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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July 31, 2006
...the neocons had to betray it. Granted, Rolling Stone also published crap by RFK, Jr. But there are some public-domain facts to back up the Rolling Stone article's claim that several neocons tried to prevent a detente with Iran by leaking classified information to Israel
Posted by Mike at 10:55 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Alex at the Daily Transcript has a great post discussing an editorial by Robert A. Weinberg about the consequences of funding priorities.
Posted by Mike at 10:14 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 30, 2006
Can we please have one leader in the Middle East who isn't thoroughly corrupt or nutty bonkers? Iranian President Ahmadinejad has now declared a war against foreign words: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use...
Posted by Mike at 10:27 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
And if a lot of people actually take charlatan Kevin Trudeau seriously, we'll be seeing a lot of dead people. Stupid, dead people. Christopher Wanjek and Orac take down the fraud Kevin Trudeau's new book More Natural Cures Revealed.
Posted by Mike at 9:06 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The NY Times has a very interesting article about an evangelical minister who decided that subordinating his religious beliefs to the Republican Party and the Holy Defender of the Blessed Blastocyst was a bad idea
Posted by Mike at 7:20 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 29, 2006
Category: Healthcare
While the main reason to use antibiotics only when needed is to preserve their effectiveness, it's always nice to have an economic incentive coupled with proper use of these important drugs.
Posted by Mike at 3:37 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Taxes
...to give Paris Hilton a tax cut on money she never earned.
Posted by Mike at 9:38 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 28, 2006
See, I can actually say nice things about Republicans (dogmatic conservatives, on the other hand...although I always did think Jack Kemp was honest and sincere, if crazy). Former Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey has called for a Democratic Congress. No, I'm...
Posted by Mike at 9:18 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
From the archives, comes this post about the health crisis no one cares about (except for the Mad Biologist. We are very caring): the 90,000 deaths per year from infections people get while in the hospital.
Posted by Mike at 9:10 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
By way of Pam at Pandagon comes this story of the moral values of the 'heartland', which is apparently a place where gays are considered to be the moral equivalent of Nazis.
Posted by Mike at 8:27 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 27, 2006
Category: Campylobacter
Lest you think corporate interference in public health policy is solely a U.S. problem, New Zealand is suffering a brain drain in the area of antibiotic resistance research due to political pressure hindering research on the effects of antbiotic use in agriculture.
Posted by Mike at 12:17 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Korea
In South Korea, traditionally a U.S. ally, two-thirds of people under 30 said in a recent poll that if there were war between North Korea and the United States....
Posted by Mike at 8:22 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: NSF
In the NSF Strategic Plan, the life sciences (i.e., biology) are not included as an area that needs improvement in infrastructure or translation of research into new products. Is it too cynical to think that the Bush Administration purposely left out biology?
Posted by Mike at 7:50 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 26, 2006
I've discussed before how former Bush supporters and loyalists suffering from buyer's remorse are now frantically trying to revise history and offer (lame) excuses for why they were so foolish. driftglass brings up another tactic that we'll hear often:
Posted by Mike at 7:29 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The American Medical Association has called for a temporary ban on all direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs.
Posted by Mike at 7:46 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 25, 2006
Category: Blastocyst Liberation
400,000 to-be-discarded embryos? The Mad Biologist has a very evil, nefarious, and sinister idea for them:
Posted by Mike at 11:10 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Fucking Morons
Yes, I know. Saying this is like picking on the stupid kid. But that's the whole point.
Posted by Mike at 8:46 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 24, 2006
Category: Bloggity Blog
...skippy the bush kangaroo puts you on the permanent blogroll. thanks skippy!...
Posted by Mike at 1:30 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Apparently, the Iraqis have moved to "Plan B", which is the dissolution of the Iraqi state. From the Independent:...
Posted by Mike at 12:37 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Perhaps it's just human nature, but I've always disliked Johnny-Come-Latelys.
Posted by Mike at 9:30 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 23, 2006
From Paul Waldman's book Being Right Is Not Enough--What Progressives Must Learn from Conservative Success
Posted by Mike at 5:41 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
From the old digs comes this post about how catastrophically wrong self-proclaimed 'experts' were on Iraq.
Posted by Mike at 9:28 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 22, 2006
One of the implicit assumptions regarding Iraq and the whole militarization of U.S. society is that the bellicose neocons are manly, and those of us who opposed the Iraq War were wimpy or 'girly'.
Posted by Mike at 11:38 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 20, 2006
In a post over at Media Matters about the right-wing's attempt to figure out if the Israeli-Hezbollah-Palestinian-My Uncle Morty conflict is World War III, IV, or V(?!), Larry Kudlow rises above the herd with this spectacular piece of ass-hattery:
Posted by Mike at 8:14 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Stem cell research has always been a very personal issue for me: a close family relative is a type I diabetic (this is an autoimmune form of diabetes caused by the body's destruction of the pancreatic cells that produce insulin, and is not related to diet).
Posted by Mike at 12:58 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 19, 2006
Category: Humor
From Boston's Beacon Hill Times: A resident was robbed at knife-point by an unknown Caucasian male suspect at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 11, near the corner of Hancock and Cambridge streets. The suspect demanded the victim's wallet, according...
Posted by Mike at 12:02 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I've always found it odd that Christian conservatives constantly claim victim status, particularly when so many of them, when it comes to foreign policy are so convinced that will can overcome anything.
Posted by Mike at 10:13 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 18, 2006
Josh, at Thoughts from Kansas, has a superb explanation of why the blogospheric left has largely remained silent about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Matt Yglesias has been pondering why the left half of the blogosphere doesn't write more about Israel. My...
Posted by Mike at 5:56 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
At the old digs, I asked about Sen. George Allen of VA:
Can we please have presidential candidates who are not psychological basketcases? ... Is it possible for the Republicans to nominate someone who is not cracked in the head? Please? Just in case.
Posted by Mike at 10:11 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
President Bush groped the German Chancellor. What an idiot....
Posted by Mike at 8:53 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 17, 2006
Category: Bidness
Just when I thought that after six years of Little Lord Pontchartrain, I just couldn't be shocked anymore, I find a heart warming story of profiting from the Sept. 11 Massacres.
Posted by Mike at 10:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: MRSA
The carnival o'the wee beasties known as Animalcules is up at Science Matters. I have a post about MRSA and drug use in this edition. There's also a good post about drug resistance in the HIV virus. While I'm advertising...
Posted by Mike at 8:12 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 16, 2006
Category: Middle East
From Ha'aretz, more information about Hezbollah's capabilities:
Posted by Mike at 10:21 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: News Media
...but isn't this supposed to be the news media's job?.
Posted by Mike at 7:11 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of the most important things in science is the free exchange of information. This is all the more vital when the information deals directly with human health. In a recent Nature editorial, the hoarding of influenza genetic data was criticized:
Posted by Mike at 12:22 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 15, 2006
There has been lots of discussion on the internets about a Department of Education study that compared fourth and eigth grade reading and mathematics skills in the U.S. While many have been concentrating on good news for the public schools--that there's no overall difference between public and private schools once social factors are considered--what intrigued me was the poor performance of the conservative Christian schools.
Posted by Mike at 5:19 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
(by way of Shakespeare's Sister) ...and aren't you against this sort of thing. I just can't help myself......
Posted by Mike at 10:22 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 13, 2006
Category: Viruses
A recent Harris survey reveals that 61% of children aged eight to eighteen think that viruses can be stopped by antibiotics.
Posted by Mike at 8:55 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 12, 2006
Category: Torture
So, an evangelical group has come out against the National Religious Campaign Against Torture because it's focusing on Guantanamo, and not repressive regimes. There are several reasons why that's an idiotic argument to oppose the NRCAT: Just because another...
Posted by Mike at 8:30 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
From the National Journal comes this story about pay raises (and the lack thereof) in the Bush White House (italics mine): President Bush's most senior aides -- the ones who hold the coveted title of "assistant to the president" --...
Posted by Mike at 10:20 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 11, 2006
You're probably more familiar with Ben Stein as a movie actor, but, believe it or not, he's actually a moderately conservative economist--one definitely in the neo-liberal mold. So I was shocked by his last NY Times column:
Posted by Mike at 10:23 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Funding
There have been several good posts on the NIH funding crunch here at ScienceBlogs. With that in mind, I bring you a funding estimate from the NIAID Newsletter:
Posted by Mike at 7:11 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Recently, in the political op-ed world, there has been much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over the rise of the barbaric blogosphere hordes, who dare challenge the hammerlock that the Mandarin Class and the Punditocracy have over the 'debate' in the U.S. What has bothered me the most about the Punditocracy's reaction is the unwarranted arrogance
Posted by Mike at 10:23 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
For all of you who have ever played with little toy soldiers (and I don't mean that as a perjorative), Steve Gilliard's piece on (Party)-Jumpin' Joe Lieberman is really funny. I figure there might be one or two around these...
Posted by Mike at 8:14 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 10, 2006
Category: Mutation
Tara and Revere are both confronting the creationist anti-mutation 'argument.'
Posted by Mike at 9:53 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Drugs
There is a winner in the War on Drugs: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA.
Posted by Mike at 1:25 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 9, 2006
Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham in 2003, who received $2.4 million in bribes and is now a felon
Posted by Mike at 12:20 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I'm trying to move posts from the old site that I plan on linking to in the future. Believe it or not, this will have something to do with microbiology. From the archives of the Mad Biologist (originally published May...
Posted by Mike at 8:35 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Fish
Here's a neat post about toad fish and booming drums. Pretty cool.
Posted by Mike at 7:31 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 8, 2006
I suppose the Republicans have concluded that the best way to solve the problem of global warming is to destroy the government agencies that collect the data and fund the research in this area. The latest target: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.
Posted by Mike at 1:47 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Lakoff
While I'm not the world's biggest fan of George Lakoff, he has published two posts that are worth reading.
Posted by Mike at 12:04 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 7, 2006
Sounds dirty, don't it? It's always nice to see sites that usually deal with politics discuss science. Or in this case, the opposite, also known as Ann Coulter. Robert Savillo, of Media Matters, demolishes the creationist arguments found in Ann Coulter's latest book Why I Think All Liberals Should Be Brutally Murdered Godless: The Church of Liberalism.
Posted by Mike at 6:45 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Well, with at least one thing she writes:
Posted by Mike at 11:20 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
From the Boston Globe comes this disturbing report of the massive underdiagnosis of influenza in children:
Posted by Mike at 8:53 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Statistics
Since my amateur discursion into stochasticity appears to have flushed out all of the mathematically savvy, I'm going pose a real life statistics question for you.
Posted by Mike at 8:31 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks