Archive for July, 2011

The Complaints Department

Oh, look! Bugs and broken ugly stuff! I know. Here you are in this new place, and it’s homely. There are glitches. There are clearly things that Myers guy doesn’t know how to do yet, and he clearly doesn’t grasp WordPress. Some stuff is just different, and you hate it. This is your thread. Tell me what sucks, and if you can, tell me how to fix it. I will listen humbly and take recommendations and advice. Implementation of your suggestions might be slow as I creep up the learning curve, and also because this is a new network of blogs and I can’t charge in and risk breaking things for everyone else, but it will improve. We will make it sleek and beautiful and efficient together.

Welcome to the new digs!

You may be wondering why I had to change my address, why I’m cruelly forcing you to update your RSS feeds, why I’m breaking your familiar habits, why I’m making you read this awkward site with the plaster and lath showing and the ugly paint job and the stuff that doesn’t work very well, as I’m sure we’ll discover. Those are good questions, and here are my answers. Hey, I’m an atheist, you know. You’re uncomfortable? Tough. I’m writing on this blog for me, not you. As an outlet for self-expression, this move was necessary. National Geographic will be taking a more active role in hosting the ScienceBlogs stable, which is a good thing, since they’ll be bringing their prestige, better support, and some welcome changes to the site as a whole. They’ll also be bringing their standards & practices, which are different from the more freewheeling policies of Seed Media…and it was clear that there was going to be a culture clash in the transition. NatGeo and I have worked out an acceptable compromise. This site on Freethoughtblogs is mine and only mine, and none of the content is in any way associated with National Geographic. Yay freedom! I can say whatever I want here! At the same time, whatever I write that I feel is compatible with the more conservative ethos of National Geographic will also appear over there — so less liberal, more religious readers can read the sciencey stuff without getting their staid world rocked. One qualifier: anti-creationism is well within the NatGeo brief, so  young-earth creationists and intelligent design cretins aren’t going to like either site. There are limits, you know. So, if you liked the old Pharyngula exactly as it was, this is the place you want to be: update your blogrolls, change your bookmarks, redirect your RSS feeds. Other than the address, nothing has changed. This is Pharyngula Unfiltered, double espresso Pharyngula. If...
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