Terahertz?

I’ve now received some criticism for not talking about “terahertz” on this blog.  I did discuss a bit about terahertz radiation when I first started, but have since moved beyond the physics-science only realm.

So why don’t I stick to writing physics and science?

1. It’s my freakin’ blog.  I’m allowed to call it whatever I want.  I chose the name “terahertz” because I find the subject interesting, but following the lead of others, I choose not to write solely on one topic.  Atheism interests me, so I write about that, the same goes for local politics, my life in general, and random other things (the tag cloud on the right should show where my biases are).  If you don’t want to read about that stuff, go else where (that’s the beauty of blogging).  As of now I have 16,312 hits (6420 without my oddly popular post), and regardless, if it was still <100 I’d still write the exact same things.
2. I’m not doing a lot of physics or fundamental science right now.  I am still in Engineering Physics and learning about physics, however not being in a lab leaves me with lab reports, club events and assignments, all of which take my mind off of physics.
3. There’s only so much I can write about terahertz radiation.  There’s the odd news story now and then, and papers released in every couple of journals, but regardless, it’s still not that big.  It gets boring to focus solely on one topic in anything, and so I write beyond that.

That’s my bit, if you do have a blog that speaks primarily about terahertz I’ll link to it and try not to distract people from the subject.

Bias in my stats

I check my blog stats fairly regularly since I kind of like the ego boost (it’s nice having a site people actually see), but I’ve noticed a trend in the past week.

Basically this post on a motivational poster I made for the Friendly Atheist has gotten really freaking popular. My hits have gone from <200 per week to over 500 already this week.  I’m getting over 100 hits a day to that 1 post, and at most 10 to the second highest.  SHUFFL has experience the same influx, and he’s begun posting more posters, but mine was really a one time thing (although I naturally reserve the right to change my mind at any point in the future).

I never thought people would be turning to the atheists for such motivation.

I join the ranks of YouTube cranks

I have posted my first video on YouTube, it doesn’t really feature anything special, beyond some introductory use of Windows Movie Maker:

Perhaps I’ll say something meaningful there, and I’ll try not to rehash what I’ve said here.

101st post review

(Note: all links are to internal blog postings unless explicitly said otherwise, I’m also going to attempt to not repeat any links.)

Since I’ve written a bit here since I started in June, I’ve decided that I would go through a review of what I’ve posted on. Basically if you’re new here, this is a good intro (since I only just broke 2000 hits, and have since hit 2,400).

An important one is probably on what THz is, since it’s what I named this blog after. I then presented my research on THz at CUPC 2007. Under the topic of science I also wrote on what knowledge I would give to our ancestors if I could (my answer was the modern scientific method). A good exemplification of the scientific method is given by RP Feynman’s talk on Cargo Cult Sciences. Which leads into a distaste for things like chiropractors and alternative medicine (surprisingly I haven’t written on that yet). I also wrote a couple of posts on global warming, which people still can’t seem to accept is happening. More recently I took an interest in Garrett Lisi’s new theory of everything (which still has to be peer-reviewed). Finally, I still like this awesome use of Lego Robotics.

This past summer I finally made it to Warped Tour again (after missing the last 2 or 3). I also went camping and to the Calgary Stampede Parade. I also upgraded my computer during the summer (on the cheap too). And the entire time I’ve had this blog running things have been great with Sonia.

I’ve also written on a few political things (likely more will come) including the America: From Freedom to Fascism documentary, the homeless, democracy, and Sharia Law.

Finally, I move onto where a bulk of my topics is: religion and atheism. Topics range all over the place. The key factor here was my founding the UofA Atheists and Agnostics over the summer, which got me pretty active in the atheist movement (I eventually added this site to the atheist blogroll). I’ve written and linked to overviews of atheism; my personal reasons for disbelief; several times on ethics and atheism; creationism keeps coming up, but that means there are many, many spoofs of it; it then leads that I need to emphasize evolution (which I’ll likely do more of); and then comes the varying tales and spoofs (more, and Stacey’s Law) (or things I wish were spoofs) of dogmatic fundamentalism; I started to read the bible (will likely continue during the holidays, ironically enough) and attempts to understand modern Christianity; and I also read the God Delusion (some of my other posts came about from reading this), and replied to critics of Dawkins; my issue with Humanism; the Atheist motivational poster I made for a contest; and porn.

There’s still a few things that I plan to write on (besides things that instantaneously piss me off or excite me to post immediately), including the Rhino party, death, why atheism is not religious, Gideon bibles, relativism, and more of the bible (I did get through Leviticus, and I’ll do at least a couple more Old Testament books before really diving into the New Testament stuff).  So stay tuned and thanks for reading!

Funny search terms

So WordPress gives a “useful” tool in its Dashboard that lets you know what search terms have been used to find your blog.  I often find really random things on there, currently the list includes:

•  God gives some people unsual smells
• dog eats homework
• physics porn
• Astrological houses and ten commandments
• free website templates for chiropractors

and yes, that is a misspelling of “unusual,” I guess God doesn’t give everyone the perfect gift for spelling (if I believed in a God then you could argue that I’m being a hypocrite).

If anymore amuse me I’ll post them again.

I broke 2000!

My first site ever to break 2000 hits since it started in June (currently at 2012 visitors).  My best day ever was 88.  I have to thank WordPress for this, since without it’s blogging might I would never have gotten beyond talking to myself and maybe the odd friend looking at my site.  Also the Atheist Blogroll helped out too.

One of my Blog Rules

When I write here, I often provoke some people into posting comments, and I like these, it proves that someone reads my stuff (beyond just the stat tracking), and it lets me think.  But something in me tells me not to comment on others comments.  I think what it comes from is partially in that I don’t want to turn any post into a discussion thread, and also that I have my post to say what I mean, and if I didn’t do it effectively, then I should have written it better, as opposed to trying to defend my points after someone counters them.

 So in general you will never see me comment on other’s comments - although newer postings may be inspired by past comments.

Any comments?

Atheists Blogroll

While I’m waiting for my scans to tell me that my experimental setup isn’t working (THz and lasers stuff), I’m going to add a post.

I have officially joined the “Atheist Blogroll” and you can find a list of random atheist blogs (taken from a database of over 350) at the right near the bottom of all that junk. So if you’re bored at work, have a look and read what’s going on in the rest of the world (from a godless point-of-view).

The entire list of blogs is also available on that site at the bottom right.

Free website templates

For anyone who does any webdesign, you eventually get annoyed when you have to start from scratch when making a new site. Or at least I do. So I found this site that offers free website templates from which to start. They’re done in nice CSS, and don’t require any links back to the main site:

http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com/

Also for free phpBB forums/discussion boards check out:

http://www.freeforums.org/

~Ian

Future Posts

So through this blog I hope to write both long and short pieces. Short pieces will be small rants, or exciting updates in my daily life. Long pieces will be more opinion articles that outline specific things I believe in or that really piss me off.

For an idea where I might go my current activities/goals for the following year include:

• Summer Research in Ultrafast Spectroscopy
• President of Engineering Physics Club
• President of Buffalo Club
• Founder of UofA Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers (name pending)
• Campus Ambassador Team Facilitator
• MUGs Leader
• My girlfriend
• Potentially volunteering for Science FUNdamentals
• Class work will fit in there somewhere (EE474, E457, Phys481, Phys415)
• and likely a few more things as they arise

So as things come up I will write on them and you can read them here.

~Ian