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Mike the Mad Biologist

Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology

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ntm4-30-7 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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October 31, 2008

Vote Yes on MA Proposition 1 Because...

Category: Taxes

the Mad Biologist needs more fine prime rib. Please, won't you help?

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October 30, 2008

Chuck Hagel on Know-Nothingism

Category: Conservatives

I'm glad to see a conservative Republican recognize the importance of not being a fucking moron.

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Why VRE Is a Problem

Category:

An epidemic strain of VMRSA only has to get lucky once...

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October 29, 2008

What California's Proposition 8 Really Means

Category:

I suppose this puts me in league with known domestic homosexualists.

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Electronic Voting Machines Work Fine As Long As You Don't Want to Vote for Obama

Category: Voting

Note to election officials--a good way to restore faith in the validity of election results is to have the demonstration machine function properly.

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October 28, 2008

Thank the Intelligent Designer I Voted for Chang-Diaz, or Else...

Category:

A while ago, I endorsed Sonia Chang-Diaz over Dianne Wilkerson for MA State Senate because I thought Wilkerson had some ethics problems. I didn't know the half of it.

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A Question for Geologists About Mineralogy Museum Exhibits

Category: OOH! SHINY PEBBLE!

Is there more than "OOH! SHINY PEBBLE!"

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October 27, 2008

About That Limiting NIH Applications Post...

Category:

Given that we've now had several generations of scientists trained under the R01 system, it's scary to move slightly away from it. But I'm not convinced that R01s are the highpoint of the system.

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October 26, 2008

An Interesting Revision of the Peer Review Process

Category: Publishing

A gradual peer review process?

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October 25, 2008

Palin Refuses to Call Bombers of Women's Health Clinics Terrorists

Category:

And the Coalition of the Sane are the ones who aren't 'real' Americans and are 'weak on terrorism'?

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About That Fruit Fly Research...

Category:

This isn't Palin, this is mainline Republican operatives doing this. This pig-headed, willful stupidity is institutional, not individual.

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October 23, 2008

A Tale of Two Polls

Category:

Just how bad are Bush's approval ratings?

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Quote of the Day: Brad DeLong on Joe Klein's Removal from the McCain Campaign Press Pool

Category: 'Snuggles' McCain

Getting thrown off the campaign plane (while it's parked) is a good thing.

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How a Lack of Regulation Led to the Collapse of AIG and Possible Bank Nationalization

Category: Big Shitpile

With complex financial instruments, if there's no regulation, nobody knows if someone is facing incredible risk.

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Bachmann Ditched by RNCC

Category: Conservatives

The NRCC cuts Michelle Bachmann loose.

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October 22, 2008

The Ghosts of Tulsa and Rosewood and the Potential for Post-Election Violence

Category:

For all of the trauma associated with the 1960s riots, we seem to have forgotten that most race riots in the U.S. have been instigated by whites against non-whites.

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McClatchy Bureau Chief Attacks Compulsive Centrist Disorder

Category:

"Does the truth lie halfway between say, slavery and abolition, or between segregation and civil rights, or between communism and democracy?"

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October 21, 2008

DCCC Lowers the Boom on Bachmann

Category: Conservatives

Bachmann certainly deserves this for her McCarthyite tactics.

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One Way to Limit the Number of NIH Grant Revisions: More Scientific Leadership from NIH

Category:

Because funding is a free-for-all, the system is rewarding grantsmanship at the expense of novelty, with the added bonus of overworking the reviewers.

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October 20, 2008

First, Sociopaths Kill Animals, Then...

Category:

people.

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A Question for the McCain PR Flack About 'Real' Virginians

Category:

Are black Virginians 'real' Virginians?

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The Rage of the Obama Haters Will Get Out of Control

Category:

I worry that if Obama wins, Obama supporters are going to be hurt or killed.

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Hilzoy's Response to Wilson's On Biology and Morality

Category: Ethics

What if "we can hold both that morality is a human contrivance and that biology is not relevant to answering moral questions"?

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October 19, 2008

New Addition to the Blogroll

Category: Bloggity Blog

Say hello to Princess Sparkle Pony. Because commentary like this is priceless:...

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Bachmann, Creationism, and Why the Lefty Blogosphere Matters

Category: Creationism

Helping fight creationist and all around slimeball Michellle Bachmann.

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October 18, 2008

George Bellows Exhibit at the Boston Public Library

Category:

Classic American Prints.

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Why People Should Not Buy Their Dogs Gourmet Dog Food

Category: Humor

The toilet bowl rebuttal.

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October 17, 2008

More AIG Follies

Category: Fucking Royals

The arrogance of AIG's executives, even after a bailout, can only be called by its true name--corruption.

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The GOP Needs New Followers, Not Leaders

Category: Conservatives

Someone tell me how exactly we're supposed to reach these 'values' voters? Because abortion isn't the issue; race is.

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October 16, 2008

Oldest Bug EVAH! Discovered

Category: Insects

A 310 million year old mayfly.

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The Willful Ignorance of Joe the Plumber

Category:

Willful ignorance as a defense mechanism against cognitive dissonance.

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October 15, 2008

The Misuse of Journal Impact Factors

Category:

An excellent editorial in the Oct. 10 issue of Science by Kai Simons points out a very obvious problem with how impact factors are used.

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One Way to Deal with the Large, but Hidden Cost of Parking

Category:

Could stackable electric two-passenger cars reduce traffic-related ills?

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October 14, 2008

No Change in Mortality Due to Antibiotic Resistance

Category:

How one views a recent article on the mortality due to antibiotic resistant infections depends on whether you're a glass half-full or half-empty type.

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October 13, 2008

iElephants?

Category: Elephants

Who knew that elephants could text?

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Influenza: Preparing for the Follow-On Bacterial Pandemic

Category:

Whether it's an influenza pandemic, or 'just' annual influenza, what actually does the killing is the secondary bacterial infection, not the virus.

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October 12, 2008

The Republican Party Has Created Safe Spaces for the Right Wing Nutters

Category: Conservatives

You're supposed to keep the nuts out of the limelight.

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William Ayers and G. Gordon Liddy

Category:

If Obama has a 'Ayers problem', why doesn't McCain have a 'G. Gordon Liddy problem?'

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October 11, 2008

Apocalypse John

Category:

The horror.

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October 9, 2008

How Companies Price Drugs

Category:

We've always been told that the U.S. consumer has to pay high prices for medicines because of high R&D costs. A former CEO of Pfizer claims otherwise.

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October 8, 2008

'Folksiness' and the Swing Vote That Shall Not Be Named

Category:

Labor calls out the Swing Vote That Shall Not Be Named.

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October 7, 2008

The Human Microbiome, 16S, Pyrosequencing, and Phylogenetics?

Category:

I'm not certain you can have all four. Let's start at the beginning....

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October 5, 2008

The Flawed Assumptions of the Bailout Bill

Category:

What if the assumptions of the bailout are wrong?

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October 3, 2008

Even Nobel Laureates in Economics Don't Invest Wisely

Category: Economics

Most people don't think of themselves first and foremost as economic agents, but as human beings and citizens.

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October 2, 2008

Indels in Phylogenies: How Should We Treat Them?

Category:

Anybody know how to incorporate indels into models of molecular evolution?

Read on »

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