Six Degrees of Citation
February 16th, 2007 by admin
Without question my favorite and most-read blog happens to be Boing Boing. They keep me up-to-date with curious tech news, bring me bizarre and unusual stories from around the globe and I see many mentions of friends and affiliates come across their pages. I’m also a big fan of the editors individually. I especially enjoy reading the sci-fi work of Cory Doctorow and listening to Xeni Jardin on NPR. So when I had something to contribute to their wonderful blog, I was a bit happy.
I figured that the announcement of the new study on sword swallowing in the British Medical Journal - which I wrote about back in January - would be the perfect follow-up to the story that Boing Boing posted just prior to the BMJ study beginning back in 2005. Moreover, I thought that it may be novel that it was coming from 1.) the co-founder of the Sword Swallowers’ Association Interational, 2.) a participant in the study and 3.) an actual living, working sword swallower.
The submission was never carried on Boing Boing. I wasn’t distraught, as I figured that it simply wasn’t as newsworthy to them as I had assumed. But then, just this week, I discover that they do indeed consider it newsworthy - Mark Frauenfelder having posted the link as “Medical study concludes that sword swallowing is dangerous” just last night.
But what is odd about this, you ask? Timeliness wasn’t exactly an issue with this news item. The issue is that they did not post the item as a result of my submission, but rather, via Simon Owen at Bloggasm who got it via Clive Thompson at Collision Detection who got if via Joe at Book of Joe who got it via Steve Mirsky’s “Antigravity” article in March’s Scientific American who, presumably, got it finally from the British Medical Journal (though I’m not certain, as I haven’t seen the SciAm article).
I mean, come on guys! You got it straight from the horse’s mouth a month ago! Perhaps I’ll just assume that the editors are too busy to look at some submissions, or else I incorrectly submitted it… Yeah, that’s what I’ll tell myself.
I must confess though that I loved reading Clive Thompson’s coverage of the article. He made me chuckle with such statements as:
I read many scientific studies that get me excited — but I’ve never encountered one that so frequently made me wince.
and
this stuff reads like it was ghostwritten by Edgar Allan Poe
If you think that reading it is uncomfortable…
Clive also said the following:
Other hair-raising, gothic details include a swallower whose sword “brushed his heart”
For the record Clive, that person happens to be me, and it brushes the heart every single time (several hundred times a year). Thought you might like to know… 
So thanks go to all of the kind folks who covered the study - yes, even Boing Boing - and especially to Clive Thompson for some wonderful commentary as well.
Photo Credits
Top Photo: copyright 2005 by Roderick Russell for Ripley’s Believe It Or Not
X-Ray:Frontal X-Ray of Roderick Russell swallowing a sword, courtesy CNY Medical Center.
Bottom Photo: copyright 2000ish by Roderick Russell. Photo taken by Jason Rand. Very old photo, I don’t even look like that anymore…
tags: bloggasm, boing boing, book of joe, brian witcombe, british medical journal, clive thomspon, collision detection, cory doctorow, mark frauenfelder, npr, ripley’s believe it or not, simon owen, steve mirsky, sword swallowers’ association international, xeni jardin, sword swallowing
February 16th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Sorry that they didn’t post your original submission! My guess is that they get several thousand submission a day. I probably just hit them at the right time (I sent my suggestion in near midnight, when probably fewer people submit).
Within about 2 minutes of my submission, they had the post up on their website, which means the boingboing editor likely opened up his inbox right after I submitted the link. It was just a matter of good timing.
February 16th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Oh! and if it makes you feel any better, there have been times when I’ve submitted something to boingboing, only for them to publish a link to the item several days later attributed to someone else. Just wrong timing, I guess.
February 16th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Thanks for the kind words Simon! I’m glad that you found my little rant.
In truth, I’m not actually terribly upset, and rest assured Boing Boing will forever remain on my “must read daily - sometimes multiple times a day” list. I do however find it wonderfully humorous that the post finally made it up via such a long list of referrals and not, as I mentioned, as a result of hearing it from a more direct source.
In the end the story got covered, which was after all my ultimate wish, and there’s the added bonus that I am now more aware of your own blog, so I have more great reading ahead of me!
Best, -Roderick
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September 20th, 2011 at 8:09 pm
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November 27th, 2011 at 7:35 pm
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January 29th, 2012 at 6:30 am
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