weird things wrap up, 2010

Another year is winding down to its end and that means it’s time for the annual Weird Things wrap-up. Since we last paused and took a look back in 2009, the blog has grown to over 1,000 posts with more than 4,700 comments, and collected a grand total of almost 1.2 million views. On top of that, while not much changed on the surface, there have been some big changes under the hood, and while traffic may have grown only by 3% on a year-to-year basis, the sources of this traffic have changed pretty dramatically. As per tradition, there will be more on that tomorrow, but suffice it to say that while the previous year was one of explosive growth into a number of new areas and a build-up of content and traffic by leaps and bounds, this year was about the long term and establishing a more stable position in this blog’s niche. It’s still being syndicated by Time Warner, mentioned on Research Blogging, and got a mention in SEED Magazine while taking tech skepticism to the radio with a live debate on Skeptically Speaking, gathering enough interest to return for another round.

Now, part of the slow and steady nature of this year was due to my work and grad school obligations. Rather than have the chance to get more interviews and explore podcasts and videos as I wanted to, there were labs to get done, research to conduct, papers to write, and day to day tasks to handle. This is why I only managed one interview this year, but since it was with a future world dictator, that should count for something. Sure, a few e-mail interviews would’ve been possible, but it seems so lazy to simply copy, paste, and edit something your interviewees said rather than simply allow them to field questions and do the clerical work yourself as in traditional interviews I’ve generally done in the past. So sticking to what I know best, I focused on reviewing a lot of space and physics news, computer science stories in the popular media, and periodic conspiracy and astrobiology skepticism, though alternative medicine quackery certainly didn’t get overlooked in 2010 by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the second most viewed post this year focuses on an alt med topic. Oh and speaking of medicine, there was a little personal sour note this November as long time readers might have noticed. Soon after Weird Things broke the million view mark, yours truly caught a really nasty case of strep, bringing the regular stream of posts since August 27th of last year, to a stop for two days. Well, let’s see how long this new streak of daily posts lasts and how it will be brought down in the future…

So what’s in store for 2011 and what experiments have I been thinking of conducting since the blog’s second birthday, secluded in my subterranean lab? Honestly, it’s pretty hard to tell. Next year, a number of things will be coming to a close for me and there will be some important decisions to be made afterwards, and so until that’s over and done, and there’s time for scheming and planning, I’ll just have to play things by ear. But at any rate, you’ll be getting a steady stream of new reviews, offbeat science views and opinions, and the good, old fashioned skeptical teardown once in a while because if you skip out on those, the cranks and quacks get a little too bold and start thinking you’re not paying attention anymore. There will be more extreme physics and musings on computer science, more fangs sunk into overly devoted conspiracy theorists, woo-meisters, great communicators, and tech prophets, and a little Top Gear fun thrown in every now and again just for the hell of it. I hope you enjoyed Weird Things in 2010 and want to stick around for Weird Things in 2011.