Get it while you can!

 Blogosphere, Fun Stuff, Pop Culture  1 Response »
Oct 132010
 

One of my daily internet stops is TeeFury, a t-shirt site which offers independent designers the chance to showcase their work for one day only, and offers shirts for $9US! Usually there’s some pretty catchy shirts, but today’s is one of their better designs!

Image courtesy of TeeFury.com

I’ve already ordered mine, so get yours while you can! The shirt will be off the market forever at 11:59:59PM Wednesday night, so act fast. Click here to order yours today.

I have no affiliation with TeeFury.com, just a big fan of t-shirts!

Coming Soon – Blog Action Day

 Blogosphere, General Information, Pop Culture  5 Responses »
Oct 062010
 

I’m an information addict, and blogs help feed my habit daily. I read about photography, web design, baseball, nature, video games, science, travel, and of course entomology, and each blog opens my eyes and educates me in a different way. But what if each blog took one day to discuss the same subject, from their unique point of view? That’s the idea behind Blog Action Day, an annual event geared at creating a unified conversation across the international blogosphere about a topic important to everyone. This year’s conversation begins Friday, October 15th, and will focus on water, something every living thing on Earth requires, yet which is largely taken for granted in the Western world. To date, 1,600+ blogs in 100 countries and with a combined readership of nearly 13,000,000 people have committed to dive into the discussion, and I’m sure those numbers will continue to grow this week.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

I haven’t solidified what I’ll bring to the table yet, but I will do my part to get the world talking about water in my own, insect-centric way. I hope you’ll join me  next Friday, and I encourage you to join in the discussion, either through your comments or through your own blog.

Weevil-Doers Prepare!

 Blogosphere, Entomology, Tongue in Cheek  4 Responses »
Sep 212010
 

Green Weevil on green leaf in Costa Rica

For those looking for a little beetle love eight days a week, An Inordinate Fondness #8 was posted up at Arthropoda yesterday. Most magazine’s may feature paperback writers, but AIF is a monthly “magazine” of blog posts from here, there and everywhere around the insect blogging community, all focusing on beetles, whether through photography, paper reviews, or field observations. I’ve been following AIF for a few months now, and with a little help from my friends and fellow bloggers, it’s always a fun read. I don’t want to spoil the part, but this month’s edition features a recent Bug of the Day post by yours truly in addition to a whole lot of info on all sorts of beetles! So I hope you’ll come together and check out AIF today! The End.

P.S. There are BioPoints available in this post, if you can figure out the hidden signals! You’ll get 5 points for each correct answer!



When you have seen one ant, one blog, one tree, you have not seen them all

 Blogosphere, Taxonomy, Tongue in Cheek  29 Responses »
Apr 212010
 

Although slightly modified from what E.O. Wilson actually said (birds, blogs, same thing right?), the title is most certainly true! Yesterday I introduced you to my blogosphere project, where I began looking at how insect blogs are related. Today, you’ll see the piece de resistance, and we’ll talk a little about what we see! Hold on tight and get ready for a bloggy family reunion!

Drum roll please…. dadadadadadadadada….

Continue reading »

The Ties that Bind Us

 Blogosphere, Taxonomy, Tongue in Cheek  6 Responses »
Apr 202010
 

After my post about the blogs that I check daily, Alex Wild commented that someone should map out the connections between the bug blog community, and I thought what better way to do so then to apply some phylogenetic systematics to the blogging community! It was also good timing for this project, as Willi Hennig’s birthday is April 20, and I thought it’d be an interesting tribute to the man who revolutionized the field of taxonomy and systematics. So without further ado, I present to you something that I’m sure will be gracing the cover of Nature in the near future and which will set me up for the first Nobel Prize awarded to a blog:

A Phylogenetic Analysis of Entomology Blogs: A Blogosphere tribute to Willi Hennig

Willi Hennig - The Father of Modern Phylogenetic Systematics

Courtesy of Wikipedia.org

Continue reading »

Blogs for Beginners – Find More!

 Blogosphere, General Information  1 Response »
Apr 092010
 

Yesterday you got the best of my blogroll, and now you’re ready for more? Well then, today I’ll share a couple of resources for you to find other blogs that might interest you!

Dicerca divaricata (Buprestidae) on sunny log

For a dipterist, I've been featuring a lot of beetles lately....

To start, I would go through the list of  blogs at the Nature Blog Network. You can find any nature related topic you could ever want with a multiple authors to choose from in each. Insects, photography, birding, conservation, and marine biology are only a few of the topics that you can peruse at your leisure!

Nature not your thing? A lot of mainstream topics can be found through AllTop. This is essentially a blog aggregator, but rather than you getting to choose which blogs show up, you can see a selection for a given buzz word and go from there. A little clunky at times, but none the less a lot of high profile blogs to check out, from politics to food and beyond!

Do you subscribe to monthly magazines? Why not browse some of the blog carnivals that float around the ‘net! These are essentially periodicals of related blog entries from a bunch of different authors. Some of the larger ones that I’m aware of include the Carnival of Evolution (featuring some of the best science bloggers online), An Inordinate Fondness (for all the beetley goodness), and House of Herps (snakes, turtles, frogs, crocs, and all the other reptiles and amphibians are featured here).

Still need more? Google it, and all will be revealed! Also, bloggers are full of community spirit and often link to all sorts of interesting topics, so join the community and dive in to the blogging world!

Blogs for Beginners – My Daily Reads

 Blogosphere, Entomology, Photography  10 Responses »
Apr 082010
 

Now that you know how to start following someone’s blog, all you need is someone to follow! I’ve compiled some of the blog’s that I check daily, and which cover a variety of different topics!

As always, click on photos to see them larger
Tiger beetle Cicindela sexguttata sitting on a log

Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, ready for sunny spring days!

Continue reading »

Blogs for Beginners – Be a Follower

 Blogosphere, General Information  2 Responses »
Apr 062010
 

As I sat here writing my thesis this afternoon, my mind began to wonder (as it’s apt to do when I force myself to do things for long periods of time), and I started wondering how many people are frequent blog readers. Personally, I begin everyday checking in to see if anyone has put some new information out there for me to ingest (I’m an information-addict). But how many other people do something similar? Sure, people check their Facebook to see how their friend’s date went, or check in on Twitter to find out what Ashton Kutcher is eating for breakfast, but what about starting the day learning something new and related to your work/hobby?

Wood Frog Lithobates sylvatica sitting on grass

Have spring fever but stuck inside? Blogs may be the answer!

Continue reading »

Colony Life

 Blogosphere, Entomology, Pop Culture  No Responses »
Jan 222010
 

The godfather of entomology, E.O. Wilson, has published a fantastic story in the New Yorker Magazine detailing the life and death of an ant colony. My favourite line:

When defending the nest, the elders were among the most suicidally aggressive. They were obedient to a simple truth that separates our two species: humans send their young men to war; ants send their old ladies.

Gliding Ant Formicidae Ecuador

Thanks to Alex Wild at the Myrmecos Blog for the link!

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