The more aware of you might have found time to raise your eyes from the microscope and see that there is an election going on in the USA. Far too many electrons have been sent whizzing around the Web2.0 for the sole purpose of showing that The Other Side is vile, honourless, and about as fitting for office as, well, a curtain fitting. The worst of it is that the poor electrons don’t even get a vote.<\/p>\n
1<\/sup> Thanks, Maxine. I love that phrase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The more aware of you might have found time to raise your eyes from the microscope and see that there is an election going on in the USA. Far too many electrons have been sent whizzing around the Web2.0 for … Continue reading
\nWell, there’s a big problem coming up. Tomorrow the campaigning will stop and lots of people will go to queue<\/del> vote. And then what? How will the louder denizens of the scientific blogosphere adapt? For the last few months they have been able to fuel their recreational outrage1<\/a><\/sup> on the election. But with that ended what will they do? There’s at least 6 months before they realize that Obama is also as constrained by realities as any neo-con, and so won’t be able to pump lots of money into science.
\nSo what are they going to do in the mean time? There isn’t much on the evolution-creation horizon – Texas may do something<\/a> but it looks like being awfully cack-handed. They’ll have to find something else to occupy their keyboards with, otherwise they’ll explode. Mr. Creosote with bile. Ugh.
\nThis is where they need your<\/em> help. We have to save the poor slavering dears by giving them a topic to get excited about. Between us we can work on something. Dressing up a positive article about open access by putting a negative spin on it has been done, but it was damn effective<\/a>. Something similar? Perhaps we could persuade Science<\/em> to publish an editorial decrying the behaviour of scientists online. Or suggest that, possibly, People of Faith might be able to have a say in scientific ethics. You can see I’m struggling.
\nFor the good of the online society, they need your help. We must act now<\/strong>.<\/p>\n