Morning Roundup

Today, let's start with a note about the title. Yesterday, I got an email from a reader (I'm not sure which of the two of you it was) who was wondering why the "Morning Roundup" appeared on his screen after he got home from work. I think Jimmy Buffett covered that one best when he said, "it's 5 O'clock somewhere." Scienceblogs is a New-York based operation, and to avoid massive confusion that's the time zone we all use when we post. I'm living six hours behind New York, which means that my morning news usually includes half the day's events.

In the quick roundup today, we've got some pretty cool breaking science news, a couple of dog bites man Bush Administration politicizing science stories, something about subpoenaed White House emails that have - wait for it - mysteriously disappeared, a new local invasive species threat, something more on the troop extension (and some gratuitous mocking of a general), and a local lesson on the difference between "political expression" and "being a flaming moron."

Monkey's Uncles:

Let's start with the cool science news: later today, Science magazine will be publishing a special issue on the Rhesus monkey genome. This is a hugely important development for those interested in human evolution both for the sake of pure knowledge and for the sake of the biomedical advances that come with it, because it gives us a much needed point of comparison to complement the already-complete human and chimpanzee genome projects. I'd love to tell you more about why all this is so cool, but Carl Zimmer beat me to it.

Stem Cells:

Looks like we'll only have to wait two years for more meaningful stem cell research. The senate voted yesterday to roll back the funding restrictions that the President put in place a few years back, but they're still a few votes short of the 2/3rds needed to override the promised veto.

Ethics? What's that:

Three months ago, the FDA proposed - and is in the process of approving - a new and much stricter set of ethics guidelines. Yesterday, the LA Times reports, they put three people with strong (and financial) ties to the pharmaceutical industry on the advisory panel that will be looking at a drug intended to fill the gap left when Vioxx was yanked due to cardiac complications. The reason these folks are on the panel is that the new set of ethics guidelines, which would definitely prohibit them from serving on this panel, is still in the process of being approved, and isn't binding at the moment.

Gaps in the record:

The White House, it would appear, can't respond to a House subpoena for emails relating to the US Attorney firing brouhaha because they accidentally lost them. I'm shocked! Shocked! to discover that the White House might be doing anything possible to block oversight.

More seriously:

I've blogged a bit in the past about the damage that invasive species can do, particularly here in Hawaii. Today's Honolulu Advertiser reports that a new pest species has turned up on Oahu, and might threaten the local (introduced) honeybees and the related honeybee industry. I'll definitely have much more on this one later on - probably sometime this weekend.

General Schmuck:

I'm definitely not the only one to get really pissed off about the incredibly insensitive way the Army was informed about the deployment extensions yesterday - a lot of people are expressing displeasure on the record, which is not at all common for military families. I'll have more on another source of anger - the media coverage - later tonight. In the mean time, I'm going to succumb to an overwhelming urge I've had to mock the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs since I saw his press conference yesterday. Near the end of the press conference, General Pace had this to say:

Is it an additional strain to go from 12 months to 15 months? Of course it is. Is it in combat and therefore even more difficult? Of course it is. And that's why the entire nation should be thankful that we have such incredible young men and women who, knowing that -- who volunteer to serve this nation in a time of great need.

There is, however, no truth to rumors that he went on to add:

Am I asking and answering the questions here? I guess I am. Did I learn this from my last boss? Golly gee, I don't know. Is it possible I absorbed this habit while I had my nose glued to his butt? I guess that might just be an unknown unknown.

Local Schmuck:

One of the things I occasionally discuss with my mother (I'm thirty-two now, so I think I can admit to talking to her without collapsing from embarrassment now) is the topic of how to move people from being part of the net roots to taking real-world action. This morning, we had a particularly stupid example of someone trying to make a political point pop up here on campus. How do these two things relate? The currently unknown local idiot has provided a great example of how not to take real-world action. I'll have a post on this one in a couple of hours, unless something a lot more stupid catches my attention first.