mikethemadbiologist

More ridiculous budget cuts in Massachusetts at the local level. This time it's schools, not libraries. According to the Boston Globe, Shoreham, MA has failed to approve a property tax override leading to the following educational budget cuts: *shutting down the sixth-grade wing of the middle…

Well, they're not my suggestions, they're David Hillis' But they are still pretty good.... In the June 2007 issue of Evolution, Hillis writes about how to make general biology textbooks discuss evolution better. He has a list of ten suggestions, and I thought it would be interesting to go…

The feminist blog, Shakesville (formerly Shakespeare's Sister), has been hit with a denial of service attack. Oddly enough, it happened right after she criticized Scientology (on the other hand, lots of people have been gunning for Shakes for some time). The site is moving to a dedicated server,…

Following Cheney's claim that he is not part of the executive branch, the Washington Post ran a story detailing Cheney's reach throughout the executive branch. Laura Rozen relates a fascinating letter from a veteran editor: A careful reading of the story of Cheney's coup against a feeble executive…

Abandoned fourth century AD settlement. Photo by L. Laüt. In the June 2007 issue of Ecology, Dambrine et al. have a fascinating article demonstrating that abandoned Roman settlements still affect the local abundance of plant communities. From the abstract (italics mine): Combined archaeological…

Here are some links for you. Go read some science, you goddamn kids: I ask a question about the coming human microbiome projects. Give me an answer. Here are two posts about scientists and journalism. I also have some thoughts about evo devo. Here's an interesting take on the 'minimal microbe.'…

Scott LeMieux exposes the illogic of Melinda Henneberger's NY Times op-ed about abortion and Democrats. What I can't figure out is what does Henneberger want? Once again, we have a Democratic concern troll who fails to see even the basic contours of the landscape: Do you want abortion to be…

Anything that lowers the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in agriculture is a good way to prevent the spread of antibiotic resistance. Fromt he NY Times: Tyson Foods, one of the nation's largest poultry producers, said yesterday that it would no longer use antibiotics to raise chicken sold fresh…

With Massachusetts having prevented the attempt to de-legalize gay marriage, there is much discussion about the topic. But this story about a splinter Mormon group highlights the importance of outlawing one type of marriage: marriages between close relatives. By way of Lance Mannion, from…

...help them win the election. Over at Thoughts from Kansas, ScienceBlogling Josh has a post about who and what are responsible for the current civil war in the West Bank and Gaza. In any discussion of the Middle East, all sorts of things will be claimed, but there is one awful historical fact:…

In the May edition of Evolution, Hopi Hoekstra and Jerry Coyne have an interesting commentary, "The Locus of Evolution: Evo Devo and the Genetics of Adaptation." They raise two points about "evo devo" (the fusion of developmental and evolutionary biology) that have always bothered me. From the…

The Mad Biologist loves this experiment. In the April 2007 issue of Ecology, there's a nice article by Ellis et al. demonstrating how sea gull predation regulates community dynamics in the rocky intertidal. One of the methods used was the construction of exclusion cages. Essentially, these keep…

Having been encouraged by ScienceBlogling John Wilkins, I'm going to follow up on my post about science journalism, and, no doubt, get myself into further trouble. First, though, I want to clarify some points. Without going into specific detail, I work for a non-profit organization that deals with…

Over at MyDD.com, there's some consternation about how a generic Democrat beats a generic Republican in opinion polls, but named Democrats do poorly against named Republicans. As you might imagine, everyone is arguing that this is the reason why his or her electoral strategy MUST BE FOLLOWED. I…

NIH, in about six months, will release a huge sum of money to fund the study of the human 'microbiome': those microorganisms that live on or in us. One of the things that will be done with this money is meta-genomics which is "the study of genomes recovered from environmental samples as opposed…

If I were trying to convince people to stay in Iraq, I might refer to Japan or Germany as models of occupation. But General Petraeus picked a different place: Claiming steady, albeit slow, military and political progress, Petraeus said the "many, many challenges" would not be resolved "in a year…

Over at Aetiology, Tara has an interesting post about interview requests from journalists. Since part of my job is to deal with journalists, I thought I would offer some thoughts. First, Tara's absolutely right: don't bother scientists at scientific meetings. We have far too much to do as it is…

Lotsa links. First, the science stuff: I have a published opinion piece about cefquinome approval. T. Ryan Gregory has a great post on junk DNA. Whales are over 100 years old? Who knew? Here's a nice eulogy for Mr. Wizard. Will Lagos be the new frontier in sewer technology? PZ chronicles the War…

There's an excellent article in the NY Times magazine about the problem of opiate addiction. One of the problems when distinguishing between patients and doctors who are trying to manage pain versus those who are dealing opiates is that there is no easy way to regularly track opiate prescribing. I…

Here's a disturbing paper: "Can methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus be found in an ambulance fleet?" The answer? Yes. From the abstract: OBJECTIVE: To perform an initial screening study of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) contamination in an ambulance fleet. METHODS:…

Nobody likes jury duty: most criminal and civil cases involve some moron doing something they shouldn't have--and you end up have to waste time due to said moron. Nonetheless, having a jury trial is a cornerstone of our justice system. It's also useful in the 'smaller' cases, since the ability…

Joe Klein was very angry last week at 'uncivil' bloggers, and in a storming fit of something that kinda looks like anger, only wimpier, came up with a list of attributes belonging to "left-wing extremists." I've gone through the list and added my own commentary. Klein's list: A left-wing extremist…

I'll get to El Jefe Maximo in a moment, but to dive into even more trivial waters, the thing I've never understood about the whole Paris Hilton affair is how utterly stupid she was. Her personal stupidity doesn't shock me--it's a miracle she doesn't forget how to breathe. But rich people can hire…

While this particular program on behalf of a religious organization is not nearly as bad as the government-sanctioned anti-Semitism run out of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives*, it still is yet another example of why government and religion require a strict separation: While all…

The misuse of cefquinome has been a pet peeve of mine. Well, I have a commentary in ASM's Microbe about this topic: "Cefquinome: when Regulation Collides with Biology." It might be boring because I don't use, erm, colorful, blogtopian language, but it still might interest you.

I'm not the only one bothered by Mudcat Saunders' article about the Metropolitan Opera Wing of the Democratic Party; maha is too. That post is worth a read, but at the end of the post she makes a very good point about preserving culture (italics mine): Mudcat has slandered opera fans by implying…

Political consultant and Edwards political adviser Dave "Mudcat" Saunders touched off a little firestorm today by criticizing the "Metropolitan Opera Wing" of the Democratic Party. Let's leave aside his willingness to engage in Republican agitprop (he doesn't even offer anecdotal evidence of the…

I used to think that Democratic politicians were trying to be too clever by half, and consequently screwed things up. Then I started to think that many are actually quite conservative, so they're just reverting to form--most of them don't have a tiny liberal inside of them, struggling to be free…

Lotsa links for ya. First, the science: Republican evolution-deniers: it's about the science. Mark H tells us about ascidians, my first study organism. ScienceBlogling Rob sets us straight on what stochastic means. Sadly, No! comments on some AEI faithtank ponderings about evolution. If you…

I'm usually loathe to rip into a top-notch economist like Brad DeLong, especially when he titles his post "An Unrealistic, Impracticle, Utopian Plan for Dealing with the Health Care Opportunity." But several things bothered me about that post. What I've never understood about the entire healthcare…