Green scripts, and spam 16 Sep 20094 Oct 2017 First see here, then see here. Oops: HT: Richard Grant. Humor
General Science On ID and the public awareness of evolution 20 Apr 2008 Imagine a scientific theory that very few people know or understand. Let’s call it “valency theory“. Now suppose someone objects to valency theory because it undercuts their view of a particular religious doctrine, such as transubstantiation. So they gather money from rich members of their faith community and start a… Read More
Biology Around the internets 23 Jul 2009 Razib has a post on a paper in BMC Evolutionary Biology that shows, fairly well, I thought, that Australian aborigines are most closely related to relict populations of indigenous Indian tribes. They are touting this as evidence that the “southern route” from Africa was the one taken by the Australians… Read More
It gets freakin’ ridiculous at times for me even though I clearly tell people I don’t claim to be a professional writer (I only have earned $11 from adsense for my blog.) When people ask me what I do for a hobby, and I tell them that I noodle with blogging, they immediately launch into full outline of the book idea that they have been working on for years. They want me to tell me all the niggling details on a smoke break. I have one buddy at work who has a four-book series plotted out, and I ask him if he practices writing each day just to get the craft down. He doesn’t. I’ve invited him to guest blog at Quiche Moraine. He doesn’t think it is all that important just to write. And that is what Olson is referring to when he says people don’t want to write, they just want to sell a story. It might be a good story, but nobody is going to just “read it,” and buy it if it isn’t well-written. And how do you get your name on the credits? Practice, practice, practice.
I should clarify something in case Brian reads this. Getting a preliminary draft of a chapter of Brian Switek’s book on evolution was a welcome treat and I highly enjoyed reading it.