Yearly round-up time! Top 10 posts of 2011

Another year, another another obligatory list of the top-ranking posts from the last twelve months. Thanks to the magic that is Google Analytics, I give you the 10 most trafficked Preliator entries of 2011:

(Note: stats retrieved 12/29/11 1:08 PM ET)

#10: Orangutan rescues drowning bird chick
Posted: June 11, 2011 | Total Pageviews: 318
Awesome video of an ape pulling a trapped baby bird out of the water and examining it with either curiosity or compassion (if not both).

#9: Vox Day’s classy response to objectification of women scientists
Posted: June 03, 2011 | Total Pageviews: 464
Aetiology’s Dr. Tara Smith vents about being objectified; Vox Day seizes the chance to belittle her concerns and deride her as a “transparently superficial twit” who only complained in order to seek attention. Classy chap.

#8: Vox Day: Science can’t explain everything!
Posted: July 11, 2011 | Total Pageviews: 493
Another Vox post, wherein he attacks PZ Myers over his own blatant misunderstanding of the nature of science.

#7: Zon: Follow-up on Penny Arcade and dickwolves
Posted: February 08, 2011 | Total Pageviews: 526
My friend Zon writes some more about yesteryear’s Penny Arcade “dickwolves” controversy (original post below at #5). Comes with a somewhat protracted debate in the comments section.

#6: Ask an Atheist Day marred by occasional self-stabbing nut
Posted: April 13, 2011 | Total Pageviews: 842
Wherein an “Ask an Atheist Day” event was rudely interrupted by an inconsiderate student who stabbed himself in the hand to “prove to us God existed”. No comment on whether any divine revelations were had.

#5: Zon: On the matter of Penny Arcade and dickwolves
Posted: February 04, 2011 | Total Pageviews: 871
Zon’s first post regarding the “dickwolves” affair. Includes another lengthy debate in the comments.

#4: Facebookers don’t want no Stephen Hawking book smartz
Posted: June 07, 2011 | Total Pageviews: 1,208
A friend of mine tips me off to a couple of mind-numbingly (and proudly) moronic Facebook users attacking Stephen Hawking and science in general.

#3: Vox Day continues to expose his own scientific illiteracy
Posted: August 01, 2011 | Total Pageviews: 1,538
Vox again, still ignorantly attacking science, this time targeting Evolutionary Theory as a whole over a minor reclassification in light of newly revealed evidence.

#2: Indiana court: Police free to enter homes without warrants
Posted: May 13, 2011 | Total Pageviews: 2,061
Reporting on an insane ruling by the Indiana Supreme Court that civilians have no right to resist if cops want to barge into their homes illegally.

#1: Another teen girl shares naked pictures of herself online, gets her life ruined by authorities
Posted: January 03, 2011 | Total Pageviews: 3,027
Yet another tragic story of a teenager who paid an extreme price for “sexting” – not because of what she did, but because of what law enforcement did to her for doing it.

Crazy ride of a year it’s been, hasn’t it? Onwards to Doomsday 2012!