mikethemadbiologist

I've discussed the harrowing plight of the family that barely scrapes by on $250,000 per year. Jon Stewart brings the snark: The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook Part deux: The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full…

So there's been a bit of discussion about libertarians who want to establish a bunch of off-shore countries on floating oil-rig type platforms that would be lil' loonitarian paradises: Thiel has been a big backer of the Seasteading Institute, which seeks to build sovereign nations on oil rig-like…

Links for you. Science: Texas Climate Scientist Katharine Hayhoe Responds To Rick Perry What Will You Earn With a Ph.D.? Pig-Size South American Rodent Spotted in Central California Can Math Beat Financial Markets? Other: Paul, its time to update your textbook (wonky, but must-read) Rick Perry for…

In this story about the use of rapid genomic sequencing to monitor a hospital outbreak of multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (more details here), this end bit is interesting (italics mine): "In the E. coli outbreak, we had enough E. coli reference strains and knew enough about E. coli…

Links for you. Science: Ringing the Warning Bell: Colistin-Resistant Klebsiella (one thing that's unclear is the mechanism of colistin resistance, since I haven't seen the paper yet) Crosstown Traffic The Physics of a Sad Balloon Baby Fat: Do birth control pills make women gain weight? Other: Hard…

I've been meaning to get to this post about Albert Alfred Hitchcock and the auteur myth by Jonah Lehrer. He writes: I certainly don't meant to disparage the genius of Hitchcock or Steve Jobs or to defend uninspired data driven design. But it's also important to remember that nobody creates Vertigo…

Links for you. Science: Breast Cancer Awareness Marketing has a Pink Problem Homosexual zebra finches form long-term bond Here's what it actually costs to run a university science lab What Does It Cost to Run a Small College Lab? Other: Krugman Taken to the Modern Money Cleaners "Almost treasonous…

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, in an attempt to win the craziness sweepstakes, has been proclaiming hither and yon that half of all Americans pay no income tax. Call me confused, but I thought Republicans wanted to lower income taxes? Maybe it has something to do with who those non…

Links for you. Science: Poo3d!!!! Creationism: That (Not So) Old Time Religion A few notes about SCIENTISTS for those attending 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'... Other: Income inequality is bad for rich people too Who's Really Responsible For U.S. Debt Downgrade (words do have meaning) Governor…

Amid all of the political doom and gloom, we need something to cheer us up. So, take a load off (so to speak) and enjoy some gravity-free cats:

I haven't yelled at people to WASH THEIR DAMN HANDS!! to prevent the spread of disease. At the aptly named Barfblog, Ben Chapman describes an article that interviewed him-very meta, I know... (italics mine): Restaurant inspections have definitely helped prevent outbreaks across the country, says…

Links for you. Science: Universal Flu Vaccine Another Step Closer, But Still Far The annotated apocalypse: Anthropologists tackle 2012 Drug Resistance in Food -- Coming from Aquaculture? Other: I blame the British government for the riots (I think everyone who prattles on about the 'culture of…

One of the points about science funding I've tried to make over the years (we have been blogging a long time, haven't we?) is that the overheads and indirect costs associated with federal grants drive a lot of university decisions--there's a lot of money there. But this funding also has…

Links for you. Science: New drug could cure nearly any viral infection Fever in children: 5 facts you must know Half the variation in I.Q. due to variation in genes Going Organic Cuts Poultry Farms' "Superbug" Bacteria in Single Generation Other: Can Teachers Alone Overcome Poverty? Steven Brill…

With all of the S&P hoopla, we've heard a lot about 'default'--that the U.S. government can't (false) or won't (with the teahadists, who knows?) pay the money owed on its debt. Well, there's another kind of default that's slipping under the radar (italics mine): When the small, beleaguered…

Links for you. Science: "We Win": Conservative Media Celebrate Public Misconception That Climate Scientists "Falsified" Data Evangelicals Question The Existence Of Adam And Eve (it's actually about how human genomics is forcing a reality check. For some). A Fox News Science Lesson It's not a…

One of the most frustrating things about the Standard and Poor's (S&P) U.S. debt downgrade is that S&P is part of the problem, as I've described before. They really aren't studious evaluators of evidence, untouched by the profit motive or ideology. They are venal hacks, as Matt Stoller…

Links for you. Science: Economic Astronomy: Gender Gaps in Lifetime Earnings Crohn's disease is about barely keeping you alive A crowd psychology analysis of the riots The spread of disorder - can graffiti promote littering and theft? Other: For-Profit College Group Sued as U.S. Lays Out Wide…

If our mainstream political discourse is to be believed, the U.S. 'doesn't make anything anymore.' We should all become 'knowledge workers', constantly reinvent our personal brand. Manufacturing--and the engineering it takes to support efficient manufacturing processes--are anachronisms. Hell,…

Links for you. Science: IonTorrent: longer reads, longer homopolymers? The Attacks on Climate Science Education Are Picking Up Steam How people in science see each other (hysterical) The Mangled Web of Scientific Misinformation Other: 102 Things NOT To Do If You Hate Taxes What You Need When You'…

I've been remiss in my Robert Samuelson (no relation to the economist who shared the same last name) stupidity watch--the Tea Party Fort Sumter people really bring the crazy. But the idiot who inspired me to create the Samuelson unit is still fighting his long, glorious war against the elderly and…

Monday, I wrote about how Standard & Poor's (S&P) downgrade of U.S. debt had political motivations--avoiding fraud investigations as well as 'convincing' the Securities and Exchange Commission to remove new regulations that could undercut their business: ...I won't rule out that S&P is…

Links for you. Science: Underwater 'windmills' may feed power grid Biosimilars are back... Or are they? Ion Torrent: What is the impact of the new longer reads on assembly? Other: On S&P, Downgrades, and Idiots Cheating report confirms teacher's suspicions How Right-Wing Ideology Works In The…

Like Atrios, I don't believe this--nor would any person who takes mass transit or lives in (or near) an urban area: Last month, I spoke to Christina Romer, Larry Summers and Jared Bernstein on this question. The three of them were arguably the administration's most persistent and consistent…

I've blogged before about some of the technical issues surrounding how we can handle the massive increase in the size of genomics datasets. There's also a need to grapple with the analytical aspects of all of these data: So, from a bacterial perspective, genome sequencing is really cheap and fast…

Links for you. Science: On the leaves of sea lettuce, the luckiest survive Most in GOP field would scale back stem cell funding The too-smart-for-its-own-good grid Antimatter belt around Earth discovered by Pamela craft Other: "No, I Don't Want Your 'Rewards Card'" (as a curmudgeon, I bow in awe…

So the Tea Party Fort Sumter conservatives have sunk to new lows--they're celebrating the downgrade of U.S. debt (italics mine; video at the link): Is the tea party happy that Standard and Poor's, the credit rating agency, downgraded the United States' credit rating for the first time ever? You'd…

When worked on the human microbiome, I regularly confronted a problem with the data. Species frequencies are almost never normally distributed ('the bell curve'), and if you want to use standard statistical techniques the data should be normally distributed. The second problem is that the data…

Links for you. Science: Is This The End Of Illumina's Great Run? (it seems the whole sector is in a downturn) Wikipedia Is Slowly Dying Can't an Ugly, Slimy Bottom-Feeder Get Some Love? CDC stresses need for flu shot every year Other: What Happened to Obama? (must-read) Is Standard and Poor's…

As I entered the building where I work today: I blame Al Gore. Or something.