By Sheldon Greaves

In addition to my posts on Cogito!, I have also posted to other blogs. One of these, Unexpected Leisure, grew out of my effort to make sense of losing my job as a result of the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. I have also written extensively for two web sites and blogs dealing with science literacy. The first of these, the Society for Amateur Scientists, no longer exists. The web site was allowed to deteriorate and is now only available in fragments on the internet archive. Luckily, I used a page-ripper to make a copy of the entire site when I heard that SAS was ceasing operations, so I have what I wrote at that time. Another science blog was the Citizen Scientists League, which as also gone the way of other under-funded nonprofit organizations. That web site was later taken down, but remains available thanks to a mirror site maintained by Matthew Dearing.

Given the track record regarding the longevity of my other sites (and electronic records in general–to be discussed another time), it seems like a good idea for me to republish some of these items here on Cogito! along with my new offerings. These posts certainly fall into the category of “guerrilla scholarship” in the sense that they represent thinking and learning across several disciplines.

There is also an excellent chance that I will be adding at least one additional blogger to this site. More on that as things develop.

Finally, I can’t help but note that we as a society are increasingly in what looks and feels like a state of cultural and intellectual collapse. If you need examples, check your pulse. Independent thinking and informal intellectual networks and communities are more important now than ever. I look forward to expanding the conversation, and the community.