Is anyone experiencing slowness on the site?

Yah. They are having server problems right now. Looks like everyone has a good excuse to not be studying right now :)

oh ok thanks!@

Server problems although Google app engine is being used? rather inconceivable (only if they have serious latency problems)

Yes, App Engine periodically gussies its dander into high dudgeon. Sometimes it's App-Engine-wide, and sometimes it just decides to throw some zombie server instances into our mix, so some requests die. The zombies usually go away on their own, but sometimes we have to redeploy to destroy them.

They have been getting better and better over time, and perhaps soon we will apply some tricks to help it happen less often.

Here is a a study guide for the vocabulary in Nick's latest post:

gussy: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gussy

to get one's dander up: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/get-your-dander-up.html

high dudgeon: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dud1.htm