-
Day 3: So many emotions
Day 3 and I am just grateful. I didn’t get to sleep until five am because I was just so thrilled that I had met my goal. You get a high after you write and type everything in. But I did sleep in bursts till about noon. I would wake up, do some work related things, sleep a bit, write a bit and so on. I woke up at noon and went over to the main house and the office to meet Shannon who is the director here at KSP Writers Centre. I gave her some things from Sri Lanka and she offered to do a pharmacy run for me.…
-
The writing plan for June
It’s June today. A June day, today, let’s say since June began the day before yesterday. On this June day my TBR is neither pile nor stack, it is a scatter instead, in bags, on shelves, across the floor, under laptops and beds. It’s also not To Be Read but rather like quantum, a mix between the two, some To Be Read but some also read already so To Be Reviewed. I need a plan.
-
Watch “Schrödinger’s cat: A thought experiment in quantum mechanics – Chad Orzel” on YouTube
An explanation of why cats rule the internet and how electrons behave for the science journalists out there. 🙂
-
The Freeline Blog Swap: Robert Pepper on anti-vaccination, pseudoscience and the anti-anti-science movement
Freeline is a group for Australian freelance journalists. And this is a blog swap started over email where journalists somehow try to write guest posts for each other’s blogs despite the difference in specialisations, niches and beats. This is Robert Pepper’s swap with me – 4WD for science and he owns this material. You can also read my post on my love affair with the Jeep Wrangler on Robert’s blog: ‘Life’s Too Short For Boring Cars’. Freelance journalists are paradoxical people. We love the freedom and independence that defines freelancing, yet our chosen profession is often lonely, interacting with the likes of editors only by fleeting email or hasty phone call.…
-
Marianne de Pierres' Glitter Rose
Marisa Wikramanayake reviews author Marianne de Pierres collection Glitter Rose for the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2014
-
Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop
Marisa Wikramanayake takes part in the Australia Day Book giveaway Blog Hop for 2014, giving away a choice of two books from the never ending giveaway pile.
-
Tips for being a science journalist
A brief summary of my seminar (part of the UWA Science Communication Seminar series) on 6 August 2010.
-
Interviewing as the science journalist
This was an area of great interest and concern when I curated the @realscientists Twitter account a couple of months ago. People had their horror stories and others wanted to know how it should be done. We tried to get a live interview up and running so people could actually watch me in action but time zones and technology conspired against us. Maybe one day we will manage it. If you are a scientist who would be up for a mock interview via a G+ hangout to be archived on Youtube let me know. Preparation: Research the person and the story and the science involved. Set up your notebook and…
-
How to get started in journalism
While meandering through Facebook one day, I noticed that a younger friend of mine had tagged me in a status post. I clicked through to see what it was about and why he would feel the need to mention my name. It was the status of a friend of his, a young university student and he had offered my name in the comments on it as part of the advice he had offered to this student’s query. The query was this: Made another application but it doesn’t look like I’ll even get an interview how the fuck am I supposed to become a journalist if no one will hire me without…
-
53 free ways for science journalists to brush up on their science… and counting
This is a list of FREELY AVAILABLE basic science primers, courses and videos that science journalists can take to brush up on their beats/niches/topics of interest. NOTE 1: MOOCS = Massive open online courses = free, short, online, provided by universities to give you a primer in the basics of a scientific topic of study. Both MOOCs and the Coursera courses will use Youtube videos so don’t eliminate them on that basis. NOTE 2: Coursera courses vary in length and whether you get a certificate at the end and are offered at different times so some of the ones listed below may drop off and on again depending on when…
