WordPress Error: cURL error 6: Couldn’t resolve host ‘dashboard.wordpress.com’

Background:

I maintain a WordPress blog that uses Jetpack’s Stats package.

Issue:

We started getting this error message when opening the ‘Stats’ page:

We were unable to get your stats just now. Please reload this page to try again. If this error persists, please contact support. In your report please include the information below.

User Agent: 'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:54.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/54.0'
Page URL: 'https://blog.server.tld/wp-admin/admin.php?page=stats&noheader'
API URL: 'https://dashboard.wordpress.com/wp-admin/index.php?noheader=true&proxy&page=stats&blog=XXX&charset=UTF-8&color=fresh&ssl=1&j=1:5.0&main_chart_only'
http_request_failed: 'cURL error 6: Couldn't resolve host 'dashboard.wordpress.com''

The entire Stats block in the Dashboard was empty, and the little graph that shows up in the Admin bar on the site was empty as well.

Other errors noticed:

RSS Error: WP HTTP Error: cURL error 6: Couldn't resolve host 'wordpress.org'
RSS Error: WP HTTP Error: cURL error 6: Couldn't resolve host 'planet.wordpress.org'

These errors were in the WordPress Events and News section, which was also otherwise empty.

This whole thing was ridiculous on it’s face, as the hosts could all be pinged successfully from said server.

I checked with Jetpack’s support, per the instructions above, and got a non-response of “check with your host.”  Well, this isn’t being run on a hosting service so you’re telling me to ask myself.  Thanks for the help anyway.

Resolution:

The machine in question had just upgraded PHP, but Apache had not been restarted yet. The curl errors don’t make much sense, but since when does anything in PHP make sense?

It was kind of a “duh!” moment when I realized that could be the problem.  Restarting Apache seems to have solved it.

Heaven vs Hell

Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs are French, the lovers are Italian, the mechanics are German and the trains are run by the Swiss.

In Hell, the police are German, the chefs are British, the French are the mechanics, the Swiss are the lovers and the trains are run by the Italians.

Hiking @ Goldsmith

We found a new place for a nature walk: Goldsmith Woodlands in Andover.  We covered about half of the trails in a two-hour walk.

The town provides a rough map.

flowers
Just a random bush. I think they’re rhododendrons?
kids
All three kids, two human and one dog, heading down the trail
trail
Looking down the trail. Most of the trails are about as well-groomed as this.
bessie's point
Looking out from the end of the trail at Bessie’s Point (click to expand)

 

Who Will Remember My Name?

They say that when you die
you’re not really dead
until no one remembers you

I was a conqueror
A thousand stone faces
remember my deeds

Most graves say nothing
They tell no stories to the living
The dead can find sweet relief

Not so for me
I am doomed
to live forever

— H. Walker Jones, May 2017

That was one angry duck…

I’m sitting in the living room, minding my own business, working from home (as you do), when I see a large bird land in the neighbor’s yard, followed by a male mallard duck. Being me, and curious, I checked and sure enough, the first bird was a female duck.

After they finished doing … whatever it is they were doing in the neighbor’s yard, she popped up on the fence and started quacking. Loudly. For a LONG time.

She was up there for a good two minutes, quacking angrily. And then she moved…

Yes. That’s my car. With an angry duck on it. She flew off along with Mr. Duck. You can almost hear the “Honey! Wait for me!”

You, Me, and Everyone Else

You were once the youngest organism on the planet. But at the same time you’re also as old as life itself, an unbroken line of cell divisions stretching back 3.5 billion years.

Crime and Punishment in Modern America

This quote is so representative of the issues that divide our country.

Q. You criticize the Miranda ruling, which gives suspects the right to have a lawyer present before police questioning. Shouldn’t people, who may be innocent, have such protection?

A. Suspects who are innocent of a crime should. But the thing is, you don’t have many suspects who are innocent of a crime. That’s contradictory. If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect.

This exchange comes from a published interview with an Attorney General of the United States and a former prosecutor.  It could have been written this week.  Instead, it’s thirty years old.  The question was posed to Edwin Meese in 1985.

A prosecutor, of all people, should know that abuses of the law by police and the legal system are common.  Innocent people have routinely been railroaded in a zeal to hold someone, anyone, accountable for crimes.  The police have a long history of deciding on a suspect and then making a case, rather than letting the evidence lead to a suspect.

Mr. Meese was strongly criticized for his words at the time, but he also had plenty of defenders then and since.  The United States has a strong authoritarian streak that sounds very appealing until people see how wrong it can go when put into practise.  Why do we keep going in so many circles before we figure out that the extremes are detrimental to ourselves?

WMS Science Fair

VIDEO: Analog Devices Holds Science & Technology Fair At Wilmington Middle School

If you watch the video carefully you can catch a couple of glimpses of me babbling to the students.

Fantastic

Fantastic Beatings and Where To Find Them

#unitedslogans

References:
Videos of a Man Being Dragged Off a United Plane Ignites a Public Relations Crisis
Fantastic Beasts…