Don’t forget, the NBN board isn’t just for announcing events! If you have contests or promotions, want to share a new project you’re involved in, share a cause you believe in, have items you wish to sell, want to solicit feedback from the NBN community, or anything else that might be of interest to our members, don’t hesitate to send it in!
Submissions can be sent to sanderling [at] symbiotic [dot] ca, with the subject line “NBN Bulletin Board”. Don’t forget to include your blog’s name and URL. The weekly board will be posted every Sunday.
Member participation
Last week we highlighted the DonorsChoose.org campaign in support of classrooms across the country (posts here and here). If you haven’t gone over to pledge a few dollars - every little bit helps, even if all you can contribute is a dollar! - make sure you do so at some point this month. Not only are you supporting great classroom projects that enrich the learning experience of our children, but you’re helping to make school a place kids want to be. Our very own Wren has set up her own Giving Page as part of the bloggers’ challenge at DonorsChoose.org - you can read her promotion at her own blog here, or go directly to her giving page. Also be sure to check out Bug Girl’s giving page, and the Social Media Challenge homepage.
Coming up this Thursday through Saturday is the 3rd annual International Cephalopod Awareness Days. This year’s ICAD celebration will be a three day event. The first day, Thursday, October 8th, is Octopus Day; Friday, October 9th, is Nautilus Night, a time for all the lesser-known extant and extinct cephalopods; and the last day, Saturday, October 10th, is Squid Day (or Squidturday, covering cuttlefish too). It’s not completely arbitrary, since in at least two of the cases, the dates notionally correspond to the number of appendages of the eponymous organisms.
The editors at Cephalopodcast.com invite anyone in the blogosphere to participate in the three day celebration. Bloggers, artist, poets and musicians are encouraged to create one or more works to mark the occasion and submit them for aggregation on a special Cephalopod Awareness Days commemorative page. Topics can be scientific, cultural or fictional. As long as they somehow include cephalopod awareness, they will be considered. If you don’t have a blog, but still want to contribute, contact the editors for ways your creation can be hosted there.
Free promotional space is available to artists that contribute to the Cephalopod Awareness Day campaign. Any artist that creates a Cephalopod Awareness Day badge can have it featured prominently on the site, along with a link to their Web site, Etsy shop or portal. See example above. Badges should not be more than 200×200 pixels in jpg or png format. Badges submitted after October 8 will be irrelevant. See the guidelines on the Cephalopod Awareness Days official commemorative page for more details.
Contests and Promotions
Are you a blogger who is interested in evolution? The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) is offering two travel awards to attend ScienceOnline2010, a science communication conference to be held January 14‐17th, 2010, in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park.
The awards offer the opportunity to travel to North Carolina to meet with several hundred writers, editors, scientists and educators to explore how online tools are changing the way science is done and communicated to the public. Each winner will receive $750 to cover travel, lodging, and other expenses to attend the conference. In addition, winners are invited to spend the morning of Friday January 15th interacting with scientists at NESCent, and to attend a lunch in their honor. For more information about the conference visit ScienceOnline2010 website. Information about the travel award, including how to apply, can be found here.
Amber of Birder’s Lounge also reminds members that her photo ID challenge and Do Something! (Good) campaign are always ongoing. Some great causes benefit from both of these, so swing by and participate, if you haven’t already!
