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A little mid-vacation housekeeping…

So far, our vacation has been going quite well. We’ve hit two European cities, with today and tomorrow left where I am now and then on to the last one on Tuesday. Obviously, I haven’t been paying nearly as much attention to this blog (or political news out of the US) as I normally do. It has been lovely. I’ll be bummed out to have to go back to work on June 19.

Unfortunately, the remaining powers that be over at Sb seem to have done something to the blog. Search functions don’t always work right, and—I’m not sure about this—some of my posts from years ago appear to have disappeared (or to be no longer so easy to find using the usual methods). Using Google Advanced Search and searching on the scienceblogs.com domain helps, but sometimes even that fails. I’ll have to figure out what was done after I get back, although I might not be able to resist a quick e-mail before that.

More importantly, some new security feature has been added to this WordPress that sometimes locks out my iPhone from moderating comments. That means that often I can only moderate comments when I’m at our hotel. Please be patient. I do check them before I go to bed (usually) or after I get up, and, given how much the commenting volume has fallen during this blog hiatus, there usually aren’t more than a few comments that get hung up in the filters and need to be set free.

Also, there will be a post tomorrow (or Tuesday, depending on my mood and whether I want to tinker with what’s there). That is all. Off to our afternoon adventures! The newest existing posts are right below this one!

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

12 replies on “A little mid-vacation housekeeping…”

Tabarnache, you are supposed to be on vacation. Get out and tourist.

Oh and depending where you are, have a coffee, a beer, or a glass of wine while watching the passing crowd.

So far, our vacation has been going quite well

At first glance, I read this as “So far, our vaccination has been going quite well…” Ouch, how is that for narrow-mindedness on my behalf…
Perhaps it’s time to follow Orac’s good example and take a little time off, and broaden my horizon beyond this computer screen with its daily blog posts lamenting the antics of those of an alternative persuasion…

And I totally agree with jkrideau: just living in the here-and-now, without feeling any obligation, is very good for people every once in a while.

I agree with jkrideau: you are on vacation and should be relaxing. I envy your remove from the political circus. While I miss the blog, it will be all the more welcome when you return. In the meantime, enjoy yourself and don’t worry about irrelevancies like blog links. In fact, just disconnect completely, it’ll be good for you.

It really is rather odd being disconnected from US politics. I hear there was a hearing yesterday, for instance. 🙂

I don’t know of a better place to put this, so I’ll put it here. Amid various other news today, there have been some developments in the Flint water case:

[Michigan Health Department head] Nick Lyon is accused of failing to alert the public about an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Flint area, which has been linked by some experts to poor water quality in 2014-15.

The state’s chief medical officer, Dr. Eden Wells, was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer.

Lyon’s failure to act resulted in the death of at least one person, 85-year-old Robert Skidmore, special agent Jeff Seipenko told a judge.

The charge against Mr. Lyon is involuntary manslaughter.

Cloudskimmer (#3) writes,

In fact, just disconnect completely, it’ll be good for you.

MJD says,

The needs of the many far outweigh the needs of the one.

@ Orac,

Stay active in that disconnecting completely (i.e., cold-turkey) from RI after all these years could be harmful to your/our psychological well-being.

With respect, continue to be the best “wise-guy” in the science-based blogging community!

Best,

A concerned MJD 🙂

^ G-ddamn Finkelstein sh*t-kid. The second link is anchored to the words “H5N1 aggregator.”

Although Orac has missed much of the usual political crap, he ( most likely) also missed the awesome coincidence of
the Donald ( probably) learning that he is being investigated for obstruction of justice on his birthday!

Remember Orac to protect yourself; don’t drink the water but the beer is just fine.

Eric,

I know the water is for the most part good to very good in quality (what of my jobs is ensuring water quality for the tribe I work for) but was a way to give Orac an excuse for drinking more beer or other beverage of choice for Mrs. Orac,

Even where I am moving the in January (Chiang Mai, Thailand) the city water is of decent quality although I probably will stick with bottled water until I connect a whole home water filter system up.

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