Pharyngula::No Pharyngula for you!

Pharyngula has moved to http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

Friday, May 20, 2005

No Pharyngula for you!

PZ Myers • 18 Comments

I was just reminded that the ENTIRE DANG CAMPUS OF UMM IS GOING TO BE SHUT OFF ON SUNDAY. No electrical power from 9AM to 7PM. And they're going to do it again a week later. And again on 12 June. So sorry, the site is going to be offline those days.

Don't ask me why. This is one of those rinky-tink things that go on out here in the summer, and it is extremely annoying. They'll also be shutting off access to my lab and office several times this summer in order to wax the floors. This is the one season of the year when we can just get in and do our research without distraction, and it always turns into a tug-of-war with the physical plant crew. While the administration here is generally nice and supportive, this seems to be one area of blindness—they don't seem to understand why we don't like them jerking us around on our time.

I'm sure you'll be able to cope with the absence of one website on the internet for a little while, but I get to rush in and top off fish tanks and shut off valves and filters at 6AM, and scurry back and soothe my poor distressed fish afterwards. And then the sensitive little dears will refuse to lay any eggs for me for a week. Grrr. Just when I was gearing up for some undisturbed lab work…

P.S. Note also that The Panda's Thumb may be a bit flakey this weekend. I swear, it's gotta be a conspiracy.

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Comments:

#25407: GrrlScientist — 05/20 at 02:08 PM
What?? You don't have internet access from home, either?? I am disappointed! I thought that all my problems would be solved as soon as I get The Elusive Academic Position, but you are making me worried that I will continue my mooching ways forever more. Tell me it ain't so!!

#25412: — 05/20 at 02:27 PM
I don't quite think his home internet connection can handle the amount of traffic this site get. I have a pretty decent connection (3,4Mb down/1Mb up), and I know for sure that a site as popular as this one would load a glacial speed for visitors.

#25415: GrrlScientist — 05/20 at 02:44 PM
No, no, I am npt talking blog/website hosting, I am merely asking about internet access form home. Where are you PZ??

#25417: — 05/20 at 02:54 PM
What? No electrical power at all? What happens to all the -80 freezers in the biology labs?

#25420: PZ Myers — 05/20 at 03:16 PM
I have excellent net access at home -- Morris, MN has got fiber optic cables all over the place, as well as wireless. I don't know why Morris is so well served with this stuff, but I suspect it's something like the Rural Electrification program. However, my home account doesn't allow my machines to act as servers, and Kristjan is right -- if I had to pay for the bandwidth Pharyngula uses, I might have to poison the place with ads or something.

And yeah, everything at the U is going dead on Sunday. There is a limited amount of emergency power for a few things like the -80 freezers, but my aquaria aren't critical enough, and it wouldn't help to hook up the server to the emergency outlets when all the routers and the DNS server on campus are dead.

PZ Myers
Division of Science and Math
University of Minnesota, Morris

#25430: coturnix — 05/20 at 05:10 PM
Ah, I see now. It's not just that you cannot post on Sunday, it is that Pharyngula will be down and inaccessible to all of us. No commenting, no digging through the archives...what ar ewe supposed to do on a Sunday - go to church or sumfing?

#25431: Bill Ware — 05/20 at 05:13 PM
Server withdrawal symptoms can be severe, PZ. It's not the shakes and the DT's, it's all those bugs crawling on your skin that youll be trying to name scientifically that will drive you nutty.

I'll be hard, but hang in there!

#25439: — 05/20 at 05:36 PM

it wouldn't help to hook up the server to the emergency outlets when all the routers and the DNS server on campus are dead.

Which is why one should always have a fuel-generator as a backup for these important things. Or maybe you can tap of some of the power for those useless -80 freezers (whatever that is).

Hey, I'm a computer scientist student - got to have my priorities in order.

#25463: — 05/20 at 07:22 PM
Must ... have... Pharyngula... Must... have.. Pharyngula... (belch).
Ahhh. Soothing....

#25466: moioci — 05/20 at 07:30 PM
Surely in your bloated capital budget, you could sneak in a backup generator for all the pumps and filters. I bet they don't even use that much juice. Better yet, how about renting a generator for the three scheduled outage events?

#25471: — 05/20 at 07:58 PM
What? No Pharyngula and no Panda's Thumb? That's inhuman - is there a patch or something that will get us through (Blogorette - for those tough days with no blogs, or Zyblog - to releive the stress)?

#25473: covington — 05/20 at 09:43 PM
Yeah, it's just "coincidence" this coincides with the takeover of the republic by the empire.

#25489: Alon Levy — 05/21 at 02:31 AM
Can you use your home connection to send us email, instead? You can copy the list of registered members beforehand as well as give some prior warning to unregistered regulars so that they can register. That way you will be able to propagate your rants, even if you have to use the good ole'-fashioned mailing list.

#25490: Alon Levy — 05/21 at 02:59 AM
Yeah, it's just "coincidence" this coincides with the takeover of the republic by the empire.

This expression coincides with the release of a movie of horrendously low quality that features a republic taken over by an empire...

#25522: Orac — 05/21 at 09:45 AM
Egads. What kind of university do you work for? They turn off all the power to your labs? Why?

On the other hand, given that medical schools are generally open for business year round, we don't have that problem here....

--
Orac “A statement of fact cannot be insolent.”
http://oracknows.blogspot.com

#25545: — 05/21 at 02:51 PM
So, can we expect an American Street post to tide us over?

#25546: PZ Myers — 05/21 at 02:57 PM
Probably. I might skitter away somewhere with the wife for the day, though, in which case it would be a late post.

PZ Myers
Division of Science and Math
University of Minnesota, Morris

#25548: — 05/21 at 03:10 PM
Then you have your priorities straight.

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