2009 Year in review: Authors, articles, 2010, and Muppets
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By Andy Kaiser
Article ID: 1350
2009 has been an interesting year for skeptics.
Our skeptical partners-in-crime are busier than ever: late in 2008, Phil Plait took over as president of the James Randi Educational Foundation, but after a presidency lasting about a year, Phil passed on the reigns to D.J. Grothe. The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe continued their dual missions: 1) increase the prevalence and force of the skeptical mindset, and 2) put all other podcasts to shame.
Skepticism was all over the media: The TV show MythBusters continued busting things, and the last I heard from an interview of co-host Adam Savage, the shows ratings continue to climb. I wasn’t able to find any ratings info on a certain non-family-friendly show starring Penn & Teller, but the ratings can’t be that bad since the show is cranking through its seventh season.
Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” celebrated its 150th anniversary, facilitated communication shot back into prime time with the sad story of Rom Houben, and Newsweek fought back against pop culture healthcare scams with an intellectual attack on Oprah Winfrey. And, last in this non-exhaustive list, there is the 2009 H1N1 pandemic – You may call it alarmist. You may call it dangerous. But to me, it will always be “the swine flu”.
As for Digital Bits Skeptic? Website visitors will see we have a new logo – thanks to Dan for his design skills and time spent making it. Thanks to the financial efforts of subscribers, I was also able to get rid of annoying clutter by removing all ads from the website. For the fiction-reading skeptics out there (or rather, for their children), I’m in the middle of publishing a young adult mystery series called “The League of Scientists“.
Digital Bits Skeptic has been publishing since 2007. Since then, we’ve posted over 130 articles and podcasts. In 2009, Digital Bits Skeptic published 53 articles from 11 authors. I’d like to thank this year’s authors for working to write quality articles. Here they are (in first name alphabetical order):
Nicholas Covington (2009′s most published author, with 8 articles!)
One cool feature I was able to implement for dbskeptic.com was the ability to dynamically list all articles by a particular author. So, if you have a favorite author, and want to see everything they’ve written, just click on any of the names above.
Top articles in 2009 (as measured by web statistics and comments left on the article)
Article ID #1310 – Spontaneous human combustion and “the wick effect”
Article ID #1315 – Sugar, acid and teeth
Article ID #136 – Why pick on religion? Why religion matters to the non-religious
Article ID #1322 – Evolution, the genetic code, and ‘message theory’: A response to Walter Remine
Standouts
Hardest phrase to pronounce award: Nicholas Covington, in article ID #1349, “Advanced apologizing: Proof of the existence of God”. The phrase is “theistic hypotheses“. YOU try saying it. Now say it again. Faster. Faster! Now imagine you’re recording it, and you know that people all over the Internet are going to hear it.
Most honest feedback award: This was from an email I received a few weeks ago, which offered some brutal but well-meaning advice. It said:
I don’t mean to offend but Andy Kaiser sounds like a robot (not the exciting kind of killer robot I like listening to). He sounds like a robot that just hit a fantastic cycle of REM sleep and is trying to drag me into my subconscious by my toenails.
My response? My voice is really not that bad. In fact, if you think about it, it could be far, far worse. I know I’ll never end up narrating an IMAX movie, or have anything like the legendary vocal cords of Morgan Freeman or Patrick Stewart. Honestly, I know I’m a bad speaker, but hey, it’s the only voice I’ve got, and I’m working to get better. (Although I can do a pretty good Kermit the Frog.)
DBSkeptic’s plans for 2010
1) Kidnap Morgan Freeman. Force him to narrate all future podcasts. Refusal to cooperate will result in Andy Kaiser performing dramatic readings of “The Shawshank Redemption” as Kermit the Frog.
2) Increase traffic, readers and listeners. This will, I believe, be best accomplished by joint ventures, or “crossover campaigns”, to use marketing lingo. I’m working with the James Randi Educational Foundation as an author on their Swift blog. I’m also cross-promoting my “League of Scientists” book series with the JREF and DBSkeptic. I figure that way, all efforts will achieve more fans and more interest than any could get alone.
Life, as they say, goes on. It has indeed been an interesting year. Here’s hoping that skeptics continue to live in interesting times. I mean that in a good way, and not as an evil Chinese curse.
See you in 2010.
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