Count me among the staunchly pro-Christmas atheists. I may not be religious, but I’m all about the loot. If the price of getting presents is the ostentatious display of a few borrowed pagan images around Winter Solstice time, I can deal.
So our gift from Cosmic Variance to you is — new blogs! New to us, anyway. First up is inkycircus, a very fun site from three British journalists who are in the process of starting their own science magazine (found at Element list). The twist is that Anne, Katie and Anna are all women, and seem to be having a great time with the whole operation. (Men would feel the pressure to be all ponderous and serious-sounding, if I may venture an unsupported generalization.) My favorite category of post is men whose babies we want to bear, even if it is somewhat unrepresentative of the larger project and despite the fact that Jon Stewart makes the list and I don’t.
The other new site worth checking out is systemic by Greg Laughlin, discussing the search for extrasolar planets. (“systemic” is the name of a Java applet for analyzing data collected in the search for such planets.) In addition to cool science, it’s full of great images like the one at left. Unfortunately this is a map of light pollution in the vicinity of Lick Observatory (see the Bay Area coastline outlined in white?), but it’s still a great image.
Finally, I note that Cosmic Variance is currently ranked 374th in the Truth Laid Bear ecosystem traffic rankings, one slot above HorsesAss.Org. Draw your own conclusions.
Happy holidays, everyone.
December 22nd, 2005 at 3:40 pm
Well I guess it’s better to be above HorsesAss.org than below it
December 22nd, 2005 at 4:06 pm
Hi Cosmis Variance team – it’s really nice to meet you! Thank you for linking to us – we’re really glad you like what we’re up to. We’re making it up as we go along… We hadn’t seen your blog before, but we’ll definitely be back. See you around, x the inkycircus girls. Ps Happy Christmas!
December 22nd, 2005 at 4:57 pm
It must be partly because i read Cosmic Variance before logging onto Horse’sAss; it covers my local and regional political arenas and battlefields. And thanks for the link to inkycircus: any bloggers who know that josh weldon grew up in an all feminist household and made his TV and film efforts reflective of those views, are just too cool and perfect to read.
December 22nd, 2005 at 7:23 pm
I quite clearly can’t spell. Cosmis Variance? Sorry guys. Duh.
December 22nd, 2005 at 8:16 pm
Katie, we’re not so much about the spelling around here. I’m enjoying your blog, and wishing you the best for the magazine. Keep dropping by!
December 22nd, 2005 at 10:25 pm
Speaking of which, Sean, I owe you an apology for nitpicking about typos in a recent post—you probably know the one I’m thinking of.
(I have a coworker who is nearly reached the point of violent retaliation for similar comments of mine about some of his emails.)
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:17 am
As the proprietor of the ELECTRON BLUE blog, and putatively a female, I nevertheless retain my tendency to be “all ponderous and serious-sounding.”
December 23rd, 2005 at 11:28 am
An off-topic question; Is the CV team already on vacation except for Sean ?
Clifford has not posted in a long while …
December 23rd, 2005 at 12:07 pm
Christmas usually annoys me, at least the way I experience it in shopping malls, airports, and train stations. But I confess I like Christmas jingles, even whatever it is they play in the Macy’s commercials.
December 23rd, 2005 at 12:09 pm
Thank you for the “inkycircus” link. I added it to my favorites. Anyway, one may refer to me as one of the “lurkers”, but being neither a physicist nor a genius I fear that I don’t have much to contribute; however, I am still fascinated by supersymmetry, string theory, multiverses, etc., so hope no one minds that I keep “lurking”.
Nice to know that I am not the only atheist that enjoys the “holidays” [OE, holy days]/familial get togethers without believing the other myths (my opinion). I feel like quite the outsider at work as I am quite in the minority.
Enjoy your site, and keep on blogging.
December 23rd, 2005 at 12:27 pm
Thanks for the inkycircus link too. Very cool, I hope that they succeed.
I prefer Newtonmas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtonmas
http://members.aol.com/T0Morrow/Ex-Mass.html
over some cultures’ versions of Christmas; what counts for me is the emphasis on good, warm time with friends and family. Happy Newtonmas everyone.
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:49 pm
Hey Sean
I love Inkycircus. Thanks!
And also a merry x-mas to you and the rest of the cosmic varriance team. Helge
December 23rd, 2005 at 6:58 pm
Merry Christmas and best wishes for the new yearï¼
December 24th, 2005 at 12:17 pm
Thanks for the kind wishes everyone.