asking participants to tell us the scientific areas in which they are
comfortable advising/writing, so let us know which general branches
(environment, biology, physics, military tech, etc) you have an 
interest in advising our journalists on.

Of these it would certainly be physics. My background as far as it is certified (in terms of peer reviewed publications and/or graduations) is simply high energy physics (black holes, quantum gravity, string theory) and nanotechnology.

However, what I am really interested in is seldom publishable, in fact, my best work rots in my drawer while Publish-Or-Perish (POP) Science makes sure that I can only publishing shit. I just got an article published in the highest impact factor journal in the field of microscopy - it is an article that I wrote up really quickly telling people about a method that has actually no use whatsoever, but some pretty pictures. I just wrote it to make the people in my lab here happy - put their names on there, too. Meanwhile, my original and insightful work - two rejections on my table just this week.

When it comes to science and journalism, what really ticks me off is not that journalism gets the science wrong, but that science becomes journalism. POP undermines science, and I am not sure whether there is any solution to that at all.

Sorry for the rant, had a coffee an hour ago

Happy new year

Sascha




As I mentioned, I'd like to work with you

myself; I think I noted that I've written on biology and a few other
subjects although of course I am merely a layman and my knowledge 
comes from
informal research.

We did have meetings the past few Wednesdays as usual but last 
night we
merely discussed some operational issues that probably won't 
interest you at
this point. If you can participate next time, that would be swell, 
but it's
definitely not necessary. I'm going to look through what info we've 
sent you
and see what else might be helpful in understanding our 
organization; if you
have any questions, please let me know. I've also cc'd Seb Gillen, 
whom I've
just put in charge of administering the sci-fi program, as well as my
associates Emma Allen and Clark Robinson, who can also provide you 
withadditional information as needed.

Thanks again for getting involved; your background, as I've noted, 
is very
impressive and I look forward to working with you as your schedule 
allows.
On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 12:43 AM, sascha vongehr <vongehr@usc.edu> 
wrote:

“7:00 EST (NYC) time on IRC.”

I have not yet set up the IRC – I am also very busy these two 

days. So you

have a weekly meeting on (lets see, when you send this mail – I 

believe this

is already today here) Wednesdays 7:00 (am? – wait, that would be 

too early

for the west coast) I say Wed 7 pm EST – yes?

It would be indeed great if you could send me the transcript and 

I schedule

to participate next week. The IRC I think is likely a problem, 

but I will

try.


“I am also having my associate Clark Robinson get in touch with 

you and

share with you some Google Documents for your review.”

I got an email a few days ago from him with some blog post 

sniplets of

yours etc. Yes, google documents at times do not open – Mao wants 

the stuff

routed through google.hk for some reason. ;-)


“At any rate, I wanted to see if you would be interested in 

working with me

on some articles; I can also share with you our spreadsheet 

detailing the

interests and background of our various scientists and 

journalists if you'd

like to take a look before deciding.”

Yes, if you could give me some more information, that would be 

great. I

somehow got the message that you are collating/matching up 

journalists with

scientists and thus wanted to send some questionnaire about 

expertise, so

that especially the journalists can get an idea of whom to 

contact in case

they have questions (i.e. improving science journalism, which 

seems to be at

least a side project of the whole project PM if I understood right).

Looking forward to hearing from you

Sascha


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Sascha Vongehr  (风洒沙)
Department of Philosophy and
National Key Laboratory of Solid-State Microstructures
Dept of Materials Science and Engineering
Nanjing University, Kexue Jishu Guan 324, Hankou Lu 22,
Nanjing, Gulou District, Jiangsu Province 210093, P.R. China
http://www.science20.com/alpha_meme
Alternate mail: vongehr8@yahoo.com
http://cn.LinkedIn.com/in/SaschaVongehr

----- Original Message -----
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 11:21 am
Subject: Re: Project PM
To: sascha vongehr <vongehr@usc.edu>

Hi, Sascha-

I don't believe I mentioned that we're having our weekly meeting
tomorrow at
7:00 EST (NYC) time on IRC. If you don't think you can log in from
China(although I think you can) or otherwise won't make it, let me
know and I'll
send you a transcript if it turns out to be something that 

would be

usefulto you at this point. I am also having my associate Clark
Robinson get in
touch with you and share with you some Google Documents for your
review. If
you have any trouble accessing them, let him know and he'll make
sure you
get text copies via e-mail.

Also, I've decided that I'm going to participate myself in the
project here
and there in order to set an example and also to raise some money
for our
Africa fund, which will be used for applying improved information
dynamicsin the context of Third World health development - we're
working with Dr.
Kenneth Lipp of Cambridge who has recently begun work on First
Praxis, his
own program which I'll tell you more about if that sort of thing
interestsyou (I imagine your background is such that you'll be 

more> > interested in

other aspects of what we'll be doing, but obviously I don't know
the extent
of your interests and expertise). We also have our own Africa
DevelopmentProgram on which we'll be concentrating more very soon
and which for now
will probably hinge on our partnership with Lipp. At any rate, I
wanted to
see if you would be  interested in working with me on some
articles; I can
also share with you our spreadsheet detailing the interests and
backgroundof our various scientists and journalists if you'd like
to take a look
before deciding.

Again, thanks for your interest and your willingness to
participate. I very
much hope to have you involved with myself and the dozen or so
other people
who are currently running all of this, so to the extent that you
can and
will assist us in making decisions and launching new programs, we
would all
be honored to have you do so.

On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 9:23 PM, sascha vongehr <vongehr@usc.edu>
wrote:

Dear Barrett,

thank you for your response.

in this case you fell through the cracks due to all the 

traveling> > >

understand - that can happen

As for the crack about my views on valid skepticism

just a crack from somebody who is well aware of what you write

and largely

is on the same side on most issues - your stuff is visible out

there and I

like to read up on people before I contact them.

I will look over the other email I just received and see how 

I can

participate. Sadly there are many issues with not being able to

use many

resources effectively when in China (censure, proxy server

hassle), so this

may hamper the communication desirable in something like Project

PM. Instead

of getting better, currently it is getting worse again with the

nobel peace

price etc.

Anyways - we are on one side when it comes to wanting to 

actually do

something about the bad state of science journalism and peer

review/publish> and perish culture that undermines science, rather
then just lamenting it.

So I am looking forward to hopefully fruitful cooperation.

Thanks again

Sascha

--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
512-560-2302

-- 
Regards,

Barrett Brown
512-560-2302