What in the World is This?

....Of Cabbage--and Kings, is a blog for science and medical writers or anyone interested in science and science journalism. There are lots of places you can go now, but most of the time you are inundated with a lot of junk--junk here being defined as press releases sent out for the purpose of sending out press releases; stories that shouldn’t be done by anyone because the science is bad or the stories simply aren’t important, or stories that are badly done. This is subjective, viewed through the prism of someone who has been doing it for 30 years and has grown more than a little cynical. It is not true, as I have sometimes stated, that there are really only three science stories and we’ve all done them all a hundred times. It is true, however, that there are fewer real stories in relation to the number actually produced. I will be your filter. A subjective filter, to be sure, but a good place to start. I will use two criteria: stories that are worth doing because they are newsworthy, and stories that are worth doing because they are fun and no responsible writer would consider passing them up.
I draw from both the old and the new media, keeping in mind that the new media--which means stuff posted on the Internet by amateurs, fakers and hacks without the processes or ethics of journalism, are not to be trusted. If I can link to an original source that does not require payment, I will do so. If the only source is secondary--a newspaper or magazine, that will be the link. Some of you actually do original digging.
There is a place for comments, and if you all want a running dialog, be my guest. I reserve the right to moderate for civility and pertinence.

Joel Shurkin