Blog housekeeping
oracknows | March 22, 2006At the time this post is scheduled to appear, I should be somewhere over the Midwest on my way to California to attend a surgical meeting for a few days. Don't worry, though, Orac-philes, I haven't left you in the lurch, without that Respectful Insolence that I like to dish out and that you (well, most of you anyway) like to read. There are posts already written and scheduled to appear tomorrow while I'm learning about the latest in surgical oncology. Also, meetings usually provide pretty good blog fodder, which means I'll probably come up with something for Friday too. After that, I'll play…
oracknows | March 17, 2006Ever since I started blogging 15 months ago, I had always wondered if this day would come, if my blog would ever become popular enough for this day to come, something that was hard to imagine back when I was averaging less than 50 visits a day to this blog.
Finally it has.
I can no longer respond to everyone's e-mails. It just isn't feasible anymore.
The volume has just gotten to the point where it takes too much time, and, over the last week, as I fell farther and farther behind, I decided that I have to rethink my practice with regard to e-mail on this blog or risk being buried. It was…
oracknows | March 9, 2006Those of you who've been around a while may have noticed something different about the blog over the last few days.
What's happened is that, instead of doing what I normally used to do with my old Blogspot blog and either posting right after midnight or posting messages that I had written the night before right before I left for work every morning, now posts are appearing throughout the day. They're no longer bunched up at midnight or between 5:30 and 7:30 AM. Does that mean I'm risking my job blogging at work continually?
Of course not.
It's because of the wonder of scheduled posts. Now,…
oracknows | March 3, 2006A quick announcement:
I've been having a bit of a comment spam problem on the old blog, which is now mothballed and is only maintained as an archive site. Consequently, over the next few days to weeks, I am going to march through all the posts and disable comments.
I hate comment spammers.
oracknows | February 26, 2006Well, that didn't last long, did it? I've only been on ScienceBlogs for less that two weeks, and already I'm no longer the new kid on the block.
Nope, that honor now goes to William Connolley. Welcome Stoat to the Borg--I mean ScienceBlogs--collective. It looks as though he isn't integrated into the main ScienceBlogs page and newsfeed yet, but presumably he will be on Monday when the techies are back.
oracknows | February 21, 2006Although the most serious blog problems (such as my not being able to post) appear to be resolved, that doesn't mean that everything is peaches and cream here at ScienceBlogs. Apparently the servers have been getting slammed by spammers attempting to deluge us with comment spam. Consequently, we have all been asked to tighten our security up. That is why a valid e-mail address is required to comment here. Don't worry. Neither I nor ScienceBlogs use the e-mail address for anything other than comment verification. If you ever have reason to suspect otherwise, let me know, and, like Chad, I…
oracknows | February 15, 2006How annoying.
I had the perfect dubious medical test that I had wanted to write about from a skeptical viewpoint. It was a test that looked at many different blood tests and biomarkers and claimed to be far more sensitive at detecting cancer and a wide variety of diseases. It was obvious to me that its claims were without basis, and, as I settled down to watch the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, my laptop at the ready, I was all set to write yet another brilliant takedown of such nonsense.
And then an annoying thing happened.
I couldn't for the life of me locate the link to the nonsense to…
oracknows | February 13, 2006Orac is disturbed.
He had entered the ScienceBlogs network expecting rapid integration into its continuum, allowing him the communing with other science-loving beings that he craved. But it had not happened.
Something was wrong.
The feed through which Orac's insolence was to flow to the world was only partially working.
What was going on?
Orac computed. Multicolored lights pulsated.
Then Orac had the answer. His posts were not appearing on the main ScienceBlogs page, nor had his feed been integrated into the main aggregated ScienceBlogs feed. His insolence, respectful and not-so-respectful,…
oracknows | February 13, 2006As promised, here is the first list of links of "classic insolence" from the old blog. For new readers, this is a place to start as far as my writings about quackery and dubious alternative medicine:
What is an "altie"?
Understanding alternative medicine "testimonials" for cancer cures
Battling quackery in conventional medicine
How can intelligent people use alternative medicine?
The Orange Man
How not to win friends and influence people
Polio returns, thanks to anti-vaccination zealots
Antivaccination rhetoric running rampant on the Huffington Post (Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6)…