Evolgen Jumps the Shark

In a classic episode of Happy Days the Fonz goes water skiing and (in a moment of pure special effects glory) jumps over a shark. It is said that the show was never the same again. Hence, the term “Jumping the Shark” was born to describe the moment when a TV show (or any other pop-culture item) tries some gimmicky trick to lure in viewers because they have run out of good ideas -- see, also, it’s all downhill from here.

In announcing its move to the new Seed Media Group blog consortium, Science Blogs, Dispatches from the Culture Wars proclaimed that Ed is Selling Out, conjuring up images of Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey hawking deodorant and baked beans on an album cover. I too am moving over to Science Blogs, but while Ed may be doing it for the money, evolgen’s move over to Seed is motivated by sheer masochism. You see, I’m jumping the shark, shooting myself in the foot so to speak.

Don’t expect evolgen to ever be the same again. This humble little blog is movin’ on up to the east side (to a deluxe website in the sky) to live with George and Weezie. You can say that we finally got a piece of the pi (bad, nay, horrible science joke).

Most of the science content of evolgen will be posted at my new Science Blogs url (http://www.scienceblogs.com/evolgen). Bookmark that link, write it down, tattoo it on your ass, or do whatever you need to do to remember my new internet location. But don’t lose this url. My current plan is to continue posting non-science related stuff here at Blogger (and we will maintain this site as an archive of previous evolgen posts) such as the apathetically enjoyed Weekly Random Ten and some stuff on sports and pop culture. While most of the science content will be posted over at Science Blogs, I will keep posting my Detecting Natural Selection series at Blogger.

Given the shift in focus of this blog, and the fact that the Science Blogs site will contain the bulk of the evolution and genetics that make up evolgen, I will be moving the description “AT THE CONVERGENCE OF EVOLUTION AND GENTICS” over to the Science Blogs version of evolgen. The Blogger version of evolgen will now be known as:

Clash, Culture and Science

The name comes from the title of a Rancid song (Cash, Culture and Violence), with some slight modifications. “Clash” refers to the only band that matters, but also the general idea of confrontation, disagreement, and antagonism. You will be seeing more posts on things that piss me off (ala another mad biologist you may be familiar with), and these will not be limited to intelligent design creationism. As you may have noticed, I am a pop-culture whore. You can expect a lot of posts on this guilty pleasure (along with some posts on sports) in the “Culture” section of Clash, Culture and Science. Finally, I would be remiss to leave out any “Science” writing. While the new Science Blogs version of evolgen will have the bulk of the science content, Clash, Culture and Science will also have a science angle.

I’m not the only one to jump the shark (or sell out, whatever the case may be). Here are some friends of evolgen that will be joining me over at Science Blogs:

Dispatches from the Culture Wars
Afarensis
Stranger Fruit
The Intersection
Pharyngula
Gene Expression
Living the Scientific Life