Webwatch

Browsing life

http://www.biologybrowser.org
This website features a wealth of information pertaining to almost all the aspects of biology. You can browse either by subject, region or organisms. The content includes links to science-related news stories as well. There is also a monthly newsletter to which you can subscribe and receive new internet resources.

Layout troubles?

http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/
Tired of hunting for a good template for your blog, and then having to customize it to suit you? Here is just the website. It features loads of templates in various colour schemes and layouts, tailor-made for the Blogger. Also available are the guidelines on how to change templates and external links to websites that provide similar templates.

Maths all around

http://www.learner.org/exhibits/dailymath/
Did you know that when you are cooking you are actually using rules about ratios and proportions? And did you ever wonder how many times you have to measure the area when wallpapering your room? Find out all these interesting details, and much more, about the use of mathematics in your daily life on this incredibly informative website.

Cool down!

http://www.cooledwater.com/technology/how_fridges_work.asp
Ever wondered how the science of refrigerator works? With clear illustrations, this website gives you details on how refrigerators manage to turn things cold and then maintain the temperature. The process is explained in simple language so that even if you have not studied science before, you will understand it all.

Webwatch

Talk about brains!

http://www.youramazingbrain.org.uk/
This website not only offers comprehensive information on the anatomy of the human brain, but also answers some very interesting questions like how physical training affects your mind. Plus, you can find out how to improve your memory by reading through the given tips.

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A stitch in time

http://chemlabs.uoregon.edu/Safety/GeneralInstructions.html
Whether you are a chemistry student, a teacher or a lab attendant, safety precautions in a chemistry laboratory are of vital importance. This website has clearly laid out the standard precautionary methods, neatly categorized according to attire, conduct and handling of equipment.

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The moves and the misses

http://www.rugbyschool.net/sub/phusion/articles/Tennis/tennis.htm
How exactly do tennis players serve without injuring their elbows? How do they ensure that their serve is perfect? How do they hit aces? Navigate through this fascinating, well-illustrated website to find out the role of science in a simple game of tennis. You will be surprised to learn that there is a science of rackets after all.

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Facts about fiction

http://library.thinkquest.org/J001741/
Ever wondered how practical is the technology that’s depicted in science fiction movies? Here is a website which studies the technologies portrayed in movies, categorizing them according to laser weapons, extra terrestrials, light-speed travel and power sources. Enjoy while you delve deep!

Webwatch

Out of the box
http://chemistry.about.com/od/everydaychemistry/
If you thought chemistry was limited only to those who study it as a subject, this website will prove otherwise. Chemistry is everywhere around you. Check out the different sections here to find out where its principles apply, and you will find its presence everywhere, from fireworks to jewellery.

Thoughtful matters
http://livefromcern.web.cern.ch/livefromcern/antimatter/
How many of you were intrigued by anti-matter technology talked about in the book Angels and demons by Dan Brown? Here is one website where you can delve deeper into this technology. Featured on this CERN website is everything you need to know about anti-matter, its history and experiments conducted on it.

Criminal ways
http://www.forensicartist.com/index.html
Are you fascinated by the different ways in which science can help solve crimes? Then, check out this site which is dedicated to forensic science. Featured here are different techniques of forensic science. For instance, 3-dimensional facial reconstruction and how they are used. History of forensic science is also discussed in detail.

Blogging science
http://www.sciencebase.com/SciObs.html
This blog, maintained by a freelance science writer David Bradley focuses on almost everything related to science — news stories, random thoughts, a look at the new technologies as they emerge and an analysis of science-related news appearing in the mainstream media. Great place for techie rambling.

Suffering from ‘blogonliness’

WITH BLOGS being the ‘in’ medium of communication, there are few who do not have blogging presence online. Blogs are essentially the ground beneath our feet. And let’s admit it: we don’t want anyone we know in real life to read our blogs and find out what we have written about them, do we?

But the real charm of blogs lies in the fact that it facilitates interaction with like-minded people around the web, through various interesting tidbits like shoutboxes, tagboards, comments and guest maps. Who doesn’t like a link saying ‘20 comments’ or a nice full shoutbox or at least 50 entries in the guest map?

But then, there are times when the once active blog turns into a lonely journal. Yep, there isn’t anything more frustrating than spending a lot of time in putting up all the interesting paraphernalia on the blog, only to find out that one is a victim of loneliness (‘blogonliness’ if you please).

Blogonliness basically materializes when there are no or very few comments on every post, the tagboard/shoutbox has loads of empty spaces and the site statistics counter is registering a nil value. Or when the site counter is registering more than 30 visitors, with not a single one bothering to write even a single line comment. Blogger blues, if there ever was one.

So what happens next? Just what do bloggers do when they become a victim of blogonliness? Do they really just delete their blogs, vowing never to return? Do they put up a whining post, complaining about lazy bloggers who never bother to make their presence felt? Or do they visit their fellow bloggers’ blogs and threaten them that this would be the last comment they will ever get? Or do they try something totally different and outrageous?

I put up this query on my own blog and received a wide variety of replies. Jahanzaib &lthttp://j-a-h-a-n.blogspot.com/> remarked, “When I first started blogging, I got very few visitors. As a result, I did not write anything for more than a month. But that was just a phase, and thankfully, I get regular visitors now.”

“For me, blogging is not much fun if one is not interacting with intellectual bloggers,” says Hina Aman, who is planning to launch her own blog portal iBlogistan. “I will definitely collapse the day when people stop commenting on my blog or stop replying to comments or answering the questions I post to them in their blogs. I’ll be like that poor soul who keeps saying, ‘Nobody Loves Me’!”

Asma &lthttp://asmamirza.blog spot.com> felt that comments were the bloodline of blogs. “I like comments too. But even if there were no comments on mine, I won’t be giving up my blog. And yeah, spamming other blogs with comments means some commenting back at yours too.”

Blogbelle &lthttp://blogbelle.blogsome.com/> is also a victim of blogonliness. “I want to make a whiny post, and I’m trying to run around commenting, to let others know I’m reading their blogs. It’s selfish to ask people to read mine, but I want them to read and keep me company in the rare occasions that I’ll have to blog.”

Irtiqa &lthttp://certainly-uncertain.blogspot.com> was sure that it wouldn’t matter much if no one was reading her posts. “Still, I might post something under the title, ‘Why isn’t anyone reading my beloved blog’?”

Majaz &lthttp://theblackmirror.blogspot.com> was also not too bothered about the lack of comments on her blog. “However, it is important to me that people I am close to read my blog. And if they stop commenting, or worse reading my blog, I’d write a very caustic post on how the people who are important to you just don’t have the time to give a hoot about what you’re doing in your life,” she clarified.

Tee Em &lthttp://widout-a-name.blogspot.com> narrated a personal experience. “I decided to delete the blog, and posted this idea on my blog just to check whether people were concerned or not. And voila! I found out that there were quite a few who didn’t want me to stop blogging after all. Obviously this was a morale booster.”

On a personal account, there did come a time in my blogging life that I became a victim of blogonliness. The comment counter value seemed glued to zero. And no amount of writing posts which ended with questions, thus deliberately inviting comments, helped improve things.

So, in the end, I wrote a mean post, saying something on the lines of being really tired of it all and may be deleting my blog. There were no replies again.

Then I really logged onto the blogger to delete my blog. For one last time I opened my comment box and voila! There were more than ten replies. My blogger friends were fervently discussing my horrendous commenting service and how to get in touch with me, since I never left my email address.

Imagine my shock, horror and ultimately embarrassment. What was perceived as blogonliness had actually been a problem with the commenting service’s counter code. It goes without saying that I immediately changed my commenting service.

However, there are still many blogs which can be labelled as lonely journals. But that does not mean that one cannot overcome blogonliness. In fact, few easy steps should take care of the problem.

In nine out of ten cases, the root cause of blogonliness is the blogger himself/herself. For example, when you are writing an entry, make sure you make it readable with proper font, correct spelling and grammar, and of course proper paragraphing. Okay, so this is not an English exam but I have seen posts which are so messed up with a mixture of English and Roman Urdu and without any paragraphing, that you cannot blame anyone if they do not read the post.

Also, try writing concise and to-the-point posts. Posts which seem to ramble on and on put off the readers. Plus, update your blog at least once a week. If people continuously visit your blog, only to find some month-old post still on top, they will eventually stop visiting it.

Another put-off factor is the disabling of commenting option. Why would anyone bother reading a post when they know they will not be able to voice their thoughts on it?

Moreover, writing interesting posts, joining blog webrings, and regularly visiting other people’s blogs and leaving intelligent comments will ensure a steady traffic of interested bloggers, and hence, signal an end to blogonliness. As a former blogger puts it very aptly, “It’s not the blog which matters. It’s the blogger who does.”

Blogging the Quake

The intensity of the October 8, 2005 earthquake in NWFP and Kashmir and the ensuing scale of destruction, death and misery stunned the entire nation. Within hours of the earthquake, the country geared up for the largest relief operation ever to be organised in the history of Pakistan. Fuelled by an enthusiastic spirit to serve and volunteer, several people took to the internet to mobilise the online community. There could not have been a better place to start, in order to reach millions of Pakistanis and concerned individuals across the country and around the world, than the blogosphere.

Leading from the front, the Help Pakistan blog was set up by Dr Awab Alvi, an orthodontist practicing in Karachi. More popularly known by his online moniker, “Teeth Maestro”, Dr Alvi’s basic aim was to motivate the online community to click on the Google ads placed on the blog. However, when Google decided that it clashed with their terms of service, the Help Pakistan blog sans Google ads, evolved into a full fledged website.

The Donate a Dollar for Pakistan campaign featured on the website, which began in October and continued for months thereafter, turned out to be a huge success as countless bloggers (and non-bloggers) joined in the effort and helped in promoting the cause.

Pak Quake was another such blog initiated by Kashif Aziz, “I started the blog in the early hours of October 9 as soon as it was evident that the earthquake had caused destruction on a much wider scale than what was perceived earlier. I went for blogging because I consider it to be a powerful tool.” With a total of 193 posts in October alone, Pak Quake featured personal accounts of people engaged in relief work, vivid descriptions of the damage and destruction, which were not available through the mainstream media, as well as updated information on what was needed by the different NGOs working in the affected areas. This blog also featured complaints from various people regarding the absence of rescue and relief workers in their areas.One noteworthy point was that all the posts were categorised – earthquake reports, relief work, victims, missing people and the like. Over 70 websites linked themselves to Pak Quake according to an estimate by Technorati, which says a great deal about the impact of this blog alone. Consequently, this blog was also quoted on high profile websites such as those of the Economist, Guardian and MSNBC.

When disasters such as earthquakes strike, another form of relief work is helping affected people cope with the trauma. Raheel Lakhani, a 19 year old student from Karachi, set up a blog entitled H.O.P.E. (Handing over Positive Energy) to ‘transfer some hope and positivity across the nation’. The posts made on H.O.P.E included feature articles, true stories and poems written by contributors and dedicated to the victims of the October 8 earthquake. The blog also featured a heart-rending story of a young female student who died beneath the rubble of her school, scribbling away her fears on an open notebook beside her. According to Raheel, there were quite a few visitors to his blog, but the turnout wasn’t impressive. “This blog wasn’t only about collecting money; it was also about injecting positive energy amongst the citizens of Pakistan as a whole. I have seen that where you have to read long posts, use your brains and think about it, bloggers in general don’t pay much attention,” he explained. Nonetheless, the well-designed buttons for linking to H.O.P.E were picked up by many Pakistani bloggers.

The Karachi and Lahore Metro bloggers also deserve to be applauded for the contributions their blogs made. Blurbs of news items pertaining to the earthquake which appeared in major daily newspapers were posted regularly along with any new information received about the different means to volunteer, such as the PAF Museum initiative in Karachi. Lists of items needed for Eid packages for earthquake affected children were also put up, while the views and concerns of different bloggers, who had volunteered in the affected areas, proved insightful and informative.

Lahore Metblog featured more personalised posts related to the earthquake, as most of its members not only felt the strong tremors but had visited Margalla Towers during their trips to Islamabad. Several bloggers shared their sentiments on visiting the site of the fallen towers, followed by urgent appeals to donate and volunteer and provided contact numbers of organisations in need of manpower.

Many people also put up ‘earthquake bands’ on their blogs which linked to an extensive website dedicated to information dissemination about donations, relief and rehabilitation. Harris bin Khurram, who created the website, explained how his personal blog was used for relief efforts, “Personal Blogs played a vital role in collecting relief goods and providing volunteers. Many people were also publishing snapshots of the affected areas for people to see. Ejaz Asi, an IT professional from Indus Valley set off to Muzaffarabad and I installed an SMS gateway to post his experiences directly on my blog without any delay. It became obvious that blogs represent the existence of non-professional journalists providing valuable information.”

Overall, these ‘non-professional journalists’ did a commendable job as Saad Hilal, a university student clarified, “I got more news from blogs than from TV channels. The information about volunteers required at different places inspired me to go and help and the list of medicines given on blogs encouraged me to tell friends and family about them and collect them for different organisations.”

Tech-savvy bloggers came up with their own creative ways to contribute to the relief efforts. Many Web designers offered their services, free of charge, to help design and put up sites for relief organisations and individuals looking to coordinate volunteers and donations.

Countless people used their blogs to express their thoughts on what they were seeing around them. Asma Mirza, a graduate from Islamabad, recorded her initial thoughts about the earthquake on her blog, “Reflection of my Soul.” Her descriptions made the earthquake seem horrifyingly real and close to all her readers. “The first thought that came to my mind was that someone is bulldozing our house. The tremors were so severe that the walls of the house were literally moving and things began to fall off our walls and window sills.” The blog also contained lists of items that were urgently needed, as well as high-resolution satellite photographs of the quake-stricken areas and updates on the progress of relief work.

Talha Masood, an IT professional based in Islamabad, sent shudders through the blogosphere by publishing close-range photographs of the ill-fated Margalla Towers on his blog, “My Cosmos.” His earthquake related posts also talked about the psychological aftermath of the disaster – sleep deprivation in people residing in Islamabad as well as the fear of living in high rise buildings.

Blogs afforded a great deal of flexibility to writers publishing almost daily ‘reporter’s diaries’, discussing the relief work and problems encountered such as inaccessibility of certain areas, as they witnessed them first-hand. Many bloggers even managed to post from their laptops while travelling to and from these areas.

For readers, particularly Pakistanis and even concerned non-Pakistanis living abroad, these blogs provided up-to-date and detailed information regarding the rescue and relief operations, along with the personal and heart-warming experiences of volunteers as they helped the nation get back on its feet after the biggest natural disaster in its history.

Blog Quake Day

Desipundit, an Indian group blog called on the blogosphere to mark October 26, 2005 as a Blog Quake Day. Spider got in touch with Ashweeta Patnaik, one of the Desipundit bloggers to learn more about it.

1) What was the basic aim behind this day?
The aim was to bring attention to the fact that relief efforts in South Asia were far from over and that thousands of people suffering still needed our help. We requested bloggers to make a small post about the earthquake and direct their readers to suitable avenues for donating to the relief efforts. The idea was that every single dollar contributed, multiplied by the vast numbers of bloggers, would go a long way in helping people rebuild their lives. No matter how small our blogs and how few our readers, the words we write and the way we use our blogs can have far-reaching consequences. The effort also was not just to pass around a collecting jar, but to also disseminate information.

2) Would you say you achieved your purpose?
The response was overwhelming, as over a hundred bloggers participated. Although there is no exact data available, we hope that each of the participants would have contributed some amount to relief organisations. More importantly, we hope that those who read the many Blog Quake Day posts were made aware of the urgency of the situation and were inspired to donate in some small way.A pleasant consequence of the Blog Quake Day effort was that it brought us a lot of goodwill from the Pakistani blogosphere. Desipundit very rarely gets a chance to interact with the Pakistani blogosphere, therefore the many e-mails we got, thanking us and blessing us for this initiative, were heart-warming.

3) How do you think such days can help towards mobilising relief efforts?
We believe that setting a day apart like this can unite the blogosphere for a single cause. When disaster strikes, people everywhere are horrified by its aftermath and want to help in some way. But often, constraints of time and money prevent us from doing so. We get caught up in our own lives and forget to help.

Blog Quake Day will focus the attention of the blogosphere to that issue for one day. In a ripple effect, information is disseminated and spreads far and wide. The idea is that, as a blogger goes through his regular blogs that day, he will encounter the issue at every corner and might be inspired to help. And small amounts of help (whether monetary or in kind) are good enough – because when multiplied with the sheer number of bloggers, they can create a force to be reckoned with.