Brent Rasmussen is shutting down Unscrewing the Inscrutable. This is sad; Pharyngula is a lowly newbie to the atheist blogosphere, and when I set up shop way back in 2003 the godless blogs I followed included the Raving Atheist (which switched sides with the conversion of its owner years ago), World Wide Rant (which shut down a while back), UTI (which was hanging in there until now), and Stupid Evil Bastard, which is still plugging away. This is simply the nature of the blogging beast, which tends to be tied to the personality of the owner, and if someone decides there’s something else they’d rather be doing, the blog doesn’t outlast them. There will be a day — not in my plans, and certainly not, I hope, imminent — when Pharyngula also shuts down.
I’d like to see Brent keep on going with it, but that’s his personal decision. And while the individual blogs have their own lifetime, have no fear, the atheist blogosphere is still booming and will keep on growing.