Seems to have fizzled. Lots of common criticisms (muddled pacing, broad stereotyping, unnecessary characters, lack of a cohesive/coherent narrative, etc.). Full list of reviews beneath the fold.
- Aardvarchaeology
- Adam Welz’s Weblog
- Adventures in Ethics and Science
- Aetiology
- The Beagle Project
- A Blog Around the Clock
- Bioephemera
- Blogfish (Mark Powell)
- Blogfish (Kate Wing)
- Chaotic Utopia
- Cocktail Party Physics
- Cosmic Variance
- Deep-Sea News
- Dispatches from Carbon Nation
- Dynamics of Cats
- ERV
- A Few Things Ill Considered
- Gene Expression
- Good Math, Bad Math
- Green Gabbro
- Greg Laden’s Blog
- The Huffington Post
- The Intersection
- The Island of Doubt
- Laelaps
- Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
- Mike the Mad Biologist
- Of Two Minds
- Pharyngula
- Pure Pedantry
- Quicksilber
- Science Progress
- The Scientific Activist
- Shifting Baselines
- Space Disco
- Stranger Fruit
- Thoughts From Kansas
- Uncertain Principles (…and a follow-up)
- Uncommon Ground
- The World’s Fair
They’re pretty much all mixed-to-fairly negative. With few, obvious exceptions: Mooney and Kirshenbaum at The Intersection, who have been outspoken partisans for Olson since the Expelled/Framing kerfuffle, and Jennifer Jacquet at Shifting Baselines- Olson’s SciBlogs launch pad for the film.
Ouch.
[UPDATE: Another positive ("with nitpicks") review comes from Jennifer at Cocktail Party Physics. I hadn't meant to imply that only positive reviews were from The Intersection and Shifting Baselines, and in fact I intend on noting "Positive/Mixed/Negative" type summary next to each link later today.]
[LATE UPDATE: I've dropped the ball on this, there have been updates from people I haven't tracked and at least one additional original scibling review from A Few Things Ill Considered (now added). I will try to do an updated survey with a general comment after all of the reviews and updates and comments are taken into consideration. The fallout, from those who followed up, was not pretty- but that isn't the only case to be made, as Shifting Baselines points out.]
4 responses so far ↓
Jennifer Ouellette // July 16, 2008 at 3:23 pm |
I would classify my review at Cocktail Party Physics as mostly positive with a few nitpicks. :)
[Noted, and updated - TB]
Mike the Mad Biologist // July 17, 2008 at 8:58 am |
I would classify my review as profoundly negative with no saving graces whatsoever.
[/snark]
coby // August 4, 2008 at 7:31 pm |
I was late to the party, but my review is up on the Sizzle Tuesday page now too, maybe you can add it to your list if you get a chance : )
It was a mixed review.
[Added. Sorry for missing it.]
coby // August 4, 2008 at 8:06 pm |
BTW, I have scheduled a plug for yoursite tomorrow. Good stuff!
[Thanks, and if you do and it isn't too much to ask, I'd appreciate it if you could maybe point to or otherwise reference the open source/free information that is out there- this site was originally just intended to be a placeholder for those kind of links, and the "official" ones. What I have to say is inevitably much less interesting than what the science and data do. Hope that isn't a pushy request. All the best, TB]