs, became the centerpiece. Or so you'd think. But remember that the print guys won. Seed never realized that they were not in the magazine business any more. It is telling that some commenters during last week's fiasco said they never heard of Seed Magazine until now (I had not heard of it before I moved to Scienceblogs either). It is squirreled away on its obscure website, with miniature traffic, no brand recognition, not even much linking from Scienceblogs.com to it to drive at least some traffic there. We do not hear about new articles there to help promote them (except when Dave Munger writes one and tweets the link). If we are not aware that there are new articles in the magazine, how are others going to be?
Several months ago (in the wake of a loss of a couple of our top bloggers) I suggested they move the magazine onto Scienceblogs as an "editor's blog" and let us pitch stories for it and use the existence of in-house editors to make our stories more polished than a usual blog post. It did not happen.
What Seed Media Group is doing right now is trying to run a magazine, while treating Scienceblogs.com as a source of revenue. What Seed Media Group should be doing, what every media group should be doing, is become a tech-oriented company (one of the reasons PLoS is successful is that it is essentially a technology-rich publishing company, with an incredible and visionary IT/Web team working with the editorial team in driving innovation). Instead of trying to produce content in-house, which is expensive (all those salaries!), Seed should realize that they already have 80 (now more like 60 and getting smaller every day) producers of content. Barely paid producers of content. I know, it is really hard to fire all those wonderful people – but keeping them can just speed up the end-point so everyone ends up jobless in the end. If Seed Media Group (SMG) has money for employing twenty people, fifteen of those should be tech folks, driving innovation, serving Scienceblogs.com, making it bigger, better, more powerful.
Everything at Seed should be set up to be in service of Scienceblogs: administrators, legal staff, editors, and most importantly a large, powerful, innovative technical staff. The experiment was run, the results are in, scienceblogs.com was shown to be a successful endeavor, and the rest of the experiments, magazine included, were failures and need to be thrown out and forgotten. I guess that many people in the office are emotionally invested in the magazine, but tough luck – the thing is a corpse. Mourn for a while, and move on.
Who gets to be on Scienceblogs.com?
A couple of years ago I heard the statistic that Seed got an average of seven applications per day to blog here. That is thousands of bloggers over the years to date!
The network had a succession of several excellent Community Managers who made decisions on who to invite next. As the site grew and changed, their visions also changed, which determined what kinds of blogs they were looking for. Sometimes, they would accept a new blog, and let us know about it only about a day in advance. But in most cases they consulted with us. They would ask us to recommend who we thought were the best bloggers in a particular area, e.g., technology, infoscience, art, food, chemistry, etc., whatever they thought we lacked and needed more of at any particular time. And they would usually consider our recommendations and invite bloggers we respected. There were even times when we ganged up on them and relentlessly lobbied for a particular blogger to get invited and they would have to agree eventually.
Not everybody who was invited said yes, either, but most did. And over the years there was a natural cycle – as new blogs got added, some of the older ones shut down or left. Often life and work interfered and people decided they could not continue blogging any more. Or just got tired of blogging. Some felt too much pressure to blog more frequently than they were comfortable with. Some bloggers fused their blogs into a single multi-author blog. Some invited co-bloggers to help. Some got better-paying gigs elsewhere. Some left due to personal conflicts with other bloggers. And now several have left due to the damaged reputation of the network that started with a sale of a blogging spot to a corporate entity.
And more are leaving, and will be leaving, due to "Bion's effect":
"You are at a party, and you get bored. You say "This isn't doing it for me anymore. I'd rather be someplace else. I'd rather be home asleep. The people I wanted to talk to aren't here." Whatever. The party fails to meet some threshold of interest. And then a really remarkable thing happens: You don't leave. You make a decision "I don't like this." If you were in a bookstore and you said "I'm done," you'd walk out. If you were in a coffee shop and said "This is boring," you'd walk out.
You're sitting at a party, you decide "I don't like this; I don't want to be here." And then you don't leave. That kind of social stickiness is what Bion is talking about.
And then, another really remarkable thing happens. Twenty minutes later, one person stands up and gets their coat, and what happens? Suddenly everyone is getting their coats on, all at the same time. Which means that everyone had decided that the party was not for them, and no one had done anything about it, until finally this triggering event let the air out of the group, and everyone kind of felt okay about leaving.
This effect is so steady it's sometimes called the paradox of groups. It's obvious that there are no groups without members. But what's less obvious is that there are no members without a group. Because what would you be a member of?"
Yes, suddenly everyone is getting their coats on, all at the same time. This party is not as fun as it once was. Time to go.
Scienceblogs.com – The Good
Four years is eternity on the Web. But try to think back to early 2006 and understand how revolutionary that concept was at the time: grabbing a bunch of already popular bloggers, putting them all on the same site, paying them a little bit, and giving them complete editorial freedom. Anything goes! The editorial hand is in the initial choice of bloggers. Once you choose the people whose work you like, just let them loose.
The existence of Scienceblogs.com as a one-stop shopping place for all things science resulted in the high visibility of science and of science blogging and spurred the explosive growth of the science blogosphere. In 2006, I could read every post by every science blogger in the world. Today, there are thousands out there that I don't even know about. And there are many other media companies who tried to emulate Seed and build their own networks, with, to be generous, mixed success so far.
The Seed motto, "Science Is Culture", also contributed to opening science for the lay audience. Many of our readers are not scientists. The stereotypical image of scientists as socially inept recluses who speak in incomprehensible lingo was dispelled.
In many ways my feeling that "who is not here will bite the dust" was not realized. Instead of building an isolated elitist community, we felt the responsibility to be generous, to constantly look for, seek out, link to and promote bloggers who are not on the network. Instead of acting as "we are elite bloggers producing elite content", we acted as "we are elite filters, finding and choosing the best content on the Web and showcasing it to everybody".
Thus, much of what we did as SciBlings had, as a goal, the building of the science blogging community that is much broader than just our own internal network community. Nobody got rich from, and many put a lot of work into, the Open Laboratory anthologies which not only showcase the best of science blogging to the audience outside of the Web, but also promote new and upcoming bloggers outside the network. The ScienceOnline conferences (now a full-time job to organize, but still done for free on our own time) also contribute to a similar effort to get people on and off networks together. The DonorsChoose action every year brings us all together, as well as many other such actions. Scienceblogs.com was definitely a key player in the emergence and building of the science blogging community.
Scienceblogs.com – The Bad
The network has evolved over time. The initial offering was composed of bloggers who were already popular – they brought their readership with them. They just happened to be mostly bloggers – and this is probably why they were popular in the first place – whose blogging covered those aspects of "science is culture" that are quite controversial, from beating up on pseudoscience and medical quackery, to the relationship between science and religion, to the politics and politicization of science. This made for quite a lively discourse on the network, bringing up discussion topics that were important to have yet were considered taboo before. This did not sit well with all of the audience, many still squeamish about breaking of such cultural taboos (especially bold defenses of atheism), and the network got somewhat of a bad reputation in some circles, as a hotbed of godless, pinko-commie, liberal whateverwhatever people. That reputation, even during the most recent period when only about five out of 80 bloggers focused much on politics and/or religion, seems to persist.
Since the continuous additions of popular bloggers did not add many new readers and traffic (they were all already reading here anyway), and as the erroneous perception which Sb-haters promulgated that "there is no science on scienceblogs.com" needed to be countered, Seed invited many bloggers who never touch controversial topics and only blog about science. They also invited a couple of bloggers who are openly religious and a couple of conservatives. More recently, several bloggers who joined were reputable science writers and journalists. A new idea was to try and pick up some very new and not-yet-established bloggers, especially very young ones with talent, and bring them here and help them grow.
But none of this helped dispel the nefarious myths about Sb being an atheism network. In this effort to dilute politico-religious content with science content, Sb grew, in my opinion, too big. I think 80-something blogs with 90+ bloggers is too big. Internal rifts and formation of cliques was inevitable in such a large group, which led to some hidden and some very public fights, and resulted in some of our prominent bloggers leaving in a huff. This did not look good from the outside, I'm sure. And it did not work well for the bloggers' morale either.
The chronic inability of the Seed management to communicate to and with bloggers did not help either (I feel the Overlords who tried to represent our interests were sidelined in the Seed newsroom). As a result, there is not much loyalty to the Seed brand. We are here for the network effect and traffic (and even the little money we get is important grocery money for some of us, including me), not because we are in love with Seed.
This is not about Pepsi
Two weeks ago, as most of you probably know, Seed started a new blog on Scienceblogs.com. It was to be not just sponsored, but authored by people from PepsiCo, a continuation of their Food Frontiers blog (go take a look). It was to be hosted, I believe, for three months, for a fee that PepsiCo would pay Seed (out of which, I guess, we bloggers would also get paid, perhaps even get up to date on payments – I just got my April check).
We have hosted a few corporate-sponsored blogs before, but the main bloggers on them were either independent journalists or some of our own bloggers. Those blogs were introduced to us in the backchannels in advance, we were consulted, changes were made as needed, and some of us still protested on our blogs or wrote posts that are quite damning to those corporations, their shady corporate behavior, and their products.
It is not well known – at least I did not see anyone mention it – that Seed tried to hire an outside freelance science journalist to host the Pepsi blog. Apparently, they could not find anyone. So, when the date came when they promised Pepsi they would start, they launched the blog without an independent host, with just Pepsi employees blogging. Huge mistake! They should have quickly asked some of us to pitch in that role, but instead they did not even tell us about it – the appearance of the blog was a total surprise to us all. Orac was the first one to spot it on the Last24Hour page and alerted the rest of us. Understandably, we all went berserk (and if you think our anger was strongly worded on our blogs, can you imagine what it looked like in the backchannels!?). This is a flagrant breach of the wall between content and advertising. A huge no-no in any kind of media. We are Media and this was the (un)ethical straw that broke the camel's back.
Greg Laden was not the first one to think of it, but explained it the best the other day how the blog could have been made much more palatable to us and readers, if Seed just thought to ask us (even if that meant a delay of a couple of days before launching) to blog there. We have many bloggers here who could have contributed their expertise on various aspects of food. We have bloggers who could write with authority on obesity from physiological, medical, public health and sociological perspectives, on the chemistry of food, on poisons, on neuroscience of appetite, on nutrition, on raising one's own food, on evolution of food plants and domesticated animals, on endangered seafood, on the economics and politics of the food industry, on useless dietary supplements, on the reason why a piece of bread always falls on the buttered side, how to desecrate crackers, and even how to roast a zebra and share it with locals in Africa. Not to mention pie recipes! That could have been fun and informative. And if Pepsi scientists contributed as themselves, not as frontmen for the company, their perspective would have been interesting as well.
Instead, we got an infomercial posing as one of us.
It is completely irrelevant that it was Pepsi.
It is completely irrelevant that it was about food.
It is completely irrelevant that they never got to post anything on the blog before it was removed under the storm of criticism by us, readers and the media.
It is completely irrelevant if their content was going to be good or bad.
What is relevant is that a corporation paid to have a seat at the table with us. And that Seed made that happen.
What is relevant is that this event severely undermined the reputation of all of us. Who can trust anything we say in the future?
Even if you already know me and trust me, can people arriving here by random searches trust me? Once they look around the site and see that Pepsi has a blog here, why would they believe I am not exactly the same, some kind of shill for some kind of industry?
Even if you know me and trust me, would you be able to trust any new addition to the network? All those thousands of bloggers who applied to Sb and did not get invited to join? What are they all thinking now about someone paying to blog here? Do you think anyone will ever apply again?
Is Scienceblogs reputation permanently damaged?
In the wake of the Pepsi scandal, other things started coming to light. Things like this and this and this and this, all adding up to the realization that Seed is not what it makes out itself to be. So yes, I think the reputation of Seed is permanently damaged. The quick reversal, under pressure, and removal of the Pepsi blog is not enough.
Will it survive? I don't know. Probably it will, but smaller (this also depends on the biggest-traffic bloggers remaining). But the scienceblogs.com stable is shrinking rapidly, and I do not see it growing in size or reputation again any time soon. Without it – the only profitable enterprise in the SMG – I am not sure the company can survive. We won many big races, but our racing career is now over, and we should retire to some pleasure riding in the meadows now (not ready for the slaughterhouse yet, not me).
Where will bloggers go?
Some of the most prominent bloggers who have left – or will leave – can quite easily go solo. Since 2006, the Web ecosystem has evolved and now has mechanisms, including social networking sites, that can keep an already popular site from fading into oblivion by going solo. One's blog is now only one part of one's online presence.
Others have been approached or will be approached (as soon as they make their leaving Sb official) by many other existing or incipient newtorks out there. Field Of Science is a new network. There is also Lab Spaces. GenomesUnzipped is a new group-blog for people interested in genomics, All Geo may try to collect geobloggers, and Southern Fried Science new network may accumulate more ocean bloggers. Panda's Thumb offered evolution bloggers defecting from Scienceblogs.com to post there (I am not sure how to think about the division by topic – does it mean that general science networks can never attract a geoblogger and an ocean blogger any more?).
SciBlogs NZ is a wonderful network, but limited by geography to New Zealand bloggers only. There are German Scienceblogs and Scienceblogs Brazil (in Portuguese). There is a growing North Carolina group science blog.
Ira Flatow offered to host bloggers on Science Friday. And so did Wired UK (and US?) and apparently The Guardian as well. Scientific American is bound to jump into the fray, picking up defecting SciBlings. National Geographic has a blog network – I guess they are watching these developments as well. These media-run blogs/networks may well be changing their technological architecture as we speak in order to absorb multiple new bloggers they are trying to attract.
Blogging on Huffington Post is an instant loss of credibility – a day of a Pepsi blog is nothing compared to years of pseudoscience, medical quackery, Creationism and Deepak Chopra's posts there. Nobody in their right mind would want to be associated with such a cesspit of anti-science.
There are awesome blog/news networks for students of science journalism at NYU (Scienceline) and their counterparts in the UK, mainly at City University (Elements).
Nature Network whose target audience are primarily scientists rather than lay public, and Science 2.0 (formerly Scientificblogging.org, not to be confused with the similarly named but very new and interesting Science 2.0 network that does more than just blogging) seem to be pretty open and approachable and have nice internal communities, but are essentially invisible from the outside. Likewise for Discovery Networks Blogs. The Psychology Today blogs is a very big network, but they do not seem to have anything like a community, and seem to be pretty non-selective as to who they accept. I have heard of at least three new networks still in the making.
But going to any of these is potentially a step down and a big loss of visibility and traffic. The only network that has recently started to come close to the clout of Scienceblogs.com is Discover blogs, but they have a specific type of blogger in mind and do not appear to have an appetite at this point to suddenly invite dozens of new bloggers – they seem to be building the network as a small, but highly elite place for people with some existing journalistic and professional writer cred. Definitely ones to watch!
New scienceblogging ecosystem
The potential step down and loss of visibility by leaving Sb may be an illusion. It makes sense in the existing ecosystem in which Scienceblogs.com is The Borg and everyone else is biting the dust. But the ecosystem is changing. Scienceblogs.com is rapidly losing reputation and bleeding bloggers. A number of other networks are absorbing these bloggers and adding more, growing in size and visibility very rapidly. Very soon – and I mean SOON as in weeks – instead of one big place to watch, there will be two dozen medium-sized places to watch. Instead of one site that everyone reads, there will be a number of sites that will have to read each other instead. Networks that get too large will be viewed, perhaps, with suspicion they are not selective enough. Networks that are too small will get lost and invisible in such a crowded ecosystem. The trick is to find the Goldilocks solution – just the right size.
Many science bloggers are personal friends, and many are also heavy users of social networks like Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook, so the ties will remain. The popularity of blog carnivals may come back up, at least temporarily, due to their well-established effect of building and maintaining the community. ResearchBlogging.org, apart from building respect for science bloggers in the outside world, is also beginning to serve as a center of the blogging community (and I hope it survives, funded by Seed or, if that becomes impossible at some point in the future, by whoever else can be lured to do so).
Instead of one big network, there will be a network of networks. Nobody can afford now to ignore or be ignored by others. I bet we will see aggregators springing up that link to all the networks, perhaps networks will carry each other's RSS Feed widgets on sidebars to facilitate cross-linking and traffic between networks, and thus raise visibility of all. And the legacy media will have to adjust to the new ecosystem as well, and instead of just watching Scienceblogs.com, find a way to monitor all of the networks at the same time.
When science blogosphere was young, existence of Scienceblogs.com was a boon – it lifted all the boats with it, made both the science and the science blogging visible and prominent. Today, having only one overgrown site so visible is toxic – it takes the oxygen out of the system, and makes the other networks and independent bloggers invisible. With the current process of Sb being cut to size, and concomitant process of other networks growing in size, visibility and relevance (as well as brand new networks springing up), we are reaching a point where being on Sb is not the pinnacle of one's potential science blogging career – it is one of many places where it is good to be.
Many who are, for now, deciding to stay on Sb, are doing so because they are terrified of becoming invisible by going solo. But in the new emerging ecosystem, going solo is not necessarily going to mean invisibility. People who go solo will still be a part of the community – yes, the same science blogging community that Scienceblogs.com was a key to building in the first place.
Going solo also makes one "fair game". Other networks will not approach Sciblings who are not officially leaving as they do not want to tread on Adam Bly's territory or be seen as poaching. But they will approach people who go solo. And they will also approach independent bloggers who were never on a network before – because those bloggers are really good and have been left out so far, because there are not enough Sb defectors to build sufficiently large networks just out of them, and because they do not want the perception that they are growing and building networks entirely on the ashes of Seed.
A growing number of networks and growing visibility of all the networks, also means that bloggers will have many choices. Seed is not the only game in town any more. Some networks pay bloggers, others don't. Some have advertising, some don't. Some have posting frequency requirements, others don't. Some are run by for-profit organizations, others by non-profits, and others are bloggers' cooperatives. Some have complete editorial freedom, some have limited restrictions. Some have excellent tech support, some lousy or none at all. Some are smaller and highly selective as to who they invite, others are big and also accept bloggers who are not really up to par. Thus, each blogger has a range of choices and the ability to choose according to what each individual finds important for their own goals. And those bloggers who think of this as a hobby and do not want to be seen as Media, can easily go solo and remain connected to the ecosystem in a variety of ways.
What will I do?
My first impulse when Pepsi blog suddenly and surprisingly showed up on the homepage was to bail out immediately.
But I decided instead to take some time to think and decide. My wife also told me to wait and watch the events unfold instead of saying anything myself. Wise.
Not saying anything publicly also made me open to others – I was approached by many with questions, fears, confusions, and their own plans. I have heard a whole lot from various people – who is courting them, where they are going to go, what new networks are being secretly built, etc. which gives me a pretty good lay of the land. I have a pretty good grasp of what is going on out there, I think (though I can be surprised, I'm sure). Most people are quite secretive about their plans, and I will NOT reveal anything that anybody told me until they themselves go public, but I am also not ready to completely reveal my own plans just yet.
After agonizing for almost two weeks, I finally made a decision. I will leave Scienceblogs.com, effective today.
I am not making this decision lightly. A number of factors played a part in this. On one hand there are negative factors – the loss of reputation by Sb, the complete lack of technical support here, the deflated morale of bloggers here, and the indications that all the recent changes at Seed are not a sign of losing the print mindset, which makes it unlikely that meaningful changes will happen. There is also a feeling that SMG is financially a sinking ship. On the other hand are positive factors – I am excited by the swift evolution of the new science blogging ecosystem and want to position myself well within it. I feel that this is also an opportunity to make something better once the dust settles. But the main reason I am leaving is the ethical breach that has seriously placed our reputation in jeopardy.
Unlike some others, I have nothing personal against Adam Bly. We have met once and he seems to be a really nice guy. We loved going to the New York City meetups in the early years and meeting with him there and being hosted at his house. He has interesting ideas and I think his goals are quite in sync with my own – increasing the prominence and relevance of science in our society. I just think that he is consulting with (and sometimes hiring) people with the old legacy media mindset, getting outdated ideas from them, and not being aware how the world has changed even in the past four years and how those changes require a much more dramatic change in direction.
I also want to acknowledge how much being on Scienceblogs.com has meant to me both personally and professionally. This is where I got my job, many other gigs, invitations to give talks, preview copies of books, and a general prominence and reputation in the worlds of science, publishing and the Web. Without Scienceblogs.com, there probably would never be Open Laboratory and ScienceOnline. I have made many fast friends here, both SciBlings and readers, and I am optimistic that these friendships will continue, wherever any one of us end up blogging.
Though many other solutions are possible for me, I have decided that I want to be solo for a little while – I want to see who approaches me and with what kinds of offers. Perhaps something great comes out of it. With my wife on disability leave our finances are shot, and I need to find a way to get paid for all the things I do so I can support my family. And even if no good offers come about, at least when I make up (and announce) my final decision, I will be sure I had all the necessary information I need to make the best decision for myself.
So, farewell, Scienceblogs, it was honor to be a part of this community for so long.
You can find me, in the meantime, at https://coturnix.wordpress.com/. I will continue blogging at everyONE blog and Science in the Triangle blog as well. And you can follow me on Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook, so you will know when I make other moves in the future.


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I must confess that I am biased. Horribly, irreversibly biased. I love the Free/Open Source software world because it provides the ultimate in pro-customer values. This is a huge world that encompasses GNU and the Free Software Foundation, the Open Source Initiative, thousands of smaller independent projects, corporate contributions, and the Linux kernel. For convenience's sake I'll lump all of this incredible richness under "Linux."
When you build your infrastructure around the Linux operating system, you get the ultimate in flexibility. Linux servers don't care if you want them to serve Linux, Unix, Windows or Mac clients. Linux desktops don't care if they have to rely on an Active Directory domain controller for authentication and access to resources, or if the get to play in an all-Linux environment, or have to tug a forelock to a mighty Unix server.
Linux itself doesn't mind being scaled up to power a mainframe, or a cluster, or a multi-processor server, or squeezed into a PDA or cell phone.
Linux doesn't try to lock you into a particular Web browser, office suite, desktop environment, groupware, mail server, graphics editor, sound editor, CD/DVD writer, or mail client. It doesn't even try to lock you into using only Free/Open Source software – if you wish to use closed-source proprietary software, or even software written for another platform, Linux tries to accommodate you.
Linux doesn't infest your system with all sorts of commercial-ware that phones home who-knows-what.
You can have both thin and thick clients on your LAN, and you won't need a math PhD to calculate the licenses.
You can run virtual Linux servers, and you have several to choose from.
You can run a complete Linux distribution from a CD without installing it. Bootable Linux CDs make great rescue disks for both Linux and Windows. There are hundreds of different bootable Linux distributions on CD, DVD, diskette, and removable flash drives, and if none of them suit your needs you can easily roll-your-own.
If you publish descriptions of security flaws, or break encryption schemes, you won't be threatened with lawsuits or criminal prosecution.
If you share ideas, knowledge and improvements, you will be greeted with approval and more sharing, rather than threats of punishment.
Linux doesn't care what region your DVDs are encoded for.
Linux doesn't try to trap your data in closed, secret, incompatible file formats.
Linux does not try to extract as much personal information from you as it can get its sticky little fingers into; rather, you are encouraged to protect your own information with encryption and other safeguards that you control.
Linux doesn't try to control and commercialize every last minute aspect of your computing infrastructure.
Free/Open Source software comes in various permutations of free-of-cost and free-as-in-freedom. Some commercial distributions let you buy it once, then install it on several machines. Some are more restrictive, and the free-of-cost distributions encourage you to copy and re-distribute them as much as you want. Whatever you prefer, you'll probably find it.
If you wish to study and modify the source code of some of the best programs in the world, you won't break any (increasingly ridiculous) laws. If you want to build a test lab and try out all kinds of different network configurations, servers, and applications, you will not run afoul of the license police.
If you want to understand the inner workings of software development, follow mailing lists and online forums. You'll be hobnobbing with coders at all levels, system administrators, and other users, all without corporate muzzles.
If you wish to be a part of the incredible creative ferment of the Free/Open Source software world, you'll find a welcome somewhere. (Note: manners do count. Only manner-less nitwits believe courtesy is disposable.)
Linux vendors are not hostile to their own customers; you will not be bullied, bribed, extorted, or threatened. (Sorry about the lack of bribes part.) SCO doesn't count; they're not a Linux vendor, they are litigation specialists.
I'm not claiming that the F/OSS world is Utopia. After all, it is populated by humans. But it is a very wonderful place, and for people who want to control their own data and computing infrastructure, it the very best place to be.

subset: commoncrawl


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02/08/2016 Hanchang takes delivery of Liebherr LR 11000 crawler crane
- LR 11000 delivers high-performance and compact design
- Hanchang completes its fleet of crawler cranes with new 1,000-tonne machine
- Global Liebherr service one of the main reasons behind the Hanchang purchase
Hanchang Heavy Equipment Co., one of the largest crane contractors in South Korea, officially took delivery of a new Liebherr LR 11000 crawler crane in mid-December 2015. At the same time Hanchang unveiled the 1000-tonne lattice boom crane to its customers and partners on its site in Ulsan. The new crane will supplement Hanchang's existing fleet of crawler cranes between the Liebherr LR 1750 and LR 11350 machines. Hanchang's reasons for buying the LR 11000 include its outstanding load capacities in all configurations and the very compact design of the Liebherr 1,000-tonne machine.
Hanchang now has a fleet of 14 Liebherr crawler cranes. The LR 11000 filled the gap between a 750-tonne and a 1,350-tonne machine. Demand for the LR 11000 takes the form of current and future projects for lattice boom cranes in the 1000-tonne class in Korea. The first job for the new machine will be in the petrochemical industry. S.T. Kim, President of the company, explains: "The LR 11000 from Liebherr is the most modern crane in its class. In particular it is the best choice for jobs at restricted sites because, despite its high load capacities, it has a very compact design."
The LR 11000 was ordered with a full range of equipment: 108 metre main boom, 114 metre luffing jib, derrick system and ballast trailer. This will enable Hanchang to tackle a particularly wide range of jobs with it. The company will be able to cover demand from its customers both in Korea and also for international jobs better with its newly expanded fleet of crawler cranes.
Liebherr's worldwide, dense service network was one of the main reasons behind Hanchang's purchase. S.T. Kim continues: "We can use our cranes all over the world because Liebherr is everywhere for us. Liebherr builds modern, high-performance cranes with high quality. And when we come to sell them, the value of its used cranes is higher than that of its competitors."
Hanchang first open for business in 1990 and now operates 35 cranes with a workforce of approximately 50. Hanchang bought its first Liebherr crane in 1995. The new LR 11000 is its 20th crawler crane from Liebherr. The company's strategy is to continue to develop as a global crane contractor and position itself among major global crane service providers. With this in mind, the company's global focus is constantly being driven forwards.


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Top activities in Rome
Top Rome landmarks
Top Rome landmarks tickets
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Explore Rome and beyond
Nearby Rome tours
Popular tours in Italy
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Trip Inspiration
Things to do in …
Top Rome articles
Cruise the narrow streets of Rome on a Vespa motorbike or in a vintage Fiat for an authentic, unforgettable sightseeing experience. Here's how to see the city's must-see sights in speedy style—while feeling like you have stepped into an Italian film.
Go sightseeing in Rome on a Vespa or Fiat, either independently or with a guide.
Travel through the city like a local and see places that many tourists miss.
Compact, nimble vehicles make navigating the city streets easy, thus giving plenty of time to explore the sites, stop for photo ops, and find the perfect café for an espresso or gelato break.
Check out famous monuments such as the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, and St. Peter's Basilica.
Choose a guided tour for expert insight into Rome's history, culture, and hot spots—and so you can sit back and relax while your driver navigates the crowded streets.
Guided tours generally last three to four hours; self-driving tours generally last a full day.
Self-Driving Tours
Confident drivers who want to tour Rome independently can rent their own Vespa or Fiat. Self-driving tours let you decide where to go and when, so they are a fun option for a wholly customized experience of the city. Rentals generally include a helmet and lock (for Vespa renters), helpful itinerary tips and advice, and a map—but be prepared to navigate the city on your own.
Guided Tours
A guided Vespa or Fiat tour includes a knowledgeable tour guide who can help you navigate the notorious traffic congestion in Rome. Get an insider's perspective on the city as your guide takes you to must-see monuments, photogenic viewpoints, and interesting neighborhoods. Tour options include self-driving guided tours and riding as a passenger while your guide drives. Either way, you can explore the city expertly and efficiently, stopping at the points of interest of your choosing.


text: Performance The Gehl V420 skid loader is a shining example of Gehl's superior innovation and well thought-out product development. The re-designed chassis aids in superior weight distribution, which further enhances stability. Thick steel plating and heavy-duty pins and bushings strengthen the loader for heavy-duty work. Electronic engine control and electronic foot and electronic hand throttles allow operation at partial throttle, reducing sound levels and fuel consumption (not available with hand/foot controls). Height to Hinge Pin - Fully Raised (mm) 144" (3653) Travel Speed with Standard Two-Speed (km/hr) 10.7 mph (17.3)


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Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Centennial Project, Live In Concert: Newport Jazz 2012
Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Centennial Project, Live In Concert: Newport Jazz 2012
Audio for this story is unavailable.
Erik Jacobs for NPR
What if there were lost big-band masterpieces by the great composer/arranger Gil Evans which never made it to record? In fact, there are plenty of them, according to composer/arranger Ryan Truesdell. He's culled, researched, transcribed and completed a handful of the best for Evans' 100th birthday anniversary. It helps that he's the lead copyist for composer Maria Schneider; he's borrowed much of her orchestra to record and now perform this rich, intensely-hued material.
Set List
- "Dancing On A Great Big Rainbow"
- "How About You?"
- "Punjab"
- "Look To The Rainbow"
- "Concorde"
- "Ballad Of The Sad Young Men"
- "Sister Sadie"
- Ryan Truesdell, arranger/conductor
- Steve Wilson, alto saxophone/woodwinds
- Charles Pillow, alto saxophone/woodwinds
- Rich Perry, tenor saxophone/woodwinds
- Donny McCaslin, tenor saxophone/woodwinds
- Scott Robinson, baritone saxophone/woodwinds
- Michael Rabinowitz, bassoon
- Adam Unsworth, french horn
- David Peel, french horn
- Tony Kadleck, trumpet
- Greg Gisbert, trumpet
- Laurie Frink, trumpet
- Ryan Keberle, trombone
- Marshall Gilkes, trombone
- George Flynn, trombone
- Marcus Rojas, tuba
- Ben Monder, guitar
- Frank Kimbrough, piano
- Jay Anderson, bass
- Michael Truesdell, percussion
- Lewis Nash, drums
- Dan Weiss, tabla
- Dave Eggar, tenor violin
- Gretchen Parlato, voice


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Police Arrest Passenger After Alleged Plane Threat
Las vegas – Authorities say a plane en route to Los Angeles has returned to Las Vegas after a man on board made a bomb threat.
Las Vegas police tell KLAS-TV that Spirit Flight 245 landed at McCarran International Airport around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, with police taking the passenger who made the alleged threat into custody at the gate.
McCarran spokesman Glenn Gardener says authorities were investigating the suspect. Gardener did not know the specifics of the alleged threat.
Authorities searched the Spirit aircraft and cleared it later Saturday.
Gardener says the plane's other passengers, who were removed from the aircraft at Las Vegas, boarded another plane to Los Angeles International Airport.
No further information was released.


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I can't believe it's getting so close! Today, we had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at the caf. I was warned that every year there's a line around the building for Thanksgiving dinner and I see this year was no exception. The line was so long that people were cutting and pushing just to get into the caf. It was too much for my friend and me, so we gave up and went back to our dorm. We ended up going back when it wasn't as crowded and we realized what all the excitement was about... the food was good!
Thanksgiving day is in exactly one week and that means, in my next blog, I'll be writing to you all from my own house! This is the first time I'll be seeing my family, friends and house since I left for school — I've never been so excited to go home. When I was still in high school, I couldn't wait to move away, but now I honestly can't wait to go back.
It's going to be nice to have a little break, to get away from all the stress that comes along with school. I have already made a list in my head of plans for when I get home!
More From Seventeen
1. Take a bubble bath! Who would have ever known that taking a bath would become a luxury? I'm so used to taking showers in the community bathroom of my dorm, that I can't wait to be able to relax in a nice warm bath.
2. Drive my car! I miss my car
terribly. It's hard having to depend on other people for rides everywhere — I miss just being able to jump in my car and go.
3. Shopping! Black Friday shopping brings all the best deals and it's super exciting. My friends and I are definitely going to be in downtown Chicago to shop the day after Thanksgiving.
4. Visit my old high school! When I get home, I'm going to visit my old high school to see my old classmates and teachers. I especially want to see my old guidance counselors and let them know that they were right about almost everything!
5. Eat! I can't wait to go to all my favorite food spots when I get home. Noodles & Company, here I come!
I can't wait to get home and do all these things plus more. I'm especially excited to see my best friends. There's a lot of people from school on my flight, and a bunch of us are catching the cab to go to the airport together to save money.
I'm really going home you guys, yay!! Can't wait to tell you all about it next week =)
What are your turkey day (or Black Friday) plans?


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We want to hear from you! A while ago we asked you who makes the best coffee in West Cork – we were astonished at the breadth of choice and the votes that came pouring in. So now we want to know – where can you go in West Cork for a really great breakfast, however you define that?
Robert's favourite
The wonderful A Taste Of West Cork Festival is on at the moment so we are naturally thinking a lot about food and we wondered about our readers – are you breakfast people? Is it the Full Irish for you or a modest bowl of cereal? Are you a traditionalist (bacon or nothing!) or quite taken with mashed avocado on sourdough with micro-greens?
I love a good bowl of well-made porridge.
They say it's the most important meal of the day and we're not supposed to skip it. We agree! In fact, one of our favourite things to do in West Cork is to go out for breakfast. And this being West Cork, we have found lots of places to have delicious choices.
Happy with scones and tea? Upper photo, my own version of pear and almond scones
Brunch is great too – now widely available on weekends all over West Cork. Do you like it more breakfasty or more lunchy? Eggs or soup? How about gathering up the superb ingredients available in our wonderful markets and browsing all afternoon at home?
Upper – a brunch sourced from the markets of West Cork. Lower – we know this place that has the yummiest black pudding potato cakes
Or are you a vegetarian or vegan? Gluten free? If so – what's your go-to breakfast? Can you find good alternatives when you eat out in West Cork, like that luscious parfait in our lead photograph?
Eggs with lentils – whatever floats your boat!
Coffee or Tea? For us, it has to be a latte or a really good pot of tea, preferably made with leaves (I do hate fishing teabags out of a teapot, especially when there's never anywhere to put them).
We know there are some grim places too – Lord save me from the breakfast buffet with the emulsified scramblers and the sliced white pan toast. Or the pub that 'does' a breakfast where everything comes on a plate swimming in grease. Don't tell us about those – we know they are out there but we want to hear about your excellent experiences.
Topic: Best Places for Breakfast in West Cork. Discuss!


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I have been a primary teacher for over 20 years. I've taught everything from Pre-K to fifth grade. Although I love all grades, kindergarten, first, and second grades are my absolute favorites!
I am a laid back, casual teacher. I quickly earn the respect of all my students by treating them fairly. I teach each day with love and laughter.
I am proud to say that I won Teacher of the Year for my school and state for the 2011-2012 school year.
Yet to be added
Yet to be added
PreK, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, Homeschool
English Language Arts, Balanced Literacy, Creative Writing, Writing-Expository, Reading, Grammar, Spelling, Vocabulary, Specialty, Math, Arithmetic, Basic Operations, Numbers, Science, Social Studies - History, Health, ELA Test Prep, Other (Social Studies - History), For All Subject Areas, Classroom Management, Character Education, Writing, Reading Strategies, Writing-Essays, Holidays/Seasonal, Back to School, Thanksgiving, Christmas/ Chanukah/ Kwanzaa, Poetry, Autumn, Mental Math, Halloween, Winter, The New Year, Valentine's Day, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents' Day, Spring, Tools for Common Core, Handwriting, Early Intervention, End of Year, Phonics, Classroom Community


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What a huge selection of ornaments for children! There are favorite children's characters such as Dora and Hello Kitty, ornaments specifically for boys, ornaments specifically for girls, princess ornaments and whimsical wood ornaments. There are over 180 items to choose from allowing you to find that right gift for your little boy or little girl that will create a memory they will cherish.
Note: some white or light colored ornament images may show a shadow that is not part of the actual ornament


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University increases its voluntary annual contribution to Princeton Borough
Princeton University will quadruple its voluntary annual contribution to Princeton Borough over the next four years under an agreement approved by Borough Council on Tuesday night, Dec. 3.
Under the agreement, the University's contribution will be $110,282 in 2002; will almost double to $200,000 in 2003; and then will increase to $300,000 in 2004, $350,000 in 2005, and $400,000 in 2006. If no new agreement is negotiated at that point, the University donation in subsequent years will increase at the same rate as the municipal tax rate.
"The University has a major stake in the health and vitality of the community and over the years has contributed to the Borough in many ways," said President Shirley M. Tilghman. "This substantial increase in our annual voluntary contribution, at a time when resources generally are constrained, reflects the depth of the University's ongoing commitment to the economic well-being of the Borough and the quality of life for its citizens."
The University also will continue its annual contribution to the Borough on behalf of McCarter Theatre. This contribution is equivalent to the municipal portion of the property taxes that would be paid if the building were on the tax rolls. For 2002, the amount will be $59,000, but it will go up with increases in the municipal tax rate and in the assessed valuation of the facility, which is currently being expanded.
These voluntary donations are in addition to the University's annual property tax payments to the Borough, which last year exceeded $1.9 million; fees for various purposes, including sewer charges, building permits, and affordable housing payments, which last year totaled more than $2.5 million; one-time special project contributions, such as those provided recently to the public library, the school board and the first aid and rescue squad; and a broad range of indirect contributions through public use of its facilities, infrastructure and cultural resources.
The University has been making annual financial contributions to the Borough since 1973, and has been making contributions on behalf of McCarter since 1988, when the facility was removed from the tax rolls. In 1995, the University agreed to increase its annual contribution from $40,000 (which it had been for seven years) to $60,000 and then to increase it by $10,000 per year until it reached $100,000. At that point the contribution would increase at the same pace as the municipal tax rate. This new agreement was developed by a special "Town and Gown Committee" in which the University was represented principally by Director of Community and State Affairs Pam Hersh and Vice President for Public Affairs Robert Durkee.
In the 18th century, the town of Princeton contributed to the University, then known as the College of New Jersey, instead of vice versa. The college in 1756 settled in Princeton, instead of New Brunswick, because the people of Princeton gave a cash incentive to the college for relocating to Princeton from Newark. They offered the college a money grant of 1,000 pounds, 10 acres of campus lands, and 200 woodland acres for fuel.
Contact: Lauren Robinson-Brown (609) 258-3601


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10/07/2014 Liebherr-Aerospace on Board the Airbus A320neo
The air conditioning system, the engine bleed air system and the cooled service air system for the fuel tank inerting system of the Airbus A320neo are developed and manufactured by Liebherr-Aerospace Toulouse SAS (France), whereas Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH (Germany) is responsible for the high-lift system, the high pressure and power transfer unit manifolds as well as the rudder servo control.
The next-generation electro-pneumatic engine bleed air system is specifically optimized for the power plants of the A320neo. It features light-weight, robust and highly reliable components as well as an optimized control architecture. As the high-lift system for the A320 has an excellent in-service track record, it did not need to be modified for the A320neo family.


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Print photo
Martha J. Kanter was nominated by President Barack Obama on April 29, 2009, to be the under secretary of education and was confirmed by the Senate on June 19, 2009. Kanter reports to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and oversees policies, programs and activities related to postsecondary education, adult and career-technical education, federal student aid, and six White House Initiatives-Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Educational Excellence for Hispanics, Educational Excellence for African Americans, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. To spur education, economic growth and social prosperity, Kanter is charged with planning and policy responsibilities to implement President Obama's goal for the U.S. to have "the best educated, most competitive workforce in the world by 2020" as measured by the proportion of college graduates over the next decade. Under Secretary Kanter and her team are keenly focused on improving college access, affordability, quality and completion to implement President Obama's American Graduation Initiative.
In her first two years as under secretary, the successful implementation of the Direct Student Loan program resulted in a 50-percent increase in college enrollment, growing from 6 to 9 million students today who are Pell Grant recipients. Kanter and her team are working closely with postsecondary partners from across the nation to boost American innovation and competitiveness with an ambitious college completion agenda, teacher quality reforms, adult education program improvements, modernization of career-technical education and a new partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor, which has announced the first $500 million of a $2 billion federal investment to increase quality, graduation and employment opportunities for community college students.
From 2003 to 2009, Kanter served as chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, one of the largest community college districts in the nation, serving more than 45,000 students with a total budget of approximately $400 million. She is the first community college leader to serve in the under secretary position. In 1977, after serving as an alternative high school teacher in Massachusetts and New York, she established the first program for students with learning disabilities at San Jose City College (Calif.). She then served as a director, dean and subsequently vice chancellor for policy and research for the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office in Sacramento. In 1990, she returned to San Jose City College as vice president of instruction and student services until she was named president of De Anza College in 1993, serving in this position for a decade until her appointment as chancellor.
Kanter has been recognized for her work numerous times, including being named Woman of the Year by the 24th Assembly District, Woman of Achievement by San Jose Mercury News and the Women's Fund, and Woman of the Year for Santa Clara County by the American Association of University Women. In 2003, she received the Excellence in Education award from the National Organization for Women's California Chapter. In 2006, she was honored for diversity and community leadership by the Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women, and in 2007, the American Leadership Forum-Silicon Valley honored her with the John W. Gardner Leadership Award. In 2008, Kanter received the Citizen of the Year award from the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce. In 2009, Notre Dame High School in Silicon Valley honored her with the Woman of Impact award and, in 2010, Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay nominated her for the Business Hall of Fame. In 2011, Kanter was appointed to the U.S. National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a federal advisory committee to the Department of State that supports worldwide humanitarian development and values by coordinating efforts and delivering expert advice on issues of education, science, communications and culture.
Under Secretary Kanter holds a doctorate in organization and leadership from the University of San Francisco. Her dissertation addressed demographic, institutional and assessment factors affecting access to higher education for underrepresented students in California's community colleges. In 1994, she opened the first Advanced Technology Center in California's community college system, and promoted local and state policies to advance Foothill-De Anza's legacy of excellence and opportunity for California's expanding and increasingly diverse student population. She received her master's degree in education with a concentration in clinical psychology and public practice from Harvard University, and a bachelor's degree in sociology from Brandeis University.


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ETH Zurich, a Swiss University and the National Research Foundation of Singapore have signed an agreement for the "Future Cities Laboratory". This set the seal on the structure of the new platform for urban development in Singapore.
In this project, it is collaborating closely with scientists from the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University. An agreement was signed in Singapore on 19 March 2010 forms an important link between the NRF and ETH Zurich as they build up their joint research activities. The plan is for the interdisciplinary research platform for sustainable urban development in Singapore to be staffed by September 2010.
The research focuses on three key scales: sustainable building technologies, the city as an urban system, and the relationship between urban and rural environments. The new strategy of the "Future Cities Laboratory" consists of combining these key points in an appropriate way and researching their interactions. The architects, planners and scientists see and design the city as a dynamic system in which people interact and in which resources such as energy, water, space, capital, materials or information are constantly in flux.


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'Lincoln,' 'Les Miz' look for big Oscar haul
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Crusaders for good, old-fashioned Western democracy look to be the key figures vying for this year's Academy Awards.
Best-picture favorites for Thursday morning's Oscar nominations include "Lincoln," Steven Spielberg's portrait of the great emancipator who abolished slavery and reunified the United States; "Zero Dark Thirty," Kathryn Bigelow's chronicle of the hunt for U.S. public enemy No. 1, Osama bin Laden; and "Les Miserables," Tom Hooper's musical epic set against an uprising of freedom fighters in 19th century France.
Among other prospects are "Argo," Ben Affleck's thriller about a CIA scheme to save Americans from Iran amid the 1979 hostage crisis; "Django Unchained," Quentin Tarantino's bloody revenge saga about a former slave hunting white oppressors just before the Civil War; and "Life of Pi," Ang Lee's story of a free-thinking Indian youth cast adrift on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger while traveling to a new life in North America.
This year's nominations come earlier than usual in Hollywood's long awards season, leaving the awards picture a bit murkier. By the time Oscar nominations come out most years, the Golden Globes already have given their trophies, helping to sort out prospective front-runners for show business' biggest night.
The nominations this time precede the Golden Globes ceremony, which follows on Sunday.
The Globes and other honors presented in late January and February by directors, actors, writers and producers guilds will clear up the best-picture race for the Oscars. Right now, "Lincoln," ''Les Miserables" and "Zero Dark Thirty" appear the most likely contenders for the top prize.
All three films come from directors who delivered best-picture winners in the past: Spielberg with 1993's "Schindler's List," Bigelow with 2009's "The Hurt Locker" and Hooper with 2010's "The King's Speech." Bigelow also won the directing Oscar, the first woman ever to earn that honor, Hooper earned the same prize a year later, and Spielberg has received the directing trophy twice, for "Schindler's List" and 1998's "Saving Private Ryan."
"Lincoln" also has good chances on acting nominations for three past winners: two-time Oscar recipients Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, and supporting actor recipient Tommy Lee Jones as abolitionist firebrand Thaddeus Stevens.
"Zero Dark Thirty" star Jessica Chastain, a supporting-actress nominee last season for "The Help," is in the running for a best-actress slot this time as a CIA operative relentlessly pursuing bin Laden.
Two past Oscar ceremony hosts have strong shots at nominations for "Les Miserables": Hugh Jackman for best actor as Victor Hugo's tragic hero Jean Valjean and Anne Hathaway for supporting actress as a doomed single mother forced into prostitution.
Other acting possibilities include Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro for the oddball romance "Silver Linings Playbook; Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz for "Django Unchained"; Affleck and Alan Arkin for "Argo"; John Hawkes and Helen Hunt for the sex-surrogate story "The Sessions"; Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams for the 1950s cult tale "The Master"; Bill Murray for the Franklin Roosevelt comic drama "Hyde Park on Hudson"; Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren for the filmmaking chronicle "Hitchcock"; Marion Cotillard for the French-language drama "Rust and Bone"; and Denzel Washington for the airliner-crash saga "Flight."
Winners for the 85th Oscars will be announced Feb. 24 at a ceremony aired live on ABC from Hollywood's Dolby Theatre.
"Family Guy" creator and vocal star Seth MacFarlane — a versatile performer whose work includes directing and voicing for the title character of last summer's hit "Ted" and a Frank Sinatra-style album of standards — is the Oscar host.
Thursday's nominees will be announced at 8:40 a.m. EST by "The Amazing Spider-Man" star Emma Stone and MacFarlane, the first time that an Oscar show host has joined in the preliminary announcement since 1972, when Charlton Heston participated on nominations day.


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2015 SlideShow Heading
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Building A
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Three Hierarchs Monastery
Unirii Square
A Bridge between Probability, Set Oriented Numerics, and Evolutionary Computing
The 2015 edition of the EVOLVE conference is held jointly with ECODAM. EVOLVE - ECODAM brings together researchers, practitioners and students at all levels working in the areas of concern for both events.
The aim of the EVOLVE international conference is to build a bridge between probability, statistics, set oriented numerics and evolutionary computing, as well as to identify new common and challenging research aspects.
The event is also intended to foster a growing interest for robust and efficient new methods with a sound theoretical background and, last but not least, to unify theory-inspired methods and cutting-edge techniques aimed at reaching top-level performance. By gathering researchers with different backgrounds, ranging from computer science to mathematics, statistics and physics, to name just a few, a unified view and vocabulary can emerge where theoretical and practical advancements may echo in different domains..
The wide use and large applicability spectrum of evolutionary algorithms in real-life applications nurture the need for further developing solid theoretical grounds. Among many examples intricate mathematical objects show, as proven by acknowledged new results that evolutionary algorithms can, in some cases, act as good and fast estimators. Similarly, the handling of large quantities of data may require the use of distributed environments where the probability of failure and the stability of algorithms need to be formally addressed.
Common practice confirms in many cases that theory-based results ensure performance guarantee factors for evolutionary algorithms in areas as diverse as optimization, bio-informatics or robotics. Summarizing, EVOLVE focuses on basic research and application challenges arising in theory, new paradigms and practice, thus aiming to provide a unifying view and to raise questions related to reliability, performance guarantees and modeling.
Scope & Topics
Monte Carlo Methods, Mean Field Particle Models, Set-Oriented Numerics, and Evolutionary Algorithms cover a variety of application fields, and it is the aim of the conference to bring people from these areas together to discuss new results and trends and promote collaboration across these disciplines.
Among other aspects, not restricted to the following, topics include:
Probability and Statistics
Monte Carlo Methods, Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods, Sequential Monte Carlo Methods, Mean Field Particle Models, Branching and Interacting Particle Processes, Nonlinear Markov Processes, Self Interacting Processes, Reinforcement Models, Game Theory, Stochastic Control Theory
Statistics and Machine Learning
Bayesian Inference, Hidden Markov Chain Models, Statistical Machine Learning Techniques. Calibration and Uncertainty Propagations in Numerical Codes, Nonlinear Filtering, Multiple Object Tracking Models.
Set Oriented Numerics and Natural Computing
Set-Oriented Numerics, Multicriteria Optimization, Level Set Algorithms, Landscape Theory, Natural Computing, Evolutionary Algorithms, Robust Design, Computational Vision, Estimation of Distribution Algorithms
Applications, System Architectures and Experience Track
Cloud Computing, Social Networking, Software as a Service, Big Data, Web Data Management or Mobile Data Management


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Christmas Wood Signs
Shop Christmas themed vintage style wooden signs to add an old-fashioned look to the wall decor in your home, apartment, cabin, ranch, or lodge. These retro wood signs are printed directly on distressed wood panels that have natural knots and other imperfections in them. Printing is done right over these imperfections which gives each sign the look and feel of a real antique sign. Most signs can be personalized!


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Apple suggests that Time Capsule—its newly-shipping backup device—extends the simplicity of its Time Machine backup component in Leopard. Plug it in, use an assistant to walk you through configuration, connect to the device or connect it to an existing network, and select its internal hard drive as the Time Machine destination for your networked Macs.
In my first pass with the backup appliance, I found that Time Capsule largely lives up to this expectation of simplicity, with a few glitches. I had to restart the unit more times than I like, fix a few configuration errors in its "automatic" configuration, and deal with a glitch in getting Time Machine to select the right drive.
What we've learned
Perhaps most surprising about this combination of a Wi-Fi base station and internal network-attached storage (NAS) drive is that Time Capsule doesn't just allow you to back up to its internal drive: you can also perform Time Machine backups to drives attached to the Time Capsule via USB. This feature was promised before Leopard's release for the AirPort Extreme Base Station (2007 models), but later removed from Apple's list of Leopard features.)
In a quick test of a full backup, Leopard transferred the first gigabyte of data over 100 Mbps Ethernet to the Time Capsule's internal drive at about 16 megabits per second, and to an externally connected Iomega high-performance hard drive at about 16 megabits per second. That's not speedy: I copied a gigabyte at 60 megabits per second over 100 Mbps Ethernet using AFP between two Macs, and in under a minute to a drive connected directly to a desktop Mac (nearly 200 megabits per second). Still, the 15 to 16 megabits per second rate means that 100GB would transfer in 15 hours. Taking that long isn't reasonable, even for the initial backup—as subsequent backups add only changed and new files—but some early Time Capsule users are reporting far faster speeds. I'll be testing a variety of processors and network types to see if I can get better performance.
Getting started
Apple has extended Time Capsule's simplicity to its packaging and installation. The box, compact like all of Apple's recent packaging, contains just the Time Capsule, a power cord (Time Capsule's power supply is internal), a small envelope with an installation disk, and a few booklets.
The new version of AirPort Utility that ships with Time Capsule—version 5.3, which is required to configure it under Mac OS X 10.4 or Windows XP and Vista—renames a few tabs and labels to allow Time Capsule-specific options. The Disks pane of AirPort Utility lets you erase the internal drive while renaming it. (The format comes with Apple's Secure Erase options: none, a quick zeroing of data, and 7-pass and 35-pass erases, which meet government standards for deletion.)
I chose a new option in the setup assistant that allows you to clone the settings of an existing base station. I had an 802.11n AirPort Extreme all up and running, so I chose that base station—the password for which was already stored in my Keychain—and had AirPort Utility copy its settings. After restarting, however, the Time Capsule lacked the static IP address I had manually assigned to the base station, and I had to set that part up again, re-entering all the details. I also had to confirm that I wanted remote management enabled, even though I'd confirmed that "risky" option for the previous base station. The Time Capsule didn't initially recognize that an Ethernet plug was in its wide-area network jack either; I reseated the plug and the device seemed happy.
Time Machine had no trouble discovering both the Time Capsule's internal drive and the one I had attached externally. One glitch occurred, however. I'd plugged the Iomega drive in after a Time Machine backup was underway to the internal Time Capsule drive. I canceled that backup and attempted to switch to the Iomega drive; no luck. I had to restart the Time Capsule to get the correct drive names and options to appear in the Time Machine preference pane.
When you start a networked Time Machine backup, the backup drive appears on the Desktop as a named volume (using AFP), and another volume appears called "Backup of [Bonjour Name]" as well. The main drive shows all items; the volume named backup stores just the files for that computer. If you cancel a backup or when the backup is finished, that drive disappears as well.
Apple noted in a briefing Thursday that Time Capsule requires OS X 10.5.2 for Time Machine backups; it won't work with earlier versions of Leopard. So you may need to plan time to download the massive set of updates—my Mac mini required about 500 MB of updates, including a 350 MB combo updater, after I installed 10.5.0 from a DVD; the 10.5.1 updater weighs in for most machines at a more modest 180 MB.
First impressions
At first glance, Time Capsule meets the challenge of being easy to set up, and easy to start backing up computers on a local network. But I'll have more once I put the device through thorough testing and deliver a final verdict in a full review next week.
[Glenn Fleishman writes daily about wireless networking at his site Wi-Fi Networking News.]
This article was updated at 10:10 a.m. PT on March 1 to clarify comments about backup times and add reader reports of their experiences.


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Hoyer to Spacey: Not a literal 'whip'
Steny Hoyer would like to remind you: "Whip" is not a literal term.
The House Minority Whip was asked Tuesday by POLITICO's Mike Allen and Jonathan Allen whether he'd seen the Netflix series, "House of Cards" (in the series, actor Kevin Spacey plays the House Majority Whip).
( Also on POLITICO: Steny Hoyer: 2012 election hasn't changed Congress yet)
Hoyer said he hadn't seen it but said, "Kevin Spacey was in this office and we discussed that and what I'm going to do is get it off Netflix and see the series."
Hoyer described his time with Spacey as "delightful" and left him with some parting advice.
"I told him one of the things I told him is that I don't whip people in the literal sense."


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'Newsies' musical tour prepares to hit the road
NEW YORK (AP) — The North American company of the Broadway hit "Newsies" is about to high-kick its way through a 25-city tour and it's being led by a 22-year-old actor who'll make a triumphant homecoming in Pittsburgh just in time for Thanksgiving.
Dan DeLuca will be playing leading man Jack Kelly in the Tony Award-winning show, which marks his first major acting credit. "I'm so thrilled, so excited," says the native of McMurray, Pennsylvania, close to Pittsburgh. "It kind of blows my mind a little bit."
The other cities the tour hits over the next year include Cleveland, Louisville, Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Toronto. It makes its official opening in Philadelphia in late October.
DeLuca will be joined by Stephanie Styles as the love interest Katherine Plumber and Jacob Kemp as best friend Davey. Steve Blanchard, a veteran Beast from Broadway's "Beauty and the Beast," will play Joseph Pulitzer.
"Newsies" is based on the 1899 true story of child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York who go on strike. A 1992 film, starring Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Robert Duvall and Ann-Margret, did poorly at the box office but has become something of a cult hit.
DeLuca and a friend managed to catch "Newsies" on Broadway with the original Jack Kelly — Tony nominee Jeremy Jordan — after losing a lottery for tickets and getting standing-room only space. "It's funny. I was watching Jeremy and I was like, 'That is definitely a role I would love to play,'" he says. "It kind of became my dream role."
Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Jack Feldman, who were responsible for the film score, teamed up again to transform "Newsies" into a musical for the stage, reworking the songs and collaborating with the new story writer, Harvey Fierstein, known for his work in "Hairspray," ''La Cage aux Folles" and "Torch Song Trilogy."
The new musical, which won Tonys for best score and choreography, retains the memorable songs "Santa Fe," ''The World Will Know," ''Carrying the Banner," ''Seize the Day" and "King of New York," but adds a young female reporter to the story and plenty of muscular, high-impact dancing with sets that move quickly.
DeLuca, whose credits include playing Gabe in "Next to Normal" at the Weston Playhouse in Vermont and Danny in Stephen Schwartz's "Snapshots" at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, will be on his first tour.
"It's amazing that they have faith in me. It's something that I know I can do," he says. "It's going to be quite a workout. I was told by Jeremy and Corey Cott who replaced him that there's nothing you can do to prepare. You just have to get out there and do it."
The tour will pull into Pittsburgh and start performances at the Benedum Center on Nov. 25. "I get to be home for Thanksgiving and the whole family gets to come," he says. "I've told the cast they're more than welcome to come to my house for Thanksgiving. We can have a 'Newsies' feast."
Online: http://www.NewsiesTheMusical.com


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Barton, Clara
Barton, Clara, 1821–1912, American humanitarian, organizer of the American Red Cross, b. North Oxford (now Oxford), Mass. She taught school (1839–54) and clerked in the U.S. Patent Office before the outbreak of the Civil War. She then established a service of supplies for soldiers and nursed in army camps and on the battlefields. She was called the Angel of the Battlefield. In 1865 President Lincoln appointed her to search for missing prisoners; the records she compiled also served to identify thousands of the dead at Andersonville Prison. In Europe for a conference at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War (1870), she went to work behind the German lines for the International Red Cross. She returned to the United States in 1873 and in 1881 organized the American National Red Cross, which she headed until 1904. She worked successfully for the President's signature to the Geneva treaty for the care of war wounded (1882) and emphasized Red Cross work in catastrophes other than war. Among her writings are several books on the Red Cross.
See biographies by I. Ross (1956) and W. E. Barton (1969); S. B. Oates, A Woman of Valor (1994).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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