Untangling the Tangled Banks of the blogosphere
Blogging has been at a low ebb around here lately. Seems to happen routinely as the semester builds and I sink under a rising pile of exams, student writings, committee assignments, and so on. Not too surprising given the rhythms of academic life, especially in a teaching-heavy institution such as ours. Yet, its been three weeks since the fall semester ended, with only two more to go before spring hits, and I am bereft of my blogorrhea! Not sure if this last semester really wore me down more than usual, or if being blindsided by some clever plagiarism in the classroom upset my own writing impulses. Or perhaps it was that attack on Bombay which subconsciously threw me off my game - and this last thought occurs to me because I just noticed that I haven't managed to blog much at all (or even post student writings over on the other class blog) in the past 6 weeks, ever since those youthful t-shirt clad terrorists invaded the urban landscape of my misspent youth. Somehow I find myself even more distracted, and procrastinating more than usual (which is saying something!). Hopefully, this too shall pass.
Meanwhile, some of you may have come here looking not for any navel gazing on my part, but some good evolutionary biological or other science writing to sink your teeth into, in the form of the latest Tangled Bank #121, due out yesterday. If such is the case, let me doubly apologize for disappointing you.
So where is it, this traveling carnival of the most excellent science writing in the blogosphere, supposed to be in its first incarnation of this Year of Darwin 200?!
I don't know!!
I honestly don't know, and haven't heard anything about it from the grand panjandrum of that carnival, the great PZ himself, despite email queries and tweets over the past week. And without a tentful of entertaining acts gathered by him, I have no show to put up on these pages! Indeed it appears that the carnival may have stalled several editions ago, for the most recent one listed on the main site is #117 from Oct 30th, although Google does turn up #118 as well. At least two editions are thus AWOL, starting with the one due on Nov 26 - the date Mumbai suffered that attack! Weird / spooky coincidence? Or has our beloved Tangled Bank been hijacked and taken hostage somewhere in the nether regions of the blogosphere?
Or am I alone stuck in some strange twilight zone?
5 comments:
I've been wondering where it vanished to, too. thanks for the update.
And I thought it was just me!
I too have been emailing PZ several times, but heard nothing. Really kind of annoying.
Perhaps we should do it without him?
You mean, hijack the carnival ourselves, Bjorn? Interesting thought... and I do have a few more days before classes start in which to attempt a heist. You want to collaborate?
PZ seems too caught up in all that Weblog awards nonsense to respond to emails about carnivals anymore. Perhaps carnivals are passé for some? So we'll need to gather articles, and put out a call for submissions ourselves. My blog generates nowhere near ScienceBlogs level of traffic, let alone Pharyngula; how about yours? We' could band together and make some noise to get attention and submissions! Sounds like fun - wanna saddle up to go chase down that disappearing carnival wagon?
I'd consider hosting an issue of the Tangled Bank myself as well.
Post a Comment