My latest Decoded Science article, " Power Sets come in Small, Infinite and Even Larger Sizes", deals with the mathematical construct known as a "power set". "Small Power Sets" by Mike DeHaan Images help explain the article. Whenever I create an original image for a third-party web site, I first publish it here to establish ownership and copyright. As always, I also publicize my article in DeHaan Services, although "The Math of Power Sets" does not add much to this topic. Writing Tip
As usual, I include a writing tip.
When creating an image that is likely to go onto a white background, build in a strong border like the brown in today's image.
I've sometimes left the background white, and the picture just fades into the background. It's not much of a problem if the website has a strong background colour, but why count that chicken before it hatches?
My latest article in Suite 101 is " The Compassionate Amish Response to Two Incidents of Violence". Inspired by current events, I also went back five years to find the same response by a different Amish community in a far worse situation. "Amish Farmer" by pfala Nothing says "Amish" like a farmer with a horse-drawn implement next to his cornfield. As always, I also promote my article in DeHaan Services, although " The Amish Consistently Respond with Compassion" does not offer additional insight. Writing Tip
Today's writing tip is a simple, three-step process.
Keep up with current events; check whether history is repeating itself; then write an analysis of what is either common or different.
My first Environmental Graffiti article for November is " Why Papaya Plants Are Protecting Tomatoes from Whitefly". My original question was "How?" rather than "Why ?". "Green Tomato on the Vine" by Waldo Jaquith Green tomatoes deserve protection, too. As always, I promote my article in DeHaan Services too. Although " Papaya Guards Florida Tomatoes from Silverleaf Whitefly Pest" lacks a writing tip, it does share some gossip about my current and recent writing. Writing Tip
Today's writing tip has been shared before.
Pursue your curiosity.
I was very curious: how can one plant protect another? Sometime I will look for the situations where plants really do that. In this case, insects are involved.
Regardless: question what you learn, find answers to your questions, and share those answers with the world.
My latest DeHaan Fitness article continues a "heart rate training" series in " The High End of Target Heart Rates". "Fauja Singh Age 99 in the ING Luxembourg Marathon 2010" by Nico* (Nicolas Govetto) Although Fauja Singh is an unlikely poster boy for intense exercise, it is interesting to work out the target heart rates for a 100-year-old athlete! As always, I also promote my article in DeHaan Services (" Take the High Road for Target Heart Rates" ). Writing Tip
To reiterate a favourite writing tip: start and continue a series of articles when you have a big topic and the freedom to continue writing.
Although my publishing cycle at Decoded Science has been delayed by "bespoke" work for other clients, I've carved out some time for another Mathematics article in the series about Prime Numbers: " Four Personalized Prime Number Formulae". Here I continue my practice of pre-publishing the images that I personally create here in my Blog of Writing, prior to submitting the article to Decoded Science. "Fermat Numbers" by Mike DeHaan Merely a spreadsheet with a few Fermat numbers, nonetheless it illustrates a point in the article.
"Pierpont Numbers" by Mike DeHaan Likewise, may I present a spreadsheet with a selection of Pierpont numbers. Here is my usual reference to DeHaan Services (" A Tangled Tale of Four Personalized Prime Numbers" ) and a writing tip. Writing Tip
Today's writing tip is to remain open to the possibilities when researching and writing your article. When I began this particular article about prime numbers, I simply wanted to list a few more "personalized" sets of primes. This would balance a prior article, " The Complex Tale of Eisenstein Prime Numbers". Otherwise it would seem that Eisenstein was unique for having some primes named after him. Instead, I found these four mathematicians were entangled because of their very personalized primes.Always look for unexpected relationships; in my view, these can make for the most interesting stories.
My latest Suite 101 article, " Mennonite Beliefs about Grace versus Works in Salvation", justifies a comment I made near the end of a previous article. I had stated an opinion on what many Mennonites believed, but had run out of room to substantiate my claim. "Menno Simons" by unknown Besides, there was no room to write about Christian salvation in " A Mennonite View of Work in the Story of Noah and the Ark". As always, I also promote my article in DeHaan Services (" Mennonites and the Work of Grace" ), although it adds very little to the story. Writing Tips
The usual tip in this circumstance is to embrace the chance to write a series of articles.
Today's first writing tip is different: Ensure you stay on topic in one online article. As they said in Star Wars, "Stay on target".
That is, of course, a good reason to write the next article in the series.
The second writing tip is to remember to build links from one article to the next...and back to the previous. The interested readers will follow those links, thereby giving you more page views.
Actually, the second in my DeHaan Fitness and Weight Control series is " The Low End of Target Heart Rates". "Heart with Anterior Wall Dysfunction" by Patrick J. Lynch The first in the series introduced the concept of target heart rate. The current article explains why and how to exercise at relatively low target heart rates. As always, I also promote my articles in my DeHaan Services site (" Taking the Low Road of Target Heart Rates" ). Writing Tip
This is an oldie-but-goldie writing tip.
Pick a big topic, plan to write a series, then get going and write the series.
It's easier than thinking of new micro-articles; big topics don't fit in medium-sized blogs; and there are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) advantages to interlinking several articles on one site.
While there is always room to argue that "late" is worse than "never" in the realm of reporting news, allow me to boldly take that risk.
I describe Suite 101 as an online magazine with a split focus on news plus "evergreen" articles. It is one of the very first sites for which I wrote articles, and I continue to do so.
Three newsworthy events occurred fairly recently.
Personal Sub-Domains at Suite 101
Picture of Mike DeHaan Conceived as a response to Google's "Panda" changes, Suite 101 decided to give each author a unique sub-domain. My Suite 101 articles, as well as my "Author's Profile", are now found in the " http://mike-dehaan.suite101.com/ " sub-domain. Promoted to Feature Writer
A few months ago, Suite 101 again asked writers to apply for an upgrade to "Featured Writer". Since I already met the entrance criteria, and felt I could easily live with the responsibility to submit at least one article a month to any topic, I applied.
The editorial staff approved on Oct. 21st, 2011.
Yes, I was pleased.
My First "Editor's Choice" Article
Image of "Northern Snakehead Fish, or Channa argus" by brian.gratwicke My August 9th article, " Will Closing a Canal Avert an Ecological Natural Disaster?",was given an Editor's Choice award on Oct. 31. Again: yes, I was pleased.
I wrote my latest article, " The Complex Tale of Eisenstein Prime Numbers", for Decoded Science because the editor had added an image that needed an explanation. "Eisentstein Primes on Grid", image by Fropuff Although this is not the "image that launched a new article", it is a bit similar. As it turned out, "Eisenstein Prime Numbers" are more complex than I had anticipated. Still, it was a rewarding process to learn about them and distill that information into an online article. I continue my practice of also promoting my article in DeHaan Services (" Explaining Eisenstein Prime Numbers in Decoded Science"). Writing Tip
If memory serves, today's writing tip is new to my Weebly Blog of Writing.
If you are writing to inform, ensure that your articles do carry information. If you leave a mystery behind (such as the image in the previous article), explain it quickly. Especially if it means you have to learn something new: if you had to fill a gap in your knowledge, your readers probably needed to be "filled in", too.
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