Skeptical Science housekeeping: Twitter and double-posts

The primary purpose of Skeptical Science was always to be a database of skeptic arguments. As the readership grew, some young whippersnappers started requesting a blog. Apparently, they're all the rage on the interweb these days. Eventually I succumbed, figuring the list of arguments would be updated regularly so a blog would be a convenient way to announce new updates. And on that line of thought, I've stepped grudgingly into the 21st Century and created a Twitter account.

I confess I'm highly skeptical of social media. I subscribe to the notion that social media are good for nothing but empty neural calories. So don't expect to learn what I've eaten for breakfast or what I'm watching on TV. I'll be mainly tweeting on Skeptical Science blog posts (regardless of whether that's a Twitter faux pas). I'll also mention minor updates to subpages that don't warrant a full blog post. And if I bump into an interesting article, I may throw up a URL.

There have been a few other updates to the website:

• Probably the most significant and welcome update in years - I've removed that glitch that double-posts your comments when you refresh the browser. I'm sure everyone will be as happy about this update as I am, being the person who had to delete all the double posts.
• The search form (in the left margin) now searches blog posts as well as skeptic arguments.
• For the graph of CO2 versus temperature over the last 450,000 years on "CO2 lags temperature", I'd previously used a picture I'd grabbed off the internet - I had no idea where it came from. I've finally got around to doing it properly, tracking down the data sources for temperature and CO2 over the past 450,000 years derived from Vostok ice cores and and plotted them in Excel. In fact, what the hell, I'll tweet this as an update...

Posted by John Cook on Wednesday, 16 December, 2009

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