We, Beasties Sporulates

kbonham — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 09:05:33 +0000

A little over 4 years ago, I joined up with three friends from grad school and launched a brand new science blog, "We, Beasties!" The name was meant to be a play on a phrase from Paul de Kruif's somewhat tongue-in-cheak translation of the first-ever microbiologist Antonie von Leeuwenhoek's term "Animacules." von Leeuwenhoek was the first human being to glimpse the world of life invisible to the naked eye, and de Kruif, 400 years later, dubbed those minuscule replicators "wee beasties." Of course, we now know much more about our microbial companions, including their immeasurable impact on our planet, on our ecosystems and on our own physiology. There are more microbes in each person's gut than there have been humans since we first came down from the trees. More microbes in our guts even than human cells in our bodies. As one of my PI's T-shirts says, we're 90% microbe, and this led, with a nod to Isaac Asimov, to the name "We, Beasties."

The blog was planned as a collaboration between four microbe-obsessed scientists. I was focused on infectious disease and the immune system, Heather Olins studied microbial ecology in hydrothermal vents, Emily Gardel used microbes as tools to engineer biological fuel cells, and Dipti Nayak studied microbial evolution. From the beginning though, it was mostly me posting. Even when we got picked up by Scienceblogs less than a year into our effort (thanks mostly to Abbie's advocacy), Emily and Dipti were too busy with their research to devote much effort to writing. Heather wrote a number of great posts, and is also responsible for the post that got the most traffic in the blog's history (remember #arseniclife?), but several months-long trips to sea broke up the flow, and eventually she slowed down as well.

So for the past three years, it's been mostly an immunology blog. I've written about everything about the immune system I could think of, from autoimmune disease to serum sickness to semen allergies, Nobel prizes to parasites, the link between rock climbing and inflammation to the link between Brad Pitt's sexiness and his defense against pathogens. I've written explainers on allergies, medications, and how the immune system responds to a cut from start to finish. I've written about the problems with scientific publication and about Open Access.

A few months ago, I wrote a guest-post for Scientific American's guest blog about allergies and genetically modified food. The community manager there, Bora Zivkovich (some of you may know him as the blogfather) has been planning to launch a group food-related blog for some time, and I suppose my post put me onto his radar, so I've been offered a spot on the team. Though GMOs are what got me in the door, I'm planning on sticking to my immunological and microbial roots. There's so much to talk about! From the effect of the microbes in our gut on metabolism, to autoimmune disorders, to food allergies and sensitivities, the list is endless. And I'll probably keep harping on the GMO controversy, but several of my fellow bloggers have much greater expertise in that realm.

Alas, my new position at SciAm means that I have to close up shop here at Scienceblogs. It's been an amazing experience. Scienceblogs.com was my first exposure to blogs about science (or indeed blogging generally), and the reason I wanted to do it. The idea that professional scientists could have an unmediated conduit to talk to people about their science was immediately appealing, even back in 2006 when I had just graduated from college and didn't really have "my" science.

But it's time for me to move on to other things. So, like a Bacillus anthracis bacterium deprived of nutrients, We, Beasties is sporulating. It's throwing out all non-essential functions and retreating into a dormant state, where it can live for centuries deprived of water and nutrients. Maybe some day, if the conditions are right and a new host wanders along, We, Beasties may hitch a ride, re-activate its metabolism and cause death and disease wherever...

Ok, the analogy isn't perfect.

As for me, I'll be at Food Matters on the SciAm network, along with a host of amazing writers focused on the science of what we eat. The science of food won't always sate me though, so for other musings about infectious disease, public health and the like, check out Red Wine and Lariam, a co-venture with my friend Todd Bixby. Come check them out, update your RSS feeds, and stay in touch!

kbonham Tue, 09/03/2013 - 05:05

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I'm back baby!

kbonham — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 13:06:34 +0000

I'm back baby!

I disappeared for a while to teach a class. At the outset I had grand plans - Not only would I design the course from scratch, give the lectures, and grade the assignments, I would also write up all of the lectures for the blog and maintain my same level pf productivity in the lab. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that in order to accomplish this goal I would either need to give up sleeping or find one of those time-warp thingies from the 3rd Harry Potter book.

Neither of those options seemed reasonable, and so this blog, and indeed my productivity in lab suffered quite a bit.

The good news is that the experience was absolutely amazing. It was a ton of work, and just about everything else in my life was put on hold for the last couple of months, but it's reaffirmed my life path. I've always known that I wanted teaching to be a part of my career, but it's now clear to me that it's what I want to do with my life, full stop.

The other good news is that it's over now - I submitted grades on Friday (most of the students did quite well) and I can now get back to the business of being a graduate student. That is, slaving away at the bench instead of in front of my computer. Also, I'm going to feel like I have a lot more free time, and I've got a ton of material to post here related to the class (be patient Murray!). And the void left by not teaching any more in the classroom will be filled by posting here... I hope!

I hope everyone has a Happy Solstice, I'll see you on the other side!

kbonham Fri, 12/21/2012 - 08:06

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Scienceblogs RSS and other dilemas

kbonham — Sun, 27 May 2012 08:25:42 +0000

Scienceblogs RSS and other dilemas

The kinks continue to get ironed out one by one after our massive migration. Most of the major problems are happening on the backend, and are likely invisible to you guys (except for the fact that some typically prolific posters have slowed down a bit), but there are a couple of things that I've noticed that probably will affect you.

The biggest one is the RSS feeds, and specifically the "select" feed. If you usually use RSS to keep up to date on the blogs here, your old links are probably broken (at least, all of the one I had were). If you look at the right sidebar, there's a link to a new RSS feed on every blog, and those appear to be working fine. The select feed, on the other hand, remains broken. Our new interface doesn't have any mechanism to flag posts for the select feed anymore, and I couldn't tell you what the new feed url would be anyway. We're told they're working on it.

Another thing that might affect you in a roundabout way is the high levels of spam. The filters that had been built up over the years at moveable type seem to be gone, and it's a bit out of hand. I'm getting 15-20 spam comments per day, and I'm one of the lower traffic blogs. This is mostly a pain for us, but you might notice that it will take a bit longer for comments to get approved. The good new is, once you comment on someone's blog and they approve it, you should be automatically approved for future posts. I've started to close comments on older posts that are attracting the most spam - you might notice other bloggers doing the same.

Finally, you were promised threaded comments (the ability to reply directly to other comments), and that's not live yet, though supposedly it's coming.

So far, the web team has been incredibly responsive to our issues, and have fixed them pretty fast. Like I said, there are still a bunch of things that are higher priority on the backend, so it may take a while for these things to get sorted, but I'm sure it will happen sooner rather than later.

If you pick up on anything else problematic or that doesn't seem right, please let me know and I'll pass it up the chain.

kbonham Sun, 05/27/2012 - 04:25

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Not just Select feed, but also Combined feed. For example, links at Scienceblogging.org do not work. Homepage also does not seem to show the newest posts, so how does one discover the newest posts on the network as a whole? Will Last24H page come back?

Also, I see that every single blog that was ever on the network is back on the Menu up right - including my own. I also keep getting Spam comment email notifications about 20 times per day, and, weirdest of all - I am able to log in and send them into spam folder. I bet if I wanted to, I could publish new posts and those would be visible in various places and feeds....

@ Coturnix - We’ve been told last 24 hours, the combined feed and the select feed will all be coming back… someday. We’ve also been told that they’re working on identifying and inactivating legacy blogs, but I bet you’re right that you could start posting again (if you wanted to).

If you can access your dashboard, chances are you can disable the setting that sends you e-mails with new comments (and they’ll just all be held in moderation). Or, there’s an option that says “close comments on posts older than X days” that you might be able to make use of.

A little bird told me the Combined feed will be fixed on Monday.

Well, that's exciting. Did this bird mention anything about select feed and our individual blog feeds?

I didn't notice the absence of this blog on my google reader feeder due to the huge amount of post that I read every morning. Many blogs are using a kind of facebook login so that you can chose to share or not a comment and a page directly from here.

Keep the wonderful work

Thanks

I figured a lot of people would be in the same boat as you (especially since I hadn't been posting much leading up to the transition). In glad you found your way back.

Select feed seems to be completely gone.

Aaaaaand we're up!

kbonham — Wed, 23 May 2012 07:05:30 +0000

Aaaaaand we're up!

Welcome to the new Science Blogs. You might have noticed some changes around here - let us know which changes you like and which you don't. One of the biggest things affecting your experience is the comment system - you can now reply directly to other people's comments, and you can login so you don't have to re-enter all your information each time (though you can still comment without logging in if you prefer). The moderation system is quite a bit easier from my end, which shouldn't affect you much, but will probably reduce the number of legitimate comments that get buried in the spam folder.

Despite my New Year's Resolution to blog more, I've continued to be delinquent, but I'm going to shamelessly blame it on the transition and attempt to re-up now (never mind the fact that plenty of other people have continued to do fine work over the last couple of months). Also, I plan to run a series of re-posts of some of my favorites over the last couple of years - I'm hoping we're about to get some new readers from the NatGeo network, and these will hopefully give folks a way to get acquainted with the sort of stuff I write about here at We Beasties.

Let me know what you like about the new design, what you dislike, and if there's anything you're not seeing that you'd like to see (both in terms of style and of content).

kbonham Wed, 05/23/2012 - 03:05

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New Year's Resolution: Blogging

kbonham — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

New Year's Resolution: Blogging

My birthday was last week, which means I get a whole new chance to set some New Year's resolutions. My regular readers (all 3 of you) might have noticed a serious dearth of posting lately. I have many excuses:

1) I'm (hopefully) coming up on my last year as a PhD student, and I'm in serious data-generation mode.

2) I've been spending more time on climbing, photography, and other things that are not science-related in order to give my brain some down time.

A photo I took of 2 friends on the side of Mt Cannon in New Hampshire

3) The current back-end of Scienceblogs is truly awful. While writing my last post on our sexy, sexy immune systems, the post was almost entirely lost at one point when I was near the end. We've been told that we'll be migrating to the new wordpress backend sometime in the next few weeks, but it was originally supposed to happen back in January, so who really knows?

In the end though, these aren't great excuses, and I've been thinking it's time to get back in the saddle. I usually try to keep my resolutions manageable - I probably won't be doing 5 posts/week. But once/week? Maybe if you'll indulge me linking to music videos and other random crap every so often, I can get that up to 2 or 3 times/week. I'll try to keep it mostly substantive though.

And, as always, if you have any ideas for stuff you'd like me to write about, don't hesitate to leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail.

kbonham Tue, 04/17/2012 - 09:00

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Good luck on the data generation. Looks like your having fun too. I'll let the other two know what you've been up to. I've been kinda curious myself.

Happy Birthday, Kevin. Keep up the science.

Cheers,
NS

I see two responses so far, so I guess I'm the third regular.

I'll send some ideas :)

Literally all the cool people have their birthdays in April.

:-D

To include Hitler . . . who shares a birthday with someone in my family whom I loathe . . .

Blog MOAR!

Another advantage of blogging

tsmith — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Another advantage of blogging

As you may have noticed from the extended radio silence, it's been a busy few months between classes (both taking them and giving them), tenure packaging, and research. To add another responsibility to the mix, I gave a talk a few weeks back at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture's annual symposium. This year, the featured topic was antibiotics and agriculture, so I was invited to give an overview of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and livestock.

While I'm always happy to give talks to new audiences, discussing my work and the state of the field in general, I have to admit that I was a bit nervous. Given that my work hasn't really yielded the results that many in the ag industry want to hear (who wants to hear about yet another ag-related pathogen to deal with? I get that), I knew the audience might not be exactly the most welcoming, as it was composed largely of industry representatives. However, as I was prepping both my talk and reading up on potential issues that might come up during the planned question/answer period, I realized that blogging has provided me with yet another advantage--a really thick skin.

Now sure, simply being a scientist helps with this as well. You have to get used to rejection and a lot of criticism or you won't make it--grants rejected, papers rejected, ideas torn apart in various grad school defenses, etc. You need to possess, or learn, humility. However, blogging on the topics that I do also leads to a lot of less restrained, and more personal, attacks. If you can get used to those, and gain the skill of either ignoring them or responding in a fitting manner, what can your other critics possibly do to you that are any worse? At least in a conference setting, I'm probably not going to get criticized (openly, at least) on my appearance, age, etc.--hopefully, critics will stick to my science and keep their remarks in that realm. And I'm definitely much more comfortable responding to limitations in my study design or analyses and where they fit into the big picture of the field than defending what I'm wearing.

So, was the Q&A a bloodbath? I felt like I was prepared to handle about anything that could be thrown at me, but alas, it ended up to being a disappointment. I was one of the last talks of the day, and we were running behind schedule due to earlier talks, so the moderator cut off our planned discussion portion to give the final speaker almost his full allotted time. When the meeting ended, I was hoping a few people might come to discuss and challenge my results and conclusions, but that didn't happen either. A bit of a bummer, but I suppose it's better to be over-prepared for questions that don't happen than not ready for those that do, and blogging also prepares you for curveballs. Many of my readers are laymen and sometimes have very basic questions over knowledge that I take for granted, just the same as many in the audience at this meeting (a good number were farmers rather than scientists). So, it prepares one to be able to step back a bit as well, in addition to being ready for the hard science questions.

Is this training limited to blogging? Nope. But I think regular blogging helps you to hone these skills--rather than only needing to answer tough questions during talks or presentations, it's a more regular occurrence (and under less stressful circumstances, I might add). Score one more for science blogging.

tsmith Tue, 11/08/2011 - 03:00

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Academia

Blogging and commenting on same (and similar, like Facebook) sure does make me more nimble, able to type out good enough statements in a short time. I composed this about as fast as I can type.

Totally concur. I have found myself in real-life situations (discussions with anti-vaxxers, etc) and because of the wrestling in the blog discussions I was entirely prepared for any twist of the conversation. Parried every thrust effectively.

It also loads me with ammunition and data.

Great post! I totally agree! I recently started a blog out of my genuine interest in research and writing and thought blogging would offer me a great forum to discuss cutting-edge research with the public. Admittedly, as PhD student, it can seem difficult to discuss complex biological phenomena free of jargon, but I find that my blogging, I not only help improve science literacy in the public, but also ensure my knowledge of the subject. Similar to teaching undergraduate courses, I find that blogging tests the depth of my knowledge and interest in immunology. I believe that blogging, like teaching, has plenty of benefits the most prevalent of which is improved communication skills (both oral and written)-which is vital to succeeding in any field, and is becoming more essential for aspiring academic scientists.

Chances are if you're reading this post, you most likely have an innate interest in learning science, and if you're interested in learning and discussing the research findings behind the headlines in the fields of immunology, human health and disease, I encourage you to check out Escaping Anergy: The Immunology Research Blog @ http://escapinganergy.blogspot.com/

Hey, is this thing still on?

greengabbro — Thu, 12 May 2011 12:37:04 +0000

Hey, is this thing still on?

Feedburner tells me that there are still more than 50 people waiting patiently for my next post here. Um. Hi?

When I shifted from personal/political blogging to science blogging, and particularly when I started writing here at ScienceBlogs, I wanted to be a reliable source. Turns out that it's difficult for me to care about being reliable without dredging up a whole bunch of other issues about wanting to be seen as an AUTHORITAH! - Cartman voice and and all. So, that slowly got to be less fun.

Turns out, I miss having a blog that was less about explaining things, and more about discussing them.

I'm not making any promises - it's been almost 10 years since I started doing this and I have never made promises - but I've written a couple of posts about foraging and bicycles, which are things I've been doing lately that I don't feel so much like an authoritah! about. They're on my old domain. That's where more posts will appear, too, if I write them.

greengabbro Thu, 05/12/2011 - 08:37

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Hi Maria! Yes, indeed, I'm still here and eagerly awaiting more Green Gabbro. Bring it on!

We are paaaaatient, precious. Veeeeery patient!

Oh,a nd yeah, I'm subscribed to your other one too. I like hearing about you, even if I don't have very much direct contact any more. a pity.

I am so happy--always good to check Green Gabbro in anticipation of a new entry! I look forward to many new stories/thoughts/opinions------

Hei hei. I, too, use this route to scienceblogs, 'cause hey, I don't want or require authroetieh, but another happy scientist perspective of how these physics and reality bump into mundane, ooh, tasty plant food, or practical, wow, coding is like knitting patterns. Science never lacks its white knights or champions, however transmogifiers in short supply. muy hugs, nes

Shrink Rap Survey on Attitudes Towards Psychiatry

j7uy5 — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 22:39:35 +0000

Shrink Rap Survey on Attitudes Towards Psychiatry

The good folks at Shrink Rap are conducting a survey about attitudes toward psychiatry. I would appreciate it is some of you would participate.

j7uy5 Sun, 04/24/2011 - 18:39

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Rap is a lifestyle for me .

Probleem ei ole vÃµimalik minna tualetti on vabaks lastud. NÃ¼Ã¼d probleem on vÃµimeline lÃµpetama lÃ¤heb. : ( .

Nach elf Tagen ohne ein Idiot genannt Sam, ist er wieder bei der Arbeit. Wenn die Chefs der NÃ¤he sind, ist er braun nosing. Irgendeinen Vorwand, um die Zimmer sind in Kraft, als wolle er sagen "schau mich an. Ich arbeite." Seine Haltung zu anderen Arbeitskollegen, wenn die Bosse nicht sind rund ist: "Ich bin besser als du". Er zieht ein Witz und es ist lustig (im Kopf). Aber wenn du einen Witz auf sich zu ziehen. Sie sind die niedrigsten aller Lebensformen, und er schreit ihm den Kopf ab wie ein VierjÃ¤hriger Wutanfall. Park innerhalb von 6 FuÃ (2 m) von seinem smart und Sie sind ihn blockiert.

Ask yourself these questions. (1) In what part of the past would you like to live in ? (2) Why you would like to live at that time ? (3) Could you survive in that time using only the tools and equipment available at that time ?

Die DÃ¤cher sind aus unterschiedlichen Materialien hergestellt. Holz, Stroh, Schiefer, Stein, Metall, Kunststoff und alles andere, die verwendet werden kÃ¶nnen. Meistens hÃ¤ngt, wo Sie sind in der Welt und wie viel Sie kaufen kÃ¶nnen, um welche Art von Dach haben Sie.

DÃonta atÃ¡ dÃ©anta as Ã¡bhair Ã©agsÃºla. Adhmaid, tuÃ, sclÃ¡taÃ, cloch, miotal, plaisteach agus aon rud eile gur fÃ©idir a ÃºsÃ¡id. Den chuid is mÃ³ ag brath ar an Ã¡it a bhfuil tÃº ar fud an domhain agus cÃ© mhÃ©ad is fÃ©idir leat a cheannach, mar a cÃ©n cineÃ¡l dÃon beidh ort.

MissÃ¤ olemme nyt kehityksestÃ¤ tiellÃ¤? Olemmeko tulossa sivistyneitÃ¤ tai vielÃ¤ mennÃ¤Ã¤n alaspÃ¤in polkua kasvaa tuhoisat voimat? MeidÃ¤n lÃ¤Ã¤ketieteellinen tietÃ¤mys kasvaa harppauksin jokaisessa sodassa, mutta ei niin suuresti kuin meidÃ¤n tuhoisia aseita. Jos meidÃ¤n lÃ¤Ã¤ketieteellisen tietÃ¤myksen oli kasvanut yhtÃ¤ nopeasti kuin aseemme, voimme elÃ¤Ã¤ kahden tai useamman vuosisadan ajan.

Miks inimesed nÃ¤lga surema maailmas, mis toodab rohkem toitu kui ta vajab? Veebilehele ta Ã¼tles, see oli tingitud logistika liikuvate toitu. Ma Ã¼tlen, see on rohkem pistmist kasumit, kui puudub vÃµime liikuda toitu, kus seda vajatakse. Ka mÃµned kolmanda maailma riikidele ekspordime toit, mida nad vajavad, et nad saavad raha eest muid asju. Kui me kÃµik isegi poolel teel, mida me nimetame inimkonna keegi oleks nÃ¤lga. Aga me oleme inimesed ja ei suuda elada upto meie head ideaale.

Yn unig oedd darllen am derfysgoedd yn Llundain a mannau eraill ar y safle we y BBC. Dylent ddefnyddio pwyntiau bwled rwber, CS nwy a phupur chwistrell nes y terfysgwyr yn mynd yn analluog. Yna llong iddynt Afghanistan er mwyn iddynt ddysgu sut i ymddwyn.

Riots once more tear through several cities of England. Many people will turn up for their place of work today to find it wrecked or worse, destroyed. How many more are going to lose their jobs as their place of employment was destroyed ? Bring in the army and have a no holds barred in dealing with the rioters. They want to hurt others by throwing brick and other things, so should have the same violence back at them.

Mellakoita kerran repiÃ¤ lÃ¤pi useissa kaupungeissa Englannissa. Monet ihmiset kÃ¤Ã¤ntyvÃ¤t jopa heidÃ¤n tyÃ¶paikallaan tÃ¤nÃ¤Ã¤n lÃ¶ytÃ¤Ã¤ sen tuhonneet tai pahempaa, tuhotaan. Kuinka monet muut ovat menossa menettÃ¤vÃ¤t tyÃ¶paikkansa heidÃ¤n tyÃ¶paikoillaan tuhoutui? Tuo armeijassa ja on mitÃ¤Ã¤n aiheita kÃ¤siteltÃ¤essÃ¤ mellakoijia. He haluavat vahingoittaa muita heittÃ¤mÃ¤llÃ¤ tiili ja muita asioita, niin pitÃ¤isi olla sama vÃ¤kivalta takaisin heille.

Meine letzte Woche von der Arbeit an der Regierung Schema. ZurÃ¼ck zur Arbeitslosigkeit Warteschlange nÃ¤chste Woche. Das Programm war nur fÃ¼r 13 Wochen und endet in vier Tagen. Langeweile und kaum genug Geld zum Leben. : ( .

MÉnim keÃ§Én hÉftÉ dÃ¶vlÉt sxem Ã¼zrÉ iÅlÉyir. GÉlÉn hÉftÉ iÅsizlik queue qayÄ±t. Sxemi on Ã¼Ã§ hÉftÉ idi ki, dÃ¶rd gÃ¼n ÉrzindÉ baÅa Ã§atÄ±r. CansÄ±xÄ±cÄ±lÄ±q vÉ yaÅamaq Ã¼Ã§Ã¼n ancaq kifayÉt qÉdÉr pul. :( .

Vaid kaks pÃ¤eva pÃ¤rast seda pÃ¤eva kallal valitsuse kava. :( Siis kÃ¼lge tagasi tÃ¶Ã¶tuse jÃ¤rjekorda jÃ¤rgmisel nÃ¤dalal. Kolmteist nÃ¤dala teevad tÃ¶Ã¶d ja ainult saada 45 protsenti miinimumpalgast seda ja valitsus kÃ¼sib, miks sÃ¼steem ei ole populaarne! Kui ma olin makstakse miinimumpalka oleksin nautisin seda enam ja oli raha kogunenud.

Olen visted mitmeid veebisaite minevikus thirteen nÃ¤dalat mu tÃ¶Ã¶, nii on igav ja teised mistyfing. On saada mÃµningaid teadmisi. Like, kui Jaapanis paar aastat tagasi, tulin nii lÃ¤hedal, bambusest metsa Kyotos. See hÃ¤irib mind, nagu oleksin soovinud visted ta.

You actually managed to truly emphasize the key aspects that ultimately matter, great article.

Employers, employees and manufactures of equipment or supplies are responsible in some way for health and safety.

An elderly couple were having dinner one evening when the husband reached across the table, took his wifeâs hand in his and said , âClara, soon we
will be married 50 years and thereâs something I have to know. In all of these 50 years, have you ever been unfaithful to me?â
Clara replied, âWell, Paul, I have to be honest with you. Yes, Iâve been unfaithful to you three times during these 50 years, but always for a good reason.â
Paul was obviously hurt by his wifeâs confession, but said, âI never suspected. Can you tell me what you mean by âgood reasons?â
Clara said, âThe first time was shortly after we were married, and we were about to lose our little house because we couldnât pay the mortgage. Do you remember that one evening I went to see the banker and the next day he notified you that the loan would be extended?â
Paul recalled the visit to the banker and said, âI can forgive you for that. You saved our home, but what about the second time?â
Clara asked, âAnd do you remember when you were so sick, but we didnât have the money to pay for the heart surgery you needed? Well, I went to see your doctor one night and, if you recall, he did the surgery at no charge.â
âI recall that,â said Paul. âAnd you did it to save my life, so of course I can forgive you for that. Now tell me about the third time.â
âAll right,â Clara said. âSo do you remember when you ran for president of your golf club, and you needed 73 more votes?â

Doctor Dave had slept with one of his patients and felt guilty all day long.

No matter how much he tried to forget about it, he couldn't.

The guilt and sense of betrayal was overwhelming. But every once in a while he'd hear an internal, reassuring voice that said:

"Dave, don't worry about it. You aren't the first doctor to sleep with one of their patients and you won't be the last. And you're single. Just let it go.."

But invariably the other voice would bring him back to reality, whispering:

"Dave you're a vet."

Not a bad blog if I may say so, but I prefer bubble wrap myself. I wonder what a phychiatrist would say about that.

You'll not get me participating on a survey on psychiatry, they would lock me away for life man.

There is no way your getting me answering a survey on psychiatry, they would lock me up and throw away the key.

This article is so bright and bubbly i'm left with bubbles up my nose.

Jack ripped up the blanket and used it as a bandage to stem the blood coming from his wound, an indians arrow had got him right in the meaty piece of flesh on the upper thigh. Jack thought to himself i'm not finnished yet so he grabbed for his rifle again and made to get back in the action. He leveled the rifle at the nearest indian and went to fire at him, but he was out of ammunition. Jack thought to himself i'm not finished yet we'll beat this lot, so he shouts to the general, "where can I get some ammunition general custer"?

Yes, a very happy blog.

On the DDOS attack on Scienceblogs

tlambert — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:50:45 +0000

On the DDOS attack on Scienceblogs

Scienceblogs management informs me:

Let me apologize again for the problems that many of you and your readers are experiencing. The attack is ongoing, originating from Turkey and Qatar, and until it stops, Rackspace must block IP ranges in order for the site to be accessible to anyone. They are also unwilling to manually unblock hundreds upon hundreds of individual IPs. They have advised that we invest in a firewall and additional services from them, but we are still working out what these will cost and how effective they will be. I am not sure if I was correct in thinking that these attacks are not malicious, but I said so because we were told the attackers were trying to use our servers as an open proxy, with the request "GET http://www.kosmodiskmedikal.com/ HTTP/1.1." Upon reflection, I have no idea what that means.

Of course, if you are one of those people whose IP is blocked, you won't see this...

tlambert Tue, 03/15/2011 - 14:50

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I don't know what it could mean either.

But it is curious that SBS TV in Australia has been flooded with stupid ads for (what seems to me to be a bogus product for back pain) Kosmodisk (Sp?).

Actually, if they're reading via rss, they probably will see this.

Uh, how about auto reply with a status update to E-mails to webmaster@scienceblogs.com

Would seem like rackspace could be more cooperative. Their algorithms seems like they need tuning,

Richard Seibel

Yes, a reply (automated) would be helpful. My IP in Cyprus (note to webmaster - Cyprus is not Turkey unless both the occupied North of Cyprus and the free South have the same IP, which is unlikely as they were separated in 1974) is still blocked, as are three proxies I use in the UK.
Now, an attack from Turkey, I (and any Cypriot) would believe, but to block the UK?
As it is, I can get thro' via a proxy in either Germany or Canada (but not the Netherlands).
Duh?

What's this about RSS? I can't update my rss feed from home either, only from work. (I'm in Denmark.)

Hi :)

I don't know what Rackspace is doing, but seems their filtering algorithm is rather lousy.

I work for an ISP. One of our IP address ranges works perfectly and the web server response is excellent, and another one seems to be blocked.

Looking at traffic statistics I don't see any of our users taking part in a DoS attack. Is it possible to have it sorted out? Seems some Spanish prefixes are filtered as well.

4,000,000 visits

tlambert — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 07:22:44 +0000

4,000,000 visits

Sitemeter says there have been 4,000,000 visits to this blog. My thanks to everyone who has dropped by.

tlambert Sat, 11/13/2010 - 02:22

Tags

Meta

Er, now 4,000,001 :-)

PS: Tim, the "million" after the number is presumably a case of unintentional repetition...or you've had a humungous number of site visits!

Oops, I'm still no good at proof reading.

[Tim](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/11/4000000_visits.php#comment-2923…).

Apparently there's a preview button for that, although I never seem to be able to engage it... ;-)

I'd be curious to see how the number of visits breaks down by separate visitors, but I doubt that there'd be any way of working that out. Even so, 4 x 106 is a fair whack of access. Well done.

4,000,000 visits - wow, your mum has discovered the Intertubes.

Well done Tim, you've had that number of posts because you're the 'go to guy' on number of issues, especially DDT. Here's to the next 4 Million... :)

Congrats, Tim. But I feel like I must be responsible for a significant proportion of those visits in just the last day. I'm checking the previous thread constantly. (Your discussion with P Moore is fascinating.) Don't leave me hanging!

I'm delighted to hear your site is proving popular. It deserves to reach the widest possible audience: it's clear, rigorous and timely, and the subject could not possibly be more important. Keep up the good work, and may sanity prevail!

Well, I'm about to hit 40,000, so we're pretty much neck and neck Tim, give or take an odd 0, or two.

But congratulations, fantastic effort, and you seem to effortlessly maintain a very high standard, month after moth, year after year. Here's to the next 4,000,000!

Aargh, sorry, obvious typo there, should of course have been "moth after moth", attracted by the bright light of Deltoid.

Congratulations.

And no, the 4,000,000 million is not an error so much as a prediction. One might say a prophecy. Given an undermined time limit it is not impossible, not even improbable.

No Worries Tim. Glad to help :-)

Does that include bots?

The site summary says:
3,927,251

"My thanks to everyone who has dropped by." On the contrary Tim, that "everyone" should be thanking you.

Congratulations, Tim. For those of us in the benighted backwaters (Alabama, USA in my case), you are a beacon.

"My thanks to everyone"
Everyone?

Yes, everyone.

Vigorous discussions (well, OK, back and forths) obviously contribute to such numbers.

And my thanks too to Tim for the sterling effort involved.

Congrats Tim. This is where I learned about the DDT misinformation and to question AGW skepticism. Still a skeptic, but an open minded one at least. The gun-control discussions were a lot of fun too.

Congratulations!

Congratulations, and thanks for the many years that you have devoted to this project.

Best Regards,
Robert Parson
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Colorado at Boulder.

Congratulations!

I first came across your blog from slashdot, with a link to a post where you picked apart the think-tanks producing certain anti-Linux studies. It was an eye-opener to how corporate funding of ideas work.

I kept reading to understand more about how non-political ideas can be attacked for political reasons. I hope I wouldn't have been tricked into falling for the DDT hoax or the Anti-AGW hoax anyway... but you certainly have given a good vaccine against such things over the years!

Congratulations - you have good posts and good comments, so I learn from the conversation, and you don't let the inmates run the asylum. I hope you have some discussion with Brian Dunning on DDT.
You're a skeptic and a gentleman,

Stewart Longman

Well done, Tim. And thanks you you and many of the posters here for all the enlightenment, especially on the myths about DDT. On the way over here today I did a Google and found that the number 2 "hit" on the parade brought up by "Tim Lambert", just below that of deltoid itself, was a link to that dolt Bolt's site. His piece there (2008) contained a link to a critique, by "JF Beck" (who?) of sthg you and John Q. had written. However, and here's the laugh, that dolt Bolt's link was to a non-existent website. So much for the permanence and lasting value of the arguments put out by those dolts who claim they are "sceptics" but betray the substance of the word "scepticism" at every point.

I have no doubt contributed to the count

However, be aware, many visits like mine are to enjoy a good laugh at the absolute inanities, non-sequiters, and general ad-hominems you produce.

You are the climate blog equivalent of "Plan 9 from Outer Space". It's so bad it's worth watching for the stupidity - not for anything of meaning

Hey Jerry! We regret not being able to read of your great Galileo-Einstein-Newton-like scientific insights, since you've not posted them. Unless you've been posting those using various sockpuppets, that is.

Hi Jerry! No Deltoid thread would be complete without at least one little troll appearing. Regretfully, the feeding lots have closed after my post, so run along now, be a good boy.

Jerry's contribution, name calling and no substance. Thanks Jerry, bye Jerry.

Many happy carrots! and hearty congratulations

[Hmmm](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/11/4000000_visits.php#comment-2937…)...

Poor spelling, poor grammar, poor punctuation, poorly non-evidenced statements...

Exactly from where is it that the "stupidity" comes?

Only 3,000,000 of these were Brent.

... and the remaining million were other mutually contradictory denialist arguments.

[turdB said:"... it's kinda gone off the boil..."](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/11/4000000_visits.php#comment-2942…)

Really?
It's only just warming up.
Who would have thought after all that crowing just a year ago that the liars, dissemblers, tricksters and conmen would be proven to be the denialists' own crown jewels.

McIntyre, McKitrick, Mosher, Fuller, Wegman, Montford et al will be hard pressed to find themselves admitted into decent company by the time that little stunt has run it's full and unexpected course.

Chek, you are apostrophically challenged.

And apocalyptically misguided. When the waves fail to consume us, will you be apologetically contrite?

Here's a larf: This BBC Play has some real-life academic numpties predicting melting roads and a bridge to Norfolk: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p6rr4

Takes a half hour of one's life, but it's either side-splittingly funny (if you are a sceptic) or a wrist-slasher (if you believe in Global Warming).

Is there anything more sickening or degenerate than self-appointed, pontificating know-nothings? Perhaps, but I don't know what that might be. I thought we'd had enough of them after the 2010 US election crop, but perhaps I was wrong and it's a global phenomenon. (Unlike the MWP).

Hey turdB, why don't you petition your leadership (detailed above) to adopt the slogan "Ignorance'Ñ'us". Then you denialists (plural) would have something solid to unite under.

It's so absolutely apt.

Remember, turD lives in Central England where it has definitely not warmed according to the only temperature record he trusts.

Take 2

John, that graph shows that for 9 years it certainly is not warming.

I think it's absolutely charming that a little feller who was born around the turn of the century has learned enough to come on here and talk with the adults. But I'm a parent and I really think that he should spend more time outdoors climbing trees and playing cricket.

John, interesting to note that turB is monitoring what you write so carefully. Might turB have a fixation, or did he just read about himself this once by chance?

Deltoid has from the beginning been one of the consistently great blogs. The quality compliments among the responses above are very well deserved, science has been better defended here by Tim than almost anywhere - thanks Tim!

I seem to have missed Bent's posting, but it is apparent that he has returned (transiently) to claim that there is no 'recent' warming.

I know that he is banned, but it would be interesting nevertheless to hear him answer the questions that were put to Alan D. McIntire [on](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/06/senator_fielding_says_there_ha…)
[several](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/06/senator_fielding_says_there_ha…) [occasions](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/06/senator_fielding_says_there_ha…
). Bunt claims to have engineering expertise, so let's see what the extent of his statistical understanding is - and if he can come up with a credible answer, let's then see how he justifies his affection for pronouncements that there is no current global warming.

And as I've linked to the Fielding thread, I can't resist another acknowledgement of the relief so many experience to see that he is about to pack his bags and be shown the door of the Senate.

Ironically, as I sit here typing about the Denialati that bang their heads against real science in their pathetic attempts to rehash long-ago debunked myths and fallacies, and as I myself bang my head against their pseudoscience, one of the new summer crop of blowflies is doing its own headbutting dance against the windows.

I suspect that there is a increasing index of futility as one moves through that list. I'm filled with chagrin that I live in a society where attempts to educate the ignorant lie somewhere between conspiracy theories and CalliphoridÃ¦an buzzing in terms of social impact...

Being a member of the Denialati I take offense at being referred to as a pseudoscientist.

Bookmakers William Hill yesterday cut its odds for snow falling over London on Christmas Day from 8/1 to 6/1.
Aberdeen is the 3/1 favourite, down from 5/1.

Weather, not climate.

What you just demonstrated there was pseudoscience.

Ironic, isn't it.

> However, be aware, many visits like mine are to enjoy a good laugh at the absolute inanities, non-sequiters, and general ad-hominems you produce.

Which statement is inane, an ad hom and a non sequitor.

I suppose we can be glad he can laugh at himself, though.

[Fatso](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/11/4000000_visits.php#comment-2945…).

If you are so offended by the charge of "peudoscience" you could prove yourself by providing an answer to those lingering questions](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/06/senator_fielding_says_there_ha…).

It should be easy for any real climatologist or statistician.

Hmmmph.

Those [lingering questions](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/06/senator_fielding_says_there_ha…)

El G, can you or any one of your fellow travellers point me to the paper where any climatologist or climate research unit explicitly says winter is abolished by AGW?

Because every Tom, Harry, Brent, Gordo or other Dick denialist seems to think they have some sort of 'gotcha'moment whenever snow turns up in winter.

>Being a member of the Denialati I take offense at being referred to as a pseudoscientist.

Then we must endevour to call you one at every opportunity.

>John, that graph shows that for 9 years it certainly is not warming.

Using the arguments you have given us, this graph is produced by the MET Office, Brent, so it must be wrong, which means it *is* warming after all. I believe NASA have a supercomputer working on the contradictions in your numerous "whatever fits" arguments.

Snow in winter in the UK. Now who'd have thunk that?

Aberdeen has had I think 12 or 13 white Christmases (possibly the most in towns/cities on which one can bet on) since 1960, so 3/1 seems almost about right.

The odds on a white Xmas always shorten when we get a cold spell forecast this "close" to the event. And this week it's gonna get cold, with snow forecast for the east coast and nearby areas late in the week.

Fools and their money are soon parted! Betting is a mug's game. Mind you, el Gordo seems a bit of a mug whether he bets or not.

Hands up those who think it's been getting warmer since the millennium.

EG joins turB to pop in and remind me that their collective absences provides zero loss of reasoned argument on Tim's blog.

Excellent stuff, well deserved and thanks for doing this Tim.

Congratulations Tim! I may not agree with you on climate matters, but at least your blog is robust.

Thanks Janet, you are far too kind. It would be in your interest to keep an eye on the AO Index, to understand the meaning of cool.

http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/ao_index…

>By popular request. Comments from El Gordo and folks arguing with him are cluttering up more useful discussions. All comments by El Gordo and responses to comments by El Gordo should go in this thread.

[turdB said: "Is this weather or climate? Brrrrr!"](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/11/4000000_visits.php#comment-2948…)

It's both - British weather that is entirely consonant with the British climate.
And your sly yet cowardly implication is also just the usual [smug, short-sighted, malformed idiocy we've become accustomed to from you.](http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2010&month=8)

Stop the presses, there may well be more complaints about cold winter weather. The Brit winter season just 'might' be getting colder.

The temperature in one part of Greenland yesterday was warmer than their summer. It looks as though a few Brits (and Europeans and Americans) might have to invest in several pairs of warm socks.

Warm Arctic Cold Continents. Brought to you courtesy of a warming world. Better known as WACCy weather.

I see that [fatso still hasn't grasped the difference between signal and noise](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/11/4000000_visits.php#comment-2949…).

Like [I said](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/11/4000000_visits.php#comment-2946…).

I love *your* mind Brent. All scientific arguments exhausted, you've decided to stick with "weather is climate", an argument you've already conceded was wrong.

But hey, honesty and integrity mean nothing when you're trying (and failing) to get a rise out of people.

Just to remind people why Brent was banned - he went on a tirade about anonymous sockpuppeting being "undignified" and then anonymously sockpuppeted the next day.

I've written before that Brent's views are based on ideology and not science, and this gives him the moral impetus to lie. After all, he's right damn it! He doesn't care what arguments he uses or how we respond, as long as he gets a rise.

> Is this weather or climate? Brrrrr!

Any example is weather.

What you can EXPECT is climate.

After all, you can expect 50:50 heads/tails on a fair coin toss. But that doesn't mean the coin is fixed if you throw a tails.

I wonder if Vegas has thought of getting the denialists to pop over and have a conference there. Vegas would make a *killing* on them, they have no clue what statistics is!

> John, that graph shows that for 9 years it certainly is not warming.

It doesn't show cooling.

Therefore the claim that the world is cooling is false.

> There's new evidence that solar activity influences cloud cover

There's new evidence that shows that the CLOUD experiment has shown no discernable effect of the process proposed. Definitely not enough to counter or create the strength of global warming we currently see.

Funny how models are fine when they "may" "prove" AGW wrong or not a problem...

> Could it be that carbon dioxide is not the great driver we feared?

No.

> Could it be that the billions being thrown at Global Warming are no more effective than Canute having his throne placed at the seashore and ordering Nature to obey his commands?

you mean the Canute who, despite being told he was all-powerful, set this demonstration up of how without power he was to his toadying lackeys?

I.e. a Canute experiment that is the EXACT OPPOSITE of continual denialist propaganda use?

Seems so.

You don't even read up on your history, never mind the science.

Tell me, do you have a brain cell in that entire body of yours? Is it working?

Good old idiotic Bent working his paycheck here on deltoid.

IHBT, HAND.

Bent, are you aware that you're committing a crime?

Computer trespass is a criminal matter.

McKinnon is facing 50 years in a US jail for doing that, you know, and Australia has a treaty with the USA for extraditing criminals to face a judge.

Tell you what Brent - you give me the actual, untruncated quote, and I'll tell you how you've misinterpreted it as is your habitual, knee-jerk want.

And then perhaps you can explain to us how British weather trumps global temperatures.

Oh that's right you can't, cos you're banned.

(Although I suspect Tim would allow a science overturning comment from you through. So if nothing appears I'll just assume it's the usual old rubbishy, Wattsian non-sequiturs).

Turd's a coward.

Bent.

I see that [those questions](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/11/4000000_visits.php#comment-2945…) were [simply too difficult for you](http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/11/4000000_visits.php#comment-2948…).

Brent doesn't like rigorous scientific analysis, so I thought he [deserved some](http://www.skepticalscience.com/Record-high-temperatures-versus-record-…).

Bent continues to commit crimes as Sockpuppet.

He's long exhausted criminal idiocy and moved on to straight criminality.

Computer trespass is a crime.

Bent is a criminal.