{"id":1063,"date":"2006-12-31T14:06:18","date_gmt":"2006-12-31T19:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/12\/31\/arbitrary-chronological-signifiers\/"},"modified":"2006-12-31T14:06:18","modified_gmt":"2006-12-31T19:06:18","slug":"arbitrary-chronological-signifiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/31\/arbitrary-chronological-signifiers\/","title":{"rendered":"Arbitrary Chronological Signifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well, I found a new job, moved across the country, and got engaged.  What did <em>you<\/em> do this year?  (On the other hand, I finished an anomalously low number of actual research papers.  That should change in 2007, as I&#8217;m settled down and back in a groove.)<\/p>\n<p>One of the nice things about 2006 (broadly construed) was that I got to meet a lot of people in person whom I had first come to know through their bloggy internet manifestations.  So I thought I would share with you the inside scoop on some of the personas behind the web pages.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>PZ Myers of <a href=\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/pharyngula\/\">Pharyngula<\/a> &#8212; I was expecting a mild-mannered Midwestern biology professor, and here it turns out he&#8217;s a fire-breathing atheist!  Who knew?<\/li>\n<li>Melissa McEwan of <a href=\"http:\/\/shakespearessister.blogspot.com\/\">Shakespeare&#8217;s Sister<\/a> &#8212; from the blog you&#8217;d think she was a kind soul with a soft spot for Al Gore and a mysterious ability to inspire talented individualists into productive group action.  Right you are! <\/li>\n<li>Rob Knop of <a href=\"http:\/\/brahms.phy.vanderbilt.edu\/~rknop\/blog\/\">Galactic Interactions<\/a> &#8212; rumored to ride a unicycle into work.  Rumors are always true.  He <a href=\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/ethicsandscience\/2006\/09\/and_the_nerdiest_is.php\">totally should have won<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Bitch Ph.D. of the <a href=\"http:\/\/bitchphd.blogspot.com\/\">eponymous pseudonymous blog<\/a> &#8212; red-haired, beautiful, juggles multiple men while raising precocious child.  And has a Ph.D.!  You are right to be afraid.<\/li>\n<li>Chris Mooney of <a href=\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/intersection\/\">The Intersection<\/a> &#8212; young, intense, focused on saving the world.  Thank goodness somebody is.<\/li>\n<li>Eszter Hargittai of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crookedtimber.org\/author\/eszter\/\">Crooked Timber<\/a> &#8212; much taller in real life than on the internet!  Has been known to put orange juice in the microwave oven.<\/li>\n<li>Dan Drezner of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.danieldrezner.com\/blog\/\">eponymous blog<\/a> &#8212; like me, booted out of the UofC under inexplicable circumstances.  Understands what it&#8217;s like to be written about in major news media for reasons other than the reasons you&#8217;d really like to be written about.<\/li>\n<li>Jennifer Ouellette of <a href=\"http:\/\/twistedphysics.typepad.com\/cocktail_party_physics\/\">Cocktail Party Physics<\/a> &#8212; she seems nice.<\/li>\n<li>Lindsay Beyerstein of <a href=\"http:\/\/majikthise.typepad.com\/\">Majikthise<\/a> &#8212; shorter in real life than on the internet!  Of course, on the internet she is a towering figure, far beyond what seems appropriate in one so young.<\/li>\n<li>Michael B\u00c3\u00a9rub\u00c3\u00a9 of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelberube.com\/index.php\">eponymous blog<\/a> &#8212; who knows?  He speaks in a rapid stream of French and Latin puns.  But I have the vague impression that he is as engaging and impressive in person as you might surmise from the virtual persona. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And here, in traditional year-ending list-making style, are some of my favorite posts from the year past.  Feel free to mention your own, in the unlikely event that I&#8217;ve missed something really good.   And my lazy good-for-nothing co-bloggers are welcome to choose their own!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/02\/07\/is-this-a-date\/\">Is This a Date?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/02\/27\/quantum-interrogation\/\">Quantum Interrogation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/03\/27\/everything-i-know-about-the-universe-i-did-not-learn-from-newspaper-headlines\/\">Everything I Know About the Universe I Did Not Learn From Newspaper Headlines<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/05\/05\/the-wrongness-singularity\/\">The Wrongness Singularity<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/05\/11\/people-fusion\/\">People Fusion<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/05\/22\/the-universe-is-structured-like-a-language\/\">The Universe is Structured Like a Language<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/06\/01\/feminism-destroying-the-planet\/\">Feminism:  Destroying the Planet<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/06\/19\/the-string-theory-backlash\/\">The String Theory Backlash<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/07\/13\/summer-school\/\">Summer School<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/08\/01\/boltzmanns-anthropic-brain\/\">Boltzmann&#8217;s Anthropic Brain<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/08\/04\/lessons-from-monopoly\/\">Lessons From Monopoly<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/08\/08\/rapped-on-the-head-by-creationists\/\">Rapped on the Head by Creationists<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/08\/12\/liquid\/\">Liquid<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/08\/21\/dark-matter-exists\/\">Dark Matter Exists<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/10\/03\/the-trouble-with-physics\/\"><em>The Trouble With Physics<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2006\/10\/29\/the-god-conundrum\/\">The God Conundrum<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You&#8217;ll notice that I couldn&#8217;t limit myself to the traditional just one per month.  Count yourselves lucky that I resisted the temptation to list them all.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s to a joyous and interconnected 2007!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, I found a new job, moved across the country, and got engaged. What did you do this year? (On the other hand, I finished an anomalously low number of actual research papers. That should change in 2007, as I&#8217;m settled down and back in a groove.) One of the nice things about 2006 (broadly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,47,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-internet","category-personal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}