The only change you should notice is the new layout and style of the comments section (which would actually be a lot neater and, in my humble opinion, look a lot better than it did before), and a slight tweak to the styling of post titles. On the backend, however, there’s a slew of changes that will make it much easier to keep WoWT current across the board and help prevent all currently known exploits. Nevertheless, there’s no such thing as a 100% secure site. The best my efforts can do is minimize potential damage and fix problems as soon as they arise. So if you’re having problems accessing the blog, or seeing something that really shouldn’t be there, please take a minute and contact me. Even if I’m already working on it, every tidbit of information helps me be a little more thorough and keep this blog safer in the long run.

Did you happen to stumble across something odd on your way around the web? Did you find a link filled with pseudoscience and urban legends you want to see analyzed and fact checked in your inbox or your reading list? Is there a news story about science and technology that’s making you ponder? Or maybe you really care about something and want to see it addressed on a mainstream popular science blog? Head on over to the about page, click on my contact info, and send me an e-mail. I do have to warn you however, all suggestions will undergo my highly subjective editorial process and not every tip I receive is necessarily up my alley. Just like I’m not going to help someone promote what seems to be a pseudoscientific notion, I might not be brave enough to write a post on something completely out of my depth. And if people choose to send me something especially cranky and bizarre, you might just find it brought up for a dissection.

Likewise, as you might have noticed, images are a huge part of Weird Things and I rely on them to help frame the mood of hundreds upon hundreds of posts. So if you’re an artist who wants to have your work featured on a blog that usually gets over a thousand visitors a day, or want to experiment with editorial illustration where it could be noticed and give you exposure, drop me a line with a link to an image you want to share. If it will work for an upcoming post, you’ll get a link to your online portfolio and full attribution, just like with every non-stock image I use. As with story tips, it’s all going to be a matter of my highly subjective evaluation of how the image could be used. It’s nothing personal, just a simple editorial decision by one blogger.

Twice is probably not a tradition by any stretch of the imagination, but we can pretend for a day and say that as the clock winds down to New Year’s Eve, it’s time for me to open up my dashboard to the readers and share a few interesting tidbits about what’s going on with Weird Things behind the scenes. From the traffic standpoint, over 2009 this blog gathered around 580,000 views. That’s a far cry from the several million views a month for a popular science titan like Bad Astronomy or Pharyngula, but hey, you have to start somewhere and for a new blog that grew from literally five posts and a wild shot in the dark, that’s not terribly bad. Average daily views are up from about 250 in January to roughly 1,600 today, though before the technical issues with the move to a big blogging network, daily averages peaked at 2,000 per day in June. So from where is the traffic coming?

Weird Things readers come from 165 nations across the world with top five countries they call home breaking down as follows: United States (66.6%), Canada (9%) UK, (6.6%), Australia (3%) and Germany (1.2%). When we drill down to the top five home cities of the blog’s readers, London, England easily takes top spot as noted before. The next top four cities are New York, NY (1.5%), Los Angeles, CA (1%), San Francisco, CA (1%) and finally, Sydney, Australia (0.9%). Just over two thirds find Weird Things from links on other blogs and sites as well as social bookmarking networks. In fact, StumbleUpon and Reddit drive just over a third and a quarter of all visitors respectively. Direct bookmarks are responsible for some 13% of all views and the rest of the visits come from search engines, by which I mean Google since it’s responsible for 87% of all search traffic.

The last set of data points comes with a little caveat. Since the Weird Things page on Facebook is still pretty fresh, it’s not quite in the top four list. However, it’s making a very strong showing and I expect it to be following Google Search in 2010. And having the Bad Astronomer direct almost as many visitors to this blog as the city of San Francisco was an interesting surprise. Thanks Phil! So that’s how we got to Weird Things. But where do all the readers go? What do they read? What do they share with others and on social bookmarking sites? What posts draw the most comments, criticism and drive the most debates?

• top posts: The Forgotten Warp Drive, Why Life Has a Bias to the Left, Oh Wait, You’re Serious?, And Now For Something Completely Ridiculous, and Spank Me Baby, It’ll Bring Us Closer [SFW]
• most commented: Oh Wait, You’re Serious? (198 replies) The Forgotten Warp Drive, (48 replies)
• most popular on Reddit: And Now For Something Completely Ridiculous (with 225 points)
• most popular on StumbleUpon: The Forgotten Warp Drive (with over 72,000 views and 35 comments)
• most popular on Facebook: Ph’nglui Mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh Fhtagn (aka happy Cthulhu Day)
• most controversial post: Oh Wait, You’re Serious? (with dozens of creationists out in full force)
• most popular syndicated post: False Controversies And Evolution In The U.S. (shown on rr.com)

Between themselves, the top five posts represent almost a third of the blog’s total traffic and help provide a bit of evidence that the Pareto Rule applies to blogs as well, albeit in a far more extreme form if we consider that Weird Things now has a library of some 616 posts. Probably the biggest surprise is how popular my quick and dirty overview of Burkhard Heim’s theories became, especially since it lacked the depth of the other warp drive related posts written over the year. So to the critics on StumbleUpon who rightfully complain about the lack of detail in this article, how come all the in depth posts never got more than a tenth of the views this short and breezy review received? But I digress. We have another short list to cover, one that has absolutely nothing to do with statistics or traffic patterns. Think of this as the editor selections for the 2009.

• editor’s favorite post: Searching For The Biggest Stars In The Cosmos (when hypergiant suns die)
• most math intensive post: Who Wants To Build A Warp Drive Anyway? (the feasibility of warp drives)
• most science intensive post: A Billion Solar Masses of Nothing (the mechanics of black hole birth)
• harshest rebukes: You Can Hear Einstein’s Ghost Weep and To Insanity and Halfway Back Again
• longest Q&A in the comment section: Black Hole Bares All For Science (naked singularities anyone?)
• favorite spin-off project: Right Ascension (my hour long trance mix for the now late Space Disco)

And so, that’s is how the year broke down from a statistical and editorial standpoint. I wanted to get a solid mix of science, skepticism, critical thinking and exploration of new concepts in space travel, astrophysics and high tech with a good dash of biology on the side, especially as the theory of evolution applies to astrobiology and our biosphere on Earth. Next year, I’d like to continue what worked in 2009 and explore where this blog can go in the near future while promoting good science and debunking quackery and woo…

[ illustration by David Fuhrer ]

The passing year also saw Weird Things reach out into social media, starting a Twitter feed in February and opening a Facebook page in October to help make this blog a place to exchange big ideas, explore bleeding edge science and have a good debate when we get a chance. As you can probably guess, this trend is going to continue into 2010 as the blog keeps growing and adding new content. While the final quarter of 2008 was a quick dip into the blogosphere, 2009 was an endeavor to establish a solid place in the blogging world and turn Weird Things into a fully fledged science blog with all the features you should expect from a site that’s in it for the long haul. And this means that next year will be all about building on this foundation, experimenting with new ideas and topics, and hopefully, broadening Weird Things’ reach.

You can expect to see more on high tech and computer science topics, more interviews with people who work on communicating science, deal with the incendiary mix of religion and politics to promote skepticism and critical thinking skills, or tackle the many misconceptions about sex and sexuality, as well as a steady flow of scientific discussions about exotic subjects like black holes, warp drives, bizarre stars and cyborgs. And speaking of cyborgs, 2009 saw a series of debates between yours truly and Singularitarians, from a big back and forth with the Singularity Institute’s Michael Vassar, to Michael Anissimov’s critical take on my posts. Since computers are my area of expertise and study, you can safely bet that the Technical Singularity will be a recurring topic for the foreseeable future along with transhumanism and artificial intelligence.

Just as the end of a year brings some things to a close, it also means that new things are on the horizon. So to all my readers, thanks for your views, comments and suggestions, and I invite you to stay tuned to Weird Things in 2010 as it revs up and reaches farther into the world of popular science and skepticism.

Since the 126th edition of the Circle will come out December 17th, please have your entry in the day before so the link to your post can be added in a timely manner. I look forward to reading a lot of terrific posts from fellow skeptics around the world and to a great collection of skeptical links. So go out there, tear into some woo with cold, hard logic, or find your favorite takedown of pseudoscience or an absence of critical thinking and submit, submit, submit to see your post featured!

So Londoners, give yourself a pat on the back for making such a big splash on the dashboard and feel free to treat yourselves to some extra tea and jam. Or a pint if that’s more to your tastes. But I do have to say that I’m a bit surprised about this turn of events since Weird Things was created in the United States and when it comes to current events coverage and media references, it will generally skew towards the issues of the blog’s home country. Another pleasant surprise for me are the audiences it gained in Canada, across Western Europe and along Australia’s Pacific coast. As a matter of fact, Sydney rounds out the top five cities the blog’s readers call home. (Just in case you were curious, number four is San Francisco.)

For those of you who’d like to know a little more about your fellow readers and where they come from, head on over to the Weird Things Facebook page, and if you’re not already a member, join in and say hello. It’s quite a diverse group with members across the United States, as well as Sweden, Lebanon, Italy, Turkey, and Hong Kong for starters. And since there’s are a few steady trickles of traffic from cities such as Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Durban, South Africa, you never know who will join next and what perspective they may have on new posts which is a big part of the fun with social media.

While the page gets up to speed, you can browse through links to popular posts that represent what I think is a fairly good sampling of what this blog is about, follow recent updates and interact with other readers. In the near future, I’ll be working to bring more social media elements to Weird Things so it can grow into an active, fully fledged community of skeptics, scientists and fans of popular science and discussions which require to take a look at some sacred cows and proceed to skewer them afterwards. So tune in and take a look around, join the group if you like what you see, and tell your skeptically minded and scientifically curious friends. After all, when we’re talking about blogs, the more the merrier.

On a related note, I’d like to thank all of you who stumbled, read (if that’s the appropriate verb), e-mailed, and otherwise spread the word about Weird Things over the last six weeks. You’ve sent traffic soaring towards its pre-transition levels and the blog is currently getting an average of 1,300 views a day which means that we’re more than halfway back. At the risk of sounding corny, I just want to say: you rock!

When the first few posts went online last October on the WordPress.com platform, they received a total of just twelve views. Today, the daily traffic is approximately a hundred times that with the busiest day to date coming in at just over 20,000 hits of the nearly 450,000 accumulated so far. For a brief while, Weird Things was even included into a major blogging network although, as regular readers know, that didn’t work out very well and had a drastic effect on the blog’s flow of visitors that will be felt for some time to come. But oh well, lesson learned and Weird Things is on its way to a full recovery, bringing you more posts on topics that range from relativistic rocketry and quantum mechanics, to debunking dangerous medical quackery and dispatches from the scientific culture war, featuring interviews with people on the front lines.

So what can you expect in the future? Weird Things will be getting its own Facebook page and experimenting with community features, taking submissions for guest posts, actively investigating podcasting and taking an exploratory dip or two into making videos. And of course, there will be a steady stream of posts while the blog keeps on growing to become a place for a thorough, skeptical look at cutting edge science and technology as well as a platform to exchange ideas and opinions. Stay tuned because time marches on and this blog is in it for the long haul. It’s been a good first year and I want to make the second one even better.

I’d like to thank all of you who read this blog and are helping it grow. While it’s not back up to speed yet, all the help you’ve provided is making a huge impact. If you like my posts, keep submitting, tweeting and telling your friends. As the blog grows so will its reach and its ability to provide more fresh and diverse original content. If you have ideas for posts or want to give me some advice or feedback, get in touch with me and let me know what’s on your mind. At the end of the day, this blog is all about entertaining and informing you which means that you, the readers, are the boss.

After this massive setback that wiped out about six months of work in one fell swoop, Weird Things wouldn’t grow in its new network because of a major editorial mismatch. Of course according to True/Slant, about 85% of the traffic comes from links to individual posts and searches rather than their index and feature pages, but since it’s an overwhelmingly politics and current events aggregator, most of those links will point to political and current event posts and an audience interested in political debates doesn’t necessarily want to dive right into scientific issues after their fill of the latest brouhahas on Capitol Hill. Rather than let the blog languish, I thought it would be best to take a step back and try again, though in retrospect, the move itself was probably not the best idea I’ve ever had to put it mildly.

However, in order to return this blog’s audience back to its previous size, I need your help. A bigger audience means that Weird Things has more opportunities to grow, start discussions and get more tips from readers about important news and developments. So if you like this blog and would like to see it back on its feet and growing again, please submit your favorite posts to social bookmarking sites, share them with someone who you know is interested in science and skepticism, or send a tweet about a post that grabs your attention. I’m doing what I can on my end but I just can’t do it alone…

In addition, departing from True/Slant’s policy, there will be no need to register to comment or any moderation other than for spam or wildly inappropriate things banned by virtually any site on the web. That’s right, the old commenting policy is back because I want to hear what you have to say without making you enter passwords or set up accounts. This blog will still be churning out news, analysis and opinion about the worlds of popular science and skepticism, it’ll just be doing it in new ways.

In more current events, the Weird Things Twitter has been growing slowly but surely, so if you like this blog and what I talk about, just click the follow button and get updates of what’s going on with the site as well as some amusing and strange random news. And yes, there is the rare but obligatory observation on daily life. You know what they say, when in Rome… Oh and there’s actually a book in the works from Dr. Ian O’Neill of Astroengine.com and yours truly all about space from a business standpoint. Read all about it in the press release and hopefully look for a copy of Astroeconomics: Making Money From The Vacuum Of Space in the eventual future…

As we’re about to ring in the New Year, I thought it might be fun to share what usually only the webmaster knows about his blog. What post was the most dugg, stumbled, read or had the most comments? What’s the most consistently read article throughout the year? (Well, in this case, through the three months.) What article caused the most controversy and attracted the most critics? How does this top of 2008 list break down?

• most Dugg: The Eye and The Seal (despite attempts to bury it a few times by critics)
• most Stumbled: The Great Flood and The Great Comet (also the most popular post)
• most commented: The Defect That Makes Us All Human (also the most controversial)
• most consistently read: Weird Sex (also one of the most popular Google search terms)
• most submitted to social bookmarking sites: Who’s Moon Is It Anyway?
• most trackbacks: Colonizing Space, at a Profit (an interview with Dr. Ian O’Neill)
• least popular post: Plausible? In What Reality? (that’s the last time I mess with movies)

So what do you think? What posts would you like to see more of or less of in the future? Is there a post that you liked or a post that rubbed you the wrong way?

Next year, I will be experimenting with a new design and dialing in the blog’s primary focus on space, biology and the intersection of science and religion. Expect more about evolution and creationism debates, space travel and exploration, the search for alien life and science in pop culture. I also hope to bring you more interviews and discussions on controversial scientific and social questions.

New Year tends to get the short end of the stick as a holiday, an afterthought when the several months of anticipation and shopping leading up to Christmas are over. But a new year is a new beginning and in the case of Weird Things, it’s the beginning of an exciting experiment. Here’s to 2009 and the opportunities it brings.