Stacey Smith
I'm a graduate student studying the molecular and biochemical evolution of HIV within patients and within populations. I also study epigenetic control of ERVs.
sa smith
Posts by this author
February 20, 2009
*swoon*
Casey Luskin is as breathtakingly sexy in person as he is on film. Im going to pass out. Hes like a WOW gnome.
**SWOON!!!!**
Update: Shit. Im hungry.
Update #2: Casey is trying to justify 'cdesign proponentsists'. Srsly. Srsly.
Update #3: The next time I hear someone say '…
February 20, 2009
Right now, as we speak, I am giving John West brain cancer with my mind.
Update: Jesus Christ Im bored. 'Seven Myths about Darwinism'-- the last 4 have been the same damn thing. I should have gotten drunk first.
He answered 3 4 questions. 3. 3. 4. I didnt ask my big-gun Q, but I got him over…
February 20, 2009
Its gonna be okay, guys. Its gonna be okay.
Wil Wheaton got to preview 'Watchmen', and he loved it.
I've read interviews with him, and I've heard from some second-hand sources that he cared deeply about the material, but until I saw him speak last night, I didn't fully appreciate just how…
February 19, 2009
Its never wrong to stand up to Nazis.
Ever.
Ever.
*high-fives Hitchs non-crushed hand*
To those who say 'he deserved it', fuck you. If Hitch were a woman, those thugs would have brutally raped and killed 'her'. You know it. I know it. Would 'she' have deserved it for standing up to Nazis? Fuck…
February 17, 2009
Behold, the doppelganger Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education:Oklahomans for Better Science Education
LOL!
"Excellence? Nooo! Kids dont need no 'excellence'. They just need dem some more gooder science learnin! Hell, the president of OBSE is a Director of Accounting Applications, and…
February 16, 2009
Just received word (literally, 5 minutes ago) Senate Bill 320 was killed in committee! This required several 'nay' votes from Republicans, so thank you to those brave souls.
SUCK IT, IDiots!
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
February 14, 2009
PZ provides mentorship.
Bora provides eternal encouragement.
Nisbet is an endless fountain of lulz.
But John Lynch bought me beer, and introduced me to Piers Hale-- quite possibly *the* coolest tattooed, pierced, history of science professor on planet earth.
Thank you John!!! You survived OK…
February 13, 2009
When the hell was someone going to tell me John Lynch is Irish?
Me: WTF! Youre Irish?!?
John (in an Irish accent):... I dont type with an accent...
Me: I DO DANG NABBIT!
No one told me John was such a great presenter, either (Irish accent helped with that). A perfect combination of 'funny' and '…
February 12, 2009
HAPPY MONKEY!
Few random quickies for today--
1. I think a YEC challenged me to a dual. Or something. A friend was having a 'debate' with some random radical Christian pastor/reverend/whatever via letters to the editor in the Yukon Review, and cited some things he had learned from me and ERV.…
February 11, 2009
Well Im glad you all have been having fun while I zipped up to MO for the weekend :P
Cool news for Oklahoma college students!
Explain Why Darwin's Views Remain So Important Today.
Deadline: 15 August 2009. Maximum Length: 500 words. Submit essays to: essaycontest@ou.edu. Open to all college…
February 6, 2009
OH NOOOOOOO!!!
Someone let Cottage Cheese Cordova out of his cage!!! Oh noooooooo! His putrid, milky slime is everywhere! We are gonna have aaaaaaants! Oh noooooo!
If youve ever wanted to engage in a 'nice conversation' with IDiots outside of their protected habitat, heres your chance! TARD is…
February 4, 2009
*eeeeeeeeeeeegiddyclappingeeeeeeeeeeee*
*points to webpage*
*points to THIS webpage*
*and this one*
*EEEEEEEEEEEEGIDDYCLAPPINGANDNOWGIGGLINGANDBOUNCINGUPANDDOWNALITTLEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
H/T to the eternally vigilant.
Note: Ray Martin, the fellow evidently behind raising OU-IDEAS rotting corpse from the…
February 2, 2009
No Debbie Downer HIV-1 post today!
The gods of HIV-1 research have a new paper in PLOS Pathogens, and to me, its real good news for those of us looking for an HIV vaccine.
Inflammatory Genital Infections Mitigate a Severe Genetic Bottleneck in Heterosexual Transmission of Subtype A and C HIV-1
Im…
February 2, 2009
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
England's second-largest city has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they're confusing and old-fashioned.
Soon Ill control everything... My wish is your command! BWAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
In her best-selling book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves," Lynne Truss…
February 2, 2009
Richard Dawkins lecture at OU has been moved to the McCasland Field House, which has more than double the seating capacity of the auditorium he was going to speak at. I dunno the details of how this worked out, 'someone' paid for the venue upgrade (Dawkins didnt nix the idea of a larger venue), so…
January 30, 2009
Wow, the crazies are going... crazy... this week.
So the bigots who gave money to pass Prop 8 are bawwing about how theyre being persecuted by homosexual terrorists, thus laws must be changed for their personal comfort. Not happy with taking away homosexuals right to marriage, they now want people…
January 29, 2009
My favorite arguments 'for' theism are the ones about 'morality'. I never bring it up first, but I *love* it when deranged theists do:Random idiot theist: IF WE DIDNUT HAS GAWD DEN WE HAS LOTZ OF MERDERS AND STUFF CAUSE ATHIESTS KILL LOTS OF MOAR PEOPLESES!
Me: Im doing scientific research with…
January 28, 2009
Okay so there was some drama last week when tickets to see Dawkins at OU sold out in... less than 15 minutes.
Good news!
Though Dawkins vetoed moving the presentation to the largest venue on campus (lol picturing Dawkins rocking out in an arena like Metallica), there will be A/V feeds of the…
January 26, 2009
lol Not really.
(H/T AtBC) Some UD IDiot wrote a letter to OU pres David Boren (whos actually a pretty cool guy) bitching about how OUs Darwin Year celebrations dont have anyone from the Creationist Camp included!
As an institution of learning in the state of Oklahoma, it is my hope that OU would…
January 23, 2009
This is, quite possibly, one of the weirdest examples of convergent evolution I have ever seen.
I dont want to get ahead of myself, but HIV-1 transactivator protein (Tat) and Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus P19 are totally interchangeable. HIV and TBSV arent related, like, at all... yet two of their…
January 20, 2009
"Where were you when Obama took the oath of office?"
Its a question kids and grandkids are going to be asking their relatives for years to come.
Where was I?
Standing in line for tickets to see Richard Dawkins when he comes to campus in March.
I got a ticket, but all the available tickets for the '…
January 19, 2009
If there is one constant ever present in anti-science groups, whether its Creationists, anti-vaxers, anti-wireless-interneters, whatever-- its the groups ignorance on the very topic they are 'anti'.
HIV Deniers are no exception. One of my favorite HIV Deniers, a blonde bimbo named Rebecca Culshaw…
January 18, 2009
Gene Robinsons opening prayer at the inauguration festivities (go to Abels place to hear about the drama):
O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will...
Bless us with tears - for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands…
January 18, 2009
In case of the Apocalypse, Id like to be in Oklahoma. We make our own food, weve got our own oil, nice climate, everybody has guns, and we have a bountiful supply of Young Earth Creationists!
In the late 1960's, G. Thomas Sharp, who was at that time already an experienced science educator as well…
January 15, 2009
Gawd I love doing HIV-1 research. Stuff that takes big-stuff-biologists millions of years to watch, we can figure out in a few weeks. Case in point: PZs post yesterday on 'latent evolutionary potential'.
Ah, the realization of latent evolutionary potential. Did you know that you have latent…
January 13, 2009
As SciBlogs resident cowgirl/GMO-shill, I feel an obligation to post a response to a few posts up at 'Whats New In Life Science Research' (Jan 8 through today). I dont want to start a blag-fight, I just want to correct some of their errors and start a conversation (LOL! BLAG FIGHT! BLAG FIGHT!)…
January 9, 2009
Via Ed Brayton, more on Rick Warrens oh-so-helpful HIV 'activism':
Warren's man in Uganda is a charismatic pastor named Martin Ssempa. The head of the Makerere Community Church, a rapidly growing congregation, Ssempe enjoys close ties to his country's First Lady, Janet Museveni, and is a favorite…
January 8, 2009
I had planned on letting a long rant loose on these assholes.
Statler and Waldorf John and George are still bitching about me. 'Me' being their magnificently crafted straw-man/ad hominem chimera. But their comments have reached such a fantastic level of meta-fail (and Ive only watched 12 minutes…
January 8, 2009
We know what the US would look like if radical theists like Warren, Robertson, Dobson, James Kennedy, or any doughy sweat-stained evangelical were in a position of real authority.
We know.
Because other countries, even 'secular' ones, dont have the same luxury of the separation of church and state…