Milestones
I have kept this blog going since my first post on June 26 this year. Thats 81 days of blogalicious activity that you the reader have responded to enormously! As of this writing I have over 10,000 page views since I've kept stats (July 14, 62 days) for an average of 171.23 views/day. This post is my 113th post for an average of 1.4 posts/day.
The success of this blog has more to do with you guys! My technorati rating is already at 64. Thanks for promoting the material I come up with, commenting and just being involved. I am working on more ways to make my blog interactive and am open to any comments and suggestions you as the readers have for material or interactivity. I enjoy reading your reactions and hope you will comment more often in the next 113 posts and beyond.
I know I haven't done much hard science writing lately. I am teaching, writing papers, analyzing data, preparing for comprehensive exams and taking a class in molecular evolution in addition to spending time with my wife and 2 kids. So finding time for anything well thought out can be somewhat difficult.
But the feedback is wonderful and keeps me going! Comments in my blog or inbox like the one I just got today below are motivating:
"I just read about you on the pandas thumb. The first 2 things I see are PSU and a hangdogs quote. I am also a nittany lion and a hangdogs fan. Your blog makes me as proud as a dog with 2 dicks. Carry on, kevin"Thanks to everyone for making this blog successful. Getting such great feedback from everyone has really motivated me to keep posting. Come down to the 2008 NC Science Blogging Conference (Jan. 18-20) and talk invert with me! I'll be offering a session with some of my fantastic marine biology blogging colleagues that is going to be blogtacular! More details on that next week!
So cheers, have one on behalf of all inverts everywhere and myself!
Cool. We have matching cephs. Except, mine says Belize on the side.
ReplyDeleteMan You readership grew so fast. We've been around for 3 years now and we're around the same level. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteCheers! Congrats from Down Under.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Kev!
ReplyDeleteYour blog tickled my curiosity for invertebrates so much. This year I'm taking a course/lab in Comparative Behavioral and Physical Elements in Invertebrates because of you, and I'm SO looking forward to it!
Meirav, thats wonderful! I am so glad to have made a positive impression like that. Unfortunately, most university shaft invertebrate zoology course. One hasn't been offered at Penn State since spring '05 with no plans to offer it for the foreseeable 2 years.
ReplyDeleteThats sounds like an interesting course. Where do they offer such fantastic invert courses?
Inverts rule.
ReplyDeleteGo Go Kevin!
Said fantastic courses are offered at the Tel Aviv university's life science school (here: http://www.tau.ac.il/lifesci/index-eng.html)
ReplyDeletehere's the description of the course:
"This course presents the importance of invertebrates in the animal kingdom and the variety of structural and functional patterns of the various invertebrate groups. the subjects are learned from a comparative and evolutionary point of view, over organization levels of structure and function. The processes are learned on a cell-size scale, on the tissues' scale and the organic scale while focusing on achieving the simple processes of life. Basic knowledge is particularly laced into this course's study so the student can understand the functioning of chosen systems amungst invertebrates, combined with modern, up to date knowledge, emphasizing the importance of invertebrates on the frontier of scientific biological studies."
books for the course: Barnes RSK, Calow P & Olive PJW. The invertebrates, a new synthesis. Blackwell Scientific Publications.
Pechenick, JA. Biology of the Invertebrates. McGraw Hill.
At the end of the course we're off to a three day trip on the Mediterranean beach doing group projects about invertebrates. Sounds like so much fun!
Meirav, that is one fantastic sounding course! Let us know how it goes. If they need a guest lecturer, I'll fly anywhere that pays for the flight and boarding!
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen that Barnes book. I have an older version of Rupert & Barnes though. The Pechenick book a good starting point, but I really prefer Brusca & Brusca.
Let us know what you end up doing for your group project as well.