Funny things people search for...

A recent visitor to this blog, stumbled here looking for "poster assignment to teach asexual reproduction". Personally I have no desire to learn how to reproduce asexually. But hey that's just me. As for the searcher he or she got this link:

http://theforcethat.blogspot.com/2006/08/poetry-thursday_30.html

I don't think that is what he or she wanted-but maybe.

National Delurking Week...

Allegedly this week Jan 8-12 is National Delurking Week and over at Paper Napkin are some neat images that you can post to your blog. They look appropriate for all year use. So check them out over there after you delurk. My favorite is to the left. And the best way to delurk here is to scrounge around the blog and find something that strikes you one way or another, check out my tags and find something to comment on. Oh and when you leave, visit one of the fine blogs on my blog roll and do the same thing.



Tip of the antennae to John over at Blogmeridian.

The KGB-Tiger Beetle Edition

My yard is full of these wonderful green tiger beetles. These beetles get their name because they are active visual predators and can give a little nip if picked up, a bit like some Kansans I suppose. So on to the carnival.

First up is a new blogger to me, Diane Silver. Writing in her blog Kansas Voices, she observes that in contrast to the popular mythology about Kansas, GLBT people are becoming integrated into Kansas society, even in rural areas. She also contributes to another blog, In This Moment.

Yet another new blogger to me is Diana who writes on the entanglement between doctors and drug companies in her post, The Appearance of Impropriety, in her health related blog, Somebody Heal Me. By the way, both these bloggers are in Lawrence. She also has a post on the upcoming Michael Moore documentary called Sicko. Diana learned about the KGB from Josh's blog, Thoughts from Kansas. Josh, by the way, notes an anniversary for one of the longest running Kansas Blogs,Peg at Kansas Prairie.net. Peg writes:

"Recent studies suggest about 60-70 million blogs exist on line and nearly 175,000 new ones crop up daily. The vast majority of blogs that are started are either abandoned or isolated. Most people on the internet have a blog or two they read and follow. I try to keep my blog list updated. If the blogger isn’t contributing regularly, I drop them…the exception being my good friend, Jesse, who writes excellent material when he has time."

From new faces to new geography, emawkc writes about Lebanon Kansas which is just about the geographic center of the lower 48 states in his post, The More You Know About Lebanon Kansas. He goes to Lebanon to buy custom grown beef and he gives links about the advantages of this beef, free from hormones and antibiotics.

This probably is a good time to note that this is the centennial year of Rachel Carson's birth. The modern environmental movement is often dated from the publication of her book Silent Spring. In my submission, Rachel Carson: At the Commons, I report on a recent event at the University of Kansas on Carson's legacy.

John at Blogmeridian discusses his reaction to the recent book burning in Kansas City by a frustrated book store owner and contrasts that with his experience at the Bookaholic in Wichita. I grew up to respect the written word, and I can't imagine burning books. It seems to me that books have become just another commodity to be bought at the lowest price and discarded after a reading. Too bad. Maybe this is another symptom of the information overload discussed by Joel Mathis at Cup O' Joel. He asks us how we cope with information overload. So you might go on over and give him some suggestions. Joel observes:

"There are days when the knowledge feels wide but shallow. The RSS feed? I haven’t bothered to count, but I’m calculating that it brings me upward of 1,000 postings a day. Most of them, I just scan the headlines. I plunge into only a few."

I know exactly what he means. Personally I don't worry about information overload since in spite of the oft repeated claim that the amount of information doubles every several years, most of information is at best redundant and, at worst dead wrong. Of course, none of this applies to our Kansas bloggers!

Next week, the KGB heads on over to Blogmeridian. So submit something via the KGB's carnival page, or contact John through his blog.

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KGB- call for submissions

The Kansas Guild of Bloggers will be here on Monday evening with the Tiger Beetle edition. So if you have some jewels for our edification you may submit them via the carnival submission form here, or even easier for me, e-mail them to me at pdecell 'at' sunflower.com. You don't have to be from Kansas to submit and it doesn't matter whether you are a Jayhawk or Wildcat or any other sort of animal. Articles will be accepted up to 8:00 pm on Monday.

A thoughful atheist's blog.

For a bit of civilized refreshment and dare I say, pleasure, my readers might enjoy visiting Gay Species. I stumbled across this blog totally by accident and the best way to describe this blog is that it is classical without being typological.

Here are some links to interesting posts at Gay Species to get you started:
http://gayspecies.blogspot.com/2007/05/tuberculosis-in-news-not-news.html
http://gayspecies.blogspot.com/2007/05/possibility-of-spirituality.html
http://gayspecies.blogspot.com/2007/05/musings-on-religious-instruction.html

The blogger, D. Steven Heersink, notes that his mentors are:
Aristotle, Epicurus, Hume, Smith, Darwin, Popper. Hayek, Searle, and Solomon.

I'd like to get all of them together for dinner.

Blogging for the Pandemic

There's a new blog in town at least for the next five weeks: The Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog. It is sponsored by Health and Human Services to promote discussion about preparations for a possible flu pandemic.

Read the first post, Why care? Why Prepare? by Pierre Omidyar just in case you have forgotten how serious the threat from a flu pandemic is.

"At the national and international level, there is a lot of work to do, and much of it has been underway for quite some time. But the important thing is "..." no matter what gets done at a global level, hospitals and health care may not be there for us when we need it."

Therefore, families and neighborhoods will be on their own during a severe pandemic. If the pandemic is mild, communities could provide some support, but hospitals may still be overwhelmed. (Just look at hospitals during a mild seasonal flu season: most beds are full as it is.)

Interesting experiment. If it works maybe the government will do this sort of blog summit when they have other policy decisions to make-going to war for example. **eg**

Tip of the Antennae to DemfromCT at The Next Hurrah.

Update: Just as viruses often pick new genes via recombination so here's another site worth checking out: Pandemic Flu Information (PFI).

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The KGB ..."That's a mighty big frog!" edition

This frog is so big I had to use a wide angle lens to take this picture. Don't believe me? Well it is a bullfrog. And he's here to croak about the latest edition of the Kansas Guild of Bloggers. So grab your water proof lap top and hop on over to the best of Kansas blogging!

Bitter Sweet Life is a blog with an interesting theological bent and this post "God doesn't Hate You" illustrates that quite nicely. Also on a religious theme, Lyn over at Bloggin' Outloud tackles the tension between art and religion while Pat over at Red State rabble notes that Kansas has not joined the list of states with Creation Science museums.

By the way if you take offense at some religious post or sacrilegious art, or some one's stance on global warming you might pour your anger out in your blog. That will put you in contention for emwakc's Angry Blogger Award. Bigsibling thinks that Moveon.org is whining and crying over alleged censorship at Myspace in a post titledMySpace enrages MoveOn.org wussies.

At least 'the D' is happy. He found a fellow blogger at work. And made the best purchase ever! See for yourself.

John over at Blogmeridian always has something interesting to say. This week he continues his Stretch of River series with a post that rambles from red wing black birds and other fauna seen on his walks, to the taxonomy of shopping carts to a meditation on the "Origin of Order at Key West" by Wallace Stevens. It all makes sense as I hope you will see for yourself.

Joel Mathis has been a bit quiet lately. But he has good reason. He's the convergence editor at the Lawrence Journal World. He's been busy with 24 Hours in Lawrence. This event used citizens to document 24 hours in Lawrence on a typical day...which was Thursday, May 10. By the way the first installment of 24 hours is on the Lawrence Journal World's website and I recommend checking it out. Great photos.

Some of us, Josh, John B., myself and Kelly in Kansas are academic types. Kelly has just returned from a sabbatical energized with new resolve. Kelly also has a piece on evaluating students. Slackers take note: you will NOT get an A just for just meeting the course requirements.

The Prince of Thrift at Becoming and Staying Dept Free has a dilemma: "Paper or plastic?". Not as easy a choice as the average reader might think. While on the environment, Happy in Bag is not so happy with this rain garden he stumbled upon in Kansas City. In case you don't know, the rain garden idea is to set up little wetland areas in yards to try to reduce run off in urban areas such as Kansas City. Maybe my frog could help with the mosquitoes!

Checking quickly on a few of my favorite non KGB Kansas Blogs, looks like Jon Voisey, the Angry Astronomer has angered the folks at the Discovery Institute. Maybe he should nominate them for the Angry Blogger award. And according to Mousie Cat, Phil Kline is getting his you know what all in a bunch over Paul Morrison's investigation of an area church.

As emwakc might say..."Chill Dude". Of course if that doesn't work, just jump in the pond and cool off like my frogs, big and small.





Next week's KGB will be at Blogmeridian.


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