Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology
Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology. Comment policy: say what you want, but back it up with an email address. I don't like anonymous trolls.
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June 30, 2006
Category: Vaccination
This week, our benevolent Seed Overlords ask, "What are some unsung successes that have occurred as a result of using science to guide policy?" Well, I thunked, and thunked, and thunked. Then my head began to hurt. Then I thought...
Posted by Mike at 6:33 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Full disclosure: I am a moderately observant Conservative Jew (Conservative is a denomination of Judaism, not a political leaning). Having said that, the bandying around of the term faith is disingenuous. Religious people are supposed to be honest--at least, that's what I was taught.http://mikethemadbiologist.blogspot.com/2005/06/schiavo-and-demise-of-faith-based.html
Posted by Mike at 8:41 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 29, 2006
Category: Iraq
I've never liked most war movies because I think they glamorize warfare, even if they are 'realistic.' That's why I've referred to them as "war porn." Most deaths are horrifying in their randomness: a few inches to the left or...
Posted by Mike at 12:10 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 28, 2006
PZ rightly noted about the l'affair de Big Pharma that it's just a stupid overreaction: somehow I don't think the Viagra trade is destroying America's inner cities or rural communities. But, over at Feministe, zuzu notes that the Dominican Republic...
Posted by Mike at 9:53 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
A bunch of us ScienceBloggers have decided to help raise funds for teachers (more details here). I really don't care if I 'finish' dead last, but who doesn't want to help kids? For the price of a couple of those...
Posted by Mike at 4:48 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 27, 2006
Category: Education
A bunch of us ScienceBloggers have decided to help raise funds for teachers (more details here).
Posted by Mike at 5:37 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Acinetobacter
One of my many pet peeves is that nobody takes 'ordinary' bacterial infections seriously. I originally wrote this post Jan. 8, 2006, but I was ranting about Acinetobacter since the previous August.
Posted by Mike at 4:20 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 26, 2006
Category: Likelihood
While I'm away, I'll leave you with this introduction to likelihood theory (originally published Nov. 22, 2005).
Posted by Mike at 4:33 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 25, 2006
Category: Education
From the archives, here's a post about Paul Krugman's explanation of why academia is so full of those goddamn libruls (originally published April 6, 2005).
Posted by Mike at 10:23 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
...don't think I'm not watching. I'll know who's been naughty and nice. A bunch of us ScienceBloggers have decided to help raise funds for teachers (more details here). I really don't care if I 'finish' dead last, but who doesn't...
Posted by Mike at 9:45 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 24, 2006
Category: Education
From the archives, here's a post about high school science fairs (originally published Jan. 31, 2005).
Posted by Mike at 10:19 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 23, 2006
While I'm away at the Evolution 2006 Meeting, I'll leave you with some posts from the archive of the Mad Biologist (Intelligent Designer, I love this scheduled post thingee). This one is about the misuse of language by creationists (originally published Feb. 9, 2005).
Posted by Mike at 4:14 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
Thanks to the superpowers of the Mighty Seed Blog Engine, I'm able to post this while simultaneously driving to the Evolution 2006 meeting. Hopefully, I'll run into RPM and Carl Zimmer there. It's going to be very weird: I spent...
Posted by Mike at 10:49 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 22, 2006
Category: Education
Our Seed Overlords ask: What makes a good science teacher?... Lots of other ScienceBloggers have given really good answers to this, so I'll just add one more thing. A good teacher has to know what students don't know. When I...
Posted by Mike at 8:40 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Conservatives
driftglass takes up a topic near and dear to my heart because it's a cancer that still corrodes and corrupts the U.S.: the use of hate-mongering by the Right to gain and keep political power. And you thought I was...
Posted by Mike at 3:59 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 21, 2006
Lotsa liberal madness at the most recent installment of the Carnival of Liberals. My first ever post at that blog carnival....
Posted by Mike at 8:48 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I have to admit that creationists are a creative bunch, if not accurate. From the files of the Mad Biologist comes this post about a creationist explanation of antibiotic resistance. It's pretty remarkable. (Originally published April 18, 2005)
Posted by Mike at 4:47 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 20, 2006
...when it comes to funding and resources. And this will have serious ramifications for your health. In talking to a hospital clinical microbiologist today, he told me that microbiology labs in hospitals and states are suffering from two problems....
Posted by Mike at 4:41 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 19, 2006
Category: Progressives
I've always had a problem with the internet 'progressives.' I have never liked the term progressive, particularly since I'm not ashamed to call myself a liberal (here's one reason why). I haven't blogged much about the YearlyKos convention and ensuing controversy (being a lefty blogger, albeit a small one, I suppose I am the actual subject matter of much of that commentary). But a couple of posts have really made it clear to me why I'm not excited at all by the internet progressives.
Posted by Mike at 2:47 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 18, 2006
In what I think is the only way to cope with the Blond Banshee (aka the Coultergeist), PZ writes (italics mine): Like I said, I'm not going to take this trip apart sentence by sentence, even though I could, given...
Posted by Mike at 3:46 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Racism
...fifty years ago, this man would have been lynched. Progressives and liberals are the reason he isn't lynched today. And don't let some conservative tell you otherwise. For those of us old enough to have grey hair, we remember...
Posted by Mike at 1:50 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 17, 2006
Category: Creationism
I go for a walk, and watch some soccer, only to find out that Thursday, the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee passed 'standards' that force students to "summarize ways that scientists use data from a variety of sources to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory."
Posted by Mike at 5:18 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pig Screwer
That's the title of a post by Greg Palast that recounts a massive Republican operation to disenfrachise ten of thousands of voters in Black-majority districts through illegal voter challenges. Many of the targets include servicemen and servicewomen serving overseas. Let's...
Posted by Mike at 12:35 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 16, 2006
Category: Animalcules
Over at Aetiology, the carnival o'the wee beasties known as Animalcules is now online. Lotsa good stuff. My contribution can also be found here....
Posted by Mike at 12:42 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
From the Seed Hive Mind comes the following question: How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically? As...
Posted by Mike at 11:35 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Pig Screwer
An exchange between Republican Congresscritter Gohmert and decorated veteran Democratic congressman Jack Murtha:
Posted by Mike at 8:19 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 15, 2006
Category: Iraq
I'll readily admit that I'm as partisan as anyone. But am I the only progressive liberal blogger who has a problem with the other 'progressive' bloggers who are going batshit crazy over the Iraqi government's offer of amnesty for insurgents who have not killed Iraqis (i.e., they have only killed Americans)?
Posted by Mike at 10:49 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of the advantages of being at ScienceBlogs is that when confronted with idiocy like this NY Times article about the genetic basis of behavior, you can count on your fellow bloggers to tear it to shreds. Thankfully, Jonah and...
Posted by Mike at 10:14 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Thesaurus Rex, over at Shakespeare's Sister makes one of the best observations about the Blond Banshee's claim that the Sept. 11th widow's are unassailable: The 'droids of the Reich Wing are in full rout. Ann Coulter is far, far out...
Posted by Mike at 9:50 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
So Dr. Free-Ride convinced a whole bunch of us to do something altruistic and decent (damn philosophers...). We're raising money to help school teachers fund small educational projects for their students. You can find all the ScienceBlogs participants here. My...
Posted by Mike at 8:43 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 14, 2006
Category: Humor
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) You might think that Press Secretary Tony Snow (left) and White Advisor Dan Bartlett (right) are decked out like this because Iraq is so dangerous that they have to wear this on the way to...
Posted by Mike at 9:46 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I'm busy today, so I decided to begin transferring and reposting some of my very old posts from my previous site. This was originally posted Nov. 29, 2004)
Posted by Mike at 8:21 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 13, 2006
So after coming up with the term "The War on Epidemiology" which has been adopted by one other person (thanks Tara), I've been encouraged by that overwhelming success to devise another phrase: The War on Forestry....
Posted by Mike at 8:46 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Bioinformatics
In response to this question asked of us by our Seed Overlords (the readers), Steinn says that he would do bioinformatics.
Posted by Mike at 12:25 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Experts
The Mad Biologist digs bloggers who are very mad. Before we get to the Mad blogger Grand Moff Texan (aka "The Asshole of the Gods. And there's not a damn thing you can do about it."), I've noticed that the...
Posted by Mike at 10:53 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 12, 2006
Category: Humor
Sadly, one of my most widely read posts from the old site was a post where I used Gizoogle to transliat' Ann Coulter (it's the only possible way to read the Blond Banshee). But I bow in worship to Jonathan at A Tiny Revolution who translates liberal chickenhawk Peter Beinart:
Posted by Mike at 1:55 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Music
The best description of Joan Jett ever penned (and from the very uncool NY Times no less):...
Posted by Mike at 8:12 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 11, 2006
Category: Democrats
Well, that's what Dan Balz of the Washington Post seems to think. I was reading this article about the YearlyKos convention by Balz, and he kept referring to the positions the participants held as "doctrinaire" and "liberal." Now, and I...
Posted by Mike at 8:43 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
By way of AmericaBlog comes this news about the Democrats' fundraising: According to the Washington Post -- and Ken Mehlman -- Democrats are competitive with the Republicans in fundraising this year because of the internet: NC Chairman Ken Mehlman, whose...
Posted by Mike at 9:44 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 10, 2006
Dr. Free-Ride has a getting-acquainted exercise for us newbies. My answers are below. You'll notice I didn't use that awful word meme; here's why.
Posted by Mike at 4:00 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The FDA just halted clinical trials for using the antibiotic Ketek (telithromycin-a macrolide antibiotic) to treat ear infections and tonsilitis in children because it can cause liver failure, blurred vision and loss of consciousness in adults. Some FDA officials have...
Posted by Mike at 2:46 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
No, I'm not kidding. By way of Shakespeare's Sister, I found out that in 2000, Little Lord Pontchartrain proclaimed June 10 to be "Jesus Day." I'm not making this up.
Posted by Mike at 11:37 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Revere has a very good historical roundup of the 'uninevitability' of a national or universal healthcare system. One consequence of our fragmented, patchwork healthcare system is antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Posted by Mike at 9:05 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
Ed Brayton fills us in on the ridiculous Ten Commandments legislation in Louisiana, where they are actually editing the Ten Commandments. Whenever I hear about this kind of nuttiness, I always want to ask: which version of the Ten Commandments?
Posted by Mike at 7:11 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 9, 2006
...I would be a fireman. OK, so a Science Blogs reader asks, "Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?" I don't think I can limit it to one, but here's several areas that interest me:
Posted by Mike at 8:37 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A recent article in Applied and Environmental Microbiology illustrates the effect that conventional farming, which uses a lot of antibiotics, has on the evolution of antibiotic resistance. The authors examined the difference in the frequency of resistance to antibiotics in...
Posted by Mike at 11:01 AM • 22 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
