Curse you, Blogger!

Blogger is driving me nuts this week.

Yet another brilliant pearl from the keyboard of Orac was in production last night (medically related as promised), and Blogger was so incredibly slow that it was intolerable. I learned early on that it's highly advisable to hit "Save as Draft" every so often or risk losing the post I'm working on. For long or very important posts (like Grand Rounds), I'm very careful to write it in Microsoft Word first, then transfer it to Blogger to add the formatting and links and do the final editing. So, halfway through what was to be today's post, I saved my draft. No problem. I then went on to write the rest of it, after which I hit "Save as Draft."

Nothing happened for several seconds. Then several minutes. Then what seemed like a very long time. I waited. And waited. Then waited some more. It was getting late. I finally gave up. Finally, I went to bed, leaving the browser chugging away, trying to save the post. (I have seen Blogger on occasion take an hour to save a post or republish my blog; so I was not worried. I figured it would be saved, and I could post it before going to work.)

When I got up, what was there? Nothing except a "Document contains no data" error message. Where was my post? Gone. Fortunately, I had started it in Word and had part of it to work from, but it still means that I have to reconstruct it, and there's no time to do it until tonight or over the weekend. It will appear, but I fear it may not be as good as it might have been.

I have to ask the experienced bloggers around here: Are you having the same problems with Blogger? Should I pay the money and move my blog to Typepad? What are the advantages of Typepad over Blogger?

Now, fortunately, I usually have some miscellaneous posts lying around unused for just this sort of situation (or for when Orac has a case of writer's block or has no time to post); so I appropriated a backup today. As you may know, I've mentioned the Carnival of the Godless before, in which the articles tend to be critical of religion. Although I seem to be slowly drifting towards agnosticism, I haven't become a complete heathen yet, likely much to the disappointment of a few of the atheists who frequent my blog. (I still even go to Mass occasionally.) The other day, I stumbled across the Science and Christianity Showcase, a new blog carnival. I wondered: Can it tell us how one can reconcile religion with a life dedicated to science? (I never really understood how the conflict between science and religion got so out of hand, anyway. Many prominent scientists throughout history have been religious and could reconcile their observations of the natural world with their religion. Louis Pasteur, for example, was a devout Catholic and was reported to have died with his Crucifix in his hand after having requested that the story of the life of St. Vincent de Paul be read to him.)

Unfortunately, this new blog carnival (at least its first edition) is a very mixed bag. A couple of the articles in the Science and Christianity Showcase are of the simplistic and embarrassingly anti-intellectual "Why does the grass grow--because God makes it grow" variety, making me wonder if the persons writing them are truly scientists. Others are more thoughtful and nuanced, such as this article on quantum physics or this one on why science can't prove or disprove the existence of God. Most are in-between. Shockingly, there wasn't a single post primarily about evolution, which is the flash-point for the conflict between science and fundamentalist religion in the U.S. today. In fact, evolution was hardly mentioned. I have to wonder why, given its prominence in the conflict between science and religion. I might keep an eye on this carnival, to see how it goes, as I have been with the Carnival of the Godless, which has been generally good quality, even though I often don't agree with the content of some of the posts. It will probably get better.

I just hope that the two carnivals never come in contact with each other; they might annihilate each other, like matter and antimatter...