The blog is likely going to be pretty quiet in the coming weeks as I finish writing my Master’s thesis and prepare to defend. I’ll try and make a few simple posts throughout the process, but more detailed posts likely won’t happen until I have some extra spare time! Until then, I hope you’ll enjoy some of my photos from the archives, and stay tuned for plenty of new content this summer!
This Melanoplus sp. (I think) was hanging out in the Alderville Prairie (Click to enlarge)
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….
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:
Courtesy of Wikipedia.org
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!
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!
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!
Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, ready for sunny spring days!
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?
Have spring fever but stuck inside? Blogs may be the answer!
