Monday, November 24, 2008

Best Canadian Sci/Tech Blog

 
The Canadian Blog Awards are for "Celebrating the best in the Canadian blogosphere." Here are the nominees for Best Sci/Tech Blog.
I'm not sure why Bad Astronomy is on a list of blogs that celebrate the best in the Canadian blogosphere but that's who I voted for. I'm hoping that Phil Plait is NOT a Canadian 'cause that would point out how silly these awards really are.

Wouldn't it be funny if Mindful Hack or Post Darwinist won? That would say a lot about the people who vote for these things.

I support Canadian Cynic who refuses to participate ...
Another year, another incarnation of the Canadian Blog Awards, and another request to please delete CC HQ from any and all categories in which we've been nominated for a fairly simple reason -- we're not interested in any popularity contest in which voters seriously have to choose between CC HQ and batshit crazy, racist, white supremacist, Nazi sympathizer loons like Kate McMillan and Kathy Shaidle for "best blog."
I wish I could take the same stance but nobody nominated me for anything. Damn, I don't even get to withdraw my nomination.

BTW, I'm not familiar with most of these blogs. Can anyone point me to the wheat among all the chaff?
at

12 comments:

  1. Eamon KnightMonday, November 24, 2008 12:19:00 PM

    So: the reason D'oh!Leary starts so many blogs is to incresae the chances of winning the Blog Awards lottery?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMonday, November 24, 2008 12:30:00 PM

    I'm not sure why Bad Astronomy is on a list of blogs that celebrate the best in the Canadian blogosphere but that's who I voted for

    So did I (there was nothing to say you have to be Canadian to vote), mainly because it was about the only one I'd heard of apart from Post Darwinist, and there was no way I was going to for for that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMonday, November 24, 2008 2:09:00 PM

    The Canadian Blog Awards are an excellent way for people to identify new Canadian blogs. We even make room for curmudgeonly Canadian bloggers. Thanks for pointing out Bad Astronomy, that must have slipped by a judge by mistake.

    ReplyDelete
  4. SigmundTuesday, November 25, 2008 8:17:00 AM

    Denyse O'Leary has three blogs on that list. I went through the whole list and only one of them seems to be a serious scientific blog (on global climate change) and another a more populist take on the same subject. The rest seem to be either web or tech blogs or personal blogs (including one with a guy taking his TRex glove puppet to various museums). And of course the O'Leary blogs.
    Either Canada has been sucked through a wormhole back to 1993 and these are indeed the best science blogs in the country or this list was compiled by idiots.
    I'm seriously considering voting for O'Leary just to embarrass them (and Canada!)

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousTuesday, November 25, 2008 3:23:00 PM

    Martin, the list is compiled by the people who nominated the blogs. If it's comprised of "idiots" then consider the nominator(s).

    Perhaps the science bloggers were too busy to notice the CBAs this year? The result will be that some blogs are missed. They can try again next year. Keep in mind that if one blogger gets many through to the next round, they won't be hard to beat, since they only get one vote in the category.

    ReplyDelete
  6. SigmundTuesday, November 25, 2008 3:54:00 PM

    You can't just blame people nominating those blogs. It is the internet. Would you allow a pokemon fan site or one that sold penis enlarging pills in the science tech section simply on the votes you recieved? There must be some sort of filtering process applied and if so how on earth do you have THREE Denyse O'Leary blogs on the list. She has nothing to do with science. Don't you have a 'religious nutcase with books to flog' section?

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousTuesday, November 25, 2008 4:04:00 PM

    "You can't just blame people nominating those blogs. It is the internet."

    I think you just answered my question. Yes I can, it's the Internet. If more wheat took the time to nominate themselves, then the chaff would be minimized.

    Ideally we'd have filtered out the blogs that don't use real science, and perhaps one of our judges will soon have time to review the ones called into question if they don't meet the current criteria.

    ReplyDelete
  8. SigmundTuesday, November 25, 2008 5:05:00 PM

    If you are relying on people nominating themselves and then refusing to take the time to check the sites on your list (it took me about 5 minutes to look at your entire list) it's no wonder it turned out like it did.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousTuesday, November 25, 2008 6:51:00 PM

    Conducting any survey/poll/vote on the internet without some filtering, etc., sounds unwise to me.

    You could, for example, limit the selection to blogs that have some minimum number of posts supported by 'Research Blogging'. It'd promote the Research Blogging notion of marking research-based blog articles with their icon and would serve to filter out blogs without a science basis--?

    ReplyDelete
  10. DevinTuesday, November 25, 2008 6:52:00 PM

    Better to call it a Random Nomination Blog award instead. Make more sense.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Glendon MellowTuesday, November 25, 2008 9:37:00 PM

    Wheat from the chaff: The Tyrannosaur Chronicles is lots of educational fun.

    My own blog The Flying Trilobite is up for a nomination in the photo/art blog category.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousWednesday, November 26, 2008 5:38:00 PM

    saskboy,

    This blog article is a recent example of what I mean: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/11/odontochelys_a_transitional_tu.php

    You'll see in the top-left corner a icon with a green tick and the words "Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research", which links to http://researchblogging.org/

    ReplyDelete