Global Spin » Blog

this is not a science blog post

Chris — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:31:50 +0000

I (and Global Spin) have changed a bit over the last few months. Nothing you’d notice much, but I’ve set aside a few projects and picked up a few others. Specifically, I’m starting the long road toward becoming a licensed scientician.

Long story short: Global Spin is shifting towards science blogging. For the remainder of 2011 I’m going to post something sciencey once a week, probably on Tuesdays.

Older posts will still all be here; in fact, I’ve fixed the archives list in the sidebar so it shows posts going back to 2003. However, the focus going forward will be on science, culture, space, and technology. Those four categories catch most of what I’ve posted in the last two years anyway, so it won’t be a big shock.

I’ve also streamlined the site a bit. It’s not a community place anymore; social-media sites are much better at that now. It’s not even a place to store my personal commentary on the rest of the web; Tumblr and Twitter and Reader (oh my!) fit that need nicely.

One thing I’m going to try (and maybe go back on): I’ve turned off comments on these posts. Again, most of the commentary seems to happen elsewhere, so having those empty boxes at the bottom of each post seems a bit archaic. If you disagree, contact me and I’ll reconsider.

The motto hasn’t changed, though: We still protect our freaks.

To Science!

keeping the ‘perma’ in permalink

Chris — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:00:46 +0000

While doing regular WordPress maintenance today, I finally bit the bullet and changed the post permalinks to something a bit more human-friendly. For example, the old and new URLs for a recent post are:

http://globalspin.com/2009/05/22/1531/
http://globalspin.com/2009/05/livable-streets/

A bit nicer, right? Here’s the tricky part: the old URL still works, redirecting automatically so no one need get lost on their way in. I’d love to take credit for such a slick bit of business, but it was really simple thanks to Dean Lee’s Permalinks Migration Plugin.

Scrippet (you know, for script snippets)

Chris — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:30:31 +0000

This is a test of the Scrippet plugin for WordPress, which would help me render bits of scripts and screenplays and such. I’ll be tweaking this until it looks OK.

INT. RESEARCH OFFICE – DAY

SMITH stands next to BILLY, who is seated at his desk. Billy hands him a fat folder.

BILLY

I don’t even think you’ll need a costume, Mister Vintage.

SMITH

Nope. It’s like going home for spring break.

BILLY

Except you’re supposed to have fun on spring break. You are going to have fun, right?

SMITH

(opening the folder)

You should know, Billy. Isn’t there a high statistical correlation between me staying on a college campus and the simultaneous occurrence of fun?

BILLY

Are you accusing me of forcing co-eds on you?

You might recognize the awful dialogue from The Last Domino, my cursed time-travel screenplay from Script Frenzy a couple years back.

Why is this site naked?

Chris — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:32:11 +0000

UPDATE: CSS Naked Day is over, so the site is back to its stylish self. If you missed it, the home page looked something like this:

Are things lookin’ a little 1994 in here? That’s because it’s CSS Naked Day 2009, a day when people around the world strip their sites bare so you can see what’s underneath.

The idea behind this event is to promote Web Standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and of course, a good ‘ol play on words. It’s time to show off your .

Since Global Spin looks pretty good even without CSS makeup, I decided to join in the fun. Enjoy the nostaligia; tomorrow we go back to the 21st century.

what catching up looks like

Chris — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 07:13:28 +0000

[Graph of my feed-reading habits over the last month, courtesy Google Reader.]

OK, maybe less “catching up” and more “declaring newsfeed bankruptcy.” I’ve been a wee bit busy for the past month or two (or three… shush!), and it’s not likely to let up for another month at least. Sorry about the relative radio silence. I still have stories to tell, just no time/energy/brain to tell them.

Why, you may ask? Well, if you don’t know already, prod me in the comments and I might post more detail about my current gut-wrenching life change, er, side project.

Click Swiftly to the Swivet (But Don’t Panic!)

Deb — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:45:24 +0000

I have recently discovered The Swivet. It is the blog of one Colleen Lindsay, a self-styled “unrepentant nerd” and a literary agent with FinePrint Literary Management.

I am posting the link to her blog since it’s a lot easier than re-posting every link she posts to Global Spin.

In fact, I would like to submit a motion to include Colleen as an honorary member of the Global Spin geek freak squad. She’s lived in San Francisco, has a link to XKCD on her blog and posts things like this and this. So, just a humble suggestion to read her blog, folks.

Who is Barack Obama, really?

Deana — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:52:21 +0000

Fafblog explores the question. Yes, Fafblog.

“Can you make me a thing? That looks like a thing?”

Deana — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:21:39 +0000

Dr. Horrible: An oral history

Google and Virgin Join Forces, Plan Mars Colony

Deana — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:05:09 +0000

The new endeavor, named Virgle, has been written up on the Google blog by Sir Richard Branson.

Radcliffs, get your rockets ready!

now with more iPhone goodness

Chris — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:24:25 +0000

If you’re browsing the site on an iPhone (insert pretentious comments here), you might notice our new look tailored for that device’s web-browsing experience. (See example screenshot at left.) This is all thanks to the iWPhone WordPress Plugin and Theme, which makes it incredibly simple to add an iPhone-specific theme to the site. And boy does it look purty! Now I just need to customize it a bit so it matches the look and feel of the regular theme.