…and this is a 
Scienceblogs is experiencing some technical difficulties right now: the guts of the machine are being very recalcitrant and generating time-out errors all over the place. Please be patient and heed the message when making comments: getting an error when posting does not necessarily mean the comment did not get posted. Most often, it just means that the MovableType software has gotten very, very stupid.
And if you think you're having problems with comments, you can't imagine how bad it is for us trying to post articles. I just tried to create a new entry, and went off to a doctor's appointment while waiting for the window to open.
Technology
Comments
Posted by: Monado | October 7, 2008 5:17 PM
Rule 1: If the software's being stupid, write in a text file so that when it goes away and doesn't come back, you still have your work.
Good luck!
I've noticed the slowness but just about every time, when I check, the comment was actually posted.
Now some good news, if off-topic: Two years of getting an inoculation against pneumonia cuts the risk of heart attack by more than half. An unintended benefit!
Posted by: Mus | October 7, 2008 5:21 PM
Stuff like this always compels me to try and see if my comment will be posted.
Posted by: Jared | October 7, 2008 5:45 PM
The wonders of infested software...
Posted by: Kel | October 7, 2008 5:48 PM
Maybe this is God's way of telling you to destroy more Eucharists.
Posted by: Helioprogenus | October 7, 2008 5:54 PM
You've all finally gone and done it. After all that Jesus bashing, sticking nails in his flesh, the punishment is being handed to you all. Soon, Armageddon shall ravage your flesh and fling your innards in an expanding spherical shell to your neighbors house. The wrath is coming, abandon ship. Well, it's not as silly as the techno doom scenario parlayed by the Y2K nonsense.
Posted by: Aaron | October 7, 2008 5:58 PM
OMG!!!! DDOS ATTACK BY THE CL!!!!!
Posted by: ennui | October 7, 2008 6:03 PM
Make sure that Dr. Jellyfinger sees the "EXIT ONLY" tattoo on your back! Or not.
Posted by: AAB | October 7, 2008 6:04 PM
it is all mercury's fault..
Posted by: AAB | October 7, 2008 6:05 PM
it is all mercury's fault..
Posted by: Chris (in Columbus) | October 7, 2008 6:21 PM
It's ok ScienceBlogs! Just keep praying and God will heal you! And if that doesn't work, maybe a good hit to the forehead will do the trick...
Posted by: Ichthyic | October 7, 2008 6:27 PM
it is all mercury's fault..
I can't tell if that's a comment from an anti-vaxer or an astrologist any more.
:p
Posted by: Insightful Ape | October 7, 2008 7:02 PM
It's all your own fault, PZ. You didn't pray hard enough.
Posted by: MPG | October 7, 2008 7:06 PM
¡uǝʞoɹq ʎllɐǝɹ ǝq ʇsnɯ ʇı
˙˙˙ʇuǝɯɯoɔ ʎɯ oʇ pǝuǝddɐɥ sıɥʇ ʍoɥ ǝnlɔ ɐ ʇ,uǝʌɐɥ I
Posted by: Zeno | October 7, 2008 7:07 PM
I'm having visions of Bill Donohue wearing a funny hat in a darkened room, surrounded by clouds of incense and holding burning candles. What are you doing, Bill? ... Bill? ... Oh, no! Bill! (Hey, where did the candles go?)
Posted by: Sydney S | October 7, 2008 7:22 PM
See, and now I've made me self a fool by double posting and triple posting for my first two posts here ever. Oh well, so goes the learning process.
Posted by: cytochrome-c | October 7, 2008 7:54 PM
Found this little gem on the NRO:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2U5YTJiMzhjNDNhZTcwZGYyZjcyMzQyZWNmNjJjN2E=
Will Obama kill science? Probably not, but McCain might.
Posted by: Romeo Vitelli | October 7, 2008 7:55 PM
"¡uǝʞoɹq ʎllɐǝɹ ǝq ʇsnɯ ʇı
˙˙˙ʇuǝɯɯoɔ ʎɯ oʇ pǝuǝddɐɥ sıɥʇ ʍoɥ ǝnlɔ ɐ ʇ,uǝʌɐɥ I"
MPG, how did you do that? It looks cool.
Posted by: woodstein312 | October 7, 2008 8:22 PM
Found a funny comic:
http://www.gocomics.com/poochcafe/?ref=poc_gce_b5
Posted by: Patricia | October 7, 2008 8:39 PM
It must be John Knight's threat coming true.
Posted by: JohnnieCanuck, FCD | October 7, 2008 9:31 PM
MPG, you need to work on your 'L's. They're still normal side up.
How long have you been waiting for an excuse to use this talent?
Posted by: Monado | October 7, 2008 10:08 PM
It's like that in the source: must be Unicode characters.
Posted by: JohnnieCanuck, FCD | October 7, 2008 10:31 PM
˙ʇɐɥʇ ǝʞıl ǝq ǝuıℲ
Someone has had too much time on his/her hands, though I wouldn't be surprised if MPG used someone else's example as a template. I did.
Pasting his characters into the keyboard input screen on my Mac shows that there are quite a few Unicode characters with names like 'LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED R' which is 'ɹ'.
Since apparently not all letters are available, some of his are ingenious adaptations, like 'ɔ' which is really 'LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O'
I hope MPR or the person responsible for the above marvel has access to a more efficient way of doing this than searching through the Unicode pages, as I would have been forced to do.
Nerds. Where would we be without them? Lʉlʑ.
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | October 7, 2008 10:43 PM
@#22:
Aww. C',mon. It was at least engaging for a moment.
Posted by: Aaron | October 7, 2008 10:47 PM
#11: You win at humor. :D
Posted by: Cujo359 | October 8, 2008 12:05 AM
For what it's worth -
I've posted two comments that resulted in the timeout window. Both comments were posted sucessfully, though.
I'm impressed by MPG's handiwork.
Posted by: Simon Scott | October 8, 2008 7:11 AM
No wonder! They run redhat!!!
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://www.scienceblogs.com
Try installing a real distro, f00lz!!!!!
:)
Posted by: MPG | October 8, 2008 8:36 AM
I used to do the "upside-down" Unicode text trick manually, but someone else went to the trouble of creating a tool that does it for you, so it's not nearly as nerdy or timewasting as it appears.
¡ɥƃnoɥʇ 'ʇı ɟo pnoɹd puɐ pɹǝu ɐ llıʇs ɯɐ I
http://swizzy.frih.net/tools/49/flip
The tool isn't perfect though - no caps, no numbers, and a few of the letter forms could have been better chosen. But it's great for bamboozling people all the same.
Posted by: Crazy Fitter | October 8, 2008 9:36 AM
So thats prob why I double posted on the train post. I thought it was because I have an old steam driven laptop and on Sunday while spending my obligatory hour on Richard Dawkins site I spilt some red wine on it while eating my cracker......Ohhh shiiiit!!!
Posted by: Sili | October 8, 2008 10:35 AM
To flip text put "flip" (without quotes in the email field).
Didn't someone yesterday ask how we'd like it if someone tried to break this website? Guess he made good on the offer.
Does this mean that PeeZed will get a Ferrari next?
Anyway. I think we know who to blame for this problem. The old git has terrible aim.