Comments for The Online Laboratory of Kevin Zelnio

Comment on Blue Moon and My Grandma by Stephanie Zelnio

Stephanie Zelnio — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:42:19 +0000

Wow, I am so impressed by your writing Kevin! This was amazing! I miss grandma so much- every day I am reminded of some little thing that she did. I even find myself thinking when something good happens- oh wait until grandma hears this! I have to call her! But then I realize, she already knows I enjoy your heart-warming posts and I think grandma would also be thrilled to know that although this was a sad event, it has brought all of her grandchildren closer! Love you!

Comment on Blue Moon and My Grandma by Mona Albano

Mona Albano — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:23:31 +0000

The winter ale sounds really good.

Your grandmother sounds like an extra-special person. And Freya–what a nice name for a girl!

Comment on Blue Moon and My Grandma by Kevin Zelnio

Kevin Zelnio — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:19:05 +0000

Thanks Eric, its a good beer and she was a good woman.

Comment on Blue Moon and My Grandma by Eric

Eric — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:17:39 +0000

I agree it’s a good beer, and a great and touching review. Norma looked and sounded like quite a character.

Comment on My Travel Lifelist by kevin Z

kevin Z — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:14:08 +0000

Well, I haven’t had the occasion to visit yet I guess. Do people actually live there or is the state a wildlife refuge?

Comment on My Travel Lifelist by Frank Cornish

Frank Cornish — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:49:54 +0000

It looks like you have purposely avoided North Dakota.

Comment on Repost: Is the World of Taxonomy Ready for PLoS Systematics? by Twitted by rdmpage

Twitted by rdmpage — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:37:18 +0000

[...] This post was Twitted by rdmpage [...]

Comment on Repost: Is the World of Taxonomy Ready for PLoS Systematics? by Rod Page

Rod Page — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:31:58 +0000

I get slightly nervous when people propose new taxonomy journals, for several reasons. First of, there's the question of why not focus on making Zootaxa better (e.g., expand the number of Open Access articles). If OA and more modern methods of data availability are the concern, then why not put effort into a journal such as Zookeys? Then there's the question of what we want to achieve. I know that PLoS is a good brand, but the comment and annotation system doesn't seem to be a huge success (see A brief analysis of commenting at BMC, PLoS, and BMJ). PLoS and BMC are exciting experiments in publishing, but personally I think that they are still pretty conservative. The core unit in these journals is still the article, and lots of data is still wrapped up in PDF, Word, and Excel files. Just having PLoS Systematics gives us branding but not much more. I think if we're going to the trouble of a new journal, we have to radically rethink the way we publish this kind of data (e.g., links to museum specimens, name synonymies, geographic queries, etc.). For example, what if "articles" were wikis, where the annotation is not some superficial comments, but deep linking to pages about the taxa, museum specimens, localities, sequences, phylogenies, etc.?

Comment on Musical Muppet Monday #18 – Blue Danube Waltz by Kate

Kate — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:16:54 +0000

Thanks. I needed the laugh this morning

Comment on Redefining Authorship? by Bob O'H

Bob O'H — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:05:34 +0000

Hmmm….

(warning, thanks to Grrlscientist’s best efforts I am not totally sober)

(1) the guest authorship is one specific problem. I’ve heard about in it a couple of places, that the departmental boss gets their name on any paper. I think this is what they’re targeting.

(2) Competing interests is a medical thing – it can be a problem if the trial you’re reporting was paid for by the Evil Pharma Company that makes the drug you’re testing.

(3) I don’t believe there is any objective way of determining paper quality. Which means whatever we do will be imperfect.

(4) I need more alcohol.