Breaking the ice

... and the tortoise says hi to the lions *waves*

The lovely blogger and Twitterer DeLene Beeland urged me I that I rule my blog, rather than the other way around. She's right, but I have promised some posts - some to other people and some to myself. So, here's where I say: I will do it. It might take a little while, but I will get there in the end. Less haste, and all that.

I would love to update more regularly but this MA course and all the other work I have been doing - like this blog on flibaserin, the "female viagra" for the Guardian's Comment is Free - plus, of course Christmas crash-out, means life has been a bit of rollercoaster recently. In an exhilarating, sleep-deprived kind of way.

This post breaks the proverbial ice for more blogposts to come, there will be a veritable deluge soon. Next one is on climate change journalism. And after that there will be some stuff on the Science Online conference, where I have the great honour of chairing a debate (add suggestions to the wiki! If you like...) on a previous blogpost called "Which scientists can you trust?"

I also managed to persuade my MA course director and award-winning journalist, Connie St Louis, to come and back me up when the organisers warned they were throwing me to "the lions' den".

A lot has happened since I initially wrote that post. So topics we'll be entertaining at the debate will also include: Climategate, Susan Greenfield, and the South Korean fraudster stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-Suk.

For our American colleagues: you have most probably been following Susan Greenfield's sacking over Twitter, but if you haven't here are some good blogs etc that explain all and give a variety of views:

• Mark Henderson in the Times on why Greenfield outgrew her usefulness as director of the Royal Institution, here. There is also some links to other related pieces on the left if you scroll down.
• The Telegraph write that Baroness Greenfield should have been sacked, not made redundant for her mis-management of the RI coffers.
• The Guardian's editorial is more sympathetic to the Baroness.
• And two significant blogs are from @gimpyblog and @mjrobbins
• Oh, and you might want to watch this:

Again, I'm sure you're all well clued up on climategate, but it might be worth checking out these views:

Here's a press briefing from @climatesafety, a nonprofit climate change blog. You decide whether you think it's optimistic spin or the real thing.

And here's a blog from George Monbiot on the affair, where he famously apologises for being gullible, but says that the IPCC report is still valid.

There are also alternative, skeptical views. But I'm sure you can easily find those yourselves through a simple Google.

Hope you're all having a good start to twenty-ten.

Christine