The "Number One on Google" Meme

I couldn't resist this one....

Via PZ (yes, I can't spell "pharyngula" either!) I see that World's Fair has proposed an interesting blog meme to see which words/phrases you plug into Google that result in your blog being the number one hit. The rules:

I'd like to suggest a meme, where the premise is that you will attempt to find 5 statements, which if you were to type into google (preferably google.com, but we'll take the other country specific ones if need be), you'll find that you are returned with your blog as the number one hit.

This takes a bit of effort since finding these statements takes a little trial and error, but I'm going to guess that this meme might yield some interesting insight on the blog in question.

To make it easier, we'll let you use a search statement enclosed in quotations - this is just to increase your chances of turning up as number one, but if you happen to have a website with the awesome traffic to command the same statement without quotations, then flaunt it baby! Of course, nnce you find your 5 statements, pass the meme on to others.

So, here are the results for Northstate Science:

1) Northstate Science (no need for quotes, but I was disappointed that for "Northstate" alone (even in quotes) I come up third;

The next three are probably too easy because of my local connections:

2) Susanville creationism

3) Lassen science

4) Lassen County archaeology

But my favorite has to be...

5) "meat for sex" (has to be in quotes, however (Google also asks me if I really mean "meet for sex"); I think I have Bora's femiphobia beat on this one....).

Want To Win A Prize?

I'm following Eric's lead here....

Be one of the first five people to comment here and by the end of the calendar year I will send you a gift - a real, physical gift that you will receive in the mail (and I don't mean email).

The catch? You must make the same offer on your blog...

The contest begins now....

Field School Fun

I'm back from a great week up at the Eagle Lake Field Station teaching the Osteoarchaeology Course with my colleagues from CSU Chico and the University of Utah. Check out the view from the conference room above (and no, that's not what happens to students who fail the exam! - not my photo, either - it's courtesy of a CSU grad student who will remain nameless until she prefers fame and fortune by appearing on Northstate Science...yeah, right...).

Long week, but always well worth the time and energy. The class was fantastic as usual; lectures on skeletal anatomy and natural history of the major classes of vertebrates followed by lots of time in the lab identifying bone elements; we ended with lectures on the application of zooarchaeological data to problems in California archaeology, reconstruction of Holocene environments and historical ecology. We also provided special discussions on specialized techniques using bones and teeth: dental increment analysis, isotope analysis and ancient DNA.

Of course, we didn't just spend all our time in the lab and conference rooms. We took our usual trip to the "Bat Cave" where we sat beneath a cave ceiling covered with hundreds of western pipistrelles (Pipistrellus hesperus), North America's smallest bat. Although the bats are entering and leaving the cave by the hundreds (using the same small entrance we humans go through...thank natural selection for echolocation!) the hardest part is getting in the cave without using lights as we want to disturb the bats as little as possible. Once inside and some subdued lights come on, the ceiling is literally moving with the small bats. Fortunately all the bat guano is in the center of the cave floor, although the bats occasionally urinate on those below (nothing personal, I'm sure...). My 14 year old daughter joins me on these adventures and the Bat Cave is one of her favorite activities.

And no trip to the field station could be complete without a night drive or two. These events are somewhat difficult to describe. Their purpose is scientific, but through the years they have also attained an air of cultural tradition about them as well. Imagine 5-10 biologists and zooarchaeologists in the back of truck driving slowly through sagebrush and forest with spotlights and nets, searching for small (and not so small) fauna to capture. Creatures wandering across our path suddenly find themselves blinded by lights and surrounded by a bunch of excitedly chattering bipedal monkeys (ok, apes...but if you saw us you'd understand why "monkeys" is a better term) who discuss the anatomy, adaptations and sexual proclivities of animals before releasing them unharmed. Before releasing, however, those who wish to shower themselves with good fortune in their pursuit of science may "kiss the paunch" of the captured animal. As far as we know, "paunch kissing" is a phenomena found only among those who frequent the CSU Biological Field Station...

(Here, yours truly has just finished planting one on the paunch of a large bull frog while my daughter (herself a veteran "paunch kisser"), looks on...I wonder: if PZ ever caught a squid...).

Night drives make for long periods with no sleep (our drive this week went until 2:00 am), but one must still be up by 4:30 am to take advantage of the best opportunities to fish for the famed Eagle Lake trout (Onchorynchus mykiss). Unfortunately, June is not the best time for trout fishing here and all of us walked away empty handed. We did, however, enjoy a wonderful morning on the lake, filled with ducks, grebes, pelicans, ospreys and eagles.

In a couple of weeks we take my daughter's Girl Scout troop up to the field station for a more scientific version of Camporee, where we can expose them to the sights and sounds of the natural history of the Eagle Lake basin. Anyone for the Bat Cave?

Grades Due!

Ok, this is not my preferable method for grading, but then again, there are times....

(via Higgaion)

Ah, the Shame...

Afarensis shamed me into it (even though I'm not part of the ScienceBlogger cadre)...actually, I think it was the threat of a Holiday haunting...

Here it is...