Website matters

  Just a few notes to keep this site tidy: Let me remind new readers here (or regulars who haven’t seen these guidelines) to read “Da Roolz” (the website posting rules) before you wade in and begin posting. You can find them on the sidebar, or at this link.  There are entirely too many people coming here […]

Your oddities

This morning I was going to put up a satirical “clickbait” post along the lines of PuffHo’s self-important “Six things you need to know this morning.” (By the way, why do they always give lists with numbers, like “25 cats who sleep in weird positions” or “eight ways for seniors to improve their sex lives”?  Are […]

Come on, subscribe!

With only 114 more subscribers, I can hit 40,000. Since I get no $$ from writing here, I must make do with subscriber stats—and 40K is a lovely number—though I promise to resist the urge to write things that attract views. (Clickbait is parody and doesn’t count.) As for the 39,886 people all being “amazing” (a […]

Maybe I should stop posting about science

I’ve long kvetched about the lack of comments on my science posts. I kvetch because a). many readers tell me they want more science, or read this site for its science, and b). the science posts are the hardest ones to write, as they involve reading a paper several times and then distilling the essence for nonscientists. […]

Note to readers

I ask again that readers send me at most one email per person per day. Lately I’ve not been able to keep up with emails, and it’s harder when individuals send me three or four emails each day. These are well-meant, and usually contain links or things that I might be interested in, but I’d appreciate it […]

Website stats: end-of-the-year summary

Every year WordPress sends me a late-December email giving some yearly summary stats for the site. First, the number of views. As is so often the case, the most popular posts were largely reposts, in this case the sad tale of Heather McManamy, the dying mother who, an unbeliever, asked people not to tell her young daughter that she […]

A plea for civility

The plea is from your host, Professor Ceiling Cat Emeritus. Matthew called to my attention a post written on the Times Higher Education (THE) blog by Matthew Reisz—a post that apparently was published earlier and has just been republished. Called “Torrents of bile: publish and be damned,” Reisz’s piece decries the invective heaped on people by […]

Note to readers (again): fill in your blanks

Most people have already become aware of a WordPress glitch that has removed the autofill feature of comments, so if you make a comment, please be sure that your name and email address is filled in before you post it. I’m still getting way too many comments from “Anonymous”.  I am in touch with WordPress […]

WordPress wants information

As I’ve mentioned twice, I am getting quite a few comments that post as “Anonymous” because people aren’t filling in (or their device isn’t auto-filling-in) their names and email addresses. If you’re one of these, could you answer the WordPress person’s questions below? (Just put the info in a comment.) Thanks. If you’re still having this […]

Glitch: comments posting as by “anonymous”

For reasons I don’t understand, some (but not all) readers’ comments are being posted as by “anonymous,” even when they’ve filled in their names. I’m not sure why this is happening, but I’ve contacted WordPress about the problem. In the meantime, if you’ve had this problem, for the time being please put the name use […]