mikethemadbiologist

The problem is simply this: many people who have made a lot of money haven't been ethical about it (or even legal). That's why I'm surprised we haven't seen more ads like this: In Ohio, Representative Betty Sutton calls her Republican rival, Tom Ganley, a "dishonest used-car salesman" who has…

Happy Saturday. Links for you. Science: NIH-Wide Correlations Between Overall Impact Scores and Criterion Scores Why can't I reuse these tables and figures? When Speech Recognition Software Attacks! Obsessed With Genes (Not Jeans), This Teen Analyzes Family DNA Other: Student suspended for…

I remember, back in the 1980s, there was a conservative school of thought that believed many of our problems could be blamed on poor, single, often non-white mothers who refused to 'take personal responsibility' (e.g., welfare queens, Murphy Brown! ZOMG!). I never quite understand how anyone…

Thank the All Father it's Frejyasdaeg. Links for you. Science: The Passion of the Scientist (Science is a job, not a calling; also, wives now have jobs--some of them are even scientists!) Next-Gen Sequencing Software: The Present and the Future Dolphin species attempt 'common language' Why…

By now, you've probably heard about the Pew report on Americans and religious knowledge. A lot of atheists have been chortling about how well they done, compared to believers, and have offered explanations like Amanda's: This, of course, was absolutely no surprise to the loose online atheist…

One of the reasons I've learned to stay away from debates about "what is a species" is that practical species definitions (i.e., something we can use to classify critters) do a lousy job of describing the process of speciation, while conceptually sound species definitions (ones that describe the…

Why, yes, I did. For a while now, I've been writing about how improper paperwork could completely screw up the foreclosure process. While I've never thought foreclosure was the way to go (I wanted subsidized cramdowns), we can't even get foreclosure to happen, which is a huge drain on the economy…

A while ago, I listed what I thought made Massachusetts' educational system work: The recent educational regression reform plan in Massachusetts and the Obama Administration's educational proposals both seem to misunderstand what has made Massachusetts' educational system one of the best in the…

Big ball of fire in sky. Is it the sun? Anyway, links for you: An Open Letter: To the Awesome Speaker Getting even with the odds ratio Other: How Obama Screws His Base Paul Ryan is a Man Who Takes His Responsibilities as a Public Official Seriously Left Ed: Waiting for Sanity If the Nazis Do It,…

Paul Krugman is absolutely correct about deleveraging: In the end, I'd argue, what must happen is an effective default on a significant part of debt, one way or another. The default could be implicit, via a period of moderate inflation that reduces the real burden of debt; that's how World War II…

A recent report bemoaning the sorry state of STEM training and education has been updated and re-released. Like most of these reports, it fits into the typical morality play of educational decline. Sadly, even bloggers I respect have bought into this. We'll leave aside the calls for more…

Links for you. Sciencey stuff: Four types of scientists (While I think Myers-Briggs is crap in that the underlying normally distributed data are shoehorned into binary variables, it's a pretty funny post) Former Air Force Officers: UFOs Tampered With Nuclear Missiles (???) DNA sequencing and the…

SEQUENCE GENOMES!!! Proflikesubstance has a very good post about PR announcements in science, which stems from the duplicated sequencing of the cacao and Tasmanian Devil genomes. What struck me is this bit: What also seems ridiculous to me is that there are TWO groups sequencing either of these…

By way of The New York Times, we learn that libraries are being privatized. Having lived in more than a few places, and being the kind of guy who uses libraries regularly, I've usually been very happy with my local library. I go to the library, I check out books (and videos), I read the books,…

A cruddy, rainy Monday. Let's brighten things up with some links: The only chart you need to see why Obama and the Ds will slash Social Security if they can Montana woman fends off bear attack with zucchini Man without Mortgage Loses Home in Foreclosure The Method To Their Madness Testing, 1-2-3…

I'm a little late to this, but Susie Madrak asked Obama advisor David Axelrod a very important question: Madrak asked, "I'm a blogger, and I don't know if you know this term, but are you familiar with the term hippie-punching?" There was about a 15-second pause. "Go ahead," said Axelrod. She…

A while ago, I wrote, "Someday, a science reporter is going to hybridize with an economics reporter and then the topic of how science is funded will actually be covered accurately. Until then, you're stuck with the Mad Biologist." Well, I don't know if the hybridization experiment has been…

I think we had our last weekend day of summer yesterday. Let's mourn with some links. Science: Another new bad resistance factor. (Bonus: Another city stigmatized!) Whooping cough epidemic suggests bacteria are adapting (TEH DARWINISMZ! AAIIIEEE!!!!) What's not to love about baby seahorses?…

For those who don't know, Texas is very important in determining what is found in U.S. textbooks due to its large purchasing power. While keeping anti-science wackaloons off of school boards is a good thing anywhere, it goes double in Texas. Sheril Kirshenbaum explains: There are two, local races…

It's a sunny Saturday here. If you're stuck inside, here are some links. Science: Cocaine detectors for parents are a terrible idea: Nearly being arrested for drug smuggling provided me with an excellent introduction to the problem of false positives The Revolution Will Not be Blogged, Either The…

One is in Boston, the other in D.C. In Boston, the Boston Public Library has an amazing collection of travel posters from the 1920s to the 1950s. Here's one: If you can't visit it, there's an online gallery. In D.C., the Smithsonian Natural History Museum has an exhibit about how the Natural…

It's Friday. Celebrate with some links. Science: Danger, Will Robinson? Safety in scientific field work We are exposed to more viruses as we age. In other words, A VIRUS IS MAKIN MAH BABBY FAT! (I can't believe that neither the reviewers nor the authors thought to control for age) How to Take a…

David Dobbs asks a really good question about the effect of scientific (scholastic) publishing on communication of science to the public: I want to consider another problem with the paper's overvaluation: it discourages scientists from engaging the public. How so? Because many seem to think that…

Thursday already? Oh well, links. Science: Amazing Sight in the South Pacific Balancing scientific rigor versus patient good in clinical trials Is page reading different from screen reading? Scientists investigating oil spill unsettled by calls from federal commission Other: Million Masturbator…

But, then again, I'm one of those pessimistic liberals, so what do I know? By the way, when the CEO of Wal-Mart is more sensitive to the needs of the unemployed than our political betters, you know we're screwed: "The paycheck cycle we've talked about before remains extreme. It is our…

And 'suburban' is code. Monday, I responded to a rich twit's complaint about how difficult his life was at $450,000 of annual income (Note: Since then, said twit has removed the post. Fortunately, Brad 'Deling' DeLong is aware of all internet traditions, and has saved the post for posterity). In…

Links are back! Science: Q&A: Antibiotic resistance: where does it come from and what can we do about it? Detecting natural selection: a pika's tale (nice post about molecular evolution) Bleach: Not a cure for obesity Other: The Rich Need Our Help - $$$ Addiction With high-calorie dishes,…

Shamelessly stolen from Dr. Isis Yes, you read the title correctly. As I've mentioned before, I'm involved with the Human Microbiome Project, which examines how the microbes that live on and in us affect human health and disease. One of the things we do is look at human gut communities. In most…

Robert Samuelson has a penchant for willingly misinterpreting data. Time was, the newspaper bidness considered that to be a bad thing. Given his track record on Social Security, which led me to create the Samuelson Unit, it should be no surprise whatsoever that Samuelson screws up educational…

I swear every time I go on vacation, there's an outbreak of stupidity. One symptom is a ridiculous plaint by law professor Todd Henderson, who whines about barely getting by on $450,000 per year. No, really, I'm not kidding. I suppose the rest of us should just eat a bullet or something (and…